President Donald Trump took a side trip from Mar-a-Lago on Thursday to get “an incredible education” at a military facility that combats drug trafficking and criminal networks in Key West.
Trump, who is spending the week at his Palm Beach estate and hosted Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe there on Tuesday and Wednesday, left Mar-a-Lago on Thursday morning. He made the 5-mile trip to Palm Beach International Airport, then flew on Air Force One to Naval Station Key West to visit the Joint Interagency Task Force-South with Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, White House chief of staff John Kelly and others.
“We’re talking about drugs and stopping these drugs and other things — human trafficking and so many other forms of trafficking,” Trump said.
Trump used the occasion to promote his proposed border wall between the U.S. and Mexico and to continue his dispute with California Gov. Jerry Brown over Brown’s liberal approach to people who enter the country illegally.
“Drugs are flowing into our country. We need border protection; we need the wall. We have to have the wall. The Democrats don’t want to approve a wall because they think it’s good politically, but it’s not. Looking at what’s happening in California with sanctuary cities where the people are really going the opposite way. They don’t want sanctuary cities. And there’s a little bit of a revolution going on in California,” Trump said.
The president added: “And we can’t emphasize enough: not only drugs. The drugs are a big factor, but you look at — human trafficking is worse than it’s ever been in the history of this world … That was an incredible education, and we are behind you all the way.”
Large, mostly supportive crowds lined Trump’s motorcade route in Key West, according to pool reports.
Trump returned to Mar-a-Lago Thursday afternoon, after a trip that took about the same amount of time as one of his typical golf outings.
Trump, on his 17th visit to Mar-a-Lago as president, is scheduled to return to Washington on Sunday. First lady Melania Trump has been with the president this week but is scheduled to attend first lady Barbara Bush’s funeral in Texas on Saturday.
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© 2018 The Palm Beach Post (West Palm Beach, Fla.)
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