Donald Trump canceled an announced appearance at the French commemorations of the Armistice in France this year because it was raining, so perhaps the fact that he wouldn’t walk 250 yards shouldn’t come as a surprise.
Earlier this week, POTUS offered an olive branch to the Bushes after the death of the 41st President George H.W. Bush, stopping by to visit at the Blair House and briefly attending the memorial service. However, for the former, he didn’t do it without raising a few eyebrows, as it seems he wasn’t about to be inconvenienced to actually walk the short distance between the White House and Blair House, where guests visiting the White House are usually accommodated.
Though the distance makes for a short and pleasant walk, all pedestrians had been cleared from the area (so there were no justifiable security concerns), and the weather was fine (overcast and cold, but it wasn’t raining, as the Washington Post notes), the President chose to be driven with all fanfare. He and FLOTUS Melania rode in the Cadillac Presidential limo, aka The Beast, and were accompanied by a motorcade of at least 8 vehicles, as footage from the scene reveals.
“Presidential motorcades typically include more than a dozen vehicles, carrying Secret Service counterassault teams, medical personnel, White House aides and the press corps. In this case, the pool reporters shadowing Trump’s movements were positioned ahead of time across the street from Blair House and were not in the motorcade, which numbered at least eight vehicles,” the Post writes.
As expected, this rose some questions and sparked many a joke, with CNN political analyst and former Obama national security veteran Sam Vinograd saying Trump could always blame “bone spurs” for his refusal to walk, just like he did when he got the deferment from the Vietnam War draft.
By comparison, President Obama made the walk from White House to Blair House at least 6 times, and he even made a longer one, to a nearby Starbucks. Many previous presidents have done the same, so it’s not uncommon for them to forgo the motorcade parade for something a tad more… mundane.
Though the distance makes for a short and pleasant walk, all pedestrians had been cleared from the area (so there were no justifiable security concerns), and the weather was fine (overcast and cold, but it wasn’t raining, as the Washington Post notes), the President chose to be driven with all fanfare. He and FLOTUS Melania rode in the Cadillac Presidential limo, aka The Beast, and were accompanied by a motorcade of at least 8 vehicles, as footage from the scene reveals.
“Presidential motorcades typically include more than a dozen vehicles, carrying Secret Service counterassault teams, medical personnel, White House aides and the press corps. In this case, the pool reporters shadowing Trump’s movements were positioned ahead of time across the street from Blair House and were not in the motorcade, which numbered at least eight vehicles,” the Post writes.
As expected, this rose some questions and sparked many a joke, with CNN political analyst and former Obama national security veteran Sam Vinograd saying Trump could always blame “bone spurs” for his refusal to walk, just like he did when he got the deferment from the Vietnam War draft.
By comparison, President Obama made the walk from White House to Blair House at least 6 times, and he even made a longer one, to a nearby Starbucks. Many previous presidents have done the same, so it’s not uncommon for them to forgo the motorcade parade for something a tad more… mundane.