WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump delivered an end-of-year video message on Thursday after returning early from vacation, highlighting his administration’s work to quickly develop a vaccine against COVID-19 and rebuild the economy.
As the end of his presidency approached, Trump interrupted his stay at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida and returned to the White House a day ahead of schedule.
Upon his return, Trump released a video message on Twitter to highlight his government’s work on the vaccine, economic stimulus checks and the United States’ “courage, strength and tenacity” in the face of challenges.
He called the vaccine, which is being rolled out across the country, a “truly unprecedented medical miracle” and said it would be available to all Americans early next year. “We have to be remembered for what has been done,” Trump said in the nearly five-minute message.
The White House has not given a reason for Trump’s early return, and the time change means Trump will miss the New Year’s Eve party that takes place annually at his club in Palm Beach.
But it comes at a time when tensions are rising between the United States and Iran in the last weeks of his government. There is concern in Washington that Iran may order more military retaliation for the US death on January 3 of Iranian military commander, General Qassem Soleimani. Iran’s initial response, five days after that deadly US drone attack, was a ballistic missile attack on a military base in Iraq that caused brain injuries to about 100 American soldiers.
Iranian-backed Shi’ite militia groups launched a rocket attack on the US embassy complex in Baghdad on December 20. No one was killed, but Trump said days after Iran was warned.
“Iran-friendly health advice: If an American is killed, I will hold Iran accountable. Think about it,” Trump tweeted on December 23. He added: “We have heard rumors of additional attacks against Americans in Iraq.”
The White House announced the abrupt change in the president’s agenda late on Wednesday, hours after Senator Josh Hawley, R-Mo., Said he would raise objections next week when Congress meets to assert the president’s victory elected Joe Biden in the November elections.
It is the last futile attempt by Trump and his allies to fight his defeat in the elections and overturn the will of voters, and many previous challenges have failed, including in the Supreme Court. Former attorney general William Barr and other government officials said they saw no evidence of mass electoral fraud, as Trump said.
Trump, accompanied by First Lady Melania Trump, arrived in Mar-a-Lago after dark on December 23 and spent virtually every vacation focused on subverting election results. This includes an effort to get Republican lawmakers to contest the vote when Congress meets on January 6 to confirm Biden’s 306-232 victory at the Electoral College.
A group of Republicans in the Democratic-controlled House had previously said they would object on Trump’s behalf. They needed at least one senator to join them to force votes in both chambers, and Hawley stepped forward.
The Republican Party’s objections, however, will not prevent Biden from being sworn in as president on January 20, and Senator Kamala Harris, D-Calif., A black woman of South Asian descent, from becoming vice president.
During his vacation, Trump also stole Georgia Republican governor Brian Kemp, and other state election officials, almost daily on Twitter because of his defeat for Biden in that state.
While he remained focused on the effort to remain in power, Trump remained silent about major developments during the holiday, including a Christmas Day bombing in Nashville, Tennessee, the discovery of a seemingly more contagious new variant of the coronavirus in the United States and the death of elected Rep. Luke Letlow, R-La., from complications of COVID-19.
Since losing the election, the generally talkative Trump has avoided getting involved with reporters, even those who accompanied him to Florida. He went so far as to stop them from making their comments on Christmas Day to troops, the kind of event that the White House normally opens for news coverage.
Before leaving Washington, Trump surprised the Capitol by opposing spending on a government financing bill that had been paired with a new round of relief from the necessary coronavirus that included $ 600 payments to most Americans. Much of this expenditure was sought by its own administration.
Trump put financial aid at risk and flirted with the government’s shutdown by suggesting that he would not sign comprehensive legislation unless lawmakers increased payments to $ 2,000, an amount desired by most Democrats and some Republicans.
Trump finally signed the bill on Sunday night, after several days of uncertainty in exchange for votes in Congress over his demands. He also wants Congress to suspend certain protections for social media companies and investigate its unfounded allegations of election fraud.
The House voted this week in favor of increased payments, but Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Almost closed the door on Wednesday when he declared that Congress had provided enough aid for the pandemic. McConnell blocked Democrats’ attempts to force a vote in this chamber on the highest payments sought by Trump.