President Donald Trump has a message for American moms ahead of Mother’s Day on Sunday: The F-35 is awesome, and so is the military.
That was, at least, the president’s first swing at a softball question posed to him on Friday by Fox News host Ainsley Earhardt, who asked: “This Sunday is Mother’s Day. What are your plans? What are you gonna do for Melania and do you have a message for all the moms that are watching this morning?”
Trump didn’t really answer the question, and instead pivoted to talking about the U.S. military. Here’s what he said:
Well, we’ll be together. I’m going to a Camp David meeting — a big meeting with the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Camp David is this very special place that nobody ever gets to see but it’s a great work environment. And we’re going to have meetings on different things.
And we’re going to have meetings on different things, and our military has never looked better. It’s never been better. We’ve never had the kind of equipment that we have now.
And we had planes that were 50 years old, and more. Fighter jets — now we have the best in the world, the F-35 and the F-18, and you know, what we have is incredible.
The equipment and the people we have are great, but you know, they have to have equipment.
And we spent $1.5 trillion — really, more than that. And we’ve totally rebuilt our military, which you have to do. You know, I’m a very budget-conscious person. But you have to do.
The nice thing is — it’s all built in the USA. And plenty of equipment coming. Lot of this equipment is coming. So it’s very important that we have the best military and we have the… our military has never been in condition like it is now and soon will be.”
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After the more than one minute-long tangent, Earhardt tried again, and finally got a Mother’s Day message out of him.
“Do you have a message for the moms that are watching?” Earhardt asked.
“Well all I can say is happy Mother’s Day, and I had a great mom,” Trump said. “I loved my mom and she loved me, which isn’t hard — which is, I must tell you, probably not easy to do. But she was so good to me. She was so good.
“I couldn’t do any wrong, which is a big problem. Maybe that’s why I ended up the way I ended up, I don’t know. I couldn’t do any wrong in her eyes. And I had a great father too. Great guy. Very different types. But my mother was a terrific woman. And Melania’s been a great mother to Barron, I will tell you that. Barron is growing up really beautifully. And she’s been a great mother to Barron.”
Second time’s the charm.
Anyway, don’t forget to call your mom on Sunday and tell her about the F-35. She misses you very much and wishes you would come see her more.