Category Archives: Donald Trump

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Donald Trump has been accused of incitement to violence after a day in which he appeared to unravel over the impeachment inquiry: again accusing the congressman Adam Schiff of treason at a bizarre press conference with the visiting Finnish president, while denouncing the inquiry as BULLSHIT on Twitter. Schiff, the chair of the House intelligence committee, said on Wednesday that Congress was not fooling around, and insisted the inquiry would not be slowed by presidential stonewalling.

The brother of Botham Jean, an innocent black man murdered in his apartment by a former Dallas police officer, made an extraordinary show of forgiveness after the 26-year-old accountants killer was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Wednesday. With permission from the judge, Brandt Jean hugged Amber Guyger in the courtroom, telling her: I love you just like anyone else, Im not going to say I hope you rot and die just like my brother did, but I personally want the best for you.

The Trump administration is manipulating research findings and targeting scientists for political gain while handing improper influence to special interests, according to a nonpartisan taskforce of former government officials who warn that the White Houses war on science is at a crisis point. In a report published on Thursday, the National Task Force on Rule of Law and Democracy said the administration was trying, at times, to undermine the value of objective facts themselves.

EPA cites SF. The EPA has made good on a threat by the Trump administration, issuing an environmental notice of violation to San Francisco over an inaccurate claim linking water pollution to the citys homeless crisis.

Boris Johnson will outline his plan for the Northern Irish border in the House of Commons on Thursday, giving MPs a final chance to challenge his Brexit proposals before a crucial European council summit on 17 October. The UK prime minister has said he wants a deal in place to present at the summit, but the EUs chief negotiator Michel Barnier has already privately described the proposal as a trap, while the Irish taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, said Johnsons plans do not fully meet the agreed objectives of the backstop.

Close friend. Jennifer Arcuri, the American businesswoman facing scrutiny over her close friendship with Johnson and grants her firm received while he was mayor of London, has insisted all the allegations are false.

World markets fell on Thursday as the US opened a new front in its trade wars by announcing $7.5bn of tariffs on European exports including whisky, wine and aircraft, in retaliation for subsidies awarded to the Airbus group by a WTO ruling.

The Trump administration intends to expand the collection of DNA from migrants at US borders, and to pass that information to the FBI for inclusion in a national criminal database.

Senator Bernie Sanders is recovering and in good spirits following a heart procedure for an artery blockage, his presidential campaign has said. He has nonetheless cancelled all his campaign events and appearances until further notice.

Officials say at least five people have been killed after a second world war B-17 bomber crashed in an aborted takeoff at Bradley international airport in Connecticut on Wednesday. According to reports, there were 13 people onboard the plane.

Prada Marfa artists return to their capitalist parody

Fifteen years ago, when Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset erected Prada Marfa, a non-functioning replica of a Prada boutique on a remote Texas highway, they thought news of its existence might spread quietly, like a rumour. But that was before Instagram and the rise of selfie culture, they tell Janelle Zara.

The years most personal look at immigration

Coverage of Trumps immigration crackdown has rarely focussed on those most affected. A new Netflix documentary series, executive produced by Selena Gomez, aims to change that, writes Adrian Horton. Living Undocumented focuses on eight families living outside the skyscraping walls of American citizenship.

How the alt-right co-opted the OK hand sign

The once-innocuous OK hand sign has now been officially recognised as a hate symbol by the Anti-Defamation League, just like Pepe the Frog and the milk emoji. Co-opting such mundane icons as emblems of fear is all part of the alt-rights hunt for attention, explains Poppy Noor.

What their pop culture tastes say about the 2020 Democrats

In a recent interview, Pete Buttigieg revealed a fondness for Rick & Morty and Rebel Wilsons new Netflix movie. Stuart Heritage rounds up the pop culture preferences of the Democratic presidential candidates, including Elizabeth Warrens surprising affection for Ballers.

Young activists are right when they say global leaders have failed to meet the challenge of climate change, says the UN secretary general, Antnio Guterres. The recent climate summit in New York was designed to jolt countries into taking action and to shine a light on those that refuse.

Our planet needs action on a truly planetary scale. That cannot be achieved overnight, and it cannot happen without the full engagement of those contributing most to the crisis.

Liverpool and Chelsea both claimed hard-won Champions League victories on Wednesday night, over Salzburg and Lille respectively, while two goals from Luis Suarz helped Barcelona overcome an early scare against Inter.

A former collegiate cheerleader who suffered multiple brain injuries during her time on the cheer squad at the University of California, Berkeley, is suing the school, the sports national governing body and her former coaches for failing to implement concussion protocols.

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US briefing: impeachment tantrum, Trump's 'war on science' and Brexit - The Guardian

President Donald Trump speaks at the Hispanic Heritage Month reception at the White House in Washington, September 27, 2019.

Kevin Lamarque | Reuters

President Donald Trump again attacked the Federal Reserve on Tuesday after the weakest U.S. manufacturing reading in 10 years.

In a tweet, the president wrote Fed Chair Jerome Powell and the central bank "have allowed the Dollar to get so strong, especially relative to ALL other currencies, that our manufacturers are being negatively affected." He contended the Fed has set interest rates "too high."

