Trump: Four Weeks In Summary

[Breccia]

When I say that Trump's first four weeks is like an American horror story, understand, I speak no opinion on the subject. It will literally be the next season of American Horror Story.

Let's recap the reasons why.

HYPOCRISY AND LYING

Trump is taking his fourth weekend off, his third in a row, after making a campaign promise to take "no big vacations". After taking office on Jan 20th, Trump by the end of this weekend will have taken 8/31 days off, which is higher than one-quarter. It has also been pointed out that Trump's vacations are significantly more expensive (by about 50%) per day than Obama's, which does not even include the extra detail at Trump Tower (including the space being rented by the Pentagon) or the reimbursements for overtime from local law enforcement ($1.5 million). The estimated tab of Trump's vacations so far tops $10 million, in eone month, while Obama's eight years totaled $97 million.

Trump tweeted about the media failing to cover crowds of supporters cheering from the side of the road. They were Dakota pipeline protesters.

Trump's winery asked permission to bring in 23 non-American workers. Apparently Trump's message about America First doesn't apply to his son's businesses.

In the ongoing attempt to prove his intent to be tougher on Wall Street than his opponents, Trump put Steve Mnuchin, a second-generation Goldman Sachs banker, in charge of the Treasury. Mnuchin, who was given $100 million by Goldman Sachs just before working with Trump, also failed to disclose his holdings in a Cayman Islands tax shelter during his confirmation hearing.

In the ongoing attempt to distance himself from his campaign statements about security, Trump's aides use a private email server, use an iPhone app that deletes messages sent by White House officials on official business (remember the hue and cry over deleted emails?) and Trump discussed the North Korea launch, almost certainly a national security issue involving classified information, in the middle of a crowded restaurant, in which Trump had let paid members greet the Japanese PM and take pictures with the aide carrying the "nuclear football". An investigation is underway. This is part of the ongoing problem with Trump refusing to divest from his businesses, a process he has made very little effort to do.

Trump made a speech at Boeing in which he talked about how many jobs he'd created. Problem is, most of the jobs he took credit for are not related to him or his policies. More specifically, Ford is still going to Mexico, and Alibaba isn't actually hiring a million people (nor building any factories or distribution centers). On the same note, the new Boeing 787 is made largely from imported parts and does not square with Trump's message about bringing back manufacturing jobs.

Recently, Trump spoke of his influence in the stock market's "longest winning streak in decades". First of all, he was elected 3 months ago, so it's very difficult to take that kind of credit. Secondly, it's not the longest in decades. Thirdly, while the stock market is reaching new highs, 25% of the gain is due to Goldman Sachs, several of whom were placed on Trump's cabinet, and one of whom is writing up Trump's tax plan. It's true the NASDAQ is up, but it's in the "well duh" area of 100 meter dash times going up because you let them ride bicycles.

And a quick note: Trump has mentioned Chicago's crime rate over and over, but West Palm Beach, literally across the street from the Mar-a-lago, has the same crime rate, and Trump's never mentioned that once.

For more on Trump's lying, please consult this list from the Toronto Star. It's only 80, because it's only about what he's said in the last four weeks.

OTHER STAFF MEMBERS

Spicer had an extensive press conference, shwon here in full. THe main issue, of course, was Flynn. Spicer, using the word "trust" 31 times to describe Flynn's ejection, was openly questioned on the matter. When asked could Flynn have misled Pence other subjects too, Spicer replied "It’s not as though there’s one person briefing him" while talking about Trump. In fact, Spicer struggled the entire time with questions involving the Flynn, most notably about the timeline of when the President knew, and refused to discuss details on the subject. Spicer was also directly challenged on a comment about Trump being tough on Russia, to which his only defense at the time was the ambassador to the UN, an organization Trump has repeatedly attacked and described as useless. Pence's (not Trump's) comments about NATO and Crimea hadn't happened yet.

