Category Archives: Donald Trump

Donald Trump has been taken to task for claiming, in his speech announcing the United States would exit from the Paris climate "treaty," that "I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris." Numerous people have pointed out that Trump did not carry the city of Pittsburgh; it voted for Hillary Clinton by a margin of 75 to 21 percent. They might have added that surrounding Allegheny County, taken as a whole, voted 56 to 39 percent for Clinton over Trump.

But it's also true that Trump did carry the Pittsburgh metropolitan area, which by government definition includes Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Washington and Westmoreland Counties. After all, when people mention a city's name, they are often referring not just to the area within the municipal limits of the central city, but to the larger metropolitan area.

Boston is often understood to include Cambridge, Los Angeles to include Beverly Hills, etc., etc.

Trump carried metro Pittsburgh over Hillary Clinton by 50 to 46 percent, rounding off each result to integers. This was only the fourth time in the last 75 years that a Republican presidential candidate has carried metro Pittsburgh: Mitt Romney won it 50 to 49 percent in 2012, Richard Nixon by 56 to 42 percent in 1972 and Dwight Eisenhower by 53 to 46 percent in 1956. The latter two were in years of national Republican landslides, and the only two times in 65 years when a Republican nominee won a significantly higher percentage there than did Trump (49.6 percent) or Romney (49.7 percent). And Trump received more popular votes in metro Pittsburgh (573,467) than any other Republican except Nixon in 1972 (580,268) and Eisenhower in 1956 (575,540).

In contrast, Clinton's 46 percent was the second-lowest percentage in metro Pittsburgh of any nominee in the last 65 years, ahead of George McGovern's 42 percent in 1972 and fractionally lower than Adlai Stevenson's 46 percent in 1956. The number of popular votes she won in the metro area (531,901) was 497 votes ahead of Barack Obama in 2012 (531,404), but behind Obama in 2008 (575,893), John Kerry in 2004 (597,172), Michael Dukakis in 1988 (559,611), Walter Mondale in 1984 (597,418), Jimmy Carter in 1976 (535,784), Hubert Humphrey in 1968 (573,276), Lyndon Johnson in 1964 (754,677), John F. Kennedy in 1960 (647,611) and Adlai Stevenson in 1952 (573,390).

These numbers reflect significant changes in political alignment and attitudes in metro Pittsburgh that are typical of some other parts, but not most parts, of the nation. This is an area with very low population growth: Turnout in 1960 (1,162,995) was higher than in 2016 (1,157,318), though that latter number was higher than in any election year in between. Historically, Pittsburgh was dominated economically by the steel industry and politically, from the 1930s to the 1980s, by management/union differences. The shutdown of many steel mills in the 1979-82 period produced a swing toward the Democratic party, contrary to the national trend: Walter Mondale carried metro Pittsburgh 56 percent to 44 percent and Michael Dukakis carried it 59 percent to 40 percent.

Since then, metro Pittsburgh has developed a post-industrial economy, heavily weighted toward meds and eds: healthcare (it's the only million-plus metro area with more deaths than births) and tech, driven by institutions like Carnegie-Mellon University. The central city of Pittsburgh has only about half the population it did in 1950 and casts only 13 percent of the metro area's votes; it is also increasingly gentrified, with many old buildings rehabilitated and neat entertainment and restaurant districts.

Pittsburgh is something of an outlier among our 50 or so million-plus metro areas. Once more Democratic than most, especially in the 1980s, it is now more Republican than most proof that the Trump constituency is not simply a revival of the Reagan constituency. Its voting over the years shows the waning of affection for the Democratic party among blue collar and Catholic voters. Its voting in 2016 were not widely out of line with a movement this century away from the Democratic party, but was a significant extension of it enough to give the Republican nominee, for the first time since 1988, Pennsylvania's electoral votes.

This trend provides justification for Donald Trump's statement that he was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, but only if you understand him to be referring to the metropolitan area, not the central city that cast 13 percent of its votes.

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Donald Trump actually did carry (metro) Pittsburgh - Washington Examiner

President Trump knocked his own Justice Department in a series of tweets Monday for failing to uphold the original travel ban.

