Tag: Donald Trump

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Trump Congratulates Himself For Hurricane Harvey Rescue Effort “Going Well”

Donald Trump spent his morning on Twitter (for a change) hyping Hurricane Harvey as “the worst storm/hurricane,” and congratulating himself for “his” hurricane response.

But not once does he share info on how to get help if you are affected by Harvey. No empathy or humanity in his tweets.

And then there was this tweet reminding us what “presidential” looks like:

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Trump Pardons Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio Convicted Of Contempt Of Court

As the world is focused on Hurricane Harvey bearing down on the Texas coast, Donald Trump pardoned former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio who was convicted of criminal contempt of court for continuing his harsh treatment of suspected illegal immigrants.

From the New York Times:

In a two-paragraph statement, the White House said that Mr. Arpaio gave “years of admirable service to our nation” and called him a “worthy candidate for a presidential pardon.”

Mr. Trump, who made cracking down on illegal immigration a signature campaign issue and had pressed for local officials to do more to assist federal authorities in rounding up undocumented people, had been openly flirting with the idea of pardoning Mr. Arpaio.

“I won’t do it tonight because I don’t want to cause any controversy,” the president said Tuesday night at a campaign-style rally in Phoenix, after asking, “Was Sheriff Joe convicted for doing his job?”

Mr. Arpaio, 85, served for 24 years as sheriff of Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, building a national reputation for harsh conditions in his county jail, and for his campaign against undocumented immigrants.

The criminal conviction grew out of a lawsuit filed a decade ago charging that the sheriff’s office regularly violated the rights of Latinos, stopping people based on racial profiling, detaining them based solely on the suspicion that they were in the country illegally, and turning them over to the immigration authorities.

A federal district judge hearing the case ordered Mr. Arpaio in 2011 to stop detaining people based solely on suspicion of their immigration status, when there was no evidence that a state law had been broken. But the sheriff insisted that his tactics were legal and that he would continue employing them.

He was convicted last month of criminal contempt of court for defying the order, a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail.

UPDATE – Arizona Sen. John McCain responded this evening with this statement:

“No one is above the law and the individuals entrusted with the privilege of being sworn law officers should always seek to be beyond reproach in their commitment to fairly enforcing the laws they swore to uphold. Mr. Arpaio was found guilty of criminal contempt for continuing to illegally profile Latinos living in Arizona based on their perceived immigration status in violation of a judge’s orders. The President has the authority to make this pardon, but doing so at this time undermines his claim for the respect of rule of law as Mr. Arpaio has shown no remorse for his actions.”

The other Arizona Senator, Jeff Flake, dispatched this lame missive via Twitter:

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Alec Baldwin Reprises “Trump” Parody For SNL Summer Special

Alec Baldwin reprised his “Donald Trump” parody for the “Weekend Update” special from Saturday Night Live last night sharing his version of this week’s Trump rally in Phoenix.

Just a bit of what Baldwin’s “Trumpster” had to offer:

On holding a campaign rally 3 years early: “Folks, it’s never too early to campaign for 2020. Mike Pence is already doing it.”

On the media’s reporting of Charlottesville debacle: “As we all know, there was a tragic victim that came out of Charlottesville: me. Folks, the media has treated me so unfairly by reporting my entire remarks — even the bad ones.”

Steve Bannon’s “Death” made an appearance as “Trump” thanked him for his service:

T: “One person who’s done so much for us is Steve Bannon, and I wanted to give him a proper goodbye.”

B: “You’ve only made me more powerful. I’m going to crush you.”

Funny stuff. Watch below.

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2016 – Mexico Will Pay For ‘The Wall;’ 2017 – If Congress Doesn’t Pay For ‘The Wall’ We Shut Down Federal Government

Do I really need to add anything? This isn’t “fake news.”

For over a year, Trump told his followers “Mexico will pay for The Wall.” Here’s the video where he said these very things.

Now, he’s threatening to shut down the federal government if Congress doesn’t write a check to pay for The Wall.

Folks, he lied to you. You were duped.

Period.

The end.

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Trump Says He “Created” Over 1 Million Jobs But It’s Not True

Donald Trump is fond of saying that he created over a million jobs in the first six months of his presidency.

Such language – “I’ve created over a million jobs since I’m president” – is a departure from most presidents who usually use phrases like “the economy has added X number of jobs” or “American businesses have added X number of jobs.” But when it comes to the Trumpster, it’s all about him.

Economic experts say it’s actually difficult to quantify how much a president can influence the job market.

Gary Burtless of the Brookings Institution says it would be wrong to take Trump’s claim literally because American employers actually create jobs, not the president.

