Even when launching a war, Trump couldn't pry himself from Mar-a-Lago - MS NOW
President Trump announced U.S. military operations against Iran via a prerecorded online video released at 2:30 a.m. ET while at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, wearing a baseball cap, rather than delivering a formal address from the White House. Critics noted that Trump did not make a public case for the military action before it began and did not alter his weekend schedule, attending a glitzy fundraising dinner for a pro-Trump super PAC later that same day. Senator Tom Cotton defended Trump's communications as consistent with "presidential custom," though the article characterizes the approach as a departure from the sobriety and formality traditionally associated with presidential wartime announcements.
On CBS News’ “Face the Nation,” host Margaret Brennan asked Sen. Tom Cotton not only about the U.S. offensive in Iran, but also about the way that Donald Trump alerted the public to the military operations. “Do you believe that the American public is owed something more than a Twitter video?” she asked.
The Arkansas Republican insisted that Trump’s messages were “in keeping with presidential custom.”
In reality, nothing about the weekend’s announcements was customary.
While the president’s decision to launch another pre-emptive attack in the Middle East was indefensible for a great many reasons, the way that he conducted himself over the weekend made the crisis even worse.
Indeed, Trump is the only modern American president to start a war while failing to treat the circumstances with the kind of sobriety and solemnity Americans have come to expect from national leaders.
The trouble began long before bombs started dropping — the Republican, for example, failed to even try to make the case for the conflict — but it came into sharper focus on Saturday morning, when the president released a prerecorded online video at 2:30 a.m. ET announcing the beginning of military operations, all while wearing a baseball cap for reasons that went unexplained.
One might have expected a statement from the Oval Office, but Trump instead launched a war from his glorified country club in Florida, apparently preferring Mar-a-Lago to the White House Situation Room.
As Saturday came to an end, the president capped the day by attending a glitzy fundraising dinner at his club, hosted by a super PAC aligned with his political operation. The New York Times reported:
The president did not let the bombing of Iran upend his schedule, including his plans to attend a fund-raising dinner to support MAGA Inc., a pro-Trump super PAC.
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