Trump 31: Parody of a Presidency

[Destiny]

Continued from here:

Let's continue to hope that Rufus keeps an Umbrella of Protection over Mueller. 

[AmazonGrace]

This is chilling. Madeleine Albright warns that Trump et al are taking America closer and closer to fascism.

 

[fraurosena]

1 hour ago, Destiny said:

Let's continue to hope that Rufus keeps an Umbrella of Protection over Mueller. 

Our sweet Rufus has heard your prayers, @Destiny

 And although this news should go into the Russian connection thread, I think I will leave it here instead:

I know the vote still has to happen, and that a majority needs to vote for it... but still...

[PsyD2013]

Trump admitted to  obstruction of justice in a tweet

 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/m/054c6c2e-1d37-33ab-a9b6-d495ae1fbfb0/ss_trump-admits-to-obstruction.html

[Cartmann99]

I wasn't sure which thread to stick this in, but here goes:

Also, am I the only one who sees part 31 and thinks Baskin-Robbins? 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[fraurosena]

What a whiny little bitch he is.

We will, however, say "Thank you, America!" once they've got rid of you.

[GreyhoundFan]

"Trump chooses impulse over strategy as crises mount"

Spoiler

In a White House known for chaos, the process of developing the U.S. response to the Syrian government’s alleged latest gas attack was proceeding with uncharacteristic deliberation, including several national security briefings for President Trump. 

But then Wednesday morning, Trump upended it all with a tweet — warning Russia, the Syrian government’s backer, to “get ready” because American missiles “will be coming, nice and new and ‘smart!’ ” 

White House advisers were surprised by the missive and found it “alarming” and “distracting,” in the words of one senior official. They quickly regrouped and, together with Pentagon brass, continued readying Syria options for Trump as if nothing had happened.

But the Twitter disruption was emblematic of a president operating on a tornado of impulses — and with no clear strategy — as he faces some of the most consequential decisions of his presidency, including Syria, trade policy and the Russian interference probe that threatens to overwhelm his administration.

“It’s just like everybody wakes up every morning and does whatever is right in front of them,” said one West Wing aide, speaking on the condition of anonymity to share a candid opinion. “Oh, my God, Trump Tower is on fire. Oh, my God, they raided Michael Cohen’s office. Oh, my God, we’re going to bomb Syria. Whatever is there is what people respond to, and there is no proactive strategic thinking.”

The president has been particularly livid in the wake of Monday’s FBI raids on the home, office and hotel room of Cohen, his longtime personal attorney. In the days after, he has seriously contemplated a shake-up at the Justice Department in the hopes of curbing the expanding probe by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, whose referral led to the Cohen raids. Trump is considering firing Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, who is overseeing the probe, several people familiar with Trump’s private comments said.

By Trump’s admission Wednesday on Twitter, Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference and possible obstruction of justice has consumed “tremendous time and focus.” And in denying allegations of wrongdoing, the president seemed to equivocate in a parenthetical aside: “No Collusion or Obstruction (other than I fight back),” he wrote. 

On trade, meanwhile, the president is grappling with the potential economic fallout of his threatened tariffs, especially within the agriculture sector, which could harm some of the rural states that carried him to electoral victory — all against the backdrop of his ongoing effort to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement more favorably for the United States.

Trump also finds himself facing the surprise retirement of House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), signaling more turmoil for the fractious Republican Party heading into the midterm elections. 

These and other pivotal developments come as many of the guardrails that previously helped stabilize the president — from West Wing aides to clear policy processes — have been cast aside, with little evident organization or long-term strategy emanating from the White House.

This portrait of Trump in the current moment comes from interviews with 21 administration officials, outsider advisers, lawmakers and confidants, many of them speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive details and conversations. 

Save for his Wednesday morning tweet, the president’s Syria deliberations have largely been the exception to the chaos engulfing the White House, underscoring the high stakes of a decision, White House officials said.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Wednesday afternoon that Trump continues to review options for a military strike in Syria and that his tweet should not be read as an announcement of planned action.

 “We’re maintaining that we have a number of options, and all of those options are still on the table,” Sanders said. “Final decisions haven’t been made on that front.”

The National Security Council met Wednesday afternoon at the White House, chaired by Vice President Pence, to finalize options that could be presented to the president, Sanders said. She said Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, national security adviser John Bolton and other senior officials have been in regular contact with their counterparts from Israel, Saudi Arabia, France, the United Kingdom and other partners around the world as the administration weighs its military options for Syria.

Yet Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said Wednesday afternoon that he had yet to hear from Trump or other administration officials about impending action in Syria. 

