The Former Trump Presidency Thread

Post by **ImLawBoy** » Fri Aug 04, 2017 12:06 am

Unagi wrote:Is there any argument that Australia leaked the transcript?

Unless they somehow also had the transcript for Trump's call with Pena Nieto, probably not.

Unagi · Post by **Unagi** » Fri Aug 04, 2017 12:10 am

ImLawBoy wrote:
Unagi wrote:Is there any argument that Australia leaked the transcript?
Unless they somehow also had the transcript for Trump's call with Pena Nieto, probably not.

Good point.

malchior · Post by **malchior** » Fri Aug 04, 2017 7:02 am

Baby woke up early but he didn't seem too cranky. We got a glimpse at his new wonderful statistics ability too! It was wrong and poorly stated but he is still learning! He'll be a big boy President soon. Amazing!

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/sta ... 3641479168

Paingod · Post by **Paingod** » Fri Aug 04, 2017 7:20 am

That flip isn't a great victory by what I heard on NPR this morning on my drive in. A Republican flipping Democrat and then flipping Republican is hardly worth any kind of "Winning" posts.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Fri Aug 04, 2017 7:35 am

If the next president is a dem, I'm sure he'll flip again. The guy isn't exactly a bastion of integrity.

Unagi wrote:
Rip wrote:
hepcat wrote:
Rip wrote:I just can't believe what the words people are writing about him.

May need to have the lawsuit people look into it.

If that were possible, Hillary Clinton would own your ass.
Ahh, but I'm not a words person and I am poor. The lawsuit people won't waste their time on me.
Get A Room

We would if you would only stop trying to drag me into yours.

Unagi · Post by **Unagi** » Fri Aug 04, 2017 8:45 am

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Fri Aug 04, 2017 9:44 am

Unagi wrote:I was thinking Reince Priebus was more likely for this one.

He's raw.

...and was more suspected, IIRC, of being a suspected leaker

Yeah, he's a good suspect as well. Then again, now that he has the time, he may be busy getting his revenge on his parents for naming him "Reince".

Incidentally, did you know that if you remove the vowels from his name you end up with RNC PR BS?

(Thanks to Tom Chick for that one.)

Octavious · Post by **Octavious** » Fri Aug 04, 2017 9:53 am

Is it typical for them to do this go in every 3 days and bang a gavel thing during recess, or is this a Trump special to keep him from doing more dumb shit?

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Fri Aug 04, 2017 9:55 am

Octavious wrote:Is it typical for them to do this go in every 3 days and bang a gavel thing during recess, or is this a Trump special to keep him from doing more dumb shit?

During a recess Trump has the authority to replace Sessions without Senate confirmation. Banging the gavel means that technically, this isn't a recess.

stessier · Post by **stessier** » Fri Aug 04, 2017 10:11 am

Octavious wrote:Is it typical for them to do this go in every 3 days and bang a gavel thing during recess, or is this a Trump special to keep him from doing more dumb shit?

They did it during Obama's terms too.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Fri Aug 04, 2017 10:14 am

Covered here.

malchior · Post by **malchior** » Fri Aug 04, 2017 10:23 am

It is sort of interesting they are doing it with their own President. Trust levels are not high.

Rip · Post by **Rip** » Fri Aug 04, 2017 10:30 am

malchior wrote:It is sort of interesting they are doing it with their own President. Trust levels are not high.

Are you referring to when they did it to Obama?

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Fri Aug 04, 2017 10:37 am

Rip wrote:
malchior wrote:It is sort of interesting they are doing it with their own President. Trust levels are not high.
Are you referring to when they did it to Obama?

That was 2012, which was not "their own president".

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Tue Aug 08, 2017 6:10 pm

Guess what the secret service has spent $60,000 on this year.

Spoiler:

Pyperkub · Post by **Pyperkub** » Tue Aug 08, 2017 7:27 pm

Smoove_B wrote:Guess what the secret service has spent $60,000 on this year.

