This would not be sustainable in a corner grocery store or law or medical practice. As we wait for the next combination of incoming from the legitimate media, the special counsel or foreign intelligence services what will it take for Congress and senior statesmen and women of both parties to call the question ?
73
"Aides said there was no grand strategy to the president’s actions, and that he got up each morning this week not knowing what he would do. Much as he did as a New York businessman at Trump Tower, Mr. Trump watched television, reacted to what he saw on television and then reacted to the reaction."
All I can say is WOW.
150
What's not mentioned about this week was the passage of the Cloud Act that
Congress attached to the omnibus package. It's on page 2,201.
The so-called CLOUD Act would allow police in the U.S. and other countries new powers to directly collect data from tech companies instead of requiring them to get a warrant. It would even let foreign governments wiretap inside the U.S. without having to comply with U.S. Wiretap Act restrictions.
Major tech companies like Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Oath are supporting the bill because it makes their lives easier by relinquishing their responsibility to protect their users’ data. They’ve been throwing lobby power behind getting the CLOUD Act attached to the omnibus government spending bill.
64
The 3rd to the last paragraph referred to Trump as "malleable." "Malleable" is not how I would describe Trump. Who so far has been successful at calming his temper, stopping his tweets, preventing rash decisions? No one. Trump's views seem to be from the farthest right groups, and no one has made him budge from that.
47
Trump left Washington not caring about the kids who wanted him to know how they felt about his inaction on gun violence. When interviewed, one of the kids said he just wanted to attend school without fear. Trump doesn't care if the kids are afraid.
124
Trump's election is a symptom of the need for change. Some things DO need to crash since Congress has not been willing to fix them.
In fact, we do need regulation. In fact, we do need taxes. In fact, we do need another paradigm to rally around besides war and financial wealth. In fact, we do need to overcome racism and appreciate diversity. In fact, we do need gun control so our kids are not killed in the schools.
Symptoms are painful and attention-grabbing in a very negative way, so that we will pay attention and fix the sickness, fix the disease.
Global climate change and continued use of fossil fuels. Accelerative disparities of wealth. Being enamored of Silicon Valley's productions. Humans overpopulating.
Trump's election was a wakeup call, a symptom that there are things very wrong...Let's hope we survive this crisis.
71
While his DACA comments are outrageous, he ended DACA so that he had it to hold over the heads of Congress, and specifically Democrats in the future. Like now. If Congress had any spine, they would reinstate DACA as is, make all recipients citizens, and override any veto Himself might try. Then we would have some hope.
52
As mentioned in this article:
"Mr. Mattis, viewed as a moderating force on the president, told colleagues before the appointment was announced that he would find it difficult to work with Mr. Bolton".
So, when the subject of Iran or North Korea comes up in the coming days, whose counsel would we see prevailing?
31
My goodness, at this point even Trump’s base must doubt the wisdom of their choice. I hope.
48
The man is angry and a warmonger, setting up a paths to start wars, whether it is trade or nuclear. Either will most decidedly hurt us deeply. Every day he blows something up in some way. It is one, ongoing fight against something or someone.....absolute chaos. If you or I acted this way we would undoubtedly lose everything, our job, our family, our friends. Yet we and our children are subjected to this horrific behavior on a daily basis as the "norm". Our president and government behaving very, very badly, putting us all at great risk. Feel safe?
52
Didn't take long for trump to become a war monger, did it? The republicans just can't do without one of their undeclared wars, which quickly turn into expeditions in search of a mission, while keeping their children and grandchildren out of harm's way, due to their other priorities. And not to mention the no bid cost plus contracts let to reliable republican money sources....
40
Trump might be the best thing that ever happened to America's apathetic voting base. Get involved. Get voters registered. Encourage participation in our democracy.
51
Does anyone remember the adjectives Trump used to describe all these "top notch" cabinet members he brought in? All of a sudden, they know nothing, can not do their job, lie,and do not support him so they are fish bait from that "drained" swamp he promised. Now, he replaces one incompetent with another and tries to sell the same story.
I have been very critical and still am of the congress and his supporters but now I have to add these who were fired or quit for not coming forward and divulging the "rest of the story" as Paul Harvey would say. They could fry him just like I hope people who are suing him will.
30
Thousands pour into Washington to protest for reducing gun violence, and Trump leaves town. Yes, another week of chaos, vacating any real leadership, indifference to the mess he creates... White House staff aren't the only ones wondering , reeling and frustrated.
49
Donald Trump is a carbon copy of South Korea's former president Lee Myung-bak. They both came with business background, both in construction or real estate industry, both pursued or pursues personal profit outright and secretly, and both didn't care about democratic principles and pushed ahead with brute force for what they wanted. South Korea's Lee was arrested and now locked up in prison. Lee is 76 year's old and is likely get 10 years or longer prison sentence after his trial is over. Of course America is far less democratic and we never hold the former presidents to account no matter how egregious their crimes may be while in office. Sad
35
Trump is exhausted having just signed the biggest deficit spending bill since the last Republican president signed a biggest deficit spending bill.
39
It doesn't matter what he does - Trump's core supporters are NEVER going to abandon him, and the GOP Congress is terrified of that base. It doesn't matter how many articles the NYT, WAPO or even WSJ write about how bad Trump is the economy and our standing in the world, these people have invested in this guy and will NEVER admit they were wrong. It doesn't matter how many women come forward the prove he is lying adulterer - they will never abandon him. They will go down with the ship insisting the Captain wasn't at fault. The problem is, the rest of us are going to drown too. The only way we can free ourselves of this scourge is to vote him out in 3 years, and the only way to curb him at least a little is to take back at least one chamber of Congress. I am mainly concerned with getting the Senate back, because it is very likely Trump is going to be able to replace one, or maybe as many as three Supreme Court Justices. This would remake the Court in his image for as long as 50 years - a catastrophe worse than Trump himself.
83
Love to see Trump's reaction when he is told the bill he signed imposes tougher sanctions on Russia.
20
Trump sows chaos again and then leaves for his vacation home in Florida to enjoy watching it all unfold on cable news. And to make matters worse, we are paying Trump top dollar for housing all the staff and security officers that accompany him. And we politely call this a Presidency?
58
Enormous damage has been done to our country, its citizens, and people around the globe. It's only a matter of time until this administration's malice and incompetence leads to an acute disaster that will harm many people. We will be forced to confront them, and many will ask why we didn't do it sooner.
28
Federal leadership via television. Who would have thought we could ever sink as low as this?
P.S. Figures he'd leave town during the March for Life.
31
Looking forward to next weeks's episode.
14
Not a morning goes by without finding another stinkbomb dropped on our nation by Donald Trump. Have these Republicans no shame whatosever?
42
Fleeing south to his bunker to avoid the wrath of teenagers.
66
"He got up each morning this week not knowing what he would do".
WHAT ???
This "man" is not my President.
47
What kind of President spends $3 million of our money to play golf and remove himself from an event in Washington where he should be present to witness? Oh, I guess it's the Fox News watcher in Chief! He'll be watching it on his big screen! Then he'll issue a Tweet. That'll be good enough and quick enough for him to get back to his fun in the sun.
And how about all the new guys (no women) he's installing in top positions. Just Tweet 'em in and head out to Florida. The country only needs a 4.5 day a week President. Fox News will let him know of any crisis that happens while he's on vacation. And he can check Twitter.
We the people need to deny this man his travel budget of millions. We pay him to do a job. Not taking the actual money is not an excuse. He's supposed to be in Washington. There is NO winter White House. It's bad enough that he's a horrid leader. But continuing his rich and famous lifestyle as our President is not acceptable. At least he can pretend to be on the job in a week. At least he can pretend to be on the job in a week of upset and weekend of an important protest. You really showed those kids how much you care about their lives. If they'd have known you would be in Florida they could have saved travel time and money by joining you at your club.
42
He's deploying all of his weapons of mass distraction!
19
Since we’re paying for these trips, I think we should know his golf scores.
24
He's petrified of the March in DC today. Cannot stand the fact that people are not there for him.
What a coward, I don't even want to call him a man.
43
The coward runs away to florida... Didn't he complain about the expenses that of the prior administration? How much has his golfing trips cost the tax payer? Our commander in chief, a coward, a hypocrite, and a liar, all the qualities that a god fearing leader needs.
39
Yes Donald Trump is disgusting and the people who curry favor with him are equally disgusting. But much of this is anticipatory disgust. We all know that this man is far from exhausting his extraordinary capacity for disgusting behavior.
Could you honestly say, however, that George W. Bush's antics were less disgusting? I don't think so. Bush and his entourage consisted of a band of bona fide war criminals and they have paid no price whatsoever for their crimes against humanity including, in particular, the people of Iraq.
Do sexual escapades; as cheesy, hypocritical, bizarre, and disgusting as they might be really merit the same attention as claiming the extermination of hundreds of thousands (or with Vietnam - millions) is a "patriotic duty"? Again, I don't think so.
Compared to previous American war criminals Trump is still a piker. And no one should forget that before they opposed it the New York Times supported the US military effort in Vietnam, Iraq, and elsewhere. There is no shortage of innocent blood on American hands. And American intelligence agencies (the CIA first among them) have interfered in scores of foreign elections over the last seventy years.
10
Off for a relaxing weekend of cheating at golf.
20
Will the President and the First Lady be watching 60 Minutes together at Mar A Lago Sunday night?
Asking for Jesus.
33
If this was a sitcom, I doubt it would make it past the first episode. You have a VP that is afraid to be alone with a woman, an advisor that beats his first and second wife, practically no women or people of color on the staff, the President's closest advisor and communications director's best atribute is as a model, and a President that is a known sexual predator who would date his daughter if she was not his daughter. And then there's the GOP, the party of family values, that supports this guy???
235
One can only surmise that he is too embarrassed or too much a coward to face the student march in DC ?
Hopefully the crowds will be greater than his coronation, er, inauguration.
Aside from the dumbest and certainly unqualified occupant of the White House he must be the most selfish and uncaring.
21
Retraction:
I did not mean to say that by using executive powers to sign the Iran treaty, it was a crime of any sort. Like prime minister Neville Chamberlain, of Gt. Britian, signing a "peace in our time" treaty with Hitler. Just a foolish misguided mistake.
Sorry for my error.
2
The President's remarks that one goes into a hospital with a broken arm and comes out as an opiod addict is sheer garbage. Believing that is the mark of a truly ignorant mind. Yet he does, and it passes unremarked in the main coverage as if it never happened. Are we so embarrassed we look away?
Absolutely disgusting, Mr. President!
149
Coward. He can't face the party that the next generation is throwing for him in Washington today and his party. Real the whirlwind.
19
We got exactly what and who we elected, a reality television star who also produced his own show. It's got everything only the most imaginative writers could come up with; greed, lying, corruption, nepotism, adultery, coverups, payoffs, threats, intimidation, bullying, cynicism, ignorance, stupidity, name calling, porn stars, spurned lovers, investigations, demands for investigations of the investigators, it's the best show on t.v. and there's a new episode every day. Just wish it wasn't really real.
23
It took me awhile to determine whether I felt this White House occupant is: stupid; venal; clever; rabble rouser; reckless; principled. Some of each it appears. This fixation on a $25 Billion wall is an example of stupidity. There are better, more cost-effective ways to limit illegal immigration and he knows it.
10
The coward agains run out of town rather than be a leader and address the Marchers.
22
What we are seeing now is the real Donald Trump. In the first few months he was unaccustomed to the ways of D.C. but now he believes he's got it. As shown at the rally in Pennsylvania.
Accustomed to putting teams together for various building project he is now putting a team together that he can work with. By far not the most intellectual or political but this team is built for action and if we think we've seen disruption before,,,,just wait
This is a results oriented guy with extraordinary self confidence and sense of self worth. The months to come will see "dam the torpedoes full speed ahead" or maybe "my way or the highway"
Let's just nope the people are in this equation.
5
"Salus Trumpi Suprema Lex Esto" - or so he seems to think...
3
Perhaps somebody could build a Wall and keep him in Mar A Lago. But then, his mouth and his ego are too big to be confined in such small spaces.......
13
I demand the release of his golf scores...audited!
Guarantee he's a cheater, bigly.
13
Typical, eh? Move fast, break things, run away. Lob grenades into the room, jet away to the sunshine hideaway to cheat at golf. Big Macs. Chocolate cake. Fox and Friends. Who said being the Prez was hard?
23
Will Trump speak at massive rally in DC today? He didn’t really go golfing in Florida?
8
Big tough guy scared of a bunch of kids speaking their minds. Does not have the guts to face them and address his cowardly capitulation to the NRA. Sad! Useless! Destroying our country to satisfy his own pathetic ego.
27
Simple physics . . . The harder something slams into something else, the harder than something else slams back. Trump feels punished by the Media and Press . . . Guess what? They’re certainly dong the American people no service by leaving them trapped in the middle.
2
Unlike the captain who goes down with his ship, this rat abandons it.
18
Can’t wait to see what happens in the next episode of “America: Season 6”!
5
For the second day in a row the first three headlines focused on Trump. As narcissist in chief, that's exactly what he wants. He loves chaos because his only goal in besides accumulating wealth is to be the center of attention. The NY Times and other media should stop gratifying his narcissistic wishes.
4
It escapes me why people, and the Press in particular, are so amazed at what has transpired the past year. This is exactly what Trump campaigned on (there for all to see) and he has followed through as promised. He is a malignant narcissist (for starters) and this is how they behave. A classic, check. Sociopathic as well, it would appear; the behavior of a mob boss from the 20s prohibition gangland. And, no, countries do not recover from this sort of disaster. But, This is what the electorate wanted and they got it. The tools are there to deal with the problem but congress is dysfunctional. People need to read the German history post WWI. Similar in many ways. Nothing new under the sun. Slow learners.
18
This is what happens when Republicans are in power. This is who Republicans are.
How unfair? Even that is a false equivalence. Does the Republican Party have a right to exist?
After the economic and international disasters of the W administration, Republicans were morally bankrupt. They had no credibility. What they did have was anger, hatred and fear. Millions lost their jobs, homes and savings. It was the fault of Republican greed, failure to enforce banking law, SEC requirements, and rewarding crazy speculation and illegal war.
Obama was a breath of fresh air. He stabilized the economy, saved industries and rescued banks. He made a serious error. He did not push for hearings and investigations to identify the war crimes or the banking/business crimes, or seek to identify and prosecute Republicans who profited from the excesses and from the bail outs, from the crash and the wars.
Meanwhile Republicans rose from the dead by using all of their efforts to defeating him with wild racist claims, by exploiting the desperation of the victims of their excesses and blame home owners who could not pay for their homes instead of Banks for making bad loans, and blame the chaos that the GOP/Bolton created in the Middle East, and endless lies about the ACA. Dems were frightened by the GOP?
It’s time for the Republicans to be tarred with their racist, misogynist, and state terrorism generated by cowards like Bolton. It’s time to crush the life out of this dangerous backward cabal.
22
All of it.
Every bit of it.
Bigoted, demagogic chaos was passionately warned against once it became clear that a cartoon character had a chance to win the most important job on Earth.
Those who disregarded the evidence of their own eyes in hopes of putting an end to assertive minorities and nasty women now must ask themselves:
Is this worth it?
12
Has Trump ever run down to Palm Beach WITHOUT leaving Washington reeling?
This story is a little too familiar. Bombastic and dishonest tweetstorm is in the forecast, part of the routine. Sigh.
8
So, are you going to stay home next election day? I guarantee you that the remaining Republicans and Conservatives won't.
9
Seems like, for the good of the nation, we need to build a wall around him there at Mar a Lago, and keep him prisoner.
No Russian agents allowed in the Oval Office.
11
This is why character matters. If you allow an amoral person, who is capable of neither compassion nor empathy, through the doors of the White House, a man with an obvious criminal mentality, a very tiny, small man, you will get a mean and tiny disastrous result, all independent of policy and politics.
24
“I tremble for my country when I reflect that god is great.” Wasn’t that Jefferson?
1
How far south?
I can recommend a nice B&B in the Falklands.
7
Congressional Republicans: just when will you have witnessed enough to do something about this obviously mentally ill man running our country? I'm hoping you can dig down deeply, really deeply, to find some semblance of integrity and start impeachment proceedings.
16
Hmmm..."master dealmaker"...eh? But it always seems to be a version of (1) smash the board (2) threaten somebody (anybody will do) (3) throw all the pieces around the room (4) run to watch Fox news for the inevitable validation (5) eat KFC (6) blame Clinton or Obama (doesn't matter which) (7) schedule a rally in ever-shrinking Trump country (8) whine and complain (9) plot revenge against anyone with less power than him.
14
Plain and simple, Trump has to go.
19
I was upset watching my 401K drop for the second time during this regime, and then I realized that now with John Bolton as the new NatSec Adviser, we all might not live long enough for me to even tap into it, so silver linings.
23
Battles that rage in Trump's head are bringing the nation to the brink of war.
10
"Inside the West Wing, aides described an atmosphere of bewildered resignations...."
There, fixed that for you.
4
I am a lifelong, registered Republican. Trump is unfit to be president, and our current GOP congressmen and women are unfit for their own offices if they refuse to remove him. The Republican Party has become a swamp of radical, authoritarian, conspiracy mongering, anti-prosperity, anti-American extremists as opposed to the party of limited government and pragmatic, business minded grown ups that so many of us once supported.
I voted for Clinton, and I will be voting blue in November - not because I agree with everything many Democrats represent - but because the threat to our security, economy, and democracy is so much more important right now.
We can niggle over details of policy again when Trump and his extremist enablers on the far right are gone.
Too many moderate Republicans have held their noses and continued to vote GOP, thinking the rise of the extreme right was just a fluke, or just show for TV, or just a trivial sideshow. Even when Trump was tweeting stupid things many moderate Republicans said things like Well, he passed the tax cut, the Dow is going up, the culture war stuff is just theatre.
Maybe the tanking of the Dow and the threat to national security posed by Bolton will be enough to wake the middle up.
Maybe when the GOP gets crushed in centrist suburban districts all over the country this fall, the cowards in our congress will finally realize that it is to their own advantage to impeach and remove him.
I can hope and I can vote.
294
Did anyone check to see if there was a provision in the budget for the millions upon millions of dollars spent on his weekly sojourns to his "Winter White House". If we add it all up it would dwarf the million dollars Mnuchin spent on military flights.
Not to mention the the money the government (read the taxpayer) spends at his resorts housing and feeding the entourage that follows him, goes right back into Trump's pockets.
The man is a hypocrite and con artist who is filling the bank accounts of the wealthiest with tax cuts and burying the country under more debt with his spending.
That's the real outrage.
21
I don't doubt for a minute that President Obama would have been in DC to greet the protesters and commend them on their involvement in issues that affect them. The coward trump ? I would guess the NRA told him to leave town.
26
One way to deal with reality is to become an ultimate cynic: We go to war with Korea and Iran? So what? My friends and family aren’t in the military. Prejudice rules? No worries, I’m a legal citizen, white, Christian and, perhaps most importantly, not gay.
Medicare and Social Security falter? Could be a challenge, but I can always sell my house and live in my son’s basement. Nuclear war? Oh, what the heck, you could also be run over and killed by a driverless car anyway. Quit complaining.
Our country devolves into a lost culture without morality, passion or reason? Just block it out surfing the Internet for stuff you like and seek the same on cable TV. What the heck; I think there’s a good flat screen set in my son’s basement already.
9
Never a dull moment with Our Donald.
4
He does his damage and leaves.
7
When later questioned about the weekend's events his reply. "Student march? What student march?"
6
Referencing President Obama during the campaign , trump told his followers he'd be much too busy to leave the WH for golf outings. So, is he not busy or was it one more lie ?
13
Trump decamps to Florida. On a weekend in Washington that's about to see one of the largest and most important demonstrations in years.
But, it's been a long week for him and he just really needs to golf.
Clueless.
14
Why hasn't there been a standard press conference in which this individual is asked to explain his "thinking" about anything at all? Just sit him down and expose him as the know-nothing fabulist that he is.
12
So much news attention to words he never means. I notice that foreign news sources are beginning simply to ignore this sad little man who is failing at his job.
7
Why are we waiting for Trump to put the final nail in our economy, . . . our Democracy?
How do we stop this emotional child before he ruins what is left of America??
10
Trump came from a family business, with mostly his kids surrounding him, all waiting for the next order. Any outsiders who disagreed, became outsiders forever.
This is what you voted for....now there are 325,000,000 potential victims of this kind of management style, unlike before, when it was only his kids, and people who lent him money
14
Is it possible that he really is a Manchurian candidate or a Russian spy, aiming to destroy the US? If not, he sure is doing a great job.
14
Meanwhile, the Republicans, inside Congress and out, are sitting in denial, allowing the death of our country to take place. Whatever happened to the "system of Checks and Balances" I learned about in the sixth grade?
12
Obviously, Trump intends to take us to war to cover for his seditious behavior. Worked before with the same Bolton pushing war on the nation so Bush II could get re-elected.
10
That Nancy Reagan gaze looking at Ronald that Mike Pence ritualistically performs
in public time after time silently focused upward on Donald. What is he thinking? We have no idea.
11
I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm happy to help pay for his fuel so he can take a couple days off in Florida. After destroying my 401k, shattering the nerves of leaders around the world, starting trade wars, and leaning in toward military intervention with Iran and DPRK, I know the guy is tired. Maybe he can find some relaxing company down there?
