The Donald Trump Score Card

He paid somebody else to take that class for him...

 

Trump squandered four months between those statements.



"Obviously the numbers are going to increase with time and then they're going to decrease.”

Trump - March 23, 2020


The coronavirus “will get worse before it gets better”

Trump - July 21, 2020

 

Remember when they said Clinton lying about his sexual life meant he could not be trusted for anything else? Even as a kid I could see how silly the Republicans looked. Too bad they became fascists and did not remain clowns.

Trump Commits Two More Impeachable Offenses This Week Alone

Tuesday night, the New York Times reported that Trump pressured his ambassador to the United Kingdom to request that the British Open be held at Trump’s Scottish golf resort. The sourcing on the report is very strong: The Times cites “three people with knowledge of the episode,” and the White House, tellingly, declined even to comment on the report.


The reason it couldn’t comment is that there’s no world in which this is okay. Any government official who did something like this would be fired. Trump did not violate any ethics laws because the laws only apply to officials below the level of president; the system is not set up to account for a president to be running a private business while using the powers of the executive branch. Even if Trump had made a gesture toward appearances and funneled the request through, say, Eric Trump, the conflict would have existed, because the Brits would know full well that Eric can and will report to his father. But using a government official to pitch a foreign government on giving money to Trump’s business is a level of corruption so far beyond the normal standards that there’s no process to handle it.


What makes reports like this so damning is that they appear not to be extraordinary events at all in the workings of this administration. Trump has exhausted every avenue of legal appeal to obscure his financial records from Congress and the public. Reporters have had to sue to obtain records of Secret Service spending at Trump’s properties, and nothing since 2018 has yet been made available. Some of his conflicts are sitting in broad daylight: Trump held a campaign fundraiser in his hotel, most recently, on Monday. We simply don’t know what interests intersect with his authority or how often he has intermingled the two.


The second and more dangerous violation is the unfolding federal military offensive underway in Portland, Oregon. The exact nature of what has happened, and where the campaign is headed, remains obscured beneath a fog of political rhetoric and bureaucratic evasion. But the basic story is that armed troops began snatching protesters off the streets in Portland and are carrying out an operation that seems designed to advance Trump’s campaign goals more than any standard security need.

The operation is not illegal in its overall conception. Rather, the administration seems to be stretching the law beyond its intended purposes, taking authority to protect federal property and expanding it into broader operations to target protesters. And then when the troops, who are untrained in policing and deescalation, inevitably carry out some illegal arrests — oh well, that can’t be pinned on Trump

 

Mary Trump on her Uncle Donald: ‘I used to feel compassion for him. That became impossible’

It does not take much imagination to picture torturous family dinners with giant clashing egos. Racist and antisemitic language was common, Mary has said during media interviews to promote the book, noting the Trumps lived in what was then an all-white suburb in Queens, New York. Can she remember a specific example of Trump using the N-word?

“Honestly, no, because it was just this thing that happened. If my dad had said it outside of the house when we were with him that would have stood out, but he never did. In my grandparents’ house, it was just commonplace and there was nothing, unfortunately, remarkable about it.”

Mary is convinced that her uncle is racist. Would she also use terms such as fascist and white supremacist? “I don’t think he has any political ideology. For him, this is just expedient. I would say he behaves like a white supremacist, certainly. He’s acting on his own racism. He’s doing racist things that are endangering people of colour in this country. That’s much more important, so whether he would describe himself as a white supremacist or not, he’s certainly acting like one.”

 

Biden appears to be capitalizing in 2020 the way Trump did in 2016, gaining ground on suburban votes in Midwest states.

Trump had an opportunity to properly respond to the virus and blew it multiple times. It took until the end of July before he finally started acknowledging something as simple as the utility of face coverings.

Trump has rendered himself dependent on desperation theatrics for votes, such as sending quasi-military forces into cities with Democratic mayors to 'rescue' them from Biden who he contends wants to destroy the suburbs, a claim that polls show the voters aren't buying.



Who's behind Trump's big polling deficit? Two key groups defecting to Biden.
Seniors and college-educated whites are fueling a surge in Joe Biden's numbers.
By David Wasserman
July 22, 2020, 6:37 PM EDT

Who's behind Trump's big polling deficit? Two key groups defecting to Biden.

excerpt:

"The 2016 election was defined by mass defections to Trump of the remaining white, working-class members of the Democratic coalition, particularly in heartland states.

Much in the same way, the 2020 election is currently on track to see mass defections of the remaining white professional members of the Republican coalition to Biden — a trend disproportionately playing out in the suburbs, where those voters tend to live.

In an average of nine live-interview national surveys conducted since the start of June, Biden is clobbering Trump 58 percent to 37 percent among whites with college degrees, more than double Clinton's 51 percent to 42 percent lead among that group in 2016, according to the Cooperative Congressional Election Study, a nationally representative sample of 64,600 adults.

Biden has also modestly cut Trump's lead among whites without degrees. Trump now leads Biden 55 percent to 37 percent in that group; in 2016, Trump led Clinton 59 percent to 35 percent among the same group."

