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(http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/TooFunny_zps2gz4suf2.gif~original) (http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/LaughingPinkPanther_zpsy6iu8yso.gif~original) (http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/ROFLMAO_Dog_zpsc4esrpyc.gif~original) (http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/LaughingHard_zpswco6umsu.gif~original) (http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/ItchyBugga_zpsebzrttez.gif~original)

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from The Washington Post…

Trump seems to have lost it. So what do we do?

The president is paralyzed and confused.

By JENNIFER RUBIN | 1:45PM EDT — Friday, August 16, 2019

(https://www.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_999w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2019/08/16/Editorial-Opinion/Images/AVBASKV7XQI6TKFQP3MKBVO4LU.jpg) (https://www.washingtonpost.com/rw/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2019/08/16/Editorial-Opinion/Images/AVBASKV7XQI6TKFQP3MKBVO4LU.jpg)
Icebergs are seen from the window of a plane carrying NASA scientists on a mission to track melting ice in eastern Greenland on August 14.
 — Photograph: Mstyslav Chernov/Associated Press.

THE WASHINGTON POST reports that there is no Trump administration plan in the event of a recession (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-banking-on-strong-economy-to-win-reelection-frets-over-a-possible-downturn/2019/08/15/04a85352-bf67-11e9-b873-63ace636af08_story.html): "Trump has a somewhat conspiratorial view, telling some confidants that he distrusts statistics he sees reported in the news media and that he suspects many economists and other forecasters are presenting biased data to thwart his re-election.” (Next, he'll be ranting about strawberries (https://tinyurl.com/jo9ac54).)

If you think that's frightful, consider another Washington Post report (https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/08/16/america-first-greenland-second-is-trumps-latest-white-house-directive): “Trump has pushed top aides to investigate whether the U.S. government can purchase the giant ice-smothered island of Greenland.” As one might expect, “The presidential request has bewildered aides, some of whom continue to believe it isn't serious, but Trump has mentioned it for weeks.”

Greenland is part of the kingdom of Denmark, and last time I looked it wasn't on the market. (What would the comps be?) In case you thought the wall was an expensive boondoggle, imagine what a pretty penny it would cost to buy a country of “2.2 million square kilometers, with 1.7 million of that covered in ice.” (Yes, after World War II, the Truman administration tried to buy it, but it didn't amount to anything and no serious person thinks Denmark is going to sell part of its kingdom to us.)

Sure, this is humorous, but it also frightening. We have no idea why this particular Trump obsession has taken hold or why someone — his secretary of state, perhaps — has not told him that this is silly, a waste of aides' time and evidence of Trump's unfitness as commander in chief. It is, after all. And whoever leaked this to the media seems to have understood the necessity of halting this behavior and, more important, grappling with his unhinged conduct.

We are facing a possible recession, brought on by Trump's ignorant trade war. Trump has made hash out of relations with allies, sabotaged bipartisan support for Israel, been snookered by Kim Jong Un, refused to take interest in securing our elections from Russian interference and exacerbated a border crisis by cutting off aid to three Central American countries We have a wave of white nationalist violence, for which a large majority of Americans think he is at least somewhat to blame. And Trump frets about Greenland.

Alarm bells should have been ringing long ago about this president's fitness. Trump's inability to distinguish facts from lies (more than 12,000 of them); his obsession with (and exaggeration of) his 2016 victory, which renders him unwilling to recognize Russia intervened to help him; his incoherent speech pattern and tweets; his refusal to read briefing materials; his impulsive moves and personal attacks on perceived enemies; and his affection for and manipulation by foreign dictators collectively suggest that he is not fit to work in the White House, let alone to be president. (Should the military obey a first-strike order from this guy?)

One would hope that former advisers, including James Mattis, H.R. McMaster, Rex Tillerson, Dan Coats and Gary Cohn, as well as the few remaining independent voices in the administration (FBI Director Christopher Wray, CIA Director Gina Haspel), would understand the necessity of advising Congress and the American people if they have concerns that the president is unfit.

Don't get your hopes up about the 25th Amendment, however. We have no reason to think members of his Cabinet and Vice President Pence would have the character and good judgment to activate its terms.

Nevertheless, Trump's behavior should give the House, already down the road on an impeachment inquiry, a sense of urgency. If the president has committed High Crimes & Misdemeanors and is also unfit, shouldn't Congress be speeding things up? If evidence from Donald McGahn and others prove compelling on obstruction of justice and the economy sinks into recession, the Republican-led Senate might just take an impeachment trial seriously, or at the very least, urge him to resign or declare that he won't run for re-election.

In the meantime, the media and Congress should stop pretending Trump is fit to govern. He's not. He needs to go as soon as possible, by whatever legal or electoral means possible.


• Jennifer Rubin (https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/jennifer-rubin) writes reported opinion from a center-right perspective for The Washington Post. She covers a range of domestic and foreign policy issues and provides insight into the conservative movement, the Republican Party and threats to Western democracies. Rubin, who is also an MSNBC contributor, came to The Post after three years with Commentary magazine. Prior to her career in journalism, Rubin practiced labor law for two decades, an experience that informs and enriches her work. She is a mother of two sons and lives in Northern Virginia.


Related to this topic:

 • REUTERS VIDEO: Trump ridiculed for “trying to buy” Greenland (https://www.reuters.com/video/2019/08/16/trump-ridiculed-for-trying-to-buy-greenl?videoId=588212278)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/08/16/trump-seems-have-lost-it-so-what-do-we-do (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/08/16/trump-seems-have-lost-it-so-what-do-we-do)

Fuck, you're a stupid queer cunt.

You are gaga … lost the plot … mentally-ill … fucked-in-the-head … just like your dumbarse hero, Donald J. Trump.

The good folks of Woodville must piss themselves with laughter every time they catch sight of you.

You are most definitely their village idiot.

you commie dog-turds are not worth giving 2 fucks about the dribble that comes from your anus-mind

from The Washington Post…

Trump has one playbook, and very few plays left in it

He’s mastered tweeting from the bleachers but still struggles with the complexities of governing.

By DAN BALZ | 12:23PM EDT — Saturday, August 17, 2019

(https://www.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_999w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2019/08/16/National-Politics/Images/Trump_79943-7f7c5-16463.jpg) (https://www.washingtonpost.com/rw/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2019/08/16/National-Politics/Images/Trump_79943-7f7c5-16463.jpg)
President Donald J. Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Manchester, New Hampshire. — Photograph: Patrick Semansky/Associated Press.

AFTER a week in which the threat of recession rocked global financial markets, his trade war with China showed no signs of progress and the government of Israel got into a nasty dispute with two members of Congress, President Trump went to bed on Thursday night with other weighty issues on his mind.

“Great news,” he tweeted. “Tonight we broke the all-time attendance record previously held by Elton John at #SNHUArena [Southern New Hampshire University] in Manchester!”

This is the frivolous mind-set of the president of the United States. Trump's statements over the past few days have brought into focus once again something fundamental about him: He has little understanding of what it means to govern. He would rather tweet from the bleachers.

The 800-point drop in the Dow Jones industrial average at the middle of last week and an inverted yield curve (an arcane but much-watched economic indicator) underscored why there is broad and growing concern about the direction of the economy.

Germany saw its economy contract in the past quarter and other nations' economies appear to be slowing. The U.S. economy has been growing, and the stock market managed to regain some of the ground lost by week's end. But given what is happening globally, how long this extended period of growth can last is a major issue for American families — and a consequential issue for Trump's political future.

The president's trade war with China has contributed to the problems now facing the global economy. Yet the president accepts no responsibility — for his policies, his statements or his tweets, all of which have added to the uncertainty. He has a mixed message: Everything is great, and what isn't great is somebody else's fault.

Trump was reduced again last week to doing what he always does when there is trouble brewing. He attacked others. He hurled more insults at Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell, a Trump appointee who has become the president's favored whipping boy. He blamed Powell for raising interest rates too high and now for not lowering them quickly or enough. “The Fed is holding us back,” he said in one tweet, which inexplicably ended with, “We will win!”

The Fed wasn't the only institution in Trump's sights as talk of economic problems intensified. He lashed out at another favored target: the media. “The Fake News Media is doing everything they can to crash the economy because they think that will be bad for me and my re-election,” he tweeted.

Does anyone not believe that his principal focus these days is re-election?

Under pressure, Trump backed off his threat to impose a major new round of tariffs on China on September 1, moving the deadline back to December 15. Analysts had warned that the new tariffs, which would hit a broad range of consumer goods, could have had a negative impact on the holiday shopping season in the United States.

The president offered an upside-down explanation. “The American consumer is fine with or without the September date, but much good will come from the short deferral to December,” he tweeted. “It actually helps China more than us, but will be reciprocated.”

The president showed the sophistication of his thinking on another China issue, the huge pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong that have rattled the Chinese leadership. “It's a very tricky situation,” he explained to reporters. “I think it will work out and I hope it works out, for liberty. I hope it works out for everybody, including China.”

The president offered no support for the demonstrators who have been massing for weeks in protest. Nor did he warn China against taking action to put down the protests. Unlike past presidents, he declined to stand for American values or the importance of human rights. He appears unwilling to criticize the Chinese government for fear that it would jeopardize resolving the trade war. For Trump, human rights can wait.

