Category Archives: Donald Trump

DALLAS Donning a camouflage Trump baseball cap and Trump-Pence 2020 sneakers, Ronnie Drury arrived nearly 12 hours early to hear President Donald Trump speak Thursday evening at a reelection rally in Dallas.

This is the biggest thing on my bucket list, and Im checking it off, he said.

For Drury, of Plano, the draw wasnt hearing Trump discuss any particular policy issue but receiving affirmation on his staunch beliefs toward Social Security and immigration policy. They cant live off of you and Is benefits, Drury said of migrants entering through the U.S.-Mexico border. They have to work just like everybody else does.

The president didnt disappoint.

Were building a great wall along the southern border, Trump said as raucous cheers of build a wall radiated from the brimming crowd. It is going up rapidly, we are building that sucker right now, and it is having a tremendous effect.

Trump also drew praise from the crowd as he took aim at Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, 2020 presidential candidates Beto ORourke and Joe Biden, Bidens son Hunter (some in the crowd derisively referred to him as Cokehead Biden), and former President Barack Obama.

I really dont believe they love our country, Trump said, also referring to Democrats as corrupt people.

National headlines Thursday would suggest the president was having a rough day. Just hours before, his acting chief of staff admitted, then tried to walk back, that the president used military aid as leverage to pressure Ukraine into a political investigation. Hours later, Energy Secretary Rick Perry announced he was resigning at the end of the year. But Trump and his supporters were unfazed, eager to embrace the rally as a sort of therapeutic escape.

For the thousands of faithful supporters who found themselves at Thursday evenings rally, the night was more than a political spectacle. Attendees donned bright red, white and blue garments adorned with buttons and carried signs insisting they were neither racist nor stupid. Trump strode onstage nearly an hour after he was slated to speak, but the audience paid no mind. Energized by a pump-up playlist that included Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie and Elton John, attendees waved their hands in the air, paraded blue and red Trump-Pence signs, and cheered and booed on cue with those who warmed up the crowd.

In talks with more than a dozen Trump supporters before and after the rally, the message was clear. Their support for Trump was steeped in two main beliefs: Hes done exactly what he said hed do, and his remarks toward Democrats and people of color matched what they said and believed.

He talks like me. He thinks like me, said Patrick Stevenson, 34, of Arlington. He can talk like a normal person, which is weird because the guy is a flippin billionaire. Hes just like a regular cab driver dude.

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Stevenson, who said he voted for Obama in 2008 because he was black and we needed change, didnt fully embrace the Republican ideology until he was deployed to Afghanistan in 2011 under the Obama administration. He said he noticed a change in policy on the ground that led him to develop a callous attitude toward the military and the government.

Then Trump entered the 2016 presidential race.

This orange guy gets on the TV and starts campaigning, you know, and it just hits home, he said. Im like, You know what, this guy gets me.

First: A dog is decked out in Trump regalia at the Dallas rally. Last: Nicole Rogers, 34, who flew in from New Mexico, says she has seen the problems at the border and wants to let people know.Leslie Boorhem-Stephenson for The Texas Tribune

Shelly Gish of Hallsville said she believed in everything Mr. Trump is doing. Regarding the Democrats, she said, All they want to do is impeach, impeach, impeach since the first day.

If I get to talkin about it, I get angry," she said, laughing a little. Hes a smart man. The way he is diplomatin with other countries. Hes doing everything great.

Although a flurry of campaign activity in Texas over the past week signaled to some Democrats that the president and his team may be wary that the state is in play, the synergy between the president and his audience last night only helped to affirm the crowds confidence in his grip over Texas Republicans and their shared belief that the country under the presidents leadership is better than ever heading into what is already a tumultuous 2020 campaign.

Trump carried Texas by 9 percentage points in 2016, the smallest margin for a Republican presidential nominee here in two decades. His approval rating typically comes in several points above water here, but recent polling has shown him trailing or only narrowly defeating a number of potential Democratic nominees in the state.

Trump, and the Texas elected officials who spoke before him Thursday, were undaunted by those stats, instead spending their time at the mic to warn that if theyre not reelected in 2020, theyll be replaced by liberal Democrats who are coming to get your guns.

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, and Trump campaign manager and former San Antonio resident Brad Parscale were among those who warmed up the crowd before Trumps speech.

We did not have an election in 2016. We had a revolt, Patrick, who is chairing Trumps campaign in Texas, said to huge cheers. The revolution is only getting louder and larger.

Trumps presence also prompted outcry and a counter-rally by ORourke. The presidents critics decried how Trumps sometimes vulgar language and actions have made some vulnerable people feel unsafe or unvalued. And they warned of a backlash thats brewing among the Texas electorate.

Tonight, this President is going to go on stage and lie to his supporters about his standing in the state of Texas and the destruction that hes caused our state and our country, Texas Democratic Party Chair Gilberto Hinojosa said in a statement. Lets be clear: the only reason Donald Trump is in Texas tonight is that he knows he will lose the state and lose this election.

First: Nathan Quick drove more than 1,000 miles to be at the rally in Dallas. He says he follows the president all over the country selling merchandise. Last: A big crowd turned out for the rally. Lines continued for blocks around the arena.Leslie Boorhem-Stephenson for The Texas Tribune

The rally and talks of an election nearly 13 months away werent the only things in place to help electrify the crowd. Hours before Trump took the stage, his campaign hosted 45 Fest, where supporters stood in winding lines for cheesy nachos, bobbed their heads to a medley of country music and watched various big screens that rolled pretaped interviews of the president, Donald Trump Jr., Lara Trump, and social media stars Diamond and Silk.

Attendees bemoaned the long lines to get into the arena, but many, including Drury, the man from Plano, found solace among the likeminded strangers all eager to embrace the concert-like atmosphere of the event well before Trump took the stage.

