Category Archives: Donald Trump

But within days, Mr. McCarthys accusation that there was a hidden Communist cabal at the heart of the American government blew up into a bitter national controversy. And before long, Joe McCarthys Wheeling speech had triggered a wave of paranoia and fear mongering that would forever bear his name: McCarthyism.

On June 28, 2016, another Republican politician landed at Stifel, now named Wheeling Ohio County Airport, to campaign here: Donald Trump.

Mr. Trump appeared first that night at a private fund-raiser held just blocks from the McLure Hotel. He went straight from the fund-raiser to a rally 15 minutes away in St. Clairsville, Ohio.

There, the Republican nominee for president spoke to a crowd of roughly 4,000. Theres something going on thats really, really bad, he said. And we better get smart, and we better get tough, or were not going to have much of a country left, O.K.?

It was a dark speech that harkened back to the most fearful tones of Joe McCarthy. Drumming up fears about the Islamic State, which he said was spreading like wildfire, Mr. Trump said that if he was elected, he would bring back the use of torture techniques like waterboarding in the interrogations of terrorism suspects. I dont think its tough enough, he said, of waterboarding, adding, We cant do waterboarding, but they can do chopping off heads, they can do drowning people in steel cages, they can do whatever they want. Mr. Trump also highlighted his other hits from the campaign trail, reminding the crowd about the threats from Nafta, Mexican immigrants and China. There was so much in the world to fear, and Donald Trump was the only one who could protect us.

One year after he walked in Joe McCarthys footsteps in Wheeling, Mr. Trump now practices Mr. McCarthys version of the politics of fear from the White House. The two figures, who bear striking similarities and who shared an adviser, Roy Cohn both mastered the art of fear politics.

Since he took office, Mr. Trump has expressed an apocalyptic vision of the United States and the wider world at nearly every turn, starting with an Inaugural Address in which his most memorable phrase was American carnage.

Over the past few months, he hasnt missed a chance to try to exploit fears over terrorism, using a series of attacks in Europe to argue in favor of his executive order calling for a travel ban on people from six Muslim-majority countries, which has been blocked by the courts. He has criticized other politicians, both in the United States and overseas, for political correctness on terrorism. He sticks to his scare tactics even when he is proven to be factually wrong and despite public rebukes from other world leaders.

He keeps doing it because it works for him, just like it worked for Joe McCarthy. Mr. Trump knows what people want to hear how terrifying the world can be and how he can protect them. Fearmongering resonates with his political base, particularly white voters without college degrees.

Fear of the other increases when the potential threats Mr. McCarthys Communists, or Mr. Trumps Muslims or Hispanics are poorly understood.

Underlying it all is a broad and unspoken fear of the looming loss of white dominance in American society. Increased diversity, notably the rapidly growing Hispanic population in the United States, is leading to a broader fear of all minority groups and foreigners, analysts believe.

White working-class voters who say they often feel like a stranger in their own land and who believe the U.S. needs protecting against foreign influence were 3.5 times more likely to favor Trump than those who did not share those concerns, concluded a study released in May by the Public Religion Research Institute and The Atlantic magazine.

Recent studies by psychologists have found that when they talk to white Americans about a future in which they are in the minority, that drives them to express more conservative views. You see a pretty reliable shift to the right when you emphasize the projected change in the demographics of the United States, says Jennifer Richeson, a professor of psychology at Yale University and one of the researchers involved with the studies. Once you activate the fear of a threat to group status, then anybody who is seen as not part of that group is seen as more of a threat.

Scott Crichlow, a professor of political science at the West Virginia University, sees that phenomenon in West Virginia, where whites without a college degree represent a larger percentage of the population than in any other state and where Mr. Trump saw one of his biggest margins of victory of any state in the 2016 election.

Clearly there is an audience for speeches that rally nationalist causes and against amorphous perceived threats, Mr. Crichlow said. What I think may be driving some of the appeal of the politics of fear is the states low education and demographics.

Wheeling Mayor Glenn Elliott believes there were several reasons for Mr. Trumps success here but thinks that fear of the other certainly played a big role.

When you have 40 years of economic stagnation, that leads to frustration with the status quo and to zero-sum thinking, the mayor said. And I also think part of his appeal was that he said, Im going to protect you from the Muslims, or Hispanics. There is a fear of that.

Trump supporters want to make America great again, to go back to what they believe were the halcyon days of the 1950s, which, ironically, was the decade of the fearmongering of Joe McCarthy.

