Who’s been naughty? On Christmas Eve, Trump airs more grievances

Dec. 24, 2018 / 3:24 PM GMT / Updated 4:32 PM GMT

By Jane C. Timm

The president is making a list, and checking it twice: Those who have wronged him.

Donald Trump kicked off Christmas Eve with a string of complaints: Democrats oppose his border wall plans but supported border fencing in the past. American allies “take advantage of their friendship with the United States, both in military Protection and trade,” he complained in a second tweet. Defense Secretary General James Mattis didn’t understand how “these countries take total advantage of the U.S.,” he wrote in a third.

Brett McGurk, the U.S. special envoy for the coalition to defeat ISIS who resigned this week in protest of the president’s removal of troops from Syria, “was the Obama appointee” involved in the “horrific Iran Nuclear Deal” that was approved by “Little Bob Corker,” the president said in a fourth tweet.

“The only problem our economy has is the Fed,” he wrote in another tweet, this one about the Federal Reserve, which raised interest rates this month. “The Fed is like a powerful golfer who can’t score because he has no touch — he can’t putt!”

Virtually every Democrat we are dealing with today strongly supported a Border Wall or Fence. It was only when I made it an important part of my campaign, because people and drugs were pouring into our Country unchecked, that they turned against it. Desperately needed!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 24, 2018

To those few Senators who think I don’t like or appreciate being allied with other countries, they are wrong, I DO. What I don’t like, however, is when many of these same countries take advantage of their friendship with the United States, both in Military Protection and Trade…

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 24, 2018

….We are substantially subsidizing the Militaries of many VERY rich countries all over the world, while at the same time these countries take total advantage of the U.S., and our TAXPAYERS, on Trade. General Mattis did not see this as a problem. I DO, and it is being fixed!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 24, 2018

The string of tweets come on the third day of a government shutdown, as the president seeks to encourage a lame duck Congress to put billions of dollars of funding into his border wall before Democrats assume control of the House of Representatives in January, and a day after the president moved up Mattis’ retirement.

The president said in another tweet Sunday that Mattis would leave his position two months earlier than planned, after Mattis wrote a critical resignation letter.

The shutdown began on Friday at midnight, after Trump said he would not sign a continuing resolution pushing the spending battle to after the holidays. It requires 420,000 employees to work without pay and an additional 380,000 employees to be sent home from work without pay, according to a fact sheet compiled by Senate Democrat staffers.

The president also tweeted on Monday: “AMERICA IS RESPECTED AGAIN!”