Trump Cavalcade of Crazy Continues

Ken AshfordL'Affaire Russe, Trump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

It’s the week between Christmas and New Year’s, normally a down time everywhere.  A lot of people are on vacation, Congress is out, etc.  But Trump seems to have time on his hands. He’s not WORKING…

…but his babysitters clearly are preoccupied, because he’s at his Twitter again.

So let’s what’s on his mind.

Here’s a nice response:

And The Weather Channel adds to the fray:

He’s also very concerned about his approval ratings:

The problem, of course, is that he is comparing his poll numbers with Rasmussen to Obama’s Gallup numbers. The truth is that when you take poll averages, Trump is at 36% whereas Obama, at this point, was at 47.7%.

AAAnd he’s going after Amazon and/or the Post Office:

So much for the businessman not understanding the concept of BULK discounts. Amazon could easily use another carrier.

But clearly the most-discussed Trump news this morning is his “surprise” interview with the New York Times, printed last night. It’s much-discussed for two reasons: (1) what Trump said and (2) the fact that the reporter didn’t push back on anything Trump said.

I understand and agree with the criticism of the New York Times reporter. On the other hand, if he had asked questions or pushed back on Trump’s “facts”, there would have been no interview (or, at least, a very very short one).

It is, not surprisingly, fact-free.  One media outlet logged 25 outright lies (as opposed to exaggerated claims).

In any event, Trump talks about the Russia collusion scandal, insisting 16 times there is no collusion, and relying heavily on Alan Dershowitz’s argument that “collusion is not a crime”.  But most of it is word salad.

Let’s dip in a little.

“I thought it was a terrible thing he did. [Inaudible.] I thought it was certainly unnecessary. I thought it was a terrible thing.”

This is Trump talking about his own attorney general, Jeff Sessions, and the decision by Sessions to recuse himself from the Russia investigation! And that, by the way, was a terrible thing.

“Frankly, there is absolutely no collusion. That’s been proven by every Democrat is saying it.”

Not every Deomcrat is saying that, and even if they were, that’s not evidence. Certainly, not proof. Yikes!

“Great congressmen, in particular, some of the congressmen have been unbelievable in pointing out what a witch hunt the whole thing is.”

Yeah, he should have been asked for the names of these “great” congressmen, and what makes them “great”.  Obviously, this is self-serving bullshit.

“I think it’s been proven that there is no collusion.”

Oh, well. Let’s move on then.

“She campaigned for the popular vote. I campaigned for the Electoral College.”

This is sophistry. Of course Hillary campaigned for the Electoral College. She just got the polls wrong.

And you know, it is a totally different thing, Mike. You know the Electoral College, it’s like a track star. If you’re going to run the 100-yard dash, you work out differently than if you’re going to run the 1,000 meters or the mile.

And it’s different. It’s in golf. If you have a tournament and you have match play or stroke play, you prepare differently, believe it or not. It’s different. Match play is very different than stroke play. And you prepare. So I went to Maine five times, I went to [inaudible], the genius of the Electoral College is that you go to places you might not go to.

And that’s exactly what [inaudible]. Otherwise, I would have gone to New York, California, Texas and Florida.

What the hell?

It’s like a child trying to tell a joke they just heard. They know the parts but they just can’t piece it together.

I have no expectation [of Mueller]. I can only tell you that there is absolutely no collusion. Everybody knows it. And you know who knows it better than anybody? The Democrats. They walk around blinking at each other.

He’s very confident. Why???

“I hope that he’s [Mueller] going to be fair. I think that he’s going to be fair.”

This is laying the groundwork a little bit. Meaning, if Mueller is NOT fair…

But actually, it goes against the attacks that have been laid out by Fox News and Trump apologists — i.e., that the Mueller investigation HAS ALREADY BEEN unfair. Trump hasn’t really joined in that effort publicly, but he has attacked the FBI and the Justice Department.

“I saw Dianne Feinstein the other day on television saying there is no collusion.”

He watches no television?

Anyway, that was November when she said that, and what she ACTUALLY said was not in response to COLLUSION, per se. Feinstein was specifically asked if she had seen evidence that the Trump campaign was given Democratic emails hacked by Russia. “Not so far,” she responded.

“I actually think it’s turning to the Democrats because there was collusion on behalf of the Democrats. There was collusion with the Russians and the Democrats. A lot of collusion.”

This is Fox News tripe — i.e., the Democrats and the Russians got together and created a dossier to bring down Trump (although they ended up not using it at all, for some reason). It doesn’t pass the laugh test.

