Tag: Trump

Trump is in full garbage mode.

.@MarkBurnettTV called to say that there are NO TAPES of the Apprentice where I used such a terrible and disgusting word as attributed by Wacky and Deranged Omarosa. I don’t have that word in my vocabulary, and never have. She made it up. Look at her MANY recent quotes saying….

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 14, 2018

Please. He has every hateful epithet in his vocabulary. He’s a mean narcissistic bully, and he loves publicly insulting people.

When you give a crazed, crying lowlife a break, and give her a job at the White House, I guess it just didn’t work out. Good work by General Kelly for quickly firing that dog!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 14, 2018

A dog. The guy who claims he doesn’t have “nigger” in his vocabulary calls a black woman a dog.

And this is the president of the United States. This is the president of the United States calling people stupid and lowlife and low IQ and dogs on Twitter.

God I wish this nightmare would end.

Another terrorist attack in London…These animals are crazy and must be dealt with through toughness and strength!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 14, 2018

Animals. But remember, folks, he doesn’t have the word “nigger” in his vocabulary.

The Times editorial board on the nightmare:

President Trump’s spat with Omarosa Manigault Newman, the White House adviser who was fired in December for “serious integrity issues,” is another of those particularly Trumpian innovations in public life — the raging dumpster fire that continues to yield new trash.

In her juicy new tell-all, aptly titled “Unhinged,” Ms. Manigault Newman paints an unflattering portrait of the president, whom she has known since appearing as a contestant on his reality TV show “The Apprentice” in 2004. She characterizes Mr. Trump as a racist, misogynistic narcissist with poor impulse control, severe attention-deficit issues and signs of creeping mental decline, who “loves the hate,” “thrives on criticism and insults” and “delights in chaos and confusion.”

We know all that just from painfully watching him over the last two years (longer than that for people who were paying attention before he won the nomination).

On both sides, the spat is vintage Trump: tawdry, cruel, vindictive and highly personal. That said, this is about more than a petty feud with a former aide who famously shares Mr. Trump’s love of chaos, confusion and high drama. It is also a glaring reminder of one of this president’s central failings as a leader: his disastrous judgment when choosing people with whom to surround himself.

Like Manafort for instance.

The laundry list of reckless, venal and quite possibly felonious behavior in which Mr. Manafort engaged has been on vivid display this month in federal court, where he is facing 18 counts of tax evasion and bank fraud. As ethically suspect characters go, Mr. Manafort ranks right up there with, well, with Michael Cohen, Mr. Trump’s former lawyer and longtime fixer, who is currently under criminal investigation for his own suspect business dealings. Mr. Cohen had worked with Mr. Trump for years. Even so, when it came to light that Mr. Cohen had secretly recorded some of their conversations, the president took to Twitter to rage, “What kind of a lawyer would tape a client?”

Answer: Precisely the kind whose primary client would be Donald J. Trump.

The kind you like to hire, bro.

Trump this morning:

Wacky Omarosa, who got fired 3 times on the Apprentice, now got fired for the last time. She never made it, never will. She begged me for a job, tears in her eyes, I said Ok. People in the White House hated her. She was vicious, but not smart. I would rarely see her but heard….

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 13, 2018

…really bad things. Nasty to people & would constantly miss meetings & work. When Gen. Kelly came on board he told me she was a loser & nothing but problems. I told him to try working it out, if possible, because she only said GREAT things about me – until she got fired!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 13, 2018

While I know it’s “not presidential” to take on a lowlife like Omarosa, and while I would rather not be doing so, this is a modern day form of communication and I know the Fake News Media will be working overtime to make even Wacky Omarosa look legitimate as possible. Sorry!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 13, 2018

Wacky Omarosa already has a fully signed Non-Disclosure Agreement!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 13, 2018

Philip Bump at the Post sums up:

“Wacky Omarosa, who got fired 3 times on the Apprentice, now got fired for the last time,” he wrote on Twitter. “She never made it, never will. She begged me for a job, tears in her eyes, I said Ok. People in the White House hated her. She was vicious, but not smart. I would rarely see her but heard really bad things. Nasty to people & would constantly miss meetings & work.”

