On Thursday morning, Donald Trump attended annual the National Prayer Breakfast, an event that had the extra effect of cutting into the president’s TV time. As Toronto Star Washington correspondent Daniel Dale pointed out, the president is “not usually forced to come to events early enough to listen to other people talking about non-him things.” In this case, Trump had to sit through over an hour or speakers, musical performers, and people reading from the scripture before he got up to speak. Trump seemed to enjoy it about as much as you’d expect from a narcissist who has the attention span of a mosquito.
So, how did a president with poor impulse control and a pathological inability to care about people other than himself get through getting held hostage on a dais enduring a long event that’s not about him? When Trump eventually took his seat, he seemed extremely bored and distracted, which, who can blame him, really, though none of us are the president. He shifted in his seat and looked out into the audience while, on the other side of the lectern, Mike Pence and his wife Karen listened to each speaker in rapt attention. You can watch for yourself below:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=yOc_rx1-8XM
If you jump an hour into the above video, you can see what it looks like when Trump tries to “groove” to a song. There’s some truly half-hearted swaying while everyone around him sings along to the hymns. This is Trump enjoying the sweet jams:
He really does love it.
He graciously goes through the motions when everyone around him jumps to their feet to sing along. Here he is, captivated by the performance.
Vox reporter Aaron Rupar caught a moment where Trump really let loose:
Trump headbangs pic.twitter.com/Fh089pJWdW
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 7, 2019
Trump’s 20-minute speech followed, and it wasn’t one of his more memorial public appearances, aside from some nonsensical verbal slush where he blamed the internet for giving rise to “the scourge of modern day slavery,” which is essentially a watered down version of the women in duct tape talking point that usually gets him fired up.
TRUMP: “Together, we will end the scourge of modern day slavery, that because of the internet, is at levels nobody can believe. The internet came along & some good things happened, but some very bad things happened & this is one of them.” pic.twitter.com/yU4w7OrOsO
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 7, 2019
The part of the speech getting the most attention concerns a possible gaffe where Trump praised “people of faith” with leading the effort for “abolition of civil rights.”
In an ironic misspeak, Trump gives people of faith credit for our country’s greatest strides, like “the abolition of civil rights.” pic.twitter.com/wf8x4qgDr3
— Zack Ford (@ZackFord) February 7, 2019
Spin reached out to the White House for clarification on the remarks, which did not immediately respond.
