After Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump and the other candidates I’m beginning to think anyone who seeks the presidency belongs in the broken toy box.
34
For Trump there is "no collusion" apparently because nothing rises to the level of collusion. He's not lying, he simply doesn't know what the word means to the rest of us.
117
Again we know this, but what can we do? Still feel helpless even with all the volunteering.....marching.....donating....etc.
113
This is a well-written article with a valid perspective of a pathetic and grotesque individual. Unfortunately it is somewhat pointless to continue to speak about him. He feeds on attention and is oblivious to intelligent critique. America and the world are acutely aware of what he represents and have lined up pro or con accordingly.
It would perhaps be more effective for all the op-eds and late night talk show hosts to focus on and document the mendacity, graft and racism of the bug-eating Renfields who sustain and enable this blight. That might do more to diminish some of the incredible damage that is being done.
178
The even bigger problem for me. The young people who are observing Trump's behavior. The current president has been rewarded for his amorality, criminal behavior, and dishonesty by being bestowed with one of the greatest honors, the presidency of the United States of America. On this Father's Day, I shudder to think what this says to our country's young people.
210
"If Trump isn’t careful, he’s going to add substance to his administration. And it won’t be the kind we want."
Too late, Maureen. He's already added a lot of substance to the administration, and it reeks.
87
Gosh, Maureen. If only some smarty-pants opinion columnist at the NYT could have predicted that 4 (or, Heaven help us, 8) years of this sociopath would be worse than a Clinton or Bush retread. Oh well, being snarky is more fun and profitable than being thoughtful or responsible, I guess
151
One can watch this only with increasing horror. >240 years of a shining light of democratic institutions (Democracy is the worst form of all governments except for all the others tried - W. Churchill) now in danger within 3 years. Is it because of the brilliant master plan of a very stable genius? Is it because the media is hyping the WH administration in the best of intentions of providing information, but nonetheless with the disastrous result of providing the stage for this farce? Is it that the serious problem of American end-stage capitalism creates a society, where "Left" vs. "Right" is being held up for entertainment, only and as a scarecrow for the purpose of deflection (in a country, where even moderate social democratic concepts are very successfully labelled evil acts). The real societal crevice is between "top" and "bottom", but curiously this debate has not the forum it desperately would need, because this would require an admission of the vastness of this problem first. US still pretends that there is the American dream, while it has been taken away by fewer and fewer individuals in the course of filthily enriching themselves.
Trump is not the problem at all, but the people in the background are. He is the clown in the spotlight (where the narcissist thinks is his place) and will b prosecuted. Silently, the GOP is changing the judicial system, and that's not to fixed easily then. Your problem is the GOP. Make them responsible for Trump. They are the culprits.
191
The Trump admin holds the fascination of a car crash. I know it's awful but I can't look away. Great journalism like Dowd's may be its only redeeming feature, and yet I can't wait for Maureen Dowd to lose her target.
Some relatives and friends may be lost forever because the mere mention of any remotely political topic is the beginning of an angry encounter. Whether he wins or loses in 2020 that shrapnel will still be embedded in those relationships. As legacies go this one is going to be hard to embrace.
65
“It is illegal for any person to solicit, accept, or receive anything of value from a foreign national in connection with a U.S. election.” The Mueller report clearly demonstrates Trump broke this law during the 2016 election. Now Trump has admitted he would gladly break this law during the 2020 election. How much clearer does it need to get for Nancy Pelosi that she needs to grow a spine and impeach?
74
The most important part of this column is tucked in at the end — the policies being put into place by this Administration. We are fixated on Trump and his tweets. Instead, more attention needs to be paid by (the NYT) and all of us to the destructive actions being taken by every Cabinet department.
109
Seeing Trump in the Stephanopoulos interview is truly frightening. He looks scared and trapped. Who knows what he and his followers might resort to, especially since he's whipping up this narrative that Obama has to "have known" about this imaginary plot against him.
74
Trump's White House is atrocious, but you can only ascribe some of that behavior to our Comrade President himself. The only reason Trump is still in office is because Mitch McConnell knows who got the Republicans elected--Putin.
Russia was going to help elect whoever the Republicans nominated. And they're going to do that again in 2020, mostly by depressing the Black vote.
McConnell has an oath of office and a responsibility to the American Constitution, but he is the most partisan of all the politicans. Consider, if a judge declared before a trial that he already knew the defendant was not guilty (or guilty), that judge would be removed.
Mitch needs to remove himself from sitting as a judge during an impeachment trial. He's the problem with American government right now.
Trump is the problem with America's reputation. He has now guaranteed that Obama was the last Leader of the Free World.
116
Watching and listening to Americans rant and rave about Trump is getting tiresome while the streets of America are empty of hundreds of thousands chanting protesters.
Take a lesson from Hong Kong.
If there are so many Americans disgusted and horrified by Trump and the republican party then get organized and hit the streets for a week - close down the cities in a display of sheer people power.
No, I thought not.
115
There have been many people who sat in the oval office in my life time, and I was born during the Truman Administration. Some I have agreed with on policy some Not. Trump is the only one who has No respect for the office he holds. Even Nixon understood his position until he allowed himself to get caught up in the Coverup. Trump right from the starting gate has been disrespectful to the office of the President. He has brought the office into the gutter and he loves it. This is Not about Policy, Name calling insulting phrases a daily accurance. Does America really have the energy for 4 more years?
88
The problem is, while Trump is being Trump, people like Bolton, Mulvaney, Pompeo, and various other Cabinet secretaries are doing great damage. Congress is at a standstill due to the Dictator McConnell's behavior - which is to essentially do nothing. Tom Cotton urged the President to attack Iran this morning except pack the courts with his disciples. Oh yes - another war to distract the American public - another one that would not be paid for, by the way, and in general not fought by the sons and daughters of the rich and powerful. While there were a few tentative remarks or responses to Trump's admitting he would illegally take information from a foreign power, the GOP did not strongly condemn the President. The are enablers and equally culpable. McConnell has held up legislation that would strengthen our ability to protect our elections. The GOP leadership is shameful and equally to blame for the current state of affairs.
77
The Trump "Administration" is a fake, illegitimate" so-called "presidency". It's actually more an authoritarian Putin-style "regime" seeking credibility, and it is seeking to replace our tradition of fairly elected governments.
44
The most tragic mistake in our National history was fighting to keep Dixie as part of our Union.
120
“Everyone does it,” Trump says about getting election information from our adversaries. I’ve known people who cheat on their taxes and they give the same response. No, everyone does not do it and it’s illegal and unpatriotic. Said like a true criminal.
135
Lincoln once said, "A compass, I learnt when I was surveying, it'll - it'll point you True North from where you're standing, but it's got no advice about the swamps and deserts and chasms that you'll encounter along the way. If in pursuit of your destination you plunge ahead, heedless of obstacles, and achieve nothing more than to sink in a swamp, what's the use of knowing True North"?
Our destination is ridding ourselves of the pestilential presence of the president.That's our "true north". Impeachment? It is both the swamp and the desert. If we plunge ahead and pursue full blown impeachment heedless of the Senate's morally ossified current status? We're going to get mired down. So, what's the use of knowing "true north".
27
My first thought seeing Trump and his Botox brigade galumph down the escalator in his tower of eyesore was, are we really going to have to listen to this buffoon for the duration of a campaign?
Looking back, that was a relatively benign moment, even if it was disturbing to see the birther fabulist put on a show. Now, as a friend of mine put it, the first step to recovery is recognizing that no, this isn't a nightmare from which one will miraculously awaken. Rather, it is a real and present crisis from every perspective as we not only have the most unqualified, mendacious, incompetent and unstable president in our history with a mound of demented axes to grind, but an entire party of wildly irresponsible politicians conceding territory faster than Vichy government.
While one can take some comfort in the fact that even in the most questionable of polls, this parasitical president has never achieved anything close to a majority, he and his party have reached a level of corruption where that may not be relevant. Indeed, the combination of his execrable taste in personnel and policies and his party's inclination towards authoritarianism represent the worst threat to our democracy from within since the Civil War.
95
Betsey Wright, a former Clinton campaign official, told reporters that the campaign had received reports that Republicans had approached Tories for help in rifling through files to find damaging information on Clinton.
James Baker, Bush’s chief of staff, was so anguished about “that awful little passport pimple,” as the president called the scandal, that he offered to resign.
Such shame seems quaint in Trumpworld. All those who held their nose and voted for Trump - for the greater good -should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves and question their own judgement severely.
51
This corrupt administration is demonstrating how fragile our system is. Past presidents, even Nixon, had some respect for the institutions and the rule of law and there was enough honor and leadership in the Republican Party to check The worst impulses of the executive. That no longer exists as demonstrated most vividly by McConnel and Graham.
49
I watch day in and day out as our country burns to the ground with Republicans telling "their people" it's great, you'll love the results, trust us.
Hate to say it but Obama was wrong, there is a blue America and a red America and the reds are winning right now.
26
@Foxrepublican
Absolutely agreed, Red America is winning the battle.
But America is losing the war.
The Ryan / McConnell / Trump tax bill is increasing the deficit from $600 Billion to $1 Trillion.
The projected ten year addition to the debt is $12 Trillion which is $80,000 per taxpayer.
To be paid for by us, our children, and grandchildren.
Depending on how interest rates go, there is a good chance we will be paying more for interest on the debt than for defense.
This is after 8 years of Republicans relentlessly railing against the debt under Obama.
Every Republican Senator voted for it. Not one Democratic Senator voted for it.
Obama got us through the worst recession since the Great Depression given to him by W. Bush. Obama reduced W Bush's deficit from $1.4 Trillion by almost 2/3 to $550 Billion.
8 years of W Bush and we got 3 Million jobs.
8 years of Obama and the economy got 11.4 Trillion jobs, almost 400% more than W. Bush.
2015 had 2.69 Million jobs. 2014 had 3.01 Million jobs. All without tax cuts for "the job creators" which is to say the wealthy.
There were 5 quarters of over 3% GDP growth and 1 of those was 5% GDP growth.
And this was with the "jobs killing Obamacare" where 20 Million people got health care.
If that had been a Republican, Fox News would have been shouting it to the rooftops.
I wouldn't mind if you got fleeced, but I am getting fleeced, too.
90
"The way Trump publicly wallows in his mendaciousness and amorality is unique in presidential history."
This is what we are stuck with because of those Hillary emails that you just couldn't let go Ms. Dowd. We now have a feckless grifter and his family enriching themselves by the hour.
108
In this highly noisy, obnoxious, shameless, and embarrassing Trump presidency (nefariously aided and abetted by Trump's taciturn and ruthless GOP sidekick Mitch McConnell), only occasionally does someone manages to unexpectedly break through Trump and the right-wing 24/7 noise machine to get the public's attention and try to get our derailed country back on track.
Though many have tried, few have actually succeeded in countering the worst presidential administration in America's history--according to presidential historians and the American Political Science Association, who know a thing or two about all our presidents and their administrations.
The heroine of this week is Ellen Weintraub, the chair of the Federal Election Commission, who masterfully checkmated Trump with her simple reminder: 'It is illegal for any person to solicit, accept, or receive anything of value from a foreign national in connection with a U.S. election. This is not a novel concept,"
Her framing of the statement up front demonstrated perfect pitch: "I would not have thought that I needed to say this," to a president without a conscience, who has no clue or concern about laws or anything but his flagrantly narcissistic self.
And this is exactly how we beat back the "down and dirty," criminally minded, self-serving, corrupt Trump presidency.
Score this week: Democratic Institutions = +5; Trump, the man = 0 or -10
27
Ms. Dowd,
How about writing a column about Republican Senators who have done almost nothing but enable Trump.
Some like Lindsey Graham by out and out support Trump.
Others like Susan Collins by saying nothing.
Then there is Mitch McConnell.
88
Over the years I’ve voted for both parties, and even when I’ve disagreed with policies or individuals, there still was some scrap of common ground shared.
I never liked Ronald Reagan, but I remember seeing him at the funeral for the Challenger astronauts, seeing him wiping away tears... even if I didn’t like him, this humanized him... he shared his grief with the rest of the nation.
This could never occur with trump... he would sit there looking annoyed, bottom lip curled up, arms folded like a spoiled child forced to sit quiet.
No tears would fall, he has none available for anyone but himself.
He is a malicious hollow shell of ego hardened wrath, a lazily crafted caricature of a king, longing for the respect and love of all, but willing to do nothing to earn it.
He is nothing but a cancerous blight, a permanent stain on his office and the record of our nation.
But he is just a cipher, a place holder, installed as a distraction by those who have abandoned reason in favor of personal gain.
The real sin belongs to the Republican Party that fights tooth and nail to enable his divisive vile behavior... for any politician to not comprehend the long term damage this being is doing to our nation goes beyond willful blindness or party loyalty.
Is it cowardice? Is it malice? Is it greed? Is it arrogance? Is it a combination of some or all of those?
Whatever it is, it is not what our nation needs, nor should ever tolerate from those entrusted to lead this nation.
81
Evil doers do evil things, they can't help it ,it's in their nature.
22
A pernicious and horrifically frightening thought: Amidst declining popularity polls, this narcissistic, reactionary "president" may engage another country in an all-out war as a means to increase his ratings. His ignorant base would see it as "strong leadership," as lives are lost and money is needlessly spent.
52
Study harder. He is no more venal than LBJ, no more obnoxious than Nixon, no more clueless than Carter and no less guaranteed reelection than Reagan. He is simply less smooth, more poorly advised and the most dismissive of the fourth estate of all of them. And that is what really sticks in the columnist's craw.
5
@Liddy
He is more of anything negative than any other president, Trumpism needs at least 20 negative connotations to describe it.
43
It's pretty simple, Trump is a traitor to his country. He has violated his oath of office to protect and defend the Constitution. I'm not sure why some citizens are still arguing about his behavior.
83
"The Trump White House may be a clown show and a criminal enterprise. But it’s also an actual presidency."
I disagree. It's an actual clown show, complete with Pennywise, who manipulates information, shapeshifts from the persona who appeals to his base, to the semi-respectable deliverer of speeches (written for him - he just reads them), and to the mad tweeter, who divides his nights between watching Fox and bizarrely attacking his enemies. And of course its a criminal enterprise. That goes without saying.
39
As bad as Trump is and he is definitely simply awful, his enablers in the McConnell cabal make him actually look better than he is. Trump may celebrate that but it also makes them look like poster boys for Viagra commercials..the "before" version, hardly the virile, action oriented "after" crowd. Manhood and the GOP left the same page in 2016.
Their weakness and obedience continues to be rewarded by a base that lost it's own moral compass decades ago. Only when they fill the graveyards will the GOP of some dignity return.
We need to stop talking about them and start talking about what went wrong with us to allow things to devolve into such a smelly, nasty futile visit to places nobody ever wanted to visit. Now it has become a way of life and our numbness is making it the stench stronger.
22
Given the broad brush strokes used by Trump's NYT accusation, suggesting he could stay in office after two terms amid poor approval ratings could also be construed as treason. I am concerned about recent comments about if the American people will actually want him to leave in 2024 after how "great he has made America". Then he comes out with the comment that Dow will crash if and when he leaves office. Are comments like this a harbinger of things to come? He deeply religious base of evangelicals, anti-abortionists, and the brain washed ignoramuses can become issues by then. The US Constitution can literally be at risk. SCOTUS and the lower courts are becoming more inundated with judges from the Federalist Society as time goes by. Are we about to see the proverbial perfect storm that can bring our once great society to its knees? Stay tuned folks. The next 6 years could become a lot more interesting than we ever expected.
14
Why is the Democratic-controlled House acting like they are powerless in the face of this "Down and Dirty" Dictator Trump? Do your jobs- cite for contempt, impeach, Don't just sit there and worry about what the Republicans will do next.
25
The only time Trump tells the truth is when he is bragging about breaking the law ...
39
When Donald Trump was under investigation for Trump University, we were treated to all the practices of that pseudo/charade of an educational institution. Former Trump students described instructors standing over them while they filled out their evaluations-- as low as you can go for any college instructor. During the 2016 campaign, we heard about many other Trump scams as well as his shafting a number of small business people when it came to his paying them for their services. So I ask you where's the surprise? We knew what we were getting.
The even bigger problem for me. The young people who are observing Trump's behavior. The current president has been rewarded for his amorality, criminal behavior, and dishonesty by being bestowed with success and one of the greatest honors, the presidency of the United States of America. I shudder to think what this says to our country's young people.
19
@Mountain Rose ~
Some of us who were paying attention and are not aficionados of Fox News knew what we would be getting with trump. A con-man and crook.
Not enough was made of the trump U scam. The media went on day after day with headlines about Hillary's emails and there was one headline (I think) about the 25 million dollar fraud settlement. Why wasn't trump badgered about that so called university like Sec. Clinton was hounded about those emails?
45
This omelet is made.
3
It's a shame Dowd couldn't bother herself to investigate Trump in 2015 and report to us then. She gave Trump the benefit of the doubt.
If Dowd ever issues a mea culpa, it will be privately to God, NOT in her column.
35
Maureen, why don't you also add a word or two about the prime enabler's of the president - the Republican leaders in Congress' led by Mitch McConnell. They, and especially the religious right who see their fearless leader as god's messenger, seem to be deaf and blind to all you're describing, while having the time of their life stuffing the Supreme Court and the lower courts with so many unqualified and incompetent judges.
18
POTUS and his lying SCOTUS judges need be, no should be impeached and thrown out of office. And then possibly prosecuted.
Willing to accept help from Russia (ignore the back peddeling)? Isn't aid and comfort to the enemy one definition of treason?
And the persons behind all these picks, It can't be trump, he's noy that smart, just a puppet for tis shadow group (Bolten is my first choice here) should be brought forward. HE, she or all of THEM need to explain their true agenda.
An aside:
My other question along with this, does it really matter what we state in these COMMENTS Section? Who reads this besides the folk allowing or censoring our words at the TIMES? Okay, I mean besides the NSA,CIA and FBI. Key word/phrase search is easy with today's sophisticated software. I've been doing it for decades as a head hunter.
9
I, also, have a vision. America is better than what it is now. The pendulum I watch is the one in Poe's tale. The recovery from Trump will sweep many beaches of their sand.
However, should all else fail, we can always divide the Country, once again. How does a greater Canada stretching from the Mexican border to VA in the East sound. Let the States that do not contribute as much as they receive try living upon their own means.
11
The damage has been done and is likely irreversible. Trump’s Presidency may or may not be an aberration, but the fact of its very existence is a demonstration to US allies that the US can’t be completely relied on as either an ally or a trading partner. American abuse of power in regards to the Iran Nuclear Agreement has led the Europeans to find a workaround the dominance of the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency. The fact that the US dollar has been the world’s reserve currency for most of the last century has been of enormous benefit to the US.
Now Trump’s abuse, arrogance and belligerence have forced the issue, and the end of the Trump presidency will not take the issue off the table. Global trust, once lost, is not easily regained.
27
“If Trump isn’t careful, he’s going to add substance to his administration. And it won’t be the kind we want.”
Duh.
Since 2015, your readers railed at you about the danger this man posed; yet you chose to write about him as if he were a viable contender for the office of the president. Substance? America incarcerates children and families, some in a facility once used as a Japanese internment camp.
43
And yet somehow, Trump turned out to be a viable candidate for the office after all.
Get off Dowd’s back, okay? She didn’t put this fool into office, we did.
8
@Robert ~
Actually it was the archaic and outdated Electoral College more than the voters that gave us trump.
Add in Russian meddling, voter suppression, gerrymandered districts and a dollop of misogyny and we had a perfect storm that resulted in this travesty of a presidency.
35
Everything Dowd says about Trump was true in 2016 and it is hard to forgive her years’ long anti-Clinton columns. They make her every judgment, her every comment now something hard to believe and her past comments hard to forgive.
66
"The president is an unabashed gargoyle atop the White House, chomping on American values." What a perfect image! You're in fine form here, Maureen!! This reader thanks you.
15
Nothin' like a good old-fashioned war to freshen up his reign.
10
Dear Maureen:
I am glad that finally you have used your talent and power of words on the right person. If you keep on exposing Trump, I will forgive your mistake on the Clintons.
13
@Mark ~
I agree with your sentiment but as recently as Dec. 2018, well into trump's presidency, Dowd was still going after the Clintons. If this manages to post you can click on this link: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/01/opinion/sunday/hillary-bill-clinton-tour.html
If you read this op-ed, you will see that Ms. Dowd's attitude hasn't changed but that trump makes good fodder for scathingly good op-eds.
16
@Mark -- We have Trump because she was right about the Clintons but too many were blind to what they were shown. It was the arrogance of those who wouldn't see that produced this result, not the Cassandra who told you very clearly, many many times.
2
@Mark Thomason ~
No matter what I write, you won't be swayed but I'll say it anyway. Sec. Clinton would have been a better president if only for her appointments to the Supreme Court and other judges she would have chosen.
That huge tax cut for the rich would not have happened either. BTW, what is trump hiding in his returns? Hillary released ten years of her tax returns so she was very transparent in this regard--her finances.
How can a lawyer, like I think you are, abide someone with such contempt for the rule of law as donny is?
38
It's amazing that we have any words of disapprobation left.
14
What is it with these right-wingers lately? Down and dirty, unethical, crooked, and so many other negative attributes.
I just read in The Guardian that Sara Netanyahu got a plea bargain, convicting her of a lesser charge and forcing her to pay around $15K in fines and state reimbursements.
Of course, the punishment was just fines and not imprisonment... the wealthy and powerful tend to receive different treatment under the law in many countries. Worse, Sara blew through about $100K, but that was reduced to $50K. So, the punishment really doesn’t fit the crime.
Bibi still faces possible corruption indictments... wait and see on this one.
And, we can’t even get an official impeachment inquiry started. Ugh!
17
I am not going to compete with Maureen or her very articulate readers. They all say it beautifully: DJT is a vile man, doing and saying vile things, upending every Democratic institution on earth, and the White House will need a major de-lousing when he's gone in 17 or so months. And I am optimistic that the American people have had enough of this grotesquerie.
What really scares me, and this has been mentioned by some of Maureen's readers, is what happens to our country when he is out of office? I fear for a terrible scenario. His "base" and the administration Republicans have supported him...regardless. I truly believe that there will be violent repurcussions after his losing election in November of 2020. And he will be the match that lights the fire. He is not going to go away until his maker takes him.
17
This story would have more impact if it weren't for the fact that the DNC was looking for foreign sources of damning info about Trump and the Russians in Ukraine after the anti democratic coup there in 2014. The Steele Dossier was by a former British intelligence agent. Trump is purposefully yanking on the news medias chain. If it weren't for the fact that the NYTs and others had gone so far off course in there desire to ruin Trump there would be some basis for outrage. The only place to get Trump is the 2020 elections. The NYTs and others, through their failures, have made abundantly clear that there will be no shortcuts.
4
@c harris -- You can say that, but cognitive dissonance prevents most from hearing you. They just can't process the facts. So they pretend.
2
"The real danger is not the antics but the policies." Exactly! Which is why we need to forget impeachment and focus on the prize--retaking control of Congress and The White House in '20. R U registered to vote yet??
9
The Republican party seems to have become nothing better than a crime family, with no honor, decency or patriotism.
19
This column sounds as if it is a big surprise that Trump is a loser, that it's a big shock he is garbaging not only the office of the presidency, but all of our country.
It should be no surprise. He promised he'd do it. Maybe some of us thought he was too dumb to get away with it, but turns out the GOP was there to help out his little fat self.
And all for Trump's 30 to 40 percent base. It's not enough to just eradicate Obama's legacy wherever he can, but Trump and the GOP want to destroy everything lefty liberal progressive socialist democrats love. Like clean water, air, a habitable planet, civil rights, human rights, fairer taxation and government that actually does something. For the people.
Sometimes it may be for other vile reasons Trump behaves the way he does. Maybe it's his lack of education or any refinement in all the many, many years he has lived. Maybe it's congenital cruelty. Maybe some of it is just plain stupidity. Mostly he seems to have no other motivation than selfishness, greed, and selfishness.
If that's not loserness, I can't imagine what is.
25
Surprised you mentioned Bill Clinton a serial lier and playboy.
I guess that there are different standards for Republicans and Democrats.
4
@wes Evans
Except for there are huge differences between William Jefferson Clinton and Donald Trump. Despite his moral failings(and all of us have them. Ain't no saints down here), Clinton is an extraordinarily intelligent, competent man. When he left office in 2001, the economy was booming, the U.S. was looking at budget surpluses, and we were at peace. I don't have to tell you what happened under the presidency of the "honorable" Dubya. Never was Clinton perceived as an existential threat to the country he led. Most of us honestly cannot say that about Trump. Nor did he shred the rule of law or attack constitutional norms.
No, there is no comparison between the two men. But then again, Trump compares unfavorably with all forty-three predecessors (Cleveland served two nonconsecutive terms). He is truly an abomination into himself.
30
Yeah, like spelling and knowing what the word “playboy,” means.
5
@wes evans
I agree, definitely different standards for Republicans and Democrats.
The Whitewater investigation was about Clinton's personal finances before he was president.
It went on for 4-1/2 years at a cost of $100 Million in today's dollars.
So lets hold Trump to that same standard and start investigating his personal finances for the next 4 years.
There is a reason Trump is terrified of releasing his income taxes and other financial information.
On the other hand, citing Clinton as a serial liar and playboy is hilarious.
Trump beats Clinton 1,000 fold.
15
Does anyone remember the last episode of Mary Tyler Moore? Ted Baxter protested the firing of the entire newsroom: Lou, Mary, Murray, Sue Ann, etc. Lou consoled/thanked Ted by saying "When a donkey flies you really don't ask how long he stays in the air!" Hoping the Republican leadership is going to set things right is like waiting for a donkey to fly. And Susan Collins and the few others who occasionally go against their party (for a short period of time) should not be expected to stay in the air.
9
"The president, tireless champion of the First Amendment..."
He's not. He's actually in favor of suppressing all kinds of speech. Like everything else for Trump, the 1A is just another means to an end.
8
What's worse than the behavior and policies of this president is the complete abdication of Constitutional responsibility by Republicans. The granddaddy of them all is Mitch McConnell, the great enabler. As long as he can pack the courts and receive dirty money from his wife, what does he care?
Traitor Trump and Millionaire Mitch will go down as two of the most corrupt individuals ever to hold positions in government.
23
I am so sick of Trump that I'm even getting sick of reading about how bad he is.
25
I am glad to see Maureen criticizing President Trump and has not been influenced by her brother Kevin! We had several articles criticizing the bean pole” Obama” and I am sure she wishes that he was back in the Oval Office. Thanks for stating the obvious but better.
V. Jayanty
7
Required reading every day through election day. Thank you, Maureen.
6
As usual, right on the money. Trump is a malign force at home and abroad. Because he cannot tell the truth, his “word” is worthless. Who can believe a pathological liar? His bottomless need for attention is beyond pathetic, reflecting his own lack of self worth. He remains unfit and unqualified for the job he holds. Wake up, America!
11
Another slam dunk! Thank you!
1
Now that Maureen Dowd and I finally have the same enemy, I look forward to Sunday.
3
Even if Trump is defeated in 2020, the long-term effects of his frontal assault on our democracy will be devastating. Our country has be gravely wounded, and our own citizens have enabled this to happen. Its not unlike Nazi Germany after the war. There's been a break from morality and the rule of law that the entire Republican party has supported and continues to support, not to mention 30-40% of the electorate. This is not ending any time soon.
9
I just love it that Trump is so ingrained in the minds of your liberal readership that he messes up their fathers' day enough for over a thousand of them to write a comment. Trump 2020 (easily !).
6
This is your presidency ... on Trump.
Just say, "NO!"
5
The foul stench of the trump administration will live on long after he is sad history. He is worse and more deranged than many could have imagined and yet his republican enablers still turn a blind eye and huddle like cowards and crooks willing to sell their soul's for short term gain. Read the signs, this will not stand. The US (mostly) is better than this sad and unfit little man with his myriad of psychological disorders.
