Tag: Trump

  • Always stay true to yourself

    The Post has the rest of the story on why Trump tweeted congratulations to a white runner-up while ignoring a black number one.

    President Trump offered support to Nick Bosa on Saturday morning, hours after the San Francisco 49ers’ top draft pick addressed scrutiny over past social media posts, including those supporting Trump and criticizing former quarterback Colin Kaepernick.

    Bosa, selected second overall by the 49ers on Thursday night, was asked during his introductory news conference Friday about his previous use of social media, including an August 2016 tweet in which he wrote, “Kaepernick is a clown.”

    “I definitely made some insensitive decisions throughout my life,” said Bosa, who deleted several of his posts leading up to the NFL draft. “I’m just excited to be here with a clean slate. I’m sorry if I hurt anybody. I definitely didn’t intend for that to be the case.”

    So naturally the president of the United States had to jump in to congratulate the guy who called Kaepernick a clown, because white guys gotta stick together plus Kaepernick is not a Trump fan would you believe it!!!

    Petty enough?

  • And the runner-up is…white!

    Another weird inappropriate thing for a president to do.

    It doesn’t follow a tweet congratulating the guy who was picked number one. There is no such tweet.

    https://twitter.com/heart_uf_a_king/status/1122132089854472192

    Wait, maybe Nick Bosa is not white!

    Nah.

  • From a very great height

    You wanted to see Trump mocking asylum seekers? Here you go.

  • Complete with mockery of asylum-seekers

    Trump is ranting at the NRA convention, and Daniel Dale is tweeting it.

    Just another Friday.

  • The question was answered PERFECTLY

    This again.

    Oh I’ve answered that question,  and if you look at what I said you will see that that question was answered perfectly.

    He said, with his usual air of ineffable conceit.

     

    And I was talking about people that went because they felt very strongly about the monument to Robert E. Lee, a great general – whether you like it or not, he was one of the great generals – I’ve spoken to many generals here, right at the White House, and many people thought – of the generals, they said he was maybe their favorite general – people were there protesting the taking down of the monuments of Robert E. Lee. Everybody knows that.

    Well, lots of people think that, and lots pretend to think it, but that’s because it’s the propaganda. It’s the dainty fig leaf pasted over the shameful history of slavery and white supremacy in the utterly literal sense that people like Trump want to translate into something noble. It’s just more Gone With the Wind which itself was just more Birth of a Nation which itself was based on the novel The Clansman by Thomas Dixon.

  • The procession down the Mall

    But Trump is getting his state visit to the UK at last.

    Mrs May said June’s state visit was an “opportunity to strengthen our already close relationship in areas such as trade, investment, security and defence, and to discuss how we can build on these ties in the years ahead”.

    But shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry voiced concerns about the visit, saying: “It beggars belief that on the very same day Donald Trump is threatening to veto a United Nations resolution against the use of rape as a weapon of war, Theresa May is pressing ahead with her plans to honour him with a state visit to the UK.”

    It’s possible he won’t have a very good time.

    A spokeswoman for Commons Speaker John Bercow said a request for Mr Trump to address Parliament – an event often associated with a state visit – would be “considered in the usual way”, but did not say whether a request had yet been received.

    Mr Bercow – who, as Speaker, has the power to veto who addresses Parliament – previously said he would be “strongly opposed” to Mr Trump addressing the Houses of Parliament during a state visit.

    BBC royal correspondent Jonny Dymond said Mr Trump avoided London on his last visit and made it clear he did not particularly want to come to the capital if he was going to face protests.

    However, our correspondent said a key part of a state visit is the procession down the Mall in front of Buckingham Palace and it is thought protesters will gather there – not a first for a state visit.

    So then he’ll probably declare war.

  • This reeks of a typical practice in authoritarian regimes

    Trump tried to get Sessions to Lock Her Up.

    Attorney General Jeff Sessions had a tenuous hold on his job when President Trump called him at home in the middle of 2017. The president had already blamed him for recusing himself from investigations related to the 2016 election, sought his resignation and belittled him in private and on Twitter.

    Now, Mr. Trump had another demand: He wanted Mr. Sessions to reverse his recusal and order the prosecution of Hillary Clinton.

    …

    Mr. Mueller’s report released last week brimmed with examples of Mr. Trump seeking to protect himself from the investigation. But his request of Mr. Sessions — and two similar ones detailed in the report — stands apart because it shows Mr. Trump trying to wield the power of law enforcement to target a political rival, a step that no president since Richard M. Nixon is known to have taken.

    Remember when he threatened that in one of the debates? And how much shock-horror there was?

    Mr. Trump wanted Mrs. Clinton investigated for her use of a private email server to conduct government business while secretary of state, the report said, even though investigators had examined her conduct and declined to bring charges in a case closed in 2016.

    And even though Trump’s own Princess Ivanka was using a private server to conduct government business while daughter of president with job as senior adviser.

    By trying to have Mrs. Clinton prosecuted, Mr. Trump was following through on a campaign promise. At rallies, he often stood on stage denouncing her as crowds chanted, “Lock her up!”

    “This reeks of a typical practice in authoritarian regimes where whoever attains power, they don’t just take over power peacefully, but they punish and jail their opponents,” said Matthew Dallek, a political historian and professor at George Washington University.

    …

    Beyond Mr. Mueller’s report, there is evidence that Mr. Trump has continued to try to push the Justice Department to bend to his wishes. He told the White House counsel Donald F. McGahn II in April 2018 that he wanted the Justice Department to prosecute Mrs. Clinton and the former F.B.I. director James B. Comey, two people familiar with the conversation have said.

    …

    It was unclear from the report whether Mr. Trump appreciated the difference between using his power to target Mrs. Clinton and trying to insulate himself from law enforcement scrutiny, Mr. Buell noted. It is more likely, he said, that Mr. Trump simply viewed the Justice Department and the F.B.I. as institutions that worked for him.

    “All of his demands fit into a picture that he believes the apparatus is mine,” Mr. Buell said.

    Mr. Trump has kept up the public lashings of law enforcement officials and Mrs. Clinton. “There are no Crimes by me at all,” he wrote on Twitter on Wednesday. “All of the Crimes were committed by Crooked Hillary, the Dems, the DNC and Dirty Cops — and we caught them in the act!”

    “I’m not the mob boss, they’re the mob boss!!”

  • How Trump spends his time

    Trump teetering on the ledge.

    Threatening military action against Mexico. No biggie, just another Wednesday.

    We know it generally takes him about an hour to compose a single tweet. He’s hopped up today.

    I didn’t call him, he called me! He loves me!! He’s desperate!!! I’m not the needy one, you’re the needy one!!!

  • Never happier

    Trump today.

    Never happier or more content? Really? Then why all the tantruming?

    Friday it was one tantrum after another.

    President Donald Trump lashed out Friday at current and former aides who cooperated with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, insisting the deeply unflattering picture they painted of him and the White House was “total bullshit.”

    In a series of angry tweets from rainy Palm Beach, Florida, Trump laced into those who, under oath, had shared with Mueller their accounts of how Trump tried numerous times to squash or influence the investigation and portrayed the White House as infected by a culture of lies, deceit and deception.

    …

    The attacks were a dramatic departure from the upbeat public face the White House had put on it just 24 hours earlier, when Trump celebrated the report’s findings as full exoneration and his counselor Kellyanne Conway called it “the best day” for Trump’s team since his election. While the president, according to people close to him, did feel vindicated by the report, he also felt betrayed by those who had painted him in an unflattering light — even though they were speaking under oath and had been directed by the White House to cooperate fully with Mueller’s team.

    Yes but by “cooperate” they didn’t mean tell the truth. Jesus. Do they have to spell out everything? So it’s a felony to lie to federal investigators, tough shit, that’s part of the job.

    While Mueller found no criminal evidence that Trump or his campaign aides colluded in Russian election meddling and did not recommend obstruction charges against the president, the 448-page report released Thursday nonetheless paints a damaging picture of the president, describing numerous cases where he discouraged witnesses from cooperating with prosecutors and prodded aides to mislead the public on his behalf to hamper the Russia probe he feared would cripple his presidency.

    But he’s never been happier or more content. I guess one could read that in a very literal way, to mean that this miserable is his normal state.

  • Among you taking notes

    Trump is tantruming because people took notes and the notes make him look bad and it’s all just so unfair.

    But the fact that some of those notes became primary source material for Mueller to paint a vivid portrait of Trump’s efforts to derail the investigation angered the president, who was stewing over the media coverage as he decamped to Florida for the holiday weekend, according to people familiar with his thinking.

    “Statements are made about me by certain people in the Crazy Mueller Report, in itself written by 18 Angry Democrat Trump Haters, which are fabricated & totally untrue,” the president tweeted Friday morning from his Mar-a-Lago Club. “Watch out for people that take so-called ‘notes,’ when the notes never existed until needed.”

    Yeah! What right do people have to take notes!

    Meanwhile Trump is an outright criminal, but that’s perfectly all right, because shut up.

    Despite Trump’s angry tweets Friday morning about the Mueller report, the president was in a good mood as he dined on the Mar-a-Lago patio after landing in Palm Beach, Fla., on Thursday night. On Friday, he played golf with conservative talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh, who defended the president on the air Thursday.

    “My friends, I’m telling you, this report is made to order for the Democrat Party to ignore what is the only important thing about this: No collusion, no obstruction, period,” Limbaugh told his listeners.

    Why is that the only important thing? There are many important things. Trump is a bad bad man, and the bad things he does are important, because he is dragging us down into the muck with him, and because he is doing harm to large numbers of people.

  • A lot of great lawyers

    Informational interlude: tell us more about Trump’s favorite lawyer, Roy Cohn:

    https://twitter.com/JoshuaMZeitz/status/1119191363290116096

  • Trump says it’s total bullshit

    Trump right now.

    That second one was 23 minutes ago, and the … still hasn’t been completed. Hard work, writing a tweet.

  • Evidence about the president’s actions and intent

    Meanwhile the report is out.

    The Guardian (like everyone else) is racing through it and sharing some highlights. Like the part where it’s less exculpatory than Barr told us it was:

    In his introduction to the second part of his report, on obstruction of justice, Robert Mueller goes much further than attorney general Bill Barr has suggested and points to serious wrongdoing on Trump’s part that could amount to criminal activity.

    Mueller states that had his team concluded that the president had committed no crime, they would have said so. Instead, Mueller writes:

    Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, however, we are unable to reach that judgment.

    There’s more trouble for Trump in the next sentence. Mueller alludes to having found “evidence about the president’s actions and intent” that “prevent us from conclusively determining that no criminal conduct occurred”. Mueller adds:

    “Accordingly, while this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”

    Which is…you know…quite an ordinary situation in criminal investigations. They can find some evidence but not enough. The suspect walks, but that doesn’t automatically mean the suspect didn’t do it.

    If only it had been.

  • But he was frustrated and angered

    So, Barr turned in the expected shocking performance.

    The Guardian was watching:

    “The report recounts ten episodes involving the President and discusses potential legal theories for connecting these actions to elements of an obstruction offense,” Barr says.

    It’s hard to avoid the sense that Barr is going out of his way to defend Trump here. Because while Mueller documented those ten episodes, Barr says he and deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein:

    “Concluded that the evidence developed by the Special Counsel is not sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense.”

    Barr adds:

    Although the Deputy Attorney General and I disagreed with some of the Special Counsel’s legal theories and felt that some of the episodes examined did not amount to obstruction as a matter of law, we did not rely solely on that in making our decision.

    Barr says one of the other things that influenced his belief that Trump did not obstruct justice is that there was evidence that Trump was “frustrated and angered by his sincere belief that the [Mueller] investigation was” hindering his presidency.

    But the White House “fully cooperated” with the special counsel’s investigation, Barr says.

    You have got to be fucking kidding. Of course Trump was furious and outraged that anyone dared to investigate his corrupt and dangerous actions; we already knew that; being really really pissed off doesn’t turn obstruction of justice into not obstruction of justice. What kind of Attorney General treats the rage of the perp as exculpatory? Of course Trump’s belief was “sincere”; Trump sincerely believes he is the only person on the planet who matters; how would that make him any less guilty?

    Mind you, that is how a lot of violence against women gets explained away. “He was sincerely jealous and angry”; not guilty. But that’s a defense argument, not a prosecutor argument. The AG is not supposed to be the president’s attorney.

