WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump declined on Friday to explain what he meant when he described a gathering of military leaders as \u201cthe calm before the storm,\u201d but the White House said he was not just being mischievous when he made the remark. <\/p>\n
Pressed about what he meant by Thursday\u2019s comment, the U.S. leader declined to elaborate, telling reporters only that, \u201cYou\u2019ll find out.\u201d White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders also declined to say what Trump meant. <\/p>\n
When asked whether Trump was just being mischievous, Sanders denied he was just \u201cmessing with the press.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cI think we have some serious world issues here. I think that North Korea, Iran both continue to be bad actors and the president is somebody who\u2019s going to always look for ways to protect Americans,\u201d Sanders said. <\/p>\n
Leon Panetta, a former Defense secretary and CIA director, said Trump\u2019s remarks would be something \u201cyou\u2019d really worry about\u201d under a previous U.S. president. But he said Trump\u2019s comments appeared to follow a pattern he\u2019d established on Twitter. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou begin to assume that it\u2019s more about getting attention than it is about proclaiming some kind of national policy. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s responsible…but I think in this instance we probably all should take a deep breath and try to assume he\u2019s just making a play for attention,\u201d Panetta told CNN. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no indication that there is a strategy or a policy behind that statement,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n
Trump made the \u201ccalm before the storm\u201d comment during a photo opportunity before having dinner with U.S. military leaders and their wives. The dinner followed a meeting in which Trump and the military leaders discussed Iran, North Korea, Afghanistan and the fight against Islamic State. <\/p>\n
The president also appeared to criticize the military leaders on Thursday for moving too slowly to provide him advice. <\/p>\n
\u201cMoving forward, I also expect you to provide me with a broad range of military options, when needed, at a much faster pace. I know that government bureaucracy is slow, but I am depending on you to overcome the obstacles of bureaucracy,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Asked if Trump felt like military leaders were deliberately being slow to advise him, Sanders said, \u201cNot at all.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cAs you know, he\u2019s a person who like to take action and take it quickly,\u201d she said. \u201cHe wants options on the table so that he can make quick decision.\u201d <\/p>\n
Reporting by James Oliphant, Steve Holland and Tim Ahmann; Writing by David Alexander; Editing by Alistair Bell<\/p>\n
Article source: http:\/\/feeds.reuters.com\/~r\/Reuters\/PoliticsNews\/~3\/xpMzY90UQ2g\/trump-declines-to-explain-calm-before-the-storm-remark-idUSKBN1CB2G9<\/a>\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump declined on Friday to explain what he meant when he described a gathering of military leaders as \u201cthe calm before the storm,\u201d but the White House said he was not just being mischievous when he made the remark. Pressed about what he meant by Thursday\u2019s comment, the U.S. leader […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[84],"class_list":["post-94607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-political","tag-political"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94607\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}