White House press pool photo taken during motorcade arrival.
Will the image for this weekend be the Rose Garden Massacre? As much as Donald Trump would like the headline for the upcoming week to be “Trump announces miracle cure for COVID-19, elect him again!”, this weekend’s headline locally might simply state that “Trump golfs … again.”
None of these offerings are off-brand for the idea that everything Trump touches dies (ETTDtm). And he certainly has had his fingers all over his Twittersphere, just as he had them wrapped around his putter visiting his favorite local golf spot: Trump National in Sterling, Virginia.
Today marked 91 times at this location out of the 264 times Trump has been golfing at one of his clubs during his administration. (TrumpGolfCount.com has even higher numbers worldwide along with the cost to taxpayers, currently around $140 million).
As Trump and his motorcade arrived, he was greeted again by protesters including the Grim Reaper, with an updated number of COVID deaths in the U.S.
Joseph Morton of the Omaha World-Herald, the White House pool reporter for the day, didn’t seem that interested in detailed numbers. But he did pay attention to some of the signage displayed by protesters and Trumpers.
The motorcade arrived at Trump National Golf Club at 9:39 a.m. A handful of protestors were on the corner, including a person in a grim reaper costume holding a “176k” sign. Another person had a “Suburban moms (heart symbol) Joe” sign.
Pro-Trump folks had their own signs including ones reading “Thank you” “Build the Wall and “Trump 2020.”
The choice of “Build the Wall” seemed ill-conceived, given that former Trump adviser Steve Bannon had just been arrested along with three others for defrauding donors to the “We Build the Wall” campaign. As Mark Sumner wrote earlier:
All four are charged with defrauding Trump supporters by using interest in Trump’s wall to “raise millions of dollars, under the false pretense that all of that money would be spent on construction.” Kolfage, who had stated he would not be paid “a penny” for We Build the Wall, secretly pocketed hundreds of thousands with the help of Bannon, Badolato, and Shea.
Similarly, Morton’s coverage of the motorcade departure focused less on the protesters and Trumpers on the sidewalks, and more on the vehicles in the street.
As pool was holding just outside the club prior to departure a short pro-Trump parade of three Jeeps and a pickup was driving back and forth repeatedly, flying American flags and Trump 2020 banners with slogans such as “Latinos for Trump” and “Women for Trump.” Several had “Trump National Rapid Response Team” signs attached to them as well. A big rig (without trailer) seemed to be part of the group and would blow its horn as it passed by.
For those who have read about these protests/counterprotests, this is typical behavior for the scene. The Trumpers, typically unmasked, are decked out in Trump campaign swag. The “Latinos for Trump” is new signage this week, especially given the lack of racial diversity in the Trumpers from the neighborhood. It’s also unusual given that Trumpers often tried to discredit Black Lives Matter signs and protesters at these events when the protesters weren’t themselves Black.
I also found it interesting that Morton highlighted the “Suburban mom” protester in his first report. The origin of the term comes from a Trump tweet claiming he had the vote of “suburban housewives” because he saved them from having “low-income housing [that] would invade their neighborhood” should Joe Biden be elected.” And just in case you didn’t get the dog whistle about low-income housing, he went on to suggest that Cory Booker (which he misspelled) would be the Housing and Urban Development secretary to bring this nightmare about.
The tweet went out on the same day that Joe Biden announced Kamala Harris as his vice presidential pick. The tweet, along with the Republican reaction, looked dazed and confused. As Kos has pointed out repeatedly, white college-educated suburban women have been running from Trump branding in droves. The choice of Kamala Harris as VP wasn’t going to drive them back to Trump, either.
To underscore the point, I tweeted @WHPublicPool:
But maybe the vehicles caught Morton’s eye because the Indy 500 happened today, as well. On the way back to D.C., he also experienced some high-speed motorcade excitement.
While on the G.W. Parkway, one of the motorcade vehicles ahead of the press vans appeared to get a flat tire (one of the SUVs I believe, it happened quickly). A small amount of smoke could be seen coming from the wheel well as the vehicle pulled off and stopped on the side of the road. The rest of the motorcade sped on.
This is something that hasn’t happened before. But it also reminded me about Trump’s ill-intentioned tweet to boycott Goodyear over prohibiting employees from wearing MAGA hats. So, I sent Morton one last tweet:
Given that the Republican National Convention kicks off this week, I suspect most of whatever the headlines or images were for this weekend are already being rewritten or downloaded elsewhere. (They may come back again next weekend, as I’m sure Trump will be back in this neighborhood to get his golf game on once again.)
In the meantime, there’s still a lot of work to be done, including protecting the vote and the U.S. Postal Service .
Another is this:
”Thousands and thousands COVID dead. Bounties on our soldiers' heads.”
![Trump protester outside Trump National holds up banner saying 'Suburban Moms [heart] Joe.'](https://images.dailykos.com/images/847699/story_image/118192031_311847516902018_8491361994866941766_n.jpg?1598217944 "Trump protester outside Trump National holds up banner saying 'Suburban Moms [heart] Joe.'")
