Trump 42: Racist In Chief

[fraurosena]

I wonder what Macron thought of the meeting...

 

[Audrey2]

4 hours ago, fraurosena said:

I wonder what Macron thought of the meeting...

 

Lunch with Emmanuel was the best meeting we've had yet... Macron must've ordered McDonald's just for Trump!

[fraurosena]

2 hours ago, Audrey2 said:

Lunch with Emmanuel was the best meeting we've had yet... Macron must've ordered McDonald's just for Trump!

He probably he had McBreakfast too...

 

[GreyhoundFan]

6 hours ago, fraurosena said:

He probably he had McBreakfast too...

 

I'm guessing Ivanka wrote this text for him as none of the words are misspelled.

[laPapessaGiovanna]

 this he wrote all by himself as a big boy, of course it didn't happen.

[Dandruff]

3 hours ago, laPapessaGiovanna said:

 this he wrote all by himself as a big boy, of course it didn't happen.

Sounds like he was only asked by fellow world leaders who think the USA is doing well and is stronger than ever before.

I'm guessing no one asked.

[47of74]

God the fooking stupid burns

Quote

President Trump has suggested multiple times to senior Homeland Security and national security officials that they explore using nuclear bombs to stop hurricanes from hitting the United States, according to sources who have heard the president's private remarks and been briefed on a National Security Council memorandum that recorded those comments.

Behind the scenes: During one hurricane briefing at the White House, Trump said, "I got it. I got it. Why don't we nuke them?" according to one source who was there. "They start forming off the coast of Africa, as they're moving across the Atlantic, we drop a bomb inside the eye of the hurricane and it disrupts it. Why can't we do that?" the source added, paraphrasing the president's remarks.

Trump also raised the idea in another conversation with a senior administration official. A 2017 NSC memo describes that second conversation, in which Trump asked whether the administration should bomb hurricanes to stop them from hitting the homeland. A source briefed on the NSC memo said it does not contain the word "nuclear"; it just says the president talked about bombing hurricanes.

The sources said that Trump's "bomb the hurricanes" idea — which he floated early in the first year and a bit of his presidency before John Bolton took over as national security adviser — went nowhere and never entered a formal policy process.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Typical tap dancing: "Trump admits to having ‘second thoughts’ — a scramble ensues to explain what he meant"

Spoiler

BIARRITZ, France — It began with a rare admission from President Trump. 

“I have second thoughts about everything,” he said, answering repeated questions from reporters about whether he was concerned that his escalating trade war with China had gone too far.

His comments, which came during a bilateral meeting with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson at the Group of Seven summit here, were initially seen as a sign Trump was softening his approach just two days after he ratcheted up his rhetoric toward Beijing and said he wanted U.S. companies to begin pulling out of China.

In the ensuing hours, administration officials launched a full-throttled effort to reframe the president’s words — and maybe more importantly change the cable TV chyrons — and try to turn them from an admission of vulnerability to a statement of strength.

“The president responded in the affirmative — because he regrets not raising the tariffs higher,” press secretary Stephanie Grisham said in a statement four hours after Trump’s initial comment, even though he had also praised China and said that talks were going well during his back-and-forth with reporters earlier in the day.

National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow portrayed the president’s comment not so much as being misinterpreted, but as the result of a misunderstanding over what was being asked amid the hustle and bustle of the press scrum.

“He didn’t quite hear the question this morning,” Kudlow told reporters, even though the question was asked three times.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in television interviews brushed past questions about what specifically the president said to declare that he was unwavering in his commitment to the trade war with China.

“He has no second thoughts, no second thoughts,” Mnuchin said, contradicting the president, who said earlier that he did.

The fallout from Trump’s morning remarks here were another example of how his off-the-cuff style of speaking, vacillating policy positions and desire to bend facts to his liking can wreak havoc on an almost daily basis even during what are supposed to be carefully orchestrated diplomatic events.

The president’s aides were not the only ones who felt the need to clarify or contradict Trump during the G-7 summit — several fellow leaders stepped in at times during the day, often gently, to make clear they were not agreeing with a point made by Trump.

The president indicated that North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, with whom Trump is eager to strike a nuclear deal, had not broken “an agreement” by repeatedly conducting missile tests in recent weeks that have U.S. allies in Asia growing nervous. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, sitting in the chair beside him, said otherwise.

