DEMS/ELECTION/G20/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “His aides teased that President Trump might insert himself into the 2020 Democratic presidential primary debate by live-tweeting the two-hour conversation that unfolded Wednesday night. But Mr. Trump, who took a classic ‘stay tuned!’ attitude all week about whether he would follow through, said beforehand that he would be sitting it out. ‘Sorry, I’m on Air Force One, off to save the Free World!’ he wrote on Twitter, directing his followers instead to campaign surrogates for instant responses and fact-checks. Mr. Trump was indeed in the air, en route to Osaka, Japan, for a major summit with foreign leaders, as the candidates took the stage in Miami. But the town crier, news wire president could not quite stay out of the fray on a night when prime-time television was devoted to prospective rivals. After all, Air Force One has television, Mr. Trump’s cabin is equipped with Wi-Fi, he does not like to sleep on the plane and he has made it clear that he is happy to engage in domestic politics even while traveling abroad.”
–Annie Karni, “Trump Said He’d Sit Out the Debate, but He Couldn’t Quite Do It,” The New York Times online, June 27, 2019