Cookie diplomacy
Jeff Landry's rough stretch reaches Greenland, but give his one gambit credit: mansion chocolate chip cookies are darn tasty.
It's the kind of week that could send a Louisiana governor back to Cajun Country for comfort and recharging.
Gov. Jeff Landry went farther.
He went to Greenland, carrying diplomacy, MAGA hats and the promise of chocolate chip cookies from the Louisiana Governor's Mansion.
Why it matters: Landry has had a rough stretch. His constitutional amendments lost badly. A recall petition against him picked up attention. Then his Greenland trip turned into an international punchline.
The details: Landry's slate of constitutional amendments went down Saturday—not by a few votes, but by electoral bonfire. It was his second major defeat on amendments in two years.
Earlier this month, Baton Rouge residents Marian Gbaiwon Hills and Katilyn P. Stepter filed a petition to recall the governor. The effort has almost no chance of succeeding, but it drew lines in New Orleans this week. Instead of ignoring it, the Louisiana Republican Party responded with a social media campaign against the petition, giving the movement free publicity.
Then came Greenland. Landry traveled there as a special envoy for Donald Trump. His offers of MAGA hats and selfies were declined. He was ridiculed in the media.
The cookie gambit: Landry made a pitch to children in Greenland: Come to Louisiana, he said, and they could eat as many chocolate chip cookies as they wanted at the Governor's Mansion. Cue another round of media ridicule, including a take from the conservative Washington Examiner.
But give Landry credit: Chocolate chip cookies at the Governor's Mansion are a long-running Louisiana tradition. And by all accounts, they are pretty darn tasty and comforting.
What they're saying: "The cookies, which are especially popular amongst the Governor's Mansion's youngest visitors, are the creation of the mansion's kitchen staff and are on the soft and chewy side of the spectrum," Chelsea Brasted wrote for The Times-Picayune in 2014. She's now with Axios New Orleans.
Try this at home: The long weekend gives you time to use the recipe here to bake a batch yourself. While they are baking, give the nearby children this Mansion cookie coloring sheet.
One warning: The recipe makes 60 cookies, which may be enough for all the children of Greenland expected at the mansion in the coming century.
