Trump 32: Pissing off the World, One Country at a Time

[GreyhoundFan]

[GreyhoundFan]

[GreyhoundFan]

[AmazonGrace]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Good grief: "Trump complains about traveling to Canada ahead of Singapore summit with Kim"

Spoiler

President Trump is planning to fly to Canada on Friday. He is not exactly happy about it.

The president has vented privately about Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as their trade tensions have spilled into public view. He has mused about finding new ways to punish the United States’ northern neighbor in recent days, frustrated with the country’s retaliatory trade moves.

And Trump has complained to aides about spending two days in Canada for a summit of world leaders, believing the trip is a distraction from his upcoming Singapore summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, according to three people familiar with Trump’s views.

In particular, the president said Tuesday to several advisers that he fears attending the Group of Seven summit in rural Charlevoix, Quebec, may not be a good use of his time because he is diametrically opposed on many key issues with his counterparts — and does not want to be lectured by them.

Additionally, Trump has griped periodically both about German Chancellor Angela Merkel — largely because they disagree on many issues and have had an uneasy rapport — as well as British Prime Minister Theresa May, whom he sees as too politically correct, advisers say.

Behind the scenes at the White House, there have been staff-level discussions for several days about whether Trump may pull the plug on the trip and send Vice President Pence in his stead, as he did for an April summit of Latin American leaders in Peru.

Then, Trump was preparing for missile strikes in Syria and opted to remain behind in Washington. Trump was also enraged for several days before the canceled trip to South America about the FBI raids on Michael Cohen, his personal lawyer.

But while Pence stands ready to fill in for Trump again this week, the president is convinced that his attendance at the G-7 summit is essential and is planning to travel Friday morning to Quebec, according to three White House officials.

There also is concern inside the administration about what may happen once Trump arrives in Canada. Aides fear Trump may not sign onto the joint communique that is prepared by participating countries for release at the end of the summit.

Trump is a homebody president, preferring to sleep in the White House — or at one of his signature properties — than in hotels, so he is generally reluctant to take long journeys. Furthermore, he prefers visiting places where he is feted — such as on his trips last year to Beijing, Paris and the Saudi capital — over attending summits where the attending leaders are treated as equals.

Aides say Trump has been focused on his meeting with Kim and views the G-7 summit as a distraction from those preparations. Trump’s itinerary, which could still change, has him departing on Saturday directly from Quebec to Singapore, where he is expected to meet June 12 with Kim. Trump hopes that their historic gathering will produce an agreement from the North Koreans to denuclearize their nation’s arsenal.

In Quebec, Trump is expected to have tense discussions with the leaders of key Western allies over trade and other issues. Some of them — most especially Trudeau, the summit’s host — have publicly criticized Trump’s new tariffs and characterized the United States as increasingly isolationist. The other six countries signed a sharp condemnation of the president’s tariffs last week.

Trump is planning to be in Quebec and has scheduled bilateral meetings with Trudeau as well as with French President Emmanuel Macron. Larry Kudlow, Trump’s top economic adviser, previewed the trip to reporters on Wednesday and dismissed the notion that Trump is reluctant to go to Canada.

“The president wants to go on the trip,” Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council, told reporters. “The president is at ease with all of these tough issues. He’s proven himself to be a leader on the world stage, and he’s achieved great success, as I might add, in foreign policy. So I don’t think there’s any issue there at all.”

Kudlow said any disagreements in Quebec between Trump and his counterparts would be “like a family quarrel,” adding, “I believe it can be worked out.”

I shudder to think of how the petulant orange toddler will act in Canada.

[Audrey2]

Dear Canada,

You know those incorrigible relatives, those who embarrass you in every possible way? Everyone has that Uncle, Aunt, or cousin, much like Cousin Eddie in Christmas Vacation. Unfortunately, we elected one- Donnie Dummkopf, with a huge mouth, no filters, and a lower intellect. Please do not judge everyone in the United States based on this wealthy Bubba. Many of us are kind and decent people who like and appreciate Canada and Canadians. I pray that we choose better next time.

