President Donald Trump boycotted the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner Saturday and instead spent the evening with his biggest supporters at a rally in Pennsylvania.
“There is no place I would rather be than right here in Pennsylvania to celebrate our 100-day milestone to reflect on an incredible journey together and to get ready for the great, great battles to come and that we will win in every case,” said Trump to the crowd in Harrisburg. “Make no mistake, we are just beginning in our fight to make America great again!”
For about an hour, Trump outlined for his supporters in Pennsylvania, usually a blue-leaning state, the promises he has kept in his first 100 days in the White House and how he is rethinking some of them.
“For the last 100 days my administration has been delivering every single day for the great citizens of our country, whether it’s putting our coal miners back to work, protecting America’s steel and aluminum workers, or eliminating job killing regulations, we are keeping one promise after another and frankly the people are really happy about it,” said Trump.
Trump has proven that he will be holding the media accountable and won’t tolerate “fake news,” news stories without fact-checking or reliable sources.
“I could not possibly be more thrilled than to be more than 100 miles away from Washington’s swamp, spending my evening with all of you with a much, much larger crowd and much, much better people,” said Trump. “The media deserves a very big, fat, failing grade. Media outlets like CNN and MSNBC are fake news, and they’re sitting, and they’re wishing, they’re watching, they’re watching, and they would love to be with us tonight. But they’re trapped at the dinner, which will be very, very boring.”
He even hinted that he may not attend next year’s dinner. “We have a good chance of showing up here again next year, too.”
Besides the media, Trump addressed the country’s current “frenemy” China and how our relationship with the country is important in reference to solving the North Korea problem.
“I’ve been a big critic of China – and I’ve been talking about currency manipulation for a long time. But China is helping us possibly, or probably, with the North Korean situation, which is a great thing,” said Trump. “I honestly believe that it is not an easy situation for China, but we have somebody there who is causing a lot of trouble for the world. We have China, who is really trying to help us.”
Trump also mentioned NAFTA, a trade agreement he criticized heavily on his campaign trail and vowed to improve it. Although he has yet to renegotiate that deal within his first 100 days, he plans to keep this promise too.
“Two people that I like very much, the president of Mexico [Enrique Peña Nieto] and the prime minister of Canada [Justin Trudeau] – they called up. They said, ‘Could we renegotiate?’ Yes, we can renegotiate,” said Trump. “We’ll start a renegotiation – and, hopefully, it will be fair for everybody.”
Trump pointed out some other accomplishments like getting Justice Neil Gorsuch (a conservative- leaning judge) appointed to the Supreme Court, while also vowing again to destroy ISIS and to build a wall along the U.S. and Mexico border.
Then he also addressed healthcare problem and called on House Republicans to end the Affordable Care Act.
“We’re going to give Americans the freedom to purchase the healthcare plans they want, not the healthcare forced on them by the government,” said Trump. “I’ll be so angry at all of our congressmen in this room if we don’t get that damn thing passed quickly. They’ll get it done.”
He ended his speech on a hopeful and triumphant note.
Trump pledged that “cities small and large will see a rebirth of hope, safety, and opportunity. America’s children will be taught to love their country and take pride in our great American flag. Other countries, and you see that happening, will finally treat America and our citizens with the respect that our country and our citizens deserve. It’s time for all of us to remember that we are one people with one great American destiny and that – whether we are black or brown or white – we all bleed the same red blood of patriots. We all share the same glorious freedoms of our magnificent country. We are all made by the same almighty God. As long as we remember these truths. We will not fail. We will never fail.”
Author’s note: It’s hard to argue that Trump hasn’t been busy to keep this campaign promises. Change doesn’t happen overnight, especially on this scale. But, it finally looks like the country is headed in the right direction because it has the leadership it needs.