President Donald Trump may have complicated his own legal situation with his recent comments about the $130,000 payment made to porn star Stormy Daniels, who claims she had an affair with him. Speaking with reporters about whether he knew that his lawyer, Michael Cohen, had made a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels (real name: Stephanie Clifford), Trump answered resoundingly in the negative, according to The … Read More
Trump Sanctions Russian Oligarchs
Is say “Trump”, but I have a feeling Trump is not gung-ho about this: The United States imposed new economic sanctions on senior Russian politicians, companies and business leaders Friday, citing a list of complaints including Moscow’s attempts to undermine Western democracies, support of separatists in Ukraine and its backing for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The sanctions — the Trump … Read More
Trump’s Trade War Taking A Toll On His Base
Trump probably thinks like this: (1) Coal and steel workers getting killed by cheap China imports (2) If I raise tariffs on imported coal and steel from China, the coal and steel industry will offer more US jobs (3) Reelection! Obviously, he knows that there is such a thing as a “trade war”, but he thinks he can win it … Read More
Stone Might Be The Trump-Wikileaks Link, Just As He Once Bragged
In the last couple days, we learned that Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone talked of meeting with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in an email, which has been uncovered. “I dined with my new pal Julian Assange last nite,” Stone wrote in the August 2016 email to former Trump campaign aide Sam Nunberg. Stone has said that his comment was a joke and that … Read More
Trump Is “Not A Target”, But “Just A Subject” Of The Mueller Investigation
Yesterday the Washington Post reported that Special Counsel Robert Mueller views the President of the United States as a subject, not a target, of his grand jury investigation: Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III informed President Trump’s attorneys last month that he is continuing to investigate the president but does not consider him a criminal target at this point, according to three … Read More
Is There ANYTHING That Trump Says Here That Is Objectively True?
President Donald Trump claimed on Tuesday afternoon that he has been incredibly tough on Russia and that everybody knows it. “Nobody’s been tougher on Russia than I have,” he said at a press conference with three heads of state from Baltic nations when asked how he views his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. “Everyone agrees when they think about … Read More
Trump Less Trusted Than…. Than Fake News?
This just-released Monmouth University poll is interesting if not contradictory. Apparently, Trump’s efforts to de-legitimize mainstream news continues to be successful, although Trump is less trusted as a source of news than the mainstream media. Of course, how one feels depends on the definition of “fake news”, and it appears to mean different things to different people. The full PDF:
Trump Singlehandedly Bringing Stocks Down
Remember when Trump took all the credit for a rising stock market? Well, he has to take the blame when it goes down, and he REALLY DOES have to take the blame this time. As of 3:15 pm, the Dow has dropped close to 700 points. Why? Trade war fears and a presidential attack on Amazon are rocking Wall Street. … Read More
“Roseanne” Is Back For The Trump Era
Last week, Roseanne Barr’s 90’s hit show, “Roseanne” got a reboot, and it was apparently just what people wanted, because it really racked up the ratings for the night, drawing an impressive 18 million viewers. The original cast (including the kids, now grown with kids of their own) are all there. So is Roseanne’s husband (played by John Goodman), even … Read More
Guccifer 2.0 Revealed
So who is Guccifer 2.0? We know now, because of a critical slip-up on the hacker’s part, that he was actually an officer of Russia’s military intelligence directorate (GRU), working on Russia’s behalf. Robert Mueller has brought in the FBI agents who tracked down the Guccifer persona, and they are now part of his team, as he investigates Guccifer’s activities. … Read More
Dowd Quits
John Dowd has quit as the lead of Trump’s legal team. Dowd’s departure comes days after Trump called for an end to Robert Mueller’s inquiry and days after Dowd said the investigation should end, initially claiming he was speaking for Trump before saying he was only speaking for himself. Trump’s attorneys are in negotiations with the special counsel’s team over … Read More
DO NOT CONGRATULATE
Yeah. Trump is going rogue and it is dangerous: President Trump did not follow specific warnings from his national security advisers Tuesday when he congratulated Russian President Vladimir Putin on his reelection — including a section in his briefing materials in all-capital letters stating “DO NOT CONGRATULATE,” according to officials familiar with the call. Trump also chose not to heed talking points … Read More
The Cambridge Analytica Angle, Explained
The Cambridge Analytica scandal is suddenly a major problem for Facebook. On Tuesday, the Federal Trade Commission opened an investigation into how Cambridge Analytica, ostensibly a voter-profiling company, accessed data about 50 million Facebook users, according to The Wall Street Journal. It’s not alone: The GOP-controlled Senate Commerce Committee demanded answers from Facebook on Monday, as did Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat of Oregon. The social giant’s stock … Read More
Trump Can’t Avoid Groping Lawsuit
Bloomberg: As busy as Donald Trump is being president, he can’t avoid a former “Apprentice” contestant’s defamation lawsuit where he may be forced to respond under oath to allegations of sexual assault and his treatment of women. It’s an issue that flared up during the election campaign and while he’s been president. Trump is separately embroiled in a scandal involving a $130,000 payment to an … Read More