FAR FROM HEAVEN Trumpworld, reimagined as one of Hieronymus Boschs Hell paintings.

Artwork by Glenn Palmer-Smith.

On May 19, 1962, at an event at Madison Square Garden celebrating John F. Kennedy, about to turn 45, Marilyn Monroe stepped onstage to sing. Wearing a dress that matched exactly the color of her skin, a sort of glowing, gleaming pale, and every bit as tighta dress, in other words, that took off her clothesshe made Happy Birthday sound like the lewdest of suggestions, an invitation to sin no mortal man could resist. In that moment, it became clear that, even if the cake hadnt yet been served, our president had already let our movie star blow out his candle. Pop culture had officially unofficially seduced politics.

Which is why Donald J. Trump is not Americas first pop-culture president. There was Kennedy, of course, but also Reagan, Clinton, Obama. In fact, as far as the past 50-plus years go, Trumps almost as much the rule as the exception, the same ol, same ol, more or less. Its the pop culture thats changed.

When a movie version of his life story was proposed, Kennedy had one actor in mind to play him: Cary Grant. Grant, the man-about-town of his time and ours, the savoir fairest of them all, was the creation of Archibald Leach, from the slums of Bristol, England. Its never been matched. Acknowledging the potency of the fantasy hed conjured, his blessing but also his curse, he said, Even I want to be Cary Grant. Meaning he wasnt. Meaning nobody could be.

Yet thats precisely who Barack Obama is. Its the style: an ultra-stylish style that doesnt involve primping or fuss. Its the manner, too: civilized, self-aware, masculine, though with a faint hint of ambiguity. Critic Pauline Kael called Grant the most publicly seduced male the world has known. Like Grant, Obama is a love object. Not passivereticent, withheld. He doesnt chase the girl, but he gets her all right. And he gets her by getting her to go after him. Why, we (yes, were the girls in this scenario) practically threw our votes his way.

Trumps erotic stratagem was different but no less effective, and embodied in his campaign slogan, Make America Great Again. The first time I heard it my reaction was somewhere between hostility and dismissal. What is this again shit?, I wondered. Were great now, the richest, freest, most powerful country on the planet. Its just more of his dark, divisive noise, I concluded. And it is. But its something else too, as I realized during a conversation with Republican strategist Steve Schmidt, a pro and very smart and no fan of Trumps. He referred to the slogan as brilliant. I thought about it some more, and my thoughts about it began to change. Brilliant I wont grant. But it does have a low cunning that might be better than brilliant.

THE 2016 ELECTION WASNT HILLARY VS. TRUMP. IT WAS MOVIE STAR VS. REALITY.

Heres what Make America Great Again is the equivalent of: a guy, a little long in the tooth, a little broad in the beam (Trump, lets say), spots a sensational-looking girl, a girl whos so far out of his league its a joke (America, lets say). Instead of complimenting her on her loveliness, he informs her that she needs a nose job, a tit job, braces, and to lose 10 pounds. The girl is about to tell him off, really let him have it, except something stops her. Its a thought, a devastating one, that maybe hes right, that maybe its everybody else whos shining her on and hes actually leveling with her. And just like that, in a single moment, shes his. At least until she wises up, and that could take a while.

So were clear, I did not vote for Trump. I regard him as a calamity and a disgrace, the worst thing to happen to this country in my lifetime. And yet, and yet, I respond to him. When he, a draft deferrer, venereal disease his quote personal Vietnam unquote, said of John McCain, who had exhibited such ferocious courage in that Hanoi prison it nearly defies comprehension, Hes a war hero because he was captured. I like people who werent captured, I laughed. The laugh was involuntary, just popping out of my mouth. What it was also was shameful, appalling, horrific. It meant that if I hadnt entertained such a thought myself I was capable of it. Another way of saying, I was shocked because I wasnt. The laugh, therefore, was not so much a signifier of amusement as recognition.

Though also of amusement because, for someone whos essentially humorless, Trump is fun-nee. The sheer recklessness of the things he says takes the breath away. How dare he? But again and again he dares. Hell attack, assault, degrade anyone. At his rallies there was the sense that even he didnt know who he was going to go after next. So, built right in was the frisson of suspense, which is one of the reasons they were the hottest ticket in whatever town they happened to be playing. Translation: he turned everybody on. Hillary, by contrast, at her rallies was calm, earnest, respectful. Translation: she bored asses off in all directions. Every move she made felt stage-managed, canned. Not so with Trump. He didnt need a teleprompter or even a prepared speech, would just saunter up to that podium and start to blow, to shpritz, to wing it, basically, and successfully, because he understood how to capture a crowds attention. Hijack it, really.

Its a talent hes been cultivating for years. Dont forget, Trumps spent much of his career clinging to the bottom rungs of the entertainment industry: Miss Universe pageants, WrestleMania IV, V, XX, and 23, and, of course, The Apprentice. No prestige pictures with blue-chip directors for him, no HBO limited series, he wasnt knocking them dead on Broadway or standing-room-only at Carnegie Hall. Guys played one toilet after another. And in so doing hes honed not just his performers instinctat events like WrestleMania, where he once body-slammed Vince McMahon before shaving the W.W.E. chairmans head, his contact with the audience is direct, nothing between him and it, skin on skin, bareback, babybut his common touch, as well. (Have you ever watched Miss Universe or WrestleMania? The Apprentice? Me neither. A lot of people have, though, and, dollars to doughnuts, theyre the ones walking around in those little red caps.) A related aside: the irony that a billionaire who started out life a millionaire has become the Working-Class Hero is forever being remarked upon by the media. Like, how much of a nitwit is Average Joe for imagining that Trump is his man. But its Average Joe whos got it right. Trump is Average Joe except filthy stinking rich, i.e., a winner. Hes managed to acquire money without acquiring sophistication. He still talks like a kid from Queens, has a taste for flashy cars and women, and lives in houses that make one long for the understated elegance of Graceland. By the way, I bet he watches Miss Universe, WrestleMania, and The Apprentice, and not just because hes keeping an eye on his investments.

And gutter showbiz has, Id contend, shaped his worldview. As president, hes turned a Supreme Court nomination into a Bachelor finale, less selected his Cabinet than cast it (If Im doing a movie, Id pick you . . . General Mattis), and cannot shut up about ratings (he opened the National Prayer Breakfast by remarking on the tanking popularity of The Celebrity Apprentice, asking the room full of lawmakers and dignitaries to just pray for Arnold [Schwarzenegger, the new host]).

Before I get to what Trump is, what Trump isnt: a businessman. Rather, hes a showbusinessman, part con manhow many bankruptcies has he declared? little guys has he stiffed?part ham actor impersonating a businessman. Even more so he isnt a president. The first few months of his administration have been somewhere between Dr. Strangelove played straight and Dr. Strangelove played camp. What he is is a reality star. In fact, you could argue that he invented the concept. I was born in 1978, not in New York, and yet hes been on my radar since I can remember, his life, his loves, his scandals constantly in the tabloids, and what are Page Six and the National Enquirer but the Ur-E! and Bravo?

The 2016 election wasnt Hillary vs. Trump. It was Movie Star vs. Reality. Not only because Obama was Hillarys most dynamic surrogate but because practically every star in Hollywoodmovie, though TV and music, toocampaigned on her behalf. And yet Reality won, proof that movies dont hold sway over the public imagination as they once did, in itself proof that the public wants a different type of relationship with its stars. Stars used to be exactly that: radiant entities to be marveled at from a distance. Thanks to social media, however, the 24-hour news cycle, distance is no longer possible. Perfectly O.K., since an up-close view is what we truly crave, each pore, each wrinkle, each pimple in high definition. And whos interested in seeing a posed photo these days? Better the ones without makeup or undies or even knowledge. (When a stars lover or ex-lover sneaks an intimate shot and then leaks itooo-wee, pay dirt.) And beat it with your puff pieces already. We dont care about Johnny Depps charity work. What were hot to know is, did he really smack Amber around and openhanded or closed and was he loaded at the time? We continue to be moved by beauty. Were also moved, though, and more powerfully, by ugliness: physical, social, moral. Our stars are still stars, only the term now is ironic since we dont look up at them but down.

Trump never feigned virtue during his campaign. And thats what made him, for many voters, the authentic candidate. He was a brute and a son of a bitch, except he, in the immortal words of Real Housewife Bethenny Frankel, owned it. And owning it, in the reality-TV world, which, lets face it, is the world we are currently living in, absolves all sins. Its why everything that was sure to bring him downcalling Mexican immigrants rapists, ridiculing the disabled, speculating on the menstrual cycle of a news anchor, etc.didnt, if anything increased his strength. He became a mash-up of Simon Cowell, Spencer Pratt, and Teresa Giudice, a super-villain, as impossible to kill as he was to stop watching.

