The Trump thread: All things Donald

[Athos_131]

A new polling low for Trump: Just 16 percent ‘like’ his conduct as president

#Resist

[Katiebee]

The Agencies need to not be chasing after 'wanna be' projects, that is why they need fewer people by a lot, especially at HQ.  When an Emergency may arise, and a State cannot handle the response, then some help from FEMA or another Agency with Emergency funding is the initial step, followed by the recommendation of Congress, along with a payment plan by Congress for the funds allocated.  Loans at low interest to the State affected, for instance.

You have no idea how organizations work. At a certain point you can not do more with less, you simply fail.

And your loan idea is not in the GOP reduce taxes model.

Fail, fail, total fail.

[Katiebee]

Mattis puts transgender ban on hold.

https://apple.news/AQ5LoMxOOSnOxFmvMbON-1w

Seems not everyone is willing to to be a total ass. First Tillerson, now Mattis.

[joan1984]

Why would a loan from the United States to a State, such as Texas, be included in a GOP Tax Reduction bill? Apples and Oranges, Katiebee...

Maybe Loans to States should be in some of the Infrastructure Legislation,
 and the Medicaid extension could benefit from such a program, where he State, proving itself credit worthy (of course) could borrow at a advantaged rate, with a payback obligation over some number of years, for worthy projects the State wishes to encounter, that has some National merit for us all.

Better than raising taxes or the deficit. Long term loans to buy down our own U.S. obligations, with a suitable payment obligation insured, could allow some projects to go forward without excessive taxation NOW.

Good idea, Katiebee.

[Katiebee]

Debit ceiling limit, funding of FEMA, budget.

Explaining federal budget issues and funding to you is like explaining physics to an earthworm. There is no comprehension of the subject by the one being instructed.

[Northwest]

Debit ceiling limit, funding of FEMA, budget.

Explaining federal budget issues and funding to you is like explaining physics to an earthworm. There is no comprehension of the subject by the one being instructed.

I blew coffee through my nose when I read that.

[IdleBoast]

A new polling low for Trump: Just 16 percent ‘like’ his conduct as president

#Resist

Good grief, even in his support base, only 1 in 3 "like" Drumpf as president or agree with him on "issues"!

[_priapism]

Trump received something less than 23% of eligible voters. And his approval rating has fallen steadily. Especially since his latest fiasco. Has it fallen as far as it can?

Doubtful.

A 69+% approval rating "on the issues" among Republicans. But as things come out that is dropping. A 50% approval among Republicans only translates to a 15% among Americans in general.

So 1 in 6 people approve of him. At this point. If it comes to more than symbolic support though that will drop drastically. 1 in 10? 1 in 20?

One in 10 gives him 31 million die hard supporters. One in 20 cuts that by half. And if it comes to fighting for him (as Trump has suggested) I doubt he could muster 1 in 1,000 of those who voted for him.

[Athos_131]

Even in visiting hurricane-ravaged Texas, Trump keeps the focus on himself

‘Thank you, everybody,” the president said, sporting one of the white “USA” caps that are being sold on his campaign website for $40. “I just want to say: We love you. You are special. . . . What a crowd. What a turnout.”

Yet again, Trump managed to turn attention on himself. His responses to the devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey have been more focused on the power of the storm and his administration’s response than on the millions of Texans whose lives have been dramatically altered by the floodwaters.

He has talked favorably about the higher television ratings that come with hurricane coverage, predicted that he will soon be congratulating himself and used 16 exclamation points in 22 often breathless tweets about the storm. But as of late Tuesday afternoon, the president had yet to mention those killed, call on other Americans to help or directly encourage donations to relief organizations.

The mighty storm didn’t cut short the president’s weekend at Camp David in Maryland — or derail his plans to announce that he was pardoning Joe Arpaio, a former county sheriff in Arizona who was convicted this summer of ignoring a court order to stop racially profiling. Later, Trump said he wasn’t trying to bury the news on a Friday night but instead “assumed the ratings would be far higher than they would be normally” because of coverage of the storm.

#Resist

[Athos_131]

Trump can’t help but turn a presidential speech into a campaign event. Literally.