Your friend and partner,

A Frustrated American

[Alisamer]

I kind of feel like Trump is looking forward to his meeting with Kim Jong Un, because they are so similar! Instead of dealing with hostilities and denuclearization, Trump may well discuss with Kim how much money there is to be made if he loosens control on the people just a little bit, and don't they need a Trump branded luxury resort as the beginning of the new, shinier, richer Kim Jong Un Land featuring TRUMP? I could see them giving each other tips, Kim offering tips for controlling the media and handling enemies, Trump suggesting ways to brand the North Korean countryside as a tourist resort/moneymaker. I feel like if they were closer in age and had met at some European boarding school they'd have become fast friends and North Korea would already be a heavily advertised luxury destination. 

[GreyhoundFan]

1 hour ago, Audrey2 said:

like Cousin Eddie in Christmas Vacation

Cousin Eddie as POTUS would be 1,000,000,000 times better than the tangerine toddler.

 

Speaking of the toddler, he demonstrated his typical lack of attention span: "In private FEMA remarks, Trump’s focus strays from hurricanes"

Spoiler

The meeting was supposed to be about hurricane preparedness, as disaster officials gathered at Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters days after the start of the 2018 season.

But President Trump had a lot else on his mind, turning the closed-door discussion into soliloquies on his prowess in negotiating airplane deals, his popularity, the effectiveness of his political endorsements, the Republican Party’s fortunes, the vagaries of Defense Department purchasing guidelines, his dislike of magnetized launch equipment on aircraft carriers, his unending love of coal and his breezy optimism about his planned Singapore summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

“It’s an interesting journey. It’s called the land of the unknown — who knows? We’ll maybe make a deal. Maybe not. As I say to everybody, are you going to make a deal?” Trump said, according to audio of the FEMA meeting obtained by The Washington Post. “Maybe and maybe not. Who knows?”

The president’s 40-minute briefing session behind closed-doors came after he spoke to cameras for about 15 minutes. He briefly referred to Puerto Rico — where authorities now say thousands died as a result of last year’s hurricane. The Trump administration was roundly criticized for its performance, and hundreds of thousands in the U.S. territory remain without electricity.

Trump did not mention Puerto Rico’s victims but thanked Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) for helping and noted that the power company was “in bankruptcy prior to the hurricane.” He said the recovery was a “tough job.” He also mentioned Puerto Rico in passing once with the cameras rolling.

“There has never been a season like the last 12 or 13 months,” he said of the hurricane season. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Hurricane briefings usually give politicians a chance to look decisive, and Trump bragged to friends last fall that his administration had handled a slew of hurricanes quite well. Many of Trump’s thoughts Thursday, however, did not relate to hurricanes.

When Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan began speaking, Trump within 10 seconds moved the conversation to negotiating airplane prices. He said the government was getting ripped off on ships and planes because the “ordering process for the military is so bad. . . . It’s not a competitive bid.”

“We saved $1.6 billion on Air Force One,” he said. “Can you believe it? I got involved in the negotiations. The press refuses to report that, but that’s okay. . . . People were really surprised.”

Military officials have not been able to explain where Trump got such a figure. A Defense Department official told Bloomberg News this year that the department had no information to back up that claim.

“I got involved with Boeing and was able to cut down the F-18 by millions of dollars,” Trump added.

He then complained that the military was too frequently buying new and in his view, unnecessary, equipment — citing aircraft technology as an example.

“Part of it is, they want to have all new. Instead of having the system that throws the aircraft off the [ship], which was always steam,” he said. “They now have magnets. They’re using magnets instead of steam. . . . They spent hundreds of millions of dollars, I’m hearing not great things about it. It’s frankly ridiculous.”

The room did not respond to his assessment. Shanahan said he would brief Trump and Kelly on changes to the guidelines soon and would begin bringing him receipts. Trump said he appreciated that.