Two men got there early to buy knockoff Make America Great Again merchandise: LGBT shirts where the letters stood for liberty, guns, beer and Trump. Nicole Rogers, a 34-year-old corrections officer who had flown in from New Mexico that morning to attend, paraded around with a sign declaring she was gay but not stupid.

For some, the lead-up to the rally was better than seeing it firsthand.

Nathan Quick, 51, drove from North Carolina with his cousin to sell merchandise adjacent to the American Airlines Center. Quick estimated that Thursday was his 80th Trump rally.

Hes a man of his word, Quick said. I follow him everywhere because he hasnt told a lie yet.

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The presidents speech stuck to his main points on the campaign trail the fake news, the whistleblower who spurred an impeachment inquiry, a trade war with China, the countrys economic performance during his term, his friendships with Republican politicians in the state and his strongly held belief that he will be reelected president.

Alicia Lyon of Garland predicted that would be the case before the rally started. Hes not a robot practicing his speech in a mirror, she said of Trump. What you see is what you get.

Hes a human, and everyone who says, Well hes not presidential, she said. "Well what does that really mean? To me, thats fake.

She laughed a little before insisting that the media would twist and spin Trumps words to fit their agenda regardless of what he said onstage. But much like Trump during his speech, she was unperturbed. Thats just one inconvenience, she said, of defending a man who is doing everything right.

Trump 2020, she said, grinning. Its going on again, baby.

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Donald Trump fans in Dallas say the president just gets them - Texas Tribune

Nobel-prize winning economist Robert Shiller believes a recession may be years away due to a bullish Trump effect in the market.

According to the Yale University professor, President Donald Trump is creating an environment that's conducive to strong consumer spending, and it's a major force that should hold off a recession.

"Consumers are hanging in there. You might wonder why that would be at this time so late into the cycle. This is the longest expansion ever. Now, you can say the expansion was partly [President Barack] Obama," he told CNBC's "Trading Nation" on Friday. "But lingering on this long needs an explanation."

Shiller, a behavioral finance expert who's out with the new book "Narrative Economics," believes Americans are still opening their wallets wide based on what President Trump exemplifies: Consumption.

"I think that [strong spending] has to do with the inspiration for many people provided by our motivational speaker president who models luxurious living," said Shiller.

Shiller emphasizes there's still uncertainty and risk surrounding Wall Street.

Before the markets can take-off, Shiller stresses President Trump needs to get past the impeachment inquiry. He sees this as the biggest threat to his optimistic forecast.

"If he survives that, he might contribute for some time in boosting the market," said Shiller. "We're maybe in the Trump era, and I think that Donald Trump by inspiration had an effect on the market not just tax cutting."

Despite Shiller's optimistic stance, he cautions not everything is rosy in the economy. His Shiller PE Ratio, also known as CAPE, tracks the price-to-earnings ratio based on average inflation-adjusted earnings over the last 10 years. He cautions it's still at a concerning level.

"I'm not saying that I'm so bullish because I have a CAPE ratio that is bearish," said Shiller, who predicted on "Trading Nation" last March there was a 50% chance the economy would tip into a recession within 18 months.

Yet, he's sticking with the idea that the economy and markets should have a lot of runway left for gains if President Trump remains in office due to his pro-spending, pro-business narrative.

Shiller contends the next recession may not hit for another three years, and it could be mild.

"Let's not make the mistake of assuming it's right around the corner," Shiller said. "If the economy is strong, which is what he built is case on, 'make America great again,' he has a good chance of getting re-elected."

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Robert Shiller: Recession likely years away due to bullish Trump effect - CNBC

As theimpeachment inquiryagainstPresident Donald Trump rapidly unfoldsin Washington,the president is venting his frustration atcampaign rallies where his attacks on House Democrats and the media are serving to further energize his supporters.

Trump, facing impeachment over allegations he improperly used the power of his office to pressureUkraine to investigate his political enemies, isrousing his devotees on the road rather than hunkering down at home. He has derided the accusations as a "witch hunt."

While Trump has faced intense criticism in Washington over the Ukraine scandal and his abrupt pullout of U.S. troops from Syria, he has reveled in the rock-star reception he has receivedat rallies thousands of miles away in Minneapolis and Dallas.

Supporters echo the president'sattacks on impeachment, House Democratsand what Trump calls the "swamp" of Washington, D.C. Like the president, they view impeachment as an illegitimate effort to take him down and defend his phone call with Ukraine's president in which he pushed for an investigation of former vice president Joe Biden, a top political rival. Impeachment, many said, will wind up re-electing Trump in 2020.

President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2019, at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.(Photo: Jeffrey McWhorter, AP)

James Wilson, 47, a payroll manager in Rowlett who grabbed a front-row seat at Trump's rally in the Dallas sports arena Thursday, saidimpeachment was just another in a long line of attacks including special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

But he likened it to a "boomerang."

"Every time the other side throws something, it comes back and it hits them," Wilsonsaid.

It will never stop, he said.

"The Democrats don't want him in," Wilson said."They're going to do everything they can legally and illegally to get him out. But they're going to lose in 2020."

Supporters of President Donald Trump hold a "Stop Impeachment" rally in front of the US Capitol Oct. 17, 2019 in Washington, DC.(Photo: OLIVIER DOULIERY, AFP via Getty Images)

It's not just Democrats going after Trump, supporters said; it's also members of what the president calls "deep state" of the government bureaucracy.

"I think the swampis fighting back and they're going down hard," saidMary Shea, 65, a retiree from Houston who waited for hours to get into the Dallas arena.

"I don't think he did anything that most other presidents haven'tdone," she said. "All presidents cut around the corners."

The impeachment inquiry centers on Trump's July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Vlodomyr Zelensky, in which he repeatedly urged him to investigate Biden and his son Hunter, who served on the board of Burisma, an energy company in Ukraine.Ukrainian officials have found no evidence of wrongdoing bythe Bidens.

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Trump supporters slammed hisaccusers.

