The Former Trump Presidency Thread

[YellowKing]

Every time Trump manages to put several coherent sentences together, there is undeserved praise from some sides and panic from other sides. However, Trump is Trump. The one certainty we have is that he WILL fuck things up in a matter of days, so any positive bump he gets from reading a teleprompter will be moot a week from now.

[Holman]

Word is that he had to be dragged into the Afghanistan policy by the generals.

Today he's becoming aware that the hard-core Breitbart base sees it as a betrayal and a concession to the Globalistwhatevers, and they're savaging him for it.

Tonight he'll bring the rage to try to win them back.

[tjg_marantz]

Fake news.
Building that wall.
Winning immigration.
All bad people are the same.
Al-queda is scared.
Hillary Clinton.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

[LordMortis]

Word is that he had to be dragged into the Afghanistan policy by the generals.

Today he's becoming aware that the hard-core Breitbart base sees it as a betrayal and a concession to the Globalistwhatevers, and they're savaging him for it.

Tonight he'll bring the rage to try to win them back.

Obama left him a mess?

[Max Peck]

Word is that he had to be dragged into the Afghanistan policy by the generals.

Today he's becoming aware that the hard-core Breitbart base sees it as a betrayal and a concession to the Globalistwhatevers, and they're savaging him for it.

Tonight he'll bring the rage to try to win them back.

Is Breitbart going after Trump over the policy shift? I'd expect Bannon to target his advisors, but not the Great Man himself.

[El Guapo]

Word is that he had to be dragged into the Afghanistan policy by the generals.

Today he's becoming aware that the hard-core Breitbart base sees it as a betrayal and a concession to the Globalistwhatevers, and they're savaging him for it.

Tonight he'll bring the rage to try to win them back.

Is Breitbart going after Trump over the policy shift? I'd expect Bannon to target his advisors, but not the Great Man himself.

I imagine it will be a similar kind of effect as when teacher's unions were upset over Obama's educational policies (as they tended to be friendly to school choice, testing, merit-based hiring and firing, etc.). When the unions would attack those policies, they would focus on attacking Obama's Education Secretary (Arne Duncan) and pretty much never Obama. Which is kind of odd, since obviously Obama appointed Duncan and had some capacity to constrain / fire him. But Obama was popular with the teacher's union constituencies, so Duncan was a better target.

Similarly, I suspect Breitbart's attacks on Trump and his policies will tend to be of the same vein - Trump's been bamboozled by the globalists and the deep state.

[Rip]

They will focus on McMaster of Disguise and Javanka.

[Max Peck]

They will focus on McMaster of Disguise and Javanka.

"McMaster of Disguise"? Is that an actual alt-Right meme, or are you just ad libbing a bald joke?

[Rip]

They will focus on McMaster of Disguise and Javanka.

"McMaster of Disguise"? Is that an actual alt-Right meme, or are you just ad libbing a bald joke?

http://www.breitbart.com/radio/2017/08/ ... -disguise/
http://www.breitbart.com/jerusalem/2017 ... -business/

[Rip]

Here is where the first big fight among them will be fought.

Donald Trump’s top aides are pushing him to protect young people brought into the country illegally as children — and then use the issue as a bargaining chip for a larger immigration deal — despite the president’s campaign vow to deport so-called Dreamers.

The White House officials want Trump to strike an ambitious deal with Congress that offers Dreamers protection in exchange for legislation that pays for a border wall and more detention facilities, curbs legal immigration and implements E-verify, an online system that allows businesses to check immigration status, according to a half-dozen people familiar with situation, most involved with the negotiations.

The group includes former and current White House chiefs of staff, Reince Priebus and John Kelly, the president’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, and her husband, Jared Kushner, who both serve as presidential advisers, they said. Others who have not been as vocal publicly about their stance but are thought to agree include Vice President Mike Pence, who as a congressman worked on a failed immigration deal that called for citizenship, National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster and Gary Cohn, a Democrat who serves as director of the National Economic Council.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politic ... 25547.html

[hepcat]

Watching Breitbart turn from Trump supporter to Trump hater is delicious.

[Jeff V]

Watching Breitbart turn from Trump supporter to Trump hater is delicious.

All the more reason Trump is so resistant when it comes to dissing the Klan. His base is no long half-deplorables as Hillary suggested -- the deplorables are all he has left.

