Donald J. Trump / Twitter
Donald J. Trump / Twitter / Twitter
THREE DAYS INTO a two-week golf getaway at his New Jersey country club, President Donald Trump assured Americans via Twitter today that he remains focused on managing the country.
“Working hard from New Jersey while White House goes through long planned renovation,” Trump said as part of a long batch of tweets mostly aimed at bashing critics.
“Going to New York next week for more meetings,” he added.
With critics assailing him over the frequency of his golf outings six months into his presidency, Trump insisted on Saturday that he was not on holiday.
“This is not a vacation – meetings and calls!” he stressed.
During the previous administration, Trump regularly bashed president Barack Obama for playing golf and not working enough.
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But since he became president in January, Trump appears to be a much more frequent visitor to the links — though the White House steadfastly refuses to confirm he has played any golf during his numerous weekends at his own resorts.
That makes it hard to determine just how much time Trump puts into work and play when he is away from the White House.
The only thing certain is that he continues to watch television news broadcasts assiduously, as evidenced by his virulent Twitter attacks today against Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, who, appearing on CNN early today, expressed strong support for the investigation into alleged collusion with Russia by the Trump campaign during the 2016 election.
“Never in US history has anyone lied or defrauded voters like Senator Richard Blumenthal,” Trump said, pointing to the senator’s past false statement that he had served in Vietnam when he was in the US Marine Corps reserves.
Donald J. Trump / Twitter
Donald J. Trump / Twitter / Twitter
Trump added, meanwhile, a denial of the “hoax Russia collusion” story, amid reports that special investigation chief Robert Mueller has opened a new grand jury probe.
As he does regularly, Trump also took the time in his morning tweetstorm to blast mainstream US media for “fake news” over his alleged dwindling popularity in polls, declaring “The Trump base is far bigger & stronger than ever before.”
North Korea
Meanwhile, North Korea vowed today that tough new United Nations sanctions would not stop it from developing its nuclear arsenal, as it rejected talks and angrily warned the United States of retaliation.
The message of defiance was the first major response to the US-drafted sanctions, which the UN Security Council unanimously approved over the weekend and which could cost North Korea $1 billion a year.
In an earlier statement released via its official KCNA news agency, North Korea threatened to make the United States “pay the price for its crime… thousands of times” for drafting the sanctions.
The sanctions were in response to the North’s two intercontinental ballistic missile tests last month, after which Kim boasted that he could now strike any part of the United States.
Donald Trump had said yesterday on Twitter that he “appreciates” Russia and China’s cooperation in backing the sanctions. Either of them could have blocked the measures with their UN veto.
Trump and his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-In spoke on the phone yesterday and agreed the North “poses a grave and growing direct threat”, according to a White House statement.
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