"That's a bunch of guilty people trying to keep their crooks covered up," said Naomi Hodgkins, 64, a semi-retired business consultant from nearby Mesquite, Texas, who wore a button that said "Trump 2020: No More Bullshit."

"They're doing a psychological transference of their guilt to him ... The Biden thing is going to go real deep."

Origins of a conspiracy:Trump's conspiracy theories thrive in Ukraine, where a young democracy battles corruption and distrust

Hodgkins' sentiment was echoed among the president's supporters hundreds of miles north in Minneapolis, where Trump held a rally on Oct. 10, his first campaign event since the impeachment inquiry was announced on Sept. 24.

Impeachment signs sailed above crowds outside the downtown arena, where protesters blew whistles and beat drumsin the rain along Minneapolis' First Avenue. Dallas saw its own share of protesters thrusting similar impeachment signs into the air.

Supporters react as U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a "Keep America Great" Campaign Rally at American Airlines Center on October 17, 2019 in Dallas, Texas.(Photo: Tom Pennington, Getty Images)

Meanwhile, his supporters flocked to rallies, lining up hours and in some cases days ahead of time to get in.

Barb Koy, a Bloomington, Minn., resident who attended Trump's Minneapolis rally, said the inquiry is "another game by the Democrats."

Everybody is tired of it. I know people who voted blue and theyre voting red now because theyre sick of it, she said."I'd think even if you're a Democrat you'd be sick of it."

The Minneapolis rallycame on the heels of a new FoxNews pollthat found 51% of voters supported impeaching Trumpand removing himfrom office, the latest in a string of polls showing a plurality of Americans have shifted their attitudeon impeachment.

Trump campaign press secretaryKayleigh McEnany dismissed the poll as inaccurate.

The campaign and the Republican National Committee are pushing back, spending$10 million onads attacking the impeachment inquiry, with $8 million coming from the campaign itself, McEnany said.

Trump's schedule over the next few weeks has plenty of events that will take him out of Washington.He will attend a 2020 presidential candidate forum in Columbia, S.C. and a natural gas conference in Pittsburgh next week, and has rallies in Tupelo, Miss. and Lexington, Ky. at the beginning of November.

What Americans think:Nearly 3 weeks into the Trump impeachment inquiry, polls show a shift in public opinion

Not all Trump supporters were shrugging of the impeachment inquiry. Some worried it could cast a shadow over his re-election effort.

University of Minnesota student Blake Paulson,one ofdozens who slept in a downtown Minneapolis skywalk ahead of Trump's rally, said he's concerned at how his classmates perceive the impeachment inquiry.

Paulson said students scrolling through social media are taking their cues from headlines that he believes are misleading.

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"They see these headlines and think, 'Oh, he did something bad,' and that's what they go offof," said the 20-year-old, who will cast his first vote for Trump in 2020."These are new voters who are going in with that shallow information and not thinking it through."

"I'm afraid ofa lot that's happening next year," he added.

While several supporters in Minneapolis and Dallas said theyexpect the Democratic-led House to impeach Trump, they contend it would bepolitical act with no meaning. They expressed confidence that Republican-dominated Senate would never vote to convict and remove Trump from office.

Caiden Anderson, 15, a high school sophomore from Alvin, Texas, and a volunteer at the Dallas event, said House Democrats'impeachment drive is "nothing."

"Even if they get it past the House, they won't get it in the Senate," Anderson said.

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Wayland Hunter, a 24-year-old who didn't vote for Trump in 2016 and was attending his first rally in Minneapolis, dismissed the inquiry's legal implications.

"It's just an inquiry," the dental school studentsaid. "It's not even like an official, drawn-out government procedure. It just seems like political staging."

Impeachment will only embolden voters, backers said Trump voters like themselves.

Halona Porter, 45, who works in an auto parts store in Fort Worth, said Trump's enemies "need to give it up, because it's not going to happen."

After 2020, she said. "we're going to have him for another four years."

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'We're going to have him for another four years.' Impeachment fight riles up Donald Trump supporters for 2020 - USA TODAY

But the latest concerns about Trump are just a crescendo in a long-running drama. Sam Nunberg, a former 2016 Trump-campaign aide, told me that a colleague once approached him and asked if Trump was losing it, saying they had just had the same conversation twice. Nunberg dismissed such concerns, assuring him that it was only because Trump likely wasnt paying attention the first time.

His speech has changed over time, too. Software programs show that Trump currently speaks at a fourth-to-sixth-grade level. (Politicians are practiced at speaking to wide swaths of Americans, but Obama, for example, according to those speech analyses, spoke at an 11th-grade level in his final news conference as president.) A study last year by two University of Pittsburgh professors examining Trumps appearances on Fox News found that the quality of his speech was worsening. They studied his comments over a seven-year period ending in 2017just as his presidency beganand found that he had begun using substantially more filler wordssuch as um and uh, though the authors did not conclude that the change signaled cognitive decline.

Even a casual observer can see the disordered and nonlinear thinking behind Trumps speech. A case in point was Trumps rally last week in Minneapolis. Within minutes of taking the stage, Trump launched, without explanation, into a dramatic reading of what he imagined was the pillow talk between Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, a pair of former FBI officials who had exchanged text messages critical of the president. He gave no context as to why he was talking about them, leaving it to the audience to fill in the Mall of Americasize blanks. Trump never even mentioned that they had worked for the FBI or that Strzok was at one point involved in the Russia investigationjust that they were lovers who disliked him. (Still, as theater, it seemed to work. When Trump cooed, Oh, God. I love you, Lisa! the audience laughed appreciatively.)

Other people who have worked with Trump in the White House and on the 2016 campaign pushed back on the notion that his mental acuity has eroded over time. Every president has a super-exaggerated ego and personality in some way, Tom Bossert, Trumps former homeland-security adviser and a former official in President George W. Bushs administration, told me. I asked him if presidents or presidential candidates should be subject to a fitness test measuring whether theyre up to the job. Various psychologists have floated this idea in response to Trumps behavior. Im not sure what the fitness standard would reveal about people who are already wired that way, Bossert said.

