Day 1,231: Trump: I wasn’t cowering in White House bunker, I was ‘inspecting’ it

Donald Trump was humiliated by reports this week that he hid in a bunker while protesters were outside White House gates on Friday. He was thoroughly red-faced, that he gassed peaceful protesters for a strange photo-op days later where he held up a Bible outside a church.

After pushback from nearly everyone but elected Republicans on the needless show of force infringing on Americans’ First Amendment rights, the White House lied and said tear gas wasn’t used, despite all evidence to the contrary.

Wednesday, the story grew legs yet again. Trump tried to claim that the reports were false before admitting that he did go down to the bunker. He claimed he didn’t go down there to hide from protesters, however, but rather to randomly “inspect” the area.

“It was a false report. I wasn’t down [in the bunker],” on Friday evening, Trump said on Fox News Radio host Brian Kilmeade’s show.

“I went down during the day and I was there for a tiny, little short period of time and it was much more for an inspection, there was no problem during the day,” the president said.

“I can’t tell you who went with me but a whole group of people went with me, as an inspecting factor, I was back up, and, Brian, it was during the day, it wasn’t during the night,” Trump told Kilmeade.

Trump’s claim is that he, the president, took time out of a work day to inspect a bunker that has been under his feet for over three years, with a parade of others, on the day that protesters are flooding the streets.

Trump’s lies have never been particularly believable, but the ones that stem from one report are particularly shameful in that he tried to hide his cowardice by firing chemical agents at peaceful protesters.

1,231 days in, 231 to go

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