Donald Trump holds Executive Order signing ceremony, leaves without signing it
Donald Trump held an Executive Order signing ceremony in the White House today, complete with Mike Pence and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross at his side. But after Trump gave some brief and generic remarks about the order, which related to trade rules and China, he walked away and left the room without signing it – leaving a confused Pence unsure of what to do next.
The surreal moment was caught on video, which was posted to Twitter by Vic Berger IV of the New Yorker. It shows Trump stepping to the mic and saying “Thank you everybody, you’re going to see some very, very strong results very, very quickly.” He then thanked those in attendance and left without signing the order – which was the entire point of the signing ceremony. Mike Pence then reached out after him with his arm, before following him to the door in what seemed to be an attempt at getting him to come back into the room, though the words spoken between them were not clearly picked up on the video – and then Trump proceeded to exit.
Pence then went back to the desk, grabbed the Executive Order, and followed Trump out the door. So was this merely the kind of unintentionally funny random mishap that could happen to anyone, or was it a sign that Donald Trump is now too distracted by his Russia scandal to focus on the job he’s supposed to be doing? That’s for you to decide. But Trump started the day by inexplicably tweeting that Mike Flynn should take an immunity deal in the Russia scandal (link), so perhaps his mind is indeed elsewhere. Watch the video of Trump walking away without signing the Executive order, and then Pence acting confused:
.
