At his first cabinet meeting of 2019, President Donald Trump held a nearly two-hour-long freestyle press conference, where he downplayed the recent stock market turbulence as a "glitch," gave a shout out to his celebrity supporter Kanye West and bragged out his generals being "better looking than Tom Cruise."
Following the Oval Office meeting, the Toronto Star's Washington correspondent Daniel Dale tweeted that Trump boasted about a recent meeting he had about Iran and the Middle East with his good-looking generals. "Like from a movie. Better looking than Tom Cruise," Dale quoted the president as saying.
Trump says he had a meeting about Iran and the Middle East with lots of good-looking generals: "Like from a movie. Better looking than Tom Cruise, and stronger."
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) January 2, 2019
Vox journalist Aaron Rupar also confirmed the strange quote on Twitter. "TRUMP: 'I had a meeting at the Pentagon with lots of generals. They were like from a movie. Better looking than Tom Cruise, & stronger. And I had more generals than I've ever seen, & we were at the bottom of this incredible room. I said, 'this is greatest room I've ever seen,'" he wrote.
During the meeting, Trump attempted to promote his border wall by comparing it to the privacy fence surrounding former President Barack Obama's house.
"There's a reason why politicians and wealthy people build walls around their houses and their compounds. President Obama recently built a wall around his compound, there's a reason for it and I don't blame him," the president said.
Trump made the same comparison last week on Twitter, where he compared a brick fence around the Obamas' DC mansion to his proposed border wall while doubling down on his demands for $5 billion worth of funding to begin constructing along the U.S.-Mexico border.
"President and Mrs. Obama built/has a ten foot Wall around their D.C. mansion/compound," Trump tweeted on Sunday. "I agree, totally necessary for their safety and security. The U.S. needs the same thing, slightly larger version!"
Soon after, the Washington Post fact checked the president's claims that the Obamas had a 10-foot wall and found it to be false. Despite security features, the D.C. mansion is completely visible from the street, Obama's neighbors told the publication.
At midnight on December 21, the U.S. government went into partial shutdown, after the president declined to sign a stop-gap measure that would keep the government functioning through New Year's Eve because it didn't provide funding for his wall — one of Trump's main promises during his presidential campaign.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
