Never in my memory has there been a President of the United States who has personally been the subject of a dozen new news stories each and every day.
That probably has something to do with Donald Trump’s penchant for tweeting unfiltered opinion and pseudo-facts at all hours of the day. The days of mature, measured politics and policymaking seem to be at an end: just throw ideas against the wall and hope they stick. If they don’t…just deny that you said it.
It’s a circus atmosphere.
What’s going on behind the scenes, Administration-wise, is about what I had expected from whichever Republican candidate had won the Presidency: relaxed government regulations, favorable treatment of key donors and their industries, an increased military budget, and “benign neglect” toward the poor, minorities, the environment, and those without adequate health care.
With a lengthy adjustment period now coming to an end, Mr. Trump seems to have his key staff in place to make sure that these things happen. This allows him to focus on things that are important to him, like making himself the center of attention.
Not a day goes by when the Prez doesn’t do or say something that diverts attention from important matters to…himself. The old adage about “any publicity is good publicity” seems to be Donald Trump’s mantra. Perhaps the idea is that if the focus is on him, no one will notice the crap that is going on behind the curtains.
The latest crap:
China : The big bogeyman during the campaign was China: they were stealing our technology and raping us with an ungodly/unfair balance of trade. If elected, he was going to kick their ass.
In fact, this is what he proposed to do a few months ago: monstrous tariffs on their goods. And, for good measure, the United States was going to blackball ZTE, a Chinese technological giant, from doing business with the U.S. because of technology theft.
What actually happened? Trump caved. He lifted the sanction against ZTE, and accepted a $1 billion fine…which is a fraction of the amount of business that they do. He also changed his mind on major tariffs aimed at China, and, instead, focused his tariff war on our allies.
In his first major trade negotiation, Trump learned about the leverage that he doesn’t have: in effect, a bully was trying to bully a bigger bully.
In the meanwhile, he has greatly pissed off our traditional allies.
North Korea: If elected, Donald Trump was going to de-nuclearize North Korea whether they wanted to or not. He would make them an offer that they couldn’t refuse… In fact, his spokespeople alluded to the “Ghaddafi” model which included the death of the Libyan leader.
The Master Negotiator and his supporters were already alluding to the Nobel Prize that he would win.
What actually happened? The North Koreans canceled the summit and indicated that de-nuclearization was never on the table.
Trump’s people scurried about and salvaged the proposed summit meeting, saving face for the President. He now goes into this week’s summit meeting hat-in-hand, looking for anything that he can announce as a “win” for America. Heaven knows what he will agree to in order to call the meeting a success.
Rest assured that, whatever comes out of the meeting, the North Koreans will still have their nuclear weapons and Donald Trump will proclaim that he got a Hell of a deal.
Russia: The investigation into the 2016 manipulation of the Presidential election by the Russians continues, despite the efforts of the President, his staff minions, the Republican Party, the House Intelligence Committee, Fox News, and numerous personal attorneys working for Donald Trump to derail said investigation. The F.B.I., the Nation’s premier law enforcement agency, has been generally denounced by the above parties as inept, biased and crooked for pursuing an investigation into something that both parties have agreed actually happened in 2016.
What’s the latest? The big Trump Tower meeting in New York in June of 2016, which appears to be a “smoking gun” in the investigation, is getting a new spin from headquarters.
The official story about this innocent meeting has had many makeovers by the Trump team during the past couple of years. Supposedly, son Trump Jr., son-in-law Jared Kushner, and campaign manager Paul Manafort were there to discuss adoptions of Russian children.
It was later revealed that they were actually there to receive dirt on Hillary Clinton from the Russians, to be used in the campaign.
When the true purpose of the meeting was publicly exposed, numerous denials emerged from the participants, and Donald Trump Jr. eventually issued a statement about the meeting. At first, Trump Jr. asserted that he wrote the statement all by himself and that his father didn’t know anything about the meeting.
Then, later, the story was that the President had learned about the meeting, but had nothing to do with his son’s statement.
Then, later, the story changed: the proposed statement might have been discussed on Air Force One with the President, but he had no hand in writing it for his son.
Then, later, it was conceded that he might have helped his son draft it.
Then, last week, Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani admitted, “Yeah, he personally dictated it for his son.”
As we now understand, the President dictated a public statement about a meeting he knew nothing about, did not attend, and had nothing to do with his campaign. And, that’s the way it was, so help him God.
Amazingly, the Liar-in-Chief continues to wonder aloud, publicly, day after day, why the Special Prosecutor doesn’t believe the President’s assertions that the whole Russia-gate affair is a trumped up witch hunt. Go figure.
Moral Character: After several personal attorneys for Donald Trump had thrown in the towel, Rudy Giuliani, the ex-Mayor of New York City stepped up to the plate to bat for the Prez. Rudy’s been busy lately, knocking down brushfires ignited by his Boss’ stupid tweets, stupid statements that he (Giuliani) has personally made, and the President’s obvious lies about the Russians and lawsuits by former Trump mistresses.
What’s new? The Stormy Daniels lawsuit has been a thorn in the President’s side. It involves the tryst between Trump and Daniels that “never happened”, that resulted in a non-disclosure agreement between Daniels and Trump’s attorney in which Daniel’s was awarded $130K for something that “never happened” with this woman.