But the president was willing to offer Chinese President Xi Jinping some advice about Hong Kong. Calling Xi “a great leader” and “a good man in a ‘tough business’,” he recommended: “If President Xi would meet directly and personally with the protesters, there would be a happy and enlightened ending to the Hong Kong problem,” he wrote. “I have no doubt!”

In another part of the world, Trump decided to stand with the government of Israel against two members of Congress, pressuring the Israelis to block an official visit to their country by Representatives Rashida Tlaib (Democrat-Michigan) and Ilhan Omar (Democrat-Minnesota).

Trump tweeted that a decision by Israel to allow Tlaib and Omar to enter the country would be showing “great weakness,” adding, “They hate Israel and all Jewish people and there is nothing that can be said or done to change their minds…. They are a disgrace!”

The two first-term congresswomen, who happen to be Muslim, have been highly critical of Israel and its treatment of the Palestinians. They support the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel.

But the Israeli government's decision drew sharp criticism from Democratic lawmakers and the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC. Senator Marco Rubio (Republican-Florida) said in a tweet that he disagreed “100%” with the views of Tlaib and Omar but added, “Denying them entry into #Israel is a mistake.”

(The Israeli government later said Tlaib could enter briefly on humanitarian grounds to see her elderly grandmother, who lives in the West Bank. But the government said she would have to sign a pledge not to promote a boycott of Israel. Tlaib declined the offer under those conditions.)

The president has tried to portray Tlaib, Omar and Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (New York) and Ayanna Pressley (Massachusetts) as the face of a radical Democratic Party and targeted them with a racist tweet urging them to “go back” to where they came from, even though three were born in the United States and all are citizens.

Meanwhile, the president is talking about trying to buy Greenland, a story first reported by The Wall Street Journal. Really.

(https://www.washingtonpost.com/resizer/qGda5DugQ_KkE7C_kgvm7JpinF0=/1484x0/arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/HK3LXAGAMMI6TODTMOWOMNVPBA.jpg) (https://www.washingtonpost.com/resizer/qGda5DugQ_KkE7C_kgvm7JpinF0=/1484x0/arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/HK3LXAGAMMI6TODTMOWOMNVPBA.jpg)
Supporters listen as Trump speaks in New Hampshire. — Photograph: Patrick Semansky/Associated Press.

The president's supporters still love him, as his rally in New Hampshire on Thursday again showed. The president put on quite a show, a rambling discourse that lasted more than an hour and a half and revisited old lines and familiar themes (sometimes more than once).

Former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani sent out a series of rapturous tweets about it, comparing Trump with former presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. “These are masterful performances,” he wrote in one tweet. “No one in America can excite a crowd like @realDonaldTrump…. This is a unique and potent political weapon.”

Meanwhile, a new Fox News poll of the 2020 campaign showed Trump losing to every Democrat tested. More telling was that the incumbent president did not break 40 percent against any of them. Polls are polls, and the election is more than a year away, but those numbers should concern the president's advisers.

Trump is following the same limited playbook that got him elected. Whether those tactics have the same potency they once did is the question that will determine his and the country's future. Meanwhile, serious problems are in front of him, and he is struggling to find the answers.


• Dan Balz (https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/dan-balz) is chief correspondent at The Washington Post. He joined The Post in 1978 and has been involved in political coverage as a reporter or editor throughout his career. Before coming to The Washington Post, he worked at National Journal magazine as a reporter and an editor and at the Philadelphia Inquirer. At The Post, he has reported on 10 presidential campaigns. The first political convention he covered was the Democratic Convention in Chicago in 1968. He is the author of several books, including two bestsellers. He was born in Freeport, Illinoid, and served in the U.S.Army. He is a regular panelist on PBS's “Washington Week” and is a frequent guest on the Sunday morning talk shows and other public affairs programs.


Related to this topic:

 • Trump defends economic record at New Hampshire rally (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/at-rally-trump-defends-economic-record-amid-worries-of-a-downturn/2019/08/15/75512678-bf7c-11e9-b873-63ace636af08_story.html)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-has-one-playbook-and-very-few-plays-left-in-it/2019/08/17/b2ad7738-c062-11e9-b873-63ace636af08_story.html (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-has-one-playbook-and-very-few-plays-left-in-it/2019/08/17/b2ad7738-c062-11e9-b873-63ace636af08_story.html)

FAKE NEWS

Only one trouble with claiming that.

Everything in the article is verifiable simply by looking at Trump's tweets.

In other words, according to you, everthing Trump posts via Twitter is “fake news”.

In other words, you are admitting that Trump is a LIAR.

Haw haw haw ... talk about being stupid and kicking an “own goal”, eh?

your dreaming thought you were woke

wake the fuck up dildo

trump doing great

Have you looked at Trump's Twitter account lately?

He is sooooo stupid that he is boasting about doing the stuff that you claim is fake news.

(https://assets.infowars.com/2019/08/260611_image.jpg)

from The Washington Post…

Trump postpones Denmark trip after prime minister
declines to sell him Greenland

The move comes two days after President Trump told reporters that owning
Greenland “would be nice” for the United States from a strategic perspective.

By FELICIA SONMEZ, ANNE GEARAN and DAMIAN PALETTA | 11:21PM EDT — Tuesday, April 20, 2019

(https://www.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_799w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2019/08/21/National-Politics/Images/Greenland_66372-34224-16645.jpg) (https://www.washingtonpost.com/rw/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2019/08/21/National-Politics/Images/Greenland_66372-34224-16645.jpg)
Sunset in Tasiilaq, Greenland, on Friday, August 16, 2019. — Photograph: Felipe Dana/Associated Press.

PRESIDENT TRUMP on Tuesday abruptly called off a trip to Denmark, announcing in a tweet that he was postponing the visit because the country's leader was not interested in selling him Greenland.

The move comes two days after Trump told reporters (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/kudlow-says-white-house-is-looking-at-trying-to-buy-greenland/2019/08/18/ab367b6c-c1bb-11e9-b5e4-54aa56d5b7ce_story.html) that owning Greenland, a self-governing country that is part of the kingdom of Denmark, “would be nice” for the United States from a strategic perspective.

Trump's announcement suggests that, despite his denials, the central purpose of his trip had been discussion of a U.S. purchase of the massive, glaciered island, which holds increasing value as melting sea ice opens new parts of the Arctic to shipping and resource extraction.

The episode was also a rare window into secret White House national security planning, albeit with a Trumpian dealmaker's twist and an element of the surreal. Trump touts his real estate background as a primary job qualification, promising voters he can negotiate better than his predecessors and spot a good deal. But the notion of buying a part of another country was widely met with surprise and bafflement when news broke last week of Trump's interest in the island.

In his tweet (https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1163961882945970176), Trump said that while Denmark is “a very special country with incredible people,” he is postponing his scheduled meeting with Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen based on her statement “that she would have no interest in discussing the purchase of Greenland.”

“The Prime Minister was able to save a great deal of expense and effort for both the United States and Denmark by being so direct,” Trump added. “I thank her for that and look forward to rescheduling sometime in the future!”

Over the weekend, Frederiksen had visited Greenland and told reporters there (https://www.apnews.com/37da8cbadb39488d87154ce820da43c2) that Trump's idea of buying the island was “absurd.”

It was not clear whether Trump will still go to Poland, as he had been scheduled to do for two days ahead of his trip to Copenhagen in early September.

On Sunday, Trump confirmed that he has asked his administration to explore the possibility of buying Greenland, opining that “essentially, it's a large real estate deal.” But he added that the matter was “not number one on the burner” and claimed that his visit to Denmark was not related to his interest in the island.

“Not for this reason at all,” he said.

Trump had also jokingly acknowledged his interest in purchasing the island for the United States on Monday, when he tweeted a doctored photo of a huge gold Trump Tower planted on what appears to be a fishing village there.

“I promise not to do this to Greenland!” Trump wrote.

People familiar with the president's interest in Greenland said he had been talking about the potential purchase for weeks. Senior administration officials had discussed the possibility of offering Denmark a deal in which the United States would take over its annual $600 million subsidy to Greenland in perpetuity, said two people familiar with the talks who were not authorized to reveal the internal deliberations.

They also discussed giving Denmark a large one-time payment as well to incentivize the transfer, the people said.

Greenlanders, many of whom chafe at Danish rule, reacted with scorn to word last week that Trump was keenly interested in making an offer.

Both Danish and Greenland officials have said in recent days that the island is not for sale.

“Greenland is rich in valuable resources such as minerals, the purest water and ice, fish stocks, seafood, renewable energy and is a new frontier for adventure tourism,” Greenland's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Friday in a tweet. “We're open for business, not for sale.”

(https://www.washingtonpost.com/resizer/cr-l1zkn7Wrmnk9cEboV61UXF90=/1484x0/arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/4XXPHKWDVMI6TGMGD6Z6IOL34Q.jpg) (https://www.washingtonpost.com/resizer/cr-l1zkn7Wrmnk9cEboV61UXF90=/1484x0/arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/4XXPHKWDVMI6TGMGD6Z6IOL34Q.jpg)
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in Copenhagen in early August.
 — Photograph: Philip Davali/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images.

The United States has become increasingly interested in the Arctic because of Chinese and Russian expansion there as melting ice makes it more accessible.

