During an hour-plus pool spray with reporters before a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, President Trump lamented his lonely Christmas when asked how long the government would remain shut down.
“Could be a long time, it could be quickly. Could be a long time,” he said. “It’s too important a subject to walk away from. I was here on Christmas evening. I was all by myself in the White House. That’s a big, big house, except for the all guys on the lawn with machine guns. Nicest machine guns I’ve ever seen, I was waving to them. I’ve never seen so many guys with machine guns in my life. Secret service and military, these are great people and they don’t play games — they don’t like wave, they don’t even smile. But I was there all alone with the machine gunners and I felt very safe. … I was hoping that maybe somebody would come back and negotiate, but they didn’t do that.
Trump laments a lonely Christmas in the White House with no one but "machine gunners" to keep him warm pic.twitter.com/yC4xRnUSPW
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) January 2, 2019