Showing posts with label editor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label editor. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 21, 2017
[Special] Editor's Note: Virtual Vacation
The Temple of Trump is going on a hiatus from now until shortly after July 4. The primary purpose of this blog is to chronicle stories in an archival matter, so being around for breaking news stories is not essential (although we do share interesting news items out of chronological order, just for fun). If something beyond Trump's normal stupidity and corruption happens to break the normal news cycle, we may jump in, but otherwise expect about two weeks of "radio silence" from T o' T. May Crom bless America.
Monday, June 12, 2017
Talking Points Memo: Chris Wallace To Reince Priebus - ‘You Don’t Get To Tell’ The Press What To Do
By Esme Cribb:
Fox News host Chris Wallace on Sunday pressed White House chief of staff Reince Priebus to explain President Donald Trump’s comment that the press is “the enemy of the American People.”
“He said that the fake media, not certain stories, the fake media are an enemy to the country. We don’t have a state-run media in this country. That’s what they have in dictatorships,” Wallace told Priebus on “Fox News Sunday.”
* * *
Priebus argued that the media has not covered Trump’s actions during his first month in office as closely as it has covered his notable failures.
“We covered all of that,” Wallace interjected. “Here’s the problem. When the President says that we’re the enemy of the American people, it makes it sound like if you’re going against him, you’re going against the country.”
He compared Trump’s response to critical media coverage to President Barack Obama’s response.
“You don’t get to tell us what to do, Reince! You don’t get to tell us what to do any more than Barack Obama did,” Wallace said. “I’ve got to say he never said that we were an enemy of the people.”
“He said a lot of things about Fox News, Chris. I think you ought to go check the tape,” Priebus said. “He took plenty of shots.”
“No, he took the shots, and we didn’t like them, and frankly we don’t like this either,” Wallace said. “But he never went as far as President Trump has, and that’s what’s concerning, because it seems like he crosses a line when he talks about — that we’re an enemy of the people. That is concerning.”
The Full Story (February 19, 2017)
Editor's Note: I've been avoiding adding a tag for Trump's relentless attacks against the media, but I finally caved. The new tag is "journalism." When this sad nightmare of an administration ends, I may go back and edit earlier posts to add the tag dealing with the subject.
Fox News host Chris Wallace on Sunday pressed White House chief of staff Reince Priebus to explain President Donald Trump’s comment that the press is “the enemy of the American People.”
“He said that the fake media, not certain stories, the fake media are an enemy to the country. We don’t have a state-run media in this country. That’s what they have in dictatorships,” Wallace told Priebus on “Fox News Sunday.”
* * *
Priebus argued that the media has not covered Trump’s actions during his first month in office as closely as it has covered his notable failures.
“We covered all of that,” Wallace interjected. “Here’s the problem. When the President says that we’re the enemy of the American people, it makes it sound like if you’re going against him, you’re going against the country.”
He compared Trump’s response to critical media coverage to President Barack Obama’s response.
“You don’t get to tell us what to do, Reince! You don’t get to tell us what to do any more than Barack Obama did,” Wallace said. “I’ve got to say he never said that we were an enemy of the people.”
“He said a lot of things about Fox News, Chris. I think you ought to go check the tape,” Priebus said. “He took plenty of shots.”
“No, he took the shots, and we didn’t like them, and frankly we don’t like this either,” Wallace said. “But he never went as far as President Trump has, and that’s what’s concerning, because it seems like he crosses a line when he talks about — that we’re an enemy of the people. That is concerning.”
The Full Story (February 19, 2017)
Editor's Note: I've been avoiding adding a tag for Trump's relentless attacks against the media, but I finally caved. The new tag is "journalism." When this sad nightmare of an administration ends, I may go back and edit earlier posts to add the tag dealing with the subject.
Tuesday, May 16, 2017
Belly of the Beast: Praising Stephen Miller? Seriously?
By Stephen J. Harper:
“Congratulations Stephen Miller – on representing me this morning on the various Sunday morning shows. Great job!” Trump tweeted, as the world pondered North Korea’s missile test.
Question: What had the 31-year-old Miller — a non-lawyer who had been Jeff Sessions’ communications director before joining the Trump campaign — done to deserve such praise from his boss?
Answer: Betray a tragic ignorance of the U.S. Constitution while continuing Trump’s assault on the judiciary.
* * *
“There’s no such thing as judicial supremacy,” Miller told NBC’s Chuck Todd.
“The judiciary is not supreme,” he said to ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.
“We have a judiciary that has taken far too much power and become in many cases a supreme branch of government,” Miller explained to CBS’s John Dickerson. Then came his most chilling line: “The end result of this, though, is that our opponents, the media and the whole world will soon see as we begin to take further actions, that the powers of the president to protect our country are very substantial and will not be questioned.”
That’s third world dictator-type rhetoric coming from a top presidential adviser. No competent attorney who cared about the U.S. Constitution could have vetted Miller’s talking points. Judicial review and the power of federal judges to invalidate unconstitutional executive and legislative actions date to the early years of the republic.
The Full Story (February 13, 2017)
(Editor's Note: I added a new tag "judiciary," which is long overdue given Trump's inclination to war with Judges. I may go back and edit the tag into earlier posts.)
“Congratulations Stephen Miller – on representing me this morning on the various Sunday morning shows. Great job!” Trump tweeted, as the world pondered North Korea’s missile test.
Question: What had the 31-year-old Miller — a non-lawyer who had been Jeff Sessions’ communications director before joining the Trump campaign — done to deserve such praise from his boss?
Answer: Betray a tragic ignorance of the U.S. Constitution while continuing Trump’s assault on the judiciary.
* * *
“There’s no such thing as judicial supremacy,” Miller told NBC’s Chuck Todd.
“The judiciary is not supreme,” he said to ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.
“We have a judiciary that has taken far too much power and become in many cases a supreme branch of government,” Miller explained to CBS’s John Dickerson. Then came his most chilling line: “The end result of this, though, is that our opponents, the media and the whole world will soon see as we begin to take further actions, that the powers of the president to protect our country are very substantial and will not be questioned.”
