Donald Trump got seriously weird when asked a pretty simple question about his own wife. Meanwhile, Trump and his team get ready to reboot him – but will he be able to stay on message? Here’s a round up of the last 24 hours or so in Trumpworld
Get ready for the Donald Trump reboot, everybody.
The US President is finally going to take his economic message to the American people, touring the country to hammer home his economic successes. He’s going to cut through a discourse flooded with talk of Epstein, Iran, Greenland, ICE, Venezuela and election rigging like Moses parting the Red Sea, filling the gap with a laser focused message on how he’s making life more affordable for regular Americans.
That’s the plan, anyway. And if it sounds familiar, it was also the plan back in December when the White House first floated the idea of Trump’s Affordability Tour.
It, obviously, didn’t happen then. But maybe this time will be different. And we don’t have to wait long to see if Trump can stay on message this time – there’s a speech booked this week, and his State of the Union is coming next Tuesday.
I won’t be holding my breath.
Meanwhile in Trumpworld
- Trump swerves a softball question about Melania
- He’s redesigning Air Force One…and it’s exactly as bad as you’d imagine
- He takes his top team on an away day
- JD Vance fails at human behaviour
- And…hang on…didn’t he say he’d “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear enrichment capabilities already?
Here’s what you need to know
1. This shouldn’t be a difficult question to answer
Trump was asked a nice, easy, softball question on Air Force One about how he spent Valentines Day with Melania. Of course, he first pretended not to hear it, then swerved it entirely.
Asked if he’d had any Valentine’s plans with the First Lady, he responded: “Did I what?”
The reporter tried again: “Did you do anything for Valentine’s with her? Did you give her flowers?”
He pulled a sort of awkward expression before saying: “Better not tell you that. Goodbye, everybody.”
He added: “That’s the toughest question.”
It’s really not.
On the way out of the cabin, he pivoted to talk about Melania’s film, one of the worst reviewed pieces of cinema in history. If you haven’t seen it, here’s our review. It’s a real stinker.
“No, she’s…I’m proud of the fact her movie’s so successful. It’s a tremendous hit,” he said.
“She does some very consequential work. I think you’re going to see in the end that she’s going to go down as one of the truly great first ladies when you see what she’s doing with Russia, Ukraine. She’s done a good job. she works very hard.”
2. He’s giving Air Force One a respray in his favourite colours
Everyone knows what Air Force One looks like. Mostly white, with a flourish of pale blue. It’s looked like that since the time of JFK. There are few aircraft liveries more iconic.
So obviously Trump hates it, and wants the forthcoming replacement fleet painted in his own favourite colours. Of course he does.
The new fleet will reportedly be painted in burgundy, navy blue, white and, of course, gold.
As well as the new aircraft being assembled by Boeing, the same livery will also reportedly be painted on the jet gifted by Qatar last year.
3. Yes and ho: Trump takes his team on an away day
Almost all of you will have seen the seminal Thick Of It episode where policy guru Stuart takes a group of Tory-analogue MPs to a remote country hotel for an away day. Sitting on the floor, they toss a ball around, each spouting a no bad ideas, blue-sky-thinking policy suggestion before tossing the ball and declaring “Yes and ho”.
If you haven’t seen it you should, if only for the gag about Peter’s trousers.
Anyway, last night Trump trooped his team of top advisors, and a few cabinet members, off to the Capitol Hill Club, a private members’ club a few minutes from the White House for what many businesses would call an “offsite.”
The idea was to throw ideas around for how they could push Trump’s agenda during the Midterm election campaign.
Weird thing is, despite gathering all his big brains in one room to chew the subject over, the best they could reportedly come up with was to talk about the cost of living and reducing drug prices.
First of all, a child of four could have told them that that was their best hope of clinging on to the House and Senate in November. Second of all, it’s kind of what they’ve been doing for months anyway.
4. Trump heads to Georgia
On the subject of which, Trump’s affordability tour is back on. The tour, which was supposed to see him do a speech every week in a target district, has thus far resulted in two such rallies since early December.
But he’s back on the road this week, with his comeback show scheduled for Thursday in Rome, Georgia. Which, because message discipline is an alien concept to Trump and/or his team, is Marjorie Taylor Greene’s former seat. So even if the speech as written will probably be about the cost of living, the adlibs will almost certainly be about his former MAGA nemesis.
5. JD Vance laughs off the idea that he wants to be President
JD Vance delivered a deeply weird, theatrical laugh when it was put to him that surely he maybe, one day, sorta, might like to be President.
“Heh heh hah hah! Would I?” He said, giving himself just enough thinking time to come up with an answer that wouldn’t annoy his boss. “Well look, I’m going to try and do as good of a job as I can right now. One of the things I don’t like about this question,, and this entire perspective is – I’ve been in this job all of a year. A year and six months ago I asked the American people to give me the job I have right now. Why don’t I do as good of a job as I can of this job sometime in the future.”
6. Trump and Starmer talk Iran nukes
Keir Starmer and Donald Trump spoke on the phone this morning, with both agreeing that Iran must never be able to develop nuclear weapons.
Which is a weird thing to be talking about just five months after Trump claimed the US strike had “obliterated” the country’s nuclear enrichment capabilities. Shrug.
A Downing Street spokesperson said the pair spoke on Tuesday night, with the Prime Minister reiterating his condemnation of “Putin’s barbaric attacks on innocent civilians in Ukraine”, with the leaders discussing ongoing negotiations.
The spokesperson said: “Turning to the situation in Gaza, the Prime Minister reflected on the current situation in the region and the importance of securing further access for humanitarian aid. He set out his support for the ongoing work to deliver the US-led peace plan.
“The two leaders confirmed their joint commitment to promoting stability and peace in the Middle East.
“They discussed the ongoing talks between the US and Iran taking place in Geneva over Iran’s nuclear programme.
“Both agreed that Iran must never be able to develop a nuclear weapon and they reiterated the need to work closely amongst allies and partners to improve regional security.”
7. Tricia out
A top Trump spokesperson quit yesterday, in a signal of the unending chaos bubbling under the surface of his administration.
Tricia McLaughlin was Homeland Security Director Kristi Noem’s spokesperson – and a frequent voice defending the administration’s hardline immigration crackdown on TV and on social media.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is responsible for Trump’s ICE and Border Protection squads, which have faced a furious backlash over their behaviour in Minneapolis in recent months.
And last week Noem was the subject of a scathing and embarrassing profile in the Wall Street Journal, which reported her department was in “constant chaos” – and which has sparked speculation that Noem herself would step down. McLaughlin’s departure, first reported in Politico, will only intensify scrutiny on the department.
McLaughlin was one of the most high-profile defenders of ICE and DHS following the shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.