I dont think West Virginia is a state full of racists, Mayor Elliott added. He does describe his state, though, as a place where cultural isolation and economic anxiety made it a perfect target for Mr. Trumps speech. There is also a fear of change that a skilled demagogue can tap into by focusing on the fear of the other, he said. Fear resonates.

James Risen is an investigative reporter for The Times and the author of Pay Any Price: Greed, Power and Endless War. Tom Risen is a reporter for Aerospace America Magazine.

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Donald Trump Does His Best Joe McCarthy Impression - New York Times

Two watchdog groups have sued Donald Trumpover White House records, accusing the president of illegally destroying communications that must be preserved by federal law.

The suit filed Thursday against Trump and the Executive Office of the President by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and the National Security Archive focuses on an auto-delete app reportedly being used for messages sent from the White House that erase messages after theyre read.

Such communications could involve correspondence among the president, aides, advisers, contractors, lobbyists and others. Theyre part of a historical record that belongs to the public and must be preserved, as mandated by the Presidential Records Act of 2014, notes the suit, which was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The law requires the preservation of communications in the White House and vice presidents office.

Yet evidence suggests that President Trump and others within the White House are either ignoring or outright flouting these responsibilities, the suit states.

The American people not only deserve to know how their government is making important decisions, its the law, CREW Executive Director Noah Bookbinder said in a statement. By deleting these records, the White House is destroying essential historical records.

CREW spokesman Jason Libowitz told HuffPost that the only reason for the Trump administration to delete messages is to keep them secret from the American people. He said its part of a larger, troubling pattern of information suppression in the Trump administration, which also includes deletion of the presidents tweets.

The suit cites a vanishing tweet on Trumps account about meeting with U.S. generals at Mar-a-Lago. Such tweets, involving official government business and policy statements by the president, are also subject to the Presidential Records Act, the suit argues.

Trump repeatedly blasted Democratic rival Hillary Clinton during the presidential campaign for her use of a private email server while she was secretary of state, but those emails were still recoverable.

The lawsuit against Trump cites a report in The Washington Post that White House staffers use an app called Confide, which sends encrypted messages that self-destruct once theyre read. The Wall Street Journal also reported similar use of the encryption cloaking app Signalfor White House messages.The use of the apps knowingly prevent the proper preservation of records, the suit charges.

Using encrypted messaging apps that prevent any kind of preservation raise serious concerns that presidential records are at risk, said Tom Blanton, director of the National Security Archive. Presidential records are not subject to the Freedom of Information Act while a president is in office. But they are accessible by law five years later provided they have been preserved.

The suit demands the records be preserved against efforts by the president and his staff that seek to evade transparency and government accountability.

The White House hasnt yet commented on the suit.

CREW also sued Trump in January, accusing him of violating the emoluments clause of the U.S. Constitutionby collecting foreign income through his various businesses. The clause forbids a president from receiving payments from foreign governments. In one example, theKuwait Embassy in February booked spaceand services for an event at Trumps hotel in Washington, D.C., that was estimated to cost as much as $60,000.

More than 190 Democratic lawmakers also sued Trump last week over the emoluments clause,saying he had accepted funds from foreign governments through his businesses without congressional consent in violation of the U.S. Constitution.

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Lawsuit Accuses Donald Trump Of Illegally Destroying White House Records - HuffPost

To almost half of America, Donald Trump apparently can do no wrong. But tolerance has its limits, and the presidents latest offense is pushing them.

During a recent round reportedly at his club in Bedminster, N.J., Trump sent shivers through the golf community when he gasp! drove his cart on the putting green. He might as well put ketchup on a well-done steak or eat pizza with a knife and fork.

But hey, when youre a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.

A video of this dastardly deed was posted on Twitter:

In Trumps defense, he does own the course, and he can drive wherever he damn well pleases. And to his credit, he was rather chummy with the guests, joking (maybe) that hes got the best security in the history of golf.

While the guy taking the video was able to look past Trumps transgression and bask in the glow of his presidential presence, Twitter was much less forgiving.

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Donald Trump may finally have gone too far - MarketWatch

The question that inevitably gets asked for every comedy is: How much is improv in the movie? And how much is scripted? And its really hard not to mess with people. Ill just say, On this movie, 14 percent is improvised. And theyll go, Oh! How do you know? and Ill say, We have a logarithm or We run it through a computer that analyzes it. [laughs]

A preview of the film.

What appealed to you about playing a nice guy who transforms into a thuggish casino boss?

One thing I thought was great was getting to play a couple who are both equally committed to the premise. Usually in a movie, one of them the wife, the husband is in on the plan and the other is, like, Whats going on? But here, for better or for worse, theyre both like, O.K., lets just do it. They get to be funny together. I liked that.

