Trump says fixing up the White House ‘actually relaxes me’

Some presidents unwind with golf. Donald Trump unwinds with the White House. At Monday’s rally in Corinth, Mississippi, he answered Barack Obama’s Cheesecake Factory jab with a self-assessment: “I’m really good at real estate and fixing things. I fix things very good, very beautifully...” Then came the wellness tip: “But I can do it naturally. It’s a natural thing. It actually relaxes me.”

The complaint he was answering, in his telling, was that “Donald Trump spends a lot of his time fixing up the White House.” His reply: “Isn’t that a nice thing to do?” When he first set up Obama’s line, he corrected it on the fly: “a lot of his time, very little time.” Then he got to the punch: “He said, this isn’t a Cheesecake Factory, can you believe it, which is a very successful company.” His verdict on Obama: “He doesn’t like successful companies.”

Then came the tour, about two minutes in, starting with the old tile: “I don’t want to say from Home Depot, but it does come from a box.” Then the marble: “It’s not money. It’s peanuts.” And the claim: “But the White House is now in better shape than it was in 1792.” Those are his claims. The relaxation is all his too.