That’s third world dictator-type rhetoric coming from a top presidential adviser. No competent attorney who cared about the U.S. Constitution could have vetted Miller’s talking points. Judicial review and the power of federal judges to invalidate unconstitutional executive and legislative actions date to the early years of the republic.
The Full Story (February 13, 2017)
(Editor's Note: I added a new tag "judiciary," which is long overdue given Trump's inclination to war with Judges. I may go back and edit the tag into earlier posts.)
Tuesday, April 18, 2017
Washington Post: Trump Tried and Failed to Build a Wall in Ireland.
Before Donald Trump proposed a 1,000-mile wall on the U.S.-Mexico border to stop migrants, he tried to build a two-mile barrier on a pristine stretch of Irish coast to rein in an ocean.
He didn’t succeed.
Irish surfers, weekend beachcombers, environmental scientists, local planners and even a microscopic snail got in his way. In December, Trump International Golf Links backed down from plans it had said were essential to protect the company’s lone Irish course — picturesquely nestled in dunes overlooking the Atlantic — from being swallowed by rising seas.
For a man who loves to win, the defeat — just a month after his election as president — has left a bitter taste. And despite the motley nature of the resistance, Trump seems to have singled out a lone culprit: the European Union, whose rules and regulations underpinned many of the objections.
In interviews and public statements, Trump has cited his tangle over the golf-course wall as Exhibit A in justifying a jaundiced view of the E.U. that puts him at odds with decades of bipartisan U.S. foreign policy.
Previous presidents — Democrats and Republicans alike — have seen the E.U. as an essential partner in global stability and a bulwark against the self-interested nationalism that spawned two world wars. To Trump, the bloc’s environmental protection regulations were a threat to his exquisitely manicured fairways and putting greens.
“I found it to be a very unpleasant experience,” he told British and German interviewers last month after bringing up the wall dispute, unbidden, when asked his opinion of the E.U.
“A very bad experience,” he emphasized weeks later as he raised the issue at his first White House news conference.
The bureaucratic battle over a golf-course sea wall makes for an unlikely inflection point in geopolitical history. And yet in Europe, Trump’s hostility toward the union that backers credit with keeping decades of continental peace is seen as a potentially fatal blow.
EDITOR: Added new tag "Europe" as the EU may well become a bigger issue over the remainder of this presidency.
Tuesday, April 4, 2017
New York Times: It’s No Trump Tower, but White House Has ‘Beautiful’ Phones
By Maggie Haberman:
His mornings, he said, are spent as they were in Trump Tower. He rises before 6 a.m., watches television tuned to a cable channel first in the residence, and later in a small dining room in the West Wing, and looks through the morning newspapers: The New York Times, The New York Post and now The Washington Post.
But his meetings now begin at 9 a.m., earlier than they used to, which significantly curtails his television time. Still, Mr. Trump, who does not read books, is able to end his evenings with plenty of television.
In between, Mr. Trump signs executive orders in the Oval Office and has meetings in the West Wing.
His mornings, he said, are spent as they were in Trump Tower. He rises before 6 a.m., watches television tuned to a cable channel first in the residence, and later in a small dining room in the West Wing, and looks through the morning newspapers: The New York Times, The New York Post and now The Washington Post.
But his meetings now begin at 9 a.m., earlier than they used to, which significantly curtails his television time. Still, Mr. Trump, who does not read books, is able to end his evenings with plenty of television.
In between, Mr. Trump signs executive orders in the Oval Office and has meetings in the West Wing.
“They have a lot of board rooms,” he said of the White House, an apparent reference to the Cabinet Room and the Roosevelt Room.
The White House is the only property that Mr. Trump has slept in that is more famous than one of his own, and he seems in awe. Although he made his name building extravagant, gilded properties, the new president has marveled to aides about the splendor of the White House and the lengths he must walk to retrieve something from a far-flung room.
His preference during the day is to work in the Oval Office. And to stare at it, still. So do his staff members and relatives. “I’ve had people come in; they walk in here and they just want to stare for a long period of time,” Mr. Trump said.
The Full Story (January 25, 2017)
Editor's Note: The headline has been changed to "A Homebody Finds the Ultimate Home Office" since the initial publication of this article.
The White House is the only property that Mr. Trump has slept in that is more famous than one of his own, and he seems in awe. Although he made his name building extravagant, gilded properties, the new president has marveled to aides about the splendor of the White House and the lengths he must walk to retrieve something from a far-flung room.
His preference during the day is to work in the Oval Office. And to stare at it, still. So do his staff members and relatives. “I’ve had people come in; they walk in here and they just want to stare for a long period of time,” Mr. Trump said.
The Full Story (January 25, 2017)
Editor's Note: The headline has been changed to "A Homebody Finds the Ultimate Home Office" since the initial publication of this article.
Monday, March 20, 2017
Washington Post: Kellyanne Conway Says Donald Trump’s Team Has ‘Alternative Facts.’
After some tense back and forth, Conway offered this: "Don't be so overly dramatic about it, Chuck. You're saying it's a falsehood, and they're giving — our press secretary, Sean Spicer, gave alternative facts to that. But the point really is —"
At this point, a visibly exasperated Todd cut in. “Wait a minute. Alternative facts? Alternative facts? Four of the five facts he uttered . . . were just not true. Alternative facts are not facts; they're falsehoods.”
The Full Story (January 22, 2017)
[Edit: New tag added that was sorely needed: "Honesty"]
[Special] Washington Post: White House Installs Political Aides at Cabinet Agencies to be Trump’s Eyes and Ears
By Lisa Rein and Juliet Eilperin:
The political appointee charged with keeping watch over Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt and his aides has offered unsolicited advice so often that after just four weeks on the job, Pruitt has shut him out of many staff meetings, according to two senior administration officials.