“I have no idea. So far, it appears to me to be bluster,” Corker said. “Then I saw a tweet come out about us working with Russia right after we’re getting ready to bomb them, so I mean, who knows? Unfortunately, there are a lot of things announced by the administration that never come to pass or evolve.”

The more general question of U.S. engagement in Syria has confounded and divided the administration. Officials at the White House and Pentagon, for instance, were blindsided by Trump’s pronouncement at a rally in Ohio in late March that U.S. troops would be leaving Syria “very soon,” and in the first hours after the speech, they scrambled to get a sense of what he meant.

Trump initially told aides that he wanted U.S. soldiers and Marines to leave in 48 hours — an impossible timeline that alarmed the Pentagon and sent officials racing to dissuade him, two U.S. officials said.

Eventually, Mattis and others persuaded Trump to give the military another six months to wipe out the remnants of the Islamic State. The timeline was far from ideal but was viewed as a major victory compared with Trump’s original timeline, officials said.

Senior U.S. officials describe a president who is operating largely on impulse, with little patience for the advice of his top aides. “A decision or statement is made by the president, and then the principals — Mattis or Pompeo or Kelly — come in and tell him we can’t do it,” said one senior administration official. “When that fails, we reverse-engineer a policy process to match whatever the president said.”

On a potential shake-up at the Justice Department, Trump has been receiving a range of advice and has sent mixed signals about his intentions. Within the White House, advisers have largely counseled caution and urged him not to make changes. White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly and counsel Donald McGahn have tried to calm Trump several times, as has Ty Cobb, the White House lawyer handling the Russia probe. 

Yet others, including many in the president’s orbit who don’t work in the White House, have counseled a more aggressive approach, saying the raid of Cohen’s home and business crossed a line. This advice has left White House staff on edge, nervous about what the president might do.

Trump, for instance, yelled about Rosenstein and Attorney General Jeff Sessions for several hours Monday and has continued to complain about them since. But some described his complaints as just “venting,” with one outside adviser saying that while the president is “steamed and unhappy,” that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s prepared to take action. 

 “I heard or saw nothing that would suggest he was planning to make a change at the Department of Justice,” said Alan Dershowitz, a retired Harvard Law School professor who dined at the White House with Trump on Tuesday night. He said they mainly discussed the Middle East and Russia. 

Rosenstein, meanwhile, seems to have made peace with any eventuality, said one person who has had a conversation with him. He understands he might be squarely in Trump’s crosshairs, and “is ready for whatever comes and confident in his own behavior.” 

Trump has also devoted a portion of his days to trade policy. Over the past eight weeks, the president has initiated trade disputes with several of the largest countries in the world, driving forward pronouncements without fully vetting most of them with key aides.

In some cases, he has backpedaled on his vow to impose steep tariffs on countries such as Germany, Canada and Mexico. But he has also refused to waive tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Japan, a major U.S. security ally and trading partner.

Some Senate Republicans fear that Trump’s loosely formed trade war with China could end up cratering the agriculture industry at a time when many Midwestern farmers are preparing to plant crops. China has promised to impose tariffs on U.S. farm exports as a way of retaliating against Trump’s planned tariffs. The White House promised to backstop U.S. farm groups, but they have yet to share what they would do or how they would do it.

“I don’t know what kind of cockamamie scheme we could come up with that would be fair,” Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) said Tuesday.

Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Tex.) was similarly frustrated by Trump’s trade agenda. “I think the president has some ideas about trade that are not generally shared by the Republican conference,” he said. 

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told his frustrated ranks during a closed-door lunch this week to call Trump and air their trade-related worries, according to a person familiar with the Kentucky Republican’s remarks. Roberts and others planned to meet with Trump on Thursday to discuss the matter.

On some level, White House aides have simply reconciled themselves to the reality that they have little to no control over Trump’s actions and instead remain prepared to explain them away or clean them up.

“Trump is truly serving as his own chief of staff, communications director, and policy maven,” said a Republican strategist in frequent touch with the White House. “He’s singing the Frank Sinatra song, ‘I’ll do it my way.’ ” 

I think the toddler in chief needs a long nap. maybe one of his aides could spike his diet coke with some Ambien or Xanax.

[AmazonGrace]

"I have no freaking idea what to do about Syria but why aren't y'all more grateful to me anyway?!??!??"

[fraurosena]

5 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

"Trump chooses impulse over strategy as crises mount"

  Reveal hidden contents

In a White House known for chaos, the process of developing the U.S. response to the Syrian government’s alleged latest gas attack was proceeding with uncharacteristic deliberation, including several national security briefings for President Trump. 

