Trump steps off Air Force One upon return to Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. — AFP photo
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump swapped one Washington for another Saturday, pointedly opting to connect with American ‘deplorables’ in a Michigan town rather than exchange barbs at the ‘phony’ White House correspondents dinner.
The US leader attended a campaign-style rally in Washington Township, north of Detroit, to tout what his team hails as an economic revival on the same evening that the White House press corps hosts its annual dinner.
“By the way, is this better than that phony Washington White House correspondents dinner?” an animated Trump asked the cheering crowd.
“I could be up there tonight smiling like I love when they are hitting you shot after shot. If you don’t smile they will say he was terrible. He couldn’t take it. If you do smile, they will say what was he smiling about,” he said.
Trump, who has frequently attacked the media and its coverage of him since his days as a presidential candidate, snubbed the press dinner for a second consecutive year since taking office.
“Why would I want to be stuck in a room with a bunch of fake news liberals who hate me?” Trump had said in a fundraising email this week authorised by the Republican National Committee.
During his speech Trump fired up the crowd by taking about everything from border control and trade to alleged Russian collusion and the Korean peninsula – a topic that prompted chants of ‘Nobel! Nobel!’ The rally, held at a sports complex, was Trump’s fifth in the Detroit area since he began his improbable presidential run in 2015.
“For too long the loyalty of Michigan workers was repaid with pure and simple betrayal. You were betrayed. For decades you were dealt one devastating blow after another. Disastrous trade deals which I’m straightening out,” he said. — AFP