“When Gen. Kelly came on board he told me she was a loser & nothing but problems,” he continued. “I told him to try working it out, if possible, because she only said GREAT things about me — until she got fired!”

Trump’s argument is Manigault Newman:

• Was only hired because she begged for a job, and he acquiesced.
• Was not smart.
• Was broadly disliked and mean to people.
• Constantly missed meetings and skipped work.
• Struck Kelly so negatively he suggested she be fired, and, perhaps most damningly.
• Was of such questionable quality as an employee that she failed to win his reality show three times.

But she kept her job, even after Kelly complained — Kelly, whose job was to guide Trump’s White House staff. Why? What is the one quality Manigault Newman possessed that was sufficient for Trump to argue she keep her job?

She praised Trump.

There you have it. She was as bad and worthless as an employee can be without actually killing people, but Trump hired her and kept her for some time because “she only said GREAT things about” the gilded monster. That’s his dedication to the job and to our welfare – he’d hand us all over to a hungry giant cannibal if the hungry giant cannibal said nice things about his combover.

This is not surprising, of course. It is clear Trump’s brand of loyalty is both unidirectional and predicated on enthusiasm; it is a lesson people on Capitol Hill learned quickly. It is just sort of stunning the president would explicitly argue the reason he wanted Manigault Newman to continue earning her $179,700 annual salary — despite being nasty to her colleagues and not doing any work — was she said nice things about him.

It certainly got my attention when I read it this morning – my attention and a snarl of disgust.

Naturally this leads to an administration full of shits who are careful to flatter The Big Shit. No talent required, just lick Donald’s bum.

It extends beyond Washington. When Trump talks about China and Saudi Arabia, he offers praise that often includes mentions of how he was treated when he visited each country: the celebrations that greeted his arrival in Riyadh and the dinner that was thrown in his honor in Beijing. Foreign leaders have learned flattery can be an effective way to manage Trump (see: Putin, Vladimir), and those who offer criticism can find themselves ostracized or, at least, bearing the brunt of Trump’s anger.

I hope tonight is the night he chokes on the second scoop of ice cream.

A day in the life.

Summary of ⁦@realDonaldTrump⁩ NJ event: Bikers meet in clubhouse because of rain. Press pool brought in. Trump asks crowd if they like the media. Shouts erupt, including suggestion that press be sent out in the storm. President calls former staffer a low life. Event ends. pic.twitter.com/xBnGSQGuAi

— Jeff Mason (@jeffmason1) August 11, 2018

President on vacation at one of his golf clubs. President invites bikers over for a photo op. President incites bikers to scream about the press. President says vulgar stupid things. Event ends.

Also on Trump’s busy schedule is attacking California for throwing good water into the ocean instead of using it to put out fires and grow crops.

In his first remarks on the vast California wildfires that have killed at least seven people and forced thousands to flee, President Trump blamed the blazes on the state’s environmental policies and inaccurately claimed that water that could be used to fight the fires was “foolishly being diverted into the Pacific Ocean.”

State officials and firefighting experts dismissed the president’s comments, which he posted on Twitter. “We have plenty of water to fight these wildfires, but let’s be clear: It’s our changing climate that is leading to more severe and destructive fires,” said Daniel Berlant, assistant deputy director of Cal Fire, the state’s fire agency.

I guess he hasn’t heard that that’s all a plot of Hillary Clinton and Robert Mueller and the 37 Angry Democrats.

He and others said that Mr. Trump appeared to be referring to a perennial and unrelated water dispute in California between farmers and environmentalists. Farmers have long argued for more water to be allocated to irrigating crops, while environmentalists counter that the state’s rivers would suffer and fish stocks would die.

Ok well that’s what he meant! It’s not what he tweeted but it’s totally what he meant. He meant those awful environmentalists, who don’t want to see all the rivers and aquifers dry up. So unreasonable.