Interesting to note: traditional stars are bowed but not broken when it comes to Trump, indeed reality stars in general. They responded to his inauguration party the same way Jay Z and Beyonc responded to Kim and Kanyes nuptialsby staying away in droves. Well, rejecting the pretensions of the peacocking parvenu is one of the sweetest pleasures left to the fallen aristocrat. Also interesting: its Obama, the younger man, and seemingly the more modern in every conceivable respect, whos the throwback.

Theres something Trump is every bit as fundamentally as a reality star, and thats a stand-up comic. Lenny Bruce, specifically. (Hey, if Bill Clinton was, according to Toni Morrison, our first black president, why cant Trump be our first Jewish?) Hes an eighth-rate version of Bruce, to be sure, and an unwitting one. Has none of Bruces hipness or perspicacity. He does, however, have Bruces shamelessness, and Bruces free-associative, buggy style, and he goes as far as Bruce. His mocking of McCain was, in fact, like an updating of Bruces Jackie Kennedy Hauling Ass to Save Her Ass routine, and equally as blasphemous.

Timing is, of course, everything. It was in the 50s that Bruce, the lounge-lizard dark prince, started to slay at the clubs in the more happening cities. Now these days, the present day, is the polar opposite of that tight-assed decadegay couples can marry! movie about queer black youth takes big prize at Oscars! transgender woman on the cover of this very magazine!except think again. The 2010s, with its safe spaces and trigger warnings, its dont-say-thises and dont-think-thats, where feeling like a victim is the hot pastime and male burden is the new male privilege, are, in certain ways, even tighter-assed, a neo-Victorian era masquerading as the waning days of the Roman Empire. Political correctness is just another form of fascism. (That fascism now comes from the left doesnt make it any less stifling.) People are almost comically alienated from their instincts. The super-ego reigns supreme.

TRUMP SPENT HIS CAREER CLINGING TO THE BOTTOM RUNGS OF THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY.

Enter Trump, pure id. No cruelty-free-tofu-nibbling, prissy-European-taste-having, sorry-excuse-for-a-man man he. Unh-uh. Hes a big butch American hot dog. Hes not tortured by the idea of using torture. And a nuclear-arms race? Bring it on, sayeth he, those loser countries will be eating our atomic dust: We will outmatch them at every pass and outlast them all. Hes a swinging dick and an alpha male, a maker of deals and a builder of buildingswhy, the Manhattan skyline is simply crammed with his erections! And since were on the topic of erections, he isnt one of those pencil-necked sissies who need a woman to sign a permission slip before hell try to hold her hand. Hell no, he grabs pussy first, asks questions later. Is a masher of the type thats supposed to have died out generations ago.

This isnt to say hes devoid of romantic feeling. Who could forget that series of impassioned tweets from 2012 in which he urged Robert Pattinson not to take back the cheating Kristen Stewart. (Had Pattinson been his fella, he wouldnt have treated him so shabbily seems to be the message hes trying to convey.) There is, too, the wistful, teenage-girl note that creeps into his voice whenever he talks about Vladimir Putin. Do you think Putin will be going to The Miss Universe Pageant in November in Moscowif so, will he become my new best friend? Does Trump secretly long for the brutal quasi-dictator to take him in his arms, crush him to his chest, make him dream again?

And then theres Trumps temperament, which is, and not to be a traitor to my sex, on the womanish side. He clutches to his dignity as tenaciously as a dowager to her pearls. Never does he let an insult roll off his back. Make a dig about his hand size, for example, and he will (in fairness, rightly) perceive it as a dig about his manhood. Could the Donalds Donald be merely a Don? Not to hear him tell it: My fingers are long and beautiful, as . . . are various other parts of my body. Touchy, touchy.

It was in 1961 that Bruce said the 10-letter word onstage, got arrested for obscenity. His life was ruined, but it was the making of him. Hed always been more than a guy in a rented tux telling jokes to drunks. Suddenly, though, he was a rebel with a causeAmendment Numero Uno. He refused to be silenced, endured bust after bust, so that we might speak. And, five years later, his martyrdom would be complete when he died in a bathroom, fat, naked, a needle sticking out of his arm. The Christ who said cocksucker.

If Trump were really smart, hed have done the same. Not the dying-next-to-a-toilet thing, the losing-in-order-to-win-big thing. Trump feeds off the ardor of his fans, and his best chance of retaining that ardor lay in defeat in a squeaker. Then hed be able to claim that he was the man who could be, nay, should be, king, and spend the remainder of his days shaking a Byronic fist at the rigged system, the ideal situation for someone who is, by nature, an outsider and a rager. Instead, he pulled off the upset. Now hes on the inside of the inside, in a job that requires, above all else, calm reflection and sober judgment. No longer can he say whatever kooky little whacked-out thought that pops into his skull. Not without bringing down a world of shit, anyway (see: Obama wiretapping tweets). And, oh yeah, hes going to actually have to deliver on his campaign promises or risk hurtful comparisons to Crooked Hillary. And from there its only a short jump to the most painful scenario of all: the crowds love turning into hate, the cheers turning into jeers.

Hes president of the United States. Its his nightmare. Our worst nightmare.

Losing to wind next to his helicopter in Scotland.

Losing to wind at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland.

Losing to wind as he heads to Indiana.

Losing to wind while hes in Scotland to discuss bankrolling an anti-wind-farm campaign in order to fight an off-shore development near his luxury golf resort.

Losing to wind in the presence of Tom Brady.

Losing to wind while waving.

Putting up a good fight but ultimately losing to wind in Scotland.

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Losing to wind next to his helicopter in Scotland.

By Michael McGurk/Alamy.

Losing to wind at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland.

By Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images.

Losing to wind as he heads to Indiana.

By Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images.

Losing to wind while hes in Scotland to discuss bankrolling an anti-wind-farm campaign in order to fight an off-shore development near his luxury golf resort.

By Danny Lawson/PA/A.P.

Losing to wind while he talks to Patriots owner Robert Kraft before a game.

From Splash News.

Losing to wind at the house on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland, where his mother was born before she immigrated to the United States in 1929.

From PA/Alamy.

Losing to wind while boarding the Marine One helicopter at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland.

By Jonathan Ernst/Reuters.

Losing to wind while leaving One World Trade in New York.

By Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images.

Losing to wind in the presence of Tom Brady.

From Boston Herald/Splash News.

Losing to wind while waving.

By Rob Carr/Getty Images.

Putting up a good fight but ultimately losing to wind in Scotland.

By Michael McGurk/Rex/Shutterstock.

View post:

Donald Trump's Biggest Mistake Might Have Been Getting Elected - Vanity Fair

Trump's son retweeted political commentator Harlan Z. Hill, who opined, "Events like today are EXACTLY why we took issue with NY elites glorifying the assassination of our President."

Trump Jr. supported the comment, adding: "This."

Fox News and other conservative media blasted the play, leading Donald Trump, Jr. to tweet, "Serious question, when does 'art' become political speech & does that change things?"

The subsequent pressure led to Bank of America and Delta to pull their support from the play this week.

Donald Trump, Jr. also favorited a tweet on Wednesday that accused "the liberal media" of "radicalizing people against anyone who supports the President by baselessly accusing us of collusion with Russia."

The tweet, which came from the account @YoungDems4Trump, was in response to President Donald Trump's message of well wishes to Scalise, who was shot in the hip.

"Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, a true friend and patriot, was badly injured but will fully recover. Our thoughts and prayers are with him," Trump tweeted.

First lady Melania Trump echoed the President when she tweeted, "Thank you to the first responders who rushed in to help protect those who were hurt in Alexandria, VA. My thoughts & prayers to everyone!"

Donald Trump Jr. was not the only Trump son to go after the media after the shooting: Eric Trump critiqued recent coverage of strong stock market growth.

"DOW, S&P 500, NYSE & Russell 2000 ALL at their all-time highs! Zero chance @CNN @MSNBC or the MSM will cover! #401Ks," Eric Trump tweeted.

Here is the original post:

Trump son tweet connects shooting to NYC 'Julius Caesar' play - CNN

It didnt take long for the tragic shootingat a Republican Congressional baseball practice on Wednesday morning to turn into a partisan blame game. Before the details of the incident were fully clear notable Republicans were quick to jump to conclusions that satisfied their partisan views.

Nearly an hour before local police provided their first official statement, White House senior counselor Kellyanne Conway retweeted an unverified account citing claims that the shooter had asked if those playing baseball were Republicans or Democrats.

President Donald Trumps son, Don Trump Jr., took his outrage to Twitter as well and blamed so-called New York elites who have glorified the assassination of the president.

Right-wing Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King did not attend Wednesdays practice but traveled to the baseball fieldafter the shooting to tell the gatheredmedia that the violence is appearing in the streets, and its coming from the left.

On Fox News Rep. Rodney Davis R-Ill., said political terrorism in 24-hour news cycle and on Twitter was partially to blame for the tragic incident.

Later on Fox News, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said the shooting was part of a pattern of what he called an increasing intensity of hostility on the left.

