BEDMINSTER, New Jersey: As rain dumped on his golf club, President Donald Trump raged on Saturday, lashing out at his Justice Department on Twitter before welcoming members of a “Bikers for Trump” fan group to the manicured grounds.
Dozens and dozens of gleaming Harleys, Hondas and other motorcycles descended on the central New Jersey property for what had been billed as an outdoor photo-op with Trump. But pouring rain and flash-flood warnings scrambled the plan, sending soggy bikers inside a crystal-chandeliered clubhouse ballroom, where Trump signed autographs and posed for selfies and his guests booed reporters.
It was a classic, chaotic Trump scene reminiscent of his ramshackle early campaign. The president was continuing an extended working vacation away from Washington.
The day began on Twitter with a broadside against the FBI, which Trump accused of stonewalling a public records request for former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe’s text messages.
“What are they hiding?” the president asked, threatening that he “may have to get involved” personally in internal FBI business and warning, “DO NOT DESTROY.”
Trump appeared in a better mood when he greeted the bikers, who chanted “Four more years!” and “USA!” as he entered the ballroom. Rain streamed down the windows and pools formed on the empty golf greens outside.
He quickly pointed out the sopping-wet media, which sparked jeers and calls to “tell the truth.” And he thanked the group, saying they’d been with him since the beginning and calling their motorcycles “the most beautiful bikes anyone’s ever seen.”
He later walked into the crowd of supporters, shaking hands, posing for selfies and signing autographs.
Trump returned to the podium to poll those in the crowd on their views of the press, prompting more jeers. One joked that the press pool should be thrown out in the rain.
The president largely ignored reporters’ shouted questions, except for one about former White House adviser and reality star Omarosa Manigault Newman and her new book, which includes scandalous — and often unsupported — accusations against Trump.
The president leaned over and cupped his hand around his mouth as if to whisper.
“Lowlife. She’s a lowlife,” Trump said.
He ignored a question about ongoing trade negotiations with Mexico, which prompted some in the crowd to shout, “Build the wall!“
The White House had said about 180 bikers would be attending the event, including military veterans and members of law enforcement agencies, as well as members of the New Jersey chapter of Bikers for Trump, whose members frequently attended Trump’s campaign rallies, sometimes facing off with anti-Trump protesters.
Later, when the rain had eased, Trump walked outside the residence, where the bikers had gathered with their motorcycles on the drive. He posed for more pictures, stood for the Pledge of Allegiance and urged the bikers to rev their engines.
“Let’s hear those engines now,” he called out, gesturing for them to go louder as the motors roared.
Earlier in the day, Trump’s wrath poured down on Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the president’s alleged enemies in the FBI, including ex-FBI Director James Comey, McCabe and Peter Strzok, an FBI agent who was removed from Robert Mueller’s probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election after Mueller learned he’d expressed distaste for Trump in text messages.
Trump branded them all “clowns and losers” who had hurt “so many of the great men and women of the FBI.”
Trump also revived his frequent attacks on Sessions, calling him “scared stiff and Missing in Action.” He criticized senior Justice Department official Bruce Ohr, who was friends with Chris Steele, the former British intelligence officer commissioned by an American political research firm to explore Trump’s alleged ties with the Russian government.
Trump marked the anniversary of deadly clashes in Charlottesville, Virginia, with a tweet saying he condemns “all types of racism and acts of violence.”
Last year, Trump said there was “blame on both sides” for the violence that broke out when white nationalists descended on Charlottesville to protest the removal of Confederate statutes and marched through town shouting racist slurs. Trump said then that the group included “very fine people.”
In Saturday’s tweet, Trump said the “riots in Charlottesville a year ago resulted in senseless death and division.”
“We must come together as a nation. I condemn all types of racism and acts of violence. Peace to ALL Americans!” he wrote.
Rain pouring, Trump rages on Twitter and hangs with bikers
Rain pouring, Trump rages on Twitter and hangs with bikers
- Before meeting with "Bikers for Trump" members, the president lashed out at his Justice Department and FBI
- Trump calls Omarosa Manigault Newman, author of a book describing Trump's chaotic administration a "lowlife"
‘A den of bandits’: Rwanda closes thousands of evangelical churches
- A 2018 law introduced new rules on health, safety, and financial disclosures, and requires all preachers to have theological training
- Observers say the real reason for the closures comes down to control, noting that even those who complied with the law had been shut down
- President Kagame has described the church as a relic of the colonial period, a chapter of its history with which the country is still grappling
KIGALI: Grace Room Ministries once filled giant stadiums in Rwanda three times a week before the evangelical organization was shut down in May.
It is one of the 10,000 churches reportedly closed by the government for failing to comply with a 2018 law designed to regulate places of worship.
The law introduced new rules on health, safety, and financial disclosures, and requires all preachers to have theological training.
President Paul Kagame has been vocal in his criticisms of the evangelical churches that have sprouted across the small country in Africa’s Great Lakes region.
“If it were up to me I wouldn’t even reopen a single church,” Kagame told a news briefing last month.
“In all the development challenges we are dealing with, the wars... our country’s survival — what is the role of these churches? Are they also providing jobs? Many are just thieving... some churches are just a den of bandits,” he said.
The vast majority of Rwandans are Christian according to a 2024 census, with many now traveling long and costly distances to find places to pray.
Observers say the real reason for the closures comes down to control.
Kagame’s government is saying “there’s no rival in terms of influence,” Louis Gitinywa, a lawyer and political analyst based in Kigali, told AFP.
The ruling party “bristles when an organization or individual gains influence,” he said, a view also expressed to AFP by an anonymous government official.
‘Deceived’
The 2018 law requires churches to submit annual action plans stating how they align with “national values.” All donations must be channelled through registered accounts.
Pastor Sam Rugira, whose two church branches were shut down last year for failing to meet fire safety regulations, said the rules mostly affected new evangelical churches that have “mushroomed” in recent years.
But Kagame has described the church as a relic of the colonial period, a chapter of its history with which the country is still grappling.
“You have been deceived by the colonizers and you let yourself be deceived,” he said in November.
The closure of Grace Room Ministries came as a shock to many across the country.
Pastor Julienne Kabanda, had been drawing massive crowds to the shiny new BK Arena in Kigali when the church’s license was revoked.
The government had cited unauthorized evangelical activities and a failure to submit “annual activity and financial reports.”
AFP was unable to reach Kabanda for comment.
‘Open disdain, disgust’
A church leader in Kigali, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said the president’s “open disdain and disgust” for churches “spells tough times ahead.”
“It is unfair that even those that fulfilled all requirements are still closed,” he added.
But some say the clampdown on places of worship is linked to the 1994 Rwandan genocide in which around 800,000 people, mostly ethnic Tutsis, were slaughtered.
Ismael Buchanan a political science lecturer at the National University of Rwanda, told AFP the church could sometimes act as “a conduit of recruitment” for the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), the Hutu militia formed in exile in DR Congo by those who committed the genocide.
“I agree religion and faith have played a key role in healing Rwandans from the emotional and psychological wounds after the genocide, but it also makes no sense to have a church every two kilometers instead of hospitals and schools,” he said.
Pastor Rugira meanwhile suggested the government is “regulating what it doesn’t understand.”
It should instead work with churches to weed out “bad apples” and help them meet requirements, especially when it comes to the donations they rely on to survive, he said.