8
Ms.Dowd,
And you proclaimed loudly and often that Trump was superior to Hillary Clinton as a candidate for president. How? And why? His ignorance, narcissism, mendacity, lack of experience, and crudeness were always abundantly obvious.
Is there any possible reason to take your judgment seriously? You made as concerted an effort to get Trump elected as you could. Your only talent is malicious attack, often without thought. This time, you just happen to be right.
15
@JackFlanders -- No, she just proclaimed how awful Hillary was. You didn't listen, and so now we have Trump. It isn't her fault for telling you the truth, it is your fault for not listening to her and just doing it anyway.
This is important. Don't do it again. Don't select the most Hillary-like candidate the DNC can find.
3
What's frightening - with the backdrop of the dubious "positive" of Hillary's popular vote in 2016 and the clarion call to dismantle the electoral college - is Trump carrying the vote of 84% of America's counties cutting across rural, suburban, and medium-to-large urban areas - except for the super large 10 or so cities / states (NYC, LA, Detroit, Chicago etc) that afforded Hillary her limited status. Look at the 2016 election results & graphics and see a "sea of red" - including battleground states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan & Wisconsin - won by Trump due in large part by a flawed candidate & campaign of Hillary Clinton - a "dynasty" carries limited weight only in some cases. Hopefully Biden or Hickenlooper or Klobuchar is the DEM nominee or others espousing "loser platforms" - free college, debt forgiveness, reparations and the most pernicious (obfuscating the American public) of MediCARE for All, including the never happen obliteration of private insurance involving 100 million workers with such employer coverage and the 50 million seniors most of whom have supplemental private insurance. will portend a DEM failure and the continuation of a calamitous & danger to American of Trump and trumpism. Sadly, John Kasich - my "write-in" in NY in the "all blue"state - preceded Trump. Perhaps the noble "quixotic" Bill Weld can put a dent or 2 for symbolic purpose in the GOP primaries, and a good DEM candidate comes to the forefront.
1
Back in the day, the two most recognized people in the world were Elvis and Ali.
Trump, I believe, has eclipsed them.
What's next ?
As John Lennon said in 1963 :
" We're more popular than Jesus ! "
For Trump, eclipsing Jesus (in his own mind) is but a stepping stone.
Arguably, he has the platform, and without question - the goal to become the universally recognized " Greatest Person " in all human history.
As Al Jolson said in the Jazz Singer :
" You aint seen nothin yet folks ! "
2
Hong Kong demonstrations highlight the importance of "street demonstrations" to influence unpopular political policies even from authoritarian govt's like China's. Trump is attempting to rule as an authoritarian dictator with the active support of AG Barr and McCONNELL the one way folks who resent this style of govt can affect a change is mass demonstrations. Barr will rip up any subpoenas congress issues and McCONNELL will block any legislation to rein in Trump as dictator. The people have the right to demonstrate vs Trump/Barr trying to impose Trump as King especially before 2020 to ensure Trump would be forced out if he refuses to leave if he loses as many fear he may do.
11
The Trump Administration is an exhausting chore, I hope this nation can endure. Resisting the precedents that may be set by Trump's efforts will be the true test of the nation's grit.
9
Here in Michigan, western Michigan to be exact, it looks like Republican congressman Justin Amash could be primaried out of office because after he read the Mueller report he said Trump should be impeached. He has defended his stance at public meetings in his 23rd district and says he doesn't care about being primaried—impeachment is the right thing to do. I have to wonder, if he had a sit-down with Nancy Pelosi could she change his mind.
3
@Mike T
Does it matter?
An additional seat in the Congress or the truth and the future of the Republic?
I 'd like Amash loses his primary and keeps his integrity and speaks out for most of us.
13
@Mike T
Oops. 3rd District, not 23rd.
Madam Pelosi is not trying to sell/change anyone's mind. Why would she? Nancy has it right. Trump is impeaching himself. And especially now that TREASON/collusion/conspiracy/cheating has been advocated by Trump, again....... Amash's sincere and honest opinion based on his thorough read of the evidence points, to impeachment. But I belive most importantly, Amash's support by the constituents at his Town Hall meeting is what counts and is creating the groundswell of censure for GOP Reps and Senators. The one outlier that I saw, the woman who voiced her support of Trump, was SO important to be heard out loud. She embodied, presented, and argued; 1) blind devotion. 2) ignorance as a defense for Trump. The Emperor is nakedness is being exposed.
5
The focus should be less on Trump and more on the voters who are his supporters. In future elections they will probably be looking for similar type of candidates to vote for assuming there are still legitimate elections which is no longer a given. And if Trump loses next year will they peacefully accept the election results? They are the reason Republican politicians can't go against Trump even when he acts more like a dictator than a president. Why are these voters so unhappy with liberal democracy that they are seeking an extreme right wing alternative? The two main reason seem to be racism which has played a major role in US history and perceptions of being short-changed in the economic shift toward globalism.
14
@Bob -- They'll be looking for what Trump promised (he lied) and not for what Hillary threatened them. The Democratic donor elites are rightly seen as threatening by vast numbers of Americans outside the narrow base of that elite.
2
Trump is terrified of people getting his taxes and other financial information.
Trump has a lot of motivation to get reelected.
Many of the possible financial crimes I can imagine him guilty of have a 5 to 7 year statue of limitations.
Still time to prosecute him after 2020.
16
Who does Trump answer to? Is his relationship with Putin an obvious threat to our nation? Why aren't we asking him those question? Does he view Russia as an ally? We need to know - today's news told us our military needs to act without the commander-in-chief's knowledge or he might inform Russian officials of those action. Thanks to Trump we have our military acting on its own and that's a five alarm fire if you love freedom and justice for all.
20
@John Thomas Ellis -- Hillary's miserable collapse was her own doing, not Putin's. That's just an excuse.
Don't do the same thing again expecting a different result. The DNC led us to this. Trump was just there to collect on the mess made by the DNC.
2
First I read the Kristoff article about capital punishment and the way that justice can slant against the less fortunate, possibly poorer, possibly non-white minority people in our society.
Then I read Maureen Dowd's article about the president. It occurs to me that the obvious disparity in justice favoring those with wealth and power over those without means is displayed by Donald Trump still sitting in the Oval Office instead of in a jail cell. Times readers know all too well that Individual One has been named as the coconspirator in a hush money scheme that has his former attorney in prison. Along with the evidence in the Mueller Report of obstruction of justice and evidence of financial misdeeds that need to be investigated by Congress with their authority to review his tax returns and financial records the American people wait for justice to be served.
But our system is so rigged for the powerful that our president cannot even be prosecuted because HIS justice department has an opinion to say he can't be. And the only body of justice for him is apparently so awed by his power that the third most powerful person in America won't wield her power granted by our Constitution to apply justice, to determine whether Trump can ever be found guilty or not. As Mitch McConnell said about the Supreme Court, let's let the American people decide what justice should be. I will use my vote in 2020 to do that if our justice system is unable to reach a conclusion before then.
29
This makes me think of a recent article on FEMA.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/homeland-security-watchdog-retires-early-after-his-office-was-forced-to-retract-feel-good-audits-of-disaster-response/2019/06/10/a370f488-8b9d-11e9-b08e-cfd89bd36d4e_story.html
Who protects the chickens when foxes run the hen house?
In 1968 teacher Jane Elliot, after, MLK was murdered taught her kids a lesson on hate and prejudice.remember the brown eye blue eye, look it up, this was third grade and with small benefits and praise for one side everyone was shocked when after 15 minutes the kids changed radically. The actually felt superior or inferior. This is happening real time for real. On Facebook I see Christians I know sharing from what are no doubt Russian sites, something about sanity, the quote” Putin may not be perfect but I prefer him to the disgusting liberal Democrats “
12
@dan
The Southern Poverty Law Center states, for 2018, that there’s been a 50 percent increase in white nationalist groups; there were 40 people killed in North America in radical right terrorist attacks; and 1,020 hate groups tracked across the USA.
The SPLC data, obviously, doesn’t include all the BBQ-Becky, Permit Patty, and other similar incidents. Nor does it include the continuing cases of police brutality or the blatant racism where some feel free and entitled to yell racist epithets at people of color.
Too many have regressed to their base instincts.
5
We have anarchy in Washington, how long before this spreads to the citizenry? Law is now held meaningless, the Constitution a thing of memory, We used to point out that we were a country that could disagree, without tanks in the streets...how much longer will this hold?
Unless the GOP steps up to enforce what they know to be right, to enforce our laws, we could be headed for civil war. Does the GOP really want to be the architect of the demise of our Democratic Republic? Ball’s in their court.
18
Trump is a bully. A bully succeeds by intimidation of his prey. By standing against proceeding with impeachment Pelosi becomes Trump's prey. He is prospering by her fear of making Trump a martyr in her expectation of the Republican controlled Senate voting against removal from office. The only way to deal with Trump is to bully the bully. And that is done by impeaching him. Let the Republican senators ride shotgun for him and let's see how they fare in the 2020 election.
17
As Ms. Dowd 'recounts':
"The Trump White House may be a clown show and a criminal enterprise. But it’s also an actual presidency [that is]
turning out to be a genuinely reactionary administration led by a wannabe authoritarian who refuses to recognize constitutional checks on power."
***********
All I can 'say' is that Ralph Cramden never imagined any 'development' to be nearly as 'revolting' as any one of trump's near-constant, and constantly revolting, 'developments.'
5
A highly relevant and serious column, Maureen. As you forcefully advise us:
"It’s turning out to be a genuinely reactionary administration led by a wannabe authoritarian who refuses to recognize constitutional checks on power. The real danger is not the antics but the policies. If Trump isn’t careful, he’s going to add substance to his administration. And it won’t be the kind we want."
It's up to those who voted for trump the last time to understand the gravity of this. It comes down to 77,400 votes in the heartland swing states. If trump can hang onto those, he's probably in again, all other things being equal.
And trump's people truly believe everything he says, or, rather, everything he *tells* them. They don't know what the Emoluments Clause is, or about FEC rules. And to them, the Hatch Act is government interference into their poultry farms.
So, if trump wins through the Electoral College once again, but loses by an even larger amount in the popular vote, there will be turmoil (at least that) in our population. By how much can trump lose the popular vote and win through the Electoral College?
It does appear that, while neither you nor I can overturn our Constitution, the founding fathers left a way in the electoral process by which this nation could disband its proud democracy for trump fascism. Trump supporters are ready, willing and able to accomplish that for their trump.
14
If, (please God When), Trump loses in 2020 he will not accept the loss or go quietly. The future vision of him denouncing the election makes me physically ill. But the very real danger comes from the prospect of war in the Strait of Hormuz and all the unintended consequences. Our entire reality could change in an instant and elections could be a quaint memory. It may be too late for impeachment.
15
@Lance Gauthier -- Make sure that the election actually is honest.
Trump is likely to get Brennan and the Steele people just before the next election, perfect timing for him. Democrats will need to be able to defend the election.
It shouldn't be that way, but there is every prospect it could happen.
2
Ms. Dowd writes that we "have to struggle to look away and take the measure of what he’s doing." It is easy to measure what Trump is doing. Just review every successful foreign and domestic policy initiative of President Obama, destroy it completely and replace it with Trump's destructive and dangerous self serving agenda.
17
"No collusion, no collusion. Oh, but, ya, I would definitely collude."
22
And he and Jr. and all the others definitely did collude.
3
We come here, we post comments (sometimes they even get published) and we commiserate.
But I want to ask every one of us a question: what is it going to take to do exactly what the people of Hong Kong just did?
If we really care about this thing called democracy and the rule of law, we need to stand up and fight for it - loud, clear, and in your face (trump, mcconnell, republicans).
Either we do this or they take it all away. Every single right we have, that millions died to secure, gone.
Taken by a man so sulfurous, he'd gladly shoot you on 5th Avenue then give himself a parade.
40
Time to take to the streets and shout “throw him out.” I’m from the sixties.
8
@Deb Deb, I've been wondering why Americans aren't outraged enough to go marching in the streets - the emerging changes state by state in abortion laws, the endless chaos within your government. Trump's daily tweets and statements become more fantastical - this morning I read in the Washington Post that his followers may demand that he sit a third term in office. You have a president jockeying into position to be a tinpot despot of your great country.
8
"He makes it so easy for everyone to focus on the tweets and the maniacal, moronic reality show that you have to struggle to look away and take the measure of what he’s doing" This is Trump's basic method: hide behind the power granted presidents to deflect criticism, and get the media focused on his personality instead of his policies, which if exposed, would be the ruin of his presidency. So far it is Trump 1000, with all the rest of the world at nearly 0. Trump will love it if we keep talking impeachment, an impeachment he would likely win. Why? Because impeachment talk serves Trump, in that a conversation about his policies is avoided. Focus on his policies so that we end his presidency in the next election: and stop talking about his personality, which serves his ego and serves as an avoidance of discussing his policies.
10
Trump is the highway accident on the other side of the expressway that everyone slows down to look at.
8
I knew when Trump "won" the election that we all were in for (at least) a rough four years but I had no idea that he could cause so much damage to the republic—in just half a term!
It's not that Trump has ruined any good will we've acquired overseas in 240 years of existence, or that he has virtually recreated the Gilded Age of grossly unequal power between Great Wealth and No Wealth.
Trump's greatest damage has been done to the Republican Party and American conservatism. Trump's Republican Party is less a political party than a base upon which his entire wrecking crew—from himself to Conway to his entire cabinet—is sustained.
The Republicans who hold elective office within the Congress of the United States are as treasonous to the Constitution as is their nominal leader at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. They allow a would-be, modern Caligula to despoil the oval office.
21
Ellen Weintraub (sp?) did her job. To my knowledge she hasn't yet incurred "the Wrath of Con". I hope some Republicans notice this.
If Kellyanne decides to "spend more time with her family" does that mean her husband will have to quit doing a superlative job taking Trump to task?
8
While I understand the use of the term "clown show" is necessary for print, let's not forget that it's merely a euphemism for what Trump's presidency really is.
9
All you say is true. And yet a full 30 to 40 percent of the electorate, all of the Senate Republicans including the leader still back this vampire in wolf’s clothing! You know things are beyond bad when Richard Nixon looks naive by comparison!
13
@B. Rothman
You know it's bad when you wake every morning with dread to read the Times to find out what outrageous thing T has said and done. It's like watching yourself again and again being shocked and wondering what the rest of the world is thinking about us and knowing they are mourning what we used to be, T and the republicans are killing not only us but the hope we had provided the world,
1
The problem is most people expect the rule of law to be followed and don’t know how to respond when it is not followed. Trump and his henchmen know this and capitalize on our good nature. We are also lazy about our freedom. Perhaps when Trumpism begins to chip away at our everyday freedoms, to, for example the extent that China is chipping away at the bargained for freedoms that those in Hong Kong had, we will rise up and fill the streets and show our disgust. Until then, he rules and makes us worse every day.
15
I'm still waiting for Republicans, who overtly and loudly constantly claim to be the more "moral" of the two parties, to climb out of their cowardice and call out these pariahs such as Trump, Conway, Huckleberry Sanders, Bolton, De Vos, et. al.
16
Can you imagine what the GOP would have said if one of Obama's top aides had been recommended for firing by an Obama appointee whose job it was to ensure ethical government? And if Obama then said he wasn't going to fire the aide? It would dominate Fox and every other news outlet and would be remembered for years
Now, though, the fact of the aide being a "repeat offender" in violating a federal statute is merely business as usual and lost in the cacophony of unethical and criminal behavior emanating from this administration.
We are in so deep we can't even see how far we have sunk. Trump is permanently damaging all our values, not just the values of those who worship him.
16
We need people prominent in the popular media to audibly and concisely call out every lie and illegal/treasonous statement he makes, by number and with refuting evidence just a click away.
Sort of like the Washington Post lie list (if it's still being updated), but in Twitter or Instagram where these things are spread; and with sound-bite headlines for each.
In "dispute theory" this is called going into robot mode - just keep repeating your position with a concise explanation.
Like Trump, but with a count. "Lie number 1" "Lie number 2" "Illegal #1" and so on. Of course "Lie" would start at about several thousand by now.
7
The Silence of the Republican Lambs continues to mystify me, but then I look at McConnell and his corrupted wife, who works for this lunatic, and the mystery disappears.
Despite all of the inglorious behavior of this man, despite his complete disrespect for all things, there are millions of Americans who defend him, most notably the religious right, who laugh off his immoral conduct because he is against abortion and is stacking the courts with like minded judges.
Now we hear him say he condones treason, and still the Silence of the Republican Lambs continues,with just a handful of exceptions.
Until that changes, we will have to bear this boorish, loutish excuse for a human being as our president. There is no embarrassment too horrible for the GOP to bear. After all, they got a tax cut!
9
White House run by Con man is a criminal enterprise. He is afraid of going to prison along with his corrupt family and cronies, if he is not reelected in 2020. Knowing the morally bankrupt, unethical pathological liar child bully, he will take any help from China or Russia or anyone else. He would cut a deal (e.g. trade preference) at the cost of the nation to win. Look at how he looks these days. Con Don is not sleeping at night for the fear of wearing orange suit in 2020. It is likely that he and his corrupt enterprise are in fishing expedition to repeat the same as in 2016 and also interfere with the ballot box. For the same, Republicans are vehemently opposing to eliminate potential software manipulation of ballot boxes used in the election. This is a grand plan devised by the con man and Mcconnell. People wake up- our democracy is in the process of getting hijacked.
8
@Rm
All the lights on the threat board are flashing red and have been since the 2016 election.
2
I understand that polling shows 48% of Americans are favorable towards impeachment with 22% of the population unsure. And because we have a GOP who seem to have locked their personal copies of the Constitution somewhere in a "safe place", not to remind themselves of how opportunistic, how unsavory and feckless their own behavior has been these last 2 + years, they kowtow to a person who is totally unfit to serve as our president. So impeachment, and having the Senate agree to showing Trump the door is a stretch by anyone's imagination during these dark Trumpian times. What hold does Trump have on this GOP? And if Trump doesn't have a hold on this Senate, then who does, because they sure as heck aren't doing their job. How do we remove Trump from office when he is so clearly a threat to our democracy?
7
The right-wing extremist at NPR says 22% of the people want impeachment now.
The 78% is not to count in a one-party system.
1
The real danger to America is that it appears that the constitutional checks on presidential over reach, indeed, criminality, simply don’t work.
9
@John David James oh, they work okay. it's just that you have to go through mitch to get there. and he's too busy counting his wife's money to bother with our country. i would have a hard time deciding which of trump or mcconnell to accidently run over first.
4
Yada, yada.
Trump has been a consummate danger to the nation from the get go of his bizarre political ascendency to the highest office in the land. The track record of his Presidency and his musical chairs, miscreant administration has been uniformly delinquent and disastrous both domestically and internationally.
Underlying and abetting the Trump spectacle nearly every inch of the way is the GOP and the Republican Congress and especially the Republican controlled Senate led bluntly and equally brazenly by Generalissimo Mitch McConnell.
The chronicle of the Trump debacle is galactic.
4
Maureen, I disagree with your use of the word "amorality." Trump is immoral and prides himself on being so.
10
The hypocrisy is hilarious and shows why Trump is supported well. People know he's a crook . They're simply convinced and rightfully so that the Democrats are crooked too . At least Trump admits it.
Per the left listening to dirt offered by a foreigner is a terrible crime. Acively hiring a foreign investigator and purchasing dirt is not a crime. This is why people on the right aren't outraged. The outrage from the left is politics in outrage clothing. They say nothing of doing an even worse act themselves during the same election.
3
All made possible by Fox, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Bible radio, Hannity, Limbaugh, and clones of Alex Jones.
Until this media blitz of brainwashing is dealt with, some 45 percent of voters are simply lemmings following Trump over the cliff.
11
For 876 days now, we have been either binging or being forced fed by the outrageous Trump media presidency.
Never a president of all the people, Trump has relied on gaining attention by being jaw-dropping stupid, scurrilous, and giving the finger to laws, ethics, protocol, and human decency to entertain his aggrieved low-education base.
As laws and reality are catching up with Trump and closing in, the worry is the willfully ignorant, narcissistic Trump is running out of tricks & lies and becoming increasingly desperate to the point of dangling war as an option to deflect attention from his massive failings and slowly declining poll numbers.
But, like that obnoxious boss who is wrong about everything, Trump has squandered his presidency, and his political stunts and antics are increasingly unhinged and dangerous. No accomplished and intelligent person will work for Trump, and look who is left!
The down and dirty dogs have had their day, and even Trump binge watchers may be getting weary.
So who is the going to be the Democrats' Lone Ranger riding into town to rid the town and planet of the corrupt and nefarious Trump gang?
Consider the contrast effect of any and most of the Democratic presidential candidates--from experienced politicians like Warren, Biden, & governors as well as up-and-coming younger politicians like Harris, Buttigieg, &others.
The country is ready for a a contrast & change from Trump.
Make America Sane Again! I bet we will, but will Trump go?
7
Let me tweak the author's sentence a little:
"And what he’s doing is altering domestic and foreign policy in [fascist] ways while running up huge deficits."
Deficits seem silly compared to what he's doing to incite global war and the destruction of our Democratic Republic.
3
Oh, my. I could have written this article. The whole truth at last is out thanks to Gail Collins and her "no-holds-barred" column. This president is an absolute disaster and his sycophants will follow him down this lying path as long as they are able. I am 80 years old and I lived through Nixon and I never thought anyone could top him, but I swear that this president came from another universe to topple our country. There seems to be no low that he can't reach and no hole that his followers will not follow him down. Heaven help us!!!!!
9
"
"And what he’s doing is altering domestic and foreign policy in terrible ways while running up huge deficits"
Excellent Maureen. You overlooked one gigantic item in the above. He is running up huge Profits for himself, his children and spouses and god only knows who else...
6
This column floored me, but not for expected reasons. The link provided to the James Baker 'anguish' paragraph leads to a 1999 piece by Bob Woodward that declared Bush I, far from reluctantly pushing Saddam out of Kuwait after declining to do so unilaterally, had agreed with Scowcroft that we "needed a war" in order to keep a US presence in the region. In that scenario, Saddam's refusal to move in 1991 was simply convenient happenstance that would've been circumvented in any case. I'll admit it, that was a surprise to learn all these years later, if Woodward's account is to be believed.
Of course, with the Bush administration, William Barr makes an appearance, to recommend pardoning not just 'Cap' Weinberger, but a whole slew of cronies that knew Bush I was more "in the loop" with Iran-Contra than he let on at the time.
So, here we are with GOP threads running from 1980's Reagan administration, to Bush I's Clinton mini-scandal involving rumors of a passport tampering attempt for 'dirt' on Bill in 1992, to the current WH occupant who has removed all pretense of propriety in exercising power, speaking an apparent truth (shocking!) that anything's fair--even the betrayal of your country--as long as it keeps you relevant.
My prediction? This WH is looking for any excuse to postpone or call off the 2020 contest. That's what goading 'Nancy' into formal impeachment is all about. He can't run against her, a mere woman, but he CAN claim 'unfair' against formal Impeachment.
6
At the risk of engaging in whataboutism, wasn't Russiagate one of the dirtiest tricks ever played during a political campaign and against a legally elected president. Surely, Ms. Dowd you realize that it was much more serious than Watergate!
Time will tell it's degree of seriousness as the indictments are forthcoming.
BTW, I'm an independent voter and hold independent, reasonable opinions.
Best,
David
2
President Trump may not want to lose just as he's learning how to get away with wielding dictatorial powers, but he is even more motivated to hang onto his exemption from prosecution for his crimes, many of which have boiled to the surface as a result of his high office of immunity.
2
The thing about maintaining a democracy with "checks and balances" is No Honor, No Check and No Independence, No Balance. These tests apply to every person serving this democracy. A democracy tested and rife with failures.
Failure of Honor:
Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch because he put his personal desire above the democracy. He knows the Constitution. Yet, he became party to its befoulment.
Failure of Independence:
Mitch McConnell's majority of Republican Senators are robotic in their adherence to positions that match those PAC-sponsoring super donors ready to oust them by primary challenge. But, three have announced retirement in 2020 - Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS); Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN); and Sen. Michael Enzi (R-WY).
They could call for a primary challenge to Donald J. Trump. But, no, they are devoted to their future, not their party's.
They could defend democracy at zero political loss. But, no, they are devoted to their staff's future, not America's.
Weakness, Ms Dowd, the Trump pack preys upon personal weakness and weakness abounds.
10
There will be long term damage to our country from the mental contortions some people are going through to justify the actions of Trump as president. Large sections of his base are having to rationalize what they know to be wrong behavior in order to support Trump's policies that they agree with. The example being set for the younger generations by their grandparents and parents in this regard is very dangerous for their developing concepts of what is acceptable behavior for the leaders of a democratic country that has been anchored by the rule of law and prided itself as being a positive role model for other counties.
15
Kellyanne Conway is a lawyer and as a lawyer has an obligation under the rules of professional conduct to promote respect for the law. In 2017, a group of law professors and other lawyers complained to the DC Bar's board of professional responsibility about Conway's conduct. (Conway is admitted to practice in DC.) As far as I can tell, no disciplinary action resulted from that complaint. With Special Counsel Kerner's recent finding that Conway repeatedly violated the Hatch Act despite being on notice that her conduct was illegal, the DC Bar would be wise to revist the issue.
29
NYT readers and Maureen Dowd seem to be overlooking one critical factoid- his continues to be a winning formula. The real tragedy is that under 18 months from the next opportunity to have him removed, a credible challenger, able to recruit enough Independents to his or her side, has yet to emerge. Trump may be a low life but he is an effective one when his own interests are involved. He runs roughshod over the political and legal landscapes just as he did when in business. What is required more than ever, is a credible alternative, not complaints about gerrymandering, Obstruction or the Electoral College. Moreover, our lack of respect for education means that nine out of ten Americans know what Grand Theft Auto is but not the meaning of "existential".Finally, we need a platform with immediately relevant and tangible proposals rather than ideas about social justice, the climate and a Global role for the US ,which resonate with the Rachel Maddow crowd but are far more than two standard deviations away from having any credibility with enough Americans to change the occupant of the Oval Office.
10
The thing that most baffles me about Trump, McConnell, etc. is that is doesn't appear that the question of whether something is right or wrong is ever part of the calculus. This crew would stretch the descriptive powers of Thomas Hobbes. We know their reign has been nasty and brutish: let's hope that 2020 makes it short.
13
Ms. Dowd, the “real danger” isn’t Trump, but his enablers in Congress and in his administration. If even a handful for Republican Senators (thinking of my now spineless Senator Rob Portman here) were to stand up and forcefully reject Trump’s trampling on the rule of law and our democratic institutions, I predict there would be a cascading effect of other Republicans who would also jump on the bandwagon. To Trump voters, Republican leaders could sympathize that they all voted for Trump in good faith, but are now shocked that they didn’t get what they bargained for - give his supporters an honorable “exit ramp.” Trump would be forced to resign in shame like Nixon and would be out of power within the month.
17
@J. When pigs fly this is can possibly happen.
3
I can't believe I. am even thinking this, but at this point, maybe the military should just take over. After all, the military at least knows climate change is a real threat. They know Trump can't be trusted.
There's credible info that Trump is not the only national leader bought by a foreign government. There's credible info that the corruption is spread throughout the entire cabinet, and Mitch McConnell, the majority leader. The only one of the three branches of government still kind of functioning is the judiciary, but that is slowly being destroyed too.
Either the military needs to take over, or citizens need to do what the people of Hong Kong are doing: take to the streets in the millions and shut the entire country down until sanity is restored.
11
Regarding a war with Iran.
As a veteran ready to go to war in a standing military force in the early 60’s (I participated in the Cuban Missile Crisis at a forward SAC base), I would have refused to go to Vietnam without a formal Declaration of War debated and voted on by Congress.
That is the way the Constitution provides for military intervention. There should be no other way.
I think I’m on firm legal ground. Tell me I’m not with proof.
I was honorably discharged after four years of service. My unit went to the front in Vietnam a few months later. It was an illegal deployment.
