Tag Archives: Donald Trump

International news, media news

Tweets diminish Trump’s ‘moral authority’

Thomas Friedman is a journalist of considerable reputation.

He might, in the words of Donald J. Trump, be an “enemy of the people,” but the New York Times columnist has a well-established base of knowledge of world affairs.

Consider his take on the president’s use of Twitter as a primary form of communication.

Friedman appeared this morning on “Meet the Press” and he asserted that Trump’s “moral authority” is being damaged by his random rants that go out in the wee hours from wherever he happens to be at the moment.

He noted that the president is going to Europe soon to meet with other heads of government and heads of state. They are our allies. Our friends. Our partners.

How will the U.S. president respond to these meetings? What might he say about President So-and-So or about Prime Minister What’s-His-Name?

Does the president’s Twitter fetish diminish the trust that these world leaders have in the head of the greatest nation on Earth?

Friedman believes Trump’s use of this social medium ultimately could cause great damage to this country’s standing among other world leaders who depend on America to be the source of reason, strength and wisdom.

Trump’s demonstrated careless use of Twitter undermines all of it.

The president is playing a dangerous game.

national news

Just wondering: Can’t POTUS get proof if he demands it?

The thought occurs to me this morning …

If the president of the United States accuses his predecessor of a crime, can’t he gather up the proof of that allegation on demand? Can’t the president call the spooks, the spies, the prosecutors, anyone who can prove something happened and then produce the proof of what he has alleged.

Donald Trump’s tweet over the weekend that Barack Obama ordered a wire tap on Trump Tower offices has ignited the mother of political firestorms. The president hasn’t proved anything. He has offered nothing but a tweet that said “it is a fact” that his predecessor ordered the wire tap because of some belief that there might be collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election.

A fact? Is that what you say, Mr. President?

Sir, you are in command of the world’s greatest intelligence network — no matter what you have said about it. I believe you are able to obtain proof on demand.

legal news

President ‘furious’ over Sessions recusal? Settle down, sir

Donald John Trump reportedly is steamed that the attorney general has taken himself out of the Russia investigation game.

The president appears to have been furious with his staff and with AG Jeff Sessions over the AG’s decision to recuse himself from investigating possible illegalities involving the Trump campaign and the Russian government.

Sessions told the Senate Judiciary Committee that he had no contact with the Russians. Then it turns out he did; he then admitted as much.

That’s when he pulled out under mounting pressure from Republicans and Democrats.

What in the name of Watergate does the president fail to understand about the AG’s necessary decision to pull out of this probe?

Sessions did the right thing by recusing himself. Most of out us here — even those of us in the middle of Trump Country — understand that the attorney general has acted appropriately.

I am not going to join the amen chorus in calling for Sessions to quit … at least not yet. The AG needs to ensure that he stays totally clear of any discussions among the career prosecutors who work for him as they regard what they might find in the immediate future regarding Trump’s (alleged) relationship with the Russian government.

Trump’s supposed anger at Sessions, though, merely demonstrates — as if we need any more demonstrations — the president’s utter ignorance about propriety.

This tumult is far from over. My hope — certainly not my expectation — would be for the president of the United States to settle down and to let this massive apparatus called the “federal government” do what it’s designed to do.

It has a lot of moving parts and some of those parts now must find the truth behind whether the president’s campaign did anything illegal by negotiating with a government that our nation’s spy network says tried to influence a presidential election.

national news, political news

‘The bottom’ of Trump’s wiretap will be bare

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham promises to “get to the bottom” of the president’s allegation that his predecessor wiretapped Trump Tower.

OK, then. The South Carolina Republican has expressed his deep worry about what Donald J. Trump has alleged.

Did President Obama order an illegal wiretap? Is there a “there” there? Or, did Trump make it up? Did the president decide to fire off a storm of tweets alleging something that is patently ridiculous on its face?

Trump said Obama wiretapped the Trump Tower offices to prove that the president-elect had conversations with Russian officials. This controversy is boiling to a scandal status.

Here is what I think Sen. Graham is going to find.

Nothing! I believe the “bottom” of this specious claim is going to reveal yet another bald-faced lie from the president of the United States.

national news

Proof, Donald, we need proof … yet again!

