Trump 42: Racist In Chief

[GreyhoundFan]

Suuuure: "Trump denies ever suggesting that Pence stay at a Trump-owned hotel in Ireland"

Spoiler

President Trump on Wednesday denied ever telling Vice President Pence or Attorney General William P. Barr to use his family-owned properties, but defended them for choosing “the best.”

The president was responding to questions about Pence’s decision to stay at Trump International Golf Links & Hotel in Doonbeg, Ireland, while meeting with Irish leaders in Dublin this week, a more than 140-mile commute.

“I had no involvement, other than it’s a great place,” Trump said. “It wasn’t my idea for Mike to go there.”

On Tuesday, Pence’s chief of staff, Marc Short, said it was Trump who suggested Pence stay at his hotel after he heard that Pence planned to visit family in Doonbeg.

“I don’t suggest anything, nor did I speak to the attorney general about using my hotel,” Trump said, referring to Barr’s plans to host a holiday party at the Trump International Hotel, which is blocks from the White House. “I have a lot of hotels all over the place, and people, they use them because they’re the best.”

By choosing to take his business to a Trump property — even if not directly instructed to by Trump — Pence is putting taxpayer dollars into Trump’s private business coffers.

While Barr is paying for his party himself, critics have panned as unethical the nation’s leading law enforcement official spending $30,000 at a venue owned by the president.

Since the beginning of his presidency, Trump has blurred the lines between his role as president and his private life as a business executive. And while he has technically handed over operation of the family business to his sons, he still benefits financially from its revenue.

Democrats have accused Trump of potentially running afoul of the Constitution’s emoluments clause, which says a president can’t take payments from a foreign government. Several international delegations have stayed at Trump’s hotel while visiting Washington. Trump has recently suggested global leaders and their staff stay at his Doral, Fla., resort next year when the United States hosts the annual Group of Seven meeting.

“People like my product, what can I tell you, can’t help it,” Trump said on Wednesday. “Guess they say they want to stay at a place that is better than someplace else.”

You couldn't pay me to step foot in any of his properties.

[Dandruff]

11 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

You couldn't pay me to step foot in any of his properties.

My hope, once he's out of office, is that the MAGA leghumpers and those staying at his properties to curry favor will all take their money elsewhere.

[fraurosena]

He’s really butthurt about those sharpie posts.

 

[fraurosena]

But... but... but Trump is part of the government!

[Dandruff]

9 hours ago, fraurosena said:

But... but... but Trump is part of the government!

He is the government and that pesky storm was going wherever he said it was.

[GreyhoundFan]

Apparently the mango manbaby's panties are in a real twist because he's still defending his dumb mistake about Alabama. "Trump flashes anger about Alabama forecast as Dorian bears down on Carolinas"

Spoiler

President Donald Trump insisted once again on Thursday that initial forecasts for Hurricane Dorian put Alabama at dire risk, digging in on his dubious meteorological claim even as the storm started having real impact on the East Coast.

“In the early days of the hurricane, when it was predicted that Dorian would go through Miami or West Palm Beach, even before it reached the Bahamas, certain models strongly suggested that Alabama & Georgia would be hit as it made its way through Florida & to the Gulf,” Trump tweeted.

“Instead it turned North and went up the coast, where it continues now,” he continued in a second post. “In the one model through Florida, the Great State of Alabama would have been hit or grazed. In the path it took, no. Read my FULL FEMA statement. What I said was accurate! All Fake News in order to demean!”

A little less than two hours later, Trump tweeted a third time: "Alabama was going to be hit or grazed, and then Hurricane Dorian took a different path (up along the East Coast). The Fake News knows this very well. That’s why they’re the Fake News!"

Trump on Wednesday was the subject of online mockery after an Oval Office storm briefing in which he showed off an apparently doctored National Hurricane Center projection of Dorian’s early track that appeared to be hand-altered to include Alabama.

But when asked about what looked like a conspicuous Sharpie mark on the federal forecast at an event later in the afternoon, Trump repeatedly said “I don’t know,” and announced the White House would issue “a better map” with “many models” advising that “in all cases Alabama was hit, if not likely, in some cases pretty hard.”

Eric Trump, the president's son, also sought to attack journalists' coverage of the episode on Thursday — slamming a report by the Washington Post and sharing on Twitter a National Hurricane Center graphic dated Aug. 29 showing parts of Alabama with a 5-10 percent chance of receiving sustained winds in subsequent days.

"This pettiness from the @washingtonpost is exactly why the public hates the media," he wrote online. "This is a basic graphic from the NHC - I don’t think it’s beyond comprehension that Alabama was in the path had the storm not gone North. Stop the BS. The Washington Post is a joke. #Alabama."

It is possible Trump was alerted to Dorian's potential effects on Alabama in early briefings, when disaster officials feared the hurricane could cross southern Florida, enter back into the Gulf of Mexico and turn toward the Panhandle. Such a path would have put Alabama in close proximity to the storm.

