'This just feels kind of small': CNN Republicans laugh at Trump's attempted 'power move'
President Donald Trump sparked guffaws and chuckles from panelists on "CNN This Morning" with his plans to rename another body of water.
The U.S. president plans to announce on his upcoming trip to Saudi Arabia that he will direct the government to refer to the Persian Gulf as the Gulf of Arabia, but some Republicans – especially Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE), who has emerged as a GOP Trump critic – intend to vote against legislation renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.
"When the president came in, he did all these executive orders, he was really feeling himself, right?" said host Audie Cornish. "You can do a lot, and then all of a sudden you've got to actually deal with Congress to codify these things that you want to do, big and small."
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Cornish interrupted herself to comment on former Republican congressman Charlie Dent's expression as she spoke.
"Charlie, I'm still talking, but your face is just saying so much here," she said. "Is Don Bacon alone, and will others join him?"
"Don Bacon is not alone, and amen to Don Bacon," Dent said, laughing. "Yeah, as you just pointed out, look, the economy, tariffs – the world's on fire, and here we are talking about renaming the gulf. That's what we all call it, the gulf, right? I mean, the Gulf of Mexico. But seriously, I mean, with all these issues, I mean, this is a distraction from the very real challenges that Congress needs to deal with right now."
Cornish saw the president's executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico as a "power move" intended to show he can do whatever he wants, but GOP strategist Kristen Soltis Anderson isn't sure voters see it that way.
"It's a very, very, very low priority to your average voter," she said, "and so that both means that it's a way for someone to say, 'I oppose it, not because I'm anti-Trump, but just let's focus on other things.' I mean, I believe that this was part of Donald Trump's inaugural address, and I remember at the time thinking this feels very small in a big moment, in a big moment in American history. This just feels kind of small."
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