CNN Host Mocks Trump for Airing Thanksgiving Grievances 'From His Lavish Ballroom'

S.E Cupp has taken a swipe at President Donald Trump for his message over the Thanksgiving period, which the CNN presenter said was less than festive.

Trump's messaging over the holiday period has been criticized in many quarters, especially after he appeared to lament "how unfairly he had been treated."

Cupp took issue with Trump's Thanksgiving Day phone call to members of the U.S. military, where he ended up scoring political points and vent his personal frustrations.

Cupp started the segment by saying: "Thanksgiving or Festivus?" referring to the holiday from sitcom Seinfeld that includes the airing of grievances and a Festivus pole. The mock-holiday is celebrated by many in the real world, including Republican Senator Rand Paul.

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U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to members of the military via teleconference from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, on Thanksgiving Day, November 22, 2018. President Trump his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida,... MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images

"While you were stuffing yourselves full of turkey, watching football with friends and trying to avoid talking politics with your family on Thanksgiving, President Trump was celebrating another kind of holiday tradition—the airing of grievances," Cupp said.

Trump told troops "we're doing very well on the southern border," but he lamented how "we get a lot of bad court decisions from the 9th Circuit, which has become a big thorn in our side."

He was referring to a defeat his administration suffered by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals when a judge temporarily struck down a ban on migrants who crossed the border illegally seeking asylum. Trump said: "It's a terrible thing when judges take over your protective services, when they tell you how to protect your border. It's a disgrace.

But Cupp pointed out that the holiday period was not the appropriate time to vent personal vendettas.

She said: "Now, it's hard enough to imagine this bizarre self-aggrandizing display being performed with our armed service men and women as unwitting props in Trump's airing of grievances," she said.

"Now imagine it happening from the comfy confines of the family resort in Mar-a-Lago, where the president got some R&R, played some golf around was regaled by music from The Phantom of the Opera in his lavish ballroom, while a world away, fathers and mothers are separated from their families for months at a time risking their lives every day just to keep us safe."

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About the writer


Brendan Cole is a Newsweek Senior News Reporter based in London, UK. His focus is Russia and Ukraine, in particular ... Read more

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