Tag: Donald Trump

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Trump Visits Troops In Iraq, Lies About Pay Increase, Reveals Navy Seal Team & Pisses Of Iraq

Donald Trump speaks to troops in Iraq

So, to give credit where credit is due, Donald Trump finally visited US troops in a combat zone for the first time since taking office.

Trump flew to Iraq for a few hours yesterday to meet and take photos with military service members.

However, while speaking to the troops, he lied to the soldiers he says he loves so dearly saying he had given them their first pay raise in ten years (nope) and it was a 10% raise (nope).

“You protect us. We are always going to protect you. And you just saw that, ’cause you just got one of the biggest pay raises you’ve ever received. You haven’t gotten one in more than 10 years. More than 10 years. And we got you a big one. I got you a big one. I got you a big one.”

“They had plenty of people that came up, they said, ‘You know, we could make it smaller. We could make it 3%, we could make it 2%, we could make it 4%.'”

“No. Make it 10%. Make it more than 10%. Cause it’s been a long time, it’s been more than 10 years. Been more than 10 years, that’s a long time.”

HuffPost has the facts:

In fact, military members have seen a pay raise in each of the last 10 years, ranging from 1 percent to 3.9 percent, according to the Defense Department. They even saw pay bumps when other federal workers were subjected to a three-year pay freeze in the wake of the Great Recession.

The pay increase for 2019 passed by Congress and signed by the president in August will be 2.6 percent, the largest since 2010. It is not far above last year’s raise for troops, which was 2.4 percent.

Trump also appeared to have compromised the mission of a Navy Seal team by tweeting video of the team without blurring their faces which a break from protocol designed to keep secret locations of special forces secret.

Newsweek reports, “The president’s video posted Wednesday did not shield the faces of special operation forces. Current and former Defense Department officials told Newsweek that information concerning what units are deployed and where is almost always classified and is a violation of operational security.”

And finally, Trump managed to piss off the Iraqis.

From Rolling Stone:

The nation’s lawmakers called the trip an infringement on its independence, as Trump failed to stop by Baghdad or meet with Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi. “Trump’s visit is a flagrant and clear violation of diplomatic norms and shows his disdain and hostility in his dealings with the Iraqi government,” read a statement from Iraqi parliament’s Bina bloc.

Just remember I gave him credit for at least visiting the troops.

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Trump Skips Troop Visit On Christmas

Donald Trump skips visiting military this Christmas

Donald Trump broke with tradition this year as he became the first president since 2002 to not visit military service members on Christmas.

While the Trumpster did place calls to troops serving around the world, he did not make any visits to wounded warriors or active military on Christmas Day.

More from NBC News:

Based on a check of NBC logs, President Barack Obama visited troops at Marine Corps Base Hawaii, in Kaneohe Bay, every Christmas he was in office, from 2009 to 2016.

Before him, according to a check of news releases, President George W. Bush visited wounded warriors at Walter Reed from 2003 to 2008. He did not visit troops at Christmas in 2002, in the run-up to the Iraq War, or in 2001.

In recent months, Trump has taken heat from critics for not visiting troops in an active combat zone, after canceling a trip to an American military burial ground outside of Paris last month due to weather and skipping the traditional Veterans Day visit to Arlington National Cemetery just two days later.

In related news, The New York Times reports that Trump’s infamous bone spurs diagnosis, which kept him from being drafted during the Vietnam War, may have been a favor by a podiatrist who rented office space from Trump’s dad at the time.

The doctor’s daughter, Dr. Elysa Braunstein, told the Times, “I know it was a favor.”

“What he got was access to Fred Trump,” Elysa Braunstein said. “If there was anything wrong in the building, my dad would call and Trump would take care of it immediately. That was the small favor that he got.”

All of this continues to cloud Trump’s relationship with the US military.

In addition to the lack of troop visits and the draft dodging rumors, Trump has also insulted Gold Star families as well as Sen. John McCain for being captured during the Vietnam War.

The news did not go unnoticed:

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Trump To 7-Year-Old: “Are You Still A Believer In Santa?”

