Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 09:35 pm
Instead of fielding questions from the press or leaving his safe space to deliver remarks, Donald Trump opted to remain in post-election hiding on Monday and make his first major, post-election speech… in a Facebook video.
In a video posted to the 2017 Presidential Transition Facebook page and shared by Trump, the future part-time president repeated the same things he said throughout the campaign and did his best to put a good face on what has widely been seen as a chaotic and poorly managed transition process.
Video:
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Trump claimed his transition is running “smoothly, efficiently, and effectively,” and said that “truly great and talented” individuals are being considered for roles in his incoming administration.
Though calling folks like Steve Bannon (white supremacist), Rudy Giuliani (unhinged 9/11 exploiter), and Michael Flynn (anti-Muslim extremist) “great and talented,” is a big stretch, to say the least.
Trump also reiterated his promise to “drain the swamp” and reduce the amount of influence that lobbyists have in the government, despite the fact that his transition team is essentially being run by lobbyists – sign that the “swamp” is going nowhere under a Trump presidency.
In the video, the president-elect vowed, on day one, to issue executives actions that would essentially undo the progress seen under President Obama, including rolling back actions that have helped America become a leader in the fight against climate change.
The Facebook appearance was Trump’s an opportunity for the president-elect to present himself in a unifying and presidential light, and it fell flat. It was the same man we’ve watched for the past year and a half.
That doesn’t bode well for the next four years.
Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
