Record / E-2026-0036
News conference on the campaign against ISIS promised in two weeks is not held
In Riyadh on May 21, 2017, Trump said: And we're going to be having a news conference in about 2 weeks to let everybody know how well we're doing. Tremendous progress has been made and will continue to be made. He restated it at a Cabinet meeting on June 12, 2017: We're going to be having a news conference in 2 weeks on that fight, and you'll see numbers that you would not have believed. No such news conference was held. At a press gaggle on June 22, 2017, a reporter asked the deputy press secretary: Twelve days ago, the President announced a press conference in two weeks on his entire ISIS strategy. Can we expect a press conference in the coming days?
Context
The non-delivery is established by a reporter putting the elapsed deadline to the White House on the record rather than by the absence of a document alone. The reporter's twelve days ago points to a statement around June 10 rather than to the June 12 Cabinet meeting, so the arithmetic in the question is loose; what the exchange establishes is that the news conference had not occurred. A reader may note that the Department of Defense held regular briefings on the campaign throughout this period, though none was the presidential news conference described.
Sources
The document identifier is the citation. The URL is a resolution mechanism, and the archived copy is what the citation resolves to when the live link dies.
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Remarks Prior to a Meeting With Amir Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jabir al-Sabah of Kuwait in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Remarks, May 21, 2017, American Presidency Project
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Remarks During a Cabinet Meeting
Cabinet meeting remarks, June 12, 2017, American Presidency Project
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Press Gaggle by Principal Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Sanders
Press gaggle, June 22, 2017, American Presidency Project