6
That's right Trump , turn tail and run away from the long and short term chaos you leave behind , run away from the youth of your country .
Any half decent leader would have stayed behind to speak with them.
Woe our beloved Country .
13
The tyrant is leaving D.C. to go to Palm Beach, "How Sweet it is". Us U.S. citizens who did not vote for him are witnessing a man and those who chose him to hold the office of the presidency of the US, knock down the staff at the WH and FBI like bowling pins. The once beautiful U.S.A. is being destroyed from sea to shining sea and by this administration. After tyrant Trump plows through his staff, we the people will be next. War is waiting at the door and military parades will welcome it! Posts on FB say "Stop him Now" etc. It is to late, the ball is rolling and it is gaining speed!
posts
11
The Emperor's New Clothes... again and again. He heads to Fl while the promise of our country, educated teens, take to the streets with good sense.
9
Old news--this happens every week. The real news of today is the March for Our Lives. Why isn't it at the top of the page?
5
The Republicans are as guilty as Trump if they do nothing about this situation. Our allies hate us and are ridiculed by Trump who thinks it's all a game. The man can't wait to drop bombs on people and he's making our economy a mess, as well as the world's. As far as I can see the Republicans want power so much they care little if it ruins the country or the world.
7
The only time I can relax nowadays is when I know the weather is good in Florida and Trump is on the golf course.
12
he has obviously tripled down on his base's baser instincts...... but the job is just way too hard for him. he is going to quit as soon as he does a few more items on putin's list and as soon as he can find what he thinks is a face saving excuse.
8
Donald, what's the recall code?
8
And where is VP Pence in all this, picnicking with mother?
18
You know how to stop rich bums from taking us to war when they fear we are getting near to their weakness? Make them pay for it.
Long ago, we used to pay for each war before we started a new one. We even paid off WWII before it was time to go to Korea. How? You legislate it, sillies!
See, back then we made them give it up upon departure after we killed ourselves protecting it for them. They died in their warm dry beds while we bled it out on the battle field. It was a fair deal.
Alexander Hamilton postulated that if the rich saw they would bear the COST of war while we provided the blood, sweat and tears, the rich would prefer clowns like Trump NOT beat their breast while coming to test our reserves. But today, the rich get paid for killing us, so go figure.
9
President Chaos is acting in perfect form. This is our collective karma. A nation hooked on zero sum game politics, poisoned social media, vapid and violent entertainment deserves a leader without qualifications, the bibliography of a middle school dropout, and the attention span of an invertebrate.
"I've seen the future, it's murder." Leonard Cohen
9
All publicity is good publicity. POTUS feeds on it like a vampire.
What the consequences are of his actions ...he does not care. He just needs his fix.
7
Who among us will admit to not being fascinated by all the news pouring out of this administration since the tax bill was passed? Being morbid and terrifying doesn't make it any less spell-binding. For 45's supporters, it must feel like Christmas. Let's face it, we're all glued to our smart phones and laptops, waiting for the next round of shocking news. I am certainly addicted. These days I charge my smart phone well away from my bedside. Otherwise I would wake up at night to sneak a peak at the news outlet you are now reading. I've stopped going to the movies. Who needs Hollywood! I was waiting with baited breath to learn whether the latest spending bill would in fact be signed. I was praying for a shutdown. This weekend alone millions of high school students will march in DC, followed by an interview with the President's most shameless adversary, the porn star. It's the best kinds of entertainment all wrapped into one presidential administration, folly, farce, sex, betrayal and tragedy. And just think, there is more to come!
This President is making sure he keeps our sustained attention is by keeping us guessing. Our fear of the unknown is now being exacerbated by selecting Bolton and Pompeo who have never hesitated to call for war. This puts the fate of mankind into the hands of the President. It will be up to him to push the button or not. Who knows what will happen next. The best movie is one with a surprise ending. That's entertainment!
5
What comes next? more chaos
5
Make the GOP history.
9
Why doesn't he stick around for a REALLY LARGE crowd on the mall?
16
Trumps absence in DC today is a sign of his contempt for America.
226
Just watching live feeds of the hundreds of thousands gathering in DC to speak to the issue of gun slaughter in your country. Soon to be contrasted with a live feed of your President playing golf at his estate in Florida, on your dime. Wondering when there might actually be enough collective outrage there to put an end to this horror that is also causing us in the rest of the world to lose more than a little sleep. To say nothing of a lot of respect.
11
Trump gets out of town before those "petty" school kids arrive! Another $250K weekend getaway paid for by the taxpayers he claimed to help!
7
Just want to point out the hypocrisy and ironic lunacy when this guy complains that the DACA problem was not addressed and immigrants were "abandoned" by Democrats. He created the problem. He abandoned immigrants. He did it.
10
Watch for a Trump Sunday afternoon "Bombshell" as he will inevitably try to create a crisis to divert attention from the Stormy Daniels interview on 60 Minutes.
Hope Mueller has already delivered his report to Rosenstein.
7
Simply put, Trump is insane.
Did I win the internet today?
10
Isn’t trump on record saying he would be working so hard for us he wouldn’t have time to golf all the time like Obama?
AND we taxpayers are footing the bill so he can golf and stay at his own properties and take his motley crew along. What a bargain considering he claims he’s not taking a salary. This is all about self-enrichment for him and his family.
My guess, he and donny jr. are planning how to stick it to Vanessa. She hired a criminal attorney to represent her in the divorce. Why?
21
New definition for "conflicted"...having to stand by the stairs to AF1 and salute this guy.
17
John Bolton- yet another incompetent appointment. Described as a ‘kiss up, kick down” type of guy- very similar to Trump. Trump defending DACA recipients is completely laughable. Ready for impeachment yet republicans?
13
Bolton is a dangerous appointment. Very dangerous. Immoral, totally hawk.
7
Chaos is correct. How can it be good thing to turn the USA into an insane asylum? The only thing we can do is to keep hammering him in the free press and expose his fake words. Eventually people will have had enough and things will hit critical mass. This is when Republicans and Independents will join togethet in the motion to say, “You’re Fired!” He has no time for the attention to details that is required of professional. Evidenced by his erratic thought and poor English writing skills. Let’s hurry up and get this failed administration into the dus
8
Nope, still not normal.
5
When are the Republicans going to do something?
9
Oh Obama, I miss you so. The Republicans handed you an enormous mess. You gave us hope. You gave us a presidential President. Elegance returned to the White House and we had a First Lady who is a real lady. I need a big dose of hope that our country will survive this mess, cause the swamp has not been drained. Nope. We are all swimming in the swamp now.
18
"Aides said there was no grand strategy to the president’s actions, and that he got up each morning this week not knowing what he would do. Much as he did as a New York businessman at Trump Tower, Mr. Trump watched television, reacted to what he saw on television and then reacted to the reaction."
The USS America has no Captain....instead we have a blithering idiot who has no strategy, vision, self-discipline, grace, class or shame. However, there is something interesting and valuable in the above quote: our so called president reacts to what he sees on TV and reacts to the reaction. Our strategy going forward should be to ignore him, ignore his tweets and refuse to acknowledge his abominable behavior. He thrives on conflict and chaos and by ignoring him, we take away his raison d'etre. An old saying: "Never argue with an idiot. They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience."
19
trump's "America First" = America alone and isolated.
10
"Nobody more disappointed than me,” Mr. Trump said in a verdict from a president who has called himself a master dealmaker. "than me"? Didn't he learn English? It's "Nobody more disappointed than I" In other words he's say8ng that nobody is more disappointed than me am. What did he learn in junior high school? Not much.
6
As each day passes with a new scandal, my utter contempt for his enablers in the Congress grows
8
I like it when the non-leader clown retreats to his dictator-like hacienda. He probably feels exhausted after all his "hard work" making America great. Meanwhile, actual hardworking public servants and patriots, underreported and anonymous, fight each day to breathe life into our dying Republic. What a travesty.
14
I think only media heads are spinning.
1
"Trump Repairs to Palm Beach"
Trump never repairs. He's a low-life who thinks he's smart and knows everything. The sad part, is that he's not smart, knows very little about people, government,the United States, and has no fidelity for his wife.
8 more months until the mid-term elections, and even longer yet till the next presidential elections.
Will there even be anything left of the U.S. that Trump hasn't polluted,when Trump is through his term?
12
The headline says Trump is heading south. Just like democracy in our former country based on the rule of law and decency. He just should keep heading south. Maybe Raul can use him in Cuba.
12
How long will Congress endanger the wellbeing of the United States of America? He must be impeached before we are all under the bus.
18
The truly "Ridiculous situation" is that Donald Trump still has the constitutional authority to veto a Congressional bill. Do we still have to wait for a Democratic super majority in both houses of Congress to remove this incompetent adolescent from the White House?
16
I'd love to see a small plane with a huge 60 Minutes banner flying over Mar Largo this weekend..
17
Rex Tillerson, McMaster, Gary Cohn, et al, the people who have seen the worst of Trump must soon stand together in a press conference and say one simple thing, "It is time for that fool to leave the White House before he starts World War lll"
Perhaps this day will never come but if it does not, tell me. What will prevent the Enfant Terrible from destroying everything?
12
Like climate change I wonder if it is all too late.
9
How appropriate that Trump's "Gone South" as the whole planet has done the same since January 20, 2017
9
So passing a budget for the first time in years, standing up for American workers for fair trade, standing up to communist dictators in Korea and China , enforcing lawful border control for illegal aliens , reinging in ecofreaks, cutting taxes, etcetc etc is Chaos ? Bring it on MAGA
2
John Bolton is a Vietnam draft dodger just like Trump. He joined the Maryland National Guard to avoid going to Vietnam but now wants to send our sons and daughter off to fight his unnecessary wars.
20
If @realDonaldTrump were a “real” president he would have stayed in town and offered to meet with the March for Our Lives student organizers. Instead, he left town like a coward to hide away and play yet another round of golf.
24
Like Nero fiddling while Rome burned, Trump is off to Mar-a-Lago to play golf. (AT TAXPAYERS EXPENSE)
15
Tricky passes for intelligence on the street in Queens. Being unpredictable is all that matters when you haven't got the goods. One step ahead of the law, of your wife, of your mistresses, of the Russians you owe money to, of the investigations into past misdeeds, of the commentators trying to understand your actions and behavior. Like a squirrel trying not to get run over who gets run over anyway because he tries one switch too many. What a guy!
15
Trump had one priority yesterday -- going to Mar-a-Lago to play golf and ensuring he'd be out of town while the student march against gun violence was occurring in the Capitol. Like the cowardly rat that he is, he skittered out the door after one more big lie "I may veto the budget" trailing behind him.
262
It’s a measure of our desperate situation that most headlines make just as much sense if you replace “Trump” with “Godzilla”. For example: “Godzilla Heads South, Leaving Washington Reeling”. I would fully expect the lead paragraph to describe how the monster tramped through the suburbs of DC, zapping F-22 fighters with its laser eyes and leaving radioactive effluent in its wake, before disappearing in the swamps further South. That’s not too far from the actual article, although in fact the monster was tracked all the way to its lair in Florida.
10
Where is the Congress?
4
The end is near. I hope the US survives as a democratic country rather than the miitaristic racist dictatorship it seems to be heading.
10
Cast in the role of Iago,
Trump runs to his lair, Mar a Lago.
There he boils and he schemes
While he drives over greens
'Cause his bone spurs can't carry his cargo.
19
Do I remember Trump criticizing President Obama for playing golf too much? Do I? Hypocrite much, Trump? And this is one taxpayer who understands that when you travel away for one of your weekends at one of your properties, the staff that travels along with you and stays in Trump properties is putting US taxpayer money into your pockets. Conflict of interest much, Trump? Most incompetent. Most corrupt. Most chaotic. Most untruthful. Most self-dealing. I guess it *is* the truth to say the Trump presidency is "like nothing else, ever." Too bad the hardcore 30% of Trump supporters don't understand the details...
14
25 him. Now.
14
Can the NYT ever present the truth without coloring it "left"? John Bolton stood alone showing the UN for what it really is, a hypocritical Israel hating organization that has done nothing for world peace.
President Trump is the knee jerk reaction of Americans after 8 years of Obama. They may have gotten more than they bargained for, but don't blame the President, blame Obama, Trump's real catalyst.
It's Mr. Obama that took us down this reactionary path. Can we criticize him now, or is it still politically incorrect?
This just in !!
Sheldon Cooper has been appointed to Trump's advisory staff.
3
He acts like a spoiled child. And it's going to get worse before there is a "time out",... I mean impeachment.
7
The Coward- in-Chief from Washington DC retreats to hide behind his tweets on a golf course in Florida. The brave students from Florida march head on to change the world in the streets of Washington DC. The irony of this picture is beyond words and comprehension.
We should ask the advice of the courageous young adults who organized these massive demonstrations on how to mobilize and remove this president and his congressional cohorts from office.
12
Repairs to palm beach?
5
He's working hard to "Make America Second Rate". As long as the monies flow into his and his sycophant's coffers he's happy.
9
This president, and most of those he surrounds himself with are toxic and contrary to everything good and positive about this country. They are making America weak, hateful and internationally despised.
8
Another week of chaos masquerading as policy. I see today transgender troops cannot serve though they do everywhere else in the Westerns world with no disruption. Echos of no Blacks; then no women; then no gays in our military, each disproven by facts.
One reason given was taxpayer $ should not go transgender people, much like none to abortion.
I'm transgender, and of course you'll pay for my medical costs. Just as I pay for your diabetes from poor eating; lung cancer from smoking; skin cancer from sun; etc. Transgender is inborn like eye color and contrary to today's boorish anti-science, is not immoral or a scourge upon the land. You can fight and drag your heels as you do with anything you don't learn about from Aunt Sadie and Uncle John, but you will lose. I have science, medicine, facts and morality on my side; you have fear, anger, and petulance on yours. I'll take that bet.
5
Enough! Please!
A commenter (who undoubtedly would insist he/she is not deplorable) deplores the "the election of a dangerous moron."
A key underpinning of democracy is the belief that nobody is better qualified than anyone else at picking leaders. Not hereditary kings, not popes, not nut jobs who insist they talk to God at least once a day -- nobody. Many of us are convinced that those who disagree with us are "deplorable" and, therefore, shouldn't be allowed to vote. But the key question remains the same: Who gets to decide who's deplorable? In this country, the tendency is to exclude children and a few assorted crazy people,but to let everybody else vote.
Like many others, I wish Trump were more refined. But I'm more concerned with what he decides, not with his level of refinement. Hillary Clinton undoubtedly is more refined, but she'd have been an atrocious President.
But that's just my view. Others don't have to agree. They get to vote too. If enough of them had voted for Hillary, she'd have won. But that didn't happen; she lost.
How can anybody work in the White House under these circumstance? Expect a lot more people leaving in the next couple of months.
PS. Would the NYT please give us an update on how much his trips are costing us. Last time I heard it just about 100 million
6
“Nobody more disappointed than me,” Mr. Trump said in a verdict from a president who has called himself a master dealmaker." I think all of America sees that this guy is a total fraud who has not one clue on how to negotiate deals. He's an empty vessel who waits for Fox "News" to tell him what to think and what to do on a daily basis. He's basically isolated himself from Congress because he's too chicken to actually deal with anything directly, so he tweets what he wants done instead. It's so pathetic and obvious, why don't his supporters see this, too? Or stop pretending that they see him as "strong" when really, he's a weak little man baby.
7
Maybe, with some luck, Florida prevents him from returning to Washington.
Trump is a one man wrecking machine. My guess, now, is that now we are about to hit a bear market, and a potential for a world wide recession (tariffs), that the 1% will now try to dispose of this liability; more sooner than later.
Trump now has in place the one national security advisor ("Lie about WMD, to start the Iraq War" Bolton) to start one with Iran and/or North Korea. Plunging the planet into even more chaos. A diversion to mask the Mueller investigation, and looming financial crisis he is now creating.
Trump's goal, if people have not noticed already, is to achieve what Putin and Xi have, unopposed, autocratic control and president fro life. Not since the depths of the Civil War era, that this nation is in so much trouble.
And if people think Trump can achieve autocratic status; he can with a national emergency. Lincoln achieved this during the Civil War. See: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=69993.
Like Bush was looking for a reason to bring down Iraq, with Afghanistan, Trump is looking fro a way to create a national crisis, in order to do what Lincoln did.
11
Did that serious conversation Mattis, Ross, Nielsen and Kushner were in include discussion of implementing the 25th Amendment and getting Trump out of action and the nation out of the serious trouble we are in. I hope so.
11
Are you kidding? Those are his firmest enablers.
3
For my money, I'll bet Trump refused the veto pen because a government shutdown would mean cancelling his trip to Florida. That's my guess.
39
DJT careens through Washington and the international stage like a drunken sailor. He bullies, boasts of his ability to "take down" Mr Biden in a schoolyard fist fight. He claims he is tough, strong, smart and brave. All of which there is absolutely no evidence of truth in these statements. He promises gun control measures and improved school safety, which he jeopardizes with his ridiculous ideas and allegiance to the NRA. When the school kids come to Washington to tell him he needs to do better by them, he runs scared to Mar-a-Lago. I hope I live long enough to see how history portrays this man, I hope we all live long enough to see it. DJT's choice of John Bolton as NSA does indeed put that in jeopardy too. This presidency looks like a clown car cartoon.
30
I bet Trump starts a war with NKorea after 60 Minutes on Sunday as a distraction.
We are in for a bumpy ride.
21
That was Bolton's prescription for Bush's flagging numbers before an election. No one wags the dog like Bolton. And no one can flatter a con man better, either.
Trump would happily send men and women to their deaths to save his worthless marriage.
4
God Bless us all. God Bless America. I don’t want our country to go to was with anyone.
2
I thought Trump ran on a pledge that Mexico would pay for the border wall. It was a high (or low) point of his rallies.
Why would he insist on the wall's funding in the omnibus bill? Have his self-proclaimed, legendary "deal making" abilities not been fruitful?
28
I read here many comments on Trump’s cowardice for leaving the WH before the student march today. Considering security protocols at the WH I can only imagine they don’t allow him to walk directly out into the street to meet them by himself, if that’s what they’d like to see. But if that would really solve anything may I suggest we install Trump out on the curb of Pennsylvania Avenue with a permanently outstretched arm and hand for anyone with a grievance to come up to and either shake or spit on. Just imagine all the great selfies that would make to flood Facebook with.
4
Trump's appointment of Bolton as National Security Adviser is his single most terrifying action he has taken.
Future leaders and congress can revise or undo Trump's damaging legislation or executive orders, but the effects of WAR cannot be undone.
With war-monger Bolton advising power hungry Trump, our nation's greatest fear is now a catastrophic war with North Korea.
21
Over my career I have seen far too many addicts destroy their lives and the lives of people and institutions around them by their profound narcissistic behavior. We are now seeing this play out on a national scale. A president with impaired judgement, lack of serious analytical skills, impetuosity and grandiosity once again demonstates the potentially devastating effect on our nation.A true stress test for our democracy.
19
Maybe it's time to stop referring to Trump's "shifting moods." It doesn't seem to me like this President is moody -- where one day he's happy, the next day he's sad. More like, he's consistently just an incompetent nightmare.
18
It’s hard and probably irresponsible to “let up” on any public official who stubbornly does genuine damage to the entity s/he was elected to represent. Trump’s inability to serve effectively as president is clear; alone, the chaos he causes, seemingly even as leadership strategy to control assumed personal power, being glaring evidence to justify this unfortunate view. Being a nation or hoping to be ever one of generosity, however, means not going overboard with toxic criticism of Trump, and especially not taking pleasure in vindictive humiliation of him, lest becoming lost to ourselves. There has to be a way of reacting to the antics of Trump without relying on self-destructive means. In this respect, not losing sight of mercy is, I think, crucial and not a sign of weakness. In a way along this line, our national honor is now being tested.
3
I’m trying to send a wake-up call to my two Senators and my Representative.
"You’re allowing the republic you’ve sworn to protect against enemies foreign and domestic to become a chaotic plutocracy. What, me worry? It’s no big deal. (I’m nearing the end of my life.)
You’re allowing irreversible degradation of the once-beautiful planet upon which your grandchildren will try to get by. Who cares: I have no progeny.)
But there is one looming catastrophe: YOU may not be re-elected, and of course that mustn’t happen!"
Will others send a similar message to their reps? I hope so.
11
If you don't know what you're doing, and you don't know how to do it, and you don't listen to people who do, any tweet will get you there.
9
When I mentioned to a "Trumpette" friend of mine, about the Dow dropping over 1100 points in the past two days, his immediate response was telling me what it was up LAST YEAR. Truly, to his followers, the guy can do no wrong.
16
So much winning.
He said we'd be tired of it. And we are.
29
It is not all about Trump. The real problem is the silence and complicity of the entire Republican party in this. Even the so-called "moderates" like McCain, Flake and Collins have all voted with him virtually all the time.
22
President Trumps approach to run White House looks like Chaotic;changing too many advisers etc. but he is certainly setting up new protocol to run the country.Some of his approaches are cutting down the red tap ism and old bureaucracy existing for many years and never challenged by congress or even by people. He should ,however, keep his relatives away from the decision making process. In the long run I think he will come out winner.
1
Many of these actions are meant to distract us and keep the Russia investigation out of our and Trump's news. But the issue will not go away until Trump talks with Mueller and opens his books. Hopefully Bolton won't last long.
