Trump 31: Parody of a Presidency

[AmazonGrace]

 Everything is always about him

[formergothardite]

That is in such poor taste. He really does view everything through a lens of himself.

 

[fraurosena]

Trump declared he's running again. Many Republicans aren't ready to back him.

Quote

[...] In interviews with a cross-section of more than two dozen GOP lawmakers, ranging from rank-and-file members, conservatives and party leaders, many refused to say they'd back Trump's re-election bid -- a surprise declaration given that members of Congress are typically quick to endorse sitting presidents of their own party without hesitation. Hardly any would offer a categorical endorsement of the President.

[...] And others said they were still uncertain the President would ultimately stand for re-election -- even though the White House and Trump himself have repeatedly said he would do so, as he's hired a campaign manager, has been raising money and holding campaign rallies in anticipation of 2020. Unlike past presidents who have waited to announce their reelection bids, Trump made clear immediately after taking office that he's running again.

Still, many Republicans aren't certain he'll do it.

[...] The comments highlight the continuing uneasiness many Republicans have over Trump's presidency, and the lingering questions about how the multiple legal battles the President is facing -- from the allegations of hush money to silence an alleged affair with the porn actress Stormy Daniels, the raid of his personal attorney Michael Cohen's properties and special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation -- will eventually shake out. And they also contradict Trump's oft-stated contention that the party has "never" been more united.

[...] What puts Republicans on Capitol Hill in an awkward spot is the fact that Trump's approval numbers remain rock-solid among core GOP voters, standing at 85% among Republicans in a recent Quinnipiac poll. But if they side too closely with Trump, they risk alienating the broader electorate, where his poll numbers have been historically low.

It's his shaky standing that could prompt a Democratic wave in this fall's elections, with the GOP at serious risk of losing the House and potentially even the Senate. If that were to happen, some believe, Republicans in the Washington will begin to search for a new GOP candidate come 2020.

[...]

Yeah. No matter what any of them say, nobody's going to endorse him before the midterms. They are quite aware of the blue wave coming, and endorsing now would mean alienating those rare Republican supporters with a modicum of sense who don't back the presidunce, and therefore losing those precious votes. Plus, if something should happen that would shorten the presidunce's stay in the WH (please Rufus) they could pivot and say that they were never really for him anyway.

I'm actually amazed at how the party is clinging to the presiduncial base. Aren't the BT's a minority slice of the electoral public? Like only one third, at most? Oh, wait. They're counting on their gerrymandering and voter suppression, of course! Silly me, how could I forget? For the R's it's not about politics, it's not about the good of the country. They certainly don't give a shit about democracy. After all, nothing matters except staying in office, staying in power. Nothing more, nothing less. 

[AmazonGrace]

Quote

[...] And others said they were still uncertain the President would ultimately stand for re-election -- even though the White House and Trump himself have repeatedly said he would do so, as he's hired a campaign manager, has been raising money and holding campaign rallies in anticipation of 2020. Unlike past presidents who have waited to announce their reelection bids, Trump made clear immediately after taking office that he's running again.

Well but it would be a shame to waste a perfectly good opportunity to grift and rile up the racists, even if he eventually ended up not running.

[Cartmann99]

I'm gonna be dancing a jig all the way to the polls this November in order to vote for Cruz's opponent, Beto O'Rourke. 

[onekidanddone]

39 minutes ago, Cartmann99 said:

I'm gonna be dancing a jig all the way to the polls this November in order to vote for Cruz's opponent, Beto O'Rourke. 

 

Blast some James McMurtry as you pull up to the voting booth. His new song "State of he  Union" would be a good choice. McMurtry an  Austin fixture and brilliant Texas singer/song writer has no good words for Trump and the other Rethugs.

No, I'm paid to endorse JM's music.  I just have a creepy fan girl thing going on.

[Alisamer]

16 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

"‘People don’t realize’: Trump and the historical facts he wants you to know"

  Reveal hidden contents

As President Trump announced that South and North Korean leaders have his blessing to discuss a permanent end to the military conflict between their two countries, he dropped in a quick history lesson.

“People don’t realize the Korean War has not ended,” Trump said on Tuesday, his face contorting into a look that seemed to communicate surprise and bafflement. “It’s going on right now.”

For Trump, people don’t realize a lot of things.

