Tag: Donald Trump

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Donald Trump Observes Memorial Day By Celebrating Himself

Donald Trump

On this Memorial Day, as millions of Americans remember those military service members who’ve fallen to defend our freedoms, Donald Trump took to Twitter to celebrate… himself!

“Happy Memorial Day! Those who died for our great country would be very happy and proud at how well our country is doing today. Best economy in decades, lowest unemployment numbers for Blacks and Hispanics EVER (& women in 18years), rebuilding our Military and so much more. Nice!”

Economy? Do you really think a WWII veteran would rise from the grave to day and ask “How’s the Dow doing?”

#smh

The Twitterverse took note:

And, in case you were wondering, this is how a president addresses Memorial Day properly:

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Trump Lies (Again) Regarding Separating Children From Immigrant Parents

Donald Trump

Donald Trump lies in the tweet below in saying that Democrats need to end the “horrible law” that’s separating children from parents once they cross the border from Mexico.

In truth, the “horrible law” is not a law.

It’s Trump administration policy that didn’t happen under Obama or Bush. Trump has the power to reverse it at any time and Democrats have urged him to do so.

Rating the claim “False,” FactCheck.org explains:

In early May, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen directed her department to refer all unauthorized immigrants who cross the U.S. border to federal prosecutors. It’s in accordance with the Department of Justice’s new “zero tolerance” policy on illegal immigration at the Southwest border.

Parents would be sent to federal court under the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service and then placed in a detention center, according to a DHS spokesperson. Their children, minors who cannot be housed in a detention center for adults, would be transferred to the Department of Health and Human Services for placement in a juvenile facility or foster care if they have no other adult relative in the U.S. who can take them in.

“It is the government’s choice whether to criminally prosecute someone for illegal entry or reentry,” Theresa Cardinal Brown, director of immigration and cross-border policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, D.C., told us.

So, yet again, Trump lies.

What he does understand, though, is that lying over and over again to his followers eventually becomes “truth” for them.

But, it’s not true.

In a similar vein, Trump’s lies about “millions of illegal votes” in the 2016 election has now become “truth” for his tribe.

A new HuffPost/YouGov poll shows 48% of Republicans believe as many as 5 million illegal votes were cast in 2016.

If you repeat something often enough, they believe it. Especially if they WANT to believe it.

One more example – speaking at the graduation ceremonies for the U.S. Naval Academy, Trump lied about getting our military its first pay raise in ten years, and getting “a couple hundred more ships” in the latest defense budget.

Both lies.

The Associated Press reports:

TRUMP: “Going to have new equipment and well-deserved pay raises. We just got you a big pay raise. First time in 10 years. We got you a big pay increase. First time in over 10 years. I fought for you. That was the hardest one to get, but you never had a chance of losing.”

THE FACTS: That’s not right. U.S. military members have gotten a pay raise every year for the past 10 years and several have been larger than this year’s 2.6 percent increase. Pay increases in 2008, 2009 and 2010, for example, were all 3.4 percent or more.

TRUMP: “We have now the lowest number of ships that we’ve had since World War I, and very soon you’re going to get to 355 beautiful ships. 355. That’s almost a couple of hundred more ships.”

THE FACTS: No it isn’t. The Navy now has 283 ships.

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Donald Trump Rants About “Young And Beautiful Lives” Destroyed By “Phony Witch Hunt”

Donald Trump has continued his wild and wacky Twitter rant all weekend long about the ongoing investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

From Politico:

“Who’s going to give back the young and beautiful lives (and others) that have been devastated and destroyed by the phony Russia Collusion Witch Hunt? They journeyed down to Washington, D.C., with stars in their eyes and wanting to help our nation. … They went back home in tatters,” the president wrote on Twitter.

Trump has repeatedly called special counsel Mueller’s probe a “witch hunt,” a charge that in recent weeks has been coupled with renewed calls from his allies to end the probe soon. Some House lawmakers have gone even further, arguing that reports stating a confidential FBI informant met with Trump campaign officials means the investigation is irrevocably tainted.

“With Spies, or “Informants” as the Democrats like to call them because it sounds less sinister (but it’s not), all over my campaign,” Trump wrote on Twitter on Saturday, “even from a very early date, why didn’t the crooked highest levels of the FBI or “Justice” contact me to tell me of the phony Russia problem?”

It’s unclear who Trump is referring to when he says individuals have “went back home in tatters.” A score of former campaign aides have reportedly met with Mueller’s team along with congressional investigators — racking up significant legal bills in the process.

It’s not exactly clear who the “young and beautiful” folks are that Trump is referring to.

The investigation isn’t exactly a “witch hunt” in that there have been at least five guilty pleas, including from former national security adviser Michael Flynn, former campaign adviser George Papadopoulos, and former campaign aide Rick Gates.