Some used the tragic event to blame Kathy Griffin for her picture with a decapitated fake Trump head. Others also blamed the Julius Caesar play that has caused a lot of outrage over its depiction of political violence.

https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/874966631491002369

The New York Conservative Party blamed the shooting on hate fueled by the media, according to the Observer. The party also posted a Fox News article to their Facebook page in which Rep. Ronald DeSantis, R-Fla., said an unknown man had asked him if the Congressman practicing were Republicans or Democrats.

The man who tried to kill congressmen practicing for a charity baseball game had asked whether the players were Repubs or Dems. When told they were Repubs, the shooter returned a few moments later and opened fire with a rifle, the post on Facebook says. This is what media bully fueled hate looks like, not wedding cakes and 100-year-old statues.

Of course, this is a common tactic that often comes from right-wingers in the immediate aftermath of a shocking event.

Less than two weeks ago Trump used the London terror attack to bash those who support sensible gun control measures.

The president also quickly blamed a shooting in the Philippines as a terrorist attack, even though it wasnt. No matter what the full details of the tragedy turn out to be, in the wake of a shocking event, it doesnt take long for hyperpartisan rhetoric to emerge with the intent of fulfilling a self-serving agenda.

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Newt Gingrich, Donald Trump Jr. rush to blame Kathy Griffin and the left for baseball shooting - Salon

After President Donald Trump watcheda story aired on CNN a network he says he never watches which detailed the devastating impact climate change has had on a small island in the Chesapeake Bay, hecalledthe mayor of the island to inform him that everything would be just fine.

Virginias Tangier Island is shrinking at a rate of15 feet each year, the Washington Post noted, and the Army Corps of Engineers has said the cause is from coastal erosion and rising sea levels. But that wasnt enough to convince the president, or even the islands Mayor James Eskridge.

Donald Trump, if you see this, whatever you can do, we welcome any help you can give us, Eskridge toldCNN. I love Trump as much as any family member I got.

Eskridge got his wish, and the president gave him a call.

He said we shouldnt worry about rising sea levels,Eskridge told the Post. He said that your island has been there for hundreds of years, and I believe your island will be there for hundreds more.

Trump and the islands mayor both agreed that sea level rise is not a concern of theirs. Like the president, Im not concerned about sea level rise, Eskridge told the Post. Im on the water daily, and I just dont see it.

The main concern for Eskridge as well as many other residents on the island are worried about the erosion caused by the Chesapeakes waterpounding on the islands shores. He said he believes this is why his home is disappearing at an alarming rate, the Post reported. Trump seemed to agree with him and suggested that he may stop by so the two could discuss it.

Scientists have said the islands 450 residents, who overwhelmingly supported Trump in the November election, may need to completely abandon the island in the next few decades. Many of the residents are descendants of its first settlers back in the 17th century, according to the Post.

Read the rest here:

Donald Trump to mayor of island sinking due to climate change: Don't worry about it! - Salon

The public portion of these gatherings of all of the president's top advisers are usually staid affairs. Photographers are let in to take pictures. The president makes a very brief statement. A reporter shouts a question, unanswered. The end.

Donald Trump did something very different in his Cabinet meeting Monday.

First, he reviewed the various alleged successes of his first 143 days and made this remarkable claim: "Never has there been a president....with few exceptions...who's passed more legislation, who's done more things than I have."

(Nota bene: You can't say "never has" something happened and then say "with few exceptions." Either it's never happened or it, well, has.)

But, that wasn't even close to the weirdest part of the Cabinet meeting!

Once Trump finished touting his administration's accomplishments, he turned to several of his newly-minted Cabinet secretaries like Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue. Each of those Cabinet secretaries lavished praise on Trump, which he accepted without comment but with a broad smile.

At first, I thought Trump was just going to have the new members of the Cabinet spend a few minutes praising him. NOPE! It soon became clear that Trump planned to have every Cabinet member speak. And when I say "speak" what I really mean is "praise Trump for his accomplishments, his foresight, his just being awesome."

I mean, WHAT?!?

The whole thing reminded me of a scene directly from the boardroom of "The Apprentice." A group of supplicants all desperately trying to hold on to their spots on the show by effusively praising Trump -- each one trying to take it a step further than the last. And Trump in the middle of it all, totally and completely pleased with himself. (Reminder: Around that Cabinet table are hugely accomplished generals, billionaires and political people with long track records of success.)

What those contestants knew is the same thing Trump's Cabinet has now realized: Flattery will get you everywhere. Donald Trump's favorite topic of conversation is Donald Trump. The best way to talk about Donald Trump, if you want to keep working for Donald Trump, is to praise Donald Trump. The more over-the-top, the better.

Chuck Schumer was quick off the line to mock Trump with this re-creation of the Cabinet meeting:

There's a tendency in Trump's presidency to overlook or dismiss these smaller sorts of things. "Keep focused on the stuff that really matters," people tweet at me every day, all day. (For liberals sending those tweets, it's about Russia and Trump's finances. For conservatives, it's Trump's many accomplishments that are being allegedly ignored.)

My contention is that things like this Cabinet meeting -- while totally inconsequential in terms of actual policy -- are deeply revealing about who Trump is and how he views himself, the people who work for him and the world. And how he views all of those things is this: With Trump at the center and everyone a spoke emanating from his hub.

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Donald Trump just held the weirdest Cabinet meeting ever - CNN

Could this be the end of a beautiful friendship?

It started more than a decade ago in a Senate hearing room, blossomed last spring with apresidentialendorsement, and reached a high point this year when one man tapped theother for his long-awaited dream job.

But now, if someaccountsare to be believed, the once unshakable bond between Attorney General Jeff Sessions and President Donald Trump has been showing strain.

Tensions have boiled over between Sessions and Trump in recent months, as The Washington Post and other outlets have reported.

[Sessions offered in recent months to resign as attorney general]

Thingstook a bad turn in March, less than two months into the young administration,whenSessions recused himself from the probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, reportedly infuriating the president. Last week, The Post reported that the relationship had become so tense that Sessions at one point hadoffered to resign.

On Tuesday, Sessions is set to testify in an open hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee, where he is expected to face tough questions from lawmakers about the Russia scandal and the firing of former FBI director James B. Comey.

Thoughpublicly Trump and Sessions have remained cordial Sessionstold the president in a cabinet meeting Monday that he was honored to serve him the hearing couldweigh heavily on their sagging alliance. Just last week, Trump vented his frustrations with the Department of Justice in an string of angry tweets.

[Sessions will testify in open hearing Tuesday before Senate Intelligence Committee]

Wind the clock back a dozen years, however, and youll find a senator and a business mogul who had nothing but kind things to say about one another.

The year was 2005, and Sessions, then the junior senator from Alabama, had stumbled across a news articleabouta planned $1.2 billion renovation of the United Nations headquarters in New York. The headline of the New York Suns story read,Trump Scoffs at U.N.s Plan For New H.Q., andquoted Trump, then the head of Trump Organization, saying the U.N. waswasting hundreds of millions of dollars on the project.

Sessions seized on the report, citing Trumps remarks in a Senate floor speech that spring. The cost was outrageous, he said. Shortly after, he and then-Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) invitedTrump to be their star witness at a subcommittee hearing on the U.N. renovation.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions gave President Trump glowing remarks about his real estate expertise during a United Nations Headquarters renovation hearing in 2005. It was the first time the then-senator and business mogul met in person. (C-SPAN)

The July 2005 hearing was the first time the two men ever met in person, Sessions wouldlater say. Seated before the senators and news cameras, Trump testified that he had constructed Trump World Tower, a mammoth residential building across the street from the U.N. headquarters, for a fraction of the anticipated cost of the renovation project.

Anybody that says that a building of renovation is more expensive than building a new building does not know the business, Trump told the subcommittee. He said he agreed with Sessions that the cost could come down dramatically.

He went on to discuss how he met with Kofi Annan, then the U.N. secretary general, using language that sounds prescient in 2017:

When I went to see Kofi Annan, I was actually quite excited because I thought that I could save this country, this world, everybody including myself, a lot of money just by sitting down and having a meeting. They did not really care. It got a lot of press. I walked into the room and I sat down. I felt like a head of State. I was sitting with Kofi Annan, and a door opened, and there were literally hundreds of reporters taking my picture. I said, What are we doing? I just want to tell you I can build a building a lot cheaper. And that was the end of it.

To say Sessions was impressed by the testimony is an understatement. The senator praised what he called Trumps expertise and competence as a real estate developer, and thanked him for bringing the issue to the subcommittees attention. If Trump could build a brand new top-of-the-line, state-of-the-art 90-story residential tower for $350 million, why did the U.N. need four times as much for repairs, he asked.

In closing remarks, he called Trump a breath of fresh air for this Senate.

You have given us a tutorial on reconstruction and renovation and construction in big projects, he said. I hope people were listening, and I think the main point is you have got to know what you are doing in this city and this kind of construction project or you can be taken to the cleaners.