The president first addressed the fires late Sunday, writing on Twitter, “California wildfires are being magnified & made so much worse by the bad environmental laws which aren’t allowing massive amount of readily available water to be properly utilized.”

Hmm. So he thinks people fighting fires should just Tap the Power of California’s Mighty Rivers to put the fires out. How, exactly, one wonders – just take a trowel and scratch a little opening in the bank of the nearest river and whoosh, fire’s out? If the nearest river is 50 or 100 or 200 miles away, well, it will take a few minutes longer, but that’s what separates the heroes from the 12 pound environmentalists.

California does not lack water to fight the Carr Fire and others burning across the state, officials said.

Mr. Berlant of Cal Fire declined to speculate on the meaning of Mr. Trump’s statement that water was not being “properly utilized.”

Asked about that line and the president’s claim that water was being diverted into the Pacific, a spokesman for Gov. Jerry Brown, Evan Westrup, said in an email, “Your guess is as good as mine.”

Queen Melania dissents:

The US first lady, Melania Trump, said she would be open to visiting the NBA superstar LeBron James’s new public school, the day after her husband questioned the Los Angeles Lakers player’s intelligence.

Donald Trump insulted James on Friday night hours after CNN re-aired an interview with the basketball player and reporter Don Lemon. “Lebron James was just interviewed by the dumbest man on television, Don Lemon,” Trump said. “He made Lebron look smart, which isn’t easy to do.”

Many, including professional athletes and the Republican governor of Ohio, were critical of Trump’s statements.

On Saturday afternoon, Melania Trump also issued a surprising, positive statement about James, but did not reference her husband.

“It looks like LeBron James is working to do good things on behalf of our next generation and just as she always has, the First Lady encourages everyone to have an open dialogue about issues facing children today,” a statement provided by her spokeswoman said.

It’s not much, but it’s an improvement on the I really don’t care jacket.

Because Donald Trump mentioned the NBA legend and Charlotte Hornets principal owner Michael Jordan in the tweet – ending with “I like Mike!” – Jordan also weighed in.

“I support LJ,” Jordan said in a statement. “He’s doing an amazing job for his community.”

James, one of the most prominent athletes in the US, has been critical of Trump for years.

In September 2017, James called Trump a “bum” for rescinding his invitation to the Golden State Warriors to celebrate their basketball championship with a visit to the White House.

“Going to the White House was a great honor until you showed up!” James tweeted at the time.

He wasn’t wrong.

Originally a comment by iknklast on Shame.

One problem Trump has is that he doesn’t recognize the limits of his knowledge. When he “knows” something, he “knows” it better than anyone else, and anyone disagreeing with him must be wrong. He sees highly intelligent people as stupid because of categories (black, Mexican, woman, Muslim) that are arbitrary in most cases, and have nothing to do with intelligence. And these highly intelligent people speak in a way he cannot understand, and call out his lies, and disagree with him, and since he (DJT) knows everything, even things no one else knows, they must be wrong; therefore, stupid.

Even if they were wrong, being wrong doesn’t equate with being stupid, but only with being wrong. If you are able to realize and recognize the possibility that you might be wrong, that is a sign of intelligence. DJT cannot do that. If you are able to recognize that there are things you do not know, that is not stupid, it is a sign of intelligence. DJT cannot do that. If you are willing to spend hours on end learning, even about the field in which you are an acknowledged expert (because who knows everything even about their own field in this complicated world?), that is not a sign of being stupid, but a sign of being intelligent. DJT cannot do that. If you recognize that you can learn something from everyone, even the most uneducated, unskilled person might know something you don’t know, that is not a sign of being stupid, but a sign of being intelligent. DJT cannot do that.

Because Trump has none of the traits of intelligence, and all of the traits of enormous ego, he can only deal with his inability to engage with these smart people by calling them dumb. And his followers, many of whom also lack one or more of those traits listed in the above paragraph, follow right along with him, because pulling everyone else down underneath you (dumbest, not just dumb – they are all the -est) puts you at the top.

