Category Archives: Donald Trump

Trump, beginning around 2011, seized on the issue -- which had been percolating in the fever swamps on the far right since Obama won -- and used it to cast himself as the lone voice among conservatives willing to stand up to Obama (and political correctness).

That the whole thing was, wait for it, a totally false conspiracy theory was beside the point for Trump. It proved useful to him, so he used it.

Given that origin story, we shouldn't be terribly surprised that Trump's willingness to engage in conspiracy theories as a candidate has continued since he entered the White House.

Take Trump's tweets on Saturday alone. They amounted to a conspiracy theorist's dream.

Let's take these one by one.

The first tweet deals with MSNBC parting ways with host Greta van Susteren. Van Susteren, in a series of tweets, offered no evidence that she left because of any pressure from the bosses that she be more anti-Trump.

In each of these examples, what Trump does is similar: He takes something that's happened and insists (or insinuates) that there's something more to the story. Something people aren't telling you. Something the "elites" are covering up.

He, of course, provides no evidence to back up those claims. That's because there isn't any evidence. What Trump is doing in each of these three tweets is throwing just enough red meat to the conspiracy-minded to keep them coming back for more (and more)(and more).

What Trump is relying on is the self-fulfilling prophecy that drives all good conspiracy theorists. He knows more than "they" will let him say! Anyone who doubts Trump is part of the conspiracy! And so on and so forth.

Now, Trump didn't create conspiracy theories. He is just taking advantage of their rise, a rise fueled by the NSA's massive program of personal data collection exposed by Edward Snowden, Trump backer Alex Jones and a thousand and one Reddit sub-Reddits that bring together like-minded conspiracy theorists to prove that they can't all be wrong.

What Trump has done is mainstream conspiracy theories for his own political purposes. Much more so than any other past presidential candidate or president, Trump is willing to indulge conspiracy theories that fit his political purposes.

There's LOTS more examples. (Millions of people voted illegally in the 2016 election! Muslims were celebrating on the rooftops in New Jersey on 9/11! Etc. Etc. Etc.)

The point here is that Trump knows exactly what he's doing. It's not important whether he believes all the conspiracy theories he helps churn up and push into the mainstream. What's important is that by doing so he benefits politically.

The result? Conspiracy theories -- and the people who spout them -- have never been more prevalent.

Read the rest here:

Donald Trump has made conspiracy theories great again - CNN

This story was updated on Monday, July 3 at 12:53pm.

Charlie Gard was born with a rare genetic condition and has suffered from brain damage and loss of muscle function. After British doctors advised his parents, Connie Yates and Chris Gard, that they should end life support for the terminally ill 10-month-old, they raised nearly 2 million dollars to transfer Charlie to the U.S. for experimental treatment. But three separate British courts intervened, siding with medical specialists who said that further prolonging treatment would cause the baby significant harm. In June, the European Court of Human Rights weighed in on the parents final appeal. They lost. Charlie would be taken off of life support.

Since then, the global reaction has been chaotic, with leaders from the pope to the president of the United States weighing in on the case.

First, the Vaticans Pontifical Academy for Life issued a statement, seeming to side with the European courts. We must also accept the limits of medicine and avoid aggressive medical procedures that are disproportionate to any expected results or excessively burdensome to the patient or the family, wrote Vincenzo Paglia, the bodys president. While people should never deliberately end a human life, he added, sometimes we ... have to recognize the limitations of what can be done.

Then the pope weighed inand said almost exactly the opposite. Francis is following with affection and sadness the case of little Charlie Gard and expresses his closeness to his parents, a Vatican press office statement said. For this he prays that their wish to accompany and treat their child until the end is not neglected.

On Monday, President Trump added his support with a tweet supporting Charlie and his family.

Charlies case touches on some of the most sensitive moral and political questions about the role of the state at the end of life. The decisions of the European courts represented the final word on whether Charlies parents could pursue treatment in the U.S., and after the ruling, Yates and Gard claimed the hospital had denied permission for them to take Charlie back to their home to die. Yates and Gard have framed the medical dispute as Charlies fight, developing a large social-media following as they chronicled their effort to pursue further treatment for their son. The case also has religious dimensions: On their instagram page, Yates and Gard documented their celebration of their sons baptism and showed him clutching a pendant of St. Jude, the Catholic figure most often associated with hospitals and medical care. Media in the U.K. have followed the Gard familys case closely and the court orders to end Charlies life have been fiercely criticized by conservatives in the U.S. and abroad.

With the Church weighing in, the case took on a whole new dimension. The competing statements seemed to reveal an internal dispute over end-of-life issues within the Vatican. But they also teed up Trumps intervention. Religious conservatives in the U.S. were outraged over the Pontifical Academy for Lifes original statement: Besides being patronizing, the Vaticans statement is a gross distortion of the situation, wrote Michael Brendan Dougherty at National Review. It portrays the Gards as acting alongside the doctors, but subject to outside manipulation. The Gards are resisting the doctors. The Gards are not facing their decisions. They are facing authorities that have overridden them.

Trump, who has consistently expressed his verbal support for religious freedom, has now stepped in, cementing the issue as an international cause for conservatives. Upon learning of baby Charlie Gard's situation, President Trump has offered to help the family in this heartbreaking situation, the White House said in a statement issued on Monday afternoon. Although the President himself has not spoken to the family, he does not want to pressure them in any way, members of the administration have spoken to the family in calls facilitated by the British government. The President is just trying to be helpful if at all possible.

