The Trump Presidency

[Skeptic Ginger]

Trump will be the first President who might very well Tweet himself out of office.....

Or set case law whether Tweets can be admitted as evidence of a person's statements.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Another investigation is starting.

Why two years?

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Interesting progression there.

Trump commissions a memo from Rosenstein, via Sessions, to justify his dismissal of Comey. (A memo which, in truth, fails to rise to such an indictment.)

By his own statements we know that Trump had already decided to dump Comey before he received this memo.

And now he blames Rosenstein.

The memo was more than cover for the act of ditching Comey. It was also a mechanism for Trump to shift blame onto Rosenstein for the ditching.

So much for loyalty. Not worth the paper it was purchased with.

And somehow Sessions remains unsullied by the episode. I wonder why Trump failed to note that Sessions was also part of that "advice" he got?

We know it isn't loyalty to his staff in return for loyalty he's received. It's obvious Trump doesn't do that.

What's left? Session has the goods on him and Trump can't screw him over without it getting aired in public?

Sessions doesn't seem like the kind of guy to go down quietly. If he falls he's going to grab hold of anyone within reach and pull them down with him.

He doesn't seem like someone who does "loyalty" very well, either.

Another example of Trump's short term memory problem.

 

[quadraginta]

This is fine.

Trump advisers and confidants describe the president as increasingly angry over the investigation, yelling at television sets in the White House carrying coverage and insisting he is the target of a conspiracy to discredit — and potentially end — his presidency. Some of his ire is aimed at Rosenstein and investigative special counsel Robert Mueller, both of whom the president believes are biased against him, associates say.

He is probably correct in that assessment.

What he is clueless about is that he provokes that response in people with the things he says and does.

It really doesn't matter what their ideological alignment is, or where they started in their view of Trump. Sooner or later the very nature of the man is going to put them off.

 

[Babbylonian]

He is probably correct in that assessment.

What he is clueless about is that he provokes that response in people with the things he says and does.

It really doesn't matter what their ideological alignment is, or where they started in their view of Trump. Sooner or later the very nature of the man is going to put them off.

Rosenstein in particular has a solid grievance since he has repeatedly been thrown under the proverbial bus since virtually the moment the beast fired Comey.

 

[Foolmewunz]

Rosenstein in particular has a solid grievance since he has repeatedly been thrown under the proverbial bus since virtually the moment the beast fired Comey.

Before... Rosenstein's no idiot. He recognized the order to write the memo as just what it was - someone to shift the blame to.

Fortunately for Rosenstein, Trump is such a smug miscreant that he couldn't resist trying to take all the credit among his alt-right and rooski buddies.

Within 36 hours the White House spinners, the POTUS and the political hack commentators went from: He did it because Comey was mean to Hillary and besides this nice (((fellow over at Justice))) recommended I do it, and I would've done it anyway, hey I didn't say that did I, it's because someone else recommended it, why look here's this memo from the Ass't AG that Jeff Sessions knows nothing about not a thing it came right from the guy's heart right after we told him to draft it up but yeah I fired him and I was gonna fire him anyway.

And they don't get dizzy while doing this!

 

[quadraginta]

Trump will be the first President who might very well Tweet himself out of office.....

Trump tweet, yesterday




Yes, please.

Tweet more.

Don't let those pansies on your staff hide your light under a bedpan.

 

[quadraginta]

Or set case law whether Tweets can be admitted as evidence of a person's statements.

You mean, the way he has already done, right?

 

[Stacko]

Donald Trump Reports He’s Getting Rich as President

President Trump says he’s received tens of millions of dollars in income from the golf courses and resorts whose profile he boosted during frequent visits since taking office, according to filings released Friday by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics.

The 98 pages of financial disclosures offer a partial snapshot of Trump’s income and assets from January 2016 to April this year, as well as indications he’s reaped at least a partial windfall since his most recent filing with the Federal Election Commission last year. The filings offer less detailed information about his precise financial situation than would be obtained from his tax returns. Trump broke with modern precedents by refusing to release those returns on the campaign trail or during his presidency.

Properties that Trump frequently visited as president saw the largest boost in income. Trump claimed more than $37 million in income from Mar-a-Lago, the Palm Beach County resort in Florida he described as his “Winter White House,” as well as $20 million in income from the nearby golf club he owns in Jupiter, Florida. His claimed Mar-a-Lago income rose rapidly since his last two financial disclosures with the FEC: Trump reported more than $15 million in income from the resort in the 2015 report, followed by $29 million in the 2016 version.

 

[Garrison]

And I see he's rolling right along setting back every bit of progress made by the Obama administration on foreign relations:

Cuba denounces Trump's policy rollback

President Trump says his new policy will tighten rules on travel and on sending funds to Cuba. Announcing the changes on Friday, he cited human rights concerns, saying doing a deal with the "brutal" Castro government was "terrible" and "misguided".

Now this would be a reasonable stance, if he hadn't been palling around with the King of Saudia Arabia a couple of weeks ago. Can anyone seriously argue Cuba has a worse human rights record than Saudi Arabia?

 

[Hlafordlaes]

In the U.S. Triumphs don't count

Oh, I love the Fat Boy, who doesn't, but golly, who wouldn't love to hop on a Triumph Rocket III Roadster, OMG! Just the keep the gaudy big Hondas outta sight.

/aside

 

[alfaniner]

Just after the Inauguration, CNN heavily promoted a book they put together, titled UNPRECEDENTED.

I will not be surprised when sometime in the next couple years we see the sequel -- UNPRESIDENTED.