But then Wednesday morning, Trump upended it all with a tweet — warning Russia, the Syrian government’s backer, to “get ready” because American missiles “will be coming, nice and new and ‘smart!’ ” 

White House advisers were surprised by the missive and found it “alarming” and “distracting,” in the words of one senior official. They quickly regrouped and, together with Pentagon brass, continued readying Syria options for Trump as if nothing had happened.

But the Twitter disruption was emblematic of a president operating on a tornado of impulses — and with no clear strategy — as he faces some of the most consequential decisions of his presidency, including Syria, trade policy and the Russian interference probe that threatens to overwhelm his administration.

“It’s just like everybody wakes up every morning and does whatever is right in front of them,” said one West Wing aide, speaking on the condition of anonymity to share a candid opinion. “Oh, my God, Trump Tower is on fire. Oh, my God, they raided Michael Cohen’s office. Oh, my God, we’re going to bomb Syria. Whatever is there is what people respond to, and there is no proactive strategic thinking.”

The president has been particularly livid in the wake of Monday’s FBI raids on the home, office and hotel room of Cohen, his longtime personal attorney. In the days after, he has seriously contemplated a shake-up at the Justice Department in the hopes of curbing the expanding probe by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, whose referral led to the Cohen raids. Trump is considering firing Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, who is overseeing the probe, several people familiar with Trump’s private comments said.

By Trump’s admission Wednesday on Twitter, Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference and possible obstruction of justice has consumed “tremendous time and focus.” And in denying allegations of wrongdoing, the president seemed to equivocate in a parenthetical aside: “No Collusion or Obstruction (other than I fight back),” he wrote. 

On trade, meanwhile, the president is grappling with the potential economic fallout of his threatened tariffs, especially within the agriculture sector, which could harm some of the rural states that carried him to electoral victory — all against the backdrop of his ongoing effort to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement more favorably for the United States.

Trump also finds himself facing the surprise retirement of House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), signaling more turmoil for the fractious Republican Party heading into the midterm elections. 

These and other pivotal developments come as many of the guardrails that previously helped stabilize the president — from West Wing aides to clear policy processes — have been cast aside, with little evident organization or long-term strategy emanating from the White House.

This portrait of Trump in the current moment comes from interviews with 21 administration officials, outsider advisers, lawmakers and confidants, many of them speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive details and conversations. 

Save for his Wednesday morning tweet, the president’s Syria deliberations have largely been the exception to the chaos engulfing the White House, underscoring the high stakes of a decision, White House officials said.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Wednesday afternoon that Trump continues to review options for a military strike in Syria and that his tweet should not be read as an announcement of planned action.

 “We’re maintaining that we have a number of options, and all of those options are still on the table,” Sanders said. “Final decisions haven’t been made on that front.”

The National Security Council met Wednesday afternoon at the White House, chaired by Vice President Pence, to finalize options that could be presented to the president, Sanders said. She said Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, national security adviser John Bolton and other senior officials have been in regular contact with their counterparts from Israel, Saudi Arabia, France, the United Kingdom and other partners around the world as the administration weighs its military options for Syria.

Yet Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said Wednesday afternoon that he had yet to hear from Trump or other administration officials about impending action in Syria. 

“I have no idea. So far, it appears to me to be bluster,” Corker said. “Then I saw a tweet come out about us working with Russia right after we’re getting ready to bomb them, so I mean, who knows? Unfortunately, there are a lot of things announced by the administration that never come to pass or evolve.”

The more general question of U.S. engagement in Syria has confounded and divided the administration. Officials at the White House and Pentagon, for instance, were blindsided by Trump’s pronouncement at a rally in Ohio in late March that U.S. troops would be leaving Syria “very soon,” and in the first hours after the speech, they scrambled to get a sense of what he meant.

Trump initially told aides that he wanted U.S. soldiers and Marines to leave in 48 hours — an impossible timeline that alarmed the Pentagon and sent officials racing to dissuade him, two U.S. officials said.

Eventually, Mattis and others persuaded Trump to give the military another six months to wipe out the remnants of the Islamic State. The timeline was far from ideal but was viewed as a major victory compared with Trump’s original timeline, officials said.

Senior U.S. officials describe a president who is operating largely on impulse, with little patience for the advice of his top aides. “A decision or statement is made by the president, and then the principals — Mattis or Pompeo or Kelly — come in and tell him we can’t do it,” said one senior administration official. “When that fails, we reverse-engineer a policy process to match whatever the president said.”

