The Trump thread: All things Donald

[Athos_131]

In a West Wing in Transition, Trump Tries to Stand Firm on the Shutdown

“We are getting crushed!” Mr. Trump told his acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, after watching some recent coverage of the shutdown, according to one person familiar with the conversation. “Why can’t we get a deal?”

#Resist

[Athos_131]

President Trump's Former Lawyer Paid Liberty University Employee to Rig Online Polls: Report

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[Athos_131]

House Intel Chairman Schiff Vows To Get Trump Jr. Phone Records — And More

It ain't no fun when the rabbit's got the gun.

#Resist

[Athos_131]

Inspector general: GSA ignored Constitution by letting Trump lease old post office for DC hotel

#Resist

[Athos_131]

Democrats demand investigation after report that Trump ordered Michael Cohen to lie to Congress

In November, Cohen admitted he’d falsely told Congress that Trump’s efforts to build a condo tower in Moscow ended in January 2016, when, in reality, those efforts continued through that June. As Mueller noted, Cohen’s testimony was an attempt to “minimize links between the Moscow Project and Individual 1,” which is how Trump is referred to in the report. Trump had repeatedly insisted on the campaign trail that he had no ongoing business interests in Russia, even as the deal continued to unfold.

In court documents, Cohen admitted that he’d briefed Trump on his ongoing negotiations with Russian officials about the proposed deal and said that he’d consulted with Trump’s team before his false testimony before Congress. But he never said in those documents that Trump himself played any role in encouraging his false testimony.

According to BuzzFeed, Mueller’s team now has evidence that Trump did just that.

18 U.S. Code § 1622 - Subornation of perjury

Whoever procures another to commit any perjury is guilty of subornation of perjury, and shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.

#Resist

[Athos_131]

Obstruction of Justice
Subornation of perjury
Campaign finance violations
Emoluments violations

Sure seems like a lot of witches are being found.

#Resist

[_priapism]

Fascinating read, from the American Conservative.

Why Ex-Churchgoers Flocked to Trump

[Athos_131]

A look back on two dismal years of the Trump administration

Racism: Trump said there were “very fine people on both sides” in Charlottesville, equating neo-Nazis with their opponents. He insulted the intelligence of African Americans such as LeBron James and Rep. Maxine Waters (D.-Calif.). He referred to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D.-Mass.) as “Pocahantas,” because she claims Native American heritage. He said he wants immigrants from snow-white Norway, not from “shithole countries” in Africa. He whipped up hysteria about Central American “caravans” of refugees. He pilloried African American National Football League players who kneeled to protest police brutality during the national anthem. He echoed the alt-right in expressing concern about the plight of white farmers in South Africa. He approvingly quoted Pat Buchanan, whom he once denounced as a “Hitler lover.” His views are, in fact, almost indistinguishable from those of Rep. Steve King (R.-Iowa), who was stripped of his committee assignments for his advocacy of white supremacy. Trump backed his rhetoric with action, issuing an executive order to block the entry of people from five Muslim-majority nations, attempting to end protections for 700,000 people brought to this country as children, locking up the children of undocumented immigrants in cages and now fighting for a border wall.

Authoritarianism: Trump fawned over foreign dictators. He said Russian President Vladimir Putin is “very much of a leader,” Chinese President Xi Jinping is “a highly respected and powerful representative of his people,” Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is doing an “unbelievable job,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is “getting very high marks,” and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is “very open and terrific.” These are five of the worst human rights violators on the planet.

Trump also tried, with mercifully limited success, to emulate their illiberal example. He claimed the “absolute right” to declare a national emergency to build a border wall that Congress won’t fund. He deployed troops to the border in a political stunt. He revoked the security clearance of a former CIA director who criticized him. He created a climate of rhetorical violence that has been associated with mail bombs and a synagogue shooting. He copied Viktor Orban by promulgating conspiracy theories about George Soros. He called the press the “enemy of the people,” borrowing a term from Josef Stalin. He barred CNN correspondent Jim Acosta from the White House and asked the postmaster general to raise shipping rates for Amazon to punish Post owner Jeffrey P. Bezos (“Jeff Bozo”). A large part of the reason Trump dislikes the “fake news media” is that they call him out on his lies. In 2018, he averaged 15 falsehoods a day. “What you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening,” Trump told his followers, echoing George Orwell’s “1984”: “The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”

Trump is at war not only with the truth but also with the law. He fired the FBI director and attorney general to stop an investigation of his campaign, and he attempted to obstruct justice with his invective against special counsel Robert S. Mueller III and the FBI and his encouragement of witnesses not to “rat.”