Trump’s “not supposed to do any electioneering when he’s on government business,” Noble explained. “Calling for the defeat of somebody is electioneering and is a campaign statement, and therefore should only take place at a campaign event.” As a result, Pfeiffer’s right: The Republican National Committee or the Trump 2020 campaign — which has up and running since January — should cover part of the cost of Wednesday’s event.

This rule, dictated by the Federal Election Commission, usually comes up when an elected official is at an event as part of their official duties and is asked by a member of the media about an upcoming election. Then, too, the official is expected to demur from offering a response.

Noble pointed out that the response from Trump’s team may be that the president was saying if-this-then-that — that it was not an explicit call for McCaskill’s defeat, but a conditional one. He didn’t think this was a winning argument. It also seems unlikely that this was a narrow path that Trump decided on the spur of the moment to walk.

The resolution to this is as simple as the RNC or Trump’s campaign cutting a check. But to the point of the first part of Pfeiffer’s tweet, this is also an unusual line for a president to cross.

It’s worth remembering, though, that Trump’s spent an awful lot more time behind microphones as a candidate than as a president. And old habits die hard.

Particularly for Donald Trump, it seems.

Oops!

I guess the Orange Menace needs to pony up.

#Resist

[_priapism]

Since the only time he can get the adulation that he craves is a campaign event, Trump will be the first President I can recall who spends his entire term in office campaigning for re-election.  So "electioneering" is actually the primary by-product of his administration.

[Athos_131]

During a summer of crisis, Trump chafes against criticism and new controls

President Trump spent the final days of August dutifully performing his job. He tended to the massive recovery from Hurricane Harvey. He hit the road to sell his tax-cut plan. And he convened policy meetings on the federal budget and the North Korean nuclear threat.

Behind the scenes during a summer of crisis, however, Trump appears to pine for the days when the Oval Office was a bustling hub of visitors and gossip, over which he presided as impresario. He fumes that he does not get the credit he thinks he deserves from the media or the allegiance from fellow Republican leaders he says he is owed. He boasts about his presidency in superlatives, but confidants privately fret about his suddenly dark moods.

And some of Trump’s friends fear that the short-tempered president is on an inevitable collision course with White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly.

Trump chafes at some of the retired Marine Corps general’s moves to restrict access to him since he took the job almost a month ago, said several people close to the president. They run counter to Trump’s love of spontaneity and brashness, prompting some Trump loyalists to derisively dub Kelly “the church lady” because they consider him strict and morally superior.

“He’s having a very hard time,” one friend who spoke with Trump this week said of the president. “He doesn’t like the way the media’s handling him. He doesn’t like how Kelly’s handling him. He’s turning on people that are very close to him.”

Aides say Trump admires Kelly’s credentials, respects his leadership and management skills, and praises him often, both in private meetings and at public events. In a tax policy speech Wednesday in Missouri, Trump singled out Kelly’s work to decrease the number of illegal border crossings when he was secretary of homeland security.

Meanwhile, people close to the president said he is simmering with displeasure over what he considers personal disloyalty from National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn, who criticized Trump’s responses to a deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville on Aug. 12. He also has grown increasingly frustrated with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who has clashed with the president on issues including Afghanistan troop levels, the blockade on Qatar and Cuba policy.

This portrait of Trump as he enters what could be his most consequential month in office is based on interviews with 15 senior White House officials, outside advisers and friends of the president, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to be candid.

In September, Trump will face deadlines to raise the federal debt ceiling and pass a spending bill possibly tied to his campaign promise to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border; make his first big push for tax cuts; and oversee a potentially historic disaster recovery in Texas and Louisiana.

If Trump’s 75-minute rally performance on Aug. 22 in Phoenix served as a public testimonial to his rage over the media and Congress, he is agitating privately about other concerns, as well.

Trump lashed out at George Gigicos, one of his original campaign staff members, for what the president considered unflattering television camera angles at the Phoenix rally, which Bloomberg News first reported. The president also was distressed by a New York Times report that was posted a few hours before the event documenting the turmoil between him and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

Trump was especially angered by something he learned at his stop earlier in the day, a border visit in Yuma, Ariz., several of his associates said.

A group of Border Patrol agents who had endorsed him and become campaign-trail buddies initially were blocked by the Trump administration from attending. Although the agents eventually were allowed into the event, the president made his displeasure about their treatment known to Kelly, said people who were briefed about the incident. Two of those people said Trump raised his voice with his chief of staff, whom he faulted for trying to restrict outside friends from having direct access to him.