Its not clear how the presidents statement would change the Gard familys situation: They already had the money for Charlies treatment and had sought to bring him to the U.S. The American president cant change the way European courts work, or annul their authority. But Trump has marked a difference in orientation between at least one part of Europe and the United States. While the high courts of Europe have asserted their authority and doctors right to decide when and how Charlie dies, the president of the United States has decided he will champion the familys choice to decideno matter whether or not he actually has the ability to intervene in one British babys life.

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Donald Trump Offers to Help Charlie Gard - The Atlantic

Late last month, President Trump touted his legislative prowess, boasting, "I will say that never has there been a president with few exceptions, in the case of FDR he had a major Depression to handle who's passed more legislation, who's done more things than what we've done."

And he tweeted about signing 38 bills (he's now up to 41).

The president isn't the only one who's talking about how much legislation has been enacted during his young presidency. On Mr. Trump's 150th day in office, House Intelligence Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes claimed on a radio show KMJ radio that Mr. Trump "got more bills signed into law...this Congress working with this president, than any president previously before at this stage in the game."

As the president conceded in his tweet, there are "a few exceptions." Politifact pointed out that "not only did Roosevelt and Truman sign more bills through 150 days, so did Presidents Jimmy Carter, 48, and Bill Clinton with 41. President George H. W. Bush signed the same number as Trump, 39."

And nearing six months into his presidency, none of those dozens of measures include any of Mr. Trump's major campaign promises. He has not repealed and replaced Obamacare, nor has he delivered the biggest tax cut since Ronald Reagan. He has not secured funding to build a "big, beautiful wall" on the Mexican border -- which would need to have funds appropriated for it (even if Mexico were to agree to pay for it).

The House has passed a version of the health care bill, but the Senate has not yet reached an agreement on a version of its own. It postponed a vote that had been scheduled just before the July 4 recess, and it's not yet evident that Senate Republicans will be able to settle on a plan that 50 of them can agree upon, which is the number they'll need for passage. Should they pass a bill, it would also have to be reconciled with the House version passed in May.

The tax legislation was supposed to follow the passage of the health care bill, and the White House has said it expects to have a bill before Congress by early September.

As for Mr. Trump's oft-mentioned southern border wall, Congress did not include money for the wall it its 2017 budget, and it remains to be seenwhether the wall will ever be funded.

The largest number of bills Mr. Trump has signed -- 15 -- roll back Obama administration regulations.

Here's a list of the bills signed by the president, courtesy of CBS News' in-house presidential tracker, White House correspondent Mark Knoller. The bill text is from Congress.gov.:

1) Jan. 20, 2017: In the Capitol after his swearing-in, the president signed a bill to waive a restriction that would have kept Gen. James Mattis, (USMC ret) from serve as Secretary of Defense. The law prohibits former military personnel from serving as defense secretary within seven years of retirement. Mattis retired in 2013.

2) Jan. 20, 2017: H.R.72. This bill authorizes the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to obtain federal agency records required to discharge the GAO's duties (including audit, evaluation, and investigative duties), including through bringing civil actions to require an agency to produce a record. No provision of the Social Security Act shall be construed to limit, amend, or supersede the GAO's authority to: (1) obtain information or inspect records about an agency's duties, powers, activities, organization, or financial transactions; or (2) obtain other agency records that the GAO requires to discharge its duties.

3) Feb. 14, 2017: H. J. Res. 41: This joint resolution nullifies the "Disclosure of Payments by Resource Extraction Issuers" rule finalized by the Securities and Exchange Commission on July 27, 2016. (The rule, mandated under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, requires resource extraction issuers to disclose payments made to governments for the commercial development of oil, natural gas, or minerals.)

4) Feb. 16, 2017: H.J.Res 38: To repeal Obama Admin rule barring dumping of surface mining waste into streams.

5) Feb. 28, 2017: H.R.321 Inspiring the Next Space Pioneers, Innovators, Researchers, and Explorers (INSPIRE) Women Act. The bill directs NASA "to encourage women and girls to study science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), pursue careers in aerospace," by supporting NASA programs: NASA GIRLS and NASA BOYS, Aspire to Inspire, and Summer Institute in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Research.

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NASA video shows the launch of a Terrier-Improved Malemute suborbital sounding rocket from the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The rocket di...

6) Feb. 28, 2017: H.R.255 "Promoting Women in Entrepreneurship Act" authorizes the National Science Foundation" to encourage its entrepreneurial programs to recruit and support women to extend their focus beyond the laboratory and into the commercial world."

7) Feb. 28, 2017: H.J.Res. 40, "nullifies the Social Security Administration's rule implementing the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) Improvement Amendments Act of 2007." The measure blocks an Obama Administration rule providing Social Security information for gun buyer background checks.

8) Feb. 28, 2017: H.R.609 designates the Department of Veterans Affairs health care center in Center Township, Butler County, Pennsylvania, as the "Abie Abraham VA Clinic".

9) Feb. 28, 2017: S.442 - National Aeronautics and Space Administration Transition Authorization Act of 2017, the first NASA budget authorization in six years. The measure calls for a $19.5 billion budget for the agency for fiscal year 2017.