Your contributions are going to help us save money, and I believe help us have a better U.N. building, and you would not have said that if you did not believe in the institution and want it to be better, Sessions added. Again, I want to thank you for your courage, your willingness to speak out on an issue that a lot of people would have avoided, but you brought your expertise to bear and I believe it will help the U.N. do a better job.

After the hearing, there was an impromptu news conference. Trump, standing at a podium, fielded questions from reporters, flanked by Sessions on his right and Coburn on his left.Hesaid he wanted to help these great gentlemen who are working so hard to really do something with the United Nationsand to spend the money more wisely. From there, Trump and his wife, Melania Trump, stopped by Sessionss Senate office to pose for photographs, as the Boston Globe reported.

Years passed beforeSessions and Trump met publicly again, but theres no doubt they remained kindred spirits, sharing hard-line views on immigration and criminal justice. In 2015, they held a conference call on immigration policy, as The Post reported, and around that time, then-candidate Trump started courting Sessionss endorsement.Sessions gave it enthusiastically, one of the first sitting senators to do so. In turn,Sessions was confirmed as Trumps attorney general in February.

Allthese years, Trumps testimony in 2005seems to have stuck with Sessions, who raved about it to The Post last spring.

He was fabulous, Sessions recalled. He told Yellowhammer Radio around the same time last year that Trumps appearance wasthe most impressivecongressional testimony Ive ever heard.

On Tuesday, it will be Sessionss turn in the hot seat. His boss will surely be listening.

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Trump-like Julius Caesar assassinated in New York play. Delta, Bank of America pull funding.

Read more from the original source:

When Jeff Sessions met Donald Trump: The origins of an alliance now strained - Washington Post

Considering former FBI Director James Comey testified lastThursdaythat the president was a liar, last weekwasn't particularly great for Donald Trump. And this week isn't off to a great start for the president, either.

Trump's approval rating sunk to just 36 percent in the latest Gallup daily tracking pollreleased Monday. That's nearly the lowest point for Trump in the Gallup survey. Trump previously hit 35 percent approval on March 28shortly after the Republican Obamacare replacement, the American Health Care Act,failed before the House of Representatives could even take a vote.

Trump's disapproval rating, meanwhile, has ticked upward to tie the president'srecord-high of 59 percent, according to Monday's Gallup survey. He previously hit 59 percent disapproval in the Gallup tracking pollon March 28.

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Gallup tracks Americans feelings on the president daily, measuring approval and disapproval through telephone interviews of 1,500 national adults. The survey hada margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.

Trump's approval rating has steadily trended downward since he took office and most recently took a dipafterthe president's decision to fire Comey and anud continued revelations related to the investigation into his administration's potential connections with Russia. FiveThirtyEight's weighted average of Trump's approval had him at just 38 percent Monday, the lowest mark of his presidency. His disapproval average in the FiveThirtyEight tracker hit56 percent, thehighest mark yet.

The beginning of Trump's tenure in the White House has proven historically unpopular. Typically speaking, presidents are given a grace period of sorts during which Americans typically gift them a good approval rating. At this point in his first term, for instance, Obama's approval rating stoop at about 61 percent, according to Gallup. While Trump did briefly rise above former President Bill Clinton'sapproval rating at the same point in his first term, thatvictory proved to be short-lived. According to FiveThirtyEight's tracker, Clinton's approval rating in 1993 on day 144where Trump is nowwas2.1 percentage points better than theformer reality star's approval.

Trump also hit a new lowlast week inQuinnipiac University's survey, his approval rating coming in at just34 percent. The poll was full of bad resultsfor Trump, including the fact that 40 percent of voters thought his advisers had done something illegal in their interactions with Russia.

"There is zero good news for President Donald Trump in this survey, just a continual slide into a chasm of doubt about his policies and his very fitness to serve,"Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll, said in a statement at the time. "If this were a prizefight, some in his corner might be thinking about throwing in the towel. This is counterpuncher Donald Trump's pivotal moment to get up off the mat."

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Donald Trump's Approval Rating Sinks Further As Disapproval Hits Record High - Newsweek

President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference with Romanian President Klaus Werner Iohannis in the Rose Garden at the White House, Friday, June 9, 2017, in Washington. Andrew HarnikAP

As a number of legal experts warned, Donald Trump's tweets about his "travel ban" helped convince an appeals court to block the controversial plan. It's the second time his own comments have helped the courts knock down the executive order.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision on Monday, ruling that Trump's attempt to block immigration from six predominantly Muslim countries "exceeded the scope of the authority delegated to him by Congress."

In their ruling, the judges cited a tweet from the president that was posted after the recent terrorist attack in London, in which Trump argued that the U.S. needed a travel ban "for certain dangerous countries."

The Trump tweet was cited in a footnote in the decision, at a point where the court questioned the justification for the ban.

"The Order seeks to ban people from specific countries, but it does not provide any link between an individuals nationality and their propensity to commit terrorism or their inherent dangerousness," the judges said. "In short, the Order does not provide a rationale explaining why permitting entry of nationals from the six designated countries... would be detrimental."

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The court also noted that press secretary Sean Spicer recently confirmed that Trump sees his tweets as official statements from the White House.

Immediately after the president posted his thoughts on the travel ban in the wake of the London attacks, a number of people were quick to respond that this was probably unwise, given the fact that the immigration order was still before the courts.

The American Civil Liberties Union, for example, warned in a tweet that it was planning to use Trump's tweets as evidence in its ongoing fight against the order.

Even someone fairly close to TrumpGeorge Conway, a New York lawyer and husband of Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway suggested that posting such comments was unwise. "These tweets may make some ppl feel better, but they certainly won't help OSG get 5 votes in SCOTUS, which is what actually matters," he said.

Conway went on to say that he was a big supporter of Trump and of the immigration ban, but added that tweets from the administration on legal matters "seriously undermine Admin agenda and POTUS."

To make matters worse, Trump didn't stop at one tweet about the ban (which his own administration had previously argued was not actually a ban, and shouldn't be referred to as such). The president said that he supported his original order, not the "watered down, politically correct version" that his own advisers had convinced him to sign.

That earlier version of the law was struck down by two lower courts because it was targeted at Muslims, and blocking travel based on a person's religion is unconstitutional.

"I think he shot himself in the legal foot," Cornell Law School immigration professor Stephen Yale-Loehr said of Trump's comments about his preference for the original version of the ban.

One would think that the Trump administration or the president himself may be more careful with posts on Twitter about a legal case, since this isn't the first time that his tweets have been used against him in a court decision blocking his immigration order.

A lower court in Hawaii that blocked the most recent version of the order, in the case that led to the current ruling by the court of appeal, also cited tweets from the president, as did an earlier 9th Circuit decision on the previous version.

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Trump's Own Tweets Help Kill His Government's Travel Ban, Again - Fortune

A recent Quinnipiac poll contained an under-examined finding: A scant 19 percent of respondents between the ages of 18 and 34 approve of Donald Trumps presidency, while 67 percent disapprove. Even among self-described Republicans of this age range, a mere 35 percent approve.

Obviously, this is a problem.

There is a theorypopularized by conservative anti-tax guru Grover Norquistthat says people get locked into political parties when they turn 18 years old and cast their first vote. Republicans had better hope that it isnt true. My guess is this was more prevalent in the olden days. Casting your first vote for Franklin Rooseveltor even Ronald Reaganprobably did mean something. It meant you were signing up to be a part of something greata movement. You were a New Dealer or a Reaganite. You were part of the New Deal coalition or the Reagan Revolution. Young people werent just casting a ballot, they were signing up for a cause.

Im not so sure if people are as loyal today. We change our minds about all sorts of things over a long lifetime. Having said that, it stands to reason there might be psychological reasons why humans would want to avoid giving up on sunk costs. Who wants to admit they were wrongadmit they voted for the wrong person?

Data suggest that if your favorite baseball team wins a World Series when you are 8 years old, you will basically be a fan for life. Is it absurd to think that casting your first vote for president might essentially lock you into a political team for the next few decades?

And if its true that the first politician you vote for might have a positive enduring impact, its probably also true that the first politician you hate might also stick with you. This is true long before we turn 18. I never got to vote for Ronald Reagan, but he shaped me far more than any of the Bushes. But what if instead of Reagan, my political worldview had been formed during the downfall of a President Richard Nixon?

First impressions matter, writes conservative Bill Kristol. Most people dont change their political views radically from the ones they first hold. For young Americans today, Donald Trump is the face of Republicanism and conservatism.

There is a danger that Trump will tarnish the brandnot just for himselfbut for all the other Republicans who are carrying his water. If he is indeed permitted to embody the party and the movement without challenge, the fortunes of both will be at the mercy of President Trumps own fortunes, Kristol continues.

