Here's The Cringeworthy Moment Donald Trump Walked Out Of A Medal Ceremony
President Donald Trump awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to legendary Iowa wrestler Dan Gable this week in the Oval Office, but Trump pulled a bit of a classic Irish goodbye and just walked out of the room, leaving the award-winner standing awkwardly alone in front of the Resolute Desk (via YouTube).
The abrupt exit may have been because of the turn of some of the questions at the end of the ceremony. One reporter brought up the election, which led Trump into a familiar tune of fraud: "Well, I think the case has already been made. If you look at the polls, it was a rigged election. You look at the different states. The election was totally rigged. It's a disgrace to our country. It's like a third-world country — these ballots pouring in from everywhere, using machinery that nobody knows ownership, nobody knows anything about." He pivoted back to talking about Gable but then was apparently over it, wandering out and, leaving Gable to shrug in confusion over what just happened in front of what seemed like a crowd of reporters.
Some say the medal was politically motivated
According to MSNBC, Gable was the 11th athlete to receive the country's highest civilian honor from Trump out of a total of 19 that Trump has given. Some think the award was in part politically motivated. Trump announced he was giving the award to Gable at a campaign rally in Iowa in October, and the wrestler joined the President onstage and said he was a "champion" and should be re-elected (via Des Moines Register).
People can't believe what they saw. One person tweeted the video of the awkward exit with the caption "Today @realDonaldTrump wandered out of his own office and left Medal of Freedom recipient, Dan Gable, standing there with no clue what to do. 'More Presidential than anyone in history.'" Others couldn't stand to see it, one person posting, "This just hurts to watch." Some had some not so nice theories as to why he walked out, like this one, "Photo op is over and he knows he lost the election so he has no reason to pretend he cares about anyone/thing but his fragile ego."