China declared itself a “near-Arctic nation” last year and has defended its desire for a “Polar Silk Road,” in which goods would be delivered by sea from Asia to Europe.

China also recently sought to bankroll the construction of three airports in Greenland, drawing concern from then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and prompting the Pentagon to make the case to Denmark that it should fund the facilities itself rather than rely on Beijing.

One U.S. official involved in Arctic issues expressed surprise on Tuesday night that Trump was interested in buying Greenland. The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue, noted that the Alaska congressional delegation has been trying to get the Pentagon to spend more money on operations in the Alaskan Arctic, and that they likely would be concerned that a Greenland deal could jeopardize that.

The effort to get more attention on Alaska in Washington this year included Senator Dan Sullivan (Republican-Alaska) putting a temporary hold this spring on General David Berger's nomination to be the new Marine Corps commandant. Sullivan eventually dropped his hold, saying only that he had worked out his concerns with Pentagon officials.

Trump had planned to dine with Denmark's Queen before meetings in Copenhagen with Danish political leaders. Before news of Trump's interest in Greenland, his visit was seen as an offbeat thank-you to a small country that has been a stalwart NATO member and that supported U.S. military actions.

“This is no longer funny. Danish troops fought alongside the US in Afghanistan and Iraq. 50 Danes died,” Brookings Institution Europe specialist Thomas Wright tweeted on Tuesday (https://twitter.com/thomaswright08/status/1163981316829917184). “The president dishonors the alliance and their sacrifice. On the same day he sought to appease [Russian President Vladimir] Putin by supporting his return to the G8.”

Trump earlier on Tuesday renewed his call (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-renews-call-for-russia-to-be-readmitted-to-g-7/2019/08/20/fb110954-c396-11e9-9986-1fb3e4397be4_story.html) for Russia to be allowed to rejoin the Group of Seven industrial nations whose annual meeting he will attend this weekend in France.

Trump is not the first U.S. president to propose buying Greenland. After World War II, Harry S. Truman's administration offered to purchase (https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/08/16/trump-greenland-purchase-harry-truman-denmark) the country from Denmark for $100 million. The U.S. military had a presence in Greenland during the war as a means to protect the continent if Germany tried to attack.

Trump told reporters on Sunday that owning Greenland is “hurting Denmark very badly” and that “they carry it at a great loss,” although he did not immediately provide evidence to back up those claims.

Although many in the United States have mocked the idea, one Democratic lawmaker on Sunday voiced openness to considering it. Senator Joe Manchin III (West Virginia) said on CBS's “Face the Nation” that “changes are happening” in Greenland as a result of climate change, “and the people up there understand it, and they're trying to adjust to it.”

“We have a very strategic base up there, a military base, which we visited,” Manchin said, referring to his visit to Greenland earlier this year as part of a bipartisan congressional delegation. “And I understand the strategy for that in that part of the world and the Arctic opening up the way it is now.”

In an appearance on the Fox Business channel on Tuesday night, Fox News host Pete Hegseth, a favorite of the president, took an optimistic view of events, musing that perhaps Denmark was simply holding out in the hopes of getting Trump to reveal how much he was willing to pay for the island.

“It's one of these big, bold ideas that no one would've thought of, that the modern era mostly bats aside and says would never happen,” Hegseth said of buying Greenland. “But hey, maybe it's just an initial rebuff. Maybe it's part of their negotiations. ‘Hey, we want a better price for Greenland’.”

“You never know,” he added. “You never know.”


• Dan Lamothe contributed to this report.

• Felicia Sonmez (https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/felicia-sonmez) is a national political reporter at The Washington Post covering breaking news from the White House, Congress and the campaign trail. Previously, she spent more than four years in Beijing, where she worked first as a correspondent for Agence France Presse and later as the editor of The Wall Street Journal's China Real Time Report. She also spent a year in advanced Chinese language study as a Blakemore Freeman Fellow at Tsinghua University. From 2010 to 2013, she reported on national politics for TheWashington Post, starting as a writer for The Fix (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix) and going on to cover Congress, the 2012 presidential campaign and the early days of President Barack Obama's second term. She began her career teaching English in Beijing and has also covered U.S. politics for the Asahi Shimbun and National Journal's The Hotline. She speaks fluent Chinese, Japanese and Spanish.

• Anne Gearan (https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/anne-gearan) is a White House correspondent for The Washington Post, with a focus on foreign policy and national security. She covered the Hillary Clinton campaign and the State Department for The Post before joining the White House beat. She joined the paper in 2012 from the Associated Press, where she served as chief diplomatic correspondent, Pentagon correspondent, White House reporter and national security editor. She has also covered the Supreme Court.

• Damian Paletta (https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/damian-paletta) is White House economic policy reporter for The Washington Post. Before joining The Post, he covered the White House for The Wall Street Journal.


Related to this topic:

 • VIDEO: Trump on buying Greenland: ‘Strategically, it's interesting’ (https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/politics/trump-on-buying-greenland-strategically-its-interesting/2019/08/18/82ef6e33-0872-4646-9e54-87edb69e72fd_video.html)

 • Trump confirms he's interested in buying Greenland (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/kudlow-says-white-house-is-looking-at-trying-to-buy-greenland/2019/08/18/ab367b6c-c1bb-11e9-b5e4-54aa56d5b7ce_story.html)

 • Trump goes full parody on buying Greenland (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/08/21/trump-goes-full-parody-buying-greenland)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-postpones-denmark-trip-after-prime-minister-declines-to-sell-him-greenland/2019/08/20/ef900924-c3a8-11e9-9986-1fb3e4397be4_story.html (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-postpones-denmark-trip-after-prime-minister-declines-to-sell-him-greenland/2019/08/20/ef900924-c3a8-11e9-9986-1fb3e4397be4_story.html)

Oh, dear … poor liddle-widdle Trumpy-wumpy spat the dummy and chucked his toys out of the cot.

And all because the prime minister of Denmark was mean to him and refused to sell Greenland.


(https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTtGpSc-ayZqyPJ918yiDNwC9ZIrav2N270WqoPpusZs-RcfE3H)

haha you all got trolled

Please Donald J. Trump keep saying stupid shit like this so America continues to be the laughing stock of the entire world...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NT5SqRE-wVk (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NT5SqRE-wVk)






(http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/TooFunny_zps2gz4suf2.gif~original) (http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/LaughingPinkPanther_zpsy6iu8yso.gif~original) (http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/ROFLMAO_Dog_zpsc4esrpyc.gif~original) (http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/LaughingHard_zpswco6umsu.gif~original) (http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/ItchyBugga_zpsebzrttez.gif~original)

from The Washington Post…

Trump's week: A snub, a rollback, a divisive comment — and much confusion

What passes for a normal day at the White House is anything but.

By DAN BALZ | 6:30PM EDT — Wednesday, August 21, 2019

(https://www.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_1111w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2019/08/16/Editorial-Opinion/Images/GKTOUOV7YUI6TKFQP3MKBVO4LU.jpg) (https://www.washingtonpost.com/rw/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2019/08/16/Editorial-Opinion/Images/GKTOUOV7YUI6TKFQP3MKBVO4LU.jpg)
President Donald J. Trump speaking to his supporters in Manchester, New Hampshire last week. — Photograph: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post.

TUESDAY turned out to be a busy day for President Trump. He poked another U.S. ally in the eye, questioned the loyalty of American Jews, backpedaled on gun legislation and undercut the denials of his advisers on the economy. It was just another normal day in the Trump administration.

Take Tuesday's quartet case collectively, and it portrays an administration and White House in chaos, lacking in systematic policymaking. It portrays a president who changes his mind whenever it suits him, whose statements shift with the moment, and who uses words carelessly and sometimes destructively. It forms a pattern of dissembling, of deliberate or unknowing falsehoods as well as efforts to divide already divided Americans from one another.

Adding to the chaos and confusion, the president went at it all again on Wednesday with another lengthy press availability. He took back some of what he said on Tuesday and reinforced other things, leaving observers — no doubt including his own advisers — to wonder what and how he thinks about the issues before him.

On Sunday, as he was preparing to return to Washington, Trump was asked about reports that he was interested in having the United States purchase Greenland from Denmark. The president confirmed those reports and said there were strategic reasons to be interested in that kind of a deal. But he played down the idea that this was an urgent issue on his agenda. “It's not number one on the burner, I can tell you that,” he said.

Roll forward 48 hours, when he tweeted that he was scrubbing his upcoming visit to Denmark because Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen had “no interest in discussing the purchase of Greenland.”

That caught Carla Sand, the U.S. ambassador to Denmark, by surprise, as she had tweeted earlier in the day: “Denmark is ready for the POTUS … Partner, ally, friend.” By Wednesday morning, she was trying to assure everyone that Trump “values & respects [Denmark] and looks forward to a visit in the future.”

Rufus Gifford, who was ambassador to Denmark under Barack Obama, offered a more caustic view of the decision to cancel the visit. “He is a child,” he wrote in a tweet.

In his conversation with reporters on Wednesday, the president indicated he had canceled the trip because he was upset with the Danish prime minister's dismissal of the sale of Greenland, calling her reaction “nasty” and adding, “You don't talk to the United States that way, at least under me.”

