The Donald Trump Score Card

Before Sessions sued CA, Trump stuck it to the mayors right before they were to meet with him and ruined any chance of a deal.

It was vintage Trump: make a mess, blame others, wait and see what happens


Mayors Cancel Meeting With Trump as Justice Dept. Squeezes Sanctuary Cities
By Katie Benner, Katie Rogers and Maggie Haberman
Jan. 24, 2018

Mayors Cancel Meeting With Trump as Justice Dept. Squeezes Sanctuary Cities

excerpts:

"WASHINGTON — The immigration battle between the Trump administration and local governments escalated on Wednesday, as the Justice Department increased its pressure on so-called sanctuary cities and Democratic mayors from several of the country’s largest cities responded by canceling a meeting with the president.

The Justice Department asked 23 jurisdictions across the country to furnish documents proving that they had not kept information from federal immigration authorities. Mr. Sessions said he would subpoena local governments that failed to respond in a thorough and timely manner."

"The strong backlash from mayors made it seem unlikely that the local politicians would work amicably with the Trump administration on the issue. Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York, who said he had traveled to Washington to attend the White House meeting but canceled on his way to the capital, called the administration’s decision to release the letter on the day Mr. Trump was to meet with a group of mayors “premeditated” and “incoherent.”"

 

Why Trump's obsession with trade deficits is misguided
by Don Lee
May 02, 2017 | 9:25 AM Washington

Why Trump's obsession with trade deficits is misguided

From the article:

"Today, many American workers compete head-to-head with foreign workers for jobs that require relatively modest skills and education. That’s a matchup U.S. workers cannot win, because workers in most other countries are paid less and what they produce can be sold for less.

The answer, economists and other analysts say, is to train Americans for positions that require more technical skills than the low-wage foreign workers possess.

Investing in more education and training will pay especially big dividends because the increasingly high-tech economy of the future will make lower-skilled workers less and less valuable.

That will take time and money. But so far, such investment does not seem to be a priority for Trump.

“We have to focus on upgrading skills of American workers,” said Raghuram Rajan, a University of Chicago Booth School of Business professor and former governor of India’s central bank. A lot of the new jobs, he added, are in the service industry, but getting them into rural areas and smaller communities is a big challenge. “These are important questions that the administration has to ask.”"

 

Trump has made statements claiming that reducing trade deficits will somehow create extra money for the U.S. to spend, such as on his wall.

This doesn't pay for the wall or anything. The amount of goods and services purchased by the U.S. government doesn't necessarily go down when reducing a trade deficit. The goods are still purchased. The price might actually be higher when buying from a domestic source which would make the federal debt higher, all else being the same, which would leave less money to spend.

It's another example of Trump not knowing what he is talking about.

Imposing tariffs on Mexico doesn't make them pay for the wall either. It would increase the cost of goods for Americans, making Americans pay for the wall.

Using a ploy similar to that of Stormy Daniels and her legal team, the leader of Mexico insisted that Trump make a public statement that Mexico would not pay for the wall as a contingency for a planned meeting between the two. Trump refused and the meeting was canceled.

Trump made his wall claim on the day he announced his candidacy in 2015. He's going to cling to it to the very end.

 

Trevor Noah on Dr. Ronny Jackson: 'Anyone who has held Trump's scrotum' is 'prepared for anything in this world'
by Katie Leach
March 30, 2018 11:34 AM

Trevor Noah on Dr. Ronny Jackson: 'Anyone who has held Trump's scrotum' is 'prepared for anything in this world'

 

Maybe he wants the Muslims to pay for the wall?

 

The wall issue has elicited some unusual proposals, including one that would add a fee to green cards in return for reduced wait time. The extra money could generate a few billion dollars. It would effectively allow more foreigners in the U.S. permanently in return for them giving money for a wall for Trump, who overall wants to limit such people from being in the U.S. via various approaches, one of them being... a wall.

Although a group in India has proposed it, a similar proposal could be made by groups in the Mideast.

