President Donald Trump debuted a raspy voice in the Oval Office on Monday which he claimed he got from shouting about trade.
Trump, 79, was making an announcement about the FIFA World Cup, but his voice sounded harsh while he spoke.
When it came time to take reporters’ questions, one noted that that Trump’s voice sounded rough and asked the president if he was feeling ok.
“I feel great,” Trump declared.
The change in his voice comes as the elderly president has been facing a series of questions about his health since returning to office, but he said it was due to work.
“I was shouting at people because they were stupid about something having to do with trade in a country, and I straightened it out, but I blew my stack at these people,” he explained.
The reporter, Garrett Haake of NBC News, then went on to ask an unrelated question as everyone laughed, but not before commenting that it sounded like there was “a follow-up there” to the president’s trade story.
However, Trump did not hear Haake say “follow up,” and while looking for clarification, he admitted that he thought the reporter had said “polyp.”
“It sounds like there’s a follow-up, there,” Haake repeated.
“I thought you said there was a polyp,” Trump said, shaking his head with a smile. He then joked: “I don’t want to hear that!”
The reporters and officials standing around him laughed as he brushed off the concern lightly. It was not the first time Trump has strained to hear a reporter or misheard someone speaking to him.
Trump would not say which country he was shouting at when he strained his voice, even when pressed for more details.
“A country wanted to try and renegotiate the terms of their trade deal, and I wasn’t happy about it,” Trump said.
Unsatisfied, a reporter tried one more time to get the president to reveal who he had been yelling at, but it didn’t work.
“Why would I say that to you?” Trump fired back.
The president continued to take questions from reporters despite his raspy voice for more than 20 minutes on Monday, where he discussed not just trade but also signing some tariff exemptions amid concerns over the high cost of food.
Trump argued that without tariffs, the country would be in “serious trouble” and touted the money coming in even as the Supreme Court weighs whether he even has the power to impose the sweeping tariffs.
“I can’t imagine having to give that money back on something that we’re allowed to do,” Trump claimed.
He argued the countries that have been fighting the U.S. were ones that had been “ripping us off for years.”
The post Trump, 79, Hears ‘Polyp’ When Asked About His Raspy Voice appeared first on The Daily Beast.