10) Feb 28, 2017: H.J. Res. 37: This joint resolution nullifies the rule finalized by the Department of Defense, the General Services Administration, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on August 25, 2016, relating to revising the Federal Acquisition Regulation to implement Executive Order 13673 concerning contractor compliance with labor laws.

11) H.J. Res. 44: This joint resolution nullifies the rule finalized by the Department of the Interior on December 12, 2016, relating to revising regulations that establish the procedures used to prepare, revise, or amend land use plans pursuant to the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976.

12) H.J. Res. 57: This joint resolution nullifies the rule finalized by the Department of Education on November 29, 2016, relating to accountability and state plans under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.

13) H.J. Res. 58: This joint resolution nullifies the "Teacher Preparation Issues" rule finalized by the Department of Education on October 31, 2016. The rule implements requirements related to assessing the quality of teacher preparation programs under title II (Teacher Quality Enhancement) of the Higher Education Act of 1965.

14) March 28, 2017 S. 305, the "Vietnam War Veterans Recognition Act of 2017," which encourages the display of the U.S. flag on March 29, National Vietnam War Veterans Day.

15) March 31, 2017: H.J.Res. 42, which nullifies the Department of Labor's Federal-State Unemployment Compensation Program; Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012 Provision on Establishing Appropriate Occupations for Drug Testing of Unemployment Compensation Applicants;

16) March 31, 2017: H.R. 1362, which designates the Department of Veterans Affairs community-based outpatient clinic in Pago Pago, American Samoa, the Faleomavaega Eni Fa'aua'a Hunkin VA Clinic; and

17) March 31, 2017: S.J.Res. 1, which approves the location of a memorial to commemorate and honor the members of the Armed Forces who served on active duty in support of Operation Desert Storm or Operation Desert Shield.

18) April 3, 2017: H.J.Res. 69, which nullifies the Department of the Interior's Fish and Wildlife Service's final rule relating to non-subsistence takings of wildlife on National Wildlife Refuges in Alaska;

19) April 3, 2017: H.J.Res. 83: which nullifies the Department of Labor's rule titled Clarification of Employer's Continuing Obligation to Make and Maintain an Accurate Record of Each Recordable Injury and Illness; and

20) April 3, 2017: H.R. 1228, which provides for the appointment of members of the Board of Directors of the Office of Compliance to replace members whose terms expire during March and May of 2017; and

21) April 3, 2017: S.J.Res. 34, which nullifies the Federal Communications Commission's rule on privacy of customers of broadband and other telecommunications services.

22) April 13, 2017: H.J.Res. 67, which nullifies the Department of Labor's rule on Savings Arrangements Established by Qualified State Political Subdivisions for Non-Governmental Employees. This means that the bill rolls back the HHS regulation that barred states from blocking federal funds to family planning providers that perform abortions. They can now block those funds.

23) April 13, 2017: H.J.Res. 43, which nullifies the Department of Health and Human Services rule prohibiting recipients of Title X grants for the provision of family planning services from excluding a subgrantee from participating for reasons other than its ability to provide Title X services. This bill, along with H.J. Res. 67, were the 12th and 13th bills signed by President Trump to nullify regulations issued in the last months of the Obama administration.

24) April 18, 2017: H.R. 353, the "Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017," which reauthorizes and modifies the Department of Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's: (1) weather research and forecasting programs; and (2) tsunami detection, forecast, warning, research and mitigation programs.

25) April 19, 2017: S. 544, A bill to amend the Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act of 2014 to modify the termination date for the Veterans Choice Program, and for other purposes. Bill eliminates August 7 termination date of the Veterans Choice Program; to modify reimbursement and cost-recovery procedures for care provided under the Program; and to authorize the sharing of certain veterans' medical records with medical service providers outside the Department of Veterans Affairs.

26) April 19, 2017: S.J.Res. 30 reappoints Steve Case as a citizen regent of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution;

27) April 19, 2017: S.J.Res. 35 appoints Michael Govan as a citizen regent of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution; and

28) April 19, 2017: S.J.Res. 36 appoints Roger W. Ferguson as a citizen regent of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution.

29) April 28, 2017: H.J.Res. 99 is the continuing resolution to fund the government with appropriations for fiscal year 2017, and for other purposes.

30) May 05, 2017: H.R. 244: Spending bill to avert government shutdown. It provides fiscal year (FY) 2017 full-year appropriations through September 30, 2017, for all agencies except those covered by division A of the Continuing Appropriations and Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act 2017, and Zika Response and Preparedness Act (Public Law 114-223). Division A provided full-year funding through September 30, 2017, for projects and activities of the Federal Government included in the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2017.

31) May 8, 2017: H.R. 534, the "U.S. Wants to Compete for a World Expo Act," which authorizes the Secretary of State to take such actions as necessary for the United States to rejoin the Bureau of International Expositions.

32) May 12, 2017: S. 496, which nullifies the rule issued by the Federal Highway Administration and the Federal Transit Administration entitled "Metropolitan Planning Organization Coordination and Planning Area Reform".

33) May 16, 2017: The "Modernizing Government Travel Act" requires the General Services Administration to prescribe regulations to provide for the reimbursement for the use of a transportation network company or innovative mobility technology company by any Federal employee traveling on official business.