Kellyanne Conway did not have a stellar week. First, she insisted her direct instruction, as a White House official, to buy Ivanka's product was "light hearted" in an attempt to defend herself. Then, she told the US that Flynn had Trump's full backing and loyalty within hours of him being fired. Then, the Office of Government Ethics specifically called on the White House to discipline her. Adding literal insult to figurative injury, the head of her own alma mater flat-out called her a liar. Despite this, she has hired her very own chief of staff, suggesting she's increasing her role in the administration -- or trying to, at the minimum.

Reince Preibus is, according to Trump, spending half his job putting out the fires created by the fake media. However, the article from Breitbart -- yes, that Breitbart -- that suggested his job was in jeopardy might have qualified. Bannon actually went on CNN (remember when Trump forbade his surrogates to go on CNN?) to say how "livid" he was. Problem is, either Breitbart now joins the ranks of "fake news" with everyone else, or the story is true. Christopher Ruddy, CEO of a conservative media group and friend/neighbor of Trump, went on CNN after meeting Trump for dinner and said there was "a lot of weakness" coming from Reince Preibus, adding to the growing pile of stories of friction between the members of Trump's inner circle. Possibly sensing trouble, Trump ally Bill O'Reilly actually devoted a segment of his show to push Preibus back onto Trump. I can't imagine why he'd do that if Preibus' job was secure.

Betsy DeVos, an admitted pay-for-play politician with no educational degree or experience, but who did give $200 million to the GOP (remember when Trump said he couldn't be bought?) and under whose guidance Michigan schools are amongst the worst in the nation, is now head of the Dept of Education. She was confirmed 51-50 in a historic tiebreak after GOP Senators broke rank, possibly after hearing her advocate guns in schools to fight bears, fail to know the difference between proficiency and growth, and spell the word apology wrong. She has already been blocked from at least one public school meeting and is now being followed around by the US Marshals. Further, while saying "I support accountability" in an admittedly vague context in her hearing, within 3 days of getting the job, wrote this letter about how accountability standards for schools, most notably those involving minority children and disabled children, were being pushed back and possibly removed entirely from states that choose not to follow them.

Stephen Miller had an interesting week, starting with attacking the "judicial usurpation of power" from the judges who blocked the Muslim Ban, continuing where Trump's Twitter rampage on the subject left off (the admin is rewriting the E.O. to meet the ruling, rather than challenging the ruling). Then he went on "This Week", doubling down on the claim that "thousands" of people were bussed across state lines to vote twice, failing three times when questioned to have any evidence and was thrown off the show. The FEC has specifically rejected that claim, as has Mitch McConnell. Miller also said, regarding the Muslim Ban, "The president’s powers here are beyond question" which is of course false, because they weren't just questioned, they were stopped outright, and Trump's team chose not to challenge this.

But then, of course, they're Michael Flynn, one of Trump's top advisors, who Trump said the media somehow forced him to fire. This was after the reason for letting him go was "a matter of trust", of course, and seems to skirt the issue that
a) Trump knew the whole time, and
b) Trump didn't tell Pence either.
Somehow, this isn't a violation of trust. Also, Trump very specifically said he would have asked Flynn to talk to Russia about sanctions, if Flynn hadn't already done that. The administration, through various voices, has yet to reconcile the difference between Trump knowing that Flynn lied to Pence, but only removing him when the public found out about it -- including doing an internal investigation to see if what Flynn did was legal, deciding that it was, then firing him for lack of trust. Nor have the offered a solid defense to why Flynn was fired for lying about something that Trump would have asked him to do, and was normal for his job (as Spicer and Trump have both claimed). Further, they will no longer be able to shake the suggestion that AG Yates was fired for bringing Flynn's indiscretion to the White House, regardless of whether or not it's true, because the pure timing is just too damning to rule it out. And, yes, Trump blamed the media for Trump firing Flynn.

The investigations into Russia, Flynn, the election and Trump continue, which remind some of Iran-Contra, and more are expected to follow. He's already been before the FBI at least once, during which he lied, but no charges are expected to be filed.FOX News link purely for irony.

DISAGREEMENT

American institutions are fighting back against Trump. His attacks on the media, judiciary, intelligence community, and the public are taking their toll.