8
This is a guy, left to his own counsel, has bankrupted businesses six times. Currently, his new bankruptcy target is the United States. He has already started to impoverish our government processes, our cultural standards, and our alliances designed for our protection. Steps must be taken to block his path. Congress and voters are our stopgap.
12
Trump is gonna give his base a war for their sons and daughters to die in while he tries to suppress the opposition to his insanity. He's already blown their tax cuts on tariffs, so what else can he do?
12
We know what comes next. Congress will not stand up to this authoritarian and it's over.
16
Just now I read that Mr. Bolton is preparing to fire all appointees to NSC from his predecessors. This whole thing sounds more like Soviet Union than even Putin's America.
Regan might have said "Trust, but verify," but this administration's motto seems to be 'Don't trust anyone'.
8
Trump and congress should have been forced to stay in DC to hear the cries, feel the distain, and experience the pain of our heroic children marching against their horrid inaction and general stupidity. But instead, they’ve all slunk out traveling on our dime. In fact, it’s the only time the swamp is ever drained. Shame, a word they don’t know. Maybe they can spend some of our tax payer time looking it up.
15
As Trump fires off new outrages almost daily, the rest of us stand frozen, transfixed, confused, unable to react. We complain to each other but we don't know what to do.
In 1983, M. Scott Peck, M.D. wrote "People of the Lie . . . ". In his book Peck proposed that, if evil were a mental illness, it would be diagnosed as malignant narcissism. People in the presence of a malignant narcissist feel confused, diminished, fearful that that their reality is slipping away. The negative effect that a malignant narcissist has on others around him confirms the diagnosis. Sound familiar?
We have a mental health problem in Trump. He will not, cannot change. Nothing good can ever come out of him. He will go from evil to greater evil, and he has the power to destroy the world. We have to remove him immediately.
A general strike could motivate Congress to act. If we just bring everything to a halt they would have to do something.
20
Flip flopping moment to moment, outcomes determined by the quantity of media consumed, and emotional reactivity are behaviors called ‘stimulus bound’ in neuropsychology. Stimulus bound behavior is suggestive of frontal lobe dysfunction. This dysfunction isn’t well captured by the Montreal cognitive assessment which is the dementia screen Mr.Trump passed recently. For the safety of the nation Mr. Trump should have neuro-psych testing.
4
I understand that people are justly horrified at even the thought of President Pence, but consider that domestic damage can eventually be healed. Launching wars cannot. We are still struggling with the fallout of the George Bush wars and will be for years to come. Congress doesn't need a Meuller investigation to impeach Trump. He's impeachable in his own words. The Bolton/Pompeo/Mercer$ cabal will cross red lines there will be no returning from. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, or so they say. Time to impeach. Call you representative, every day.
14
I can't begin to imagine what it must be like to be Trump's chaotic brain. Surely Trump must long for tranquil moments, yet he is beseiged by problems of his own makings. The Russian investigation, the Stormy Daniels affair, the countless lies and deceits that must be constantly monitored in his mind, lest he be caught again in a lie. He must feel that it is impossible to get out of this self imposed trap, and his only solution as he sees it is to create more chaos. How soon before he suffers a massive stroke, or Prince Pence puts a dagger in his back?
6
What is important to point out is not a dig at the disappointing juxtaposition of a President who styles himself master dealmaker and his frustrations with this omnibus spending bill; but that this Administration seems to have no fiscal policy street cred at all, cannot write any legislation and has to rely upon Congress to do all the heavy lifting. Of a President who won't or can't (the second is scarier) to delve into any details and, worse, will not allow skilled aides to do some of the heavy lifting for him (scarier still).
3
Trump is behaving like a suspect in a TV police chase, knocking over furniture and crates as he runs away. The GOP members of Congress know how incoherent and inept he is. Their criminal indifference results from donor loyalty, not ideology.
6
How on Earth can anyone take the position that Trump is intelligent? He has proven time and time again that he has no position on anything other than what he last hears. I was truly horrified at his speech yesterday on the spending bill:
"For the last eight years, deep defense cuts have undermined our national security, hallowed our -- and they just -- if you look at what's taken out, they've hallowed our readiness as a military unit."
No one with intelligence would want to work for him, and thus the cabinet and staff he has assembled.
His base is made up of 90% of people who share his intelligence. No use in trying to get them to change their mind, as to do so requires an understanding of the facts. Facts do not matter to Trump or his base, so everyone, including the GOP, should write off trying to flip his base. Intelligence is antithetical to ignorance, and the two shall never meet.
7
I think Trump especially does not know what comes next.
Whatever Trump does it will probably will enrich Trump and his family and it will have a lot of drama to try to divert attention away from Mueller’s probe.
5
I sit in the safety of my house, trying to figure out what I can do to get rid of this nightmare administration. Aside from calling my senators and congress people, protesting, making my thoughts known, I can't come up with anything. It seems as though trump has made himself impenetrable, although I hope that I am mistaken on that. And I know that the country and the world are at risk with this selfish and emotionally immature buffoon.
8
Back in the early days of the cold war I remember reading about the "Red Menace." While the atom bomb was a terrifying threat, a likely takeover by Communism would not come by invasion but come from within our country itself. Russia would turn people against each other, destroy or weaken our institutions, and sow general mistrust of our government. And the biggest danger would be that we would not realize what is happening. Now some 70 years later we need to heed that warning because Russia has a helper in the White House.
5
This straight from the desk of Nicolo Machiavelli: "It much assists the prince to set unusual examples in internal affairs... And a prince ought to, above all things, always endeavor in every action to gain for himself the reputation of being a great and remarkable man."
5
Trump will continue to court his supporters with his selfish, ill-conceived, damaging policies. His methodical disruption and dismantling of our foreign policy and state department is shattering international cooperation that has taken decades to build. But, for the Republicans, we see that majority control is worth any price. Would they even balk at turning the White House into a Trump-managed, five star, luxury B & B?? SAD!
5
Just a reminder of why we elected these people and what they are supposed to do:
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity“.
3
So much for social services and programs. So much for rebuilding our infrastructure. So much for the poor and needy. So much for regular jobs for regular Joes.
But way so much for the Pentagon: "the $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill in the US is a big windfall for the Pentagon, who will be getting the majority of the money, in the realm of $700 billion. For 14 new ships, 28 new helicopters, and 56 of the costly F-35 warplanes. This $700 billion does not include other military-related spending, including the VA. This is part of a $61 billion spending increase over the previous year, and virtually every aspect of the Pentagon is getting more money, more equipment, higher pay, and just general boosts in funding.
But even the greedy aren't happy…
Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-TX), the House Armed Services Committee chairman, complained that the massive increase is “not enough to fix our problems."
The funding covers an active military of 1,322,500 people, with 816,900 reservists, and offers a long list of new vehicles and gear for them. $65.2 billion is also set aside for Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO), the budget that nominally is for war, but which in practice the Pentagon can readily shift around to different priorities."
Then there is the "black budget" that is never spoken about and never sees the light of day…so much for transparency. So much for "making America Great Again."
But so much more for unaccountable expenditures that have no return on investment.
2
A failure to plan really is a plan to fail. We're seeing that cliche play out before us every week.
6
So far McConnell, Ryan and Schumer have made the important decisions while Trump has provided reality-show theatre...but that will not last. Impulsiveness, ignorance and vanity are a dangerous combination in an American president...I fear that sooner or later the farce will turn to horror.....and somewhere many, many people will die....
4
It "looks" like a White House in chaos, because it *is* a White House in chaos. Trump was never interested in the difficult day-to-day responsibilities required of a president — he ran only seeking unending authoritarian adulation and to increase the Trump brand's bank accounts exponentially. Incapable, unstable and unfit, expect his behavior to become more unhinged the closer Mueller's comprehensive investigation gets to him.
Traitorous Trump has a lifetime of reasons to worry about. His illicit past may have finally caught up with him.
6
The burning question remains: Where are all the republican leaders during the mayhem? In hiding? Down at the local bar? Planning escape routes? Cowardice is epidemic.
7
Being fired by Trump should be a badge of honor, just like being on Nixon's "enemies list".
3
Trump said he will never sign another bill like this again. Please....may that be the truth because he's no longer president, sooner rather than later.
5
In 1968 I left the relative sanity of a parliamentary government system. Now, the US seems to have got someone who is a cross between a king and a dictator. I wish I could see a closer end to this.
2
Trump in the end will have to blame all of us — not just Democrats but ALL of us — for his utter failure. And so he probably will try to take it out on all of us in the end, perhaps to a greater extreme than he already has. He needs help. He needs professional, psychotherapeutic help.
4
Trump presidency will go down in history as the worst ever but he doesn’t really care as long as he gets to act like royalty while he is President. I like to know if the GOP approves and support hie actions because they are SILENT. Vote them out!
4
I was sitting with conservative friends who buy into the fake new meme. I staunchly defend the press. But it's hard to defend when the lead contains words like "unbound." The news pages need to be accurate and unbiased if there is going to the destruction of the fake news chant..
2
Let's stop talking about Trump's base and emphasizing the power it wields. His die-hard supporters are NOT the majority of this country. Let's start talking about how to mobilize ourselves NOW. I am a senior citizen and am not long for this planet. I don't want to keep talking ad nauseam about the midterm elections. I don't have the time to wait until November.
Let's do something as simple as blocking the steps of the Capitol Building as the cowardly congressmen and women who support this president enter after they return from yet another recess! All my letters and tweets and Facebook comments have not made a dent in swaying their allegiance to this man. Our physical presence with media coverage might spark a change. Let's shame them even for a day!
And let's never forget that we are at least 3 million more strong than that sorry minority of cretins. Whatever happened to the notion that majority rules? Enough talk. Let's walk the walk and be inspired by those young adults as they march for change!
My walker is ready to roll!
9
Schumer and the Democrats "focus on rebuilding the middle class" involves making sure that utilities are required to invest in the most inefficient energy options available in the name of a chimera, thus raising middle class utility bills, increasing regulation governing even the most trivial actions thus constraining the middle class freedoms and raising costs, spending without limits to increase risks of default and raise interest rates, adding requirements onto college administration so that college gets more expensive for all.
That should really help!
5
Far and away the worst POTUS in history.
70
Like with a seesaw, the two extremes stretch in both directions. The only way to find the right place to know where to put the fulcrum to make it fun to play on is to first find out where those two ends are. Everything is for a reason.
1
I am showing my age here. Since Eisenhower, every time we elect a Republican President we end up saying, "Far and away the worst POTUS in History." And it's true.
9
My cousin and I say this is an opportunity to redefine our values, like re-commiting to a marriage or calling it quits. I'm sticking it out, because this union is worth fighting for.
According to Sun Tsu the purpose of war is to advance the goals of the state. Von Clausewitz said it was to achieve an end state different and hopefully better than the beginning state. Those two fellows are generally considered the two most renowned military philosophers.
But within those definitions, one has to ask “Whose state is it and who is setting the goals”. What does the “better end state” look like by whoever it is that believes war is the means by which the advancement or the betterment of the state should happen?
If I talk to the regular man on the street, what is his life all about…? Home, food, safety, a desire to explore life’s amazement's, family, possibly a connection to God in whatever form? How about the average woman on the street! How many see their children leaving for war with a smile on their face? Well, then at what level does this belief that war is the means by which the state becomes better?
A review of the causes of war indicates that money, power and control are the base reasons for war’s causes. So who does the fighting over this money, this power and control? How many of these people that want this money, power and control actually fight in these wars?
With the estimated number of one billion people who have died due to wars, what seems better?
23
Thank you for this wisdom and insight.
3
A minority of citizens elected this clown with the help of a hostile foreign power, If ever there was a reason to dump the Electoral College this is finally it. The last election must be declared null and void due to foreign interference and collusion of the Republican campaign with that foreign power, Republicans care not about these facts because they have power and are not going to let go of it, even for the good of the country or the good of the planet. Come November we must exercise our responsibility to vote and toss every last Republican at every level of government out of office. Until then we have a responsibility to put as much pressure on them as is humanly possible. National strikes will certainly focus them on the state of affairs they have created with their wanton love of power. They must be made to understand that they no longer have the consent of the governed and must go.
RESISTANCE IS NOT FUTILE.
50
Vote by all means, please vote. But stop this nonsense about nullifying elections because we woke up and found the results were disgusting. And stop pretending that we had nothing to do with Trump becoming President.
We didn't show up to vote, if we were under 30. We didn't pay attention to the news on Trump. We thought he was a joke. We sneered at working people. We divided ourselves. We screamed at Hillary Clinton and the DNC for their impurity.
We helped drive this particular bus. Time to stop pretending we didn't.
4
There is a great difference between loyal opposition and treasonous resistance. Americans are not stupid and can tell the difference.
I wholely agree. Well said.
2
He didn't make it clear enough that he didn't like that bill.
After the "Nobody more disappointed than me, he should have added, "Me very, very disappointed."
20
Of course Trump signed the spending bill.
If he did not, he would have caused our government to shut down and had to stay in Washington to witness the "March for our Lives" rally.
59
Trump is a fool. Bolton's philosophy is that the strong do whatever they feel like while everyone else suffers the consequences.
23
He's not a fool. He knows Bolton will give him a war to cover for all these other bad acts. That means he's just a hypocrite having claimed he thought it was not OK when Bush did it. What's foolish is thinking he can keep Melania from watching Stormy.
2
Trump will go eventually, and America will carry on. But the damage he's done to America's soft power in the world is enormous, and probably impossible to recover while people who are alive today can remember this time. Soft power is largely based on respect, admiration, the wish to emulate that nation. All of that is vanishing at the same speed Mr Trump fires his staff.
44
You're absolutely right, we will never forget this, assuming we're around much longer to remember.
3
I think we can recover but only if he is a one term president.
1
There are two alternative explanations for Trump's behavior: 1.The turmoil we are witnessing is in Trump's brain, character and personality.2. Trump is deliberately provoking trade issues to achieve a goal he seeks, getting rid of Tillerson and McMaster to frighten the North Koreans into denuclearization. The evidence seems to point to the former.
14
America should be deeply ashamed of itself. It has foisted Donald Trump on the world, and has said to all the people on this planet, "this is the best we could do".
34
You all who voted for him, I'm thinking you're pleased with the chaos. I certainly hope no one is expecting their 401k to remain stable.
30
If the results of his words and actions weren't so potentially dangerous, all of this reality television garbage would just be mediocre viewing.
10
Mr.Trump is not a deal maker!He dictates his program and then intimidates anyone who opposes him. It is as though someone pushed the "pause" button on the Celebrity Apprentice TV show in which he had a starring role.He sees himself still sitting in the Board Room dictating the projects, judging people harshly, changing the cast of characters and declaring "You're Fired".He is no longer the star of a TV show-someone needs to tell him.
10
I'm Canadian, retired on fixed income, with modest investments in an RRSP and, for my grandson, an RESP. These have lost $2600 in two days. Peanuts for some, but not for me. All over the world, ordinary people are reeling from the pain of this enormous challenge to the markets. We watch the ongoing chaos with great anxiety, because we're caught in it too. Trump is destroying what we have worked so very hard to set aside. And it's not just Americans who will suffer from his meanness and incompetence. It is all of us, collectively - US allies, such as Canada, and even those who are no friend to your country. The White House is dysfunctional to an extreme degree, unlike anything I've seen in my almost-70 years. Nothing in my memory compares to this!
The shape of the future is clear and it is frightening. I keep hoping that someone, somehow, will find a way to halt this madness. Yet it keeps on escalating. Where will it end? I fear to imagine. Only the young - brave and determined - offer a beam of light in this darkness. I wish them well as they pursue their quest for justice, respect and reasonable dialogue with the adults who have failed them.
40
Ms. Tate,
I empathize. My wife and I lost tens of thousands of dollars this week from our retirement funds which, aside from the minimal CPP, are all self-funded over the years (no pension plan for self-employed people). Normal market variations we have learned to cope with, but this unnecessary Trump induced downturn is very frustrating. JT, you are messing with our retirement and we can't even vote to kick you out. US friends, please resist and vote!
3
I must admit like most Americans, I am rather ignorant of Canadian politics. However, I noticed that the residents of Ontario just elected Doug Ford (brother of the problematic late Mayor of Toronto Rob Ford) to be leader of the Progressive Conservative Party. He is being compared to Trump and described as an "anti-elite populist", "right-wing" and "the son of a "sprawling business dynasty". Apparently he is being considered as a candidate for the Premier of Ontario in the next election. All I can say is I hope that Canadians don't get swept up in the populist movement that seems to be spreading and end up in a mess like the United States.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/22/opinion/doug-ford-populism-canada-tru...
5
A 2200 page bill gets passed by both houses and signed by the President, a bill Trump admitted on television that no-one has read in its entirety. What a way to run the country.
27
It hasn't been long since Republicans criticized Nancy Pelosi for the 2,000+ page ACA... "We have to pass it first, then read it" or words to that effect. Thus I was amused to hear Trump show off a 2,000+ page federal budget and admit that neither he nor members of Congress had read it.
23
The ACA was debated openly, publicly for months in the House and Senate hearings, open committee hearings on on the the floor before passage. Along the way innumerable amendments were openly and publicly offered before acceptance or rejectiion. The final bill was a result of a painstaking legislative process open for all to see. GOP legislation, like the new tax law, were cooked up in private, excluding open hearings and markup sessions, with the public excluded and corporate lobbyists included. Even Democratic peers in the House and Senate were excluded every step of the way. When the bill hit the floors of the Senate and House, even Republicans didn't know what was in it. They had to ask the lobbyists. This is how the GOP does important legislation: hide it from the public, ram it through, and pass it as quickly as possible before anyone except the GOP leadership and a cabal of favored lobbyists know what is in it. Drain the swamp? What a joke. Vote BLUE in November
4
We have a political system that requires a competent, mentally healthy President. Obviously, we don't have one now, and that is just fine for anyone who still hopes Trump will be their Useful Idiot. But Ryan, McConnell, Bolton, Bannon, Nunes, Putin, the Saudis and all the revolting ghouls who have swarmed like flies over the Trump "Presidency", seem to forget the "idiot" part. Will we look back at Trump's behavior leading up to a horrible catastrophe or an act of complete insanity that kills millions and find ourselves to have been as negligent as the FBI was over the Florida shooter. Trump is just as crazy and far more powerful.
26
One constant may be found in Trump's recent actions -- his attempt to block the Russian investigation (firing McCabe, getting rid of one of attorneys and hiring a Fox conspiracy theorist) and blocking any punishment of Russia for interfering with the election or for their assassination attempts on British soil (condemned by Tillerson who was instantly fired in a tweet, condemned by Gen. McMaster who was subsequently fired in a tweet). The 2,000 page budget bill contains strong penalties against Russia. I suspect that was at the heart of Trump's almost veto, and the DACA excuse was a coverup (since he stopped various DACA bipartisan negotiations during the budget process a few times including one that would have given him the wall funding across time).
Trump keeps humming "Somewhere My Love" to Vlad.
15
Since few seem to get it, let me help.
In the business world exists Turnaround Artists. They are ruthlessly logical, pragmatic businessmen who are asked to rescue a severely damaged or dying company from its fate. They are willing to take actions the previous executives would not because the measures would be so painful. They don't come to make friends, nor to be there very long. They thoroughly understand their short longevity and mission and relish the fight. In fact, most Turnaround Artists have a new CEO in waiting whose job it is to heal the wounds of the now rescued and financially stable, but emotionally hurting, company.
Trump is a Turnaround President. He came in with an axe in one hand, and an agenda in the other. He came to make what he sees as needed changes to rescue the USA. He's not here to make friends or prolong a political career. He comes as a Crusader ready and able to suffer the slings and arrows. He understands that he probably has short shelf life; 1 term to do all that he passionately believes needs to be done.
My guess is that he will accomplish most of his agenda, and then not run for a 2nd term, and will instead get behind a much-needed healer: his Vice President, Mike Pence, likely chosen for that purpose.
1
Have you followed trump at all over the course of his adult life? Because if you have, it's so much clearer that what he's doing now is just an extension of all that he's done before: get everyone's attention and do whatever it takes to hold it, including insulting and belittling others, bragging about his sex life, and lying and cheating to anyone and everyone on a daily basis. It's all there in print on on recordings going back to the 70s. His words, his actions. Clear as day.
6
No, please, let ME help! You’ve been conned, taken, ripped off. It didn’t take much. None of these people could’ve authored The Sting. But, that sort of long con planning, cunning, and perseverance was hardly necessary to turn you. Just a little bit of indistinct bluster and off season casino dazzle was all it took to do the job. The rest was you: “turnaround artist,” indeed. YOU were the agenda the whole time.
2
This might have been true had forty-five been a person who "rescued" anything in his long life. Instead, he has careened around the world like a large bull in a china shop, wreaking havoc wherever he went. Additionally, America cannot be compared to a "severely damaged or dying company." We are a nation of people, not a business. Finally, he will not accomplish his agenda, since he really doesn't have one, except to feed himself, his family, and his friends at the public trough.
1
I believe that the whole chaotic show yesterday about the omnibus was pure theater. It served several purposes. First, of course, it dominated the headlines and confirmed (as if it were in doubt) Trump's ability to control the media, to ensure that the nation's eyes were focused on him, and to reinforce his ability to keep everyone off balance.