34) May 17, 2017: H.J.Res. 66 nullifies the Department of Labor's rule on Savings Arrangements Established by States for Non-Governmental Employees.

35) June 2, 2017: The "Public Safety Officers' Benefits Improvement Act of 2017" was a bipartisan bill that would help speed which modifies eligibility requirements for the Public Safety Officers' Benefits (PSOB) program administered by the Department of Justice; and requires the Department to exercise due diligence, and transparency, to expeditiously adjudicate PSOB claims; and

36) June 2, 2017: The "American Law Enforcement Heroes Act of 2017" authorizes the Department of Justice to award community oriented policing services grants for the purpose of prioritizing the hiring and training of veterans as career law enforcement officers.

37) June 6, 2017: An act naming a federal building and U.S. courthouse the "Fred D. Thompson Federal Building and United States Courthouse."

38) June 6, 2017: The "DHS Stop Asset and Vehicle Excess Act or the DHS SAVE Act," which requires the Under Secretary for Management of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to oversee and manage vehicle fleets throughout DHS; and imposes new requirements on DHS components regarding the management of those fleets.

39) June 14, 2017: The "Follow the Rules Act," which gives whistleblower protections to federal employees who refuse to violate federal rules and regulations. A federal court had issued a ruling protecting federal workers from employer retaliation if they refused to violate federal law, but it did not apply the same safeguards for those who refuse to obey an order that would violate a rule or regulation.

40) June 23, 2017: The VA Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act, which aims tomake it easier to fire bad employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs, and give more protection to employees who bring misconduct to light. It gives VA Secretary David Shulkin more authority to fire misbehaving or underperforming employees, shorten the appeals process for that firing, and prohibits employees from being paid while they pursue the appeals process. It also includes new protections againstretaliation for workerswho file complaints with the VA general counsel's office, and shortens the process for hiring new employees to fill a workforce shortage at the VA.

41) June 30, 2017: H.R. 1238, the "Securing our Agriculture and Food Act," requires the Assistant Secretary for Health Affairs of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to carry out a program to coordinate DHS efforts related to defending the food, agriculture, and veterinary systems of the United States against terrorism and other threats.

Read more here:

What are the bills Donald Trump has signed? - CBS News

A majority of AmericansclaimPresident Donald Trump should continue with his often provocative tweets, with a new poll showing more than 75 percentof respondents want him to remain on social media.Thesurvey from The Drudge Report found just 22.3 percentof people would like to see the president step back from social media, while 77.7 percentthink he should continue tweeting.

The poll on the right-wing website asked respondents if they believed Trump should use socials.About524,420 peopleanswered the unofficial poll as of Monday afternoon.

During his election campaign, Trump utilized social media to great effect but provoked criticism for his divisivestatements, with many wondering whether he would relinquish his social media habit once elected. Since moving to the White House, Trump has in fact continued using social media to make announcements, criticize peopleand hit out at the mainstream media, which he frequently refers to as fake news, apparently preferring to reach out to his followers directly rather than engaging with news outlets he dislikes.

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In the past 24 hours, Trump has lashed out at the media on several occasions, stating in a tweet on Sunday: The dishonest media will NEVER keep us from accomplishing our objectives on behalf of our GREAT AMERICAN PEOPLE! #AmericaFirst.

He added in a tweet Monday: At some point the Fake News will be forced to discuss our great jobs numbers, strong economy, success with ISIS, the border & so much else!

The president is also very proud of his social media use, stating during a meeting with Indias prime minister, Narendra Modi, at the White House on June 26 that the pair were both world leaders in social media.

I am proud to announce to the media, to the American people and to the Indian people that Prime Minister Modi and I are world leaders in social media. We're believers, Trump said.

Giving the citizens of our countries the opportunity to hear directly from their elected officials and for us to hear directly from them, Trump added. I guess it's worked very well in both cases.

Continued here:

Most People Actually Want Donald Trump to Keep on Tweeting, Drudge Report Poll Shows - Newsweek

The rules are simple, okay? No threats of violence. No targeted abuse or harassment. No inciting anybody else to engage in targeted abuse or harassment. No hateful conduct.

Now think about Donald Trumps tweeting habits. Is he breaking those rules, which come from Twitters terms of service?

Trump has long been criticized for his impulsiveness, but less than six months into his presidency, alarm over his Twitter conduct has hit fever pitch.

On Sunday morning, Trump tweeted a short video clip showing him pummeling another person outside of a wrestling ringwith the other persons face blocked out by the CNN logo. If thats not a direct threat of violence against the American citizens who work for CNN, its certainly a celebration of violence.

The president is not only aware of the firestorm hes ignited, he appears to be relishing it. My use of social media is not Presidential, Trump tweeted on Saturday. its MODERN DAY PRESIDENTIAL.

These latest messages came came on the heels of a bizarre barrage of tweetsodd even by the presidents standardsthat set off a new round of scrutiny of his use of social media. Beginning on June 29, Trump began tweeting repeated insults at Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, the hosts of the MSNBC talk show, Morning Joe. Trumps treatment of Brzezinski was particularly strange. In addition to calling her dumb, crazy, and low I.Q. in three separate tweets, he claimed that she and Scarborough traveled to Mar-a-Lago for New Years Eve and insisted on seeing Trump while Brzezinski was bleeding badly from a face-lift. (Brzezinski and Scarborough published a rebuke in The Washington Post, calling the presidents claim a lie.)

