President Donald Trump on Thursday responded to reports that he may have violated a military rule that prohibits personnel from participating in political activity while in uniform when he signed Make America Great Again hats and 2020 patches while visiting troops in Iraq earlier this week.
In a tweet, Trump claimed the campaign merch belonged to the soldiers and were not distributed by his team.
“If these brave young people ask me to sign their hat, I will sign. Can you imagine my saying NO?” he tweeted.
CNN & others within the Fake News Universe were going wild about my signing MAGA hats for our military in Iraq and Germany. If these brave young people ask me to sign their hat, I will sign. Can you imagine my saying NO? We brought or gave NO hats as the Fake News first reported!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 27, 2018
The White House has taken a similar approach to dismissing the misstep. In a tweet on Thursday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, “CNN will attack anyone who supports President Trump, including the brave men and women of our military who fight everyday to protect our freedom.”
Actually, no. I can’t imagine YOU saying no to anything that flatters you. I can however, and would actually expect a reasonably knowledgeable president to decline politely on the basis of it being inappropriate in that setting.
The slew of Sharpies are on the table to sign something…
We brought or gave NO hats as the Fake News first reported!
Considering who is speaking here, I’d say the jury’s still out on whether or not this is a bald faced lie.
No, Toadglans, we can’t imagine you not doing anything and everything to stoke your own ego.
The issue isn’t even that you were (once again) in violation of long-standing presidential protocol, something we all expect and that your supporters hold dear. The real issue is that military personnel were in flagrant violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, something you would know something about had you not developed bone spurs to gain your fifth deferment.
Anyone have any information on the origin of those hats?
I have seen commenters on WaPo assert that they were definitely handed out to the troops - and a CNN correspondent was skeptical about Trump’s claims, but is there any more information about this?
My suspicion of course is that Trump brought the hats, and had them handed out, and is lying about it – like he does with everything, all the time. But is there any firm supporting evidence?