Trump ends year in character – dodging questions and singing his own praises

Extract from The Guardian

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Donald Trump

The president decided to bring forward his signing of the Republican tax bill after watching TV – but had no time to face full scrutiny from the media in attendance

 Trump signs tax bill: 'I didn't want you folks to say that I wasn't keeping my promise' – video

David Smith in Washington

Sat 23 Dec ‘17 06.24 AEDT First published on Sat 23 Dec ‘17 05.09 AEDT

Last Christmas Barack Obama gave a press conference lasting 86 minutes, as he did at the end of every year. Donald Trump insists on doing things differently.

The US president invited Friday’s White House press pool into the Oval Office to watch him sign Republicans’ massive $1.5tn tax overhaul into law, determined to sum up 2017 on his own terms.
It was a fitting Christmas parting with Trump at his Trumpiest: making exaggerated boasts about his achievements and hyper-sensitive to the media.
“I was going to wait for a formal signing some time in early January but then I watched the news this morning and they were all saying, ‘Will he keep his promise? Will he sign it by Christmas?’” said Trump, who often seems to pay closer attention to TV than advisers or pollsters. “And I called downstairs and I said: ‘Get it ready, we have to sign it now.’”
Sitting behind the Resolute desk, he repeated this line of reasoning twice more just to make sure everyone got the point. “I didn’t want you folks to say I wasn’t keeping my promise. I am keeping my promise. I am signing it before Christmas. I said that the bill would be on my desk before Christmas and you are holding me literally to that. So we did a rushed job today.”

Stretching his arms wide, he protested: “It’s not fancy but it’s the Oval Office. It’s the great Oval Office!”
The tax package, the biggest such overhaul since the 1980s, slashes the corporate rate from 35% to 21%. “Corporations are literally going wild over this, I think even beyond my expectations, so far beyond my expectations,” Trump said.

Donald Trump: the centre of attention. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

The president insisted that a typical family of four will benefit from tax cuts – “The numbers will speak” – and praised companies for making contributions to their employees. “They all said it’s because of the tax bill.” He said the New England Patriots owner, Bob Kraft, called and said that, because of the tax bill, he will build “a tremendous paper mill”. Democrats had opposed the bill as a giveaway to the rich that will hurt the middle class and add $1.5tn to the $20tn national debt during the next decade. Opinion polling suggests it is deeply unpopular.
But the exultant Trump made the highly questionable claims that he has more legislative victories than any other president and that: “The bottom line is this is the biggest tax cuts and reform in the history of our country. This is bigger, actually, than President Reagan’s many years ago. I’m very honoured by it.”
It was an apt bookend to a year that began with then press secretary Sean Spicer’s false claim that the Trump’s inauguration attracted a bigger audience than Obama or anyone else’s.
The tax reform legislation also removes the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate. Trump added: “Essentially I think it ultimately leads to the end of Obamacare. Essentially I think Obamacare is over because of that.”
The president took up a pen and made a very elaborate signature as if savouring every stroke, then thanked the “fantastic” Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, recalling that they sometimes spoke at two or three in the morning while shepherding the bill through.
The president insisted: “I’ll be working very hard over the holidays.” But in lieu of a press conference like the one Obama usually gave to round off the year, Trump offered the press a gift of free pens and took a few off-the-cuff questions.

Soon after, he strode alone from the Oval Office with a spring in his step, watched by about a hundred journalists including TV reporters with microphones poised and photographers balanced on stepladders. He did not take questions but mouthed something and gave a modest fist bump, then boarded Marine One on his way to his Mar-a-Lago estate in the Florida sunshine.
At 11.22am local time, against a backdrop of the south lawn fountain with the Washington Monument looming beyond, the helicopter lifted off, blowing cold air in the faces of the watching media.

President Donald Trump greets people on the tarmac as he arrives on Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport, in West Palm Beach, Flordia Photograph: Carolyn Kaster/AP

Later, Trump arrived in Air Force One at Florida’s Palm Beach international airport and was greeted by around 100 supporters on the tarmac.
Potus walked over to shake hands with members of the crowd, who cheered and chanted “USA! USA!”
According to the White House pool reporter, a sampling of signs in the crowd was “Trump Strong”, “Welcome Home President Trump! #MAGA” and “Keep on Tweeting”.

McConnell mocks ‘political genius’ Bannon

The Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, used a holiday season press conference on Friday to mock the former White House adviser Steve Bannon’s “political genius” for costing Republicans an Alabama Senate seat.
McConnell, of Kentucky, made the remark 10 days after the Bannon-backed Roy Moore lost a special election to Doug Jones, giving Democrats their first victory in an Alabama Senate race in a quarter-century.

Mitch McConnell. Photograph: Alex Wong/Getty Images

Moore faced allegations of improper conduct with teenagers decades ago and touted extremist views that repelled many women and minorities. “The political genius on display, throwing away a seat in the reddest state in America, is hard to ignore,” McConnell told reporters.
Bannon, who was President Donald Trump’s strategist, has returned to the rightwing Breitbart News and has been openly seeking other GOP candidates who like Moore would support toppling McConnell as majority leader.
Though Trump also backed Moore, McConnell said he believes the White House “will be in the same place I am, want to nominate people who can actually win”.
Following a summer that saw Trump criticize McConnell for the Senate’s failure to repeal President Barack Obama’s healthcare law, McConnell described a “really good” working relationship with Trump. He said the $1.5tn tax package Republicans pushed through Congress this week had “brought everybody together”.

Associated Press contributed to this report