Spoiler:
Golf cart rentals

I wonder if there are special requirements (full offroad, bulletproof, rifle/shotgun rack, etc.).

Holman · Post by **Holman** » Tue Aug 08, 2017 7:51 pm

Pyperkub wrote:
Smoove_B wrote:Guess what the secret service has spent $60,000 on this year.

Spoiler:
Golf cart rentals
I wonder if there are special requirements (full offroad, bulletproof, rifle/shotgun rack, etc.).

36 holes with no recharge.

Moliere · Post by **Moliere** » Wed Aug 09, 2017 1:54 am

Trump gets a folder full of positive news about himself twice a day

Twice a day since the beginning of the Trump administration, a special folder is prepared for the president. The first document is prepared around 9:30 a.m. and the follow-up, around 4:30 p.m. Former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and former Press Secretary Sean Spicer both wanted the privilege of delivering the 20-to-25-page packet to President Trump personally, White House sources say.

These sensitive papers, described to VICE News by three current and former White House officials, don’t contain top-secret intelligence or updates on legislative initiatives. Instead, the folders are filled with screenshots of positive cable news chyrons (those lower-third headlines and crawls), admiring tweets, transcripts of fawning TV interviews, praise-filled news stories, and sometimes just pictures of Trump on TV looking powerful.

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Wed Aug 09, 2017 4:27 am

Holman · Post by **Holman** » Wed Aug 09, 2017 6:43 am

link

Stephen Miller: "President #Trump's the most gifted politician of our time, and he's the best orator to hold that office in generations."

Paingod · Post by **Paingod** » Wed Aug 09, 2017 7:04 am

I'm not sure he understands that "oral" and "orator" aren't the same thing.

Holman · Post by **Holman** » Wed Aug 09, 2017 7:31 am

In other news, it has been almost a week since a popular mosque in Minnesota was hit with a homemade bomb, and the POTUS has had no comment whatsoever: no expression of support, no condemnation of violence, nothing. All he has done is send out Gorka to suggest, InfoWars-style, that it was a liberal false-flag attack.

Octavious · Post by **Octavious** » Wed Aug 09, 2017 8:09 am

Fuck he's going on about nuclear weapons on Twitter. Apparently he revamped the whole arsenal in the last 6 months. He's amazing!

Chaz · Post by **Chaz** » Wed Aug 09, 2017 8:24 am

He's used to running a small family business. In that world, he says a thing, and it probably happens. He's therefore conflated giving the order to do a thing, and the thing actually happening. Therefore, he thinks the arsenal is now modernized.

In the replies to that tweet, some were saying that what Trump is actually taking credit for was mostly a continuation of Obama-era initiatives. I haven't had time to do the research into that, but at first blush, I'm inclined to believe that, given Trump's history of taking credit for things that were set in motion over the previous administration. Or just done by other people in general.

malchior · Post by **malchior** » Wed Aug 09, 2017 8:52 am

TO WORLD: You're all going down with this ship! These words are backed with nuclear weapons!

Skinypupy · Post by **Skinypupy** » Wed Aug 09, 2017 9:52 am

In addition to his typical unhinged bullshit, in the last 24 hours, Trump has retweeted 9 stories from Fox News.

State run media, indeed.

RunningMn9 · Post by **RunningMn9** » Wed Aug 09, 2017 11:44 am

Chaz wrote:He's therefore conflated giving the order to do a thing, and the thing actually happening.

As I pointed out to him, he didn't actually give the order to do the thing either. His first order as President was to neuter the ACA. He's never issued an EO regarding modernizing or boosting our nuclear arsenal. Which he probably couldn't even do anyway, do the enormous cost of such an endeavor (which would probably require an act of congress).