The Justice Depart. should have stayed wth the original Travel ban, not the watered down, politically correct version they submitted to the S.C., Mr. Trumptweeted.

The Justice Department should ask for an expedited hearing of the watered down Travel Ban before the Supreme Court - & seek much tougher version! he added.

Mr. Trump did say that vetting would take place due to the slow process of the court approval for the travel ban.

He tweeted, In any event we are EXTREME VETTING people coming into the U.S. in order to help keep our country safe. The courts are slow and political.

Mr. Trump said people could call the new travel restriction whatever they wanted, but he was calling it a ban.

People, the lawyers and the courts can call it whatever they want, but I am calling it what we need and what it is, a TRAVEL BAN! Mr. Trumptweeted.

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Donald Trump slams own Justice Department over travel ban - Washington Times

President Donald Trumps response to the terroristattack in London Bridge has prompted an MSNBC commentator to question whether the Republican is intending to provoke a similar attack in the U.S.

Trump took to Twitter in the wake of Saturday nights attack on London in which seven people were killed and a further 48 injured, making comments about gun crime that prompted a backlash on social media.

The president wrote: Do you notice we are not having a gun debate right now? That's because they used knives and a truck!

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Speaking on MSNBCSunday, anchor Thomas Roberts questioned whether the president was attempting to provoke a terror attack with his Twitter rant.

"Let's not be [politically correct] about this," Roberts said, turning to Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and then asking: "Is the president trying to provoke a domestic terrorist attack with this Twitter rant becauseonly to prove himself right?"

Reed opted not to answer the question, although he did later speak about the use of Twitter as inappropriate in the aftermath of such an attack, The Hill reported.

Roberts repeated his suggestion Trump was politicizing the incident, asking former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean: "I asked this of Mayor Reed, but it seems like the president is trying to provoke something that he can politicize more for his own gain in America. Do you feel that way?

Former President Barack Obamas speechwriter, Jon Favreau, also questioned Trumps stream of tweets in the wake of the attack.

"It's hard to read Trump's tweets this morning and not think that we're one domestic attack away from the most dangerous version of this guy," Favreau tweeted.

Rather than issuing a simple response to the attack, Trump followed up his initial pledge to stand with the U.K. with a number of tweets some viewed as provocative, including lashing out at London Mayor Sadiq Khan over his instructions for Londoners to remain calm in the presence of increased security and armed police on the streets.

Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn defended the London mayor, stating in comments carried by The Guardian: "At this time it is more important than ever that we stay united in our communities. It is the strength of our communities that gets us through these awful times as London mayor Sadiq Khan recognised but which the current occupant in the White House has neither the grace nor the sense to grasp."

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Is Donald Trump 'Trying to Provoke a Domestic Terror Attack' With London Tweets? - Newsweek

Updated: May 31, 2017 10:27 AM ET

President Donald Trump has told aides he intends to pull out of the Paris climate agreement , throwing into doubt a landmark treaty that scientists have said is vital to combating global warming .

According to two White House officials, the President has not yet decided on how to withdraw from the agreement either through a multi-year formal process or the more extreme act of quitting the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The aides cautioned any decision isnt final until it is announced, and that the President is still being lobbied by others to remain in the agreement.

Amid multiple reports that he had decided to withdraw, Trump said an announcement would come soon. "I will be announcing my decision on the Paris Accord over the next few days," Trump said Wednesday morning on Twitter .

Trump made withdrawing from the agreement, negotiated by former President Barack Obama in 2015, a central focus of his campaign, arguing that it overburdened U.S. consumers and energy producers with carbon pollution limits that didnt apply to developing economies. But since he won the White House, the decision whether to fulfill that promise has been among the most fraught within his administration, dividing the Trump family and top aides along ideological and nationalistic lines.

Trump has also been the subject of ferocious international lobbying from leaders across the globe to remain in the agreement. The subject was a centerpiece of the G-7 meetings in Italy last week, where the leaders failed to reach consensus on climate issues because of Trumps dissension. Trump was also pressed by Pope Francis to remain in the accord, and the Pope gave Trump a copy of his encyclical on climate change. All signatories to the UN climate change treaty have signed onto the Paris accords except for Syria and Nicaragua.

