Home alone no more, President Donald Trump had a lot to share when he convened a rambling Cabinet meeting on Day 12 of the government shutdown.
The president, eager for company after a lonely stretch in a near-empty White House, zigzagged for more than 90 minutes from his demands for a southern border wall to his thoughts on Kanye West and his decision to pull troops out of Syria — all while a mock movie poster with his photograph and the words “SANCTIONS ARE COMING, NOVEMBER 4” sat, without explanation, in the middle of the grand Cabinet Room table.
It was Trump’s first public appearance in nearly a week, after being holed up in the White House for Christmas and New Year’s. Trump had been scheduled to spend the holidays with his family at his private Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, but canceled the trip to wait out the partial government shutdown that began Dec. 22.
“You know, I was in the White House all by myself for six, seven days. It was very lonely. My family was down in Florida,” Trump recounted. He described channel-flipping and watching a different network — PBS — to fill the time.
“I felt I should be here just in case people wanted to come and negotiate the border security,” Trump explained.
Later, he talked about his holiday spent “all alone,” with no one around except for the “machine gunners.”
“I was all by myself in the White House — it’s a big, big house — except for all the guys out on the lawn with machine guns,” Trump said, referencing the Secret Service and military personnel who guard the White House year-round.
“I was waving to them. … These are great people. And they don’t play games. They don’t, like, wave. They don’t even smile,” he said. “I was hoping that maybe somebody would come back and negotiate. But they didn’t do that.”
President Trump: “I was here on Christmas evening, I was all by myself in the White House … Except for all the guys out on the lawn with machine guns. I was waving to them. I never saw so many guys with machine guns in my life."pic.twitter.com/jx9ZGLQsEy
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) January 2, 2019
It had indeed been a slow holiday stretch, minus a flurry of presidential tweets. The White House did not send out a formal public schedule; the doors to the White House press shop were often locked; and West Wing offices sat dark as Christmas and New Year’s ticked by.
While some White House staffers were out for the holidays, others were prevented from reporting to work because of the partial government shutdown that is now affecting hundreds of thousands of federal workers.
According to the plan filed by the deputy White House chief of staff for operations with the budget office before the shutdown, more than 1,000 of 1,759 staff members in the Executive Office of the President were expected to be placed on furlough. That includes 156 of 359 White House Office staff, 18 of 19 of those who work in the Office of the Vice President, and all 58 National Security Council staffers.
But senior aides, as well as many Cabinet members, were back at work Wednesday and in the room as the president held court on the shutdown and much, much more. The shutdown, he said, will last “as long as it takes.” On his decision to pull out of Syria, he explained, “We’re talking about sand and death.” And as for his favorite rapper, Trump enthused: “Even Kanye West came out today and said great things about Trump.”
He also took a shot at his former defense secretary Jim Mattis, who resigned last month, saying he wasn’t happy with the job Mattis had done in Afghanistan.
“I mean, I wish him well,” said Trump, “But, as you know, President Obama fired him and, essentially, so did I. I want results.”
Trump: ‘I shouldn’t be popular in Europe’
TRUMP on his low approval ratings in Europe: "I could be the most popular person in Europe. I could run for any office if I wanted to. I don't want to." pic.twitter.com/6qltEZeeuL
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 2, 2019
As the meeting stretched past the hour mark, Cabinet secretaries shifted in their seats as they took their turns speaking. At one point, Energy Secretary Rick Perry appeared to be playing mock piano on the arm of Small Business Administrator Linda McMahon’s chair.
“It’s going to be a very exciting year. I think it’s going to be a very good year. Some people think it’ll be controversial and tough and it probably will, but we’re going to get it done,” Trump said.
President Trump: “There’s a reason why politicians and wealthy people build walls around their houses and their compounds. President Obama recently built a wall around his compound, there’s a reason for it and I don’t blame him.” pic.twitter.com/XvztDgfIVj
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) January 2, 2019
The Russians ‘Were Right’ to Invade Afghanistan:
Trump: "Russia used to be the Soviet Union. Afghanistan made it Russia because they went bankrupt fighting in Afghanistan. Russia."
Trump then goes on to endorse the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Via Fox. pic.twitter.com/oE0fuDLXyz
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) January 2, 2019
Trump's hingedness level was not high today.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) January 2, 2019
“I Think I Would Have Been a Good General”
Following a bizarre rant about the Soviet Union, Trump says this about Afghanistan: "Why isn't Russia there? Why isn't India there? Why isn't Pakistan there? Why are we there? We're 6,000 miles away? But I don't mind… I think I would have been a good general." pic.twitter.com/bQ36x1RSZH
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 2, 2019
Trump frames the border wall as being about "health and wellness": "The $5.6 billion is a small number. It's one month in Afghanistan. We're talking about national security. This isn't just the border. This is national security. This is health and wellness. This is everything." pic.twitter.com/GwpEtGSo30
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 2, 2019
TRUMP on what he did to purportedly singlehandedly lower gas prices: "The reason it's down is because I called up some of the OPEC people, I say 'don't do it.'… I called up certain people and I said 'let that damn oil and gasoline, you let it flow,' the oil." pic.twitter.com/gv9cBcFZFQ
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 2, 2019
TRUMP: "I had a meeting at the Pentagon with lots of generals. They were like from a movie. Better looking than Tom Cruise, & stronger. And I had more generals than I've ever seen, & we were at the bottom of this incredible room. I said, 'this is greatest room I've ever seen.'" pic.twitter.com/fTpgDXVso8
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 2, 2019
TRUMP, brandishing a letter, says: "I just got a great letter from Kim Jong Un. The few people that I've showed this letter to – they've never written letters like that. This letter is a great letter"
Adds that if he hadn't won in 16, "You'd be having a nice big fat war in Asia" pic.twitter.com/XMXZYoYCid
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 2, 2019
Trump, fabricating figures out of thin air, claims "I've heard numbers as high as $275 billion we lose on illegal immigration."
(Trump's made-up numbers about the cost of immigration have more than doubled since 2015 and have no basis in reality https://t.co/DmzlMfYFjn) pic.twitter.com/KbwPmx0R29
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 2, 2019
Trump mocked India for building library in Afghanistan: "I get along very well w/Modi, but he's constantly telling me he built a library in Afghanistan… & we're supposed to say 'oh, thank you for the library.' I don't know who's using it in Afghanistan, but one of those things" pic.twitter.com/huLQZA4615
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 3, 2019
(AP)
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6 Responses
What a FOOL
It says NOVEMBER 5th not 4th
The Yeshiva World has become the Leftist outlet of the frum world. Publishing the pig swill from Associated Palestinians is warping your view. It seems that you have long forgotten Rubashkin
He is among the real Europeans. The globalists in the EU have taken hostage.
The man is clearly unstable. It is time to seriously consider the 25th amendment.
He is 100% right, he is NOT AT ALL popular in Europe! and coming from Europe myself I can vouch that.