A few minutes later, he analyzed election results in California, noting that he endorsed the Republican gubernatorial candidate, who made it onto the November ballot. Trump is highly unpopular in California, according to public and White House polls, with under a 40 percent approval rating. He attacked Gavin Newsom, the Democrat, saying he had “done nothing.”

 “I endorsed him,” he said of Republican John Cox. “He really has been a very good candidate. I watched him last night. . . . We won every seat that I endorsed. The ones we didn’t give, they didn’t do too well, as you probably know.”

Trump touted generic polls that show Republicans closing the gap in the midterm elections before dismissing the idea of generic polls. He said the Republican Party was down 17 points two months ago in one unnamed poll. Now, he said, that was changing.

“I don’t know if that means anything. I’ve never heard of a generic poll. I’m not sure I believe in a generic poll when you have so many races between the Senate and the House,” he said. “We’ve never been up in a generic poll, and now we’re up in two of them. . . . The Republican Party has . . . never been up in generic polls. And now it’s up in two of them.” 

For several minutes, Trump told the gathered officials, and others dialed in via a secure line, about the economy, ticking off companies and taking credit for their successes.

Trump lauded the Taiwanese company Foxconn for creating a plant in Wisconsin, where it will make Apple equipment, and said he was pleased with Apple CEO Tim Cook for promising to build a “hell of a nice plant.” He said it would not have happened without him.

The Foxconn deal has drawn questions about the $3 billion incentive package the state approved, The Washington Post has reported.

“In the old days, I would have been the real estate broker in that deal,” Trump said of the Foxconn project.

He lauded Exxon for promising an investment of $60 billion. The company has said it is investing $50 billion. Some of the projects were already planned, but the company said more than $35 billion was for unannounced projects.

“Money they would have never spent without us,” the president said. 

 “We’re setting records like we’ve never seen before,” Trump said. “Whether it’s the employment records I went over, whether it’s the number of companies pouring into the country. We have tremendous number of companies coming back. Nobody had any idea this was going to happen. I did. . . . Things are happening that they’ve never seen before.”

 He encouraged Energy Secretary Rick Perry to make an announcement about helping coal companies. “I’d love to put it out — ‘clean coal, nuclear,’ it’s a very important message,” he said. He said Perry needed to have a news conference. The energy secretary acquiesced.

More than anything, Trump was determined to convince the Cabinet members that he was doing a terrific job – and that they were, too. In private, Trump has derided many of his Cabinet members and has fired several. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, who has repeatedly clashed with Trump over immigration, thanked him for his “unfailing support of the department.” 

 “I understand a big story is being done in a major newspaper talking about what a great Cabinet this is,” he said, without specifying the outlet. “What a great Cabinet this has turned out to be.”

“Our level of popularity is great,” he added. 

This requires a double facepalm:

 

[AmazonGrace]

This is going to go great.

[GreyhoundFan]

So.much.winning. "This Ohio factory thought it could bring U.S. jobs back from China. Then Trump got involved."

Spoiler

CLEVELAND — Bill Adler was invited last year to bid on a contract to make commercial sausage stuffers for a company that wanted to replace its Chinese supplier. The customer had just one non­negotiable demand: Match China’s price.

Adler, owner of metal-parts maker Stripmatic Products, thought he could. But even as he readied his proposal, talk of President Trump’s steel tariffs sent the price of Stripmatic’s main raw material soaring.

In April, with prices up nearly 50 percent from October and the first wave of tariffs in place, Adler’s bid failed. His costs were too high.

Today, instead of taking business from China, Adler worries about hanging onto the work he has. He hopes that the president’s tariffs are just a negotiating tactic.

“It’s got to be short-term, or I’ve got to find another way to make a living,” Adler said, only half joking. “It’s going to be an ugly scenario if it doesn’t end quickly.”

Stripmatic’s plight is an example of the hidden costs of Trump’s “America First” protectionism. During decades of increasing globalization, leaders of both political parties reassured critics that the gains from trade were dispersed across myriad less-expensive products — and thus often difficult to identify — while the costs were obvious every time a factory closed.