This isn’t to deny that the Trump followers have skill sets and knowledge, at least in their own fields, but to note that those do not necessarily equate to high order intelligence. It may not be in the basic knowledge that they are lacking, but in the ability to recognize their own limitations, and in their ability to have compassion for other people who are not like them.

Trump is lying more than ever.

As of day 558, he’s made 4,229 Trumpian claims — an increase of 978 in just two months.

That’s an overall average of nearly 7.6 claims a day.

When we first started this project for the president’s first 100 days, he averaged 4.9 claims a day. But the average number of claims per day keeps climbing the longer Trump stays in office. In fact, in June and July, the president averaged 16 claims a day.

Put another way: In his first year as president, Trump made 2,140 false or misleading claims. Now, just six months later, he has almost doubled that total.

He loves doing it, and so far he’s gotten away with it…plus of course he has no shred of any sense that he ought not to do it.

On July 5, the president reached a new daily high of 79 false and misleading claims. On a monthly basis, June and July rank in first and second place, with 532 and 446 claims, respectively.

Trump has a proclivity to repeat, over and over, many of his false or misleading statements. We’ve counted nearly 150 claims that the president has repeated at least three times, some with breathtaking frequency.

Much of it is on economics, where he takes credit for things he didn’t do; much is on immigration and “the wall”; much is on “the witch hunt” that is in no sense a witch hunt.

Misleading claims about taxes — now at 336 — are also a common feature of Trump’s speeches. Eighty-eight times, he has made the false assertion that he passed the biggest tax cut in U.S. history.

On foreign policy, the president consistently misstates NATO spending. More than 60 times, he has falsely said the United States pays as much as 90 percent of the alliance’s costs and that other NATO members “owe” money. But he is conflating overall defense spending with NATO obligations — and the United States, unlike many NATO allies, has global responsibilities.

Susan Glasser at the New Yorker:

These astonishing statistics were compiled by a small team overseen by Glenn Kessler, the editor and chief writer of the Post’s Fact Checker column, who for much of the last decade has been truth-squadding politicians and doling out Pinocchios for their exaggerations, misrepresentations, distortions, and otherwise false claims. At this point, Kessler practically has a Ph.D. in the anthropology of the Washington lie, a long and storied art form which has always had skilled practitioners of both parties. But Trump has challenged the Fact Checker, Kessler told me over coffee this week, in ways that have tested the very premise of the column. The President, for example, has a habit of repeating the same falsehoods over and over again, especially as they concern his core political causes, such as trade or immigration or getting European allies to contribute more to NATO. What should Kessler do, he often asks himself, when Trump repeats a four-Pinocchio whopper?

And what should we do? What can we do?

History books will likely declare the last few months a turning point in the Trump Presidency, and Kessler’s laborious work gives us metrics that confirm what is becoming more and more apparent: the recent wave of misstatements is both a reflection of Trump’s increasingly unbound Presidency and a signal attribute of it. The upsurge provides empirical evidence that Trump, in recent months, has felt more confident running his White House as he pleases, keeping his own counsel, and saying and doing what he wants when he wants to. The fact that Trump, while historically unpopular with the American public as a whole, has retained the loyalty of more than eighty per cent of Republicans—the group at which his lies seem to be aimed—means we are in for much more, as a midterm election approaches that may determine whether Trump is impeached by a newly Democratic Congress. At this point, the falsehoods are as much a part of his political identity as his floppy orange hair and the “Make America Great Again” slogan. The untruths, Kessler told me, are Trump’s political “secret sauce.”

Which makes sense because he’s always been famous for that, as well as for the vulgarity and bullying and cheating. He’s a big hit with his “base” because he’s a shameless nonstop liar. This is where we are.

Max Boot at the Post explains how Trump is flouting the law right out in the open where we can watch.

There’s the tweet yesterday saying Sessions “should” stop the investigation.

Trump’s team, on cleanup duty, claimed the president is offering an opinion, not issuing a formal order. But when a boss tells a subordinate he “should” do something, it’s not just an innocent opinion like “that’s a nice shirt.” Last year, then-White House press secretary Sean Spicer said that the president’s tweets are “official statements.” Indeed, the president fired then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson by tweet. If Trump was just expressing a nonbinding opinion, why isn’t Tillerson still on the job?