Obama entered the agreement without seeking ratification from the GOP-controlled Senate, making it easier for Trump to quit the agreement.

Within the White House, the divisions tend to break along increasingly-familiar lines: Scott Pruitt, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, and chief strategist Steve Bannon favor pulling out, while Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Director of the National Economic Council Gary Cohn and senior advisor Jared Kushner are all reportedly in favor of staying in. Withdrawal would allow Trump to fulfill a campaign pledge and may appeal to supporters of his inward-looking "America First" platform. But policy experts warn of the potentially significant downsides, including ceding global leadership on climate policy to China and Europe.

Trump could also adopt a third option. Since many of the nation's commitments to the Paris Agreement are voluntary, there are no concrete penalties if the U.S. fails to meet them. As a result, Trump could change U.S. commitments, preserving its role at the table while adopting less-stringent greenhouse gas reduction targets than those set under the Obama administration. Trump has already said that he will cancel U.S. payments to a UN fund dedicated to supporting climate change initiatives in the developing world.

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Donald Trump to Pull U.S. Out of Paris Climate Agreement ...

The country as a whole isn't thrilled with President Donald Trump's job performance. Andin general,the same goes for the swing states that helped him win the presidency lastNovember, according to the latest polls.

A handful of key states where both candidates seemingly had a shot at winning allowedTrump to shock the country and win over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Michigan was one such state. Trump narrowly edged outClinton, earning 47.6 percent of the vote to her 47.3 percent. A paltry 11,612 votes gave the former reality star Michigan's 16 electoral votes.

A littlemore than four months into his presidency, Trump isn't exactly beloved in Michigan. Only 37 percent of likely voters in the state view him favorably, according to a new poll released byEPIC-MRA this week. Fifty-three percent viewed Trump unfavorably to some degree, while 44 percent of voters viewed the president very unfavorably. And that's not the worst of it.

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Just 35 percent of likely voters gave Trump a positive job performance rating, while 61 percent gave him a negative rating, according to theEPIC-MRA survey. The poll interviewed 600 likely voters in Michigan from May 20 through May 24. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

U.S. President Donald Trump refers to amounts of temperature change as he announces his decision that the United States will withdraw from the landmark Paris Climate Agreement, in Washington, U.S., June 1. Kevin Lamarque/File Photo/Reuters

Things weren't much better for Trump in Pennsylvania, another swing state he won by a small margin (a bit more than 1 percentage point). Just 37 percent of Pennsylvania voters approved of Trump's job performance, according to a May survey from Franklin & Marshall College.

While Michigan and Pennsylvania proved to be close races in November'selection, Trumpwon North Carolina over Clinton by nearly 4 percentage points. Butthe southern swing state's approvalwasn't great inApril,the last time it was measuredby a survey. Only41.6 percent of voters approved of the job Trump has done after 100 days in office, according to the poll from Elon University. Nearly 51 percent disapproved of his job performance.

"Though President Trump enjoyed considerable support among North Carolinians on Election Day, he has lost ground among the crucial independent voters responsible for his success over Hillary Clinton,"Jason Husser, director of the Elon University poll, said in a statement at the time.

The survey, which had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.36 percentage points, interviewed 506 likely votersfrom April 18 through April 21.

It's unlikely that Trump's standing has improved in the month or so since the North Carolina poll was released. A flood of controversiesmost notably the avalanche of bombshell reports relatedto the firing of former FBI Director James Comey and the Trumpadministration'spotential ties to Russiahave not been kind to the president's national approval rating. In late April, the FiveThirtyEight weighted average pegged Trump's national approval rating at about 42 percent. It has since fallen to 39.1 percent.

State polls are taken far less frequently than national surveys, but the local resultsin generalhaven't been good for the White House. A March Marquette University poll ofregistered voters in Wisconsina swing state Trump won by just 1 percentage pointfound Trump's approval rating stood at just 41 percent, while 47 percent of the state disapproved of the job he was doing. A Florida poll from the same monthpegged Trump's approval at 44 percent in the state, with disapproval at 51 percent.