    Next entry:

    Barr said that Trump did not obstruct justice – but in doing so admitted he had “disagreed with some of the special counsel’s legal theories” in coming to that conclusion.

    Barr also claimed, falsely, that the White House “fully cooperated” with Mueller. In fact, Trump refused to be interviewed.

    Barr also seemed to claim that Trump being “frustrated and angered” mitigated against some of the obstructions of justice allegations.

    I’m feeling a tad frustrated and angered right now; what can I get away with?

  • He does not want to

    Trump is very very very mad about the subpoenas and the committees and the subpoenas and everything. Just fit to be tied.

    The slew of demands from the House committees has infuriated Trump, who has told aides that he does not want to cooperate with the inquiries, according to people familiar with his thinking.

    He is particularly angry about the efforts by the Ways and Means Committee to obtain his tax returns, telling aides he will fight that demand all the way to the Supreme Court and adding that, by then, the 2020 election will be over.

    “You’re never going to see his tax returns,” Anthony Scaramucci, a former White House official and Trump adviser, said on MSNBC on Tuesday. “He’s not going to release them.”

    Never never never never never! Do you understand?!

    I wonder if it crosses his tiny mind that he’s telling us he’s dirty. He was lying about the returns, saying they were “under audit.” If now he’s just saying “NO, NEVER” then he’s telling us they would expose him for the dirty rotten crook he is. That’s a little bit interesting.

  • Muh authoriteh

    Trump says he can do whatever he wants:

    President Donald Trump issued the second veto of his presidency Tuesday, stopping a congressional resolution that would have sought to end US involvement in the Saudi-led war in Yemen.

    “This resolution is an unnecessary, dangerous attempt to weaken my constitutional authorities, endangering the lives of American citizens and brave service members, both today and in the future,” Trump wrote to the Senate Thursday.

    His constitutional authority – as if it were personal to him as opposed to attaching (or not) to the office. I’m pretty sure normal presidents use the third person in statements of that kind – they talk of the executive branch or the president but not their personal selves. Trump is too dumb to grasp the difference.

    Supporters of the War Powers Resolution argued the US shouldn’t be involved in the war without explicit permission from Congress. Opponents argued the US does not have “boots on the ground” and is offering noncombat technical assistance to Saudi Arabia, an ally.

    Several supporters made clear their votes were also aimed at expressing their frustrations with Trump’s continued support for Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has been implicated in the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

    The bill passed the House 247-175. Sixteen Republicans voted yes with Democrats and one voted present. In the Senate the vote was 54 to 46, with seven Republicans voting with Democrats.

    But everybody loves him! He says so himself!

  • 4chan in the White House

    The BBC notices Trump’s targeting of Ilhan Omar:

    On Monday Mr Trump stepped up his attacks against Ms Omar, calling her “out of control”.

    He also said Mrs Pelosi “should look at the anti-Semitic, anti-Israel and ungrateful US HATE statements Omar has made” before defending her.

    Says the guy who has made more racist sexist appearance-ist statements than anyone can keep track of.

    Also, this Nancy shit. She’s the Speaker of the House, she’s a grown-up and a colleague, not a child holding her dolly. She doesn’t call him “Donnie” in public, he should not be calling her “Nancy” in that rude contemptuous vulgar way.

    In a statement on Sunday, Ms Omar said: “Since the president’s tweet Friday evening, I have experienced an increase in direct threats on my life – many directly referring or replying to the president’s video”.

    She thanked security officials for “their attention to these threats” and accused Mr Trump of fuelling a rise in “violent crimes and other acts of hate by right-wing extremists and white nationalists”.

    She also expressed concern that Mr Trump’s visit to her home state of Minnesota on Monday could lead to an increase in hate crimes and assaults.

    “Violent rhetoric and all forms of hate speech have no place in our society, much less from our country’s Commander in Chief.

    “We are all Americans. This is endangering lives. It has to stop,” she said.

    It has to, but it won’t. Trump has woken a beast and it’s not in any hurry to go back to sleep.

  • Trump’s lawlessness is intensifying

    Jennifer Rubin says Trump has taken an impeachment-level lunge into abuse of power territory.