Conventional wisdom in Washington is that impeachment wont lead to Trumps removal, but that view rests on Republicans continuing to stay by his side. Even those most loyal to Trump could lose patience if his rash decision making collides with their own interests. Trumps impulsive decision to pull U.S. troops out of northern Syria last week, setting the stage for Turkeys attack on Americas Kurdish partners, has already infuriated some of his closest friends in Congress. It was soon after the House, in an overwhelming bipartisan vote, rebuked his Syria gambit on Wednesday that Trump lashed out at Pelosi, prompting her to abruptly walk out of their meeting. (Democrats, of course, are seizing the opportunity. For those who dont do politics professionally or even follow it closely: It is getting worse. He is getting worse, Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii tweeted last night.)

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The Unraveling of Donald Trump - The Atlantic

Justin Amash, the Michigan congressman who left the Republican party over his criticism of Donald Trump and support for impeachment, has refused to rule out a run for the White House.

I think Im very effective in the House, the Michigan independent told NBCs Meet the Press on Sunday. I think my constituents want an independent congressman. My support in the district has been great as an independent.

But we do need new voices on the national stage running for national office, including the presidency.

Amash criticised the Democrats seeking their partys nomination in a sprawling field.

I dont think that the current Democratic field is sufficient, he said. If you look at the top three candidates on the Democratic side Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren theyre all over 70 years old.

The presidents over 70 years old. I think that there is a large segment of the population that is not represented in the top candidates on either side of the aisle, and thats something I think about.

Amash is running for re-election as an independent but he told NBC he wouldnt say 100% of anything.

Im running for Congress, he added, when asked about the possibility of being the Libertarian candidate for the White House, but I keep things open and I wouldnt rule anything out.

In the 2016 election, Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson won 4,489,221 votes, 3.28% of ballots cast. Hillary Clinton beat Donald Trump in the popular vote by nearly 3m but Trump won the presidency in the electoral college.

Amash is a libertarian-tinged founder member of the hard-right Freedom Caucus who drifted away from its support for Trump.

He first called for impeachment and was attacked by Trump in return earlier this year, over the presidents behaviour in relation to Russian election interference and the investigation into links between Trump and Moscow led by special counsel Robert Mueller.

The current impeachment inquiry is focused on Trumps attempts to have Ukraine investigate his political rivals.

Earlier this month, Amash told the Hill: Assuming the articles are drafted properly, yeah, I think theres impeachable conduct that could be included in articles that I would support.

Amashs former Republican colleagues are under increasing pressure. On Friday, Francis Rooney of Florida indicated that he could support impeachment if it comes to a vote on whether to send Trump to the Senate for trial.

On Saturday, Rooney told Fox News he had decided to retire, becoming the 14th Republican to decide to leave the House in 2020.

On Sunday he told CNNs State of the Union he had not made up his mind about impeachment. He also said he did not know if he still called himself a Republican, and added: We only have one thing in our life, and thats our reputation And so Im not going to ruin mine over anything, much less politics.

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Justin Amash: Republican who took on Trump won't rule out White House run - The Guardian

Former governor and presidential candidate John Kasich discusses President Trump.

President Trump's campaign rally in Dallas on Thursday cost the city roughly $170,000, a city spokeswomantold FOX Business.

"The city of Dallas does not charge heads of state for the security measures necessary to accommodate their visits," thecity told WFAA ahead of the rallly.

A spokesperson for the Secret Servicewould not reveal whether the Trump campaign has an agreement toreimburse Dallas for its spending to keep the president and rallygoers safe.

"[T]he Secret Service cannot speak to the conditions surrounding the mechanisms in place for reimbursement to local law enforcement agencies," the spokesperson told WFAA.

President Donald Trump takes the stage at a campaign rally at American Airlines Arena in Dallas, Texas, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2019. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Some rallygoers started liningup days in advance for the Thursday event.

Roughly 20,000 people could fit inthe American Airlines Center where it was held, chief operating officer Dave Brown told WFAA. The Trump campaign has paid for renting the facility, Brown said.

The public safety costs for Trump's rallies, in both the 2016 and 2020 election cycles, range from under $10,000 to approximately$530,000.

Trump accused Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey of trying to "price out" free speech on Tuesday after claiming city government told Trump's recentrally venue that it , not the Trump campaign, would be on the hook for $530,000 in security costs.

"Someone please tell the Radical Left Mayor of Minneapolis that he can't price out Free Speech. Probably illegal! I stand strongly [and]proudly with the great Police Officers and Law Enforcement of Minneapolis and the Great State of Minnesota! See you Thursday Night!" Trump wrote onTwitterearlier in October.

FOX Business' inquiry to the Trump campaign was not returned at the time of publication.

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Here's how much Trump's campaign rally cost the city of Dallas - Fox Business

Former Defense Secretary James Mattis roasted his former boss at the Alfred E. Smith dinner in New York City on Thursday night.

Mattis took the stage at the annual dinner -- an opportunity to crack jokes about local and national politics -- with an introduction from comic legend Martin Short.

"According to the president hes the 'most overrated general,'" Short cracked in his intro. "I think hes an American hero."

"I'm not just an overrated general. Im the worlds greatest overrated general," joked Mattis, who received a standing ovation as he stepped to the dais. "I'm honored to be called that by Donald Trump, because he also called Meryl Streep an overrated actor. So I guess Im the Meryl Streep of generals."

The rebuttal came a day after President Donald Trump called Mattis the worlds most overrated general during a meeting with lawmakers about the situation in Syria.

Mattis had said in an interview in August that his silence about Trump was "not going to be forever.

One of the general's most biting jokes came in relation to Trump's infamous deferment of military service in Vietnam over alleged bone spurs in his feet.