Still, when Trump first tweeted Sunday that Alabama and a handful of states along the southeastern coast of the U.S. "will most likely be hit (much) harder than anticipated," the National Hurricane Center already forecast that Dorian's trajectory had veered far from Alabama.

And in a tweet roughly 20 minutes after Trump's weekend post, Birmingham’s branch of the National Weather Service clarified that “Alabama will NOT see any impacts from #Dorian,” because its "system will remain too far east."

But Trump's persistent focus on his own claim Thursday, which came as Dorian bore down on the coast of South Carolina, provoked fresh criticism. Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., remarked that "I feel sorry for the president," calling the controversy over the modified map "humiliating" and "an embarrassing moment" for the United States.

"What we're seeing there is literally pathetic," Buttigieg, a Democratic presidential candidate, told CNN. "It makes you feel a kind of pity for everybody involved, and that's not how I want to feel about the president — whether it's for my party or the other."

(video is here)

Another of Trump's 2020 challengers, Republican former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, had pledged Wednesday that "if elected I will NEVER redraw a National Weather Service map to cover up my own dumb mistake."

Fox News' Janice Dean, the senior meteorologist at Trump's favored cable network, pointed out Wednesday that "Alabama was NEVER in the official cone" forecast by the National Hurricane Center, and described the embellished map presented from the White House as "inaccurate, misleading and fake."

Former FEMA administrator Craig Fugate on Thursday said emergency managers rely on National Hurricane Center forecasts “with no additions to that product,” and chastised Trump for relitigating the Alabama dispute while Dorian continues to churn northward.

“You know, if you're going to misstate something, that happens. You should just correct it and let it go. But it is, I think, a distraction from what we should be focused on,” Fugate told MSNBC, adding that “we still have a lot of storm to go” and citing ongoing response efforts in the Bahamas.

NBC host and weatherman Al Roker also said Thursday the squabble was “a bit of a distraction” that “could have been easily tamped down,” but wasn’t. “I think folks know who to depend on, and no disrespect to the president of the United States, but he's not in the business of doing forecasts," Roker told MSNBC.

The blowback appeared to embolden Trump on Thursday. He also retweeted a map plotting Dorian’s likely paths that he first posted online Wednesday evening, which was dated Aug. 28 and appeared to originate from the South Florida Water Management District.

“This was the originally projected path of the Hurricane in its early stages,” Trump wrote in an accompanying message. “As you can see, almost all models predicted it to go through Florida also hitting Georgia and Alabama. I accept the Fake News apologies!”

That map included a disclaimer stating that "NHC Advisories and County Emergency Management Statements supersede this product," and the graphic "should complement, not replace, NHC discussions."

 

[Dandruff]

Maybe he was hoping to be able to send aid to Alabama to help lock in votes?  I realize how twisted it sounds...but this is Trump we're talking about (TITWTA).

[Ozlsn]

10 minutes ago, Dandruff said:

Maybe he was hoping to be able to send aid to Alabama to help lock in votes?  I realize how twisted it sounds...but this is Trump we're talking about (TITWTA).

He could still do that. I'm sure they need toilet paper or whatever it was he was throwing around at the last disaster photo op.

[GreyhoundFan]

 

[fraurosena]

Read this... 

... then juxtaposition it with this: 

Anatomy of a fiasco: A detailed timeline of Trump's Alabama map meltdown

From the article:

Quote

He falsely claimed that Hurricane Dorian was likely to hit Alabama.

Then he repeated the claim after the National Weather Service debunked it.

Then he insisted that the media, not him, was in the wrong.

Then, to try to prove his point, he showed the media an outdated map that had clearly been altered.

Then, trying again, he tweeted out an unaltered map that was too old to prove his point.

Then, trying again again, he tweeted out some more old maps.

Finally, Trump got his homeland security adviser to issue a statement vouching for him.

Over five days, President Donald Trump delivered a barrage of inaccurate and confusing statements about Dorian -- aggressively defending his original false claim by being repeatedly dishonest about what it was he had originally said.

Then, consider this:

 

[Alisamer]

I wonder what bigger scandal this whole Alabama Hurricane thing is covering up?

A normal person would have said "Oops, I misspoke." and the vast majority of the world would have shrugged and said "It happens. No biggie." 

Instead, we have a whole week of captain incompetent doubling down on how he didn't make a mistake. And apparently none of his staff/handlers/children seem able to shut him up about it, which makes me think they're LETTING him keep going on this, on purpose. He's making himself look like even more of a stubborn idiot than he usually is, which makes me wonder what they're distracting him and us from.

[fraurosena]

1 hour ago, Alisamer said:

I wonder what bigger scandal this whole Alabama Hurricane thing is covering up?

A normal person would have said "Oops, I misspoke." and the vast majority of the world would have shrugged and said "It happens. No biggie." 