That evening in Phoenix, Trump attempted to call Kelly onto the stage. “Where’s John?” he asked. “Where is he? Where’s General Kelly? Get him out here. He’s great. He’s doing a great job.”

Kelly did not join his boss in front of the crowd.

“It is not unusual for staffers to hear him bluster about things,” said Barry Bennett, a former campaign adviser. “That doesn’t mean it’s real. There were people on the campaign staff that he said to fire a dozen times, but he never did it. It was just bark. And some people don’t know the difference between the bark and the bite.”

Kelly took the job with the express goal of implementing strict order on a West Wing that had become rife with turmoil, infighting and damaging leaks to the media.

Friends used to be able to call the White House and be patched directly through to Trump; now those calls are routed through Kelly and do not always make it to the president. Friends used to drop by the West Wing when they had time to kill, wandering to the Oval Office to say hello; now they must have an official appointment — and a clear reason — to visit.

The changes are largely welcomed by senior administration officials, who say the president’s time is too valuable to be wasted on chitchat and hangers-on.

But Trump sometimes defies — and even resents — the new structure. He has been especially sensitive to the way Kelly’s rigid structure is portrayed in the media and strives to disabuse people of the notion that he is being managed. The president continues to call business friends and outside advisers, including former chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon, from his personal phone when Kelly is not around, said people with knowledge of the calls.

“Donald Trump resists being handled,” said Roger Stone, a former Trump adviser and longtime confidant. “Nobody tells him who to see, who to listen to, what to read, what he can say.” Stone added, “General Kelly is trying to treat the president like a mushroom. Keeping him in the dark and feeding him s--- is not going to work. Donald Trump is a free spirit.”

Kelly has told colleagues that he has no intention of controlling what Trump says or tweets. Although he has tried to manage the information the president receives, Kelly recognizes that there are limits to what he can do, according to White House officials.

“The president can turn on the television, the president can call people, and the president can read the newspaper,” said a Republican close to the White House who added that the onus is on Trump, not his staff, to control his impulses.

Trump has jettisoned some of the more controversial figures in his administration this summer. For instance, the firing of Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci after just 10 days earned the flamboyant aide the moniker “suicide bomber” in the West Wing for having taken down with him Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and press secretary Sean Spicer. Trump also parted ways with Bannon, who often channeled the president’s nationalist instincts.

More changes may be afoot under Kelly, who is continuing his personnel review and is said to be targeting aides without clear portfolios of responsibility.

On Tillerson, Trump has come to see his top diplomat’s approach to world affairs as “totally establishment,” in the words of one Trump associate. Several people close to Trump said they would be surprised if Tillerson stays in his post past his one-year mark in January. They hinted that his departure may come far sooner, with one describing it as “imminent.”

And some who have recently seen Tillerson say the former ExxonMobil chief executive — unaccustomed to taking orders from a superior, let alone one as capricious as Trump — also seems to be ready to end his State Department tenure. He has grumbled privately to Kelly about Trump’s recent controversies, said two people familiar with their relationship.

Others, however, caution that Tillerson remains fully enmeshed in the administration. After having lunch with the president Monday, Tillerson sat in the front row of Trump’s joint news conference with the president of Finland and was a key member of Cabinet discussions focused on handling Hurricane Harvey.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters Wednesday that Trump “absolutely” has confidence in Tillerson.

Tillerson made headlines over the weekend when he was asked on “Fox News Sunday,” in the context of Charlottesville, whether Trump speaks for American values. “The president speaks for himself,” Tillerson told anchor Chris Wallace.

Many Trump insiders were aghast at the diplomat’s apparent denunciation of the president, but several senior White House officials said Trump’s frustration with Tillerson has been about specific policies. The Fox interview did not bother Trump, one official said, even though the president was upset about Cohn’s scolding of him to the Financial Times.

Trump was especially upset that Cohn went public with his complaints about the president’s handling of Charlottesville, even after Trump listened to Cohn vent during a private meeting on Aug. 18 in Bedminster, N.J.

The president has been quietly fuming about Cohn for the past week but has resisted dismissing him in part because he has been the face, along with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, of the administration’s tax-cut strategy.