16
Thanks Maureen for, due to your own outsize ego, taking repeated shots at Obama and Hilary in 2015-16 to help us end up in this unending nightmare of a “presidency.”
The inability to tell the difference between Presidents or candidates who were imperfect and this absolute nightmare of democracy destruction, on the part of many a media figure, helped land us in this mess. I hope that is remembered and acted upon in 2020. There is no middle ground between extending and ending this catastrophe of an administration.
43
I can't understand why no 'anti-Trump' or 'anti-Congress' marches and demonstrations aren't being promoted, to show all of our public servants that we are done with their campaigning and fund-raising while they get NOTHING done for us, their employers. I can't understand why there aren't lines of people in front of McConnell's and Graham's offices, asking if they had their fingers crossed when they swore their Oaths of Office. There should be thousands of veterans protesting the mistreatment of their comrades in arms, even if they have been treated OK. It's called comradery, not a dirty word, and it's an act of patriotism, not treason. Re-reading the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence, which we honor on July 4th, I'm always reminded of the bravery and determination of our founders, and their devotion to freedom and liberty for all, even while failing to practice it. We still fail every day, but it should still be our goal. Our goal shouldn't change. When we fail to achieve a goal, we should change our plan and get back on track towards achieving it. This is what should draw us together as a nation. This is what religions should be promoting. This should be the agenda for all public servants. War is not the answer.
15
Trump has not turned out as bad a POTUS as many of us were afraid he would be. He is worse. We saw a lot of this coming. But who knew the GOP leadership would be pliant to the point of the adults in the old Twilight Zone episode where the adults will do anything to avoid the wrath of a tyrannical child with telekinetic powers? Nixon had a GOP leadership in Congress that would finally say, eventually, enough is too much. The republic of today will get no such help. I hope the Constitutional structure of checks and balances in still in place when he's gone. When he's gone, not, when it's over. This damage will last a longer time than his administration.
1873
Costs to a foreign government to buy a US Senator would be relatively zero versus a nations defense and intelligence resource costs. A government buying fifteen US Senators would assures Senate’s acquiescence to Donald Trump.
At costs of two-hundred and fifty-million dollars per Senator, equivalent to one-hundred years of McConnell’s annual salary, Russia could’ve bought control of the current US Senate for less than five-billion dollars.
151
@JOELEEH
It will go on as long as the Republican party remains a cesspool of corruption. Until the Republicans feel the heat of punishment, they will continue with their malfeasance, mendacity, electoral chicanery, racism, and outright fraud. Trump will soon be gone, but the Republicans' lack of ethics, morals and true patriotism will continue.
220
@DRS
Fairly cheap considering if all the billionaires that own Russian chip in for the purchase.
46
Another work of art, Ms. Dowd. My worry is that if Trump loses in 2020, he'll be back to run again in 2024. No actually, that's my second biggest worry. The bigger worry is that the GOP is now so solidly molded in his image, we will be dealing with the aftermath of this toxicity for generations. They're the real enemy here. Remember, about half the country lives in 8 states, so half the country is represented by 16 senators. The remaining half has a super majority of 84 senators from 42 rigged states where votes are gerrymandered red. The electorate there is so desperately trying to make ends meet working two jobs, they are helpless to keep up with the news, they believe what the shiny entertaining guy tells them, they are powerless over their livelihoods, and the money'ed interests that control their state has them on a leash. We must change the Senate, somehow. Otherwise nothing changes.
2006
@Laurel Denver
There is no changing the problem without changing the Constitution - and just don’t see that happening.
And it’s getting frightening...
105
@Laurel Denver
I agree with your sentiments here, and like you, bemoan the inherent unfairness of the Senate, which disproportionately favors sparsely populated states, most of them red (in fact, I can’t think of a sparsely populated blue state). However, your statement regarding gerrymandering is incorrect. Because Senate races are statewide, they cannot be gerrymandered.
99
@Laurel Denver
Calling the GOP and the voters who support it "the real enemy" is wrong. Are people not allowed to have an opinion unless their share yours?
Why do you think that any red state must have rigged elections? I know plenty of people who genuinely believe in the Republican party of old, and I know a few who believe in the Republican party of Donald Trump.
I'm a Bernie supporter, but I don't believe all Republicans deep down believe like me and are being hoodwinked into voting against their real values.
23
It’s a measure of how bad things are under this regime that hardly anyone believes Trump’s assertion that the Iranians were behind the attacks on the two tankers in the Gulf of Oman.
What to make of that surely is a question voters might ponder two years into Trump’s first term. He has clearly done nothing to build respect among a majority of Americans. His divisive brand of politics is so tinged with bitterness and wrath towards any who dare disagree with him that his mental faculties appear to be diminishing by the week.
Starting a war with Iran would be catastrophic. Returning Trump to office in 2020 would be a calamity for the world.
1615
@Paul Bernish- the Iranian rumblings in the last few days are a clear " shiny object " - distraction. a common psychological phenomenon exhibited by Trump and others similarly afflicted.
and yes - we're heading toward a calamity, on many levels.
115
@amir burstein: We don't know if it was Iranian 'rumblings'. It very well maybe Pompeo/Bolton/Trump false flag 'rumblings'.
I don't believe liars and I never will. That grainy video? Could easily have been MBS men.
72
@Paul Bernish
I'm certain that a Trumpian war with Iran would go at least as well as our Bushy encounter with Iraq. What's to worry??
42
I am exhausted by reading, hearing, and seeing trumps minute by minute destruction of the Office of the President. There seems to be no bottom to his ethics challenged behavior.
As for the white house staff and cabinet band of enablers, what can I say. It seems like each one of them is trying to win the award for 'telling, demonstrating, or implementing' the worse policy decision of the week'.
This week's front runners seem to be:
Kellyanne Conway's violations of the Hatch Act.
Bolton's every ready 'Let's have a war with Iran' mantra.
Sarah Sander's impersonation of a truthful Press Secretary.
The point is this inexperienced administration is an over-the-top tragedy which everybody is hoping will end before it completely drags America into a national or international crisis.
1772
@Lalo No, everybody isn’t hoping that.
6
@Lalo Well maybe the GOP will nominate OJ Simpson next, now that he has resurrected!
28
Rabies was at one time invariably fatal. (Bear with me, it’s a metaphor.)
In one of the few cases of successful treatment, the treatment philosophy was based on the idea that what actually kills patients suffering from lyssaviruses is the body’s own immune response. So they induced a coma in the (young) patient, and in a first, she survived.
Trump (as you note) is stimulating our societal immune response. There is some question whether that response will be adequate to heal us from this disease. It is necessary to fight, but ...
There are also worrying signs that the strong immune response will overwhelm the body politic. The best example I can think of right now is the general running cyberops out of the Pentagon *has stopped briefing Trump about cyber incursions into Russia’s infrastructure*, because he rightly views the Occupant of the WH as a security threat. While this is almost definitely necessary, it’s also pretty big step away from civilian control of the military in my view.
We must resist Trump to save our democracy, but we must also be scrupulously correct in that resistance - all while the other side is *definitely* cheating (eg by gerrymandering, suppression efforts, etc).
I wish I had a prescription I knew would work, and be safe ...
6
Can we come up with another term for President when talking about Trump ? He simply fails at proper usage of the term. Even our lesser Presidents, even Nixon, deserved the title.
10
I’ve taken to calling him ‘the occupant’ [of the WH]. I recommend it.
1
I just call him 45.
The transition office for a Democrat elected in 2020 will need to have notebooks full of hundred of executive orders to reverse or halt the hundred upon hundred of reactionary measures put in place by this monstrous administration while sorting out the damage and finding ways to reverse and contain it before even beginning to move ahead with progressive government.
It will be all hands on deck of the Democratic Party policy ship to undo the astounding debacle that is the Trump administration and its determination and success in taking us back to 1950 or even to 1900.
It will be a fearsome job to reverse and undo the damage.
10
This editorial has very little to do with Trump. Other than the hateful title it was mostly about other people and administrations.
Trump's sin this week, saying he would listen to other nations disclosures about opposing candidates is honest. If he listens and reports it, it is not illegal or wrong.
3
@Marika,
No, he's not supposed to listen--that is receiving something of value. The FEC chair, Elaine Weintraub has explained the law really lucidly.
It worries me when I hear people say Trump is honest: I think what they mean, if they would be honest, is that he revels in his own corruption and that's what they like about him.
3
This is all very well and good, but the behavior of the executive branch is abetted by Sen. McConnell's complicity: he is driving the get-away car. He is as guilty as the rest. When will the glare of the press be applied to him?
29
The most important statement from this article is about running up deficits. Trump’s business record shows he overreaches and then bails on vendors when he can’t or won’t pay the bill. I’m worried he’ll stick the US with a bill it can’t ever pay off.
10
Trump's yardstick for everything is fairness. If he perceives any law to be unfair to him for any reason, he ignores it. Legality is unimportant in his privileged world. He is the father who explains his edicts by saying, "Because I said so." He is more important than anything else in his world. Honor, truth, ethics, even fairness are sacrificed for ego.
12
I agree with Maureen that Trump could somehow add “substance” to his administration. I assume she means that his maniacal and malevolent way of governing will somehow gain a cache of legitimacy, become an acceptable alternative to the orderly and halfway moral rule we’ve known in the past. She is correct in raising this danger, and I hope more is written and discussed on the peril of such eventuality.
7
"There’s no vaccination against the vile machinations of Trump."
So true Maureen. Hey, it's about time that we take the lesson of the two wolves to heart. Given, each of us is made up of two wolves, the good one and the bad one. The pervasive strategy these days is to nuke the bad wolf, exterminate, destroy, eliminate. This is the means to establish the good. Right?
But, (and this is definitive), in our inherent, immutable design there is no way to exterminate the bad wolf. Worse, the more energy that it gets, the stronger it exists.
So, here's the thrilling part - if I just stop feeding the bad wolf, it will weaken to the point of being totally ineffective - as good as dead.
On the other hand, if I concentrate on ONLY feeding the good wolf, lo and behold, the good wolf will thrive to the point of taking over.
So, it is imperative that we the citizens focus on kindness, consciousness, and constructive behavior. As a result, the bad will just fall away inept, deprived, and defunct.
Stop declaring the obvious about Trump. It only gives him energy. There are a gazillion more wonderful things that human beings are doing to feed and nourish the good wolf. Everyday, thousands of candles are being lite.
8
We voted him in. We can vote him out. (I'm assuming here that Congress shirks its Constitutional duty to remove an unfit president.)
10
How confident in the face of widespread GOP efforts to cheat the vote (see: North Carolina) should we be that we ca really ‘vote him out’?
We knew what kind of president Donald Trump would be, and none of his behavior is a surprise. The scandal is the Republican Party supporting his behavior.
29
It seems "I was only supporting him for political purposes" is the latest version of "I was only following orders".
19
@PJ and his cult: "the ends justifies the means." heard that before, too.
Glad to hear that Catholic Church "situation" is in the past. (First I'd heard)..."During the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, it was stunning to see wide swaths of clergymen, responsible for teaching children right from wrong, perverting right and wrong."
7
Everything Trump does is predicated on how well it will play to his base. But it wasn’t the older white, less educated males who got him elected. It was independents who were tired of the Democrats. Now they are tired of Trump. So, assuming a clean election (big assumption), he’s going down.
5
We Democrats have a significant hand in this American devolution because of the willful impotence of our elected Democratic leaders and the fragility of Democratic voters. Democrats control much of the budget, including salaries; but it's unthinkable to wield that power. They would rather appease than enforce the laws, make deals that are consistently broken by Republicans. Thus, "blah blah blah...let me know when jail time starts," etc.
Democratic voters are obsessed over being inclusive while simulanteously excluding (usually their own base): always concerned about which candidate will appeal to "moderates," "swing voters," "fly-over America;" this one's too liberal, that one's too corporate; "I can't vote for her because she gave a speech to ______."
When Democrats are in the majority, so little gets done; yet whether Republicans are in the majority or not, they get their way . Democrats argue, "It's easier to destroy than to build." Then why aren't we Democrats destroying this acceleration toward facism?
7
In my long life, I learned that the worst criminals are so bad, that they just don't have the capacity to understand that they are very bad. They just can't comprehend their own crimes.
Why did I think that now? Perhaps because of the events of the last three years, and I'm not singling out any one person. When the Trump Wall st Administration came to power, all the criminals came out of the woodwork. Ah, just a minute, there's a scammer call I have to take.
4
I have this recurrent waking nightmare that he loses on Election Day, refuses to concede, convenes an "emergency investigative task force" to investigate the "voter fraud" that caused him to "lose" [Fox News will put the words' "lose" and "win" in quotes], declares a national emergency suspending the Electoral College vote, and orders the military to protect his possession of the White House; that the Supreme Court upholds his orders, 5-4, as "well within executive authority," and declines to rule on the merits of his claim "pending discovery," and that the House votes out a half-dozen impeachment resolutions that Mitch McConnell refuses to even assign to committee, and that there are riots and protests and the president orders the military to shoot protestors, and the Joint Chiefs refuse to carry out his orders as illegal, and he fires them and replaces them with mad-dog ex-military men whom he pardoned for war crimes, and that from there things get worse,
13
I wish I could call that a clear paranoid delusion, but I don’t think I can ...
1
@Archer That is one bleak picture.
1
Someone very wise said evil flourishes when good men do nothing. If Trump is a gargoyle chomping in American values, what are the Democrats? They are the people on the street pointing and staring at the monstrous gargoyle. They do absolutely nothing to try to bring it down. Worst of all in this criminal clown show is Nancy Pelosi who has a duty now to begin impeachment hearings on Trump, but who dithers about, swing she does not want to launch a “partisan” process. It’s all doublespeak. What is partisan about wanting to hold a corrupt President to account? Clearly the nation at large isn’t with him. He loses to every Democratic candidate in the polls.Nervous Nancy is an accurate name. She is desperately nervous about falling out of political favor. Givving in to her insecurities, she allows the gargoyle to continue his destructive reign rather than confidently hold him to account before the entire nation. Nancy Pelosi is allowing evil to flourish. She Ivan do everything to punish and disgrace him but she chooses to do nothing.
5
Too bad it isn't also considered illegal for an administration to solicit, accept or receive anything of value (troops, munitions, intelligence, etc) from a foreign entity (America's purported loyal allies) while it engages in immoral and illegal invasions across the globe. John Poole
3
".....The Trump White House may be a clown show and a criminal enterprise. But it’s also an actual presidency......:
It's the Trump Wall st Administration.
3
The comments here tell me that so many of us are sick of this administration, and possibly scared of the future, yet my neighbors only listen to Fox News, nothing else. They don't read the NYTimes, or the WAPO, or anything else. They watch TV. The local newspaper is a right wing owned rag. The poor employees seem to be scared of losing their jobs if they counter their editorial policies. What would help is if some of the high rollers $$$ in this nation would start shoveling some money to hungry journalism graduates, and or news outlets to pay for and hire investigative journalists, and just bury the propagandist right-wing media with facts.
12
"The Trump White House may be a clown show and a criminal enterprise. But it’s also an actual presidency."
But, Maureen, we are losing democracy, day by day, under Trump!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Trump trumps democracy and maintains daily media dominance.
One way to fight back may be with democratic hopes and dreams.
For example, how about Leonard Cohen's "Democracy" song" ?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Maureen, can you say something about the "Democracy" song?
"Sail on, sail on, O mighty Ship of State
... Democracy is coming to the USA..."
------------------------------------------------
1
Seems the entire crowd has subconsciously or consciously decided to subscribe to the Jerry Springer show!
The Democrats have accepted old clown leader, Biden, and his merry group as “lock him up” zealots of impeachment.
Will we ever get back to the actual mundane tasks of legislating and governing a great nation?
3
Sure. Once Trump and as much pf the trumpiness as we can clean is gone. Sen McConnell too.
1
If there is a single Democratic candidate who doesn't wish that someone, including a foreign government, would provide dirt on Trump, or even on Democratic competitors, he/she deserves sainthood. Trump, in his way, voices what others secretly wish for.
4
@Mike history teaches us otherwise. Democrats have ethics, which is why they have always reported offers of assistance to the FBI.
2
Secret wishes would not surprise me, I wish I had $100m in the bank but like most people I respect the law. The law on this is clear, it is illegal.
1
85% of the GOP rank-and-file support Trump. There is just about nothing anyone can do until November 2020.
Meanwhile , we must win the Senate, too. So, O’Rourke and other potential senatorial candidates in 2020 need to to do what is best for the country and drop out of the Presidential nomination race.
Stacy Abrams needs to give up the dream of being drafted at the Convention and run in Georgia, too.
12
Down and Dirty in the White House, indeed. No surprise to any of us who witnessed the presidential campaign of 2016. As Maya Angelou once famously observed: when someone shows you themselves, believe them. Well, Donald Trump in that now infamous race showed us that he is a pathpological liar, a serial philanderer, a tax fraud and cheat, a man who joyfully stiffs those to whom he owes money (watch out Deutsche Bank!!), a braggart, a very likely sexual predator, ill-informed and equally ill-educated.
Yet 63 million of our fellow Americans voted for him and, thanks to the now totally irrelevant Electoral College, he was elected President. Did anyone with an iota of common sense, much less intelligence, believe that Trump would "grow into the office"? Have so many of us really become that naïve or delusional? The dysfunctional chaos of this White House should have been anticipated by everyone who has followed Trump's public and personal lives. But, hey, anyone was better than Hillary Rodham Clinton. Right?
So here we are with a president who commits daily assaults on the rule of law and the Constitution. Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, quickly saw Trump for the dangerous, illiterate charlatan that he is, and would not bow down to him. Ditto for the past and present Speaker of the House, the savvy Nancy Pelosi. How unfortunate that Theresa May, the outgoing British Prime Minister, cannot say the same.
Down and dirty, Mo? We ain't seen nothin' yet!
15
Please keep writing Maureen Dowd. Your voice is needed coming into 2020.
7
Regardless of who the next Democratic president will be, it will take 3-4 years to clean up the mess that the Trump administration will leave behind. The US will have to rebuild relations with multiple allies starting with China and Mexico, raise taxes on the rich and corporations to pay down some of our debt, pass laws to prevent further abuses to our society and the presidency from the next Trump type Republican, rebuild several federal agencies like the EPA and CFPB, and start from scratch with reestablishing a positive relationship with the media. And let's not forget the damage to the judiciary that will last for decades.
13
Finally Ms. Dowd lets loose with both guns. She knows we are dealing with an evil and existential threat and for once she is adamant that we be the patriots that we all know we are and must be.
12
Ms. Dowd, your opinion —that those who are supposed to be our highest moral exemplars have no morals— is spot-on.
That said, my observation over the last 55+ years is that the decline in our politics appears to be correlated with the rise in power of crazy Christians and Jews seeking special treatment for Israel. Let me be clear, most Christian and Jews do not fall into the crazy category; most practice the core principles of their religions and add to our nation's values and rich diversity.
That said, even the casual observer cannot help but notice that women, minorities, non-European immigrants and the LGBQ community are not treated in accordance with the words of Jesus by many Evangelicals and other crazy Christians. Or that the Israeli government's treatment of Palestinians is not in accordance with the teachings of Judaism.
Trump, and the take over of the courts by the far right, is not an aberration; it's the manifestation of the slow take over of our Nation's politics by intolerant religious zealots in partnership with power and money hungry politicians. This political-religious partnership has no respect for one of the most important principles on which our Nation was founded — separation of church and state.
11
My greatest fear is that even if Trump is ousted in the 2020 elections he will refuse to leave. All of his blustery rhetoric of no collusion, the Democrats are sabotaging my presidency, elections are rigged, etc., etc., is clearly designed to pave the way for his final maneuver—a lifetime appointment to the Oval Office. Before writing off my theory as hyperbole or paranoia, let’s consider the broad range of illegal, immoral, and questionable acts successfully committed by Mr. Trump: obstructing justice, caging children seeking asylum, leaking intel to American adversaries, colluding with foreign entities to rig an election, and the list goes on and on.
Other than the news media, political activists and democratic lawmakers, who has pushed back? Not the attorney general, not the vice president, not the senate majority leader, not the former house majority leader, not the evangelicals, not Wall Street, and not the “moderate” republicans currently in office. This man and his enablers do represent an existential threat to our democracy and potentially the stability of our planet.
11
I'm hoping a significant portion of his base ends up like the adolescent fans of Britney Spears and the various boy bands. You realize that its just a phase and you grow out of it. Ideally before November 2020.
9
The Democratic Party needs to focus on winning control of both the House and Senate instead of throwing money down the black hole of picking a presidential candidate. With control of both houses Trump will resign or go to jail.
The divisiveness of half dozen Democratic candidates beating each other up for the nomination to run for President dramatically increases the probability of Trump's re-election.
13
The GOP that went foraging in England for any damaging information on Clinton, enlisting Tory help, will look benign compared to today's GOP aided by FOX Pravda. As 2020 approaches massaging the facts, stonewalling and outright calumny will be ever more rife. If in fact it looks like the truth then it must be avoided. Sarah Sanders, the White House patron saint of obfuscation, is leaving, taking her idea of what Christianity ought to look like back to Arkansas, to accommodate what CNN's April Ryan aptly termed her chronic liabetes and which also has propped up her justification of Trump as President. It is doubtful she will be replaced. The equivalent of a press briefing will be found in the Daily Tweet. I agree with readers who comment that with this Administration left unchecked we are currently on a direct course to autocracy, if not fascism. When, if ever, will we see and hear the collective outrage of protest as we have recently see in Hong Kong?
10
One factor in the phenomenon of Trump leading the way in total corruption is the media coverage of every miserable lie, every attempt to destroy our checks and balances, and every example of crooked behavior that he so loves to flaunt. While the press is to be congratulated for their efforts to ensure that every American knows just how twisted our President is, many of us are feeling exhausted from the sheer volume of his wrongdoings.
Perhaps we could all use a "Trump free" day, where no mention is made of his name or activities. He'd love that. NOT!
9
I'm not sure what "substance" Ms. Dowd thinks is currently missing from the administration. Mr. Trump's border, trade and environmental policies are regrettably substantive in the extreme and daily getting worse. He may have the heart of a dictator, but he's no Sulla; he's not even a Duterte. He can't control his own depopulated White House let alone a country. Trump is our own 21st Century Nero. A corpulent showman surrounded by paid admirers and a fawning Senate afraid of a rabble who considered him semi-divine. Before it was all over, he burnt down half of Rome, bankrupted the state by building a massive pleasure-palace on the ruins, and erected a colossal statue of himself. He was finally declared a 'public enemy', fled Rome in disguise and then killed himself before getting arrested. So if history repeats itself, we have that at least to look forward to.
16
“We have met the enemy, and they are us.” Therein lies the problem. Trump is a symptom, not a cause.
10
Trump is who exactly the American people wanted--someone to shake up Washington--it's just not in the way that everyone thought. He's a sledgehammer to all norms, traditions, and anything that is not a hard law to the way things operate in Washington. Our government will never be the same because he's set a new bar, a low one, for others to follow. After his presidency, will Congress and a new Executive pass laws hardening these norms? Like all presidential candidates must release 5 years of income tax returns? Do you think Washington will pass this? Remember Mitch Romney didn't want to release 10 years of his income tax, just the previous year.
Finally--remember this on Father's Day--kids are being separated at the border from their papis. It's on all of us. As we remember Father's Day, kids are living in tents, separated from their daddies and now even allowed to kick a soccer ball. Shame!
11
First, you have to find out which political party the FBI is working for.
2
I was looking at a photo of inside the White House. And on the wall was portraits of great former presidents. Washington.Roosevelt.Kennedy.etc..... Then I got hit with a really sickening thought. That on that wall with all those greats will be Trump. Ugh! It is very disturbing to know that probably the worst president ever. Will share space with some of the best presidents ever.
8
@Charles
I share your disgust that a portrait of Trump will someday hang on a White House wall alongside pictures of the truly great men who ever held the office of president.
But when Trump is indicted and imprisoned, his portrait will come down.
10
Ignoring the bumptious clown show and, instead, taking slappy Trump seriously and calling him out for his authoritarian "policies" requires a high level of critical thinking. That would be a dream-come-true for the subscriptions manager at Atlantic Magazine!
2
We can yell and scream as much as we want about what Trump and his loyal acolytes/minions/underlings/ lackeys (choose whatever word you want) have done to the Presidency and to us as a country. We can do it through the media, in our own homes, on the subway with strangers or in private conversations with friends. But, in the end, we are just "howling in the wind". Trump is not going anywhere at least for the next 17 months.Until then, lets just pray we don't get pushed into yet another unnecessary war.
6
Republicans are the ones colluding with Trump. Why aren't they stopping it?
6
The difference between Republicans and Democrats is, the pubs strike without warning (or consequences) while the dems schedule another meeting to discuss next steps.
Lame comparisons about what pubs would do if Hillary did any of the things Donald does don't cut it.
If Donald can't be impeached, nobody can. And if that happens, then what good is the constitution?
The pubs may be generally ignoring checks and balances, but the dems are specifically enabling Trump.
3
Republican leaders tried to stop the momentum for Trump when he was running and just about to get the nomination. They still would be trying to stop him if the Republican base was not 90 percent behind Trump. McConnell and all those other stalwarts of the Republican Party are terrified that they would not be re elected if they anger Trump's base (which is now the Republican electorate). So much for profiles in courage. McConnell and the rest are profiles in cowardice as they are supposed to be defending the Constitution in their line of work as they swore on a Bible to do. They hope people won't remember or won't notice. We do. And we will not forget.
4
The dilemma remains, at least in my eyes and mind. Should columnists swear off Trump except in some explicitly stated way?
The same is true for the 885 here and now me. I see that gemli is back and is as was often the case both Times Pick and top Reader Pick.
gemli (lower case g) is for me the model of rational thought that is represented best among the candidates for me by Elizabeth Warren.
Perhaps the space given to Trump should almost entirely be devoted to doing whatever will help to get out the vote.
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Citizen US SE
4
It's looking more than likely that Donald Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen was right when he said he feared there would be no peaceful transition if Trump wasn't reelected in 2020.
6
A form of coup is in progress and our citizens are ignoring it. With the compliance of the DOJ, McConnell, and other GOP representatives and senators, Trump is defying the power of the House to be an effective check and balance of our executive branch.
If Trump can neuter the House, he can run wild with few--if any--restrictions form Congress.
A truly sad and dangerous period for our nation.
173
@FJG
Right wing talk shows, such as Rush, claim that the left wing is carrying out a coup. their evidence can be compelling. We all need to listen to both sides, as revolting as that may be, in an attempt to lessen the divide. "Know thy enemy" is sage advice.
5
@FJG
That coup was in progress when McConnell refused to consider Judge Garland for the Supreme Court. Trump isn't the only problem we have, McConnell needs to go and all Republicans deserve to lose all elections everywhere until they get the message to change their evil ways.
21
@Paul
Like Trump, the right wing tends to look in the mirror while accusing others of looking like them. They’ve turned public debate into a hall of funny house mirrors. I see no value in listening to what Rush Limbaugh says. He’s merely a clown for hire.
12
Had enough of Trump and his sycophants in congress?
The jokes aren't funny anymore about Trump because you can't laugh. You just want to cry.
His crazy talk is beyond abnormal.
Every time the president opens his mouth he's either lying or saying something that makes no sense.
Many Americans have had enough of the crazy talk, the lies, the infantile nicknames and the constant tweets.
Yet with all of this Trump could be reelected. This is what scares me the the most. There are still many Americans who will vote for him again.
What has happened to our country?!
God help us if Trump wins a second term.
79
@Charna
Vote to uphold the rule of law. Vote as if your life depended on it. Vote as if your kids’ lives depend on it. Vote as if Americans’ lives depend on it. Vote as if the lives of people throughout the world depend on it.
3
"The way Trump publicly wallows in his mendaciousness and amorality is unique in presidential history."
What a well crafted sentence. Scoundrel in a word.
