In Florida, Trump has denied access to the White House press with no explanation and instead instructed the press corps to “follow the tweets”.
It all started in West Palm Beach at 7:15 a.m. While president Trump did not have any public events scheduled for today, the White House press pool was getting ready to leave the hotel and attend to their call time.
Having been instructed to “follow the tweets,” it immediately became clear that the press will be spending time in the neighborhood of the Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter.
Receiving information from Twitter, the press pool got informed that POTUS will be joined by Dustin Johnson and Tiger Woods. Also per Twitter, the press got informed that the President would be speaking with the president of Turkey this morning.
After waiting in vans at Mar-a-Lago for more than 45 minutes, the White House press pool joined the motorcade at about 8:49 a.m. After a relatively uneventful ride, the motorcade finally arrived at the Trump National Club in Jupiter at 9:16 am. The press pool still did not see the president, nor was given access to anyone in direct contact with the president.
The pool did see two women leaving out of a blue SUV, waving and cheering on the crowd as the motorcade passed. Otherwise, the only noteworthy observation was some people waiting on the golf greens as the motorcade passed. The pool was meanwhile holding in vans, and repeatedly asking for access, but was not getting any response.
In Jupiter, the pool was held indoors at the golf club and could not see the game. However, based on Instagram feeds, it appeared that the game with Tiger Woods and Dustin Johnson was in progress. The pool was waiting for updates on whether any other information would be available to the press.
Despite repeated requests, the White House press pool did not see President Trump or any of the golfers or receive an explanation as to why that wasn’t possible. After holding in the golf course clubhouse and then in vans for an additional 15 minutes the pool left without seeing Trump all day.
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