President Trump
Donald John Trump, Pelosi and Blumenaur condemn Trump’s “heinous abuses of power” against Oregon protesters. Federal agents deployed in Portland had no riot control training: NYT Trump administration sought to block funding for CDC, contact tracing, and testing on new relief law: MORE report He walked to the South Lawn of the White House on Thursday to applaud supporters as he prepared to promote his efforts to reverse the regulations.
It was flanked on one side by a blue truck burdened by “years of regulatory burden” and on the other by a red truck with an empty bed to illustrate “regulatory freedom.” Overhead, an industrial-sized crane had the words “Trump administration” printed in plain sight.
The president proceeded to deliver a speech that offered no new policy announcements, but was weighed down in attacks on the alleged Democratic presidential candidate. Joe Biden
Joe BidenTrump Makes White House the Backdrop of Political Events Democrats Warn of New US Human Rights Priorities Democrats Prepare for Major Police Reform and its platform.
The event was the latest example of how Trump made the White House his preferred campaign setting for overtly political events, as the coronavirus pandemic renders his protests impractical.
In the process, Trump is breaking decades of practice from past presidents.
“For me, what happened is that he cannot go out and do the mud and mud policy that he does so well and that obviously his base loves it, so he has brought the mud and mud to the Rose Garden”, said Barbara Perry, a presidential scholar at the Miller Center at the University of Virginia.
The White House sees the events as an opportunity for Trump to compare his agenda with Biden’s as the 2020 election approaches.
The crane event was not the only Trump political event at the White House this week.
On Tuesday, the White House announced a press conference that became an announcement about US policy toward Hong Kong.
It then turned into a myriad of attacks on Biden, who leads Trump nationally and in state polls. Republicans were among those who criticized the president for his substance and political strategy.
Karl Rove
Karl Christian RoveTrump makes the White House the scene of political events. The Hill’s Morning Report – Presented by Facebook – Judges govern Manhattan prosecutor, but not Congress, may have Trump tax records The Hill’s Morning Report – Presented by Facebook – Trump confronts CDC over MORE schools, former chief of staff to former President George W. Bush, argued on Fox News that Trump should have made more focused comments on China and Hong Kong and spent less time attacking his Democratic opponent.
“Rule number 1 if you are a president in office who is running for reelection. His most powerful presence is as President of the United States, ”Rove said Wednesday.
“You have the largest megaphone, the largest platform, and you have the best ability to control the quality, content, and direction of your message if you act that way. Don’t use presidential events as campaign events, try turning campaign events into presidential events, ”said Rove, who has been informally advising on the Trump campaign.
Alex Conant, a Republican strategist and former spokesman for the Bush White House, echoed those criticisms in an interview.
“One of the advantages of a president running for reelection is the White House trap,” said Conant. “You don’t need to be overtly political to earn political points when you’re in the Rose Garden.”
In addition to the Rose Garden speech, Trump chased Biden during an event this week in the East Room, highlighting positive police actions. His remarks prepared during the deregulation event in the South Lawn amounted to a campaign campaign rant warning that the Biden platform threatened “our entire economy and way of life.”
The White House has dismissed criticism of Trump’s use of White House funds for politically charged comments.
“I do not see anything inappropriate with the comments made by the president,” chief of staff Mark Meadows
Mark Randall MeadowsTrump Makes White House the Backdrop of Political Events Sunday Preview: Trump, Lawmakers Evaluate COVID-19, Masks, and School Reopens Amid Rising Virus Trump Says He Will Not Issue the Mask Mandate national MORE he told reporters this week, arguing that Trump was highlighting substantive policy differences with Biden.
Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany was irritated by a question about one of Trump’s anti-Biden acts, telling a journalist that “his real problem was the fact that the President delivered a very good and powerful speech from the Garden of the Roses “.
McEnany was quick to point out that the Hatch Act, which prohibits White House employees from engaging in partisan political activities, does not apply to the president or vice president.
But experts say compliance with the Hatch Act is not the problem with recent Trump events. Instead, they argue that Trump is using taxpayer dollars to finance attacks on his alleged opponent and is mocking decades of precedent in how past presidents have drawn the line between ruling and campaigning.
“I think what has been shown is that as the president continues to feel increasingly vulnerable politically and electorally, he and his staff are stepping up their abuse of federal ethics laws to help increase their poll numbers,” he said. Donald Sherman, deputy director for Citizens for Accountability and Ethics in Washington, a watchdog group that has repeatedly criticized the Trump administration.
The rose garden in particular has traditionally been used by presidents to welcome foreign leaders, welcome championship sports teams, forgive turkeys, and deliver keynote speeches. But Trump has been more brazen, using it to promote his accomplishments and deflect the script.
“In practice at least, presidents are much more restricted in the White House environment,” said Julian Zelizer, professor of political history at Princeton University. “You are trying to create some kind of separation between governing and campaigning and obviously everything any president says is intensely political, especially in an election year. But there is still an effort to separate them.”
“President Trump simply reduces any kind of restriction and barrier and is dedicated to the campaign and I think that is what people react to,” added Zelizer.
Trump has breached ethics rules that dated back to when he was campaigning for office in 2016 and refused to put his business interests in blind trust. He regularly promotes partner books on Twitter, travels to his own properties on weekends, and this week sparked a new controversy by posing for a photo with Goya products after the company’s CEO, a Trump supporter, criticized for his I support Trump.
The president has shown no indication that he intends to stop using White House events to push his 2020 campaign message.
“So I want to thank everyone,” Trump said after speaking for over an hour, “and we will have these conferences again.”
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