51
I never thought I'd say this, but I think I liked the GOP better when it was the "Party of Christian, moral and family values", of " Character counts!", of "Country first!" and of patriotism (all bogus, of course). Alas, one can only suppress one's real self for so long, and Trumpism has breached the levy of the bogus claims above holding the GOP back at least a little, and now the roiling, raging true Republican ethos is engulfing the country like a meltdown of a nuclear power plant core, killing everything decent, democratic, and what the Founding Fathers intended for this country. The GOP doesn't surprise me. What does, is the tens of millions of Americans who are cheering as this catastrophe unfolds.
118
I liked it better when it really was "Grand." But these days it's just an Old Party.
Abbreviate accordingly.
23
Sadly, Trumpites are impervious, by dint of willful blindness and deafness, to being moved by any of Trump's actions. Quite the opposite, they cheer him on, as oblivious as he to the consequences of his wanton dismantling of mores, norms and the Constitution.
Having coasted along on an economy, the basis of which was laid in the decade prior to his arrival (but for which he takes full credit), he now has proclaimed that only he can keep it humming, that if he is not re-elected, the Great Depression will be a time of riches and comfort by comparison.
6
The question: How American democracy allows people like Trump to be elected president?
69
@Roland Berger--You can thank the electoral college, and Republican gerrymandering. Now, that the courts are full of people just like tRump, our chances of recovery are questionable. I have a sick feeling all the time.
45
@Roland Berger-- a good question. Bonnie and Clyde had their admirers and well-wishers. Some feel so alienated that any buoy looks like it can save them from the ocean of perceived helplessness.
But a life-long white collar con man criminal is, to most of us, NOT the response. Those NOT voting in 2020 are complicit in maintaining this grizly caricature of a president.
9
@Roland Berger: American democracy is patently fake. Senate apportionment is a travesty and so is the Electoral College, not to mention the lack of run-off elections when no candidate wins a popular majority.
12
One worry I have is that post-Presidency Trump will know state secrets and other highly classified info that he may share with others for personal gain or just to impress on the spur of the moment. Hopefully, he pays as little attention to intelligence briefings as is often reported because we know he will not be deterred by any sense of duty, patriotism, or reality.
2862
@don healy
I think you're right on both counts. It's a worrying thought - but my mind is eased remembering that he doesn't actually pay any attention to most of the information he needs to do his job. Of course, he could still do some damage, throwing out misinformation … what else is new.
189
@DW
And presumably some in the Intel Community will have decided to hold back some details from his briefings. Or bury then in text-dense presentations where his name is not salted into the information as a way of keeping his attention. Just imagine any other president needing such handling to make him pay the minimum of attention. He definitely has ADD.
161
@DW
And he would have Kushner to remind of what he never paid attention to, highly classified information that the latter was privy to and was not even qualified to be cleared for.
231
"The real danger is not the antics but the policies".
Or perhaps lying to start a war with Iran. Trump has convinced anyone paying attention that he would likely sacrifice any number of lives if it served his needs politically.
He may be desperate enough to trigger an unnecessary war if he believes it is his main hope for another 4 years of being untouchable by NYC prosecutors.
2368
@alan haigh
right - according to him he's the world's greatest problem solver. He knows the problem so well because he created it, giving him the opportunity to appear such a brilliant deal maker. So sad.
112
@alan haigh
Absolutely. Remember the Bush promoters who swore that we could not change presidents during war and must reelect Bush because of the unnecessary war in Iraq? This will be the Trump push to war--protected because his policies can't be changed during war.
166
@alan haigh
"He may be desperate enough to trigger an unnecessary war if he believes it is his main hope for another 4 years of being untouchable by NYC prosecutors."
This is exactly what's going on.
276
Brushing up on my Spanish because becoming an expat is looking more and more likely for me. I want nothing to do with this American charade. As far as I’m concerned, the great experiment is dead.
5
"The real danger is not the antics but the policies. If Trump isn’t careful, he’s going to add substance to his administration. And it won’t be the kind we want."
Ms. Dowd, I'm surprised that you think this hasn't happened yet. Just sitting here in my home, I have seen environmental pollution policies changed, coal, water, etc., terrible voting rights abuses encouraged, health care denial threatened for millions, National parks and other agencies underfunded, ignorant foreign policy and financial/taxation policies, and I could go on. All this from just being a reader of the news that is not fake!
The Washington crowd may be the last to really get it about this president and the danger he represents. The latest appalling news is from David Sanger's piece today that the security and intelligence people don't want Trump to know the cyber security plans for fear that he will blab them or otherwise use them inappropriately.
Imagine! Not being able to trust the president enough to brief him on national security issues! Not in my lifetime, I would have said, but no more.
13
I’m beginning to think that Trump is what the US wants!
If Trump had to go the business people would have him gone by now. But...like all good hustlers...waiting on the sidelines to see which way this breaks...but principles and ethics? It’s America...whatever I can get away with.
Conservatives/republicans...would sell their country for a buck!
6
"His ego is too fragile to play patriarch to the country, so he takes the more ruinous role of provocateur."
I think there is another factor at work also. Trump does not have the intellect, basic awareness, or common sense needed to formulate policy other than instinctive punishing and bullying. His best offense is a wild swing, and his best defense is muscular mendacity.
He seems to hate subject matter competence, so his cabinet is loaded with members not so imbued, or willing to conceal it as true, fearful, supplicants.
In a rational world this would set an incredibly low bar for any potential 2020 nominee.
8
Fox News is the life blood of Trump and the GOP. Huge swaths of our citizens get all of their news from that propaganda machine. I recently read a great piece about a woman who attended a town hall i Grand Rapids Mi. for Justin Amash, who is the only republican to support impeachment for Trump. She had no idea that the Mueller report said that Trump committed obstruction in a number instances. She only watches Fox and they never reported the truth. She decided to read the report herself.
Fox is not available in the UK because they broke several broadcasting rules by lying. Why not here?
9
@scott k.: The previously most vapid president, Ronald Reagan, got the Fairness Doctrine cancelled to open the door to the Fox News propaganda engine.
Would someone please suggest to Trump and his supporters that perhaps 1 Timothy 4:12 was written especially for Trump: “Be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity” (1 Timothy 4:12 KJV)?
Does anyone have ideas on how to encourage Trump and his supporters to make needed changes to 1) let go of past behaviors and 2) begin to exemplify how to behave by following the advice and encouragement given us in 1Timothy 4:12’s?
If so, please put those ideas into action and accept heartfelt thanks from all of us who care about the future of the United States of America and of the world.
2
He's breaking the law. Is this not impeachable? It's not something he did 'in the past'. It's now. Right in front of our eyes. And yet.....nothing.
Why aren't we in the streets like the people in Hong Kong? And stay there until he's gone.
We are on a precipice. If he stays, our democratic republic is finished.
It's odd, but in all my anguish over the Bush/Cheney torture and secret renditions and illegal war and indefinite detention, I never felt our entire structure that protected our freedom at home (even with surveillance) was gone. If Trump is allowed to continue as 'president' (illegitimate presidency), he will be 'president' until he leaves feet first and Jarvanka takes over.
I'm truly terrified because no one will protect our Constitution from this terrible, terrible 'Baby' Trump. No Republicans, Dems are wiffling/waffling instead of showing us strength against him.
Cry, the Beloved Country.
8
"— not even of the alley-cat variety." What a disservice and insult to alley-cats. Trump couldn't stay in office 30 days without the aid and abetment of Mitch (Chao) McConnell and the disloyalty to the constitution of the Republican party. It seems to be a law of nature that throughout the animal kingdom power is not yielded without a fight to the death. Senate Republicans and Republicans, in general, would rather see the rule of law shredded than risk alienating the Trump Cult, which they need to be reelected.
4
Who's the smartest? Nixon or Trump. Who has already been impeached and resigned? Nixon. Who had real politicians in his administration who had won two elections? Nixon Who is unable to put two words together to make sense? Trump Who was a crafty intelligent creature of great political skill? Nixon Who will be next to be impeached? Trump
2
I hope plenty of Democrats will come forward to challenge incumbent Democrats. We need to oust not just every Republican, but every Democrat who fails to do everything possible to stop, impeach and indict Trump and his enablers. The timid and opportunistic are betraying the citizenry.
5
Trump's white Evangelical base itself has a problem with perversion of right and wrong. The Southern Baptist Convention broke with the Northern Baptists over their support of slavery. Many Evangelical denominations have varying degrees of Calvinist theology, itself a perversion.
While the latter statement may be shocking to some, consider this: The following passage was written twice in the Gospels "no man can serve two masters. He must learn to love the one and despise the other. One cannot serve both God and money." But Calvinism extols the business leader as one of the Chosen, predestined for Heaven. So Donald Trump gets revered as a divine figure, and is regarding as doing the Lord's work.
The Donald plays the part, doing what he can to further the political agenda of white Evangelicals, for example, repeal of the Johnson Amendment.
4
Nancy Pelosi's biggest mistake, when 60% of the country is screaming for justice, was to refuse to allow the House to do an inquiry for impeachment, and instead slow-walk the procedures that now lack documentation, due to #45's & the DOJ's refusal to hand over docs and allow testimony. There are no moderate GOP votes worth getting, because those party members were kicked out of the GOP ages ago. What is Nancy thinking?! Taking to the streets and staying there is our best bet now.
5
What is lost in all the expressions of shock and incredulity is the simplest of facts: what the dirt-peddler is offering is not "free." What price is our deal-maker president willing to pay? Do they include the nuclear secrets of the US?
3
Brett Stephens probably young enough to fully understand what the US did during the administration of Ike to protect the oil interests of Standard oil. It overthrew the duly elected government of Dr Mossadeq and murdered him. It installed a sycophantic puppet, the Shah who tortured his own people and squandered the resources through extravagant opulence. Since his overthrow, US has been on a collision course and it is determined to recreate the events of the 1950s orchestrated by Kermit Roosevelt.
Since there has been so much lies emanating from our capital, how can we trust them now? Moreover the memory of the false claims of WMD leading purging of Saddam is very fresh. We know what has been the cost of that war in terms of money and lives.
People like Stephens must curb their thirst for blood, because blood that we shed will be our own. The neocolonialism idea of regime is not only outdated but also self destructive.
3
I am beginning to think we are living through a real "House of Cards". Trump is our own version of Frank Underwood, and I honestly wonder if he has collected dirt on everyone from Lindsay Graham to Bill Barr so they will do his bidding. How else can one explain the about face done by Graham? Is Barr somehow in bed with the Russians as well, through clandestine investments? They know he lies, I am sure they have all been witness to his declining mental health, and yet crickets.
6
"His ego is too fragile to play patriarch to the country, so he takes the more ruinous role of provocateur."
I would add that his intelligence level is too low for the job he's in, so he takes the more immature role of boastful brand marketer.
His greed is too great to think of the nation, so he takes the more obvious role of justification. "Why wouldn't I rake in profits while I can?"
2
The only craven Republican who has actually called out Trump is Congressman Amash, who called for impeachment. The rest of the "craven Republicans are seeing to it that Amash will not be re-elected, pushing Republicans in Michigan to run against him. Maybe Amash would be the second Republican to challenge Trump. Weld having filed to challenge Trump
We are weaker than we have ever been as a country and will remain so while the Trump Administration and the Republicans in Congress are still in office.
I am beginning to think that all Republicans share the same DNA. Corruption, greed and lust for power to the detriment of the American people.
I, for one, want all who refused to show up and honor their collective subpoenas, to be held in contempt of Congress.
Furthermore I do not know why Trump is not charged with Obstruction of Justice, which is clearly what he has committed by instructing these people not to show up.
The House must subpoena Mueller and put an end to this farce of an Administration. Mueller was paid by the American people and he owes it to us to clarify in plain English what has been going on since 2015. I no longer buy his explanation that he could not charge a sitting President. It is a regulation at the Justice Department, not a law. We need a un-redacted report. I am tired of hearing about National Security. It is no longer believable.
Look what Trump has already done to our National Security. Inviting more interference in our next election.
5
I have to say that the stories about Bush, Cheney, Baker make it sound like Trump is just following along with a long established game of "who cares about the people".
1
"He makes it so easy for everyone to focus on the tweets and the maniacal, moronic reality show . . ."
The relentless tweets are a propaganda machine that Goebbels would envy. Columnist Dorothy Thompson called the Goebbels era "the age of propaganda. . .propaganda as a weapon. . . propaganda as a form of government." [Quoted in These Truths by Jill Lapore].
That's Trump's tweet propaganda. It is not only his weapon, it is his form of government. And it is the current version of what autocrats use to feet their power, ubiquity. This is the model that Mary Beard, the Cambridge classicist so conclusively described when saying that one-person rule works "by inscribing the autocrat indelibly into the world of his or her subjects.”
And television news has trapped itself into amplifying his propaganda's effectiveness by blanket and seemingly automatic repetition. The assumption may be that by publishing them all, followed perhaps by disparaging comments, his propaganda machine might be weakened or nullified. It's not working. We don't need all those tweets so fully so frequently.
And we don't need to see his picture whenever he's being talked about. The universal habit of split screen showing him in a place unrelated to the story, mouth often moving without sound, or putting an unrelated still picture of him behind the anchor add no information. Some relief, please.
Full reporting, yes. Thoughtless aids for an aspiring autocrat's indelible presence, no.
3
Our national dark side has temporarily ascended, and it may continue to rule for a while, but it's an anomaly. Evil can't last.
The majority of decent Americans will reassert themselves: Sanity in high office will return, not necessarily extreme competence or wisdom, but sanity.
This election was a fluke, like G.W. Bush's, the outcome of the ridiculous Electoral College.
Yes, things are bad, but I have faith in the most Americans and the power of goodness itself. This, too, shall pass; the dark storm clouds will move off and the bright sun of real America will shine once again.
So stay the faith, ye real American patriots. It's always darkest just before dawn and during Don.
2
"The Trump White House may be a clown show and a criminal enterprise. But it’s also an actual presidency."
Yes, and a presidency that has thus far not been faced with any critical issues requiring quick and sound decision-making. The rising tension with Iran could present the administration with such an issue. And what happens then? How can Americans possibly trust anything president Trump tells them during a crisis? Trump's never-ending cascade of self-serving lies has rendered any utterance suspect. His credibility is non-existent. His cabinet is overrun with "C" level sycophants and hacks. America's intelligence agencies are functioning purely on the now quaint notions of duty and professionalism after being systematically attacked or disregarded for the entirety of Trump's tenure. Just last week Trump snapped that "the FBI director is wrong" about reporting foreign attempts to interfere with elections.
Given all this, and more, how can the American people possibly rally behind the president in a time of crisis? How can they believe anything he might say or trust his judgement in any action? What will happen when he asks them to do so?
4
'In yet another Nureyev leap into the absurd, Donald Trump went from no-collusion to pro-collusion'. Rudolf Nureyev must be rolling in his grave with this associative use of his name in the same sentence with trump - Russian collision or not.
1
The President's character shows itself in his recent attacks on the mayor of London, England...a man who'll never run for American president. That doesn't matter. The only thing that matters to Trump is that Mr. Khan stood up to him...That's something Trump cannot bear, forgive or forget. He's willing to use the presidency to attempt to trample and unseat the mayor of a city in a foreign country.
Never mind that these endless personal-attacks-via-Twitter make Trump look like...well, Donald Trump. And reduce the American presidency to a bully pulpit for childish bullies.
3
@Oriole - Trump's attacks on London's mayor are about more than Khan standing up to him. Mr. Khan is a brown-skinned Muslim. Trump feuds with Khan to appeal to Trump's white supremacist base.
1
The US populace has never seen anyone like Trump. A conman of the first order. It, too, seems like journalists are complicit in his rise to the Presidency. For instance, during the primaries, few journalists pointed out the over 100 warnings and fines Trump's Taj Mahal Casino incurred for money laundering. See: https://www.fincen.gov/news/news-releases/fincen-fines-trump-taj-mahal-casino-resort-10-million-significant-and-long
Journalists, rather, focused on Sec. Clinton's e-mails and Benghazi, instead, and created nefarious reasons behind any action taken by Sec. Clinton. Especially, that she was behind selling out the US uranium stockpile to the Russians. Turned out to be much ado about nothing. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Trump was bilking participants out of their money for his phony real estate courses at Trump U and Trump Institute. The class action lawsuits ended in a $25 million fine against Trump. Few journalists, if any, mentioned the over 4,000 lawsuits brought against Trump and his businesses. And, yes, he's lost many cases. So what gives? Why was (and is) Trump treated with kid gloves and Sec. Clinton treated as if she was infected with Ebola? Especially egregious were the Trump's use of charitable contributions by his Charitable Trust. Barbara Underwood (NY State AG) sued Trump and his adult children after a 21-month probe that she said uncovered “extensive unlawful political coordination” between the foundation and Trump’s campaign (Reuters 12/18/18).
3
It takes sycophants like Kelly Anne, Stephen Miller and Sanders for Trump to continue his maddening and psychotic destruction of our country's values. The fact that one of those three has been caught violating the law with no consequences whatsoever should be troubling to all. But it is no different than Karl Rove and Dick Cheney destroying records and is par for the course with the GOP. Had John Dean not turned on Nixon and surrendered his Bar license, Watergate may have gotten swept under the rug.In both cases we had a President openly defying Congress to investigate and punish them. This is an entire party run amuck.
6
Trump just proves that the true American motto is not ‘In God We Trust”, it’s “Whatever I Can Get Away With”. And the answer, in Trump’s case at least, appears to be “Anything and Everything”
7
Maureen -- You of all people should know that politics is a dirty game. Getting negative information on your opponents is part of it. Where it comes from is immaterial as long as it is correct.
The main point is whether it is true, such as the DNC and Hillary campaign emails, and not something falsely made up to discredit the opponent, such as the Steele Dossier.
As long as people like you pretend not to see this difference you will be rightly regarded as politically slanted fake news.
1
It's getting worse by the day...I was just reading the piece in NYTimes Book Review, about the rise of anti-Semitism all over European continent including France.
How France Became a Dangerous Place to Be a Jew
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/11/books/review/marc-weitzmann-hate.html
I find it extremely depressing, that horrific, darkest history lessons of last century aren't learned and digest at all.
I always felt connected to France, went to special school back in Kiev, where french was introduced in a 1st grade, I was singing French Chanson (Edith Piaf mostly) and dreaming to see Paris and French Riviera.
Since leaving Russia or former USSR I did visit France several times, so these dreams came true I just prefer Italian Riviera now.
Scary thoughts I have about the future of my kids and grandkids keep me sleepless night after night. It feels like dark shadow descending on our world once again.
Chaos, tribalism, homophobia and hate rule the day.
Humanity disintegrates while we watching.
2
Despair is the predominant emotion being experienced by decent Americans. To watch, Kellyanne Conway thumb her nose at the rule of law, while the president cheers her on, yet another staff meeting where Donald Trump prompts his staff to sing his praises, and the hideous image of Trump and Laura Ingraham violating the sanctity of the American Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer, while elderly WWII veterans were forced to wait, for their program to begin, is too bear witness to our degradation. This Trump administration is heartbreaking. One mourns for a USA that may be vanishing in the moral squalor that Trump has created.
3
Corrupted Kellyanne and Sore Throat Sarah are now emblematic victims of Trump's Disease. It is long passed the time that people begin to notice that there is nothing healthy regarding what the Trump GOP (or any GOP, for that matter) does to its women?
1
Shame on all of us for letting him get away with all this.
4
A word that says it all. "trumpery" . As a noun "attractive articles of little value or use. Practices or beliefs that are superficially or visually appealing but have little real value or worth". As an adjective "showy but worthless :" trumpery jewelry " also " delusive or shallow" that trumpery hope which lets us dupe ourselves. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought I could find a word that describes DJT to a tee
1
I am not convinced that trump has any policies, other than self interest: wielding power, enriching himself and his family at the public's expense, playing golf, garnering as much attention as possible, and of course, trying to stay out of prison.
What is he actually doing? Tweeting; nominating federal judges picked for him by the Federalist Society, and no doubt, Mike Pence; playing golf; doing campaign rallies to bask in all the adoration of his misguided fans; playing more golf. Aside from those--nothing.
He has Mitch McConnell running interference for him. His Cabinet appointees are deregulating everything in sight, sending us back to the good ole times of unfettered capitalism.
Sorry, trump is nothing but a truly disgusting clown act. It is his so-called "party" that is really destroying this country.
3
Great to see that Maureen has finally woken up to the real disaster that is DJT. Too bad she didn't see this coming before the 2016 election.
And as nice an article as this is, it misses the even bigger danger than the Trump admin policies. It misses the Trumpublican party / Trump's base which are fine with all of it. Yes...Trump is evil. What does that say about his supporters? How many evil people can society support before it collapses?
2
Why are you talking about the sex abuse scandal in the catholic church as though it is in the past? Have you even seen the most recent 10 steps proposed to address the problem? No mention of involving police there. The problem continues.
Policies are the key, exactly. I heard Rachel Maddow say a few times, do not watch what they say but what they do and what they do is impose on the country all these damaging policies that might take years to correct and they will behave as they do which is nothing that we can change, it is about their lack of character and people who have always been crooked and amoral but the country does not have to be. We have to vote them out in 2020 and we need every single vote, any person of voting age and able bodied that can vote must vote in order to get this worm out.
1
The "Trump Administration" is a misnomer. It should be called "The Trump Crime Wave".
1
In the interview with George Stephanopolous, Trump sounds like a simpleton. Like someone with only a child's grasp of some of the issues he talked about.
Pete Buttigieg, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris and Amy Klobuchar are running against this guy?
Incredible.
5
I feel dirty, usually, after reading about Trump. Today is no exception.
1
It's ironically symbolic that in every picture we see of trump playing golf, he's playing out of the rough. The man who says he's the "Club Champion" at every club he plays can't seem to get to the fairway honestly.
We will survive this dark time. But only with difficulty. And votes.
Trump has no moral compass, none. He has stocked the government with family members and a motley collection of bruisers that would be quite at home in an episode of the Sopranos, Deadwood, or the Grand Guignol. It is squalid and if anybody thinks this cruel and crazy figure will live office without a fight, they are nuttier then he is. America made a terrible mistake in giving this man and his crew of dead eyed henchmen unlimited power.
2
When “the rule of law” is being trashed by the likes of Trump counselor, Kellyanne Conway, who thumbs her nose at the Hatch Act; by Trump Treasury Secretary, Steve Mnuchin, who blatantly ignores established law that requires him to submit Trump’s tax returns to Congress; by the Trump Justice Department that supports Mnuchin’s illegal behavior and is now accusing our major law enforcement agencies, the C.I.A. and the F.B.I., of “spying” on Trump; we are faced with the real “coup” against the Constitution. This is a Lexington and Concord moment. Where are the defenders of democracy. This the real mortal danger we confront. #Where’sNancy?
2
Yes, Trump is a buffoon and an ineffective executive. But he is a dangerous buffoon.
However, it isn't just Trump's dangerous buffoonery that concerns me. My concern is with Trump, the syncophantic GOP, and the 40 percent that Trump has managed to con.
After listening to Trump's insane self-agrandizing this past week, I was blythly hoping that the country would see fit to simply ignore the lunatic in the WH until we vote him out next year. But, the Iran affair reminds me that Trump still has the power to do great damage to the country and to the world.
The Iran conflict is one that has largely been created by Trump and his war-hungry "advisors" (Trump clearly doesn't take advise unless he feels cornered into it). This could escalate into a horrible mess.
Now, more than at any time in the past 3 years, we need a highly vigilant press. Sorry to say, but we didn't have that in the run up to the Iraq war.
3
Democrats are so lost that they don’t even understand when they are being played.
Trump just got you to work yourself into a tizzy over the concept that he might listen to a foreigner that offered him information on an opponent.
This is precisely what the Democrats did in the last election, which is becoming clearer by the day.
While it may seem normal for Democrats to get all worked up over Trump hypothetically doing what the Democrats actually did, the hypocrisy is not lost on the American people.
Crying because Trump might steal your dirty tricks is laughable.
1
It gets tiring, people preaching morality and condemning those who don't meet their standards. Priests, preachers, Rabbis, Mullahs, Democratic Socialist and climate change enthusiast all have the same brain malfunction. They want to control people not for goodness and niceness. They want power.
The righteous brought John Dean out of retirement last week. Don't know who he? Does the Kavanuagh hearing ring a bell? An attempt to destroy a persons career with lies and deceit has become a moral act we should be proud of? Or should we just let journalist teach us the difference of right and wrong.
"The real danger is not the antics but the policies." The antics are coming from Trump and they distract us from the policies coming from Republican opportunists led by Pence and McConnell.
1
Was hoping for more insight. I'm ashamed to see him in there too, but his article is just another charade to vent. No substance.
1
Donald Trump exists because Mitch McConnell exists. If we had a Speaker committed to the rule of law, rather than the rule of raw power, this president would have been reeled in long ago.
Nearly everyone who writes here has commented that “if a democrat had done...” Republicans would have initiated impeachment proceedings long ago. They would have boxed in a president who behaved like Trump. Oh, wait. They boxed in a decent president for being (in a different party) (of a different race) (committed to the rule of law) .
And yet, we are mesmerized. A single lawbreaker is relatively easy to control and bring back in into line. A riot... harder. An insurrection... very difficult. With the number of ‘“breaches of civility, common sense and legality” (thanks, gemli) committed by multiple actors in this regime, it’s easy to be overwhelmed. It’s like an insurrection, but the weapons are lawless actions by people in power. It’s impossible for average citizens to have a sense of control or agency in this environment. The lawmakers are breaking the laws, or reinterpreting them to allow outrageous behavior.
Too many of our fellow citizens have twisted their own values in some perverse ends-justifies-the-means thought process (e.g., evangelicals somehow imagining that DJT is an agent of God). Democracy works if no one is above the law. No one.
2
The president is not a patriot and he does not love democracy.
4
President Trump is a habitual liar, and a self confessed career criminal. He has lied about his conspiracy with the Russians to subvert US elections for 2+ years. Now he states that it is okay to conspire with America's number 1 enemy and take foreign government assistance to influence US elections.
Trump is a self confessed career criminal and self confessed traitor. Oh, he gave the Medal of Freedom to Tiger Woods, a self confessed adulterer who fought valiantly against accusations by his former wife and betrayed girlfriends, and Trump probably would have given the Medal of Freedom, to that Navy Seal, that is being court martialled, for war atrocities.
1
Great opinion piece with a very flat ending.
It should read: "I apologize to the nation and Hillary Clinton for my small part in bringing on this easily foreseeable disaster."
2
What does the immoral behavior of trump, and his familial mob, say about his supporters-- especially about the republican majority in the Senate? Time to take the place down to its foundation and start over.
trump was/is and will be exactly who he is; an unstable narcissist. No-one should be surprised.
1
Finally, turning your cat-fighting tendencies at a target worthy of them, the obsequious Kellyanne Conway, rather than HRC. Does anyone else remember when the enormously hypocritical and massively compromised Conway called for Trump to release his tax returns? That is why he hired her; he needed her on the inside peeing out rather than the other way around. Conway epitomizes the blight Emoluments Man's administration has spread throughout our government. We cannot get rid of them soon enough. Parsing Biden's Hyde Amendment position is not helping. Trump must be taken out of office at all costs. We can worry about the niceties of progressive politics later. With McConnell in charge, no liberal policy (actually, no policy at all) will be passed on to president Biden or President Bernie to sign. Democrats need to take back the Senate, and they need to challenge the traitor McConnell-Derapaska first.
2
This article describes what we already know to be true, Trump is a lawbreaking Democracy -destroying authoritarian wannabe. Glad to see Ms. Dowd's witty ascerbic style directed at him, using her voice and powerful platform to expose him for what he is. I hope she remembers that elections have consequences; Dowd's constant pounding belittling criticisms of HRC during the 2016 election fed the HRC hatred that helped get Trump elected.
