Subject: in-town pool report 2 - President Trump gets home
At 1:50 pm ET, Marine One landed on the White House South Lawn, and President Trump began talking to reporters at 1:52 p.m. to tell them that the Jamestown ceremony was “fantastic” and that’d he’d like to thank Republicans “but I also thank the Democrats.”
The president was then asked about how Brazilian president Bolsonaro appointed his son to be ambassador to the U.S., to which Trump responded, “I find his son to be outstanding” and “I know his son and that’s probably why they did it.” Asked if he thought this was an example of nepotism, the president replied, “I don’t think it’s nepotism.”
Asked for specifics on who in the African American community was allegedly calling him and the White House to thank him for his Cummings/Baltimore remarks, President Trump replied, “A lot of people. Many, many people” again without offering specifics.
When the president was asked what is the strategy behind his attacks regarding Rep. Cummings and the “corrupt city” of Baltimore, he shot back, “There’s no strategy, I have no strategy, there’s zero strategy…There’s no strategy, it’s very simple,” before stating that Cummings should use his oversight powers for Baltimore.
Subject: in-town pool report 3 - Trump’s remarks on the south lawn, continued
President Trump again said that the media is very unfair to him and that “the African American people don’t listen to the fake news.”
Asked about his relationship with Poland and other nations, he replied that he in fact has great relations with most countries, “but the news doesn’t like talking about it.”
In comments about his “friend” Dan Coats and Rep. Ratcliffe, Trump added that “the intelligence agencies have run amok, they’ve run amok.”
The president again insisted that “if the news reported it the right way...[and] properly,” his standing and poll numbers would be better among African Americans.
Asked about sexual-assault allegations against Air Force Gen. John Hyten, the president replied, “I know he’s been accused and he’s saying it’s a false” allegation, and that he’ll “leave it up to the senators” both Republican and Democratic.
He stopped taking questions and headed indoors at 2:03 p.m. ET.
(Apologies, everyone, for the delay in this half of the report, my keyboard stopped working for a bit there.)
Cheers,