Trump Tweeted In Support Of A Fox News Segment Calling For Paul Ryan To Step Down

Whether he knows it or not.

March 25, 2017

Though the President spent a good portion of today at Virginia's Trump National Golf Club after yesterday's withdrawal of the bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act in the House of Representatives, he did take the opportunity to share a few thoughts on Twitter this morning. The first was a prophecy that "Obamacare will explode" whether it's repealed or not. The second, however, was a bit more unusual:

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With all the charm of a paid Instagram ad for flat tummy tea, the President plugged a weekly Fox News show, Justice with Judge Jeanine, scheduled to air in just over 10 hours. The show stars Judge Jeanine Pirro, the Republican former District Attorney of New York's Westchester County. She spends her hour-long Saturday night timeslot remarking on the week's political and judicial goings-on, both by herself and in dialogue with guest experts on the subjects at hand.

It's unclear which segment of tonight's show President Trump was intending to plug in his tweet this morning. It's certainly possible that his only knowledge of the night's programming was an appearance by his Deputy Assistant Dr. Sebastian Gorka to discuss the specifics of the updated executive ordered travel ban and Department of Homeland Security-issued limits on select devices coming into the country from a handful of Muslim-majority countries. But the banner headline of tonight's episode was not Dr. Gorka's appearance, it was Pirro's opening statement, in which she made the case for Speaker of the House Paul Ryan to step down from his position as majority leader.

Pirro's statement had some seriously harsh words for the Speaker, essentially blaming the bill's failure in its entirety on Ryan, highlighting his incompetence to make it work despite the perfect storm of a Republican-controlled Congress and the momentum of the new Presidential administration. "How could you possibly misjudge this?" she implored.

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Pirro does make it clear about halfway through the segment that she has not discussed the details of "any of this" with the President directly, but it's certainly possible he was aware of what the headline tonight would be, given his close relationship with the network. Whether intentional or not, the President tweeted in support of program imploring for the removal of Ryan.

While the President did appear on television yesterday to, among other things, thank Speaker Ryan for his hard work on the bill to repeal the ACA, it's not impossible that his true feelings were expressed by Judge Pirro tonight. He's certainly changed his mind before.

Watch the full clip above.

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Trump Tweeted In Support Of A Fox News Segment Calling For Paul Ryan To Step Down