President Trump spent the summer jet-setting, watching cable TV, and golfing. Here are his most memorable moments.
President Trump's summer plans were global — Air Force One was to fly him 36,000 miles around the world.
With the next general election approaching in 2020, and the Democratic party focusing on who will be their presidential candidate, it was a good time for Trump to bolster his image. Julian Zelizer, a Princeton University History professor, told AP News presidents going overseas can help influence how they're seen back in the US.
"When things are hot in Washington, there's an appeal to going abroad, being diplomatic, meeting with overseas leaders," he said.
Trump was annoyed not be on the ground monitoring the news cycle. But luckily, Air Force One has a television.
He's said the travel takes him away from what's going on in domestic politics. But he still manages to spend most flights either watching or talking about news.
And twitter is accessible nearly anywhere there's an internet connection.
While technically before the beginning of summer, Trump's international travels began with a trip to Japan filled with political "set pieces" in late May.
In Japan, he was the first world leader to meet Japan's Emperor Naruhito. He played golf with Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. He also presented the winning sumo wrestler at the Tokyo Grand Sumo tournament with his trophy. Trump said he bought the 70 pound trophy decorated with an eagle himself.
Jet-setting was only one of the ways Trump spent his summer. He would also go on to insult multiple politicians, beginning on June 3, when he called London Mayor Sadiq Khan a "stone cold loser."
Trump was responding to an opinion piece written by Khan that said Trump shouldn't have been coming for a state visit.
That same day he met Queen Elizabeth II. He was in Britain to mark 75 years since D-Day.
He also attended a state dinner with the queen and toured Westminster Abbey. But his helicopter, Marine One, burned the grass around Buckingham Palace when it landed, and Queen Elizabeth II complained about it to Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
After that, he was expected in France for more D-Day commemorations, but he managed a stop-off at Doonbeg, his golf course in Ireland, because it was "convenient." Even though the golf course is hundreds of miles out of the way.
The trip almost didn't happen when Ireland's Prime Minister Leo Varadkar refused to meet him at his golf course. They ended up meeting in the airport's VIP lounge. Trump wasn't seen on the golf course during his stay, but his sons, Eric and Donald Jr., were having a good time pouring pints in the local pub.
On June 16, back in the US, he made it out onto the golf course, this time with Sen. Lindsey Graham.
In June, Graham told Bloomberg, he didn't like what Trump had been saying about his friend the late, former Senator John McCain, but when they played golf it was fun.
On June 28 and 29, Trump was back in Japan for the G20 summit, an international forum about the global economy.
Source: Business Insider
At the summit, he cracked a joke, telling Russian leader Vladimir Putin not to meddle in the next election.
Source: Business Insider
On June 30, he met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and became the first US president to visit the demilitarized zone. It was a historic moment, or as Trump put it, a "big moment, big moment."
Source: New York Times
But according to the Washington Post, the peak of Trump's summer was July 4, Independence Day. To show the strength of the US military, Trump brought in tanks and lit the sky up with fireworks...
The celebration was a source of controversy due to its cost and the time required to plan it.
"It will be the show of a lifetime!" he tweeted.
... And a variety of warplanes, like a B-2 bomber, F-35, and F-22 fighter jets. It was a spectacle.
Source: The Guardian
Two weeks later, on July 14, Trump took to Twitter to tell Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to "go back" to the countries they were from.
He said they should go back to the corrupt countries they were from, though three of them were born in the US, and Omar has been a US citizen since 2000. His tweets didn't actually include their names, but said "progressive Democrat Congresswomen."
The tweetstorm was sent out while the four Democrats were arguing with house leaders about funding for the US border.
On July 20, he crashed a wedding at Bedminster — his New Jersey golf course. Upon his arrival, the wedding broke into a "USA! USA!" chant.
Source: The Hill
On July 26, a week before he was due for a 17-day stay at Bedminster, he blamed the Obama administration's air-conditioning for forcing him to leave.
Trump told reporters, it was not a vacation, and he'd rather be at the White House. But the former administration had ruined the air-conditioning system.
"The Obama administration worked out a brand new air conditioning system for the West Wing. It was so good before they did the system. Now that they did this system, it's freezing or hot," he said.
Despite Trump's reasoning, Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian, told the Los Angeles Times that it wasn't unusual for presidents to leave the White House during the hottest months.
On July 27, in response to criticisms about migrants, Trump took to Twitter to insult Baltimore and its Rep. Elijah Cummings, saying the district was "a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess."
Source: New York Times
At the beginning of August, Trump finally escaped the heat, and moved to Bedminster, although it was most certainly not a vacation.
"It's never a vacation," he said.
Working in Bedminster, N.J., as long planned construction is being done at the White House. This is not a vacation - meetings and calls!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 5, 2017Trump has his own private villa at Bedminster.
Source: Business Insider
On August 7, he visited El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio, after two deadly mass shootings.
On August 5, in a speech, he said, "hate has no place in America. Hatred warps the mind, ravages the heart, and devours the soul."
By Wednesday, August 7, he was quoting conservative news outlet One America News on Twitter, which said Dayton's shooter supported politicians like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.
According to Cincinnati.com, a Twitter account that appears to be linked to the Dayton shooter did express leftist viewpoints, but there is no evidence that the shooter's political ideology included militancy or violence.
On August 12, Trump retweeted a conspiracy theory linking the death of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to former President Bill Clinton.
FBI agents were livid that he amplified the baseless conspiracy according to a report by Business Insider's Sonam Sheth.
That same day, he returned to his old home: Trump Tower in New York.
The streets were filled with protesters but he slipped in another entrance. It was the first time he'd stayed there since becoming president.
On August 21, he insulted the Mette Frederiksen, Prime Minister of Denmark, when she refused his offer to buy Denmark, by calling her rejection "nasty."
Source: New York Times
Trump returned to France for the G7 summit on August 24. During the two-day trip, he told reporters that the next G7 should be at his Doral resort in Miami.
Doral has "incredible conference rooms, incredible restaurants," he said. It also has a golf course.
On August 30, Trump tried to taunt Iran with a tweet that included a photo showing the aftermath of an exploded rocket, which was thought to be confidential.
He said he had the "absolute right" to release the photo. And usually, a president can choose to declassify government information.
On September 2, Trump pulled out of a planned trip to Poland to commemorate World War II, because he wanted to monitor Hurricane Dorian.
He had already shortened the length of the planned trip twice. The plan was he would keep an eye on the hurricane from Camp David.
Instead, he flew to Virginia to play at the Trump National Golf Club in Potomac Falls.
While playing he received hourly updates on the hurricane. On September 2, Labor day, he was back on the golf course, marking 227 days spent at a golf course he owns, since becoming president.
Over the three day weekend, he also sent out more than 100 tweets about all sorts, including insulting the media and Democrats, and updates on Hurricane Dorian.
With Labor day marking the unofficial end of summer, the White House released a video called Trump's "Summer of Winning," in response to a scathing summary of Trump's summer by the Washington Post.
.@washingtonpost, is this what you call a "lost summer?" pic.twitter.com/M1XwUUSgYv
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) September 3, 2019But Republican strategist Alex Castellanos told the Washington Post Trump's tumultuous summer was mostly Washington "kerfuffle."
"You can't fall off the floor," he said. "Everybody knows who Donald Trump is. Before he was elected, we knew he grabbed women by the p-word and he was this political hand grenade. If you hate Trump, you hate Trump; if you love Trump, you love Trump."
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