Thread: President Donald Trump

Originally Posted by uncle junior

How long til GOPers start putting some space between themselves and trump.

Originally Posted by AntRobertson

If they haven't by now they likely won't.

Like Ant said it is not going to happen. As of right now it looks like support for Sessions is collapsing in the Senate.

Originally Posted by bsnub

Like Ant said it is not going to happen. As of right now it looks like support for Sessions is collapsing in the Senate.

Then there's other things going on which are behind the scenes. How any Republican can still support the orange idiot when there are important elections coming up is beyond me.
Mind you, Amarosa said that if Pence takes over everyone will be wishing for Trump back within days..That's saying something!!!

Originally Posted by Maanaam

How any Republican can still support the orange idiot when there are important elections coming up is beyond me.

That is why they are telling Drumpf to wait until after the election to fire Sessions.

Originally Posted by Maanaam

How any Republican can still support the orange idiot when there are important elections coming up is beyond me.

and Mueller's yet to show his hand.....if Sessions gets the ax i think a few rep congressmen will start to move away from trump's corner

Originally Posted by bsnub

That is why they are telling Drumpf to wait until after the election to fire Sessions.

I can't wait and I'm sure Mr. Sessions can't. I'm looking forward to hearing the reason the president asks him to resign, which is probably why Mueller is going to wait to see Sessions fired before busting a move.

Originally Posted by CSFFan

Mueller is going to wait to see Sessions fired before busting a move.

I quite like chess. I'd bet my house that Trump can't play for shit.

Originally Posted by Maanaam

I quite like chess. I'd bet my house that Trump can't play for shit.

I'd bet he couldn't name the pieces...

Originally Posted by CSFFan

I'd bet he couldn't name the pieces...

Horse, castle tower,... whatever....white ones will beat the black ones.
This is dumb. Chess players are fake.

Even if Trump finally gets rid of Mueller, that won't get rid of all the intelligence that he has gathered over the past year and a half.

Originally Posted by bsnub

He is very, very thick. Dumb as a very dumb dummy. Thick as a very thick thick thing.

Originally Posted by Maanaam

Dumb as a very dumb dummy.

A fish rots from the top and so does the brainwashing apparently.

President Trump’s advisers and allies are increasingly worried that he has neither the staff nor the strategy to protect himself from a possible Democratic takeover of the House, which would empower the opposition party to shower the administration with subpoenas or even pursue impeachment charges.

Within Trump’s orbit, there is consensus that his current legal team is not equipped to effectively navigate an onslaught of congressional demands, and there has been broad discussion about bringing on new lawyers experienced in white-collar defense and political scandals.

The president and some of his advisers have discussed possibly adding veteran defense attorney Abbe Lowell, who currently represents Trump son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, to Trump’s personal legal team if an impeachment battle or other fights with Congress emerge after the midterm elections, according to people familiar with the discussions.

Trump advisers also are discussing recruiting experienced legal firepower to the Office of White House Counsel, which is facing departures and has dwindled in size at a critical juncture. The office has about 25 lawyers now, down from roughly 35 earlier in the presidency, according to a White House official with direct knowledge.

Trump announced Wednesday that Donald McGahn will depart as White House counsel this fall, once the Senate confirms Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh. Three of McGahn’s deputies — Greg Katsas, Uttam Dhillon and Makan Delrahim — have departed, and a fourth, Stefan Passantino, will have his last day Friday. That leaves John Eisenberg, who handles national security, as the lone deputy counsel.

Trump recently has consulted his personal attorneys about the likelihood of impeachment proceedings. And McGahn and other aides have invoked the prospect of impeachment to persuade the president not to take actions or behave in ways that they believe would hurt him, officials said.

Still, Trump has not directed his lawyers or his political aides to prepare an action plan, leaving allies to fret that the president does not appreciate the magnitude of what could be in store next year.

This account of the president and his team grappling with a potential crisis is based on interviews this week with 26 White House officials, presidential advisers, and lawyers and strategists close to the administration, most of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to be candid.

Trump attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani said he and the president have discussed the possibility that special counsel Robert S. Mueller III will issue a damning report to Congress.

“We’ve talked a lot about impeachment at different times,” Giuliani said. “It’s the only thing that hangs out there. They can’t [criminally] charge him.”