“Our position is very clear that the launch of short-range ballistic missiles by North Korea clearly violates the relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions,” Abe said, a view shared by U.S. experts.

Trump said he understood why Abe “feels” that way but continued to defend a man he calls a friend, the dictator of North Korea.

“We’re in the world of missiles, folks, whether you like it or not,” Trump said. Abe said he hoped that North Korea would not continue the tests. 

Earlier in the morning, Trump said that allies supported his trade fight with China, even though other leaders have repeatedly urged him to de-escalate tensions with Beijing.

“I haven’t heard that at all,” he said when asked if other G-7 participants were pressuring him to scale back his trade war with China. “I think they respect the trade war. It has to happen. . . . So, the answer is, nobody has told me that, and nobody would tell me that.”

From his vantage point across the long table, Johnson expressed a different opinion minutes later even as he carefully maneuvered not to offend Trump. “To register the faint, sheeplike note of our view on the trade war, we’re in favor of trade peace on the whole, and dialing it down if we can,” Johnson said.

World leaders said overwhelmingly that they opposed Russia rejoining the summit, even though Trump has repeatedly pushed for the country to return. Speaking Sunday morning, Trump said he secured some support in a contentious discussion at a dinner Saturday night. “I could, but I don’t think that’s necessary,” he said, when asked to name who agreed with him. No one else publicly backed up the assertion.

The most attention Sunday was focused on the president’s “second thoughts,” or lack thereof. The exchange, over his breakfast with Johnson, went like this, according to the White House official transcript:

Reporter: “Mr. President, any second thoughts on escalating the trade war with China?”

Trump: “Yeah, sure, why not?”

Reporter. “Second thoughts? Yes?”

Trump: “Might as well. Might as well.”

So it went a third time. “You have second thoughts about escalating the war with China?” a reporter asked.

Trump: “I have second thoughts about everything.” 

Some of the words, as they are often are with Trump, were ambiguous. What does “might as well” mean with regard to “second thoughts?”

The president shook financial markets Friday when he responded to new Chinese tariffs by calling on U.S. companies to leave the country and then later issuing new tariffs of his own.

Many in his administration have quietly urged him to let talks proceed instead of ratcheting up pressure — and have tried to present a rosier-than-reality view to the president of ongoing negotiations, according to people familiar with the discussions who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private conversations. Aides say Trump closely watches the markets and is pushing to get more help for farmers who support him but are hurt by the tariffs, even as he publicly says tariffs do not hurt the United States.

Trump’s remarks dominated the news Sunday, in part because they seemed to be a rare admission of self doubt or a mistake by Trump, who rarely concedes any such thing. After he recently attacked one of his supporters at a rally for being overweight, mistaking him for a protester, White House aides made clear that he called the man to thank him for his support but that he did not apologize.

Once Trump and team saw the news coverage of his remarks, they sprung into action, with Grisham saying there were “greatly misinterpreted” and Mnuchin and Kudlow driving about 30 minutes to a beachfront area, where they defended the president in morning TV interviews and highlighted what they described as an unprecedented day of success for the president. 

“I was in that meeting. There were a lot of people yelling. I think it was somewhat, at least I found it somewhat hard to hear,” Mnuchin said. 

He said additional tariffs were not being considered, even though Grisham in her statement said the president’s “second thoughts” related to his desire to increase the trade penalties. One senior administration official said Trump originally did want tougher tariffs, but it was unclear whether that’s what he meant Sunday morning.

A reporter asked Mnuchin if he was there to “clean up” Trump’s comments. The treasury secretary said Trump had been clear and that it wasn’t necessary. 

“I think we’re not cleaning up anything,” Mnuchin said.

 

[Audrey2]

Donnie Dummkopf is at it again. 

Remember, he's a "stable genius". I'm sure that he thinks he has a strong grasp of science, but the idea of nuking a hurricane to make it go away is so ridiculous and ignorant I want to laugh but he's serious. Fortunately, he does have handlers.

https://amp-theguardian-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/26/donald-trump-suggests-nuking-hurricanes-to-stop-them-hitting-america-report?amp_js_v=a2&amp_gsa=1#referrer=https%3A%2F%2F

Spoiler

Donald Trump has reportedly suggested on more than one occasion that the US military should bomb hurricanes in order to disrupt them before they make landfall.