At the Pentagon, they’re privately calling the former Marine officer and fighter pilot who’s supposed to keep his eye on Defense Secretary Jim Mattis “the commissar,” according to a high-ranking defense official with knowledge of the situation. It’s a reference to Soviet-era Communist Party officials who were assigned to military units to ensure their commanders remained loyal.
Most members of President Trump’s Cabinet do not yet have leadership teams in place or even nominees for top deputies. But they do have an influential coterie of senior aides installed by the White House who are charged — above all — with monitoring the secretaries’ loyalty, according to eight officials in and outside the administration.
This shadow government of political appointees with the title of senior White House adviser is embedded at every Cabinet agency, with offices in or just outside the secretary’s suite. The White House has installed at least 16 of the advisers at departments including Energy and Health and Human Services and at some smaller agencies such as NASA, according to records first obtained by ProPublica through a Freedom of Information Act request.
These aides report not to the secretary, but to the Office of Cabinet Affairs, which is overseen by Rick Dearborn, a White House deputy chief of staff, according to administration officials. A top Dearborn aide, John Mashburn, leads a weekly conference call with the advisers, who are in constant contact with the White House.
The political appointee charged with keeping watch over Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt and his aides has offered unsolicited advice so often that after just four weeks on the job, Pruitt has shut him out of many staff meetings, according to two senior administration officials.
At the Pentagon, they’re privately calling the former Marine officer and fighter pilot who’s supposed to keep his eye on Defense Secretary Jim Mattis “the commissar,” according to a high-ranking defense official with knowledge of the situation. It’s a reference to Soviet-era Communist Party officials who were assigned to military units to ensure their commanders remained loyal.
Most members of President Trump’s Cabinet do not yet have leadership teams in place or even nominees for top deputies. But they do have an influential coterie of senior aides installed by the White House who are charged — above all — with monitoring the secretaries’ loyalty, according to eight officials in and outside the administration.
This shadow government of political appointees with the title of senior White House adviser is embedded at every Cabinet agency, with offices in or just outside the secretary’s suite. The White House has installed at least 16 of the advisers at departments including Energy and Health and Human Services and at some smaller agencies such as NASA, according to records first obtained by ProPublica through a Freedom of Information Act request.
These aides report not to the secretary, but to the Office of Cabinet Affairs, which is overseen by Rick Dearborn, a White House deputy chief of staff, according to administration officials. A top Dearborn aide, John Mashburn, leads a weekly conference call with the advisers, who are in constant contact with the White House.
(Editor: New tag - "paranoia")
Friday, March 17, 2017
Washington Post: Trump Speaks With Netanyahu
By Karen DeYoung:
Meanwhile, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat said that Trump was a “true friend” to Israel, referring to a reported statement by Trump press secretary Sean Spicer that the administration was at the “very beginning stages” of discussing a move of the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
“We will offer them all the assistance necessary,” Barkat said in a statement. “The U.S. has sent a message to the world that it recognizes Jerusalem as the united capital of Israel.”
No country in the world has its Israel embassy in Jerusalem, which is also claimed by the Palestinians as their capital. While Congress long ago passed a resolution ordering the move, both Republican and Democratic presidents have repeatedly waived the order on national security grounds.
Trump pledged during his campaign to move the embassy, and his designated ambassador to Israel, New York bankruptcy lawyer David Friedman, has called the move a “big priority” for the new administration.
The Full Story (January 22, 2017)
[Editor: there's a new tag moving forward, "Middle East"]
Meanwhile, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat said that Trump was a “true friend” to Israel, referring to a reported statement by Trump press secretary Sean Spicer that the administration was at the “very beginning stages” of discussing a move of the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
“We will offer them all the assistance necessary,” Barkat said in a statement. “The U.S. has sent a message to the world that it recognizes Jerusalem as the united capital of Israel.”
No country in the world has its Israel embassy in Jerusalem, which is also claimed by the Palestinians as their capital. While Congress long ago passed a resolution ordering the move, both Republican and Democratic presidents have repeatedly waived the order on national security grounds.
Trump pledged during his campaign to move the embassy, and his designated ambassador to Israel, New York bankruptcy lawyer David Friedman, has called the move a “big priority” for the new administration.
The Full Story (January 22, 2017)
[Editor: there's a new tag moving forward, "Middle East"]
Tuesday, February 28, 2017
[Special] Washington Post: President Trump’s Friendly ‘Fox and Friends’ Interview Went Exactly How You Think It Would
By Chris Cillizza:
DOOCY: Because it doesn't seem -- if you cut all the money from EPA and all the money from State, that's about $50 billion.
TRUMP: Well, I think the money is going to come from a revved up economy. I mean you look at the kind of numbers we're doing, we were probably GDP of a little more than 1 percent and if I can get that up to 3 or maybe more, we have a whole different ball game. It's a whole different ball game.
And that's what we're looking to do.
DOOCY: But to get the economy going, you've got to get the Affordable Care Ac t...
TRUMP: Right.
DOOCY: -- replaced and repealed.
TRUMP: Right.
DOOCY: And then you've got to do something about taxes and how close are we to either of those?
TRUMP: Right. We're going to be doing things having to do with other countries, because we're treated very, very unfairly. We're going to be doing cuts on so many different things.
We're also going to be -- when we help other countries, when we help them, even militarily, we're going to ask for a form of reimbursement, which right now -- I mean we have countries where we're taking care of their military, we're not being reimbursed and they're wealthy countries.
We have a lot of things happening.
We're going to get those numbers way up and we're going to take care of -- and we're going to have a lot of great friends, but we're going to get the numbers way up and we're going to get jobs back in our country. You see what I've done. Ford has announced, General Motors, Fiat has announced. They're all building big plants. They're all coming back into the United States.
They were fleeing. They were fleeing our country. And you mentioned EPA. We have, right now -- I call it the veins of the country. We have, right now hundreds and hundreds of massive deals that are tied up with environmental protection. When they are -- Scott Pruitt, who is terrific. Just got approved.
