President Donald Trump made a surprise appearance in the White House briefing room Tuesday to mark his first year in office, delivering a rambling, unfiltered monologue that previewed a second year shaped by few constraints — and a president increasingly intent on governing on his own terms.
Speaking for more than an hour from the podium without interruption, he moved freely across grievances, threats and boasts, opening a midterm election year with a freewheeling display that contrasted with his recent calls for Republicans to maintain message discipline.
Trump moved from asserting that God would approve of his handling of the conflict in Minneapolis to defending his immigration record and reminiscing about his mother’s affection, often without transition. Hours before leaving for the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, he ridiculed other countries and world leaders and joked that, days after ratcheting up threats to take Greenland, he might not be so welcome at the gathering of the world elite.
“We inherited a mess and we made it a beautiful, beautiful picture,” Trump said, offering one of the clearest summations of how he views the state of his presidency and the country he was elected to represent.
In a room often marked by rapid-fire give and take with reporters, Trump spoke uninterrupted for about 80 minutes. His tone was largely flat as he moved from topic to topic, offering little effort to narrow his focus or explain the implications of his remarks.
“I like the Hell’s Angels. They voted for me. They protected me, actually, believe it or not,” he declared at one juncture.
“Your lover’s not going to be killed anymore,” he said, boasting of lowering crime in D.C.
Wondering aloud why most Americans don’t believe that prices have come down, he offered an explanation: “Maybe I have bad public relations people.”
He revealed his thoughts about Somalia (“I don’t even think it’s a country”), how far he might go to take Greenland (“You’ll find out”) and his willingness to deploy National Guard troops into American cities (“To me, a town, it looks better when you have military people — these are big, strong guys and bad guys”).
He came to the podium with props, displaying photos of alleged criminals arrested by immigration officers and unsnapping a large clip holding together a bulk of papers that he said contained his accomplishments. At one point he joked about the size of the large clip, and what would happen if it snapped his finger. “That could have done some damage, but you know what? I wouldn’t have shown the pain,” he said. “I would have acted like nothing happened as my finger fell off.”
Over his first year in office, Trump reduced the constraints surrounding his presidency to help achieve his aims, weakening internal checks and challenging institutional boundaries as he consolidated authority to deliver on the mandate he claims voters gave him.
To Italians, he said that he restored Columbus Day — and they should remember so when they go to the ballot box. To Somalis, he said they don’t have a real country — and they are rigging elections in Minnesota by voting as a bloc.
“They all ought to get the hell out of here,” he said. “They’re bad for our country.”
He railed about some of his enemies, including Leonard Leo, the conservative legal activist (“a bad guy”) and Jack Smith (“sick son of a bitch”) while boasting that he came out the victor.
“Here I am in a place called the White House,” he said. “It’s a beautiful place. Who would have thought?”
The session at times functioned as a personal tour through his first-year highlights, one where he emphasized his crackdown on immigration, attempts to lower costs and quest for ending global conflicts.
He bragged about changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America before adding, “I wanted to call it the Gulf of Trump.”
He said his advisers urged him not to do so, then said he was teasing.
“Gulf of Trump. That does have a good ring, though?” he added. “Maybe we could do that.”
For a president whose name has been affixed to the Kennedy Center and the Institute of Peace, the suggestion landed less as a joke and more like a reminder of how he has approached the office.
That impulse to inscribe himself on the institutions he leads surfaced again as Trump moved from policy to personal history. While mentioning an executive order on bringing back mental institutions and insane asylums, he recounted growing up in Queens and playing Little League baseball, a hint of nostalgia that he rarely exhibits. His mother told him he could be a professional ballplayer, he said, as he asked why the nearby building had bars on the windows.
“All this steel, vicious steel, tiny windows, bars all over the place, nobody was getting out,” he recalled. “It’s called a mental institution.”
Early in his remarks he railed against the protests in Minneapolis, growing fixated on a distraught neighbor who was screaming “Shame!” after Renée Good was fatally shot. Later, he turned the focus on himself as he reflected, recalling how he learned that Good’s father was a “tremendous Trump fan.” He said that he hoped the man still supported him, although he’d understand if not.
He then seemed to open the possibility that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were too heavy-handed.
“They’re going to make a mistake sometimes, too rough with somebody. You know they are rough people,” he said.
He also seemed attuned to the political mission of retaining some of the support he won from Latinos in the last election, which helped in several swing states.
“I love the Hispanic, and they accuse us of all sorts of things. Sixty percent of the people we’re talking about, they’re the best people we have,” he said. “And the Hispanic, the Border Patrol is largely Hispanic, ICE is largely Hispanic. They’re unbelievable people. I don’t know how they can take the abuse.”
After ending on a rosy note — “We took a country that was dead, and it’s the hottest country in the world right now” — he began taking questions.
For a president who at first seemed low-energy, he perked up as the room roared for his attention.
As Trump held court, he inquired about the nationality of a reporter asking about Iran (she was Palestinian American), about Venezuela (he was from Spain), and Norway (she smiled, saying she was not, in fact, Norwegian).
Asked whether he’s willing to break up NATO as a consequence of acquiring Greenland: “I think something’s going to happen that’s going to be good for everybody.”
Trump briefly turned inward when he conceded that he believed his administration had not done enough to sell the country on its economic accomplishments. The admission evoked a similar line from the Biden administration, which often lamented that it was unable to better communicate the policies it was implementing.
“I think a lot of people, a lot of people are listening to the fake news a little bit,” Trump said. “And I’m not blaming anybody. I think I blame ourselves. I think we’ve done a much better job than we’re able to promote. We’re not promoting. We’re doing a great job, and we’re sort of letting the promotion take care of itself. One of the reasons I’m doing this news conference, I think it’s important we have taken a mess and made it really good.”
Toward the end, Trump was asked about his belief a year ago about some divine intervention that placed him in the office for a second time.
“I think God is very proud of the job I’ve done,” he said. “We’ve had an amazing year.”
He clearly did not want to leave, offering several times to take one more question. Eventually, an hour and 45 minutes after entering and with a call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan awaiting him, the president left the room.
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