CNBC’s John Harwood reacted to President Donald Trump’s appearance before the press corps on Monday by calling it “20 minutes of nonsense.”
Trump’s remarks to the press came during a cabinet meeting where he defended his decision to pull troops out of Syria and insisted that the Emoluments Clause of the U.S. Constitution is “phony.”
“I say it is nonsense,” Harwood explained following Trump’s comments. “We just heard 20 minutes of nonsense from the president. It was very sad actually. He looked to me like somebody who understands his White House is in crisis and he’s in over his head.”
“And you have Democrats coming after him and career diplomats and Republicans who are fed up with defending him privately,” he continued. “They make fun of him behind his back. His own former officials don’t respect him. This is a situation where a president is trying to justify the picture that exists in his head [of an] all powerful and efficient guy that’s doing a great job.”
“That was a sad performance from the president just now,” Harwood concluded.