But when he gets going, those projects are going to be freed up and they're going to be sailing. And you're talking about thousands -- and millions, actually, of jobs.
TRUMP: Well, I think the money is going to come from a revved up economy. I mean you look at the kind of numbers we're doing, we were probably GDP of a little more than 1 percent and if I can get that up to 3 or maybe more, we have a whole different ball game. It's a whole different ball game.
And that's what we're looking to do.
DOOCY: But to get the economy going, you've got to get the Affordable Care Ac t...
TRUMP: Right.
DOOCY: -- replaced and repealed.
TRUMP: Right.
DOOCY: And then you've got to do something about taxes and how close are we to either of those?
TRUMP: Right. We're going to be doing things having to do with other countries, because we're treated very, very unfairly. We're going to be doing cuts on so many different things.
We're also going to be -- when we help other countries, when we help them, even militarily, we're going to ask for a form of reimbursement, which right now -- I mean we have countries where we're taking care of their military, we're not being reimbursed and they're wealthy countries.
We have a lot of things happening.
We're going to get those numbers way up and we're going to take care of -- and we're going to have a lot of great friends, but we're going to get the numbers way up and we're going to get jobs back in our country. You see what I've done. Ford has announced, General Motors, Fiat has announced. They're all building big plants. They're all coming back into the United States.
They were fleeing. They were fleeing our country. And you mentioned EPA. We have, right now -- I call it the veins of the country. We have, right now hundreds and hundreds of massive deals that are tied up with environmental protection. When they are -- Scott Pruitt, who is terrific. Just got approved.
But when he gets going, those projects are going to be freed up and they're going to be sailing. And you're talking about thousands -- and millions, actually, of jobs.
(Editor's Note: I have added a new tag called "BigBrainYuge" to celebrate the mental majesty of our orange hued leader. If you read this snippet and you do not think Trump is an uninformed and intellectually bereft moron, I have bad news for you.)
Saturday, February 25, 2017
[Special] New York Times: White House Bars Times and 2 Other News Outlets From Briefing
By Michael M. Grynbaum:
Journalists from The New York Times and two other news organizations were prohibited from attending a briefing by President Trump’s press secretary on Friday, a highly unusual breach of relations between the White House and its press corps.
Reporters from The Times, CNN and Politico were not allowed to enter the West Wing office of the press secretary, Sean M. Spicer, for the scheduled briefing. Aides to Mr. Spicer allowed in reporters from only a handpicked group of news organizations that, the White House said, had been previously confirmed to attend.
Organizations allowed in included Breitbart News, the One America News Network and The Washington Times, all with conservative leanings. Journalists from ABC, CBS, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and Fox News also attended.
Reporters from Time magazine and The Associated Press, who were set to be allowed in to the briefing, chose not to attend in protest of the White House’s actions.
“Nothing like this has ever happened at the White House in our long history of covering multiple administrations of different parties,” Dean Baquet, the executive editor of The Times, said in a statement. “We strongly protest the exclusion of The New York Times and the other news organizations. Free media access to a transparent government is obviously of crucial national interest.”
The Full Story (February 24, 2017)
Journalists from The New York Times and two other news organizations were prohibited from attending a briefing by President Trump’s press secretary on Friday, a highly unusual breach of relations between the White House and its press corps.
Reporters from The Times, CNN and Politico were not allowed to enter the West Wing office of the press secretary, Sean M. Spicer, for the scheduled briefing. Aides to Mr. Spicer allowed in reporters from only a handpicked group of news organizations that, the White House said, had been previously confirmed to attend.
Organizations allowed in included Breitbart News, the One America News Network and The Washington Times, all with conservative leanings. Journalists from ABC, CBS, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and Fox News also attended.
Reporters from Time magazine and The Associated Press, who were set to be allowed in to the briefing, chose not to attend in protest of the White House’s actions.
“Nothing like this has ever happened at the White House in our long history of covering multiple administrations of different parties,” Dean Baquet, the executive editor of The Times, said in a statement. “We strongly protest the exclusion of The New York Times and the other news organizations. Free media access to a transparent government is obviously of crucial national interest.”
The Full Story (February 24, 2017)
(Editor's Note: Given Trump's unrelenting war with a free and open press, I am creating a new tag "thepress." I may or may not go back and add the tag to earlier stories).
Wednesday, February 15, 2017
[Special] New York Times: Trump and Staff Rethink Tactics After Stumbles
By Glenn Thrush and Maggie Haberman:
Aides confer in the dark because they cannot figure out how to operate the light switches in the cabinet room. Visitors conclude their meetings and then wander around, testing doorknobs until finding one that leads to an exit. In a darkened, mostly empty West Wing, Mr. Trump’s provocative chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, finishes another 16-hour day planning new lines of attack.
Usually around 6:30 p.m., or sometimes later, Mr. Trump retires upstairs to the residence to recharge, vent and intermittently use Twitter. With his wife, Melania, and young son, Barron, staying in New York, he is almost always by himself, sometimes in the protective presence of his imposing longtime aide and former security chief, Keith Schiller. When Mr. Trump is not watching television in his bathrobe or on his phone reaching out to old campaign hands and advisers, he will sometimes set off to explore the unfamiliar surroundings of his new home.
* * *
Cloistered in the White House, he now has little access to his fans and supporters — an important source of feedback and validation — and feels increasingly pinched by the pressures of the job and the constant presence of protests, one of the reasons he was forced to scrap a planned trip to Milwaukee last week. For a sense of what is happening outside, he watches cable, both at night and during the day — too much in the eyes of some aides — often offering a bitter play-by-play of critics like CNN’s Don Lemon.
Aides confer in the dark because they cannot figure out how to operate the light switches in the cabinet room. Visitors conclude their meetings and then wander around, testing doorknobs until finding one that leads to an exit. In a darkened, mostly empty West Wing, Mr. Trump’s provocative chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, finishes another 16-hour day planning new lines of attack.
