“Thank you for your decades of tireless devotion to our country,” Mr. Trump said. “And Rush, in recognition of all that you have done for our nation, the millions of people a day that you speak to and that you inspire, and all of the incredible work that you have done for charity, I am proud to announce tonight that you will be receiving our country’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. ”
Mr. Limbaugh looked surprised and emotional, his mouth hanging open as he passed his hands across his face. In an unusual break from tradition, Melania Trump then stood and fastened the medal around his neck. Mr. Limbaugh mouthed “thank you” while he flashed a thumbs up toward the floor. Ms. Pelosi and other Democrats, who have been some of Mr. Limbaugh’s regular targets and fiercest critics, did not stand.
Also in the box were Carl and Marsha Mueller, whose daughter, Kayla, was a humanitarian aid worker kidnapped, tortured and killed by the Islamic State. And present as well were Charles McGee, one of the last surviving of the Tuskegee airmen, along with his great-grandson, Iain Lanphier, who wants to join the Space Force that Mr. Trump has just created.
Trump reveled in the Democratic dysfunction in Iowa, calling it ‘a fiasco that just plays right into us.’
Even before heading in his motorcade to the Capitol for the big speech, Mr. Trump was enjoying the day,
reveling in the dysfunction
of the Iowa Democratic caucuses and relishing new polling that showed his public approval at the highest point of his presidency.
The long-delayed counting of the opening round of the Democratic presidential nomination race gave Mr. Trump ammunition for his efforts to sow dissension among Democrats by claiming, without proof, that the party establishment was trying to rig the race against Senator Bernie Sanders, the self-proclaimed socialist he would like to face in the fall.
“It’s a fiasco that just plays right into us,” Mr. Trump told the network anchors, according to people in the room.
Mr. Trump said he did not know who would win the Democratic nomination but said that Mr. Sanders is “nastier and smarter” than the other candidates and expressed amazement that former Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., Was doing so well. Mr. Pence, a former governor of Indiana, then interjected that South Bend was a troubled city.
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