1
The Mueller investigators determine that the ban on accepting “something of value” from foreign sources might apply to opposition research but not to the simple sharing of information. The Mueller report notes that “no judicial decision has treated the voluntary provision of uncompensated opposition research or similar information as a thing of value that could amount to a contribution under campaign-finance law.” Simply accepting disparaging or incriminating information from foreign sources about political rivals is not unlawful. (Source: Muller Report, Vol. I, Page 187)
During the 2016 presidential race, the Clinton campaign and DNC paid for the Steele Dossier, which was compensated opposition research based on foreign sources. Former British spy Christopher Steele—a foreign national—compiled the dossier by paying Russian intelligence operatives to shovel “dirt” on Donald Trump. The dossier was shopped to the news media before the election.
(It makes no difference that the Clinton campaign and DNC didn’t pay Steele directly. They paid Fusion GPS to commission Steele.)
Three members of the Trump attended the Trump Tower Meeting in the expectation Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya would present dirt on Hillary Clinton, but it turned out she had none to offer. Instead, she tried to persuade the Trump campaign to make the Magnitsky Act a campaign issue.
1
DJT is a tiger, being a tiger. My apologies to every real tiger. He is doing what tigers do, he has always done this. Every "deal" he has ever entered into has had shady or even illegal issues. Never a truth, always illusion, loaded with hyperbole, bombastic language and false promises. Every "deal" was to aggrandize himself.
There is so much factual information available in the public domain to support my beliefs that it is inconceivable literate people should be confused about who and what DJT is.
His DNA will not him to be anything but a tiger, eating his young when necessary and catching, killing to eat and live. Being president is his masterpiece. We have enabled this person to drag us to the precipice of total disaster.
Who will buy our bonds, when we riot in the streets? Who will use our dollars? Vote like our lives depend on our votes, because they do.
1
Yet another opinion piece full of anger and the most obvious observations about the evil man destroying our Democracy and the planet, but no call for his removal from office. Admit it, he's great for business.
1
Craven Republican lawmakers. Squirming. Not to worry. Of the many video clips of the president’s invitation to foreign opposition research providers I’ve seen, his claim that all Congressional members do it all the time (‘if they are honest’) has been thoughtfully edited out. Rather like a brushed photo.
"No collusion to pro-collusion" is the best one I've heard yet. But while Orcaman is tweeting about how much the Prince of Whales and Queen Elizabeth enjoyed what Boris Johnson called his "stupefying ignorance," Trump's most dangerous enabler is doing real damage to our democracy. Mitch McConnell refuses to consider any legislation passed by the House including anti-corruption measures and cyber-security bills to safeguard the 2020 election. I can understand his reluctance to clamp down on corruption, since it may prevent his Transportation Secretary wife from profiting off her family's Chinese shipping business. But why does he oppose election security?
2
Randall Balmer's book "Redeemer, The Life of Jimmy Carter,"
Is a fine read for those wishing to understand how the
Republican Party became the party of uneducated
Southern Evangelical Conservatives and brought us to the
extreme foolishness and irrationality that is Trump.
Finally, Maureen gets something right: Trump’s “real danger is.....his policies.”
His antics are intended to divert us from the long term damage his reign of error is raining on our Democracy.
Maureen, it is very difficult to find the right way to describe what is transpiring at this White House but please, refrain from using "clown show." Roger Ebert wrote (in a review of "Freddy Got Fingered, "This movie doesn't scrape the bottom of the barrel. This movie isn't the bottom of the barrel. This movie isn't below the bottom of the barrel. This movie doesn't deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence with barrels." Clowns are very disciplined talented hard working people. They shouldn't be mentioned in the same sentence as "The Trump White House." Don't insult barrels, don't insult clowns. I was going to suggest "Dumpster White House" but then you would be insulting dumpsters. It truly is a challenge to find language to describe the depravity without insulting anyone or anything. Would you be willing to conduct a contest?
I, for one, will be amazed if Trump’s name appears on the 2020 ballot.
1
"wide swaths of clergymen..."
Language can be such a beautiful thing.
trump has been practicing his lying for so long that he's an expert.
Call him out--every single lie--until even the most ardent trumpsters understand the fraud that he is.
2
The greatest tragedy of the Trump/McConnell presidency is that I feel resentment and disgust towards my fellow Americans. I have nothing but loathing towards their supporters and their disrespect for our laws.
2
He told us he would run it like a business. Right down to the last wooden nickle.
You're hand wringing with the best of them now MD. Same value.
1
Just to make sure—you were fine with the FBI investigating a presidential candidate based on information gained by paying a foreign agent, but when Trump does it, it’s treason? You can’t have it both ways
1
Least we forget the enabling Republican mafia and the thirty-plus percent of the electorate that is driven by anger, hate, fear, racism, misogyny and ignorance. Trump gives the most politically and socially malignant elements of society a rallying point to express the most vile of human emotions. America is decaying from within with an abundance of help from those abroad who want to destroy not only democracy, but also all that is good. We are at the precipice and we may very well fall off.
1
Democrats hate it when Trump plays by their rules.
The Democrats PAID a million dollars plus for a foreign entity to dig up dirt on Trump.
This situation is just Democrats and their lapdog press being their usual hypocritical selves while perfecting their situational ethics.
1
"His ego is too fragile to play patriarch to the country, so he takes the more ruinous role of provocateur."
That's a wrap.
republican leaders don't care about moral values until a democrat is in office.
It is good to have Maureen Dowd and her teeth back. But, where was she during the campaign when we needed her? She was bashing Obama and the Clintons and sniping the democrats. I am sorry reality is complicated but this one was as clear as a bell and she played cutesy with the danger of this current state of affairs and the potential of more wars for her own petty grievances. I hope lesson is learned.
3
How about the foreign interference that Hillary paid for? Trump answered a HYPOTHETICAL question about getting info from another country, yet he was pilloried in the liberal press. Why? Because the looney left can't get enough of the hatefest of the President. I know the hate is real because the Dems won't let go even when the President has been cleared by Mueller. Trump will be win re election in 2020, because the voters have moved past the collusion delusion.
1
I will never forgive Republicans and the voters that continue to support the malignant cancer that is trump. When trump is finally gone, your support will be called to account.
Ms. Dowd, you are too kind on one thing - Trump doesn't have a twisted sense of right and wrong, he doesn't HAVE a sense of right and wrong. And I'm sure that in his feeble, narcissistic mind the lies he tells aren't lies, because only he speaks the truth and everyone else is wrong. And that's where it all starts and ends. He is a cartoon caricature of a President, one that unfortunately has the nuclear codes.
1
Ms. Dowd and her readers should remember how hard she worked to derail the Clinton campaign and make this happen.
5
The Onion chimed in with this headline: “Kellyanne Conway Decides to Lie Low Until Rule of Law Dies Down.”
The Onion seems to have boiled down the entire Trump/Bannon philosophy; do whatever you want; the FBI and bureaucracy work for the president and the press is a bunch of hysterical nobodies who can't arrest anyone. Congress is too busy running their own scams and K Street has plenty of great policy ideas. Win Win situation. So much winning!
Thank you, Maureen! You have partially restored my faith in our once "Newspaper of Record".
My faith might be FULLY restored if & when the "failing New York Times" at last calls for Trump to RESIGN!
2
Trump is the biggest national security risk ever. His clownishness masks the fact that a lot of people will die because of policies backed by him and others.
Will he start a war? If so, where will our allies be?
1
It's about time someone wrote this. There is much damage being done by this administration that gets lost in the daily clown show.
I certainly hope damage can be minimized and reversed when these awful people leave the stage. And lets start with the tax code...how about return it to something pre-Reagan?
2
Consider the fact that Republicans criticize people for not wanting to kill people in wars.
Attempting to explain the behavior of our current President Donald J Trump is like rationalizing the behavior of any other sociopath.
“Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who possess it; and this I know, my lords: that where law ends, tyranny begins.” — William Pitt
Obviously DJT has always had a corrupt mind, but we must not allow his tyrannical tenure to continue. Down with The Donald and all the dolts (i.e., amoral Republicans) who’ve helped perpetrate his dirty and dangerous deeds.
2
"It's turning out to be..." Ms. Dowd it was always going to be and has been from the start a M&A enterprise aimed at dismantling anything praiseworthy about the USA and selling off the parts.
Reality check:
No "antibodies" are kicking in. Trump has swatted away Congress; you think the ethics office and FEC are worrying him?
GOP lawmakers are even more behind the president, defending his "pro collusion" comments by pointing out that Hillary did it, too (not true).
The nicknames will have powerful effect once Trump starts campaigning and national oped writers like Dowd keep repeating them.
It is easy to focus on the tweets because the MSM has become very lazy and finds it easier to fill air time and column inches with reality show nonsense.
The poll numbers will flip once he starts campigning and has complete 24/7 control of the news cycle. He was down 4 to Biden in TX last week, now he is up 2, a 6 point swing.
Karni and Haberman are signaling the Dems it's OK to go back to the couch; Nancy's got this.
When George Stephanopoulos went for a ride in The Beast with the President, it looked like Donald was not wearing his seat belt. Washington DC's Metropolitan Police Department is tough on Click It or Ticket scofflaws and a participant in Operation ABC (America Buckles-up Children). Police can stop an offender and hand out a $75 fine, plus two points, for not keeping your under-8s in their booster seat.
Elliot Ness style, can we get the White House Scofflaw on a traffic violation?
1
Mitch is just as Complicit. A true snake.
3
It looks more and more likely that Ms Dowd will never again find her name on the Trump dinner invitation list!
Same with Maggie Haberman.
The Clinton campaign paid foreign national Christopher Steel for his “dossier”. Why no op-eds about that?
2
My only regret is that my tax money is paying for this crook and his gang's life style in the White House and I have to listen to him everyday. I plead media not to give him so much exposure. My gut feeling is that media will gift him the second term.
4
Trump is living in 'The Trump bubble' which is completely beside reality. His narcissism has to be gratified every minute of the day. And it has te be stronger all the time to satisfy his sickness.
1
I cried like I had witnessed a mass killing on election night, 2016. Because I knew who we had allowed to get elected, a mean, thieving, Manhattan con artist real estate operator.
My understanding of this guy's character and modus operandi was not unique. Everyone in business in NYC knows about Donnie, and always have. Including Ms. Dowd, but she liked the phoney stardust in 2016. Too little too late now.
3
Only voters can stop Trump. The best solution is to vote a straight Blue ticket in 2020. Trump would be ejected from Office and a ravaged GOP could begin the rebuilding it needs.
22
@Pat Choate
The GOP is married to the policies that Trump implements, and does not want a divorce. The unpopularity of those policies means that the GOP must disenfranchise voters to win. Their actions and attitudes show they are perfectly OK with that. Trump is just the GOP writ large, with very bad manners. I don’t see how the party can rehabilitate itself based on its widely held belief that any means justify its ends. Newt Gingrich said he impeached Clinton “because he could.” The GOP has just gone downhill from there, like a runaway train.
15
The perfect ticket to beat Trump and really run America democratically would be Sanders as President with his domestic policy and Tulsi Gabbard as VP with her slightly more centered domestic policy and her very clear-eyed vision of foreign affairs.
That would ring in all Democrats as well as independents and intelligent Republicans.
4
@Anonymot...wouldn't ring with me.
Trump does not refuse to recognize constitutional checks on power, that would indicate a certain sense of intellectual policy choice. The reason Trump acts as he does is that he knows what he has done and he knows one day he will be punished for it. He uses the presidential powers in hopes of forestalling or preventing that punishment.
18
@tbs That is an accurate assessment.
1
If he’s not impeached and prosecuted, the Executive Branch will be permanently altered. The sitting President will ignore all investigations, suborn perjury and grant pardons to those caught. Foreign intelligence services will be a permanent adjunct to American political campaigns.
The bar has been lowered; and if no one picks it up
And puts it back, it will stay there.
40
@Mjxs
He can be impeached after he’s defeated at the polls. There will not be time for conviction, but that would never happen with the current Senate configuration. I strongly support Pelosi’s refusal to give Trump the gift of impeachment, at this time. Once Trump is out of office, the facts will come out. Even then, the GOP will deny them all. That is why it’s so essential to win the election.
1
I don't know if the public in general are as concerned about this Presidency as the author, but they should be. Trump's behavior is not just erratic, juvenile, and illegal, but on a course toward fascism which we have never before witnessed in this country. He makes Richard Nixon look like a prep schooler.
I agree with another commenter the only way the attention needed to awake the public is civil disobedience. It brought about women's suffrage, Union rights, civil rights, and the end to the Vietnam War. Hopefully, the same outrage demonstrated in the street can bring the end to the Trump disaster in the White House.
74
@allen roberts
I believe that Trump’s greatest ‘crime’ is that his policies consistently work better than liberalism. His greatest ‘sin’ seems to be that he confidently defends them rather than allow himself to be shouted down by the hooligans who hide behind civil disobedience. His policies happen to be working well, and his ability to goad extremists to their own self destruction happens to be a feature, not a bug.
Considering the fact that Donald Trump has only been in the White House since January 2017, the list of questionable acts surrounding him and his administration is a long and varied one.
Of course, this should surprise no one.
Least of all to those of us here in New York City who have had to live with his escapades and dalliances with the media for decades.
But at this point it's simply impossible to know which one of this president's acts or tweets is the most egregious, although his recent admission in an interview with George Stephanopoulos that he'd be willing to take any information on an opponent from a foreign source was pretty shocking since he's already done that in spite of claiming to have no involvement with the Russian government.
Too bad it has already been proven otherwise.
And now the act seems to be stirring up a war with Iran, if only to shift the focus elsewhere (again!) from just how dire the situation in the country is with this President.
The sad reality is that we'll end up paying for it one way or the other.
71
Reading Dowd's article and the many, many well written commentaries, I am angered and frustrated that 45, his political minions and the entrenched republican kakistocracy are allowed to perpetuate this outrage. Bernie Sanders is running on a platform suggesting that nothing short of a "political revolution" is needed. As things stand now, and appear to be getting worse, this is an insufficient strategy. I suspect that we are fast approaching the type of action that thousands in Hong Kong are serving up to mainland China. We Americans will not change anything in the current political climate without taking democracy to the streets, just as we did with Viet Nam. Civil disobedience must once again begin in earnest if we are ever able to extract ourselves from this divisive governmental quagmire. "Power to the People" is a much needed resurgent cry. Now that would give us hope.
108
Ms. Dowd writes, "It’s turning out to be a genuinely reactionary administration led by a wannabe authoritarian who refuses to recognize constitutional checks on power. The real danger is not in the antics but in the policies." It is unfortunate that she did not write these words in 2016, when those of us who were paying attention already knew the character and history of Trump. Or perhaps she could have written them in 2017, when journalists who had experienced the march of authoritarianism in Poland and Hungary were literally laying down a blueprint for what would happen in the U.S. under Trump. If it has taken Ms. Dowd this long to wake up to what the Trump administration is "turning out to be," I think we need to reevaluate the quality of journalism in this country.
67
The problem was/is the gullibility of some of our citizens voting for Trump, in spite of his tendency to take money from banks and not pay the "loans" back. Trump is not a builder, he is a taker.
22
@jhand While I have some sympathy for all writers, Ms Dowd's forte is satire. Unfortunately,focusing on poking fun at Trump the Entertainer (ala Chaplin) distracts from Trump the reactionary transforming fascist. It is time to get unremittingly serious, not just for a few sentences.
3
@jhand
You are totally right. Her painful elaboration of the obvious here is exquisite. But I wish other nyt writers had some vision along with their talents like Krugman does.
4
Very well written article, but the problem is with the voters. Yes, the House flipped over to the Democrats, but the Senate improved their numbers. Until the voters decide to end the Donald Show we have to endure the daily barrage of tweets that are full of lies one would think a child could easily understand. So, here we sit, forced to watch the daily decay of the America with no seemingly way to end.
57
@Dan O
Instead of the Democrats concentrating so much on the P
presidential election they should be concentrating on the Senate. A lot of the 23 presidential contenders would make great senators. If the Dems take the Senate they can hold him in check. If the Dems take the presidency but the Senate is still Republican it will hold the president in check just as they did with Obama. The Senate is the key in 2020 not the presidency. And yes, then you can successfully impeach Trump .
3
@Dan O
Very true. If we can turn Texas blue, it would solve a whole lot of problems!
So many people I talk to express what a negative direction our country has taken. Acrimony within families, violence/skyrocketing drug addiction in our neighborhoods, 24 hours a day of redundant news media stations/talking-heads elevating the negative to increase their share of the market, racism, fear of war, etc., etc.. This, while our economy is supposedly at the height of it's performance. In so many ways, it all goes to not only a lack of leadership at the top; but tragically because of who is there. We need to revitalize the legal protests that greeted Mr. Trump and his enablers when he first took office. Let's truly make America great again.
34
Just yesterday I saw an article that The New Yorker's great satirist Andy Borowitz penned on February, 10th, 2017 which was an omen of Trump's presidency.
It was titled:
TRUMP SAYS HE HAS BEEN TREATED VERY UNFAIRLY BY THE PEOPLE WHO WROTE THE CONSTITUTION.
Among other pearls Trump was saying: "Russia has much better constitution writers than we do, because Putin said theirs never gives him any problems.
It ends with: "I don't have their names yet, but that is something I'm looking into. These jokers are not going to get away with it".
Unfortunately satire has become political reality in the House of Cards with the gilded name Trump engraved on it.
95
On several occasions Trump has all but threatened national chaos in one form or another if he loses in 2020 as if such statements have no more consequence than “I’m taking my ball and going home”. His main concern is for himself as it has been during an entire life surrounded by paid minions whose sole purpose was saying: “Yes Mr. Trump, you’re right again”. This would be far more amusing if the Republican Party were not ironically fulfilling a similar role. This will end badly for either Trump or the country. Let’s hope it’s him.
79
I'm afraid it will unavoidably be the country and little solace if it also takes down the current White House occupant.
1
The Americans who vote for Trump seem to believe his presidency is merely a TV show. It lends itself so easily to mockery and replication, as if it were a political satire, a mere abstract fictionalized version of a "real" presidency. They support it because it is entertaining and amusing. It is all one big sit-com for many Americans and they don't take it seriously because they cannot imagine that this is really really happening in a real world. "Reality" has itself lost meaning for them, everything being a simulacrum, a sort of distant narrative that has nothing to do with them. Trump, having hosted his own TV show, seems to be the first sci-fi president, someone who has fictionalized the presidency into an American amusement whose existence in reality is insignificant as long as the ratings are good and as long as it is entertaining. And, confessing the truth, it is very entertaining.
53
How in the world have we gotten to this point?
It seems like the US citizens are getting hit by both sides:
Republican rich donors are thrilled thrilled thrilled that while Trump spins all of his sideshows, the Republican Congress is doing and undoing all of the laws and regulations to keep them happy.
In the meantime the Russians and any other country with interest, have found a Criminal president for their machinations.
We need to take our country back in 2020, make sure you are ready to vote and your name has not been taken from the voter rolls.
142
We need to be blunt, loud, and honest about what is happening. It is TREASON, sponsored by the Republican Party with help from a variety of outside sources. Read Madeline Allbright's book on the rise of fascism in Germany in the early 1930's. It is obvious that Trump and his pals have read it.
2
As bad as Trump is, we all keep waiting for the GOP to have that McCarthy moment of "Senator have you no decency." It seems to be trickling in like trickle down economics. It's trickling in with Awash; yet we see the GOP's response. Then on the other side of the aisle there are plenty calling for action and our heads are reeling at what political game is Pelosi playing. Both side care about politics and not our country. I care about our country. Awash cares about our country. So do those who have abandoned the Republican party. Evil flourishes when good men do nothing. Playing politics is letting evil flourish.
76
No such moment is coming. Therefore it's wrong to keep styling them as a "GRAND OLD PARTY," the way you did just now. Why do you keep taking up for them?
@Kathryn Meyer McConnell and his ilk have no decency. They are craven and debased beyond our understanding. They look us, the ordinary citizens of the nation as nothing but animals to be controlled and bent to serve their power.
2
@Kathryn Meyer
That McCarthy moment of recognition about decency is meaningless to Trump and his White House. No, Trump and his crew have no sense of decency. They laugh at the question. Kellyanne said it perfectly: “Blah, blah, blah.”
This is what we’re dealing with.
2
If the real danger is not the antics, but the policies, why has virtually the entire media focused primarily on Trump's "antics" for the past 4 years? It is a daily barrage of Trump controlled by Trump.
Mainstream media did more colluding with Trump and his campaign in 2015 and 16 than all the other Countries in the World combined, let alone Russia.
Now the Mainstream Media is pushing Biden v Trump, just as it pushed H. Clinton v Trump in 2016.
Nothing has changed.
52
@James Barth Oh, but it has. The leading Democratic contenders for the nomination all have positive favorability ratings and Clinton never got above 43%. She was barely over 50% in her own party.
17
@dbl06
The problem is, the Times and other sane media outlets don’t report that full slate of polling data. The stories have only featured the Biden numbers. Doing so is unbelievably biased; it’s as if these outlets (NYT, MSNBC, andCNN) function as PR distributors for the Biden campaign. They are skewing the primary, just as they did in 2015.
My solution? Watch as many candidate events as I can unfiltered via streaming media and C-Span. That way I can make assessments and decisions for myself.
2
@Jackie Not true. Joe Biden has probably been covered less than anyone who has ever been a front runner. In fact, he has been criticized for not being seen in public enough. You are absolutely correct to criticize the Times and every other major media outlet for the way Trump got free campaign coverage in 2016.
No! "The real danger is not [Trump's]... policies" but rather, it's the inability of both houses of Congress to effectively respond.
53
@bmck - It's not inability of both houses - the senate, led by the equally miscreant traitor McConnell, that is unwilling to effectively respond. In fact they're all in for trump and will block any effort to stop him, as is true for AG Barr.
1
Trump could not do all this without McConnell and the billionaire-run GOP with its unimaginably successful brainwashing propaganda machine.
191
Aided by the ignorant mass of the American public unwilling to inform themselves of what is happening in any significant way.
6
Trump is totally unhinged with power, and making it much worse are the ultra compliant Republican Senators and Representatives, who have given up on defending our Constitution. Maureen, he is not a wannabe authoritarian - with the vast powers of the Presidency, and no effective checks on said power, Trump is, in fact, an actual authoritarian, in both words and deeds.
89
Jonathan Greenberg has an excellent companion piece entitled "Saving Face" in the Washington Post. It illustrates what a ruthless, callous and vindictive swine we have in the White House. I wish one of these newspapers would expose the dirt Trump has on Lindsey Graham. Greenberg implies Trump used the same tactics on Graham that he used on Malcom Forbes. It explains Graham's astonishing transformation as Trump's lapdog.
74
Refreshing. Ya know Maureen, one of things I have liked about you thru all of these years is that you have never lied to your readers. Simple. I mean I knew Bill Clinton was a teenager when it came to women - but he was a smart guy. And he did a good job. I had been perplexed about your Obama narratives thru his eight years in office but maybe time will fill-in a more cohesive narrative in this journey we live in the United States of America. And now we have Trump. In my mind Shakespeare was the forerunner to Freud. I think you figured that out a while ago. That's why I still read you.
12
" Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it, good and hard." - H.L. Mencken.
Gee, who could have guessed ???
20
So much of media criticism of Trump and his corrupt family and cronies focuses on their disgusting and ludicrous behavior.
But as you astutely and succinctly stated:
"The real danger is not the antics but the policies."
I hope the vast majority of Americans realize this and do something about it before it is too late.
31
Unfortunately, the great mass of the American public, including those who should know better, are choosing to look the other way.
5
Every day another low bar has been reached by this fraud and pretty much silence from all of his enablers.
41
These comments are very interesting and long! The situation was very clear the other day when Kellyanne Conway came under fire re: political activity that was not appropriate for a federal employee- Mrs. Conway Esq.
said “Blah, blah, blah. Let me know when the jail term starts.” Clearly demonstrates her contempt for the law and her feelings as a
King Maker. This is the Trump administration.
They do whatever they want in their arrogance and stupidity with total confidence that they are the LAW because they have or temporarily have the POWER.
58
It is really amazing to see how Mitch McConnell has become the strongest enabler of this charade. Other republicans also have caved in. Remember the long winding speech that Collins gave to have her cake and eat too as she surrendered to her glorious leader? Unless all fair minded people stand up to protect our country and purge the Senate in 2020 and buy a oneway ticket to NY for Mr Trump. we are doomed.
48
The Trump rot runs so deep Pelosi needs to keep her powder dry, continue to investigate, litigate and legislate and hold off on a divisive full blown impeachment inquiry. A House vote to impeach would at best, (given the Republican Senate's obsequious groveling at all things Trump) , be a the the textbook definition of a Pyrrhic victory. The Senate will never convict and Trump, the victim, would trumpet his acquittal from coast to coast. Democrats therefore need to use the time between now and the election wisely. Hammer Trump on the facts, hammer him on process and get the fact witnesses who contributed to the Mueller findings before the committees in the House. His routine is wearing thin and momentum is on the Democrats side. We need to stay the course and rid ourselves of this cancerous rot in 2020, along with Pence, Pompeo, Bolton, Conway, Mills, Carson, and Stephen Miller. Then bring in the pressure washers filled with triple filtered holy water and hose the place down, recover the gray water and seal it in tankers and bury far out in the desert.
28
@Harley Leiber I completely disagree with you. We the people deserve an impeachment hearing. We deserve for the truth to be aired. Let each Representative and Senator go on the book and have their position be known whether they stood for democracy or not. We cannot let democracy go down without a fight because partisans are going to give it away anyway. That's nonsense. We let them win the fight because they win - no! Let the people hear the evidence and then the voters will know the truth.
21
So Trump is the only politician who plays dirty? Most of them do - but Trump is more honest and transparent about his intentions - and much better at it than the "virtuous" Democrats. Ms. Dowd and her followers' hate is a weakness; and Trump and his supporters get stronger from the ill wind blowing from all corners of the petulant left. I will vote for him again - out of spite if for nothing else, but there is still plenty to admire in the man. See you in 2020.
6
@bronx refugee
Spite may have its satisfactions, but is it really what you want to use to decide the future of your children and granchildren?
1
"The Trump White House may be a clown show and a criminal enterprise. But it’s also an actual presidency." Ok, we know the Bozo in the title role, we are just not sure who the actual Clown Boss is: Is he a wealthy entrepreneur who continually runs scams in broad daylight while staying one step ahead of the law while also somehow fooling his populace into believing he cares even a little about their wellbeing now or in the or future, or does Putin sub-contract the script to someone else, perhaps very much like Mitch McConnell, to push the words and pull the puppet strings? C'mon, Putin or MItch? Who is the voice behind the implanted speaker in Trumps head? Who is that guy behind the curtain we are supposed to "pay no attention to"?
8
The Republicans want an oligarchy. They manipulate everything for this aim. I am convinced they rig the votes, if they can. They have no morality left. They hate everything good about America.
36
Trump looks tired lately. What’s wrong with Donald?
17
Kellyanne Conway’s reaction to the recommendation by the special counsel for her to be fired for her repeated flouting of the Hatch Act- “ Blah, blah, blah... Let me know when the sentence starts.” - was so outrageous that even coming from Ms. Conway I’m still reeling. Like William Barr and so many others in this benighted administration, Ms. Conway clearly believes she is above the law.
And as for Trump, I don’t believe for a moment that he doesn't “know right from wrong.” I believe he learned it at his father’s knee, but like Dad, he’s having none of it.
28
Ms. Dowd please give Nancy a call.
Pelosi must start impeachment inquiry now.
Three main reasons Clinton lost to the con man.
-Democrats and independents stayed home because they thought there was no way Clinton could lose to this lunatic liar
- Russians and press were against Clinton
- Racists
Democrats will destroy Trump and Senate republicans with impeachment in the House and Democratic Senate candidates holding McConnell and thee other spineless Senators "accountable" for their not guilty votes in the Senate trial.
Speaker Pelosi has a constitutional duty to immediately begin impeachment inquiry .
Set House impeachment vote for Sept 4 ,2020 and watch those Republican Senators squirm. And watch the Senate majority turn to the Democratic party.