When the president tells his attorney general he “should” stop an investigation of his alleged misconduct, that is strong evidence of obstruction of justice. It doesn’t matter, from a legal perspective, whether the directive is whispered in secret or shouted for all to hear. It doesn’t even matter whether the investigation is actually stopped or not. A crime is still a crime even if it’s not carried out to a successful conclusion.

Boot collects several self-incriminating tweets.

Little wonder that Mueller is reportedly investigating Trump’s tweets, which form the most public confession of official misconduct in U.S. history. Trump’s lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, may call “obstruction by tweet” a “bizarre and novel theory,” but what’s truly “bizarre and novel” is Trump’s behavior. The president is engaged in a cynical and all-too-successful campaign to diminish public support for the Mueller investigation, potentially setting the stage for Mueller to be fired and the inquiry terminated. On at least two occasions (in both June and December of 2017), Trump tried to fire Mueller, only for alarmed aides to dissuade him.

If the Republicans help him enough he could still get away with it.

Now for some comic relief.

President Trump pushed his lawyers in recent days to try once again to reach an agreement with the special counsel’s office about his sitting for an interview, flouting their advice that he should not answer investigators’ questions, three people briefed on the matter said on Wednesday.

Mr. Trump has told advisers he is eager to meet with investigators to clear himself of wrongdoing, the people said. In effect, he believes he can convince the investigators for the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, of his belief that their own inquiry is a “witch hunt.”

That would be gratifying – if his own belief in his own awesome powers caused him to incriminate himself to Mueller’s team.

He fails to understand that what his awesome powers consist of is a knack for appealing to racist misogynist bullies and highly self-serving rich people, and that such a knack is useless for his situation with respect to the Mueller investigation.

Oh, so that’s why Trump went berserk on Twitter this morning.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office wants to ask President Donald Trump about obstruction of justice, sources close to the White House tell ABC News. According to sources, the president learned within the last day that the special counsel will limit the scope of questioning and would like to ask questions both orally and written for the President to respond to.

According to sources familiar with the President’s reaction Wednesday morning, that was the genesis for his early morning tweet storm. Trump took to twitter in one of his strongest attacks against the federal probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, saying: “This is a terrible situation and Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further. Bob Mueller is totally conflicted, and his 17 Angry Democrats that are doing his dirty work are a disgrace to USA!”

In other words he, Trump, the perp, should be allowed to get away with it, because he was sly enough and crooked enough and above all angry-racist enough to steal the election.

Negotiations over a potential presidential interview have gone on for months, through several different iterations of the Trump legal team. Current lead attorney, Rudy Giuliani, told ABC News a week ago that his team had submitted a response to Mueller asking to limit the scope of an interview with Trump especially as it relates to obstruction of justice.

Because he’s a busy busy busy man, what with all the Fox watching and the golf and the tweeting. Also because he doesn’t want to, and he’s rich, and he gets his name in the papers a lot. All compelling reasons.

Trump is jumping up and down on the cracking ice now.

Over the weekend, Donald Trump’s tweets about Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe got a little manic, with the president tweeting a series of semi–coherent rants about the probe. It offered compelling evidence that the pressure is starting to take its roll.

This morning, Trump’s missives took on an even more hysterical tone, culminating in rhetoric we haven’t seen the president use before.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday called on Attorney General Jeff Sessions to end special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.

“Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further,” the president said in a morning tweet.

It was part of a series of related messages in which Trump lashed out at Peter Strzok, pretended former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort played an unimportant role on his team, and wrapped up with, “Russian Collusion with the Trump Campaign, one of the most successful in history, is a TOTAL HOAX. The Democrats paid for the phony and discredited Dossier which was, along with Comey, McCabe, Strzok and his lover, the lovely Lisa Page, used to begin the Witch Hunt. Disgraceful!”