It was Papadopoulos’ conversation with an Australian diplomat regarding “dirt” on Hillary Clinton during the 2016 campaign that began the FBI’s original investigation into the president’s campaign that has become the Mueller probe.

And just for good measure, the Trumpster threw out some more deflection on Hillary Clinton:

Yesterday, Trump got angry that a New York Times report referenced “a senior White House official” as a source for a report. Trump wants his followers to believe that journalists make these things up, so he simply announced the “official” didn’t exist.

Except, the official does exist. And dozens of reporters were introduced to White House official Dan Pottinger who gave the briefing Trump references. The irony is that the White House press office insisted that briefing which hundreds of reporters heard be on background.

Reporter Yashar Ali tweeted the official’s name even though the briefing was done “on background” because Ali isn’t a White House reporter and not on the actual briefing conference call.

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Former Director Of National Intelligence Calls Out Trump’s Lies

James Clapper

Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has had enough of Donald Trump’s lies about the United States’ intelligence community:

“He deliberately spun it, distorted it. I mean this is George Orwell — up is down, black is white, peace is war. That’s exactly what I didn’t say. I took aversion to the word spy, it was the most benign version of information gathering. The important thing is the whole reason the FBI was doing this was concern over what the Russians were doing to infiltrate the campaign, not spying on the campaign.” 

Clapper was angry that Trump had twisted what he’d said regarding the FBI investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election.

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Come On, You Guys – Everyone Call It ‘SpyGate’

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Donald Trump invents his own catch phrase “SpyGate” – 

Donald Trump really, really wants his nickname “SpyGate” to take off so, so badly.

Asked if he had any proof regarding his allegations the FBI embedded a spy in his 2016 campaign, the Trumpster repeated his pet phrase: “We now call it Spygate. You are calling it Spygate.”

Like, totally out of Mean Girls, you know?

From The Washington Post:

Trump’s claim is that the FBI put a “spy” in his campaign at the behest of Barack Obama’s White House as part of an effort to undercut his candidacy by alleging collusion with the Russians. It’s hard to square that claim with 1) Trump’s repeated insistence that the Russia investigation began only after he won as an excuse for the Democrats’ loss, and 2) the fact that America only learned about the investigation into Russian collusion after voting had already occurred.

If Obama and the Democrats put a spy in his campaign to undercut his chances, they made a small strategic error by not mentioning anything publicly before votes were cast. But that’s the claim, because internal consistency is not a requirement for any conspiracy theory, much less this one.

In a contrast to his early morning Tweetstorm, he backtracked a bit when asked if he has any proof of the allegations saying, “I hope it’s not true, but it looks like it is.”

“A lot of bad things have happened,” Trump told reporters. “I want them all to get together. They will sit in a room. Hopefully they will be able to work it out among themselves.”

By the way, if you’d like a detailed explanation about the difference between a “spy” in Trump’s campaign and the FBI investigating Russian interference, check out this Twitter thread.

Watch below.

And yes, we all remember what happens when you try to make up your own catch phrase:

(h/t JoeMyGod)

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Federal Judge Rules Donald Trump Can’t Block Critics On Twitter

A federal judge has ruled Donald Trump cannot as President block his critics on Twitter
Donald Trump

A federal judge in New York has ruled that President Donald Trump is in violation of the First Amendment by blocking critics on Twitter for political speech.

From USA Today:

A group of Twitter users sued the president in July after the @realDonaldTrump account blocked them from replying to his messages. The seven users had each tweeted a message critical of the president before they were blocked.

“Blocking of the individual plaintiffs as a result of the political views they have expressed is impermissible under the First Amendment,” Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald wrote in the decision.

“While we must recognize, and are sensitive to, the president’s personal First Amendment rights, he cannot exercise those rights in a way that infringes the corresponding First Amendment rights of those who have criticized him,” she wrote.

The White House did not immediately have a comment on the ruling.

Now, how many of you think Trump will unblock anyone? Show of hands please…?

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Trump Claims A Spy Infiltrated His Campaign

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Donald Trump

Harking back to his accusations that the Obama administration “wire-tapped” his Trump Tower phone lines, Donald Trump took to Twitter to rant to his followers about the “Criminal Deep State,” “Phony Collusion” and blah blah blah.

The Trumpster is annoyed at reports that an FBI informant made contact with the Trump campaign in 2016 as part of the federal investigation into Russian election meddling and ties to his team.

You know, that’s what the FBI does when they have credible evidence folks are working with foreign players to influence an election.

