Donald Trump is talking again and that can only mean bad news.
During a press conference held in the White House Rose Garden on Tuesday which was supposed to be about China and Hong Kong, the president spoke for more than an hour on all manner of subjects but mostly Joe Biden with some accusing him of turning the speech into a political rally.
Although this is not unprecedented in the White House it is unusual to see the president express such overt rhetoric in the grounds of the famous building leading broadcasters like CNN and MSNBC to cut their feeds after Trump began rambling about unofficial business.
Things didn't get off to a great start, as Trump attempted to wrestle a microphone.
Trump Vs. Microphone https://t.co/UJiBuShIi0— Acyn (@Acyn) 1594762360
Trump was due to talk about an executive order that he has signed which ended Hong Kong's favoured trading status thanks to a new Chinese law as well as new sanctions that have been handed to China because of their new Hong Kong policy.
Trump is just out here BSin' https://t.co/puKxmAys6U— Aaron Rupar (@Aaron Rupar) 1594762554
However, it quickly became clear that whatever Trump was supposed to say on the issue was irrelevant, at least to him, as he began talking about different topics vaguely related to China such as Huawei, immigration, the World Trade Organisation and coronavirus.
Trump is ranting, hopping from topic to topic with no regard for coherence https://t.co/wwMOxtoSTf— Aaron Rupar (@Aaron Rupar) 1594762860
Trump also complained that it is impossible to know how many people are currently in the United States because of "illegals."
The President says there is no way to get an exact count of the US population due to “illegals” https://t.co/ck9dz6aygK— Acyn (@Acyn) 1594762680
Trump then quickly dropped any topic of China to talk about Biden blaming his opponent for not fixing roads and high speed broadband when he was vice president, accusing him and Barack Obama of allowing China to "pillage our factories and steal our secrets."
Trump is straight up delivering a campaign attack speech against Joe Biden from the White House https://t.co/HiHdwXFyKR— Aaron Rupar (@Aaron Rupar) 1594763073
The president then gave himself and nice, big slap on the back by praising himself for imposing a travel ban at the start of the pandemic which has still led to 138,000 deaths in his country.
Let's be clear about what's going on here -- Trump manipulated reporters to gather at the White House so he could g… https://t.co/LARLGEhUYS— Aaron Rupar (@Aaron Rupar) 1594763302
Trump then claims that Biden would have done a worse job on coronavirus, dragging up how poorly he and Obama did on swine flu and again complaining, for about the 5,000th time, that more testing creates more cases.
Trump lies and says, "if we did half the testing, we'd have half the cases... the cases are created b/c of the fact… https://t.co/1rTmp5G8o2— Aaron Rupar (@Aaron Rupar) 1594763612
Still upset about being impeached, Trump mentions Burisma, the Ukrainian natural gas company which he thinks Hunter Biden was appointed to the board of directors of in 2014.
This press conference is so cringeworthy. Here is the President reminding voters why he got impeached https://t.co/lYkNey7ZVP— Acyn (@Acyn) 1594763716
Trump then, for no apparent reason attacked the widely admired Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who he called "not talented, in many ways" after Biden placed her in charge of energy and environmental plans.
Trump: AOC, a young woman not talented in many ways https://t.co/5czXJJ5N4U— Acyn (@Acyn) 1594764043
In possibly the most outrageous claim on the entire speech, he claimed that Biden campaign platform is "more extreme than Bernie Sanders" and is "far right."
The President says Biden’s platform is more extreme than Bernie’s because it’s far to the right? https://t.co/eYVkGk3alR— Acyn (@Acyn) 1594764147
Doing his best impression of a Brexiteer, Trump claims, without any evidence, that the "European Union was formed to take advantage of the United States."
"The European Union was formed in order to take advantage of United States" -- we've entered the doing Putin's bidd… https://t.co/3QUexOuznE— Aaron Rupar (@Aaron Rupar) 1594764048
Trump then turned his attention to his old foes, Mexico, who he claimed were not handling the pandemic very well and that his controversial border wall was "timely" as it stopped more infected people from getting in.
Imagine overseeing a coronavirus outbreak that has resulted in more than twice as many people in your country dying… https://t.co/HjM2pyG9CH— Aaron Rupar (@Aaron Rupar) 1594764439
Worryingly, Trump suggested that authorities like the FBI and Homeland Security are 'raring to go' into cities like Chicago which he feels are a "disaster" because they are controlled by Democrats.
"Look at Chicago, what a disaster. And we are waiting for them to call us, 'cause we're all set to go. We have the… https://t.co/0H9yY3ztIS— Aaron Rupar (@Aaron Rupar) 1594764784
Trump went back to praising his wall, which he said will be completed by the end of the year, almost four years after he was sworn into office.
"They will go over to a section where there aren't people, not an entry point, and they'll make a left into the Uni… https://t.co/w0Rk60bau3— Aaron Rupar (@Aaron Rupar) 1594765317
Absurdly, Trump then claims that Biden wants to abolish both the suburbs and windows. Yes, really...
The President claiming Joe Biden is anti-window https://t.co/hxtv5iSVmV— Acyn (@Acyn) 1594769066
Trump was asked a few questions by the media, which is what is usually supposed to happen at press conferences. In one question he was asked if he was concerned about losing the election in November, to which he said he wasn't adding that he confident because he has seen a lot of 'signs' and because of what 'bikers' are doing.
Question: Do you see yourself losing in the fall? Trump: ...suppression polls...look at the lakes, thousands of boa… https://t.co/4LGHf3WjHV— Acyn (@Acyn) 1594765703
After just over an hour, Trump mercifully brought the press conference to an end by listing off many of the things that he and his administration plan to do, with coronavirus hardly being mentioned at all.
Trump abruptly ends the news conference after taking just a few questions, closing with a softball from ultra-sycop… https://t.co/VN8voxb8Nk— Aaron Rupar (@Aaron Rupar) 1594766231
Even the Fox News anchor, Bret Baier didn't seem sure that the president had used the press conference in the correct manner.
Fox News anchor Bret Baier, after Trump finishes up his Rose Garden campaign speech: "Presidents in the past, by tr… https://t.co/j96k3g6gOJ— Justin Baragona (@Justin Baragona) 1594766278
Given the president is struggling to get people to attend his actual campaign rallies, he now appears to be making journalists sit through them instead...
If that wasn't enough Trump then did an interview with CBS which was arguably worse than what had just happened in the Rose Garden. At one point he was asked if he believed systemic racism existed in the United States which he called a "terrible question" and claimed that more white people are killed by the police than Black people.
“What a terrible question to ask” — Donald Trump reacts to George Floyd’s killing by suggesting to CBS that systemi… https://t.co/Syvev3g9Mq— Aaron Rupar (@Aaron Rupar) 1594758450
Trump also defended people's right to display the Confederate flag, adding that they weren't thinking about slavery when they show it.
I know people that like the Confederate flag and they’re not thinking about slavery.
Just another regular day in Trump's White House, then.