The Former Trump Presidency Thread

[Unagi]

"I stand by nothing"
-President Trump

[malchior]

Future historians: Remember that time the President berated a US Senator in a public forum and the Senator called him a man-child?

(Oh and btw the Trump tweet was in response to Corker speaking truth that the Republican tax reform plan was a massive future killing con.)

[El Guapo]

Well, Trump sure has shown Corker. Now Corker only has 15.5 months to exact revenge in a narrowly divided Senate.

[Skinypupy]

When asked in an interview (with Mike Huckabee) about criticism he received from throwing paper towels into the crowd in PR, Trump's response was:

"They had these beautiful, soft towels. Very good towels.... I was having fun, they were having fun. They said, 'throw 'em to me! Throw 'em to me Mr. President!"

Oh, and let's not overlook this gem either

"In one sense you hate to see it, but in another sense you feel like you can do a good job, you're helping people, so you feel good."

"People died, but I get to play grown-up. Yay for me!!"

[malchior]

Great piece by WaPo covering the Corker/Trump exchange. They also point out his blatant lying. Yup - this is a Presidency for the ages.

A Republican congressional official familiar with Trump and Corker's recent conversations disputed each of the claims the president made in his tweets. Trump called Corker early last week and asked him to reconsider his decision not to seek reelection, according to this official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the private conversations. The official said the president also reaffirmed that he would have endorsed Corker had he decided to run again — which, the official added, was not the first time that Trump had extended such an offer of support.

[Holman]

Ooh, somebody is burnishing their culture-war bona fides:

1) Clearly he knew what to expect, so he obviously attended with the intention of walking out.
2) As some have pointed out, a real leader with VP stature would have visited the locker room to make his case.
3) He has joined the claim that protests against police brutality are anti-American.
4) (BONUS:) If Pence is true to his word, from now on he *has* to leave any event where participants take a knee.

EDIT:

And now Trump is claiming credit:

[Daehawk]

And yet they still got his money.

[Skinypupy]

Oh, what brave patriots our leaders truly are.

[Holman]

Oh, and there was another Nazi torchlight rally in Charlottesville last night.

No word from the administration on whether it was un-American.

[Kraken]

What is he distracting us from this time? It's always something.

[GreenGoo]

You give him way too much credit, kraken.

[gbasden]

You give him way too much credit, kraken.

Oh, his antics do distract from important matters. The question merely comes down to is it super tactical three dimensional chess or his insatiable desire to bloviate?

[malchior]

I'll go with utter lack of self-control. He can't control himself when challenged. He is predictably easy to provoke. A great trait in a leader with a nuclear arsenal at his fingertips.

[gbasden]

I'll go with utter lack of self-control. He can't control himself when challenged. He is predictably easy to provoke. A great trait in a leader with a nuclear arsenal at his fingertips.

Oh, absolutely. Then there's his narcissism and his ego. My point is simply that he can effectively distract from some of the things we should be paying attention to such as the graft and corruption in this administration and the removal of employer covered contraception which will increase the number of abortions not through some amazing strategy, but simply because Trump is Trump and thrives on this kind of chaos.

[Pyperkub]

Great piece by WaPo covering the Corker/Trump exchange. They also point out his blatant lying. Yup - this is a Presidency for the ages.

A Republican congressional official familiar with Trump and Corker's recent conversations disputed each of the claims the president made in his tweets. Trump called Corker early last week and asked him to reconsider his decision not to seek reelection, according to this official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the private conversations. The official said the president also reaffirmed that he would have endorsed Corker had he decided to run again — which, the official added, was not the first time that Trump had extended such an offer of support.

Maybe we all need to send some Depends to the White House

[GreenGoo]

You give him way too much credit, kraken.

Oh, his antics do distract from important matters. The question merely comes down to is it super tactical three dimensional chess or his insatiable desire to bloviate?

I didn't say he wasn't distracting. Kraken implied it was intentional.

[malchior]

I think it'd be fair to say that *part* of it is intentional. Most of it probably is pure incompetence and complete lack of character.

Today is the perfect example: Pence's walk out today: completely intentional and staged. Corker tweets: out of control rage storm.

[Holman]

Don't overlook that Twitter gives Trump a huge amount of adulation. His tweets get pushback, but they also get loads of praise from the MAGA true believers. He gets to simultaneously hate the haters and know he's loved in an endless stream.

You know how he lives for his campaign rallies? Twitter gives him that experience writ small every single day. It's the first thing he does when he wakes up.

He's hugely incompetent and damaging and dangerous, but he's also a very simple creature.

[Holman]

link

Spoiler:

(The staged innocent fan photo Pence posted before walking out of today's game was taken and posted in 2014.)

[Smoove_B]

I think it's disrespectful to leave a football game to protest the protesting during the National Anthem.

