Today in normal, unalarming speeches from heads of state, President Trump spoke in the Roosevelt Room with the intention of announcing $16 billion in federal aid to farmers suffering from Trump’s most recent self-made crisis: the U.S.-China trade war. The itinerary was soon thrown out: The president, frustrated by reports of how he stormed out of a Wednesday meeting with Nancy Pelosi, told the press that she had, in fact, lost her cool.
“I’ve been watching her,” Trump said. “I have been watching her for a long period of time. She’s not the same person. She’s lost it.” The president then gave a vague recap of his consistency throughout his career, calling himself an “extremely stable genius.”
To make sure that reporters understood his mental stability, Trump then went around the room, demanding his staffers provide testimony of just how “calm” their boss was in the meeting with Pelosi. Kellyanne Conway began the very calm affair, followed by Mercedes Schlapp, Larry Kudlow, and Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
Trump has tried out a similar go-around-the-room exercise on at least one prior occasion. In June 2017, feeling emotionally exposed by the recent appointment of the special counsel, the president encouraged his Cabinet to engage in a compliment competition to cheer him up.