In true Trump fashion, the president doubled down, calling Scarborough crazy and Brzezinski dumb as a rock.

Does that constitute targeted harassment? And given Trumps huge followingmore than 33.1 million Twitter followers on his primary accountdoes a string of attacks against the same two individuals constitute inciting harassment? We dont comment on individual accounts, for privacy and security reasons, a Twitter spokesperson told me on Saturday. Twitter also declined to tell me whether, when considering the question of a user inciting harassment, it takes into consideration that persons number of followers or public statusa movie star or politician, for example.

Twitters website does offer some clarification on how it assesses abusive behavior. The company says it assesses whether the primary purpose of an account is to harass or send abusive messages; and it looks at whether the reported behavior is one-sided.Setting aside Twitters notoriously bad track record for actually enforcing its own standards on harassment, the question of one-sidedness poses an interesting problem here.

When one of the people involved in a Twitter fight isnt just a public official but also the president of the United States, is it fair to consider anyone hes attacking an equal player in a fight?

We know what Trump would say. This is a man whose 2007 book Never Give Up has multiple chapters dedicated to the subject of fighting with people. Theres Chapter 5 (I Love a Good Fight) and Chapter 29 (You Will Be Attacked For Trying to Change Anything) and Chapter 38 (When Youre Attacked, Bite Back). If Trump doesnt like what a person says about him, he attacks them. Period.

But Trumps Twitter conduct also raises a question about what Twitter is, and what it should be. Often, the service is treated as a new kind of public square, a place for the unfiltered exchange of ideas (and, clearly, hurling of insults). Silicon Valley has rarely stepped in to correct the persistent cultural conflation between the actual right to free speechthat is, the constitutionally protected right that says the government cannot make a law that inhibits peoples freedom of expressionand the idea that people should get to say whatever they want wherever they want to without consequence. (Complicating things further, Twitter must answer to its shareholders, and having the president use its service so routinelyand so bombasticallycertainly keeps the service relevant.)

In reality, though, Twitter is a media company. Just like CNN and The New York Times are media companies. Except, unlike in a traditional model where publishers and readers are distinct groups, everyone can be both on Twitter. So whats a company like Twitter to do when one of its userswho is also the president of the United States, by the wayincessantly publishes attacks against individuals? Nothing, apparently. At least nothing yet. The thornier question is: What should it do? Only rarely would any news organization turn down the opportunity to exclusively print or broadcast a message from the president. (U.S. senators and presidential candidates, however, are another story.) Though its not like the president doesnt have plenty of opportunities for his voice to be amplified. He has said he likes Twitter because its a direct channel to the American people, but he has his own website where he could be live-streaming or blogging, for instance. He is also a constant subject of media attention; his press conferenceswhen the White House permits itare broadcast over cable and network television.

Presidents have historically made good use of new media platforms. Franklin Roosevelts fireside chats may seem quaint to us now, but they were a revolutionary experiment with a nascent media platform when they began in the 1930s. But, as with all things Trump-related, looking to norms and historic conventions can only get you so far. Imagine if Roosevelt had used his radio access to relentlessly criticize individual Americans by name. Trump knows that his critics are disgusted by the way he represents the country on Twitter, and he trusts that his supporters delight in their disgust.

It never stops, and I wouldnt have it any other way, he wrote in The Art of the Deal. I try to learn from the past, but I plan for the future by focusing exclusively on the present. Thats where the fun is. And if it cant be fun, whats the point?

If Twitter were to suspend or even outright ban Trump, his most fervent left-wing critics would surely rejoice. His supporters would likely boycott Twitter. Their outrage could help him keep their support. And in Trumps worldview, this may well look like a win-win.

Originally posted here:

Donald Trump Is Testing Twitter's Harassment Policy - The Atlantic

For a minute there, things were looking up for President Donald Trump. By late last week,his approval rating was hovering around 40percent, which isn't great but marked an improvement for the former reality TV star. But then Trump spent the holiday weekend railing against the press andblasting off tweetstormsandthe president's approval rating took a plunge.

Gallup's tracking poll pegged Trump's approval at just 37 percent to start off July, while disapproval stood at 57 percent. Last week, Gallup found the president's approval rating had briefly climbedto 40 percent before the fall-off back into the 30s.

The Gallup poll interviewed 1,500 U.S. adults and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. Trump's 37 percent approval rating is dismal, especially for a president so early in his tenure, when the American peopletypically afford the office a grace period of sorts. Around this point in his first term, for instance, former President Barack Obama had a 60 percent approval rating.

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Things have gotten so bad for Trumpthat far more people support impeaching him than support the job he's doing in the Oval Office. A surveyin recent weeks from Public Policy Pollinga firm that does public surveys as well as polling for Democratic candidatesfound that 47 percent of voters supported impeaching Trump. Americans could,perhaps, feel that way because 49 percent believed the president had obstructed justice in the ongoing investigation into his ties to Russia, according to thePublic Policy Polling survey.

Even Trump's average approval rating is a long ways off from the support for his impeachment. The weighted average from data-focused website FiveThirtyEight pegged his approval rating at just 39.5 percent Monday, while 54.4 percent disapproved. The FiveThirtyEight average adjusts for polls' quality, recency, sample size and partisan lean.