On a potential shake-up at the Justice Department, Trump has been receiving a range of advice and has sent mixed signals about his intentions. Within the White House, advisers have largely counseled caution and urged him not to make changes. White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly and counsel Donald McGahn have tried to calm Trump several times, as has Ty Cobb, the White House lawyer handling the Russia probe. 

Yet others, including many in the president’s orbit who don’t work in the White House, have counseled a more aggressive approach, saying the raid of Cohen’s home and business crossed a line. This advice has left White House staff on edge, nervous about what the president might do.

Trump, for instance, yelled about Rosenstein and Attorney General Jeff Sessions for several hours Monday and has continued to complain about them since. But some described his complaints as just “venting,” with one outside adviser saying that while the president is “steamed and unhappy,” that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s prepared to take action. 

 “I heard or saw nothing that would suggest he was planning to make a change at the Department of Justice,” said Alan Dershowitz, a retired Harvard Law School professor who dined at the White House with Trump on Tuesday night. He said they mainly discussed the Middle East and Russia. 

Rosenstein, meanwhile, seems to have made peace with any eventuality, said one person who has had a conversation with him. He understands he might be squarely in Trump’s crosshairs, and “is ready for whatever comes and confident in his own behavior.” 

Trump has also devoted a portion of his days to trade policy. Over the past eight weeks, the president has initiated trade disputes with several of the largest countries in the world, driving forward pronouncements without fully vetting most of them with key aides.

In some cases, he has backpedaled on his vow to impose steep tariffs on countries such as Germany, Canada and Mexico. But he has also refused to waive tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Japan, a major U.S. security ally and trading partner.

Some Senate Republicans fear that Trump’s loosely formed trade war with China could end up cratering the agriculture industry at a time when many Midwestern farmers are preparing to plant crops. China has promised to impose tariffs on U.S. farm exports as a way of retaliating against Trump’s planned tariffs. The White House promised to backstop U.S. farm groups, but they have yet to share what they would do or how they would do it.

“I don’t know what kind of cockamamie scheme we could come up with that would be fair,” Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) said Tuesday.

Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Tex.) was similarly frustrated by Trump’s trade agenda. “I think the president has some ideas about trade that are not generally shared by the Republican conference,” he said. 

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told his frustrated ranks during a closed-door lunch this week to call Trump and air their trade-related worries, according to a person familiar with the Kentucky Republican’s remarks. Roberts and others planned to meet with Trump on Thursday to discuss the matter.

On some level, White House aides have simply reconciled themselves to the reality that they have little to no control over Trump’s actions and instead remain prepared to explain them away or clean them up.

“Trump is truly serving as his own chief of staff, communications director, and policy maven,” said a Republican strategist in frequent touch with the White House. “He’s singing the Frank Sinatra song, ‘I’ll do it my way.’ ” 

I think the toddler in chief needs a long nap. maybe one of his aides could spike his diet coke with some Ambien or Xanax.

He will start slurring his speech after that again, I'm afraid... but yeah, he could do with a nice loooooong rest. Preferably in a jumpsuit that matches the color of his face.

[formergothardite]

36 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

What a whiny little bitch he is.

We will, however, say "Thank you, America!" once they've got rid of you.

My opinion, when he first started mentioning Syria he didn't have a clue about Russia working with them. He then decided to be all tough sounding and threaten Russia/Syria, but Putin sent him a message telling him to calm the fuck down, so now Trump has to bow to his leader. He handles Russia with gloves, he isn't going to do anything to piss them off no matter what terrible shit they do. 

[AnywhereButHere]

1 hour ago, AmazonGrace said:

 

He’s basically given Russia to the count of three so they can move anything important. 1... 2... 2 1/4... 2 1/2... 2 3/4... 2 4/5... 2 5/6... With this story, he needs a distraction, so an attack on Syria maybe imminent. He may be up to 2 7/8 in his count. 

The Enquirer killed the story because they said it lacked credibility. Credibility and The Enquirer are mutually exclusive things, so there’s that...

[fraurosena]

1 minute ago, formergothardite said:

My opinion, when he first started mentioning Syria he didn't have a clue about Russia working with them. He then decided to be all tough sounding and threaten Russia/Syria, but Putin sent him a message telling him to calm the fuck down, so now Trump has to bow to his leader. He handles Russia with gloves, he isn't going to do anything to piss them off no matter what terrible shit they do. 

An alternative narrative is that the presidunce was all like:

'Fuck, fuck, fuckity fuck, they're on to me, Mueller's getting closer.. how to distract? What to do? Putin, buddy, Vlad, my friend...what to do?"