According to US news website Axios, the US president said in a meeting with top national security and homeland security officials about the threat of hurricanes: “I got it. I got it. Why don’t we nuke them?”

“They start forming off the coast of Africa, as they’re moving across the Atlantic, we drop a bomb inside the eye of the hurricane and it disrupts it. Why can’t we do that?”

I don't think he'll be happy until he can launch some nuclear weapons.

[fraurosena]

Of course it's always, always, always about him and his personal benefits. 

 

[Ozlsn]

3 hours ago, Audrey2 said:

I don't think he'll be happy until he can launch some nuclear weapons.

God help us when his brain connects global warming with nuclear winter.

14 hours ago, laPapessaGiovanna said:

 this he wrote all by himself as a big boy, of course it didn't happen.

For some reason this tweet is still making me laugh. I think it's the oblivious way he assumes all non-Americans are obsessed with what the American press is saying internally about his government (and him of course), and as for "rooting for it to fail" - well, the Australian PM for one won't be using the word 'rooting'... and the others probably are on the press' side for once. Heh.

[Howl]

3 hours ago, Ozlsn said:

the Australian PM for one won't be using the word 'rooting'

Ooooh, just checked in with Urban Dictionary, which clarified that the Aussie and US meanings are quite different! 

I'm putting this under a spoiler because, well, anyway, it's the most concise definition of the current Putin/Trump dynamic I've seen recently. 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

Also, at some point Trump suggested nuking hurricanes.  No, really, he did. 

4 hours ago, fraurosena said:

Of course it's always, always, always about him and his personal benefits.

Yes, and I do think there is reason to believe that he, his family, or associates are benefiting (through outright strategy or insider knowledge or both) from the wild gyrations in the stock market.  I say this based on the fact that Trump, his family, and associates are fundamentally corrupt. 

Trump has announced that he wants to hold the next G-7 (or will it be G-8?) at his floundering Doral resort. 

Edited August 26, 2019 by Howl

[fraurosena]

8 minutes ago, Howl said:

Trump has announced that he wants to hold the next G-7 (or will it be G-8?) at his floundering Doral resort. 

Heh. By then it just might be a G-6. They might not want to put up with his economically disastrous policies any longer. If his stupid trade war expands (as Trump is threatening to do with Europe) then the American economy will start to implode. America will not be the economic powerhouse it once was, and no longer merit a G-7 membership by that factor alone.

Apart from that, isn't it absolutely shameful that the other members of the G-7 had to tread on their toes so they wouldn't anger Trump? How long will they want to keep that up? 

 

[Howl]

4 hours ago, Ozlsn said:

God help us when his brain connects global warming with nuclear winter.

OK, this will now keep me awake at night. 

[Howl]

Rick Wilson, highly recommended as always, has a new piece out in the New York Daily News.  Yes, his writing is hilariously and savagely on target. And yes, he's telling us clearly that Trump is becoming even more seriously unhinged. He's been in the politics bidness for 30 years.  He has contacts throughout the Republican world.  When he says unhinged, he means it literally. 

The great crackup: Trump is coming even more undone

New moniker for Trump on Twitter: Umber Overlord

In other news, racist scumbag asshole "Sheriff Joe" Arpaio has announced a comeback run for sheriff of Maricopa County (Phoenix), with a good possibility that this will drive Latinx and disaffected Anglo voters to the pols.

A political strategist referred to this as Christmas in August for Democrats at the state and local level, in that AZ could potentially turn blue in 2020.  

Edited August 26, 2019 by Howl

[Audrey2]

51 minutes ago, Howl said:

 

In other news, racist scumbag asshole "Sheriff Joe" Arpaio has announced a comeback run for sheriff of Maricopa County (Phoenix), with a good possibility that this will drive Latinx and disaffected Anglo voters to the pols.

A political strategist referred to this as Christmas in August for Democrats at the state and local level, in that AZ could potentially turn blue in 2020.  

I sure hope so. It would be really cool if Mark Kelly was elected as Senator from Arizona. He is married to Gabby Giffords, the congresswoman who was shot about 10 years ago, and he was an astronaut! His twin brother, Scott Kelly, was the astronaut who spent over a year in space.

