POTUS-Level Trolling: Trump Excludes Dems From Their Own Bill's Signing Ceremony
There’s no doubt President Donald Trump enjoys trolling his opponents, and more than a few of his supporters get a kick out of it as well.
According to The Hill, Trump trolled three prominent Senate Democrats on Thursday by not inviting them to a signing ceremony at the White House for a major bill which they played a significant role in crafting.
Today, it was my honor to sign #S2155, the "Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act.” Read more: https://t.co/sYZ4PzzxxW pic.twitter.com/gi0qGe6ukX
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 24, 2018
That bill was a bipartisan piece of legislation that rolled back parts of the 2010 Obama-era Dodd-Frank Act, an incredibly restrictive law imposed on banks and financial institutions that many have blamed for the nation’s agonizingly slow recovery following the 2008 economic recession, and one that Trump vowed to “dismantle” while campaigning for office.
Four Democrat senators had joined with Republicans and co-authored the effort to loosen the restrictive rules, known as the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act — Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Jon Tester of Montana and Mark Warner of Virginia.
None of the four senators except Heitkamp were invited to participate in the bill’s signing.
The Hill noted that signing ceremonies are often coveted opportunities by members of Congress to take a sort of “victory lap” after a legislative win. This way, they can tout it as evidence of their success and bipartisan productivity back home with their constituents ahead of an election.
It’s worth pointing out that two of the uninvited senators, Donnelly and Tester, are up for re-election this year in hotly contested states that Trump won in 2016 and has specifically targeted in an effort to flip the seats to the GOP.
It is fairly obvious why Tester did not receive an invitation to the ceremony, as he and Trump have been feuding after Tester promoted allegations against Trump’s nominee to head the Department of Veteran Affairs, White House doctor and Navy Admiral Ronnie Jackson.
The allegations led to Jackson’s withdrawal of his nomination, even as he denied the allegations and they were later shown to be untrue.
Likewise, Warner is the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee and has been quite outspoken about the still unproven allegations that Russia interfered on behalf of and colluded with Trump in the 2016 election, allegations his committee continues to investigate.
As for Donnelly, one of his aides told The Hill that their office “was told by the White House he would not be receiving an invitation due to space constraints.”
These three senators were likely all looking forward to taking part in the signing ceremony for a bill they had worked on for more than a year with Republicans, but Trump denied them that opportunity.
If that isn’t POTUS-level trolling, nothing is.
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