But it also served a larger purposes: to make clear to his base that he was one of them, opposed to the huge spending and the "wasted" money spent to win Democratic votes, that he signed it only to support the military, and that they could still trust him to look out for them. In short, he positioned himself as an outsider even though he is the head of government and his party controls two (I'd say three) branches of government. This is as strategic as he's capable of being and was done strictly in service of getting out the vote in November. The last thing he wants is a disillusioned base turned off by Repub profligacy. So T reassured them that he at least was with them. That will boost his polls, keep the base voting in November, and not so incidentally keep the Repubs in Congress totally silent when he fires Mueller--they will not dare go against the 90% of the base that is with T to the death.
19
In a Capitalist country, everything is for sale. Our government was bought years ago by corporations. In the recent presidential election, the corporations were out bid by a foreign country that happened to be hostile.
The new recipe that worked for 2016 was spending large amounts of money, hacking web sites to pass on disinformation, and having a compromised, controllable candidate.
13
Sometime in the 1990s I learned that, by virtue of having grandparents born in Ireland, I was eligible to apply for a declaration that I was considered under Irish law to be “Irish, foreign born,” and to receive an Irish passport - without impairing my U.S. citizenship. This also gave me reciprocal rights in other E.U. countries. I applied, and was proud the day my new passport arrived - a link to my much-loved emigrant ancestors and to the country I had visited often and had come to know.
Now, as the U.S. descends further every day into sickening chaos, I look at that passport and wonder - is it finally time to leave? Friends have gone already, and others discuss the idea - no longer lightly.
What will be the final straw? Bolton’s appointment comes close - or maybe wait and see what the outcome of the mid-term elections will be. But the thought of leaving for a country - any country - without a gun culture and a lunatic in charge is never far from my mind.
35
Thank you for posting this. I am a recently retired US citizen born of French parents. I have had my French (ergo European Union) passport for several years and have spent a great deal of time in France. My spouse and I are also seriously considering leaving the States. It’s nice to know that we are not alone in our feelings of despair for the future of this country.
23
You could consider the duel citizenship as a prized fortune. Not everyone has this parachute plan. If I were you I would leave and come back in several years if the next administration can clean up the carnage.
I’m a successful physician with a young family. I would give up my profession in a heartbeat and start over in another country for my young children, if given an opportunity.
3
I’m leaving. Irish passport and all.
3
I seriously fear this miscreant will fire Bob Mueller causing irreparable damage to the investigation. We don't even have a congress to fix it.
12
Certainly, we should examine the effectiveness of our educational system and take drastic measures. To think that 62.000,000 people could have been as uninformed and unable to think for themselves as to vote for this man shows that we have a major flaw in our system. The Russians merely recognized it more clearly than we did, and were able to exploit it. And perversely, the one skill Donald Trump has is his ability to do the same.
19
Tic. Tic. Tic. The time bomb is getting hotter by the minute. The scary thing about all of this is Trump's ability to unilaterally start a war, thus setting the stage for the Mueller investigation to go under the radar as we engage in WWIII. A constitutional crisis would be nothing in comparison to our country going against NK or Iran. It would divide us even further, which is exactly what Trump wants. It's us against him, and he has all the military power. I completely blame the GOP MOC who sit back and watch us get closer and closer to a very dark world tragedy. And for what? The ability to pass a tax law for their donors? That deal is done, GET HIM OUT!!!
17
Extremely scary how the Fox News Network can set this president off on a rampage, whether real or imagined.
Is trump really as uncontrolled as he appears or does he just get off on creating chaos every day. Either way it’s a stupid way to govern. If you can call it governing at all.
While his base may love these antics, anyone with any common sense can see how badly this is going to end.
18
What has possibly gone wrong?
A so-called election of an erratic, fickle reality television performer without a single informed strategy.
An absence of serious congressional oversight.
His bluster, ridiculous twitter use, and precarious love affair with Vladamir Putin.
7
Everyone should remember what those who know him best said during 2016. He loves turmoil. Evidently he is just getting warmed up. For him, the ratings are going through the roof. Soon it will be the old line about cable television with an updated variation. 500 stations and they are all Trump.
10
To understand Trump you need to look at his bio. As far as being mentally unstable, Trump made that clear himself in his various autobiographical writings albeit ghost. At the age of eight he punched his music teacher in the eye because he didn't like his teaching methods. For this, he was nearly expelled. I do remember elementary school in Queens in the 1960s (Trump went to elementary in the 1950s). Teachers were godlike figures. Punching one in the eye would have meant profound consequences. I didn't want to die. But Trump didn't and then he had the talent and ingenuity to be expelled from a well known private school where his father was on the Board of Trustees. How disturbed was he when he was 13? Muy malo.
After his disturbed childhood, Trump has about fifty years of management experience in the real estate industry. He is has el caudillo for the longest time. As the proprietor of a large corporation, he didn't have to answer to anyone internally. He could hire and fire people on a whim. He has been working multiple deals, multiple projects, with hundreds and thousands of subordinates for longer than he can remember. Beating up on people is something that comes natural to him. Ignoring other peoples emotions or interests are integral to his sociopathic leadership style. So what we saw this week in his presidency is simply to the operative framework for Donald Trump's life. We should be used to it by now. And for those who support him, fascism sits well.
19
I have to believe Trump's extreme "shifting moods" as of late are directly related to his preoccupation to his Stormy/McDougal nightmare. He can't focus on anything else. Of course, his moods are usually shifting but I think this personal disaster is creating pure havoc for him that he's out of control. Just a hunch.
God help us all.
8
Likely unbeknownst to them, this week is a test of the Republicans ability to transcend their self centered, power mad, indifference and do the jobs they were elected to do, put their country's future in front of their party and self interest.
Since the election of this mad, thoroughly incompetent and dangerous president, they have capitulated to his every whim, every perverse appointment and now mindless firing, every senseless policy prescriptive, every disruption, the alienation of our allies, the coddling of dictators, the blurring of lines between family, business and governance, all the while rationalizing and enabling behavior that would fell any other politician.
This week, however, should represent a bridge too far, even for them, as the president wages war on every front in an insane display of ignorance and hubris. Time to get on side of sanity, and quickly.
15
Well said, my thoughts exactly
2
And the GOP still does nothing. We cannot live like this as a society; it is making us ill, both personally and as a nation. It is as bad as we all envisioned. And I am sure it is as bad as many members of the GOP envisioned, but they do NOTHING. Why are they all so afraid? There has to be more to the story than we know, because I simply cannot fathom American leaders just sitting by as this happens.
13
Trump is in full damage mode, doing as much as he can just in case he is impeached when his crimes are revealed. That is how he fulfills his obligations to Putin.
8
Let's not mince words: Mr. Trump is not behaving like a normal human being. Allowing him to continue in office can have disastrous consequences not only to the U.S. but to the world as a whole. Will sufficient number of lawmakers come forward to invoke the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the Constitution and initiate the process of removing him from office? They owe it to their country. And they owe it to humanity. Remember, we are talking about a person who has his finger on the nuclear button.
13
If you voted for Trump, for a third-party candidate, or not at all, you own this chaos and uncertainty. I hope you are enjoying it as much as those of us who voted for Hillary Clinton are despising it. It is hard not to think about what might have been every day. And after April 9th when John Bolton comes on as National Security Advisor--which will then be an oxymoron--it will be even more dangerous. Enjoy the next two weeks of just chaos and uncertainty because much worse is yet to come.
21
Well said, Meg.
2
We all saw who Donald Trump was before the 2016 election. Nevertheless over 60 million Americans voted for this bomb-throwing immature adolescent. Maybe some actually believed he would make life better for them and the he would really make America Great Again. But, many voted to overthrow the establishment. Whether or not America will survive four years of a Trump presidency remains to be seen. But, voting to overthrow the establishment, however inept and self-serving it may be, in order to replace it with Trump was an act of Treason.
15
Consider this in your next vote.
Trump is considering bring back the draft. Restarting the military draft after more than four decades of an ¬all-volunteer force would be complicated. But it could be done.
One plan calls for young conscripts to have a choice: two years on active duty or six years in the reserves. Either way, they’d first have to ¬undergo basic training and job training. If draftees want to go to college first, they must participate in a Reserve Officer Training Corps program and then serve. If they fail or quit ROTC, they must then enlist. Whichever option they choose, their obligation is fulfilled with a single combat deployment...current wars have stretched the military to its breaking point. More than a decade’s worth of bonuses and expanding benefits has brought personnel funding to its limits. Civilians are more disconnected from the military than at any time in history...disconnected American public ignoring volunteers, while military families carry the burden of multiple combat tours and suffer the consequences, including post-traumatic stress, divorce, addiction, injury and suicide.
9
So instead of, say, not getting into dumb, expensive wars, we should further militarize society? Sounds smart! In your plan an obligation is not discharged without a combat tour. Does this imply a perpetual state of aggression. Though that wouldn't be so different from what we have gotten ourselves into, it doesn't seem like a good default foreign policy. You also seem to imply that savings on enrolment bonuses would more than cover the costs of all the extra PTSD and rehab treatment an expanded military would need.
Ha, ha, ha, please! This coming from a child who didn't want to play 'war' when he had to, now wants to put others in harms way.
The hypocrisy is so loud, it's deafening.
3
PT Barnum, who has been example of somebody who's done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more, is slated to take over for General Kelly as ringmaster.
4
I think the three and four half day work week is all he can pretend to handle, after that he gets cranky. He also knows that to make the money off of his property he has to be seen on the golf links as often as possible.
8
Truly frightening developments here, in a White House that has been made a virtual "House of Frights," our worst 1950's zombie horror movie genre-come-true. One thing that is most telling to me is that Mc Master, with his resigning the NSC job, could readily walk into any of several 4-star general positions offered to him, resume his military status and retire honorably with rank and privilege. Instead, he is retiring this summer from all military / government duties. He, too, knows something horrible lies ahead for this country, and does not want to serve under this president in any capacity. He can write or teach, either of which would put his abilities to better use. Though he was a bit too hawkish for me, I can respect his choices. What he foresees may be most ominous tough.
8
Trump has taken both sides of the argument for and against the budget. I'm for it but I'm also against it. Gee, I don't know why I'm signing this bill since it's terrible and of course it's someone else's responsibility-- not mine so don't judge me to harshly. I'll never sign another bill like this except when he does. Remarkably he still has a 90% approval rating from R's which is indicative of the fact that there are a lot of fools in this country.
10
This is a scam. Besides not doing the job he was elected to do, we are spending an awful lot of money for him to stay at his resorts. He makes more in one day at Mar A Lago than his salary should be for four years.
He is a part time president, but a full time real estate developer living on a steady stream of government income. What a disgrace.
17
This is another turning point. Throughout history, the dysfunctional family of man has oppressed and brutalized populations they have "power over," principally for their own selfish benefit.
With women, teenagers, and young children recently rising in importance, there is great hope that the global patriarchy will slowly dissolve before it's too late.
Humanity does not need more guns and enraged populations who are oppressed.
Many enlightened thinkers and leaders understand this; it is the tyranny of capitalism which is the main culprit -- and oligarchs like Trump and his bully buddies, are not the solution.
Honest compassion and leadership are required.
5
I sympathize for President Trump. It is hard for him to acquire trustworthy staff people, and cabinet members.
2
We feel that way about finding a president.
3
It's apparent that the president has too much power. A madman is calling the shots. Unfortunately checks and balances do not work when the house and senate are controlled by madmen as well. November can't come soon enough.
6
It's bad enough that he's proven to be totally inept, incompetent, stupid and incapable of leading - but what's more concerning is how any semblance of competency, integrity or morality is gradually being replaced by the likes of those eschewing international diplomacy - Pompeo and now, the scariest of all, Bolton. Isn't it about time for the silent majority of the GOP to realize the need for them to stand up to this demagogue and wanna-be dictator.
10
Jeb had it right when he said trump was chaos candidate and would be a chaos president.
10
If I had hired this man, I’d have fired him long ago; wait a minutes, the American people did hire him! He spends his time at resorts, playing golf, he doesn’t read the educational materials we give him to help him make cogent decisions, he ignores and constantly churns his direct reports, he keeps a constant state of uncertainty churning around him, creating market chaos, and he doesn’t know how to treat anyone respectfully, leading to a constant stream of accusations, and potential and actual litigation. He ignores real threats involving cyber attacks against our very structure!
Mr. President, you should be fired for just cause. And the people around you enabling this behavior should go with you.
9
May this dispel, once and for all, the notion that Trump can ever be presidential. He's like a suspect being chased by police who knocks over the furniture and crates as he passes. And because he is incapable of original thought, he has to break things to get attention.
7
Reince Priebus says in his new book "Take everything you've heard, and multiply by 50." So when are any Republicans going to step in front of a microphone and admit the country is in danger? Never? They are going to let bombs drop to protect themselves?
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/15/reince-priebus-white-house-cha...
24
The Con Don is such a chicken bully. He is scared to death of the "March for Our Lives" today. He should be. Hundreds of thousands - probably millions - of people are demonstrating/marching in over 800 cities/towns/communities around the world in defiance of his war-mongering, gun-loving ideas.
He is a scourge of humanity. I'd run, too, because his days trying to destroy OUR United States of America and democratic governance are numbered.dd
Join the crowd - get out today and support the student-sponsored "March for Our Lives", along with other gun reform advocates and average people who are distressed beyond comprehension about The Con Don and his Robber Baron/ demented brethren.
Find a march/demonstration in your area here:
https://event.marchforourlives.com/event/march-our-lives-events/search/
73
I hope the demonstration at his "resort" in Florida is one of the biggest in the country. Please, Good People storm his little "Bastille". Show him how real human beings think, live and feel.
84
Incredibly there is not a large crowd demonstrating at Mar-A-Lago and more incredibly there are many Trump supporters hailing their cowardly King ensconced in his gilded Palace!
1
Incredibly there is not a large group of anti Trump protesters close to Mar-a-Lago but more incredibly there are many of his supporters who are there to hail their Almighty King who cowardly hides in his gilded palace preparing his new tweets to debunk the interview of Stormy tomorrow. A true leader would be in Washington applauding the brave students in their marches today instead of golfing.
3
“Who Flung Dung” is a beloved children’s book. Furley begins an investigation into the dastardly deed traveling far and wide only to find the culprit was in his backyard.
Will President Trump find the source of his travails regularly smeared across page 6 as Furley did?
Someone(s) in this Administration is leaking information. The steady drip-drip of drama drives Don-Don daffy.
Watergate had plumbers, Trumpgate has proliferators.
23
Hopefully one of the good things to come out of this trump presidency will be an emboldened & rejuvenated Democrat Party. I blame all of what’s happening on the Democrat’s failure to pick a good candidate & rally the forces in 2016.
In reality, we are watching the dismantling of our society & democracy. If that’s what 50% of our society wanted & indicated by voting for this man in the last election, so be it.
We have NO control over the situation, or this lunatic-in-chief, so we might as well sit back & watch. Thank God for a press that’s still free. It’s the only thing keeping the country together.
45
nowhere close to 50% of Americans voted for Trump, and the number of those who did vote for him because they really wanted him, specifically (as opposed to wanting "not-Democrat" or "not-Hillary) is even smaller.
3
The worst candidate was the one that is currently POTUS. No more false equivalencies here. I grant that the Dem's campaign strategy was flawed. Don't forget Russian money to the NRA, Cambridge Analytica data to the RNC, Comey's breaking protocol by announcing the existence of more emails within weeks of the election (without analyzing their content) while making no mention of the ongoing investigation of members to Trump's campaign.
The worst candidate in history - no experience in government - won with a little help from his "friends", including his TV show fans, some of whom are deplorable..
5
The Democratic candidate won the popular vote by over 3 million. The Electoral College is what failed us, again. Perhaps this is really a wake up call to all those lazy citizens who never vote. Maybe we got shown the dark side and this will motivate everyone in November to use our power to prevent this kind of fiasco ever befalling the United States ever again.
8
Our defense budget is larger than the next SEVEN countries combined. We need to decrease, not increase defense spending.
And we do not need his wall. Most citizens do not think a wall is necessary. It is just "45" trying to fulfill campaign promises to his "base." Where is the money going to come from to pay for things that we really need?
62
We don’t really need Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, public education and an up-to-date infrastructure. Just faith. In Trump we trust. At least, that is what the “base” does...
2
All Trump is good for is making like a rattlesnake. He cannot get flushed too soon.
44
This is Madness, pure and simple.
49
Dictators come to power by making the abnormal seem normal until it is too late. How many things has he already done that no other president would have gotten by with? It is clear that Trump is both authoritarian by nature and emotionally unhinged. He is a dangerous brute as well as being a crook. With the Republicans abrogating their responsibility to the nation, Mueller appears to be the only person who is in a position to save our country. It's time for him to pick up the pace. I hate to sound like an alarmist, but World War III is getting closer every day.
94
“Aides said he was still testing his limits as president while also feeling embattled by incoming fire — from Congress, the Russia investigation, foreign entanglements, a potential trade war and a pornographic film actress and a Playboy model who said they had affairs with Mr. Trump and were paid to keep quiet.” All these problems were of his own making. Character counts.
66
Overloading of information, of drama, of unreal things, of words that are said in the morning and a few hours later is the reverse, disgrace, seeder of hate and bully intending to bring the world to war by means of our children going and non of them go, why should I fight for the ones the poison me? This and more and more things with lack of moral, I has the symptoms of a movie series, wondering whats next., I see an intention to put American people in a Trance, then a World Trance. Why? TO THE POINT... for a fraction of a percentage of what trump has said, insult Australia, Germany, Iran, Venezuela, N. Korea and who ever comes across and not share their nonsense views, for a fraction of the lack of respect to women, who is my last and fist creator to this world, seeing women as a toy, bulshit my mother and yours are not toys but deliver of creation, and who can create create... I ask? Thats why I wonder, why I we getting lost in the story when it is more than clear, proved, seeing, perceived, obvious, what are we waiting for, the next episode? It is cheap and low marketing, using subliminal messages through fb, stilling Americans privacy to satisfy the grittiness of a few. Come people, lets come out of domestication and convinience and lets deport this enemy of America and the World. They are the real gun-stars. We are Light and believe in Common-Unity. Community. Love.
10
President Dennison,
You can’t complain about wasted spending when you’re fleeing to Mar-A-Lago every weekend. Be the change you want to see, right?
52
Happening next:
Kellyanne Conway in a rare moment of honesty will issue her findings that golf leads to opiate addiction.
26
I like Mr. Kimball's words "..the malleable Mr. Trump..". That is exactly what Trump is, but he is sure to react with fury at the idea; he is after all the very intelligent guy, nay, the genius. Mr. Kimball, you don't know what you may unleash!
8
Would the last person to leave the White House remember to lock the door behind them?
Should be a fascinating guided tour for future generations when it reopens as a museum.
As Mueller closes in, Trump is unravelling, and he intends to hold the Oval office and his sycophants hostage.
What A Joke.
30
Another weekend getaway. How do we getaway?
59
The pachyderms in congress are hiding behind this three ring president and his freak show administration of con artists and grifters to continue their nefarious dealings; tax breaks for the wealthy, the latest budget, insane appointments to the cabinet, the drums of war, and lowering the standing of our nation in the eyes of our allies. The center pole of the main tent needs to be knocked down. A few elephants could do it.
47
This presidency is exhausting. I am sorry to say that I give up
19
Just what he's hoping for.
What a great President. Instead of speaking to and meeting with the students and speaking of how great America was that young people are motivated to get out and make their message clear - that with this youth America has a bright future ahead of it. A great President would have done that, but then there is Trump he flies to Florida. His caring about guns and death in schools or anywhere in America which leads the world is as fake as him carrying that Bible during the campaign and meeting with ministers. Seen him carrying a Bible lately - how about in church? How about a quote from the Bible? What a fake, He is like the old French Sun King or the Tzar surrounded by yes people and never ventures out where the real people are. To afraid of his own citizens. That says it all. Even more sad this is the 50th Anniversary of the death of Dr. King to a gunman and in June the murder of Robert Kennedy. Two men who knew what greatness and caring were and sadly had their lives ended by killers before they could do more good. All Trump does is chaos and he and his enablers just make like it is one big joke with no consequences. Jim Trautman
53
This cabinet shuffle to like-minded clowns certainly achieves one Pro-Trump goal. The chances for a cabinet with the moral conviction and patriotic backbone to invoke the 25th Amendment just got decidedly miniscule.
21
Leaving as children from around the country arrive to March for gun reform. He's a disgrace. Like an errant child holding his hands over his hears so he can't hear what he doesn't like. These are the kids who will vote the NRA pocketed politicians out this year and every year after.
59
Mr. Magoo is our president, presenting us with the proverbial dilemma, is it evil or ignorance? I am not sure it matters whether he is oblivious to his shortcomings or just too stubborn and arrogant to change, the end result may be the same. All the while he convinces himself of his prodigious competence. I can imagine him admiring himself in the mirror mumbling, "Oh Trump, you've done it again". Good catch line for a cartoon, not so much for the leader of the country. We can hope he has Magoo's luck.
14
When things get tough, Trump and Congress hide in their homes. They should have stayed in Washington to listen to the voices for change. Trump is an embarrassment and Congress (under Republican control) is dysfunctional. Time for change!
