Trump offers scattershot response to global protests
Setting up meeting with Trudeau
President Donald Trump is striking a more unifying tone as he gets down to business on his second full day in the White House.
Speaking in the East Room of the White House during a swearing-in ceremony for 30 new “assistants to the president,” Trump told his top advisers that they’re in the White House not to “help ourselves” but to “devote ourselves to the national good.”
“This is not about party, this is not about ideology. This is about country, our country. It’s about serving the American people,” he said.
Trump also held up the letter left to him by his predecessor, Barack Obama — a White House tradition. “It was really very nice of him to do that,” Trump said. “We will cherish that.” He said the contents will remain private.
Earlier Sunday, Trump offered a scattershot response to the sweeping post-inauguration protests against his new administration, sarcastically demeaning the public opposition and then defending demonstrators’ rights a short time later.
“Watched protests yesterday but was under the impression that we just had an election! Why didn’t these people vote? Celebs hurt cause badly,” tweeted Trump, at 7:51 a.m.
Ninety-five minutes later, he struck a more conciliatory tone.
“Peaceful protests are a hallmark of our democracy. Even if I don’t always agree, I recognize the rights of people to express their views,” the president tweeted at 9:26 am.
While Trump has said that he considers Monday his first real day in office, his discordant reaction underscored that President Donald Trump speaks during a White House senior staff swearing-in ceremony in the East Room of the White House on Sunday in Washington. the new president has little intention of changing the defiant approach that defined his campaign — particularly when it comes to the media and those who oppose him.
The dueling tweets marked his administration’s first response to the more than one million people who rallied at women’s marches in Washington and cities across the world. Hundreds of protesters lined the street as Trump’s motorcade drove past on Saturday afternoon, with many screaming and chanting.
The Washington rally appeared to attract more people than attended Trump’s inauguration on Friday, but there were no completely comparable numbers. Regional transportation officials tweeted on Sunday that 1,001,616 trips were taken on the rail system on Saturday. Metro spokesman Dan Stessel had said that on Friday, the day of Donald Trump’s inauguration, just over 570,000 trips were taken on the rail system.
Even suggestions of weak enthusiasm for his inauguration clearly irked the new president.
Trump spent his first full day in office berating the media over their coverage of his inauguration, using a bridge-building visit to CIA headquarters to air grievances about “dishonest” journalists and wildly overstating the size of the crowd that gathered on the National Mall as he took the oath of office.
Trump said throngs “went all the way back to the Washington monument,” despite photos and live video showing the crowd stopping well short of the landmark.
In talk show interviews Sunday, advisers defended Trump’s anger at journalists for correctly reporting that his inauguration drew a smaller crowd President Barack Obama did eight years ago, saying the Trump administration was supplying “alternative facts.”
“There’s no way to really quantify crowds. We all know that. You can laugh at me all you want,” Kellyanne Conway told NBC’s “Meet The Press.” She added: “I think it’s actually symbolic of the way we’re treated by the press.”
Aides also made clear that Trump will not release his tax returns now that he’s taken office, breaking with a decadeslong tradition of transparency. Every president since 1976 has released the information.
Throughout the campaign, Trump refused to make his filings public, saying they’re under audit by the Internal Revenue Service and he’d release them only once that review is complete.
Tax experts and IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said such audits don’t bar taxpayers from releasing returns. ATLANTA — A weekend of deadly weather in the Southeast killed 15 people and injured dozens more, authorities said Sunday, while residents along the Georgia-Florida line were bracing for more intense, fastmoving storms — including unusually strong “long track” twisters. The National Weather Service said Sunday that southern Georgia, northern Florida and the corner of southeastern Alabama could face forceful tornadoes, damaging winds and large hail. Long track tornadoes, which plow on for miles, were also a real risk. The weather service’s Storm Prediction Center warned on its website of a “dangerous outbreak of tornadoes” on Sunday afternoon and pressed for residents to prepare. BUDAPEST, Hungary — It could take days to officially identify the 16 people killed when a bus carrying Hungarian students returning from a ski trip burst into a fireball after crashing in Italy, Hungary’s foreign minister said Sunday. There were 54 passengers and two Hungarian drivers on the bus that crashed on an Italian highway near Verona just before midnight Friday, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said. Two adults hospitalized in critical condition also have yet to be identified. Szijjarto, visibly shaken by news of the accident, said the days ahead would remain emotionally challenging. “A day has passed since the tragedy, and it is clear that the pain is even sharper,” he told reporters. “As the shock fades, the losses become even more excruciating. The long and more painful process, like the identification of the bodies, is about to begin.”