Sunday School 11/18/18 (pt 1)

Today our focus is on the guest lecturer in chief, the president of the United States and his interview with Chris Wallace, which aired this morning on Fox News Sunday.

There was SO much going on in this one, it's hard to do it justice but I'll give it my darnedest.

On the state of the White House:

And I will tell you I'm extremely upbeat, the White House is running like a well-oiled machine, it's doing really well, I have great people. I will make some changes but not very many.  I'm very happy with my cabinet, other than, you know, a couple of exceptions and even then I'm not unhappy. And I will tell you that it's so wrong, the reporting about me is so wrong. I'm loving what I'm doing. I did well in France, I did have a problem where I wasn't able to go to a cemetery because the Secret Service would not let me do it... 

About the appearance that the First Lady fired one of his advisers:

Well, I didn't know the adviser well, really, and I know they had a lot of problems. My wife did a great job in Africa an she was not treated properly by the press. She really worked so hard. They came to me. They wanted to go a little bit public because that's the way they felt and I thought it was fine.

The advisor, the Deputy National Security Advisor Mira Ricardel, will move to another position in the Administration and Trump noted, without irony, that she was not very diplomatic.

But, frankly, she is not -- she'll never be put in the United Nations, let me put it that way. 

On General John Kelly remaining as Chief of Staff through 2020:

We -- I wouldn't -- look, we get along well. There are certain things I love what he does. And there are certain things that I don't like that he does - that aren't his strength. It's not that he doesn't do -- you know, he works so hard. He's doing an excellent job in so many ways. There are a couple of things where it's just not his strength. It's not his fault it's not his strength. 

Like being hungry at a meetings, I'm sure.

But I haven't even thought about John in terms of this. But John, at some point, it going to want to move on. John will move on. 

Perhaps as Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III did.

About Robert Mueller and his gang of Democratic thugs, there was much discussion, including the written questions he's answering, without his team's help.

No, no no not my team. I'm preparing written answers. My - I -- I'm the one that does the answering.

I've completed them. And it wasn't a big deal - by the way it wasn't a big deal. The answers -- the questions were asked and answered. It wasn't a big deal. You know, they make it like I had meetings for many, many hours - -I got the questions, I responded, we read them out, I read them once, I read them a second time, we made some changes. That's it. They were very simple.

On whether it was his final position, that there won't be a sit-down interview with Mueller or anything on obstruction of justice:

I would say probably. Probably. I mean, I can change my mind, but probably. I think we've -- I think we've wasted enough time on this witch hunt and the answer is probably, we're finished.

Asked about the odds of that:

I don't do odds. We would -- I gave very -- (Wallace commented that Trump ran a casino - ed. note) You're right, and very successfully actually. We gave very, very complete answers to a lot of questions that I shouldn't have even been asked and I think that should solve the problem. I hope it solves the problem. If it doesn't, you know, I'll be told and we'll make a decision at that time. But probably this is the end.

Hmm... "very successfully actually" is likely in the mind of the beholder, as is pretty much everything else the president says.

We'll pick this up in a bit; see you around campus.

(Probably. I mean, I can change my mind, but probably I'll see you around campus.)