[GreyhoundFan]

"As Trump zigzags wildly at G-7, one ugly truth remains constant"

Spoiler

It took three days, but amid President Trump’s wild gyrations in his trade wars, his erratic efforts to spread confusion and lies about the utterances of other world leaders, and his unstable lapses of attention into matters unrelated to the Group of Seven summit, we have finally sighted one bedrock principle, one unshakable constant in Trump’s conduct, from which he will never waver.

We’re talking, of course, about Trump’s absolute, unfaltering devotion to using the powers of the presidency to serve his own financial self-interest.

With the G-7 winding down, Trump just disclosed that he’s seriously considering hosting next year’s G-7 gathering at his Doral resort in Florida. Trump extolled his resort for its location (right near the airport!), size (tremendous acreage!) and amenities (great conference rooms!).

Trump gave “a long commercial of sorts for the property,” notes The Post, adding that if he goes through with this plan, he “could personally profit from one of the world’s most prestigious gatherings of foreign leaders.”

“Trump appears to consistently use the presidency to advance his businesses -- both to publicize them and to directly bring in business — as often as he can,” Noah Bookbinder, the executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, told me. “This is entirely consistent with what he’s done in the past.”

But in multiple ways, this constitutes a serious exacerbation of Trump’s self-dealing and profiteering off the presidency. First, this is arguably a more active effort on his part to exploit the presidency to enhance his businesses than many previous such efforts.

As president, Trump has visited his resorts and properties scores of times, using the presidency to market and steer attention to them. Republican officials have staged events at them, fully cognizant that this means an appearance by Trump himself is more likely.

In this case, though, Trump will be leveraging the power of the U.S. presidency to draw multiple foreign leaders and their entourages — and the international attention that follows them — to one of his properties.

Thus, the resulting revenues and promotion will not be incidental effects of his decision to spend a weekend at a property or of his willingness to speak at GOP events held at them. Rather, they will be the deliberate result of a major proactive decision on his part shaping the U.S. government’s conducting of important diplomatic and international affairs.

“Of all the locations throughout the U.S. where he could hold a conference, there is no reason why this one had to be in the mix,” Bookbinder said. “Doral appears to be struggling. He seems to be looking for ways to use the presidency to help it.”

This raises obvious issues involving the Constitution’s emoluments clause, which bars officials from accepting gifts from foreign officials and states. The Trump Organization has said it donates profits from foreign governments to charity. But as Josh Dawsey and David Fahrenthold report, it has not explained how it calculates such profits.

It’s possible the Trump Organization could host the G-7 for free. But even in this scenario, Bookbinder said, Trump would be making decisions for his businesses — which he isn’t supposed to be doing, having supposedly turned over control to his sons to make his refusal to divest in his businesses appear kosher.

And regardless, the attention and marketing accompanying such an event would have great value. As Bookbinder noted, to “use the decision-making of the U.S. government” to create this situation benefiting his businesses in one way or another “really flies in the face of what the framers had in mind.”

Trump’s insidious corruption

Such a move would also intensify the corrosive effects of Trump’s corruption and self-dealing. Consider the example this sets.

“There are a lot of people in the government whose job is to decide on contracts and locations for government events,” Bookbinder told me. “One of the most basic rules of serving in the government is to avoid conflicts of interest.”

“If you’re somebody who makes those decisions, you wouldn’t dream of considering a business you have an interest in,” Bookbinder continued. “The idea that the president is ignoring principles that are basic to every contracting officer throughout the government is amazing.”

The contempt for basic anti-corruption and governing norms here runs even deeper than this. Since refusing to divest from his businesses, Trump has insisted that he’s not profiting off governing decisions. But this doesn’t address the basic problem here, which is that divestment is needed to remove any appearance of or incentive for such conflicts of interest.

Now Trump appears ready to make a major governing decision that will benefit his businesses — and is flaunting it. He’s unfurling a big middle finger in the face of the underlying reason we have the divestment norm in the first place — so we can be confident the president is making decisions in the public interest, not his own.

Congress must investigate

House Democrats should investigate what has gone into this evolving decision. This would help illuminate the degree to which other arms of government — which would presumably be involved in the deliberations — are facilitating Trump’s self-dealing.