"I earned my spurs on the battlefield; Donald Trump earned his spurs in a letter from a doctor," Mattis said.

Mattis, a retired Marine Corps four-star general, served as Trump's first defense secretary, but resigned in December 2018 over policy differences, particularly Trump's plans to pull out American troops from Syria, writing in his resignation letter that Trump should have a defense secretary "whose views are better aligned" with his own.

He joked on Thursday that his work in combat zones overseas was easier than being in Trumps Washington.

I tried to bring some peace and order to the places with no organized government, chaotic and warring factions, irrational fears, and toxic hatred. It was hard work, but it wasnt until I started working in Washington, D.C., that I realized how easy I had it overseas in the combat zone.

He also knocked Trump for his many hours of executive time:

Its been a year since Ive left the administration, the recovery process is going well," he joked. "The counselor says Ill graduate soon. A year according to White House time is about 9,000 hours of executive time or 1,800 holes of golf."

Mattis, who has been critical of many of Trump's foreign policy decisions since leaving office, also got serious for a moment Thursday, mentioning the U.S.'s Kurdish allies in Syria. He called for the U.S. to again back the population, which has been attacked by Turkey.

"Let us restore trust in one another," Mattis said.

The president was onstage in Dallas at the same time as Mattis' keynote, delivering a campaign speech to a packed crowd at American Airlines Center.

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Former defense secretary roasts Donald Trump: 'I earned my spurs on the battlefield' - ABC News

Being Presidential is easy, Donald Trump, who seems, in fact, to find it very hard, said to the crowd at a rally for his relection campaign in Dallas on Thursday night. All you have to do is act like a stifflook! Trump stepped to the side of the rostrum, buttoned his suit jacket, and, like a mannequin in motion, returned to the microphone. Adopting a theatrically stentorian tone, he said, Ladies and gentlemen of Texas, it is a great honor to be with you this evening. The ladies and gentlemen in the crowd cheered. Trump continued, in his own self-amazed voice, And the media would love it! And everybody would be out of here so fastyou wouldnt have come out here tonight, when it gets right down to it.

Questions about Trumps mental and emotional stability have been raised, with good cause, during the past week. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi described him as having a meltdown in a meeting in which he berated her as a third-rate politician; a letter he wrote to President Recep Tayyip Erdoan, of Turkey, in which he wrote as if the two of them were either fifth graders or black-hatted cowboys (or fifth graders playing cowboys) was released; and every revelation in the Ukraine scandal seemed to underscore that Trump is deploying wild conspiracy theories not only because they make for good campaign rhetoric but because he really believes some of themand expects others to do the same. Doubts about whether he is entirely steady are not new, and Trump has long proffered various rationales for his troubling outbursts. One is that his erratic actions are tactical moves: unconventional behavior that shakes up the political and diplomatic stiffs, and makes things happen. Another is that he is just being authentic, which raises the question of what he authentically is. But perhaps the most troubling rationale is one that he emphasized in Texas: hes not crazy; anyone who doubts him is. His supporters just need to recognize the madness of his enemies, and then everything he says will make sense.

Nervous Nancy, his previous moniker for Pelosi, was replaced by Crazy Nancy, who was leading a party that, in his telling, had lost touch with reality. I really dont believe anymore that they love this country, he said. In the impeachment hearings, Democrats had engaged in outright fraud. Speaking of the field of Democrats running to replace him, he said, These people are crazy! The evidence, he suggested, was in plain sight, even if only Trump and those who listened closely to him could see it. Describing Representative Beto ORourke, of El Paso, he said, Remember the flailing arms? He offered what was meant to be an imitation of ORourke gesticulating as he spoke, retooling the movement as a symptom of some undefined disorderNo one noticed; I noticed itthe flailer!

Members of the media were trying to hide the truth, but, he told the crowd, they had failed because they had stupid people saying horrible things about us. Stupid. Stupid people. They are stupid people. Perhaps no one could be trusted. Wasnt it easy, after all, for Trump to strike a pose as a serious politician? Who was to say that every politician wasnt pretending in exactly the same way?

It helps, in making this argument, to pretend that your opponents have said things that they havent. Every major Democrat running for President wants to abolish all production of oil and natural gas, Trump said. This is not true, but he continued, I think they want to go to windmillswindmills, you knowhe leaned back and twirled his hand in the air, as if there was a relation between wind power and disco, and adopted another set of fake voices. Darling, I want to watch Trump speak tonight; We cant, darling, the wind isnt blowing! That is not how it works with wind powerthe energy that wind turbines generate can be stored. Its also a standard Trump line. At his rally in Lake Charles, Louisiana, last week, the problem was that the wind-addicted couple couldnt watch L.S.U. and Florida. (Louisiana States football team was set to play the Florida Gators that Saturday. L.S.U. won, 42-28; in a gubernatorial election in Louisiana on the same day as the game, the states Democratic governor had received less than fifty per cent of the vote, forcing a runoff. Trump had invited the top two Republican contenders to come on stage with him at the rally.) But the default, in Trumps mind, is that people will always want to watch Trump speak.

Trump urged the crowd to join him in merging the many storylines into one: The same people pushing us to fight endless wars overseas want us to open our borders to mass migration from these war-torn and terror-afflicted regions. Their policies would import terrorism right on to our shores with American-issued visasoh, isnt that wonderful! he said. And, by the way, the Democrats want open borders; they want everybody to flow inthey want those caravans to flow in. It would all make sense if voters thought about things his way: Use your heads: theyre not sending their finest.

