Hindustan Surkhiyan Desk:After a week of uncharacteristic silence spent largely away from the public eye, President Donald Trump arrived in Ohio itching to give his take on, well — just about everything.
That the speech — billed by the White House as a pitch of the president’s infrastructure plan — encompassed at least a dozen news of day topics was fitting: “Infrastructure” weeks and events have become something of a punchline among the White House press corps, who have seen several infrastructure-themed weeks blown out by a president who delivers headline-grabbing statements on anything but.
At least Thursday, Trump actually made mention of the infrastructure plan — if only for a few minutes. Even if his conclusion was that it probably wasn’t going to become reality anytime soon.
“You probably will have to wait until after the election,” Trump conceded, blaming Democrats for not offering their support for his approach.
But instead of focusing on the roadblocks, Trump regaled the crowd for just under an hour with his thoughts on everything from military spending to community colleges (“I don’t know what that means, a ‘community college.” I don’t know what that means.”) to TV ratings for the reboot of “Roseanne.” He spoke about tax reform. The Keystone XL pipeline. The recent renegotiation of the U.S.-South Korea trade deal, a “Hillary [Clinton] special” (even though it was ratified in June 2007).
On the other hand, he floated the idea of holding up the newly negotiated U.S.-South Korea trade deal until “after a deal is made with North Korea.” Trump has agreed to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said Thursday that “certainly the rhetoric [from the Kim regime] has calmed down a little bit.”
North and South Korea also provided a new example for how he’d like to see the U.S. protect its borders, Trump said.
“North and South Korea? 32,000 soldiers. The finest equipment, barbed wire all over the place, we protect that whole thing, nobody comes through,” Trump said. “But our country, we don’t do it.”
“That’s what I do, I build,” he said here, adding “I think better than being president I was good at building.”
He assured factory workers gathered with him here that their Second Amendment rights were safe, after Republican-appointed, now-retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens suggested earlier this week it be repealed.
“Tyranny!” one man shouted from the crowd. Trump told him he was “right about that” but any talk of getting rid of the Second Amendment is “not gonna happen” with him.
“The Second Amendment will always be your Second Amendment,” President Trump assured. That said, there were some gun control-related measures that he was proud of recently, like his Justice Department’s proposal to ban bump stocks, and attempts to strengthen the federal background checks system.
And while Trump did mention his recent call with Roseanne Barr — “unbelievable” ratings for a show “about us” — one newsy topic he didn’t reference was his legal battle with porn star Stormy Daniels.
The president, multiple spokesmen and women have told reporters throughout the week, has already said enough about her allegations — despite the fact that he hasn’t actually spoken about it publicly at all.NBC
