Trump Bucked Tradition on Dogs. Now He Explains Why

During his rally in El Paso on Monday night, President Trump detoured into an unlikely tangent: Why doesn't he have a dog? As the Washington Post notes, every president over the last century has had one, and it was seen nearly as a political necessity until Trump got elected. The president got into the subject when talking about drug-sniffing dogs at the border. "You do love your dogs, don’t you?" Trump told the cheering crowd. "I wouldn’t mind having one, honestly, but I don’t have any time. How would I look walking a dog on the White House lawn?"

When the crowd cheered some more at that, apparently liking the idea of a dog in the Trump White House, the president sounded skeptical. "I don’t know, I don’t feel good,” he said. "Feels a little phony to me." He noted that advisers have told him it would look good politically, but he disagrees because “that’s not the relationship I have with my people.” One thing that probably won't change, however: Calling his political enemies "a dog" has long been one of Trump's favorite insults, as Seth Meyers recently pointed out, per HuffPo. (Trump says he works harder than his predecessors.)