President tweets in the new year

President Trump attacked a retired general on Twitter and told America to chill and “ENJOY THE RIDE.”

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump got 2019 off to a whipsaw start Tuesday, using Twitter to insult a retired U.S. commander in Afghanistan as a dumb loudmouth, sing the praises of an ultranationalist former aide and telling America to chill and “ENJOY THE RIDE.”

Trump’s cheery tone in an all-caps tweet welcoming the new year did not last the morning.

“HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE, INCLUDING THE HATERS AND THE FAKE NEWS MEDIA! 2019 WILL BE A FANTASTIC YEAR FOR THOSE NOT SUFFERING FROM TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME. JUST CALM DOWN AND ENJOY THE RIDE, GREAT THINGS ARE HAPPENING FOR OUR COUNTRY!” Trump wrote.

That may have been before he read all his mail.

Trump went on to bash retired Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal over remarks McChrystal made Sunday, calling the president untruthful and immoral.

““General” McChrystal got fired like a dog by Obama. Last assignment a total bust. Known for big, dumb mouth. Hillary lover!” Trump opined.

McChrystal was forced to resign in 2010 after making disparaging comments about Obama administration officials in a Rolling Stone article. He had been a rising star in the Army, a decorated expert on counterinsurgency tasked with turning around the stalemated Afghanistan war.

Although McChrystal’s comments were made on ABC two days prior, Trump did not comment publicly until he responded Tuesday to a tweet from conservative commentator Laura Ingraham.

Ingraham had tweeted an article Monday titled “Media Didn’t Like McChrystal Until He Started Bashing Trump.” Catching up to it Tuesday, Trump evidently agreed.

Meanwhile, the president invited congressional leaders to the White House for a briefing on border security, the first face-toface session involving Republicans and Democrats as the partial government shutdown entered its second week.

The briefing will occur one day before Democrats take control of the House and Trump gets his first taste of divided government. It was unclear whether the Wednesday session would break the budget impasse — now in its 11th day — as Trump has demanded $5 billion in border money, far beyond the $1.3 billion that Democrats plan to vote through this week.

Trump, who tweeted his opposition to the plan Tuesday, has reiterated that he had no plans to back down.

Officials from the Department of Homeland Security will brief the top two leaders in each party in the House and the Senate.

In the last televised White House session Dec. 11, Trump said he would take responsibility for a shutdown over the wall as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said they would not support wall funding.

The shutdown began Dec. 22. On Thursday, House Democrats plan to use their new majority to vote through measures that would reopen nearly all of the shuttered federal agencies through the end of September, at funding levels Senate Republicans have previously agreed to. Those spending bills contain scores of priorities and pet projects for lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.

The Democratic proposal holds out one exception: The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees border security, would keep its current level of funding, with no new money for a border wall. The plan would also extend the department’s budget only through Feb. 8, allowing Democrats to revisit funding for key parts of Trump’s immigration policy in a month.

Trump has been holed up in the White House instead of vacationing at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, as planned, because of the government shutdown.

“The Democrats, much as I suspected, have allocated no money for a new Wall,” Trump tweeted Tuesday. “So imaginative! The problem is, without a Wall there can be no real Border Security — and our Country must finally have a Strong and Secure Southern Border!”

The president’s first words of the new year were an endorsement of a pro-Trump book by former White House aide Sebastian Gorka. The former Breitbart writer, a frequent television defender of the president, either quit or was fired in 2017 partly in protest that Trump’s first major speech about the U.S. military strategy in Afghanistan made no mention of what Gorka called “Radical Islam.”

“Dr. Sebastian Gorka, a very good and talented guy, has a great new book just out, “Why We Fight.” Lots of insight — Enjoy!” Trump wrote.

EVAN VUCCI/AP President Trump has invited lawmakers to the White House on Wednesday for a briefing on border security, the first face-to-face session since the shutdown began last month.