Trump fumes on Twitter as media slams golf outing
WASHINGTON (AFP) — U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday fumed at negative media coverage of him playing golf over Memorial Day weekend, as the U.S. death toll from the coronavirus pandemic neared 100,000.
“The Fake and Totally Corrupt News makes it sound like a mortal sin!” the golf-loving president said on Twitter, noting that the game at his own course in Virginia was the first time he had played since early March.
The timing of his outing, as the nation approached a milestone in deaths from the pandemic, sparked widespread criticism in the media, with commentators recalling Trump’s own past attacks on his predecessor Barack Obama for playing the game during the 2014 Ebola outbreak.
“There are times to play and times that you can’t play. It sends the wrong signal,” Trump said at the time.
“You know when you’re president you sorta say, like, ‘I’m gonna give it up for a couple of years and I’m really gonna focus on the job,’” he said in 2014.
After being raked over the coals at the weekend, Trump lambasted the media as being “sick with hatred and dishonesty.”
“I knew this would happen!” he said. “What they don’t say is that it was my first golf in almost 3 months, and, if I waited three years, they would do their usual ‘hit’ pieces anyway.”
The Republican leader went on to say that in 2014 Obama flew to his home state of Hawaii shortly after he had publicly denounced the beheading of American hostage James Foley by Islamic State militants.
Obama apologized for the poorly timed visit afterwards and acknowledged the gravity attached to presidential behavior at such moments. Trump received some unexpected support from one-time Obama adviser David Axelrod.
“I don’t often defend this @POTUS but I don’t begrudge him a round of golf,” Axelrod, now a political commentator, said on Twitter.
“Besides, it gives the rest of us a respite from those crazy tweets! Yes, it’s hypocritical for @realDonaldTrump to have attacked @ BarackObama for seeking some relief from the pressures of the presidency on the golf course when Trump has logged many more rounds,” he said.
“It’s also hypocritical to attack Trump for it now if you defended Obama then.”
Trump threatens to move Republican convention
WASHINGTON (Reuters) — U.S. President Donald Trump warned on Monday that he may move the Republican National Convention set for August from North Carolina if the event faces state social distancing restrictions due to the coronavirus.
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced Trump and presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden to halt campaign rallies. Some have raised concerns that the large formal nominating conventions that are typically packed with delegates could raise safety issues.
Trump said on Twitter that if Democratic Governor Roy Cooper does not immediately answer “whether or not the space will be allowed to be fully occupied,” then the party will find “with all of the jobs and economic development it brings, another Republican National Convention site.”
The conventions include primetime TV speeches that serve to kick off the final sprint toward the November presidential election. The Republican event is set to start Aug. 24 in Charlotte.