White House domestic policy chief refers to California as 'occupied territory'
He could have congratulated the state for its strong economy, or even remarked on its gorgeous weather, but instead, White House aide Joe Grogan decided on Tuesday to refer to California as "occupied territory."
Grogan is director of the Domestic Policy Council, and he accompanied Trump on his trip to the West Coast. While in California, Trump will attend fundraisers in Beverly Hills and Rancho Mirage, but instead of focusing on that, Grogan decided to insult nearly 40 million people. "Just landed in California," he tweeted. "POTUS power swing through occupied territory."
His words were quickly condemned, not just by California taxpayers who pay his salary, but also Trump fans like Fox News host Laura Ingraham. "Actually, it's America," she tweeted in response. "And he's president of all the people — even the ones who didn't vote for him." In California, that's a lot of people — voters in the Golden State overwhelmingly supported Hillary Clinton in 2016, with Clinton receiving 4,269,978 more votes than Trump.
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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