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  • Current Events & Politics Moderators: deficiT | tryptakid | Foreigner

The 2019 Trump Presidency Thread

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Shadowmeister said:
I ALMOST hope he does it, but really, I hope he doesn't. *facepalm* What a diplomat, that guy.
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Oh he's the best at diplomacy, nobodies a better diplomat than him. He's also the best at closing borders. Nobody closes borders better than him.. Building walls too, he's the best at building walls. Nobody bui.. etc etc.

I feel bad but I kinda hope he does it too. Part of me wants him to do everything he wants to do so people can experience first hand how terrible his ideas are.

It's a bit like the government shutdown. I wanted to feel bad for all the people suffering from it. But then I remember that a lot of them voted for him. And I feel conflicted.
 
Yeah that's exactly how I felt. Trump supporters would probably say I'm putting the personality over the substance or something, but I disagree. I want him to fail publicly as much as possible because I oppose what he stands for, hos policies, and his appointments to positions like the fucking EPA. I oppose the idea of putting shills for the industry most against environmental protection into the role of head of the EPA (just an example but I really hate that one). I think his presidency is hurting us and I do not want it to continue. Who knows what could happen in 4 MORE years... 2024. I really don't want that, I think the sooner he's gone, the better, therefore I want him to fail and lose supporters. I want the next election to go someone else.

It fucking sucks that real people get hurt but honestly the guy has no idea what he's doing and we're all gonna start hurting. So it seems necessary but still awful. But how else will the spell be broken?
 
Trump is reportedly feeling tired





The 2020 re-election campaign for President Trump knows it has a lot of work cut out to get the president back into the Oval Office. The electoral map looks to be more challenging than it was in 2016 with states like Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania likely to be close-calls that could possibly flip back to the Democratic nominee.

Then, there's the matter of the Democratic field. It's currently log-jammed, but the high volume of candidates has made it more difficult for the Trump campaign to focus on beating specific contenders.

But a New York Times report detailing the early strategies of the campaign team included another issue that could stand in the way of their goals: Trump is reportedly tired.

Per the Times, White House aides said the 72-year-old president is a bit weary after two years in office. Trump, who will turn 73 in June, was an "unstoppable" campaigner last go around and has continued to hold several campaign-style rallies even while serving as president. But he will reportedly slow things down for the 2020 elections ? he'll commit to just one campaign event per day and has already balked about heading out west for a rally during a fundraising push. Read more about the re-election campaign at The New York Times.
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How does someone who never works and golfs all the time feel tired? Who could have known his job is tiring?

This is probably a planted message to get Trump to more rallies, but I still think it's hilarious.


 
White House gives 25 people with ‘disqualifying issues’ security clearance, whistleblower says

WASHINGTON (AP) — A career official in the White House security office says dozens of people in President Donald Trump’s administration were granted security clearances despite “disqualifying issues” in their backgrounds including concerns about foreign influence, drug use and criminal conduct.

Tricia Newbold, an 18-year government employee who oversees the issuance of clearances for some senior White House aides, says she compiled a list of at least 25 officials who were initially denied security clearances last year because of their backgrounds. But she says senior Trump aides overturned those decisions, moves that she said weren’t made “in the best interest of national security.”

Newbold’s allegations were detailed in a letter and memo released Monday by Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the chairman of the House Oversight and Reform committee. That panel has been investigating security clearances issued to senior officials including Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, former national security adviser Michael Flynn, and former White House aide Rob Porter.

The letter comes about a month after The New York Times reported that Trump ordered officials to grant Kushner a clearance over the objections of national security officials and after Newbold spoke out to NBC News and other news outlets about her concerns. It also sets the stage for another fight between the White House and the Democrat-controlled House. Cummings said he will move this week to issue his first subpoena in the probe.

Cummings said the subpoena will be for the deposition of Carl Kline, who served as the White House personnel security director and supervised Newbold. He has since left the White House for the Defense Department.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.

Newbold laid out her experience in the White House during a March 23 interview with bipartisan committee staff. Portions of that interview were included in the memo released by Cummings.

According to the memo, Newbold’s list of overturned security clearance denials included “two current senior White House officials, as well as contractors and individuals throughout different components of the Executive Office of the President.”

“According to Ms. Newbold, these individuals had a wide range of serious disqualifying issues involving foreign influence, conflicts of interest, concerning personal conduct, financial problems, drug use, and criminal conduct,” the memo says.

Newbold said she raised her concerns up the chain of command in the White House to no avail. Instead, she said, the White House retaliated, suspending her in January for 14 days without pay for not following a new policy requiring that documents be scanned as separate .pdf files rather than one single .pdf file.