“The only thing that bothers me about timing, I think it’s a very bad thing for the country. Because it makes the country look bad. It makes the country look very bad, and it puts the country in a very bad position.”

He’s setting up the argument that getting rid of the Mueller investigation serves the country’s interest, not his own.

“Whatever happened to the Pakistani guy, that had the two, you know, whatever happened to this Pakistani guy who worked with the DNC?. . . Whatever happened to him? That was a big story. Now all of sudden [inaudible].”

The “Pakistani guy” is Imran Awan, who was arrested on bank fraud charges in July as he tried to flee the country. Awan had worked for former Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, among other Democrats on Capitol Hill. It’s a story, just not as big as the President’s campaign possibly colluding with Russia.

“Whatever happened to the Hillary Clinton deleted 33,000 emails after she got [inaudible]?”

Clinton did delete more than 31,000 emails on her private email server after a review by longtime Clinton confidante Cheryl Mills and Clinton lawyer Heather Samuelson determined those emails were entirely personal. Clinton turned over more than 30,0000 emails from that server that she believed had some sort of tie to her professional life.  This has been printed over and over again. The FBI looked into it. There’s nothing more to say about it.

Also, she’s not president.

“I have absolute right to do what I want to do with the Justice Department.”

This was in response to the reporter saying, “You control the Justice Department. Should they reopen that email investigation?” Trump doesn’t answer this question, but merely says he can do what he wants with the Justice Department.  Trump is technically right here. If he wanted to fire Sessions or even Mueller, he could. But his use of “absolute right” will unsettle many people who have long held doubts that the President understands that there are real boundaries built into government to avoid the executive seizing total power.

“They made the Russian story up as a hoax, as a ruse, as an excuse for losing an election that in theory Democrats should always win with the Electoral College.”

The special counsel was formed by Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general in the Trump Justice Department — an organization with which he has “absolute right to do what I want to do.” Mueller, a Republican, had been appointed head of the FBI by a Republican president. The heads of the two congressional committees investigating Russian involvement in the election are Republicans. And so on.

“It’s too bad Jeff recused himself. I like Jeff, but it’s too bad he recused himself.”

Oh well.

I don’t want to get into loyalty, but I will tell you that, I will say this: Holder protected President Obama. Totally protected him. When you look at the I.R.S. scandal, when you look at the guns for whatever, when you look at all of the tremendous, ah, real problems they had, not made-up problems like Russian collusion, these were real problems. When you look at the things that they did, and Holder protected the president. And I have great respect for that, I’ll be honest, I have great respect for that.

This is weird. He starts out with what SEEMS like a criticism of Holder/Obama, but ends up being praise. He respects Holder for being loyal to Trump. That speaks volumes about what Trump considers important.

“We hear bulls*** from the Democrats. Like Joe Manchin. Joe’s a nice guy.”

First of all, what other president could get away with saying bullshit?

Secondly, he criticizes Manchin and then says he is a nice guy, in the same breath almost.  Weird, but very Trumpian.

“I’m the one that saved coal.”

Oh, really?

“We’ve essentially gutted and ended Obamacare.”

Nope!  But it will hurt it.

“I know more about the big bills … [Inaudible] … than any president that’s ever been in office.”

This, from the guy who, one month into office, suddenly discovered that healthcare was very complicated.

But Michael, I know the details of taxes better than anybody. Better than the greatest C.P.A. I know the details of health care better than most, better than most. And if I didn’t, I couldn’t have talked all these people into doing ultimately only to be rejected.

And yet, he can’t articulate anything that is true.

“Obamacare is essentially … you know, you saw this … it’s basically dead over a period of time.”

Not really.

“He treated me better than anybody’s ever been treated in the history of China.”

Trump, in addition to knowing healthcare and tax law and everything else, also knows the entire history of China.

“In fact, I hate to say, it was reported this morning, and it was reported on Fox.”

Fox & Friends… better than a PDB.

“Another reason that I’m going to win another four years is because newspapers, television, all forms of media will tank if I’m not there because without me, their ratings are going down the tubes.”

The cynicism here is towering. And it reveals Trump’s basic belief that everything and everyone is solely motivated by profit.

**********

Speaking of interviews, at a West Palm Beach fire station on Tuesday, Trump said, “You know, one of the things that people don’t understand — we have signed more legislation than anybody. We broke the record of Harry Truman.”

Nope

Truman: 240-250
Carter: 249
HW Bush: 242
Clinton: 209
Reagan: 158
Obama: 124 W
Bush: 109
Trump: 96

But, bluster aside, Trump and his minions are still up to no good:

2018 is going to be unbearable.