Usually around 6:30 p.m., or sometimes later, Mr. Trump retires upstairs to the residence to recharge, vent and intermittently use Twitter. With his wife, Melania, and young son, Barron, staying in New York, he is almost always by himself, sometimes in the protective presence of his imposing longtime aide and former security chief, Keith Schiller. When Mr. Trump is not watching television in his bathrobe or on his phone reaching out to old campaign hands and advisers, he will sometimes set off to explore the unfamiliar surroundings of his new home.
* * *
Cloistered in the White House, he now has little access to his fans and supporters — an important source of feedback and validation — and feels increasingly pinched by the pressures of the job and the constant presence of protests, one of the reasons he was forced to scrap a planned trip to Milwaukee last week. For a sense of what is happening outside, he watches cable, both at night and during the day — too much in the eyes of some aides — often offering a bitter play-by-play of critics like CNN’s Don Lemon.
Tuesday, February 14, 2017
[Special] New York Times: Trust Records Show Trump Is Still Closely Tied to His Empire
By Susanne Craig and Eric Lipton:
While the president says he has walked away from the day-to-day operations of his business, two people close to him are the named trustees and have broad legal authority over his assets: his eldest son, Donald Jr., and Allen H. Weisselberg, the Trump Organization’s chief financial officer. Mr. Trump, who will receive reports on any profit, or loss, on his company as a whole, can revoke their authority at any time.
What’s more, the purpose of the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust is to hold assets for the “exclusive benefit” of the president. This trust remains under Mr. Trump’s Social Security number, at least as far as federal taxes are concerned.
Since his election, there have been widespread calls for Mr. Trump to sell his assets and put the proceeds in a blind trust. He has resisted those calls, stressing that the president has no legal obligation to do so.
While the trust structure, outlined in documents made public through a Freedom of Information Act request by ProPublica, may give the president the appearance of distance from his business, it drew sharp criticism from experts in government ethics.
“I don’t see how this in the slightest bit avoids a conflict of interest,” said Frederick J. Tansill, a trust and estates lawyer from Virginia who examined the documents at the request of The New York Times. “First it is revocable at any time, and it is his son and his chief financial officer who are running it.”
It is not uncommon for people to place assets in a trust with themselves as beneficiaries for estate-planning purposes. But Mr. Trump’s situation is unprecedented because it involves a wealthy president acting to avoid an appearance of conflict of interest.
The Trump Organization declined to comment for this article.
The Full Story (February 3, 2017)
While the president says he has walked away from the day-to-day operations of his business, two people close to him are the named trustees and have broad legal authority over his assets: his eldest son, Donald Jr., and Allen H. Weisselberg, the Trump Organization’s chief financial officer. Mr. Trump, who will receive reports on any profit, or loss, on his company as a whole, can revoke their authority at any time.
What’s more, the purpose of the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust is to hold assets for the “exclusive benefit” of the president. This trust remains under Mr. Trump’s Social Security number, at least as far as federal taxes are concerned.
Since his election, there have been widespread calls for Mr. Trump to sell his assets and put the proceeds in a blind trust. He has resisted those calls, stressing that the president has no legal obligation to do so.
While the trust structure, outlined in documents made public through a Freedom of Information Act request by ProPublica, may give the president the appearance of distance from his business, it drew sharp criticism from experts in government ethics.
“I don’t see how this in the slightest bit avoids a conflict of interest,” said Frederick J. Tansill, a trust and estates lawyer from Virginia who examined the documents at the request of The New York Times. “First it is revocable at any time, and it is his son and his chief financial officer who are running it.”
It is not uncommon for people to place assets in a trust with themselves as beneficiaries for estate-planning purposes. But Mr. Trump’s situation is unprecedented because it involves a wealthy president acting to avoid an appearance of conflict of interest.
The Trump Organization declined to comment for this article.
The Full Story (February 3, 2017)
(Editor's Note: I'm sharing this article out of order because I referenced it in the Flynn editorial from earlier today, February 14).
[Special] Trump's National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn, Resigns Due to Russia
Michael Flynn, traitor? Flynn, who famously demanded that former Secretary of State and 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton be thrown in prison(1), has been known publicly to have contacted and spoken with Russian agents in 2016 (denied by Flynn, of course). It turns out, the information known by the government was much more severe and incriminating. I will let the Washington Post do its usual job of exposing the Trump administration's failures and corruption(2):
The acting attorney general informed the Trump White House late last month that she believed Michael Flynn had misled senior administration officials about the nature of his communications with the Russian ambassador to the United States, and warned that the national security adviser was potentially vulnerable to Russian blackmail, current and former U.S. officials said.
The message, delivered by Sally Q. Yates and a senior career national security official to the White House counsel, was prompted by concerns that Flynn, when asked about his calls and texts with the Russian diplomat, had told Vice President-elect Mike Pence and others that he had not discussed the Obama administration sanctions on Russia for its interference in the 2016 election, the officials said. It is unclear what the White House counsel, Donald McGahn, did with the information.
Flynn resigned Monday night in the wake of revelations about his contacts with the Russian ambassador.
In the waning days of the Obama administration, James R. Clapper Jr., who was the director of national intelligence, and John Brennan, the CIA director at the time, shared Yates’s concerns and concurred with her recommendation to inform the Trump White House. They feared that “Flynn had put himself in a compromising position” and thought that Pence had a right to know that he had been misled, according to one of the officials, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.
A senior Trump administration official said before Flynn’s resignation that the White House was aware of the matter, adding that “we’ve been working on this for weeks.”
The current and former officials said that although they believed that Pence was misled about the contents of Flynn’s communications with the Russian ambassador, they couldn’t rule out that Flynn was acting with the knowledge of others in the transition.
That leads us to the question of who in the administration knew. While we know Trump is lazy and intellectually not curious(3), we also know he is a man who does not delegate well or trust most people to manage his affairs(4). Ergo, it seems improbable that Trump did not know what was going on, especially given his own questionable ties to Russia. Josh Marshall also puzzles over this question(5):
The acting attorney general informed the Trump White House late last month that she believed Michael Flynn had misled senior administration officials about the nature of his communications with the Russian ambassador to the United States, and warned that the national security adviser was potentially vulnerable to Russian blackmail, current and former U.S. officials said.