Despite a dismal approval rating, it was more of the same from Trump Monday morning. He redoubled his efforts to trash the press, tweeting,"At some point the Fake News will be forced to discuss our great jobs numbers, strong economy, success with ISIS, the border & so much else!" This followed numerous anti-press tweets over the weekend, including a bizarre post with a video of himwrestling a person with a CNN logo instead of a head. (This doctored video was harvested froma Trumppro wrestling appearance.)

Meanwhile, calls for Trump's impeachment have surged. Dozens of marches against the president took place in towns across the country over the weekend, including one in Los Angeles. California RepresentativeBrad Sherman, a Democrat who has drafted articles of impeachment against the president, delivered remarks at the end of the march.

"We have to act now to protect our country from abuse of power and impulsive, ignorant incompetence," Sherman said, according to the Los Angeles Times.

"Lock him up," the crowd chanted in response.

Link:

Support for Donald Trump's Impeachment Is Way Higher Than His Latest Approval Rating - Newsweek

On a recent Wednesday afternoon, Sam Zell, the iconoclastic Chicago businessman, breezed into his New York City office, on Madison Avenue, fresh from a week of motorcycling through the Tuscan countryside. It was absolutely spectacular, he said. Ill tell you, the one thought that just kept going through my head all week long was, Im seventy-five years old. Im riding faster and better than I ever have in my life. He wore his usual outr uniform of pressed black jeans and black T-shirt, and was his typical jovial and provocative self. He was in town ostensibly to promote his new book, Am I Being Too Subtle? , a chatty memoir that is an homage both to his parentsJews who escaped Poland in 1939and to his own entrepreneurialism, which has helped him to accumulate a fortune estimated by Forbes to be five billion dollars.

Zell attributes his wealth to a prescription articulated by any number of successful business people: zigging when everyone else is zagging. Its a replicable formula, he says, and he has little patience for people who complain that it was somehow easier in the good old days, or that the moment for such opportunities has passed. (His earliest successes came from investing in real-estate assets that others shunned.) My message is, anybody can do it, he explained. Theyve got to be focussed. Theyve got to be driven. Theyve got to have a tin ear to conventional wisdom. Theyve got to think outside of the box. He refuses to listen when hes told he cant do something. I spent my whole life listening to people explain to me that I dont get it, he says. I look at the Forbes 400 list, and if I eliminate the people who inherited the money, everybody else went left when conventional wisdom said to go right. How did I do what I did? By not listening to anybody else.

It was this singular thinking, in part, that led to Zells biggest financial miscalculation: the December, 2007, acquisition of the Tribune Company, for $8.2 billion. At that time, Tribune was a venerable but troubled collection of newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune , the Los Angeles Times , and Newsday ; the superstation WGN America; the Food Network; twenty-three local and regional television stations; and the Chicago Cubs. (He quickly sold off Newsday and the Cubs.) He knew that the newspaper industry was struggling and in serious disarray. Thats why the deal he structured to buy the company was classic Zell: awfully clever, perhaps too clever. He borrowed billions of dollars ($11.5 billion, to be precise, bringing the total amount of debt on the company to fourteen billion dollars) and risked just enough of his own money, through Equity Group Investments, his investment firmthree hundred and fifteen million dollars, about six per cent of his net worthso that he could lose it without feeling too much pain.

Zell took the company private, alongside the Tribunes employees, through an employee-stock-ownership plan, or ESOP , which resulted in both tax benefits and the employees becoming his equity partners. He promised them that if the deal succeeded, they would get rich (and Zell would get richer). After the deal closed, he says he went around the company and met every person who worked for Tribune. I looked up each one of them and I said, Guys, if this doesn't work, its not going to change my lifestyle. But if this does work, its going to change yours. So climb onboard.

He also insulted them. He referred to Washington bureau reporters as overhead , and his suggestions to put ads on the front pages of the newspapers also offended them. In Zells telling, the employees were simply not wise enough to follow his lead. Im talking about survival, and theyre talking about journalistic arrogance, he said. I rest my case.

Ann Marie Lipinski, who resigned as the Chicago Tribunes editor in 2008, after sweeping staff cutbacks were carried out, flatly dismissed Zells version of events. Im sure thats a comforting narrative for him, but its rubbish, Lipinski, who is now the curator of the Neiman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard, wrote in an e-mail. The idea that employees opposing innovative ad placement were what brought the company to its knees demonstrates some real revisionist history.

Zell made other mistakes. Randy Michaels, the former radio executive he chose to run the Tribunes media properties (Michaels ran Jacor, a successful radio company that Zell bought out of bankruptcy in 1993), set a frat-house tone, and, as David Carr wrote in the Times , his and his executives use of sexual innuendo, poisonous workplace banter and profane invective shocked and offended people throughout the company. He also underestimated how quickly the companys revenues were declining, and within a year, the company had filed for bankruptcy, undone by a toxic combination of too much debt, plunging ad revenue, a general disruption confronting print media, and, to a lesser extent, the Great Recession. Needless to say, Tribune employees did not get rich.