"They are their own worst enemies, they don't have a clue," he wrote. "Pathetic!"

As his trade war with China rages on, Trump has repeatedly blamed the Fed's interest rate policy for concerns about a slowing U.S. economy. He has contended the central bank has not moved quickly enough to ease monetary policy though the Fed has cut its benchmark funds rate twice this year.

The Fed did not immediately respond to a request to comment.

Trump's tweet comes after the Institute for Supply Management's manufacturing reading fell to 47.8 in September, down from 49.1 in August. A reading below 50 shows a manufacturing contraction.

The poor economic data contributed to major U.S. stock indexes sliding Tuesday.

The dollar index, which measures the U.S. currency against a basket of global currencies, has climbed more than 3% this year and sits near its highest level since mid-2017. A stronger dollar relative to global currencies is generally expected to reduce exports and increase imports,hurting manufacturers because it makes their products more expensive overseas.

While exchange rates may have contributed to the drag on manufacturing in September, trade also did, according to ISM.

"Global trade remains the most significant issue as demonstrated by the contraction in new export orders that began in July 2019. Overall, sentiment this month remains cautious regarding near-term growth," Timothy Fiore, chair of the ISM Manufacturing Business Survey Committee, said in a release announcing the data.

Trump has repeatedly downplayed any concerns about a looming American recession. He has also contended his trade conflict with the second-largest economy in the world will not harm businesses or consumers despite indications that it has already started to hurt some companies and worry Americans.

Seeing concerns about a flagging economy as a ploy to discredit him before the 2020 election, Trump has claimed the central bank bears the blame for any slowdown rather than his own policies.

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Trump targets 'pathetic' Federal Reserve after worst manufacturing reading in a decade - CNBC

As the historian Rick Perlstein, author of The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan, pointed out to me, in the weeks and months after the Saturday Night Massacre in October 1973, prominent members of Congress from both parties called on President Nixon to resign, including Senator Walter Mondale, a Minnesota Democrat, and Senator Edward Brooke, a Massachusetts Republican. Time magazine made the same demand in its first-ever editorial.

After the release of the smoking gun tape that showed Nixon had participated in a criminal conspiracy to obstruct justice, Republican senators, led by Barry Goldwater, solemnly trekked to the White House to tell Nixon he must relinquish the presidency.

In 1998, when the Starr Report was released with its exhaustive tale of President Bill Clintons affair with Monica Lewinsky, 115 newspapers penned editorials calling on Clinton to resign. This week, just a couple of editorial boards have made a similar demand of Trump.

The summary of Trumps phone conversation with Zelensky suggests a malfeasance thats arguably worse than Nixons. Yet, not only have Republicans failed to call for resignation, few are even willing to acknowledge that what the president did was wrong. Democrats have been equally reluctant to use the r word.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand infamously helped to push Al Franken out of the Senate by calling for him to resign. Not long after, she was among a group of Democrats who called on Trump to step down over a series of sexual assault allegations in what looked like an attempt to show consistency after the Franken imbroglio.

Earlier this year, when pictures emerged of Governor Ralph Northam of Virginia in blackface, Democrats fell over each other making similar calls. Same with the states lieutenant governor, Justin Fairfax, after allegations of sexual assault were made against him. Neither man resigned and considering that Frankens decision to leave the Senate is now viewed by many Democrats as a mistake, perhaps the new normal is simply to weather the storm.

But with Trump, the lack of resignation calls almost certainly has more to do with the fact that everyone knows hed never do it. Why bother making an ask that will just be cited by Republican as evidence of partisan intent and ignored?

Heres one reason: A call for resignation is a statement of principle that Trumps actions so clearly violate the public trust that his position in office has become untenable. Its an acknowledgment that the president has lost his moral standing and must do the right thing and surrender power. Perhaps above all, its drawing a line in the sand and saying that this behavior is egregious and theres only one right course of action for the president.

A call for resignation is as much about the moral and ethical standards of the person making the demand as the target himself or herself.

Of course, the standard of doing whats best for the country is a quaint nostrum in Trumps America.

When you have a president so completely immune from shame; and when he is enabled by a political party so infected by partisanship that winning is more important than acknowledging wrongdoing and holding leaders accountable, the idea of a selfless political act has become almost laughably antiquated.

Perhaps the most dispiriting element of the whistle-blowers complaint is that multiple individuals around the president all of whom swore an oath to uphold the Constitution appear to have understood he committed a grave abuse of power, and then went to great lengths to cover it up. The heroism of the whistle-blower is sadly matched by the cowardice of Trumps enablers.

Democrats are, of course, right to call for Trumps impeachment. Same goes for the nations editorial boards. But are they so inured to the presidents unending malfeasance, corruption, and law-breaking that they cant make the obvious call for resignation?

Trump should of course step down. He should have done it a long time ago. Its not a close call. Stating that publicly is not an example of partisan bomb-throwing, rather its the precise opposite: a principled recognition that some things are more important than politics.

Michael A. Cohens column appears regularly in the Globe. Follow him on Twitter @speechboy71.

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Forget impeachment. Donald Trump needs to resign - The Boston Globe

The University of Florida will pay $50,000 for Donald Trump Jr. and Kimberly Guilfoyle, who is a senior adviser for President Donald Trumps 2020 campaign, to speak on campus next week.

