A look at Trump's "A-plus" weekend: the raking of leaves in Finland, "Pleasure" Calif. And Adam "Schitt"



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President Donald Trump visits a neighborhood affected by the Woolsey Fire on Saturday, November 17, 2018 in Malibu, California. (AP Photo / Evan Vucci)

When asked how he would rate his presidency in an interview with Fox News' Chris Wallace on Sunday morning, President Trump offered only the slightest hesitation before giving himself the highest marks.

"Listen, I hate doing it, but I'll do it, I'll give myself an A-plus," he responded. "Is it enough, can I go higher than that?

Others might disagree with his self-assessment. This weekend, Trump managed to insult a revered military veteran, mutilated the name of a city ravaged by a forest fire that he had just left, confused the president of Finland by making Strange comments on raking leaves and, as a primary school student, tried to provoke criticism in Congress with a naughty game on his behalf. All this in just 48 hours.

The weekend started with Trump's strange comments about raking leaves. On tour in California communities decimated by the deadliest fires in state history, Trump told reporters on Saturday that he had recently spoken with the Finnish president. "He called it a forest nation," said Trump, referring to Finnish President Sauli Niinisto, "And they spent a lot of time raking, cleaning and doing things, and they have no problem."

As the Washington Post's Avi Selk pointed out, Trump made similar remarks Friday before his trip to California, telling Fox News: "I was watching the firefighters the other day and they were raking up areas. They raked zones! They rake trees, small trees like this – nut trees, small shrubs, which you might see, are totally dry. Weeds! And they rake them. They are on fire. "

The remarks provoked many criticisms, as Finnish forest management practices are generally not considered to be part of the issue of forest fire suppression in the arid West. Niinisto was no less baffled: while he had discussed forest management with Trump, he told The Associated Press, that the raking of the leaves had not entered into the conversation. At the same time, the perplexed Finns explained that they did not spend their free time picking leaves in the country's forests and responded with a hashtag: #MakeAmericaRakeAgain. Some posted humorous pictures of their rakes.

In California, Trump seemed not to know the name of the place he was visiting across the country. Trump has twice called Paradise, California, which has experienced one of the worst fire devastations, termed "fun" at a Saturday press conference.

"If you look from New York or Washington DC, you do not really see the seriousness of the situation," he told reporters. "As big as they look on the tube, you do not see what's going on before coming here. And what we saw at Pleasure, what name for the moment. But we just saw, we just left Pleasure … "

"Paradise," interjected a group of officials.

"Paradise," Trump confirmed, then moved on.

Some critics have argued that the error reflected a lack of interest in the natural disaster. "It's not even decency to know the name of the city," said a tweet this has been shared more than 4,500 times.

It was Saturday. Sunday, Trump went from confused to litigation. In the same interview with Fox News, in which he sat A-plus as president, he retired from retired admiral William H. McRaven, calling the former Navy SEAL "Hillary Clinton fan" and "Obama support". suggested that the retired admiral did not work hard enough to catch Osama bin Laden.

"Would not it have been nice if we had Osama bin Laden much earlier than that, would not that have been nice?" Said Trump about McRaven, who led 2011 operation that killed bin Laden. "You know, living – think about this – living in Pakistan, beautifully in Pakistan, in what I suppose, they considered a beautiful mansion, I do not know, I saw more pleasant, but living in Pakistan just to side of the military academy. Everyone in Pakistan knew that he was there. "

McRaven had previously criticized Trump in a Post editorial, saying that Trump's actions had "embarrassed us in the eyes of our children, humiliated on the world stage and, even worse, divided as a nation." to the President's attacks on Sunday stating that he had supported no candidate in the 2016 election and asserting that he was a fan of former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, both presidents for whom he was president.

In their comments, Paul Sonne and Philip Rucker of the Post wrote: "They risked alienating elements of the military community". To make matters worse, they came just days after the World War I anniversary commemoration ceremony because of the rain and then did not visit Arlington National Cemetery on Veterans Day.

"I should have done that," he told Wallace in a rare moment of doubt after the host had hurry him. "I was extremely busy with calls for the country, we spent a lot of calls, as you know."

"I probably, in retrospect, had to and I did it last year," said Trump, "and I will do it practically every year. But we had arrived very late at night and I had just left, literally, the American cemetery of Paris and I probably thought that it was fine, and I was extremely busy because of the business of l & # 39; State who did something else. "

Finally, as a closing weekend, Trump tweeted Sunday afternoon mocking the representative Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), Appeared on the show "This Week". ABC News and criticizing the appointment of Matthew G. Whitaker as acting lawyer. general.

"It's so funny to see little Adam Schitt (D-CA) talk about the fact that Acting Attorney General, Matt Whitaker, has not been approved by the Senate, without mentioning the fact that Bob Mueller (who is very conflictual) has not been approved by the Senate. ! " Trump wrote. (Special advice does not require Senate approval.)

The White House did not say whether Schiff's last name was misspelled. "The office of the first lady, Melania Trump, who defended efforts to combat cyberbullying through its" Be Best "initiative, also did not immediately respond to a request for comment," Politico said. .

Commentators did not know if they were looking for a typo or an insult. "This embarrassing moment when the president appoints a congressman as" Adam Schitt "and no one can know if it's because the president is horrible or just illiterate," laughed Bill Palmer from the Palmer Liberal Report.

If Trump tried to turn Schiff's family name into a derogatory nickname, he would not be the first to do it. Before the president's tweet, Trump's supporters Many times The congressman, who should be the next chairman of the House's intelligence committee, calls himself "Adam Schitt" on Twitter, with the first case until December 12, 2016.

"Wow, Mr. President, this is a good example", Schiff retaliated. "Did that sound like your answers to Mr. Mueller's questions, or did you write this yourself?"

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