The 79-year-old president held a conspicuous cheat sheet written in marker during his Tuesday press conference, but still stumbled while trying to read through his talking points
Credit: Aaron Schwartz/CNP/Bloomberg via Getty
NEED TO KNOW
- President Donald Trump spoke with reporters about the construction of the White House ballroom during an executive order signing on Tuesday, March 31
- Seated in the Oval Office, the president seemed to struggle to read from a handwritten note sheet, written in large, marker-drawn letters
- The White House told PEOPLE after his stumbles that “President Trump is the sharpest, most accessible, and energetic president in American history”
President Donald Trump spoke with reporters about the construction of his White House ballroom on Tuesday, March 31, but he had trouble with some of his talking points.
After signing an executive order aimed at cracking down on mail-in voting in the Oval Office, Trump, 79, took questions from reporters, one of whom asked about a federal judge recently halting the construction of the massive ballroom.
“Basically, he’s saying I need congressional approval,” Trump said, reading from a sheet of paper. “I see right here, I just wrote it down, he said we need congressional approval.”
Credit: Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP via Getty
The president's cheat sheet was conspicuous, as the large, marker-drawn letters were visible to cameras and reporters on the other side of the thin sheets of paper. However, he struggled as he attempted to explain his plans to work around the judge's order, sometimes seeming to get tripped up by his own penmanship.
"He also said, but this is positive for us, I’m allowed — meaning, we are allowed — to continue building as necessary to, let’s see… What is that?" he said. "To cover the safety and security of the White House and its grounds.”
“We have a drone-proof roof — and it talks about the president and his staff — well, we’re gonna have a lot of bulletproof glass," Trump continued. “This has the highest level of, in fact, they call this graph… this, uh, grass, this, uh, the glass, uh… It’s bulletproof, and it’s ballistic proof.”
In response to PEOPLE's request for comment, White House spokesman Davis Ingle said, “President Trump is the sharpest, most accessible, and energetic president in American history, and he is working around the clock to make our country greater than ever before.”
Elsewhere in the press conference, Trump took a playful but pointed swipe at White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
“I got 93% bad publicity, some people say 97, but between 93 and 97. A person that gets 97% of bad … maybe Karoline's doing a poor job, I don't know," he said, turning to address Leavitt directly. "You're doing a terrible job."
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PEOPLE understands the comments were made as a joke, as noted by a White House representative. The president went on to ask reporters, “Shall we keep her? I think we'll keep her,” before continuing to acknowledge the “bad press” he receives.
“But, I get 93-97% bad press, fake press, all fake. I won in a landslide. When you get 93-97 bad stories, bad press, and you win in a landslide, you know what that says? People don't believe the press,” added the president, who was elected with 49.8% of the popular vote, without providing a source for his figures.
Trump later took to his Truth Social page to continue ranting against the ballroom construction block.
"In the Ballroom case, the Judge said we have to get Congressional approval. He is WRONG!" the president wrote. "Congressional approval has never been given on anything, in these circumstances, big or small, having to do with construction at the White House. In this case, even less so, because the Ballroom is being built with Private Donations, no Federal Taxpayer Money! President DONALD J. TRUMP"
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