President Donald Trump made a bizarre comment about grabbing his 28-year-old press aide Sunday as Air Force One hit turbulence.
The 79=year-old leader was left unsteady as the plane shook while he was standing talking to reporters on his return trip to Washington D.C. after a weekend in his Mar-A-Lago home.
As he was asked about his administration's plans regarding Venezuela, he turned toward Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, and made a comment about needing something to hold onto.
"I'm looking for something to grab here. Because it's going to get rough. I think you did this to me, you put me in a position where there's absolutely nothing to grab," Trump said, gesturing toward Leavitt.
"So I'm looking for something to grab. And it's not going to be Karoline."
Reporters did not pursue the comment, instead continuing to question the president about international policy matters.
The odd comment is the latest by Trump about his press secretary. Following his departure from Israel in October, Trump asked reporters assembled nearby: "How's Karoline doing? Is she doing good?" He then posed the question, "Should Karoline be replaced?" When a reporter responded that such decisions rested with the president, Trump replied: "It'll never happen. That face... and those lips, they move like a machine gun, right?"
In an August interview with Newsmax's Rob Finnerty, Trump made a similar observation about Leavitt. He stated: "She's become a star. It's that face. It's that brain. It's those lips, the way they move. They move like she's a machine gun... She's a star and she's great."
These comments received additional attention following a Vanity Fair interview with White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles in December. The accompanying photographs showed Leavitt's face prominently, featuring heavy makeup and apparent cosmetic enhancement.
When asked why he did not edit certain aspects of the images, photographer Christopher Anderson told The Washington Post: "I didn't put the injection sites on her. People seem to be shocked that I didn't use Photoshop to retouch out blemishes and her injection marks."