Newbold said that when she returned to work in February, she was cut out of the security clearance process and removed from a supervisory role.

Cummings’ memo doesn’t name the officials on Newbold’s list. The committee has previously singled out Flynn, Porter and Kushner as it sought records from the White House about how their clearances were handled.

Flynn maintained his clearance even after the White House learned he lied to the FBI about his conversations with Russia’s ambassador and that he was under federal investigation by the Justice Department for his previous foreign work.

Kushner failed to initially disclose numerous foreign meetings on security clearance forms, and according to the Times, career officials recommended against granting him one before Trump personally overruled them.

Porter had high-level access with an interim security clearance even though the FBI repeatedly told the White House of past allegations of domestic violence lodged against him by two ex-wives.

Porter resigned after the allegations becoming public.
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Revelations such as these should concern ANY American, regardless of political affiliation or who you support or do not support, and regardless of any recent news.
 
^ This is going to be interesting. Kushner never should have gotten clearance (too many entanglements overseas).

This is one of a number of serious issues that the Dems are tackling.

On the political side, Trump has no idea what the House having subpoena power is going to be like until 2020. Like a colonoscopy.

Cummings names subpoena targets for security clearance investigation

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House Oversight chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) has sent a letter asking for a "final time" that the White House cooperate with the committee's investigation into security clearances, and warning that the committee will begin authorizing subpoenas on Tuesday for at least 5 current and former White House employees.
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Details: The letter follows an interview with White House whistleblower Tricia Newbold, who told the committee that the Trump administration has reversed denials for 25 security clearance applications. Cummings told White House counsel Pat Cipollone that the committee will first issue a subpoena to depose Clark Kline, the former director of the Personnel Security Office.


  • That will be followed by subpoenas for chief security officer Cory Louie, chief operating officer Samuel Price, former deputy chief of staff Joseph Hagin and deputy director of administration William Hughes.

Cummings also said that the committee would forego interviews with White House officials if they begin cooperating with the investigation. He said the committee is prioritizing security clearance documents related to the following individuals:


  • Ivanka Trump ? White House adviser
  • Jared Kushner ? White House senior adviser
  • John Bolton ? National security adviser
  • Michael Flynn ? Former national security adviser
  • Sebastian Gorka ? Former deputy assistant to Trump
  • John McEntee ? Former personal aide to Trump
  • K.T. McFarland ? Former deputy national security adviser
  • Rob Porter ? Former White House staff secretary
  • Robin Townley ? Former senior director for Africa
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Two questions:

1. Seeing names like Kushner and Ivanka points to something that has existed for quite awhile. What's with the timing of raising the concern now?

2. Who is the ultimate decision maker on issuing security clearance? Executive or Legislative branch?
 
1. Depending on how you look at it, because the Republican House Oversight Committee didn't do their job or because #Witch Hunt!

2. POTUS can override any recommendations from various experts, law enforcement agencies, and analysis.

The question is did Trump compromise national security by dispensing these clearances. I actually think it a legit question.
 
#1 - Does it matter? If security clearance has been given to people who are not qualified for it, it's misconduct at the very least if not outright illegal.

I would imagine people would have thought that kind of thing would have been included in the Mueller report. Perhaps it was, we haven't seen it yet.
 
US Judge Scraps Trump Order Opening Arctic, Atlantic Areas to Oil Leasing

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A federal judge in Alaska has overturned U.S. President Donald Trump?s attempt to open vast areas of the Arctic and Atlantic oceans to oil and gas leasing.

The decision issued late Friday by U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason leaves intact President Barack Obama?s policies putting the Arctic?s Chukchi Sea, part of the Arctic?s Beaufort Sea and a large swath of Atlantic Ocean off the U.S. East Coast off-limits to oil leasing.

Trump?s attempt to undo Obama?s protections was ?unlawful? and a violation of the federal Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, Gleason ruled. Presidents have the power under that law to withdraw areas from the national oil and gas leasing program, as Obama did, but only Congress has the power to add areas to the leasing program, she said.

The Obama-imposed leasing prohibitions ?will remain in full force and effect unless and until revoked by Congress,? Gleason said in her ruling.

Trump?s move to put offshore Arctic and Atlantic areas back into play for oil development came in a 2017 executive order that was part of his ?energy dominance? agenda. The order was among a series of actions that jettisoned Obama administration environmental and climate-change initiatives.

The Trump administration has proposed a vastly expanded offshore oil leasing program to start this year. The five-year Trump leasing program would offer two lease sales a year in Arctic waters and at least two lease sales a year in the Atlantic. The Trump plan also calls for several lease sales in remote marine areas off Alaska, like the southern Bering Sea, that are considered to hold negligible potential for oil.

