Former Rare Staff
President Donald Trump has been known to stick a thorn in the side of his opponents, and the White House answering machine message that was specifically created for callers to hear during the government shutdown is another example.
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RELATED: White House releases photos of Trump during government shutdown
Here’s what the message said:
Thank you for calling the White House. Unfortunately, we cannot answer your call today, because Congressional Democrats are holding government funding, including funding for our troops and other national security priorities, hostage to an unrelated immigration debate. Due to this obstruction, the government is shut down. In the meantime, you can leave a comment for the president at www.whitehouse.gov/contact. We look forward to taking your calls as soon as the government reopens.
The reaction on social media to this was as expected.
saw this going around and wanted to check for myself: here’s the message you hear today when you ring the White House comment line during the shutdown pic.twitter.com/sCquYj0XnX
— David Mack (@davidmackau) January 20, 2018
https://twitter.com/YugeCrowd/status/954879532997234688
The political and partisan phone message you get when you call the White House is wildly inappropriate. I also wonder about legality. You can’t use White House facilities for partisan political purposes, and there are limits on career employees doing explicitly partisan things.
— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) January 22, 2018
https://twitter.com/S1PPi/status/954885950848499712
The whole #Resistance hopes that the W.H. Ethics lawyer fields a ton of lawsuits from this too! Maybe that way they will have to erase the most outrageous outgoing message ever 🤬 https://t.co/nh2jHegcME
— Shannon Bearman 🌊 (@BearmanShannon) January 21, 2018
I really hope the message from the phone line of the WH will get u and ur crooked base in Trouble!!!https://t.co/uzdKUElSWR
U r worse than a little child that throws ahissy-fit. Be ashamed of urself! #TrumpShutdown
— HeikeAD (@frechd4x) January 21, 2018
Trump also incited ire on social media just by releasing photos of what he was doing during the shutdown. Fox News tweeted out the images on Saturday and the response to them was also angry.
Moments ago, the @WhiteHouse released photos of President @realDonaldTrump working with his staff during what they're calling the "Democrat shutdown." https://t.co/Gl9Xn7xulJ pic.twitter.com/WjMBc1E5Xr
— Fox News (@FoxNews) January 20, 2018
One showed Trump on the phone while sitting at his desk in a suit with no tie and a white MAGA hat. Another showed the president taking a stroll, this time wearing an overcoat.
A third photo showed Trump surrounded by staffers like Hope Hicks and Sarah Huckabee Sanders, along with notables Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner.
Below is a sampling of the responses to that:
That first picture is the most ridiculously staged thing I’ve ever seen 😂😂
— Matt Garlipp (@matteogarlique) January 21, 2018
Right. Who talks on the phone like that?
— CatLady!!! (@anonymous_negro) January 21, 2018
Wow. He looks so presidential in that silly hat. Remember when you dipshits went fucking insane because Obama didn’t wear a tie?
— Derp State (@EricVictorino) January 21, 2018
Thats what I would call "working". pic.twitter.com/Ci3eI5huqi
— Gaija (@GaijaImages) January 21, 2018
https://twitter.com/raelDunaldTramp/status/954866666000744449
— Randi Vickers (@randivickers) January 21, 2018
RELATED:Â Sarah Huckabee Sanders slams Nancy Pelosi’s government shutdown dinner
From the start, Trump said that Democrats were to blame for the shutdown. He said they picked a shutdown and “unchecked illegal immigration” over the U.S. military and security.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/954541219970977793
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/954674157144477696
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/954680914998648833
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/954722155463430145
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/954678287820902401
