Yesterday, outside the White House, Donald Trump took some time off playing President of the United States to play fireman for a while. He’s dedicating this week to celebrating goods and products made in the US, including the fire engine he’s got parked outside the White House. A few months ago, Trump got behind the wheel of an 18-wheeler truck and enjoyed playing trucker for a bit. The President appears to enjoy the sense of compensation he gets from sitting in a large, heavy duty vehicle.
Trump seemed to have a lot of fun playing fireman. He hopped into the cab of the fire engine, which was manufactured in Wisconsin and brought down to Washington for his little role play, and pretended to be a firefighter on the way to put out a fire.
“Where’s the fire? Where’s the fire? Put it out fast!” he said. What is he, five years old?
‘Where’s the fire?’ It’s in the White House!
Thank God Trump did this, because he’s provided the perfect visual metaphor for what’s going on within his administration right now. See, the President’s son, Donald Trump, Jr., has been revealed to have met with a Russian lawyer during last year’s Presidential election campaign. Damning emails that Trump, Jr. was forced to release have shown that his intentions for the meeting were to gather some dirt on Hillary Clinton that Trump could use against her on his campaign. Clinton’s running mate Tim Kaine has called this “treason,” while Republicans have been turning a blind eye and calling it “overblown” (and playing with fire trucks, apparently).
There’s been a huge uproar over this whole Trump, Jr. thing, especially within the US political arena. One Democratic Senator put it best. Talking about the potential Trump/Russia collusion and the investigation surrounding it that’s led to a lot of shady dialogue but nothing concrete, the Senator said, “For a long time, we saw a lot of smoke but no fire.” Then he added, in a moment of beautiful poetry, “You’re seeing the fire today.”
So, that’s why when President Trump jumps in a fire engine outside the White House of all places and says, “Where’s the fire?
Put it out fast!” it’s hilariously ironic. It’s like he’s living in his own weird “Saturday Night Live” skit right on his own front lawn.
The President has made promises about US manufacturing
In his bid to showcase US-made products this week and boost manufacturing on his homefront, Trump has promised that he will aid the manufacture in the United States by slashing the $64 billion trade deficit they have with Mexico.
Ah, Mexico. Wonder how that wall’s coming along. Anyway, during his week of American-made product showcasing, Trump will be showing off products made in all 50 states – a baseball bat from Louisiana, a cowboy hat from Texas etc. The week is being (aptly) dubbed “Made in America Week.”
Trump promised at a White House event that he will no longer let other countries “break the rules,” “steal our jobs,” and “drain our wealth.” He pledged, “We’re going to start doing [‘Made in the USA’] again,” in order to “put that brand on our product because it means it’s the best.” Well, unless you’re talking about cars.
White House has to defend Trump-brand product manufacture
However, despite all these nice sentiments from Trump, the White House has had to defend the manufacture of Trump-brand products.
See, his campaign and his Presidency has always promised to put America first when it comes to business, and yet he’s a business mogul and he doesn’t do that himself.
The reporters asked Press Secretary Sean Spicer at the event whether Ivanka Trump or the Trump Organisation would commit to Trump’s promise that US companies will “stop manufacturing wares abroad.” Spicer dodged the question and instead focused on how Trump wants other companies to do it – but not his own, of course.