(image via Twitter/FLOTUS)

As Donald and Melania Trump fielded a few NORAD Santa tracker calls on Christmas Eve, the Donald said to a 7-year-old named Coleman: “Are you still a believer in Santa Claus? Cause at 7 it’s marginal, right?”

America, I give you your president.

Merry Christmas!

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Trump On Who Should Be Fired For Government Shutdown? “The President!”

As the Trump shutdown continues (and most likely will into the new year), let’s check in to see what Donald Trump once said about bearing the responsibility of a government shutdown:

Fox News – “If there is a shutdown, who should get fired?”

 Trump – “The President!”

There you go, Donald.

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Trump Complains Of “Presidential Harassment”

Donald Trump

Donald Trump retweeted praise for himself by homocon Tammy Bruce this morning, and in doing so repeated his new catch phrase, “presidential harassment.”

It’s funny – Trump was never shy about tweeting his own ‘presidential harassment’ of President Obama, was he?

Earlier this month, Trump used the same phrase to explain why his approval ratings aren’t better.

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Supreme Court Declines To Block Trump’s Asylum Ban

Donald Trump’s week just got that much worse as the Supreme Court has refused to reinstate Donald Trump’s asylum ban while a government appeal is pending.

From The New York Times:

The court was closely divided, with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. joining the four-member liberal wing in turning down the administration’s request for a stay of a trial judge’s order blocking the program.

The court’s brief order gave no reasons for its action. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr., Neil M. Gorsuch and Brett M. Kavanaugh said they would have granted the stay.

In a proclamation issued on Nov. 9, President Trump barred migrants from applying for asylum unless they made the request at a legal checkpoint. Only those applying at a port of entry would be eligible, Mr. Trump said, invoking what he said were his national security powers to protect the nation’s borders.

Lower courts blocked the initiative, ruling that a federal law plainly allowed asylum applications from people who had entered the country unlawfully.

“Any alien who is physically present in the United States or who arrives in the United States,” the relevant federal statute says, may apply for asylum — “whether or not at a designated port of arrival.”

In related news, NPR is reporting that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg underwent surgery Friday for early stage lung cancer.

Doctors at Memorial Sloan Kettering hospital in New York performed a lobectomy, removing one of the five lobes of the lung.

Short of complications in recovery, doctors say prospects look good for a full recovery for Ginsburg, 85. She hopes to be back on the court for the start of the next argument session in early January.

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Trump Says Democrats ‘Own’ Government Shutdown After Saying He Would Shoulder The Blame

Donald Trump summoned Senate Republicans to the White House this morning in a rallying cry to get them to somehow pass the newly-approved House spending bill that includes $5 billion for Trump’s border wall.

Remember the 2016 campaign? 

 ‘Who’s gonna pay for ‘the wall?’ ‘Mexico!’

Mind you, you need 60 votes in the Senate to pass a spending bill. There are nowhere near enough Democratic votes (if one) to get close to 60.

But Trump took to Twitter this morning already blaming the Democrats for any government shutdown that might occur tonight at midnight.

But if you take a little trip on the Wayback Machine, you’ll recall on December 11th in a nationally televised Oval Office meeting, Trump said:

“If we don’t get what we want, one way or the other, I will shut down the government. So I will take the mantle. I will be the one to shut it down. I’m not going to blame you for it. I’ll tell you what, I am proud to shut down the government.”

As Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer points out, the Senate passed a bipartisan bill to keep the government open and running.

In the case of a shutdown, nine federal departments and a number of agencies – Agriculture, Commerce, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Justice, State, Transportation and Treasury Departments – will all shutter.

More than 420,000 people will work without pay and an additional 380,000 workers will be furloughed.

Right before Christmas.

#ThanksTrump

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Trump Goes Back To Government Shutdown Threats Over Wall Funding

After indicating he would go along with a continuing resolution to keep the government open, Donald Trump reversed course today and said he would not sign the bill unless it included money for his long-promised wall.
Donald Trump

After indicating he would go along with a continuing resolution to keep the government open, Donald Trump reversed course today and said he would not sign the bill unless it included money for his long-promised wall.

ABC News reports:

House Speaker Paul Ryan emerged from a last-minute White House meeting Thursday between President Donald Trump and House Republicans to say that the president told them he will refuse to sign a stopgap funding bill as it’s currently written — a measure that would avert a shutdown before a Friday midnight deadline.

