Tag: Trump

Also today:

A federal judge on Friday gave the go-ahead to a lawsuit filed by 200 congressional Democrats against President Trump alleging he has violated the Constitution by doing business with foreign governments while in office.

The lawsuit is based on the Constitution’s emoluments clause, which bars presidents from taking payments from foreign states. Trump’s business, which he still owns, has hosted foreign embassy events and visiting foreign officials at its downtown D.C. hotel.

The decision opens up yet another legal front for the president, who is now facing an array of inquiries into his business, his campaign and his charity.

Trump is already facing a separate emoluments suit filed by the attorneys general of Washington, D.C. and Maryland that is moving forward. In addition, he is contending with the ongoing special counsel investigation into Russian interference, a lawsuit from the New York Attorney General that alleged “persistently illegal conduct” at his charitable foundation, and a defamation lawsuit brought by former “Apprentice” contestant Summer Zervos.

All perfectly normal for a president.

The congressional plaintiffs, led by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), asked the court to force Trump to stop accepting payments they consider improper — or to force him to seek Congress’s consent first.

Justice Department attorneys, who are representing Trump, asked the court to dismiss the case. They said Congress does not need to wait for Trump to ask permission — it could act first and pass a bill to ban the president from accepting such compensation.

This is the latest case in which the president and his company may now be exposed to a lengthy legal process and possible discovery by plaintiffs who oppose him politically, a process that could include depositions of witnesses and the disclosure of Trump Organization financial documents.

We did warn him.

In case you want to watch the waking nightmare that is that Trump press conference.

CBS picks out some highlights.

 

Mr. Trump reiterated his support for Kavanaugh throughout the press conference, lauding him as one of the great intellects of the country. But he did say he could change his mind after testimony from the women accusing the nominee. “That is possible,” he said.

Asked by CBS News’ Steven Portnoy what message the president is sending to young men with his stance on Kavanaugh, Mr. Trump decried a situation he sees as “guilty until proven innocent.”

“In this case, you’re guilty until proven innocent,” he said.

This is the guy who paid for a full-page ad in the New York Times demanding the death penalty for the Central Park 5, and who insisted they were guilty after DNA evidence showed they were not.

Mr. Trump was asked about an incident the day before when world leaders laughed, after he declared his administration had accomplished more than perhaps any other.

The president declared coverage of that event fake news.

“They weren’t laughing at me, they were laughing with me,” Mr. Trump said.

…

The president said he told Secretary of State Mike Pompeo not to get into the “time game” over denuclearization in North Korea.

The president said that, whether denuclearization takes two years, three years, or five months, it doesn’t matter.

…

Mr. Trump, pressed insistently by CBS News correspondent Weijia Jiang, admitted that the accusations of sexual misconduct against him from multiple women “absolutely” affect how he views the allegations against Kavanaugh.

The president went off about how “women who got paid a lot of money to make up stories about me. We caught them and the mainstream media refused to put it on television.” Their accusations, false ones, the president said, certainly affect his view of the Kavanaugh allegations.

“It does impact my opinion,” the president said. ” Because I’ve had a lot of false charges made against me. I’m a very famous person unfortunately. I’ve been a famous person for a long time. I’ve had a lot of false charges made against me. Really false charges.”

“I know friends who’ve had false charges,” he continued. “People want fame, they want money. So when I see it I view it differently than somebody sitting home watching television when they say ‘Oh, Judge Kavanaugh, this or that.’ It’s happened to me many times. I’ve had many false charges.”

“I had a women sitting in an airplane, and I attacked her while people were coming on to the plane when I had a bestselling book coming out. It was a totally phony story. When you say, ‘does it affect my thinking in respect to Judge Kavanaugh,’ absolutely, because I’ve had it many times. If the news would have reported these four people. When I heard they caught these four people, I said this is a big story. And it was, for Fox.”

…

Fox News’ John Roberts asked the president if there was an opportunity missed in not having the FBI further review the allegations against Kavanaugh.

“Well the FBI told us they’ve investigated Judge Kavanaugh six times, five times,” but “here there was nothing to investigate,” Mr. Trump said.

The president then went on to say Democrats are carrying out a “con” job in pushing the allegations and allowing the process to slow down. Mr. Trump said that behind closed doors, Democrats “laugh like hell.”