There was the time in March 2017 when Trump informed top Republican Party donors that Abraham Lincoln was a Republican. “Great president. Most people don’t even know he was a Republican, right?” Trump said. “Does anyone know? A lot of people don’t know that.”

When he visited France last summer, Trump explained that “France is America’s first and oldest ally” and that “a lot of people don’t know that.” Several days after the trip, Trump said in an interview that French President Emmanuel Macron “loves holding my hand” and that “people don’t realize he loves holding my hand.”

Trump’s public remarks are filled with dozens of similar comments. They often begin with some variation of the phrase, “Most people don’t know . . .,” and end with a nugget of information that many of those surrounding him — fellow world leaders, diplomats, journalists, politicians or aides — do indeed already know.

According to Trump, most people don’t know that there’s more than one Air Force One; that the heroin epidemic has ravaged New Hampshire; that the Empire State Building was constructed in less than a year; that universities “get massive tax breaks for their massive endowments;” that Clemson University is “a great academic school, one of the top 25;” or that nonprofit organizations and churches are barred from endorsing political candidates.

Trump’s lessons are often accompanied by raised eyebrows, widened eyes and a “gee whiz” look that suggests perhaps the nation is witnessing the president’s education in real time.

Is Trump playing the role of educator in chief, or simply sharing historical facts he’s newly learned? The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

It is true that many Americans do not know basic facts about their country, said Charlie Copeland, the president of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, a conservative group that challenges the quality of education that many university students receive. The institute used to do an annual survey to measure civic literacy — but the results were repeatedly so abysmal that it was stopped in 2011, he said.

“I think that American history has become almost an untaught subject today,” Copeland said.

Many of Trump’s “people don’t know” remarks have involved foreign policy. In a meeting with the Italian prime minister in April 2017, Trump noted that “Italy is one of America’s largest trading partners” and that “a lot of people don’t know that.”

While meeting with the president of Afghanistan last fall, Trump acknowledged that the situation on the ground is complicated and “people don’t realize you had 20 terrorist groups in Afghanistan.”

And during a news conference in Vietnam in November, Trump said that “people don’t realize Russia has been very, very heavily sanctioned.”

Sometimes Trump will go a step further and suggest that Washington needs to simplify the way that it talks about complicated issues so that Americans will better understand.

He has suggested calling community colleges “vocational schools,” because “we don’t know what a community college means.” He claims to have urged congressional leaders to use the phrase “tax cuts” instead of “tax reform,” because “nobody knows what that means.”

And during a visit to West Virginia this month, he didn’t even bother to explain his concerns about China stealing U.S. intellectual property.

“We have our intellectual property, and a lot of people don’t understand what that means,” Trump said. “And it doesn’t matter if you understand it or not. You understand the concept of being taken advantage of, and we can’t be taken advantage of any longer.”

 

The Trumpster is a doofus.

I literally just had a discussion about intellectual property rights with a 10-year-old this past weekend, and in just a few minutes, she understood. I think she understands a LOT of things better than Trump does. Also she told me during the election that she wished she could vote for Hillary Clinton!

[AmazonGrace]

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/04/18/trump-michael-cohen-flip-536926

Trump allies worry Cohen will flip

Longtime Trump personal lawyer Michael Cohen is fighting the seizure of his records by federal investigators in New York, but people close to the president are fretting he might fold if he faces severe charges.

President Donald Trump and his outside advisers are increasingly worried that his longtime personal attorney might be susceptible to cooperating with federal prosecutors.

Spoiler

 

Two sources close to the president said people in Trump’s inner circle have in recent days been actively discussing the possibility that Michael Cohen — long seen as one of Trump’s most loyal personal allies — might flip if he faces serious charges as a result of his work on behalf of Trump.

“That’s what they’ll threaten him with: life imprisonment,” said Alan Dershowitz, the liberal lawyer and frequent Trump defender who met with the president and his staff over two days at the White House last week. “They’re going to threaten him with a long prison term and try to turn him into a canary that sings.”

FBI agents overseen by federal prosecutors in New York last week raided Cohen’s office and apartment, as well as a hotel room he’d been using. The Trump lawyer is a figure in the ongoing Russia investigation overseen by special counsel Robert Mueller in Washington, but Manhattan-based government attorneys said in court that he is also under separate investigation for his business dealings.