 

Trump tried to blame protesters and Mexico for the surge in coronavirus cases.

Fauci and Birx weren't present at the event. Trump thinks it is more concise without them.



Trump defends solo news conferences without Fauci or Birx
By Betsy Klein, Allie Malloy and Nikki Carvajal, CNN
Updated 8:21 PM ET, Wed July 22, 202

Trump defends solo news conferences without Fauci or Birx - CNNPolitics

excerpt:

"At his second coronavirus news conference in as many days, President Donald Trump on Wednesday again appeared alone -- without the public health experts at his side whom Americans have often said they trust on the coronavirus.

Trump told CNN's Kaitlan Collins that he was holding solo news conferences instead of joint briefings with coronavirus task force members because it is a more "concise way of doing it."

"I just spoke to Dr. Fauci. Dr. Birx is right outside and they're giving me all of everything they know as of this point in time, and I'm giving the information to you and I think it's probably a very concise way of doing it. It seems to be working out very well.""

 

The House voted overwhelmingly to pass a military spending bill that includes removing Confederate names from facilities.

Trump is receiving a cold response from Congress, including Republicans, about his desire to cut federal funding to schools that don't reopen fully and in-person.

 

Trump's favorable rating has dropped into the upper 30's. Historically, it's the region where a president starts losing support from his party in Congress. It's a risky area a few months before an election for an incumbent.

His disapproval is currently 17.5% higher than approval.


RealClearPolitics - Election Other - Trump: Favorable/Unfavorable

 

Mayor of Portland tear-gassed by federal agents.

Trump responds to the issue of police brutality with more heavy-handed, quasi-military police tactics.


Portland mayor tear-gassed by federal officers, warns 'somebody's going to die' during chaotic protests
Trevor Hughes, USA TODAY
Published 4:01 a.m. ET July 23, 2020
Updated 7:13 a.m. ET

In Portland protests, mayor warns 'somebody's going to die'

 

Trump didn't get his payroll tax cut either in the current virus relief bill being drafted.

 

Unemployment claims have started to rise again, consistent with what would be expected during a resurgence of the coronavirus which hampers retail businesses.


Virus sends jobless claims up for first time since March
By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER
July 23, 2020

Virus sends jobless claims up for first time since March

 

You know we are headed for another Kent State...

 

Trump's short-sighted, opportunistic mindset is similar to that of former governor of Ohio, James Rhodes.

Rhodes was interested in running for a U.S. Senate seat, and a primary was being held in May. Rhodes saw the unrest in Kent as a perfect backdrop for his law-and-order campaign platform and sent National Guard troops into Kent.

He altered his campaign schedule to visit Kent and made an inflammatory speech at the fire station in Kent.

Rhodes lost the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate seat two days after the Kent shootings.

 

Trump sending federal agents to cities run by Democratic mayors is typical of his urge to tap dance on the edge of a cliff. He can't resist getting involved in a new fight when he sees one brewing and feels compelled to up the ante.



Portland protests: federal agents' actions draw city into a national debate
Civil rights leaders in Oregon say the Trump administration’s involvement have upped the stakes on what was a localized conflict
Jason Wilson in Portland, Oregon
Thu 23 Jul 2020 06.00 EDT

Portland protests: federal agents' actions draw city into a national debate

excerptt

"Locally, civil rights leaders in Oregon say Trump’s actions have upped the stakes on protests, which until now were mostly focused on the Portland Police Bureau (PPB), which has been accused of heavy-handed and biased policing of protests.

Eric K Ward, executive director of the Western States Center (WSC), a Portland-based civil rights organization, said that while Portlanders have “our own struggles that are unique to our community, the Trump administration has now put us in the midst of a national debate that has national consequences”.

He added: “If this goes with no serious political response and consequence, it opens the door for the president to create his own personal security force that he can deploy anywhere in the country, without regard to the constitution.”

The WSC is now a co-plaintiff in a suit brought against four federal agencies: the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the US Marshalls Service (USMS), Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), and the Federal Protective Service (FPS)."

 

You might be correct, and of course his supporters will cheer.

 

Because Mnuchin had to tell him that if his old white supporters saw a decrease in their social security benefits the shit would hit the fan.

 

Michael Cohen knows where all the bodies are buried, if he should ever release a tell-all book before
the election in November .................

Judge finds Michael Cohen's return to prison 'retaliatory,' orders his release

A federal judge on Thursday ordered the release of Michael Cohen to home confinement, agreeing with his lawyers that he was wrongly sent back to prison after making public statements critical of President Donald Trump.

Cohen should be released by Friday at 2 pm, the judge said.

Cohen's lawyers said during a telephone hearing that prison officials violated his constitutional right of free expression on July 9 by ending his home confinement and returning him to the federal penitentiary in Otisville, New York, after longtime Trump fixer and confidant Cohen said a book about his experiences working closely with the president would be published in the fall.

 

Hopefully, right before the election.

 

Trump builds a wall in Portland.

Feds erect wall on city-owned street, blocking travel lane on SW Main - BikePortland.org