The message, delivered by Sally Q. Yates and a senior career national security official to the White House counsel, was prompted by concerns that Flynn, when asked about his calls and texts with the Russian diplomat, had told Vice President-elect Mike Pence and others that he had not discussed the Obama administration sanctions on Russia for its interference in the 2016 election, the officials said. It is unclear what the White House counsel, Donald McGahn, did with the information.
Flynn resigned Monday night in the wake of revelations about his contacts with the Russian ambassador.
In the waning days of the Obama administration, James R. Clapper Jr., who was the director of national intelligence, and John Brennan, the CIA director at the time, shared Yates’s concerns and concurred with her recommendation to inform the Trump White House. They feared that “Flynn had put himself in a compromising position” and thought that Pence had a right to know that he had been misled, according to one of the officials, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.
A senior Trump administration official said before Flynn’s resignation that the White House was aware of the matter, adding that “we’ve been working on this for weeks.”
The current and former officials said that although they believed that Pence was misled about the contents of Flynn’s communications with the Russian ambassador, they couldn’t rule out that Flynn was acting with the knowledge of others in the transition.
That leads us to the question of who in the administration knew. While we know Trump is lazy and intellectually not curious(3), we also know he is a man who does not delegate well or trust most people to manage his affairs(4). Ergo, it seems improbable that Trump did not know what was going on, especially given his own questionable ties to Russia. Josh Marshall also puzzles over this question(5):
Monday, February 6, 2017
[Special] Washington Post December 2016 Smorgasbord
After sharing a mega-post of January Washington Post articles a week ago, I thought it would be worthwhile to go further back in time and share some Post articles from December (in reality, the last few articles in the queue for 2016 were all WaPo, so may as well close it out in one shot). End of year articles after the jump.
Thursday, February 2, 2017
[Special] Washington Post January Article Extravaganza
Much to the president's chagrin, the Washington Post has been prolific in its coverage of him. After pulling seven WaPo articles from January 26 and six from January 27, I decided to make my life easier and throw them up as one textual smorgasbord of information. Here's a list of the articles covered, plus excerpts of each after the break:
- Donald Trump’s stunning first major interview as president, annotated by Aaron Blake
- White House says Mexico border wall might be funded by tax on imports by Joshua Partlow
- Trump pressured Park Service to find proof for his claims about inauguration crowd by Karen Tumulty and Juliet Eilperin
- Trump lays groundwork to change U.S. role in the world by Karen DeYoung and Philip Rucker
- Trump is starting a trade war we don’t need by Editorial Board
- In these six American towns, laws targeting ‘the illegals’ didn’t go as planned by Chico Harlan
- Why a tweeting president is so bad for our politics by Michael Gerson
- Trump signs order temporarily halting admission of refugees, promises priority for Christians by Carol Morello
- In Trump’s mind, it’s always ‘really sunny.’ And that’s terrifying. by Dana Milbank
- An ‘America first’ philosophy? During May’s visit, it’s more like ‘Trump first.’ by Ashley Parker
- Trump’s evidence-free attack on the vote could cause serious harm by Editorial Board
- What we talk about when we talk about Donald Trump and ‘gaslighting’ by Caitlin Gibson
- Trump’s erratic first week was among the most alarming in history by Ruth Marcus
Wednesday, February 1, 2017
[Special] The Machinations Behind Trump's Immigration Ban
Trump's immigration ban rolled out as one would expect from his administration, half-formed, chaotic, controversial, and unsustainable. I will leave it to the words of professionals to explain, although I note this post is particularly long because it is important for context.
Monday, January 30, 2017
[Special] Editorial: Trump's Refugee Ban Explodes Upon Impact
President Trump signed an executive order which created a, to use the vernacular, shitstorm. Per CNN (1):
President Donald Trump's seismic move to ban more than 218 million people from the United States and to deny entry to all refugees reverberated worldwide Saturday, as chaos and confusion rippled through US airports, American law enforcement agencies and foreign countries trying to grasp Washington's new policy.
Trump's executive order bars citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States for the next 90 days and suspends the admission of all refugees for 120 days.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed an appeal on behalf of two individuals held in limbo at JFK International Airport, and a federal Judge issued a stay against some portions of the ban. As Mother Jones explains (2), the stay is temporary but it has stopped people from being deported for the time being.
Although the executive order only targets certain countries (Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen), the executive order included a religious test which specifically favored Christians (3), and as the Washington Post revealed, Rudolph Giuliani said, "So when [Trump] first announced it, he said, 'Muslim ban.' He called me up. He said, 'Put a commission together. Show me the right way to do it legally.'"(4)
National Security experts thought the move was harmful to the U.S. Via Mother Jones:(5)
"Not only is it immoral and stupid, it's also counterproductive," says Patrick Skinner, a former CIA counterterrorism case officer who now works at the Soufan Group, a security consulting firm. "We've got military, intelligence, and diplomatic personnel on the ground right now in Syria, Libya, and Iraq who are working side by side with the people, embedded in combat, and training and advising. At no time in the US's history have we depended more on local—and I mean local—partnerships for counterterrorism. We need people in Al Bab, Syria; we depend on people in a certain part of eastern Mosul, Iraq; in Cert, Libya. At the exact moment we need them most, we're telling these people, 'Get screwed.'"
Kirk W. Johnson, who spent a year on the reconstruction in Fallujah in Iraq with the US Agency for International Development (USAID), echoes Skinner's fears: "This will have immediate national security implications, in that we are not going to be able to recruit people to help us right now, and people are not going to step forward to help us in any future wars if this is our stance."