Cohen, who has not been publicly charged with any crimes, owns New York City taxi medallions. He has also been deeply involved in the $130,000 payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, who has accused Trump of trying to cover up an affair she says the two had in 2006.

In an interview with CNN last week, Cohen called the raid “unsettling to say the least.” But he also said in the same interview that the federal agents were “extremely professional, courteous and respectful” — a dramatic departure from his usual combative style.

Those comments raised eyebrows among some in Trump’s inner circle, who noted that one of the president’s most ferocious attack dogs seemed unusually taciturn.

“When anybody is faced with spending a long time in jail, they start to re-evaluate their priorities, and cooperation can’t be ruled out,” said one Trump ally who knows Cohen.

Since the raid, the president and his advisers have been singularly focused on the risk of a potential federal prosecution of Cohen, which they view as a much bigger existential threat to the presidency than former FBI Director James Comey, whose book “A Higher Loyalty” has dominated headlines and even Trump’s Twitter feed even before its Tuesday release.

Trump has regularly ranted to friends and advisers about the investigation into Cohen, according to two other people familiar with the conversations. He believes strongly that the FBI raid has pushed the boundaries of attorney-client privilege, telling friends that he and his associates are being unfairly targeted.

“He’s not happy about it,” said one White House official.

The White House appears to be creating some distance from Cohen. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters earlier this week that though Trump and Cohen have “still got some ongoing things,” the president “has a large number of attorneys, as you know.”

Trump said Wednesday during a press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that he wants the Mueller investigation “over with, done with.” He added that his administration is “giving tremendous amounts of paper” to investigators.

A White House spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment.

In a court filing last week, the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York explained the FBI raid was “the result of a months-long investigation” into the president’s lawyer and that prosecutors were looking for evidence of crimes related to his business dealings.

Trump and his allies fear that documents and recordings that the FBI swept up from Cohen’s home and office could come back to haunt the president, whose lawyers have joined Cohen’s in New York in asserting attorney-client privilege and are asking a federal judge to approve an independent review of the material.

“Who knows what Cohen has in those files,” said a person close to the White House.

But their concerns go beyond Cohen’s voluminous files. Increasingly, Trump’s outside advisers are worried about the risk posed by Cohen himself.

“I think for two years or four years or five years, Michael Cohen would be a stand-up guy. I think he’d tell them go piss up a rope. But depending on dollars involved, which can be a big driver, or if they look at him and say it’s not two to four years, it’s 18 to 22, then how loyal is he?” said one defense lawyer who represents a senior Trump aide in Mueller’s Russia investigation.

“Is he two years loyal? Is he 10 years loyal? Is he 15 years loyal?” the attorney added. “That’s the currency. It’s not measured in inches. It’s measured in years.”

 

Excuse me. Threatening Cohen with life imprisonment? WUT?

What has he done  that merits a life sentence? The president hires all the best people.

Second WUT: I thought Trump allies were saying that Trump did nothing wrong and this is a witch hunt. What is there for Cohen to flip about if Trump has nothing to hide?

What kind of crook do you need to be if you take  it for granted that Cohen knows where Trump buried the bodies yet think Trump should be the president?

 

[Howl]

5 hours ago, Cartmann99 said:

'm gonna be dancing a jig all the way to the polls this November in order to vote for Cruz's opponent, Beto O'Rourke. 

I've been seeing Beto signs popping up in yards around town and he's raising a LOT of money.  Polling currently puts the race as too close to call, but it's like trying to forecast the weather 7 months out. 

Go, Beto! 

[fraurosena]

Oh dear.

I can imagine the tantrum tweet now... 

"FAKE NEWS Failing Fortune forgets Leader of the greatest Country. No greater thinker than Stable Genius. Everyone says so. #MAGA"

[GreyhoundFan]

I love Ted Lieu:

 

[Cartmann99]

5 hours ago, Howl said:

I've been seeing Beto signs popping up in yards around town and he's raising a LOT of money.  Polling currently puts the race as too close to call, but it's like trying to forecast the weather 7 months out. 

Go, Beto! 

The fact that this race is too close to call has to be driving Cruz slowly insane. *grins evilly*

[AnywhereButHere]

https://www.google.com/amp/amp.timeinc.net/time/5247600/president-trump-to-skip-barbara-bushs-funeral-for-mar-a-lago-out-of-respect-for-the-bush-family-says-white-house

Quote

President Donald Trump won’t be joining his wife in attending the memorial service of former first lady Barbara Bush, matriarch of a political dynasty that Trump often clashed with during his 2016 campaign.

