Trump’s day: golf, diplomacy, tweets
President’s day in Palm Beach County starts, as usual, on social media.
PALM BEACH — A day that began with a morning golf date with two of the sport’s biggest names concluded with a focus on international security after a devastating terrorist attack in Egypt.
President Donald Trump’s golf outing with Tiger Woods and PGA champ Dustin Johnson, both of whom have significant roots in Palm Beach County, was interrupted
by news of an attack on a mosque in the northern Sinai that left more than 200 dead and a manhunt for the assailants. Trump returned to Mar-a-Lago in the early afternoon for a 3 p.m. call with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi.
That capped a busy day that
began on Twitter with a predawn tweet about the takea-knee national anthem controversy, then his announcement of the date on the golf course with two local PGA stars and subsequent calls to two world leaders.
Trump’s first tweet of the day came at 3:48 a.m. in response to a tweet posted 5 hours earlier by Dan Scavino Jr., the White House director of social media. Scavino complained in his tweet about New York Giants defensive end and former Miami Dolphin Olivier Vernon kneeling during the national anthem before the Giants’ Thanksgiving Day game with the Washington Redskins.
Trump followed up with: “Can you believe that the disrespect for our Country, our Flag, our Anthem continues without penalty to the players. The Commissioner has lost control of the hemorrhaging league. Players are the boss!”
By 9 a.m. Trump had made a call to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, reportedly telling him that the U.S. would stop arming Kurdish fighters in Syria, ending a policy that had inflamed tensions between the two nations, according to Bloomberg News.
In an unusual revelation, the White House — which is usually secretive about whether the president will play golf and with whom — announced Friday morning that Trump would be playing golf “quickly” with Woods, a Jupiter Island resident, and Johnson, a PGA star.
Although the White House press pool was shuttled to the Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter, reporters were not allowed to view the golf outing. There was no word on how many holes the threesome played or their scores.
While on the course, Trump tweeted that he would call the president of Egypt “in a short while” to discuss the terrorist attack at a mosque in the northern Sinai that left at least 235 dead. Trump used the attack to reinforce his campaign pledge to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico.
“We have to get TOUGHER AND SMARTER than ever before, and we will. Need the WALL, need the BAN!” Trump tweeted.
At 1:30 p.m. Trump left the golf club and made the 18-mile trip along I-95 — his motorcade mixing with regular traffic. While side roads leading to the golf club were temporarily closed, drivers on I-95 watched at the motorcade raced by.
Equipped with machine guns and tactical gear, the Palm Beach County Sheriff ’s Office SWAT team peered from open windows. One member sat in the back with the doors open, clutching a machine gun while scanning the roadway.
Trump’s plans for today have not been announced. The first family is expected to return to Washington on Sunday.