Tag: Donald Trump

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Dan Rather To Journalists: “I Know You Will Not Be Bullied Or Intimidated”

Dan Rather

Legendary newsman Dan Rather shares his thoughts on President Trump’s recent tweet demonizing the press as “the enemy of the American people.”

From Rather’s Facebook page:

I have resisted commenting on President Trump’s outrageous attack on the press with his tweet calling the media “the enemy of the American people.” It is a sentiment that is a deep betrayal of our national history. The evidence to the contrary is so overwhelming that to choose any one example is to play into the alternate reality Mr. Trump is seeking to exploit for his cynical political purposes.

My message is not for he who will not listen. Instead I wish to address his enablers, specifically those in the Republican Party who by their silence on this travesty normalize a behaviour that is antithetical to our Constitutional principles. Future generations will not look kindly on profiles in cowardice.

And to my fellow journalists, I know you will not be bullied or intimidated. Keep doing your job. Your country depends on your service. Courage.

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Trump Spends More Taxpayer Money In One Month On Vacations Than Obama In A Year

President Trump, who used to denounce the vacations President Obama took due to the American taxpayer having to foot security bills, isn’t having any problem spending taxpayer money on himself.

From The Independent:

The US President’s three visits to his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida since his presidential inauguration, combined with his sons’ business trips, reportedly cost $11.3m.

Conservative watchdog Judicial Watch estimated Mr Obama’s travel expenses totalled an average $12.1m in each of his eight years in the White House.

“This is an expensive way to conduct business, and the President should recognise that,” said Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton, speaking to the Washington Post.

“The unique thing about President Trump is that he knows what it costs to run a plane.

“Going down [to Mar-a-Lago] ain’t free.”

The three Mar-a-Lago trips in Palm Beach cost the federal treasury around $10m, based on figures used in an October government report analysing White House travel.

This includes cash for coast guards to patrol the exposed shoreline.

Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw also says it has cost local taxpayers $360,000 in police overtime for his three weekends in Florida since 20 January.

Each trip to Mar-a-Lago reportedly costs taxpayers $3 million.

During the campaign, Trump told the press he “would rarely leave the White House” if he were president. Only one month into his administration, he’s made three trips already to Mar-a-Lago.

Back in the day, Trump was often critical of President Obama for what he considered excessive spending on behalf of the American people.

No such reservations now, huh?

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Trump Denounces “What Happened In Sweden” (That Didn’t Happen)

Yesterday, during President Trump’s “campaign rally” in Florida, eyebrows were raised when Herr Trump referenced terrorist attacks around the world and included Sweden in the list. Not just “included,” but lingered on the issue.

“We’ve got to keep our country safe,” Trump said during the rally in Melbourne, Florida. “You look at what’s happening in Germany, you look at what’s happening last night in Sweden — Sweden, who would believe this?”

From the New York Times:

Nothing particularly nefarious happened in Sweden on Friday — or Saturday, for that matter — and Swedes were left baffled.

Mr. Trump did not state, per se, that a terrorist attack had taken place in Sweden.

But the context of his remarks — he mentioned Sweden right after he chastised Germany, a destination for refugees and asylum seekers fleeing war and deprivation — suggested that he thought it might have.

“Sweden,” he said. “They took in large numbers. They’re having problems like they never thought possible. You look at what’s happening in Brussels. You look at what’s happening all over the world. Take a look at Nice. Take a look at Paris. We’ve allowed thousands and thousands of people into our country and there was no way to vet those people. There was no documentation. There was no nothing. So we’re going to keep our country safe.”

Contrary to Mr. Trump’s allegations, nearly all of the men involved in terrorist assaults in Paris on Nov. 13, 2015, in Brussels on March 22 last year, and in Nice, France, on July 14, were citizens of France or Belgium.

From the former Swedish Prime Minister:

UPDATE – President Trump clarifies he was repeating something he saw on TV:

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Trump Approval Ratings Continue To Drop

(via Gallup Polls)

The bad news just keeps coming for President Trump.

Two new polls show his approval rating continues to drop to historic lows.

Gallup Polls’ three day rolling average shows the president with only 38% of Americans approving of the job he’s doing. His DISapproval rating is an alarmingly high 56%.

Over at Pew Research, the Trumpster has slid to a 39% approval rating, while his disapproval numbers match Gallop at 56%.

