President Donald Trump's Memorial Day tribute came after a weekend in which he repeatedly took to Twitter to stir up controversy. | Alex Brandon/AP Photo Trump dwells on Russia probe as he honors fallen service members

President Donald Trump solemnly laid a wreath at Arlington National Cemetery under a cloudy sky Monday morning, marking Memorial Day as commander in chief even as his White House remains embroiled in an ever-growing list of self-made controversies and Twitter-based conspiracy theorizing.

Trump kicked off the day with a tweet noting the holiday before shifting to touting his accomplishments in the White House.


“Happy Memorial Day! Those who died for our great country would be very happy and proud at how well our country is doing today. Best economy in decades, lowest unemployment numbers for Blacks and Hispanics EVER (& women in 18years), rebuilding our Military and so much more. Nice!” Trump wrote on Twitter.

Quickly, though, Trump pivoted to tweeting about Fox News segments on the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election – an investigation that Trump and his allies contend, without evidence, was politically motivated to harm Trump’s campaign and his administration.

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“‘The President deserves some answers.’ @FoxNews in discussing ‘SPYGATE.’” Trump wrote on Twitter.

Minutes later, he posted again: “‘Sally Yates is part of concerns people have raised about bias in the Justice Dept. I find her actions to be really quite unbelievable.’ Jonathan Turley.”

“‘We now find out that the Obama Administration put the opposing campaigns presidential candidate, or his campaign, under investigation. That raises legitimate questions. I just find this really odd...this goes to the heart of our electoral system.’ Jonathan Turley on @FoxNews,” he added.

Trump struck a more solemn tone soon after at Arlington.

He saluted service members who gave their lives “in their undying love of our great country.”

“They marched into hell so that America could know the blessings of peace,” Trump said.

He used his remarks to tell the stories of military members killed in action, praising their families and introducing them to the crowd for applause. He met with individual service members before returning to the White House, greeting them alongside Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and chairman of the joint chiefs Gen. Joseph Dunford.

The Memorial Day tribute came after a weekend in which Trump repeatedly took to Twitter to stir up controversy, falsely accusing the New York Times of fabricating a source, blaming Democrats for his administration’s immigration policy and repeatedly slamming special counsel Robert Mueller’s sprawling investigation.

Those statements came against a tense international backdrop, as the United States and North Korea seek to salvage the chance for peace talks in Singapore in the months ahead.

Trump appears increasingly obsessed with what he is calling “Spygate” – the notion that his campaign was surveilled by the Justice Department for political purposes. There is no evidence to suggest this is the case. The FBI utilized an informant to talk to campaign officials after they discovered evidence that the officials had Russia-linked contacts during the campaign, while Russia was allegedly waging a covert disinformation campaign to harm Democrat Hillary Clinton and help Trump.

After the ceremony, Trump dropped the Russia probe for the moment and posted multiple tweets about the event.

