Instead of attending the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner Saturday night, President Donald Trump flew to a different Washington — Washington Township, Mich. for a rally where he doubled down on some of his favorite subjects: James Comey, collusion, the border, his perceived successes and North Korea.
He discussed his morning phone call with the president of South Korea, spurring the crowd to chant “Nobel, Nobel” in response to his talk of diplomacy and desire to avoid nuclear war with North Korea.
“We’re going to finally put America first,” he said, touting a litany of bragging points including lower taxes, higher wages and more manufacturing jobs.
“Kanye West gets it — when he sees African American unemployment is the lowest in history, Trump said.
Trump called Comey “a liar and a leaker.”
“Russian collusion, give me a break,” he sneered.
Trump implied threateningly that he “knew things” about Senator Jon Tester, who brought to light the allegations about Dr. Ronny Jackson that led him to withdraw from consideration as secretary of Veteran’s Affairs.
“We’ve got to win the house,” he said, implying that if the Republicans do not win, he could be impeached and there would be “a lot of unhappy people.”
It was the second year in a row that the President chose not to attend the White House Correspondents’ annual event, which had been a star-studded evening during the Obama era.
He said he would rather be in Washington, Michigan, than Washington, D.C. and compared the size of the audience at the rally to the WHCA dinner, causing the audience to boo the dinner and the press.