You and Amy Poehler will both do whatever it takes for a laugh.

Shooting the scene where were walking home drunk and she urinates in the front yard? There was all this talk about [in a sincere, worried voice] How do we shoot this? and being very professional. And Amy goes, Ill just pull my pants down! and I thought: Oh, my god. This is great!

One of your first successes on Saturday Night Live was playing a dad who toggles between grilling hamburgers and shouting at his kids to get off the shed.

The Get Off the Shed sketch, I did that at the Groundlings, and it worked right away. Just the combination of regular backyard barbecue conversation Hows your golf game? juxtaposed with flying off the handle, screaming at your kids for a benign reason. That was such a delicious combination to me. It was also always inherently funny to me to play a dad who thought he had a high-stakes position, but its really very low stakes. Sort of like the comedy version of Willy Loman. Playing the befuddled father whos just earnestly trying his best has always struck me as funny. I dont know why. I cant say thats who my dad was.

Was gambling a part of your parents lives?

My dads a musician. He had his own lounge acts, then played with the Righteous Brothers on and off for 20, 25 years. He played a lot in Vegas. I have a nostalgic view of Vegas because as kids wed go stay with him for a week at the Riviera and see the Strip with all the lights. Then combined with that were the cautionary tales wed hear of people losing all their money and thinking, Thats not for me.

Is it true that Michelle Obama is a fan of your and Adam McKays Funny or Die sketch The Landlord?

Yes. We were invited to come to the White House for a Christmas party that is only for the cabinet, the executive branch, their spouses and family. The invite was first for me to come dressed as Buddy the Elf. And I was like, Um, yeah, I dont have that costume. So then they said, Come and read The Grinch. Which was interesting because there were no kids. Im reading it to, like, Defense Secretary Robert Gates. [laughs] But afterward, we got to sit at the first ladys table. Michelle Obama, one of the nicest people, said, Ive got to tell you, my staff and I watched The Landlord all the time. Then she just started doing lines, like, Give me my money, bitch! The Landlord helped launch our site and shut down all our servers. So the fact that she was a fan? That was high praise.

Speaking of viral videos, the recent speech you gave at U.S.C., your alma mater, has more than two million YouTube views. Did that surprise you?

I didnt realize that itd get that much reaction. Im used to writing things that are sarcastic, not things that are supposed to be funny, but also insightful and earnest. So it was an interesting challenge to find that middle ground. But also my family was there, my parents were there, and I got to sing a Whitney Houston song.

Did you ever get a reaction from our 43rd president to your eerily spot-on impression of him?

I happened to call Jimmy Kimmel on the day when [President George W. Bush] was going to be on promoting his book. And Jimmy said: Its so funny youre calling. Im having W on, and Im going to ask him about how he felt about your impersonation.

How did he respond?

He said: I loved it. Thats part of the gig. Youre going to get made fun of. Thats freedom of speech. And at that moment, he really looked like the adult in the room compared to the current guy [in office]. I get the narcissism because I feel like every president has an element of that, whether they hide it or not. But the thin skin part? Thats amazing. Youre kind of like: Really? Cant you just go with it? When [President Trump] wasnt going to have any part of the correspondents dinner you wanted to go: Do you realize that at that dinner you get to make fun of people too? Theyll make fun of you, but you get to punch back. I think it hurts so much so even the allure of getting to punch back isnt enough.

If you were back on S.N.L., who in the current administration would you want to send up?

I would have loved to have done Jared Kushner. Or Reince Priebus. No one really knows what that guy does. This is more of a sketch, but Amy and I were talking about the bizarre cabinet meeting where they had to compliment [President Trump]. It would be fun to do a sketch where you have a bunch of empty chairs, but Trump doesnt notice, and Im the one guy who pops from chair to chair, maybe with different wigs, and keeps complimenting him.

Hollywood makes few dramatic movies about middle-class worries now. So can comedies fill that gap?

I love comedies where we get to either make very direct satirical comments about whats going on or indirect. I think its great when we can slide that stuff in. But is that the only way were going to get people to listen? It seems to be more and more that way. When you feel like you get more real news by watching The Daily Show or Samantha Bee, thats saying something.

A version of this article appears in print on June 25, 2017, on Page AR1 of the New York edition with the headline: Now Its Time to Wield an Ax.

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Will Ferrell on Donald Trump, Michelle Obama and His New Movie - New York Times

Story highlights

Republican Ralph Norman defeated Archie Parnell in Tuesday's special election for South Carolina's 5th congressional district, and in Georgia, Republican Karen Handel defeated Democrat Jon Ossoff in the most expensive House race in history. Republicans have won all four of the four special elections that have been held under President Trump.