Ryan told reporters that he and other GOP leaders were going back to try to add more border security funding to the legislation.

“The president informed us that he will not sign the bill that came over from the Senate last evening because of his legitimate concerns for border security, so what we’re gonna do is go back to the House and work with our members,” Ryan, R-Wis., said. “We want to keep the government open but we also want to see an agreement that protects the border.”

At the signing of a federal farm bill, Trump addressed his decision:

Earlier this week, after the White House indicated Trump would not shut down the government over funding for his wall, The Washington Examiner reported that conservative pundit Ann Coulter was heavily critical of the president saying she would not vote for him in 2020.

“No. Nor will, I think, most of his supporters. Why would you? To make sure, I don’t know, Ivanka and Jared can make money? That seems to be the main point of the presidency at this point.

“They’re about to have a country where no Republican will ever be elected president again. Trump will just have been a joke presidency who scammed the American people, amused the populists for a while, but he’ll have no legacy whatsoever.”

The stock market immediately reacted on today’s news:

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Trump Administration Quietly Begins Discharging HIV+ Soldiers

The Trump administration has quietly begun to discharge HIV+ soldiers from the U.S. military.

The Trump administration has quietly begun to discharge HIV+ soldiers from the U.S. military.

Despite the fact that they qualify due to fitness assessments and medical treatment, and strong support from their commanding officers, two airmen were informed shortly before Thanksgiving that they were found “unfit for continued military service.”

They have filed suit against Defense Secretary Jim Mattis after receiving the news they were being discharged.

From The Washington Post:

Both active-duty airmen tested positive for HIV last year during Air Force screenings. After they started antiretroviral treatments, their doctors deemed them asymptomatic and physically fit to deploy, and their commanders backed their continued service. They intended to pursue lengthy Air Force careers after serving for more than half a decade in logistics and maintenance roles.

Last month, however, the two airmen received word that they had been deemed unfit for military service and would be discharged. The stated reason: The U.S. military bans personnel with HIV from deploying to the Middle East, where the majority of Air Force members are expected to go.

“Policies singling out service members living with HIV for starkly different treatment are an unfortunate vestige of a time when HIV was untreatable and invariably fatal,” the airmen argued in the complaint. “These anachronistic policies are no longer justified in light of modern medical science.”

Both airmen maintain they can head to the Middle East with no problem, so long as they take a supply of medication with them. But the ban on HIV positive service members there officially renders them unfit to deploy worldwide, placing them in a category of service members Mattis wants pushed out of the military. They weren’t offered alternative jobs, which both airmen said they would have accepted.

Lambda Legal and OutServe-SLDN filed the lawsuit with partner law firm Winston & Strawnon behalf of the two HIV-positive airmen.

Lambda Legal issued a statement today, which read in part:

“It’s disgusting that the Trump Administration is sending some men and women in uniform home for the holidays without jobs simply because of their HIV status,” said Scott Schoettes, Counsel and HIV Project Director at Lambda Legal.

“These decisions should be based on science, not stigma. Lambda Legal is suing to stop these separations and will not stop fighting until President Trump understands that there’s not a job in the world a person living with HIV cannot safely perform, including the job of soldier.”

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Donald Trump Declares Victory In Syria, Orders Withdrawal Of All US Troops

Donald Trump declares victory in Syria

The New York Times reports that Donald Trump has declared victory in Syria, and ordered a complete withdrawal of all U.S. ground troops within the next 30 days.

Trump tweeted that he was won the 4-year war on ISIS in the war-torn country.

“We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency,” the president said in a Twitter post on Wednesday morning. He offered no details on his plans for the military mission, nor a larger strategy, in Syria.

But Pentagon officials who had sought to talk the president out of the decision as late as Wednesday morning argued that such a move would betray Kurdish allies who have fought alongside American troops in Syria and who could find themselves under attack in a military offensive now threatened by Turkey.

I’m not a military expert, and won’t pretend to be, but I do know when ending a military mission there needs to be communication and planning.

Plenty of folks, like Republican Sens. Marco Rubio and Lindsey Graham, were blindsided by the sudden surprise announcement: