https://twitter.com/Amy_Siskind/status/1116403028637245440

Trump mentioned Wikileaks 164 times in final month of election

Trump just now: “I know nothing about Wikileaks. It’s not my thing,” https://t.co/2q0dlSHg5i

— Julian Borger (@julianborger) April 11, 2019

"Getting off the plane, they were just announcing new WikiLeaks, and I wanted to stay there, but I didn't want to keep you waiting," Trump said. "Boy, I love reading those WikiLeaks."

— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) April 11, 2019

President Trump asked about Julian Assange and WikiLeaks today pic.twitter.com/9CkacFdbWb

— David Frum (@davidfrum) April 11, 2019

… Read the rest

So little Donald went to Mount Vernon one day with his friend Manny. Little Donald was bored, and he thought George Washington was stupid.

During a guided tour of Mount Vernon last April with French president Emmanuel Macron, Trump learned that Washington was one of the major real-estate speculators of his era. So, he couldn’t understand why America’s first president didn’t name his historic Virginia compound or any of the other property he acquired after himself.

“If he was smart, he would’ve put his name on it,” Trump said, according to three sources briefed on the exchange. “You’ve got to put your name on stuff or no one remembers you.”

Yeah. Just put your name on stuff, one way … Read the rest

Well, you have to see it from Trump’s point of view. He’s never had any respect for the rule of law; it’s the way he was raised. His father was a crook, so that’s what he saw growing up.

Jake Tapper tells us it’s been boiling over lately:

Three Thursdays ago, in a meeting at the Oval Office with top officials — including Nielsen, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, top aides Jared Kushner, Mercedes Schlapp and Dan Scavino, White House counsel Pat Cipollone and more — the President, according to one attendee, was “ranting and raving, saying border security was his issue.”

Senior administration officials say that Trump then ordered Nielsen and Pompeo to shut down the port of

The Times has more on the purge (which they call a purge right up front):

President Trump moved to sweep out the top ranks of the Department of Homeland Security on Monday, a day after pushing out its secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen, accelerating a purge of the nation’s immigration and security leadership.

Government officials said three more top department leaders were expected to leave soon: L. Francis Cissna, the head of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services; Randolph D. Alles, the Secret Service director; and John Mitnik, the agency’s general counsel.

…

All were viewed as allies of John F. Kelly, the president’s former chief of staff and his first Homeland Security secretary, who left late last year after months of tension

They just openly tell us the law can’t touch them.

Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said on Fox News Sunday that Democrats will never get their hands on President Trump’s tax returns, adding that the request is “a political stunt” that the IRS will not comply with.

How is it a stunt? There is a massive amount of evidence-based reporting on Trump’s many cheats and crimes over the decades, and there is precedent that presidential candidates are transparent about their tax returns so that we the voters and citizens can have confidence that they’re not corrupt or thieves or both. Also there is a legal basis for the request that the IRS hand over Trump’s returns, … Read the rest

More on Trump and golf and what it says about Trump, from the guy who wrote the book.

More than to any wife, more than to any party, more than to any opinion, President Donald Trump has remained fiercely loyal to golf. But I’ve played golf my entire life. Years ago, I even played with Trump once. Whatever sport he’s playing, it isn’t golf.

He cheats. He lies. He kicks. And not just his ball — yours, too. He props up a 2.8 handicap that’s faker than WrestleMania 35. He wins tournaments he never even played in. He wins tournaments that weren’t even held.

…

And it’s not just the cheating. It’s the way he plays the game—with

Taking credit for other people’s work? Don’s your man for that.

When President Donald Trump visits this border city Friday, he plans to tour a recently installed section of border fence. It’s the first replacement project completed under his presidency, and a plaque welded to the bollards marked the occasion.

The plaque, installed more than six months ago when the work was completed, refers to the 2.25-mile-long barrier as the “the first section of President Trump’s border wall.”

Border officials in Calexico have noted that the project had been planned for years before Trump took office.

It’s a section of border fence; it’s not part of “his” border wall. Donnie Tw0-scoops didn’t invent the border.

A fence had existed

Windmills, I tell you, windmills.

Trump, National Republican Congressional Committee’s annual spring dinner, Tuesday. He informed the enthralled audience that windmills give ya cancer. The noise from them. He imitated the noise for them.

But on Tuesday night during his most recent round of attacks against windmills, Trump cited what appeared to be a brand-new reason people should avoid the turbines.

“They say the noise causes cancer,” he told the crowd at the National Republican Congressional Committee’s annual spring dinner, punctuating his impassioned rhetoric with hand gestures and an exaggerated imitation of the sound of windmill blades rotating.

As presidents so routinely do.… Read the rest

Throwdown:

The chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, using a little-known provision in the federal tax code, formally requested on Wednesday that the I.R.S. hand over six years of President Trump’s personal and business tax returns, starting what is likely to be a momentous fight with his administration.

Representative Richard E. Neal, Democrat of Massachusetts, hand-delivered a two-page letter laying out the request to Charles P. Rettig, the Internal Revenue Service commissioner, ending months of speculation about when he would do so and almost certainly prompting a legal challenge from the Trump administration.