46
The headline immediately brought to mind Tom & Daisy Buchanan - careless people who smashed up things & creatures and then retreated into their money (Or Mar-a-Lago). Trumps character very similar to Tom Buchanon's. Both born into wealth & privelege, both cheat on partners, both see need to protect white race and both allowed to let other people clean up their messes with no consequences for their behavior - thanks to silent GOP leadership the moral decay spreads.
37
Americans have done this to themselves, have become ignorant, foolish, lazy, uninformed of facts, and are about to learn that they are not immune to the horrors that mankind has inflicted on itself through the generationsand are continuing to do so beyond our borders.
There is only one difference. There is no recovery from and there are no winners in the use of nuclear weapons. We have gone from one President who does not know how to pronounce "nuclear" to a President who doesn't CARE about the effects of using them. If nuclear war breaks out, all his bunkers won't protect him.
46
"Chaos." Seems a bit weak, particularly as a substitute for hairy-chested words like "collusion" and "obstruction."
17
Two points:
Today we learned that there is a trove of Trump campaign emails related to Papadopoulos’s communications with top campaign officials including Bannon and Flynn, about outreach to foreign entities including Russian officials. Remember that Papadapolous knew that Russia had hacked and stolen emails from the Clinton campaign.
That tells us that 1) Trump was lying when he said Papadopoulos had no substantial role in his campaign; and that 2) there is evidence, documentation to show who is, and is not telling the truth in these matters
Before the election, a civil case was filed alleging that Trump had raped two minor girls. The case was dropped just before the election, and there were rumors that one of the complaining witnesses had been threatened into withdrawing the case. It sounded too mob-like to be true -- except that now, Stormy Daniels claims that she too, was physically threatened with harm if she talked about her relationship with Trump. Details will be revealed in the 60 minute interview of Stormy this Sunday.
This shabby excuse for a man is entirely unfit to be president. Shame on his supporters.
62
Not only Papadopoulos knew that Russian officials had hacked and stolen emails from the Clinton campaign: perhaps you forgot Trump himself said during the campaign, "Russia, if you are listening, show us the emails..." As far as rape, molestation, sexual affairs and payments or threats to remain silence, they are as obviously true as daylight. The problem is not Trump, the problem is that people in this country and the majority of republicans have abandoned all decency, ethics and common sense and are unwilling to call it for what it is: a total disaster.
3
‘We’re going to win so much, you’re going to be so sick and tired of winning'
Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
9
Has anyone ever heard of the 25th Amendment?
14
"The president, furious over the failure of Congress to pay for his wall on the southern border with Mexico, began Friday by threatening in a Twitter post shortly before 9 a.m. to veto a $1.3 trillion spending bill passed hours earlier by Congress."
Wait... I thought Mexico was paying for that.
22
chaos is easy. just ask any 3 year old.
20
GOP Congress, this is on you. If you really love your country, you’ll act to end this unfunny joke of an administration now. It’s really that simple.
32
Now you can see why no legitimate real estate operators, or banks, want to partner with Trump. His word is meaningless.
40
Here is what happens next: Trump's adulterous ways become more clear. Mueller's investigation shows treason, money-laundering and wide-spread criminality. Trump starts a war to get us off those subjects and to rally-round the flag and President. His ratings go up.
7
Did Melania accompany him? When a couple is under stress, this sort of weekend getaway can be very restorative, even for two people deeply in love, as Donald and Melania clearly are.
14
Yes deeply in love. You can tell by the gleam in her eye< or is that a wince?
1
I am lucky I cashed out my IRA"s before the nightmare began with trump. The nuclear exploded deficit and the 1%, reaping the benefits touting the myth of "trickle down" is going to blow this economy to shreds. When CFO's, CEO's of Facebook are called out as the stupid, almost treasonous group that they are and people tire of buying crummy video games (perhaps) the bubble in silicon valley is gonna burst. It won't a small "downturn". The fool in the oval now will be long gone before it hits the fan. As usual, republicans blow up the deficit, get voted out, and then the dems come in and get the blame.
15
If the republican body politic wasn’t so useless.. which of course it is.. congress would summon whatever reserves of honor and patriotism may be left... and emasculate his prerogatives. The absurdity and incompetence of this administration is lieing in plain sight... so is the salvation from it!
13
The Commander-In-Chief Coward didn't want to see the future voters of America marching in the streets in DC, demanding real guns legislation.
The only good thing here is that Trump if he finishes this term will only be a one term President, because everybody is sick and tired of a coward who won't stand up to the NRA and protect American lives.
23
The bill was fed to Congress with full approval from the White House.
That little tantrum Trump staged was another pathetic display put on for the hardcore base that called out Trump on the wall.
Trump’s incompetence and ignorance surfaced again in his outburst, he’s so far in over his head and possesses zero core principles. He’s running a live TV reality show every day, has no idea of how to lead the nation.
26
“furious over the failure of Congress to pay for his wall”
Silly me, here I was told Mexico was going to pay for the wall. Why is he furious with Congress?
Please VOTE in November......for adults
32
He's a great president...for Russia. In fact, imagine for a moment that you are Putin and you've just been magically gifted the opportunity to place anyone you want into the US Presidency. How different would your instructions to that person be from what Trump is actually doing? Not very, I imagine...
17
Hey you congressional Republicans: If you see something, say something!
26
Doesn't Bolton need a (new) highest level security clearance?
17
It is starting to look like the "axis of evil" has a new spoke, and Bolton it's new spokes-man.
24
Recent flurry of activity and escape to Florida appear to be acts of a desperate man eager to deflect attention from self-created scatology storm (pun intended). Betcha he watches 60 Minutes (but deny it) Sunday evening program. Probably not with Melania. Where's she this weekend? Hmm, feeling a crescendo?
13
Armchair psychologist here--but I've known malignant narcissists like Trump, and have done a lot of research in the field. I don't think I've ever seen Trump this tired, depressed, and beaten-down. He has enjoyed playing president so far because he thrives on adulation from his base, the sense of power he gets by stirring up controversy, and ginning up the media. This narcissistic supply must be constantly filled, and when it isn't, he will get desperate. Seeing him depressed is worrisome, because when a malignant narcissist starts to de-compensate--that's when they are the most dangerous. I'm afraid it's going to get worse before it gets better.
32
Trump's always running away to his properties at taxpayer expense. His disregard for the cost takes my breath away. Wouldn't surprise me if he does this because he can't take hearing the spritis of past Presidents screaming at him in his sleep.
21
His running to Florida every weekend and its costs are the LEAST of our problems.
His putting John Bolton in place to encourage unleashing nuclear war ranks just a tad higher than the costs of Presidential weekend jaunts. In the overall scheme of things, money is a concept perceived differently by different people. It has only the value people PUT on it. You child's life and your OWN life, on the other hand, I bet they come before your financial net worth. Or Trump's jaunts to Florida. Life onn earth, therefore, ranks a tad higher on the priority list than jet fuel and personnel costs asssociated with Trump stealing from taxpayers, wouldn't you say?
1
Isn't this wrong. The American people pay to house the President (White House). Every weekend he loads everyone on Air Force One, another perk, and goes to Florida. He then charges visitors too stay at his hotel, and charges them again to talk to him at dinner. As a former government employee, we were only allowed to accept coffee or tea up to $25. Why isn't the President forced to repay from his profiteering? Worse, these are probably business write offs. Again the American Tax Payer looses out.. Talk about waste.
35
I would like to see the Times put a box on it's front page & update it with a running tally of 1) the number of trips to Mar-A-Lago; 2) the cost to the U.S. taxpayer; & 3) the number of golf games.
43
In the same box, a number that states the number of lies that Trump has spoken.
3
Has congress been sequestered and isolated from the real world; why aren't they doing something, anything, to stop or at least significantly impede the progress of the Trump's trainwreck?
16
What does the fact that this man is president say about our country? Would he have been elected twenty or thirty years ago? I doubt he would have been nominated.
14
If his approval rating falls any lower where will he start a war. Everyone likes a wartime President. Poland has always been a good target.
7
I've been awake at about 4am this morning.
I've been reading disturbing things, worrying.
Did you realize that "false-alarm" nuclear attacks (like what happened in Hawaii back in January) are not rare.
Yeah, NOT rare.
They happen regularly and various national security advisors and presidents have had to make very quick, sane, smart decisions about whether to launch our missiles in retaliation. Decisions about the future of life itself.
The president is given great, almost unilateral power to decide if life on Earth ends.
That's not an exaggeration.
Real estate rogue, unprincipled lier, phony university huxter, shallow, self-control challenged, serial wife-cheater, distain-for-anything-normal Donald J. Trump has your life, my life, our kid's lives and our entire way of life in his hands if he deals with a false-alarm nuclear attack at 4am.
It happens. It's not rare.
This man, this less-than-sane man threatens our lives.
That's not overstatement.
That's scary and that's true.
I probably won't sleep tonight.
If we remove this man, soon, we go back to some sense of normal. That's all it takes.
Remove the trouble maker Donald J. Trump.
Normal let's you sleep at night.
22
With all those angry teenagers coming to his "House", it would be bad optics to stay shuttered or face their wrath. He'll no doubt have "team Twitter" at the ready, upselling arming teachers, heckle Congress to pass better mental health laws (no plan from him on that, by the way) and somehow blustering that this week was a "win" for the Administration.
In simplest terms, DT will continue, to quote Agent Scully: "...deceive, inveigle, and obfuscate. To obscure the truth not only from others, but from ourselves".
12
Cancel his cable tv subscription. Force him to actually listen to the daily briefing from his staff. Couldn't hurt.
18
Well, this is what Republicans, Trump supporters and some Democrats who voted for Trump wanted and this is what they're getting. A Washington shake-up in the form of a President who suffers from Cognitive Dissonance Disorder. Democrats did okay in the spending bill because of this condition, although Trump was right in being critical about the way the bill was prepared and the fact that no one even read it. This is a product of a dysfunctional congress, specifically the divided Republicans but it somehow worked out this time. As a liberal democrat who served at the end of the Viet Nam era, I support a strong military, but also support the elements in the bill that address gun violence, healthcare and infrastructure.
I agree that General Mattis will not do well with John Bolton as the NSA but think that Bolton is more bluster than substance so I hope that Mattis can keep him in line.
In the matter of an unfit and unbalanced president I believe the only hope the nation has is this November's election. The Republican Party is so reckless and irresponsible that Mr. Muller's findings will mean nothing and they'll find a way to sweep the corruption, obstruction and chaotic behavior of this president under the rug, even at the expense of the country. The only way the madness stops is either a democratic house or senate. At least this will put the brakes on the insanity now taking place and may even result of the removal of the man-child.
Get out and vote.
14
Mattis can't keep Bolton in line. Bolton hates him, and Bolton will be inside the White House. Mattis's days are numbered, and i suspect Trump will not replace him. A Sec-Def would just get in the way of Presidential military orders.
I've told others that if DT is planning a "Riechstag fire" incident that will enable him to take dictator status. He does not care about Mueller, past affairs, or anything in his past coming to light. We already know and no one anywhere at anytime has ever held him accountable, including a coequal branch of government. He defies laws and convention and even blatantly lies with no repercussions. What DT fears is 2020. Losing power to do what he wants, when he wants. He's setting up a council of sycophants and will continue to weed out rationality. When he has all the personnel in place, he'll make his move.There will be no election in 2020. He'll make sure of it.
7
I am thrilled to have such an individual as Trump as president due to his swamp cleaning and fidelity to all of his wives.
I am also grateful that he is too busy to golf as he needs to keep with current events on Fox Romper Room, his favorite comedy.
I am also pleased he is putting together what appears to be a war council with so many learned persons, Trump included with his vast knowledge of war injuries, particularly bone spurs.
Yes indeed, we got what we wanted-a totally unhinged fool who has done little of consequence for this country aside from making us grate again, and still.
15
What you are seeing here is a results oriented leader attempting to get things done in the Washington world of all show and no go.
Really? What KIND of results? A nuclear war?
You make a huge assumption. Most reports out of the White House are that he has NO agenda except to meet his own personal psychological needs at any given moment. He won't read briefings, he listens to and respects NO ONE, He lies like a rug. He exhibits all the traits of lack of any leadership, he is loyal to no one, and he abuses our system of justice,
He is a train rck. And so are people who are people he successfully cons. Suggest a gaze in the mirror.
2
It was a charade to invite Mattis, Nielsen, and the vice president to the Oval Office to convince him to sign the bill. Then tweeted he would hold a news conference on the subject. He could have done that with a tweet. From what I understand the women of the show The View would be discussing the Playboy woman who said she had an affair with Trump. So the news conference would interrupt the show in a special news bulletin. This president is not known to give news conferences. If anything he likes to answer reporters' questions while next to Marine 1 helicopter like Reagan used to do. So women in the suburbs who watch The View, and who supported Trump, will most likely find it hard to forgive him for fooling around with another woman especially when these women can become victims one day to cheating husbands.
5
The US Congress is not in charge of the Mexican budget. Since the reality TV guy promised that Mexico would pay for the wall (not repay the US taxpayers, but PAY for the wall), he had better not expect to see wall funding in any bill passed by elected representatives.
6
As someone else this week wrote, Trump has us all poised on the verge of constitutional crises, and economic and actual war. If Republicans think this is worth the 2.50 extra in my pay check, they better think twice! Now Trump is off spending my tax money in Florida, while increasing his personal wealth at the same time. What a disaster!
16
What comes next? With the alpha male neocons, war... in a place convenient for the Republicans and the military industrial complex. Don't like that idea? You will be told to shut up and wave the flags made in Walmart. After all, "freedom isn't free." Remember that one from 2003?
The problem with war is that such adventures rarely end as anticipated by those who launch them. Or perhaps, as in Afghanistan and Iraq, the wars simply never end. But that result seems not to bother those currently in charge.
6
As long as there is a dollar in it for them. . .
2
Nothing like a long walk alone on the beach to soothe a troubled soul. Our leader of the free world is feeling the heavy burden that comes from carrying the weight of America on his back while he has to endure the never-ending lies from alleged former lovers who allegedly received alleged hush money by third-parties allegedly acting on his behalf. The jokes on late night TV hurt. Then, there's Mueller who doesn't understand that the flow of rubles to the president's family businesses is off limits. Russia? Never had anything to do with them, he proclaims so convincingly. Time to can Mueller is long overdue and maybe start exploring what his buddies in Latin America call a junta. Making America great again might need a jolt of thunder and lightning.
1
'...a president riled up by cable news and unbound...heedless of his staff, unconcerned about Washington decorum, or the latest stock market dive, and confident of his instincts...aides said there was no grand strategy to the president's actions...'
I don't know if I have read a more chilling few paragraphs that those in this item, in this long, surreal year and a bit. I am actually becoming more frightened each day at what the end result of this disastrous experiment a minority of the American people decided to foist on the country. And the complete inaction by Congress is mind boggling. Your country is going to bring us all down.
When I wrote the first sentence, my autocorrect changed 'unbound' to 'unsound'. I think it's right on the money.
12
He likes to go, sit on his deck at Mar a Lago and watch the sea level rise.
17
Trump is the new poster child of the Chaos Theory [of management]. He epitomizes the science of surprises, the nonlinear, the unpredictable. If anything, he teaches us to expect the unexpected, or should. Heretofore, we were used to rather predictable political phenomena. Trump, with the able assistance of the media who covered his every word and action leading up to his election [and still do] with breathless pursuit, missed all this chasing after the bright shiny 'reality TV' object that garnered ratings. And a large swath of the electorate were equally fooled.
So now all of us get to sit back and enjoy upwards of four years of a Chaos Theory President who revels in things that are effectively impossible for the sane to predict or control. Turbulence is our punishment whether it be his actions, the stock market, or our collective brain states.
9
The United States desperately needs a long-term strategic plan to revitalize its middle class, modernize its physical/cyber infrastructure, and adjust to/mitigate the effects of catastrophic climate change. These plans require smart adults with attention spans and an ability to moderate their impulses. It requires actual leadership and an ability to rally different people with different values behind some common goals. Trump not only lacks any of these qualities, it appears highly likely that his interest in the presidency is, at best, an effort to line his pockets/feed his ego and, at worst, a calculated effort by a foreign power to cripple American institutions and sow discord. Assuming there are still historians in a hundred years, they will point to the Trump presidency as the death blow to the American Era. Trump will be excoriated, but so will Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell and the rest of the GOP whose cowardice is exceeded only by their hypocrisy. America’s efficacy and reputation are going to be destroyed by a crass and corrupt reality television personality. One could not script a more “American” ending to this chapter of world history.
22
Trump’s leaving for another weekend of cheating, presumably at golf.
With Stormy on the horizon and the next generation of voters marching, chilly Washington is too hot for Trump.
To paraphrase Harry Truman, “If it is too hot for you, stay out of the kitchen.”.
30
There is a student, a sophomore, in the high school where I teach. He roams the halls and the cafeteria when he is supposed to be in class. He stood outside the doorway of my classroom, calling to one of his friends inside, trying to distract the friend, who blushed and worked hard at ignoring the smirking student in the hallway. Whenever an incident breaks out in the cafeteria, this smirking student is at the center of it. On a class trip, he kept a convoy of busses waiting while he went back to a concession stand for a hot dog, leaving his peers—especially the student leaders who organized the trip—fuming. This student thrives on chaos and the discomfort he causes.
The last time I saw him, he was in the principal’s office, flanked by grim parents, as the principal and an assistant principal were talking with them. Nobody was smirking.
People keep calling the current president a “toddler.” He’s more like this sophomore: smirking, knowing he is disrupting other people, laughing at the serious trouble he is causing, and really not understanding how inappropriate he is. He needs to be called to the principal’s office.
97
Hmm, what would happen if a wealthy sociopath became president, hmm, any thoughts, I mean hypothetically,? The real question is : what kind of system would allow this to occur?
41
Where are the adults with a duty to serve?
33
Avoiding the world’s most demeaning occupation: trolling for dollars from special interests.
3
What came next is assaulting transgender troops saying that they “could undermine readiness, disrupt unit cohesion, and impose an unreasonable burden on the military that is not conducive to military effectiveness and lethality.” In truth I wish that were true, The US military is rarely up to much good. I wish transgender troops will revolt. Not only on civil rights grounds but on anti militarism grounds as well.
In any case hopefully Stormy comes out as transgender.
33
"In truth I wish that were true, The US military is rarely up to much good."
I'm with you there; North Korea's firebombing targets back in the War can vouch.
Still, even in the midst of the "covfefe" Dumpster fire, where that transgender military ban, a brazen act of bigotry that attacks an entire group's constitutional rights, can somehow (and even rightly) be regarded as a mere distraction from far WORSE, I take solace in the words of his former lackey-token the great philosopher Omarosa of Ohio:
"Jesus ain't say that..."
1
Another huge accomplishment for a very busy President. The military is ramping up. Bolton is in charge of foreign policy. Iran and North Korea better tread lightly because pre-emptive tactical nuclear strikes are on the table. But they should be used wisely and sparingly. The media will tarnish him but we knew what we were getting when we voted for Trump. He is President, not choir boy. Trump won. Get over it.
3
@Steve Long Island
This comment can speak for itself as a guide to the acuity of the typical Trump supporter. It can't be improved on really.
49
To get over it would be to abdicate my duty as a citizen who values the rule of law.
36
Do you understand the consequences if pre-emptive tactical nuclear strikes are used?
8
"After Another Week of Chaos, Trump Repairs to Palm Beach. No One Knows What Comes Next."
I am really so sick of all this winning. Who ever could have imagined we'd have a headline like this one almost every day? Wake me up when the impeachment is over with. I can't take more of this winning.
45
As a foreignor who has the luxury of being entertained..it was fun...but now even I am feeling uneasy...
37
Trump is loving every moment of this. Its all about him, him, him...all the time!
25
Golf vs. 809 Marches four lives
Great dilema for the (un)chief. Maybe we would hear (again) about the size of his inauguration and his big hands.
35
Talk about reeling...it's time we started calling this what it has always been...emotional abuse.
Yesterday, when an announcer said,"We're doing it again; we're all sitting here because he played us and teased us with the possibility that he's going to veto his own bill. Now we're all hanging around waiting with bated breath to see what he does." I realized she was right and got up and turned the TV off and walked out.
I refuse to be this thug's punching bag anymore. He is mentally ill and demonstrably dangerous. The adults in the room had better act fast because the window where he can be held peacefully, constitutionally and legally responsible for his crimes, misdemeanors and insane behavior is closing fast. Really fast.
Daily tantrums, hourly threats, incessant bullying (of his own team!) insane tweeting, unhinged "policies," whimsical (or malign) firings do not stability make. No one should need to be told that. Other countries watch and wonder why we choose to embrace chaos, fear, uncertainty and general viciousness rather than the clear alternatives available to us.
I've given up even pretending to grasp why we have so evident a death wish. I fear and feel for the countries who will suffer the fallout-- now primed to be radioactive if this brat and Bolton have their way-- of an election they had no say in. They have every right to be righteously furious with this country.
59
He will star a war on a whim, too. My hope is that before that occurs, a stock market crash and trade war with China will lead to his swift impeachment.
16
Reading these comments, I am struck by the fact that the blame for this chaos is put squarely at Trump's feet. The Republicans in the House and Senate have the power to get us out of this mess if they would do their job of oversight. So I think rather than rail at Trump, we should be asking the following: WHERE IS RYAN AND MCCONNELL?? WHERE ARE THE GOP CONGRESSMAN? Right now, we are letting them slink into the darkness and allowing them deniabiity.