Even in Texas, a state Trump won with ease, the president's approval rating appears to be deeply underwater. Only 42 percent of Texans approved of the job he was doing, compared with 54 percent who disapproved, aTexas Lyceum survey found in April.

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Donald Trump's Latest Approval Ratings in Election Swing States Reveal How Unpopular He Has Become - Newsweek

New York Times

Does Donald Trump Still Think Climate Change Is a Hoax? No One Can Say New York Times WASHINGTON As a businessman, President Trump was a frequent and scornful critic of the concept of climate change. In the years before running for president, he called it nonexistent, mythical and a a total con job. Whenever snow fell in New ... Donald Trump's Exit From Paris Climate Deal Seals his DownfallNewsweek Has Donald Trump Ceded Global Leadership to China's Xi Jinping?Fortune Donald Trump's Vision of Pittsburgh is Sooooooo 80sMother Jones CNN -CNN International -Quartz all 11,410 news articles »

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Does Donald Trump Still Think Climate Change Is a Hoax? No One Can Say - New York Times

A tearful Kathy Griffin spoke out in response to backlash after she posted a short video of herself holding a decapitated likeness of Donald Trump's head -- saying that the president "broke me" by calling her stunt "sick."

The photo that Griffin posted sparked an immediate and widespread backlash as well as condemnation from the president, who called her actions "sick" in a tweet. First lady Melania Trump called the image "disturbing" and said it makes you wonder about the mental health of the person who did it."

"I'm gonna be honest, he broke me," Griffin said Friday of Trump's response. "I may get arrested today, I dont know."

The comedian said she is also getting "detailed death threats."

"This is America, you shouldn't have to die" over comedy, she added.

In the photo, which Griffin tweeted on May 30, then took down, she captioned herself holding up a fake Trump head, covered in fake blood, "I caption this 'there was blood coming out of his eyes, blood coming out of his ... wherever,'" referring to an exchange between Donald Trump and former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly during the presidential primary season.

Griffin's First Amendment lawyer, Lisa Bloom, said that the Secret Service reached out to her and that she had to retain a criminal attorney as well. Griffin maintains she was not threatening the president.

Griffin explained that her and photographer Tyler Shields only spent five minutes coming up with the idea and that the pictures were part of a larger photo shoot that didn't include Trump.

The picture was never meant as anything malicious and that it was supposed to be interpreted in different ways, she added.

"I have no desire to threaten him," she said. "I made a horrible mistake and made a horrible call."

When talking about the aftermath of the pictures, Griffin said "I dont think I have a career after this." She was recently let go from CNN's New Years Eve special and added Friday that at least five concert venues have already canceled some of her shows. The most recent cancellation is her June 17 appearance at Uptown Theatre Napa in Napa, California, which made the announcement on Friday on its Facebook page. No reason was given for the cancellation.

The 56-year-old comedian also spoke about the tweets in response from Trump himself, calling the act "sick" and from the President's wife Melania, which focused on their son Baron's well-being.

"Kathy Griffin should be ashamed of herself. My children, especially my 11 year old son, Barron, are having a hard time with this. Sick!" Trump wrote the morning after the picture started trending on the internet.

Bloom said that Griffin couldn't have imagined that her stunt would be misinterpreted and that other artists have done worse.

"I'm not afraid of Donald Trump ... I'm gonna make fun of him more now," she said Friday.

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Kathy Griffin breaks down, says Donald Trump 'broke me' - ABC News

President Donald Trumps conflicts of interest have managed to center around China with unusual frequency this week. Lets dive in.

President Donald Trump has issued ethics waivers for four ex-lobbyists

This story practically speaks for itself. Trump, the man who made drain the swamp into a slogan during his 2016 presidential campaign, has issued 17 ethics waivers for people working for either him or Vice President Mike Pence. Of those 17 waivers, four have gone to former lobbyists three staffers at the National Economic Council and the chief of staff for Pence himself.

