The Trump thread: All things Donald

[Athos_131]

How Donald Trump Shifted Kids-Cancer Charity Money Into His Business

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[Northwest]

I wonder if Trump is finally starting to get the messages, and to realize what a bucket of shit he's put himself in. I've actually gone about 48 hours without hearing about a new, controversial tweet, or moronic decision.

I like being able to live my life without spending most of my energy on whatever new, offensive and dim witted action the president has taken. And, Christ, I needed this break.

[Athos_131]

The president’s political case for his presidency, in three tweets

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[Athos_131]

White House briefings are now shorter, rarer and ‘basically pointless

“It's bizarre,” he continued. “I don't know what world we're living in right now, Brooke, where we're standing at the White House and they bring us into the briefing room here at the White House, and they won't answer these questions on camera or let us record the audio. … I don't understand why we covered that gaggle today, quite honestly, Brooke. If they can't give us the answers to the questions on camera or where we can record the audio, they're basically pointless, at this point.”

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[Athos_131]

In Trump’s Washington, public business increasingly handled behind closed doors

“I was very frustrated the Obama administration held things so close to the vest. . . but I quite frankly haven’t seen any change with the Trump administration. In some ways I find it worse,” said outgoing Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), who chaired the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform before announcing his retirement this spring.

In an interview Monday, Chaffetz ticked through several controversies, including the transfer of whistleblowers at the Transportation Security Administration, about which he said Trump administration officials have declined to provide key documents to his committee.

“I see a bureaucracy that doesn’t want documents and the truth out the door. . .and just flipping the middle finger at Congress,” Chaffetz said

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[Athos_131]

At height of Russia tensions, Trump campaign chairman Manafort met with business associate from Ukraine

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[Athos_131]

What does Robert Mueller's team tell us about the Russia investigation?

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[Athos_131]

Mueller team lawyer brings witness-flipping expertise to Trump probes

I wonder just how firm those promises of loyalty to Trump are.

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[Athos_131]

Despite Concerns About Blackmail, Flynn Still Heard C.I.A. Secrets

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[Athos_131]

China approves Donald Trump-branded spas, escort services, hotels and massage parlours without US Congress permission

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[Katiebee]

Emoluments.

[Athos_131]

The 55 things the White House has promised to get back to us on

Generally speaking, though, it’s clear that the goal is less frequently to tell the media that the information was not at hand and more frequently simply to deflect the question indefinitely.

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[Athos_131]

Trump visited this Boeing factory to celebrate jobs. It just announced layoffs

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[Athos_131]

Kellyanne Conway's husband represented firm accused of Russia bribe

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[Athos_131]

T r u m p ’ s   L i e s

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[Athos_131]

The Post’s new findings in Russia’s bold campaign to influence the U.S. election

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[Athos_131]

Trump congratulates himself for influencing Comey’s testimony with White House tapes ruse

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[Athos_131]

Trump is struggling to stay calm on Russia, one morning call at a time

President Trump has a new morning ritual. Around 6:30 a.m. on many days — before all the network news shows have come on the air — he gets on the phone with a member of his outside legal team to chew over all things Russia.

The calls — detailed by three senior White House officials — are part strategy consultation and part presidential venting session, during which Trump’s lawyers and public-relations gurus take turns reviewing the latest headlines with him. They also devise their plan for battling his avowed enemies: the special counsel leading the Russia investigation; the “fake news” media chronicling it; and, in some instances, the president’s own Justice Department overseeing the probe.

His advisers have encouraged the calls — which the early-to-rise Trump takes from his private quarters in the White House residence — in hopes that he can compartmentalize the widening Russia investigation. By the time the president arrives for work in the Oval Office, the thinking goes, he will no longer be consumed by the Russia probe that he complains hangs over his presidency like a darkening cloud.

It rarely works, however. Asked whether the tactic was effective, one top White House adviser paused for several seconds and then just laughed.

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[Athos_131]

Putin denied meddling in the U.S. election. The CIA caught him doing just that.

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[Athos_131]

Trump, Russia and a Shadowy Business Partnership

During the years that Bayrock and Trump did deals together, the company was also a bridge between murky European funding and a number of projects in the U.S. to which the president once lent his name in exchange for handsome fees. Icelandic banks that dealt with Bayrock, for example, were easy marks for money launderers and foreign influence, according to interviews with government investigators, legislators, and others in Reykjavik, Brussels, Paris and London. Trump testified under oath in a 2007 deposition that Bayrock brought Russian investors to his Trump Tower office to discuss deals in Moscow, and said he was pondering investing there.

"It's ridiculous that I wouldn't be investing in Russia," Trump said in that deposition. "Russia is one of the hottest places in the world for investment."

#Resist