78
When a 2 year old in a tantrum runs around breaking things and setting fire to the room in a frustrated rage, you don't blame the toddler. Where are the grown-ups in this scenario? I hold the Congress accountable for this escalating insane and dangerous scenario. Their greed for power and money make this all possible. Will anything shake them up??
45
How bad is he?
Well…
Your life and mine, your kid's lives, our way life in America are all in severe danger.
I'm not kidding.
Read on.
This is true:
During Jimmy Carter's presidency he was awakened one night at about 3am.
His advisors told him there was confusing evidence and a military alert that missiles - a lot of them - were incoming, perhaps a nuclear attack.
A president has about a half hour to decide what to do. You can't knock those missiles down, a real attack is going to do catastrophic damage and no way to stop it. It's basically over for life as we know it in this country.
The only thing you CAN do is decide whether the attack is real or some glitch on the radar - something other than an actual attack.
Real? You can launch your missiles and just make the enemy suffer as much as you are going to suffer. It's kind of ridiculous but that's the way of it.
Not real? Well you better figure it out fast cause if you launch and it wasn't real, you've cut your own throat… the other side will launch soon enough and goodbye America.
So, again, real or not real.
Carter kept cool.
Things got sorted out fast enough thank goodness.
Now, it's early morning and Trump gets that same info. He and hawks like Bolton are thinking, deciding, acting.
Is Trump a sane, stable person? Bolton? Seriously…Really?
I'll repeat- your life and mine, your kid's lives, our way life in America are all in severe danger.
One insane misstep and I'll see you all in heaven.
47
This story is not quite accurate. It was Zbigniew Brzezinski, Carter's National Security Advisor, not Carter himself, who was awoken at 3AM with news of a Soviet missile attack. Brzezinski asked for confirmation of the attack and requested that the nuclear-armed Strategic Air Command aircraft begin their launch mission. Just before he was to call the President, Brzezinski received the news that the attack was a false alarm. He ordered the recall of the SAC planes.
Carter proved his courage years before as a naval officer and nuclear specialist. In 1952, a research reactor in Chalk River, Ontario, Canada, suffered a partial meltdown that flooded the basement of the reactor with millions of litres of radioactive waste water. Carter, who worked on the staff of Admiral Hyman Rickover helping to develop the propulsion system for the nuclear Sea Wolf submarine, led a 23-man US Navy nuclear clean-up crew. They trained on a mock-up of the broken reactor equipment, which had to be disassembled so that the radioactive water could be drained away. At Chalk River, Carter and his crew rushed in and out of the reactor area, removing bolts as fast as they could to minimize their exposure to radiation. They were successful in their mission, but were exposed to levels of radiation much higher than would be permitted today. Carter's urine was radioactive for months afterwards. His physical bravery - and knowledge of nuclear risk - is without equal among presidents.
7
This is a snapshot of an unhinged personality lumbering from day to day from decision to decision from thought to thought. No of sense of moving ahead tying events connected and building intentional and planned policies but rather reacting to and in the moment; unable to gain control of himself long enough to put one foot in front of the other. May we present the madman who has seized the oval office and the cast of clowns and jesters who surround and support him?
24
Isn't it nice, that the two leading, elected officials in the WH are leaving this weekend, just as our responsible youth are arriving?
Are they afraid of the backlash?
Golfing in FL & a meeting in Atlanta certainly should not take first place in their minds.
Trump & Pence should be leading the march!
34
What happens when the stock market goes into free fall and we invade Iran and/or North Korea? Will Republican leaders finally hold the President to account? Probably not.
25
Think about the May meeting in North Korea when our unstable power-crazy president meets "little rocket man." What could possibly go wrong? It's time for his supporters in Congress to step up to the plate and impeach this man before we are not only living in an America that no one recognizes, we aren't living at all. He is totally capable of starting a war that no one will survive. He said in his campaign when interviewed by Chris Matthews, 'Why have nuclear weapons if we don't use them.' If Bob Meuller has the goods on him and he could go to jail
he could start a war for spite.'
18
The problem is no longer Trump. It is that no one in DC has the guts to speak out and get this dangerous individual out of office. America is no longer the leader of the free world. Because this Administration doesn't care about freedom. China is right up our tail economically and technologically. And China is going to win. The US is going to look like and be a South American Banana Republic soon. Tragic.
22
What bothers me most is all the youth who will be in DC this weekend to march and the President is playing golf in Florida. Slap in the face. Cold hearted man. Disengaged from the country he is supposed to lead.
37
Okay folks, it is time to take this mess to our Senators and Congressmen to correct. Start writing everyone of them and demanding that they restore sanity to our government and protect our democracy. They are responsible for allowing this to go on for as long as it has. It is obvious, even to the majority of those who voted for him, that he is incompetent and mentally deficient for the job. Please join me in writing a letter to your Senator and Congressmen. He came into office through devious means and he needs to be dealt with immediately.
23
Your life and mine, your kid's lives, our way life in America are all in severe danger.
I'm not kidding.
Read on.
This is true:
During Jimmy Carter's presidency he was awakened one night at about 3am.
His advisors told him there was confusing evidence and a military alert that missiles - a lot of them - were incoming, perhaps a nuclear attack.
A president has about a half hour to decide what to do. You can't knock those missiles down, a real attack is going to do severe damage and nothing to be done. It's basically over for life as we know it in this country.
The only thing you CAN do is decide whether the attack is real or some glitch on the radar - something other than an actual attack.
Real? You can launch your missiles and just make the enemy suffer as much as you are going to suffer. It's kind of ridiculous but that's the way of it.
Not real? Well you better figure it out fast cause if you launch and it wasn't real, you've cut your own throat… the other side will launch soon enough and goodbye America.
So, again, real or not real.
Carter kept cool.
Things got sorted out fast enough thank goodness.
Now, it's early morning and Trump gets that same info. He and hawks like Bolton are thinking, deciding, acting.
Is Trump a sane stable person? Bolton? Seriously…Really?
I'll repeat- your life and mine, your kid's lives, our way life in America are all in severe danger.
One bad event and I'll see you all in heaven.
4
Stand by for canceling the mid-term elections on the basis of a national state of emergency around about September. Due to our Child King having just started three more completely unnecessary major wars.
The Presidential 2020 elections will of course be impossible due to the by then 3 day nuclear WW III.
11
The New York Times would perform a public service by creating, in its role of government watchdog, a graphic or Upshot chart to keep a running total of the cost to the taxpayers of President Trump's constant trips back and forth between the White House and his mansion in Mar-a-Lago. Hardly a weekend jaunt now and then to Camp David.
Only 14 months into this presidency, a line already seems to have been crossed between arguably excessive -- and enormously expensive -- to downright obscene. Earlier this month, the Trump entourage flew on Air Force One to Mar-a-Lago on a Friday, only to return to Washington just a day later for the Gridiron Dinner.
Maybe this is the way an emperor acts, but a president? Consider this citizen appalled.
39
Is this the point where future historians will say that the United States became a failed nation-state?
19
We truly have a failed presidency and an unfit president. The question now is: how can our system of government, under our constitution, deal with this precarious sets of circumstances.
4
At least in DJT Americans are seeing first hand what mental illness looks like and why, when we finally get a more empathetic president and Congress we should do something about it. The man has few attachments and the few he does have are minimal. Kind of like the people he’s surrounded himself with and has been around his whole life.
13
It was painful listening to trump this morning, totally disorganized and disoriented, using his limited vocabulary, trying to tell the nation what was in the budget. My middle school students could have done a superior job.
22
Words like chaos, disarray, confusion, horror, panic, fear, insanity have become a staple of the news surrounding our government, the presidency and the United States of America. It is a wealth of embarassment. It is a constant barrage of tabloid level news. It is an unending assault. No one seems capable of stopping it. The horror of it all makes me so sad, so disappointed, and so hopeless.
17
Memo to Congress and Mike Pence: time to invoke Section 4 of the 25th Amendment, before it's too late.
12
Can America afford Trump for another few years, the man is a disaster in all aspects? Why do people even vote for him?
8
Until at least next January, when hopefully another political party will be in control of the House of Representatives, we are at the mercy of this loose cannon careening from one irrational event to another, now backed up more and more by a staff that shares his incompetence shrouded in supposed political ideology.
Where oh where are the spines of the Republican Party? How many times in the halls and cloakrooms of Congress will you roll your eyes and shake your heads about the ever-more bizarre behavior of the President, then go out before the microphones and television sets and proclaim your allegiance to this deeply flawed leader?
We are heading down a slope that's getting steeper and slippery and you Republicans need to act more like Americans and less like partisan hacks.
12
Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell's historical references will be worse than Mudd.
9
The only predictable thing is that Trump's next move is unpredictable!
1
"Mr. Trump appeared heedless of his staff and determined to set the agenda himself..."
Imagine that - a President who wants to set his own agenda!
3
This is the saddest state I have ever seen the US in. Idealism out the window. Hope out the window. Care for the environment out the window. Care for fellow citizens out the window. Nobody is winning but the top 1%. The rest is either crying or they should be, because Trump and Co are driving the wagon into the ditch and the GOP is not doing a darn thing about it.
13
You gotta give it to Trump: he's got Americans paying attention to politics now. And at least he's brought long-promised change to the White House, for better or for worse.
2
I have the astrology chart for the election hanging on the wall of my bathroom, so I see it five or 10 times a day. One message keeps coming through, which is that what we are witnessing is part of a plan.
1
The Mercers, Bannon, et.al., are actively looking forward toward the "deconstruction" of the American 'state.' The very antithesis of the American ideal.
1
Insanity bequeaths insanity on the American public. I am quite sure all Americans can relate to the President flying to his golf outings in the biggest plane built and his wife has to fly in another huge jet because the President cannot even pretend to be a normal husband. I am trying to be polite.
Or why all American church attendees will be so pleased to find out their politically astute Pastor is donating their tithing to President Trump. Say goodbye to the Johnson Amendment. I mean really, do we not all want to be more like Iran?
One could go on for hours. However, I cannot say anymore. It makes me crazy.
11
I don't buy the idea put about by many commentators that Trump's chaotic and unpredictable approach is deliberate. He's simply incompetent and wholly out of his depth. Chaos is the consequence.
18
I have a terrible feeling that the water is circling the drain and we are all caught up in it unable to stop a very bad outcome. How did we end up with a mad man for President?
9
Every week, Trump proves he's way too old to manage his job as president. It seems that he mostly lives for weekend vacations, golf, and cocktails with friends. And then he pops into his old office for a bit, muddles around, takes a nap, watches some TV, makes a few phone calls, reads a couple of newspapers, catches a quick lunch with friends, checks the performance of his portfolios, has a nice dinner, and goes to bed.
11
I hope that Trump is not going to take USA into another disaster war. He is capable of it, but I also hope that there is enough brains and resolve in America to prevent it. The history of the last 45 years should be all people should know.
5
With Bolton as NSA and McMaster gone, I am very concerned that Bolton and Trump are heading us to war very quickly with no regard for the consequences. I think Trump wants to be able to brag that he was the President who did not hesitate to use nuclear weapons on our 'enemies'. If I lived in the north Pacific, I would be very scared by now. And also for the Iranians. Trump is eager to make his mark in history by the destruction he is willing to commit, and he is very eager to do it. He seems to have lost all restraint.
4
In hiding when the going gets really tough ... this sunday evening.
That’s the courage of our president, leaving others to pick up the pieces in his wake.
Then I read that one of his supporters justify his cringe-inducing behavior because, since he is a billionaire, he doesn’t really have to follow any rules. Our American worship of money has brought us a faux-monarch.
23
Every major newspaper, including the Times, should be running a daily tally of how much Trump's trips to Mar A Lago (or any Trump property) are costing the taxpayer,
AND
How much money the Trump business are billing the taxpayer for incurred expenses at his own properties.
30
The world is holding it's breath, uncertain as to what this disaster of a "leader" will pull out of his hat next.
The GOP should be hanging their collective heads in sorrow, but we all know they've capitulated to their worst instincts and completely lost their senses, bearings and morality.
Vote them out as it's all we can do in 2018.
10
It’s a compliment to the American people that they continue to be willing to pay for Trump’s weekend jaunts to Florida to ‘repair’ himself. One would think his Herculean endeavours to ‘make American great’ and ‘drain the swamp’ were actually bearing fruit.
7
And immediately call up all the sons and daughters of Republican members of Congress.
2
Trump reacts to what he sees on tv, then reacts to the reaction.
Isn’t that good news!
2
Generals James Mattis and John Kelly know Con-Man Trump is losing control and is revealing serious signs that emergency remedies are needed.
One line in this story indicates the coming crises.
"Mr. Mattis, viewed as a moderating force on the president, told colleagues before the appointment was announced that he would find it difficult to work with Mr. Bolton, people briefed on the conversation said." Imagine what lies ahead shortly.
If Trump can't listen to the honesty of "Mad Dog" Mattis, Trump will lose his last loyal comrade, and go down alone, all by his narcissistic self.
Trump does not recognize the reality of the chaotic situation he has created.
He is an island unto himself.
9
I remember Humphrey Bogart in THE CAINE MUTINY. Trump's erratic behavior, whether you believe in his political views (if he really has any) or not, is too reminiscent of Queeg, and should be of grave concern to all Americans. All of Congress should watch the movie of read the novel by Herman Wouk. Just as Queeg put his ship and its crew in danger, Trump is not worthy of steering us and should be removed lest he destroy us beyond repair.
8
We sit here in the bleachers expressing outrage and horror while this unhinged president and his skeleton crew of maniacs are about to unleash WWIII. At this point even skeptics must see our presidential election was tainted by interference to which Trump's team was a party, and Trump's otherwise incoherent actions resolve into a pattern when we ask, "How would our doing this strengthen Russia?" My point is not that we want a new Cold War, but that this "president" must be removed. And then our commitments to work on climate change, diplomacy, and human rights must be strongly pursued. And we must enact legislation removing imperial powers from the president, especially the insane power to personally green-light global conflict.
We'll be able to do these things if we survive until the midterms -- and if this authoritarian doesn't get us into the war that will end our chances if surviving climate change and then declare martial law and suspend elections. Impossible? Sadly, no. We're a banana republic now,
Horrible to think that our options if this would-be dictator sets that course also become the banana republic ones of sustained riots and attempted coups.
7
Governance as a reality show with plot teasers, artificially created suspense, Deus ex machina, etc.
What bothers me is that the press doesn't expose these worn-out tropes for what they are.
1
One can only hope our military do NOT follow any orders that come from our "leaders." I feel for our military at this time. They are pawns.
8
Bolton is the most dangerous one of all these players. He has been advocating for war and destruction for at least 30 years. And now he is in a position to make this come true with very few restraints and with a boss who appears to be gleeful at the idea.
3
Please people: vote like responsible adults next time!
13
The sad thing is, Ray, they thought they were... too late!
1
When India was trying to break free of British rule, Gandhi called for a "day of prayer and fasting" i.e.: a general strike. How about a day of "prayer and fasting' across the United States? Would that finally wake congress up as to how sick we all are of this mess?
4
"After Another Week of Chaos, Trump Repairs to Palm Beach. No One Knows What Comes Next." .. but as if to draw a line below the administration that has been characterized by experts in the workings of government as a "spaghetti dinner thrown against a wall", the GOP leadership immediately did nothing.
8
What comes next? Why a couple of rounds of golf followed by a burnt steak and an exquisitely beautiful piece of chocolate cake.
6
No speculation on his motive for fleeing Washington? For all his caterwauling, one thing he’s taken no action on this week is the debate over firearms, despite going out ahead on arming teachers and some vague notion of taking on mental health. He’s fleeing tomorrow’s march. That’s all.
13
Increasingly I wonder what this joke-of-a-president's security detail thinks. I know they're willing to sacrifice their physical well being to protect a President (comes with the assignment), but seriously who'd want to risk their lives for this utter baffoon of a "president"?!? Who doubts these are truly dedicated professionals upholding their oaths? My hat's off to these highly professional and dedicated Secret Service agents. Hey Donald, maybe you should look to see how real professionals operate!
11
Melania travels separately to Mar-a-Lago again without Trump for the weekend after Playmate details affair with President. Why are taxpayers having to foot the bill for separate flights to their private retreat?
18
It's easy to get the feeling we're going to see a stormy Monday as the Pres drags himself back from Mara Larkey to face blowback from the 60 Minutes interview. Normally someone so beset with criticism would be in line to receive a fair amount of favorable sentiment, a lot of people feeling sorry for him. Not our Mr. Trump, he's just so in charge and you know he's caused this all himself.
Still there's a new week ahead. A lot of Fox News to watch and he can always change the subject when things get too hot. Who hasn't he fired yet? Hm? Kelly. And, Jared. Hm? Getting a little thin. Maybe it's time to revamp the press crowd. Sarah Huckabee Sanders doesn't smile enough. She worked for awhile but we need a fresh face. Let me see here, must be somebody on Fox who could take the heat. Yeah, that's it . . .
8
Please: Investigative reporters at NY Times: It would be fascinating to see the accumulated bill for Melania staying in Manhattan ($1m per week) and Trump and family and hanger's on to Florida and Bedmister NJ each weekend along with secret service. Add to that people like Zinke and Pruitt et al on private jets playing potentate. Then compare and contrast to the Obama travel bill for the same period. About 20% or less of Trump's I would bet.
17
Trump is “unbound” only because the GOP majority in Congress refuses to bind him. They have all but green-lighted him to have Mueller fired by not passing a law to prevent it in the face of tweets that show he means to do it, and after he has already fired two people who investigated him, Comey and McCabe. They allow him to ransack the Treasury for his weekly golf excursions and to at the same time promote his properties on the taxpayers’ dime. They turn a blind eye as he lines his pockets with foreign government money through his hotels, violating their duty to investigate his seeming violations of the Emoluments clause. And if Trump can be blackmailed by a porn star, God only knows how Putin is pulling his strings - the House certainly doesn’t know because they shut down their investigation rather than find out.
Now he’s got Bolton to give him an excuse to start a catastrophic war - and who doesn’t think he would do it to divert attention when Mueller closes in on him? Is there any serious question that if Trump sees himself going down,he will try to take the rest of the planet with him? Will the Congress remember then that only it can declare war? Will it close the purse-strings before he puts our troops in harms way? That we even have to ask these questions shows how dire our situation is.
13
This is a very disturbed man. This is a man who is convinced that Mueller has already collected sufficient evidence against him to seek his removal from the Presidency. This is a man who is now busy replacing the toadies and sycophants already in his administration with even greater toadies and sycophants. This is a man who genuinely believes that his greatness places him far above -- if not, altogether removed -- from ordinary requirements to obey the law. This is a man planning to fire Mueller in the near future. This is a dangerous man.
19
"Trump Heads South..."?
It's the US government that is heading South, leaving our nation in chaos, despair, and on way to wrack and ruin, unless this madness stops...
17
The week is not over yet. It wouldn’t be a surprise if he fires Mueller on Sunday, just before the Stormy Daniels interview on 60 Minutes.
13
I've gotten so used to my head spinning I wouldn't know what to do if it stopped. Trump is obviously coherent enough to be calculating because narcissists are always one step ahead everyone else to get what they need. That's basically the functionality of a parasite. Nevertheless, I'm scared about the recent appointment of Bolton. The huge increase in military spending passed in the bill reeks of plans for war. If Trump can deviate the country away from the Russia investigation by plunging the country into another recession or possible depression, he will without batting an eye. Starting a war would be a form of punishment for not letting him get away with his constant immoral and treasonous behavior.
14
Murdock runs the White House through Trump. Imagine a world leader whose sole source of information is the hysterical rantings of Fox “News”. He is a sadistic man who delights in trying to humiliate honest people. With the approval of the Republican Party and it’s leaders. A tragic year and three more to go.
16
what do these florida trips cost ?
nyt please explain
daily cost - plane security etc
where do people stay? is trump inc compensated for accommodations?
15
That’ll be another three point four million dollars,have a nice day....
13
I feel like flying The Flag upside down.
Would that be wrong?
17
Not at all. A sign of distress is entirely appropriate. In fact, we should start a movement: everyone should begin flipping the flag. Private citizens yes, but also municipalities and local/state governments who believe Trump presents a clear and present danger to the nation.
10
Absolutely not. I will join you.
2
The Electoral College. The gift that keeps on giving! And giving. And giving.
12
Don't wish for impeachment too strongly or we will end up with Pence as President. I fear his views more than I fear Trump's behavior. Pence could get himself re-elected while I dont think Trump could win again.
12
Can Trump be impeached for lack of candor? He has set the precedent with the firing of McCabe.
10
The young folk come, and the President runs. Ne’er an adult in the room.
The man can’t stand the heat in the kitchen. Say no more and vote in November.
13
In late Spring, 2002, John Yoo and his boss, Jay Bybee were nearly done putting the finishing touches on their torture memo. There had been something close to outright fabrications from John Rizzo and company at the CIA, and a mangled use of Medicaid regulations for a definition of serious harm, together with some worthy of the Greek myths fantasy about how they only needed to satisfy the 5th, 8th, and 14th amendments to the Constitution and two of them you needed to be in the country, and the third you needed to be convicted of a crime so we had a perfect black hole of the law and oh, yeah, the famous debate over the word 'and' in the ICCPR meant U.S. courts lacked jurisprudence.
