When’s the last time anyone remembers the President of the United States calling an audible in the form of an impromptu press conference? Well, that’s what happened on Tuesday afternoon. And President Trump went on to do something even cooler. I’ll get to that in a minute.
As you may have seen earlier, my colleague Teri Christoph shared Trump’s remarks, which mainly focused on the administration’s negotiations team, led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, seeking to broker a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia.
Trump Puts Zelensky on Notice: ‘You’ve Had Your Seat at the Table—And Look What Happened’
Things took a very different route during the Q and A, when a reporter tried to once again pit President Trump against DOGE director, Elon Musk:
REPORTER: In a court filing, the White House said that Elon Musk is not a DOGE employee, and has no authority to make decisions. Can you clarify for us what that role is?
After answering that he considers Musk “a patriot,” whatever label you choose to call him otherwise, the president started pulling out notes, which he asked staffers for, “just in case” a member of the White House pool asked him about Musk and DOGE.
He said he was surprised that he didn’t get a question like this sooner in the presser, then admitted that “Ukraine is a bigger deal,” with the number of lives lost in the war with Russia. Here, though, was where the coolest part happened–as he schooled the gaggle of reporters on what exactly Elon Musk has been doing.
Here’s How Much DOGE Has Saved Us So Far, Plus Big Scandal They Uncovered With $4.7 Trillion in Payments
Of course, over the years, conservatives have become used to seeing the release of the yearly reports on governmental waste and abuse of the U.S. Treasury, from former South Carolina senator, Jim DeMint and, in more recent years, people like Senator Rand Paul (R-KY)…but this is the President of the United States we’re talking about–reading out the receipts, essentially.
In this moment, Donald Trump is all of us, his voice filled with exasperation, as he runs down just part of a list of the billions in waste, fraud, and abuse DOGE has found in Month One of the administration.
Watch:
As Pres. Trump said at the end of the list, “I could read this all day long, I could go on all day long, and you’ll see hundreds of billions of dollars [in fraud],” adding, “We have a very corrupt country…and it’s a sad thing to say. But we’re figuring it out.”
Here’s the full, glorious video:
