WASHINGTON
— President Donald Trump, who spent his first full day in office berating the
media over their coverage of his inauguration, will spend Sunday engaged in
more routine matters, like overseeing the swearing in of high-level staffers.On
the second full day of his administration, Trump will see the “assistants to
the president” sworn in, according to his press secretary, Sean Spicer. He’ll
also hold a reception for law enforcement officers and first responders who
helped with his inauguration as he celebrates his 12th wedding anniversary.
White
House staff are scheduled to have a briefing on ethics and another on the
proper use and handling of classified information as they begin to make
themselves comfortable in their new White House offices.While
Trump has said that he’ll consider Monday his first real day in office, he is
already making clear that sparring with the press will be a defining aspect of
his administration.
Trump
turned a bridge-building first visit to CIA headquarters on Saturday into an
airing of grievances about “dishonest” journalists, while wildly overstating
the size of the crowd that gathered on the National Mall as he took the oath of
office. Trump said throngs “went all the way back to the Washington monument,”
despite photos and live video showing the crowd stopping well short of the
landmark.
Standing
in front of a memorial for fallen CIA agents, Trump assured intelligence
officials, “I am so behind you.” He made no mention of his repeated criticism
of the intelligence agencies following the election, including his public
challenges of their high-confidence assessment that Russia meddled in the White
House race to help him win.
“There
is nobody that feels stronger about the intelligence community and CIA than
Donald Trump,” he said, blaming any suggestion of a “feud” on the media.Trump’s
visit took place as throngs of women, many of them wearing bright pink,
pointy-eared hats, descended on the nation’s capital and other cities around
the world for marches organized to push back against the new president.
Hundreds of protesters lined the motorcade route as Trump sped back to the
White House, many screaming and chanting at the president.
The
Washington rally alone attracted more than 500,000 people by the unofficial
estimate of city officials. It appeared to be more people than attended Trump’s
inauguration on Friday, but there were no comparable numbers. The city did not
release an estimate for the inauguration. The National Park Service does not
provide crowd counts.Suggestions
of weak enthusiasm for his inauguration clearly irked the new president.
Shortly after his remarks, Trump dispatched Spicer to aggressively reinforce
the message.
“There’s
been a lot of talk in the media about holding Donald Trump accountable. And I’m
here to tell you that it goes two ways. We’re going to hold the press
accountable as well,” Spicer said in his first appearance in the White House
briefing room.
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