Prickly festive tweets from Trump
UNITED STATES: US President Donald Trump observed a mix of presidential and personal traditions on Christmas Eve yesterday including making calls to American troops, playing a round of golf at a Trump property, and tweeting during downtime.
The day began with a familiar morning routine – a series of tweets from the president. This time, he bashed the deputy FBI director, ‘‘Fake News’’ and ‘‘Fake Polls’’.
Shortly afterwards, however, Trump appeared to be in a cheerful mood as he greeted troops located in Kuwait, Qatar and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and patrolling the Strait of Hormuz in the Middle East.
In a video conference message from his private members-only club in Florida, Mar-a-Lago, he thanked service members from each of the five branches of the US military and their ‘‘always underappreciated military families, the greatest people on Earth’’.
Trump praised the readiness of sailors aboard the guided missile destroyer USS Sampson, and the US Coast Guard’s hurricane response in 2017, particularly in Florida, Texas and Puerto Rico.
‘‘What a job you’ve done,’’ he said. ‘‘The Coast Guard saved thousands and thousands of lives, almost it’s unbelievable when I look at the charts, I saw the number of lives you saved.’’
Puerto Ricans, however, may quibble with the president’s upbeat assessment of their state of mind. Power generation on the US territory is at 65 per cent, with nine of Puerto Rico’s 78 municipalities still completely in the dark more than three months after Hurricane Maria walloped the island.
Trump also made sure to include a healthy dose of the very Christmas greeting that he vowed as a candidate to ‘‘bring back’’.
‘‘I just want to wish everybody a very, very merry Christmas. We say Merry Christmas, again, very, very proudly,’’ he said.
After a question-and-answer session with service personnel that was closed to the media, Trump departed for a round of golf at a different Trump property, the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach.
The president returned to Mara-Lago mid-afternoon and touted on Twitter the tax overhaul bill he signed into law on Saturday, shortly before leaving Washington for the holidays. He took a swipe against ‘‘Fake News’’, then headed off to participate in the North American Aerospace Defence Command’s (NORAD) Track Santa programme from the living room of his private club.
The president and First Lady Melania Trump took a total of 15 calls from children eager for updates on Santa’s global journey. Speaking with callers aged 5 to 12, and whose home states spanned from California to Georgia, the couple assured the children that Santa Claus was en route.
The young people were not aware that they would speak with the Trumps when they called to inquire about Santa’s progress.
‘‘What would you like more than anything?’’ Donald Trump asked Casper, 5, from Arlington, Virginia. Reporters could not hear the callers on the other line.
‘‘Building blocks, that’s what I’ve always liked, too,’’ Trump answered. ‘‘I predict Santa will bring you building blocks, so many you won’t be able to use them all.’’
The White House had not confirmed how the president planned to spend the rest of Christmas Eve, but he usually attends an evening service at the Episcopal Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea, a short drive from Mar-a-Lago.
The church has been an important place to the Trumps. It’s where the president and first lady were married in 2005 and where his youngest son, Barron, was christened.