You would have thought that with everything going on in the world the president of the United States would be a busy man.
Yet on Wednesday morning President Donald Trump personally oversaw the installation of a pair of flagpoles on the White House lawn, one on the south side of the building, the other on the north.
“These are the best poles anywhere in the country or the world,” the president told a group of reporters assembled to witness construction workers putting one of them up.
“It’s a very exciting project to me,” he said.
That he’s taking on such major White House building projects in his second term – after coming under fire for changes to the space during his first – reflects an emboldened Trump impervious to criticism.
Asked what gave him the idea to make the changes, Trump offered a revealing answer.
“I’ve had it for a long time. In the first term I had it, but, you know, you guys were after me. I said I had to focus. I was the hunted. And now I’m the hunter. There’s a big difference,” he said.
Trump spent nearly an hour inspecting and commenting on the flagpole’s installation, despite heightened international tensions awaiting him. And while he refused to directly answer reporters’ shouted questions about whether he would order the U.S. military to strike Iranian nuclear facilities, his presence on the lawn underscored a president operating at his own pace.
Hours later, Trump returned outside, flanked by, among others, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, his daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner, who were at the White House for the swearing in of Charles Kushner as ambassador to France. The president saluted the large American flag, which required five men to hoist up the newly erected pole.
source: commonspace.eu with CNN and agencies
