President Trump on Friday afternoon compared his decision to override the Education Department’s push to cut funding for the Special Olympics to his decision to nix sanctions on North Korea favored by the Treasury Department.
Trump made the bizarre comparison when asked if he was upset that the Treasury Department planned sanctions on North Korea that Trump then overruled.
“They had the right to do that. I just decided I would not let it happen,” Trump replied, before working in a mention of his decision to call for Special Olympics funding.
“In a certain way, it’s like the Special Olympics. For many years it hasn’t been approved, and then at some point it gets negotiated out in Congress. Well, I went out, and I said we’re going to have funding for the Special Olympics. So that is why I approved that,” Trump said.
It’s not clear if Trump was claiming that past presidents have not supported funding for the Special Olympics, or if he was referring to his administration’s push to cut funding to the group in its two previous budget proposals. (He was correct to point out that Congress has successfully funded the Special Olympics even when funding was initially opposed by the Trump administration.)
Either way, he did seem to acknowledge that his comparison was a weird one.
“So it is a little bit of a similar situation with different parties to put it mildly,” Trump said after comparing his two decisions.