One of the problems with Trump has always been that he doubles down on all the demographics that are shrinking. Trump performs pretty well among married, white, college-educated old people who live in rural areas. Those of us who urged the GOP to go in a different direction were at least partly anticipating a future where there wont be enough of these people to elect a president.

This raises a question. In 20 years, will a new crop of old people simply tune into Fox News and replace them? Or will the Fox News Trump voter (for lack of a better term) simply go extinct? The old line that says a person who is not a liberal at 20 has no heart and a person who is not a conservative at 40 has no head became a clich for a reason. Its probably not a surprise that young people skew more liberal. The question here is whether a party can long endure when its standard bearer has the support of just 19 percent of young voters.

We are seeing a microcosm of this play out in the special election taking place in Georgias 6th Congressional District. According to a recent Atlanta Journal-Constitution survey, Republican Karen Handle is crushing Democrat John Osoff among voters over the age of 65. Ossoff is winning everybody else, with younger voters seemingly more inclined to back the 30-year-old Democrat.

It would be easy to dismiss this race as anecdotal. After all, there are 435 House seats; this is merely one of them. But it could turn out to be an important surrogate battle within the Democratic party. If Ossoff prevails, it might persuade Democrats that the key to defeating Republicans (in the House, at least) is to eschew Bernie Sanders populism that might resonate in places like the Rust Belt, and instead focus on suburban areas with young, tech-savvy voters.

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Ossoff is 30 and Donald Trump is about to turn 71, and it is tempting to draw conclusions about thisto suggest that the candidates age matters. But it doesnt. The aforementioned Sanders is 75, yet he is wildly popular with millennials. Likewise, Reagan, the oldest president, performed well with the youths of America.

A 1984 Time magazine article noted that Ronald Reagans popularity rating is highest of all among those who are 18 to 24 years old. What is more, members of this age group are registering as Republicans rather than as Democrats or independents, by ratios of 2 to 1 and 3 to 1, reversing a trend that began more than 40 years ago. The article also quotes Republican pollster Robert Teeters observation that for the first time since Roosevelt there is a significant group in the electorate who are Republican in greater overall numbers than Democrat. If these people stay loyal, you may have a much stronger Republican Party.

For years, the GOP ran on the borrowed capital of Ronald Reagan. Grover Norquist, it seems, had a point about young voters sticking with the Gipper. Could Donald Trump be the anti-Reagan? For the GOPs sake, heres hoping this phenomenon doesnt work in reverse.

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Donald Trump Is Turning Young Voters Off the GOPand Maybe Forever - Daily Beast

New York Times

Russia, Theresa May, Donald Trump: Your Tuesday Briefing New York Times ... In dozens of cities across Russia, thousands of people took to the streets to protest corruption and political stagnation in the country's biggest antigovernment demonstrations in years. There were reports of hundreds of detentions and a Moscow ...

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Russia, Theresa May, Donald Trump: Your Tuesday Briefing - New York Times

Early on Monday a colleague of mine messaged me with a link to a Politico article detailing how Russian intelligence has allegedly gathered kompromat on about 2,300 well-known American media personalities and politicians, apparently in conjunction with Vladimir Putins ongoing effort to subvert American democracy.

My political writer friend added, This is scary. What do you think will happen?

Nothing, I wrote back. Not as long as Trump insists this is nothing more than a scam by the Democrats because Hillary lost.

We cant repeat this enough: The United States and our democratic institutions were attacked by a hostile foreign power, yet President Donald Trump refuses to do a damn thing about it. Not only is he still infuriatingly chummy with the Russians, gifting them (without reciprocation) classified intelligence inside the Oval Office and reopening housing compounds that serve as bases for Russian spies.He wont even acknowledge as legitimate the very basic nut of the story, that Russia hacked the 2015-16 election cycle. Never mind the question of possible collusion for now. The Russians attacked us and theres copious evidence to prove it.

Imagine if, in the wake of 9/11, the George W. Bush White House had refused to accept that the attack even occurred. The entire world would have thought Bush had lost his mind or that our entire nation was caught in the grip of mass delusion.

Either way, Trump is behaving as if a series of ongoing events that were palpably real werent so at all. Those of us who have followed Trumps ridiculousness since the 1980s know that hes perpetually full of crap. For example, theres his statement,Trump Steaks are the worlds greatest steaks and I mean that in every sense of the word. But as a presidential candidate, and subsequently as the countrys chief executive, his world of make believe is unparalleled. Everything orbiting in Trumps universe a universe that includes his 62 million voters along with Fox News is a fantasy.

Everything thats real is fake and everything thats fake is real.

Trump held a Cabinet meeting on Monday morning wherehe asked his department-level secretaries to offer allegedly unsolicited praise for him and to express effusive gratitude for the honor of serving Trump personally. The usually stoic CNBC reporter John Harwood described the meeting by saying,Honestly this is like a scene from the Third World. Indeed. Vice President Mike Pence said serving Trump was the great honor of [his] life. (Pence has three children, by the way, whose births must be way downon the list of honors.) Chief of staff Reince Priebus, whos fighting for his job, said, Thank you for the blessing youve given us. Yes, Im sure its quite a blessing to be in charge of scooping the rhetorical feces from the cage of a clownish supervillain who needed four tries to correctly spell hereby.

The Cabinets gooey, over-the-top praise was cloying and artificial, but in Trumps world of make believe the president and his disciples were sufficiently fluffed, injecting every word of the Cabinets Eddie Haskell-ish ass kissing into the news cycle. Insofar as perception is reality, we can assume it worked on the faithful. If all these serious people think Trump is the greatest president God ever created, then it must be true!

Likewise, Trump expects everyone to believe there might be tapes of his one-on-one meetings with former FBI Director James Comey. Knowing Trump and the mendacity of his online blurtings, its safe to say there arent any tapes even though (to coin a phrase), Lordy, I hope there are tapes. If the tapes exist, hed release them. But releasing the tapes is irrelevant because as long as his base believes Comey is what Trump claimed a crazy, cowardly grandstander whos obviously lying about the meetings then pretending that such tapes might exist is enough for the voters who matter.

What else?

Contrary to Trumps world of make believe, there werent 3million illegal Hillary Clinton voters, nor did former President Barack Obama have Trumps wires tapped. The tax reform bill Trump says is being negotiateddoesnt actually exist. The American Health Care Act (also known as Trumpcare) will not provide health insurance to more people and will ultimately leavetens of millions of peoplewith no coverage, among other terrible things. His tweets about the travel ban wont help his chances in court and only make matters worse for the future of his executive order.

Meanwhile, Trump praised hisrecord on jobs so far: While 1.1 million new jobs have been created since Election Day, 1.3 million jobs were created during the previous seven months during former President Barack Obamas administration. (Trump has also forgotten about the supposedly real unemployment rate he mentioned so often during the campaign.) Trump insists the Democrats are feckless, rudderless failures who cant get anything doneyet theyre also effectively obstructing his entire agenda despite the fact that the GOP controls everything. And sorry, James Comey is telling the truth.

I could do this all day. Nothing Trump says is real or accurate nothing. Even discussing his statements as if theyre mere off-the-shelf political lies serves to only normalize him when, in fact, what hes doing is galactically destructive. The world has lost faith in Americas leadership or is losing it fast. Nearly 6 in 10 Americans believe Trump has gone bye-bye. Why? Because his fictitiousness is so completely obvious that we have no choice but to wonder whether hes mentally fit to lead. (Hes not.) He seems to sincerely believe that his kooky outbursts and cartoonish threats sound legitimate when anyone with a brain knows hes tilting at windmills even some of his core supporters.

Congressional Republicans are excusing Trumps loony behavior, for the moment, as the consequences of his being new to the job, arguing that his rookie stature is the source of his nonstop flailing. Im all in favor of any excuses that underscore the presidents massive incompetence, thanks. But the GOP seems to forget that Trump has acted like this for his entire career. He sculpts his own reality to compensate for his endless roster of inadequacies.

But before too long and I hope this is true the president and his supporters will be blindsided by reality. Sometime soon, Trump will be fully exposed for his part in the Trump-Russia attack whether as a willing participant or a conspirator after the fact, orchestrating the cover-up. No fairy tales from his Twitter feed will dig him out. The story has to end this way. Trump and all Trumps men have to be held accountable, otherwise we might as well resign ourselves to believing our democracy is owned and operated by the Kremlin. We cant allow Trumps delusions to become American delusions. The bedtime story Trump is telling has to end and end the right way or else.

