Trumps Boy Scouts speech broke with 80 years of presidential tradition

Trump’s Boy Scouts speech broke with 80 years of presidential tradition
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/07/25/trumps-boy-scouts-speech-broke-with-80-years-of-presidential-tradition/?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories-2_mm-trumpbsa-355pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.b9de0f9a9262



By Katie Mettler and Derek Hawkins July 25 at 7:17 AM
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5 things you wouldn't expect a president to say to the Boy Scouts, but Trump did anyway


President Trump's speech to thousands of Boy Scouts at the National Scout Jamboree in Glen Jean, W.Va., on July 24, took an unexpected turn. (Taylor Turner/The Washington Post)




For 80 years, American presidents have been speaking to the National Scout Jamboree, a gathering of tens of thousands of youngsters from around the world eager to absorb the ideas of service, citizenship and global diplomacy.

In keeping with the Scouts’ traditions, all eight presidents and surrogates who have represented them have stayed far, far away from partisan politics.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt used the occasion to talk about good citizenship. Harry S. Truman extolled fellowship: “When you work and live together, and exchange ideas around the campfire, you get to know what the other fellow is like,” he said.


President Dwight D. Eisenhower invoked the “bonds of common purpose and common ideals.” And President George H.W. Bush spoke of “serving others.”

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“Who the hell wants to speak about politics when I’m in front of the Boy Scouts?” he said.
Play Video 40:29
Trump's full speech to the National Scout Jamboree
President Trump spoke before the National Scout Jamboree on July 24. It is an 80-year tradition for the sitting president to address the Boy Scouts. (The Washington Post)

Then, standing before all 40,000 of them, he bragged about the “record” crowd size, bashed President Barack Obama, criticized the “fake media” and trashed Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. In the lengthy 35-minute speech, the president threatened to fire his health and human services secretary if he couldn’t persuade members of Congress to vote for the Republican health-care bill.



At one point, he told a rambling story about a conversation he had at a New York cocktail party with a once-successful home builder who “lost his momentum.” The lesson, apparently: “You have to know whether or not you continue to have the momentum. And if you don’t have it, that’s okay.”

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It was yet another example of Trump ignoring the custom that past presidents have dutifully observed in such public ceremonies. ..............................
Here, by way of illustration, is an abbreviated history of American presidents and their encounters with the Boy Scouts jamboree...................