Wednesday, August 2, 2017

Trump's Downward Spiral

donald trump
Mark Wilson/Getty Images
I went on vacation the Saturday before last and although I quite enjoyed being away from home I just couldn't stay away from writing for TMB.  As many of you that follow politics know, quite a lot has happened in the past two weeks involving President Trump, so much that it would take at least twenty pages to write!  With that said I think this calls for a simple timeline by using tweets and commentary. Let's go!

Monday, July 24: Trump Boy Scout Jamboree Speech Fiasco

Read the transcript here if you do not want to watch the full speech above.

There is a theme with Trump speeches:  talk about politics as much as possible off-script and then talk as little as possible about the subject at hand.  Trump even said in his speech at the Jamboree that he wasn't even going to get into talking about politics and then proceeds to talk about the Swamp, Obama, health care, and Clinton.  People were upset at his speech and this will not be the first time in this time frame that he makes an ass of himself while at the podium.  The Boys Scouts did issue an apology (not a hard apology because you know... this is the organisation that was quite vehemently anti-gay for a most of it's existence until recently) and said that they have always invited the current president whenever there is jamboree.  Obama did not go to a Jamboree while in office, but he did meet some Boy Scouts in person and even broadcasted a speech from the White House to the Jamboree.  Also worth noting: Trump gave crap to Obama for not attending a Jamboree while in office... but Obama was an actual Boy Scout and Trump was not.

Wednesday, July 26: Trump Tweets Transgender Military Ban


This was the first article I wrote while on vacation and you can read it here: Lesbian, Gay, Bi, and Tr...ump.  So far it seems that Trump barely talked to anyone with the real authority to authorize the ban and the military is ignoring his tweets about said ban.  Trump needs to learn that in order for anything to be done in Washington you need to put it down on paper!

Thursday, July 27: Anthony Scaramucci New Yorker Interview; Reince Priebus Resigns

 On July 21st the White House announced Sean Spicer's replacement as Communications Director.  The new person was revealed as Anthony Scaramucci.  Scaramucci started his first days on the job by threatening to fire everyone in order to stop the leaks about the Trump administration.  There was also the tweet Scaramucci sent about deal with the links and tagging White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus which led people to suggest he believed Priebus to be the source of the leaks.

In an interview Scaramucci gave on Wednesday to Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker he chastised multiple people within the Trump organization.  He accused Priebus of "cock-blocking" him for six months from a position within the Trump organization and gave a scathing opinion of Steve Bannon by stating, "I'm not Steve Bannon, I'm not trying to suck my own cock."

This interview sent shock waves through the Trump administration and to the rest of the political world and would prove to have two immediate consequences.  The first being the resignation of Priebus and the second involving Scaramucci himself.

Friday, July 28: The Skinny Repeal of Obamacare Fails; Trump Police Speech Fiasco

 Republicans made a last-ditch effort to repeal Obamacare by pitching a "skinny" repeal which would not have as many damaging affects as the originally-pitched health plan... it just meant that 16 million people would lose insurance compared to 24+ million.   This was the second article I wrote during my vacation called "Let's Get to the Skinny of it..." and I will provide a very short overview now.  The vote happened in the wee hours of the morning (almost two hours after midnight) and with the help of Republican Senators John McCain (Arizona), Susan Collins (Maine), and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) the Democrats defeated the notion and for now the repealing of Obamacare is dead on it's tracks unless the two parties can finally come together to fix the bad parts of the Affordable Care Act.

Trump was obviously not pleased:
Side Note: If you want to be entertained for a solid hour find and try to watch the Republicans waste their hour of debate for the Skinny Repeal by having Wyoming Senator Mike Enzi ramble on about anything and everything while not yielding to answer any questions coming his way from the Democrats.

Now back to the program...

Needing a distraction from the failure earlier in the day Trump went to Long Island to give a speech to the Suffolk County Police Department.  As stated earlier, Trump always feels the need to go off the rails a little bit in his speeches in order to get the news agencies in a frenzy about him.  This time he decided to make a policeman's day-to-day job a bit tougher (if it wasn't already tough to begin with in today's times):


Besides stating their on going mission to rid the streets of MS-13, he also discussed battling illegal immigration (though to made it seem like being a criminal and an immigrant was the same thing) and then of course said something stupid that made the politicalsphere go crazy:  he told the police to stop being nice to the people they arrest and instead to get tough with them.  He even went as far as saying to not hold the suspect's head as they put them in the car so they wouldn't bonk their head going in... so yeah, Trump wants the police to give every suspect a concussion or worse as they are put into the car. We have a sitting President approving the use of police brutality when the tension between the police and their communities is at its thickest.  Luckily, the Suffolk Police Department responded to Trump and said they will not being taking his suggestion seriously.

