President Trump seems to be on an improvisational roll.
In the past week, Trump has encountered questions on school busing and homelessness, two uncommon topics in the federal conversation. And each time, he's made vague promises that the issues will be addressed in the coming weeks or months — answers The Atlantic's David A. Graham refers to as "bulls--t."
Some of Trump's most confusing yet confident answers came in his weekend press conference at the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan. Sure, he did make unverifiable promises about various things China was "going to do," including "buying a tremendous amount of food and agricultural product" off of "lists" the U.S. hands the country. But his more absurd answer came when a reporter asked for his stance on federally mandated busing in response to Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris' (D-Calif.) debate skirmish. His answer, Trump said, would come "in about four weeks" and in the form of a "certain policy that's going to be very interesting and very surprising."
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Next up came Trump's odd spiel on homelessness during an interview with Fox News' Tucker Carlson. Carlson asked Trump about American cities' "problem with filth" during the interview that aired Monday night, and Trump categorized it as "a phenomena that started two years ago." He then chalked the whole issue up to the "liberal establishment" running these cities and said "we may do something to get that whole thing cleaned up" — an odd promise considering homelessness is a topic Trump has hardly touched during his presidency.
These instances are just the most recent in Trump's string of unexpected — yet unspecific — policy promises, like the time he suggested the U.K.'s National Health Service would be "on the table" in a trade deal. Read more of Graham's take at The Atlantic.
