Speculation about the President’s health has reached fever pitch in the last few days – particularly since he’s had very little contact with the press or public in several days
Hello from Washington DC – from where Donald Trump will make a mysterious “announcement” later today.
Now, it’s worth bearing in mind that Trump’s schedule has had similar announcements on it two or three times in the last month or so, and in each case it turned out to be something boring.
But the speculation about the President’s health has reached fever pitch in the last few days – particularly since he’s had very little contact with the press or public in several days.
On the other hand, he did give an apparently lengthy chat with a reporter from the Daily Caller, a hard right website.
We’ll take a look at that, and all of these things that have happened in Trump World in the last 24 hours.
- Rudy got in a fender bender
- Trump made jokes about Joe Biden’s cancer
- People spotted someone throwing things out of a White House window
- Trump wants to re-open “insane asylums” for 85 year olds.
Later tonight, Nigel Farage will give a speech on mass migration to a hard-right conference in DC – and we’ll bring that to you as it happens.
But first, here’s a roundup of everything you need to know.
1. Rudy gets in a car crash, gets given medal of freedom
America’s (election denying) Mayor, Rudy Giuliani got in a Fende bender over the weekend, which left him pretty badly injured.
We wish him a speedy recovery, after which Trump says he’ll get the Medal of Freedom.
Not to speak ill of the infirm, but we’re not sure the whole lengthy legal battle to try and overturn a free and fair election, the libelling of election workers and the weird moment in Borat 2 make him the most obvious choice for the honour.
2. Trump spends Labor Day golfing, looks rough
Trump, 79, made another proof of life visit to his nearest golf course – Trump National.
But we’d be lying if we said he looked particularly well.
3. People spotted someone throwing things out of the White House window
This is pretty unusual. That window is in what’s known as ‘The Residence’ – the part of the White House where Trump lives.
This could all be part of Trump’s promised renovation of the Lincoln bathroom, of course. But it’s still very odd.
4. Pray for Labor dept employees
You thought the massive banner of Trump’s face draped over the Labour Department looked menacing from the outside.
Wait until you see it from the inside.
5. Trump appears to claim he stopped two secret wars
As we mentioned before, Trump gave a lengthy interview to the Daily Caller yesterday.
And during that chat, Trump brought up – as he does – the number of wars he claims to have stopped.
But this time was a bit different…he claimed the usual “seven”, but then added something else.
“It’s interesting. I– we settled seven. You have a list of them, actually more than that, because there are two of them that nobody found out.”
Uh, ok.
6. Trump wants to re-open “insane asylums” for 85 year olds
In the interview he said he liked the idea of re-opening America’s “insane asylums” to deal with “serious mental illness”.
He riffed on the subject during the interview, almost seeming wistful and nostalgic for the days when people with mental health issues were locked up – while acknowledging it would be expensive.
“Well, they used to have them,” he said.
“And you never saw people like we had, you know, they used to have them.
And what happened is states like New York and California that had them, New York had a lot of them. They released them all into society because they couldn’t afford it.
You know, it’s massively expensive. But we had, they were all over New York. I remember when I was growing up, Creedmoor. They had a place, Creedmoor, they had a lot of them, Bellevue, and they were closed by a certain governor.
And I remember when they did, it was a long time ago, and I said they didn’t release these people? And they did. They released them into society, and that’s what you have. It’s a rough, it’s a rough situation.”
He added: “So dangerous, so dangerous. And they can live to be 85 years old.”
7. What they are doing to the colonnade
We mentioned the other week that some activity had ben seen on the Collonade – the long outdoor passage from the Executive Mansion to the Oval Office. Part, no doubt of the bedazzling of the White House.
And today we learned from the interview that it’s going to be a “Presidents’ Hall of Fame” – with a number of black and white portraits of Presidents.
Trump being a petty man, the obvious question is, will he include his enemies in the hall of fame?
Well…maybe.
8. Jokes about Biden’s cancer
Asked if he would include Biden in the line-up, Trump replied: “Isn’t that an interesting question?”
“It’s a decision I have to make. We put up a picture of the autopen.”
And he didn’t stop there, he had a little fun at the expense of a man with cancer.
“He didn’t win the race,” he said. He lost badly.”
He did not.
He added: “He was a horrible president, but can you imagine, he says he has Stage Nine cancer. That was, what? Two, three months ago …Stage Nine. I’ve never heard of more than stage four. Stage four is the highest. I’ve never — if you’re stage four, you’re dead.”
Biden does not have Stage 9 cancer – in fact, his cancer has a “Gleason Score” of 9 – meaning it is extremely aggressive.
9. Donald Trump has good genes
Given his fondness for appropriating the trappings of dictatorship, and following the weird discourse about Sydney Sweeney – you’d think the President would try and avoid appearing to subscribe to eugenics.
But then he was asked how he has the stamina to do a three-hour cabinet meeting the other day.
He said: “You know how? Good parents. It’s a parental thing… you understand that?
He added: I have two strong parents I can tell you.”