Incompetence: If Trump has a saving grace, it is that he is so incompetent: A more cunning populist would be far more dangerous. His tweets are riddled with spelling, grammar and factual mistakes. (Remember the “smocking gun”?) More significantly, he couldn’t get a Republican-controlled Congress to approve a border wall or repeal Obamacare. His attempt to implement his Muslim ban led to chaos in airports and a lengthy court battle. He has record-setting turnover and numerous vacancies among his staff. (There is still no nominee for 37 percent of key administration jobs.) He impetuously announced a ban on transgender soldiers, the suspension of military exercises with South Korea and the withdrawal from Syria, catching the Pentagon by surprise. His administration leaked so badly that one anonymous official boasted in a New York Times op-ed of obstructing Trump’s agenda. He launched a trade war with China and a government shutdown with no exit strategy. His midterm campaign backfired, leading the Democrats to pick up 40 House seats. He can’t consistently break 40 percent approval despite a booming economy. And he’s not learning from his mistakes. From the vantage point of 2019, in the midst of a record-setting government shutdown, the chaos of 2017 looks like the good ole days.

Megalomania: If measured by conventional metrics, the first two years of the Trump presidency have been a dismal failure. But if Trump’s chief goal is to make himself the center of the world’s attention, a president who is obsessed with TV ratings has succeeded beyond his wildest dreams. Even those who hate Trump can’t stop talking about him. May our next president be extremely boring.

#Resist

[Lois]

A junket: an extravagant trip or celebration, in particular one enjoyed by a government official at public expense.

So according to Joan Nancy Pelosi's trip to Afganistan is a junket?  If it was, I'd think a war zone would not be the best choice. 

I would remind Joan that the Speaker of the House is 2nd in line to the presidency after the vice president.  As such, she need to be kept informed just as much as the President.

Furthermore, after 9-11 the Speaker was specifically prohibited from using commercial aircraft while on government business.  Trump knew that right? Obviously, Joan didn't, or she would not be making an ass of herself about it.

Meanwhile, Trump authorized Melania to take a junket to Florida.

As for doing their job, a bill was placed on the Trump's desk.  It was approved by both houses of congress. Trump indicated he would sign it until suddenly he wouldnt. He's the one that is not doing his job.

[psiberzerker]

It's also possible that Joan doesn't know what a Junket is, but as she overlooks the President doing his duties instead of interfering with the other 2 branches, and appointing secretaries of systematically dismantling their agencies, I kinda doubt she understands the duties of the Speaker of the House.  Since she's not the president.

[joan1984]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=207&v=Gv_yVqJ_l9c 

http://conservativefighters.com/news/liberal-student-steals-maga-hat-innocent-boy/

Ran across this today, as I was looking up MAGA hat Right To Life March kids, and how they have been abused by Mainstream Media the past few days, over false reports, more fake news.  Wanted to share this with you all, and will follow up with details on the Covington School Kids in Washington, DC later.

[psiberzerker]

I was looking up MAGA hat Right To Life March kids, and how they have been abused by Mainstream Media the past few days, over false reports, more fake news.

If you go looking for something to offend your tender sensibilities, over "Fake news" and Abortion, you're going to find it on the internet.

Confirmation Bias.

[joan1984]

A junket: an extravagant trip or celebration, in particular one enjoyed by a government official at public expense.

  A unannounced to the public trip, with 100 or more Congress 'members' and 'guests', to Belguim (because the pilots needed to rest there), where the 'guest and Members' would need to eat something of course, so a lavish NATO dinner for all, some Entertainment, some shopping of course, then another flight, to Egypt (for some military purpose, no doubt) where the 'guests' and Members would pursue our Nation's interests once again by shopping, visiting Pyramids and whatever else was required of them as they awaited the 'military delay', such dutiful servants, these... squeezing in a visit to be photographed wearing some sort of camo garb... and pledging to help the Coast Guard families or whatever...

  Yep, a Junket, with it's justification squeezed in between Shopping, lavish meals and sight seeing in friendly and exotic locales, polluting the skies in the process, while their 'beloved' workers await Congressional Action, some sort of bill that President Trump may sign to be proposed, along with the supposed "negotiations" being done on their behalf "at home"...

