Trump’s Insults

Nine Top Officials who will never work for Trump again.

by Dave

The top positions in any administration are carefully selected. These key positions include Vice President, National Security Adviser, Attorney General, Secretary of Defense, Secretary of State, Secretary of Homeland Security, White House Chief of Staff and others. In crisis and strategy sessions, these are people “in the room.” Very few of his close associates would work with him again.

John Bolton, Trump’s National Security Adviser 2018- 2019, who worked in the White House, coordinating with the intelligence agency in formulating policy during crises.

Trump has this impression that foreign leaders, especially adversaries, hold him in high regard, that he’s got a good relationship with Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, Kim Jung Un. In fact, the exact opposite is true. I have been in those rooms with him when he’s met with those leaders, I believe they think he is a laughing fool.” (quoted in Atlantic Journal, Jan/Feb 2024)

“In a second Trump term, we’d almost certainly withdraw from NATO.” (The Hill)

Mike Pence, Trump’s Vice President

Anyone who puts himself over the Constitution should never be president of the United States … President Trump demanded that I choose between him and the Constitution. 

General James Mattis, Secretary of Defense

He is more dangerous than anyone could ever imagine.

John Kelly, Secretary of Homeland Security and White House Chief of Staff

The depths of his dishonesty is just astonishing to me… He is the most flawed person I have ever met in my life.

H.R. McMasters, National Security Advisor

President Trump and other officials repeatedly compromised our principles in pursuit of partisan advantage and personal gain.

Bill Barr, Attorney General

He will always put his own interests and gratifying his own ego, ahead of everything else, including the country’s interest.

Rex Tillerson, Secretary of State

His understanding of global events, his understanding of global history, his understanding of U.S. history was really very limited.

Mark Esper, Secretary of Defense

He puts himself before country. His actions are all about him and not about the country.

Richard Spencer, Secretary of the Navy

The President has very little understanding of what it means to be in the military, to fight ethically or to be governed by a uniform set of rules and practices.

The above quotes are from The Atlantic Journal Jan/Feb 2024, except for the Bolton comment based on an interview on the Hill. Bill Barr told Trump flat out Trump’s claims that he won the election where bullshit, and made a public announcement in December 2020, before leaving office.

Just as I was getting set to hit the publish button, when Donald Trump said this about his opponent on Truth Social:

“Nikki “Birdbrain” Haley is very bad for the Republican Party and, indeed, our Country. Her False Statements, Derogatory Comments, and Humiliating Public Loss, is demeaning to True American Patriots. Her anger should be aimed at her Third Rate Political Consultants and, more importantly, Crooked Joe Biden and those that are destroying our Country – NOT THE PEOPLE WHO WILL SAVE IT,”

Remember that Nikki Haley was appointed by Trump as the US Ambassador to the United Nations, and left on good terms with Trump. ”Trump heaped praise on Haley, declaring she was ‘special to me’ at the Oval Office meeting where her resignation was announced, emphasizing that she was not leaving on bad terms.” (Wikipedia, summarizing a news article)

And then Trump was in again in true form, in testifying in court on Thursday, where the jury had already concluded that sexually assault did take place (but not rape), in the E. Jean Carroll case. He could not limit himself to restrictions imposed by the judge.

“Unhinged” seems a very apt description. Self centered and dishonest also come to mind. Finally, Trump is trying to disrupt the ongoing discussion of how to get both Ukraine funding and tougher policies on illegal immigration, which also includes more funding. 

So Trump chaos is now in Washington, as he is in Manhattan. 

Stay tuned,

Dave

E. Jean Carroll Lawsuit

by Dave

Donald Trump has been found guilty of sexual abuse and defamation in a civil proceedings in New York City. It is a civil case, so he must pay for the harm he has caused by his actions. The assault is claimed to occurred in 1996, approximately 27 years ago.

He can not be charged with the crime of sexual assault or rape, because of the statute of limitations. A criminal case would have a higher burden of proof. It also has a number of protections for the accused.

Trump’s lawyers are certain to provide numerous reasons why he received an unfair trial in their appeal. Likely they will be explaining these reasons on cable news. One of them is the Adult Survivors Act. The ASA creates a one-year lookback window for sexual assault survivors to pursue civil claims in court for abuse that may have occurred years earlier, as long as they were over 18 at the time. Previously, a person who experienced sexual abuse only had a few years to file a lawsuit in New York before their claim would be time-barred.

Link: Adult Survivors Act

The window is from November 22, 2022 to November 23, 2023. So from now until Nov 23, victims have the right to file civil complaints for claims that may go back 50 years ago or more. They had to be 18 years old at the time. It will be argued in the appeal, that the law did not have sufficient safeguards for the accused.

Statute of limitations help protect people of being accused of a crime that occurred so far in the past, that it would be unreasonable to expect the accused from being able to recall what happened on a particular day and find rebuttal witnesses. But, it can deny victims their day in court. It is especially important in cases where DNA and other evidence has been collected.