    The abusing asylum-seekers as retaliation against sanctuary cities and Democrats in general was bad enough, but he didn’t stop there.

    Making matters worse, we learned he allegedly told Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan to close the border despite concerns about the legality of doing so. He allegedly told McAleenan, who is now also acting secretary of homeland security, that he — Trump — would pardon him later if need be.

    What?!? That’s the only sensible reaction for someone minimally conversant in the Constitution and the rule of law. This is the conduct of a movie mob boss, not a president. Trump is so brazen he’d rather lie to make himself appear more politically vengeful than tell the truth that his suggestion apparently was rebuffed. Tough guy. Gotta make da Dems quake in their boots, right?

    Republicans, as they always do when Trump is shredding democracy, remained silent on Friday. Speaking more generally of Trump’s Twitter habits in an interview, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) declared the president to be a “freak.” Actually, if the allegations are true, he’s much worse than that.

    You know why? Because you can’t offer pardons in advance as inducement to commit crimes. That’s a no-no even for presidents.

    Former federal prosecutor Mimi Rocah acknowledged that, if the allegation about a pardon was true and Trump was serious, Trump then “offered a pardon as a bribe to get a public official to commit an unlawful act.” Referring to Attorney General William P. Barr’s exaggerated conception of executive authority, she queried, “Would Barr dare say that’s within his executive power?”

    Constitutional scholar Laurence H. Tribe tells me, “If carried out, this offer to pardon high immigration officials if they will break the law on his behalf is the most obviously impeachable action President Trump has taken to date: It would mean this president has seized the power to put not just himself but all who do his bidding beyond the reach of law.” He continues, “That doing so is a high crime and misdemeanor is beyond dispute. Any president guilty of such conduct cannot be permitted to remain in office.”

    …

    We’ve now come to the point where Trump is bragging about a plot to abuse power, using federal resources to enact political revenge. We have reason to believe he tried to induce wrongdoing with a pardon offer. “One thing everyone who knows the relevant law has agreed about the otherwise sweeping pardon power is that it cannot be used in advance, to license crimes before they have been committed,” Tribe says.

    Trump’s lawlessness is intensifying. Even those such as Tribe who have opposed impeachment, given “the Senate’s fidelity to Trump rather than to the Constitution,” wonder if Trump can be left in office for another year-and-a-half. “I hesitate to say the red line has finally been crossed, but I see no way around that conclusion at this point,” he says.

    Image result for trump prison

    I can dream.

  • We are indeed

    Trump says “YOU’RE GOD DAMN RIGHT I AM!”

    Only trouble is, his people were trying to deny it yesterday.

  • Retaliation

    Ugh, god.

    From the Post:

    White House officials have tried to pressure U.S. immigration authorities to release detainees onto the streets of “sanctuary cities” to retaliate against President Trump’s political adversaries, according to Department of Homeland Security officials and email messages reviewed by The Washington Post.

    Trump administration officials have proposed transporting detained immigrants to sanctuary cities at least twice in the past six months — once in November, as a migrant caravan approached the U.S. southern border, and again in February, amid a standoff with Democrats over funding for Trump’s border wall.

    House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s district in San Francisco was among those the White House wanted to target, according to DHS officials. The administration also considered releasing detainees in other Democratic strongholds.

    Anything else? Plans to start wildfires near Democratic strongholds? Poisoning the water supply in Democratic strongholds?

    The White House told U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that the plan was intended to alleviate a shortage of jail space but also served to send a message to Democrats. The attempt at political retribution raised alarm within ICE, with a top official responding that it was rife with budgetary and liability concerns, and noting that “there are PR risks as well.”

    After the White House pressed again in February, ICE’s legal department rejected the idea as inappropriate and rebuffed the administration.

    “No, Mr President, you can’t single out cities you consider enemies for punishment. That’s not how any of this works.”

    Pelosi’s office blasted the plan.

    “The extent of this administration’s cynicism and cruelty cannot be overstated,” said Pelosi spokeswoman Ashley Etienne. “Using human beings — including little children — as pawns in their warped game to perpetuate fear and demonize immigrants is despicable.”

    You’ll never guess who was pushing it.

    Image result for stephen miller

    Updating to add:

    https://twitter.com/waltshaub/status/1116783628242030598