Trump wraps up business with signing of defense spending bill

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump took care of last-minute business Friday before the newly impeached president flew to Florida to spend the holidays at his resort, Mar-a-Lago.

That business included a robust counterpunch against Christianity Today for an editorial that called for removing Trump from office in light of Trump’s “blackened moral record,” which editor-in-chief Mark Galli compared to that of impeached President Bill Clinton.

Trump retweeted a story in which evangelist Franklin Graham rebuked Christianity Today, which his father Billy Graham founded, and asserted that his father would have been disappointed with the editorial as his father voted for Trump.

By day’s end, the Trump re-election campaign announced that Trump would launch the “Evangelicals for Trump” coalition in Miami on Jan. 3, before he is expected to return to Washington.

Before Air Force One headed to Florida, Trump signed a $738 billion National Defense Authorization Act in a Joint Base Andrews hangar packed with U.S. troops, who will see a 3.1 percent increase in pay included in the bill.

The act also funds Trump’s Space Force program — which will serve as the sixth branch of the U.S. Armed Forces within the Air Force and the first new military service created since President Harry Truman created the Air Force more than 70 years ago. The Space Force is intended to guard the security of space satellites vital to U.S. defense and commerce.

The defense authorization bill and a domestic spending bill passed by Congress this week together will spend $1.4 trillion.

Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, called the $1.4 trillion package “so fiscally reckless, it leaves one worried not just about the debt, but about our ability to govern. Our massive and growing debt leaves us weakened and vulnerable and jeopardizes our position as an economic superpower.”

Before he left town, Trump also accepted an invitation from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to deliver his State of the Union address on Feb. 4.

Pelosi has not advanced articles of impeachment to the Senate so it is not clear when or even if the Senate will conduct a trial with the potential, however remote, to convict Trump and remove him from office.

The Feb. 4 date means that it is possible that, like Clinton before him, Trump will deliver his State of the Union speech as he is on trial in the Senate.

While impeachment hangs over Trump ahead of Christmas, last year’s holiday season was not exactly cheerful for the president.

One year ago, Trump stayed in Washington through Christmas and New Year’s became of a 35-day partial government shutdown that left 800,000 federal workers without paychecks. The shutdown ended when Trump relented to support a deal that didn’t fund his signature border wall.

Trump did leave town on Christmas night 2018, however, when he and first lady Melania Trump made a surprise visit with U.S. troops at Al Asad Air Base in Iraq.

Earlier in December 2018, Defense Secretary James Mattis resigned in protest of Trump’s decision to withdraw 2,000 U.S. troops based in Syria. Later Trump changed course; today more than 500 U.S. troops are part of the operation to defeat ISIS.

After Trump arrives at what he calls the Winter White House for a two-week stay, he is likely to hit the links, spend Christmas among family, chat with world leaders over the phone and express his opinions on social media.

Trump became the first president to be impeached as he is running for re-election. He has made it clear that he sees re-election as a vindication with more authority than impeachment.

Trump, who told reporters Thursday, “I don’t feel like I’m being impeached,” retweeted a legal argument that there can be no impeachment if the House does not send articles of impeachment that were approved to the Senate.

Thus Trump will not stop campaigning while in Florida. On Saturday, radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh will introduce Trump at the fifth annual student summit of Turning Point USA, a conservative youth organization, in West Palm Beach.

While he gets outside the White House bubble at Mar-a-Lago, Trump is sure to discuss impeachment and the Senate trial with long-time pals who serve as informal outside-the-swamp advisers.

Having spent Thanksgiving in Afghanistan, Trump is not expected to visit U.S. troops abroad, although anything is possible. While Trump’s schedule has not been released, the president and the first lady likely will visit troops in the U.S. over the holiday season.

Contact Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com or 202-662-7391. Follow @DebraJSaunders on Twitter.