The White House said Thursday that Trump would not attend “to avoid disruptions due to added security, and out of respect for the Bush Family and friends attending the service.” Trump is expected to be at his Florida estate this weekend during Saturday’s funeral in Houston for the wife and mother of presidents.

Such noble reasoning. He doesn’t want to cause a disruption.  we all know he’d rather be playing golf than pretending actual caring towards a grieving family. He’s classy like that...

Either way, I’m sure the Bush family is more than happy he’s staying away. 

[Cartmann99]

Looks like they got the bottles mixed up again and Paw-Paw accidentally got uppers in his cocoa instead of a sleeping pill:

 

[AmazonGrace]

The chances that Trump read the memos: zero.

The chances that he wears a diaper: 

 

[hoipolloi]

Gotta love Andy Borowitz!

 

[formergothardite]

Barbara Bush had some words to say about Trump and none of them were nice, so I bet she didn't want him at her funeral anyway. Trump must not know about these quotes because he would be saying nasty things about her. 

Quote

He doesn't give many answers to how he would solve problems. He sort of makes faces and says insulting thing ... He's said terrible things about women, terrible things about the military. I don't understand why people are for him, for that reason. I'm a woman ... I'm not crazy about what he says about women.

 

Quote

He's [Trump's] like a comedian or like a showman or something. It's just, the whole thing, not working with Congress ... that's the way things get done in this country ... Well, what about [how he's treated] women? I mean, unbelievable. I don't know how women can vote for someone who said what he said about Megyn Kelly. It's terrible. And we knew what he meant too. Don't you get in his firing line. And money doesn't buy everything. It's accomplishments and what you're doing and giving. It's incomprehensible to me.

 

[JMarie]

Who thinks Trump will be playing golf tomorrow, instead of attending Barbara Bush's funeral?

[formergothardite]

Who thinks someone had the task of explaining to him who Barbara Bush was? 

[GreyhoundFan]

24 minutes ago, JMarie said:

Who thinks Trump will be playing golf tomorrow, instead of attending Barbara Bush's funeral?

He's going to Mar-a-Loco: "Trump will skip Barbara Bush funeral, Melania to attend alone"

Spoiler

President Donald Trump won't be joining his wife in attending the memorial service of former first lady Barbara Bush, matriarch of a political dynasty that Trump often clashed with during his 2016 campaign.

The White House said Thursday that Trump would not attend "to avoid disruptions due to added security, and out of respect for the Bush Family and friends attending the service." Trump is expected to be at his Florida estate this weekend during Saturday's funeral in Houston for the wife and mother of presidents.

Flags have flown at half-staff over the White House and at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida since Bush's death at the age of 92, and Trump added his voice to the tributes that have poured in for the wife of President George H.W. Bush and mother of President George W. Bush. Trump offered his condolences to the Bush family on Wednesday, calling Barbara Bush "a titan in American life. Her presence and character were engraved into America's identity."

The magnanimous comments stood in contrast to the fractious words that flew between Trump and the Bush family when the businessman-turned-presidential candidate effectively conducted a hostile takeover of a Republican Party once ruled by the Bush family.

During his anti-establishment presidential campaign, Trump often held out the Bush family as an example of the political status quo, and wielded anti-dynastic sentiment against both Jeb Bush, one of Trump's vanquished Republican rivals, and Hillary Clinton, his Democratic opponent.

Barbara Bush, for her part, said in a February 2016 interview with CBS News that Trump was like a "showman" and she didn't "know how women can vote for someone" like him.

Intermediaries describe little semblance of a relationship between Trump and members of the Bush family and a presidential appearance at the funeral would have brought more attention to the 2016 primary fight and potentially distracted from Barbara Bush's life and legacy.

Running as a political outsider, Trump often dismissed President George W. Bush's handling of the Iraq War and mocked Bush's younger brother, the former Florida governor, as "low-energy Jeb." Trump even sounded off on the nonagenarian Bush on Twitter in August 2015: "The last thing we need is another Bush in the White House. Would be the same old thing (remember "read my lips, no more taxes"). GREATNESS!" (Bush actually said, "Read my lips: No new taxes," during his 1988 convention speech — a pledge that later hurt him politically).

