US President Donald Trump sits in the drivers seat of a semi-truck as he welcomes truckers and CEOs to the White House in Washington, DC, March 23, 2017, to discuss healthcare. / AFP PHOTO / JIM WATSON
Trump at the wheel of a big rig? Yes, it happened — at the White House.
US President Donald Trump was rallying votes for his health care reform bill Thursday but made a pit stop in the afternoon to meet with truck drivers and trucking executives.
During that meeting, he spent a few minutes happily exploring the cab of a tractor-trailer parked outside the White House.
The 70-year-old Republican, dressed in a suit, enthusiastically honked the horn before pretending to drive the vehicle and making some funny faces — and the internet noticed, with #TrumpTruck getting some traction on Twitter.
“No one knows America like truckers know America. You see it every day. You see every hill, and you see every valley and you see every pothole in our roads that have to be rebuilt,” he told his visitors during their meeting in the Cabinet Room.
But legislation wasn’t far from his mind, as Trump said that a vote on the measure to repeal and replace predecessor Barack Obama’s health care law would be “very close.”
“By the way, it’s close not because Obamacare’s good — it’s close for politics. They know it’s no good. Everybody knows it’s no good,” he said.
He joked that he couldn’t spend too much time with the truckers.
“I’m not going to make it too long, because I have to get votes,” he said to laughter. “I don’t want to spend too much time with you. I’m going to lose by one vote and then I’m going to blame the truckers.”