President Donald Trump has finally left the White House after not being seen in public since the government shutdown began, for a great cause: dinner with Vice President JD Vance.
The White House revealed the Trumps would be dining at the Vances residence at the U.S. Naval Observatory, ABC News reported. Vance has previously said that the president would be one of his picks if he could dine with any three people, living or dead.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
The president had previously attracted criticism for avoiding the media on the first day of the government shutdown, with CNN’s Erin Burnett highlighting his unusual absence on the Wednesday night edition of OutFront.
“We have not seen Trump today. We have not heard from Trump today. We haven‘t heard his voice,“ Burnett began. ”On the first day of a government shutdown, as the Trump administration says layoffs are imminent, there is no sign of the president of the United States. And it is no secret to anyone, anywhere in the world that Trump loves to be seen.“
“He loves to seize the moment, but today we have not seen him anywhere as of 7:00 p.m. Eastern, as a government shutdown enters its 19th hour with no end in sight, and Trump‘s team is threatening imminent layoffs,” she added.
CNN Chief National Affairs Correspondent Jeff Zeleny suggested this was because he did not want the public to associate him with the shutdown.
“[Trump’s absence] signals first and foremost, he does not want to be out front or the face of this shutdown, at least in its opening day,” Zeleny said. The president would later break his silence, ordering his fellow Republicans to “use this opportunity of Democrat forced closure to clear out dead wood, waste, and fraud” in a Truth Social post.
Since the government shutdown first thing Wednesday morning, Trump has continued to post on Truth Social while staying out of the public eye, reposting expressions of support and memes sent by his followers, as well as posting his own complaints about Democrats. The president also announced plans for a Thursday meeting with ‘Project 2025’ architect Russell Vought.
While avoiding other media outlets on Wednesday, the president recorded a softball interview with the right-wing One America News network in which he expressed concern about losing ground in the midterms.
“The one thing that I worry about is that, if you look over many many years—I don’t have the numbers—but the person that wins the presidency always seems to lose the midterms,” he told OAN’s Chief White House Correspondent Daniel Baldwin.
He quickly, recovered, however, telling Baldwin that he had “solved” seven wars. “I think we’re at the top of the list in terms of doing well,” he added.
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