Max Peck · Post by **Max Peck** » Wed Aug 09, 2017 11:59 am

RunningMn9 wrote:
Chaz wrote:He's therefore conflated giving the order to do a thing, and the thing actually happening.
As I pointed out to him, he didn't actually give the order to do the thing either. His first order as President was to neuter the ACA. He's never issued an EO regarding modernizing or boosting our nuclear arsenal. Which he probably couldn't even do anyway, do the enormous cost of such an endeavor (which would probably require an act of congress).

Actually, he did order a nuclear posture review, just as Obama did before him. However anything that has actually been implemented since Trump entered office is the result of Obama's initiative (which is true of much for which Trump has taken credit).

On Jan. 27, one week after his inauguration, Trump issued an executive order directing the Defense Department to launch a Nuclear Posture Review, a major undertaking that will set his administration's nuclear policy.

The Pentagon has said the review, which officially began in April, is expected to be completed by the end of the year. It is expected to guide the Defense Department as it builds new nuclear-capable submarines, bombers and intercontinental ballistic missiles in coming years. Full modernization of the arsenal could then take many years.

The last such review was conducted in 2010 under the Obama administration, which developed a purchasing plan to update all three legs of the nuclear triad with modernized weapon systems that would not be completed until well into the 2020s.

“Any decision that the president were to take now, or that he took in January, would take years to implement,” said Jon Wolfsthal, who served in the Obama administration as the National Security Council's senior director for nonproliferation and arms control. “I'm very skeptical of the idea that Trump believes that he has modernized or adjusted our arsenal because there have been no visible changes to it.”

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Wed Aug 09, 2017 12:00 pm

RunningMn9 wrote:(which would probably require an act of congress).

Rest assured when he gets called on not having overhauled the entire US Nuclear arsenal in the first six months of his presidency, one of two things will happen. A) He will ignore the criticism and move on to some other nationally embarrassment of a hyperbole B) Blame Congress for failing to implement his tweets.

RunningMn9 · Post by **RunningMn9** » Wed Aug 09, 2017 12:12 pm

Max Peck wrote:Actually, he did order a nuclear posture review, just as Obama did before him.

Right. But ordering a nuclear posture review is not ordering that we modernize or boost our nuclear arsenal. Also, your second link went to the EO, not to what a Nuclear Posture Review actually is.

According to the Dept of Defense:

The Nuclear Posture Review is a legislatively-mandated review that establishes U.S. nuclear policy, strategy, capabilities and force posture for the next five to ten years.

Who mandated it? What time frame? Also - it's a review. "Boosting" and "Modernizing" our nuclear arsenal requires more than reviewing our nuclear arsenal.

I understand that you are addressing my comment about him not issuing any orders (rather than defending that this dunce has modernized and boosted our arsenal), but I would point out that I didn't say that he didn't order a Nuclear Posture Review. I said that he didn't order anyone to boost or modernize our nuclear arsenal. Because that takes money, and he doesn't control the purse strings.

And as far as I can tell, the last nuclear posture review was completed in 2010. Not sure when it was ordered. But they haven't issued a report yet on Trump's January EO. Presumably any actions taken from that review come after the review is complete.

Max Peck · Post by **Max Peck** » Wed Aug 09, 2017 12:39 pm

RunningMn9 wrote:And as far as I can tell, the last nuclear posture review was completed in 2010. Not sure when it was ordered. But they haven't issued a report yet on Trump's January EO. Presumably any actions taken from that review come after the review is complete.

As I understand it, the modernization efforts resulting from Obama's review are still ongoing. In theory, progress may have been made in some respects over the course of this year, but if so it has been in spite of the Trump administration, not because of it.

Holman · Post by **Holman** » Wed Aug 09, 2017 12:40 pm

Trump said something about wanting to modernize and expand our nukes during the campaign. Isn't that the same as ordering it and achieving it?

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Wed Aug 09, 2017 12:47 pm

Holman wrote:Trump said something about wanting to modernize and expand our nukes during the campaign. Isn't that the same as ordering it and achieving it?