If Democrats control the House, the oversight committees likely would use their subpoena power as a weapon to assail the administration, investigating with a vengeance. The committees could hold hearings about policies

such as the travel ban affecting majority-Muslim countries and “zero tolerance” family separation, as well as on possible ethical misconduct throughout the administration or the Trump family’s private businesses.

White House officials defended Trump’s lack of preparation by saying he is focused squarely on helping Republicans preserve their majorities in the Nov. 6 midterm elections rather than, in the words of one senior official, “panicking about something that could happen.”

Any Democratic salvos would not happen until new members take office in January, which Trump advisers said seems like eons away in an administration juggling so many immediate problems. As a result, preparing for possible impeachment proceedings is not at the top of Trump’s to-do list.

“I don’t know if he’s really thought about it in depth yet,” Giuliani said.

One source of growing anxiety among Trump allies is the worry that the president and some senior White House officials are not anxious enough. Although Trump sometimes talks about impeachment with his advisers, in other moments, he gets mad that “the i-word,” as he calls it, is raised, according to his associates.

“Winter is coming,” said one Trump ally in close communication with the White House. “Assuming Democrats win the House, which we all believe is a very strong likelihood, the White House will be under siege. But it’s like tumbleweeds rolling down the halls over there. Nobody’s prepared for war.”

Trump has told confidants that some of his aides have highly competent lawyers such as Lowell, who represents Kushner, and William A. Burck, who represents McGahn as well as former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and former White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon.

“He wonders why he doesn’t have lawyers like that,” said one person who has discussed the matter with Trump.

Another adviser said Trump remarked this year, “I need a lawyer like Abbe.”

Giuliani said that he has not heard of Trump considering adding Lowell to the team but that he would be a great choice because of his thorough and aggressive style.

“This president might like that better,” Giuliani said. “If he thinks someone isn’t being tough enough, he has a tendency to go out to defend himself. And that’s not good.”

Lowell declined to comment, and people familiar with the talks said it was unclear whether he would have the time for or interest in working for Trump, considering that he already represents Kushner.

Mark Corallo, a former spokesman for Trump’s legal team, recommended that the president hire lawyers who are “real scholars of the Constitution” and who are well versed in history’s impeachment proceedings for Bill Clinton and Andrew Johnson.

“I would think that the type of lawyer most able to handle the impeachment scenario would be someone from the appellate and Supreme Court bar — someone of the Ted Olson or Paul Clement or Andy Pincus level, someone who knows how to make the kind of arguments should it come to a vote in the Senate,” Corallo said.

Emmet Flood, a White House lawyer and McGahn ally who handles the special counsel’s Russia investigation, has long been considered a top prospect to replace McGahn. People close to Flood said that if Trump offers him the counsel’s job, he would have to evaluate how best he could continue his priority of serving as the White House’s chief strategist with the Mueller probe.

Flood, often described as a lawyer’s lawyer, is in many ways the opposite of Trump and Giuliani, yet the president has told advisers he is impressed by Flood’s legal chops and hard-line positions defending the prerogatives of the White House.

“The next White House counsel needs to be prepared for a lot of interactions on the Hill,” said Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.). “If the Democrats do take back the House, you can expect the White House counsel to be center stage in answering subpoenas and really in the middle of it all.”

White House officials said Trump is working hard on the campaign trail to prevent Democrats from winning a majority in either the House or the Senate.

“We don’t expect Democrats to take over,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said. “Democrats have no message other than to attack the president. . . . If they want to go backwards, they can vote for Democrats. If they want to continue moving forward under President Trump, they should vote for people that support his policies.”

White House aides, including deputy chief of staff Johnny [at]DeStefano and political director Bill Stepien, have tried to ratchet down Trump’s expectations for the elections, saying that projections look grim in the House.

Some of Trump’s advisers, including recently departed White House legislative affairs director Marc Short, have said that Democrats winning the House could help the president’s reelection chances in 2020 if they overplay their hand going after Trump, as Republicans did in Clinton’s second term.

Trump has so far not accepted that argument, often saying that Republicans are going to keep the House, according to people familiar with the talks.

Many Trump associates inside and outside the government say the opposite. They warn that a Democratic House majority could all but paralyze the White House with investigations, requests for documents and calls to testify on any number of issues, including Trump’s businesses.

One adviser recalled recently telling Trump, “They will crush you if they win. You don’t want them investigating every single thing you’ve done.”

Another concern is that the White House, which already has struggled in attracting top-caliber talent to staff positions, could face an exodus if Democrats take over the House, because aides fear their mere proximity to the president could place them in legal limbo and possibly result in hefty lawyers’ fees.

“It stops good people from potentially serving because nobody wants to inherit a $400,000 legal bill,” said another Trump adviser.

Trump allies privately worry that the West Wing staff is barely equipped to handle basic crisis communications functions, such as distributing robust talking points to key surrogates, and question how the operation could handle an impeachment trial or other potential battles.

Trump sees the administration as having a singular focus — him — and therefore is less concerned with the institution of the presidency and not aware of the vast infrastructure often required to protect it, according to some of his allies.

During the impeachment proceedings against Clinton, the White House staffed a robust war room in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building that included scores of lawyers, as well as communications staffers and other strategists.

Jack Quinn, who served as White House counsel under Clinton, said his office had at least 40 lawyers and as many as 60 during key times. He estimated that he spent between half and three-quarters of his time dealing with investigations.

“I appreciate that Rudy Giuliani is doing a lot of the public speaking and perhaps some other things,” Quinn said. But, he added, “it’s a little bit of a mystery to me who is doing the outside legal work.”

“The president needs to have the very best lawyers he can get both in the White House and outside representing him personally,” Quinn said.

Trump allies lament that the current administration has no such infrastructure and fret that there are no indications it is building one.

“What he really has to get ready for is an onslaught from all of these committees,” Giuliani said of congressional inquiries. “Because what the Democrats want is death by a thousand cuts.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...=.830a33cfc66e

...^satisfying read: thanks!...

Interview of the reporter who wrote the article...

The man child never grew up...

...big surprise...

...it's unfortunate that few in FoxLand will want to see these vids or any info contrary to their opinions...

^ Because their idol has told them it's fake news.
It's like a religion. Blind faith and belief.

Originally Posted by Maanaam

It's like a religion. Blind faith and belief.

It is beyond that...

Why Trump Will Never Lose Evangelical Support

https://www.rollingstone.com/politic...licals-716947/

The chinkies must be laughing their socks off.

President Donald Trump has threatened to withdraw the US from the World Trade Organization (WTO), claiming it treats the country unfairly.


"If they don't shape up, I would withdraw from the WTO," Mr Trump said in an interview with Bloomberg News.

The WTO was established to provide rules for global trade and resolve disputes between countries.

Mr Trump says the body too often rules against the US, although he concedes it has won some recent judgments.
He claimed on Fox News earlier this year that the WTO was set up "to benefit everybody but us", adding: "We lose the lawsuits, almost all of the lawsuits in the WTO."

However, some analysis shows the US wins about 90% when it is the complainant and loses about the same percentage when it is complained against.

Mr Trump's warning about a possible US pull-out from the organisation highlights the conflict between the president's protectionist trade policies and the open trade system that the WTO oversees.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-45364150

unfairly

That's Old White Man code for: 'Boo hoo we're not getting absolutely everything our way'.

The NO CLASS president.

Trump sits alone 'sulking' as Washington pays its respects to John McCainThe president will be absent for McCain’s memorial services – a clear sign of his failure to accept the responsibilities of a head of state




'I trusted John with my life': Joe Biden pays tribute to John McCain – video
“The lion of the US Senate,” said Barack Obama during a stirring eulogy at the funeral mass for Senator Ted Kennedy in 2009. Listening at the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Boston were George W Bush, Jimmy Carter, Bill and Hillary Clinton and Senator John McCain.


Death came to McCain nine years to the day after Kennedy, and by the same cause: brain cancer. Tributes are being paid this week, including a memorial service at the National Cathedral on Saturday where Washington high society will gather. This time, however, the president will be nowhere to be seen.


Donald Trump’s absence – perhaps at the White House, maybe even on the golf course – will not only underscore the antipathy between him and McCain, who made clear he did not want Trump at his funeral. It is also a sign of how the celebrity businessman has embraced the power of the presidency but shunned the responsibilities of a head of state.


Last Saturday, Trump gave a grudging response to McCain’s death. Past presidents, senators and various organisations unfurled lyrical tributes. Trump resorted to Twitter to offer his “deepest sympathies and respect” to McCain’s family. He added, complete with jarring exclamation mark: “Our hearts and prayers are with you!”


According to the Washington Post, which dubbed Trump “president non grata”, White House aides had written a statement that honoured McCain’s service as a prisoner of war in Vietnam and his long career on Capitol Hill and described him as a “hero” – only for Trump to veto it in favour of the 21-word tweet.