The even greater part of the blow back is the amount of Police Departments responding via social media that they do not agree with Trump.  Here are some examples below:


During the daily press briefing Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that the President was "joking," but she couldn't answer the press when they asked what was so funny about police brutality.  The correct response she should have given was "I don't think it's funny," but I believe the prerequisite for being in the Trump administration is to a) show complete loyalty to Trump and b) sell your soul.

Let's take a Moment to enjoy this tweet from President Trump before we get to everything that happened on July 31st:
Monday, July 31: Communications Director Fired; Chief of Staff Hired

After only 10 days in office Anthony Scaramucci was fired from his position as White House Communications Director after his blistering New Yorker interview and the resignation of Reince Priebus.  On the same day Trump's new Chief of Staff, retired General John F. Kelly started his first day on the job (he was officially hired on July 28th).  Having a General as his Chief of Staff Trump is hoping to bring stability to his administration.  Oddly enough, Trump tweeted out Monday that the White House was not in chaos before news of Scaramucci's firing came out.  We will have to see if Kelly is up to the task.  If not, it's just another person in the bin for Trump and it won't bother him at all.

Monday, July 31: Trump Found to Have Dictated Son's Statement About Russian Lawyer

 This nugget of news may just be the most damaging towards Trump's survival as POTUS.  Not only did Donald Trump Jr. lie about his meeting with a Russian lawyer, but that his statement was created with the help of his father!  Instead of coming clean originally by saying "yes, I talked to a Russian lawyer because they said they have dirt on Hillary Clinton," he put out a statement declaring that he met with this Russian lawyer to discuss adopting a child only to be found that he had emails between him and the lawyer about said dirt on Clinton.  President Trump needs to realize that he has just created grounds for him to be arrested and tried for obstruction of justice.

It doesn't help that during the Trump administration's way of damage control is to admit that Trump helped Junior out by having both Kellyanne Conway and Sarah Huckabee Sanders telling the media that "the President weighed in as any father would, based on the limited information that he had," which begs to be asked:
  1. Why did you even say that?  You do realize this confirms obstruction of justice, right?
  2. What "limited information" are you talking about?  Limited info about the adoption? or Clinton?  Or the DNC?
Trump keeps shooting himself in the foot, but he's but enough holes in said foot that he is just shooting into the ground now.  He keeps supplying the fodder for Robert Mueller who could have enough now to tell Congress to proceed with impeachment if he wanted to.
Tuesday, August 1: Trump and Fox News Sued Over Fabricated Seth Rich False Murder Story

 Trump gained a lot of votes while on the campaign trail by catering to the conspiracy theory crowd.  He appeared on InfoWars and gave praise to Alex Jones.  He floated that climate change is a hoax as well as portraying that Hillary Clinton was a corrupt and ruthless politician.  People that believe that 9/11 was an inside job, that Sandy Hook never happened, and that the Clinton Foundation has a dark side to it including infidelity and murder.

Trump and his favorite mainstream media channel Fox News have been sued for fabricating a story that Seth Rich was murdered for providing emails from the Democratic National Committee to Wikileaks. The lawsuit entails that Sean Spicer met with Fox News to go over the details of the story about Rich, including sending drafts to Trump for approval, before publishing their story about Rich.

For a man that created the Fake News racket against CNN and others, this is FAKE NEWS.  It just solidifies that Trump will use whatever right-wing news agency he can to shell out propaganda against those who aren't on his side.  During the election he certainly had Breitbart playing that role, but now he is in office he needed a bigger audience and he got Fox News to willingly do the dirty work.

 Wednesday, August 2: Trump Signs Russia Sanctions Bill

 Lastly, Trump limps into the new month by surprisingly signing the sanctions bill against Russia.  In reality, Trump needed the press to find something positive about him.  He signs the bill so he doesn't look even more guilty in the whole Trump-Russia saga because in his view signing the bill signals innocence.  Sadly for him, it does not prove him to be innocent.  In fact, while signing the bill he admonishes it by calling it "flawed with unconstitutional provisions" and that he was only signing the sanctions "for the sake of national unity" of which I had to give my musings on Twitter:


So in reality:
  • Trump makes himself look weak by signing the sanctions against Russia.
  • Putin makes himself look strong by expelling 755 US diplomats from Russia in response. 
You know he has be in the Oval Office (or a Trump Property) going off the rails about having to sign that bill.  I would even put money down that he leaves on Friday to one of his properties to waste tax-payer money to cool off with a game or two of golf.

 Conclusion:
Trump will not take this advice, but he really needs it: lay low, get off Twitter, and work with the government.  Make America Great Again by being strong, not by being feeble.  You never know how long your reign of terror will last, so you should do some good in it before the inevitable happens whether its impeachment or losing the 2020 election.  Also, stick to the script as your off-the-script remarks are creating headaches for your staff.  Lastly, let Sarah Huckabee Sanders show that she is a human during press briefings instead of coming off as cold and scripted.  If Trump can manage to avoid impeachment and get out of the rabbit hole (thanks Scaramucci...) during these four years it will be truly remarkable.  
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