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Steve Mnuchin Says Trump Worked on Coronavirus Relief Bill While on the Golf Course

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Steve Mnuchin states that Trump has been available and working on the COVID relief stimulus package all weekend, even while on the golf course. As absurd at it is – having a president who isn’t working on a viral relief package as an emergency over the weekend – it seems even more absurd to say that Trump was “working” on the relief package while golfing.

Yet, Steve Mnuchin says that Trump has been involved very involved with the aid package, implying that Trump was “working” while golfing.

From an Aug. 3 press availability:

REPORTER: Do you think the president needs to be more involved, this weekend he’s been golf… —

STEVEN MNUCHIN: The president’s incredibly involved. So, let me just say —

REPORTER: But he’s been golfing this weekend, sir, do you think he needs to hold a meeting here at the White House? Does he need to be involved in these talks?

MNUCHIN: Let me comment. I think Mark [Meadows] and I spoke to the president something like eight or 10 times yesterday. The president, wherever he is, is available around the clock for us. I spoke to him very late last night, I’ll be speaking to him again this morning.

The president is fully available.

He is “fully available” but letting everyone else do the real work? That is the impression that comes through, Trump is allowing Meadows and Mnuchin to do the hard bargaining that comes about through meetings, but isn’t willing to simply chair the meetings himself and get it done.

Plus, there is real doubt about whether Trump would be available while golfing. After all, the White House has used golf as an excuse for not reaching his Twitter feed fast enough.

Link:

Mnuchin’s claim that Trump was available for negotiations while on the course run counter to previous claims about his availability in a similar situation.

In June, Trump retweeted a video of one of his supporters chanting, “White power.” The video remained on Trump’s account for over three hours before he deleted the tweet. White House officials told NBC News that the video stayed on Trump’s account because he couldn’t be reached at the Virginia golf club.

It is likely he can be reached in an emergency, and only an emergency, and it sure seems that the COVID matter is an emergency to us, but it doesn’t seem to be one that interests Trump.

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Peace, y’all
Jason
[email protected] and on Twitter @MIciakZoom

Jason Miciak
meet the author

Jason Miciak is a political writer, features writer, author, and attorney. He is originally from Canada but grew up in the Pacific Northwest. He now enjoys life as a single dad raising a ridiculously-loved young girl on the beaches of the Gulf Coast. He is very much the dreamy mystic, a day without learning is a day not lived. He is passionate about his flower pots and studies philosophical science, religion, and non-mathematical principles of theoretical physics. Dogs, pizza, and love are proof that God exists. "Above all else, love one another."

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