Besides the obvious Democrats, House and Senate GOP members are demonstrating they are no longer in lock-step behind Trump's more unusual positions. His own SCOTUS pick called Trump's comments about the judiciary disturbing, a sentiment Jeff Flake matched on Meet the Press. A growing list of GOP Senators have now crossed party lines to oppose some of his cabient members. And while David Jolly no longer Represents the GOP in Florida, he did tell Trump to stop complaining and do his job. Part of the issue could be that Trump has yet to sign, or endorse, any bill he did not propose himself. In face of such news, Paul Ryan is now talking about their 200 day strategy, a departure from the first 100 days used by most administrations and pre-election GOP pledges.

Not only has Trump's campaign words and actions been cited in the Muslim Ban case, there is now a second one. In the military case of Sgt. Bergdahl, the sergeant is claiming he cannot get a fair trial, citing as evidence Trump called him a traitor and suggested he'd drop him out of an airplane. The judge called the comments "disturbing", the second time this week a judge has used that exact word to discuss Trump. In a related note, Trump's intent will be a subject of multiple court probes in the likelihood that the EO is further defended, including the new draft Trump claims is on the way, but with almost no help from the NSC.

The continuing struggle to repeal and replace the ACA -- a subject that has come up at, oh, "one or two" GOP town hall meetings since the election -- is also meeting an unusual barrier. The House Freedom Caucus (conservative) are threatening not to vote for anything less than a full repeal, despite mounting public pressure due to concerns about dropped coverage. The White House has suggested a replacement plan will be available in mid-March.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Trump's son-in-law approached Time Warner, CNN's parent company, to discuss how unfairly they were treating Trump. If he had stopped by a newstand on the way he probably would have known he was wasting his time.

The Wall Street Journal cited multiple current and former US intelligence agents when reporting that their agencies are intentionally withholding information from Trump's White House, out of fear that it would be leaked or compromised. In fact, Trump has outright accused the CIA director of such publicly.

And the Trump admin lost several other non-Flynn, people, including Secret Service Chief Joseph Clancy, two-thirds Of The President’s Commission On Asian Americans And Pacific Islanders, six staffers who failed background checks, large numbers of key, high-level State Department positions no reason was given, one of the top HUD aides who was fired for criticizing Trump and Carson didn't even know about it, and a NDA aid was dismissed for doing the same thing. Puzder, the nomination for Secretary of Labor, and Harward, tapped for Flynn's vacant spot, didn't technically leave the administration, but rather chose not to join it. One of them supposedly did so after Trump's press conference, and called the situation a "shit sandwich". And Trump's EPA pick was condemned by a letter signed by hundreds upon hundreds of EPA staff.

FOREIGN POLICY AND RELATIONS

The shakeup at the State Department, with most top-level positions being reassigned and not being consulted on major decisions that literally define their role, comes at a time in which Trump says the world has "mass instability". While changes between administrations are standard, this is more people, more suddenly, and it leaves the White House without diplomatic help during a time when they are changing a lot of policies. Even Tillerson's role itself has been scaled back at a time the rest of the world seeks to understand the new role of the USA. The effects are easily seen.

World opinion of Trump continues to dip, even amongst our allies. Foreign investment in US debt, for example, is plunging as investors worldwide dump their stakes in it. While Trump takes this weekend off, Pence is spending it in Europe, giving a speech in Munich before a host of European political and security leaders. In that speech, Pence echoed both Trump’s campaign and Mattis’ Feb 15h statements about “moderate its commitment to the alliance” even while pledging 100% support. Related, both Canadians and Germans have specifically cited Trump as a reason they won't be traveling to the US. When Trump met with Trudeau, Trump was asked questions about NAFTA and declined to answer. Canada, of course, sharply disagrees with the Muslim Ban. Mexico has already arranged plans to stop buying corn from the US but instead from South America and warned Trump that tariffs would be a 'big mistake' and threatened to retaliate; Trump wavered on his one/two state policies with Israel, shocking the Israeli PM standing ten feet away; France finds Trump's Middle East policy worrying and confusing;
And then Newsweek broke a huge story that intelligence investigations carried out by our allies on us also coroborate that Trump's team was talking with Russia, further illustrating the sense of concern.