It’s a very peripheral issue but there’s something especially sick-making about Trump’s repeated sneers about the Page-Strzok extra-marital affair when Trump has a history of fucking everything he could grab including during all his marriages including 5 minutes after his wives gave birth.

But it’s the bit about shouting at us that Sessions should stop the Mueller investigation that’s truly weird. What does he expect us to do about it? It’s as if he tweeted that the light bulb in his closet is burned out will somebody please farking change it…only more criminal than that.

Plus there’s the fact that we know Mueller is looking at his tweets for obstruction. Oh hey sir, there’s one right there.

Gratifying. Trump said a thing about DOJ records in an official “Listen up” to Congress. Benjamin Wittes sent a FOIA request to the DOJ seeking confirmation. DOJ a long time later sent a letter to Wittes saying we can’t find any such records. Conclusion: Trump told a whopper in an official “Listen up” to Congress.

To understand the significance of this letter, let’s go back to Trump’s first address to Congress in February 2017. The new president made the striking claim quoted above: “According to data provided by the Department of Justice, the vast majority of individuals convicted of terrorism and terrorism-related offenses since 9/11 came here from outside of our country.”

I did not believe those words were true when Trump spoke them, for a variety of reasons. For one thing, the Justice Department does not keep data at a systematic level on where criminal defendants were born. For another thing, there are a lot of domestic terrorism cases, and they are generally not committed by people born abroad. To the extent you exclude those cases—white supremacist violence, anti-abortion terrorism, and militia violence—you grossly bias the inquiry. To the extent you include such cases, you would have to analyze a raft of data that I didn’t know the department kept in a comprehensive fashion.

Responding to the speech, in a seriesofarticles published on Lawfare, Nora Ellingsen and Lisa Daniels carefully evaluated the president’s claims. Examining a public list of international terrorism cases released by the Justice Department’s National Security Division (NSD), Ellingsen and Daniels concluded that it simply wasn’t accurate to say that a “vast majority” of individuals on that list “came here from outside our country”—“unless, that is, you include individuals who were forcibly brought to the United States in order to be prosecuted and exclude all domestic terrorism cases.”

If you can make it true only by excluding all domestic terrorism cases when Trump didn’t specify non-domestic terrorism cases only…well you get the idea. That would be a huge cheat to make the lie Trump told true.

So in April of last year, I filed two FOIA requests. I asked for any records supporting the president’s claim before Congress, along with any records “relating to the nationality or country of origin of individuals convicted of terrorism-related offenses”; correspondence between the Justice Department and the White House related to that data; and correspondence related to preparation for and reaction to the February 2017 joint address. When the department did not respond, I filed a lawsuit.

In February of this year, I received 57 pages of material from the National Security Division in response to the request—specifically, the portion of the lawsuit concerning communications within and originating from NSD. From the documents, Ellingsen and I were able to reconstruct a partial picture of the origins of the president’s spurious claim. To boil it down, NSD had provided data on international terrorism prosecutions only, not domestic ones. Both NSD and the FBI emphasized the limitations of this data. The Justice Department explicitly warned the White House that the data did not “include convictions related solely to domestic terrorism.” And the FBI noted that “database checks are limited in their ability to accurately identify a date/place of birth.”

In other words they warned Trump and he did it anyway. The guy has a terrible case of Oppositional Defiant Disorder.

And he did it again this past January.

Recently Wittes and the DOJ agreed on a simplified search so as to conclude the whole thing.

The offices of the attorney general, the deputy attorney general, legislative affairs, and public affairs would each conduct a search “for records containing data of (i) all individuals convicted of all terrorism-related offenses (domestic and international) between 2001 and the date of the initial search, or (ii) all individuals convicted of all domestic terrorism-related offenses between 2001 and the date of the initial search.” Presumably, if the Justice Department had provided the White House with data to support the president’s claims, the request would have gone through the department’s top brass. If there was some data “provided by the Department of Justice” to the White House showing that “the vast majority of individuals convicted [in all] terrorism and terrorism-related offenses since 9/11”—including domestic terrorism cases—“came here from outside of our country,” there would be some record of it either in the attorney general’s office or the deputy attorney general’s office.

