That news conference was one for the books
Blunt- talking Trump scorches media, intelligence community — and Hillary
Richard Wolf @ richardjwolf USA TODAY The performance summed up Trump’s first four weeks — a 180- degree reversal from the “no drama” days of the Obama administration.
To hear President Trump tell it, he “inherited a mess” and has replaced it with “a fine- tuned machine.” That’s not what it looked or sounded like Thursday inside the East Room of the White House in a rambling, defensive and at times angry performance by the leader of the free world. In one of the wildest presidential news conferences on record, Trump lashed out at the media, Hillary Clinton, the intelligence community, judges and Democrats — among many others.
It was a spectacle for the ages — one that his loyal supporters probably loved, but which political insiders have seldom, if ever, witnessed. Taking questions from a hostile press corps, Trump interrupted and belittled them, then responded in blunt terms avoided by his predecessors.
His purpose: to compare what he inherited four weeks ago with what he has delivered, mostly in a series of adjectives. What he inherited was “terrible,” “broken,” “catastrophic,” “a disaster,” jobs “pouring” out of the country, a “depleted” military and “mass instability” overseas.
What he has delivered: “really good work,” “incredible progress,” plants and factories moving back to the U. S. “big league,” a “tremendous surge of optimism” in the business world and “enormously productive talks” with foreign leaders.
“I don’t think there’s ever been a president elected who in this short period of time has done what we’ve done,” Trump said.
No topic was too sacrosanct for Trump to address. Not nuclear holocaust. Not being stood up by a black congressman. Not the possibility of shooting a Russian ship out of the water. Not sections of Chicago he likened to “living in hell.” Not bombing Mosul.
And few topics were free from embellishment. His Electoral College victory in November was the biggest since Ronald Reagan — except it wasn’t. The federal appeals court that blocked his temporary travel ban on majority- Muslim countries is overturned 80% of the time — except it’s not.
In many ways, the performance summed up Trump’s first four weeks in office — a 180- degree reversal from the “no drama” days of the Obama administration, led by a cautious, diplomatic president who veered away from controversy.
And it was a far cry from the George W. Bush administration, whose staccato responses to complex questions reflected an effort to reveal as little as possible.
Trump, by contrast, was freewheeling and expansive on subjects near to his heart, such as the presidential campaign now 100 days in the rear- view mirror and his daily spats with the media.
Even the genesis of the news conference was unusual. It was not on Trump’s daily schedule, then was hastily arranged, ostensibly to introduce his second nominee for Labor secretary. But that was just a blip on the radar.
Instead, the 45th president commanded the room like few of his 44 predecessors. He appeared to relish the verbal combat with reporters he knows by first name but accuses of spreading “fake news.” CNN’s Jim Acosta came under attack as usual; when a BBC reporter rose to speak, Trump grumbled, “another winner.”
As has been the case since he assumed the presidency, Trump can’t seem to leave campaign mode. He referred often to Clinton’s failures and his successes. He called Democrats who disagree on policy matters “our opponents” and “the other side.” Opposition leader Sen. Charles Schumer of New York was likened to “some other lightweight.”
On the major topics of the day, the president dismissed story lines that have dominated the airwaves. The controversy over his administration’s dealings with Russia during the campaign and the transition to the White House, for instance, is just “a ruse,” he said.
Near the end of the spectacle, Trump was asked about the nation’s political divisions, and once again he addressed it in personal terms. “We had a totally divided country for eight years” under President Obama and long before that, he said.
“I didn’t come along and divide this country.”