A day after inciting a mob, Trump attempts his version of normalcy
On Thursday, he awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to golfers Annika Sorenstam and Gary Player, as well as a posthumous Medal of Freedom to Olympic athlete Babe Didrikson Zaharias, a White House official told CNN.
In another display of attempted nothing-to-see-here behavior, Trump phoned in to the Republican National Committee’s winter meeting, briefly addressing a friendly crowd of RNC members via speakerphone with no mention of Wednesday’s events.
However, due to the fact that the RNC is currently an active crime scene after a pipe bomb was found outside on Wednesday, Trump was forced to cancel his planned Thursday evening video address. It was to be taped with RNC equipment currently inaccessible.
And on Friday, Trump is expected to head to the presidential retreat Camp David, the White House official said, declining to provide additional details on the purpose of the trip.
Trump, an avid golfer himself, previously honored Tiger Woods with a Medal of Freedom. The President has spent 313 days during his time in office at a golf club.
With 13 days left in the Trump presidency, the White House has been inundated with requests for the Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. Thursday’s presentation was not listed on Trump’s public schedule, which instead said Trump would have “many meetings” and “many calls.”
Earlier this week, Trump bestowed the Medal of Freedom upon Capitol Hill ally Rep. Devin Nunes, and is expected to also honor another member of Congress, Rep. Jim Jordan, before leaving office.
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, Jeremy Diamond, and Kevin Liptak contributed to this report.