"Donnie, don't worry, I'll ask Assad to drop chemicals on innocent civilians again, like last year, and you can go throw bombs."

"But will that distract them enough? It's really bad, really, bigly bad! They're going after my money!"

"Well, if one time throwing bombs is not enough, maybe more times."

"But they are finding out about everything, Vlad, everything! About... about you and me..."

"Then you will have to show them it not true. Show them we are not friends."

"But we are friends, Vlad!"

"Yes, yes, Donnie, we are friends. But we will act as if we are not friends. Assad will do chemicals, you get angry. I say: Assad good boy. Then you say: Putin bad, I throw bombs!"

"Ok.. I think. I hope it's enough."

"Good boy, Donnie. If not enough, we start war. Always good distraction, eh? It worked good with Bushy-boy too. It will work with you too. Don't worry. Now, go tweet."

 

[AnywhereButHere]

@fraurosena I don’t know whether to laugh or cry at that synopsis. I can see it going exactly like that. 

[AmazonGrace]

I'm hearing it in a Russian accent.

 

Hey, lookee here, Trumpster got a Time cover.

[AmazonGrace]

 

[Cartmann99]

Oh my.....

 

[fraurosena]

Ugh, this tweet.

Here's my transcript of his speech for those of you who can't stand to listen to him:

Quote

We're going to have tremendous growth in our country. You're going to be so proud of it. We were proud of our country anyway, but your going to be even more proud, because our American Spirit is back. It really is back. It's the same Spirit that linked our nation with railroads and highways, that dug out the great Panama Canal and that put a man on the face of the moon. America was built by men and women like you, who never give in never gave up and never, ever stopped believing in that great American dream. We are the ones that are shaping our own destiny. And you are the ones that are restoring our prosperity. You are the ones that are truly [bringing] and making America first again And you are the ones that are taking us to levels that are never seen before. That's what's happening right now You are [bringing] our country to levels that we have never, ever, seen before. So I want to thank everybody for being with us today and God bless you all God bless America thank you, thank you very much, thank you.

My comments:

• The speech was surprisingly coherent for the presidunce, so i guess he managed to stay on script quite well. He did repeat a sentence, but maybe that was for emphasis, not because he forgot he'd already said that...
• America digging out the Panama Canal is not something to be boastful about.
• Note the pronouns here. Very telling. We are the ones shaping our own destiny. And you are the ones that are restoring our prosperity. (Translation: we, the grifters, you, the American public, our prosperity, the grifters' prosperity)
• He slurs the word 'bringing' and mangles it into something that sounds like 'brengin'.
• It's quite revealing that he makes a downward motion with his hand when he's talking about 'levels never seen before'. 
• Sweet Rufus, he's imagining himself to be Elvis, with his 'thank you, thank you very much'. 

As to the text of the tweet itself

• Note that he's talking about 'my administration' and not "I"
• He's doing the all caps screaming again 
• They are fighting? What are they fighting, exactly? With what? Golf clubs?
• That #TaxCuts is quite telling isn't it... It's what he feels is his bigly win. And to be honest, he did win bigly with that Tax Cut... financially. 

[47of74]

Ugh, this tweet.
Here's my transcript of his speech for those of you who can't stand to listen to him:

We're going to have tremendous growth in our country. You're going to be so proud of it. We were proud of our country anyway, but your going to be even more proud, because our American Spirit is back. It really is back. It's the same Spirit that linked our nation with railroads and highways, that dug out the great Panama Canal and that put a man on the face of the moon. America was built by men and women like you, who never give in never gave up and never, ever stopped believing in that great American dream. We are the ones that are shaping our own destiny. And you are the ones that are restoring our prosperity. You are the ones that are truly [bringing] and making America first again And you are the ones that are taking us to levels that are never seen before. That's what's happening right now You are [bringing] our country to levels that we have never, ever, seen before. So I want to thank everybody for being with us today and God bless you all God bless America thank you, thank you very much, thank you.

My comments:

• The speech was surprisingly coherent for the presidunce, so i guess he managed to stay on script quite well. he did repeat a sentence, but maybe that was for emphasis, not because he forgot he'd already said that...
• America digging out the Panama Canal is not something to be boastful about.
• Note the pronouns here. Very telling. We are the ones shaping our own destiny. And you are the ones that are restoring our prosperity. (Translation: we, the grifters, you, the American public, our prosperity, the grifters' prosperity)
• He slurs the word 'bringing' and mangles it into something that sounds like 'brengin'.
• It's quite revealing that he makes a downward motion with his hand when he's talking about 'levels never seen before'. 
• Sweet Rufus, he's imagining himself to be Elvis, with his 'thank you, thank you very much'. 