The duo will speak in the University Auditorium on Oct. 10 at 7 p.m., according to a Facebook page for the event.

Trump Jr. and Guilfoyle will give a keynote presentation that concludes with a 15-minute question and answer session, according to ACCENT Speakers Bureau, the student organization thats hosting the event.

After receiving immense pushback online, the University of Florida defended ACCENTs choice in choosing Trump Jr. and Guilfoyle to speak.

The University, in its statement on freedom of expression, has committed itself to ensuring that a wide variety of viewpoints are heard on campus as well as to protecting the First Amendment rights of all those in attendance, UF said in a statement Wednesday. The University believes it is an essential component of its academic mission to foster an environment where divergent ideas, opinions and philosophies, new and old, can be rigorously discussed and critically evaluated.

ACCENT is run by UFs student government and pays speakers using students activity fees, which are $19.06 per credit hour. The organization says Trump Jr. and Guilfoyle, who are dating, will be the first speakers of the fall semester.

UF students will be allotted one ticket per person. If any tickets remain on the day of the talk, the general public may get free tickets from the University Auditorium box office after 5 p.m., ACCENT says. (Students can find more details on how to claim their ticket here.)

Gainesville isnt the first university-stop this year for Trump Jr. and Guilfoyle. They joined Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk at Penn State University in April for a talk that drew a crowd of roughly 700, according to PennState Comm Media.

Video from the event showed a variety of topics were discussed ranging from President Trumps presidency to the potential struggle for conservatives on college campuses, as well as a bashing of the Mueller report, Green New Deal and countless chants of USA, USA, USA.'

The vast majority of those in attendance in April were supporters, with only a half dozen protestors being vocal during the talk. Those protestors and hecklers were then escorted out by police, according to the Centre Daily Times, with no arrests.

The $50,000 price tag for Trump Jr., who is the executive vice president of the Trump Organization, is relatively modest in comparison to recent speakers hosted by ACCENT. Kevin OLeary, a former panelist of the ABC show Shark Tank, was paid $95,000 to speak at the university, while Pitbull took home $130,000 last October in a talk.

The immediate reaction on social media to ACCENTs announcement of Trump Jr. and Guilfoyleon on Tuesday was near-completely negative.

This is an embarrassment to UF, wrote Kaylin Bailey, a student.

Dozens of others shared the same sentiment.

Please tell me this is some early April fool? wrote Jennifer Donelan, another Twitter user. Wow. You have terrible judgment, said another.

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Donald Trump Jr. and senior Trump campaign advisor to speak at UF - Tampa Bay Times

Just about every day Donald Trump busts a norma norm of politics, a norm of governance, a norm of decency. Thisnever-ending fusillade makes it is easy to lose sight of his individual acts of lowering (or demolishing) standards. Yet on Thursday morning, Trumps top intelligence official presented a stunning reminder that Trump has violated what ought to be an important principle: A president should not brazenly lie and make shit up.

Yes, I know, Trump does this All The Time. And everyonethe media, Democratic and Republican lawmakers, and citizens throughout the landhave become inured to his audacious prevarications. Often, his false claims are directly contradicted by his own hirelings. (Case in point: Virtually all of Trumps top national security appointees have stated they accept the intelligence communitys assessment that Russia covertly intervened in the 2016 election to help Trump, though Trump has repeatedly discounted or dismissed this finding.) Yet it still is important to push the pause button when one of Trumps senior advisers publicly undermines Trumps demagoguery and offers evidence that Trump is a doesnt-give-a-damn-about-the-truth deceiver-in-chief. And thats what happened when acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire appeared before the House Intelligence Committee for a fiery hearing focused on Trumps latest scandal: the presidents alleged attempt to muscle the Ukrainian president to produce dirt he could use to undermine special counsel Robert Muellers investigation and to harm Joe Biden.

The subject, of course, was Maguires handling of a complaint sent by an unidentified intelligence official to the inspector general for the intelligence community that accused the president of abusing his office for political purposes and that claimed White House officials tried to bury evidence of this misconduct. Its this controversy that has finally pushed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to declare that House Democrats were transforming their multiple investigations of Trump into an impeachment inquiry. Since this story emerged days ago, Trump has been fighting back in his usual manner of denying reality and disseminating false narratives and chargesthat is, gaslighting. And a key component of his counter-attack has been denigrating the anonymous whistleblower.

Trump has brutally gone after the whistleblower in a series of tweets. He questioned his or her loyalty, asking, Is he on our Countrys side? He called this member of the intelligence community highly partisan and suggested this person was part of a conspiracy mounted against Trump by Democrats and the media. In a tweet citing a Fox News analyst, Trump accused the whistleblower of spying on him by secretly listening to his conversation with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky. (Trump was suggesting the whistleblower had committed a criminal act.) In another tweet citing another right-wing commentator, Trump essentially said the whistleblower was part of a cabal mounting a malicious and seditious effort against him. And Trump retweeted a conservative activist who claimed that the intelligence communitys inspector general had concluded the whistleblower had a political bias against Trump. (The IG found some indicia of an arguable political bias on the part of the Complainant in favor of a rival political candidate but nevertheless determined that the whistleblower was credible.)