Recent events in Syria are a stark reminder of why none of this is funny, and of the wild harm done by the Presidents misperceptions of the world. The day of the Dallas rally, Vice-President Mike Pence had met with Erdoan; in the video of the meeting, Pences posture and expression are, as it happens, much like those in Trumps imitation of political seriousness. That is not to say that Pence actually comes across as Presidential; he, too, appears to be playing a role that is beyond his abilities to truly inhabit. Afterward, Pence announced that Turkey had agreed to a ceasefire in Syria; it mostly involved giving the Kurds near the Turkish border a chance to abandon their positions and flee, and, as of Friday, did not appear to be holding. No matter; a few hours before the Texas rally, Trump tweeted, This is a great day for civilization. I am proud of the United States for sticking by me in following a necessary, but somewhat unconventional, path. People have been trying to make this Deal for many years. Millions of lives will be saved. Congratulations to ALL!

Had Trump really thought that, absent this deal, millions of lives would have been lostand proceeded with his previous course of action, which included walking away from the Kurds, anyway? What on earth is his definition of civilization? When he said that he was proud of the United States for sticking by me, did he forget that many members of Congress and senators from his own party had turned on him regarding Syriaor was he just proud that, despite their dismay at the abandonment of the Kurds, he made it to Thursday without any of them also calling for his impeachment? And who is he ever really congratulating, other than himself?

Trump, in Dallas, didnt quite answer those questions. Speaking of Turkey and the Kurds, he again argued that he was just being unconventional and engaging in tough love. Sometimes, he said, you have to let them fightlike two kids in a lot. He added, Now all of a sudden theyre fighting, and its not fun having bullets go all over the place. People in Syria were already well aware that having bullets fly is not fun. They have reason to fear a President whose understanding of their lives appears to be rooted in a boyish fantasy. And so do the American people.

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Trumps Message: His Critics Are the Crazy Ones - The New Yorker

President Donald Trumps reelection campaign has capitalized on the investigations into the presidents conduct, new campaign finance reports show.

Seven of the reelection campaign committees 10 days with the most unique donors this year came at the end of September, on the days immediately following House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announcing a formal impeachment inquiry into the president. One of the other top days came in April, when news broke that former special counsel Robert Mueller objected to Attorney General Bill Barrs characterization of his report on Russian interference in the 2016 election, according to FEC data.

In the hours after Pelosis Sept. 24 press conference, the Trump campaign had emailed supporters and posted ads on Facebook asking for donations to the Impeachment Defense Task Force. The emails reviewed by BuzzFeed News sent supporters to a fundraising page for a joint fundraising committee between the Republican National Committee and the Trump campaign while Facebook ads BuzzFeed News reviewed prompted supporters to directly support the Trump campaign.

As a member of the Official Impeachment Defense Task Force, you will be a leader in defending me, the President, against these baseless and disgusting attacks, one of the ads reads. You will be responsible for defending American Greatness.

In other Facebook ads, the campaign revived Trumps total witch hunt slogan to characterize the impeachment inquiry. Don't let Democrats and the Fake News Media silence YOU! the ad reads, encouraging supporters to donate to the impeachment defense fund.

The Democrats know they have no chance of winning in 2020, so now they are crying, Impeachment!, one fundraising email from Trumps campaign said on the day Pelosi announced the inquiry. The Democrats thrive on silencing and intimidating his supporters, like YOU, Friend. They want to take YOUR VOTE away.

The email told supporters that the campaign was launching an Official Impeachment Defense Task Force that would be made up of President Trumps most LOYAL supporters, the ones committed to fighting for him, re-electing him, and taking back the House.

Pelosi and House Democrats reached a consensus on launching the impeachment inquiry amid reports that Trump had pressured the president of Ukraine to open an investigation into former vice president Joe Biden and his son and withheld aid from the country.

Campaigns often have bursts of donations at the end of September its the final days of the quarter, and campaigns typically try to end strong with a concerted fundraising push.

But the campaigns ads in the days after Pelosis announcements focused closely on impeachment. The initial ads centered on downplaying the significance of the presidents call with the Ukrainian president, after the White House released a non-verbatim transcript showing Trump asking for a favor. Another ad posted to Facebook features Trump saying my conversation with the new president of Ukraine was perfect, there was no quid-pro-quo; there was nothing. It was a perfect conversation.

The Trump campaign raised over $14.2 million in the third quarter from individual donors, not including money raised from affiliated committees or the Republican National Committee. Altogether, those groups raised $125 million, Trumps campaign manager said.

The top Democratic fundraisers are well behind that overall total: Sen. Elizabeth Warren raised $24.6 million and Sen. Bernie Sanders raised $25.2 million. Trumps campaign alone still has over $83 million in cash on hand.

The donors factored in by the FEC include only donors who gave more than $200, as reporting requirements do not mandate campaigns disclose donors who give smaller amounts.

Some Democrats have worried that pushing to impeach Trump could just solidify and energize his base. Sanders, one of the leading candidates in the Democratic primary who does support impeachment, told reporters last month that he feared that if Trump is impeached in the House but not convicted in the Republican-controlled Senate, I know and you know what [Trump] will do: I am vindicated! I am vindicated!

Their goal has always been to silence YOU, they want to steal YOUR voice and YOUR vote, another Trump fundraising email, sent with a Call Transcript subject line, read. This is only the beginning of yet ANOTHER nasty Witch Hunt against me, and we need to fight back BIGGER and STRONGER than ever before.

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Donald Trump's Campaign Is Cashing In On Impeachment - BuzzFeed News

In the Pantheon of American state politics, there are three iconic dynastic names:Keanin New Jersey, Kennedy in Massachusetts, and LaFollette in Wisconsin. TheKeanname, however is without question presently the most revered of the three.

The Kennedy dynasty has been affected by personal scandal, and the LaFollette name has been haunted, perhaps unjustifiably, by the image of radicalism. By contrast, theKeanname has been uniquely hallowed by the greatest Republican member of the New Jersey delegation in the US House of Representatives in the 20thcentury, RobertKean, and the greatest 20th century New Jersey Republican governor,TomKean.

Most importantly, BobKeanandTomKeanwere models of goodness, as well as greatness.