Impeach now and then make McConnell, Graham , Collins , Ernst, Gardner, McSally and all thee others up for reelection defend their not guilty vote in the Senate trial to their constituents
and they will be thrown out with Trump.
17
Beyond the side shows of Tump’s Twitter feed, the Mueller report, and Bill Barr’s subterfuge that are part and parcel of this circus, a deep and insidious destruction is happening. Irreparable damage to our environment, institutions and culture are taking place as the clowns distract. We have little left but the power of the pen and the vote and even those are being threatened.
I’m old enough to have been part of the Vietnam war protests. Seeing the throngs in Hong Kong take to the streets, I can’t help but wonder if we even have it in us to mount this degree of protest today. It’s been said that we get the government we deserve. Perhaps we have.
22
The next US presidential election is 505 days away. What will we do if Trump loses the electoral college and declares the election rigged and against him? Get ready this will get ugly....
9
@Greg
It is already ugly. Trump can be arrested if he does not leave the WH voluntarily. But I hope he gets arrested before then.
1
It is clear that Trump doesn't know right from wrong - at what age did you know this?
4
It makes perfect sense to amoral Trump to look for foreign help to win another election. He hired Manafort to run his campaign well after Manafort had been exposed for conspiring with the Russians to assume presidential power in the Ukraine. The goal was to seek policies favorable to Russia.When the Ukrainian project failed Manafort was in debt to the Russians and proposed working to get Trump elected for "no pay" but for later considerations. "Hey Russia" if I get presidential power in the USA instead of Ukraine that would be a good replacement for paying my debt and getting me off the hook, right? Trump was sworn in as president and as Maureen described Russia got better policies than from Ukraine.
Trump knew that he was committing crimes from the beginning and has been campaigning for re-election from day one in order to stay out of jail. If he cheats again and wins he is immune to prosecution as president and who will start an investigation next time, Bill Barr?
13
How is this going to get any better? Trump has the country by the throat (I'm being civil here) and along with the revolting Mitch McConnell who is really running this horror show , most Americans who hate what is happening will not take to the streets to protest the day by day dismantling of our democracy. Watching MSNBC, CNN, Morning Joe and all the others simply aggravates me further. Progressive news shows (as with TYT) are the only sane avenues for what seems to me unfiltered, honest reporting. Sleepless nights are a constant and my only recourse is to pull away from the continuing ,depressing news stream. A significant portion of America, Trump's lemming-like "base" is a breed of Ugly American I had discounted as a minor irritant in decades past. I couldn't have been more wrong. If we are not yet a full-fledged dictatorship, I sense we will be soon, and many Americans apparently will be okay with that.
26
The polls show Trump fading into the dust, and the lies not working so well, so what does he and his team do?
Why they start genning up a horrendously deadly and useless war! Hey! It got George W. Bush re-elected, starting an illegal and unnecessary war in Iraq--where we still are 16 years later.
So Bolton's always wanted to go to war with Iran, and now's the perfect time to shore up Trump's support with a war!
And you KNOW that nobody named "Trump" or "Bolton" will have to risk THEIR life in Iran. Starting a war just to get re-elected puts a nation's leader at the bottom of the barrel with history's worst monsters.
20
"Trump doesn’t want to lose just when he seems to be getting more comfortable with all the power he wields." Let me fix it for you: Trump can't lose because if he does, the SDNY is waiting to take him to the cleaners and to jail. Mitch and the GOP, the so called party of law and order, now should be called the party of "protect the biggest crook in the White House since Harding".
20
@Edgar
I don't think that the SDNY has to wait until Trump gets out of the White House. Trump's family Foundation has already been shut down while he is living in the White House.
1
Maurine, churches have rarely taught moral behavior and have only mentioned ethical behavior in a footnote. They have taught dogma which at times included death by stoning or being burned to death.
Insofar as "oppo" research from a non citizen, Trump never said it was legal he just said he would accept it.
I think President Trump would have good reason to be quite upset with you for implying that he would ever be so foolish as to do something legal.
4
@Bunbury
The more I think about what Trump said about accepting a Foreign offer of information regarding the opposition and he would accept it smacks of Treason to me.
8
Trump actively interferes in other countries' elections. Jeremy Corbin just said there was no genuine proof that Iran bombed those tankers. Trump has disparaged Corbin and Pompeo even said he wouldn't work with him if he were to become Prime Minister. He also praised Boris Johnson and said he would be a great Prime Minister.
4
Another Sunday morning...
And your all Living a safer and more prosperous life in part because of the the policies implemented by the President you live to criticize.
What do they say? " be careful what you ask for "
2
I have no loyalty to this country and shortly I will be gone.
1
When trump is gone, and he will be gone sooner or later, he will still be around. He will be able to continue to feed all the negativity with all the gravitas of a former president. He will have influence over who is picked as the next Republican presidential candidate. Mitch McConnell, perhaps? Shawn Spicer? Sarah Huckabee? Breitbart will still be around. Fox News won’t go away. What about Russian meddling? The lies are all out there and won’t go away. The false claims against President Obama, and many others will hang around. What ICE has done, what the FBI seems to be doing. This is a cancer in our country that will not go away. I cannot see a hopeful future. Only trump et all, licking their chops for the next attack.
11
Gee, has anyone noticed that a word that just a few years ago was questioned in it's use it now pretty freely being bantered around: Liar?
7
Hillary Clinton’s campaign also went to the Brits to find dirt on Trump.
However, the Dossier was a fraud as was Mrs. Clinton.
4
@Tuco
The dossier was started by the Washington Free Beacon, a conservative website, on behalf of Marco Rubio:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/25/us/politics/steele-dossier-trump-expained.html
It was abandoned by them when Trump was sealing up the nomination. A Democrat then picked it up.
By the way, much of it -- important points on inexplicable Russian interactions with innumerable Trump people -- has not been *publicly* corroborated or uncorroborated ... We simply don't know. All we do know is that much of Steel's work (minus the salacious stuff) has been taken seriously by the FBI and bird-dogged. Hopefully soon we'll learn what was found out (assuming it's not covered up).
Democrats didn't start the Dossier and it certainly can't be called "a fraud".
1
Now I am confused is this article about Bill Clinton or donald J. Trump ?
Bill and Hillary are totally out of the picture but we have trump and his greedy family whose lies are enough to keep one awake at night.
His interview with George Stephanopoulos his favorite anchor brings back this country where trump started his 2016 presidency.
Now again trump is telling other countries to find dirt on his opponents as he did with Hillary's Candidacy.
Trump lies and it is no big deal for him , he turned 73 , an old man .
Maxine Waters and Nancy Pelosi are a step above trump and Ms. Pelosi still making trump dance at her will.
3
Maureen Dowd,
A prescription to take a weight of your shoulders:
"It is a fair observation, that I presented a rough equivalency re: the impending Choice between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump prior to the 2016 election...
Donald Trump's disastrous presidency has proven me wrong..."
How difficult is that to ponder, Maureen?
It may be humbling, but it will make you feel much better!
5
It is most disturbing (appalling) to realize that there is no pejorative that is not fitting when describing trump and his actions.
7
By every measure Trump is illegitimate, starting with actually losing the election by a margin of 3 million voters. And every subsequent action and tweet proves he is illegitimate -- and the very truth of that drives him crazy.
Not only is he illegitimate, but his actions, appointments, and nominations are illegitimate, fruit of the illegitimate tree. And this simple truth needs to be shouted from the rooftops.
And evangelicals who believe they can make a bargain with the devil, have forgotten that the devil never loses. And what he wants is their soul. And he will have it. Trump will be remembered as the agent of the devil and the president that sold the soul of evangelical Christians and the Republican Party. Art of the Deal? Indeed!
18
Agreed on all counts. He must be impeached. Even if traitor Mitch McConnell's senate won't convict, the facts must be laid out for all to see. It's not impossible that some in the GOP will decide that enough is enough.
9
And all the while Trump is stuffing his pockets with the proceeds of his duped followers' tax offerings.
12
There is something deeply perverse about a president whose first honest statement was that he would gladly take political dirt from an outside nation.
25
Lies come easily to Donald Trump.
The thousands of casual deceptions are based, in part, on the majestic depth and breadth of his ignorance and so carry a far greater weight of inauthenticity. The lies are also grounded upon a psychological and emotional vacuum that screams out for attention, acceptance and acclamation.
He simply does not understand that the world does not bear an obligation to meet his deepest needs. And so, with the power bequeathed to him by an equally ignorant voting populace—and encouraged by a Republican Party to whom expedience is the handmaiden of evil will—Donald Trump, already dangerously compromised by a personal and intellectual makeup of astonishing aberrancy—now has, within his grasp, the very means of forcing the world to verify and validate his dark self.
He ran his campaign on the whiffs of racism and religious extremism—those of the so-called “Christians” here, and of the widespread suspicion of Islam overall, especially after 9/11. Also whispering in his ear were Iran’s enemies, particularly those whose proximity to the huge oil fields remain a salivating pretext for a “look-the-other-way” offensive against the ayatollahs.
But this all begins with greed and dishonesty and a lust for the things of others. It’s all crowned by a screaming insistence that the world owes him something because he’s Donald Trump.
And Republicans—to a man and woman—are hitched forever to this Lucifer of the Day Star.
26
When all this started, I like many others, thought that Trump was mentally impaired in some way. I no longer think so. I think he knows exactly what he is doing and is staying on course, enjoying the wreckage he is causing. And we should realize how much he hates America and what it has stood for.
1
It's ridiculous to continue to call this person "President", when he was elected with the aid of foreign interference he welcomed then and welcomes now. His election was illegitimate, and should have been considered an act of war. His actions and orders should be ignored by the majority who still think for themselves and love their country. Take note of the zealots who continue to follow and empower him. My own child's grandparents will be remembered by this support after they have passed. An entire lifetime reduced to their support of a corrupt, treasonous autocrat, much like that of so many Germans who were of age in the 30's and 40's. That continued support is immoral, unethical, anti-American, and ultimately unacceptable...trump supporters leave us with no better choice.
13
Everything Maureen has written is so obviously true. When is anyone going to do anything about it? I have pretty much given up on the Republicans But when are Democrats going to do anything? Specifically, when is Nancy Pelosi going to do anything? I think in the next week she needs to make a speech to the nation exposing Trump as a common CRIMINAL and immediately proceed with impeachment.
12
Oh isn't it wonderful to write in generalities, ignore the specifics and be hypocritical about things that have occurred that contradict the whole opinion piece.
All of us know there is nothing wrong with opposition research and there is also nothing wrong with receiving opposition info even if received, without solicitation, from a foreign government or person. And how would anyone know it's even opposition info if one doesn’t read it. So, let's say the Brit equivalent of our CIA send an unsolicited letter to the President or an operative in the Whitehouse setting forth damning info on alleged unlawful activities of a Presidential candidate. Does one not have the duty to read it? Of course. One would have to be of simple minded inclination not to. And after doing so, contact the FBI or CIA to verify. Right? And isn't that exactly what President Trump said? Or was I listening to the Lunar Network?
And isn't it ironic if not disingenuous to conveniently forget about the Clinton/DNC solicited & paid for false Steele (he being British & a foreigner) dossier that was given to the FBI NOT to be verified but given solely to be used to obtain a warrant to spy on a White House operative, Carter Page?
So it seems that the writer
really has a gift for selective amnesia if not brazen fantasy undeserving of one who, prior to the Trump era, had my admiration as a purveyor of a wonderful brand of truth mixed with an ample dose of her special humor. Where has it all gone? Where Maureen?
3
We have a bonafide Sociopathic Personality Disorder in free-float in the Oval Office. He does not know enough to Care...or care enough to Know.
He is tenacious and mendacious. "President" Trump is beyond Treatment;
we, the People, are in Need of it! Unfortunately, and Sadly, the People
have Not seen the book by 27 Psychiatrists who assess the President.....
"The Dangerous Case Of Donald Trump, by Bandy Lee, M.D., M.Div.
Of course, and obviously, the President has not read it. I lament the
presence of This "Presidency". (Grateful to be Old and Past it!)
8
I suspect Trump welcomed the recommendation that Kellyanne be fired for breaking the law. It gives him the opportunity to further groom the American people. "I don't care what Kellyanne's done, she's not leaving." So when Trump gets trounced on election day 2020, we should all be prepared for him to say: "I don't care what the vote tallies show, I'm not leaving either."
9
Just in case some of you missed this: Dahlia Lithwick of Slate: "America finds itself in the grip of an endless and inscrutable daily mystery: How is it possible that the president — whose chief occupations seem to be tweeting, lying, lying about what he tweeted, watching television, and committing crimes -- is not on the hook for anything?... More broadly, one wonders, how is it possible that nobody within his orbit — including those who refuse to comply with subpoenas, and those who openly commit flagrant acts of greed and corruption, and those who have broken federal laws — is on the hook for anything either? This vast epistemological question can consume every ounce of energy that remains after an average day spent watching atrocities directed at small children and humanitarian volunteers being put on trial.... The answer, of course, is that we’ve let him get away with it."
20
Recently, one of the MSNBC hosts ran a clip I had forgotten from one of Trump's campaign speeches, in which he ranted about his rival Hillary Clinton and what a terrible disgrace her administration would be, predicting investigations and corruption galore. We didn't realize then that whenever he accuses someone of a crime, it's a crime he's committed or will commit himself.
18
In all fairness, it's getting as common to denigrate Trump, as it is for him to tweet nasties.
1
@Walter Ingram - You should probably look up "fairness."
1
“The real danger is not the antics but the policies.”
There is also real danger in those who are enabling this monstrosity. Sean Hannity, for example, was seemingly uninterested in what Trump had told George Stephanopoulos about receiving foreign opo research without informing the FBI. His focus, instead, was on Stephanopoulos, whom he deemed a “Clinton sycophant.”
7
“Unabashed gargoyle...chomping..”? More like issuing a stream of polluting effluent; more in the nature of gargoyles. That foul rain will be hard to clean up after he’s gone. I fear for the souls of the children, given this lesson in governance.
5
So when GS asked if Trump would turn over damaging foreign sourced info to the FBI he said at one time, 'Depends if it's good or bad.'
???
I guess if it's 'good' he keeps it and uses it, but if it's 'bad', as in useless, he reports it??!!
The laugh emoji doesn't exist yet for this one.
4
So what is it gonna take for American's to get out onto the streets in protest?
18
Maureen gets to the nub of Trump when she writes this:
“He makes it so easy for everyone to focus on the tweets and the maniacal, moronic reality show that you have to struggle to look away and take the measure of what he’s doing.
And what he’s doing is altering domestic and foreign policy in terrible ways while running up huge deficits.”
Ignore the schtick and focus on the horrible policies his administration has enacted.
Show the voters how he’s ruining the country and putting even more money in the fat cats’ and corporations’ pockets.
He’s no more a populist than his smarter English counterpart, Boris Johnson.
11
I loved the line: " I cannot tell a lie." it applies to so much commentary and explains perfectly all the rest of the observations presented in this very fine op ed.
I have read so many columns of Maureen Dowd and look forward with relish to each sunday...but in the so many years of reading the op eds of this very fine observer...I would say this is the best and most succinct of all the presentations of Ms. Dowd.
and best of all is the language which is presented with care and without opinion....just observation.
1
Stet...
If this were the first part of the scripture, this don would be interpreted as sent for divine retribution, condemning the collective greed and lawlessness of the nation...
But if the solution were to be a response of sackcloth and ashes, do not expect it to be called out by the catholics, or people preoccupied with fear of vaccination, or evangelicals....
1
I confess to being a little surprised by these Dowd Op-Eds. If memory serves me correctly, she did little during the 2016 campaign to help Hillary Clinton against the grotesque (then) charlatan-candidate win the election. I hasten to add that it's so easy and convenient for those that supported Trump to continue to claim that "Clinton was flawed" and "her emails" and all that garbage, when in fact she is an outstanding person and would have been a magnificent president. So really that's all I have to say about this - she's reaping what she and her ilk helped to sow.
20
Trump did attempt a correction by saying he'd have to check out foreign dirt so see if it was ok before letting the FBI or AG know. Yes, that AG. Where ethics and honor go to die. And being ok probably just means it's plausible dirt he can weaponize on social media.
Unfortunately, real overseas oppo research never needs to reach Trump's desk. A Russian cutout can contact a friend of a friend of Trump. One or 2 steps removed isn't above even the ineptitude of the Trump gang. Just ask Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, or Rudy Giuliani.
Firms like Cambridge Analytica, or Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, or that Israeli firm paid $2 million by MBZ are all capable of acting independently on behalf of the Trump campaign. We already legalized unlimited dark money in politics under the dual Roberts' doctrines that money is speech and corporations are people.
Trump's an amoral cretin leading a crime family, but temporarily ensconced in the People's House. The public either knows it or they don't. The House is hamstrung by maximalist legal stalling, making impeachment seem a fantasy despite a litany of crimes documented by the Special Counsel.
Let's just get on with the election. I just hope there are no remaining ignorant voters like those who stayed home in 2016 or voted for Jill Stein to register a 'protest.' Thanks to them we've probably lost a balanced federal judiciary for generations. And we'll probably end up with a corrupted census. And we may end up with another Mideast war.
11
Trump, believe it or not, works hand in hand with the media to get his publicity. He is unbelievably corrupt and the media are allowing him to spew his venom to make profits. Why won't anyone in the mainstream media stick up for Joe Biden, who has a real chance to beat Trump? All we ever hear about are the 1%.
3
It isn't Trump who is so shocking. Those of us in NY knew about him and his absurd behavior decades ago. It's the Republican Congress that turns a blind eye because they are pillaging the planet while Trump draws attention away from them.
Mitch McConnell MUST be taken down. He make Dick Cheney look like a neophyte. I don't believe in evil but if I did Mitch McConnell would be the poster child for it. He is beneath contempt.
22
Since when is breaking the law a crime?
8
Trump has no moral compass, how could he have any morals. He is also lacking in an ability to show empathy for another human being .
12
God bless the United States of American - and pray for us!
7
And the people bowed and prayed to this neon God they made. The same people who voted him in only because of the color of his skin, completely ignoring the content of his character.
11
"The president is an unabashed gargoyle atop the White House, chomping on American values."
Maureen , you couldn't have surmised it better. There IS an evil gargoyle in the White House that must be defeated by Nancy and company. trump literally makes me ill. He's a depression far beyond the great depression of the 30's. Forget about Sanders and vote this haircut out of office! And may the gop wither on the vines-forever.
8
Aside from Justin Amash, there's not a single profile in courage to be found among congressional Republicans as each feckless quisling -- Graham, Rubio, McConnell, Scott, Cornyn, Jordan, Collins, Romney, et. al. -- scampers to protect Trump at the expense of the nation. Not one Republican lawmaker who swore on the Bible to protect the Constitution is actually defending it. Their mountain of hypocrisy has surpassed Everest. Need proof? Ask yourself if the same set of circumstances were applied to President Hillary Clinton if they would rush to protect her from prosecution. Right. They propose nothing, accomplish nothing, and have proven they value nothing but power. This great nation has never -- never -- had a Congress which has subjugated and disgraced itself like these bootlicking frauds. I remember a time when you could teach kids the meaning of honesty, integrity, sacrifice, ethics, compromise, and courage by pointing to great leaders from both parties. Today, radiating outward from the White House to Capitol Hill, leaders like Dole, Lugar, and McCain -- men who exemplified those virtues -- have been vilified and erased from Republican history books. Unforgivable.
9
I believe that a lot of what is going on is a breakdown of values,integrity and morals. Trump supporters seem to lack ANY values. They seem to be very comfortable with lying,cheating and stealing if it gets you what you want.They seem incapable of looking beyond their own little universe and understanding the ramifications of their self centered attitude.
8
Mr trump getting comfortable with the power he wields is America’s worst nightmare.
8
The Trump/Bolton/Pompeo trio is already proving how very dangerous the Trump administration is. They are trying to provoke a war with Iran based on highly spurious evidence of Iranian attacks on a Japanese tanker.
Trump wants to change the news on the front page away from his treasonous remarks about gleefully accepting foreign aid in his election bids. He would love to appear on the bridge of a carrier in a flak jacket and helmet yelling Mission Accomplished!! . This is not humorous in the least - it is treacherous and will cost the lives of thousands of innocents if the ignorant egomaniac Trump is allowed to initiate any military action ever.
7
Well. Ill bet Mrs. Clinton looks a lot better to you now. Do you ever wake up in the middle of the night and wonder just how much damage you did to her campaign that enabled our current president to get elected? If you don't, you should!
18
Ms. Dowd shares a 1992 story about rightfully esteemed journalists Michael Isikoff and Eugene Robinson who wrote columns as critical of Trump as this one TWO YEARS ago.
In the case of Eugene Robinson, few weeks go by without an updated similar condemnation. Countless other journalists have followed suit.
While welcome, this column is of the variety of its writer being "shocked, shocked". Well, welcome to the party.
2
We are in Trump world, aka Bizarro world.
From the Urban Dictionary: bizarro world. A world where everything is the exact opposite. Up is down, first is last, good is bad, wrong is right, white is black, logical is illogical, giving is taking, insanity is sane, liberty is tyranny, and vice versa.
5
Trump is clueless and witless with regard to the US Constitution, the rules of governing, and the very decorum we should expect from a President. I agree that the real danger is that he adopts the policies his sycophant friends recommend. He considers them as his "base" yet he is just a tool to them...an accident of the electoral college whom they can manipulate by stroking his ego.
7
And meanwhile the people who voted for Trump and still support him revel in the outrage by people like me and Maureen. These miscreants will still be around when Trump is out of office but undoubtedly blathering on and on from the TeeVee screen.
5
Yes we know that Donald Trump is great Copy, even when one has to hold one’s nose as an op ed is written , but I think we all know by now how incompetent, and how disgustingly base this president is. Shouldn’t we be focusing on the people that we want to replace him? Shouldn’t we be thinking about what we do want in our next president , rather than what we don’t want?
Conventional wisdom has it that if you continue to focus on what you don’t want you end up getting more of what you don’t want… And if Donald Trump is indeed reelected we will have to start writing about our collapsing democracy and what we have foolishly thrown away in the name of ratings and readership .
6
It's amazing that in Dowd's outlining of Trump's various moral and legal failings, not one word is devoted to the fact that his administration is running child concentration camps in the desert.
Some of the most vulnerable people on earth are being held under deplorable and cruel conditions - egregious and sadistic human rights violations - and the nation's most important media organizations can't be bothered. Shame.
9
"Even craven Republican lawmakers — at long last — were squirming over Trump ... " Reminds me of the Queen of Hearts in Lewis Carroll's "Alice" Stories: "The Queen had only one way of settling all difficulties, great or small. 'Off with his head!' ["You're fired!"] she said, without even looking round ... Despite the frequency of death sentences, it would appear few people are actually beheaded ... her soldiers humor her but do not carry out her orders. Nevertheless, all creatures in Wonderland fear the Queen. In the final chapters, the Queen ... offers a bizarre approach towards justice: sentence before verdict." Bizarre theories of law, orders not being carried out by minions, etc. A POTUS who behaves as though in Wonderland, who woulda thunk it?
3
Mitch McConnell is allowing all of this occur, he is Saruman to Trump’s Sauron. Although comparing Trump to Sauron implies vast albeit evil intelligence, so the analogy is inapt.
4
If it is illegal to accept anything of campaign value from a foreign government, then how does Israel get away with it? Adelson actually took Romney to Netanyahu for his endorsement, and given AIPAC's history there is undoubtedly a lot more that would come out, were it examined.
Trump's trump card regarding Russian support is to simply point to the gold standard for interference set by Israel.
5
Oh, to again have a president with integrity.
What a shame that Ms. Dowd couldn’t appreciate President Obama’s honesty and responsibility when he was in office.
9
None of the Democrats needs dirt from any outside country, or any American political source, on Donald Trump. No gossip, no dirty laundry, no anonymous sources, no skeletons in the closet.
The scandal is an open secret. The scandal is the sleaziness, cruelty, cynicism, irresponsibility and ineptitude that Trump has brought to our highest office. His use of power is wrong and destructive, period. No digging needed.
6
Long before we had a lawless, corrupt Donald Trump as president, we had lawless, corrupt Mitch McConnell in the Senate.
Mitch has been the master of “laws and rules don’t matter” in our government for his whole career. His lesson to his fellow anti American swamp dwellers has been to “do whatever you want - no one will do anything about it”.
How much of this will the American People stand for??
America can’t survive with this level of corruption being given a pass.
7
Aside from Justin Amash, there's not a single profile in courage to be found among congressional Republicans as each feckless quisling -- Graham, Rubio, McConnell, Scott, Cornyn, Jordan, Collins, Romney, et. al. -- scampers to protect Trump at the expense of the nation. Not one Republican lawmaker who swore on the Bible to protect the Constitution is actually defending it. Their mountain of hypocrisy has surpassed Everest. Need proof? Ask yourself if the same set of circumstances were applied to President Hillary Clinton if they would rush to protect her from prosecution. Right. They propose nothing, accomplish nothing, and have proven they value nothing but power. This great nation has never -- never -- had a Congress which has subjugated and disgraced itself like these bootlicking frauds. I remember a time when you could teach kids the meaning of honesty, integrity, sacrifice, ethics, compromise, and courage by pointing to great leaders from both parties. Today, radiating outward from the White House to Capitol Hill, leaders like Dole, Lugar, and McCain -- men who exemplified those virtues -- have been vilified and erased from Republican history books. Unforgivable.
1
“The Trump White House may be a clown show and a criminal enterprise. But it’s also an actual presidency.” Profound, brilliant and well said. Bravo!
4
''It is very disorienting when those who are supposed to be our highest moral exemplars have no morals — not even of the alley-cat variety.''
Nope. Toms will look for another partner while the receptor of their sperm is nursing.
The only way to drain the Swamp is at the ballot box in November 2020. Then in February 2020 start indicting Trump and his minions.
3
“Double plus ungood.” To quote George Orwell.
2
With each day's (now) multiple news cycles to accompany the dozen daily White House lies, the Times's 2016 piece by Mahler and Flegenheimer on Roy Cohn's mentoring of 'Individual-1' (so named by his own DOJ) recreating the relationship of Wormwood to his mentor, becomes front-of-mind:
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/21/us/politics/donald-trump-roy-cohn.html
But in a week of vast putrid 'Orange-ness', Mo only gets so much space to document the outrages, so let's not leave out the GOP'ers standing up in the Senate this week to prevent a bill from coming to a vote which would explicitly require any political campaign to notify law enforcement of any contact/attempted contact by foreign nationals/governments.
And, notable mention should be made of 'the swamp' spreading internationally, with disclosures of the antics of Mrs. Mitch McConnell, Sec. of Transportation:
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/yet-another-trump-cabinet-secretary-faces-ethics-questions
Clear & Present Danger 45* is correct - we're tired of 'all the winning', and instead of 'the best people', which have flooded his Cabinet, could we all just please have people who will follow not only the words in the law, but the spirit of those laws - a Cabinet who will uphold their Oaths ?
2
Does Ms. Dowd feel any responsibility for this? I feel like I'm owed a personal apology. I'd bet I'm not the only one who feels this way.
6
After all the discussion of collusion, "oppo" research, russian intervention etc... I'm wondering, what dirt was ever actually dug up on Secretary Clinton? Doesn't seem to have been much of anything. Meanwhile Trump wallows in a mountainous pig sty of his own making, in plain sight, no digging required.
3
"There is no expedient to which a man will not resort to avoid the real labor of thinking," said Sir Joshua Reynolds.
trumpy, on the other hand, demonstrates daily that there is no depth to which he as president will not resort and lower himself to curse our republic and debase our institutions and our Constitution.
I wish a speedy end to his corrupt presidency. Start the impeachment process now. I hope our people and the Republican members of the House and Senate will stand up for something lawful and noble rather than fall for trumpy's claptrap and monkey antics.