It’s worth watching at least a couple of minutes of it, to get a sense of how off the charts nuts he seems. As in, advanced dementia.

Trump thinks Kavanaugh is doing a bad job of defending himself so he’s taking over.

President Donald Trump has grown increasingly dissatisfied with the way Brett Kavanaugh has defended himself in wake of sexual assault allegations that have threatened to derail his Supreme Court nomination, multiple sources tell CNN.

It has led the President to believe that he must personally take charge of defending his embattled nominee ahead of Thursday’s critical appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Trump made the decision to hold a news conference on the eve of the hearing, making it the fourth he has held as president.

…

Trump is in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, but is being kept up to date on the latest developments with Kavanaugh. An official traveling with him said he is still standing squarely behind Kavanaugh.

No wonder he looked so tired and bored and drunk when he gave his speech yesterday; he was impatient to get back to the real fun.

Trump, who watched the [Fox] interview, thought Kavanaugh appeared “wooden,” according to one person familiar with the President’s thinking, and told several other allies he should have been more aggressive in his defense.

“You’re also not seeing him on his footing,” Trump said after the interview aired. “This isn’t his footing. He’s never been here before. He’s never had any charges like this, I mean charges come up from 36 years ago that are totally unsubstantiated.”

While Trump is totally used to it because he’s been assaulting women his whole adult life.

Though Kavanaugh has been flabbergasted as the women have come forward, he has remained measured publicly, while Trump has become increasingly agitated and animated while discussing the allegations.

The drama has overshadowed what was supposed to be a week of diplomacy at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Ahead of the President’s arrival in New York last weekend, aides hoped an intensive schedule might deter him from further inflaming the precarious confirmation proceedings back home, which most Republicans concurred was best played out without Trump’s intervention.

But Trump has been fixated on the Supreme Court confirmation battle as he shuttles between meetings with world leaders and wields the gavel at Wednesday’s meeting of the United Nations Security Council. He made clear what was on his mind when the President turned to his Colombian counterpart, President Iván Duque, Tuesday and said: “You must say, ‘How is this possible?’ “

So typical of Trump. “You must be interested in what I’m interested in.”

Trump addressed the matter again Wednesday, minutes before he chaired the Security Council meeting, remarking he would have pushed Kavanaugh’s nomination through the Senate two weeks ago if he were responsible for the proceedings.

“They could have pushed it through two weeks ago and we wouldn’t be talking about this right now, which is what I would have preferred,” Trump said, describing Kavanaugh as a “gem” who had been unfairly maligned.

Oh yes we would, you pig. You can’t shut us up, not unless you stage a real coup.

Trump, who has been accused of sexual assault by more than a dozen women and denied the allegations, has often said punching back is the most effective defense.

The President’s idea of a robust defense is causing heartburn during a tense week on Capitol Hill. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has conveyed to Trump that his comments are only complicating the confirmation process further and Republican Sen. Susan Collins, who will be a critical vote for Kavanaugh, said she was appalled by the President’s remarks, calling them “completely inappropriate and wrong.”

Hey, rapey guys have to defend each other.

Trump did his talk at the UN today. He came across as…barely conscious. Drugged or exhausted or strokey.

He started with his usual boast, and the UN people laughed.

WOW! The UN audience laughs at Trump after he claims, "my administration has accomplished more than almost any administration in the history of our country." pic.twitter.com/tXg50ejQqy

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 25, 2018

Trump says oh gee it’s all so political.

On Monday in New York, President Donald Trump dismissed the second allegation of sexual misconduct against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh as “totally political.”

Meaning what, exactly? That the nomination of Kavanaugh wasn’t political? They can’t be serious. How about Mitch McConnell’s boast about looking Obama in the eyes and saying, with a macho stab of the finger, “you will not fill this Supreme Court vacancy”? That wasn’t political?

The Supreme Court is political. I know it’s supposed to be above that, but it’s not and never has been.

White House counsel Kellyanne Conway said in an interview with CBS on Monday morning that the allegations against Kavanuagh are “starting to feel like a vast left-wing conspiracy.”

And Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell went off on Democrats Monday afternoon, accusing them of conducting a “shameful, shameful smear campaign.”

What about the refusal to hold hearings on Merrick Garland? That wasn’t political? That wasn’t a vast right-wing conspiracy?

Chris Cillizza goes back a few years:

But the politicization of this hearing happened a long time ago, and Republmicans are at least as culpable for it as are Democrats.