Former FBI director James Comey called Trump out as our leader “who will lie about anything:”

Other smart folks chimed in as well:

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Reporter Lesley Stahl: Trump Told Me He Attacks The Press ‘So When You Write Negative Stories About Me, No One Will Believe You’

Veteran 60 Minutes reporter Lesley Stahl appeared at the annual Deadline Club Awards Dinner in New York City for a Q&A with fellow journalist Judy Woodruff on Monday night.

Stahl shared in the 30 minute chat about interviewing Donald Trump in Trump Tower shortly after the election. Before the interview began, he began railing at the press and she asked him why he attacks the media so much.

“Before the interview I met with him in Trump Tower. And he really is the same off camera that he is on camera, exactly the same.

“And at one point he started to attack the press. And it’s just me and my boss and him – he has a huge office – and he’s attacking the press. And there were no cameras, there was nothing going on.

“And I said, ‘You know, that is getting tired, why are you doing this? You’re doing it over and over and it’s boring, it’s time to end that, you’ve won the nomination [sic], and why do you keep hammering at this?’

“And he said: ‘You know why I do it? I do it to discredit you all and demean you all so when you write negative stories about me no one will believe you.’

“He said that. So put that in your head for a minute.”

Bolding is mine.

Judy Woodruff’s reaction says it all. Watch below.

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Trump Twitter Rant: “I Hereby Demand…”

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Clearly whoever was supposed to supervise Donald Trump today was napping on-duty as the Cheeto-In-Chief went on an unhinged roller-coaster ride of a Twitter rant today.

Even by Trumpian standards, this was pretty much off-the-charts.

The rant was probably sparked by this report in the New York Times today about yet another meeting Don Trump Jr. took with foreign agents who wanted to help elect Trump.

Three months before the 2016 election, a small group gathered at Trump Tower to meet with Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son. One was an Israeli specialist in social media manipulation. Another was an emissary for two wealthy Arab princes. The third was a Republican donor with a controversial past in the Middle East as a private security contractor.

The meeting was convened primarily to offer help to the Trump team, and it forged relationships between the men and Trump insiders that would develop over the coming months — past the election and well into President Trump’s first year in office, according to several people with knowledge of their encounters.

Erik Prince, the private security contractor and the former head of Blackwater, arranged the meeting, which took place on Aug. 3, 2016. The emissary, George Nader, told Donald Trump Jr. that the princes who led Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were eager to help his father win election as president.

As we all know by now, it’s illegal for a political campaign to accept help or support from a foreign country.

Below, you can see Trump rages and attempts to deflect with call to investigate Hillary (again?).

It’s interesting that the Trumpster is suddenly worried about the cost of government spending describing the Special Counsel’s investigation as “soon to be $20,000,000. He doesn’t seem to have a problem spending over $3 million a trip to go play golf at Mar-A-Lago…?

The Donald also tries to assert that “no collusion” has been found when in truth, no one knows what Robert Mueller’s investigation has found yet.

Special Counsel’s don’t turn in quarterly or monthly reports. No one but Mueller and his team know what they have in evidence. And you can be sure they wouldn’t be continuing if there wasn’t a reason to do so.

However, if you repeat it often enough, weak-minded people will start to believe you. Like a bad used-car salesman…

What’s really rich is his final tweet (see below) where he states “I hereby demand, and will do so officially tomorrow, that the Department of Justice look into whether or not the FBI/DOJ infiltrated or surveilled the Trump Campaign for Political Purposes.”

He “hereby demands???”

FBI agents spoke to Trump campaign advisers George Papadopoulos and Carter Page about their communications with Russian actors. You know – that’s what the FBI does when they have evidence of treasonous activity.

Check out the meltdown below.

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Trump’s 2017 Financial Disclosure Lists Stormy Reimbursement To Michael Cohen

Donald Trump

Donald Trump’s 2017 financial disclosure was released today and listed on the document is (who would have ever guessed?) a payment of more than $100,000 to his longtime lawyer, Michael Cohen, issued as reimbursement for payments to a “third-party.”

Gee, could “third-party” end up being the one and only Stormy Daniels?

Didn’t Donald tell the press on Air Force One that he didn’t know anything about any payments to Ms. Daniels?

From The New York Times:

The disclosure, released by the Office of Government Ethics, did not specify the purpose of the payment. However, Mr. Cohen has paid $130,000 to an adult film actress, Stephanie Clifford, who has claimed she had an affair with Mr. Trump.

Mr. Cohen has said he made the payment to keep the actress, who goes by the stage name Stormy Daniels, from going public before the 2016 election with her story about an affair with Mr. Trump.

A footnote in the disclosure said that Mr. Cohen had requested reimbursement of the expenses incurred in 2016 and Mr. Trump had repaid it in full in 2017. It did not give an exact amount of the payment but said it was between $100,001 and $250,000.