Reporters asked Trump about it during the few minutes he spent in the office and he said he’d love to but he’s being audited … Read the rest

Again. People continue to notice that Donald Trump’s brain appears to be crumbling to bits.

President Donald Trump’s recent confusion with words and facts, including about his own father, could be signs of pre-dementia and deteriorating cognitive skills, mental health experts warn.

“The ‘Tim Apple’ episode a few weeks ago, his calling Venezuela a company, and then yesterday, confusing his grandfather’s birthplace with his father’s, mispronouncing ‘oranges’ for ‘origins,’ and stating out of the blue, ‘I’m very normal,’” recited Bandy Lee, a professor of psychiatry at Yale University who has been waving red flags about Trump’s mental state for years. “There is no question he needs an examination.”

“I think he’s suffering from pre-dementia. And it’s only getting

Boy, Trump really can’t get the whole “where you born” thing right. He can’t even remember where his own father was born. I don’t mean the room or the town or even the state, I mean the country.

Donald Trump has wrongly claimed his father was born in Germany, again, during a press conference with the Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg.

Trump made the claim while criticizing Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, whose country, the president said, “was not paying their fair share” toward the military alliance.

He does pronounce “Angela” correctly though. I was wondering about that the other day, so it’s good to know. Mind you, he makes a show of it – pausing first and then … Read the rest

David Fahrenthold and Jonathan O’Connell at the Post have the deets on how Trump faked his net worth to scam people. (I believe that’s a crime, by the way – the scamming, not the reporting.)

When Donald Trump wanted to make a good impression — on a lender, a business partner, or a journalist — he sometimes sent them official-looking documents called “Statements of Financial Condition.”

These documents sometimes ran up to 20 pages. They were full of numbers, laying out Trump’s properties, debts and multibillion-dollar net worth.

But, for someone trying to get a true picture of Trump’s net worth, the documents were deeply flawed. Some simply omitted properties that carried big debts. Some assets were overvalued. And some

Another item Trump posted a bit later:

pic.twitter.com/b1bp3CGqwC

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 28, 2019

Nunes. Devin Nunes. Great hero. Future great hero, to be hailed as. Why? Because “he spoke up for good and just, and all of the things you have to speak up for.”

Almost makes you wish you’d known the fellow.… Read the rest

Not to forget keeping track of Trump.

Commentary:

Here's a summary of this morning's 7 Trump tweets:

1. Bully OPEC,
2. Attack the Free Press,
3. Defame a Congressman,
4. Pander to his Racist Base,
5. Provoke a Neighboring Ally,
6. Attack the Press Again,
7. Promote a Nationalist Rally.

The is what American fascism looks like.

— Translate Trump (@TranslateRealDT) March 28, 2019

The primary source:

Will be heading to Grand Rapids, Michigan, tonight for a Big Rally. Will be talking about the many exciting things that are happening to our Country, but also the car companies, & others, that are pouring back into Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, North & South Carolina & all over!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)

Trump is making threats now. Of course he is.

President Donald Trump says his enemies who did “evil” and “treasonous things” will be under scrutiny after he was absolved of colluding with Russia.

Speaking in the Oval Office, he said no other president should have to be investigated over “a false narrative”.

…

Mr Trump was hosting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the White House on Monday when a reporter asked him about the outcome of the Mueller report.

“There’s a lot of people out there that have done some very, very evil things, very bad things,” Mr Trump said, “I would say treasonous things, against our country.”

“And hopefully people that have done such harm to our

Aaron Blake at the Post asks, in guarded language, if the fix is in.

A big question hanging over William P. Barr’s nomination to be attorney general this year was whether, once he got the job, he would do President Trump’s bidding. Barr had made statements critical of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation, and he even wrote a long memo rejecting the need for the obstruction of justice portion of Mueller’s inquiry. Trump also repeatedly made clear his desire for a loyalist to oversee the investigation.

On Sunday, Barr made a big decision in Trump’s favor. And he did so in a way legal experts say is very questionable.

In his summary, Barr wrote that Mueller … Read the rest

Now that’s funny – Kellyanne Conway is defending Trump’s insults aimed at George Conway.

Kellyanne Conway on Wednesday defended President Donald Trump’s attacks on her husband George Conway saying he’s “a counterpuncher” and asserting that the president is free to respond when he’s accused of having a mental illness.

“He left it alone for months out of respect for me,” Conway, a senior Trump aide, told POLITICO in a brief telephone interview. “But you think he shouldn’t respond when somebody, a non-medical professional, accuses him of having a mental disorder? You think he should just take that sitting down?”

Oh no, definitely not, he should definitely get on Twitter and call him Mister Wife’s Name and a loser and … Read the rest

New level achieved:

George Conway, often referred to as Mr. Kellyanne Conway by those who know him, is VERY jealous of his wife’s success & angry that I, with her help, didn’t give him the job he so desperately wanted. I barely know him but just take a look, a stone cold LOSER & husband from hell!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 20, 2019

… Read the rest