It began with then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid changing the Senate rules on confirming judges in 2013. It worsened — badly — when Republicans were unwilling to even consider the nomination of Merrick Garland to fill the seat vacated by deceased Justice Antonin Scalia in February 2016. The changing of Senate rules to end debate to confirm Neil Gorsuch to the Court by a simple majority in 2017 further inflamed things. The deeply riven and partisan environment is the one into which Kavanaugh was nominated. And it has only gotten worse.

There’s zero debate that Senate Democrats — particularly those on the Judiciary Committee — bear a massive amount of animosity toward McConnell and the Senate GOP leadership due to the blocking of Garland.

And why wouldn’t they? Why wouldn’t we?

Unconscious humor in Times report on Trump’s rally in Missouri last night purportedly to boost the Republican candidate for senator:

Thousands of supporters waved cardboard signs and wore hats bearing Mr. Trump’s election slogans — “Make America Great Again,” “Keep America Great” and “Drain the Swamp” — while two large placards bracketing a giant American flag declared “Promises Made” and “Promises Kept,” the argument the president has been making about his first two years in office.

Signs in support of Mr. Hawley were few and far between, and the digital banner around the arena directed people to send a text to Mr. Trump’s campaign, not Mr. Hawley’s, to sign up as supporters.

The president spoke at length about how his candidacy and electoral victory in 2016 had defied predictions, inviting his cheering audience to relive the night of the election with him. He imitated news anchors calling states in his favor, and described his election as “one of the greatest nights in the history of our country, but far less importantly, one of the greatest nights in the history of television.”

The dynamic reflected the strategy Mr. Trump has embraced as he campaigns for Republicans this year, hoping to transfer his own popularity among core party supporters to candidates who need a highly motivated base of voters to succeed.

Yes, sure, that’s definitely what he was doing, and not at all simply enjoying the chance to brag about himself to a cheering crowd for the umptyumpth time.

Trump’s project for this morning: trash Jeff Sessions some more. Sessions richly deserves trashing, but not for the reasons Trump is doing it.

“I don’t have an attorney general. It’s very sad,” Trump said in an interview with Hill.TV, in which he also said the former senator from Alabama came off as “mixed up and confused” when he appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee in January 2017.

Not as mixed up and confused as Trump comes off every time he opens his mouth.

Trump doubled down on his criticism of Sessions as he left the White House on Wednesday morning for North Carolina to survey hurricane damage.

“I’m disappointed in the attorney general for many reasons, and you understand that,” he told reporters.

In the interview, Trump suggested he appointed Sessions out of blind loyalty.

Well, no; out of the belief in Sessions’s blind loyalty is more like it.

Trump said Sessions did “very poorly” during the confirmation process.

“I mean, he was mixed up and confused, and people that worked with him for, you know, a long time in the Senate were not nice to him, but he was giving very confusing answers,” Trump said. “Answers that should have been easily answered. And that was a rough time for him.”

This from probably the stupidest most confused most confused-answers-giving head of government on the planet.

In the interview, Trump questioned Sessions’s self-recusal, asserting that the FBI “reported shortly thereafter any reason for him to recuse himself.”

It was not immediately clear what he meant.

See? Confused, and not good at the talking thing.

Trump, as president, could fire Sessions at any time, but for more than a year, he has chosen instead merely to insult his attorney general.

Zing.

Trump did not offer a firm answer when asked about Sessions’s future by Hill.TV.

“We’ll see what happens,” he said. “A lot of people have asked me to do that. And I guess I study history, and I say I just want to leave things alone, but it was very unfair what he did.”

“We’ll see how it goes with Jeff,” Trump added. “I’m very disappointed in Jeff. Very disappointed.”

From the standpoint of water.

pic.twitter.com/G0BjCXEnaX

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 18, 2018

“One of the wettest we’ve ever seen from the standpoint of water.”

“There’s been a loss of life and” – sticking flap-hands out to the side – “MAY GOD BE WITH THEM. AND THEIR FAMILIES.” When he remembers a formula his voice gets louder, because he’s not diverting energy to thinking of Correct Words To Say.

“It’s a tough one…tough to understand…but this has been a difficult period of time for a lot of people – FEMA!” – the hands shoot up into the air – “the job you’ve done, the military…uh, the Coast Guard – what you’ve done in saving so many lives has been…really something special.”