[hepcat]

I wouldn't put Breitbart and its readers in the good half of your statement.

[AWS260]

Classy.

When Mr. Trump addressed a Boy Scouts jamboree last month in West Virginia, White House aides told Senator Shelley Moore Capito, a Republican from the state whose support was in doubt, that she could only accompany him on Air Force One if she committed to voting for the health care bill. She declined the invitation, noting that she could not commit to voting for a measure she had not seen, according to Republican briefed on the conversation.

[Pyperkub]

Well, Putin has a Patriots ring, so I guess Trump needs one too.

New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft gave President Trump a commemorative Super Bowl ring after the team's visit to the White House in April.

[Smoove_B]

I think I'm having a break with reality. From an article detailing Trump's decision to send more troops to Afghanistan:

One of the ways McMaster tried to persuade Trump to recommit to the effort was by convincing him that Afghanistan was not a hopeless place. He presented Trump with a black-and-white snapshot from 1972 of Afghan women in miniskirts walking through Kabul, to show him that Western norms had existed there before and could return.

[Max Peck]

I think I'm having a break with reality. From an article detailing Trump's decision to send more troops to Afghanistan:

One of the ways McMaster tried to persuade Trump to recommit to the effort was by convincing him that Afghanistan was not a hopeless place. He presented Trump with a black-and-white snapshot from 1972 of Afghan women in miniskirts walking through Kabul, to show him that Western norms had existed there before and could return.

“This has been many months in the making,” said Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president. “The hallmark of leadership is a deliberative process, not an impulsive reaction, and that is precisely the protocol he followed here.”

And nowhere else...

[Jaymann]

Trump:
You mean I can just grab them by the Burqa?

[tgb]

Well, Putin has a Patriots ring, so I guess Trump needs one too.

New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft gave President Trump a commemorative Super Bowl ring after the team's visit to the White House in April.

I'm confused. I thought Trump was already wearing Putin's ring following that post-prom blow job.

[Octavious]

And Trump's back. How do you lie about stuff that's recorded? Sigh

[Holman]

The subtext of this speech is that Trump is enraged at criticism of racists. Everything keeps coming back to that.

The lying is almost comical. He just said CNN isn't reporting what he really says, but everyone is watching this rally on CNN.

[em2nought]

Every time Trump manages to put several coherent sentences together

Too bad he can't channel the ghost of Winston Churchill from that bust that's back in the oval office. What's sad is that I think it's probably necessary to speak to the American public in such simple language, and with so few choices of words. What's happened to us?

[tjg_marantz]

You

[em2nought]

You

Really? Why don't you go find every racist thing I've said and copy and paste it here. I'll provide the one deleted word which is "fud__packer" which I wasn't aware was the LBGT equivalent of the "n" word I assume, and by the way doesn't really have to do with race. I don't believe you're going to find very much at all except for one misunderstanding regarding Hispanics whom I happen to have no problem with what so ever. In fact I'm actually more attracted to Hispanic females than all others. I don't think you're going to find any racist comments, but maybe I'm wrong. You will find dozens and dozens of pile on of one after another going by what the last fellow adjudged me though. As close as you're going to get might be a few colloquialisms "Jap" and "Injun".

Maybe what's happened is all of you witch hunters who have figured out how to destroy the other side with your innuendo.

[Rip]

Two ball corner pocket.

[pr0ner]

I don't believe you're going to find very much at all except for one misunderstanding regarding Hispanics whom I happen to have no problem with what so ever. In fact I'm actually more attracted to Hispanic females than all others. As close as you're going to get might be a few colloquialisms "Jap" and "Injun".

There's two comments right there.

Not all racism is overtly stated.

[hepcat]

Maybe what's happened is all of you witch hunters who have figured out how to destroy the other side with your innuendo.

You folks are doing fine on your own when it comes to destroying yourselves.

[tgb]

I just woke up and haven't read any of the coverage yet, but the little bit I've run across makes it sound like the typical shitstorm.

Did he pardon Arpaio?

[Rip]

I just woke up and haven't read any of the coverage yet, but the little bit I've run across makes it sound like the typical shitstorm.

Did he pardon Arpaio?

Other than the protester getting shot in the nuts I posted above, not much.