Such a proposal goes against the grain of Trump who was talked about curtailing the use of H-1B visas (although he has used such visas to his benefit for his businesses; his wife Melania and her sister and parents have benefited from current immigration law).

With the DACA issue currently held up in the courts, new immigration legislation is stalled and probably won't happen until after 2018 mid-term elections.


For faster green cards, Indian techies ready to pay for Mexican wall: Advocacy group
The proposal is to raise the money through green card processing fee, collected from every one of the estimated 1.5 million visa-holders from India, including primary and dependent recipients, and an additional fee for biometric services, according to Immigration Voice.
world
Updated: Feb 04, 2018 19:59 IST
Washington, Hindustan Times

For faster green cards, Indian techies ready to pay for Mexican wall: Advocacy group

 

Although that border solution is ridiculous many of the countries with bases in would appreciate us leaving. But what about the numerous training exercises the Americans participate in every year. Is the world left to fend for itself even though America likes to be known as the country that protects freedom everywhere?

Countries like Norway have sent their army and ours out together since the 1950's because if USSR invades the have a population of 7 million people but they like democracy. New York City has 8 million. They don't like Putin now like most of the world does. Obama was still sending Americans there to train. Who knows how Trump feels about daddy Putin being challenged.

The American military has better things to do than shoot people trying to pick fruit and clean houses. It's not only inhumane it's a poor use of goverment funds. Something I'd think a good Trump voting Repunlcian would understand. I assume by military you would support them being shot on sight. If not all they would do is what the border patrol does now. Drive them back over it and drop them off. Because legally and diplomatic that is about all you can do without lots of issues. Especially considering the large number of people the border patrol catches.

 

Trump likes to blow hard on the immigration issue; however, he did reward Sholomo Rubashkin who hired 400 illegals to work in his meat plant in Iowa.

 

America First and MAGA are both KKK slogans. And...that says a bunch about Republicans.

 

Sounds good. But first we need to get rid of Trump!

 

Reagan's 1980 campaign slogan: Let's Make America Great Again

 

Trump tried to circumvent the appeals process for the DACA issue by asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case. The request was rejected.

In blow to Trump, Supreme Court won’t hear appeal of DACA ruling
by Pete Williams
Feb 26 2018, 11:28 am ET

In blow to Trump, Supreme Court won’t hear appeal of DACA ruling

From the article:

""The district court has entered an unprecedented nationwide injunction requiring the government not simply to tolerate, but to affirmatively sanction, a continuing violation of federal law by nearly 700,000 aliens," said Solicitor General Noel Francisco in asking the justices to take the case.

After the Supreme Court's decision Monday, the White House said, "The DACA program — which provides work permits and myriad government benefits to illegal immigrants en masse — is clearly unlawful. The district judge's decision to unilaterally re-impose a program that Congress had explicitly and repeatedly rejected is a usurpation of legislative authority...We look forward to having this case expeditiously heard by the appeals court and, if necessary, the Supreme Court, where we fully expect to prevail."

The Supreme Court has agreed only about a dozen times in the past century to immediately take a case and bypass the federal appeals courts, and those case usually involve a national emergency, such as nationwide strikes in the steel and coal industries.

Monday's action by the Supreme Court leaves the DACA challenge pending before the California appeals court, where it is in the early stages. The Justice Department has said it will take at least another year to get back to the Supreme Court for a decision on DACA's future."

 

An article about the risks of the protectionist trade approaches that the Trump administration is using.


The threat to world trade
The rules-based system is in grave danger
Donald Trump’s tariffs on steel and aluminium would be just the start
Mar 8th, 2018

The rules-based system is in grave danger

From the article:

"The second danger springs from Mr Trump’s rationale. The tariffs are based on a little-used law that lets a president protect industry on grounds of national security. That excuse is self-evidently spurious. Most of America’s imports of steel come from Canada, the European Union, Mexico and South Korea, America’s allies. Canada and Mexico look set to be temporarily excluded—but only because Mr Trump wants leverage in his renegotiation of the North American Free-Trade Agreement, which has nothing to do with national security. Mr Trump is setting a precedent that other countries are sure to exploit to protect their own producers, just as spuriously.