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Donald Trump in Wonderland: Literally everything our president says and does reflects the opposite of reality - Salon

Deadline

Donald Trump Surrogate Lays Out POTUS Case For Sacking Special Counsel Robert Mueller Deadline Ruddy also claimed that Mueller interviewed with Trump as POTUS was interviewing possible FBI director candidates, just a few days before being named special counsel by deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. That hasn't been published, but it's true ... Chris Ruddy: President Trump Is Considering Firing Special Counsel Robert MuellerTIME Donald Trump's inner circle turn fire on special counsel charged with probing Russia tiesThe Independent Donald Trump is 'considering terminating Russia special counsel Robert Mueller'Telegraph.co.uk all 221 news articles »

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Donald Trump Surrogate Lays Out POTUS Case For Sacking Special Counsel Robert Mueller - Deadline

BBC News

Ivanka condemns Donald Trump's 'vicious critics' BBC News President Trump's daughter Ivanka has criticised "the level of viciousness" her father has been subjected to. She said that it went far beyond what she was expecting. In the interview with the Fox and Friends morning TV show, she said that she had been ... When Donald Trump and family decry 'viciousness' of modern politics, you know irony is deadThe Independent Ivanka Trump: 'There is a level of viciousness that I was not expecting'CNN all 195 news articles »

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Ivanka condemns Donald Trump's 'vicious critics' - BBC News

"When he tells you to do something, guess what? There's no ambiguity in it," Trump Jr. said on Fox News' "Justice with Judge Jeanine." "There's no, 'Hey, I'm hoping. You and I are friends. Hey, I hope this happens, but you've got to do your job.' That's what he told Comey."

Comey said in his testimony that he took the President's statement to be an inappropriate directive.

In a press conference on Friday. Trump denied saying that to Comey about Flynn, who resigned in February after it emerged that he misled Vice President Mike Pence about calls he made to Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Trump Jr. argued Saturday that Comey was being disingenuous in his description of the meeting.

"And for this guy, as a politician, to then go back and write a memo, 'Oh I felt threatened,'" Trump Jr. said. "He felt so threatened, but he didn't do anything."

Trump Jr. also disputed Comey's credibility, saying of the former FBI director: "I think he even got caught up in his own nonsense on this one."

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Donald Trump Jr.: There's 'no ambiguity' in my father's orders - CNN

Two senior administration officials told New York Times reporter Glenn Thrush on Sunday that PresidentDonald Trumps visit to the United Kingdom is currently off the presidents schedule.

That report follows a story inThe Guardianthat said Trumps U.K. trip had been put on hold after he told British Prime Minister Theresa May he was worried about being met with mass street protests.

The conversation between the two leaders took place in recent weeks and was heard by a Downing Street adviser who was in the room, according to The Guardian.

The White House denied The Guardian report on Sunday.

The President has tremendous respect for Prime Minister May. That subject never came up on the call, a White House spokespersonsaid.

A spokesman for May said Sunday, The Queen extended an invitation to President Trump to visit the UK and there is no change to those plans.

The reported scheduling change comes just days after London Mayor Sadiq Khan reiterated last week that his country should not host a state visit in Trumps honor.

I dont think we should be rolling out the red carpet to the president of the USA in the circumstances where his policies go against everything we stand for, said Khan, who is Londons first Muslim mayor.

The presidentslammed Khan over his handling of the June 3 terror attack in London. Khan shot back, saying Trump had deliberately taken his assurances to Londoners out of context.

May sparked criticism earlier this year when she announced that Trump had been invited to visit the U.K. with full state honors. Thisweeks snap electionin Britain, however, threw the process into further doubt and Trump will be even more uncertain about a trip given the instability of Mays prospective minority government, according to HuffPost UK.

Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn welcomed reports of the visits cancellation on Sunday.

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Donald Trump's State Visit To The UK Now In Doubt - HuffPost

Here's a look at some of the comments made by Trump and his advisers that have been cited by judges that have blocked his travel ban. USA TODAY

A lone protester stood outside the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in San Francisco in early February, as legal wrangling over President Trump's travel ban was just getting started.(Photo: JOHN G. MABANGLO, EPA)

WASHINGTON It's been 18 months since Donald Trump,presidential candidate,called for "a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United Statesuntil our countrys representatives can figure out what the hell is going on."

It's been nearly six months since Trump, as president-elect, was asked if terror attacks in Europe had affected his proposed Muslim ban. "You know my plans," he said. "All along, I've been proven to be right."

And it's been less than a week since President Trump trumpeted the travel ban he first proposed in January, which would have shut down virtually all travel from seven majority-Muslim countries while giving Christians preferential treatment. "The Justice Dept. should have stayed with the original Travel Ban, not the watered down, politically correct version they submitted to S.C.," he tweeted.

Now "S.C." the Supreme Court may have the last word on whether Trump's words matter. The justices could decide as soon as this week whether to overrule lower courts and let the travel ban go into effect temporarily, as well as whether to rule on its overall constitutionality. Oral arguments could be held within weeks, or later in the year. Ultimately, the ban could be implemented or permanently blocked.

Trump's statements lie at the heart of the legal battle federal courts from Virginia to Hawaii have wrestled with since February in deciding whether the president's temporary travel ban is constitutional.While the fighthas raised questions aboutnational security, presidential power and due process rights, what's garnered the most attention has been whether Trump's rants and tweets trump his actions.

"It's a genuinely difficult question," says Kate Shaw, an associate law professor at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, who says Trump's words reveal his intentions. "This is not a question that the Supreme Court has resolved."

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What President Trump has said about the travel ban

President Trump's travel ban rhetoric has divided judges across nation

Trump's immigration travel ban faces familiar foe in appeals courts: Trump

Trump was one of 14 Republican candidates still seeking his party's presidential nomination on Dec. 7, 2015, when he made his first statement about Muslim immigration. Now he's the president who twice hassought a temporary ban on immigrants from predominantly Muslim nations with ties to terrorism, as well as all refugees.

Did the campaign rhetoric presage the presidential policy?Most of the judges who have issued rulings on Trump's travel ban a name the president embraced in all CAPS as recently as this week have said his statements as a candidate, president-elect and president are relevant.

"These statements, taken together, provide direct, specific evidence of what motivated both (executive orders): President Trumps desire to exclude Muslims from the United States," Chief Judge Roger Gregory wrote for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit in a 10-3 ruling last month.

Protesters march outside the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit in Richmond last month during oral argument over President Trump's travel ban.(Photo: Steve Helber, AP)

But severaljudges have argued that campaign promises should be off-limits, or at least dwarfed by government actions that are not overtly discriminatory.

"Opening the door to the use of campaign statements to inform the text of later executive orders has no rational limit," Judge Paul Niemeyer wrote in dissent to the 4th Circuit decision. He mused that such past history could extend to "statements from a previous campaign, or from a previous business conference, or from college."

Judges in California, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Virginia and Washington have weighed in on the question this winter and spring, raising a number of issues that are likely to come before the Supreme Court as soon as later this month.

The majority of them have said courts can and should examine the purpose behind government actions; that Trump's words reveal hispurpose to be, at least in part, banning Muslims; that his initial focus on Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen is but a means to that end; and that Trump the president cannot claim to be different thanTrump the candidate.

Just as the Supreme Court has held that 'the world is not made brand new every morning, a person is not made brand new simply by taking the oath of office, said Judge Leonie Brinkema of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Her reference was to a Supreme Court ruling in 2005, in which Justice David Souter wrote that two Kentucky counties could not hide the unconstitutional religious purpose of their Ten Commandments courthouse displays by later adding additional documents.

"Reasonable observers have reasonable memories," Souter wrote. "Our precedents sensibly forbid an observer 'to turn a blind eye to the context in which thepolicy arose.'

But Mathew Staver, who represented the two counties before the Supreme Court, says the original display and later versions all represented government actions. "Here, you have comments by the president before he was president," Staver says. "That is fundamentally different."

Justice Anthony Kennedy, here with President Trump at the White House, could be the swing vote on the travel ban case.(Photo: JIM LO SCALZO, EPA)

In Trump's case, some travel ban opponents say, one doesn't need a long memory because he never stopped talking in stark terms about the travel ban.

There is a continuous run of statements from the campaign, through the election, through the inauguration and right up to this week," says Micah Schwartzman, a University of Virginia School of Law professor specializing in religion. "The president has never expressly disavowed those earlier statements."

Judges and legal analysts who defendthe travel ban argue that Trump's words and those of his aides cannot form the basis for a constitutional violation. It takes too much interpretation, they say, to read anti-Muslim bias into an executive order devoid of religious content.

The policy he spoke about is not in any way the policy that was passed, saysNorthwestern University law professor Eugene Kontorovich, who specializes ininternational law.Its not clear this is about Muslims. This is about countries that everyone agrees are among the worlds most messed up.

Even so, the Supreme Court has said judges can look beyond the challenged policy in cases involving religious libertyor civil rights to determine if there was another purpose, or if the stated purpose was a sham. Justice Anthony Kennedy, who could be the swing vote in the travel ban case, made that point in a 2015 rulinginvolving the government's denial of a visa to a U.S. citizen's husband.

Even though the court upheld the visa denial, Mark Haddad, who represented the womanin court, said Kennedy's cautionary view shows that courts should not take government policies at face value.

There has to be a way to show that the governments acting in bad faith," Haddad says. "Otherwise, the check on the governments power is non-existent.