Now, as Trump seeks to unwind globalization, that logic operates in reverse. The gains from protectionism can be seen in the new solar plants and reopened steel mills that his various tariffs are encouraging and that the president often celebrates.

But the full costs of his policies — in investments foregone and workers not hired — escape casual scrutiny. If Stripmatic’s experience is any guide, protectionism may already be backfiring on Americans and undermining Trump’s stated goal of reclaiming manufacturing from China.

“That is absolutely the lesson,” said economist Phil Levy, who worked on trade policy in the George W. Bush White House. “It is a supply chain. The administration has favored the first link over the later links in the chain. The net effect helps neither American manufacturing nor national security.”

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has minimized the economic cost of Trump’s tariffs, claiming the steel and aluminum tariffs will add a “very small fraction of 1 percent” to prices across the economy, he recently told CNBC. U.S. Trade Representative Robert E. Lighthizer has said that tariffs the administration may impose on Chinese goods have been selected to minimize the impact on consumers.

But tariffs on materials used to make other products ripple through the entire economy. Trump’s steel levies were designed to punish China for swamping global markets with state-subsidized metals and to promote U.S. manufacturing. From where Adler sits, they appear to be doing the opposite. By raising the cost of a key manufacturing input, the tariffs are making many U.S. companies less competitive.

Discouraging metal imports benefits U.S. steel producers. But it also translates into a surplus of steel in markets outside the United States and thus lower prices for U.S. competitors.

As steel prices in the United States rise, Adler worries they will pinch his employees’ bonuses and profit-sharing checks. The 25 percent increase in Stripmatic’s sales that he anticipated from the sausage stuffer contract, the $1 million in new factory investment and the 10 new jobs it would have created have evaporated.I

“If it wasn’t for the increase that came on because of the threat of tariffs, then I honestly believe we’d be supplying these domestically,” Adler said of the machines that pack ground meat into sausage casings. “This directly affects my life, my employees, my investments.”

In a $20 trillion economy, 10 jobs may not seem significant. But Trump’s frequent use of tariffs has sparked protests from farmers and industry groups that will be hurt by the administration’s import levies or retaliation from U.S. trading partners. The cumulative cost of the president’s higher import taxes will be a net loss of more than 400,000 jobs, according to a new study by the Trade Partnership, a pro-trade research consultancy.

A bipartisan group of 34 lawmakers wrote to Lighthizer on May 30 warning of “significant unintended adverse conse­quences for the United States” if the tariff wars continue. Republican senators including Bob Corker of Tennessee and Mike Lee of Utah are exploring legislation to limit the president’s ability to erect such trade barriers.

Yet if tiny Stripmatic demonstrates the double-edged nature of tariffs as an instrument of economic policy, the company’s experience should offer minimal comfort to the president’s political adversaries.

Despite the market turmoil unleashed by the president’s actions, Adler remains appreciative of the business tax cut that Trump secured last year and the administration’s broader deregulation efforts.

He was a reluctant Trump voter in 2016 and remains wary of the president’s bombastic style. But Adler likes having someone in the White House who respects business owners in a way that he doesn’t believe leading Democrats do.

With a new General Motors order for SUV parts, business is good — for now. This year, Adler added eight workers and spent $1.3 million on new factory equipment.

But times would have been better if he had landed that big food- processing-equipment contract. Rising labor costs in China and Stripmatic’s increasing efficiency gave him a real shot at a major win. He blames Trump’s trade policies for costing him the job and for imperiling Stripmatic’s future, as almost one-quarter of his sales come from abroad.

“Our customers source on a global market,” he said. “I’m going to be at least 30 to 40 percent disadvantaged on steel. . . . I’ve lost my competitive advantage.”

Stripmatic, dating to 1946, is among thousands of mostly unknown manufacturing companies that make up the backbone of industrial America. From a 60,000-square-foot plant just off the highway a few miles south of downtown Cleveland, Adler’s roughly 40-person team churns out tubular metal products.

