President Donald Trump appeared momentarily stunned after a reporterâs boom mic made contact with his face while he was answering questions from the press at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.
The incident happened on Friday as reporters gathered around to ask questions about the dayâs events and other topics.
The microphone grazed the president in the mouth as he leaned back to avoid more contact with it. He then turned to the reporter and briefly gave what some have described as a âdeath stare.â
âShe just made television tonight,â Trump quipped moments later about the reporter who struck him. âShe just became a big story tonight.â
âDid you see that?â he said to someone off-camera who was laughing at what happened.
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The day before the incident, the president spoke in the Oval Office about the tariffs he is imposing on Canada, saying that they may cause some short-term issues for Americans, but that in the long term, they will benefit the nation.
âIn the case of Canada, weâre spending $200 billion a year to subsidize Canada. I love Canada. I love the people of Canada. I loveâI have many friends in Canada. The great one, Wayne Gretzky, the greatâhey, how good is Wayne Gretzky? Heâs the great one,â the president said.
âBut we haveâI know many people from Canada that are good friends of mine. But, you know, the United States canât subsidize a country for $200 billion a year. We donât need their cars. We donât need their energy. We donât need their lumber. We donât need anything that theyâthat they give,â he insisted.
âWe do it because we want to be helpful, but it comes a point when you just canât do that. You have to run your own country. And to be honest with you, Canada only works as a state. It doesnâtâwe donât need anything they have. As a state, it would be one of the great states anyway. This would be the most incredible country visually. If you look at a map, they drew an artificial line right through it between Canada and the U.S. Just a straight artificial line. Somebody did it a long time ago, many, many decades ago. And it makes no sense,â he said.
âItâs so perfect as a great and cherished state. Keeping, oh, Canada, the national anthem. I love it. I think itâs great. Keep it. But itâll be for the state. One of our greatest states. Maybe our greatest state. But why should we subsidize another country for $200 billion?â the president said.
âOf course, thereâs $200 billion a year. And again, we donât need their lumber. We donât need their energy. We have more than they do. We donât need anything. We donât need their cars. Iâd much rather make the cars here. And thereâs not a thing that we need. Now, thereâll be a little disruption, but it wonât be very long. But they need us. We really donât need them. And we have to do this. Iâm sorry. We have to do this,â he said.
He also took a swipe at one of his most famous rivals, actress and comedian Rosie OâDonnell, who recently moved to Ireland.
When a reporter asked Irish Prime Minister Martin why he permitted the American comedian to move to the country, Trump quickly responded.
âIreland is known for very happy, fun-loving people,â a reporter noted to Martin at the White House.
âWhy in the world would you let Rosie OâDonnell move to Ireland?â the reporter asked. âI think she is going to lower your happiness.â
Before Martin could answer, Trump jumped in and responded, âThatâs true, I like that question. Do you know you have Rosie OâDonnell? Do you know who she is? Youâre better off not knowing.â