That is, before the whistleblowers complaint was released on Thursday morning, Trump had mounted a robust smear campaign against this unknown person, pronouncing him or her a rat-fink and a traitor who was out to get Trumpa person whose complaint could not be taken seriously.

At the Maguire hearing, the acting DNI was asked about the whistleblowerwhose identity remained a secret. Is the whistleblower a political hack, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the chairman of the committee queried. Maguire replied, I believer the whistleblower is acting in good faith. Schiff followed up: You dont have any reason to accuse them of disloyalty to our country? Maguire provided an unequivocal response: Absolutely notI think the whistleblower did the right thing.

In other words, there was no basis for Trumps denunciations of the whistleblower.

Later in the hearing, Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) returned to this subject. She asked Maguire, Do you believe the whistleblower was spyingon the president? Maguire answered, I believe the whistleblower complied with the law and did everything they thought, he or she thought was responsible under the Intelligence Community Whistleblowers Protection Act. Referring to one of Trumps tweets, Speier continued: Do you believe the whistleblower is on our countrys side? Maguire replied, I believe that the whistleblower and all employees who come forward to the [intelligence community] IG to raise concerns of fraud, waste, and abuse are doing what they perceive to be the right thing. That was a careful answer, but surely no endorsement of Trumps claim that the whistleblower was engaged in treasonous action.

Speier then asked Maguire if Trump had asked him to share the identity of the whistleblower. I can tell you emphatically no, he said. And had anyone else in the White House or Justice Department done so? No, he said.

So if Trump and the White House did not know the whistleblowers identity, how could Trump question this persons loyalty, blast him or her as a partisan plotter, and accuse the whistleblower of spying? You know the answer: Trump doesnt need facts to mount a smear campaign. (Did Roy Cohn?) Trump concocts phony conspiracies and misleading narratives all the time. (Remember birtherism?) When caught in a misdeed, his first instinct is to attack and vilify, the truth be damned. After all, when has Trump been held accountable for such malfeasance?

The Ukraine scandal is yet another indication that Trump places his private interests over public service and recognizes few restraints when it comes to abusing the power of his office. And this instance of his lies being revealed by the man who runs the intelligence community for Trump signals yet again that Trump is a serial fabulist. In days past, a president caught in such blatant lying might actual suffer consequencesat least, a few pokes in the media and perhaps even within his own party for besmirching a US government official. These days, this Trump lie is just another piece of straw in one huge haystack. Trumps intelligence chief tells us that Trump is a liarand though the contradiction has drawn media attention, Trumps action is hardly covered as outrageous.Thats a sign of Trumps victory in his war against the norm of honesty.

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Trump's Intelligence Chief Offers a Timely Reminder: Trump Is a Liar - Mother Jones

Donald Trump lovesfast food. The 45th president has no problem wolfing down a Quarter Pounder or digging his way through a bucket of KFC. Great stuff, he once called the cheap, greasy fare.

Six months into Trumps presidency, the fast-food industry has plenty of reason to love him back.

The oil and gas sector, coal producers and for-profit colleges are all clear winnersin the Trump teams mission to deconstruct the administrative state. But so far, fast food, retail and other lower-wage industries have benefited as much as anyone from the administrations great regulatory rollback.

Lobbyists for restaurants, hotels and other franchised businesses spent the last several years fighting the Obama administration on one regulation after another. But the new White House occupant has heard their grievances, making industry-friendly changes to employment laws and how theyre enforced. Thats included abandoning Obamas overtime reforms, shying away from a minimum wage raise, and limiting whos considered an employer under the law all of which have a disproportionate effect on lower-wage, labor-intensive fields like fast food.

All told, the new administration has given McDonalds and its friends plenty to cheer about.

The early signs are that it can be more like night and day in terms of approach, said Matt Haller, senior vice president at the International Franchise Association, an industry group representing franchisers, including McDonalds. We just want regulations that are fair and reasonable and very clear.

The previous White House viewed regulation as a means to lift up workers at the bottom of the economic ladder, particularly folks doing low-paid service work like fast food and hospitality. Hence their push for a higher mandated wage floor, expanded overtime protections and aggressive enforcement of wage and hour laws. Like Obama, Trump speaks often of forgotten workers whose pay has stagnated, but so far his prescription for improving their lot mainly involves unfettering their employers.

That shouldnt come as a surprise for a president who made his fortune in hotels and went on to nominate a burger chain executive to be the countrys top workplace watchdog. (Andrew Puzder, the former CEO of Hardees and Carls Jr., ended up withdrawing his controversial nomination.) Still, the degree to which the administration is taking the reins off employers has distressed past officials who took a more aggressive tack.

Its the combination of these policies thats deeply troubling, said David Weil, who led the Labor Departments Wage and Hour Division under Obama. I see very little evidence that they are doing anything to address the needs of working people who have been left behind for a long time.

While he was in office, Weil tried to steer the agencys investigations toward the industries where he saw the most vulnerable workers fast food, sit-down restaurants, hotels and motels, janitorial companies and so forth. A Labor Department spokesman said the agency under Trump still carries out what it calls targeted enforcement programs. But pressed on whether they were targeting the same low-wage fields as before, the spokesman declined to say.

