White House spokesman: Trump was being ‘tongue-in-cheek’ with treason comments

by Rebecca Savransky - 02/06/18 8:03 AM ET

White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said Tuesday that President Trump was being “tongue-in-cheek” with his comments accusing Democrats of “treasonous” behavior during his State of the Union address.

Gidley told NBC News Trump was trying to get the message across that people should be happy about positive achievements in the country, despite their party.

Trump on Monday accused Democrats of exhibiting “treasonous” behavior during his first State of the Union address.

{mosads}He took aim at Democratic lawmakers who refused to applaud during last week’s speech when he mentioned his achievements during his first year in office, calling their reaction “un-American.”

“Can we call that treason? Why not?” the president said in Ohio. “They certainly didn’t seem to love our country very much.”

Trump signaled that Democrats’ refusal to cheer “very positive news” in his speech — such as low unemployment rates for Hispanics and African-Americans — will make it hard for him to work with them on government spending and immigration.

He also said Democrats “would rather see Trump do badly than our country do well.”

Lawmakers face a Thursday deadline to fund the government and must act by March 5 to preserve protections for immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children.

Tags Donald Trump