Obama had pulled much of the Arctic off the auction block following a troubled offshore Arctic exploration program pursued by Royal Dutch Shell. Shell spent at least $7 billion trying to explore the Chukchi and part of the Beaufort. The company wrecked one of its drill ships in a grounding and managed to complete only one well to depth. It abandoned the program in 2015 and relinquished its leases.

Gleason, in a separate case, delivered another decision Friday that blocks the Trump administration?s effort to overturn an Obama-era environmental decision.

Gleason struck down a land trade intended to clear the way for a road to be built though sensitive wetlands in Alaska?s Izembek National Wildlife Refuge. The Obama administration, after a four-year environmental impact statement process, determined that the land trade and road would cause too much harm to the refuge to be justified. Trump?s then Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke broke the law when he summarily reversed the Obama policy without addressing the facts found in the previous administration?s study of the issue, Gleason ruled.
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I agree it is a legit question.

I also question the disqualifying criteria for the people to get probed (poor wording, forgive me on a Monday).

I also question past Presidents' record on such clearances, and to your point the oversight of Congress in those cases.
 
Trump cuts aid for Northern Triangle

Trump cuts aid for Northern Triangle


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  • The State Department announced on Friday it would end about $500 million in aid for Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador ? a move to punish those governments for failing to address the large number of migrants heading to the United States. [The Washington Post / Mary Beth Sheridan and Kevin Sieff]
  • President Donald Trump has threatened to cut aid for these countries in the past. On December 28, 2018, he tweeted that they were ?doing nothing for the United States but taking our money.? [Twitter / Donald J. Trump]
  • Democrats have criticized Trump for further destabilizing these countries and making the migration process even more difficult, especially for vulnerable groups like children. [NBC News / Phil Helsel, Abigail Williams, and Kelly O?Donnell]
  • Many Congress members believe the aid is crucial in fixing the root causes of migration, such as poverty and violence. Without it, they predict the number of migrants will only increase. [NYT / Katie Rogers, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, and Michael D. Shear]
  • Trump is also making enemies out of people whose help he needs the most to address the flow of migrants: the governments of Central American countries. It is unclear how the cuts will affect these governments? cooperation with the United States when it comes to ?joint policing agreements? needed to crack down on migration. [Vox / Dara Lind]
  • This isn?t the only threat Trump is making on immigration, either. His most recent warning from Saturday: He might close the southern border if Mexico continues to allow a large flow of illegal migrants into the United States. [Politico / Rebecca Morin]
  • Closing the border can?t stop people from seeking asylum in the US. All it could do is slow down the legal movement of people and goods across borders. [Vox / Dara Lind]
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his rambling gets more nonsensical and his claims get more outlandish every day...

now the noise from wind turbines gives you cancer: Grassley: Trump's claim that noise from wind turbines causes cancer was 'idiotic'

this story is basically 5 baseless, moronic claims in 1:
  • the noise from wind turbines causes cancer (no evidence to support this claim)
  • wind turbines are "a graveyard for birds" (sure, turbines kill birds but at a lower rate than, e.g., nuclear power. also recorded rates do not factor in deaths as a results of climate change effects)
  • wind turbines cause property values to drop by 75% (conflicting evidence here but no idea where the 75% number comes from. the u.s. department of energy supported a berkeley lab study that found no impact to home values in a study of 50,00 home sales near 67 farms across 27 counties in 2013)
  • “I told the story at CPAC about the woman, she wants to watch television, and she says to her husband: ‘Is the wind blowing? I’d love to watch a show tonight, darling. The wind hasn’t blown for three days. I can’t watch television. Darling, please tell the wind to blow.’ No. Wind’s not so good.” (simply displays a complete lack of ignorance of how power grids work)
  • all wind turbines are made in china and germany (nope. not even close)
:(

alasdair
 
Trump, on Barbara Bush: 'She was nasty to me, but she should be'

President Trump said he was not surprised by former first lady Barbara Bush’s attacks on him, as posthumously quoted in a new biography.

“I have heard that she was nasty to me, but she should be. Look what I did to her sons,” he told The Washington Times in an exclusive Oval Office interview...

“Look, she’s the mother of somebody that I competed against. Most people thought he [Jeb Bush] was going to win and he was quickly out.”

“I hit him very hard in South Carolina,” Mr. Trump said. “Remember? He was supposed to win South Carolina and I won it in a landslide. I hit him so hard.

“That’s when his brother came to make the first speech for him,” Mr. Trump continued. “And I said, ‘What took you so long?’”...
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(Article continued at link)

I'm trying to figure out if this is a new low?

She really didn't like him for a long time...
 
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