Still, Trump has other ways to slight Cohn. The economic adviser traveled with Trump on Wednesday to Springfield, Mo., for his speech about tax reform, yet when the president ticked through “the many distinguished guests” in attendance, he did not mention Cohn. Afterward, Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter, tweeted a call for tax reform with a picture of Trump backstage flanked by her and Mnuchin. Notably absent was Cohn, the plan’s co-architect.

Asked about the perceived insults, Sanders told reporters aboard Air Force One on the flight home to Washington that it was “pretty standard tactics” for Trump not to call out staff members in his remarks.

Pressed on the state of Trump and Cohn’s relationship, Sanders said only that both men are committed to tax reform.

“Well, look,” she said, “Gary is here. The president is here.”

Aww, is SCROTUS unhappy with the job he wanted?  It's easy to fix that.

#Resist

[Athos_131]

Trump and Manafort get big reminder that pardon power does not extend to state crimes

Politico reported Wednesday that New York’s attorney general Eric Schneiderman is now working with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III in the probe of financial transactions involving Paul Manafort, a story independently confirmed by The Washington Post by a source familiar with the investigation.

While the involvement of Schneiderman could produce nothing and is in an early stage, the news sends an important message to President Trump: his pardon power does not extend to state crimes.

In the event Manafort or anyone else is charged under New York law, or threatened with indictment, there will be nothing Trump can do about it.

His “power to grant reprieves and pardons” only covers “offenses against the United States,” according to Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution.

Reports of Schneiderman’s interest in Manafort are not new.

But the news that the New York attorney general is teaming up with Mueller attracted a good deal of attention from Trump critics because of the pardon issue. Trump pointedly tweeted in July that he has “complete power to pardon” aides, family members and possibly even himself. His pardon Friday of former Maricopa County sheriff Joe Arpaio was a seen by some as strong message that he is willing to use the pardon power liberally.

“So much for strategic use of pardon power with Manafort,” tweeted Harvard Law School professor Laurence Tribe.

According to the Politico report:

The two teams have shared evidence and talked frequently in recent weeks about a potential case, these people said. One of the people familiar with progress on the case said both Mueller’s and Schneiderman’s teams have collected evidence on financial crimes, including potential money laundering.

No decision has been made on where or whether to file charges. “Nothing is imminent,” said one of the people familiar with the case.

A spokeswoman for Schneiderman declined to comment.

Manafort has denied any wrongdoing.

There are plenty of points of entry into the Manafort probe for a New York prosecutor.

The Wall Street Journal reported in May that Schneiderman and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr., were examining Manafort real estate transactions across the U.S., including in New York, “for indications of money-laundering and fraud.”

NBC news reported that some of those New York loans were financed in part by a Ukrainian émigré to the U.S.

Manafort told NBC through a spokesman that his transactions were “executed in a transparent fashion …” But NBC reported that Manafort’s name and signature did not appear on loan documents.

Manafort was chairman of Trump’s campaign until he resigned amid growing scrutiny of his decade of work in Ukraine on behalf of a Russia-friendly political party, the Party of Regions.

Manafort’s personal finances may be totally unrelated to Mueller’s probe into possible coordination of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign.

But Mueller could conceivably use any jeopardy faced by Manafort in New York to gain his cooperation into the broader investigation, without the hindrance of a Trump pardon of Manafort.

Indeed, The Post reported earlier this month that Manafort’s allies feared that Meuller wants to build a case against Manafort independent of the 2016 campaign “in hopes that he would provide information against others in Trump’s inner circle in exchange for lessening his legal exposure.”

#Resist

[Athos_131]

Mueller Has Early Draft of Trump Letter Giving Reasons for Firing Comey

#Resist

[Athos_131]

My Family in Houston Deserves Better Than This Orange Narcissist

#Resist

[Athos_131]

Trump Boys Gather Rations Of Comic Books, Candy Bars For Night Hiding From Special Prosecutors In Makeshift Rose Garden Fort

WASHINGTON—Saying they could “live out here in the wild for months” if they had to, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. reportedly spent Wednesday rounding up supplies of comic books and candy bars as they prepared to hide out that night from special prosecutors in their makeshift White House Rose Garden fort.