Trump thinks it’s a terrible terrible sad thing…for Kavanaugh.

“I feel so badly for him that he’s going through this,” Trump said at a White House press conference with Polish President Andrzej Duda. “This is not a man that deserves this.”

Well of course President You Can Grab Them by the Pussy thinks that.

Trump on Tuesday chose to focus on the wrong he felt had been done to Kavanaugh, however. “I feel terribly for him, for his wife who is an incredible lovely woman and his beautiful young daughters,” said the president.

They’re hot, see. His wife is hot, and his daughters are hot. Obviously they wouldn’t matter if they weren’t, but they are, so Trump feels “terribly” (he means terrible) for them. Poor Brett Kavanaugh, who has a lovely (i.e. way too old now so kind of gross but she was hot once so we’ll call her lovely as a courtesy) and beautiful young [slobber drool I’d hit that] daughters – why should a man who owns a bunch of hot women be made to suffer?!

Oh, what about the woman who reports that Kavanaugh assaulted her?

Who?

Pres. Trump says Brett Kavanaugh is "an incredible individual" with "impeccable history in every way."

"I feel so badly for him that he's going through this, to be honest with you … this is not a man that deserves this," he adds https://t.co/7SVVRAuCJY pic.twitter.com/lhqK4MHy95

— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) September 18, 2018

Greg Sargent at the Post:

President Trump and his Republican allies in Congress are running a systematic campaign of harassment and disruption directed at legitimate law enforcement activity being conducted on behalf of the American people — with the active goal of protecting Trump and his cronies from accountability and denying the public the full truth about a hostile foreign power’s effort to corrupt our democracy.

They call it “transparency” – which is idiotic, because “transparency” about ongoing investigations is not a thing. Sargent says this move will probably blow up in Trump’s face. I sure hope so.

Beyond this, the release is a remarkably brazen abuse of power. As national security expert David Kris notes, Trump is overruling national security professionals who wanted to keep certain portions secret to protect sources and methods — not for purposes of “transparency” in the “national interest,” but because he believes it will serve his own “self interest,” as a “subject” of this investigation.

That’s why I want to see it when it blows up in his face.

Genuine transparency is generally a laudable goal, and Trump, of course, has the authority to do these things, but his intent is what matters here. Trump is placing his own personal interests before those of the country, rendering this an abuse of that authority, under the guise of phony, selective, cherry-picked transparency. This is also a massive abuse of the public trust by his GOP allies. The whole point of legitimate oversight is to bolster public confidence in law enforcement, given the awesome powers it wields, but this is fake oversight designed to weaken public confidence in it — solely to serve Trump’s political needs.

The big problem we face is that, regardless of the facts, these situations allow Trump and his allies to exploit deep structural imbalances in our discourse and political media. Even if the new release debunks Trumpworld’s narrative, they will lie relentlessly in bad faith to the contrary, and madly cherry-pick from the new information to make their case. And they can count on assistance from a massive right-wing media infrastructure that will faithfully blare forth this narrative — even as the major news organizations adopt a much more careful approach that treats the interpretation of the new information as a matter for legitimate dispute, thus putting good-faith analysis and bad-faith propaganda on equal footing.

Rinse, repeat.

When President Obama said that he has been to “57 States,” very little mention in Fake News Media. Can you imagine if I said that…story of the year! @IngrahamAngle

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 15, 2018

I know this one! I can explain!

I don’t mean I know the “57 states” slip of the tongue, I never heard of it; I mean I know why it wasn’t headline news while the idiotic things Trump says do get covered.

It’s because Obama is not a bumbling brain-rotted malevolent ignorant fool, so his misspeaking on one occasion isn’t worth reporting because it’s not a pattern. One verbal fumble doesn’t mean anything, it’s just random.

Trump, on the other hand, can’t talk at all without making a hash of it. That is worth reporting because unfortunately he is occupying a position with way too much unilateral power, especially the nukes.

Also, no, if Trump said “57 states” it would not be the story of the year; it probably wouldn’t be a story at all because there would be too many more substantive howlers and eruptions to report that hour.

As the hurricane continues to dump rain on flooded North Carolina, Trump’s thoughts turned to…

Trump, of course.