Some of the changes under Trump have little practical impact, but speak volumes about the administrations peculiar form of populism.

Employers in food and hospitality were apoplectic over the Obama administrations view on joint employment: the idea that more than one entity might be responsible when a worker gets injured or shorted on pay. The Obama administration put companies on notice that they, too, could be responsible for abuses against workers who are technically employed by temp firms and contractors. Fast-food brands like McDonalds recoiled at the idea they might be as liable for workplace violations as the franchisees who operate McDonalds restaurants.

After Trumps second pick for labor secretary, Alexander Acosta, assumed office in April, one of the first steps the agency took was to rescind the guidance on joint employment issued under Obama. Speaking to a retail lobby last month, Vice President Mike Pence proudly noted the change, drawing applause.

In another early move, the Labor Department brought back what are known as opinion letters. When employers are sued for allegedly not paying overtime or the minimum wage, they can ask the Labor Department to pen one of these letters in their defense, to be used in court. Weil likens them to a get-out-of-jail-free card for employers, and the Obama administration did not issue them. Trumps Labor Department, however, has trumpeted their return.

Trump also rescinded an executive order from Obama that would have made it harder for firms to secure federal contracts if they have a documented history of wage theft. Obamas order was the result of a campaign by fast-food workers who had been shorted on their pay while working on federal properties. (Two other orders from Obama one raising the minimum wage for federal contractors and another mandating sick leave for them have so far survived this administration.)

Other changes on the employment front are far more significant. The Obama administration tried to reform the nations overtime rules and guarantee more workers time and a half pay when they work more than 40 hours in a week. The share of salaried employees who are protected by overtime law has dropped off a cliffsince the 1970s. The changes the Obama administration made would have extended overtime rights to 4 million additional workers, according to the previous White House.

Carlo Allegri/Reuters

After business groups sued to stop Obamas plan, the Trump White House declined to defend it. The new administration seems to share the view of business groups that Obamas proposal covered too many workers and was too costly for employers. If Trump takes his own crack at overtime reform, its likely hell make far fewer workers eligible for time and a half pay.

Many of the people Obamas reforms aimed to help work in food and retail jobs, earning relatively low salaries while clocking long days. A group of Chipotle workers recently sued the burrito chainfor backpay, arguing Obamas overtime changes should still apply even though the rule is now in legal limbo. The case hasnt yet been decided.

As with the overtime expansion, this White House has abandoned the push for a higher minimum wage made by Obama. The idea of hiking the minimum wage tends to poll well across party lines; although he flip-flopped on the issueas a candidate, Trump once said he would like to raise it to at least $10. But so far as president, he seems intent to leave such matters to the market. The federal minimum wage, which prevails in any state without a higher one, is currently $7.25 per hour and hasnt been raised in eight years.

Beyond the major policy shifts, Trumps effect on low-wage work will be felt in less obvious ways. He recently made two nominations to the five-member National Labor Relations Board, which interprets collective bargaining law and referees disputes between employers and unions. His conservative choices one is a management-side attorney, the other a former GOP staffer who served on the House labor committee would end the current liberal majority and push the board to the right. (One of them has already been confirmed.)

If history is any indication, the Republican board would likely reverse some union-friendly rulings and draw tighter boundaries around whos eligible to unionize. Celine McNicholas, a labor policy expert at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, said the board is one way Trump could chip away at what she considered modest gains made for lower-income workers during the Obama years.

These potential setbacks are going to prove to be incredibly damaging, particularly for folks who are low-wage workers, McNicholas said. They are certainly losers under the Trump administration.

One potential beneficiary of the new board is McDonalds. The fast-food giant recently went to trial before an administrative law judge at the labor board to determine whether it counts as a joint employer alongside its franchisees; McDonalds could be held jointly responsible for violating workers rights. In general, a conservative labor board would be more likely to side with employers in such contentious cases.

The boards general counsel, Richard Griffin, who functions as a quasi-prosecutor, brought the case against McDonalds on behalf of workers who claimed theyd been illegally retaliated against for their activism in the Fight for $15 protests. A former union lawyer, Griffin assumed the post in 2013 and has been a thorn in the side of not just McDonalds but also Walmart and other employers hes taken to trial. His aggressive tenure has so infuriated business groups that some Republicans have demanded that he step down.

But at this point, that would no longer be necessary. Griffins four-year term expires in November. It will be up to Trump to choose his replacement.

Link:

Donald Trump Is The Fast-Food President - HuffPost

White House special counsel Kellyanne Conway daubed the airwaves with her usual dudgeon Thursday night and Friday morning, protesting in TV interviews that special counsel Robert Mueller's investigationnow issuing subpoenas from a grand juryhas become a "fishing expedition."

For a change, Conway's dudgeon was defensible. Once impaneled, any grand jury can sail the seven seas for months or years trawling for big fish, shellfish, pinnipeds, cetaceanseven kelp, and algae blooms should it be so moved. In the event that space travel proves feasible, nothing will stop grand juries from touring the planets on a quest to serve subpoenas. If a portal into the fifth dimension ever makes itself apparent, grand juries will mount expeditions there, too.