According to sources, the Trump boys were seen carrying pillows, fruit snacks, a Connect Four game, an assortment of action figures, a screwdriver, a pair of plates from the State Dining Room’s china service, and other supplies, making several trips out to the blanket fort where they planned to lie low during Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into links between Russia and their father’s presidential campaign.

“No one’s getting inside here—this place is super secure,” said Donald Jr., dumping a pillowcase filled with butter knives, a deck of Pokémon cards, and several individually wrapped Swiss cake rolls onto the fort’s grass floor. “We can forage during the day and sleep here at night. Mueller’s never gonna find us, not with all those leaves and twigs we put on the roof for camouflage.”

“Even if he did, he’d never get past our booby traps,” added Donald Jr., referring to the thorny branches the brothers had gathered from nearby rose bushes and placed around the fort’s perimeter.

Sources stated that the fort, located 30 feet from the West Wing Colonnade, has walls built from cardboard and loose piles of scrap wood, while its roof consists of blankets stripped from the president’s bed, which are draped over bushes and held down on the sides with a paperweight from the Resolute desk and a bronze bust of Martin Luther King Jr. The entrance flap, which the Trump boys keep pulled shut at all times to conceal themselves from any lawyers seeking to question them about Russian interference in the election, is reportedly made from a tattered flag flown by the 29th Massachusetts Infantry during the Battle of Antietam.

White House staff confirmed the boys tried to bring two overstuffed chairs out to the 5-by-7-foot fort, but abandoned them on the South Portico after finding them too heavy to carry. As they sprawled out instead on cushions taken from a couch in the Treaty Room, the brothers are believed to have drawn up secret plans in a spiral notebook, including a scheme in which they would wear ski masks and one of them would boost the other through the window of Mueller’s office to steal back all the documents he has subpoenaed.

“We can tape these toilet-paper rolls together to make bignoculars [sic],” said Eric, placing the cardboard cylinders next to two long wrapping-paper tubes they planned to cover in aluminum foil and use as swords. “I’d like to see Mueller try to make us testify! We’ve got everything we need to outlast him: Froot Loops, my Nintendo DS, super glue, juice, a spool of real fishing line, a bike pump. I even brought a picture of the whole family so we’ll never forget what they look like.”

“We can’t ever go back to our old lives,” continued Eric. “Except for going inside to use the bathroom—that’s allowed.”

Needing kindling for the fire they would light at nightfall, sources said the Trump boys tore apart the frame and canvas of Charles Édouard Armand-Dumaresq’s circa 1873 painting of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, which they had removed from the wall of the White House Cabinet Room. However, the brothers are said to have abandoned their attempts to start the fire after Eric burned his fingers while trying to use a Bic lighter to cook a hot dog.

Reports confirmed that around 9 p.m., when Eric and Donald Jr. were listening intently for the footsteps of any special prosecutors who might be approaching in the darkness, they heard the sound of a twig snapping, which immediately caused them to shut off their flashlights and huddle deep inside their sleeping bags.

“It’s Mueller!” whispered Donald Jr., holding a hand over Eric’s mouth to muffle his brother’s scream. “Quick, grab the secret notebook and run! I’ll attack him with the pruning shears!”

“Wait, it’s just Melania with hot cocoa,” added Donald Jr., breathing a sigh of relief. “Tell her the password so we can let her in.”

At approximately 3 a.m., a sobbing Eric Trump was seen marching toward the White House with a pillow under his arm, saying that he didn’t care if he got in trouble, he was tired and sad and just wanted to sleep in his own bed with all his stuff again.

#Resist

[Athos_131]

DOJ confirms no evidence supporting Trump claim Obama wiretapped him

#Resist

[Athos_131]

Pentagon miscounted troops deployed for Harvey relief: report

#Resist

[_priapism]

Pentagon miscounted troops deployed for Harvey relief: report

#Resist

Everything from Trump's "donation", to overall relief efforts, will be misstated.  Meanwhile private citizens will provide the lion's share of assistance.  The GOP has destroyed our government's ability to govern.  Welcome to the Trump age.

[Lois]

I'm just wondering if Trump's "donation" will ever materialize.  I still remember the fiasco over his promised donation to veterans.  We can thank the media that the veterans finally got the money.