Trump rails against the courts, migrants on appeal to the troops

PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) – President Donald Trump took advantage of the Thanksgiving Day appeal to troops deployed overseas to welcome their grievances over the courts, trade and migrants heading to the border Mexican-American.

The Trump appeal, launched since his opulent private club Mar-a-Lago, seemed unusually political when he spoke with members of the five branches of the army to wish them good holidays.

"It's a shame," Trump said of the judges who blocked his attempts to recast the US immigration law, linking his efforts to secure the border with military missions in the US. ;foreign.

Trump then threatened to close the US border with Mexico for an undisclosed period if his administration felt that Mexico had lost "control" on its side.

The call was Trump's unique blend of boastful, peppery questions and improvised observations as his comments went from dismayed winds to praise for the troops – "You're really our heroes", did you? he said – while the club's servers were working for Thanksgiving dinner tables on the outdoor terrace behind him. And it was a new demonstration of how Trump had radically transformed the presidency, erasing the traditional divisions between domestic politics and military issues and efforts to keep troops out of politics.

"You probably see at the news what is happening at our southern border," Trump told an Air Force Brigadier General stationed at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan, adding: " I do not even have to ask you, I know what you want to do, you want to make sure you know who we let in. "

Later, Trump interviewed a US Coast Guard commander on the trade, which he described as "very big topic" for him personally.

"We have been exploited for many years by bad trade agreements," Trump told the commander, who shyly replied that "we see no problem in terms of trade at the moment."

And all this time, Trump was sure to congratulate himself, telling the officers that the country was doing exceptionally well under his supervision.

"I hope you are reassured knowing that all the American families that you hold so close to your heart are doing well," he said. "The nation is doing well economically, better than anyone in the world." He later told reporters "no one has done more for the army than me".

Indeed, asked what he was grateful for this Thanksgiving holiday, Trump quoted his "big family" as well as himself.

"I made a huge difference in this country," he said.

But Trump continued to warn about the situation on the southern border as he answered journalists' questions, pointing to the caravans of Central American migrants heading for the United States and warning that "where we lose the control or that people will start to be hurt, we will close our entry into the country for a period of time until we control it. "

He said he had the power to do it by decree and claimed that he had already used it earlier this week. "Two days ago, we closed the border – in fact, we just closed it, but nobody came forward because the situation was out of control."

It has not in any way sealed the border with Mexico. Authorities have closed an entry port, San Ysidro, Calif., For several hours early Monday morning to boost security, due to concerns about a potential influx of members of the migrant caravan. They closed the northbound lanes in the United States and reopened most of them before the morning rush.

The threat at the Trump border came a few days after a federal judge suspended the administration's attempts to revise the rules of asylum. The courts have also blocked several versions of the president's travel ban, as well as his attempt to end a program allowing young immigrants unlawfully brought into the country as children to live and work. work in the country.

Trump could probably close the entire southern border on order, at least temporarily, citing national security powers. But this could cause considerable damage to bilateral relations as well as cross-border trade between the United States and Mexico, its third largest trading partner. This would not necessarily prevent migrants from coming either; Trump should face the same asylum laws that are already upsetting his efforts to harden the border.

Among the topics addressed by the President during his question-and-answer session with the press:

– The CIA concluded that the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia was responsible for the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. "The CIA is pointing both sides," said Trump. "Maybe he did it, maybe he did not."

-He asked who should be held responsible for the murder, Trump replied: "Maybe the world should be held responsible because the world is a perverse place."

-Trump said he would interview candidates for positions to be filled in his administration – but that he would not say for which positions.

"I am very happy with my office and the people who work for me and for us – they are absolute stars." But, he said, "there is always a lot of change, I will probably change a couple."

-Trump would not rule out the possibility of a partial closure of the government following the legislators' refusal to allocate billions of dollars to the promise of its border wall. "Can there be a closure?" He could certainly, and it will be about border security, which wall is part of, "said Trump.

-Trump said that he had spoken to his daughter Ivanka after learning that she had sent hundreds of emails from a private address while she was a senior advisor at the house -Blanche. Trump said she was "very innocent" and that this situation was very different from that for which her 2016 rival Hillary Clinton should be in jail.

He defended his acting Attorney General, Matthew Whitaker, calling him "a highly respected person" whom the press had treated maliciously.

-He complained of the military's use of the new electromagnetic catapult technology instead of the steam in the Navy's new aircraft carriers, declaring to a Navy officer that, "unfortunately you must be Albert Einstein to make it work properly. " The officer pushed him back. "You have to be Albert Einstein to run the nuclear plants we have here, too, but we are doing very well," he said, advising the president "to do electromagnetic".

Trump then went to a nearby Coast Guard post where he delivered a lunch of sandwiches, fruit and plastic-wrapped crisps before spending time at one of his golf courses. .

He and his family crowned the day with several hundred paying members and their guests at a Thanksgiving feast in the opulent Mar-a-Lago Ballroom that featured the usual accessories, as well as chilled seafood, bar Chilean and braised beef ribs.

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Colleen Long, a writer with the Associated Press in Washington, contributed to this report.

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