Feb 18, 2017
Trump launches 2020 campaign with broadside against the media
Susan Walsh / AP
The president is speaking tonight in Melbourne, Florida, in what his White House is openly calling a campaign address. We're in day 30 of his administration.
- Before going out, Trump told reporters: "Life is a campaign. Making our country great again is a campaign."
- FLOTUS Melania Trump opened the rally with the Lord's Prayer, before saying she would work as First Lady on projects close to her heart.
- POTUS cited Thomas Jefferson to bash the media, and said: "When the media lies to people, I will never, ever let them get away with it... they have their own agenda, and their agenda is not your agenda."
- He added that he will continue to enforce his deportation agenda, saying DHS Secretary John Kelly is doing a great job.
- The policy hints: Trump hit Obamacare repeal, his trade agenda and promising to take care of "everybody." He vowed to crack down on currency manipulation, bragged up NAFTA withdrawal and noted that he'd given the Keystone and Dakota pipelines the green flag.
- Trump said he told DOJ to protect police officers: This is a national step in the "Blue Lives Matter" laws that ramped up penalties on the state level for attacking police.
- Trump blasted the judges for ruling against his travel ban: "When they wrote their decision, as I understand it, maybe I'm wrong, but they didn't write the statute they made a decision about."
- Trump then proceeded to read the statute, calling the decision "unbelievable" and "so unfair." He said they'll be "doing something" soon. DHS Secretary Kelly previewed that earlier today, saying it will likely be looser on green card holders and people in transit.
- The rest was standard Trump campaign speech.