“Congress should get to the bottom of what communications there were, who was involved in the decision-making, and what pressures were put on, either direct or implied,” Bookbinder told me. “Trump has enlisted people and agencies throughout the government to potentially become part of his business empire. Finding out who was involved here would shine more of a light on that.”

You’d think Trump voters would have an interest in this as well. After all, Trump personally enriching himself while hobnobbing with globalist elites isn’t exactly what those “forgotten men and women” stranded by those elites in the hollowed-out industrial heartland voted for, is it?

 

[Audrey2]

1 hour ago, GreyhoundFan said:

"As Trump zigzags wildly at G-7, one ugly truth remains constant"

  Hide contents

With the G-7 winding down, Trump just disclosed that he’s seriously considering hosting next year’s G-7 gathering at his Doral resort in Florida. Trump extolled his resort for its location (right near the airport!), size (tremendous acreage!) and amenities (great conference rooms!).

 

But Donnie, if you're using nuclear weapons to move hurricanes, this resort will probably be extremely radioactive!

Then again, that's one way to get glowing reviews. (I know, a terrible pun. My best friend and I are constantly throwing real groaners back and forth at each other.)

Edited August 26, 2019 by Audrey2

[Howl]

5 hours ago, Audrey2 said:

I sure hope so. It would be really cool if Mark Kelly was elected as Senator from Arizona. He is married to Gabby Giffords, the congresswoman who was shot about 10 years ago, and he was an astronaut!

Mark Kelly has some serious cred; he would be a good senator, I think. 

[47of74]

I hope the others in the G7 tell Donnie to go fornicate himself over any suggestions about where to hold next year’s meeting.

In fact I wish they’d just tell him to fornicate himself.

[fraurosena]

He really is a pathological liar. Even when he knows he will be caught out, he simply can't help himself and blurts out lie after lie after lie.

 

A climate change denier, who thinks he can nuke hurricanes out of existence, who unilaterally left the Paris agreements, who believes windmills cause cancer, and who refuses to attend climate meetings, is also an environmentalist. 

 

I mean, really, he's an environmentalist!

 

[GreyhoundFan]

He is incapable of telling the truth: "After Trump claims first lady has ‘gotten to know’ Kim Jong Un, White House clarifies they’ve never met"

Spoiler

President Trump on Monday claimed that first lady Melania Trump has “gotten to know” North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, prompting the White House to clarify that the two have never met.

Trump made the comment at a news conference at the Group of 7 summit in Biarritz, France. While answering a question about Iran, the president took a detour to discuss the country’s real estate potential, then pivoted to North Korea.

“I also say that, by the way, with respect to North Korea, Kim Jong Un — who I’ve gotten to know extremely well; the first lady had gotten to know Kim Jong Un, and I think she’d agree with me — he is a man with a country that has tremendous potential,” Trump said.

White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham issued a statement soon after noting that the first lady has never met Kim.

“President Trump confides in his wife on many issues including the detailed elements of his strong relationship with Chairman Kim — and while the First Lady hasn’t met him, the President feels like she’s gotten to know him too,” Grisham said.

The president first met with Kim in Singapore in June 2018. At the time, Trump said that even though the first lady wanted to accompany him, she was under doctors’ orders not to fly because of a medical procedure she’d had the previous month.

“Can’t fly for one month, the doctors say,” the president said. “She had a big operation. That was close to a four-hour operation.”

Earlier this year, Trump and Kim held their second summit in Hanoi. The first lady was also not present for that meeting, which was abruptly cut short amid disagreements on the trade-offs between the United States providing relief from sanctions and North Korea’s steps to dismantle its nuclear weapons program.

In June, Trump and Kim met for the third time, at the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea. While the president’s daughter and son-in-law, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, accompanied him on the visit and also briefly crossed into North Korea, the first lady was not present.

Maybe he's confused and started calling Ivanka the first lady...

[Ozlsn]

"With the G-7 winding down, Trump just disclosed that he’s seriously considering hosting next year’s G-7 gathering at his Doral resort in Florida. Trump extolled his resort for its location (right near the airport!), size (tremendous acreage!) and amenities (great conference rooms!)."

I can just see the TripAdvisor reviews afterwards:

"Facilities needed a bit of an upgrade, staff lovely but owner very obnoxious and difficult to deal with. 1.5 stars.