There was still a serious worry that they could all get prosecuted for violating the Rome Statute, since it was signed by the U.S., and the Vienna Law of Treaties said that a signed treaty had to be obeyed and a ratified one enforced.
So Undersecretary of State John Bolton went to the U.N. and unsigned the treaty on behalf of the U.S. Ban Ki Moon wasn't sure what to do, no country had ever done so before and it was probably not legal. But Mr. Bolton described it as the 'happiest day of my life.'
The new National Security Advisor thinks that enabling torture was the happiest day of his life, the nominated CIA director did the torture he enabled.
Am I the only one who thinks that this doesn't feel like any good can come of it?
18
Trumpian chaos expresses a deep social crisis. An unseemly gap opens between rich and poor; and neither the democratic nor republican centers can hold. A new outrage emerges daily; the destruction of what was already a fragile health care system; the hostility to the children of immigrants; the willingness to allow automatic weapons in the hands of almost anyone; the expansion of social media that is not serving but increasingly controlling us; the appointment of a racist hawk as National Security Advisor; the overt humiliation of women! Of course, there is a Donald Trump. He reflects the larger social order. But the scandal remains that neither Ryan nor Mcconnell has the backbone to fight for the preservation of the Republic. Out of chaos -- in the hands of a master showman -- the coup could happen before even MSNBC would notice. And FOX will praise our "president for life!"
13
Enough with the"Looney Tunes" presidency 24-7.
I want to see coverage on how attempts are being made to take back the house and senate, and to see who is worth sending a few of my very few bucks to.
Flipping gerrymandered state houses.
There are a bunch of Conner Lambs out there, and so many of us want to see their stories.
15
I wonder if the only reason he signed the budget deal was that they told him that if he shut down the government, he couldn't go on vacation...
17
Some observations:
It is becoming abundantly clear that, as hard as he tries to project “strength” and “leadership,” he really has no clue as to what he is doing. He cannot think long term, he believes changing the cast of characters will somehow change the narrative of this failing administration. At no time in our history, except for maybe in the very early days of the republic, have we seen such chaos and confusion in the executive.
For whatever reason, an earlier comment of mine in response to another post wasn’t loaded: The appointment of hawk John Bolton is concerning, especially since he will have Trump’s ear on defense issues.
Finally, the reason why Trump is not recognizing the March For Our Lives is, unlike the anti-abortion groups or the NRA, these kids can’t vote so they are of no use to him. It’s that simple — there is nothing in it for him, therefore he’s going golfing. Again.
15
Every reader of the NY Times can see that Trump's behavior is not within normal limits .I do not need to list the examples. Surely, Republicans can see it too.
How many people in the United States and the rest of the planet we share will die needlessly before Trump is removed by the provisions of the 25th Amendment or by impeachment?
Evangelicals, do you somehow believe Trump is a man of God? A gift from God? a redeemed sinner?
60 Minutes on Sunday. Stay tuned.
13
There are three branches of government and much that Congress and SCOTUS can do to protect our democracy. Does the Republican Congress care? Ryan is obviously no more than a pretty face with little intellect and apparently too little patriotism. McConnel has showed his colors all along. The question remains: why did the Republican Party nominate someone so unqualified and what can be done now?
9
If the spending bill got his dander up, what's the "60-Minute" episode going to provoke him to do? He can't fire Mueller in that short of time, it requires a series of steps. Surely there are some missiles he can fire off.
7
Are there any Democrats thinking of running for president, who have a specific plan for health care and education, regulation of the banking system and protection of the environment? A pro-business plan to help the middle class and address income inequality? Is the reason I can't name any because the press is so enamored of Donald Trump they can't be bothered to give the alternative any space in the news, or is it because there aren't any? Please tell me it's the fault of the press. This is like going to a doctor that will only roll his eyes and describe how sick I am. Is there a cure?
6
Aristotle, Plato, Thomas Aquinas, Lincoln, Kennedy, the Roosevelts -- those who brought their intellects to bear on the advancement of civilization. Now we are going to suffer the savage anarchy that results from the abandonment of reason, brought on by Mr. Trump's finger on the trigger.
I'm old, and like my three squares a day my retirement accounts provide, and enjoy my cold beers in the evenings. The chaos that will come disrupts that, and I will blame those who had the power to stop this insane lunatic, and failed to do so. For whatever good that will do me.
I used to think Mr. Pence was a worse alternative than Mr. Trump, but have come to believe that living in an oligarchy is better than living in a world that promises nothing but warfare.
Impeach Mr. Trump, and give the government back to traditional politicians. Maybe Mrs. Warren can bring some sense to the debate, but at least we will have a forum for that debate.
8
With John Bolton becoming the new National Security Advisor we approach ever closer to another World Nuclear War. Trump(Cadet Bone Spurs), a multiple draft dodger wants the Nation to view him as a Military genius and hold military parades in his honor. Unless he is willing to put on a uniform and go to fight in Afganistan and encourage Donald Jr., Erick, Ivanka and Tiffany to do the same, I feel he is all too willing to sacrifice the lives of others without making any true sacrifice himself, and his personal convictions towards War should not be taken seriously. If he is unwilling to show his courage in battle, maybe he and his family should spend several weeks in a VA long term care facility changing the dressing, attending to the wounds, or changing the adult diapers of the heroes/casualties of their ill conceived Wars. Neither Trump or Bolton have any true understanding and appreciation of the courage and sacrifice made by our young Americans, nor of the true horrors of War.
7
President Trump epitomizes the operational definition of "unhinged."
Untethered to deliberation, truth, honor, his Oath of Office, empathy, and decency.
That he was persuaded to not shut down America's government only to divert more resources to our global war-making capacities gives no comfort.
America has fallen down and can't get up - as long as President Trump and the Republican donors control our government.
God help us all.
7
We the People are fed up. Enough with all this palace intrigue. Nothing sums it all up better than this satire from Andy Borowitz:
“Millions of Americans would gladly work for Robert Mueller for free if that would help speed things up, a new poll finds.
According to the survey, a substantial number of Americans would leave their jobs, their homes, and even their families to join the special counsel’s team if doing so would help bring this nightmare to a swifter conclusion.
A spokesperson for the special counsel confirmed that his office has been receiving thousands of résumés a day from Americans begging to do anything to help Mueller “move things along.”
“We saw a big surge in interest after the bust on Paul Manafort’s house,” the spokesperson said. “A lot of folks were devastated that they didn’t get to play a part in that.”
The spokesperson said that, although the special counsel “really appreciates” the public’s interest in helping out, limitations on office space prevent Mueller from accommodating all of those who desperately want to pitch in.
“We hate to disappoint people, but we’re overwhelmed,” the spokesperson said. “Right now, I have about five thousand résumés from people who just want to help investigate Jared.”
9
Yes, Trump is insane.
However, Trump's insanity does not mean that his critics are correct. Just a few things:
1) LET THE STOCK MARKET TUMBLE: We are told that his tariffs are terrible as the market went down. But for at least the last two decades the stock market has been almost wholly disconnected from the economy in middle America. In 1979, the Dow was below 1000; today, it is over 23,000 -- and throughout this period of time the deindustrialization and pauperization of the mid west has proceeded apace. Also, when wealthy elites get super rich from the market, they bid up the price of goods and services making the world more unaffordable for honest people who don't have inside information.
2) BOLTON IS A HOT HEAD BUT IN YOUR HEART YOU KNOW HE'S RIGHT. First, I know that's what they said about Barry Goldwater, BUT most truly informed people know that the Iran deal was poison:
A) Articles in this paper said that Hillary had recommended that Obama push Iran for a better deal
B) I read an article in this paper in which a leading person in the French Administration (The equivalent of our Secy of State) said that Iran needed the deal more than we did and that the US should demand more
C) The agreement exempts, among other things, certain military sites from testing and examination. But if one criticizes the Iran deal one is re reflexively dismissed as recalcitrant, red state rabble who are too macho for today's prissy and prim sensibilities.
3
Presenting Mr. Trump, and his nauseating court of political racketeers:
"...But man, proud man,
Dress'd in a little brief authority,
Most ignorant of what he's most assur'd—
His glassy essence—like an angry ape
Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven
As makes the angels weep..."
William Shakespeare
Measure For Measure Act 2, scene 2
7
Contrary to what I hear the pundits say, I do NOT believe the Manchurian Candidate will fire Mueller. As we see, he has zero political capital anymore and that action will be a suicide by stupidity.
3
We have all read accounts of President Nixon. As the Watergate crisis ground on. As his presidency disintegrated. As he disintegrated as a human being.
Drinking heavily. At one point, reaching out to Mr. Henry Kissinger (his then Secretary of State)--imploring him to kneel down--ask the Almighty to halt these nefarious machinations of LIBERALS. Ah, the liberals! So evil they are! Implacable! Loathsome!
("And here," recalled Mr. Kissinger, "he was in the power of these people. In the power of people he detested.")
Sounds like a regular working day for Mr. Trump. Minus the drinking--we know he's an abstainer. Nor in a thousand years can I imagine Mr. Trump grasping Mr. Tillerson by the hand--forcing him into a kneeling position--and raising heart-felt pleas to Almighty God!
But the general sense of continuing chaos--continuing confusion--no real goals--that last horrifying bit about no real strategy--no long term plans--nothing but this horrendous human being's gut instinct. . . .
. . . .and I think, "Well--can no one in Congress check or restrain this man as the United States goes careering down the track, engineer asleep at the switch? Or worse--laughing maniacally, flipping the bird to all and sundry."
And then I think, "Congress? CONGRESS? All poodles and spaniels? Toadies and yes-men?"
The remedy lies with us, doesn't it. One thing we can do.
VOTE FOR DEMOCRATS.
That's what I'm doing.
That's what we ALL should do.
I'm hoping we WILL.
7
Since Trump supporters love someone who tells it like it is, here goes: Trump is a lying, miserable, pathetic excuse for a husband, POTUS, and an American citizen.
“Nobody more disappointed than me,” Mr. Trump said in a verdict from a president who has called himself a master dealmaker."
That's a lie! Hillary Clinton and I are more disappointed than Donald J. Trump. And I can't wait until the Chinese impose tariffs on soybeans and pork from the USA so that the Nebraska Republicans, thanks to Trump, can be eligible for food stamps. He's going to make American Poor Again.
Oh yeah! When those farmers in the Midwest declare bankruptcy, the Mercers and Koch bros. can buy up their land at bargain basement prices. How you like Donald J. Trump now?
17
The Manchurian candidate
8
Like Hitler when the Soviets and Allies were bearing down from the east and west, Trump is now finding himself surrounded by self inflicted disasters due to his total lack of moral fortitude. Will it be "dossier" tapes, porn star videos, threats that have backfired, world leaders that have rejected him, his own party that has rebuffed him?? Where will he run...Mar a Lago? Like Hitler in the Berlin bunker, we are watching the self inflicted last gasps of the Trump administration and legacy.
5
. . . . . but Mister President . . . . Mexico was going to pay for the wall . . . .
36
Despite Trump's seemingly endless potpourri of corrupt financial dealings and selling this nation's soul out to the Russians, won't it be just wonderful to see this craven buffoon taken down by the attempted cover up of an affair with a porn star.
From Trump to Pruitt, from McConnell to Ryan, let the next two years be an orgy of GOP electoral and legal crucifications.
34
Wake up, watch Fox News, get out of bed, sack a couple of people, make a few decisions, go play golf. The tragedy continues.
32
I hope the new theme for the Dems this fall will be to Rebuild America. Just about every aspect of our democracy, our economy, our health, our security, our environment, our standing, and our future will depend upon rebuilding this country since it has been trampled daily by the madness of this administration and Congressional panderers and sycophants.
Weaknesses in voting access and systems, checks and balances, rights to safety as a nation and on a local level, our rights as the People over corporate money and power etc., can be addressed, redesigned and rebuilt.
But only if the Dems can retake Congress. That takes work to support the candidates from the primaries in their efforts to flip the seat come November. And of course, we need to help get out the vote. We can do that.
26
Trump's supporters wanted a candidate who would shake up the establishment, and they picked the right guy.
None of this, therefore, is much of a surprise.
8
The people who voted for Trump to supposedly “shake up the establishment” also voted to return to power the very same obstructionist, venal, cynical, incompetent GOP House and Senate “leaders.” The 2016 election, like all elections since Gingrich, was all about partisanship, plain and simple. Instead of Trump, the GOP could have run a clod of dirt and the election would have still come down to voter turnout.
2
What may be chaos to you is another week of getting things done. Trump is a pragmatist. Where other presidents have kicked the can down the road or made agreements that would result in rogue nations (NOKO and Iran) to have nuclear weapons, Trump has taken them on. Of course it has resulted in a change in the status quo. Time to get over how Trump does business - its different - and the U.S. elected a different kind of president.
1
Wrong.
Take a look at what has happened to the stock market this past month.
It's a harbinger of what is going to happen to the US economy.
This president plays small ball.
Completely short sighted and no strategic sense of long term consequences.
He's playing checkers while Chinese and Russian leaders are playing chess.
And while the rest of rhe world shakes their collecrive head in bewilderment, we here at home have to suffer through 2 more years of this clown car administration.
2
Why wouldn't Trump with his new crew try to solve everything with military force. The military was just handed appreciably more money than ever before by congress. What did you think it was for?
8
Unpredictable can be fun for one evening or at most a weekend. It's old and it's terrible leadership.
11
I'm a Canadian in my 50s. About 20 years ago, I seriously considered emigrating to the United States. Job opportunities and income potential seemed to be better in the US than at home. I did a lot of research about what I would need to do to get a green card.
As it turned out, I stayed here.
When the credit crash and subsequent Great Recession hit, I thought of my unexecuted plan to become an American resident, and was grateful for my choice to stay. As the US became ever more divided and angry, my gratitude and my appreciation for Canada grew.
Now Trump is president. Belying the hopes of so many Americans, that the presidency might mitigate his egotism and steady his temperament, he appears instead to become more dishonest, corrupt and unpredictable with each passing week.
Trump is sowing uncertainty and anxiety well beyond America's borders. But I am so happy to be Canadian, especially when I think I has planned to move to the US and possibly become a citizen. Thank God I didn't!! I'm so lucky to live where I do.
34
Work very, very hard to keep it that way. Already, Justin Trudeau is being threatened by a Trump-like candidate. Don’t wait until it’s too late.
2
If the "Trump-like candidate" you refer to is Doug Ford, the newly-chosen leader of the provincial conservative party in Ontario, he is no direct threat to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Ford aspires to become the next Premier of Ontario - analogous to the governor of a US state. He is not a federal politician. That said, Ford does not hide his admiration for Trump and he exhibits the same brash, populist-rich guy style.
1
Hang on a minute. I don't necessarily agree with John Bolton's worldview; however, he is not merely a Fox-News looney. He's had the high office of Undersecretary at the Department of State, and was U. S. Ambassador to the United Nations. He knows how to work with multilateral institutions, and, I would hope, respects them (however grudgingly). Let's give him a chance.
3
Sounds like all the people who said let’s give Trump a chance. How did that work out?
2
Interesting how Trump was sure to claim credit for a rising stock market. Hmmm, I wonder if he'll take the blame for the market dropping like a lead balloon.
11
Unintended consequence of his election. I can no longer watch the news on tv at all. I can read what he is doing, but can't stand to watch him do it. I know this at this point - if he is for it, I'm against it.
21
Unfortunately the chaos will only get worse. There's the Mueller subpoena and working with new lawyers, plus Stormy Daniels is coming up this Sunday on 60 minutes.
Watch for a Trump tornado to be unleased next week.
13
As you have said in your piece, no one knows what comes next. The President has found his stride and is making his own decisions with the levers of power. For all the fear that the old hawk Bolton will lead the country into war, if Trump does not want it, it wont happen. Is it only a matter of time before Trump fires Bolton and for us all to be shocked, again? Who knows, but I would say, yes.
3
This can only get worse, so think of alternatives--Pence via the 25th amendment or impeachment. After Nov 6, I hope the Dems will be in power and accelerate the process to rid government of the Trumps--all of them.
7
Remember, Pence is complicit. You can see him shaking his head in agreement with every illegal action.
2
He needs confusion. It makes headlines, and it confirms his intent to be seen as a renegade hostile to any process. None of it is policy; none of it is consistent with anything his voters need except entertainment. And it's going to get much worse.
12
The USA could have healthcare for every one, we could have top quality infrastructure where bridges don't collapse, cities that don't drown etc. and transportation at least as good as China. Where does money go that's diverted for domestic needs? Of course to the military industrial complex which President Eisenhower warned us of.
Yesterday the president said repeatedly that we will have the best military ever. For what? I remember America as being a country that ended wars not starting them. Just wait until the two kids in the sandbox Trump and Bolton start throwing sand at the other kids. We see America in a year plus moving at warp speed to be a danger to the entire world.
Republicans thank you, because when the sand box wars end we will be forced to rebuild a destroyed America. Historians will look back at the Cuban missile crises as a walk in the park on a sunny bright day!
13
Nothing came of the veto threat. While Mr. Bolton is a scary guy, predictions that he will take us to war are premature at best. The China tariffs are aggressive measures contrary to sound free trade policy. The trade deficit with China, their currency manipulation, and their huge investment in Treasury bonds also are key parts of a trade relationship that is far from ideal. The present relationship is bad. Tariffs may make it worse. Or they may make it better. Only time will tell.
If Dowd's resignation means that Trump will talk with Mueller that's a good thing. And if there is a major shake-up at the White House that could be a good thing, too.
We can agree that Trump governs by chaos. We can agree that he repatedly does idiotic things. But the bottom line is the bottom line. This article focuses on the process, which must make this stolid newspaper shake in its boots. I'm one to downplay the process in favor of the bottom line. And the bottom line is that the earth is still spinning and nothing much has changed. At least not yet. Predictions of the end of the world are premature. Times reporters have declared that Trump has pretty much ended the world countless times. They need to take a chill pill.
According to Judicial Watch, the cost of flying Trump to Mar-A-Lago and his golf club in New Jersey has already exceeded well over $14 million, and this figure does not include the accompanying costs of added Secret Service and jet fighter protection. Every article in the Times that reports in some way on his virtually endless vacation travels should be accompanied by an estimate of the costs of that trip. The American people deserve to know the good uses to which their hard-earned tax dollars are being put.
20
We have created a monstrous pseudo monarchy -- building up to Trump. The idea of posting costs would open more eyes ( maybe) . Perhaps there should be a cap on what gets spent to "protect" Presidents on extra curricular and campaign related trips.
1
True, but it'd have been even worse under Hillary:
"I see the Dow Jones Average is down by about 425 points today."
She'd have behaved in a more refined way, but I'm confident the Dow Jones Average would have been far lower had she won. Nobody knows for sure, of course, but obviously most people agree on that. The DJIA has risen considerably since Trump won.
1
That's all you care about on this Administration?
How about "Democracy - down 2000%"?
2
I wouldn't get too wound up by Trumps deluge of tweets. He delights in causing chaos and confusion just like a 5 year old throwing his toys around. After a while the child gets tired and goes to take a nap. For Trump he's gone to play golf and won't remember what he said. He'll most probably tweet a whole new set of ideas, wishes, etc some of which will be the direct opposite of what he said before. No one should should remind him of the earlier tweets cause he'll get mad and fire more people or push that button That is bigger than the one in NKorea.
4
if this were a corporation with a halfway engaged board of directors, the revolving-door instability in the upper echelons of the enterprise, the volatility, unpredictability, and fecklessness of the chief executive officer would result in his being dismissed . . .
8
I experience pure joy when I read about Trump voters who are suffering greatly because of him -- even the ones who say they've changed their minds. I used to be a pretty charitable person, but now I revel in their troubles. Why? Because they deserve it for what they've done to our once-great country.
13
All this chaos is enabled and supported by both Ryan and McConnell. It serves whatever nefarious purpose they have. They could put a stop to it or, at least, mitigate the damage. The mid terms now appear to be more important to our survival than ever.
Hopefully we up to the challenge.
11
It appears from their apparent inability to do nothing except steal from the poor and give to the RICH that the GOP never ever considered what their end game would be if, after spending decades criticizing folks who do how to govern this nation and saying everything they could possibly conjure up to tell their followers how horrible the rational members of this nation are, that they might suddenly be put in charge of this nation and actually have to make decisions and take actions that would benefit all Americans and not just their super-RICH donors that supported and created this DEBACLE that the REPUBLICAN Party has foisted off on the United States.
The REPUBLICAN Party might consider researching its roots which are often referred to as the Party of Lincoln. Today's REPUBLICAN Party would not admit Lincoln as a member and I doubt seriously that Lincoln would want to be member. Lincoln spent his life trying to keep this nation together.
4
With all respect to Trump supporters, a question.
Would you bet your life that Trump's trade decision or any decisions that might affect the stock market or certain business sectors are clean decisions that do not give Trump or his family any material advantage or enrichment?
Of course you would not.
Because there is no way to know the financial holdings and entanglements of the president.
The usual divestment and other natural, conventions and protocols to ensure no conflict of interest or self-serving decisions are not being followed. We've all heard about this many times.
So, when he wakes up and makes a move, is it American people policy or is it Trump business policy?
(Remember, the guy ran a phony university at one point.
Paid $25 million in settlement.
No one pays that if they are innocent.)
Anyway, if you bet your life, we'd most likely be attending youI funeral.