What a joke we've become.

[Kraken]

I think it'd be fair to say that *part* of it is intentional. Most of it probably is pure incompetence and complete lack of character.

Today is the perfect example: Pence's walk out today: completely intentional and staged. Corker tweets: out of control rage storm.

Keeping the media chronically off-balance, and the public unable to focus, is intentional. The specifics are random and unimportant. Whatever you're outraged about on Sunday will be old news by Wednesday.

[BooTx]

link

Spoiler:

(The staged innocent fan photo Pence posted before walking out of today's game was taken and posted in 2014.)

I don't know what's more frightening. The possibility that these idiots don't know that posting a 3 year old photo from the Internet and passing it off as a new one has a 0.0% chance of going unnoticed, or the possibility that they do realize that, but know that it doesn't matter so they do it anyway.

[malchior]

I'm banking on lazy intern/social media jobber personally.

[tgb]

Tomorrow Pence will go to an R-rated movie and walk out halfway through, shocked by the language.

Or in other words.......

[GreenGoo]

I think it'd be fair to say that *part* of it is intentional. Most of it probably is pure incompetence and complete lack of character.

Today is the perfect example: Pence's walk out today: completely intentional and staged. Corker tweets: out of control rage storm.

The original topic was about Drumpf. Other people probably have more than a lizard brain.

[GreenGoo]

Keeping the media chronically off-balance, and the public unable to focus, is intentional. The specifics are random and unimportant. Whatever you're outraged about on Sunday will be old news by Wednesday.

What evidence do you have that this behaviour is coherent and done with forethought? Because I call complete bullshit. Perhaps his administration does things with a plan, but Drumpf tweets are clearly, and I mean clearly, impulsive spur of the moment things.

Sure, he may think to himself, tomorrow morning I'm gonna tweet about the uppity kneelers, but at no point does he think "I'm gonna tweet some outrageous bullshit so no one notices I pulled free contraception", and what he tweets is pure flow of consciousness crap from a poor thinker.

I'm not even sure if he had to start his career over again from scratch today, that he could manage it successfully, which is to say, do as mediocre as he did the first time.

[Daehawk]

link

Spoiler:

(The staged innocent fan photo Pence posted before walking out of today's game was taken and posted in 2014.)

I don't know what's more frightening. The possibility that these idiots don't know that posting a 3 year old photo from the Internet and passing it off as a new one has a 0.0% chance of going unnoticed, or the possibility that they do realize that, but know that it doesn't matter so they do it anyway.

I think they are just too stupid. The bad part to me is that even when caught openly lying no one but some internet folks give a crap.

[Rip]

I think it's disrespectful to leave a football game to protest the protesting during the National Anthem.

What a joke we've become.

Nothing wrong with disrespecting people who have earned disrespect, or so I have been told.

[GreenGoo]

Have at it. I especially like when they make a big show of it and it's pre-staged despite attempting to give the impression it's spontaneous.

I prefer my disrespect genuine and not played for the masses.

[raydude]

Or are you just expecting him to continue to be the uber-troll, even as leader of the free world?

This is what Rip stated he WANTED since the beginning -- to watch America burn in a Dumpster fire and roast marshmallows. Because lulz, SJW and Hillary GODDAMN Clinton.

I never said I wanted it to burn in a dumpster fire. That is just what you guys call Trump winning. I think his presidency will be fine and all of the predicted apocalypse will fall short leaving the left with the credibility gap they deserve.

You can only warn people that tomorrow is the end of the world so long before they start ignoring you.

Just reminiscing about the good old days. Why, it was only 11 months ago that Rip was trying to tell us it wasn't going to be as bad as we thought it would be and that time would prove him right.

YOU'RE FUCKING WRONG DUDE.

[Zarathud]

So much (not) winning, I'm sick of it. Sad.

[Moliere]

How Rand Paul became the Trump Whisperer

Why Trump doesn't care: Paul has found the way to Trump's heart. Here's how he does it:

He spends a lot of time on the phone with him, listening patiently as Trump rattles on about his latest rounds of golf and, per one administration official, "all kinds of random stuff."
He never asks for anything. Unlike other senators, who asked for tons of money for their states in return for their health care votes, Paul never asked Trump for anything. And he never suggested he would back the final health care bill.
He plays nice. On TV, he never attacks the president personally or questions his moral center as others, like Susan Collins, do. Instead, Paul couches his opposition in principled terms — bringing it back to deficits or the Constitution.
He backed the travel ban. And Trump remembers.

[Holman]

Enjoy an administration video touting disaster relief in order to attack the press for not appreciating the president:

link

It is all always about him personally. Trump thinks the Coast Guard and other American efforts are his rather than ours.

