President Donald Trump spent much of his first morning back at the White House Tuesday sending out a flurry of tweets that took aim at Democrats, Iran, Huma Abedin and the new publisher of The New York Times.
Taken together, Trump’s tweets set the stage for 2018 and resume the combativeness that helped define his presidency in 2017.
Foreign policy
Trump first tweeted his continuing support for anti-government demonstrations in Iran, saying that “the people of Iran are finally acting against the brutal and corrupt Iranian regime.”
“All of the money that President Obama so foolishly gave them went into terrorism and into their ‘pockets,'” the tweet continued, appearing to reference the Iran nuclear deal. “The people have little food, big inflation and no human rights. The U.S. is watching!”
Trump also zeroed in on North Korea.
“Sanctions and ‘other’ pressures are beginning to have a big impact on North Korea,” Trump tweeted. “Soldiers are dangerously fleeing to South Korea. Rocket man now wants to talk to South Korea for first time. Perhaps that is good news, perhaps not – we will see!”
Huma Abedin and the Justice Department
Trump’s latest barb targeting the Justice Department came in a tweet suggesting that Abedin, a top aide to Hillary Clinton, should face jail time for reportedly including confidential government information in nongovernment personal emails.
“Crooked Hillary Clinton’s top aid, Huma Abedin, has been accused of disregarding basic security protocols. She put Classified Passwords into the hands of foreign agents,” Trump tweeted, apparently referencing a Daily Caller report.
“Remember sailors pictures on submarine? Jail! Deep State Justice Dept must finally act? Also on Comey & others,” the tweet continued.
Some of Abedin’s emails released Friday by the State Department were marked “confidential” and were heavily redacted by the State Department. One email Abedin forwarded to her personal email account from her State Department account included passwords for a two-step laptop login process, though that email was not marked classified as Trump claimed.
Asked about Trump’s tweet, the Justice Department declined to confirm or deny the existence of an ongoing investigation.
The President’s criticism is the latest he has lobbed against the department that oversees the top federal law enforcement agencies, following verbal attacks in recent months against key Justice Department officials and the FBI, whose reputation he alleged last month is in “tatters.”
Immigration and border security
On Twitter, Trump also thanked National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd for praising him on “Fox & Friends” for his immigration efforts.
In another tweet, the President said Democrats “are doing nothing” for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, and predicted that Hispanic voters would lean toward Republicans over the issue.
“DACA activists and Hispanics will go hard against Dems, will start ‘falling in love’ with Republicans and their President! We are about RESULTS,” the tweet continued.
The New York Times
Trump congratulated the new publisher of the “Failing New York Times,” A.G. Sulzberger, in a series of tweets.
“Get … impartial journalists of a much higher standard, lose all of your phony and non-existent ‘sources,’ and treat the President of the United States FAIRLY, so that the next time I (and the people) win, you won’t have to write an apology to your readers for a job poorly done,” Trump tweeted.
Taxes
The President also celebrated the passage of the GOP tax bill saying that companies are now “giving big bonuses to their workers.”
AT&T and Boeing are among the companies that have announced tax bill-related employee bonuses.
Commercial aviation
Trump also appeared to claim credit to recent reports saying that 2017 was the safest year in global commercial air travel’s recorded history, suggesting it was a result of being “very strict” with the industry.
“Since taking office I have been very strict on Commercial Aviation,” Trump tweeted. “Good news – it was just reported that there were Zero deaths in 2017, the best and safest year on record!”
It’s been nearly a decade, however, since there was a fatal US commercial passenger airline crash in the United States, long predating Trump’s presidency.
White House principal deputy press secretary Raj Shah said in a statement that Trump “has raised the bar for our nation’s aviation safety and security.”
“Last year, the President announced his initiative to modernize Air Traffic Control and under his leadership, the Department of Homeland Security released enhanced security measures to ensure safer commercial air travel,” he continued.