5
Section 4 of the 25th Amendment allows the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet to recommend the removal of the president in cases he is “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office”. It allows the House and Senate to confirm the recommendation over the president’s objection by two-thirds vote. After the chaos of this week, and specially the last twenty four hours, I have a simple question for the Republican Party leaders and the cabinet, what is stopping you from invoking the 25th amendment? If not you then who, and if not now, when? Or come November be prepared for the entire Republican party to go down with Trump’s Titanic. However, unlike the dignified captain of Titanic who chose to go down with the ship, Trump will throw everyone else over board and will be the first one to jump in the life boat with his passport and money bags.
7
I don't understand why there isn't more outrage at how this President thinks it's ok to fly off to Florida every weekend at great expense to play golf. And I won't mention the extent of the environmental impact. Does it not matter to him how much that whole process costs and how much it disrupts the lives of so many other people? I thought Republicans were supposed to be fiscally responsible and conservative? Not this guy, not when it comes to indulging himself.
11
I've said this ad nauseam, but when the 2016 campaign commenced, the Republican field had 16 candidates, and as Trump berated one candidate after another, he was rewarded each time with greater and greater popularity. It was sickening to watch then, and it's sickening to see so many people still standing behind him today.
It wouldn't surprise me if all of the public's frustration boiled over into violence. I wouldn't get involved, but if given the opportunity to stop it, I'm not sure I'd take it.
5
I maybe the only optimist here, but I see this week as the beginning of the death spiral of Trump's presidency. DiGenova isn't a serious lawyer for a president facing impeachment and money laundering charges. Kudlow and Bolton are talking heads on TV, they aren't going to be taken seriously nationally or abroad when you're talking trade wars and nuking North Korea. My guess is the leadership of the GOP has told Trump he can do whatever he wants except fire Mueller. If he does that they'll impeach him. Now it's just a matter of whether he quits or loses a primary challenge in 2020. In the meantime, he'll stoke as much division and chaos as he can with executive orders like his latest transgender ban.
2
So Trump was furious about the spending bill he just signed?
Evidently, the master negotiator was nowhere to be found and just like everything else, he just signed what was put in front of him.
Maybe someone can slip in a resignation letter next time.
7
None of this Trump chaos and failure is a surprise. More shocking are Paul and Mitch, leading not only the GOP into oblivion, but also the nation.
4
Most readers are appalled and disgusted, as I am, just absorbing the daily news day after day. In the last few weeks I've gotten more and more fed up, so I'm reducing my exposure, just keeping up with a few columns and summaries. That's all I can stand. I'm tired of cable TV obsessing and hyping every hourly detail and tweet ad nauseum. There are other activities and interests out there that are therapeutic now.
The Mueller thing goes on and on fueling TV talk time. Andy Borowitz has an apt satire --
“Millions Willing to Work for Mueller for Free If That Would Speed Things Up.
A new poll finds that a substantial number of Americans would leave their jobs, their homes, and even their families to assist the special counsel.” Yes! I’ll go.
I feel sorry for reporters who have to deal with Tsar Trump the Terrible and his courtiers, 24/7. They have strong constitutions.
Now Americans just have to hope that some courageous teenagers who saw their friends slaughtered will start a movement to lead the nation back toward sanity.
See Dana Milbank—W. Post---“The Kids Have Come to Save Us.”
5
After a huge week-long fireworks display and fire and fury bluster in Washington, even Trump deserves some relaxing moments away in Florida.
2
While 400,000 kids march against he and Bolton in DC
3
This evening I ran the calculations on the impact of a single 45 kiloton nuclear warhead striking one of the five large military bases around San Diego. One warhead might kill 250,000 people - or 50,000 people - depending on where it lands.
http://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/
If there are two warheads, the numbers of deaths and amount of damage obviously goes up. Five warheads, and it is unlikely that I will be posting on the NYT anymore.
11
I have studied the era around the birth of the country, I really don't think the framers of the constitution even considered a fallback plan, an ability to correct, in the event of the election of a dangerous moron. The men that created the constitution were mostly brilliant and scholars; someone of Trump's character and ineptitude would have never been a part of their circle. I think they are all rolling in their graves.
114
They did imagine the possibility of a Trump presidency. What they didn’t imagine was a party of the president unwilling to check the insanity.
8
In Washington DC tomorrow, there may be half a million students marching for their human right to be free from worry about gun violence in school.
And where will President Trump be?
In Florida, of course.
More than sad.
This loser does not represent the people and should be removed from office.
129
for the star wars fans out there and one of my favorite lines from Yoda who said to the emperor while he's battling him with a lightsaber:
"if so powerful you are, why do you run"?
seems kind of fitting for our con man in Chief
1
"The president, furious over the failure of Congress to pay for his wall on the southern border with Mexico,..."
Whoa! Stop right there!
Didn't Trump state on numerous occasions that Mexico was going to pay for the wall? Wasn't that one of his campaign promises? Didn't he tell us to "trust him" about that?
Then why's he furious that Congress won't pay for the wall?
I'm somewhat confused. I'm beginning to feel like sometimes Trump stretches the truth a little bit....
108
The closer Mueller gets the more fearful I become about what the grate (sic) orange one will do to deflect whatever comes his way now that Bolton has reappeared.
23
A general strike now. Without it we have wars tomorrow. No doubt about it.
26
My wife and I went to the Pop-up demonstration against the arrival of Donald Trump here in Mar-A-Lago tonight. There might have been a dozen anti Trump demonstrators plus two or three times that number of pro-Trump demonstrators. We had early occupied a good corner at St Catherine's Church near the east end of Southern Boulevard, where his motorcade had to pass. But before Trump's motorcade passed about a half a dozen troll provocateurs came and stood, in violation of police directions, in front of us on the sidewalk. We held our ground. Most of them were women and they screamed every insult in the book they could think of. We were libtards and baby killers and Communists and Nazis. I looked a man in the eyes and said quietly “You will not provoke us.”
Ruth and I were holding up opposite ends of a long sign that said “Shame” on it. The height of our harassment came when the man had moved to the other end of the sign and lunged toward Ruth. She told me afterwards that his finger stopped about an inch from her nose. If I had seen it starting I probably would have interposed. But I was at the other end of this sign and wasn't looking immediately at her that instant. This man was at least a head taller than Ruth and probably outweighed her at least 50 lbs. After the motorcade passed, both sets of demonstrators disbanded. Tomorrow is another demo day!
Such is the knowledge, persuasiveness, and behavior of Trump supporters.
117
I have to wonder, are these “Trump Supporters” or are they plants sent to provoke? Maybe this is the collusion we should start looking at more closely.
2
Yeah, Trump would welcome that kind of counter protest, and to what end, to drown out grievances that you feel so strongly that you want the president to hear them. How is that harmful to anything but his ego. Trump supporters are defying reality for no other reason than do so. Lame.
2
There is some speculation that the pro-Trump demonstrators around Mar-a-lago are hired actors. I am sorry visitors like you and your wife who cared enough to protest-- as is your right as citizens-- were treated with such hostility. Unfortunately the chaos that is Trump extends to his supporters who are fewer but more out of control everyday.
Thank you for telling people what it is like to try to interact peacefully in any way with one of the Trump true believers--or an actor hired to portray one.
2
Must be Friday. Trump’s got some tee times at Mar Largo to get to!
22
Washington and Jefferson fought a war of independence to establish democracy in America. Lincoln fought a civil war to extend it to all, regardless of race. FDR protected it from Hitler.
Trump, in contrast, is furiously creating “Wag the Dog” moments to distract from Mueller and Stormy. That’s about his level as a serious thinker.
Are Americans prepared to let this sleazy real estate salesman and his cult followers trash their proud history? We’ll find out in November, if not before.
42
This train-wreck of a presidency, this mockery of democracy, this embarrassment of a nation, it all is coming from the petulant-child-in-chief and his brazen determination to fulfill his own personal agenda.
He dismisses long-serving public servants, he mocks opponents, he name calls ummm.... everyone, he was willing to shut down the US Government just to put up his damn wall. He has zero morality, zero business sense, zero comprehension about the law, the Constitution and diplomacy.
The only thing more reprehensible than this idiot in the White House is the complete in-action by Congress to curb this guy. And anyone who is still voting to keep this party in power.
Anyone wanting to "make America great again" should focus on the foundations that have held this country up for centuries and carried us through revolutions, wars, depressions, inflations, injustices, victories and inventions. We, and all of our ancestors, have never been in this for the sake of one man. And certainly not this one morally-bankrupt man.
1348
Amen
20
Well said. But you forgot one thing--Trump doesn't name-call these people: Putin, Duarte, Xi, and Mohammad bin Salman. In fact he grovels at their feet like a mendicant begging for a crust of bread.
As a sane person, I'm sure you can see the common thread. And the sobering reality of where this is headed, if we don't do something.
31
It is all coming from a complicit republican congress that refuses to put the president in check. They could investigate his self dealing through his properties. They could investigate his family making deals and selling access (and visas). They could investigate the enormous travel expenses of his cabinet, his family and himself and publish the numbers. They could investigate each cabinet member and how they are dismantling, neglecting and destroying the agency they lead by publishing their spending and the turnover and vacancy of the positions - but they don’t - they don’t do any of that and that is why they must be voted out -
Voting out every republican on the Nov 6th ballot is the most important vote you will every make. Be present, be counted and VOTE!
38
At the end of year 1 he is a weak, pathetic, embarrassment. Now starting on year 2, he getting serious about war, threatening numerous US interests and businesses, exposing America to agressive governments determined to undermine our democracy, tanking the stock market. We are going to all pay economically, but I sincerely hope that the aggression doesn't end up becoming lethal for us or to our neighbors in this small fragile world.
The longer congress stands by their man, the more devastating November will be for the GOP.
39
He is doing precisely what Bannon Inspired him to do - dismantle every institution off value to the people and rebuild the nation in his image and for the benefit of his family dynasty. You may find this fanciful (of me) but he is positioning his elder daughter as his successor. He would then continue to rule, through her.
2
@Walrus Carpenter-----------"The longer Congress stands by their man, the more devastating November will be for the GOP." This oyster wishes she could believe that but instead she pictures, night and day, the fall of Rome. Remember Caligula and what happened after? Sigh.
Leaves Washington reeling? Really?
How bout humankind reeling through an existential mist?
36
I can only hope that Trump stays in Florida for a long long time. He sickens me and he has ruined so many lives with his disreputable distractive modality. We all know why he does this two-step chaotic dance. He can con the country and those who support, I can't understand why, for only so long. I don't believe in God but I can only hope that those GOPers look in the mirror and get a conscience. It is unfathomable that they can stand behind a phony disgusting person!
41
@Dom Scarola-------------"It is unfathomable that they can stand behind a phony disgusting person!" Dom, I wish I could agree with you but around 80 years ago a
group of people enthusiastically stood behind Hitler. The sane, humane, civilized
Germans couldn't believe what was happening. But they were wrong.
7
What an intemperate and irresponsible vulgar bully we have in the Oval Office, capricious to o end, and demanding complete control of all branches of government, antithetical to the smooth workings in a democracy. Trump is a despot so insecure he trusts no one but himself, classic response of a brutus ignoramus: as he knows so little, he is convinced he knows all there is to be known. And that is the rub!
24
Would someone in Trump's family please take responsibility and get him the help he desperately needs?
33
This is the best presentation describing psychopaths I have ever seen and it is from THE expert in the field on Psychopaths.
Psychopaths ~ They Live Amongst Us. Do they rule the world?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kmif4EAzR0
How Donald Trump Handles Stress- This old Trump quote from 2004, a response to a Larry King Live caller asking how he handles stress, made the rounds today: “I try and tell myself it doesn’t matter. Nothing matters. If you tell yourself it doesn’t matter, like you do shows, you do this, you do that and then you have earthquakes in India where 400,000 people get killed. Honestly, it doesn’t matter. That’s how I handle stress.”[CNN]
12
trump does not care about the business of funding the govt - he wants praise for doing nothing and to get to the golf course ASAP at the tax payer's expense. How many millions of tax payer money has he spent flying to his various golf courses over the last year ? Enough for a good downpayment on a wall I would bet.
18
Would another plea for the Republicans to exert some influence on this dysfunctional president be too much to ask?
16
That’s impossible
1
I knew long before the election that a trump presidency would very likely be highly destructive, but I could not imagine the degree to which it has proven so. I'm angry at trump and those who prop him up, But I'm angrier at those who created him, who made this foulness possible, who even celebrated it, and who still celebrate it. There is no excuse for that level of delusion and ignorance and enabling of evil.
51
Donald Trump is nuts. As much as we need gun regulation and as much as it pains me to say it , it may not be wise to disarm until this nut is out of the White House.
I think the military may have to decide in the not too distant future, is it him or is it us?
If there is a mechanism in the Constitution to relieve him of his duties, are you telling me there is not the will among even the staunchest of Republican members of Congress to put the brakes on this madman?
Hillary Clinton was not perfect - no one is - but she was not insane and I never doubted for a moment her allegiance to the United States of America. Can you say the same for Donald Trump?
73
How long must we wait? Is our system so broken that we cannot find a way to remove a moron from office?
42
I really think Mr. Trump would like to get out of this job. But if he resigns, Putin will call his loans and he'll lose everything. Let's start a crowd fund to pay off his loans when he resigns. I suggest $20 apiece for each of 320 million Americans would probably be enough.
Heck, some of us would pay more to get him to leave.
23
No, I am betting a fair number of people know what comes next. It is just a matter of the "when" at this point. Round and round the mulberry bush...
4
The gravest problem we face is the Republican Party itself, which is keeping a sick and dangerous person in power, in order to use him for their own sinister ends.
64
Trump did not create chaos. It is inherent in our universe as entropy and it will be our end. But meanwhile we fight the good fight and attempt to make the good fight and almost miraculously find order, in order to preserve ourselves and create a society in which we can live together and preserve our planet.
But along comes this guy named Trump who takes over this order we have tried to preserve and tells us we must submit to chaos. It is hard enough as individuals to keep order in our lives without an idiot and his minions giving us constant chaos. Yes entropy is our fate and often our actions lead to more chaos and entropy, but Trump won't you go away. Your stupidity and arrogance make a difficult life just more difficult.
11
Good major league managers take pitchers out BEFORE everything hits the fan. Is there a good leader anywhere in the House or Senate, or do they just wait until all hell breaks loose and then later wish they hadn't waited so long?
18
Time to change the locks.
17
This disturbed guy is and always had been the classic mad king. He is so alone, so utterly alone in his narcissistic delusion that he is indeed Samson tearing the entire Republic down. This narcissist, who was placed here by the Russians and 60 million very conned Americans, is so very sick that he doesn't really care if takes the planet down with him. We have given him the power of the United States=- can't you see? And this power magnifies the individual core as if touched by the stars.
The problem is as vast as the difference between the great man we had as President, Obama, and this shell of a human being - Trump. Obama's great character was magnified to the world because the essence of Barak was the quality of his character as a man and a leader.
In Trump we have the ugliest of Americans. And we've given him the Nuclear codes.
What have we done?
31
So afraid of high school students, he has to decamp to Florida on our dime? Disgraceful.
38
"Trump had begrudgingly signed the bill" means Trump can no longer refuse, which means, despite whatever he says, that he is toast. If he could have vetoed it, he would have. That's how he rolls.
10
"Can you believe that,with all of the problems and difficulties facing the U.S., President Obama spent the day playing golf.Worse than Carter."
Donald Trump 8:03 PM - Oct 13, 2014
Res ipsa loquitur
NOT my president
47
"A screaming comes across the sky."
Donald Twump is shaping to be like a character in a Thomas Pynchon novel.
11
I might have been born in a place called Nuckolls County, but even I can figure this much out. If you needlessly increase the military budget by Hercularian proportions, spend billions on a needless wall while slashing income taxes to unheard of levels, pay off Pornstars & Playmates, the last word that comes to mind is "Great."
32
History is surely reserving a special place, frigid and lonely, for our 45th President.
11
I have just written to my Senate and House Representatives asking how they will remind Mr. Trump of the contents of Article 1, Section 8, Clause 11: that only Congress has the power to declare war. I will do so every day from now on.
29
Viet Nam was never a declared war.....
1
I have read many of the comments, but there don't seem to be any Trump supporters writing today. Have even they given up after his latest tantrum?
16
He recently said that “ a very bad thing” could happen in this country and that such an event would unite its citizens.
THAT is his master plan. Probably start a war or two and see if we all come together for a common cause.
If we do, he will take credit for it. The Great Uniter in his wretched mind.
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Unless he just throws in the towel and doesn’t return from Florida
36
There are no words for someone this incompetent, truly. 45 makes Berlusconi look deft, dapper and delinquent. I can only imagine the tsk'ing across major capitals of the world, a 4th grade level reader/leader running amok in 'Murica.
14
It is becoming clear that Trump has a Reality Star's insight. If you are not being talked about constantly you are irrelevant. And if something is being said about you that is damaging, immediately do something totally outrageous to regain your bully pulpit. He is absolutely a master at that game. Unfortunately I do not like nor admire players of that low minded game.
14
His supporters DO NOT CARE !
14
The most effective way to insult someone is to refer to them as evangelical.
Worst president and possibly person ever! Yep, I'm sticking with ever.
24
What Trump says and what he does are rarely, if ever, congruent. My advice is to pay more attention to what he does. What he says is rarely cogent, but what he is does is nothing short of mass destruction.
16
So glad he can jet off for some golf (again) (on tax dime)
Too bad he will miss the tens of thousands of teenagers who will descend on Pennsylvania Avenue to protest his total lack of moral compass and lack of leadership.
24
Other than the fact that he jets off EVERY weekend on our dime, isn't avoiding reality the point of Mara-Lago?
He's not going to go quietly folks. Are we really going to wait for the idiot to crash the plane into the mountain before we REMOVE this human dumpster-fire from the Oval Office?
I am reminded of the Cuban Missile Crisis – Kennedy AND Kruschev were surrounded by advisers howling for all-out nuclear war – and they both paused and asked themselves; ‘Do I really want to go down as the greatest mass murderer in history?’
Do you think that thought would ever occur to DJ Trump?? If it did, do you think it would give him pause for a single nano-second?!!
This idea that we can ‘wait him out’... that ‘our institutions’ will undoubtedly prevent disaster... is... utterly insane.
32
This is very probably the most terrifying turn of the Trump administration so far. Anybody who isn't profoundly worried about this probably doesn't know enough about John Bolton. Even the neocons are worried.
30
Now that he has a whole new team, are they all going to Palm Beach for a golf and champagne junket, toasting to the foreign war to come to deflect from the domestic devastation wrought by another week of lunatic leadership? Boy, things are getting so great.
So stop talking of war
Cause you know we've heard it all before
Why don't you go out there
And do something useful
Oh listen to the man in the liquor store
He yelling "anybody want to drink before the war?"
- Sinead O'Connor
10
It will be great day for America when this treasonous fool is led from the White House in handcuffs.
37
Mr. Bankruptcy, Mr. Philanderer, Mr. Dishonesty, Mr. Nothing More Than A Brand Name. And now, Mr. UnAmerican. Isn't it ironic that the man that claims he wants to protect America from foreign trade, immigrants and terrorists is the one that is doing the most to destroy our country. What a cliched plot twist.
22
I hope there's plenty of real impeachment talk in some GOP offices. That's how you stop an insane president. That's the only way.
24
Mford: Impeachment is NOT enough! He must be thoroughly removed, and sent somewhere where he can no longer cause harm. The entire GOP must be sent somewhere where they can no longer cause harm. These are terrible, criminal, immoral people.
2
He is just plain afraid to stay in Washington with the rally set for saturday. poor Donald, he must be so tired from all the lies he told this week. Run to Florida, and make sure you watch 60 minutes.
14
Trump must be pretty satisfied with this week's destruction. It's difficult to think anything but that Trump really hates everyone and wants to destroy as much of the planet as possible. Or he has no real feelings about anything at all and is just enjoying all his new toys.
6
Is Donald Trump having fun, yet? Does he yet rue the day he and Melania descended the escalator into political life?
5
The failed president hasn't done any winning to be tired off yet.
1
Mr Trump, why didn’t you stay in DC to welcome and support the thousands of young people, their parents and teachers who are there to march for their lives?
24
Good for the president. Who is interested in a bunch of protesters who have nothing better but to march on DC on Saturday. Everyone is sick of all marches; they are highly ineffective and disruptive. Perhaps these people with nothing to do should volunteer at soup kitchens, shelters, nursing homes, orphanages and the such.
2
We do both. I volunteer in my kids school, at our local senior center, and raise money for our food pantry. Go figure, one can volunteer, be in service to our fellow citizens...and protest atrocities.
4
Nice try.
2
I'm sure many are capable of protesting Saturday and volunteering on some of the other 364 days of the year. Where will you be volunteering tomorrow? Need the when and where so I can determine if you're telling the truth.
1
So, is he fleeing Washington to avoid the teenagers who have a strong moral compass and a clear vision? He should be afraid, most will be eligible to vote in the next election.
31
“No grand strategy” No strategy at all. It is so frightening that there seems to be no grownups in the room.
7
Chronologically, Tom, there are grown ups in the room; they just have no intelligence, no common sense, no character, no integrity, no compassion, and no morality. And they call themselves the GOP.
2
Watch for more firings, or something similar on Sunday, shortly before "60 Minutes" airs.
15