And, the trend of job creation in the U.S. over the past 7 years has not changed trajectory. In fact, the number of jobs added to the economy over the past six months lags behind the same time periods of the past few years.

From the Washington Post:

In the first six months of Trump’s presidency, there have been slightly more than 1 million jobs created, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

But Burtless noted there’s been very little change in the trend in employment in the first six months of 2017, compared with the same period in the previous four years.

In fact, the gain in payroll employment in the January-through-July period was a bit slower in 2017 compared with the previous four years, whether measured as an absolute rise in the number of nonfarm payroll jobs or as a percentage of employment in January of the indicated year.

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

As you can see in the graphic above, the number of jobs added in the first half of this year is actually less than the same period in Obama’s last four years in office. Ironically, Trump criticized Obama for those very same numbers at the time.

The Washington Post goes on to say that Trump might have some foundation to base his boasts on if he had passed any major economic legislation, but the fact is Trump has little achievement to point to on the legislative front.

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Trump Rewrites History Regarding His Comments On Charlottesville

Donald Trump repeatedly went off-script at his rally last night in Phoenix as he railed against the “dishonest” media. He also rewrote history a bit along the way as he recounted his comments on the violent events in Charlottesville last week.

Via the New York Times:

President Trump, stung by days of criticism that he sowed racial division in the United States after deadly clashes in Charlottesville, Va., accused the news media on Tuesday of misrepresenting what he insisted was his prompt, unequivocal condemnation of bigotry and hatred.

After declaring, “What happened in Charlottesville strikes at the core of America,” Mr. Trump delivered a lengthy, aggrieved defense of his statements after the Aug. 12 violence that left one woman dead and the nation reeling at the images of swastikas in Thomas Jefferson’s hometown.

Notably, he omitted blaming “both sides” for the violence as he had on Aug. 15. Those remarks had prompted intense criticism, including from fellow Republican leaders, for seeming to equate the hate groups and the protesters who turned out to oppose them.

Removing his earlier statements about the Charlottesville violence from his jacket pocket, Mr. Trump on Tuesday glibly ticked off a list of racist groups that he had been urged to explicitly denounce, and ultimately did two days after the clashes. But he said the news media quoted him selectively, accused him of responding too late and ignored his message of unity.

“I hit ’em with neo-Nazi. I hit them with everything. I got the white supremacists, the neo-Nazi. I got them all in there. Let’s see. K.K.K., we have K.K.K.,” Mr. Trump said sardonically of his rebuke to Charlottesville racists, after being faulted for failing to condemn those groups in his initial response on the day of the clashes.

You can watch side-by-side comparisons of Trump’s original comments on Charlottesville versus his edited version he shared in Phoenix below:

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Poll: Trump Approval Rating Still Severely Underwater

The results of a new survey by Public Policy Polling are not good news for Donald Trump:

• Only 40% approve of the job Trump is doing versus 53% who disapprove

• Only 15% of those polled feel he has been successful in “draining the swamp”

• 57% disapprove of his plan to ban transgender service members in the U.S. military, only 31% approve

• 55% oppose Trump’s plan to build “The Wall” along the U.S./Mexico border; 34% approve

• Only 39% think Trump is honest versus 55% who feel Trump is dishonest

• 48% say Trump should be impeached while 41% disagree

Things look even grimmer over at the Gallup Daily Tracking poll which shows Trump at a dismal 35% approve/60% disapprove rating.

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Fox News Host: Trump Looking At Eclipse “Perhaps The Most Impressive Thing Any President Has Ever Done”

During yesterday’s total eclipse, Donald Trump looked at the sun without glasses even as someone shouted: “Don’t look!”

Fox News host Tucker Carlson later said, in all seriousness, “Almost the entire country saw 60 percent of the sun covered up by the moon. Even the president saw it, but in a move that is not a complete surprise, he looked directly at the sun without any glasses. Perhaps the most impressive thing any president has ever done.”

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CNN Trolls Trump With List Of Recent White House Debacles

CNN’s Brooke Baldwin read a list today, in no particular order, of White House disasters from just the last four weeks of Donald Trump’s presidency.

The list includes classic Trump hits such as hiring (and firing) “The Mooch,” cutting Reince Priebus and Steve Bannon loose, shaming Attorney General Jeff Sessions, making up congratulatory phone calls from the Boy Scouts and the Mexican president, threatening nuclear war with North Korea and more.

Trump supporters will accuse CNN of bias, but the fact of the matter is America has never seen a White House in this much disarray. And, every single news story listed did happen.

Watch, and enjoy.

(h/t JoeMyGod)