Most are unremarkable parts that fit inside larger components, such as shock absorbers, or structural spacers that support the frame of Dodge Ram trucks and Jeep Wranglers. The company specializes in mass production of carbon steel parts.

Adler, 61, a Cleveland native, worked briefly in a local steel mill while attending college and then sold aluminum for several years before buying the company in 1992 with his wife, Liz. In about five years, they built the company to about $8 million in sales from less than $1 million and retired their debt.

But Chinese factories emerged as low-cost competitors with China’s 2001 membership in the World Trade Organization. As several of his large customers turned to less expensive Chinese rivals, Adler fine-tuned his operations to reduce waste.

He introduced automatic sensors that could check more than 100 parts every minute, more than three times the number a human could handle, and shifted his workers into higher-skilled positions.

“We were able to become more competitive and maintain our profit margins,” he said.

Adler is a veteran of an earlier bout of protectionism, the 2002 steel tariffs, which pushed one-fifth of U.S. metal-stamping businesses into collapse, according to the Census Bureau. Stripmatic laid off a handful of workers and froze hiring for four years.

Sales stagnated for several years, but Adler hung on. Efforts to diversify away from a near-total dependence on the auto industry into products such as plastic toys never worked out. That’s one reason the recent loss of the food-processing job was so painful.

Inside the factory, enormous metal presses rhythmically pound rolls of steel into auto and truck parts, the noises resounding like an industrial orchestra. The modern arc of metal stamping is on display, from a modified century-old device that bends unused steel into tight coils to a 4,000-watt laser-welding station at the opposite end of the plant, which instantly stitches a tight seal on metal parts.

Massive yellow, blue and green bins hold tens of thousands of metal parts. Roughly 20 percent are exported to factories in Mexico; an additional few percentage points go to Taiwan and Brazil.

As he stands on the plant floor, a ruddy-faced Adler wonders what this scene will look like in a few months. He’s in a fiercely competitive business, and his profits will melt if Trump’s tariffs remain indefinitely.

Already, prices for one type of steel that Adler uses — hot-rolled coil — are roughly twice what they were when Trump was elected, according to one widely used Midwestern index. And they are headed higher. “I don’t think they’re done yet. That’s the problem,” said Tony Scrima, 58, his plant manager, who’s worked here since he was 18.

Adler’s big worry is his Mexican customers. He hopes they won’t bolt for a cheaper, non-American alternative. But he can’t be sure what the president plans. “I try to erase what he says and look at the [economic] levers he’s pulling,” Adler said. “Is this all a negotiating tool to end up with a good result? I don’t know. But if it is, it’s got to go fast.”

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

[AmazonGrace]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

[NotQuiteMotY]

On 6/5/2018 at 7:50 PM, JMarie said:

If you're feeling very, very brave (or very, very patriotic)

https://www.belovedshirts.com/collections/swimsuits/products/shocked-trump-one-piece-swimsuit

Only if there's plenty of anti-nausea medication on hand...

On 6/5/2018 at 10:34 PM, Cartmann99 said:

Mother Pence should start selling some MAGA-themed towel charms and horse blinders to help pay for their future legal expenses.

No, no, the a swimsuit coverup. Goes from neck to ankles, doesn't show any forearms or anything tempting like that, but darn! What to do about those seductive faces?!

On 6/6/2018 at 1:32 PM, AmazonGrace said:

History, not his thing.

Didn't we technically invade Canada first? Not much room to complain there...

49 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

They would! I had a run-in with one last week and noped on out of there.

[Cartmann99]

5 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Trump is a homebody president, preferring to sleep in the White House — or at one of his signature properties — than in hotels, so he is generally reluctant to take long journeys

If your elderly relative decides not to go to the family reunion because they've gotten to the place where they don't like to sleep away from home anymore, that's fine, but everybody and their grandma's dog knows that doing a boatload of traveling is simply part of the job of being the president. If Trump didn't want to do the job he campaigned for, he should have stayed in his tacky-ass penthouse back in New York. 