We'll need to wait and see what rolls down Pennsylvania avenue at the soon-to-be scheduled military parade to honor his greatness, President Trump.

Combustible Lemur · Post by **Combustible Lemur** » Wed Aug 09, 2017 12:50 pm

Skinypupy wrote:In addition to his typical unhinged bullshit, in the last 24 hours, Trump has retweeted 9 stories from Fox News.

State run media, indeed.

Media run state, ftfy

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Wed Aug 09, 2017 2:31 pm

...and now President Trump is taking shots at Mitch McConnell via Twitter. I guess morning golf was meh and he's now up from his afternoon nap. This is glorious!

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Wed Aug 09, 2017 2:38 pm

Smoove_B wrote:...and now President Trump is taking shots at Mitch McConnell. This is glorious!.

This is actually consistent for Trump (for the last few weeks). Shocking, I know, but he set his sights on (Republican leadership in) Congress (and specifically the Senate) two weeks ago. Putintine plans to use DonDon Trump to put a vote of no confidence to dissolve the Senate, I think, after he weakens the sanctioned military and hands internationally policing to an independent Blackwater group, for which Putintine holds favor. Rumor has it, they'll mask the take over with disputes over unfair federated trade disputes.

Or something like that.

Edit: Oh Internet, don't ever change

Edit:

Didn't Trump hire McConnell's wife? Loyalty!

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/ar ... mp/532320/

here we go!

"'The President ... Says What He Wants to Say'

Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao tried to explain Donald Trump’s tweets..."

Exodor · Post by **Exodor** » Wed Aug 09, 2017 3:22 pm

If Trump's approval ratings are still hovering around 30% in 2018 I'm quite sure Congressfolks will be happy to have Trump attack them on Twitter - it makes it that much easier to distance themselves from him.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Wed Aug 09, 2017 4:49 pm

http://abc7.com/politics/giant-inflatab ... e/2290268/

What's terrible is up until February of 2017, no matter who has been serving, my initial response would have been "respect the office". My initial response still needs to be "respect the office" but I've lost to myself. I have no respect for the office and that's a horrible precedent for our horrible president.

Rip · Post by **Rip** » Wed Aug 09, 2017 4:55 pm

LordMortis wrote:
Smoove_B wrote:...and now President Trump is taking shots at Mitch McConnell. This is glorious!.
This is actually consistent for Trump (for the last few weeks). Shocking, I know, but he set his sights on (Republican leadership in) Congress (and specifically the Senate) two weeks ago. Putintine plans to use DonDon Trump to put a vote of no confidence to dissolve the Senate, I think, after he weakens the sanctioned military and hands internationally policing to an independent Blackwater group, for which Putintine holds favor. Rumor has it, they'll mask the take over with disputes over unfair federated trade disputes.

Or something like that.

Edit: Oh Internet, don't ever change

Edit:

Didn't Trump hire McConnell's wife? Loyalty!

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/ar ... mp/532320/

here we go!

"'The President ... Says What He Wants to Say'

Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao tried to explain Donald Trump’s tweets..."

Skinypupy · Post by **Skinypupy** » Wed Aug 09, 2017 5:27 pm

Since receiving the GOP nomination, 70% of Trump property buyers are limited liability companies, compared to 4% the two years prior

Since President Trump won the Republican nomination, the majority of his companies’ real estate sales are to secretive shell companies that obscure the buyers’ identities, a USA TODAY investigation has found.

Over the last 12 months, about 70% of buyers of Trump properties were limited liability companies – corporate entities that allow people to purchase property without revealing all of the owners’ names. That compares with about 4% of buyers in the two years before.

USA TODAY journalists have spent six months cataloging every condo, penthouse or other property that Trump and his companies own – and tracking the buyers behind every transaction. The investigation found Trump’s companies owned more than 430 individual properties worth well over $250 million.