Donald Trump gets trademark rambling going at Blues' White House visit

Three years into Donald Trump’s presidency, his playbook for visits from the major sports champions who deign to visit him is pretty well established.

Trump can be counted on to offer generic compliments, mispronounce a few names, do whatever he can to associate himself with the winners, and ramble — coherently or not — about topics entirely unrelated to athletics. On Tuesday, when the St. Louis Blues rolled into town, the 45th president absolutely played the hits.

First off, here’s what the president himself posted: a cookie cutter photo and a 25-minute video of his remarks that technically you can watch if you have no respect for your own time:

The assembled media did the yeoman’s work of picking out the particularly bizarre moments, of which there were certainly a few. For instance, the Blues — a team comprised largely of Canadians — probably felt a little uncomfortable standing alongside him as he went after Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

Trump also went well off course in a discussion of the stock market, that ultimately ended in a weird swipe at NHL player agents for some reason.

Perhaps the hero of the event was goaltender Jordan Binnington, who gave the president — who is notorious for his extremely awkward and forceful handshakes — a taste of his own medicine.

Ultimately the event was nothing out of the ordinary. There were a few bizarre comments, minor missteps, and the odd laugh. It was precisely what you’d expect an invitation from this White House to result in. The most confusing part of the proceedings was why a team made up of Canadians and northern Europeans would feel the need to be there at all.

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