At the one month mark in previous president’s terms:

• President Barack Obama’s approval had a 64% approval rating

• President George W. Bush had a 53% approval rating

• President Bill Clinton had a 56% approval rating

• President George H.W. Bush had a 63% approval rating

• President Ronald Reagan had a 55% approval rating

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Trump Tweet Watch: February 17, 2107

After staying on message almost all day, the Donald just couldn’t handle it anymore and had to go rogue on Twitter yet again against the media.

It’s notable how often Trump says “fake news media” is the enemy, but never says the regarding Russia undermining our democracy.

When you’re the guy with a 38% approval rating, it takes nerve to call someone else “failing.”

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Trump News Conference: “One For The Ages?”

President Trump’s press conference yesterday was easily THE news of the day.

Folks from all over the political spectrum couldn’t turn away.

Far-right talk radio’s Rush Limbaugh called it “one of the most effective press conferences I have ever seen.”

CNN’s Jake Tapper described it as “unhinged” and an airing of grievances à la Festivus.

Then there was this reaction on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” today:

And, of course, the late night comics had a field day:

Jimmy Kimmel: “Except for ‘Fox & Friends,’ the president is extremely angry at the news media. Apparently, he spends a lot of time watching people talk about him and it gets him riled up. Would someone unplug his TV and take his phone away before we all get blown to smithereens here?”

Stephen Colbert: “It was a robust one hour and 17 minutes long. That is beefy. So beefy, you could eat it with a fork. But you’re going to want to use a spoon to get every drop of the crazy.”

Trevor Noah: “We had a really nice show planned for you — very civil, very calm — and then, in the middle of the day, Hurricane Trump happened. Again.”

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Fox News’ Shepard Smith Defends Media From Trump: ‘Demonstrably, Unquestionably, 100 Percent False’

Just goes to show you there are fair and balanced journalists at Fox News.

Of course it would be the gay news anchor 🙂

The Week has the details:

President Donald Trump praised Fox News during his combative press conference Thursday, but he certainly would not have liked what he saw if he turned on his TV afterward.

Fox News’ Shep Smith did not hold back when tearing into the president after the presser: “It’s crazy what we’re watching everyday,” Smith said. “It’s absolutely crazy. [Trump] keeps repeating throwaway lines that are not true at all and sort of avoiding this issue of Russia as if we’re some kind of fools for asking the question.”

As Smith went on, it appeared to occur to him that the president could be watching. He turned to stare directly into the camera and began to address Trump directly: “No sir,” Smith said. “We are not fools for asking the question and we demand to know the answer to this question. You owe this to the American people.”

All kinds of awesome. Watch below:

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President Trump: I Won By The Biggest Margin Since Reagan (So I Am Told)

President Trump has promoted the idea that his win in the presidential campaign was “the largest margin since Ronald Reagan.”

He was asked about that today at a press conference.

When presented with actual electoral votes by previous presidents since Reagan (Obama 333 votes, George H.W. Bush 426 votes), Trump backtracked by saying “I was given that information.”

Watch below:

Trump also declared during the presser: “The leaks are real. The news is fake.”

I’m not sure how, if the “leaks” are real – the information leaked is real – how are the news stories about those leaks “fake?”

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NYT: Trump Associates Were In Regular Contact With Russian Officials During Campaign

President Donald Trump

More bad news for the Trump administration as the New York Times reports several members of Donald Trump’s campaign team were in regular contact with Russian officials during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Phone records and intercepted calls show that members of Donald J. Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and other Trump associates had repeated contacts with senior Russian intelligence officials in the year before the election, according to four current and former American officials.

American law enforcement and intelligence agencies intercepted the communications around the same time they were discovering evidence that Russia was trying to disrupt the presidential election by hacking into the Democratic National Committee, three of the officials said. The intelligence agencies then sought to learn whether the Trump campaign was colluding with the Russians on the hacking or other efforts to influence the election.

The officials interviewed in recent weeks said that, so far, they had seen no evidence of such cooperation.

But the intercepts alarmed American intelligence and law enforcement agencies, in part because of the amount of contact that was occurring while Mr. Trump was speaking glowingly about the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin. At one point last summer, Mr. Trump said at a campaign event that he hoped Russian intelligence services had stolen Hillary Clinton’s emails and would make them public.

The officials said the intercepted communications were not limited to Trump campaign officials, and included other associates of Mr. Trump.

And, cue the angry tweets from the Trumpster:

But remember when the Donald LOVED leaked info…? Let’s take a ride on the “way-back machine” to the presidential campaign: