Donald Trump on Tuesday took a few minutes away from castigating critics on Twitter to speak to reporters from Mar-a-Lago or, as he calls it, “the winter White House”.
Despite having been impeached a week before Christmas, Trump is arguably having a better holiday than he suffered in 2018.
This time last year, the market had clearly lost faith in the president’s purportedly “legendary” business acumen. Stocks were on their way to the worst December since the Depression, and the public was beginning to wonder whether the border wall crusade was really worth it if it meant shutting down the government.
Read more: A Year On, Markets No Longer Haunted By Ghost Of 2018 Christmas Massacre
At the same time, the Mueller probe was still unfolding, and while being impeached for bribing Ukraine with $400 million in taxpayer money isn’t a good look, it’s better than being charged with high treason.
And so, the president appeared to be in reasonably good spirits on Christmas Eve day. The China deal, he said, is “done”. “We will be having a signing ceremony, yes”, he added, in response to a question. The two sides are still working on some “paperwork”, but everybody is “getting along”, he insists.
As far as North Korea goes, Trump said he’ll “deal with it” if there’s an ICBM test. “I handle them as they come along”, he remarked.
Asked if he planned to pardon Roger Stone, Trump ludicrously said “I don’t understand the question”.
Once it was clarified (“Roger Stone. Are you going to pardon him, sir? He’s been convicted of felonies”), he proceeded to suggest that Stone was never involved with the campaign and that he and Michael Flynn have been treated too “tough”.
“I think it’s very tough what they did to Roger Stone, compared to what they do to other people, on their side”, Trump mused.
It wasn’t clear who “they” is. Stone was convicted by a jury of seven felonies in connection with obstructing a congressional inquiry, lying to investigators under oath and trying to impede the testimony of a witness. He asked Trump for a pardon using Alex Jones as a messenger (and no, we are not kidding), to no avail – so far.
Pressed on the North Korea threat (Pyongyang suggested Kim might have a “Christmas present” for the US and its allies), Trump said this:
Maybe it’s a nice present. Maybe it’s a present where he sends me a beautiful vase as opposed to a missile test, right? I may get a vase. I may get a nice present from him. You don’t know. You never know.
Nothing further.
It is near the end of the year and perhaps near the end of this cycle of endless ‘horse opera’ with the man who would King… A conversation (civil ) should be had ,however , on what this really means . To do that everyone has to put aside the name calling or else it become more of the same.
Trump was elected as a Republican , much to the chagrin of his chosen party.. He ran as Populist for middle class white America ,whom it is obvious ,at this point, he did not or does not represent.. There is an oligarchy, rooted in power and money , no one really knows who they are . I’ll call them ‘Deep State’ ( sorry about that ) that has infiltrated the power apparatus of both political parties … thus we have no true political choices . The labor movement fell an unwitting victim to globalization so we now await with great interest to see what happens next to make or break our so called Democracy…. I think what I am saying is Trump is a symptom of what has occurred over the last 40 or so years not the cause…