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The Constitution plus decades of judicial precedent have endowed grand juries with legal superpowers. The Supreme Court has ruled that a grand jury "does not depend on a case or controversy for power to get evidence, but can investigate merely on suspicion that the law is being violated, or even just because it wants assurance that it is not." [Emphasis added.] In another case, the court held that a grand jury can operate independently of "questions of propriety or forecasts of probable results" and elsewhere that a grand jury investigation isn't complete "until every available clue has been run down and all witnesses examined in every proper way to find if a crime has been committed."

In short, every grand jury is a fishing expedition. Mueller can start with Russia, his original mandate, but he can take his investigation wherever he finds crime. That's right, the bass fisherman could come home with a swordfish. Or even a sword.

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Aside from firing Captain Mueller, there's little Donald Trump can do to shield himself, his family, his political appointees, his business associates and his campaign buddies from the grand jury's scrutiny. And it's not clear that Trump can fire Mueller easily under the current set-up. A pair of bipartisan bills currently introduced this week in the Senate would give the special counsel the right to challenge his firing in court. "Any effort to go after Mueller could be the beginning of the end of the Trump presidency unless Mueller did something wrong," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R.-S.C., told reporters.

Think of a grand jury as an insatiable maw and you begin to understand Muellers task and Trumps terror. Mountains of phone records, business records, emails, and all manner of paperwork are likely to be subpoenaed by Mueller. Already, subpoenas covering the June 2016 meeting in Donald Jr.s Trump Tower office have been issued, and orders for principals to give grand jury testimony will surely follow. While the orders can be challenged or narrowed, Trump's people will find no easy escape from the dragnetwhatever Mueller points his flashlight at will glow with grand-jury illumination. According to the Washington Post, Trump burned with fury when he learned that Mueller would have access to several years of his tax returns.

The Trump protest against the Russia investigation was typical, as he called it "fake" and "demeaning" at West Virginia campaign-style rally this week. Such tirades will earn him no reprieve. Grand juries don't return to port until they've filled the hatches with fresh catch. This wasn't Trump's only act of non-persuasion this week. He also took to Twitter to blame Congress for the United States' poor relationship with Russia after it passed a veto-proof sanctions measure. Would it be reading too much into the president's thinking to conclude from his tweet that he desires to collude in public with Putin but the fact that the damn House and Senate just wont allow it has angered him to the point of tears?

Like Bill Clinton before him, Trump will be compelled to give testimony. He might want to start working on that honesty thing so the special counsel doesn't nail him on that perjury thing, like independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr did Clinton. He could use some practice on telling the truth. This week, the Washington Post proved him a liar not once but twice. Lie No. 1: You may recall that Trump deniedthrough his lawyersany knowledge of the meeting his son, Donald Jr., took in June 2016 with Russians at Trump Tower. But then the Post reported that Trump dictated Junior's original public statement that the meeting was primarily about adoption. Lie No. 2: Remember how Trump tweeted back in February that, contrary to the reporting from the "FAKE NEWS media" (specifically the Washington Post), he had enjoyed a "very civil conversation" on the phone with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull? Another whopper, as this Post published this week transcripts of the Trump-Turnbull conversation that proved the call was just as uncivil as the Post previously reported.

Like a carnival come to town, Mueller's grand jury performance promises high entertainment value over the 12-to-24 months some expect in to run. Expect representatives from Trump White House to storm the cable news studios to heckle, browbeat and insult Mueller with the same vehemence that Clinton's loyalists dealt Starr. Expect four or five journalists to come out of the investigation with big book contracts. Since the jurors and prosecutors are sworn to silence, expect most of the noise about the investigation to come from the witnesses and their lawyers, who bear no legal obligation to keep mum. Expect journalists to case the federal courthouse looking for arriving witnesseskeeping an eye on the back doors for sneak entrancesin hopes of divining Mueller's direction.

And expect Mueller to deliver something big. Very big. This is, after all, his last great hunt.

******

As we continue the search for a name for the no-name scandal, some of the entries are turning silly. Here are this week's "best" contributions, send yours to Shafer.Politico@gmail.com. Lenin' on the Edge (Silas York), Wash Reince and spin (John Willoughby), Russian for Cover (Peter Kelly-Detwiler), Lyin' King (Bobbogram), Donald Trump Hocus POTUS (Douglas Hutchison), Trump Tower Sus-PENCE (Douglas Hutchison), Trump's Magnificent Putin Ob-SESSION (Douglas Hutchison), The Art of the Squeal (Lenai Boye), Samovar Dogs (Alex Khachaturian), and "Drag-Nyet (Alex Khachaturian). My email alerts will take the Fifth. My Twitter feed will implicate my email alerts. My RSS feed will leave the country.

Jack Shafer is Politicos senior media writer.

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Week 11: Gone Fishing for Donald Trump - Politico

Christian Schneider, Opinion columnist Published 3:06 p.m. ET Aug. 5, 2017

President-elect Trump and Mitt Romney on Nov. 29, 2016.(Photo: Drew Angerer, Getty Images)

It isn't very often that the public gets to see a man's soul die inside his body. To see his dignity immolated. His manhood ripped from his bones.

