(AFP) – US President Donald Trump marked the first anniversary of his return to the White House on Tuesday with a rambling, often downbeat news conference that leaned heavily on familiar grievances rather than celebration. Opening with a lengthy critique of illegal immigration, Trump launched into a monologue covering a wide range of subjects — from US military action in Venezuela and welfare fraud by Somali immigrants in Minnesota to repeated attacks on his predecessor, Joe Biden.
As Trump lurched from subject to subject, the address felt less like a victory lap than a reprise of the campaign that preceded his return to office. This included his false claim — unprecedented for US presidents — to have won the election which he lost to Biden in 2020. “We’ve done more than any other administration has done, by far, in terms of military, in terms of ending wars, in terms of completing wars,” said Trump, who returned to office on January 20 last year after defeating Democratic then-vice president Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election. “Nobody’s really seen very much like it.”
White House aides circulated a 31-page document listing 365 claimed “wins” across immigration, the economy, and foreign policy, as reporters packed the briefing room. The president repeated a series of claims long disputed or debunked, including that his 2020 election loss was “rigged,” that prescription drug prices had fallen by 600 percent — a mathematical impossibility — and that the United States had attracted $18 trillion in inward investment. Trump said high stock markets make Americans feel like they are a “financial genius,” but faulted his staff for failing to adequately communicate what he portrayed as major successes in bringing down inflation.
On foreign affairs, the Republican signaled an interest in working with Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado on the country’s future, following Washington’s January 3 military operation that removed Nicolás Maduro from power. “We’re talking to her,” Trump said. “Maybe we can get her involved in some way. I’d love to be able to do that.” He praised Machado for giving him her Nobel Peace Prize medal, complaining again that the Norwegian committee should have honored him instead.
© 2024 AFP