It’s helpful to keep everything that flies out of Donald J. Trump’s mouth — or shows up on his Twitter feed — in their proper perspective.

It is that the president of the United States is likely to say or tweet whatever the hell pops into his noggin at any time of the day or night.

He now accuses President Obama of wiretapping his Trump Tower offices, allegedly to determine if he had held unauthorized talks with Russian officials before he became president.

Proof? Pffft! Who needs it? Trump seems to ask.

Let us review for a moment a couple of other specious claims that Trump has made.

* He said “thousands and thousands of Muslims cheered” the collapse of the World Trade Center during the 9/11 attacks. They didn’t.

* The president said that “millions of illegal immigrants voted for Hillary Clinton” in the 2016 presidential election, giving her the comfortable popular vote margin she scored over Trump while losing the Electoral College. He has yet to prove that, either.

Now this.

Obama had his staff wiretap his office, according to Trump.

No proof has come forward.

How on God’s Earth can we believe anything that this clown keeps saying?

I cannot.

media news, national news, political news

It’s official: Trump has blown himself apart

2 Comments

After the latest and “greatest” Donald J. Trump tweet-storm — this time regarding his immediate predecessor as president of the United States — I am compelled to ask a simple question.

Can someone explain to me as if I’m a 5-year-old why in the name of all that is holy did 62 million Americans vote for Trump as president?

Trump now says Barack Obama wiretapped the new president’s offices at Trump Tower in New York. He once again offered no evidence. No proof. Nothing to substantiate a single idiotic word he sent out via Twitter.

What’s more, then we get U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican — and former GOP presidential opponent of Trump, saying he is “worried” about the president’s moronic accusation.

What the hell does that mean, senator? Worried? About what?

I can’t tell if he’s worried that the president would resort to such idiocy or he’s worried that there might be something to what he has alleged.

“Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!” Trump said in one of his tweets.

President Obama, of course, has denied any such thing ever occurred.

At issue, in case you’ve forgotten, is whether the Trump campaign had any improper or illegal contact with Russian government officials during the campaign or immediately afterward — and before Trump took office. Did they talk about the sanctions that the Obama administration had leveled against the Russians because 17 U.S. intelligence agencies believe they sought to influence the outcome of the election?

Trump now has flipped his beanie. His butter has slipped off his noodles.

Some of us out here warned about Trump’s temperament, his judgment, his fitness for the job he won. The very idea that the president of the United States would launch this Twitter tirade and accuse his predecessor of breaking the law is — all by itself — enough to disqualify this individual from holding any public office.

Then again, I thought so way back when he said Sen. John McCain was a “war hero only because he was captured” by the North Vietnamese and beaten to within an inch of his life while being held captive during the Vietnam War.

My question still stands: How did this clown win a presidential election?

national news, political news

How would Hillary have fared?

I’ve resisted the temptation to ask this question out loud, but I no longer can contain myself.

How would Hillary Rodham Clinton made the transition from private citizen to president of the United States?

I cannot in my wildest imagination think that she would have encountered the problems that have plagued Donald J. Trump, the guy who beat her in the 2016 presidential election.

Russian connection? Inability to find qualified individuals to serve in the Cabinet? Contradictions between what the president says and what he or she means?

None of those issues would be dogging her.

Yes, she’d have her share of issues to settle. The foundation matter; that e-mail controversy; perhaps even Benghazi would continue to fester. Republicans no doubt would ensure those troubles would drag her down.

I am not going to spend too much energy ruminating over this query. I likely won’t have another word to say about how Hillary would have done.

I’m just perplexed at this moment in history at the absolute clumsiness and lack of discipline the president and his senior staff are exhibiting as they seek to get their hands on the complex machinery that operates this federal government of ours.

Hillary Clinton means a lot of things to different people.

She isn’t clumsy. She knows how to govern. She would have zero difficulty assembling her team.

But … we won’t ever know any of that with absolute certainty.

In the meantime, the soap opera at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. continues.

International news

What will it take for Trump to lash out at Putin?

Donald J. Trump is exhibiting a maddening — and frightening — refusal to issue tough talk to Vladimir Putin.

It is baffling to many of us in the extreme. Hell, it’s worse than that! It’s scaring the crap out of me.

