Recently, President Donald Trump announced that he would be throwing a ceremonial opening pitch at Yankee Stadium, and he’d apparently be doing so on August 15. Amazingly, The New York Times now reports that when the president made that announcement, officials at both the Yankees and White House were blindsided, because Trump had not actually been invited to throw an opening pitch on August 15 or on any other date this season. Reportedly, Trump “directed his aides to call Yankees officials and make good on a longtime standing offer from [Yankees President Randy Levine] to throw out an opening pitch” — but Trump’s now announced that his never-actually-confirmed plans to throw an opening pitch would be cancelled.
Trump made his announcement of fake plans to throw an opening pitch at Yankees Stadium on the same day that Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health was set to throw an opening pitch for the Washington Nationals. Reportedly, Fauci’s opening pitch plans are what set off the president — he did not want to let too much attention be drawn away from himself, even for a moment. The U.S. is suffering through a pandemic that has killed about 150,000 Americans and counting, and the president is prioritizing… getting attention on himself.
As The New York Times reports:
‘Mr. Trump had been so annoyed by Dr. Fauci’s turn in the limelight, an official familiar with his reaction said, that he had directed his aides to call Yankees officials and make good on a longtime standing offer from Mr. Levine to throw out an opening pitch. No date was ever finalized. After the president’s announcement, White House aides scrambled to let the team know that he was actually booked on Aug. 15, although they have not said what he plans to do.’
On Sunday, Trump posted a cancellation announcement on Twitter covering his never-actually-real plans to throw a first pitch for the Yankees. He said:
‘Because of my strong focus on the China Virus, including scheduled meetings on Vaccines, our economy and much else, I won’t be able to be in New York to throw out the opening pitch for the @Yankees on August 15th. We will make it later in the season!’
Because of my strong focus on the China Virus, including scheduled meetings on Vaccines, our economy and much else, I won’t be able to be in New York to throw out the opening pitch for the @Yankees on August 15th. We will make it later in the season!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2020
He does know that we can see all of his tweets, right? And that someone who busies themselves with watching cable news and tweeting about it on an almost daily basis isn’t exactly someone in a position to speak about “strong focus” or hard work? The pathetic self-aggrandizement of Trump’s attempt to make himself seem like a hard worker is made even more pathetic by the fact that since Yankees officials had never even invited him to this season in the first place, he clearly made up this cancellation excuse out of thin air.
He’s put on similar stunts before. For instance, at one point recently, Trump claimed that he would be cancelling a weekend golfing trip to New Jersey in order to stay behind in D.C. and help protect monuments against supposedly dangerous rioters. Trump went golfing at his Virginia golf course that Saturday morning. In reality, there’d apparently been a forecast of rain for New Jersey.
