Trump gave a bizarre, rambling, and nonsensical press conference, all while sitting relaxed on a couch at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Friday afternoon.
The event was supposed to be centered around announcing that Small Business Administrator Linda McMahon would be leaving the administration to work at a pro-Trump super PAC, but it quickly went off the rails.
Trump bounced from topic to topic, hitting some of the familiar refrains that have been his obsession over the past week. In some instances, he merely rehashed the material from his rambling campaign rally in Michigan, though this time he did not discuss how deep any lakes are.
Trump tried to once again talk his way out of his own budget’s plan to eliminate funding for Special Olympics.
“For many years it hasn’t been approved, and then at some point it gets negotiated out by Congress,” Trump said, conveniently concealing his role in cutting funds with a lie about Congress’ role.
He then, of course, gave himself credit for keeping the funding in place.
What really happened is that in his own budget — proposed over two weeks ago — Trump proposed removing funding for Special Olympics, a departure from previous presidents. Then his Education Secretary Betsy DeVos testified under oath to Congress and defended the action.
Congress had nothing to do with it, despite what Trump said.
But after enormous public blowback and heavy coverage on television, Trump decided to come out against his own document.
His budget was already dead on arrival, with Democrats immediately dismissing it as nonsensical and cruel. It has no chance of passing Congress and will never be enacted.
Nonetheless, Trump sat on his couch and tried to take credit for restoring money he himself proposed to take away.
Trump’s couch conference also featured him lavishing praise on McMahon, the former CEO of WWE, who once was key in having him headline a match at Wrestlemania. (Trump is in the WWE hall of fame, by the way.)
And of course, Trump also discussed his intention to close the U.S.-Mexico border, while falsely asserting that to do so would be a profitable enterprise for America. In fact, the country would lose out on over $40 billion per month from the decision.
Trump also lavished a similar amount of praise on North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un while explaining his incoherent approach to sanctions on that nation.
The entire event was strange and bizarre, even more so with Trump’s resort as the backdrop. Membership in the club has been connected to sketchy campaign donation issues, as well as an ongoing Congressional investigation. And it also lines Trump’s pockets to this day.
For a brief moment, Trump and his couch had a starring role in the ongoing mix of corruption, incompetence, and incoherence that surrounds his entire presidency.
Published with permission of The American Independent.