  The 'Walk of Shame' of Elected Officials who dreaded leaving the US Air Force Busses outside the Capitol and House Office Buildings, was just icing on the cake. Somehow FOX managed to stay up with the busses, as they were driven around the blocks several times to avoid discharging their passengers with luggage in front of the Cameras, was fun to see.

  No list so far provided of the 'guests' and 'Members' who planned to spend a week "in a war zone" has been forthcoming, and 'our media' has been far less than inquizitive on this matter.

[Athos_131]

President Trump Posts Altered Photos to Facebook and Instagram That Make Him Look Thinner

#Resist

[Athos_131]

10% of TSA employees called out Sunday as shutdown continues

The Transportation Security Administration said one in 10 of its employees scheduled to work Sunday took the day off, with many employees citing "financial limitations" preventing them from working.

"Yesterday's complete figures show that TSA experienced a national rate of 10 percent of unscheduled absences compared to a 3.1 percent rate one year ago on the same day, Jan. 20, 2018," the TSA said in a statement Monday. "Many employees are reporting that they are not able to report to work due to financial limitations."

#Resist

[Athos_131]

Shutdown drives thousands in Coast Guard to apply for financial assistance

#Resist

[_priapism]

President Trump Posts Altered Photos to Facebook and Instagram That Make Him Look Thinner

#Resist

DT, phone home...

[Athos_131]

DT, phone home...

He's in contact with Russia constantly already.

#Resist

[Athos_131]

Trump voters now blame him for the government shutdown

Recent polling indicates that the government shutdown has caused skittishness among parts of Trump’s base, which has been one of the most enduring strengths of his presidency. An NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist survey, conducted Jan. 10 to Jan. 13, found that his net approval rating had dropped seven points since December.

One of the biggest declines came among suburban men, whose approval rating of Trump fell a net 18 percentage points, while support from evangelicals and Republicans dipped by smaller margins. Among men without a college degree, the downward change was seven points.

Narrator:  Things did not go as planned for Donald.

#Resist

[Athos_131]

‘Absolutely out of control’: Cliff Sims’s book depicts life in Trump’s White House

President Trump watched on television, increasingly angry as House Speaker Paul D. Ryan criticized his handling of the deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville. He held the remote control “like a pistol” and yelled for an assistant to get the Republican leader on the phone.

“Paul, do you know why Democrats have been kicking your a-- for decades? Because they know a little word called ‘loyalty,’ ” Trump told Ryan, then a Wisconsin congressman. “Why do you think Nancy [Pelosi] has held on this long? Have you seen her? She’s a disaster. Every time she opens her mouth another Republican gets elected. But they stick with her . . . Why can’t you be loyal to your president, Paul?”

The tormenting continued. Trump recalled Ryan distancing himself from Trump in October 2016, in the days after the “Access Hollywood” video in which he bragged of fondling women first surfaced in The Washington Post.

“I remember being in Wisconsin and your own people were booing you,” Trump told him, according to former West Wing communications aide Cliff Sims. “You were out there dying like a dog, Paul. Like a dog! And what’d I do? I saved your a--.”

The browbeating of the top Republican on Capitol Hill was one of the vivid snapshots of life inside the Trump White House told by one of its original inhabitants, Cliff Sims, in his 384-page tell-all, “Team of Vipers,” which goes on sale next week and was obtained in advance by The Post. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Sims, who enjoyed uncommon personal access to Trump, recounts expletive-filled scenes of chaos, dysfunction and duplicity among the president, his family members and administration officials.

Unlike memoirs of other Trump officials, Sims’s book is neither a sycophantic portrayal of the president nor a blistering account written to settle scores. The author presents himself as a true believer in Trump and his agenda, and even writes whimsically of the president, but still is critical of him, especially his morality. Sims also finds fault in himself, a rarity in Trump World, writing that at times he was “selfish,” “nakedly ambitious” and “a coward.”

The author reconstructs in comic detail the Trump team’s first day at work, when the president sat in the residence raging about news coverage of the relatively small size of his inauguration crowds, and White House press secretary Sean Spicer scrambled to address it.