I was confident the search would produce no responsive documents. And it, in fact, produced none.

Because what the President of the United States said before a joint session of Congress was not true. It wasn’t true about immigrants and terrorism. And neither was it true about the Justice Department.

Lie confirmed.

Jennifer Rubin wonders what the deal is with Giuliani.

For months, I have been suggestingthat cable news networks stop giving air time to Rudolph W. Giuliani, who often makes patently false statements, doesn’t appear to be doing any real lawyering for President Trump and intentionally misstates the law (unless he’s forgotten everything he learned as a prosecutor, in which case he is unfit to represent the president). Now, Trump and his real lawyers might agree that Giuliani should go away.

Why? Well because of this funny new ploy of going on tv to say hey collusion isn’t even a crime anyway so chill.

For more than a year, Trump has insisted the Russia investigation is a “witch hunt” because there was “no collusion”; now Giuliani seems to be saying Trump may have colluded, but that collusion is no big deal. (Query whether Giuliani thereby confessed his client has been obstructing a legitimate investigation.) Putting aside the legalities, Giuliani is hinting that Trump is a liar who perhaps betrayed his country and let a foreign country help determine the outcome of a presidential election.

Moreover, whatever you call it — collusion, conspiracy, coordination — it isillegal to seek something of value from a foreign national during a federal campaign; it is illegal to make use of stolen materials (emails) you know were ill-gotten; and it is illegal to cover up that scheme (by, among other things, drafting a phony story to explain a meeting of conspirators). If Trump did any of those things, he is in deep legal trouble.

Then there’s the part about how he said that meeting doesn’t matter because Trump wasn’t there and also besides there was no such meeting. It’s my impression that good lawyers try not to give two contradictory exculpatory explanations of things.

Trump and his team seem convinced that the only risk here is of impeachment, a political act. Therefore, so long as they keep Trump’s state TV hosts and his low-information cultists on his side, the president will be able to avoid removal, and maybe even impeachment, the thinking goes. Hence, Giuliani is there, like a warm-up comedian, keeping the audience engaged, delighted and wanting more.

The problem with that approach is three-fold. First, special counsel Robert S. Mueller III and the Justice Department could reverse course and decide that the president is indictable, or file a sealed indictment to be opened when he leaves office. Second, Trump’s children and close relatives are facing their own potential liability for soliciting something of value from the Russians, and possibly lying about their activities. If Trump tries pardoning them, the impeachment train will leave the station. And finally, it just might be that when Mueller finishes his report and Trump has driven the GOP into the ground (with huge losses in the midterms), Republicans do start insisting he go. If Trump lied about collusion and, in fact, approved collaboration with Russia, at the very least, reelection becomes an uphill climb.

Meanwhile, Giuliani is a non-stop warm-up act.

Trump is losing it again.

White House aides say time on the golf course — especially in Bedminster, with its lush, rolling hills — helps Trump clear his head after a busy week as president. Check his Twitter to see what he's thinking right now, after two days of R&R.

— Philip Rucker (@PhilipRucker) July 29, 2018

It’s not exactly symptomatic of a cleared head. Vacant, yes, but cleared, no.

When the media – driven insane by their Trump Derangement Syndrome – reveals internal deliberations of our government, it truly puts the lives of many, not just journalists, at risk! Very unpatriotic! Freedom of the press also comes with a responsibility to report the news…

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2018

Well that’s rich, coming from the guy who puts Lou Dobbs on speaker phone for Oval Office meetings.

…accurately. 90% of media coverage of my Administration is negative, despite the tremendously positive results we are achieving, it’s no surprise that confidence in the media is at an all time low! I will not allow our great country to be sold out by anti-Trump haters in the…

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2018

…dying newspaper industry. No matter how much they try to distract and cover it up, our country is making great progress under my leadership and I will never stop fighting for the American people! As an example, the failing New York Times…

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2018

…and the Amazon Washington Post do nothing but write bad stories even on very positive achievements – and they will never change!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2018

Then he took a break to eat a sandwich and watch a little Fox, and returned with a new blast of rage.