As Hurricane Florence continued its destructive path in North and South Carolina on Friday, President Donald Trump has reportedly been fixated on unflattering news reports about his response to Hurricane Maria, which hit Puerto Rico in September 2017.

That is definitely the most urgent concern here.

Trump has particularly been irritated by video footage of him throwing rolls of paper towels to a crowd of relief workers on the island, according to a Washington Post report published Thursday. Trump had characterized his gestures as good-natured, but the footage prompted accusations that Trump lacks empathy.

“They had these beautiful, soft towels. Very good towels,” Trump said during an interview with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee in October. “And I came in and there was a crowd of a lot of people. And they were screaming and they were loving everything. I was having fun, they were having fun. They said, ‘Throw ’em to me! Throw ’em to me Mr. President!’”

He was having fun! They were all having fun! It was fun! It was a fabulous fun merry sociable occasion, and all these mean fake news people have to spoil it by saying actually it wasn’t all that fun for most people in Puerto Rico. Fuckin killjoys.

Trump’s self-obsessed lie about the death toll of Hurricane Maria is not going over all that well.

BREAKING: Pres. Trump rejects independent study that reports an estimated 2,975 people died in Puerto Rico in 5 months after Hurricane Maria; provides no evidence to discount the study; declares, without evidence, that the higher death toll is political ploy to make him look bad.

— NBC News (@NBCNews) September 13, 2018

I’m not gonna quote tweet the Bad Man’s comments on Puerto Rico, but you all know he’s lying, right?
*Planet Earth nods, shakes its collective head*
Yeah, okay. #2975https://t.co/HvZj7TEkTK

— Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel) September 13, 2018

Wherein the president dismisses the official government of Puerto Rico death count from the 2017 hurricanes and their aftermath as a political plot against him.

Apparently of the belief that the death toll is about him and not about approximately 3,000 dead American citizens. https://t.co/dfZgojf8G4

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) September 13, 2018

No death is partisan and our brothers and sisters in Puerto Rico deserved better from @realDonaldTrump before, during, and after the hurricane.

— Andrew Gillum (@AndrewGillum) September 13, 2018

You can try and ignore the numbers, @realDonaldTrump. But you can’t ignore their stories. I heard so many from my constituents in the days after Hurricane Maria. People with family and friends in Puerto Rico who were desperate for information about their loved ones. pic.twitter.com/xY7WaNe3AU

— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) September 13, 2018

We got A Pluses for our recent hurricane work in Texas and Florida (and did an unappreciated great job in Puerto Rico, even though an inaccessible island with very poor electricity and a totally incompetent Mayor of San Juan). We are ready for the big one that is coming!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 12, 2018

NPR does a fact check on that claim.

During an Oval Office briefing on preparations for Hurricane Florence, a reporter asked President Trump if there were lessons to be learned from the widely criticized FEMA response to Hurricane Maria last year in Puerto Rico. Trump’s response? In short: nothing to see here.

“The job that FEMA and law enforcement and everybody did, working along with the Governor in Puerto Rico, I think was tremendous,” Trump said in a lengthy answer that reprised his criticisms of the island’s pre-storm electric grid, credit problems and geography (that it’s an island). “I think that Puerto Rico was an incredible, unsung success.”

He further claimed that “in a certain way, the best job we did was Puerto Rico, but nobody would understand that. I mean, it’s harder to understand.”

Trump’s argument, which he tweeted again this morning, is that because Puerto Rico was hit hard by two hurricanes in a row and already faced infrastructure and other challenges, the federal response was really quite good, despite residents going many months without power, food and water relief failing to get to those who needed it and a death toll that was recently revised upward into the thousands.

Perhaps he was trying to say it could have been worse, which is a more defensible claim. It’s hard to call months with no power and inadequate food and water supplies really quite good, much less tremendous and an unsung success.

As NPR’s Adrian Florido reported last month, the death toll for Hurricane Maria was just revised from 64 to 2,975.

Puerto Rico’s governor updated the island’s official death toll for victims of Hurricane Maria on Tuesday, hours after independent researchers from George Washington University released a study estimating the hurricane caused 2,975 deaths in the six months following the storm.

Success? Federal response according to Trump in Puerto Rico a success? If he thinks the death of 3,000 people os a success God help us all.