On Sunday, Larry Kudlow and Peter Navarro, two of the president's economic advisers, appeared on talk shows with the message that all was well with the economy, despite unsettling signs in previous days. Kudlow pleaded for optimism about the future. Navarro assured viewers that China is absorbing the full cost of the trade war that has been stalemated for some time.

The president buttressed those statements with comments about the strength of the U.S. economy, which many economists say could be slowing down. Trump also said he is prepared for anything. Other administration officials dismissed any cause for concern.

On Monday, The Washington Post's Damian Paletta reported that, with concerns rising about a possible recession, administration officials were discussing options, including a cut in the payroll tax. A White House official publicly denied the report.

On Tuesday, in the Oval Office, the president made that denial inoperative, confirming that in fact, administration officials were considering a cut in the payroll tax, along with other possible changes, including in the capital gains tax. “Payroll tax is something that we think about, and a lot of people would like to see that,” he said.

On Wednesday, he took it back: “I'm not looking at a tax cut now; we don't need it. We have a strong economy.” Despite the claim of a strong economy, he once again pushed Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell to cut interest rates, saying, “If he does it, you'll see a rocket ship; you'll see a boom.”

After the horrific shootings in El Paso and Dayton, Ohio, the president made a point of saying he was keenly interested in doing something about guns. He spoke specifically about expanding background checks for firearm purchases, an idea that has overwhelming support among Republicans, independents and Democrats.

He had climbed this hill before, after previous mass shootings, only to roll back down, so there was plainly skepticism about whether he would ever follow through, particularly as he had married the idea of background checks with an immigration policy overhaul. Internally he faced resistance to moving forward on gun legislation.

In recent days, his language changed as he indicated that the current background checks were working. On Tuesday, in a telephone call he initiated with Wayne LaPierre, CEO and executive vice president of the National Rifle Association, Trump made clear that those background checks are no longer in his sights. That news was first reported by The Atlantic's Elaina Plott.

On Wednesday, he denied that he had indicated to LaPierre that background checks were no longer on the table. “I have an appetite for background checks,” he said, without explicitly saying what changes he supports or how far he is willing to go to get a bipartisan agreement. But he hedged, suggesting that Democrats could want more than he's prepared to give.

(https://www.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_955w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2019/08/21/National-Politics/Images/botsford190820Trump59653.JPG) (https://www.washingtonpost.com/rw/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2019/08/21/National-Politics/Images/botsford190820Trump59653.JPG)
President Donald J. Trump meets with the President of Romania Klaus Iohannis in the Oval Office of the White House on Tuesday.
 — Photograph: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post.

At his Oval Office photo opportunity with Romanian President Klaus Iohannis on Tuesday, the president renewed his feud with Representatives Rashida Tlaib (Democrat-Michigan and Ilhan Omar (Democrat-Minnesota) over their planned trip to Israel that was blocked by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government.

U.S. support for Israel has long been a bipartisan enterprise, but that bipartisanship has been strained in recent years. Those strains have grown as Trump has used his full embrace of Netanyahu to advance both policy and political goals.

The controversy over Tlaib's and Omar's visit and their posture toward Israel has taken it to another level, and the president has sought to brand the entire Democratic Party with their criticism and their support for the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.

Most of what he said on Tuesday was a repetition of previous comments about the two lawmakers and about two other first-term congresswomen, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (Democrat-New York) and Ayanna Pressley (Democrat-Massachusetts).

Toward the end, however, he veered into dangerous territory. “Where has the Democratic Party gone?” he said. “Where have they gone where they're defending these two people over the state of Israel? And I think any Jewish people that vote for a Democrat, I think it shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty.”

Trump allies characterized what he said as a poor choice of words, but those words, whether deliberately chosen or spoken without any sense of historical context, brought quick and strong condemnations as echoing anti-Semitic stereotypes used in the past. Whatever the motivation, they are now words spoken by a president of the United States sitting in the Oval Office.

Asked on Wednesday what he meant, Trump left ambiguity. “In my opinion, you vote for a Democrat, you're being very disloyal to Jewish people,” he said, “and you're being very disloyal to Israel.”

After the past two days, there is only one thing to say: Be braced for Thursday.


• Dan Balz (https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/dan-balz) is chief correspondent at The Washington Post. He joined The Post in 1978 and has been involved in political coverage as a reporter or editor throughout his career. Before coming to The Washington Post, he worked at National Journal magazine as a reporter and an editor and at the Philadelphia Inquirer. At The Post, he has reported on 10 presidential campaigns. The first political convention he covered was the Democratic Convention in Chicago in 1968. He is the author of several books, including two bestsellers. He was born in Freeport, Illinoid, and served in the U.S.Army. He is a regular panelist on PBS's “Washington Week” and is a frequent guest on the Sunday morning talk shows and other public affairs programs.


Related to this topic:

 • VIDEO: Trump: Jewish Americans who vote Democratic are ‘disloyal to Israel’ (https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/politics/trump-jewish-americans-who-vote-democratic-are-disloyal-to-israel/2019/08/21/951a60b9-b39d-440f-8a42-f7fefe48223c_video.html)

 • VIDEO: Trump reverses, says no longer considering payroll tax cut (https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/politics/trump-reverses-says-no-longer-considering-payroll-tax-cut/2019/08/21/7e52c6ea-06c1-4176-9cb8-6625e098093b_video.html)

 • Trump attacks Danish prime minister for her ‘nasty’ comments about his interest in U.S. purchase of Greenland (http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/danes-furious-over-postponement-of-trumps-visit-call-his-behavior-insulting/2019/08/21/82d0a5f4-c3b8-11e9-8bf7-cde2d9e09055_story.html)

 • ‘Nasty’ is Trump's insult of choice for women, but he uses it plenty on men, too (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/08/21/nasty-is-trumps-insult-choice-women-he-uses-it-plenty-men-too)

 • Carl Bildt: Trump's Denmark saga of the absurd (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/trumps-denmark-saga-of-the-absurd/2019/08/21/c6cc6880-c44c-11e9-9986-1fb3e4397be4_story.html)

 • Trump language about Jews and disloyalty draws criticism (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-questions-sincerity-of-tlaibs-tears-as-she-talked-about-her-grandmother/2019/08/20/03d7b532-c339-11e9-b72f-b31dfaa77212_story.html)

 • Trump denies that he told NRA chief universal background checks are off the table (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-denies-that-he-told-nra-chief-universal-background-checks-are-off-the-table/2019/08/21/38f4d56c-c42c-11e9-b5e4-54aa56d5b7ce_story.html)

 • Trump tells NRA chief that universal background checks are off the table (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-tells-nra-chief-that-universal-background-checks-are-off-the-table/2019/08/20/deae5b5a-c39a-11e9-9986-1fb3e4397be4_story.html)

 • Trump confirms he's considering a payroll tax cut amid mounting economic concerns (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-confirms-hes-considering-a-payroll-tax-cut-amid-mounting-economic-concerns/2019/08/20/2c97e500-c37a-11e9-9986-1fb3e4397be4_story.html)

 • White House officials eyeing payroll tax cut in effort to reverse weakening economy (https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/white-house-officials-eyeing-payroll-tax-cut-in-effort-to-reverse-weakening-economy/2019/08/19/4cab28ec-c2bd-11e9-b72f-b31dfaa77212_story.html)

 • President Trump has made 12,019 false or misleading claims over 928 days (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/08/12/president-trump-has-made-false-or-misleading-claims-over-days/)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trumps-tuesday-a-snub-a-rollback-an-undenial-and-a-divisive-comment/2019/08/21/c76a8438-c420-11e9-9986-1fb3e4397be4_story.html (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trumps-tuesday-a-snub-a-rollback-an-undenial-and-a-divisive-comment/2019/08/21/c76a8438-c420-11e9-9986-1fb3e4397be4_story.html)

trump making america great

(https://proxy.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2F4ZC16skVu4Q%2Fmaxresdefault.jpg&f=1)

Trump ... making America a laughing stock while making China great.

It's good watching Trump wreck America.

It's about time for them to no longer be the world's top dog.

Trump's trade war is going to be his undoing when China fucks America, then fucks Trump.

(https://static.seattletimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Trump-real-estate-ONLINE-COLOR--1020x680.jpg) (https://static.seattletimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Trump-real-estate-ONLINE-COLOR-.jpg)

(https://i.imgur.com/SrqfpIH.jpg) (https://i.imgur.com/SrqfpIH.jpg)

from The Washington Post…

Trump is increasingly untethered from reality

You have to wonder whether his egomania might have blossomed into full-scale delusions of grandeur.

By EUGENE ROBINSON | 5:07PM EDT — Thursday, August 22, 2019

(https://www.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_1022w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2019/08/22/National-Politics/Images/botsford190821Trump59756.JPG) (https://www.washingtonpost.com/rw/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2019/08/22/National-Politics/Images/botsford190821Trump59756.JPG)
President Donald J. Trump stops to talk to reporters and members of the media at the White House on August 21 in Washington D.C.
 — Photograph: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post.

THE FLOOD of bizarre pronouncements and behavior from President Trump is likely to get worse, I fear. He is now completely unfiltered — and, apparently, increasingly untethered to reality.

Quick, can you name the White House press secretary? Do you have any idea what she looks or sounds like? Stephanie Grisham has held that job for nearly two months now, but if her name doesn't ring any bells, it's because she hasn't yet given a single official press briefing. Trump has foolishly decided to act as his own exclusive spokesman, putting all his prejudices, misconceptions, resentments, insecurities, grudges and fears on ugly display.