There is No Collusion! The Robert Mueller Rigged Witch Hunt, headed now by 17 (increased from 13, including an Obama White House lawyer) Angry Democrats, was started by a fraudulent Dossier, paid for by Crooked Hillary and the DNC. Therefore, the Witch Hunt is an illegal Scam!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2018

Is Robert Mueller ever going to release his conflicts of interest with respect to President Trump, including the fact that we had a very nasty & contentious business relationship, I turned him down to head the FBI (one day before appointment as S.C.) & Comey is his close friend..

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2018

….Also, why is Mueller only appointing Angry Dems, some of whom have worked for Crooked Hillary, others, including himself, have worked for Obama….And why isn’t Mueller looking at all of the criminal activity & real Russian Collusion on the Democrats side-Podesta, Dossier?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2018

Journalists and ethics boffins are pointing out that every word is a lie.

“I love Wikileaks!” https://t.co/YQ7tsn8smR

— Matthew Miller (@matthewamiller) July 29, 2018

YOUR ADMINISTRATION APPOINTED HIM TO THE POSITION https://t.co/TFpgjaN4Ii

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) July 29, 2018

https://twitter.com/NormEisen/status/1023661315624194054

I know its hard to say these tweets are surprising at this point, but if you can, take a step back and contemplate that the author of this falsehood-packed tweet is the president of the United States.

PS the FBI director and GOP congressional leaders say it’s not a witch hunt. https://t.co/r0zs5jesQY

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) July 29, 2018

The selfish reckless bully says he’ll shut down the government if he doesn’t get what he wants.

“I would be willing to ‘shut down’ government if the Democrats do not give us the votes for Border Security, which includes the Wall!” Trump tweeted. “Must get rid of Lottery, Catch & Release etc. and finally go to system of Immigration based on MERIT! We need great people coming into our Country!”

Trump’s shutdown warning — which he has made before — escalates the stakes ahead of a Sept. 30 government funding deadline, raising the possibility of a political showdown before the Nov. 6 midterm elections that Republican congressional leaders had hoped to avoid. A funding fight also could prove a distraction from Republican efforts in the Senate to confirm Trump Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh by Oct. 1.

Republicans find this unhelpful, and are trying to tell him so without setting off something even more alarming. Meanwhile, the people – oh who cares about them.

Trump has also spoken with several outside political allies who have urged him to strike a tougher line on the border wall as a means of pressuring Democrats and rallying his core voters in November, according to two people briefed on those discussions.

Trump has sought to make immigration a core campaign theme heading into the midterms. He has defended his administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy, arguing that some parents who have been separated from their children under this policy are criminals.

Nobody is going to talk Trump into being less of an asshole. Where’s the fun in that? He wants to get all the fun he can out of this gig, and fun is fucking with people’s lives.

Trump tweeted this morning.

Had a very good and interesting meeting at the White House with A.G. Sulzberger, Publisher of the New York Times. Spent much time talking about the vast amounts of Fake News being put out by the media & how that Fake News has morphed into phrase, “Enemy of the People.” Sad!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2018

No. That’s not how that went at all. The Times and Sulzberger corrected what Trump said:

Statement of A.G. Sulzberger, Publisher, The New York Times, in Response to President Trump’s Tweet About Their Meeting

July 29, 2018

Earlier this month, A.G. received a request from the White House to meet with President Trump. This was not unusual; there has been a long tradition of New York Times publishers holding such meetings with presidents and other public figures who have concerns about coverage.

On July 20th, A.G. went to the White House, accompanied by James Bennet, who oversees the editorial page of The Times. Mr. Trump’s aides requested that the meeting be off the record, which has also been the practice for such meetings in the past.

But with Mr. Trump’s tweet this morning, he has put the meeting on the record, so A.G. has decided to respond to the president’s characterization of their conversation, based on detailed notes A.G. and James took.