The move also led to a series of protests in cities and at airports across the country.(6) This is the second weekend of protests against Trump, and as a reminder, he has only been president for nine days. Despite these unprecedented level of mass protests against the President, GOP leaders are still supporting him.(7) As documented in The Atlantic:
President Donald Trump's seismic move to ban more than 218 million people from the United States and to deny entry to all refugees reverberated worldwide Saturday, as chaos and confusion rippled through US airports, American law enforcement agencies and foreign countries trying to grasp Washington's new policy.
Trump's executive order bars citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States for the next 90 days and suspends the admission of all refugees for 120 days.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed an appeal on behalf of two individuals held in limbo at JFK International Airport, and a federal Judge issued a stay against some portions of the ban. As Mother Jones explains (2), the stay is temporary but it has stopped people from being deported for the time being.
Although the executive order only targets certain countries (Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen), the executive order included a religious test which specifically favored Christians (3), and as the Washington Post revealed, Rudolph Giuliani said, "So when [Trump] first announced it, he said, 'Muslim ban.' He called me up. He said, 'Put a commission together. Show me the right way to do it legally.'"(4)
National Security experts thought the move was harmful to the U.S. Via Mother Jones:(5)
"Not only is it immoral and stupid, it's also counterproductive," says Patrick Skinner, a former CIA counterterrorism case officer who now works at the Soufan Group, a security consulting firm. "We've got military, intelligence, and diplomatic personnel on the ground right now in Syria, Libya, and Iraq who are working side by side with the people, embedded in combat, and training and advising. At no time in the US's history have we depended more on local—and I mean local—partnerships for counterterrorism. We need people in Al Bab, Syria; we depend on people in a certain part of eastern Mosul, Iraq; in Cert, Libya. At the exact moment we need them most, we're telling these people, 'Get screwed.'"
Kirk W. Johnson, who spent a year on the reconstruction in Fallujah in Iraq with the US Agency for International Development (USAID), echoes Skinner's fears: "This will have immediate national security implications, in that we are not going to be able to recruit people to help us right now, and people are not going to step forward to help us in any future wars if this is our stance."
The move also led to a series of protests in cities and at airports across the country.(6) This is the second weekend of protests against Trump, and as a reminder, he has only been president for nine days. Despite these unprecedented level of mass protests against the President, GOP leaders are still supporting him.(7) As documented in The Atlantic:
Saturday, January 21, 2017
[Special] Editor's Note: The Future of Temple of Trump
With Donnie T sworn in as the new president, I want to share what the future holds for this blog. Originally, this started to document the GOP's nutty presidential candidate, and I did not expect for him to win and be given the keys to the United States. Indeed, fatigue began to set in following the election, as more and more nonsense and shenanigans continued to flood the news cycle.
Nevertheless, even if I am the only soul to ever read these words, I want to continue to document the coverage of Trump's White House. I have a backlog of about one month's worth of articles, just because I like to see what patterns emerge and to make sure I do not share something that becomes debunked within days of its original publication. Also, frankly, there is just so much information out there, it is not always easy to digest and distribute in a timely manner. Of course, if something of true importance emerges, I am always willing to publish it early as a "Special" post. Overall, the blog will continue to document press coverage of our new president. It is important to follow along.
Trump has assembled one of the worst cabinets in history, with people like Ben Carson and Betsy DeVos (should they be confirmed) being wholly unqualified and incapable of running the departments of which they will be in charge (but still getting Republican approval; never forget this). We also have an administration with deep ties to Russia, most likely through business interests (from Manafort to Flynn, there is a long history of Russian ties within the Trump circle). Trump will be the most pro-Russian president since the era of the Tsar. So while Trump molds foreign policy and works to dismantle alliances (such as NATO) in favor of Russian interests, his cabinet will help destabilize America from within. When Trump leaves office (in 4 or 8 years, barring impeachment or resignation), he and his family will have profited vastly from the grift and graft they are known for while the country will be in such a poor state it may take an entire generation before we recover.
It's not as fun living in the final days of Rome. Yet, here we are. Never give up.
Nevertheless, even if I am the only soul to ever read these words, I want to continue to document the coverage of Trump's White House. I have a backlog of about one month's worth of articles, just because I like to see what patterns emerge and to make sure I do not share something that becomes debunked within days of its original publication. Also, frankly, there is just so much information out there, it is not always easy to digest and distribute in a timely manner. Of course, if something of true importance emerges, I am always willing to publish it early as a "Special" post. Overall, the blog will continue to document press coverage of our new president. It is important to follow along.
Trump has assembled one of the worst cabinets in history, with people like Ben Carson and Betsy DeVos (should they be confirmed) being wholly unqualified and incapable of running the departments of which they will be in charge (but still getting Republican approval; never forget this). We also have an administration with deep ties to Russia, most likely through business interests (from Manafort to Flynn, there is a long history of Russian ties within the Trump circle). Trump will be the most pro-Russian president since the era of the Tsar. So while Trump molds foreign policy and works to dismantle alliances (such as NATO) in favor of Russian interests, his cabinet will help destabilize America from within. When Trump leaves office (in 4 or 8 years, barring impeachment or resignation), he and his family will have profited vastly from the grift and graft they are known for while the country will be in such a poor state it may take an entire generation before we recover.
It's not as fun living in the final days of Rome. Yet, here we are. Never give up.
Thursday, January 19, 2017
[Special] Team Trump, A Failure of Ethics
Thanks to the independent reporting of the Washington Post, there have been a few recent stories and editorials highlighting the grift and graft that Donald Trump has built a legacy on:
Airplanes belonging to Donald Trump’s businesses will be inspected over the next four years by employees of the Federal Aviation Administration that he will lead.
Disputes over Trump’s trademark registrations could be reviewed by judges appointed by his hand-picked commerce secretary. His Department of Housing and Urban Development could reverse its past opposition to a potentially lucrative sale of a large subsidized housing complex in New York partly owned by the president-elect. And Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency will have the power to roll back clean-water rules he and other golf course owners have said are harmful to their industry.