Two-dollar cold water bottles outsold three-dollar tacos on street corners. Trump fans took turns holding each other's places in line for bathroom breaks and visits to a cool spray mist descending from a nearby Hyatt hotel's entryway overhang.

The most common sight, other than 'Make America Great Again' hats, was umbrella after umbrella sticking up above the crowd – not to protect against much-needed rain, but used as a parasol to tame the heat.

The heat took its toll, too, on a promised mass-protest that threatened to bring thousands who stayed home.

A combined 7,400 people had indicated that they plan to show their disgust for the president, via RSVPs on two Facebook advertisements for anti-Trump rallies.

Only about 500 showed up, and found pro-Trump activists creating just as much noise. They shouted 'Walk of shame!' in response as the rally-goers made their way to the front of a line that snaked for six city blocks.

An hour before Trump was scheduled to speak, there were an estimated 8,000 inside the convention center.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... -heat.html

[tgb]

I just saw a clip about shutting down the government in order to get the wall built.

I'm confused. I thought Mexico was paying for it?????????

[tgb]

Relaxing on the couch I watched this yesterday and not only does it still hold up remarkably well, but also mirrors reality.

The last man nearly ruined this place, he didn't know what to do with it. If you think the country's bad off now, just wait 'til I get through with it.

[Holman]

I just woke up and haven't read any of the coverage yet, but the little bit I've run across makes it sound like the typical shitstorm.

Did he pardon Arpaio?

Rip's quote tells a story of Trump triumph: yuge crowd, few protesters. I'll let others research the numbers, but the rally itself was definitely not at capacity, and people in the back were filing out while Trump was in full swing.

The main story is that Trump started with the teleprompter but then went free-form, sounding more and more unhinged as he did so. He attacked the media repeatedly, and it was clear that that's what really animated him: his threats against jihadists don't sound half as fierce as when he was hitting CNN et al last night.

He declared that CNN was cutting off their coverage of the rally so that people couldn't hear his message. It was weird to see him say this live on CNN, which of course continued its coverage to the end. He called journalists "traitors" who hate our country.

He defended Arpaio, not pardoning him yet but implying that he would. (He asked rhetorically why Arpaio was being punished for just "doing his job.")

At one point he took out printed notes and re-read his original Charlottesville response (leaving out "on many sides" when he got to that point) for like 15 minutes. It was clear that the criticisms of his response are really eating at him, like he thinks he deserves credit as a leader and unifier for his reluctant, scripted condemnation of racism.

Then, several times, he declared "They're trying to take away our culture and our heritage." This is barely even a dog-whistle at this point, but he made sure to repeat it again and again while complaining about Charlottesville counter-protesters, immigrants, and Democrats.

Oh, and he attacked John McCain without even a nod towards wishing him recovery from cancer.

You'd have to be a diehard Trumper to think he doesn't seem more and more angry, isolated, and reckless.

[LawBeefaroni]

WaPo's take:

Then Trump took the stage.


He didn't attempt to continue the carefully choreographed messaging of the night or to narrow the ever-deepening divide between the thousands of supporters gathered in the convention center hall before him and the thousands of protesters waiting outside.

Instead, Trump spent the first three minutes of his speech — which would drag on for 75 minutes — marveling at his crowd size, claiming that “there aren't too many people outside protesting,” predicting that the media would not broadcast shots of his “rather incredible” crowd and reminiscing about how he was “center stage, almost from day one, in the debates.”

“We love those debates — but we went to center stage, and we never left, right?” the president said, reliving his glory days. “All of us. We did it together.”

Over the next 72 minutes, the president launched into one angry rant after another, repeatedly attacking the media and providing a lengthy defense of his response to the violent clashes in Charlottesville, between white supremacists and neo-Nazis and the counterprotesters who challenged them. He threatened to shut down the government if he doesn't receive funding for a wall along the southern border, announced that he will “probably” get rid of the North American Free Trade Agreement, attacked the state's two Republican senators, repeatedly referred to protesters as “thugs” and coyly hinted that he will pardon Joe Arpaio, the former sheriff of Maricopa County who was convicted in July of criminal contempt in Arizona for ignoring a judge’s order to stop detaining people because he merely suspected them of being undocumented immigrants.

Three times, the crowd burst into chants of “USA! USA! USA!” And once, at the mention of Trump's former rival Hillary Clinton, they chanted: “Lock her up! Lock her up! Lock her up!” Several parents put their young children on their shoulders so they could get a good look at the president.