BobKeanwill always have a revered place in the Steinberg family and other New Jersey Jewish families for his role in being the first New Jersey Congressman calling attention to Hitlers Holocaust and advocating the opening of Americas doors to Jewish refugees from Nazi-dominated Europe.TomKeans gubernatorial achievements in education and economic development were unsurpassed by those of any other of the then state governors, and his Politics of Inclusion set a standard of racial and ethnic understanding and tolerance for the entire nation to follow.

State SenatorTomKean, Jr. is a most worthy heir to theKeanlegacy of public service. As Senate Republican Leader, he has performed superbly, displaying his gifts of intellectualism, people skills, collegiality, concern for his fellow Republican senators, and issue incisiveness which make him an outstanding voice of the Republican opposition. As Eleanor Roosevelt described the young Hubert Humphrey,TomKean, Jr. carries the spark of greatness within him.

TomKean, Jr. is running for the US House of Representatives seat in New Jerseys 7th Congressional District against first term Democratic incumbentTomMalinowski. It will be a campaign of national interest, given the fact that due to Trump toxicity, 2020 will be a year of catastrophe for the Republican Party nationally, withTomKean, Jr. being one of the few Republican candidates for either the US House of Representatives or the Senate with any realistic chance of ousting a Democratic incumbent.

AndTomMalinowski will not be a pushover opponent. He is articulate, well-financed, knowledgeable on the issues, particularly foreign policy, and a darling of national cable media, particularly MSNBC, where he appears so often that I am starting to think that the M stands for Malinowski. Furthermore, he has cleverly inoculated himself against any charges of being a left-wing Progressive Democrat by proclaiming himself to be a capitalist and emphasizing his opposition to Medicare for All.

First, however,Kean, Jr. must win a primary over Rosemary Becchi in June, 2020. Becchi is an amiable, articulate, and quite competent federal public policy service veteran. But she is politically noTomKean, Jr., and he has wisely chosen to ignore her. He will not lose a primary to her.

In fact, the only concernKean, Jr.needs to have about Becchi is a politically stupid, embarrassing, and amateurishanti-Becchi clown show being orchestrated by National Republican Committeeman Bill Palatucci, whose style of political bullying and political intimidation distinguishes himself as the New Jersey Republican political version of Sonny Liston. His anti-Becchi debacle is described in this InsiderNJ article, Palatucci Cautions GOP about Wasting Money onCD7ContenderBecchi(https://www.insidernj.com/palatucci-cautions-wasting-money-becchi/).

Palatucci is one of the ineffectual Three Stooges of the New Jersey GOP establishment. The other two are 1)Chris Christie, who left the New Jersey governorship as the Beachchair-gate object of ridicule and now in his post-governmental career is distinguishing himself as an avatar of gluttonous greed(seethe Politico article by Sam Sutton,HowChristies influence on opioid panel landed him an $800K consulting contract

https://www.politico.com/states/new-jersey/story/2019/09/26/how-christies-influence-on-opioid-panel-landed-him-an-800k-consulting-contract-1209421); and 2) pharmaceutical executive Bob Hugin, whose US Senate candidacy against incumbent Senator Bob Menendez last November qualified him for the Marv Throneberry award for political candidacy ineptitude. The famous reference to Throneberrys pathetic play at first base took place on his birthday in 1962 at the late, lamented Polo Grounds, when his fellow players on the then hapless New York Mets told him, We would have given you a birthday cake, but we were afraid you would drop it.

Basically, the NJGOP Three Stooges are attempting to use the Kean, Jr. for Congress campaign as a life raft in order to prove their relevancy after their past sycophantic support of Donald Trump, which followed their involvement in the laughable fiasco of the 2016 Christie for President campaign.

Christies efforts to reinvent himself have reached a new low level of credibility with his avowed effort to promote political civility through hisChristie Institute of Public Policy. Given his past record of abusive treatment of his political opponents and critics, Chris Christie as a promoter of political civility has all the credibility of Donald Trump promoting marital monogamy or the late Yankee manager Billy Martin promoting alcohol abstinence, safe driving, and nonviolence.

The irony of the Three Stooges attempted alliance with Tom Kean, Jr. is that it follows a treacherous and abortive effort by Christie and Palatucci to remove Kean, Jr. as Senate Republican leader after Christies 2013 gubernatorial reelection victory. This attempt was made all the more egregious by the fact that Tom Kean, Sr. had been the political mentor of both Christie and Palatucci, qualifying them both in the latest production of Shakespeares Julius Caesar for the roles of Christie as Brutus and Palatucci as Cassius (Chris Christie cannot be said to have a lean and hungry look).

Tom Kean, Jr. has a long memory, and he doubtless remembers the Christie-Palatucci attempted Senate putsch. I am confident that while he will accept the fundraising efforts of the Three Stooges, he will prevent them from becoming the face of his campaign, thus removing from his shoulders the huge burden of the Chris Christie albatross.

The problem of the Donald Trump albatross for Tom Kean, Jr., however is not so simple.

In my view, which is indeed contrary to the consensus of most Washington pundits, the denouement of the Trump administration is now in sight, namely, Donald Trumps resignation from the Presidency between late February and early March, 2020resulting from what will then be the likelihood of the Senate voting to remove him from office. Removal of a president from office requires 67 votes, and this total will be achieved with over 20 Republican senators declaring their willingness to join with the 47 senators who caucus with the Democrats to oust the president.

The forthcoming Articles of Impeachment against Donald Trump will constitute the strongest such case in the history of the American presidency. They will consist basically of the following three groups of charges: 1) the ten acts of obstruction of justice described in the Mueller Report; 2) the Presidents flagrantviolations of the Constitutional Domestic Emoluments Clause and the Foreign Emoluments Clause, and 3) Trumps solicitation of an illegal campaign contribution fromUkraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, to wit, the assistance of the Ukraine government in digging up dirt against Joe Biden, the front runner for the Democratic 2020 presidential nomination, and his son, Hunter. These acts regarding Ukraine also give rise to federal charges against the president of bribery and extortion.