Some blame Zell for being the architect of a leveraged buyout comprised of roughly ninety-eight per cent debt and two per cent equity. A virtually no-money-down L.B.O., said David Rosner, an attorney for a Tribune creditor, at a December, 2009, bankruptcy court hearing. In April of 2007, Tribune agreed to undertakeand the funding banks and, now, the hedge funds as successors, they agreedthey funded this massive amount of debt to permit Mr. Zell to acquire control of Tribune. That is the L.B.O. that drove this company into bankruptcy. Zell said, of the Tribune experience, I made a bet. I thought the bet was reasonable. I underwrote it appropriately. I was wrong. He lost his entire investment.

Though the fate of the Tribune newspapers got the most attention during the Zell years, it was the other properities, especially the TV stations, that interested him as a businessman, as Connie Bruck wrote in the magazine , in 2007. In part because of the failure of Zells leadership at Tribune and the debt he piled on it, those stations will now likely be used to form a conservative nationwide television rival to Fox News.

After emerging from bankruptcy after four years, and owned by its creditors, Tribune split itself into two piecesthe absurdly named Tronc, short for Tribune Online Content, its publicly traded newspaper groupand Tribune Media, its growing collection of local television stations. In May, Sinclair Broadcasting, which already owns a hundred and seventy-three television stations around the country, agreed to buy Tribune Media, with its forty-two stations, for $3.9 billion. Regulators are still evaluating the deal, but it now appears it will be completed. Sinclair has a reputation for its conservative bent in many markets and recently hired as its chief political analyst Boris Epshteyn, who served as an often contentious spokesman for Trumps Presidential campaign and then briefly as a White House adviser. (In his new gig, Ephsteyn recently criticized CNN, saying that it "along with other cable news networks, is struggling to stick to the facts and to be impartial in covering politics in general and this president specifically.)

As a bottom-line-oriented dealmaker, Zell is indifferent to the fate of the Tribunes television stations. It's all predictable because effectively, they no longer had scale and they no longer had an owner, he said. Then, it becomes a financial transaction. But by this point in our conversation, he had had enough talk of the Tribune deal.

Unlike many other Wall Street types, hes not particularly worried about Donald Trump, though he is hardly a fan. Zell did not give money to Trump during the Presidential campaign (he declined to say whom he supported or voted for) but said that he finds Trump to be far preferable to Hillary Clinton.

He repeated what has become almost a clich: that the lites on the coasts completely missed Trumps appeal. I live in the Midwest, said Zell, whose primary home is in Chicago. You do not understand how angry the people in the middle of the country were. Angry is the best description. That may be an understatement. Their anger was directed at Washington politicians and regulators who tell people what they can and cant do. When youre a farmer, or youre a landowner, and you got a puddle on your ground, and last week it was a puddle and now it's navigable waters, thats pretty serious shit, he said. I think thats the major problem of the Democratic Party, is exactly that stretch.

Zell said that Trumps Electoral College victory was about the people in the heartland sending a powerful message: We count. Youve been running this country for the benefit of urban lites. (He concedes that he, too, is an urban lite, but he also appreciates the wisdom of the message.) He said he thinks the East Coast and West Coast liberals are still in denial. They cant believe he got elected, he said. They cant believe what he does. Zell can. I dont think Trump is the disaster that the New Yorkers would like to portray him as, he said. But hes given up watching CNN because of what he sees as its anti-Trump bias. I dont like listening to Fox, either, he said, because its so biased.

The sale of the Tribune television stations to Sinclair wont make Zells dilemma about where to get his unbiased news any easier. And, in fact, it may exacerbate the growing schism between progressives and conservatives, further hardening already stark divisions. Thats a problem that Zell the businessman may choose to be matter-of-fact about, but not one that Zell, the son of clever and lucky immigrants, can afford to ignore.

More:

Sam Zell Is Over the Tribune - The New Yorker

It started well enough: Soon after Donald Trump won the presidency, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau congratulated him, pledging to team with him on trade and security to give Canadians and Americans a fair shot at success.

We're going to keep working withpeopleright around the world. We're going to work with our neighbors, and I'm going to work with President-elect Trump's administration, as we move forward in a positive way for, not justCanadians and Americans, but the whole world, Trudeau said at an event in Ottawa.

Sure, it lacked some of the bombast of a complimentfrom the lips of a Trump Cabinet member.But it seemed like the start of a working relationship. It probably helped that Trudeau had studiously avoided criticizing Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign (though oneLiberal Party fundraisingemail, from September 2016, characterized the American election as a fundamental choice betweenhope or fear, diversity or division and openness and inclusion, or turning our backs on the world. No candidates were named.)

But therelationship between the pair has since gone south.

First, there was Trudeau's Jan. 28Twitter dig at Trump's ban on travel from seven Muslim nations:To those fleeing persecution, terror & war, Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith. Diversity is our strength #WelcomeToCanada.

Then cametheir first meeting, during which Trudeau famously neutralized the president's handshake.

And there was Trump's strange decision to refer to Trudeau as Justin from Canada in a speech, a relaxed descriptor that struck some as dismissive.

Then there was also a nasty fight over trade and tariffs, during which Trump called Canada a disgrace for its policies that hurt American dairy farmers. (Trudeau's response: The way to do that is to make arguments in a respectful fashion, based on facts, and work constructively and collaboratively with our neighbors.")

Trump also has threatened to"get rid of NAFTA once and for all," which would put Canada in a tough spot.

