WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump delivered a year-end video message on Thursday after returning from vacation early, highlighting his administration’s work to rapidly develop a vaccine against COVID-19 and the rebuild the economy.
As the end of his presidency approached, Trump stopped his stay at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida and returned to the White House a day ahead of schedule.
On his return, Trump released a video message via Twitter to underscore his administration’s work on the vaccine, economic stimulus controls, and America’s “persistence, strength and tenacity” in the face of the challenges.
He called the vaccine, which is being rolled out nationwide, a “truly unprecedented medical miracle” and said it would be available to every American early this year. “We need to be reminded for what has been done,” Trump said in the nearly five-minute message.
The White House gave no reason for Trump’s early return, and the schedule change means Trump will miss the glitzy New Year’s Eve party held annually at his Palm Beach club.
But it comes as tensions between the United States and Iran escalate in the final weeks of his administration. There is concern in Washington that Iran could retaliate further for the Jan. 3 assassination by the US of Iran’s top military commander General Qassem Soleimani. Iran’s first response, five days after that deadly US drone strike, was a ballistic missile strike on a military base in Iraq that caused concussions in about 100 US troops.
Iranian-backed Shia militias launched a missile attack on the compound of the US Embassy in Baghdad on Dec. 20. No one was killed, but Trump said days later that Iran was aware.
“A friendly health advice to Iran: If an American is murdered, I will hold Iran accountable. Think about it, “Trump tweeted on Dec. 23. He added,” We hear chatter about additional attacks on Americans in Iraq. “
The White House announced the abrupt change to the president’s schedule late Wednesday, hours after Senator Josh Hawley, R-Mo., Said he would object next week when Congress meets to vote President-elect Joe Biden’s victory at confirm the elections in November.
It is the last futile attempt by Trump and his allies to fight his electoral defeat and overturn the will of the voters, and numerous previous challenges have failed, including at the Supreme Court. Former Attorney General William Barr and other government officials have said they have seen no evidence of massive voter fraud, as Trump claims.
Trump, accompanied by first lady Melania Trump, arrived in Mar-a-Lago after dark on December 23 and spent practically the entire holiday undermining the election results. That includes an attempt to get Republican lawmakers to challenge the vote when Congress meets Jan.6 to confirm Biden’s victory in the 306-232 electoral college.
A group of Republicans in the Democratic-controlled House had already said they will object on Trump’s behalf. They needed at least one senator to join them to enforce votes in both houses, and Hawley took it one step further.
However, the GOP’s objections will not prevent Biden from being sworn in as president on Jan. 20 and Senator Kamala Harris, D-Calif., A black woman of South Asian descent, to become vice president.
During his vacation, Trump also took to Twitter nearly daily swipes at Georgia Republican Governor Brian Kemp and other state election officials about his loss to Biden in that state.
While he has remained focused on the bid to stay in power, Trump has remained mommy over the holiday season over important developments, including a Christmas Day bombing in Nashville, Tennessee, the discovery of a new and apparently more contagious variant of the coronavirus in the U.S. United States and the Death of Rep.-elect Luke Letlow, R-La., From COVID-19 Complications.
Since the election loss, the usually talkative Trump has avoided reaching out to reporters, even those who accompanied him to Florida. He even went so far as to omit them from his Christmas Day remarks to the troops, the kind of event the White House typically opens for coverage.
Before leaving Washington, Trump stunned Capitol Hill by objecting to spending in a government financing bill that accompanied another round of necessary coronavirus relief, including $ 600 to most Americans. Many of those expenses were sought after by his own administration.
Trump jeopardized financial aid and flirted with a government shutdown by suggesting that he wouldn’t sign the sweeping legislation unless lawmakers increased payments to $ 2,000, an amount most Democrats and some Republicans were seeking.
Trump finally signed the bill Sunday night after several days of uncertainty in exchange for votes from Congress on his demands. He also wants Congress to lift certain protections against social media companies and investigate his baseless allegations of election fraud.
The House voted to increase payments this week, but majority Senate leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Nearly closed the door on Wednesday when he declared Congress had provided adequate pandemic aid. McConnell blocked attempts by Democrats to force a vote in that room on the higher payments Trump demanded.