[Skinypupy]

Or are you just expecting him to continue to be the uber-troll, even as leader of the free world?

This is what Rip stated he WANTED since the beginning -- to watch America burn in a Dumpster fire and roast marshmallows. Because lulz, SJW and Hillary GODDAMN Clinton.

I never said I wanted it to burn in a dumpster fire. That is just what you guys call Trump winning. I think his presidency will be fine and all of the predicted apocalypse will fall short leaving the left with the credibility gap they deserve.

You can only warn people that tomorrow is the end of the world so long before they start ignoring you.

Just reminiscing about the good old days. Why, it was only 11 months ago that Rip was trying to tell us it wasn't going to be as bad as we thought it would be and that time would prove him right.

YOU'RE FUCKING WRONG DUDE.

I'd bet my house that he (and many others) still think...

[Kraken]

Keeping the media chronically off-balance, and the public unable to focus, is intentional. The specifics are random and unimportant. Whatever you're outraged about on Sunday will be old news by Wednesday.

What evidence do you have that this behaviour is coherent and done with forethought? Because I call complete bullshit. Perhaps his administration does things with a plan, but Drumpf tweets are clearly, and I mean clearly, impulsive spur of the moment things.

Sure, he may think to himself, tomorrow morning I'm gonna tweet about the uppity kneelers, but at no point does he think "I'm gonna tweet some outrageous bullshit so no one notices I pulled free contraception", and what he tweets is pure flow of consciousness crap from a poor thinker.

I'm not even sure if he had to start his career over again from scratch today, that he could manage it successfully, which is to say, do as mediocre as he did the first time.

I completely agree that there is no premeditation, no cause-and-effect planning or analysis. That's why it's effective. Even stupid people can be shrewd. Trump knows that the press both is his greatest enemy and his biggest asset. He knows how to use them. The specifics don't matter; it's all about rapid-fire chaos and misdirection. The Pence thing actually goes against that grain and was probably planned by someone else. The Corker feud, OTOH, is pure Trump.

Incidentally, Corker says Trump's recklessness puts us on the path to WW3.

[Rip]

Or are you just expecting him to continue to be the uber-troll, even as leader of the free world?

This is what Rip stated he WANTED since the beginning -- to watch America burn in a Dumpster fire and roast marshmallows. Because lulz, SJW and Hillary GODDAMN Clinton.

I never said I wanted it to burn in a dumpster fire. That is just what you guys call Trump winning. I think his presidency will be fine and all of the predicted apocalypse will fall short leaving the left with the credibility gap they deserve.

You can only warn people that tomorrow is the end of the world so long before they start ignoring you.

Just reminiscing about the good old days. Why, it was only 11 months ago that Rip was trying to tell us it wasn't going to be as bad as we thought it would be and that time would prove him right.

YOU'RE FUCKING WRONG DUDE.

Bad? It has been great.

Stocks doing well, unemployment down, less federal employees/contractors, fewer illegal immigrants, NK/Iran finally being shown the back of the hand. If not for his stupid tweeting it would be rosy. You can take Trump out of New York but you can't take the loud mouth shit talking New Yorker out of Trump. I can live with it.

[Skinypupy]

Stocks doing well, unemployment down

Both of which have basically nothing to do with anything Trump has done.

less federal employees/contractors,

Um...what? Speaking as a government contractor, I can assure you that this administration's entire goal is to replace every federal government employee or function with a private sector contractor...typically paying 3X, 5X, or 10X more in the process.

[Rip]

Stocks doing well, unemployment down

Both of which have basically nothing to do with anything Trump has done.

less federal employees/contractors,

Um...what? Speaking as a government contractor, I can assure you that this administration's entire goal is to replace every federal government employee or function with a private sector contractor...typically paying 3X, 5X, or 10X more in the process.

In December 2016, the federal government employed 2,819,000 people. In September, according to the preliminary numbers released today by BLS, it employed 2,806,000—a decline of 13,000 people employed by the federal government.

https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/te ... 13000-year

Speaking of contractors.

The number of contract workers employed by the U.S. government more than doubled from 1999 to 2010, according to calculations by Paul Light, a professor of public service at New York University and author of "The True Size of Government."

http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/12/news/ec ... index.html

I doubt he will increase the number of contractors anywhere near the amount they have been increased the last decade while also increasing the federal workforce.

[Zarathud]

The stock market is enjoying the bubble from possible tax breaks. When investors realize Trump can't deliver, there will be a recession.

[Kraken]

I'll credit or blame Trump for the economy starting six months after the Republicans pass a budget or tax plan (even though Trump will have had very little influence over it, the president traditionally owns it). Until then, we're coasting on previous policy and speculation about future policy.

But yeah, the economy is good to the point of overheating. That makes it exactly the wrong time for deficit-fueled stimulus.