What has Pres. Trump done wrong so far.

gcomeau wrote:Well there are now multiple reports that just before that absolute fiasco last year where Trump backed a blockade of Qatar... you know, the country that happens to be home to one of the most strategically vital US air bases in the entire middle east that someone apparently forgot to tell Trump about at the time... Qatar turned down requests from Kushner for financing for his family business.



Yeah, conflicts of interest are nothing to worry about with this administration. Who cares if the president and his family make some bucks off the office right? They don't need to divest their financial holdings! I do believe almost those exact words were used here on these forums.

Conflicts of interst? I thought it was more a violation of The Emoluments Act. But what do I know.

pappilon wrote:

gcomeau wrote:Well there are now multiple reports that just before that absolute fiasco last year where Trump backed a blockade of Qatar... you know, the country that happens to be home to one of the most strategically vital US air bases in the entire middle east that someone apparently forgot to tell Trump about at the time... Qatar turned down requests from Kushner for financing for his family business.



Yeah, conflicts of interest are nothing to worry about with this administration. Who cares if the president and his family make some bucks off the office right? They don't need to divest their financial holdings! I do believe almost those exact words were used here on these forums.

Conflicts of interst? I thought it was more a violation of The Emoluments Act. But what do I know.

Well the reason the Emoluments clause exists is to try to prevent conflicts of interest... so to-may-to, to-mah-to...

gcomeau wrote:

pappilon wrote:[

Conflicts of interst? I thought it was more a violation of The Emoluments Act. But what do I know.

Well the reason the Emoluments clause exists is to try to prevent conflicts of interest... so to-may-to, to-mah-to...

Presented without comment.

https://thinkprogress.org/trump-state-d ... 281554ef5/

Trump installs former ‘Fox and Friends’ host as under secretary of state

Not the Onion.

And no, she wasn't a Fox and Friends host like 10 years ago, then left and gathered a bunch of diplomatic experience, then joined the state department....

It was "Fox and Friends" ---> "Trump's State Department".


This is the appointment to replace the fired under secretary who contradicted the White House claim they had informed Tillerson he was being fired on Friday and not by tweet on Monday.


And a telling quote:

The White House then confirmed State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert as acting under secretary for public diplomacy, with a White House official telling Axios, “Heather is the only one at State we trust.”

This is the mindset running the US government now.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/15/trump-s ... udeau.html

The President of The United States just publicly admitted that in meetings with foreign heads of state he will simply make up claims about things he has NO IDEA about.

And let's just face it, what he has no idea about is damn near everything, and the entire planet knows it. In this particular case he is cluelessly bragging about, he was wrong. And Trudeau knew he was wrong because he actually came prepared with the data (imagine that), so he just made an idiot of himself.

This is going to do wonders for US diplomacy.

At this point, no it wont hurt a thing.

gcomeau wrote:https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/15/trump-says-he-made-up-information-when-speaking-with-trudeau.html

The President of The United States just publicly admitted that in meetings with foreign heads of state he will simply make up claims about things he has NO IDEA about.

And let's just face it, what he has no idea about is damn near everything, and the entire planet knows it. In this particular case he is cluelessly bragging about, he was wrong. And Trudeau knew he was wrong because he actually came prepared with the data (imagine that), so he just made an idiot of himself.

This is going to do wonders for US diplomacy.

Why would anyone expect him to change a long-established behavior pattern? Trump has been a fact-free bullshit artist his whole career.

And this was this morning....

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/sta ... 3051583488

We do have a Trade Deficit with Canada, as we do with almost all countries (some of them massive). P.M. Justin Trudeau of Canada, a very good guy, doesn’t like saying that Canada has a Surplus vs. the U.S.(negotiating), but they do...they almost all do...and that’s how I know!

"...and that's how I know".

Let that sink in. This is the President of the United States and he just made an argument I would be embarrassed hearing coming out of the mouth of a 3rd grader. He knows Canada has a surplus with the US.... because in his head most countries do... so Canada must.... so it does!

Meanwhile, on his own government's publicly posted trade information statistics:

https://ustr.gov/countries-regions/americas/canada

U.S. goods and services trade with Canada totaled an estimated $627.8 billion in 2016. Exports were $320.1 billion; imports were $307.6 billion. The U.S. goods and services trade surplus with Canada was $12.5 billion in 2016

(2017 stats not yet available.)


It has been days.

Either nobody in Trump's government is telling him he's wrong because they think giving the president accurate information on which to base his decisions isn't in any of their job descriptions... or he's just deliberately lying, AGAIN.

On Trump's new proposed director of the CIA... the words of Colonel Morris Davis:

https://twitter.com/ColMorrisDavis/stat ... 3393518592

I resigned as #Guantanamo Chief Prosecutor because I wasn’t going to close my eyes and ignore the torture program in which she participated and then conspired to cover up. Aside from being an unindicted war criminal, I’m sure she’s great.

Of course, to Trump and a bunch of his base that's just a selling point.