As a big press conference for his lawyers, Donald Trump announces an appointment in Philadelphia via Twitter — but the reality is different. Apparently by mistake, the president’s legal team is not in a fancy hotel, but in front of a gardener. The glee is huge. Less than an hour before Joe Biden is proclaimed the winner of the presidential election on Saturday, Trump’s lawyer, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, is holding a press conference in a parking lot in front of a horticulturalist’s office on the outskirts of Philadelphia. The fact that the 76-year-old doesn’t change his face is somewhat astonishing — after all, such a statement (there is a crematorium and an adult bookstore called “Fantasy Island” in the immediate vicinity) is rather unusual in such a place. The bizarre episode is drowned out on this day in the general excitement about the election result. But one day later, journalists were also concerned with the question: What was going on? While Trump is on his way to play golf on Saturday morning, he puts down a first tweet in which he announces a “big press conference” at 5 pm at the Four Seasons. But the hotel doesn’t know anything about it. On the Four Seasons Twitter account, which actually exists in Philadelphia, shortly before 5 p.m. it says that the press conference has no connection with the hotel. The president had previously corrected himself on Twitter. The briefing will take place in the “Four Seasons Total Landscaping” at 5.30 pm. The Trump team should have needed this half hour — because a makeshift lectern has to be set up in front of a garage door. A couple of campaign signs are stuck on the goal itself — and the setting is ready.
The confusion of the journalists is still fairly large in advance. “Independent” journalist Richard Hall asks on Twitter: “Does Trump really gather the world press in front of a small garden center on the outskirts of Philadelphia?” He receives the answer when asked at the “Four Seasons” hotel. Yeah, that’s obviously the plan. A little later, Hall finds himself together with many other journalists in the parking lot in front of the “Four Seasons Total Landscaping”. A few Trump supporters have also gathered in front of the property — including one in underpants. When the reporters from individual media outlets are called in, they are booed by the bystanders, says Hall. So far so good.
A steep template for scoffers
Then Trump’s campaign manager Corey Lewandowski steps in front of the cameras to reiterate the president’s allegations of fraud and manipulation — again without providing any evidence. When Rudy Giuliani also accuses the Democrats of forging ballot papers without any evidence, the first journalists leave the “press conference”, according to Hall. Then CNN was the first to announce Biden’s predicted victory. And the ranks are finally thinning. TV stations would not decide on the outcome of elections, Giuliani still rumbles — but the briefing has actually already been overtaken by the events. What remains is a lot of ridicule. “I could write jokes for 800 years and think of nothing funnier than that Trump books the Four Seasons for his press conference and then turns out to be in a Four Seasons landscaping parking lot between a dildo shop and a crematorium,” writes a user on Twitter. Another tweeted, referring to the day Trump announced his presidential candidacy in the foyer of the Trump Tower in 2015: “If the history books look back on this episode, the first sentence should be: ‘It all started with an elevator ride down and ended with a press conference in front of a landscaping business.” And comedian Patton Oswalt also sees a moment in the unfortunate press conference that will make history: “Let the history books record it: The dildo shop next to the Trump press conference had better Covid precautions than the White House.