Washington: He kept up a fist-pumping victory lap over the end of the Mueller probe, basked in gushy accolades from a foreign leader, and saw a former nemesis humiliated by the feds.
To most of America, it was just another Monday. For President Donald Trump, it was, perhaps, his best day ever.
Trump started his day firing off exuberant tweets over the end of the special counsel investigation, segued to a back-slapping meeting with the Israeli prime minister and held a celebratory photo-op with the Stanley Cup-winning Washington Capitals.
To top it off, news broke along the way of the arrest of attorney Michael Avenatti, who rose to fame representing a porn actress who alleged she had sex with a married Trump, though Trump denied it.
By any measure it was a good day for Trump. But the President’s hot streak was all the more noticeable given just how many tough days he has had. Since taking office, he’s been dogged by investigations and staff turnover. He has clashed repeatedly with Congress, governed over a deeply divided country and seen huge pushback against his presidency in the midterm elections.
On Monday, though, everything was coming up Trump.
As is his habit, the President woke early and turned to feeding his Twitter account just after 6am. There was no venting or heckling on this particular morning. Instead, he was eager to celebrate on the day after his attorney general issued a summary of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation that found Trump’s campaign did not collude with Russia to swing the 2016 presidential campaign in his favour.
After spending nearly two years shadowed by the investigation and uncertain how it would turn out, an elated Trump gleefully tweeted out quotes and headlines from news reports and watched as aides and allies fanned out across cable news to praise the outcome.
Read the article by Catherine Lucey in The Sydney Morning Herald (AP).