I intend to follow this case from a legal perspective. * The appellate court will not determine if Trump received a fair trial, as this is a very open question. What they will rule on is, whether his appeal is valid, based on court records, judge’s decisions, the rules of evidence and his constitutional rights, which are intended to provide the accused with reasonable protections in a civil case. It may be a very long time until this is resolved.

Stay tuned,

Dave

Note: I am not a lawyer. I don’t know if the filings are posted on the internet. Certainly, Trump’s lawyers will come up with a dozen reasons why the case should be overturned. As this is being played out, they will attempt to settle the case with Carroll privately.

Liar in Chief

by Dave

 

I’ve discussed this before.  Donald Trump has a problem with the truth.  This is the famous line from Republican Bob Corker.  Great places for lying are campaign rallies.  Twitter works well.  He stays away from solo  press conferences – he’s holds the record for the fewest.   That’s when reporters, who really know their facts will trip him up.   Zingers don’t work at press conferences.

The rallies were for his supporters.  He knew the House may flip.  We’ll know today.     Two major theme – My administration is doing incredible great things and the Democrats are your worse enemy.  And the media – it’s also your enemy.  And actually,  ignoring a lot of very important issues, like for instance the budget and well, the world at large.    It’s all about Donald and the narrative, and largely untrue.

Trump said that they were close to reaching a deal on the China tariffs.  Stock market did nothing.  If it came from Wilbur Ross, Secretary of Commerce, and someone I admire,  the stock markets would have exploded.  With Donald, it was a sound bite.    Xi Jinping had a  swift and harsh rebuttal.    He referred to  “beggar-thy-neighbor” which in economics,  is a policy through which one country attempts to remedy its economic problems by means that tend to worsen the economic problems of other countries.   He accused the US as play by the  “law of the jungle” obviously ignoring the World Trade Organization, which we have built up over the years to promote free trade.  In fact,  Xi Jinping has probably better standing as a global capitalist than Trump.

Campaigning and marketing are similar.  It  is simply that everything I can offer you is great and will make your life better.  Everything my competitor has is awful and will make your life horrible.  Truth is expendable.   Fear works.   Caravans of dangerous criminals approaching the border is good.   Stalemates in Congress over budgetary issues – forget,  too boring.

Donald Trump on the campaign stump: His most glaring falsehoods, is Politifact’s latest update on our liar in chief.   The folks at Politifact know their stuff, and could have written a lot more.  But by saying these are the “most glaring”  falsehoods, they can go home before the sunrises.   I guess my favorite is:

“The Democrat plan would just obliterate Medicare and terminate Medicare Advantage … seniors who have been paying for this for years (and) will not be taken care of anymore.”

which perhaps I would be worried about, but it came from our liar in chief and is false.   It is just the opposite, as the Sanders bill would greatly expand benefits.

Should the measure pass, it would offer much more than the current Medicare program, including dental, vision, hearing and long-term care. With few exceptions, there would be no premiums, no co-pays or other out-of-pocket expenses. There’s no such thing as a free lunch, however. The price tag would be in the multiple trillions of dollars.”

Some lies are so simple, such as the US Steel plants:

“US Steel is now building seven plants.”

No they’re not.  Nor six as in his prior statement.  No new plants, Mr. President!

The last of the glaring falsehoods,  #8,  is a whopper as everyone wants to help our wounded warriors.   Trump said:

 “We passed veterans’ choice, giving our veterans the right to see a private doctor, rather than waiting on line for weeks and weeks and weeks. 44 years they’ve been trying to pass that. I got it passed.”

Nope Trump  didn’t.  Obama got it passed in 2014.  the Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act of 2014.   It was smart to put a year on it, just so we know it wasn’t Trump’s act.  There were some changes to it during Trump’s term,  but it was Obama bill.

Politifact and Factcheck.org  come to similar conclusions – Trump will lie on almost any issue.   He gets caught and doesn’t seem to care.  I said the birth right citizenship was more about getting airtime.   Fox News actually found “legal experts”  who could explain why there were some exceptions.     Absolutely amazing.   Apparently, if say Venezuela invades Puerto Rico (for instance), then it would not be under the jurisdiction of the US.    What is a saving grace in these situation, is that all cases coming before the Supreme Court, must be associated with an actual case already heard by the lower courts, not some hypothetical case from an attorney.   So no, no Executive Order on birthright citizenship.

Marketing has little to do with the truth and everything to do with airtime.   Get on television, social media, anywhere possible.  Make it as personal as possible – like the lie on the wounded warriors.   It hits everyone who has a friend or neighbor serving in the military.  And it was a whopper of a lie that Trump has used many times.

