Donald Trump became the first president not to visit the troops during the Christmas season since 2002. According to NBC News, Trump's decision to stay off of a military base or hospital this month makes him the first Commander-in-Chief to duck such since George W. Bush skipped out during the Iraq War.
Trump made calls to troops this morning, and visited with them last Christmas, but he's been more reticent to visit troops as of late. He also skipped out on a visit to Arlington National Cemetery on Veteran's Day. Don't worry, y'all. He did find time to send a tweet.
So, how did Trump spend his Christmas? He took the opportunity to prove that he can't even turn his rhetoric off during the holidays. In a press conference meant to wish the country a happy holiday, Trump managed to bring up his pet wall project, call the current state of the union a "disgrace" and accuse the opposition party of collusion.
In a press conference called early Tuesday morning, Trump got to what was bugging him before spreading his questionable holiday cheer.
“It’s a disgrace what’s happening in our country,” he said, per Deadline. “But other than that, I wish everybody a very merry Christmas.”
The rant was another instance of Trump taking aim at his enemies, as he returned to some favorite talking points by saying that there was “a lot of collusion by the Democrats” and “very dishonest people."
Reporters took the opportunity to ask Trump about the ongoing government shutdown, which was caused by Trump's refusal to sign any budget that didn't include money to begin building a border wall. Trump doubled down on the shuttering of portions of the federal government, saying that he wasn't going to give in on the wall.
“I can’t tell you when the government is going to be open. I can tell you it’s not going to be open until we have a wall, a fence, whatever they would like to call it,” he said. “The only one that doesn’t want the wall are the Democrats, because they don’t mind open borders. But open borders mean massive amounts of crime.”
He also referred to the beginning of construction of 115 miles of border wall, without providing details of how it was funded or where it might be.
"It’s going to be built, hopefully rapidly,” he said. “I’m going there at the end of January for the start of construction. That’s a big stretch.”
