President Donald Trump’s White House rant baffled a worker who was bundled into the press conference while helping to install the president’s new flagpoles.
On Wednesday, Trump mused about the possibility of dropping a mega bomb on Iran, attacked Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and even rambled about disgraced movie producer Harvey Weinstein’s legal troubles.
He did all of this while flanked by a group of construction workers who were on site to erect two giant flag poles on the White House grounds.
Trump, followed by a gaggle of reporters, marched towards the workers at around 7 a.m. Wednesday, unwittingly shoe-horning them into his press conference.
“Any illegal immigrants?” he asked the crew, presumably jokingly.
Among them was Christopher Tattersall, a tree surgeon by trade, from Glen Arm, Maryland. “I didn’t really know what to think,” Mr. Tattersall said hours after the bizarre presser, according to The New York Times.
“I was just there, in the moment, you know, and I got the president next to me giving a worldwide press conference, which I thought was pretty cool.”
When Trump started ranting about Jerome Powell, Tattersall said he just wanted to get back to work.
“I had no clue who he was talking about,” he said. “I was basically just there as a fly on the wall, waiting for him to wrap it up and then we could get back to work.”
When the president started going on about his war on Harvard, Russian President Vladimir Putin and the conflict between Pakistan and India, the 40-year-old lost focus. “It was kind of a blur,” Mr. Tattersall said.
Trump then softened his tone with an attempt at a crude joke. “They call it a lifting,” he said of the flag poles going up. “They also use another word, but I’m not going to use that word. Do you know what that is? It starts with an ‘E.’ You know what the word is? If I ever used it, I’d be run out of town.”
“I’ve worked on construction sites, so I’ve heard way worse jokes,” Tattersall reacted. “But yeah, I knew where he was going with that.”
He didn’t vote in the last election and considers himself non-political, but Tattersall had a message for Trump to consider when deciding the next steps of his Middle East policy.
“I don’t want to see anybody getting hurt,” he said. “I wish we could all just get along.”
He was impressed by Trump’s handling of the situation overall. “I thought he handled it very well, actually,” he said.
Less impressed was Timothy Weah, the son of soccer legend George Weah and current U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team star. He was in the Oval Office upon Trump’s return to the White House on Wednesday afternoon.
Weah and his teammates from the prestigious Italian club Juventus, including fellow USMNT player Weston McKennie, huddled around the Resolute Desk as Trump returned to the subject of Iran, and more.
The players, who were in town for the FIFA Club World Cup, were forced to stand by awkwardly while Trump discussed missile strikes, travel bans, and women playing men’s sports.
Reacting afterwards, Weah, whose father is from Liberia, said he was forced to go. “They told us that we have to go and I had no choice but to go,” the 25-year-old said, according to The Athletic.
“I was caught by surprise, honestly. It was a bit weird. When he started talking about the politics with Iran and everything, it’s kind of like, I just want to play football, man.”
After the Juventus game, a resounding 5-0 win against UAE club Al Ain at Audi Field in D.C., Weah told reporters it was his first time visiting the White House.
“I guess it was a cool experience being in the White House,” he said. “But I’m not one for the politics, so it wasn’t that exciting.”
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