J.T., New Edinburgh, Canada"

"Most frustrating and inconsistent owner I have ever had to deal with in my life. Made the entire stay frustrating beyond belief. Would not recommend. 0.5 stars.

A.M., Tiergarten, Germany"

"Wonderful location with host who will bend over to give you everything you want! Highly recommend! 5 stars.

V.P., Odintsovsky District, Russia"

[GreyhoundFan]

"Trump’s presser confirms it: He has no idea why he’s losing the trade war"

Spoiler

“It’s the way I negotiate. It’s done very well for me over the years, and it’s doing even better for the country.”

That was President Trump, speaking at a Monday news conference at the Group of Seven summit in France. He was talking about the fact that in recent days he has vacillated back and forth between praising China and harshly criticizing it, all while claiming that the trade war he initiated is going great for the United States as evidence mounts that it is pushing us toward recession.

The truth, however, is that there has seldom been clearer proof that Trump is in fact the world’s worst negotiator. And the price Americans are paying for his weakness keeps getting higher.

While trade is one of only two policy issues (immigration is the other) that Trump has shown he has sincerely felt opinions about, he labors under a series of misconceptions, bred by ignorance and what appears to be a complete lack of interest in grasping how the trade war appears from China’s perspective.

Which is of course the basis of smart negotiation. You can’t get a good deal unless you understand what the person on the other side wants, needs, is willing to tolerate and can’t abide. The man who wrote “The Art of the Deal” (or had someone ghostwrite it for him) doesn’t appear to get it.

The theory of mounting a trade war is that while both countries will inevitably suffer, the other country will be less able to sustain the damage and will give in to your terms.

If all you knew was that the Chinese sell more goods and services to the United States than we sell to them, you might think that they’d blink first, since it would appear that they have more to lose. But that ignores the interplay of politics and economics, which operate very differently in each country.

The first thing to realize is that because China has an authoritarian political system, its leaders are much more insulated from short-term public anger than the leaders of a democracy are. Trump has to worry about being reelected in 2020; Xi Jinping may well be president for life. If Xi wants to extend this trade war for another year or two or three, he can do it. If Trump does, it greatly raises the likelihood that he will no longer be president seventeen months from now.

At his news conference, Trump repeated multiple times that the trade war had cost China 3 million jobs. It’s unclear where he got that figure from, but even if it were true, it wouldn’t be much evidence that it is experiencing so much economic pain that it will inevitably cry uncle. In a country of 1.4 billion people, that represents about two-tenths of one percent of the population — a substantial number, but not enough to trigger a political crisis. And China’s unemployment rate, at least officially, is under 4 percent, about where ours is, which means those people would be able to find other work.

But Trump is convinced that China is hurting more than we are. “I think they wanna make a deal, and I think they should make a deal, and I think if they don’t make a deal, it’s gonna be very bad for China,” he said at the news conference.

That’s the second part of Trump’s argument: America’s economy is so spectacular that we can absorb more economic pain than the Chinese. “We’ve just got to accept the pain that comes with standing up to China,” said Trump toady Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) on CBS this Sunday. “How do you get China to change without creating some pain on them and us? I don’t know.”

That is unlikely to be a very persuasive argument to those directly affected by the trade war, including some important constituencies such as farmers, who are growing increasingly distressed as their incomes are hit by China’s inevitable retaliation. And the domestic manufacturers who were supposed to be helped by increased tariffs on Chinese goods aren’t benefiting, either. While some manufacturers are indeed leaving China to avoid the tariffs, instead of bringing those jobs to America, they’re sending them to low-wage countries such as Vietnam.

That’s not even to mention the broader economic consequences that could affect all Americans if the trade war pushes us toward a recession.

I’m reasonably certain that if anyone tried to explain to Trump the reasons China is in a better position than the United States to tolerate the continuation of this trade war, he’d get bored and stop paying attention. As he wrote in “The Art of the Deal," “My style of deal-making is quite simple and straightforward. I aim very high, and then I just keep pushing and pushing and pushing to get what I’m after.” Understanding the other side is not part of his calculation.

So when “pushing and pushing” fails, he learns nothing. We saw that in his multiple failed legislative initiatives, from the attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act to the government shutdown of 2018-2019. Every time, he showed no evidence that he knew anything about the members of Congress whose votes he needed, nor cared what incentives and fears they faced. And every time he lost.