Trump tears our allies a new one: the Australian prime minister; the president of Mexico come immediately to mind. The Aussies have died next to our guys on battlefields around the world. The Mexicans are a huge trading partner and we share a lengthy border with them.

The president puts NATO on notice: Pay up or we might not come to your defense if the Russians attack any one of you.

But yet, 17 U.S. intelligence agencies conclude unanimously that Russia sought to influence our election; Trump dismisses their findings. Commentator Bill O’Reilly reminds Trump that Putin “is a killer”; the president says the world has “lots of killers” and adds that the United States isn’t “so innocent.”

The president continues to refuse to release his tax returns so that Americans can see with whom and/or what he does business. Many of us are left to wonder: Does he have some kind of business relationship with Vlad? It’s a fair question, given Trump’s stubborn and, frankly, inexplicable reluctance to talk as tough to Putin as he does to our allies.

Dude, Putin is no friend of this country! He reportedly has ordered the murder of journalists in his country, yet you say the media here are the “enemy of the people”; Putin’s actions against media representatives demonstrates that he share that hideous view.

I’m basically venting at this point. I know Trump isn’t going to do something that little ol’ me wants him to do.

For the ever-lovin’ life of me, I cannot fathom why our president can’t muster up the anger against a guy who in a previous life was spook in chief for the Evil Empire.

business news, national news, political news

Tax return issue just won’t go away

What do you know about that?

Some congressional Republicans have joined their Democratic colleagues in seeking the tax returns of the president of the United States.

Go figure. It seems that some GOP members want Donald J. Trump to disclose once and for all whether he has any business dealings in Russia or has any other kind of relationship with Russian government officials.

The president keeps telling us he doesn’t. He keeps saying it with increasing exasperation. Does he really and truly expect skeptics out here — even in Flyover Trump Country — to take him solely at his word?

The president has broken with tradition set four decades ago in the wake of the Watergate scandal. Every president since that dark time has released his tax returns. Trump has refused.

Meanwhile all these questions about Russia keep swirling around the president and the White House, around his national security team and now, apparently, around the attorney general of the United States.

As Salon is reporting: “It’s something I feel very, very strongly about,” Republican South Carolina Rep. Mark Sanford told Roll Call this week. Sanford, along with North Carolina Republican Walter Jones signed a letter from New Jersey Democrat Bill Pascrell calling on the chairmen of the House Ways and Means Committee and Senate Finance Committee to compel the United States Treasury Department to release Trump’s tax returns for congressional review.

Will there be other congressional Republicans who’ll join this chorus? Perhaps. If they do, will the president finally come clean? I have less faith in that happening.

This never has been a matter of nosy Americans wanting to know if Donald Trump is as rich as he says he is. It’s now a matter of urgent national security.

International news

Publicity stunt makes valuable point about a wall

A member of Mexico’s congress has performed a masterful publicity stunt that illustrates something quite nicely about Donald J. Trump’s desire to build a “beautiful wall” along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Braulio Guerra climbed a portion of the wall that’s already been erected. He sat atop it and then boasted about how easy it was to scale it.

He sat 30 feet above the ground.

Hmmm. How does he do that?

The congressman’s point is a valid one. It is that anyone who wants to scale a wall, or tunnel beneath it will find a way. A wall doesn’t protect us any better than what U.S. Border Patrol and local law enforcement agencies already are doing to ensure our nation’s safety.

In a video he distributed, the congressman said, “It would be simple for me to jump into the United States, which shows that it is unnecessary and totally absurd to build a wall.”

I won’t belabor the point that walling us off from our neighbors is patently in-American on its face. Yet the president of the United States keeps insisting that we’re being inundated with criminals of all stripes who are invading the United States for the sole purpose of preying on Americans.

My wife and I recently visited the border region and witnessed up close a tiny part of what the Border Patrol is doing to protect Americans. Officers are stopping every northbound vehicle at points along the Rio Grande Valley. They quizzed us briefly about our destination, then sent us on our way.

Did they stop anyone? Yes. We witnessed them pulling a motorist over, presumably for more, shall we say, “extreme vetting.”

Can we stop every single illegal immigrant from sneaking into this country? No. We’ve never been able to stop all of them.

A wall won’t do it, either.