But as the night dragged on, many in the crowd lost interest in what the president was saying.

Hundreds left early, while others plopped down on the ground, scrolled through their social media feeds or started up a conversation with their neighbors. After waiting for hours in 107-degree heat to get into the rally hall — where their water bottles were confiscated by security — people were tired and dehydrated and the president just wasn't keeping their attention. Although Trump has long been the master of reading the mood of a room and quickly adjusting his message to satisfy as many of his fans as possible, his rage seemed to cloud his senses.

[malchior]

He declared that CNN was cutting off their coverage of the rally so that people couldn't hear his message. It was weird to see him say this live on CNN, which of course continued its coverage to the end. He called journalists "traitors" who hate our country.

His brand of poison is both brilliant and truly dangerous. Why should CNN *have* to cover the rally end to end? They don't owe him shit and part of the reason we are in this shitshow is that the news typically carried his rallies end to end for free. That is a significant advantage that was quantified at some point as millions of dollars of free advertising. His comment wasn't weird IMO, it was using the bully pulpit to continue to get that free advertising. That is why his Presidency is one rally after another. He is set to undermine our Democracy one day at a time. He is a raging cancer metastasized in our body politic. #FuckTrump.

At one point he took out printed notes and re-read his original Charlottesville response (leaving out "on many sides" when he got to that point) for like 15 minutes. It was clear that the criticisms of his response are really eating at him, like he thinks he deserves credit as a leader and unifier for his reluctant, scripted condemnation of racism.

All I see there is a man child piece of shit who doesn't own up to his mistakes. #FuckTrump.

Then, several times, he declared "They're trying to take away our culture and our heritage." This is barely even a dog-whistle at this point, but he made sure to repeat it again and again while complaining about Charlottesville counter-protesters, immigrants, and Democrats.

#FuckTrump.

You'd have to be a diehard Trumper to think he doesn't seem more and more angry, isolated, and reckless.

Exactly. Don Lemon went to town on him. Called him a liar and a child. I don't at this point know if talking truth to power hurts or helps but it wasn't inaccurate.

[Isgrimnur]

Two ball corner pocket.

Someone forgot their cup check before walking out the door.

[El Guapo]

Several stories lately indicating that the relationship between McConnell and Trump has completely disintegrated, including reports that they were swearing at each other on the phone.

I'm not sure that Trump appreciates that McConnell is probably the most important person in determining whether or not he makes it through his term.

[malchior]

I read that story and found myself feeling massive schadenfreude. I can't think of two people who I want to both be completely miserable and also cause each other to be ineffective. As long as it doesn't lead to default and market calamity of course.

[El Guapo]

I'm pretty sure that McConnell is going to rue not killing Trump's chances in the general election last year (which he and Ryan easily could have done). If Clinton won, they could block everything that she wanted to do, deny her any SCOTUS nominee for her entire term, keep railing against Obamacare without producing a real (and unpopular) alternative, kept investigating her for trivial bullshit. She would have been incredibly unpopular incredibly quickly, setting up the GOP for a huge 2018 landslide (especially since the map already favors them). The GOP would almost certainly then win the 2020 presidential election and be set up for major policy changes (and would presumably again control the census and redistricting).

[Carpet_pissr]

He declared that CNN was cutting off their coverage of the rally so that people couldn't hear his message. It was weird to see him say this live on CNN, which of course continued its coverage to the end. He called journalists "traitors" who hate our country.

His brand of poison is both brilliant and truly dangerous. Why should CNN *have* to cover the rally end to end? They don't owe him shit and part of the reason we are in this shitshow is that the news typically carried his rallies end to end for free. That is a significant advantage that was quantified at some point as millions of dollars of free advertising. His comment wasn't weird IMO, it was using the bully pulpit to continue to get that free advertising.

At this point, I think it's a continuation of a clearly working strategy wrt the media. Want your petulant, amateurish rant to be covered live, to the end? Claim, on that same live tv feed, that it won't be, because of the "mean" media! Seriously, that's brilliant. They COULDN'T not continue to cover it after he said that, even if they were not planning to. He plays them VERY well.

[Exodor]

CNN throwing some shade...

It was a remarkable real-time glimpse into the inner frustrations of a sitting President, who apparently believes he is being persecuted by accurate media coverage of his conduct