Trump’s Thanksgiving report: We’re winning
He spends day tweeting, golfing, connecting with military.
Waking to balmy temperatures in his palm tree-lined Winter White House, President Donald Trump began Thanksgiving Day warming up his fingers on Twitter before moving on to a video conference with troops overseas.
He rounded out the morning with a visit to the local Coast Guard station and squeezed in a round of afternoon golf at the Trump International Golf Club before the skies opened up with rain — all before the turkey was on the table.
The president, who was last in town for Easter, arrived Tuesday and is expected to stay at Mar-a-Lago until Sunday. The private club with immaculate landscaping has sweeping views of the Atlantic Ocean.
Trump began tweeting about 6:30 a.m. Thursday, firing off a tweet about “jobs coming back, highest Stock Market Ever, Military getting really strong, we will build the WALL,” among other topics.
By 9 a.m., Trump delivered a series of messages via live teleconference to troops stationed in Afghanistan, Iraq, Turkey, Kuwait and the Arabian Gulf from the opulent living room at Mar-a-Lago.
During the teleconference, he commended the 2nd Marine Raider Battalion in Iraq for “delivering defeat after defeat to ISIS.”
“We’re really winning. We know how to win, but we have to let you win,” Trump said. “We weren’t letting you win before. We were letting you play even.”
He made similar comments to the Air Force’s 74th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, telling them they’ve done a “tremendous” job performing more than 1,000 missions over the skies of Syria and Iraq in four months.
The president told them all is well at home, noting low unemployment and companies that took their business outside the United States are moving back. He said he’s also looking forward to the approval of a tax bill with “big, fat, beautiful tax cuts.”
After the teleconference, Trump headed to the Coast Guard’s Lake Worth Inlet Station in Riviera Beach with first lady Melania Trump. There, he praised the Coast Guard’s response to Hurricane Harvey in Texas and Hurricane Irma in Florida.
About 60 Coast Guard members, some from as far away as Georgia, were on hand for the visit.
“There is no brand that went up more than the Coast Guard,” the Trump said, crediting them with saving 16,000 lives in Texas.
Trump offered to take questions from the Coast Guard members — not the press — but they had none. He briefed them on his calls with troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and again talked up the economy.
“You have a country that’s really starting to turn,” he said. “We’re building up wealth so we can take care of our own protection.”
He and the first lady shook hands with guests and gave out sandwiches. The first lady wore a dark baseball hat, red and white checkered shirt, black pants and Converse sneakers. Trump, who donned a gold tie earlier in the morning when speaking to the troops overseas, also opted for a more casual look.
By 11 a.m., his motorcade arrived at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach. Trump spent a few hours there before returning to Mar-a-Lago, where he and the first lady were expected to have Thanksgiving dinner with family and friends.
The menu was traditional with a coastal flair, including turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes with marshmallows, a variety of baked goods, local produce and cheese, red snapper and Florida stone crab.
Flight restrictions suggest the president’s schedule includes a stop at his golf club in Jupiter today. The president has no public events on his schedule prior to his departure to Washington on Sunday evening.