What did Donald Trump do today?
At a press conference with UK Prime Minister Theresa May today, Trump was asked about the
rude welcome that thousands of Londoners gave him upon his arrival.
He responded:
TRUMP: As far as the protests, I have to tell you, because I commented on it yesterday: We left the Prime Minister, the Queen, the Royal Family — there were thousands of people on the streets cheering. And even coming over today, there were thousands of people cheering. And then I heard that there were protests. I said, “Where are the protests? I don’t see any protests.”
I did see a small protest today when I came — very small. So a lot of it is fake news, I hate to say.
In the real world, there were, indeed, some people conducting pro-Trump protests. One of them
stabbed one of the many "baby Trump" balloons that Trump has pretended not to notice. (She
injured herself in the process and was arrested.)
The much larger
anti-Trump protests, for the most part kept safely out of Trump's line of sight, were where the real action was. There were
75,000 people at this "very small" protest.
Trump's inability or unwillingness to believe that criticism of him exists goes back to the first days of his presidency. He famously spend much of his first week as president arguing, all real-world evidence to the contrary, that his
relatively small crowds were the biggest ever to witness an inauguration. (
They weren't.) Trump also insisted that the Women's March protests that followed the next day were in
support of him and his agenda. (
They weren't.)
Why should I care about this?
- It hurts the United States if its president is this hated by the citizens of our closest ally.
- Reality happens whether or not Donald Trump is willing to admit it.