Yet it is not the grave nature and massive evidence in support of these charges that will, in my view, result in the defection of at least 20 GOP senators to vote for Trumps ouster. Rather, it is Trumps withdrawal of assistance to our Kurdish allies, who played a vital role in our war against ISIS.

Trump Know-Nothings contend that his despicable abandonment of the Kurds is simply an act on his part to end our involvement inendless foreign wars. I would invite these uncritical supporters of Trump to tell the families of those Americans killed, indeed beheaded by ISIS terrorists that the war against ISIS is a foreign war.

There are those opponents of removal of the president who will concede that Trumps abandonment of the Kurds, leaving them to their slaughter by both the Turks and ISIS, is an act of grossincompetence andhorrendous foreign policy. They contend, however, that such foreign policy malfeasance does not per se constitute an impeachable offense. This is irrelevant, however, as this act demonstrates conclusively Trumps gross unfitness for office.

Added to this unfitness is the fact that Trumps green light to Turkish slaughter of the Kurds appears conclusively to be motivated by his financial interest in the Trump Twin Towers combined office and hotelin Istanbul. The blood of Americans and Kurds to be killed by ISIS will now be on the hands of Donald Trump.

Ultimately, Trumps unfitness for office is driving upwards the independent vote for impeachment and removal. This will compel Republican Senators in late 2019 and early 2020 to cease defending the president and switch to advocating the presidents ouster.

And the Gallup Poll released on Thursday, October 16, 2019 provided most ominous news to Donald Trump in this regard:Currently, 52% say Trump should be impeached and removed from office, while 46% say he should not be. This is roughly the opposite of what Gallup found in June when asked in the context of special counselor Robert Muellers investigation.

Finally, the article by Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnellFridayin the Washington Post entitled Withdrawing from Syria is a grave mistake(https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/mitch-mcconnell-withdrawing-from-syria-is-a-grave-mistake/2019/10/18/c0a811a8-f1cd-11e9-89eb-ec56cd414732_story.html) appears to be the beginning of the end of shameless Senate GOP submission to the Autocrat-in-Chief and Grifter-in-Chief in the White House.

By Election Day 2020, Donald Trump will either have resigned from office or be headed for a certain landslide defeat, regardless of whom the Democrats nominate for president.

My view is that he will leave the presidency sooner thanthat,aspredicted byformer close Trump business associate BarbaraRes. Trumpwill avoid the disgrace of impeachment and removalby resigning and making a deal for his non-prosecution, encompassing all prospective federal and state charges. This will also make moot subpoenas for Trump tax returns.

The Wall Street firm of Raymond James has done an analysis of scenarios that could ensue after an early Trump departure from the White House. They posit a farewell address by the president as follows:

I have done everything I set out to do as President. America is great again. We have record low unemployment, the market is doing amazing, we have exited endless foreign wars, and Ive stopped other countries like China from taking advantage of us in trade deals. We passed massive tax cuts and drug prices are down for the first time ever. Im not one of these lifetime politicians. Im ready to return to my business and spend more time with my family. This harassment of me by Democrats has really hurt Melania and my kids.

I agree with this scenario, and I take it one step further. Trump hasalways found his rallies to be self-intoxicating, and he will continue them after he leaves office, inveighing against the deep state and the fake news media. He will become the 21st century version of a Father Charles Coughlin or a Gerald L.K. Smith.

The GOP hard core supporters of Donald Trump will be very much present at these rallies. They will not go gently into the night after The Donald departs from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Trump acolytes describe fervent Never-Trump center-right advocates like myself as being afflicted with TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome). Assuming, but not conceding that such an acronym is accurate, Never Trumpers can at least with equal validity describe Trump activists as being afflicted with TSDS Trump SelfDelusion Syndrome. This description is supported by the words of The Donald himself, who said that he could shoot somebodyinplain sight on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, and his supporters wouldnt care.

Conventional wisdom is that after the 2020 primary, Kean, Jr. should focus on 1) how to obtain the votes of Right-of-Center victims of both TDS andTSDS;and 2) still have the possibility of getting enough support from Independents to obtain a plurality against Tom Malinowski.

Unfortunately, such an approach will not work in this 7th Congressional District, where Trump toxicity is overpowering. Malinowskisfive-pointvictoryin 2018over then five term incumbent Republican Representative Leonard Lance illustrated howvirulentlyanti-Trump that 7th District is. Any effort by Kean,Jr.to placate Trump supporters will result in a defection of independent voters he must have in order to achieve victory.

Given the anti-Trump demographics of the 7th District and the difficulty in portraying Tom Malinowski as aleft-wingextremist Progressive Democrat, what is the best way for Tom Kean, Jr.to position himself?

My response is not likely to please Republican consultants who may become involved in this race. They will view it as a lame strategy, like bringing a water pistol to a gun fight.

If one views the entire context of the impeachment battle, however, by November, 2020, Americans will have grown weary of the partisanship displayed by both Democrats and Republicans on this issue, regardless of the outcome. Tom Malinowski will clearly be identified as one of the lead fiery partisans.

This will make it possible for Tom Kean, Jr. to frame a message for himself as an agent of healing in the Congress, as opposed to the narrow partisanship of Tom Malinowski. He should stay out of the impeachment issue as much as possible and make the case for himself as a person who, like his father, seeks bipartisan healing and inclusiveness in order to move on beyond the bitterness of the Trump era.

The politics of healing and inclusiveness worked well for Tom Kean. It can be a winner for Tom Kean, Jr. as well.

Alan J. Steinberg served as Regional Administrator of Region 2 EPA during the administration of former President George W. Bush and as Executive Director of the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission.

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Tom Kean, Jr. and the Albatrosses of Chris Christie and Donald Trump - InsiderNJ