During an appearance on CNN's "Erin Burnett Outfront," David Gergen, who advised former Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, admitted that off-year elections like this may not be the best predictor of what could happen in the 2018 midterms. But he said it should send a strong signal to Democrats thinking about taking back the White House.

"What's really important is that Donald Trump has seized the narrative back, that he's doing better with the voters than Democrats think he is," he said. "It should be a wake-up call for Democrats. It is possible that he could actually get re-elected if Democrats aren't careful."

Gergen has criticized Trump on a variety of issues, including his withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement and his firing of James Comey as FBI director, a fact he acknowledged during his appearance. But he said there is no doubt that "this is one occasion when we ought to say he deserves to take a victory lap."

"Any President in his shoes would do exactly what he's doing, and that is impress the voters with the fact that he withstood assaults on four different states and Republicans won all four," he added. "And you can't get away from the fact that in Georgia this was seen as a test of whether the resistance by Democrats was going to overpower the Republicans or whether the Trump vote would hold. His vote held, so this is a deserved victory lap."

The comments come as the executive director of Trump's campaign confirmed to CNN that Trump will host his first re-election campaign fundraising event next Wednesday at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC.

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Gergen: Special election victories show Trump could beat Dems in 2020 - CNN

Donald Trump. Photo: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

On November 17, 1973, President Richard Nixon delivered a speech that became famous for his self-defeating boast, I am not a crook. The windup to the infamous phrase consisted of Nixon defending his aggressive, but legal, tax-avoidance strategies. I made my mistakes, but in all of my years of public life, I have never profited, never profited from public service I have earned every cent, he insisted. (This was perhaps half-true.) And in all of my years of public life, he continued, I have never obstructed justice. (This was not true the year before, Nixon had tried to get the CIA to quash the FBI investigation into Watergate.)

Like Nixon, Donald Trump denies having engaged in obstruction of justice, even though he plainly has (both by asking intelligence agencies to push back against the FBI, according to reports, and by firing the FBI director over the Russia investigation, by Trumps own admission). Unlike Nixon, Trump does not deny profiting from public service. He does it brazenly and flamboyantly.

If he were a normal president, rather than one who produced calamities at an unprecedented pace, Trumps open profiteering would receive five-alarm media coverage and threats of impeachment. The Washington Post recently reported that Trumps budget slashes funding for a wide array of low-income housing programs, the one notable exception being a program that his own firm benefits from. The story connects this shady decision to an even shadier one: Trumps appointment of Lynne Patton a wedding planner close to the Trump family who possesses zero relevant experience and who has falsified her rsum to oversee the Department of Housing and Urban Developments programs in New York City. That is, Trump is using his budget to suspiciously single out for favoritism a program from which his firm benefits, and then installing a wildly unqualified personal loyalist in a position where she could protect his funding stream. This scandal alone could shake a non-Trump presidency to its foundations.

That it has caused barely a ripple helps to explain why Trump feels emboldened to locate the first fundraiser for his reelection campaign at his hotel in Washington. Trumps Washington hotel has already raked in cash from lobbyists and government officials, foreign and domestic, seeking to curry favor with the First Family. Trump has gotten away with it because his party has evinced zero interest in restraining him. The GOP Congress has quashed investigations of his profiteering or demands that he produce his tax returns. Now the party elite will literally be suborned at an event conjoining his public duties and the fattening of his own wallet.

History has mostly forgotten what Nixon said after his famous line: I am not a crook. I have earned everything I have got. The premise of that statement was that a president who enriches himself through office is a crook. So, what does that make Donald Trump?

A Canadian man shouted Allahu akbar and stabbed a police officer in the neck.

Her website is now dominated by short, aggregated news articles penned by other people and all manner of shady clickbait.

Iraqi and coalition forces blame ISIS; ISIS blames the U.S.-led coalition.

The Democrats arent going to take back the House by winning voters who recoil at the thought of a liberal woman from San Francisco holding power.

Mitch McConnell apparently is not any nicer than Paul Ryan.

The president wont get the meeting he asked for, chairman Cedric Richmond wrote in a letter.

Holding his first fundraiser at his own hotel is a message that the president wants to flaunt his self-enrichment.

You guys care much more about that stuff than I do, he told reporters.

All three trademark requests have been granted since the election.

But officials say the evidence indicates the attack was more spontaneous than premeditated, though the investigation continues.

Some Senate Republicans are realizing that theres a tension between solving the opioid epidemic and throwing millions of people off health insurance.