When Trump takes office on Friday, he will assume control of a federal bureaucracy with enormous power to bolster nearly every corner of his real estate, licensing and merchandising empire — and enhance his personal fortune.
The most serious concerns surround personal investments by Trump’s health and human services nominee, Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), in health-care firms that benefited from legislation that he was pushing at the time.
Additionally, Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.), Trump’s choice to head the Office of Management and Budget, has acknowledged during his confirmation process that he failed to pay more than $15,000 in state and federal employment taxes for a household employee.
And Commerce Department nominee Wilbur Ross revealed that one of the “dozen or so” housekeepers he has hired since 2009 was undocumented, which he said he discovered only recently. The employee was fired as a result, he added.
All of those are the kinds of problems that have torpedoed nominees in the past. But it is far from certain — or even likely — that any of Trump’s nominees will buckle under the political pressure.
That is in part because the president-elect himself has broken so many norms — notably, by flouting the convention of major-party presidential candidates making their tax returns public and by refusing to sever himself from his financial interests while he is in the White House.
- Airplanes, Golf Courses, Trademarks and More - Trump’s Government Will Oversee His Businesses by Rosalind S. Helderman, Drew Harwell and Tom Hamburger (January 15, 2017):
Airplanes belonging to Donald Trump’s businesses will be inspected over the next four years by employees of the Federal Aviation Administration that he will lead.
Disputes over Trump’s trademark registrations could be reviewed by judges appointed by his hand-picked commerce secretary. His Department of Housing and Urban Development could reverse its past opposition to a potentially lucrative sale of a large subsidized housing complex in New York partly owned by the president-elect. And Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency will have the power to roll back clean-water rules he and other golf course owners have said are harmful to their industry.
When Trump takes office on Friday, he will assume control of a federal bureaucracy with enormous power to bolster nearly every corner of his real estate, licensing and merchandising empire — and enhance his personal fortune.
- Trump Cabinet Nominees Meet Growing Ethical Questions by Karen Tumulty, John Wagner and Ed O'Keefe (January 18, 2017)
The most serious concerns surround personal investments by Trump’s health and human services nominee, Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), in health-care firms that benefited from legislation that he was pushing at the time.
Additionally, Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.), Trump’s choice to head the Office of Management and Budget, has acknowledged during his confirmation process that he failed to pay more than $15,000 in state and federal employment taxes for a household employee.
And Commerce Department nominee Wilbur Ross revealed that one of the “dozen or so” housekeepers he has hired since 2009 was undocumented, which he said he discovered only recently. The employee was fired as a result, he added.
All of those are the kinds of problems that have torpedoed nominees in the past. But it is far from certain — or even likely — that any of Trump’s nominees will buckle under the political pressure.
That is in part because the president-elect himself has broken so many norms — notably, by flouting the convention of major-party presidential candidates making their tax returns public and by refusing to sever himself from his financial interests while he is in the White House.
Sunday, January 15, 2017
[Special] The Trump Family's Failed Grift, Inauguration Edition
The Trump family has been working hard on trying to earn money from Donald Trump's electoral victory. Unfortunately for them, their attempt to cash in on the inauguration hit a snag:
The initial invitation from Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump dangled a rare opportunity for donors willing to pony up $500,000 and more: a private reception with the new president the day after his inauguration and a hunting or fishing excursion with one of the brothers.
“Opening Day is your opportunity to play a significant role as our family commemorates the inauguration of our father, friend and President Donald J. Trump,” read the draft obtained by TMZ.
But days after the details about the high-dollar Jan. 21 “camouflage & cufflinks”-themed fundraiser first leaked, a spokeswoman for the president-elect said Tuesday that neither he nor his adult sons were involved in plans for the event. And the organizers of the function — who include close friends of the Trump brothers — dialed back offers of access to the new president and his sons.
The confusion over the family’s connection to the fundraiser showed the degree to which Trump has failed to set rules that would protect his family from allegations of influence-peddling or draw clear lines between himself and the interests of his children, who will take over management of his business empire, watchdog groups said.
“This is an obvious and ongoing problem that this president will face until he creates a true firewall,” said Lisa Gilbert, director of Public Citizen’s Congress Watch.
- The Center for Public Integrity: Donald Trump's Sons Behind Nonprofit Selling Access to President-Elect by Carrie Levine (December 20, 2016)
A new Texas nonprofit led by Donald Trump’s grown sons is offering access to the freshly-minted president during inauguration weekend — all in exchange for million-dollar donations to unnamed “conservation” charities, according to interviews and documents reviewed by the Center for Public Integrity.
* * *
A Center for Public Integrity review of Texas incorporation records found the Opening Day Foundation was created less than a week ago, on Dec. 14. Unlike political committees, such nonprofits aren’t required by law to reveal their donors, allowing sponsors to write seven-figure checks for access to the president while staying anonymous, if they choose.
- Washington Post: Offer of Access to Trump and Family at Fundraiser is Pulled Back, but Ties Remain by Matea Gold and David A. Fahrenthold (December 22, 2016)
The initial invitation from Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump dangled a rare opportunity for donors willing to pony up $500,000 and more: a private reception with the new president the day after his inauguration and a hunting or fishing excursion with one of the brothers.
“Opening Day is your opportunity to play a significant role as our family commemorates the inauguration of our father, friend and President Donald J. Trump,” read the draft obtained by TMZ.
But days after the details about the high-dollar Jan. 21 “camouflage & cufflinks”-themed fundraiser first leaked, a spokeswoman for the president-elect said Tuesday that neither he nor his adult sons were involved in plans for the event. And the organizers of the function — who include close friends of the Trump brothers — dialed back offers of access to the new president and his sons.
The confusion over the family’s connection to the fundraiser showed the degree to which Trump has failed to set rules that would protect his family from allegations of influence-peddling or draw clear lines between himself and the interests of his children, who will take over management of his business empire, watchdog groups said.
“This is an obvious and ongoing problem that this president will face until he creates a true firewall,” said Lisa Gilbert, director of Public Citizen’s Congress Watch.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)