As to the text of the tweet itself

• Not that he's talking about 'my administration' and not "I"
• He's doing the all caps screaming again 
• They are fighting? What are they fighting, exactly? With what? Golf clubs?
• That #TaxCuts is quite telling isn't it... It's what he feels is his bigly win. And to be honest, he did win bigly with that Tax Cut... financially. 

Fuck Face is so full of shit. It boggles my damn mind that people look upon him as having any sort of leadership qualities.

[fraurosena]

Seriously, do what she says. You won't regret it.

(also, wtf are memembers?)

[GreyhoundFan]

Cue the twitter meltdown: "James Comey’s memoir: Trump fixates on proving lewd dossier allegations false". It's a long article, so I'm not copying the whole thing, but these parts are what will likely set the tiny hands a blazin':

Quote

The nation’s intelligence chiefs had just finished briefing Donald Trump on Russia’s interference in the 2016 election when FBI Director James B. Comey stayed behind to discuss some especially sensitive material: a “widely circulated” intelligence dossier contained unconfirmed allegations that Russians had filmed Trump interacting with prostitutes in Moscow in 2013.

The president-elect quickly interrupted the FBI director. According to Comey’s account in a new memoir, Trump “strongly denied the allegations, asking — rhetorically, I assumed — whether he seemed like a guy who needed the service of prostitutes. He then began discussing cases where women had accused him of sexual assault, a subject I had not raised. He mentioned a number of women, and seemed to have memorized their allegations.”

Quote

In his memoir, Comey paints a devastating portrait of a president who built “a cocoon of alternative reality that he was busily wrapping around all of us.” Comey describes Trump as a congenital liar and unethical leader, devoid of human emotion and driven by personal ego.

Comey narrates in vivid detail, based on his contemporaneous notes, instances in which Trump violated the norms protecting the FBI’s independence in attempts to coerce Comey into being loyal to him — such as during a one-on-one dinner in the White House residence.

Interacting with Trump, Comey writes, gave him “flashbacks to my earlier career as a prosecutor against the Mob. The silent circle of assent. The boss in complete control. The loyalty oaths. The us-versus-them worldview. The lying about all things, large and small, in service to some code of loyalty that put the organization above morality and above the truth.”

The result, in Comey’s telling, is “the forest fire that is the Trump presidency.”

“What is happening now is not normal,” he writes. “It is not fake news. It is not okay.”

Quote

The first time Comey met Trump was at the pre-inauguration intelligence briefing. Comey, who is 6’8” tall, writes that the 6’3” president-elect looked shorter than he did on television. “His face appeared slightly orange,” Comey writes, “with bright white half-moons under his eyes where I assumed he placed small tanning goggles, and impressively coifed, bright blond hair, which upon close inspection looked to be all his.”

“As he extended his hand,” Comey adds, “I made a mental note to check its size. It was smaller than mine, but did not seem unusually so.”

Trump was accompanied at the Trump Tower session by his national security team, as well as by political aides Reince Priebus and Sean Spicer, who were slated to become White House chief of staff and press secretary respectively. Trump asked only one question, Comey writes: “You found there was no impact on the result, right?”

James R. Clapper Jr., then the director of national intelligence, replied that the intelligence community did no such analysis.

Comey recalls being struck that neither Trump nor his advisers asked about the future Russian threat, nor how the United States might prepare to meet it. Rather, he writes, they focused on “how they could spin what we’d just told them.”

Quote

After one week as president, Trump invited Comey to dinner. Comey describes the scene on Jan. 27: The table in the Green Room was set for two. The president marveled at the fancy handwriting on the four-course menu placards and seemed unaware of the term calligrapher. White House stewards served salad, shrimp scampi, chicken Parmesan with pasta and vanilla ice cream.

Comey writes that he believed Trump was trying “to establish a patronage relationship,” and that he said: “I need loyalty. I expect loyalty.”

“I was determined not to give the president any hint of assent to this demand, so I gave silence instead,” Comey writes. “I stared at the soft white pouches under his expressionless blue eyes. I remember thinking in that moment that the president doesn’t understand the FBI’s role in American life.”