Trump’s statements, as evaluated by Politifact,  fall in the  mostly false, false or pants on fire about 69% of the time, and true statements are 5% (about 1 in 20).    A falsehood repeated at a dozen rallies and aired over the media, still counts as one lie.   His highest percentage (33%) is False, followed by Mostly False (21%).  Of course,  these are only statements presented as facts, not opinions.

There are some really big messes and scandals looming.   If the House stays Republican, they will go after Rosenstein and Mueller.   The deep state nonsense will  re-emerge.  I believe Mueller will be announcing more criminal  indictments after the elections, and not just Russians.   Roger Stone,  adviser to the President is my guess of who is next.  There will likely be demands for Trump’s tax returns, which the Donald will not like.    Ryan Zinke,  Secretary of Interior, is being investigated for illegally profiting from policy changes, and might be the next cabinet official to leave in disgrace.  Iran and North Korea nuclear talks will go nowhere.   Iran is not caving in to US demands, but pushing back.   And China trade wars could get really nasty.  The caravan, well forget it, the troops will be returned within 3 to 4  months of inactivity.

I better stop here.  Vote today.

Stay tuned,

Dave

Links:

Donald Trump’s Record – Politifact

The most glaring falsehoods  – Politifact

 

 

 

 

Trump’s Nasty and Insulting Tweets

by Dave

Just like the Fakies award, there should be the Nasties awards.  This is the targets (people, places and things) which Trump has insulted on Twitter since becoming elected President.

The New York Times went through all his tweets since being elected.  Trump’s  #1 target is:  Mainstream media.  I came to this conclusion by measuring the column length, which came to roughly 2 full columns for Mainstream Media.  This group is, according to his tweets, “The enemy of the American people.”  Of course, this comes from the #1 Liar of the Year in 2016 and 2017, according to Politifact.com.

Here’s a quick sampling of the mainstream media tweets: “Fake reporting, dishonest, FAKE NEWS, very corrupt, talks about anything negative or that can be turned into the negative.”   While dishonest and corrupt are widely used,  Trump really likes to the word “fake”  but on occasion uses “phony” and “fabricated.”  There is fake news, off course, by also “fake media” and “phony stories” as in “phony Russian stories.”

As one would expect,  the most numerous  insulting tweets at the news media, as I measured by column length,  are aimed at the New York Times,  Washingon Post, CNN and NBC.    Everything has an adjective associated with it,  and in this case, it is the “failing New York Times” which I’ve already reported is doing just fine.  MSNBC is “unwatchable”  – this is an actual word (highest viewership for cable network, with 1.5 million viewers outranking Fox Network).    ABC news was attacked as “Fiction writers, Fake News, Fake News, Fake News, totally wrong in General E, totally biased, fake news, such dishonesty!”  And amazingly, ABC has  the fewest insulting tweets.

Everyone has a name.   Joe Scarborough of the Morning Joe program, was called “Psycho Joe” by Trump.  Scarborough would seem to be a natural supporter of Trump as he was an elected Republican congressman for 6 years from Florida.  Co-host Mika Brzezinski is “dumb as a rock, was bleeding badly from a face-lift, low I.Q., crazy.”   Really nasty stuff.  I note that she has been a reporter for 28 years, a graduate of Georgetown University and author of 3 books.

There are a lot of obvious targets,  the Democrats, Obama, and Hillary Clinton.   Democrats are the  “obstructionist Dems.”  It is always “Crooked Hillary.”  For Obama, he has a lot of insulting tweets, including “How low has President Obama gone to tap my phone during the very sacred election process.  A NEW LOW” which we know was a completely false accusation.  Trump refers to Obama as “Weak! Terrible! Bad (or sick) guy.”  Obama questioned Trump’s temperament to be President. He had a point.

What might surprise people, are how many times he’s insulted Republicans and those in high positions in his cabinet.  “Sloppy Steve” refers to his former chief strategist, Steve Bannon, who was Trump’s key policy adviser reporting directly to Trump.  On Bannon, Trump tweeted,  “Sloppy Steve cried when he got fired, begged for his job. Sloppy Steve has been dumped like a dog by almost everyone,  Sloppy Steve leaker.”   Trump really boiled over after Michael Wolfe’s book, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House was published. “Steve Bannon has nothing to do with me or my presidency,” Mr. Trump said. “When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind.”

Other Republicans subject to insulting tweets were Bob Corker, Mitch McConnell,  Rand Paul, Lisa Murkowski (Rep Senator from Alaska)  and John McCain.   Within the Executive Branch, insultees include AG Jeff Sessions,  Rob Rosenstein  and Andrew McCabe,  Deputy Director of the FBI.   He has really nasty tweets on fired FBI Director James Comey.

A very recent tweet target is Michael Wolff who wrote a critical book on the time period immediately following the election to now, and is now #1 on Amazon’s best seller list, likely helped by Trump’s tweet, “mentally deranged author, knowingly writes false information.”

Stay tuned,

Dave