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Will Donald Trump's anti-Muslim words on travel ban hurt his case? - USA TODAY

Donald Trumps presidency has been every bit asamateurishand chaotic and ridiculous as his campaign was. As time has elapsedmany of those who were terrified at first have come to view the president as aclown who is in way over his head. Utter uncertainty prevailed duringthe months between Trumps election in Novemberand his January inauguration,andmany were genuinely concerned thatTrump would quickly become a tyrant once in office, using the power of the presidency to go after his enemies and silence his critics.

It has now been nearly five months since Trump became president, and the full-blown panic that was in the air earlier this year haswaned. Trump has yet to impose martial law, imprison his critics or crack down on the free press. In fact, the Trump administration has been positively incompetent. The White House has been plagued by major policy setbacks and political scandals, and the presidents most notable executive orders have been struck down by the courts as unconstitutional. Trump and his team seem to have entered Washington without a clue as to how things work, and the dealmaker-in-chief has made no deals whatsoever on Capitol Hill. President Trump has also made some embarrassing and costlyblunders himself usually in the form of tweeting late at night while his babysitters are in bed. (Case in point: The presidents recent tweets on the travel ban will likely damage his efforts to restore it.)

It is understandable, then, that many have come to view Trump and his presidency as more of an embarrassing joke than an existential threat to our democracy. The president seemstoo great a foolto pose a real threat to the republic.

This notion was recentlyaddressed by Russian journalist Masha Gessen inacolumn for the New York Times,in which she argues thatTrumps Incompetence Wont Save Our Democracy, and looks back at some of historys most successful tyrantsto make her point:

A careful reading of contemporary accounts will show that both Hitler and Stalin struck many of their countrymen as men of limited ability, education and imagination and, indeed, as being incompetent in government and military leadership. Contrary to popular wisdom, they are not political savants, possessed of one extraordinary talent that brings them to power. It is the blunt instrument of reassuring ignorance that propels their rise in a frighteningly complex world.

Gessen also notes that Vladimir Putin, whom she has interviewed and written extensively about and who is perceived by many as a cunning political genius is a poorly educated, under-informed, incurious man whose ambition is vastly out of proportion to his understanding of the world. (This seems to be a perfectly apt description of Trump as well even if the American presidents ignorance of the world seems to be in a class of its own.) Gessen concludes that it is Trumps insistence on simplicity that makes him want to rule like an autocrat, and that militant incompetence and autocracy are not in opposition: They are two sides of a coin.

This is an important point that should dissuade people from underestimating Trump after his rockystart. After all, most people underestimatedthe billionaire throughout his campaign for many of the same reasons, and he had the last laugh. Though the Trump administrations incompetencehas been something to behold, this shouldnt detract from the very real authoritarian leaningsthat the president has displayed.

Trumps firing of FBI Director James Comey because of his investigation into Russias interference in the electionwas the clearest sign yet that the president has no respect for the rule of law or the separation of powers. But the presidents authoritarian tendencies have been apparent from day one whether it be inlabelingthe press the enemy of the people, attacking federal judges who rule against his policies, or describingthe constitutional system of checks and balances is archaic and a bad thing for the country.

Of course, there has also been a great deal of unhelpful hysteria coming from certainliberals.Aparanoid style of politics has taken hold of many Democrats, andTrump critics have becomeincreasingly ready to believe conspiracy theories and fake newsparticularlywhen it comes to Russia or to embracefar-fetched theoriesabout how the Trump administrationsfailures are really part of a master plan.

In an article for the Guardian last month, leftist author Corey Robincriticized liberals for this hysteria and credulity, andpointedoutthat Trump hasnt even attemptedto fill the vast majority of positions in the executive branch since becoming president. Its a strange kind of authoritarian who fails, as the first order of business, to seize control of the state apparatus, observes Robin, who goes on to blast liberalsfor taking the presidents words (or, in many cases, tweets) far too seriously. Trump has always thought his words were more real than reality. Hes always believed his own bullshit. Its time his liberal critics stopped believing it too, he writes.

Robin makes a valid point, and it is certainly time forliberals tobrush up on their critical thinking skills. That doesnt mean we should stop taking Trumps authoritarian threatsseriously. And just because the Trump administration has been an incompetentmess until now doesnt mean that the danger isnt real. Trump has yet toimprison his political opponentsor crack down on the media or impose martial law in Chicago, buthe hasthreatened to do suchthings, which is dangerous in and of itself.

Trump is no mastermind, and he has little understandingof how the government works. In the long run, the big donors who have come to dominate American politics over the past 40 years probably pose a greater hazard to democracy than Donald Trump.But any leader who breaks as many democratic norms as our president has over the past few months mustbe regarded as a legitimatethreat to democracy, no matter how ludicroushe appears while doing it.

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Yes, Donald Trump is an incompetent buffoon but he's still a major threat to democracy - Salon

Virginias Democratic primary on Tuesday is shaping up to be the first real test of liberalism in the Trump era, with both candidates lurching for increasingly leftward policies to position themselves in contrast with President Donald Trump.

Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam has used TV ads to call Trump a narcissistic maniac. Former Rep. Tom Perriello has proclaimed that Trump is an authoritarian. Both candidates have taken decidedly liberal positions on abortion, guns, criminal justice and college tuition while using Trump bashing as a foundation of their campaigns. While Northam has the support of the Democratic establishment throughout Virginia and Perriello brings a potent Bernie Sanders endorsement to the primary, the simmering question for the winner is how this race to the left in the Democratic primary which may appeal to Northern Virginia Democrats will play across the rest of the state in the general election.

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Virginia's gubernatorial elections often develop into contrasts with a new president, but there's a stark difference between now and how Republican candidate Bob McDonnell handled then-President Barack Obama in 2009. While critical of Obama's economic record, the future governor also regularly praised Obama for supporting school choice, straddling the partisan divide.

The Democrats have felt no need to do the same with the less popular Trump, whose approval rating was at 36 percent in a recent Washington Post-George Mason University poll of Virginia.

Let's prove that Donald Trump's values are not Virginia values, Perriello says in one of his closing television ads. Northam has arguably gone further, using his TV campaign to call Trump a narcissistic maniac though Perriello answered Thursday with an ad of his own calling Trump "authoritarian," and invoking Virginia's motto: "Sic Semper Tyrannis," a shortened version of a Latin phrase meaning "Thus always I bring death to tyrants." Perriello has also lined up Khizr Khan who became famous for his Democratic National Convention speech invoking his son, who died in the Iraq War, and slamming Trump to campaign with him on Monday, the day before the primary.

Rep. Gerry Connolly, the only Democratic member of Virginias congressional delegation to remain neutral in the primary the others have all lined up behind Northam said its unclear whether voters will respond to Perriellos vision of the governorship.

Can Tom ride the anti-Trump wave, which is very strong here in Northern Virginia? Connolly pondered in a recent phone interview. Can he make the case that the governors office should be a platform for the resistance?

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Invoking the resistance comes more naturally to Perriello than it does to Northam. It was former staffers of Perriellos who wrote the Indivisible guides, which have inspired dozens of local liberal-leaning groups that have poked and prodded their members of Congress on Trumps Russia scandals and the GOP health care repeal plan.

Northam, by his own admittance, is less of a firebrand and more unassuming than Perriello. But he has dived headlong into the anti-Trump-themed primary, too, when he unveiled the narcissistic maniac attack on Trump in his stump speech and later in TV ads.

We experienced in 2016 this campaign of Mr. Trumps that was run of fear, bigotry, hatred and a lot of misinformation, Northam said in an April interview. In politics, you tend to react to whats going on around you. Theres been an awakening going on across Virginia, and I suspect across this country. I worry a lot about whats going on in Washington.

Northam, a pediatric neurologist, has defended the narcissistic maniac line as both politically effective and medically appropriate. When Meet the Press host Chuck Todd pressed him on its use recently, Northam didnt back down.

Theres a lot of overlap between psychiatry and neurology, and I would invite the viewers to look up the criteria for narcissism, he said, adding: I think theyll see some familiarity with what theyll see.

The results of the Republican primary have been in less doubt than the Democratic contest, but Trump has made waves in that race nonetheless.

Underdog candidate Corey Stewart, the Prince William County Board of Supervisors chairman, has argued that front-runner Ed Gillespie, a former Republican National Committee chairman, is less than sincere in his backing of the under-fire Republican.

Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam, by his own admittance, is less of a firebrand and more unassuming than former Rep. Tom Perriello. But he has dived headlong into the anti-Trump-themed primary, too, when he unveiled the narcissistic maniac attack on President Donald Trump in his stump speech and later in TV ads. | AP Photo

Stewart (who was Trumps Virginia campaign chair for much of 2016 but was fired in October) stands next to a smiling Trump in his closing TV ad, while a narrator declares: Corey Stewart supports President Trump. Not Ed Gillespie. In a debate outside Richmond this spring, Stewart attacked Gillespie for criticizing Trump after the release of the Access Hollywood tapes that showed Trump bragging about sexually assaulting women.