Trump broke the standoff by turning to other topics, Comey writes, speaking in torrents, “like an oral jigsaw puzzle,” about the size of his inauguration crowd, his free media coverage and the viciousness of the campaign. He talked about the Clinton email investigation as in three phases, as if it were a television series: “Comey One,” “Comey Two” and “Comey Three.” Trump also tried to convince Comey that he had not mocked disabled New York Times reporter Serge Kovaleski at a campaign rally, and then turned to the detailed allegations of sexual assault against him.

“There was no way he groped that lady sitting next to him on the airplane, he insisted,” Comey writes. “And the idea that he grabbed a porn star and offered her money to come to his room was preposterous.”

And then Trump brought up “the golden showers thing,” Comey writes. The president told him that “it bothered him if there was ‘even a one percent chance’ his wife, Melania, thought it was true.” Comey writes that Trump told him to consider having the FBI investigate the prostitutes allegation to “prove it was a lie.”

 

[Cartmann99]

[GreyhoundFan]

Oh, for pity sake: "Trump, Having Denounced Amazon’s Shipping Deal, Orders Review of Postal Service"

Spoiler

WASHINGTON — President Trump abruptly issued an executive order on Thursday demanding an evaluation of the Postal Service’s finances, asserting the power of his office weeks after accusing Amazon, the online retail giant, of not paying its fair share in postage.

In the executive order, issued just before 9 p.m., Mr. Trump created a task force to examine the service’s “unsustainable financial path” and directed the new group to “conduct a thorough evaluation of the operations and finances of the U.S.P.S.”

The president does not mention Amazon in the order, but it is clear that he intends the group to substantiate his repeated claim that the financial arrangement between the Postal Service and Amazon, its biggest shipper of packages, is a money loser.

In December, Mr. Trump railed against the service on Twitter for being “dumber and poorer” by losing billions of dollars and not “charging MUCH MORE” to Amazon and other shippers. His Twitter attacks date back as far as 2013, when he scoffed at the agency for eliminating Saturday mail delivery — “our poor, poor Country,” he wrote — and raising the cost of stamps.

Postal Service experts and even Mr. Trump’s own advisers have privately urged him to back off the accusations, noting that the huge number of packages shipped by Amazon is actually helping keep the Postal Service financially solvent.

But the president has refused to believe those arguments, insisting in a tweet as recently as March 31 that “the U.S. Post Office will lose $1.50 on average for each package it delivers for Amazon. That amounts to Billions of Dollars.”

So, we'll waste untold millions of dollars on his sham "review". Yeah, money well spent. end sarcasm.

[GreyhoundFan]

"Trump’s Company Is Suing Towns Across the Country to Get Breaks on Taxes"

Spoiler

President Donald Trump is famous for bragging about his net worth. Publicly, he claims he’s worth more than $10 billion. He even sued an author over the issue and lobbied the editors of Forbes about his ranking on their billionaires list.

Yet quietly in another setting, the Trump Organization says the president’s holdings are worth far less than he has proclaimed. Across the country, the Trump Organization is suing local governments, claiming it owes much less in property taxes than government assessors say because its properties are worth much less than they’ve been valued at. In just one example, the company has asserted that its gleaming waterfront skyscraper in Chicago is worth less than than its assessed value, in part because its retail space is failing and worth less than nothing.

Since becoming president, Trump’s companies have filed at least nine new lawsuits against municipalities in Florida, New York and Illinois, arguing for lower tax bills, ProPublica has found. Some of those lawsuits have been previously reported. At stake is millions of dollars that communities use to fund roads, schools and police departments.

Real estate owners dispute property taxes frequently, and some even sue. The president has a long track record of doing so himself. But experts are troubled that he’s doing so while in office.

No president in modern times has owned a business involved in legal battles with local governments. “The idea that the president would have these interests and then those companies would sue localities is really a dangerous precedent,” says Larry Noble, of the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center. The dynamic between local and federal governments is impossible to ignore in these cases, says Noble. Municipalities “rely on resources from the federal government and the federal government can make your life easier or much more difficult.” The concern arises because the president did not fully separate from his businesses, he says.

A spokesman for the Trump Organization said, “Like any other business or property owner when property taxes become inflated it is not uncommon to challenge the process to ensure fair treatment. This is a routine practice and any suggestion otherwise is simply ridiculous.”

Here’s a selection of the Trump Organization’s fights:

Ossining

Just north of New York City, the Trump Organization is fighting the town of Ossining. Set along the Hudson River 35 miles north of New York City, the suburban town is home to Trump National Westchester Golf Club.

Trump bought the course in 1996 for $7.5 million and put in $40 million of renovations. The course includes a 75,000-square-foot clubhouse, a 101-foot man-made waterfall and a host of luxury condominiums overlooking the fairway.