The result is what we witnessed on Wednesday on the White House lawn. On his way to the waiting Marine One chopper, Trump paused and took questions from reporters for 35 minutes, unfazed by the midday 89-degree heat and smothering humidity. He made much news and little sense.

When he looked to the sky and proclaimed (https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2019/08/21/i-am-chosen-one-trump-again-plays-messianic-claims-he-embraces-king-israel-title) that “I am the chosen one,” he was clearly referring to his trade war with China. But you had to wonder whether his egomania, which we're accustomed to, might have blossomed into full-scale delusions of grandeur.

Again and again, he tried desperately to compare himself favorably with his predecessor, Barack Obama. He did so by telling ridiculous lies that are easily disproved by the historical record — no, Obama didn't institute the cruel policy of separating thousands of migrant families (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/21/us/politics/fact-check-trump-family-separation.html) at the border, Trump did; no, Obama wasn't denied permission to land Air Force One (https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/360250-trump-wrongly-claims-obamas-plane-didnt-land-in-philippines) in the Philippines. You had to wonder whether Trump, who was the loudest voice in the racist “birther” movement, might have some kind of obsession with Obama and his continuing popularity around the world.

Trump said he canceled his planned state visit to Denmark because the Danish prime minister was “nasty” (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/danes-furious-over-postponement-of-trumps-visit-call-his-behavior-insulting/2019/08/21/82d0a5f4-c3b8-11e9-8bf7-cde2d9e09055_story.html) in calling Trump's desire to purchase Greenland “absurd”. It is absurd, of course, but leave that aside. It happens that Obama is scheduled to visit Denmark (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/08/21/trump-just-nixed-denmark-trip-does-he-fear-contrast-with-obama) in September. Might Trump have feared that he would be met with protests and then have to watch Obama bask in the adulation of much bigger crowds?

We also heard Trump repeat and amplify his offensive claim (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-says-that-jewish-people-who-vote-for-democrats-are-very-disloyal-to-israel-denies-his-remarks-are-anti-semitic/2019/08/21/055e53bc-c42d-11e9-b5e4-54aa56d5b7ce_story.html) that American Jews who vote for Democrats are being “disloyal” to Israel. The notion of dual loyalty is a vile anti-Semitic trope that goes back centuries. Does Trump think dredging it up somehow helps him politically? Or is it one of a host of deep-seated ethnic and racial stereotypes that he now blurts out because no one is empowered to stop him?

(https://www.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_899w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2019/08/22/Editorial-Opinion/Images/WCSWBZGEHQI6TC7XZXRNTYEQKU.jpg) (https://www.washingtonpost.com/rw/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2019/08/22/Editorial-Opinion/Images/WCSWBZGEHQI6TC7XZXRNTYEQKU.jpg)
President Donald J. Trump with reporters outside the White House on Wednesday. — Photograph: Alex Brandon/Associated Press.

If the president seems to be spiraling out of control, it's no doubt because he's frantically worried about losing his bid for re-election — but also because the insulation that once surrounded him has been stripped bare.

Insider accounts of the Trump White House have spoken of the rages, obsessions, fixations and biases that spill out of the president behind closed doors. But there were officials in place who could temper his rashest impulses. When he was chief of staff, John F. Kelly even managed to establish some measure of control (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/01/us/politics/john-kelly-trump.html) over the flow of information to and from the president — a necessity for any administration to be able to set priorities and follow through on them.

But Kelly is gone, along with everyone else who had the stature, experience and courage to at least try to make this mess into a functional presidency. The information flow? Now it's whatever Trump watches on Fox News — or hate-watches on CNN or MSNBC — and immediately tweets about.

Trump's most influential remaining adviser is Stephen Miller (https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/politics/stephen-miller-trump-immigration), the anti-immigration zealot who survives by applauding and reinforcing Trump's worst instincts. When Trump said on Wednesday (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-revives-suggestion-hed-end-birthright-citizenship/2019/08/21/ce0c4078-c458-11e9-8bf7-cde2d9e09055_story.html) the administration wants to end birthright citizenship (which the Constitution guarantees), everyone could guess where that was coming from.

Cabinet members are like the guy in the parade who walks behind the elephant with a broom and dustpan. After Trump abruptly canceled his trip to Denmark, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo hurried to offer words of reassurance to the Danish foreign minister (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-greenland-pompeo/pompeo-speaks-with-danish-foreign-minister-after-trump-cancels-visit-idUSKCN1VB2KW). Acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, a strident budget hawk his entire career, has apparently just given up as the deficit soars toward $1 trillion (https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/08/21/us-deficit-expand-by-more-than-billion-over-years-than-previously-expected-cbo-says).

The nation and the world need a competent, capable White House but won't have one anytime soon. Instead, we've got a teetotaling president who sounds like the angry guy at the end of the bar, mouthing off about whatever he sees when he looks up at the television. Closing time can't come fast enough.


• Eugene Robinson (https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/eugene-robinson) writes a twice-a-week column on politics and culture for The Washington Post and hosts a weekly online chat with readers. In a three-decade career at The Post, Robinson has been city hall reporter, city editor, foreign correspondent in Buenos Aires and London, foreign editor, and assistant managing editor in charge of the paper's Style section. He started writing a column for the Op-Ed page in 2005. In 2009, he received the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary for “his eloquent columns on the 2008 presidential campaign that focus on the election of the first African-American president, showcasing graceful writing and grasp of the larger historic picture.” Robinson is the author of “Disintegration: The Splintering of Black America” (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0767929969) (2010), “Last Dance in Havana” (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0743246225) (2004), and “Coal to Cream: A Black Man's Journey Beyond Color to an Affirmation of Race” (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0684857227) (1999). He lives with his wife and two sons in Arlington.


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 • VIDEO: Trump on trade war: ‘I am the chosen one’ (https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/politics/trump-on-trade-war-i-am-the-chosen-one/2019/08/21/099faadf-4592-4187-8ffd-8540fbe4b4af_video.html)

 • Jennifer Rubin: Trump has real reasons to freak out about the economy (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/08/22/trump-should-be-even-more-worried-about-economy)

 • Jennifer Rubin: Trump's unhinged display should frighten everyone (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/08/22/trumps-unhinged-display-should-worry-everyone)

 • Carl Bildt: Trump's Denmark saga of the absurd (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/trumps-denmark-saga-of-the-absurd/2019/08/21/c6cc6880-c44c-11e9-9986-1fb3e4397be4_story.html)

 • Dana Milbank: Trump claims he's the messiah. Maybe he should quit while he's ahead. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-claims-hes-the-messiah-maybe-he-should-quit-while-hes-ahead/2019/08/21/4eb6bdcc-c44d-11e9-b5e4-54aa56d5b7ce_story.html)

 • Greg Sargent: Trump just nixed his Denmark trip. Does he fear Obama will humiliate him? (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/08/21/trump-just-nixed-denmark-trip-does-he-fear-contrast-with-obama)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-is-increasingly-untethered-to-reality/2019/08/22/87d93208-c513-11e9-9986-1fb3e4397be4_story.html (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-is-increasingly-untethered-to-reality/2019/08/22/87d93208-c513-11e9-9986-1fb3e4397be4_story.html)

the alt-left post fake news
the loony left with their idea of what is reality 
;D hahaha more funny propaganda  bullshit

meanwhile
the left-wing is filled up with childish emotional pussys 
some even wear pussy hats
some walk around wearing a giant cunt
and its trumps fault they are all fucked in the head

oh well, that's the price of making America great ;D

The only thing Trump is making great is China.

He is making China great again.

Hilarious, eh?




(http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/TooFunny_zps2gz4suf2.gif~original) (http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/LaughingPinkPanther_zpsy6iu8yso.gif~original) (http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/ROFLMAO_Dog_zpsc4esrpyc.gif~original) (http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/LaughingHard_zpswco6umsu.gif~original) (http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/ItchyBugga_zpsebzrttez.gif~original)

from The Washington Post…

Amid trade war, Trump drops pretense of friendship
with China's Xi Jinping, calls him an ‘enemy’

The president's personal attack could signal a deeper shift in his administration's
increasingly confrontational strategy with Beijing, analysts said.

By DAVID NAKAMURA | 4:40PM EDT — Friday, August 23, 2019

(https://www.washingtonpost.com/resizer/sjlygDQsPzPXeg-eeDrGi3Oxa8I=/1484x0/arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/2Z74OXGFZII6TGMGD6Z6IOL34Q.jpg) (https://www.washingtonpost.com/resizer/sjlygDQsPzPXeg-eeDrGi3Oxa8I=/1484x0/arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/2Z74OXGFZII6TGMGD6Z6IOL34Q.jpg)
President Donald J. Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping pose for a photo in June during the Group of 20 leaders summit in Osaka, Japan.
 — Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters.

PRESIDENT TRUMP on Friday lashed out personally at Chinese President Xi Jinping, calling him an “enemy” in a dramatic escalation of rhetoric that could signal a deeper shift in his administration's increasingly confrontational strategy toward China.