Chinese activists go missing when investigating Ivanka Trumps factory

Its scary enough that two Chinese activists investigating labor abuses at one of Ivanka Trumps Chinese factories have gone missing, while a third was arrested. Making matters worse, however, is the fact that this may have had to do with the Chinese governments desire to remain on the Trumps good side. As China Labor Watch director Li Qjang told The Guardian, he believes the activists may have been targeted because this factory makes products for Ivanka Trump, so now this situation has become political and very complicated.

Jared Kushners family uses Trump to promote more investments to Chinese businessmen

In less sinister China-related news, Bloomberg reportsthat a Jersey City apartment project being developed by Murray Kushner, the uncle of Trumps son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner, was pitched to Chinese investors in a way that explicitly referenced the familys connections to the president. Although Jared Kushner himself wasntinvolved in the project and Kushner Cos. sent a cease-and-desist letter to Murray Kushners company when they heard about the pitch, the fact that this pitch occurred at all speaks to how those connected with Trump are seeking to cash in on his presidency.

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This week in Donald Trump's conflicts of interest: More drama about China - Salon

He isan unseriousmanone who exists in a universe constructed in his mind, the choices he makes dictated by a reality invisible to the world around him. Everything that he believes is outdated, tied to a past that the culture-at-large gladly buried long ago.

I'm talking, of course, aboutMiguel de Cervantes's classicprotagonist, Don Quixote.

There's a famous passage in the novelDon Quixote, published in two parts in the early 17th century,in which the herojousts withor tilts atwindmills. You see, Don Quixote believes he is a knight, the last of a dying breed preserving the chivalrous code. In reality, he has lost his mind and the knights died off long ago.Regardless, whileout on an adventure, Don Quixote spotsthese "monstrous giants" and tells his oft-befuddled compatriot Sancho Panza thatit is his duty to battle themand, of course, to take their riches.

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His pal Sancho replies: "What you see over there aren't giantsthey're windmills; and what seems to be arms are the sails that rotate the millstone when they're turned by the wind." But Don Quixote is unmoved by reality, and, in turn, fights the windmills.

The phrase "tilting at windmills" has since entered the lexicon as an expression usedto describeone who battles imagined enemies, a person vigorously chasing down something despite reality's best efforts to dissuade him or her from the task.

Like many things, this brings us to President Donald Trump, who hasnot quite literally, but almostliterallytiltled at windmills.

Trump, who Thursday announcedthe U.S.would back out of the landmark Paris accord that unified the world in fighting climate change, has long had a bone to pick with wind turbines. You've probably seen them somewhere: They're the hulking, stark-white, tri-bladedwindmillsthat convert wind into electricalpower.

While the wind turbines provideclean power, Trump has routinely battled them largely because he thought they looked unsightly next to his posh golf courses. He even took his fight against windmills all the way to the Britain's highest court.Trump lost.

But the fight didn't stopnoteven after he won the election on November8. Days later,Trump urged British alliesto oppose the sorts of wind farms that would spoil his immaculate views.

As with most of hisenemies, the president has tweetedand tweeted oftenabout the wind turbines he so loathes. He hascited bird deaths, which do happen (at a far lower rate compared tothings like cellphone towers), butsome environmentalists say the benefits wind turbines provide withgreen energy would end up saving many more birds from global warming than they kill. He has said they cause health problems and, to be fair, some people who live or work in close proximity to turbines have described annoyance and issues like headaches, sleep disturbance and anxiety (many wind farms are offshore, however). He has claimed they have a warming effect on the climate (they do not). He hascalled them ugly. He even pleaded with Rachel Maddow and tweeted a link to the Huffington Post.

The now-president and the monstrous giants have been jousting for years in a fight much of the world has forgotten. Presented belowis Trump tilting at windmills:

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Donald Trump Tilting at Windmills: A Long Fight, Explained - Newsweek

New York Times

Donald Trump Poisons the World New York Times This week, two of Donald Trump's top advisers, H. R. McMaster and Gary Cohn, wrote the following passage in The Wall Street Journal: The president embarked on his first foreign trip with a cleareyed outlook that the world is not a 'global community ... America First Doesn't Mean America AloneWall Street Journal all 8 news articles »

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Donald Trump Poisons the World - New York Times