Founded with an Australian billionaire and Brett Ratner, the company was also behind Wonder Woman and Suicide Squad.

Democrats again outperformed historical markers but disappointed those looking for a breakthrough. What does that mean for 2018?

King Salman has made his ambitious and hawkish 31-year-old son next in line to the Saudi throne.

The presidents budget demands draconian cuts to public housing but maintains a subsidy to landlords that nets him millions each year.

The bus smashed into a church, several other vehicles, and sent one person to the hospital.

Declining values of three NYC office buildings are responsible for the dip.

Gone is much of peoples power to sue federal officials who engage in egregious violations of constitutional rights.

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Donald Trump Is a Crook - New York Magazine

BBC News

Queen's Speech: Donald Trump's UK state visit in fresh doubt BBC News Donald Trump's state visit to the UK is in fresh doubt after there was no mention of it in the Queen's Speech. The US president accepted the Queen's invitation for him to travel to Britain when Prime Minister Theresa May visited Washington in January. Queen's Speech renews doubt over Trump's state visitCNN Queen Elizabeth snubs Donald Trump in speech to ParliamentSalon Trump's state visit to the UK put on hold for at least 2 years following huge protestsBusiness Insider BuzzFeed News -POLITICO.eu -Bloomberg all 1,035 news articles »

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Queen's Speech: Donald Trump's UK state visit in fresh doubt - BBC News

President Donald Trump riffed on Democrats at his campaign-style rally in Iowa on Wednesday, saying the party has been "unbelievably nasty" while at the same time admitting he hasn't made bipartisanship easy.

I am making it a little bit hard to get their support, but who cares," Trump said Wednesday.

The President said Democrats were not willing to work with Republicans on the pending health care legislation at his Wednesday night rally, saying that even if the GOP came up with the "greatest health care plan in the history of the world" they would not get a single vote from Democrats. Democrats generally oppose the Republicans' plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act, President Obama's signature legislative achievement. And in the Senate, Republicans have been working on a bill to partner the House's replacement plan largely in secretwithout input from a large swath of members of both parties.

For a little over an hour, the President worked to convince the crowd of supporters some of whom donned "Make America Great Again" hats and held signs that his administration is making "tremendous progress" back in Washington. In signature Trump fashion, he took jabs at the "fake news media" complaining that the news cameras never show the crowds at his rallies.

Trump also couldn't help but take a little victory lap, chiding Democrats over their disappointing loss in the Georgia special election on Tuesday. After that win and the win in South Carolina, Trump said his party is "5 and 0" when it comes to special elections. "The truth is, people love us," Trump said. "All we do is win, win, win."

In his effort to rouse his supporters, Trump touted his recent announcement on changes to U.S.-Cuba policy, his decision to pull out of the Paris Climate Accords, his tax and infrastructure plans, and the tough approach his administration has taken to immigration enforcement.

On Wednesday, Trump told the Iowa crowd that the southern border wall he promised to build and make Mexico pay for could feature solar panels. "Thats one of the places that solar really does work," Trump said, noting the hot climate in the southwest, where a border wall would primarily be built. "I think we could make it look beautiful, too."

Though the President poked at Democrats, he did concede that unity on Capitol Hill would be good for the country. "Just think about what a unified American nation could achieve," he said.

During the 2016 election, many independent Iowa voters came out in support of Trump and helped him win the state. The President's Wednesday night rally marked his first trip to the state since his inauguration.

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President Trump Admits He's Not Making it Easy to Get Democrats' Support - TIME

BBC News

Donald Trump talks up solar panel plan for Mexico wall BBC News US President Donald Trump has told supporters that his proposed wall along the border with Mexico could have solar panels fixed to it. Addressing a rally in Iowa, he said the panels would provide cheap energy and help to pay for the controversial wall. Donald Trump claims attaching solar panels to Mexico border wall will ensure fortification 'pays for itself'The Independent Donald Trump will build a solar panelled wall on the border 'to save Mexico money'Express.co.uk Donald Trump says 'beautiful' solar panels would allow Mexico border wall to 'pay for itself'ABC Online all 30 news articles »

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Donald Trump talks up solar panel plan for Mexico wall - BBC News

Belleville News-Democrat

Edwardsville man charged with threatening to assassinate President Trump Belleville News-Democrat An Edwardsville man posted on Facebook that he wanted to assassinate President Donald Trump, and is now facing federal charges. Joseph Lynn Pickett was charged for threatening the president of the United States on June 15. U.S. Secret Service Special ... and more »

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Edwardsville man charged with threatening to assassinate President Trump - Belleville News-Democrat