Despite the rising tensions on trade (https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/08/23/china-hits-us-with-tariffs-billion-worth-goods-reinstates-auto-levies-state-media-report), Trump had sought to maintain good personal relations with Xi, calling him “my friend” (https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1156979445565202433) in a tweet earlier this month and praising his leadership. He has even refrained from criticizing Xi over China's handling of massive pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong that Beijing has blamed on U.S. influence (https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/31/asia/us-china-hong-kong-interference-intl-hnk/index.html).

But Trump dropped all pretense on Friday in a series of tweets (https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1164914959131848705) in which he directed American companies to ditch China and declared that the United States “would be far better off” without dealing with the world's second-largest economy. The president's frustration over a lack of progress on trade talks with Beijing and signs of weakness in the U.S. economy boiled over as he attacked both Xi and Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome H. Powell, asking in one tweet (https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1164914610836783104) “who is our bigger enemy” between the two.

Even Trump allies who have cheered his showdown with Beijing are saying that the president's statements may foreshadow a possible sharper break between the two countries.

“It's a striking departure for American policy on China; it's even a striking departure from Trump's policies and comments on China of just a few weeks ago,” said Gordon Chang, an author and frequent Fox News commentator who espouses hawkish views on China.

“Trump is capable of a head fake, but I do not get a sense this is a head fake,” Chang added. “This is frustration on the part of the president. Today strikes me, given the virulence of the tweets, that we're seeing another turn toward what we could call a breaking-off of relations with China.”

White House aides declined a request to elaborate on Trump's tweets. But officials have said that the president and his advisers have grown increasingly convinced that there is little hope for a trade deal. Last week, the Trump administration announced it would postpone a new round of tariffs on Chinese goods until later in the year over fears that they could undermine U.S. companies during the holiday shopping season.

Yet on Friday, Beijing announced plans to implement a new round of tariffs on U.S. goods.

“This is incredible language. The word ‘enemy’ really takes this to a new level,” said Bonnie Glaser, a China expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “The Chinese will be quite startled by the fact that the president could even raise the fact that China could be an enemy.”

Trump bashed China in his 2016 campaign, complaining that the communist country had taken advantage of lax trade policies from previous U.S. administrations of both political parties.

But after taking office, Trump courted Xi, playing host to him at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida in an effort to engage him on trade negotiations and enlist Beijing's cooperation on a “maximum pressure” campaign on North Korea.

Xi returned the favor by treating Trump to an elaborate state visit later that year, feting him with a private performance of the Peking Opera and a military procession that impressed the American president. During that trip to Beijing, Trump told a group of American business leaders, “I don't blame China” for its unfair trade practices, saying he faulted previous U.S. administrations for failing to get tough.

Last year, however, Trump began to shift his tone (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/after-detente-with-north-korea-trump-increasingly-takes-aim-at-a-new-foe--china/2018/08/18/077ca942-a2ef-11e8-83d2-70203b8d7b44_story.html), criticizing Beijing on a range of issues. He faulted China for failing to crack down on fentanyl that was being smuggled into the illicit U.S. drug market, cited the Chinese military as a reason for directing the Pentagon to create a new “Space Force” and accused Beijing of trying to improperly influence U.S. elections.

His administration labeled China a “strategic competitor” in its national security strategy, a shift from past administrations.

At the same time, Trump has generally refrained from criticizing Xi directly, noting only that their friendship might have been strained (https://www.politico.com/story/2019/07/15/trump-friendship-trade-china-1416131) by the increasing tariffs over the past several months.

The two leaders met most recently on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Osaka, Japan, in late June, during which Trump announced that trade talks would resume. But there has been no breakthrough since then.

Michael Pillsbury, a China expert at the conservative Hudson Institute who informally advises Trump, said he has detected an “increasing arrogance” among the Chinese delegations in recent months. Though the Chinese economy has struggled amid the trade tensions, Xi has demonstrated a willingness to accept more economic pain than Trump's team had expected, several analysts said.

“My own recent conversations with the president over the last few days, I've noticed an increasing frustration with Xi Jinping,” Pillsbury said.

Trump has denigrated China's global economic standing and suggested that the relative strength of the U.S. economy has given him the upper hand, even as fear of a recession has alarmed the White House and the president's 2020 campaign team.

This week, Trump blasted past U.S. administrations as having failed to confront Beijing. “Someone had to do it,” Trump said. “I am the chosen one.”

But Evan Medeiros, a China expert who served on the National Security Council in the Obama administration, said Trump's efforts to court Xi personally “were never taken seriously by the Chinese and were never a source of leverage.”

“The Chinese have come to the conclusion that Trump is far too mercurial to take seriously. They focus on U.S. actions more than words,” said Medeiros, now an Asian studies professor at Georgetown University.

In recent weeks, the Trump administration agreed to sell $8 billion worth of new F-16 fighter jets (https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/trump-administration-plans-8-billion-fighter-jet-sale-to-taiwan-angering-china/2019/08/16/c0fc85a2-bfc4-11e9-a5c6-1e74f7ec4a93_story.html) to Taiwan, angering Beijing, and the Pentagon said it was exploring deploying new missile systems in Asia to blunt Chinese military threats. The administration also labeled China a currency manipulator (https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/05/trump-accuses-china-of-currency-manipulation-as-yuan-drops-to-new-low.html).

“The last veneer of a constructive U.S.-China relationship was Trump's efforts to have a positive personal relationship with Xi,” Medeiros said. “Now that his rhetoric has turned, that may indicate a much more fundamental long-term shift in China policy — at least until Trump leaves office.”


• David Nakamura (https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/david-nakamura) started at The Washington Post as a summer intern in 1992. After four years as a sports reporter, he moved to the local news staff and wrote about education in Virginia and Maryland and city government in the District. In 2004, he was part of a team that uncovered high levels of lead contamination in Washington D.C. tap water, a series that won the 2005 Selden Ring Award for investigative reporting. He has reported from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Japan.


Related to this topic:

 • REUTERS VIDEO: Wall Street sinks on trade tensions (https://www.reuters.com/video/2019/08/23/wall-street-sinks-on-trade-tensions?videoId=591194559)

 • REUTERS VIDEO: Invest in U.S. stocks amid trade war — Pence (https://www.reuters.com/video/2019/08/23/invest-in-us-stocks-amid-trade-war-pence?videoId=591172295)

 • REUTERS VIDEO: Trump pressures U.S. companies on China ties (https://www.reuters.com/video/2019/08/23/stocks-fall-as-trump-issues-higher-tarif?videoId=591096285)

 • Trump retaliates in trade war by escalating tariffs on Chinese imports and demanding companies cut ties with China (https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/08/23/china-hits-us-with-tariffs-billion-worth-goods-reinstates-auto-levies-state-media-report)

 • Trump is flailing to blame someone, anyone, for an economy he's increasingly anxious about (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/08/23/trump-is-flailing-blame-someone-anyone-an-economy-hes-increasingly-anxious-about/)

 • Trump calls the Fed chair an ‘enemy’ after Powell said trade war is ‘turbulent’ (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/amid-trade-war-trump-drops-pretense-of-friendship-with-chinas-xi-jinping-calls-him-an-enemy/2019/08/23/2063e80e-c5bb-11e9-b5e4-54aa56d5b7ce_story.html)

 • The month a shadow fell on Trump's economy (https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/08/22/trump-economy-month-chaotic-response)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/amid-trade-war-trump-drops-pretense-of-friendship-with-chinas-xi-jinping-calls-him-an-enemy/2019/08/23/2063e80e-c5bb-11e9-b5e4-54aa56d5b7ce_story.html (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/amid-trade-war-trump-drops-pretense-of-friendship-with-chinas-xi-jinping-calls-him-an-enemy/2019/08/23/2063e80e-c5bb-11e9-b5e4-54aa56d5b7ce_story.html)

China does not want fair trade
they just want to keep on stealing Commies are criminals
just look what they have done to New Zealand's milk producers

fuck China destroy the mother f#$kers
dry up their funds' boycott and sanction them

China's human rights record is worse than Hitler's

China doesn't have to do a thing except tell Trump to “go fuck yourself”, match Trumps tariffs, tariff-for-tariff, and wait for Trump to bankrupt his country like he has bankrupted his own companies SEVEN TIMES with his inept financial mismanagement.

Xi is playing the long game and allowing Trump to MAKE CHINA GREAT AGAIN!!

SNIGGER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

meanwhile in china

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPqlQEOWbIo

Trump is taking America down.

China is sitting back and watching while matching Trump's tariffs in a tariff for tariff pissing competition they KNOW then will ultimately win.

from The Washington Post…

EDITORIAL: Trump gives a stunning display of incoherence at the G-7

The president's only clear plan from the G-7 — to have the
next summit at his own golf resort — cries for intervention.

By THE WASHINGTON POST EDITORIAL BOARD | 5:45PM EDT — Monday, August 26, 2019

(https://www.washingtonpost.com/resizer/hu3zfZ6dxyeKcxxJ78jZ18mXFmk=/1484x0/arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/X2GR5OWIFQI6TIP6ZJDORVLTYA.jpg) (https://www.washingtonpost.com/resizer/hu3zfZ6dxyeKcxxJ78jZ18mXFmk=/1484x0/arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/X2GR5OWIFQI6TIP6ZJDORVLTYA.jpg)
President Donald J. Trump takes questions at a joint news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Group of Seven summit in Biarritz,
France, on Monday. — Photograph: Andrew Harnik/Associated Press.

