Donald Trump commented on the apparent difficulties within MAGA marriages in an off-the-cuff speech at the White House on Thursday night.
At the Congressional Ball in the Grand Foyer of the White House the president began by thanking all the “spouses and loved ones,” noting that they “make incredible sacrifices for us as politicians.”
“I call myself now a politician,” Trump said. “I never thought that was going to happen. I never thought that was going to happen, but it happened.”
Trump’s speech then detoured into a talk about House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, referencing a Congressional Baseball Game in June, 2017, where Scalise was shot.
Scalise and three other people were shot at the game in Alexandria, Virginia. Scalise was hit by a single bullet to the hip, which fractured bones, ruptured internal organs and caused severe bleeding.
Trump also managed to reference his own shooting, when an assassin’s bullet clipped his ear while he was speaking at a rally in Pennsylvania in July last year.
“I always say he’s got great courage because he got hit real hard,” Trump said of Scalise. “He got hit harder than I got hit. I got hit, too. But I got a little, you know, I have a throbbing feeling. He had much more than a throbbing feeling.”
The president then reflected on a moment involving Scalise’s devastated wife.
“They actually thought he wasn’t going to make it,” Trump said. “His wife was devastated. She was crying.”
“I found out that night you have a wife that loves you dearly. I know many wives would not even be crying,” Trump then added.
While he did not mention Jennifer Scalise by name, the assembled crowd laughed as Trump continued, “Your wife was absolutely a mess. She was crying. She was inconsolable, Steve. So, we found that out. But he made it.”
The president then turned his attention to Majority Whip Tom Emmer’s wife.
“A fantastic guy with a fantastic spouse,” Trump said of Emmer, again without mentioning his wife, Jacquie, by name.
“Tom is a great guy,” Trump continued. “He’s a handsome devil, isn’t he? With a with an unbelievable wife who puts up with a lot of stuff. She does not have an easy job. Tom, you are a difficult man.”
Trump did not explain what he meant by the remarks.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
Trump also shared a little insight into the dynamics of his own marriage at the Congressional Ball.
The first lady previewed she had a “new legislative initiative” coming next year and added “some of you already know about it because it’s already in the works.”
However her husband revealed he is not one of those people.
“Well, I just heard about that for the first time,” Trump said. “The only thing I can tell you—I know one thing for sure... It’s going to be great for children, OK? I don’t know what it is she’s doing, but I know it’s going to be great for children, because she loves children."
