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President Donald Trump shouted from a rooftop of the White House down at reporters and joked that he was installing ‘nuclear missiles’ there.
Trump emerged on a roof of the West Colonnade flanked by Secret Service agents and went for a stroll as the press gathered below and across a lawn on Tuesday morning.
When journalists asked what he was trying to build, Trump seemed to say ‘nuclear missiles’.
The president wasn’t wearing a microphone, so his response was not entirely clear.
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‘Did you say more missiles?’ one reporter asked.
Another yelled: ‘Are you building missiles?’
Another member of the media said with a laugh, ‘Did he say missiles?’
Trump appeared to confirm that, by making gestures with his hands that mimicked projectiles shooting off of the balcony.
The president first said he was ‘just taking a little walk’. Then he shouted at Fox News senior White House correspondent Peter Doocy about finding more ways to spend his money for the US.
Trump also made a circular hand gesture and yelled, ‘Anything I do is financed by me!’
On Thursday, Trump unveiled his plans to build a ballroom at the White House, that he said he will personally fund along with private donors. The $200million project will be in the East Wing and is expected to be completed before the end of his second term.
Trump on Tuesday walked above the press briefing room in the West Wing, signaling he could be observing the area for possibly another project, or just checking out the recently completed Rose Garden renovation.
His nuclear missiles joke came four days after he announced on his Truth Social platform that he ordered two nuclear submarines ‘to be positioned in the appropriate regions, just in case these foolish and inflammatory statements’ from Russia ‘are more than just that’.
The tone of that post was much more serious than his joke on Tuesday. It was the first time that he mentioned the US’s nuclear arsenal and that he deployed it.
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