Trump faces an increasing number of aggressive actions as well. In one week, North Korea launched a missile (and assassinated someone), Iran also launched a missile (while holding massive demonstrations against Trump with the government in apparent agreement), and Russia broke a treaty with a missile of their own. Trump and his allies have used such terms as "100 percent" when talking about Japan, which is contrary to his statements pre-election and Trump wasn't wearing a translator during the Japanese PM's speech. The administration went on to say that a response military "show of strength" would be coming soon. Within 24 hours of Trump calling the Venezuelan VP a drug trafficer -- sorry, alleged drug trafficer -- the President of Venezuela met with China and signed a $3 billion development agreement. Iran has been especially vocal about opposing US troops in Syria and adhering to the nuclear deal. They're also dramatically increasing their oil production, likely driving down the price. While North Korea's media is not to be trusted, their top defector did warn us that hostilities are closer than it would seem, especially with a working ICBM (which they either have, or are close to, based on the recent launch). And, it turns out the main figure killed in the Yemen raid was actually an ally of the US/Saudi-backed president of Yemen, recruited to fight rebels, further straining the already damaged relations the raid had caused.

There have seem some curious reports from China as well. While earlier they expressed open opposition to Trump and the Japanese Prime Minister denying China's claim on Senkaku Islands, they've taken a far easier tone more recently by allowing Trump to file a trademark in their country. Critics are already calling this a quid-pro-quo, and it further demonstrates the issues with Trump running his businesses as a conflict of interest.

RUSSIA

Russia, by many sources, is not as happy with their investment in Trump as they would have hoped. It could have something to do with Trump's harsh words towards Iran and the threat of sending ground troops to Syria, or the fact that Trump and his key advisors disagree so publicly on Russia, simply the UN and NATO issues mentioned above matched with Tillerson saying about the same thing. In fact, the Russian media has changed its tone on Trump dramatically in the last week, that one paper said "As the saying goes, you need to be drunk to understand the true position of America's presiden." It got so bad, that the Kremlin had to order state run media to tone down the Trump coverage.

In the last week, Russia has been testing the US more and more aggressively. Besides the missile noted above, they are directly funding anti-US Afghanistan insurgents, the spy ship 17-30 miles off the East coast, and the multiple close plane-shit flyby actions. Trump has yet to give any response to these aggressive actions, even when asked specifically about them during his solo press conference.

The Associated Press reported that WH aides were asking about the chance Poland would invade Belarus, a story that had only come up one time before, on Sputnik, a Russian propaganda agency, who claimed that Belarus was asking Russia for military help. They, of course, did not.

GOP objection to Russia is showing in several ways. Besides the aforementioned investigations, a bipartisan bill was introduced in the House to limit what Trump can do about Russian sanctions (which, at this stage, would be tantamount to a confession anyhow). Lindsey Graham refered to connection between Russian intelligence and the Trump campaign "a game changer" should evidence of such be found, though he would not commit to a House Oversight Committee investigation -- citing specifically the Senate Oversight Committee was almost certainly pressing forward. So is the Judiciary Committee. Mitch McConnell, when asked about Trump's connections to Russia, said he had "no idea", And Trump's own pick Mattis has personally, specifically, ruled out military collaboration with Russia, and has "very little doubt" that Russia interfered with the election.

Questions about Trump's connections to Russia are coming from every side, from Dan Rather suggesting this could be as bad as Watergate (but was already a 5 or 6 out of 10 right now) to Peter Wehne, who worked for Reagan, Bush, and Bush, saying “There is smoke here and there is fire. We just don’t know the nature of the fire."

THAT PRESS CONFERENCE

Trump had several press conferences with visiting dignitaries -- Canada, Japan, Israel -- last week, and in those three, only answered questions from conservative media. But then, he had an impromptu, 77-minute solo press conference that was...well...at least three forms of "special".

Tell you what: let's play a little game. I'm going to list ten things. You guess which happened during the press conference, and which I made up. No fair looking these up!