ON FRIDAY, President Trump called President Xi Jinping of China an “enemy” (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/amid-trade-war-trump-drops-pretense-of-friendship-with-chinas-xi-jinping-calls-him-an-enemy/2019/08/23/2063e80e-c5bb-11e9-b5e4-54aa56d5b7ce_story.html), said “we don't need China” and told U.S. companies (https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/08/23/trump-hereby-orders-us-business-out-china-can-he-do-that) they were “hereby ordered” to end their operations there. Over the next 72 hours, he cited a 1977 emergency powers law (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/powerful-obscure-law-is-basis-for-trump-order-on-trade/2019/08/24/c0e96916-c6d8-11e9-8bf7-cde2d9e09055_story.html) to back up his threat to end U.S. economic relations with Beijing; announced he did not intend to invoke the law (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-for-first-time-signals-regret-china-trade-war-has-escalated/2019/08/25/c942ea78-c67a-11e9-b5e4-54aa56d5b7ce_story.html); and, on Monday, declared Mr. Xi to be “a great leader” and “a brilliant man” (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trade-china-trump/trump-says-china-trade-deal-coming-beijing-calls-for-resolution-idUSKCN1VG0HK) with whom his administration would probably soon strike a trade deal. It was, all in all, a stunning display of incoherence — even by Mr. Trump's standards — that encapsulated his performance at the Group of Seven summit.

Mr. Trump's conflicting statements on China were far from the only puzzlements of his stay in Biarritz, France. He repeatedly touted what he said was a trade deal with Japan (https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/trump-says-japan-trade-deal-reached-but-abe-warns-more-work-remains/2019/08/25/5351053e-c73d-11e9-a1fe-ca46e8d573c0_story.html), only to be contradicted by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the Japanese foreign ministry, which said the negotiations were at a preliminary stage. He said there was “tremendous unity” (https://www.cbsnews.com/live-news/trump-g7-french-president-emmanuel-macron-today-2019-08-26-live-stream-updates) in his talks with the other six leaders, though officials said the U.S. delegation blocked consensus on trade and other issues. Mr. Trump skipped a meeting on climate change (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-skips-out-on-g7-climate-meeting-citing-busy-schedule), and his pitch to restore Russia to the group was flatly rejected by Germany and Britain, among others.

French President Emmanuel Macron made a valiant effort to use the summit to jump-start negotiations between the United States and Iran, even inviting Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif to Biarritz (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/irans-javad-zarif-makes-surprise-trip-to-g-7-catching-trump-off-guard/2019/08/25/e339df7c-c742-11e9-8067-196d9f17af68_story.html). Mr. Trump responded with more confusion: After allowing that Mr. Macron's suggestion of a summit between him and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani within weeks was possible, he went on to cite conditions for a deal different — and less stringent — from those previously outlined by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Mr. Trump lambasted President Barack Obama for striking a deal that granted Iran economic concessions, then suggested that he would support new loans for Tehran if talks got underway.

Mr. Rouhani suggested in a speech (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/irans-rouhani-says-he-is-open-to-talks-amid-rising-tensions-with-the-west/2019/08/26/b5addada-c810-11e9-9615-8f1a32962e04_story.html) on Monday that he was open to negotiations, so perhaps something will come from Mr. Macron's initiative. But there was no way to judge from Mr. Trump's remarks whether he was seriously contemplating a change of tack on Iran — just as it was anyone’s guess whether he had second thoughts about the trade war (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/25/donald-trump-second-thoughts-china-trade-war) he started with China, as he suggested on Sunday, or merely wished he had raised tariffs even higher (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-admits-to-having-second-thoughts--a-scramble-ensues-to-explain-what-he-meant/2019/08/25/a3ebdd10-c748-11e9-a1fe-ca46e8d573c0_story.html), as his staff later said.

The one subject on which Mr. Trump's intentions appeared unambiguous was his plan to steer the next G-7 summit, which the United States is due to host, to his own Doral golf resort (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-sings-the-praises-of-his-resort-in-florida-as-g-7-host-for-2020/2019/08/26/17409c1e-c7ea-11e9-8067-196d9f17af68_story.html) near Miami — thereby injecting a huge stimulus into what has been a struggling business. When asked whether he was trying to use the presidency to enrich himself, Mr. Trump responded with the ludicrous claim that the presidency had cost him $3 billion to $5 billion. His scheme cries out for congressional intervention; if the emoluments clause of the Constitution (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/what-is-the-emoluments-clause-does-it-apply-to-president-trump/2017/01/23/12aa7808-e185-11e6-a547-5fb9411d332c_story.html) means anything, it must forbid such blatant self-dealing.


• Editorials represent the views of The Washington Post as an institution, as determined through debate among members of the Editorial Board (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-posts-view). The board includes: Editorial Page Editor Fred Hiatt (https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/fred-hiatt); Deputy Editorial Page Editor Jackson Diehl (https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/jackson-diehl); Deputy Editorial Page Editor Ruth Marcus (https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/ruth-marcus); Associate Editorial Page Editor Jo-Ann Armao (https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/jo-ann-armao), who specializes in education and District affairs; Jonathan Capehart (https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/jonathan-capehart), who focuses on national politics; Lee Hockstader (https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/lee-hockstader), who writes about immigration, and political and other issues affecting Virginia and Maryland; Charles Lane (https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/charles-lane), who concentrates on economic policy, trade and globalization; Stephen Stromberg (https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/stephen-stromberg), who specializes in energy, the environment, public health and other federal policy; David Hoffman (https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/david-e-hoffman), who writes about foreign affairs and press freedom; Molly Roberts (https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/molly-roberts), who focuses on technology and society; and editorial cartoonist Tom Toles (https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/tom-toles). Op-ed editors Michael Larabee, Robert Gebelhoff (https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/robert-gebelhoff) and Mark Lasswell; letters editor Jamie Riley; international opinions editors Elias Lopez, Karen Attiah (https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/karen-attiah) and Christian Caryl (https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/christian-caryl); international opinions writer Jason Rezaian (https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/jason-rezaian); digital opinions editor James Downie (https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/james-downie); operations editor Becca Clemons (https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/becca-clemons); editor and writer Christine Emba (https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/christine-emba); and digital producer and writer Mili Mitra also take part in board discussions. The board highlights issues it thinks are important and responds to news events, mindful of stands it has taken in previous editorials and principles that have animated Washington Post editorial boards over time. Articles in the news pages sometimes prompt ideas for editorials, but every editorial is based on original reporting. News reporters and editors never contribute to editorial board discussions, and editorial board members don't have any role in news coverage.


Related to this topic:

 • Jennifer Rubin: Stop the craziness (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/08/26/stop-crazy)

 • Max Boot: Is Trump a liar or a fantasist? Neither option is good. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/08/26/is-trump-liar-or-fantasist-neither-option-is-good)

 • Greg Sargent: As Trump zigzags wildly at G-7, one ugly truth remains constant (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/08/26/trump-zigzags-wildly-g-one-ugly-truth-remains-constant)

 • Paul Waldman: Trump's presser confirms it: He has no idea why he's losing the trade war (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/08/26/trumps-presser-confirms-it-he-has-no-idea-why-hes-losing-trade-war)

 • Dana Milbank: Let's ‘gut check’ all of Trump's vulgar, unpresidential statements (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-beastly-is-trump-the-post-gut-checker-investigates/2019/08/23/72b70ab2-c5b3-11e9-b5e4-54aa56d5b7ce_story.html)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/trump-gives-a-stunning-display-of-incoherence-at-the-g-7/2019/08/26/54337ae8-c81b-11e9-a1fe-ca46e8d573c0_story.html (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/trump-gives-a-stunning-display-of-incoherence-at-the-g-7/2019/08/26/54337ae8-c81b-11e9-a1fe-ca46e8d573c0_story.html)

(https://resources.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/w/m/n/9/4/image.gallery.galleryLandscape.1024x684.1wd9kf.png/1567336188518.jpg) (https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/114832270/jeff-bell-cartoons)

from The Washington Post…

Trump's Dorian response: Par for the course

Do hurricanes give mulligans?

By DANA MILBANK | 8:08PM EDT — Tuesday, September 03, 2019

(https://www.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_925w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2019/09/04/Others/Images/2019-08-30/20190830whiteHouse10A.jpg) (https://www.washingtonpost.com/rw/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2019/09/04/Others/Images/2019-08-30/20190830whiteHouse10A.jpg)
President Donald J. Trump at the White House on Friday, August 30, 2019. — Photograph: Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post.

THE dishonest fakers at the Amazon Washington Post (https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2019/09/02/hurricane-dorian-illustrates-president-trumps-category-hurricane-problem) and the failing New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/02/us/politics/trump-dorian.html) are again attacking your favorite president, this time for playing golf while a Category 5 hurricane took aim at the United States.

Bad people! (https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1168664116095082496) Everybody knows the best way to prepare for a hurricane is by playing golf.

