President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump returned to a favorite retreat — the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida — in the days after the release of Robert Mueller’s report on Russia.
In Florida, the president resumed what has been a nearly two-year-long offensive over Russia, blasting Mueller, the news media and other critics over what he believes is a politically motivated “witch hunt” designed to delegitimize his surprise victory in 2016.
This weekend he wished his followers a happy Easter with an optimistic tweet — a break from his emotional tweets, alternately boastful and dismissive.
“Happy Easter! I have never been happier or more content because your Country is doing so well, with an Economy that is the talk of the World and may be stronger than it has ever been before,” he wrote. “Have a great day!”
Happy Easter! I have never been happier or more content because your Country is doing so well, with an Economy that is the talk of the World and may be stronger than it has ever been before. Have a great day!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 21, 2019
On Sunday, the president smiled for photos outside the Church of Bethesda-By-the-Sea with his family, including first lady Melania Trump, daughter Tiffany Trump, and Tiffany’s boyfriend Michael Boulos.
The group attended Easter services in the church – the same location at which he married Melania in 2005.
“Happy Easter everybody. Have a great day. A lot of great things are happening for our country,” Trump told reporters, according to the
The president also smiled as someone shouted a question asking if he feels “betrayed” by aides who cooperated with Mueller, according to the outlet.
The service followed a series of tweets from Trump in which he doubled down on his claims of “no collusion” and “no obstruction” regarding the Mueller report, blasted the “Radical Left Democrats,” and offered condolences to the victims of the bombings in Sri Lanka.
Despite No Collusion, No Obstruction, The Radical Left Democrats do not want to go on to Legislate for the good of the people, but only to Investigate and waste time. This is costing our Country greatly, and will cost the Dems big time in 2020!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 21, 2019
“The Trump Haters and Angry Democrats who wrote the Mueller Report were devastated by the No Collusion finding! Nothing but a total ‘hit job’ which should never have been allowed to start in the first place!” he wrote.
Trump continued, “Despite No Collusion, No Obstruction, The Radical Left Democrats do not want to go on to Legislate for the good of the people, but only to Investigate and waste time. This is costing our Country greatly, and will cost the Dems big time in 2020!”
Mueller was named as special counsel in May 2017 to investigate Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election as well as any links between Russia and Trump and whether Trump’s team conspired with Russia.
RELATED: What Robert Mueller’s Report Says About Donald Trump and Russia
Mueller did not find any conspiracy but did document a multi-pronged effort by the Russians to influence the American election and help elect Trump.
According to Mueller’s report, released to the public on Thursday, the president repeatedly tried to derail and circumscribe the special counsel’s probe once he became a target.
Though Mueller exhaustively documented these efforts — the sum of which portray President Trump as self-interested and heedless of longstanding norms, if not also paranoid — he did not determine whether they amounted to illegal obstruction of justice. Instead, citing the complicated legal issues involved in such a question, he implied the ultimate authority on the matter should be Congress.
While Trump had reportedly been preparing a point-by-point rebuttal of the Mueller report, it has not been released.
Speaking at an event on Thursday, the president joked that he was “having a good day. … It’s called no collusion, no obstruction,” adding, “This should never happen to another president again, this hoax. It should never happen to another president again.”