As we approach a full year of President Trump, the theme of week #52 seems to be either “Even for him …(insert your own least faves)” or “Welcome to the studio.”
This week’s menu is rich in confusion, outrage and mental instability coming at us nonstop from all directions at 200MPH.
As usual.
We have had presidents defend their honesty before, but never one who felt compelled to defend his sanity. Week #52 opened up with just that as the news was dominated by the explosive expose of Trump’s White House called “Fire And Fury: Inside The Trump White House.”
The book’s author, Michael Wolff, is a guy who just sort of sat down in the West Wing day after day until White House personnel started taking his presence for granted and talking to him (and in front of him) unguardedly, including the President himself. The portrait of the White House being run like a home-school kindergarten with a 5 year-old in charge is as deeply disturbing as it is sensational, with Trump’s inner circle openly discussing when enough will finally be enough and they have to to invoke the 25th Amendment, relieving him of duty as unfit to serve.
Needless to say, President Trump came out swinging in full DDAM (Deny Deflect Attack Mode), responding in such a way as to confirm just about every negative character trait of which he is accused in just one day of alternately vicious, delusional and embarrassingly revealing Tweets and public statements regarding the Wolff book and his former ghost president Steve Bannon.
On the plus side, there seems to be no shortage of hilarious horse jokes using the words “stable genius.”
Trump travelled to Camp David over the weekend to meet with powerful Republicans (not so fast, Sessions! not invited.) to get their Russia stories straight… er, that is… to discuss policy and budget.
Trump did manage to address a gathering of farmers in Tennessee, who were grumbling that the new tax cut does not apply to them, where he topped the “stable genius” quote as the week’s craziest Trumpism so far with this pearl: “You are so lucky I gave you the privilege of voting for me.”
Back in Washington, Trump held a televised White House meeting with members of Congress to discuss immigration. It was then announced that (!) nothing would be decided at this meeting, it was just a TV show, which was confirmed when Trump said to the assembled members of his government, “Welcome to the studio.”
During this show, Trump changed his mind on the issue repeatedly, sincerely seeming to believe 5 different things for about 5 minutes apiece, including a “Clean DACA bill” and even beyond that by offering an immigration deal giving citizenship to millions more, then lied about it later on Twitter when reminded by aides of what his real position was supposed to be. He even threatened to stop the military’s paychecks and blame it on Democrats because they made fun of his wall.
Trump has lied more about immigration than almost every other issue except crowd size and vote tallies, showing us at least that it has his attention.
The White House released the President’s Daily schedule, revealing him to be astoundingly effective for being able to screw up so many things in only a part time position. Trump’s daily schedule leaves him plenty of “Executive Time” (goofing off) for his hobbies; watching TV and Tweeting while desperately trying to derail Robert Mueller’s Russian Collusion investigation, and the similar investigations going on in both Houses of Congress.
Now Representative Adam Schiff wants to interview Trump’s Holy Grail, his daughter Ivanka, and Mueller wants to get Trump himself on the stand and under oath, after having revealed the addition of the world’s best cyber prosecutor to his team to unravel Team Trump’s digital communication trails to find out who knew what, when they knew it, and when they forwarded up the line.
After saying months ago he would be happy to speak with Mueller, Trump is refusing to do so now, and it will likely take a subpoena to compel his testimony.
With this in mind, Trump doubled down on his war on his own government by openly accusing 2 FBI employees of treason, then (!) calling for strict slander laws to punish people for saying things exactly like he just said.
He then went on to slander our court system when a Federal Judge stopped Trump’s killing of The DACA Act, explaining in excruciating and embarrassingly wrong detail that “Dreamers and DACA are not the same thing.” (they most definitely are the same thing for the purposes of this conversation).
Trump also trotted out some of his Greatest Hits Tweets about Russian Collusion: “It was a Democrat hoax to throw a phony cloud over my administration,” then contradicting that assessment with “The Democrats were the ones colluding with Russia” before going with his old reliable “investigate Crooked Hillary.”
As far as official government business, Trump did manage to confirm his support of States who want to require proof of work for American citizens to qualify for Medicaid, which was designed to provide health care for the poor and unemployed in order to have a healthy citizenry and to avoid bankrupting the nation’s hospitals (which are obligated to treat all comers, regardless of their ability to play).
He also decided to open up the USA’s 95,000 miles of coastline to offshore oil drilling, with the exception of Florida, so as not to effect Mar A Lago’s pristine scenery and (currently) unpolluted status, coupled with (!) crippling the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to monitor and inspect these notoriously unreliable oil rigs to insure public safety and avoid environmental disasters.
In addition, he gave his Man Friday, son-in-law Jared Kushner, yet anther job, looking into prison conditions in this country. It’s unclear if this project was to protect family investments in the Private Prison Industry, or to smooth the transition for the Trump clan and their close associates to their new quarters in the near future.
Trump then blamed Obama for his canceling of his trip to England to open our new embassy, which he called a waste of taxpayer money, even through it was George Bush who decided to build the new embassy out of security concerns. The real reason for Trump avoiding the UK is simply the massive protest marches that promised to greet him if he shows his face in the Mother Country, end of list.
With Mueller and the Russian Collusion Scandal threatening to steal his headlines, Trump needed a MOAD, a Mother Of All Distractions, to rivet the world’s attention back to where it belonged, squarely on him and him alone. A White House meeting with a small Congressional delegation provided hm with the perfect setting for just such a distraction when he uttered the winner of The Trump Disturbing Quote Of The Week Award:
“Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?”
He was referring to Haiti and every African nation, and then went on to speculate that we could use more (!) Norwegian immigrants, and just left this Master Race tidbit floating out there.
Meanwhile, The Paris Climate Agreement is moving along, with responsible nations (not so fast, USA!) planning a global strategy to save the Earth, as Trump suggests they might be able to bribe America to get us to rejoin the human race, as if the Earth itself can be compromised and corrupted with a liberal application of The Art Of The Deal. There are two chances of that happening; one fat, and one slim.