At some point, the same thing will happen with the trade war. The economic damage to the United States will become clearer, his reelection chances will get dimmer, and he’ll say to himself, “Who could have known the Chinese would be so patient and be better able to endure short-term pain than us?” The fact that pretty much everyone except for him knew it will not register.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

A good one from Eugene Robinson: "Trump’s Obama envy is getting even worse"

Spoiler

Is it my imagination, or is President Trump’s chronic and debilitating case of Obama envy getting worse?

One of the things that genuinely seems to matter to Trump is comparing himself — favorably, of course — with his predecessor, no matter how delusional the rationale. Trump gave an illustration at the end of the Group of Seven summit when he insisted to reporters that former president Barack Obama had been “outsmarted” by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Trump’s full-blown Putin envy was also on display. But the president’s false and absurd rewriting of history seemed intended less to elevate the Russian leader than to diminish Obama. It fit a pattern that goes back years — and may have more to do with Trump’s behavior in office than we realize.

At Trump’s news conference Monday in Biarritz, France, the subject was whether Russia should be invited to rejoin the group of industrialized powers that used to be called the Group of Eight. Russia was kicked out in 2014 after Putin sent military forces into neighboring Ukraine to seize and annex the Crimean Peninsula. The decision by the other member countries — the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Canada and Italy — to eject Russia, because of its unprovoked aggression, was unanimous.

In Trump’s fanciful version, however, Crimea was “taken away from President Obama. . . . It was very embarrassing to him.” That embarrassment, Trump falsely claims, is the only reason Russia was kicked out of the group. Trump wants Russia readmitted. Almost all the other leaders who met in Biarritz disagree, so it’s not happening.

You will recall that Trump’s foreign policy, such as it is, puts “America First” and shies from interference in other nations’ affairs. You will also recall that at last year’s G-7 gathering, Trump reportedly said that Crimea was really Russian all along, since most people there speak the language, and blasted Ukraine as “one of the most corrupt countries in the world.” These are boilerplate Russian talking points; if Trump is taking his cues from Putin, he has learned his lines well.

By Trump’s “logic,” then, there’s no blame to apportion. And, of course, he offers no suggestion as to what Obama might have done to prevent the Russian invasion. But truth never matters much with Trump, and it matters not at all when he’s attacking Obama.

Trump blasts the Obama administration’s record of creating jobs and claims to be doing much better. Yet, under Obama, the unemployment rate fell from a high of 10 percent to just 4.7 percent. Under Trump, it has dropped further to 3.7 percent. Which president had the bigger impact?

Trump blames Obama for being soft on illegal immigration, yet he deports fewer undocumented migrants than Obama did. And when Obama left office, undocumented border crossings were at a multiyear low. The huge increase, driven in part by asylum seekers from Central America, has taken place under Trump.

The president tries to blame his own administration’s cruel immigration policies on Obama — separating thousands of families at the border and keeping children in cages. This is just a flat-out lie. Obama’s policy was to keep asylum-seeking families together. Trump decided to separate them as a deterrent, telling Central Americans that if they did not want to suffer such a fate, they should stay home.

Trump is so fixated on trying to erase Obama’s accomplishments that he repeatedly acts against his own interests. He withdrew the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, negotiated by the Obama administration, even though the pact would have been a valuable tool in Trump’s ongoing trade war against China. Trump has tried repeatedly to repeal the Affordable Care Act — apparently because it’s called Obamacare — even though he offers nothing to replace it and must be aware that the health-care issue helped Democrats regain control of the House in last year’s midterm elections. Trump rages on Twitter against automakers who have agreed to essentially abide by Obama administration rules mandating increased fuel economy, even though the Trump administration is prepared to let them pollute more.

Trump even complains about the lucrative book deal Obama made after leaving the White House. Jealous much?

Obviously, I can’t know for sure what the root cause of Trump’s Obama obsession might be. Everyone should remember, though, that he was an active and vocal proponent of the racist “birther” conspiracy theory, at one point claiming, without evidence, that he had sent investigators to Hawaii to discover the “truth” about Obama’s birth certificate.

Trump seems terrified that history will look more kindly on Obama’s presidency than on his own. If that’s the case — on this one point — he couldn’t be more right.