1
As a long time New Yorker, I’m very used to Trump’s antics and tirades for over 30 years. He is an uber exhibitionistic and solipsistic narcissist. As a real estate businessman in Manhattan, he craved attention at any cost through so many channels: tabloids, tall buildings with kitschy decor, casinos, golf resorts, multiple affairs, private planes, Reality TV show yada yada yada. Trump is also an arrogant arriviste with a rapacious propensity and a flair for persiflage. As New Yorkers, we rolled our eyes about Trump’s never ending tall tales and muttered to ourselves: “It’s Trump again - give it a rest - will ya”.
Through a sheer fluke, Trump became our “Accidental President” and all of a sudden, the whole world became his stage. He is the happiest man in the planet. Whatever he says or does or tweets are analyzed by everybody all over the world. Trump is living the dream. Trump doesn’t care about the responsibilities of the office of the Presidency - he just loves the trappings of being the President. It’s like being the star of his own 24/7 “Global Presidential Reality Show”.
We should just stop taking him so seriously even though he is the President. In reality, he is a very shallow and superficial man full of bravado, braggadocio and bloviation. ‘Nuff said
8
"There’s no vaccination against the vile machinations of Trump. But there are some signs, in this sickened capital, that antibodies are kicking in. The president and his top officials are getting taken to task by a range of government watchdogs." ..... Finally. On tape and into infamy, Trump really CANNOT walk back treason. Treasonous unpatriotic talk to subvert Our democracy. No going back. America I think is waking up as he impeaches himself.
2
"And it won't be the kind we want" like crossing the Potomac with tanks and Apache helis from Fort Belvoir?
If Trump is still in office in November 2020, then Putin will again decide who the president of the USA will be. The only way that the Democrats could remove Trump from office would if he blatantly defies a Supreme court ruling regarding documents or allowing testimony. Thus, the Democrats best hope would be to hold off on enacting any articles of impeachment until the court battles are over. Just proving collusion and obstruction of justice won't sway any Republican senators.
Trump famously said "I could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and not lose any votes". That has now been replaced by "Trump could be caught handing America’s top military secrets to Russia and still not have any Republican votes for impeachment".
Whatever evidence and proof of criminal acts that Mueller could have come up with, it is certain that such evidence and proof could not be as powerful an indication of wrongdoing as the evidence in the public record that Bret Kavanaugh was lying in the senate hearings relating to his confirmation as a Justice.
Once Ford’s account included three people she said were there AND his calendar had them all at Tim Gaudette’s house on July 1, 1982, AND Ford’s description of the interior of Gaudette’s house in Rockville, MD exactly matches that of the actual house,: the only way that Kavanaugh was not lying is either: Ford obtained access to his 1982 diary/calendar, or Ford stalked Kavanaugh in 1982 and planned for this .."
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4216597
3
This article is precisely correct. The Trump administration is breathtaking in its amorality. They operate in a nihilistic way, and then bundle-in, literally, autocratic aspirations, and a warm embrace for all illiberal forms of governance. Every day is a continuing toxic erosion of American values, and indeed, the form of government established by the U.S. Constitution. What's worse, is the entire Republican Party, and its constituents must now be painted with this brush due to their silent enablement. If we could list all of the negative practices of America that had ever been overcome by a national conscience, it would seem the Republicans would resurrect each and every one in a belligerent and willful return to a past more characterized by meanness and stupidity.
1
It’s not just the White House that’s not down and dirty. It’s the entire Republican Party which countenances Trumps behavior that’s down and dirty.
3
" ... led by a wannabe authoritarian who refuses to recognize constitutional checks on power."
True, except we are past the "wannabe" with this psychopath, meaning in his mind he is the, to use another Presidents' poor choice of words, "Decider In-Chief".
And constitutional checks for Trump are simple inconveniences, as disposable as used toilet paper; look at his actions during the past two plus years, from the tax cuts enriching the wealthiest Americans, and corporate America, to the tarrifs which do nothing except add to the cost of living in America, and foreign policies which are destroying alliances and strengthening adversaries, and one can see immediately that what we have in the White House, is an actual Authoritarian In-Chief, not even pretending to be the President of our far from Democratic Republic.
And now this authoritarian is preparing a pathway for a Middle East conflict that will dwarf the Bush Rumsfeld Cheney lies which started the Iraq wars, and lead to the kind of war that will cause a massive conflagration, possibly even drawing in China, given its dependency on Iranian oil -
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2019/04/22/world/middleeast/us-iran-oil-sanctions-.amp.html
"The Chinese pushed back against the decision on the waivers, although analysts said both Beijing and Washington will be careful not to jeopardize their trade talks."
We have a bad man in our White House; if his unwitting supporters still can't see it, wait just a bit ...
3
After reading MD's first paragraph, I thought she was going after Hillary again.
1
I think I'd be more shocked if I saw Trump actually take a leap as graceful as Nurey, but I don't know that I have any shock left in me for reacting to Trump's shallow sense of obligation to our country.
Nor do I have much outrage left for Republican scorched earth partisan maneuvers, although their deafening lack of criticism for Trump's behavior is pretty disturbing.
Ironically, Trump himself is too stupid and vain to see that the reasons for the law he's all too interested in breaking were exemplified by what happened in his own 2016 campaign: Putin wanted the candidate most likely to turn our government into a shambles to win. Has anyone told Trump yet that it's not because Russia "liked" him?
Perhaps Trump can mirror Nureyev in a leap of reverse-defection, but my guess is it will not be graceful.
1
Ms. Dowd. I sincerely hope that the New York Times chooses you to write Donald Trump's obituary. It'll be the best and most honest one ever written.
1
@Doremus Jessup i can guarantee it's already been written and is in a safe but handy place, ready to be updated and copied and pasted into what will be the most ever collected and saved edition of the Times.
i wish no fellow human being harm or an untimely end, but the silence he will leave in his passing will be something to be savored.
1
It seems like only a lifetime ago that Mo was excoriating HR and WJC from her bully pulpit. Do not let us forget that a certain BHO also fell under her stern gaze and sharp quill. Now that her small contribution to the maiming of the Loyal Opposition has brought forth this stinking harvest of rotten fruit perhaps she has now come to the realization that maybe this did not turn out so well for our nation and our world. Good work Mo, DJT makes all the others look like candidates for beatification in my book. Best regards.
1
To quote George McGovern, “Wake up America.”
Congress does not have to impeach since Trump is doing such a fine job of revealing his idiocy with his deregulated mouth and mind. No wonder his staff wants to get a new Press Secretary on stage as quick as possible. They need someone who can spin the Trump tweets or his Fox Friends' interviews into something that is benign and less incriminating.
2
Is an American Edward Gibbon writing a Comparative Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and the American. And if so, which of the Roman Emperors does he compare our current President to?
Maureen,
In Trumpworld, there's no shame in trying to do whatever it takes to come out ahead. It's been a very successful strategy for Trump throughout his life and the fact is that that success is what got him elected. He's running the country like a business - specifically his business, and Republicans are OK with it because they'd rather have a greedy monster in office than somebody who will raise taxes and expand the safety net. While there may be some hard core Ayn Randians who act like there was no such thing as poverty or social ills before the great society programs and labor under the delusion that eliminating the safety net will result in a healthier society, I think most Republicans look at the increasing disparity in wealth, the aging of the population, the lack of retirement savings for a majority of Americans, and are horrified by the idea that gov't might ask people of wealth (such as themselves) to chip in to do something about it.
As someone who has avoided paying taxes his whole life, Trump was a natural fit for them and once they were convinced that Trump wouldn't give a bad name to greedy entitled plutocrats, they were all on board.
Vitrually everything he does screams of entitlement and the strategy of using his wealth to avoid being held accountable and to get what he wants. And the fact that he has so many willing enablers in the Republican party is the real problem. Trump is an amoral idiot. McConnell is ruthless.
1
Trump is no longer a mesmerizing novelty. His act is getting old. People are starting to look past the professional showman/conman and are taking note of just what a hideous piece of excreta he really is. At least I hope so.
As for the "craven Republican lawmakers" that Maureen mentioned, I bet they really are squirming. But not because Trump has crossed some invisible line. They're afraid that foreign interference might go both ways, and they will be exposed along with their golden boy. Secret deals with hostile foreign powers. Money laundering. Underhanded 'favors' and payouts. Hidden bank accounts. Maybe a few embarrassing videos.
Russia et al may have wanted Trump in. But I bet a lot of countries want him out. And suddenly, foreign interference won't be quite so welcome.
3
I think we should treat the American President just like New Zealand treated the mass murderer after he was caught.
Don’t mention his name in print, television, or radio. Treat him as if he has no name and no identity.
When the next presidential election occurs simply choose one of the democratic candidates, if that’s what you wish, and go on with life!
1
Please tell me why it is taking so long to get rid of this man and his family from the White House. Are these people representative of the United States as a whole?
His entire adult life has been about trying to hide his imbecility and he has been aided and abetted, first by his wealthy father, and now by an entire political party of the country that used to be considered the leader of the free world!
5
Trump, his White House cabal and the Mitch McConnell posse eschew the low road in favor of the lowest road.
1
Trump and his administration cronies make so many bald-faced lies with their pants on fire that it is going to take some time after they are gone for any US government official to earn any respect from anyone. In the meantime, there is no reason to believe anything they say. They have truly run the USA into the ground.
1
It's quite likely that the Trump regime has been afforded more credibility that it ever expected to deal with.
The latest polls quite clearly indicate that this temporary foray into what essentially comprises an aberrant populist experiment intertwined with an anti-Hillary vote, egged on by clandestine Russian hackers... is coming to a close.
The American people are, by and large, simply fed up with the tormented barker of this ridiculous sideshow.
If this offends you, I'm sorry, but I deal in reality, not the deal. Trump is New York and the wealthy of our nation, in everything he says and everything he does. The Republicans obviously rigged the election to make his presidency happen. Four former Federal prosecutors, all Republicans, helped the campaign. One of them, Senator Sessions, likely shared Campaign knowledge and complicity with his Republican Senate Colleagues. The Television industry devoted a Billion dollars worth of free airtime to their TV actor to make him a protector and reinforce his name recognition, and that's how they elect Presidents. Trump focuses on benefiting the wealthy just as the Congressional Republicans do and then slapped Tariff taxes on American consumers to pay for the tax breaks deficit he created. He's a Pit Bull in a China Shop. He's New York. I'm from there. I know others like him. I'm not surprised by him except that he just doesn't care to even try to hide his indiscretions. He's the Trump Wall st Administration.
For years, I always believed you couldn't get filthy rich being honest. Now there is Trump. Was I right?
1
Well Maureen, you got the target you wanted. It is so much easier to sound less unhinged than when you were attacking HRC with about as much reason as the rationales for the war on Iraq.This mess is a real career booster for her and she could see it coming. And pretends to be shocked, shocked I say!
1
I keep thinking, surely this will prompt the GOP to act as each new horror about the Trump regime comes to light but it never happens. Perhaps his seeming lust to get us into war will finally get them to find their spine-straighteners & the entire house of cards will fall.
1
trump’s contempt for the law is contagious. kellyanne conway said that she’s ignoring the Hatch Act. “What are they going to do arrest me?”
Not while that other criminal Barr is in office.
What a contemptible government.
2
You helped him... I can’t forget that
5
Ms.Dowd- Many thanks for referencing The Onion - which view following the NYT and Post. Our President and his lackeys (Kellyanne) are beneath contempt.
Sadly, the sarcastic, caustic, satirical headlines of The Onion often make more sense-reason and truth than the President and The White House.
Ciao Huckabee Sanders
2
Here's a little opposition research for you, Donald Trump: Your most dangerous opponent in 2020 is ... the truth.
(Fortunately for him, he's already hard at work destroying it.)
2
The Trump White House is a clown show and a criminal enterprise...and in my mind a Chaotic and Dysfunctional Presidency ! Yet..it is so because Trump's boorish behavior was endorsed and supported by the GOP,Fox Nation and far too many American Voters! The times have certainly changed and not for the better. In previous generations that kind of behavior would have been laughable at best and certainly not condoned much less endorsed! Far too many Americans "chose"..."chose" to Vote for this. Trump didn't take over with an army...we Voted him into office. A man Rex Tillerson said didn't like to read and wasn't too bright! It's been amazing to me that the Founding Fathers of our Democracy seemed to take the prospect of all this into account and created checks and balances.Yet it has revealed a great flaw with Democracy. If too many ill informed or malicious Americans Vote...we as a Nation are stuck with the consequences! If the GOP had not endorsed Trump he would not likely have been Elected..and.. or ..he would have been Impeached long ago !! Who would think Americans would willingly Vote for and support a President endorsed by Russia ?? Trump support is simply UNAMERICAN !! Russia ...I hope most of us won't be listening to you anymore !!!
2
Trump is big on backpeddling, but will never stand corrected.
3
"Wannabe Authoritarian"?
Trump is no Wannabe, he's the real deal. What more does the man need to do to cement his status?
And the correct word is Fascist. And no wannabe is needed.
3
Sorry Maureen, but “the real danger” is that the authoritarian “rule of Trump “ that ridicules the Hatch Act, claims Treasury Sec. Steve Mnuchin can defy the law and withhold Trump’s tax returns, has the Justice Department investigating the CIA and FBI for “spying “ on Trump in an attempted “coup” is itself so far going unchallenged in a coup against the Constitution. Democracy is being shredded and the darkness of the Trump autocracy is upon us. It’s Code Red. Where’s Nancy?
1
"His motto might as well be: “I cannot not tell a lie.” ... he takes the more ruinous role of provocateur."
That's the oral way to put it. He is also mooning the USA--revealing his essence--while he bills it left and right for stays at his golf courses.
You talk like Trump is the ONLY person running the show. Elected officials see and do NOTHING. Both political parties support this circus. I'm sick of Democrats pretending to be disgusted, peddling outrage, yet take no action EVER! That goes for Republicans too- the entire bunch are the weakest link. For the love of God, nothing can break them? Really? Goes to show, why the USA is so weak (foreign policy) run down (infrastructure) and sick (infant/maternal mortality rates).
2
Our SCPOTUS is despicable and the GOP in the Senate and House are his willing lapdogs and enablers. If we survive this misbegotten period in our history, how will history judge the GOP? They may all be "weighed in the balance and found wanting".
Trump tweeted a few minutes ago that if he was not elected in 2020 the stock market would crash. How infantile can he get?
Tax reform, raising taxes on the 5% in NY; appointing jurists who believe in the rule of law, not what their personal opinion of what the outcome should be; rolling back regulations illegally imposed by the Obama administration. He has honored more campaign promises than Obama. That is why he was elected. Voiding the appeasement foreign policies of Obama is a bonus, along with enforcing immigration law as written.
Hillary conspired with foreign agents to buy "opposition research" that was so implausible she was unable to get the leftist media to touch it, but the FBI and the Obama administration used it to trick a FISA court into authorizing spying on the opposition party. And then she filed false FEC financial reports.
And it is horrible that Trump would listen to intelligence provided by foreigners?
Yes. Trump is as advertised. Never expected a pivot. So. If Biden is the alternative. Get ready to write reams more righteously indignant columns.
Trump's policies aimed at destroying the decades-old American-led international order are damaging but doomed. Not even US adversaries believe that this is where the country is heading. They are waiting for the idiot to vacate the White House, so that they can talk real business. The next president should reassert a strong US commitment to the Enlightenment values we have taken for granted until now, when they are more threatened by Western complacency than by the likes of Xi Jinping and Putin - these guys are not up to the task, with their phony values and obvious inability to organize meaningfully any new international order.
"Also on Thursday, Special Counsel Henry Kerner recommended that “repeat offender” Kellyanne Conway be removed from her job for violating the Hatch Act, also known as the Act to Prevent Pernicious Political Activities, which bars federal workers from tainting the workplace with politics."
Why has George T. Conway III, who has written publicly and recently about the mendacity of the entire Trump White Trash House, not yet sought a restraining order to keep his wife away from their four young and vulnerable daughters. I don't get it.
@Brian Fifty years to fix this reeking mess in the living room corner. Just in time for the ocean to swallow much of DC. This will be proof that climate change does not exist. The GOP will be vindicated. Denial will have worked. It helped destroy hated Washington.
Ah, the GOP, er Trump Party. Our unctuous fascists. Heroes of the forty percent.
2
What did Maureen Dowd tell me about Trump I already didn’t know and, frankly, have heard hundreds of times before. Trump is—boorish, lewd, a liar, an authoritarian, sexist and a racist—and so the list we all know goes. Journalists must find new and fresh angles to report on Trump, otherwise we are going to risk another, God forbid, four years of him. These cliched and over-used laundry lists repeating again and again why Trump isn’t a good President just don’t do it.
1
When you say that Trump is an "unabashed gargoyle atop the White House, chomping on American values," what exactly do you mean?
Are the "values" you are referring to uniquely American? If yes, which are they? If not, can you enlighten us?
With Trump in the White House, the supposedly "ingenious" Constitution in shreds and unable to even force the Mueller report to be published, random police departments all over the country abusing and killing minorities unpunished, the top 0.1% looting the economy without anyone being able to do anything about it, 400 million guns owned by citizens, and Roe v Wade about to be repealed, I really have a hard time distinguising between "American values", "Russian values" and "Philippine values."
Can you lend me a hand?
4
Shameless is one word for all of the corruption, treason, greed and self serving actions of every single person in the Trump administration.
What happens when there is no moral compass or it points down?
These people will never regain any reputation they once had for professionalism or any respect they had within their political or personal circles.
This is not just about their legacies and the history books. How can these individuals face their own children or grandchildren? There was a generation who had to live with the shame of having Nazi parents (or those in other authoritarian regimes like Stalinists).
Trump and his circle may not have any sense of shame: their inheritance to their children or grandchildren may be to bear the burden of shame on their behalf. And that is outside the very real and present damage that is being done to the country, the environment, and people--immigrant children to name just one group of victims to Trump atrocities.
Ignoring laws at will is the mark of dictators and plutocrats.
A heartfelt thank you to all who are nobly fighting this within and without the government. That includes Special Counsel Kerner and Ms. Weintraub as well as the 35,000+ FBI agents, the intelligence services, the free press, and other groups constantly abused by Trump and his cohort.
I am in awe. Thank you.
Always remember, Trump’s mentor was Roy Cohn.
4
In fairly recent years the Republicans have foisted two of the worst presidents in history on the American public in George Bush and Donald Trump. They have diminished the national treasury with their huge tax cuts for the wealthy and large companies. They have tried to take health insurance away from millions of Americans. They continue to support Trump despite his abysmal performance as a president and as a human being. Continued support by average Americans for such a political party is a mystery.
12
My father had a career in public service working for the federal government following his military service in WW II. He certainly had political opinions, but as he told me when I inquired as to why he did not express them publicly, the Hatch Act prohibited any political activity on his part. But you have First Amendment rights, I protested. No, he said, keeping politics out of the civil service and even the appearance that the government was for sale was more important than any worker's individual rights of free expression. Even freedom can be taken so far it results in anarchy. And besides, it was the law, and the law is what allows us the freedoms we enjoy as Americans and the difference between us and the foreign powers he fought in WW II (and even one of our principal allies in that conflict). Ms. Conway should be prosecuted and removed from federal service, for in flouting the law, she makes her position neither service, nor American.
25
“I cannot not tell a lie.”
"I cannot tell a lie," is a quote from George Washington, or at least the American mythology around George Washington. It is poignant that Dowd makes it into a double negative to describe Trump.
Trump has repeatedly said that he is the greatest president ever, "except maybe Lincoln." He is not leaving out Washington by accident.
Trump went to Mount Vernon, made fun of it, and criticized Washington for not naming it after himself.
George Washington was one of the few conquering generals in ten thousand years of history to turn down King. Washington sacrificed personal ambition and a life-time of ordering people around to spend two terms helping to create a Constitutional Democratic Republic, and then stepped down to let others do the job of chief executive.
Trump keeps floating the phrase "president for life," and many terms in office, and even said that "president for life" Xi is like a "king."
I guarantee that Trump thinks that Washington was a "loser" for creating a Republic instead of making himself king and wants to reverse Washington's historical mistake of making a government of public servants under law. The Party of Trump attacks every part of the Constitution.
Muller said that Trump did NOT NOT commit a crime (another double negative), and that "the Constitution has a process other than the criminal justice system to formally accuse a sitting president."
I said I would trust Mueller and I still do. It is time to begin that process.
19
Well put, Maureen. But you can phrase it anyway you want. Point out the truth. State the obvious. And cite the people whose job it is to hold up the constitution and laws of the land. But you cannot do what is really necessary...Convince the 45% of Americans who would support him NO MATTER WHAT that they should rethink their support. This is what they want. An autocrat who will 'give them back' what they feel is rightfully theirs. And 'take it away' from those who don't deserve it. But give it time. At some point they will have to accept that Trump has given them but one thing. People to hate. The question for them will be: Is that enough to mollify them?
13
Trump does what's 'right in his own eyes'. Nothing else really matters to him, because he has been able to pay little or no consequence for so long, that he sees no reason to consider anything else. Yet, he knows that accepting dirt from a foreign foe is wrong or he would not have crafted such a plausible response for his son Don Jr. about the Trump Tower Meeting and he knew enough to include a little truth (as every good lie must have) to be believable. To me, he has become the inverse of Martin Luther King's quote, "I have a dream that one day my four children will be judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin". For Trump, the Republicans in leadership are saying "Our dream is that he be judged by the color of his skin, please don't judge him by the content of his character, as he has none" There is no way they should have ever allowed him to candidate for the presidency and there is no way they should still be supporting him. I can't say he has no redeeming characteristics, as my Dad used to say God sees everyone worthy of redemption, but I sure can't see anything. Justice must be served. The day of reckoning will come, and not just for Trump. Many have sold their souls for 30 pieces of silver, selling out our country to the highest bidders in the process. The swamp must be drained and it shall be in that 'Sweet by and by'.
752
@GraceNeeded
The sweet by and by!? Sure hope we can make it happen sooner than that.
55
@GraceNeeded No - Trump does what is good for Trump.
10
@GraceNeeded
I don't know what Trump could do to redeem himself at this point in the presidential project...except maybe resign.
More importantly, you highlight his remarks about accepting dirt as a cover for Don Jr., who recently confirmed the truth of his prior testimony to the Senators.
Your remark reminds us that we really haven't heard from Don Jr. in any significant way...no public hearing from the House Intelligence or House Judiciary committees...and for some odd reason Mueller never pulled him into a grand jury inquiry. Why did Mueller respect, or defer to, Trump's warning to not cross the line with family interviews?
We don't know how intensely the Senators pressed Don Jr., whether they had any "dirt" they could throw back at him, to put him into a "perjury trap."
And why has the House Intelligence Chair Adam Schiff not subpoened Don Jr. to dig deeper into his Tower meeting with a Russian operative about getting dirt on Hillary, which he would "love" to have? Ignorance of the law is not a defense for breaking it.
By my reading, the Trump election campaign sufficiently broke the rules on accepting "dirt" from the Russians that the behavior stains the President himself and is grounds for impeachment.
When, if ever, the House Judiciary Committee, or an ad hoc Impeachment Committee, if empowered, it should include an article for consorting with a foreign government to gain an electoral advantage.
20
Donald Trump, never one to play by the rules, has always been one to flaunt it when he refuses to do so. When he said before his inauguration that he would be "so presidential," he really didn't mean it, at least not in the sense that Americans were used to. Instead, he redefined his aberrant notion of being "presidential" to his own liking.
For the most part, he has gotten away with doing so. Along the way, his supporters, both in Congress and in the population generally, abandoned their often loudly voiced commitment to "law and order," while turning a blind eye to the concepts of fairness and justice.
Lately, we have seen a nascent, if still minimal, shift in sentiment against such Trumpesque shenanigans and his almost continuous one-finger salute toward and perversion of the scales of justice. It is not enough to stop him.
Trump's avowed refusal to sack Kellyanne Conway is only the most recent example of his disdain for our system of justice and the rule of law, and a dangerous presidential precedent that paves the way for his all out lumbering toward dictatorial autocracy.
The precedents set by the current American president are a clear and present danger to the long established principles of our form of government. The 2020 election cannot come soon enough and, frighteningly, maybe it won't. That's up to us, and it's high time that we rose from our slumber and did our own jobs by voting him, his family, and his administration of miscreants, out of office.
687
Again and as always, trump is a menace to America and the world. QED. Now, what are we going to do about it? The time for action is long overdue.
My suggestion: impeachment now, drip out details about why slowly and effect, and cast McConnell as the traitor he is when he stonewalls it. Or do something else - but for the sake of the country's sanity, let's stop complaining and DO something. Now.
42
@Quoth The Raven
Donald Trump refuses to play by the rules.....of the entitled and coercive progressive-media complex. Nobody seems to like how he mistreats his opponents, but his opponents consistently mistreat him as well. Does that not make them complicit in the very behaviors they condemn? It turns out that civility is a two way street. What does that say about you?
4
@Intellect Ever drive across Indiana and Ohio? I defy you to find me one just one "progressive media complex" on AM or FM radio. Even NPR that moderate little broadcaster is impossible to come by. What one does find is conservative religious radio or four or five radio stations simultaneously broadcasting Hannity and Limbaugh... The day those tyrants of the airwaves apologize to Hillary Clinton for years of venomous poison about her is the day I will worry about the so-called "progressive media complex" civility toward your birther, traitorous President.
59
The gears of justice are starting to grind, albeit slowly, possibly because they’ve never been called upon to investigate so many breaches of civility, common sense and legality.
In his signature style of corrupting of every sacred American principle, the president defends his use of what might be called “free screech.” He becomes outraged if his wishes are thwarted by do-gooders who exist merely to impede his trampling on the law, decorum, ethical behavior, civility and decency.
After the attrition of numerous appointees who did not get with the program, Washington is left with the worst of the worst, but even they are used up in the process. Sarah Huckabee Sanders is mercifully leaving, after a stunning stint as the president’s press secretary. Her job was to put a positive face on bizarre presidential behavior and, like Rapunzel, spin his thudding, embarrassing and face-palming failures into gold.
Kellyanne Conway goes farther, tearing down good people to make the president look better by comparison. Even though that’s the only way to make the president look good, it’s still not acceptable.
Republicans may never be able to recover from their tacit—or evangelically vocal—support of the president’s more egregious trampling of our legal rights and freedoms. Stacking the Supreme Court with conservatives is sure to set back a nation that was on its way to becoming a fairer and more enlightened society.
3400
@gemli
Trump is not leaving office even if he loses next November.
If he left, he'd be subject to prosecution in New York where he cannot be pardoned. He'd be heading to prison. Not to put too fine a point on it: He's not leaving. Michael Cohen predicted it in his Congressional testimony. He should know the "man" better than anyone else.
343
@gemli
You said "Republicans may never be able to recover from their tacit—or evangelically vocal—support of the president’s more egregious trampling of our legal rights and freedoms."
It's my fervent hope that the GOP does disappear, though for more reasons than their fealty to DJT - denial of science and the catastrophic climate/environmental changes, the attack on health care, the attack on social programs, the attack on women, gerrymandering, putting children in cages, white supremacy, etc. I've come to see them as an evil force, pretty much every last one of them sadly.
1124
I wish I could recommend Mr. Gemli’s comment until my thumb gave out. Concise, true and, until this all ends, beyond painful. Vote.
329
Your words are strong, accurate and powerful. Why is no one in Congress acting on them --
27
@Janet Rothstein
Because it is in their best interest not too.
1
Thank you for your column. It all helps, BUT, it was plain to see back in 2016 what kind of president Trump would be and you took the risk of criticizing the only defense against his presidency: the Clintons! Hillary was the bulwark against this "existential threat" to Democracy! Interview Larry Diamond, "Mr. Democracy".
61
@Boomer
My exact thoughts
1
So many of the public seem comfortable or complacent with our President’s behavior. I know that many of my childhood political heroes had clay feet but there was a semblance of altruism and respect for the loyal opposition. Now we have a claymation President who is propped up by an unapologetic political apparatus who make no attempt to pretend any of his and their acts are for the greater good. Thank God for the Fourth Estate. Pour it on Maureen.
