Trump speaks at defense bill signing

President Trump is signing a defense spending bill Monday as his first public event after his working vacation in Bedminster, New Jersey. Mr. Trump is speaking at the signing of H.R. 515, the “John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019,” at Fort Drum Army Base in New York. 

The signing at the base just south of the Canadian border comes after Mr. Trump spent some of the day attacking former “The Apprentice” star and former top White House aide Omarosa Manigault-Newman, amid her claims that she has multiple recordings of West Wing conversations. Mr. Trump blasted her on Twitter as a “lowlife” and “not smart.”

The bill authorizes a total of $717 billion for military funding over the next year. Mr. Trump often touts how much his administration is spending on the military. Mr. Trump called it the most significant investment in the military in modern history. 

Fort Drum Army base is home to 19,605 active military members. In March, GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-New York, invited Mr. Trump to visit the base during his first term in office, highlighting that both former President George W. Bush and former President Barack Obama did so in their first terms. 

Mr. Trump joked that he didn’t want to take Stefanik’s call, but she persisted