Donald Trump’s Friday morning appearances were an amusing reminder of a central presidential incongruity: He loves and supports law enforcement, except the ones trying to enforce the law on him.
Trump glowed with praise while speaking at a graduation ceremony at the FBI Academy at Quantico, telling the state and local officers who had just completed a special 11-week program that “the president of the United States has your back 100 percent.”
“I want you to know that with me as your president, America’s police will have a true friend and loyal champion in the White House—more loyal than anyone else can be, I tell you,” Trump said. “I will fight for you, and I will never, ever let you down, ever. Now, more than ever, we must support the men and women in blue.”
It was a different message from the one the president gave as he boarded the plane to Quantico, where he described the FBI’s behavior as “disgraceful.” Trump was referring to recent reports that members of Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election meddling have exhibited bias against the president in the past.
“It’s a shame what’s happened with the FBI, but we’re going to rebuild the FBI,” Trump said. “But it is very sad when you look at those documents. And how they’ve done that is really, really disgraceful, and you have a lot of very angry people that are seeing it. It’s a very sad thing to watch, I will tell you that.
