Here’s a roundup of all the wild, weird and unpleasant things Donald Trump has done in the last 24 hours – including a speech in Florida which will go down as one of his most bizarre
Donald Trump seems deeply uninterested in cleaning up the mess he’s made of the world.
He was asked a series of questions about the Iran war before he got on Marine One bound for Florida this evening, and could not have appeared less interested in the subject. Of much more apparent interest to the US President was what’s waiting for him in the Sunshine State. Tonight he gave a rally speech to senior citizens at a massive retirement community – and it was a doozy. All the hits were there – racist rants about Somali people, a weird impression of a weightlifter, referring to YMCA as the “gay national anthem” and riffing on taking a dementia test three times. And after that cozy ramble to an easy room, he gets to go and watch the PGA Tour arrive at his Miami golf resort. The model of a wartime president.
Meanwhile in Trumpworld
- He reckons he’s found a loophole in having to get his war approved
- He lied about pension tax breaks to pensioners
- He boasted about taking a dementia test three times
- He went on another racist rant
Here’s what you need to know
1. Trump reckons he’s found a loophole out of having to get Congress to approve his war
Iran handed over its latest proposal for a peace deal with the US today. Trump says he’s “not satisfied” with it, but didn’t say why. Shrug. Meanwhile, he reckons he doesn’t have to bother complying with the War Powers Act, which demands he gain approval for the war from Congress by oh, Today. For starters, he said in a letter to Congress, hostilities in the war have been “terminated”, despite there still being a whole lot of American military hardware and troops in the region. He argues that the ceasefire shouldn’t count towards the 60 day limit.
He also said his predecessors have similarly not sought congressional approval for military action abroad, and he wasn’t going to be any different. “Every other president considered it totally unconstitutional, and we agree with that,” Trump said at the White House as he departed for Florida on Friday. For the record, there is nothing unconstitutional about seeking congressional authorisation for a war.
2. Trump gave a speech to seniors and lied about their tax breaks
Trump gave a speech to the Villages, a massive retirement community in Florida. And he lied about his “no tax on social security” policy. To hear Trump tell it, no senior citizen claiming a pension would pay tax on that pension. Great, huh? Sure, it would be, but it’s not true. What the policy actually is is a temporary extra tax break for over 65s, of $6,000 – or $12,000 for a couple. It’s not specifically related to social security, and while it’s certainly going to be a welcome tax break for pensioners, for as long as it lasts, it’s not a guarantee that nobody will pay tax on their pension.
3. Hang on, didn’t he just say he couldn’t attend events like this because the venues are unsafe, and that’s why he needs his ballroom?
Yup, that’s right. “Now, you know I shouldn’t be here,” Trump said, claiming people had told him he should be “indoors at a secure facility”. He asked those present: “What’s more secure than The Villages?”
Which is a pretty big departure from the argument made by him and his administration that the world simply isn’t safe for Trump, and that’s why he needs to be allowed to build his ballroom.
4. He went on a lengthy, brazenly racist rant about a sitting member of congress
Trump went on another racist rant about Democrat congresswoman Ilhan Omar, who is of Somali heritage. After describing in lurid terms the country she and her family fled when she was a child as “the worst country in the world,” Trump dredged up a racist conspiracy theory about her marrying her brother, which is not true.
“I believe she married her brother, which is totally illegal,” Trump said. “It’s a lovely couple actually, but it’s a little bit on the illegal side. ‘Darling. I love you very much.’ “Good night, brother. Let’s go to bed.”
Ms Omar came to the US in 1995, aged 17. She entered the country as a refugee, with her family, before being granted citizenship in 2000.
Ms Omar is not in the US illegally. She was granted citizenship several years before her first (legal) marriage, to a Somali British man named Ahmed Hirsi – who was not a US citizen, and so could not have helped her “get in” the country.
Other versions of the conspiracy theory claim Ms Omar married Mr Hirsi (who racists still claim without evidence is her brother), in order to get him a green card or citizenship.
Problem there is if he _was_ her brother, he would have automatically had access to a green card and a route to citizenship as a sibling of a US citizen. There would be no need for anyone to marry anyone.
5. He very proudly declared he’d taken a dementia test three times
Trump has returned to on one of his hobby horses in the last few days – demanding anyone who runs for president take a “cognitive test”, something he proudly declared his doctors had made him take three times. Thing is, the test he’s referring to is the Montreal Cognitive Test, and it’s not an intelligence test, as Trump seems to think. It’s most commonly used to try and spot the early signs of dementia. “I took three of them. I’m the only president total a cognitive test,” he bragged. “I don’t think Obama could pass it. Didn’t he get into Harvard with a C average?”
(Obama’s grades have never been publicly released, but reports suggest he was a B or B+ student in High School – rising to a 3.7 Grade point average in college, which is a very good record. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, which means with great distinction.)
Trump went on: “The first question is a lion, a giraffe, a bear, and a shark.” It’s not, and this has come up a lot. I looked up all the official variations of the test, and a shark doesn’t show up on any of them. The standard set is a lion, a rhino and a camel (dromedary), and there’s a variant that has giraffe, bear and hippopotamus in case you’ve taken it repeatedly. I’ve also seen some versions, which are likely outdated, which include Zebra, horses, ducks and snakes. But as far as I can ascertain, it does not include a shark.
Thing is, the people he’s speaking to are about his age. They know the test he’s talking about, and they know what it’s for.
6. While we’re in Florida, please enjoy this moment of supreme irony
During the “weave” in his Florida speech, Trump gave this justification for the Iran war:
“We’re in a war,” he said, “because we cannot let lunatics have a nuclear weapon.” I’m afraid we’re long since beyond that point Mr President.