Last fall, George W. Bush delivered a pointed speech that confronted many of the themes of Trump's presidency — all without mentioning Trump by name. He cautioned that "bigotry seems emboldened," and the nation's politics "seems more vulnerable to conspiracy theories and outright fabrication."

Around the same time, Mark K. Updegrove's book, "The Last Republicans," was published, in which the elder Bush called Trump a "blowhard" and George W. Bush wondered if he would be the last Republican president. The elder Bush said he voted for Clinton in 2016 while George W. Bush said he voted for "none of the above."

A White House official said Joe Hagin, Trump's deputy chief of staff for operations, had served as the primary conduit to the Bush family in advance of the former first lady's funeral. Hagin is also a veteran of both Bush presidencies. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to describe internal discussions.

Doug Wead, a former special assistant to George H.W. Bush, said he expected an eventual degree of healing in the Bush-Trump relationship. He recalled the elder Bush once intervening in a fight between two staffers, telling them, "'If I can meet with Gorbachev, why can't they talk to each other?' I think that's in the Bush DNA."

Wead said the evolution of the Bush family's relationship with former President Bill Clinton could be instructive. Members of the Bush clan became close to Clinton after their presidencies, eventually setting aside the tough words of the 1992 presidential campaign. Clinton has made annual summer trips to the Bush family compound in Kennebunkport, Maine, to visit George H.W. Bush.

Bill and Hillary Clinton and Barack and Michelle Obama all plan to attend Barbara Bush's funeral.

Sitting presidents, however, have not typically traveled to the funerals of former first ladies. Obama did not attend the 2016 funeral of Nancy Reagan or the 2011 funeral of Betty Ford, for example. Mourners at those services included then-first lady Michelle Obama, former President George W. Bush, and former first ladies Hillary Clinton and Rosalynn Carter.

Anita McBride, chief of staff to Laura Bush during her time in the White House, said Melania Trump's presence at Saturday's funeral would demonstrate that she "understands and respects the fact that this is a small club of women and it is part of our culture. Even if they don't see each other, they are at each other's funerals and often at each other's library openings."

McBride said while the Bush family may not have liked the rhetoric of the campaign, "they respect and stand up and salute the office of the president of the United States."

 

[Alisamer]

12 hours ago, AnywhereButHere said:

https://www.google.com/amp/amp.timeinc.net/time/5247600/president-trump-to-skip-barbara-bushs-funeral-for-mar-a-lago-out-of-respect-for-the-bush-family-says-white-house

Such noble reasoning. He doesn’t want to cause a disruption.  we all know he’d rather be playing golf than pretending actual caring towards a grieving family. He’s classy like that...

Either way, I’m sure the Bush family is more than happy he’s staying away. 

Because of "increased security"? And how many former presidents, first ladies and family members are already going to be there? A TON. I'm thinking it's going to look like a Secret Service convention already. He just doesn't want to go, he wants to play golf. I can understand, funerals aren't fun, he'd have to pretend to possess empathy, and Barbara Bush wouldn't have wanted his orange face there anyway. Still... I'd have blamed it on un-reschedulable meetings or something. Even though everyone knows that means golf. I'm glad Melania is getting to go on her own, she seems to have some humanity buried in there somewhere. Without having to concentrate on reminding him to act human, she might be able to express some actual sympathy. I think she made her own bed and is now lying in it, but it's hard not to feel bad for how miserable she looks all the time. I hope her prenup and non-disclosure agreements don't extend past his death, maybe in my lifetime she'll get a tell-all book out for everyone to enjoy!

[Audrey2]

No matter what, I wouldn't want Trump to soil Barbara Bush's funeral. While I'm really not a fan of the Bush men, I've always liked and respected Barbara. It doesn't hurt that she had a special connection to my university. As a huge reader, I also appreciate her contributions to improving literacy. I also like the love story between her and George (although I don't like him.) 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[JMarie]

First there was the interview with George Stephanopoulos, then the ladies on The View, then both Jake Tapper and Rachel Maddow yesterday, and tonight will be a live interview with Anderson Cooper.  You know what all these people have in common?  They're not on Fox News!  It's almost like Comey's avoiding Fox News!

[AmazonGrace]

And Colbert...