1) "Well, the leaks are real. You’re the one that wrote about them and reported them; I mean, the leaks are real. You know what they said, you saw it, and the leaks are absolutely real. The news is fake because so much of the news is fake."

...yeah some of them are easier than others. This is a reversal from earlier this very week, when Trump said the media was just making stories up out of thin air, which at least would be a consistent, defendable definition of "fake news".

2) When asked "If the information coming from those leaks is real, then how can the stories be fake?" Trump went on for nine solid minutes, saying (amongst other things) that he knew what was real and false and the public did not; used a variant of "the story isn't the story, it's the leaks that gave you the story" four times; said "the public" was against CNN because of what he saw at his own rallies; asked if the reporter was related to someone he nominated for a cabinet spot; and never directly answered the question.

3) When asked if there would be any response to Putin's recent, multiple, blatantly aggressive "not good" moves, Trump stood in front of the mic and did a strawman impersonation of military policy "We are going to attack Mosul in four months, then three months later, we are going to attack Mosul in one month, next week, we are going to attack Mosul." as an example of why, exact quote, "I'm not going to tell you anything about what response I do." Oh, and he answered by talking about Iran, Iraq, and North Korea, but not Russia.

3a) The Iraqi PM announced they were going into Mosul, but did it without acting childish.

4) "You know what uranium is, right? This thing called nuclear weapons like lots of things are done with uranium including some bad things. Nobody talks about that."

5) When an African-American reporter asked if Trump would include conversations with the CBC with his inner city agenda, first failed to recognize what the CBC, and second, when told, asked the reporter to set up the meeting while she was telling him she was just a reporter. Incidentally, the CBC asked for a meeting on Jan 19th. They got no response.

6) Said he hadn't made a phone call to Russia for years, forgetting that Putin was one of the first people he called from the Oval Office.Putin also called him right after the election.

7) After claiming he had the biggest electoral college margin since Reagan a half-hour earlier, and when he was confronted that this information was yet another factually false statement, and asked "Why should Americans trust you?" he said the information came from an unknown source, demanded the reporter acknowledge it was still a large margin, and didn't answer the question.

8) In the last week, reports have shown a large surge of anti-Muslim hate groups for two years in a row, four dozen bomb threats called into Jewish centers and synagogues, and a resurgence of white nationalism to the point of Trump being endorsed by the KKK. Trump, who intentionally called on an obviously Jewish reporter, was asked -- after a preface that the reporter did not think Trump or his staff was anti-semetic -- asked what Trump would do to deal with the provable, obvious growth in hate crimes. Trump responded by taking offense to being called anti-semetic, claiming to be the least anti-semetic person ever, then claiming to be the least racist person ever, then talked about his election win for the second time this week when deflecting from a question involving the Jewish people.

8a) Said he couldn't be an anti-semite because his daughter married a Jewish person.

9) "I'm not ranting and raving. I'm just telling you, you know, you're dishonest people."

10) Blamed Clinton for three different things: her missing emails, an attempt to "reset" diplomacy with Russia, and "giving away" 20 percent of uranium to Russia. Two of which Trump is currently doing, and the third of which is another blatant lie.

How many did you get right?

OP ED's from basically every news agency in the country, and a few outside our borders, have, rightly, taken offense to being called blatant liars by someone who was blatantly lying and got caught. Yes, even FOX News.



CONFIDENCE

Trump is losing the public confidence. He was the least popular president in recent times when he was elected, and his polls have only fallen from there. Even Rasmussen has him dropping 5% since taking office. FOX had him at 48% and his RCP average is 45%. Gallup, in an apples-to-apples comparison, has him at 40% (he flirted with 38% earlier) and has never had Trump as high as Obama's average of 47.9%. The odds of him being impeached were slashed from 3/1 in November to 11/10 this week. A Politico poll has him losing to an unnamed Democrat in 2020, despite the fact that Trump is the only one running.

Four weeks in, ladies and gentleman.

[Allybeboba]

Four weeks in, ladies and gentleman.

