MSNBC host Chris Hayes on Tuesday took on President Donald Trump for having "more important things on his mind" as he appears to be "manifestly bored" by his unpopular Iran war.
"All of this mad king behavior, all of these obsessions — that's what Trump occupies himself with now. That's where he's focused," said Hayes, pointing to Trump's White House ballroom push and his administration going after critics like ex-FBI Director James Comey and late-night host Jimmy Kimmel.
Vanity Projects Over Crisis
Beyond the proposed $400 million ballroom project, Hayes touched on the State Department's plans to introduce a new U.S. passport design featuring Trump's face and signature. "Our nearly 80-year-old president's authoritarian obsession with remaking America in his weird and warped image is consuming him and distracting him from — again, I can't emphasize this enough — the enormous international crisis he caused and that still is there," the host said.
Gas Prices Surge
Earlier in the program, Hayes noted that U.S. gas prices hit their highest level in four years on Tuesday, reaching an average of $4.18 per gallon, according to AAA. That figure rose to $4.22 by Wednesday morning. "It's wholly gone up because of Donald Trump launching the war. There's nothing else happening that has made it jump that much," Hayes stressed. "And it's just the most tangible example of all the ways that Trump and the Republican Party have acted affirmatively at almost every crossroads to make prices higher for people."
With negotiations to end the war stalled, Hayes said the president can't figure out how to end the conflict, suggesting he is essentially "over it." "And Republicans are now committed to indulging him with your money," Hayes added, as the GOP uses the weekend's correspondents' dinner shooting to justify pushing for congressional approval of Trump's proposed nine-figure ballroom.