— Carmen Yulín Cruz (@CarmenYulinCruz) September 11, 2018

Jim Wright also has thoughts on the claim:

This morning Trump said: “We got A Pluses for our recent hurricane work in Texas and Florida (and did an unappreciated great job in Puerto Rico, even though an inaccessible island with very poor electricity and a totally incompetent Mayor of San Juan). We are ready for the big one that is coming!”

A Pluses.

That’s what he claims.

An A+ from … who?

From the families of the 3000 Puerto Ricans who died in Hurricane Maria? Is THAT who he got an A+ from?

Also, “inaccessible?”

Inaccessible? Puerto Rico isn’t some remote island in the South Pacific, hidden by perpetual storm, inhabited by 50 foot tall apes and dinosaurs from the Lost World. It’s a heavily populated U.S. territory, one of the largest islands in the Caribbean, a few hundred miles from the mainland. A day’s transit for a cargo ship — smack in the middle of one of the most heavily trafficked shipping lanes in the world. A hour’s flight for any modern jet. It’s easier to get to Puerto Rico than it is to certain parts of Utah, or Maine, or … South Carolina.

Inaccessible?

We moved all the supplies necessary for sustained WAR, all the way from America to Iraq and Afghanistan — and seriously, you think the electrical infrastructure in Puerto Rico is bad? Try Afghanistan. Inaccessible? For the United States of America? With all of our might, all of our resources, all of our capability, inaccessible? Really?

Dragons. It’s all about the dragons.

Trump either is or is not going to drop in on Ireland in November.

The White House has not yet made a final decision on whether US President Donald Trump will make a stop in Ireland in November, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders has said.

…

The comments came after it was reported Mr Trump’s planned visit to Ireland in November had been put off.

The Government on Tuesday evening confirmed that the visit of President Trump has been “postponed” for what it called “scheduling reasons”.

The Irish Times understands that the proposed details of the trip had been changing constantly since the White House first announced President Trump’s intention to visit last month.

Not a very adult or polite way to treat other countries. “We may visit you in a few weeks, or not, we haven’t decided yet, we’ll let you know.”

When the trip was announced the Labour party said that it would “join with like-minded people to oppose this visit.” Green party leader Eamon Ryan said the government should cancel the planned visit.

Mr Ryan welcomed the news on Tuesday that the visit was off. “The visit came out of the blue and has now been cancelled in the same erratic way. We are glad he is not coming. Trump’s positions and demeanour on every issue of the day, from climate to women’s rights, from international relations to political decency, represent the opposite of Green and indeed Irish values,” he said.

“It’s hard to know why the trip has been cancelled at this stage, but we are nonetheless glad that such a costly, potentially divisive and undignified event will now not take place,” he added.

Labour Senator Aodhán O Ríordáin welcomed the news too, saying it was as a result of the campaign against the visit.

Maybe Trump is expecting all of Ireland to say with one voice “Oh no, we’re sorry, please do visit, we promise not to protest even a little tiny bit.”

He’ll have to wait a long time for that.

The usual dignity and empathy and respect.

.@realDonaldTrump First Lady Melania Trump greet supporters as they arrive in Johnstown, PA to attend the Flight 93 September 11 Memorial Service in Shanksville, PA pic.twitter.com/SRMBvlDLKJ

— Doug Mills (@dougmillsnyt) September 11, 2018

Trump says he’s going to “write” a “book.” Uh huh, and I’m going to fly the 6 o’clock plane to Heathrow.

The Woodward book is a Joke – just another assault against me, in a barrage of assaults, using now disproven unnamed and anonymous sources. Many have already come forward to say the quotes by them, like the book, are fiction. Dems can’t stand losing. I’ll write the real book!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 10, 2018

That would be laughable even if he did know how to write, because he’s a narcissist who can’t stop bragging, so any book he “wrote” on the subject would be a pack of lies and tedious as well.

During his business career, Trump wrote nearly 20 books, including “The Art of the Deal.” Most of the books had known ghostwriters.

So he didn’t write them. The ghostwriters wrote them.

On Monday, Trump called Woodward “a liar who is like a Dem operative prior to the Midterms” following an appearance by Woodward on NBC’s “Today” show.

During the interview, Woodward, an associate editor at The Washington Post, defended his reporting in light of denials of material in the book attributed to White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly and Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis.

“They are not telling the truth,” Woodward said, adding: “These people, these are political statements to protect their jobs, totally understandable.”

It’s understandable, but it doesn’t do much for their reputations.