Daniels is now suing to nullify the non-disclosure agreement, because Trump didn’t personally sign it. And, even though the tryst “never happened” according to Trump, he doesn’t want the agreement nullified because…why would you guess?…people might find out what sexcapade actually happened shortly after Melania Trump gave birth to son Barron.
This past week, Giuliani publicly declared that Stormy Daniels can’t be believed because she is an ex-porn star, and therefore of low moral character.
Talk about hypocrisy!
Rudy Giulani, a politician (!) who is thrice divorced (“until death do us part”), and whose third wife learned that he was divorcing her on radio news, and whose job it is to re-frame and defend his Boss’ lies on a daily basis…this is a guy who should talk about moral character?
And, what about the guys who watch porn…date porn stars, like Donald Trump…and grab pretty women by the pussy, because they can? Do they have low moral character? Trump is thrice married and his current wife modeled in the nude; does she have low moral character?
What about the President’s touted “Trump University” for real estate professionals which was found guilty of being a total scam and had to reimburse student millions of dollars?
Talk about low moral character!!
It will be a sad day when the American public need to be schooled about moral character from morally bankrupt scumbags like Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump.
NFL News: It is traditional that the President of the United States invites the Super Bowl-winning team to the White House for a public celebration.
Say what?! The President, this week, “dis-invited” the Super Bowl winners, the Philadelphia Eagles, to the White House because…he feared that…a number of the Eagles’ players wouldn’t attend in protest of his position on…protests. The President has been quite vocal in his opposition to NFL players who kneel during the National Anthem as a protest against endemic police brutality against blacks. Ironically, none of the Philadelphia Eagles’ players knelt during the National Anthem at the Super Bowl.
So, the President took his action as a protest against a protest that he anticipated from players who didn’t protest. I’m thinking that he would have made more points by reacting to an actual protest than by childishly throwing a pre-emptive tantrum.
It is apparent that the President believes strongly in the right to protest, like his public protests against “witch hunts”, unfair trade practices, illegal immigration, high taxes, etc. So did the Founding Fathers; i.e. Boston Tea Party.
Why is it wrong when NFL players protest?
Get Your Facts Straight: The President is flailing about, trying to achieve some type of “win” in trade negotiations. He personally has threatened, implemented, withdrawn, re-implemented, relented, and re-adjusted various tariffs on the Nation’s trading partners against the advice of most economists. Beyond a doubt, whatever happens in trade negotiations over the next few years, the President will claim that he has out-snookered the enemy…even if they are an ally.
A Canadian threat? This past week, the President tried to defend his proposed tariffs on certain products from Canada: they were important to “national security”. In response to comments by the Canadian Prime Minister, questioning about what threat Canada imposes on the United States, the Commander-in-Chief responded by noting that, in the War of 1812, “they burned down the White House”.
As any school-age kid knows, the British burned the White House in 1812.
I’m guessing that the President was employing the tool that he publicly disparages: Fake News.
At the same G-7 economic summit conference that the Prez was insulting the Canadians, he suggested that the group relent and re-admit Russia, which had been kicked out of the group for aggression in the Ukraine. For some reason (are you listening, Mr. Mueller?), Donald Trump has a soft spot in his heart for the Russians. Maybe it’s that “pee tape”?
What do you think leaders of other countries think of a President who has demonstrated on several occasions that he doesn’t even know his own country’s history?
The Yiddish word “schlemiel” comes to mind.
Presidential Pardons: Apparently, when Trump gets bored or runs out of things to tweet, he ponders the exercise of one of his special perks: the Presidential Pardon.
Last week, Trump issued a pardon to Jack Johnson, the Negro ex-heavyweight boxing champion who was convicted of bogus charges in the Jim Crow era. It is said that the Prez is contemplating issuing a pardon to Muhammad Ali, another dead black man who was stripped of his heavyweight title for political reasons. (Actually, Ali doesn’t need a pardon; the Supreme Court invalidated his conviction for draft evasion.)
It WOULD BE NEWS… if President Trump pardoned a living black man.
Some 20,000 of these pardons have issued by Presidents in our Nation’s history. The public hears about them only when the recipient is someone who is known for some dubious act, for an injustice, or, often, political activities. Some past recipients include: Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy; Jimmy Hoffa, ex-Teamsters honcho; Patty Hearst, bank robber; and, Richard Nixon, for the Watergate cover-up. Typically, though, most pardons have dispensed mercy on criminals who have paid a heavy debt to society.
One of the first things that Donald Trump did when elected was to pardon ex-Sheriff Joe Arpai0 of Arizona…a hero to Trump’s political base… who had been convicted of contempt of court for a continuous pattern of racial profiling in his Arizona county. Nice guy.
We can probably expect a few more pardons in this category, to delight MAGA supporters. Maybe the President will consider pardoning Jesus Christ?
President Trump has publicly reveled in this “super power” of the pardon, and has mused aloud, as have his Fox News support team, that he may have the power to pardon himself for Russia-gate indiscretions…which he claims “never happened”.
Rudy Giuliani said this week that, although Trump probably has the power to pardon himself, it would never happen.
Don’t count on it, Rudy.
The loudmouth comedian went a bit too far, revealing a bit too much of her inner reality, causing ABC (you know, those wholesome Disney folks) to cut the cord on her re-booted “Roseanne” show.