Then came a flag farce. The stars and stripes flew at half-mast at the White House, as is protocol, yet on Monday morning it was back at full mast, prompting widespread criticism – especially as flags remained lowered on other federal buildings. Gen Michael Hayden, former director of the CIA, tweeted a photo of the flag flying high above the executive mansion with the comment: “Remember this image the next time this president talks about disrespecting veterans.”


By afternoon the blunder had been corrected. Trump, who seldom backs down, issued a statement that began with a negative: “Despite our differences on policy and politics, I respect Senator John McCain’s service to our country and, in his honor, have signed a proclamation to fly the flag of the United States at half-staff until the day of his interment.”


McCain is a national hero in the national cathedral and Trump will be sitting fuming in the White House


But the damage had been done. Former president Jimmy Carter told Fox News Trump “made a mistake” with the tweet that made no mention of McCain’s military and political service, adding on the MSNBC that the subsequent official statement was “still not as enthusiastic as it should be”.


Trump acknowledged McCain in public remarks that night. But he will play no part in the senator’s lying in state in the US Capitol rotunda on Friday, where Vice-President Mike Pence will deliver remarks and present a wreath; nor at the national memorial service on Saturday where Bush, Obama and former secretary of state Henry Kissinger will be among those delivering tributes; nor at his burial at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis on Sunday, where Senator Lindsey Graham and Gen David Petraeus will speak.


Once again, Trump has defied the conventions of the capital and found himself an outcast.


Sally Quinn, an author, contributor to the Washington Post and celebrated Washington host, said: “He has absolutely no respect for any kind of tradition in Washington. It is such bad form.


“There is now this level where nothing he does is shocking any more. All week people have been saying can you believe the flag was up and then down and then up again, but then there’s a shrug. That’s who he is. He’s a man without honour.”


In April, there was a glaringly obvious, Trump-shaped hole at former first lady Barbara Bush’s funeral in Houston, where his wife Melania Trump was photographed alongside past presidents and first ladies, looking curiously happy.
Quinn commented: “This is going to be much worse. McCain is a national hero in the national cathedral and Trump will be sitting fuming in the White House. Saturday is going to be a very bad day for Donald Trump.”
Larry Jacobs, director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota, suggested Trump has failed to understand the ceremonial power of the presidency to bring people together and promote his own causes.
“Sure,” he said, “the guy is coarse, but that’s not the main issue here. The flag going up and down is a metaphor for his lack of realpolitik qualifications. Machiavelli would be blushing at the sheer ineptitude.”


Saturday will be a moment of “national humiliation”, Jacobs said. “It’s part of a big pattern. In so many ways, Donald Trump has marooned himself on a faraway island. His boat is now wrecked on the shore and he’s sitting sulking.”
Along with the Bush funeral, Trump was not invited to the wedding of Prince Harry and American actor Meghan Markle.
Sidney Blumenthal, a former assistant and senior adviser to Bill Clinton and biographer of Abraham Lincoln, said: “He’s a designated non-mourner. From Windsor to Washington, he is beyond the pale. I can’t think of another president who is beyond the pale.”
In Washington itself, the president remains something of a pariah, apparently dining only at the White House or his nearby luxury hotel.


“He lives in his own little kingdom, his own kleptocratic state which has the physical manifestation of his hotel, which should have a moat around it,” Blumenthal said. “He just doesn’t mix at all.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...ibute-memorial
He really is a wierdo.

Originally Posted by Cujo

Trump sits alone 'sulking' as Washington pays its respects to John McCain
The president will be absent for McCain’s memorial services – a clear sign of his failure to accept the responsibilities of a head of state

The dignitaries are coming to such memorial services in a usual (not only) American hypocrisy, not just honouring his good deeds. I have yet to know about such his "good deeds".

Ever heard who attended funerals of Kaiser Hirohito or Generalissimo Franco - to name just two?

Oh yes, there is one "good deed" that perhaps people of Crimea will feel gratitude to him: Thanks to his activity, at the end of day, they had reached their independence from Ukraine.

Originally Posted by Cujo

He really is a wierdo

Technically, but...

Originally Posted by Cujo

The NO CLASS president.

has been obvious from even before the Billy Bush audio, and emphasised time and time again.
"Classless bufoon" was his descriptor even during his canidacy, and has been shown to be apt countless times.