46
Pour it on...exactly
1
I have moved on from the daily morning fear Trump could pull this election out again---not anymore. Yes, is base is cemented in, but the fringes of that base are softening and even in our beloved rust belt---they now realize they have been had. Having said that, Trump will leave office with the country deeply in debt, deeply unregulated, and deeply loathed by our allies. Instead of our next President being able to pursue a more progressive agenda--he or she will spend at least the first two years cleaning up the mess this amateur reality show host left behind --- and with little monies to do it.
100
@Amanda Jones, if he goes peaceably...
2
Trump has gotten away with everything thus far. I just don't see him leaving if he loses the election in 2020. What happens then? Seriously.
44
@Zeff
The good news: he will lose and he will be removed by the police and/ or military.
Now that is an episode of Trump's Reality Show: Trump In The White House that I really want to see.
Alas, with his fragile ego when he loses in 2020 he'll deny that he lost but will announce that he'll be leaving office due to health issues.
41
@Zeff
Remember, once the next person is sworn in, the SDNY will be hanging out at the back door to the White House with an arrest warrant in hand. And if you think Trump can get the military to keep him in power, I would suggest that all these people he maligns won't really have any reason to have his back. His view the world will come to an end, the stock market will crash, and peoples' lives will be ruined is based on what, exactly? Fantasy. The stock market waits for no man. The day after his ouster there will be a glitch and then on to business as usual. He is no more important than a quarter point interest rate hike, a bad jobs report, or instability in the middle east. Profit is, after all, profit. Just remember....despite Obama's 'disasterous' presidency, the stock market , um, blossomed under his watch. Trump can lie down, pound his hands and feet on the floor, scream it's not fair, and threaten to hold his breath. But he still becomes a forgotten man. The only thing that will be different with his loss will be the huge celebrations that will follow.
9
@Butterfly And, the wonderful life he left to serve as president. He will spin a loss as a win!
The real danger is not trump.
The real danger is McConnell and his machinations. And most of the Republicans who go along with McConnell. The constitution provides for checks and balances, but those only work if Congress wants them to work which obviously the Republicans do not want to work. They are as guilty, as dirty, and as nasty as trump if not more so. (Remember Obama's choice for Supreme Court?) McConnell changes the constitution as he sees fit. He now has the perfect president for his taste.
Oh and I forgot the Supreme Court. It is stacked with pro trump people as well. That great body that is to protect the constitution.
150
@esp
I agree. McConnell is more dangerous because he knows exactly what he is doing. Ditto for the "advisors" who are whispering in Trump's ear, telling him how great he is.
Trump is just ricocheting from blunder to blunder, with no clue about the effects of his words and actions. He is simply trolling for accolades (have you seen those disturbing round table stroke fests? Ugh.) , and those who want something from him are more than happy to comply.
46
@esp
The down and dirty reaches so much further then the White House. The stench reaches into the Senate and emanates from the oozing sore, McConnell.
I wish the Democrats would spend more time focusing on dismantling the GOP majority in the Senate. Play the long game by making sure that if Trump is re-elected (lightening can strike again), he will have zero protection in Congress and impeachment will be his reality.
3
Well...we were able to levitate the Pentagon
Where have all the flowers gone.
Long time passing.
We need the youth of America to vote and end this nightmare.
78
"And what he's doing is altering domestic and foreign policy in terrible ways while running up huge deficits."
Exactly. And, based on Republican support he has received so far, Trump does not have any expectations of being held accountable.
Also, if you don't think sociopath president Trump would initiate military action against Iran solely because he perceived such action to be in his own interests, you are oblivious to the reality staring us in the face. In case no one noticed, this administration seems intent on provoking Iran rather than encouraging their development and inclusion among civilized and acceptable countries. Why would that be?
77
It is important to recognize that a President as bad as Trump is only possible because of the Republican party. The Republican party’s win at any cost, no matter what we have to say and no matter what we do made them susceptible to Trump, who amplified the most outrageous things that the Republican party was already saying. Once it became apparent that Trump was their nominee, the Republican leadership crafted a formula for using Trump to achieve their goals – lower taxes for the wealthy, more conservative judges and more Republican gerrymandering. In other words, more power for conservative Republicans. Clearly Trump has no original policy, he is simply parroting the worst things that Republicans have been saying for years.
110
@Glenn: The public sector of the US economy must be abolished because public sectors are inherently socialistic.
It seems pretty obvious to me that if Pelosi starts impeachment hearings Trump will start a war with Iran to deflect attention. I can see why Pelosi hesitates. It is also no wonder that no one believes that Iran set fire to those tankers. An honest word has not come out of the White House of the Republican Party since January 20, 2016. This country will never recover from this administration just as we now see it has never recovered from the last civil war.
93
@Dan: Yes, the US is still geared for unequally protective law under optional slavery at the state level, all the way down to forced-birth.
2
Trump is doing real damage. Instead of Hillary Clinton putting in place her green energy platform we have Trump promoting the use of fossil fuels and rolling back Obama's actions such as the Clear Power Plan, joining the Paris climate agreement, increasing fuel efficiency of motor vehicles, and strengthening methane emission standards from oil and gas drilling. Trumps reactionary policies on climate matter big time. He is has also rolled back numerous regulations on toxic chemicals which in a way poisons the nation. He has messed up our relations with Mexico and the European countries. And he has unleashed white supremacy from the margins of society. America has a long history of white supremacy and it may very difficult to find a way to restrain it again.
86
When the people hit the streets in protest like in Hong Kong change will occur and the White House will stop being down and dirty. Instead of idle complaints, organize and hit the streets in order for your concerns to be addressed. Be organized, create consensus and address one obstacle at a time.
66
The Press is letting us down in failing to clarify how accepting help of any kind from foreign nationals in a campaign is different from the Steele dossier matter. A candidate may hire anyone to obtain information (or for other legitimate services) regarding opponents in an election. The prohibited actions are the ones described by Ms. Dowd which involve accepting help in any way that is given to the candidate without remuneration. The Press has not made this distinction at all clear in this week’s extensive discussion of the issue.
22
@RickMD, Portland, ME
Actually I have heard several clear explanations of the differences. Granted I was watching MSNBC. Unfortunately too many Americans do not care for details or the truth anymore.
3
@RickMD, Portland, ME The "Steele Dossier Matter" isn't what you seem to believe it to be. It was begun with efforts of REPUBLICAN never-trumpers.
3
Mr. Steele, by the way, was working FOR the United states Government.
2
We must remember that Trump is Putin's well groomed stooge and that his purpose is to distract us from what is actually happening while we are not paying our attention to the damage he has wrought and will continue to wreak. Please note that this is occurring at a time when distraction is escalating to unprecedented levels.
Impeachment is imperative or we will lose our nation.
29
It is our information, more than this presidency, that is on trial here today. Considering where we have been, this presidency feels more like R&R, a respite from only god knows what. Our wake up is the restoration of our communication abilities which is automatically done for us. They used to say the revolution won't be televised, today they say so what, who's still watching TV in 2019.
2
"It’s turning out to be a genuinely reactionary administration led by a wannabe authoritarian who refuses to recognize constitutional checks on power."
TURNING OUT? It always has been, Ms. Dowd. Some people just don't want to see the truth of it.
24
President Trump displayed an absence of knowledge about
Freedom of Speech when he claimed that Kellyanne Conway would be denied that freedom if she complied with Mr. Kerner's recommendation. However, Ms. Conway would only be barred from talking politics while she's on the job in the workplace. When not at work, she can say "Trump Forever!" and smear whomever President Trump dislikes. Just as there are public access bulletin boards and spaces for public discourse and private or "official use" boards/spaces where
speech is limited.
Those in the Trump administration high on their grotesque addiction to flaunting rules, policies, laws and the Constitution must be investigated and exposed to public view.
And it won't be the kind they want.
Doug Giebel, Big Sandy, Montana
23
Of course Trump needs impeaching, but in the meantime, whatever happened to his tax returns? If Cuomo failed to sign the New York law that would allow their release, then WHY did he not sign? Something very fishy there! (Why isn't AOC demanding the governor sign?)
If Trump's returns are released, a bunch of Republicans who pay taxes may finally decide they can't stomach voting for a cheat.
If there's any way to also pass a law insisting that all candidates release their returns, that might be another way to block him in 2020. If anybody up there can pass a law?
30
@PNRN: I think the House already proposed such a bill, but of course McConnell refuses to bring it to a vote in the Senate, and do you think Trump will sign that bill into law?
9
@Anna
Of course he won't, but what's going on with Cuomo not signing--does anyone know?
1
At least Trump's shenanigans are there for all to see. He seems to intend it that way. His actions reminds us of Americans love affair with the mafia whose openly cynical attitude towards a system which uses them to supply their illegal desires.
A good example is the working man who doesn't like venal politicians owned by Big Business, favors Trump for same reasons.
5
" There’s no vaccination against the vile machinations of Trump"
Objective, constructive thoughts, actions and advice by the church leaders and the community organisers may help.
6
Trump supporters are the problem. Trump supporters can parse and rationalize their ‘why’ vote for Trump, but a vote is a vote. If you voted for this man, he is a reflection of your moral compass.
59
It's decision time.
Remember when Ben Franklin told America, following the Constitutional Convention, that "You have a Republic. If you can keep it".
There now seems to be some question at to whether the President answers to the Congress...or not.
It would therefore be incumbent upon the Congress, such as it is, to force the question, as necessary, all the way to the Supreme Court....whose decision would determine whether we have indeed "Kept the Republic".
Or only the Banana.
30
In our now years of collective handwringing over this disgrace, few ever mention the impact on our children -- on the youngest generation. I'm an educator, but work independently from school systems and often have the privilege of children initiating one on one conversations with me about their thoughts and observations, including about current events. We need to be cognizant of the fact that we have a generation of children, growing up during this despicable four year window, with a bad bad man as President. They volunteer his name to me as an example for vocabulary words like "unscrupulous," "liar," "fraud," and "criminal." I grew up during the Nixon years, and still remember the country's collective relief on the day of his resignation -- my parents explained that Congress was a check on the President acted illegally or corruptly. Not so anymore.... This generation is growing up watching their government utterly fail them -- imagine how their perceptions of government are being shaped by this disgusting spectacle. The damage done will last long after the corrupt man baby is gone...
72
Those who enabled trump in 2016 have no credibility. He is exactly the same as he always was.
33
We have here someone who believes the rules do not apply to him. Dishonest Donald has been evading this for so long he can not even imagine that others not in his circle of friends object to such behavior.
His business methods have been a series of swindles, tax evasions, profiteering, using bankruptcy for personal profit, reneging on mortgages and getting away with them for many years. They are almost always just below the maximum to get him indicted for felonious offenses. Those contractors he swindled were unable to attach his properties, because their titles are so obtuse an scattered, finding the real owners has been a search in futility. One case , the Toronto hotel was attached by Arthur Anderson because you can not hide those titles in Canada.
The rest of his debtors have had to settle for less than owed or wait long times for trial in cavil court. Now his debtors are willing to go to court, this includes his political debts also. He continues forcing them into court, his enablers the GOP are fine with that, they so dislike the Democrats, they too allow these assaults on the constitution. No decent person has tried these tricks before, but he is no a decent person, he is a Sociopath, the ruled do not apply to him, it is the ideal situation for Republicans on the right.
We to have to get down and dirty, drag the bully through the mud and stuff it down his throat, make him gag on it, empty his bank accounts, that is the way to put an end to him.
26
Pelosi hit the nail on the head when she said trump projects. Everything he calls other people is a projection of what he know to be true about himself. He is nervous, tired and lying. He has 6 hours of executive time a day. He barely works at all.
42
@Bill: Projection that everybody else is dirtier unites the dirtiest people in the US under the Republican banner.
1
His "substance" has already done great damage, Maureen, to take his refusal to protect the environment as only one example. The great hope is that with every week that trump continues his lies and fraud, another few thousand of his supporters come to their senses and refuse to continue to support him.
And then we can finally send him back to where he belongs, putting his name on not very attractive buildings.
19
The photograph of Trump accompanying this essay tells you everything you need to know. It emanates his vicious hatred and cruelty which infect every policy the WH has promulgated.
The administration is a crime family. First order of business has to be to enshrine some norms, values and traditions into law to restore true checks and balances, and end the corruption gravy train that keeps the GOP on board. Most Canadians I know now view the US as a truly frightening place.
36
Attitudes trickle down from the top.
Kellyanne Conway brazenly flaunts her disregard for the law because the man to whom she reports does the same.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders was nothing more than a mouthpiece for lies because she represented a professional liar.
Mike Pompeo baselessly accused Iran of serious provocation, because he works for a man who says and does as he pleases.
Now, just imagine the effects of Trump’s poor example on citizens everywhere, especially impressionable young people.
This election is, as Biden said, a contest for our nation’s heart and soul. Trump is an existential threat to any good character.
38
@NM: Pompeo has the philosophical insight of a child.
Maureen was a little late in recognizing the damage that the amoral Trump is doing to American values, America’s global leadership and basically to the American soul. But she is on message now. The overriding concern has to be why nearly 40% of Americans support this tyrant.It is time for responsible Republicans like Mitt Romney to speak out against Trump. And religious leaders have to expose Trump. And the mainstream media have to become even more engaged in exposing the dictator in chief. It is time for a new American revolution. Trump must be thrown out of office in November 2020.
22
@Milton Lewis: Trump is the champion of all these religious fakes who believe God intervened to make him the winner by minus 3 million votes.
So much hand wringing! As much as I find Trump offensive, I have a glimmer of understanding of why people support him. He has unmasked Washington politics as usual. Republicans have taken their white knight sheets off to reveal their complete lack of morals, integrity or honor. Democrats have been forced to show how ineffectual they are in actually getting anything done for anyone other than their corporate benefactors. And the American people are complicit in completing Trump's self indulgent plan to accidentally unmask politics as usual. Had we any backbone, We The People would be taking to the streets like the brave souls in Hong Kong.
17
@Skidaway: Sooo....... what? We owe him our thanks? We should just let him keep going?
@Jay Dunham
taking it to the streets is a metaphor for going to the voting booth...would be nice for Trump to be impeached but highly unlikely...better option is to vote for a candidate who possesses a concrete agenda, vote to keep and expand the house and get the GOP out of the senate...short of actually marching on Washington to pressure the GOP, they're going to let Trump play with his new toy until his time is up
Beyond all the comical lines creeping into my mind, all I can really say is, you hit the nail on the head!
7
"Now it is shocking to see an American president with a twisted sense of right and wrong."
Once again, I wonder why Ms. Dowd did not call out then presidential candidate trump who displayed the same twisted sense of right and wrong when he asked “Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing” referring to Sec. Clinton.
After trump's exchange with George Stephanopoulos (I won't repeat his rude putdown), I'm not convinced that he has "lost his knack for stiletto nicknames" or any other vile behavior.
One thing is sure trump is a gold mine of fodder for scathing op-eds. I just wish there were some of them in 2016 calling out his amoral/immoral behavior.
26
@Mary Ann Donahue: People who know the type see through Trump in seconds.
1
@Mary Ann Donahue
Excellent commentary on the failure not only of Ms. Dowd, but most media pundits who failed to do their due diligence about trump in 2016.
Meanwhile, I saw your kind reply to my early comment, in which you noted the long delay before many of them appear. I then tried replying to you that this often happens to my posts, and some of them never appear at all. Lo and behold, your reply has now disappeared and with it the opportunity for my return reply to appear.
Something funny has been going on with readers’ posts on this website, since about March. Not that it has helped me so far, but I encourage you and other readers with the same problem to contact NY Times Customer Care.
11:35 EDT, 6/16
4
The only thing that surprises me about this recent admission by the president is that in the two years that have passed during which time discussions about accepting information about an advesary( during an election) from foreigners has been in the news nonstop, and no one has bothered to school the president on an appropriate, intelligent response. That is the fault of his advisors, his family, his lawyers, his cabinet. They know him. That is incompetence and dereliction of duty on their part. Think about it, it's scary.
9
thanks Maureen very much for yet another one of your MUST READ articles warning us of where we are, and mostly - where we're clearly heading. and it's not a good place. not by a long shot.
the same question persists :
WHY don't the Dem's follow what the Constitution clearly prescribes ( and Mueller investigated and recommended)
and START IMPEACHMENT PROCEEDINGS ?!
7
Sine Kellyanne feels emboldened to continue her illegal actions and won’t resign, and Trump won’t terminate her, why not have Kellyanne disbarred? I’m sure this behavior will be found unethical by the Bar Association.
26
As a candidate, Mr. Trump made fun of a person with a physical disability. It should have ended then and there but why didn't it? It's what he has revealed about us that confounds me day in and day out.
43
@Davey's Dad
EXACTLY. That was the moment i thought, and hoped, he was doomed
1
To quote the lyrics of Bernie Taupin:
“It’s gonna take a lot of salvation.
What we need are willing hands.”
Never more true.
4
If the Republicans cannot see that Trump is destroying them as a party, along with the USA, and eject him from the party and deny his candidacy in 2020, then the people must act.
Simply throw out Trump, his family, and Mitch McConnell and all other Trump enablers, reverse and erase all vestiges of Trump, and re-boot America.
19
@Backbutton
I think they know he already has. That is why they are riding it for all its worth for as long as they can. Its like the employees looting a company that is going bankrupt. Its going under; grab what you can!
1
Trump claims that the stock market will fall if he is not re-elected in 2020.
I say that there will be rejoicing when he loses--all over the world.
35
If Trump loses the election in 2020, is he going to declare it invalid?
5
Trump must be held accountable for his lack of morality, ethics and just plain humanism. The man should be put in jail for violating the Constitution, perhaps he can be joined by the other non moral lying folks in his administration. He is not only a violator of the Constitution he is a violator of human decency and human rights. As for his political celebration of the 4th of July on the Mall that also may fall under the Hatch Act, but what would he know he probably never even read the basic Constitution. The sooner he is out of there the better and pence is also a piece of work that should never become president. Keep up the great work Maureen.
12
Well Trump got one thing right. I "don't want to win anymore. It's too much."
1
Trump has happily broken the proverbial mold in Washington and his acolytes at the Heritage Foundation say he is simply doing what he promised if elected. I hope the guardrails hold but they will be tested in ways we have yet to imagine....cooperation with Congress or anyone doing oversight is passé for this group.
While the Heritage and Fox News crews laud Trump, I can’t imagine they expected ‘draining the swamp’ meant the stunning quantity of Trump’s self-dealing and endless golf trips to his own properties at taxpayers expense, the role his family and vacuous toadies like Jared Kushner have played in all sorts of serious issues, or the endless name calling that parents wouldn’t tolerate from school age kids.
The true guard rail will be the 2020 election although impeachment looks increasingly inevitable and needed to restore our democracy.
11
At least Trump comes right out and tells you he’s going to ignore or break the law. If WE don’t do anything about it then it’s as much on us as it is on him, if not more so.
9
How much more of Trump and his Republican Party can we take before our government collapses? The world is watching.
11
A Trump voter I spoke with the other day told me that Trump "was put there by God." And God's plans cannot be argued with, evaluated or analyzed; a Chosen Being should not be criticized or punished for criminal acts. You can't argue with a fact that is created by God.
6
In the interview with George Stephanopolus, Donald Trump indicated his willingness to accept help in his bid for reelection from a foreign government, and that he wouldn’t alert the FBI. Listening to him, I was struck by his profound ignorance. I believe he is more that than conniving. He hasn’t a clue, which makes him a perfect tool for the right wing puppeteers who manipulate him for their own ends. Why else would they endure him?
This leads me to question why Democrats hesitate to press harder in their investigations to put needed checks on this dangerous administration . The legal issues swirling around this administration are serious and urgent, made more so by his inadequacy and incompetence, he is simply not presidential material. He should not be allowed to continue to put us at risk. The election is 17 months away. Think about what he can cause in the interim.
13
Half of me (my evil twin) thinks what Trump is doing isn't so different from most other presidents duplicitous behavior throughout our history but that, unlike his predecessors, Trump boorishly airs his lies in full frontal public.
My good twin tells me it ain't so, but I'm not sure she's right this time. After all, most presidents are closet egotists of the highest order who had to mightily "compromise" here and there along the way to winning.
2
Dowd warns in this Opinion that the greatest danger in Trump's criminal enterprise is that it may turn its attention to matters of substance, such as Iran. Dowd does not indicate that she has read Michael Lewis', 'The Fifth Risk'. In it she would learn that substantial damage has been relentless since Trump took office. Vital data collected by government scientists and technology experts to protect the country has been disappearing in the areas of climate change, agriculture, justice and more. The cause of this 'Lewis writes, 'usually lay a narrow commercial motive: a gun lobbyist, a coal company, a poultry company.' The extent of the damage done by Trump, McConnell and their Republic bedfellows is unknown, but what we do know provides a horrifying picture. We are living through the most vile, corrupt, creepy, loud and incessant horror show and, yet,we don't know the worst of it.
20
"The president, tireless champion of the First Amendment, said Conway was merely exercising her right to free speech."
Weren't Peter Strzok and Lisa Page also just doing that?
20
Compare this column to the fraudulent invasion of Iraq over alleged non-existent weapons of Mass destruction. Also the trillion dollar invasion of Afghanistan with little to gain. Let's be clear I am no fan of Trump's deportment. He is more suitable as a hoodlum star for Dragnet than President. However, as President we simply got a dismal handout to the rich and a lot of reactionary court judges. Good no. Lets hope we see no substance. He has ample competition for worst president and so far the opposition Bush II for starters is winning.
4
“It is illegal for any person to solicit, accept, or receive anything of value from a foreign national in connection with a U.S. election.” Okay, we’ve got Trump dead to rights on that one. Can someone clarify for me how the Steele dossier does not also fall into this category? Someone, some Never-Trumpers or some Democrats - it doesn’t matter for this discussion - asked a foreigner, in this case an ally, for dirt. On its face, it looks closely analogous to the GOP asking the britons for dirt on Clinton.
2
"The Trump White House may be a clown show and a criminal enterprise. But it’s also an actual presidency."
Maureen Dowd has hit the political nail on the head. This is funny and scary at the same time.
But honestly, whenever poll results come into play I swallow hard and try not to get too excited. I remember not too long ago that the polls predicted a slam-dunk win for Hillary Clinton.
So I will keep reading, keep donating to Democratic candidates, keep hoping that 2020 will be the year that turns he country around and puts it back squarely on track to once more being the greatest country on the planet.
11
"And he may be nervous himself because of 'devastating' internal polling showing him trailing Joe Biden in key states ..."
No worries. The war against Iran will fix that problem.
5
The only way out is to vote Trump and his enablers out. If you are not actively working to help, then you are just another part of the problem.
8
'Only in America' is the saying..!!
Well only in America was a president elected by the people and for the people and the surprise was Big Donald Trump.
Definately hewn from different stuff of other presidents Trump has been a survivor because he speaks the language of the common man. Probably a bit rougher, possibly with many untruths, possibly without morality, but he tends to appeal to the ordinary guy who was tired of hearing the smoother promises of others elected to run the country.
Trump has many negative attributes to being a president yet he sits still on the throne, yet others have been castigated and put through the wringer for far lesser shall I say 'negative events.'
The thing is he is not smooth but cunning and not to be underestimated.
So far his strongest opponents seem to be in the 'too old' basket and this is a huge weak spot for Trump to take advantage of.
He shoots from the hip and takes no prisoners and now is more Washington-wise than before he was president.
He knows getting jobs for those as in the Rust Belt will get him votes as will his showing of an improved economy even if he has to give the economists the right answers.
Washington might have been the home of dirty politics but they had not met Trump before .
Yours faithfully,
Stan Chun
Wellington. NZ
16 June, 2019.
1
If he manages to lose despite all his foreign helpers, do not expect him to go gentle into that good night. The US will see "fire and fury" the likes of which it has not seen since Lincoln's assassination. Apologies to Dylan Thomas who had absolutely nothing to do with Trump.
5
Government watchdogs outside of Congress may be doing their jobs, but Congress continues to fiddle while the rest of the country burns.
So far we have seen three heroes: the head of the FEC -- Ellen Weintraub -- the Trump-appointed head of the office of special council -- Henry Kerner -- and one lone Republican in the House -- Justin Amash -- who actually bothered to read the Mueller report and tell his constituents what was in there (hint: Fox News, William Barr, and Donald Trump were all lying to you).
I wish I could believe Ms. Dowd when she says the president is getting called to task by these heroes -- shamed even -- but I'm afraid she is sadly mistaken.
Note that none of those three have changed one bit of behavior in the White House. The President will still collude, Conway will still have her job, and Congress .... well, Congress will continue to sit back stunned, watching all the lawbreaking unfold in real time before them, and continue to do nothing about it.
7
My comments have nothing to do with our POTUS but rather about how political campaigns work.
First we allow gerrymandering which is manipulation of congressional districts to benefit the party in power. Second we allow Super PAC’s as a form of free speech. This provides the injection of millions of dollars into our elections. Within the PAC’s are a category (not for profits, unions etc) who can accept unlimited money from donors who are allowed to donate anonymously. “Dark Money” provides the potential for funds to originate from entities like foreign governments. It would be reasonable to assume the FEC can’t monitor today’s money flow sufficiently to prevent this or that special interests in the US “dark money PAC’s would have the sophistication or integrity to filter out these money sources.
Finally, thru the use of vast sums of money PAC’s are allowed to legally create, produce and distribute carefully word smithed political ads that focus only on the negatives. There’s not a politician alive who cannot be made to appear something their not. Voters are fed a constant diet of information like this during campaigns. Busy people don’t have time or motivation to dig beyond the scripted messaging. Then they vote with the manipulated information as the source of their choice.
It’s a made in America system. The Russians simply used it... I don’t approve at all of course buy it is what we created.
3
Seems no matter what he does people support him. My American cousin’s Facebook posts are full of Trump supporters who state that no collusion was found, no obstruction and Hilary Clinton is the real criminal (!). Any suggestions that several of his team are in jail is met with Rachel Maddow supporter. How is this possible that so many Americans are will fully blind to reality?
13
It is true that Donald Trump is amoral, has complete disregard for the rule of law, has violated every norm of decency and seems not to even know right from wrong. If Donald Trump were a Democrat and Republicans were in control of the House, Republicans would have begun impeachment proceedings long ago.
But Nancy Pelosi is still in her we're-finding-facts mode in spite of the fact that she and committee chairs have been unsuccessful in getting witnesses or documents, Republicans are in lockstep support of Trump; he even has the support of much of the evangelical community. And let's not forget the probably unintentional support of the media who continually ask Trump questions giving him a platform to tell a few more lies, lies which are seldom challenged. I'd say that's pretty good for one of the most immoral, corrupt people in the world.
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I’m old enough to remember Eisenhower, JFK, LBJ, etc., etc. The current officeholder is so far off the charts compared to his predecessors in terms of temperament, behavior, language (who ever thought we would have a president calling people “jerks” or “losers”) and, yes, honesty that I try to avoid reading the news which he dominates. Lately I find myself angrier at the electorate for putting him in office. How could anyone, after doing a minimal amount of research, pull the lever for this man? I’ve about given up trying to understand.
I can only hope a new president is sworn in for the next term and we are resilient enough as a nation to bounce back from the harm he is doing to our country.
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Trump said no such thing. He said if presented with information from a foreign nation about an opponent he would look at it and if it was something bad he would give it to the FBI. Since he talks to foreign countries every day that is a reasonable answer. Listening is not a crime but paying for dirt on your opponent from a foreign country is a crime which is what Hillary Clinton did.
Hillary did not initiate the Steele dossier. It was originally commissioned by a Republican political operator. Christophe Steele does not represent foreign interests. He is a private investigator and a British subject, with expertise in Russian intelligence. Steele was hired to ferret out oppo research on The Donald using his considerable contacts and skill set. This is not an instance meddling in our election or colluding with foreign interests.
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@Kay Walsh
Evidence for your Clinton statement?
In many past elections, candidates have been approached by foreign governments, etc. with "dirt". Except for trump, they all contacted the FBI imminently. In 2000 Gore was given a stolen briefing book from the Republican campaign. He called the FBI.
trump is a crook and is sleazy.
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