It is not clear whether other countries can respond legally when national security is invoked in this way. This puts the World Trade Organisation (WTO) into a rat trap. Either Mr Trump will provoke a free-for-all of recrimination and retaliation that the WTO’s courts cannot adjudicate, or the courts will second-guess America’s national-security needs, in which case Mr Trump may storm out of the organisation altogether.

Without the WTO, cross-border trade would continue—it is unstoppable—but the lack of norms and procedures would leave disputes to escalate. The fewer the rules, the more scope for mercantilist mischief and backsliding. Trade policy could be captured by special interests. Military power would hold greater sway in trade disputes than economic fair play. Transnational investment could drain away.

How should the world get out of this bind? Even as Mr Trump behaves with astonishing irresponsibility, others must keep their heads. Some may impose limited retaliation—that, after all, is how to treat bullies, and the threat to local manufactures will strengthen the hand of Republicans pressing Mr Trump to relent. But such action must be proportionate and limited. A tit-for-tat war with America would be disastrous."

 

Reality can be a stark contrast to Trump's remark "It's all coming back" about U.S. coal mining and steelmaking and related industries.


Coal Generator That Trump Tried to Save Files for Bankruptcy
By Jim Polson
April 1, 2018, 12:50 AM EDT

Coal Generator That Trump Tried to Save Files for Bankruptcy

 

comic relief

 

Trump tweets nasty on Easter Sunday parroting rhetoric he heard from his handlers at Fox. His medications seem to wear off in the early morning hours.

Trump changed his mind on DACA again. This time he said there will be no deal at all on DACA and threatened to end NAFTA.

He is calling on Congress to institute a 51-vote nuclear option to pass tough anti-immigration legislation. Last time he called for a line-item veto which, unknown to him, was ruled unconstitutional in 1998.



Trump says ‘NO MORE DACA DEAL’ and threatens to ‘stop’ NAFTA if Mexico does not better secure border
by Philip Rucker
April 1 at 10:48 AM

Trump says ‘NO MORE DACA DEAL’ and threatens to ‘stop’ NAFTA if Mexico does not better secure border

excerpt:

"PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Trump said Sunday that there would be no deal to legalize the
status of millions of “dreamers,” undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children, and directed congressional Republicans to pass tough new anti-immigration legislation.

Trump also assailed Mexican authorities for being too lax with border security, saying the U.S.-Mexico border was "getting more dangerous." He threatened to "stop" the North American Free Trade Agreement if Mexico does not “stop the big drug and people flows.”

In a fiery series of Sunday morning tweets, sent an hour after he wished Americans a “HAPPY EASTER" and minutes before he attended a church service here, Trump vowed, “NO MORE DACA DEAL.”"

 

Now I hear Jeff Session's job is not safe. He might leave next. Trump would accomplish a very complete job of trashing the executive third of America's government. His bosses should be very pleased, now that he's gonna wing it.

 

Trump freezes $200 million in promised recovery aid to Syria.

https://www.politico.eu/article/don...ezes-200-million-in-funds-for-syria-recovery/


Trump ends temporary immigration status for Liberians.

Trump ends temporary immigration status for thousands of Liberians


Trump twists the arm of ally S. Korea in an attempt to twist the arm of N. Korea.

Trump, Lacking Leverage Over North Korea, Takes Aim at South Instead


Trump cuts aid to Palestinian refugees.

Trump cuts aid to Palestinian refugees – and throws their future into doubt

 

Gen. Kelly sidelined by Trump in recent important decisions.

Trump is reportedly leaving John Kelly in the dark about critical decisions at the White House

 

In honor of Trump's nasty tweets on Easter Sunday, this video has surfaced that shows a bunny stealing a treat from a baby.

How the Grinch Stole Easter?