Trump, however, seems to have changed his tune at least for a day. In honor of Canada Day, the president praised his "new found friend" Justin Trudeau.

Thatshout-out perhapsreflects Trudeau's wide-ranging efforts to winTrump over, even as he opposes many of the president's policies.As the New York Times explained:Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus strategy for managing Mr. Trump is unlike anything tried by another ally. And he has largely succeeded where even experienced leaders like Angela Merkel of Germany have fallen short.

Trudeau's strategy:In the days after Trump won the presidency, Trudeau put together a war room of America-whisperers, seeking to cultivate relationships with people around the president. The prime minister has gone out of his way to compliment Trump, praising his ability to listen and suggesting that the president isn't a typical politician obsessed with being right. He invited the president's older daughter, Ivanka, to a Broadway show in March, and chaired a panel with her on women in business.

Maintaining good relations with Trump is important for Canada because, as Politico explained:

In Trump, Trudeau has the most unnatural of confederates: a man whose policies he must opposeandwhose professional partnership he requires. No matter how philosophically different they may be, Trump must be approached gingerly because of Canadas place in the world and dependence on its economic relationship with the U.S. Perhaps that is why at times Trudeau seems to go out of his way not to irk the tempestuous elephant next door.

Europeans have praised Trudeau's efforts.The way in which Canada relates to this novelty is interesting, Italian President Sergio Mattarella said in an interview. He praised Trudeau's strategy of finding common ground with Trump as an effective strategy, saying I think that Canada's example can allow us to have good relations.

And it's paid off in some ways. White House advisers called Trudeau to ask him to persuade Trump to remain in NAFTA. The deal seems safe, at least for now.

Canadians, though, seem a little more skeptical of the budding bromance. In response to Trump's tweet, some replied:

More here:

Donald Trump's very affectionate tweet about Justin Trudeau, explained - Washington Post

More states are pushing back against President Donald Trump's Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity.

As of Friday, 25 states have refused to give partial or full requested information, according to the Washington Post . Some states cited state laws prohibiting them from releasing certain voter information, while others opposed the information request due to the nature of the commission itself, the Post reported.

Trump tweeted about the subject Saturday morning writing, "Numerous states are refusing to give information to the very distinguished VOTER FRAUD PANEL. What are they trying to hide?"

Trump's commission on voter fraud asked each state to provide personal data on all registered voters going back to 2006.

California, New York and Virginia were the first states to balk at the request. Mississippi's Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann gained attention for his statement on refusing to provide the information.

"They can go jump in the Gulf of Mexico and Mississippi is a great state to launch from," Hosemann, a Republican, said Friday. "Mississippi residents should celebrate Independence Day and our state's right to protect the privacy of our citizens by conducting our own electoral processes."

Original post:

'What Are They Trying to Hide?' President Trump Questions 25 States Refusing to Hand Over Voter Information - TIME

Kevin DrumJul. 1, 2017 10:21 PM

Ford Williams/U.S. Navy via ZUMA

A reader emails to ask why I havent written about Seymour Hershs story from last week that accuses Donald Trump of ignoring evidence that Syrias chemical attack in April wasnt actually a chemical attack at all. Its worth an answer.

First off, theres some background. Hershs main outlet was the New Yorker until a few years ago. But they refused to publish his 2013 article making the same accusation against the Obama administration, so the London Review of Books published it instead. But the LRB declined to publish his latest one, so it ended up in a German newspaper. Thats two well-respected publications that have parted ways with Hersh. Why?

Second, Hershs latest piece is almost completely single-sourced to a senior advisor to the American intelligence community. Thats mighty vague. And boy, does this advisor know a lot. He seems to have an almost photographic recall of every meeting and every decision point that preceded Trumps cruise missile attack. Its hardly credible that a civilian advisor could be as plugged in as this guy apparently is.

These things dont inspire confidence. So now lets take a look at the piece he wrote. Heres an excerpt:

Some American military and intelligence officials were especially distressed by the presidents determination to ignore the evidence. None of this makes any sense, one officer told colleagues upon learning of the decision to bomb. We KNOW that there was no chemical attack the Russians are furious. Claiming we have the real intel and know the truth I guess it didnt matter whether we elected Clinton or Trump.

And now heres an excerpt from his 2013 piece:

The same official said there was immense frustration inside the military and intelligence bureaucracy: The guys are throwing their hands in the air and saying, How can we help this guy Obama when he and his cronies in the White House make up the intelligence as they go along?

This is way too similar. In fact, the whole 2017 piece reads like a warmed-over version of his 2013 article. I just dont trust it.

Plus theres this: the Trump administration is one of the leakiest in memory. If Trump flatly ignored the advice of every one of his military advisorswhich is what Hersh saysits hard to believe that this wouldnt also have leaked to one of the legion of national security reporters in DC, who have demonstrated that theyre pretty sourced up. But so far, no one has even remotely corroborated Hershs story.

Is this because the mainstream media is afraid to report this stuff? Please. Theyd see Pulitzers dancing before their eyes. Theres not a reporter in the entire city who wouldnt go after this story.

You never know. Maybe Hersh will turn out to be right. Its certainly a compelling and detailed story he tells. But for now, I dont believe it.

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Read the original post:

Did Donald Trump Invent a Chemical Attack in Syria? - Mother Jones