Instead, we have a whole week of captain incompetent doubling down on how he didn't make a mistake. And apparently none of his staff/handlers/children seem able to shut him up about it, which makes me think they're LETTING him keep going on this, on purpose. He's making himself look like even more of a stubborn idiot than he usually is, which makes me wonder what they're distracting him and us from.

Then again, he's a doddering, decrepit dotard, who will dig in, defiantly in denial, determinedly and doggedly dissenting, and not ever conceding he made a mistake. 

[Audrey2]

I think I may have figured out the reason behind Trump's hole Alabama kerfuffle. I think he genuinely doesn't know where Alabama is, and mistook it for Georgia.

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[fraurosena]

2 hours ago, AmazonGrace said:

 

This is huge. A veritable plethora of impeachable offenses. How will the R's in the Senate excuse this?

[GreyhoundFan]

 

[fraurosena]

Well, sharpiegate has stopped everybody talking about Deutsche Bank having his tax returns...

[GreyhoundFan]

Another great one from Dana Milbank: "Donald and the Black Sharpie"

Quote

With profuse apologies to the late Crockett Johnson, author of “Harold and the Purple Crayon.”

One evening, after thinking it over for some time, Donald decided he wanted to be president.

He drew a picture that made his hands look very big.

He drew another picture that made dark people look scary and another that made the president into a mean Muslim from Africa.

He made a picture of a swamp with frightening alligators, a picture of terrible monsters in Chicago and a picture of dangerous animals from Central America.

Still, Donald did not win most of the votes. So he drew a picture of the other side cheating and called it fraud.

He drew a picture of his inauguration with so many people in it!

Then Donald set off to be president, taking his big, black Sharpie with him. And the moon followed him.

Being president is hard work, which he did not like. So he drew pictures that made it look as though he was working on the golf course and at the country club.

He drew a lot of pictures that showed polls going up, up, up!

He drew a picture of himself with all his children. He made everybody slender. He drew his advisers. He made them look competent.

He drew a picture of the Constitution that said immigrants cannot be citizens.

He drew a certificate for himself that said he was a genius and another saying he was very healthy.

He drew a picture of himself giving money to charity and still having more money than anybody ever thought he did.

He drew a country called Nambia.

He drew a witch hunt.

He drew a picture of happy people getting tax cuts and great health care and another picture of the government debt going away.

He drew a picture of workers with smiley faces in steel mills. He drew a picture of ships going across the ocean to China with lots of coal and soybeans. He drew a picture of Chinese people waving a white flag.

He drew a picture of the Group of Seven with Russia at the table.

He drew a picture of Greenland with the American flag on it.

He wanted to meet with allies, but he did not have any, so he drew some. They looked happy.

He drew a picture of George Washington’s army fighting at airports!

He drew Democrats as criminals and reporters as traitors.

He drew a weather map with a big, frightening storm!

But there was one thing Donald did not know how to draw: He could not make a picture of Mexico paying him for a wall.

So he drew a picture of the Pentagon paying for the wall by taking money away from 127 projects.

They took money from schools and day care for children of military families. They took money away from a place for troops to eat. They took away fire stations from people who fly planes. They took money from people hurt by storms in Puerto Rico. They took money that protected Japan and South Korea. They took money that protected Europe from Russia. Many people were sad.

But, luckily, Donald kept his wits and his black Sharpie. He drew schools for the children and a dining room and fire stations for the troops. He erased Puerto Rico from the map. He drew Kim Jong Un with valentines instead of bombs so he did not frighten Japan and South Korea. He drew fierce dragons and a moat to protect Europe from Russia. He drew a friendly Vladimir Putin who would not frighten them.

After all this work, Donald was hungry and tired. He drew himself nine Big Macs, and he ate them all. He made his bed, and he drew Melania in it. She was frowning, so he drew a smile on her face. He got in bed and drew up the covers.

The black Sharpie dropped on the floor. And Donald dropped off to sleep.

 

[fraurosena]

Sweet Rufus! It’s all over the news, and they thought it was a good idea to just do it again.

 

[Audrey2]

2 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Another great one from Dana Milbank: "Donald and the Black Sharpie"

 

I've thought of Donald and the Black Sharpie and also this.

 

Edited September 8, 2019 by Audrey2

[fraurosena]

Whatever happened to America's adage that they would never negotiate with terrorists? Let alone on American soil?

(He so did not tweet this himself btw, the words are too big and the sentences make sense -- Jared maybe, who fancies himself as a peacemaker?)

[laPapessaGiovanna]

11 hours ago, fraurosena said:

Sweet Rufus! It’s all over the news, and they thought it was a good idea to just do it again.

 

[WiseGirl]

I'm not sure where to put this as it covers so many topics, but all roads lead to captain incompetent (I don't remember who wrote this but I love it) so here we go. Pompeo is doing the Sunday rounds today.

 

[fraurosena]

Sweet Rufus...

 

[PsyD2013]

 

I have no words for this, per faux news,  the Orange Ass and his children are planning a Presidential Dynasty. 

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-family-dynasty-will-last-for-decades-2020-campaign-chief-says.print