[GreyhoundFan]

16 minutes ago, Cartmann99 said:

If your elderly relative decides not to go to the family reunion because they've gotten to the place where they don't like to sleep away from home anymore, that's fine, but everybody and their grandma's dog knows that doing a boatload of traveling is simply part of the job of being the president. If Trump didn't want to do the job he campaigned for, he should have stayed in his tacky-ass penthouse back in New York. 

Besides, it's not like he has to go camping, crash on a couch in an airbnb, or (gasp) stay in a one star hotel, which dragging his luggage up the stairs. He will get to stay in luxurious accommodations with all his "needs" seen to immediately.

[Cartmann99]

1 hour ago, NotQuiteMotY said:

No, no, the a swimsuit coverup. Goes from neck to ankles, doesn't show any forearms or anything tempting like that, but darn! What to do about those seductive faces?!

Have some of those Trump halloween masks made up.

2 hours ago, AmazonGrace said:

 

 From the article:

Quote

“Because I know someone who spoke to Donald Trump recently about life in the White House,” Brzezinski continued, “and Donald Trump’s biggest complaint was that he’s not allowed to watch porn in the White House."

First, how do they enforce this? Even if all of the naughty-bits channels are blocked on all of the White House televisions, he has his phone. Do they stand outside of closed doors and go in there if they hear some woman inviting the pizza delivery guy to come inside and help her give the neighbor a spanking?

Second, I can't wait for someone like Franklin Graham to go on Faux and bitch about people spreading lies about the president watching porn, and then have Trump tweet out something about how the porn situation at the White House sucks and doesn't swallow.

[Alisamer]

16 hours ago, Cartmann99 said:

... If Trump didn't want to do the job he campaigned for, he should have stayed in his tacky-ass penthouse back in New York. 

I'm still 100% convinced he had NO intention of winning, was deliberately ridiculous and over the top while campaigning, was shocked when he won (especially considering there are about 500 reasons he shouldn't have even been considered, ethically and otherwise), and is now riding the publicity stunt way farther than he thought it'd go. 

He was aiming for his own Fox news show - or possibly his own TV news NETWORK, not the presidency, and I think Melania is pissed about having to actually live this publicity stunt that wasn't supposed to include her once the campaigning was done. I am certain Trump didn't have an acceptance speech ready, he had his spiel for the TV news ready, expecting to be on every show on every channel for weeks starting the morning after the election. 

I think that's one reason Trump is so easily angered these days, he knows he's walking on a knife-edge - will he end up a former president with his own TV show/News Network/continuing income stream from MAGA merch and name recognition? Or will he end up the first president ever convicted and sentenced to prison? He just wanted the publicity, dammit, not to have to actually WORK!

[GreyhoundFan]

 

[AmazonGrace]

President Is a Moron - drama 

 

ACT 1 

ACT 2 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

11 minutes ago, AmazonGrace said:

President Is a Moron - drama 

I wish we had a facepalm reaction. He just loves to distract from real issues.

 

Act 3:

 

[Howl]

OMG!  Please, Dear Rufus, I promise you an entire bag of deer corn for YOU AND YOU ALONE, just PLEASE let someone ask SHS about watching porn in the WH at the next *press briefing* rampant BS lie fest. 

It's probably why he likes to go to Mar-a-Lago so much in the winter.  *Liberally applies brain bleach* 

Heh. Wonder how often Stormy Daniels is cued up on the play list?

[AmazonGrace]

Putin's puppet says what?

 

[Howl]

24 minutes ago, AmazonGrace said:

Putin's puppet says what?

As I've said before, it's pretty damned shocking how blatantly IN YOUR FACE Trump is about Putin.  Not subtle, no diplomatic back room maneuvering, just screaming it from the roof of the WH.  Folks, this, in itself, is phuque-ing colluding with Russia to advance Russia's foreign policy objectives.  See, I'm using CAPS and bold text to emphasize just how damned obvious this is.