And to have it captured all in one picture. Oh, the picture.

Late last November, President-elect Donald Trump and former Republican nominee Mitt Romney settled into a four-course dinner at New York's Jean-Georges restaurant, dining on frog legs and diver scallops. Over the previous year, Romney had been bitterly critical of Trump, calling him "con man" and "a fraud" yet upon winning, Trump dangled the possibility of naming Romney to the position of Secretary of State, leading to what would soon become Romney's Last Supper.

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In a chilling photograph of the dinner, Romney has turned to the camera with the look of a man that would much prefer to be dining with the Grim Reaper. As Trump glowers at the camera with a mischievous grin, Romney's eyes yearn for a foregone era when he stood in resistance to the vulgarian-in-chief; a time before he was made to kiss the ring in exchange for serving his country as secretary of state. The only thing missing from the photo is a Sarah McLachlan song playing in the background and a phone number to call to stop the abuse.

Of course, two weeks later, Trump picked oil executive Rex Tillerson to be his secretary of state, ending Romney's parade of public humiliation. But Trump got exactly what he wanted after the dinner, Romney told reporters that Trump "continues with a message of inclusion and bringing people together," and that his "vision is something which obviously connected with the American people in a very powerful way. Romney became another well-coiffed head for Trump's trophy case.

It wasn't the first time Trump stripped a conquered foe naked and paraded him in the public square, Game of Thrones-style. (And just like the citizens of Westeros, the #MAGA crowd evidently has plenty of time to take off work to spit and yell "shame" at Trump's vanquished opponents.)

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Who can forget Trump holding an enormous umbrella and yet still forcing sycophantic Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey to walk in the pouring rain? Or Trump mocking Christie to his face as he forced Christie to stand behind him on stage like a hostage?

One can even forgive the American public being "Little Marco'ed," "Lyin' Ted'ed" and "Crooked Hillary'ed" to exhaustion during the election. This is something entirely new Trump clearly is a sadist who enjoys humiliating his opponents after he has already won.

Simply ask the third participant in the November dinner, White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus. After months of harming his own reputation defending Trump's indefensible actions, Priebus was not only pushed out, but done so in the most embarrassing way possible. As if to emphasize Priebus' "weakness," Trump brought in tough guy flesh-and-bone absurdity Anthony Scaramucci to show Priebus the door. Then "The Mooch" was dumped himself days later in his own whirlpool of humiliation.

Or ask Attorney General Jeff Sessions, whom Trump shreds on a daily basis because the president doesn't have the stomach to fire him. Or former FBI director James Comey, whose decision to decline Trump's request for a "loyalty pledge" led to a firing surgically engineered to ruin Comey's name.

These are not the actions of a well-adjusted person. Trump clearly has a maudlin fetish for cruelty given his pattern of humiliating both friend and foe, the president's brain is occupied with little else than Electoral College results and revenge fantasies. Trump is basically a 71-year old kid cackling in delight as he melts ants under his magnifying glass. Only these ants are attorneys general, senators, FBI directors and governors.

Naturally, Trump's supporters think toying with peoples' dignity is a show of strength but it is the exact opposite. He's a weak leader who wastes what little political capital he has settling personal scores. With apologies to Winston Churchill, Trump remains an immodest man with much to be modest about.

And it's just a matter of time before he's under Vladimir Putin's magnifying glass.

Christian Schneideris a member ofUSA TODAY's Board of Contributors and a columnist for theMilwaukee Journal Sentinel, where this piece wasfirst published. Follow him on Twitter@Schneider_CM

You can readdiverse opinions from ourBoard of Contributorsand other writers ontheOpinion front page,on Twitter@USATOpinionand in our dailyOpinion newsletter.To submit a letter, comment or column, check oursubmission guidelines.

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Donald Trump has a sickening fetish for cruelty - USA TODAY

Presidential vacations and getaways

President Donald Trump listens to a high school marching band as he arrives at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, in February 2017. He and the first lady were spending a weekend away from the White House. Here's a look at how Trump and other US presidents have escaped the pressures of the Oval Office.

Presidential vacations and getaways

President Barack Obama prepares to putt as he plays golf with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak at the Marine Corps Base in Hawaii in December 2014.

Presidential vacations and getaways

President George W. Bush rides a bicycle at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, in August 2007.

Presidential vacations and getaways

President-elect Bill Clinton plays volleyball on a Pacific Coast beach in November 1992.

Presidential vacations and getaways

President George H.W. Bush pauses to speak to the media while he plays golf in Kennebunkport, Maine, in August 1990.

Presidential vacations and getaways

President Ronald Reagan and first lady Nancy Reagan ride horses at their vacation home in Santa Barbara, California, in November 1982.

Presidential vacations and getaways

President-elect Jimmy Carter vacations at St. Simons, an island off the coast of Georgia, in November 1976.

Presidential vacations and getaways

President Gerald Ford opens a gift from his wife, Betty, during their usual Christmas vacation spot in Vail, Colorado, in December 1974.

Presidential vacations and getaways

President Richard Nixon and his wife, Pat, walk along the beach in San Clemente, California, in 1971.