Trump said in presidential financial disclosures that this property is worth $50 million. Ossining currently assesses the property at only $15 million.

Yet in legal filings, the Trump Organization claims $15 million is far too high. In 2015, the company said the property is worth only $1.4 million in a lawsuit filed against the Town of Ossining in Westchester County court.

Municipalities almost always settle instead of taking such cases to expensive trials. But because of public outcry, the town decided not to settle this time. It is fighting this case and another related to a neighboring private golf course, which is not owned by Trump.

Asked how it feels to be sued by the president’s company, Dana Levenberg, Ossining Town supervisor, says, “It is certainly uncomfortable at best.”

The town of Ossining has a population of 38,000 an annual budget of $5.5 million. In order to fight, it’s bringing in expert assessors and outside lawyers — and it adds up. “When you have deep private pockets, it’s a lot easier to have staying power in these cases,” Levenberg says.

Trump National Golf Club LLC, the subsidiary that owns the club, has filed lawsuits over property taxes each year since 2015. If the town loses, they’ll have to refund Trump National the difference between what it claimed was owed and the Trump Organization’s number — roughly $439,960 from 2015 alone. That will come out of school budgets and municipal funds. Briarcliff Schools, the district the course falls in, has put aside $2.8 million of their annual $51.4 million budget for future tax refunds. The town and a number of other municipal offices have set aside funds as well.

Chicago

In Chicago, the Trump Organization has embraced a notoriously unequal system of property assessment challenges to its own benefit. Set on prime riverfront downtown real estate, Trump International Hotel and Tower Chicago was born out of the first season of The Apprentice. Completed in 2008, it rises 92 stories and includes a hotel, condominiums and retail space.

But in lawsuits filed against the Cook County treasurer's office, Trump’s lawyers call the building a “failed business,” and claim the riverfront commercial retail space is worthless.

The Trump Organization, through its subsidiary 401 Wabash Ventures LLC, has appealed valuations for Trump Tower Chicago and lowered its tax bills by over $14 million dollars over the years through settlement negotiations. Not satisfied with those cuts, the Trump Organization sued, first in 2001, and then repeatedly in subsequent years. Currently, there are five open cases filed on behalf of the Trump Organization against the county, all regarding Trump Tower. The Sun-Times reported that, according to documents filed with the Cook County state attorney’s office, tax refunds from the cases could total more than $3 million.

Reports by ProPublica Illinois and the Chicago Tribune show that the tax appeals system can exacerbate existing inequalities in the tax system in Illinois, in part because appeals are filed most frequently by those who can afford lawyers. Experts say they see this in many places across the country. “The trend has often been that these appeals processes have been abused by those that are already advantaged,” says Andrew Kahrl, an expert in the history of taxation and an associate professor at the University of Virginia.

Palm Beach County, Florida

In Palm Beach County, Florida, the Trump Organization is suing the tax assessor over its tax bill for the Trump National Golf Course Palm Beach. The course, located in the town of Jupiter, is one of two nearby private courses the president frequents while staying at Mar-a-Lago.

On his financial disclosure, Trump lists the value of the Jupiter course as $50 million. Yet in the lawsuit filed in Palm Beach County Civil Court, the company says the county’s current $19.5 million assessment “exceed the market value” of the course. The county and its lawyer declined to comment on the ongoing litigation.

The county billed the company $398,315. In December, Jupiter Golf Club paid $296,595.01, calling it a “good faith estimate” of what’s owed.

Manhattan

In Manhattan, the Trump Organization filed six lawsuits in New York County court over property tax assessments Trump Tower, Trump Park Avenue, and other buildings in midtown and the Upper East Side, in 2017 alone. Owners of high-value properties frequently appeal their tax bills in New York City.

 

[CTRLZero]

1 hour ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Postal Service experts and even Mr. Trump’s own advisers have privately urged him to back off the accusations, noting that the huge number of packages shipped by Amazon is actually helping keep the Postal Service financially solvent.

But the president has refused to believe those arguments, insisting in a tweet as recently as March 31 that “the U.S. Post Office will lose $1.50 on average for each package it delivers for Amazon. That amounts to Billions of Dollars.”

If Amazon decides not to conduct business through the US Postal Service, I guess we'll have our answer on whether the agency can stay afloat.  I wonder where Trump got the $1.50 figure--did Fox and Friends have a segment?  I am guessing the USPS does lose on some deliveries, but probably makes up for the loss in volume deliveries for Amazon.  Trump picks the oddest battles.