White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Wednesday brushed off concerns about President Donald Trump’s decision to change Thanksgiving plans amid whispers that he was hunkering down at home and refusing to accept the reality of his electoral loss, claiming the switch from his traditional retreat to his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida was simply that “he’s hard at work.”
“The president’s hard at work on COVID, among other issues, drawing down our number of troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, bringing our men and women home,” McEnany told “Fox & Friends” hosts during an interview Wednesday morning when asked about reports of the Turkey Day shift. “He’s hard at work, and so he’s staying here at the White House, and it will be a lovely Thanksgiving for him and the first lady here in the White House.”
WH press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told Fox News on Wednesday that President Trump had changed Thanksgiving plans because he's "hard at work," assuring hosts when asked if Trump would make a public appearance soon that the nation would "hear from him at the right moment." pic.twitter.com/hzMRgM8Aq5
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) November 18, 2020
The comments come after reports were confirmed by first lady Melania Trump’s spokesperson Stephanie Grisham that the President would not fly off to Palm Beach for an annual ballroom dinner as has been his tradition.
Trump will instead hunker down at the White House, which one aide described to CNN as the one-term president’s “bunker mentality” amid his loss to incoming President-elect Joe Biden.
When asked whether Trump would soon emerge from that bunker to address the American people, McEnany assured Fox News that the nation would hear from its president “at the right moment.”
“That’s up to President Trump,” McEnany said. “You know, sometimes he’ll make the decision to come out on any given moment, but I’m sure you’ll hear from him at the right moment.”
Trump has largely avoided addressing the nation in public events since his electoral defeat two weeks ago. He has instead retreated to tantrums on Twitter, where in one week he has predictably announced the firings of two top officials who he’s seen as disloyal.
Trump’s own hiding out comes after he relentlessly mocked Biden at rallies by claiming his opponent was hidden from view as he campaigned from his “basement.” Trump suggested for months that his opponent, who is now the President-elect, was avoiding addressing the public by holding digital events from his Delaware home when he took measures to avoid spreading COVID-19 through remote campaign efforts.