Ed was among the first Republicans in the country to kick him when he was down, Stewart said.

Gillespie responded by noting Trump himself apologized for the remarks. Coreys the only one who thinks theyre great comments, he said.

Invoking Trump has not given Stewart much traction; last months Washington Post poll found Gillespie with a lead of 20 percentage points in the primary. A plurality also thought Gillespie was the strongest Trump supporter in the race.

Yet Trumps brand of politics would seem an ill fit with what Gillespie has practiced as a political operative, 2014 Senate candidate and gubernatorial contender. Gillespie repeatedly pledges to be the governor of all Virginians, has released television ads in Spanish and Korean, and has mentioned his familys immigrant roots in web videos. In his 2014 Senate campaign, Gillespie made extensive outreach to Northern Virginia Muslim communities.

Still, Gillespie has largely avoided breaking with Trump. While GOP governors in blue states like Maryland, Vermont and Massachusetts have criticized his handling of the travel ban or his decision to pull out of the Paris agreement on reducing carbon emissions, Gillespie has resisted putting distance between himself and the president.

After an event in Northern Virginia on Wednesday, Gillespie was asked why his campaign ads didnt feature Trump the way his competitors did. His response was 45 seconds long, and he never said the presidents name, while every TV in the state features Northam and Perriello talking about Trump before Tuesday's primary.

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Democrats bet on Trump in Virginia governor's race - Politico

By Shawn Boburg, The Washington Post

The hard-charging New York lawyer President Donald Trump chose to represent him in the Russia investigation has prominent clients with ties to the Kremlin, a striking pick for a president trying to escape the persistent cloud that has trailed his administration.

Marc Kasowitzs clients include Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch who is close to President Vladimir Putin and has done business with Trumps former campaign manager. Kasowitz also represents Sberbank, Russias largest state-owned bank, court records show.

Kasowitz has represented one of Deripaskas companies for years in a civil lawsuit in New York and was scheduled to argue on the companys behalf May 25, two days after news broke that Trump had hired him, court records show. A different lawyer in Kasowitzs firm showed up in court instead, avoiding a scenario that would have highlighted Kasowitzs extensive work for high-profile Russian clients.

Kasowitz, whose scrappy style in the courtroom mirrors Trumps approach to politics, represented Trump in various matters for more than a decade before he took on either Deripaskas company or Sberbank, according to one of Kasowitzs partners in the firm.

Trump has turned to Kasowitz for matters that include debt restructuring and suing an author who Trump said undercounted his net worth. On Thursday, Kasowitz became the public face of Trumps counterattack on former FBI director James Comey, challenging the former federal prosecutors credibility and calling for Comey to be investigated for leaks after his testimony to Congress.

As Kasowitz takes on his most high-stakes work for Trump yet, the lawyers Russian clients could cause complications.

If the behavior of a Russian client of the firm or its relationship with Trump becomes an issue in the investigation, a conflict could arise, said Stephen Gillers of New York University Law School, an expert on legal ethics.

Deripaska has said congressional investigators have contacted his attorneys seeking information about his business dealings with Paul Manafort, a Trump campaign manager during the presidential campaign. More than a decade ago, Deripaska invested in a fund that Manafort set up in the Cayman Islands that bought assets primarily in Ukraine.

The Associated Press reported in March that Manafort secretly worked for Deripaska as far back as 2006 to influence politics and business dealings inside the United States to benefit Putins government. Manafort signed a $10 million annual contract beginning in 2006 and maintained a business relationship until at least 2009, the AP reported.

Deripaska has denied the report, and he sued the AP for libel last month. Deripaska said he never had any arrangement, whether contractual or otherwise, with Mr. Manafort to advance the interests of the Russian government, according to the lawsuit.

Former associates of Sberbank, the other Russia-tied Kasowitz client, also have come under scrutiny in media reports.

The banks former vice president, who is now chief executive of another Russian state-owned financial institution, Vnesheconombank, met with Trumps son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner, in December.

Kushners interactions with the Russian banker are a part of the FBIs investigation into potential coordination between Moscow and the Trump campaign team.

Gillers said Kasowitzs firm should closely monitor potential conflicts. If one arises, the firm probably would have to drop one of its clients, he said.

A White House spokesman did not respond to requests for comment Friday. Michael J. Bowe, a partner at the law firm Kasowitz Benson Torres, declined to say whether the firm had discussed the possibility of potential conflicts arising from its Russian clients. Bowe added that their representation of the Russian firms and Trump are totally unrelated.

CNN and BuzzFeed previously reported Kasowitzs Russian clients.

Trump hired Kasowitz in 2001 to restructure debt on his firms Atlantic City casinos. More recently, Kasowitz filed a lawsuit against Timothy OBrien, arguing that the author of TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald had libeled Trump by understating the businessmans wealth. Trump lost the case in 2011. OBrien told The Post last year that Trump used Kasowitz because he always favored scrappy lawyers and street fighters.

Kasowitz also wrote a letter during the presidential campaign threatening to sue the New York Times for an article that said two women had accused Trump of touching them inappropriately. Kasowitz said at the time it was nothing more than a politically motivated effort to defeat Mr. Trumps candidacy. No suit has been filed.

Its not clear whether Kasowitz will continue to represent Deripaskas company, Veleron.

On Tuesday, Veleron lost an appeal in federal court in Manhattan in its lawsuit against Morgan Stanley in a complex financial case involving a dispute over a loan on which Veleron defaulted during the height of the Great Recession. Kasowitz was scheduled to deliver oral arguments in the appeal last month.

Records in the case reinforce Deripaskas close ties to Putin. When Deripaskas company ran into financial trouble in 2008 and needed to put up more collateral to cover some its liabilities, Deripaska put in a call to Putin, who authorized the state-run Vnesheconombank, or VEB, to offer his firm a bailout, Deripaska acknowledged in court records.

In 2008, Forbes magazine listed Deripaska as the ninth-richest man in the world. In 2006, the United States revoked his visa to enter the country, citing possible ties to organized crime. He has denied those links, claiming the allegations are part of an effort to smear him.

Kasowitz represents Sberbank in a 2016 lawsuit that is still in its preliminary stages. A Russian businessman accuses the bank of conspiring with executives of a granite-mining company in a textbook case of Russian corporate raiding. The bank has not responded in court filings.

Sberbank was one of the sponsors of the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow produced by Trump, who owned the competition. The deputy head of the bank at the time was Sergey Gorkov, who met with Kushner in December. Gorkov, a graduate of the academy of the Federal Security Service, or FSB, the domestic successor of the former Soviet KGB intelligence bureau, was named to head VEB in February 2016.

VEB has maintained that Gorkovs meeting with Kushner was part of a new business strategy and was conducted with Kushner in his role as the head of his familys real estate business. The White House has said the meeting was unrelated to business and was one of many diplomatic encounters the soon-to-be presidential adviser was holding ahead of the inauguration.

The Washington Posts Rosalind S. Helderman and Tom Hamburger contributed to this report.

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Marc Kasowitz, Donald Trump's lawyer, has clients with Kremlin ties - The Denver Post

The Department of Justice is trying to persuade a federal judge to throw out a lawsuit claiming that President Donald Trump is violating the Constitution by accepting payments from foreign governments without congressional approval.

A Friday filing in U.S. District Court in Manhattan represents the first legitimate response from the Trump Administration to a number of suits that insist that the President has significant conflicts of interest within his real estate empire since taking office.

"Historical evidence confirms that the Emoluments Clauses were not designed to reach commercial transactions that a President (or other federal official) may engage in as an ordinary citizen through his business enterprises," the Justice Department argued in a motion to dismiss a case first brought by watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington in January, three days after Trump's inauguration. "At the time of the Nations founding, government officials were not given generous compensations, and many federal officials were employed with the understanding that they would continue to have income from private pursuits."

The federal government's argument cites American history throughout its brief numerous times, noting that President George Washington sold crops to England, Portugal and Jamaica.

"Neither the text nor the history of the clauses shows that they were intended to reach benefits arising from a Presidents private business pursuits having nothing to do with his office or personal service to a foreign power," the filing reads. "Were plaintiffs' interpretation correct, Presidents from the very beginning of the Republic, including George Washington, would have received prohibited 'emoluments.'"

In order to eliminate conflicts of interest, Trump announced he would hand over operation of his businesses to his sons, Eric and Donald Jr., and Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg. The Trump Organization also pledged not to make any business deals outside of the U.S. while Trump was still President. But a number of critics like CREW say that Trump's lines continue to blur between President and business mogul.

"Its clear from the governments response that they dont believe anyone can go to court to stop the President from systematically violating the constitution," CREW said in a statement. "We heartily disagree and look forward to our day in court."

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Justice Department: Trump Can Take Payments From Foreign Governments - TIME