Trump lauds troops, plays golf, rips FBI
President also attacks media, touts tax law on a busy Christmas Eve.
President Donald Trump’s Christmas Eve included a video conference with members of the military, a round of golf, phone calls with children and, of course, a few tweets.
After a morning tweet blasting the FBI, Trump held the conference call with five active-duty soldiers posted around the world.
The media could hear the first five minutes of the call when the president introduced the soldiers, who all represented different military branches. The press pool was then ushered out while Trump held question-and-answer sessions with the military members.
He wished them all a “Merry Christmas,” and congratulated them individually on their various accomplishments.
“Today and every day, we’re incredibly thankful for you and for your families,” Trump told
them. “Your families have been tremendous. Always under-appreciated, the military families are the greatest people on earth.”
Notably, Trump commended U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Matthew Wadleigh on the work that the branch did after hurricanes Harvey in Texas, Irma in Florida and Maria in Puerto Rico.
“The Coast Guard saved thousands and thousands of lives,” Trump told Wadleigh, who is stationed at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. “It’s unbelievable when I looked at the charts and saw the number of lives you’ve saved, so I want to congratulate the Coast Guard for having done an incredible job.”
After the call, Trump’s motorcade headed straight to Trump International Golf Club in suburban West Palm Beach. The White House did not release whom he played with Sunday. He played with professional golfers Justin Thomas, Daniel Berger and Jim Herman on Saturday and has played with Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Ernie Els, Dustin Johnson and Brad Faxon in the past.
Just outside the golf course, a man who had an American flag on his bike saluted the motorcade as it went past. Five Trump supporters were also gathered on the Southern Boulevard Bridge as he returned to his private club.
On Twitter, Trump’s ire at the FBI has recently been focused on Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. He and other Republican officials have accused McCabe and former Director James Comey of going easy on Hillary Clinton regarding her email scandal.
He tweeted Sunday: “.@ FoxNews-FBI’s Andrew McCabe, “in addition to his wife getting all of this money from M (Clinton Puppet), he was using, allegedly, his FBI Official Email Account to promote her campaign. You obviously cannot do this. These were the people who were investigating Hillary Clinton.”
In the tweet, “M” likely refers to Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe — a longtime Clinton friend, whose PAC gave $467,500 to Jill McCabe during her losing 2015 campaign for a Virginia state Senate seat.
Trump also attacked the media with a tweet: “The Fake News refuses to talk about how Big and how Strong our BASE is. They show Fake Polls just like they report Fake News. Despite only negative reporting, we are doing well — nobody is going to beat us. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
After his golf outing, Trump also tweeted about the tax overhaul bill that he signed in Washington on Friday before flying to Palm Beach.
“The Tax Cut/Reform Bill, including Massive Alaska Drilling and the Repeal of the highly unpopular Individual Mandate, brought it all together as to what an incredible year we had. Don’t let the Fake News convince you otherwise ... and our insider Polls are strong!” Trump tweeted.
The president returned from the golf course and then participated in NORAD Santa Tracker phone calls with first lady Melania Trump around 4 p.m., in which they talked to children about what they wanted for Christmas.
“Santa is going to treat you well,” he told a child. “Very well. The best he’s ever treated you.”
The family was expected to attend the midnight Christmas Eve church service at Bethesda-by-the-Sea on Palm Beach. Trump is expected to stay in Palm Beach through the end of the month.