Shouldn't your analysis also include positives as well? To only include the negative side only serves to make you look biased.

[ranzino]

Shouldn't your analysis also include positives as well? To only include the negative side only serves to make you look biased.

Perhaps there arent much positives to say. Feel free to bring them on, if you feel Trump was also right on something.

[Cerilis]

Did I overread it, or did you not actually put how many of those 10 things were right or wrong in the end?

[jellmoo]

It's almost as though Americans elected a complete and utter buffoon with zero experience and no concrete idea of how things get done.

Weird...

[Breccia]

Did I overread it, or did you not actually put how many of those 10 things were right or wrong in the end?

I did not. I figured, by the time people got to the end, they knew what the right answer was. But no spoilers!

[shadowmouse]

We do not need a weekly summary on top of the various individual Trump posts. I don't even like the guy, but he doesn't need this level of obsession.

http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...eks+in+summary
http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...eks+in+summary

[jakeic]

We do not need a weekly summary on top of the various individual Trump posts. I don't even like the guy, but he doesn't need this level of obsession.

http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...eks+in+summary
http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...eks+in+summary

you kind of left out the reason why.

also, this post is well written, topical, and extremely informative. These are welcomed by myself and i assume others as well. I only hope he has the stamina to do one every week.

[LaserSharkDFB]

We do not need a weekly summary on top of the various individual Trump posts. I don't even like the guy, but he doesn't need this level of obsession.

http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...eks+in+summary
http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...eks+in+summary

I disagree. We can't have threads on every stupid shitty thing Trump does, or you people would complain even more. Be glad that these threads exist to concentrate the mocking.

[primalmatter]

https://www.youtube.com/results?q=ba...=1&app=desktop

[Cerilis]

I did not. I figured, by the time people got to the end, they knew what the right answer was. But no spoilers!

No, please no. I kinda expected it, but there is still a bit of denial. It's not all of it is right, is it?

[shadowmouse]

@jakeic @LaserSharkDFB Amazingly, I read the news. I don't see need of an echo chamber to regurgitate it for me on weekly basis.

He isn't getting any brighter, and this is going to get really old as it becomes a Star Trek style journal "Week 116 in summary" Trump signed an executive order amending his executive order on executive orders based on executive orders. More money was spent at his venues.

[Reverb256]

If we become outnumbered in our homelands, our principles will die.

[Deleted]

If we become outnumbered in our homelands, our principles will die.

If you want a white ethno state move to Israel.

[Kraenen]

So if his approval ratings are in the tank, does this mean he isn't Hitler anymore?

- - - Updated - - -

If you want a white ethno state move to Israel.

Israel is middle-eastern, and if you think jews aren't, there are quite a few arabs in israel. Not sure how Israel qualifies in any way as a white ethno state.

[Blur4stuff]

Citizens were safe before the travel ban since no one from those countries were attacking us. A wall doesn't prevent immigration or drugs, it just wastes money.

But i'm glad you think the current train wreck of a republican party is actually going to do something positive about healthcare.

So to recap, even the things Trump supporters think he's done he actually hasn't done. It's a complete fantasy.

[PACOX]

What's the difference between safe zones in Syria and Clinton's no-fly zones?

[primalmatter]

Citizens were safe before the travel ban since no one from those countries were attacking us. A wall doesn't prevent immigration or drugs, it just wastes money.

But i'm glad you think the current train wreck of a republican party is actually going to do something positive about healthcare.

[Belize]

If we become outnumbered in our homelands, our principles will die.

Haha... What?

[Allybeboba]

Perhaps there arent much positives to say. Feel free to bring them on, if you feel Trump was also right on something.

It is up the the reporter to present both sides if they want to be seen as unbiased. It is not up to the reader to present the "other side".

- - - Updated - - -

So if his approval ratings are in the tank, does this mean he isn't Hitler anymore?

- - - Updated - - -



Israel is middle-eastern, and if you think jews aren't, there are quite a few arabs in israel. Not sure how Israel qualifies in any way as a white ethno state.

BAM!!!!
And... Godwin's Law strikes again on the first page.