Trump Cancels Congressional Picnic at the Last Minute, Gives Food to Military Hospital
The White House canceled the annual congressional picnic earlier this week over controversy regarding their “zero-tolerance” immigration policy, but the food is going to a good place — namely, to our veterans.
According to The Hill, President Donald Trump said that it wouldn’t be appropriate to hold the picnic as planned due to negotiations over the plan, particularly in regards to families being separated after they were apprehended crossing illegally into the United States.
Trump said that given negotiations over immigration, it wasn’t the right time for a picnic.
“Because we’re all so busy, and I just mentioned to the congressmen and senators in the room that we are going to cancel and postpone tomorrow’s congressional picnic,” the president told reporters Wednesday.
“We have a congressional picnic tomorrow, and I said, ‘You know, it doesn’t feel right to have a picnic for Congress when we’re working on doing something very important.'”
He added that “it didn’t feel exactly right to me” to hold the event.
Trump: “We’re going to cancel and postpone tomorrow’s congressional picnic” amid the immigration crisis https://t.co/TKCAL33rbM
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) June 20, 2018
“So we will be officially postponing the congressional picnic for tomorrow,” Trump said.
“We’ll make it for another time when things are going extremely well. And they are going, for the country, extremely well … but we want to solve this immigration problem.”
However, given that the picnic was set to take place one day hence, there was plenty of food already purchased for the event. What to do with that? Well, Trump had an answer, too — and it involved some pretty deserving people.
They are grilling up some massive steaks here at the White House today – I could smell these all the way out on Pennsylvania Avenue. pic.twitter.com/mAbPageWp0
— Eamon Javers (@EamonJavers) June 20, 2018
“All perishables donated to Walter Reed. Non perishables to be repurposed for future events,” Stephanie Grisham, a spokeswoman for first lady Melania Trump, said in a statement.
Those perishables, according to Bloomberg, would include steaks, which White House cooks were already grilling out on the lawn when the event was canceled.
Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, located in Bethesda, Maryland, is one of America’s largest military hospitals.
“The food was to be delivered Friday morning to the United Service Organizations in Bethesda, which planned to treat Walter Reed hospital faculty and staff, a spokeswoman said,” Bloomberg reported.
“USO is a nonprofit that supports military members. The White House didn’t answer questions about how much food was donated.
“A USO spokeswoman, Michelle Shortencarrier, said the food would be served at lunch Friday at the hospital and would be available to patients and their families as well as employees. The spread includes rib-eye steaks, spinach, cole slaw, quinoa, black beans and pies, she said.”
That is, indeed, quite the spread. And thankfully, it’s being given to men and women who have served their country with valor and conviction.
As for who it was originally planned for … well, insert your own Congress joke here.
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