Trump refocuses agenda at Fla. rally Sons open golf club in Dubai
He will also interview 4 to replace Flynn as national security adviser, Spicer says
MELBOURNE, Fla. — Just four weeks into his administration, President Donald Trump returned to campaign mode Saturday at a rally in Florida, repeating his political promises and continuing his attacks on the “dishonest media.”
“I want to be among my friends and among the people,” Trump told a cheering crowd of 9,000 packed into an airport hangar, praising his “truly great movement.”
The president has been trying to hit the reset button after reports of disarray and dysfunction within his administration.
Trump’s newest campaign rally sounded much like his old campaign rallies with promises of action on health care, taxes, crime and the U.S.-Mexico border, among other issues.
Trump appeared Saturday evening in Melbourne to revisit his campaign promises and to update supporters on the progress he’s made after a month in office.
In its first four weeks, Trump’s administration has faced setbacks with little precedent, chief among them the resignation of his national security adviser after three weeks amid a deepening controversy over Russian interference in the U.S. government.
Trump’s approval ratings are historically low for a new president; one of his Cabinet nominees withdrew despite a new lower threshold for confirmation; and the courts stalled a major early initiative — Trump’s temporary ban on travel to the U.S. from seven majority-Muslim nations.
Trump painted a far different picture Saturday.
“A great spirit of optimism is sweeping — and you see it — is sweeping across the country,” he said, citing recent stock market highs as his chief evidence.
Trump has shown frustration with what he considers successes being drowned out by high-profile missteps. That was part of the calculation behind the decision in the West Wing to hold a campaignstyle rally so early in Trump’s term.
Speaking to reporters on Air Force One before the rally, Trump said he was holding a campaign rally because “life is a campaign.”
“To make America great again is absolutely a campaign,” he said. “It’s not easy, especially when we’re also fighting the press.”
The rally came during Trump’s third consecutive weekend at his south Florida club, Mar-a-Lago. It also served as a working weekend for the president, who planned to interview at least four potential candidates for the job of national security adviser, a position unexpectedly open after retired Gen. Michael Flynn’s firing Monday.
“I have many, many that want the job, they want to really be a part of it. I’ll make a decision over the next couple of days,” Trump said.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Trump will interview his
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Two of President Donald Trump’s sons ceremonially opened a Trumpbranded golf club Saturday in Dubai, meeting privately with Emirati elites as questions remain about how separated their father is from the empire bearing his name.
Eric and Donald Trump Jr., who now lead the Trump Organization, watched as fireworks lit the sky over the Trump International Golf Club in Dubai, on the outskirts of the city-state.
The course’s opening could raise security and ethical issues for America’s 45th president going forward. acting adviser, retired Army Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg; John Bolton, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster; and Lt. Gen. Robert Caslen, superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
Trump could potentially talk to a few others, Spicer said.
Trump is also planning to talk with several foreign leaders Sunday, and he will hold a health care strategy meeting.
Trump’s first choice to replace Flynn — retired Vice Adm. Robert Harward — turned his offer down.
The president tweeted Saturday morning that he “will be having many meetings this weekend at The Southern White House.”
Finding a new national security adviser has proved challenging for the president. He had also expressed interest in former CIA Director David Petraeus, but Spicer said Petraeus was no longer under consideration.
Petraeus, a retired fourstar general, resigned as CIA director in 2012 and pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor charge of mishandling classified information relating to documents he had provided to his biographer, with whom he was having an affair.
Flynn resigned after revelations that he misled Vice President Mike Pence about discussing sanctions with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. during the transition.