 

[The Great Zaganza]

Donald Trump Reports He’s Getting Rich as President

Isn't that a direct admission of an ethic violation?

 

[Ambrosia]

of a Sunday you'll find them rumbling over the Hog's Back...

Just be careful of the soft verges

 

[CapelDodger]

Before... Rosenstein's no idiot. He recognized the order to write the memo as just what it was - someone to shift the blame to.

As quadraginta noted above, Rosenstein did nothing so explicit as recommend Comey be fired. As you say, no idiot and with a lawyer's instinctive aversion to the unequivocal.

Fortunately for Rosenstein, Trump is such a smug miscreant that he couldn't resist trying to take all the credit among his alt-right and rooski buddies.

Delicious, isn't it?

 

[Cl1mh4224rd]

Isn't that a direct admission of an ethic violation?

Maybe, but I think it would be difficult to get that to stick for two reasons:

1. He's not admitting to funneling tax-payer money into his properties. He's claiming the increased profits are due to an increase in popularity. Yes, he's attributing that increase in popularity directly to his personal visits to those properties, but...
2. He's not openly promoting those properties.

 

[Foolmewunz]

Maybe, but I think it would be difficult to get that to stick for two reasons:

1. He's not admitting to funneling tax-payer money into his properties. He's claiming the increased profits are due to an increase in popularity. Yes, he's attributing that increase in popularity directly to his personal visits to those properties, but...
2. He's not openly promoting those properties.

1. As they used to say at A+, "intent isn't magic". In this case it's "admitting isn't magic". He did it. He didn't have to spend his time at his own properties. Whether he intended or not, the result is siphoning money that could've gone to properties that compete with him.
2. You might want to check some of his after dinner speeches and toasts and press conferences. He often mentions the wonderful surroundings and what a wonderful job we've done with it. Hell, just getting the name in the news all the time is millions of dollars worth of free advertising.

 

[Cl1mh4224rd]

As they used to say at A+, "intent isn't magic". In this case it's "admitting isn't magic". He did it. He didn't have to spend his time at his own properties. Whether he intended or not, the result is siphoning money that could've gone to properties that compete with him.

I'm not exactly sure what you're arguing here, but if it is what I think it is, I agree that his personal, tax-payer-funded trips to his own business properties are ethically questionable at best.

But that's not what Trump was admitting to in the quoted statement, which is what The Great Zaganza was wondering about.

[*]You might want to check some of his after dinner speeches and toasts and press conferences. He often mentions the wonderful surroundings and what a wonderful job we've done with it. Hell, just getting the name in the news all the time is millions of dollars worth of free advertising.
[/list]

Fair enough.

 

[Beelzebuddy]

Don't forget dropping in on VIP events while he's at his club, like he did with that wedding.

What's left? Session has the goods on him and Trump can't screw him over without it getting aired in public?

Sessions and Flynn do, I'm sure of it. Nothing else can explain the selective devotion from The Don. Kushner probably does, although it could also be Trump grooming him to take over. Lord knows Eric and Junior aren't up to the task.

The figure I find interesting is Pence, who has somehow managed to keep his nose clear of the whole situation. Despite being the second in command (this is like a corporation, remember), Trump has delegated little, if anything, to him. One might picture him wearing sunglasses indoor with his feet on the desk saying, "No, I ain't doing that" to everything, but if so we'd have heard about it via Donald's Twilight Twitter Therapy. So what's the deal?

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

....
The figure I find interesting is Pence, who has somehow managed to keep his nose clear of the whole situation. Despite being the second in command (this is like a corporation, remember), Trump has delegated little, if anything, to him. One might picture him wearing sunglasses indoor with his feet on the desk saying, "No, I ain't doing that" to everything, but if so we'd have heard about it via Donald's Twilight Twitter Therapy. So what's the deal?

This has been discussed before:

Mike Pence is neck-deep in Donald Trump’s James Comey mess

The veep may look like a tangential figure in the administration, but he's in the middle of this deepening crisis...

And he was in the middle of Comey’s firing as well. According to the New York Times, Pence was among the small group of staff members with whom Trump had mulled the decision after he became angry over Comey’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week. So Pence knew very well that Trump had decided to fire Comey for his own reasons when he went before the cameras and said that the president had merely “accepted the recommendation” of the Deputy Attorney general.

Mike Pence wants us to believe he’s innocent. Don’t buy it.

The injected narrative:

All of a sudden we’re seeing a wave of articles in which anonymous sources close to Pence tell reporters that he’s completely out of the loop, to use the phrase that then-Vice President George H.W. Bush uttered so memorably when claiming his innocence in the Iran-Contra scandal. But can we believe it? And even if it’s true, isn’t that nearly as much of an indictment of Pence?

But remember it turned out Pence knew about Flynn's Russian contacts before Pence went out to say there were no contacts followed by the kerfuffle that Flynn was supposedly fired for lying to Pence?

Yates had informed the WH about Flynn. Whoops!

And there's a certain letter from one Elijah Cummings sent directly to Pence:

Pence claimed in March to have just found out about Flynn’s work for Turkey. Yet Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.), the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, sent Pence a letter on Nov. 18 going into considerable detail about Flynn’s Turkey connection. As of yesterday, Pence was standing by his assertion that he only learned about it in March.

Whoops again.

Though it wouldn't surprise me if the GOP is still in control of Congress that they ignore that inconvenient fact unless Paul Ryan is still in control of the House. They may have their hand forced before knowing the outcome of the 2018 election.