Presidential vacations and getaways

President Lyndon B. Johnson and his wife, Lady Bird, often vacationed at the LBJ Ranch in Johnson City, Texas.

Presidential vacations and getaways

President John F. Kennedy vacations with his family in this undated photo. From left is daughter Caroline, first lady Jacqueline and son John Jr.

Presidential vacations and getaways

In 1953, President Dwight D. Eisenhower fishes the North Platte River at the Swan Hereford Ranch in Colorado. Eisenhower also enjoyed golf trips to Augusta, Georgia.

Presidential vacations and getaways

President Harry Truman holds a news conference during a vacation in 1951.

Presidential vacations and getaways

President Franklin D. Roosevelt swims in Warm Springs, Georgia.

Presidential vacations and getaways

President Herbert Hoover and his wife, Lou Henry, sit on the porch of their Radipan Camp retreat, which is now part of the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. Hoover originally bought the land for the vacation spot in 1929.

Presidential vacations and getaways

President Calvin Coolidge poses in personalized chaps with his wife, Grace, at a party in South Dakota in 1927. The party celebrated the Fourth of July as well as Coolidge's 55th birthday.

Presidential vacations and getaways

President Warren Harding, right, goes camping with Firestone Tire founder Harvey Firestone in 1921.

Presidential vacations and getaways

President William H. Taft, center, enjoys a round of golf at the Chevy Chase Country Club in Maryland in 1909.

Presidential vacations and getaways

President Theodore Roosevelt's Sagamore Hill home, in Oyster Bay, New York, often served as his vacation retreat.

Presidential vacations and getaways

President Ulysses Grant enjoys the porch of his cottage by the sea in Elberon, New Jersey, in 1872.

Presidential vacations and getaways

President Abraham Lincoln's summer retreat was just a few miles from the White House, and he used to commute between the two on horseback. Now known as the Lincoln Cottage, it features a life-size statue of the 16th president.

Presidential vacations and getaways

President Thomas Jefferson liked to spend time at Monticello, his home in Virginia. In 1805, he spent nearly four months there while in office.

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John Kelly is a former United States Marine Corps general who has had multiple deployments in the battlefields of Iraq. However, he may have just embarked on his toughest assignment yet: controlling the Twitter habits and impulsive decision-making of a 71-year-old man.

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Formerly the secretary of Homeland Security, last week Kelly was appointed asPresident Donald Trump's new chief of staff, replacing Reince Priebus. But any notion that this might be a comfortable posting for a man more familiar with war zones than war rooms was quickly dispelled, according to Leon Panetta, a chief of staff to President Bill Clinton and a friend of Kellys who has spoken with him this week.

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He knows the problems. He knows how difficult its going to be, Panetta told The Washington Post Friday. Its like being dropped into the middle of a combat zone.

According to the Post, one major problem Kelly has identified as being in need of fixing is the way Trump makes decisions on important issues. Kelly has already assumed control of managing the paperwork and advice that reaches Trumps desk.

resident Donald Trump shakes hands with John Kelly after he was sworn in as White House Chief of Staff in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., July 31, 2017. Joshua Roberts/Reuters

The way Trump consumes advice and intelligence is a stark departure from previous incumbents of the Oval Office. Hampered by the presidents notoriously short attention span, National Security Council officials have resorted to tactics such as inserting Trumps name into as many paragraphs as possible because reading his own name is one way to maintain his interest.

Trump is said to favor an Oval Office with open access to the president, which has led to fierce competition from aides to get their desired information to the president. Kelly is not the first to try to control that flow. Priebus was long fighting that battle before he was ousted last month.

And then there is the cable news addiction. Television and particularly Fox News is a major source of Trumps information, often directly seen when he tweets out claims or arguments that only minutes later were raised on his network of choice.

That brings us to perhaps Kellys toughest job yet: controlling Trumps tweets. Trump has long lauded his Twitter use as being key to his outsider victory in last years election and regularly boasts about his number of followers. According to a Politico report Friday, he also marvels at how quickly his tweets appear on television after he hits the send button.

Trump often tweets early in the morning or late at night, with little or no consultation with his advisers beforehand. Such habits have long been discouraged by his legal advisers, among others, regarding an ongoing investigation into possible collusion between his campaign and Russia. Indeed, his Twitter use was cited by multiple law firms as a major reason why they turned down an offer to represent the president.

Another example was his recent announcement of a transgender military ban, which caught the military, among others, off guard. Kelly, reports Politico, sees one of his major tasks as pushing his tweets in the right direction, although he has already given up the idea of preventing him from tweeting.

You can't have a president who gets up at 5 a.m. and tweets policy, Panetta told Politico. The best thing would be if the president stopped tweeting, but thats not going to happen.

But perhaps Kelly can succeed where others have failed. Since the days of his campaign, Trump has shown himself to respect generals above perhaps all others and has continued to surround himself with senior military officers since moving into the White House. If General Kelly cant rein in the president perhaps nobody can.

John is the kind of guy who will look you in the eye and tell you what the hell he is thinking, Panetta told The New York Times. The real question is whether the president will give him the authority he needs to do the job.

Read more from the original source:

Donald Trump: A 71-Year-Old Man Who Needs a Military General to Manage His Twitter Use - Newsweek