Spicer had worked the team “into a frenzy,” and it fell to Sims to write the script for his first statement to the media. Nervously chewing gum, Spicer dictated “a torrent of expletives with a few salient points scattered in between.” At one point, Sims’s computer crashed and he lost the draft, so it had to be rewritten. And in their rush to satisfy the impatient president, nobody checked the facts. Spicer, he writes, was “walking into his own execution.”

“It’s impossible to deny how absolutely out of control the White House staff — again, myself included — was at times,” Sims writes. The book’s scenes are consistent with news reporting at the time from inside the White House.

Sims depicts Trump as deeply suspicious of his own staff. He recalls a private huddle in which he and Keith Schiller, the president’s longtime bodyguard and confidant, helped Trump draw up an enemies list with a Sharpie on White House stationery. “We’re going to get rid of all the snakes, even the bottom-feeders,” Trump told them.

White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly told the staff that he viewed his job as serving the “country first, POTUS second,” which Sims interpreted as potentially hostile to Trump’s agenda.

Sims recounts that Kelly once confided to him in a moment of exasperation: “This is the worst [expletive] job I’ve ever had. People apparently think that I care when they write that I might be fired. If that ever happened, it would be the best day I’ve had since I walked into this place.”

A conservative media figure in Alabama, Sims came to work on Trump’s 2016 campaign and cultivated a personal relationship with the candidate-turned-president. Sims writes rich, extended dialogue from his conversations with Trump and others in the administration.

As White House director of message strategy, Sims regularly met Trump at the private elevator of the residence and accompanied him to video tapings — carrying a can of Tresemmé Tres Two hair spray, extra hold, for the boss. At one such taping, about an hour after Trump had tweeted that he saw MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski “bleeding badly from a facelift,” the president sought feedback from Sims and Spicer.

“They’re going to say it’s not presidential,” Trump said, referring to the media. “But you know what? It’s modern-day presidential.” The president then raged about the “Morning Joe” program on which Brzezinski appears and instructed Spicer, “Don’t you dare say I watch that show.”

Sims also recounts a meeting with Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a longtime friend, and former chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon at which Sessions suggested a polygraph test of national security officials to root out “leakers” after The Post reported the transcripts of Trump’s phone calls with the Mexican president and Australian prime minister.

At times, Trump evinced less rage than a lack of interest. Sims recounts one time when Ryan was in the Oval Office explaining the ins and outs of the Republican health-care bill to the president. As Ryan droned on for 15 minutes, Trump sipped on a glass of Diet Coke, peered out at the Rose Garden, stared aimlessly at the walls and, finally, walked out.

Ryan kept talking as the president wandered down the hall to his private dining room, where he flicked on his giant flat-screen TV. Apparently, he had had enough of Ryan’s talk. It fell to Vice President Pence to retrieve Trump and convince him to return to the Oval Office so they could continue their strategy session.

Sims reconstructs moments of crisis for the West Wing communications team in play-by-play detail, including the domestic abuse allegations against former staff secretary Rob Porter and the firing of James B. Comey as FBI director.

He paints Spicer, counselor Kellyanne Conway and communications adviser Mercedes Schlapp in an especially negative light, calling Conway “the American Sniper of West Wing marksmen” and describing her agenda as “survival over all others, including the president.”

Sims writes that former aide Omarosa Manigault cursed members of the Congressional Black Caucus when they asked for a moment of privacy in the West Wing after meeting with Trump and before addressing the media.

“Privacy?!” Manigault said. “You think you can come up in our house and demand [expletive] privacy? Hell, no! You must be outta your . . . mind.”

Perhaps the book’s most cinematic chapter of chaos is “The Mooch Is Loose,” a reconstruction of Anthony Scaramucci’s 11 days as White House communications director.

Sims was Scaramucci’s right-hand man and describes the flamboyant aide’s hunt for “leakers,” which began with his own staff. Scaramucci assembled the 40-odd media aides and threatened to fire them all, Sims writes, as if he were a “fire-breathing dragon that had just returned from laying waste to the unsuspecting peasants in the village.”

Sims writes that Scaramucci ordered them to reply to anyone in the White House instructing them to leak information to a reporter, including then-Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, by saying: “I cannot do that. I only report to Anthony Scaramucci and he reports directly to the president of the United States.”

Even Trump was amused.

“Can you believe this guy?” the president told Sims. “He’s completely out of his mind — like, on drugs or something — totally out of his mind. We’ll figure it out, but the guy is crazy.”

#Resist