Beating a Category 5 is nothing if you can birdie a par five (the 590-yard 12th hole (https://course.bluegolf.com/bluegolf/course/course/trumpntlchmp/index.htm) on Trump National Golf Club's Championship Course is “monstrous” (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/sep/02/donald-trump-wrongly-says-hurricane-dorian-will-hit-alabama)). Though recent hurricanes have been (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2018/sep/19/one-of-the-wettest-weve-ever-seen-from-the-standpoint-of-water-trump-on-florence-video) some of “the wettest we've ever seen, from the standpoint of water,” they are less intimidating after you've survived the eighth hole of the Riverview Course: not one but two merciless water hazards blocking your approach.

Hurricanes are best weathered from bunkers, and you can bet Trump spent time in those this weekend with his sand wedge. Think high winds are a threat during hurricanes? They're even more hazardous to your handicap; it wouldn't surprise me if, in true emergencies, Trump has resorted to a 2-iron to reduce loft. And not even a meteorologist studies rotation as closely as a golfer; just one slice and all models project you'll make landfall in the deep rough.

Essentially, Trump was on the fairways doing exactly what we'd want our president to be do during a natural disaster — with a few minor revisions:

The president canceled a trip to Poland for the 80th anniversary of the start of World War II, allowing him to give his undivided attention to Hurricane Dorian play rounds of golf on both Saturday and Monday at Trump National Golf Club in Virginia.

In his place, he sent the vice president (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-encouraged-pence-to-stay-at-his-golf-resort-in-ireland/2019/09/03/a2dc63c4-ce3f-11e9-b29b-a528dc82154a_story.html) to Europe to renew the enduring transatlantic bond stay at the Trump International Golf Links and Hotel in Doonbeg, Ireland. The president also delivered a somber message chipper greeting to Poles on the anniversary of the Nazi invasion, recalling the death and suffering of millions of Poles saying (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/09/03/trump-congratulates-poland-its-nazi-invasion): “I just want to congratulate Poland.”

At a briefing before last year's hurricane season, the president honed a sophisticated knowledge of tropical storms spoke aimlessly (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/in-private-fema-remarks-trumps-focus-strays-from-hurricanes/2018/06/06/6d3a6004-69e6-11e8-bbc5-dc9f3634fa0a_story.html) about catapults on aircraft carriers. Three other Category 5 storms had already occurred during his presidency, which meant that he was well-prepared to respond to such a storm didn't stop him on Sunday from declaring, again (https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2019/09/02/hurricane-dorian-illustrates-president-trumps-category-hurricane-problem), that “I'm not sure I've ever even heard of a Category 5.”

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EDtdWLrXoAUpdG4.jpg) (https://twitter.com/adamzyglis/status/1169631168293195776)

His director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and his secretary of homeland security were both seasoned veterans serving in temporary, “acting” capacities (https://www.politico.com/story/2019/08/30/trump-pete-gaynor-hurricane-dorian-1479245), and his head of the Coast Guard provided him storm updates packed with sophisticated government data that “you can pretty much get … on television” (https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-marine-one-arrival-5).

On Friday, when the National Hurricane Center (https://www.nhc.noaa.gov) issued a hurricane watch for the Bahamas, the president announced that he would spare no expense in aiding relief efforts “the top shows on @FoxNews and cable ratings are those that are Fair (or great) to your favorite President, me!” (https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1167805241926066176) He expressed confidence that Florida Mar-a-Lago (https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-says-mar-a-lago-can-handle-itself-as-resort-in-hurricanes-path) could withstand the storm. After learning during an intelligence briefing on Friday that Iran had an unsuccessful rocket launch, the president coordinated a response with allies trolled Iran by including in a tweet (https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/trump-shares-potentially-revealing-image-of-iranian-missile-site-on-twitter/2019/08/30/4820db10-cb5e-11e9-a1fe-ca46e8d573c0_story.html) an image that may have revealed covert U.S. activities.

On Saturday, when the hurricane center warned (https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/archive/2019/DORIAN.shtml) of Dorian's “life-threatening storm surge and devastating winds,” the president spent the day overseeing emergency preparations attacking former FBI director James Comey (https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1167893379461443585), celebrating his success on “The Apprentice”, responding to a now-former aide's claim (https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1167782135786332161) that he disapproves of his daughter's weight (“I love Tiffany, doing great!”) and playing golf. The president (https://woay.tv/i-wont-have-time-to-play-golf-if-im-elected-president-trump-set-to-embark-on-1st-vacation) had said he would “not have time to play golf in office” has played 213 rounds of golf (https://trumpgolfcount.com/) while in office.

On Sunday, the president, asked about the deteriorating situation in Colombia, appealed for restraint by leftist FARC guerrillas replied: “You're talking about the country of Colombia?” (https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-marine-one-departure-62) Following a FEMA briefing on the now “catastrophic” and intensifying Dorian, the president reinforced official warnings unilaterally declared that Alabama (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/sep/02/donald-trump-wrongly-says-hurricane-dorian-will-hit-alabama), where no storm damage was forecast, would also “most likely be hit (much) harder than anticipated.”

On Monday, as storm warnings widened, the president spent hours on the phone with emergency management officials playing golf again and checking on pre-positioning of relief supplies attacking the AFL-CIO chief (https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/459610-trump-lashes-out-at-afl-cio-chief-trumka-no-wonder-unions-are-losing), economist Paul Krugman (https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1168488487433232384), the “Fake News Media” and four non-white congresswomen.

On Tuesday, the hurricane center said Dorian would soon “move dangerously close” to Florida, then Georgia and the Carolinas; the president prayerfully summoned the nation's resolve attacked the Federal Reserve, the mayor of London, former president Barack Obama and “the whole Witch Hunt against me.”

And, all across this great land, Americans rallied to the cause wondered: Do hurricanes give mulligans?


• Dana Milbank (https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/dana-milbank) is a nationally syndicated op-ed columnist. He also provides political commentary for various TV outlets, and he is the author of three books on politics: “Smashmouth: Two Years in the Gutter with Al Gore and George W. Bush” (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008UYTV6C) (Basic Books, 2001), the national bestseller “Homo Politicus: The Strange and Scary Tribes that Run Our Government” (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0385517505) (Doubleday, 2008) and “Tears of a Clown: Glenn Beck and the Tea Bagging of America” (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0385533888) (Doubleday, 2010). Milbank joined The Washington Post in 2000 as a Style political writer, then covered the presidency of George W. Bush as a White House correspondent before starting his column in 2005. Before joining The Post, Milbank spent two years as a senior editor at The New Republic, where he covered the Clinton White House, and eight years as a reporter with The Wall Street Journal, where he covered Congress and was a London-based correspondent. He has been honoured with the White House Correspodent Association's Beckman Award and the National Press Club's Gingras Prize.


Related to this topic:

 • VIDEO: We answer Trump's question: Could you nuke a hurricane? (https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/local/weather/we-answer-trumps-question-could-you-nuke-a-hurricane/2019/08/26/244fa1e7-9937-4ec1-85f4-af13ee2dab00_video.html)

 • Paul Waldman: Open your wallet. Trump demands tribute. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/09/03/open-your-wallet-trump-demands-tribute)

 • Kathleen Parker: Dorian has become the Godot of hurricanes (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dorian-has-become-the-godot-of-hurricanes/2019/09/03/069d901a-ce84-11e9-87fa-8501a456c003_story.html)

 • Michael Gerson: Don't try to explain away Trump's crazy ideas (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dont-try-to-explain-away-trumps-crazy-ideas/2019/08/26/569dc736-c82d-11e9-a4f3-c081a126de70_story.html)

 • Catherine Rampell: Trump's comments about ‘bad management’ are right, but not in the way he thinks (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trumps-comments-about-bad-management-are-right-but-not-in-the-way-he-thinks/2019/09/02/36e608a2-cdc0-11e9-8c1c-7c8ee785b855_story.html)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trumps-dorian-response-par-for-the-course/2019/09/03/e0148242-ce8c-11e9-8c1c-7c8ee785b855_story.html (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trumps-dorian-response-par-for-the-course/2019/09/03/e0148242-ce8c-11e9-8c1c-7c8ee785b855_story.html)

from The Seattle Times…

We're all in the path of Hurricane Trump

In the wake of a destructive hurricane, Trump sees himself as the biggest victim.

By DAVID HORSEY | 3:52PM EDT — Tuesday, September 10, 2019

(https://static.seattletimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Alabama-hurricane-ONLINE-COLOR--1020x692.jpg) (https://static.seattletimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Alabama-hurricane-ONLINE-COLOR-.jpg)

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP continues to be obsessed with proving he was correct (https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/donald-trump-wont-let-the-dorian-alabama-thing-go) when he tweeted out warnings that Alabama was in the path of the deadly Hurricane Dorian.

As the monster storm approached the U.S. coast, the U.S. Weather Service office in Alabama grew alarmed that the president's erroneous information would cause panic in their state, so they issued a contradictory notice stating that there was no reason for Alabamians to worry. That set off several days of self-absorbed vituperation from Trump who, between rounds of golf, enlisted Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to threaten officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration with firing if they would not support the president's weather prediction.

Trump's inability to ever admit to even the smallest mistake is a terrible trait in a president. Even more loathsome, however, is his refusal to allow the desperate victims of the hurricane's catastrophic destruction in the Bahamas to gain temporary sanctuary in the United States and to justify that refusal by alleging drug dealers and criminals would sneak in if he, for once, did the compassionate thing.

He cannot get over believing he is the only real victim of anything.


• See more of David Horsey's cartoons at The Seattle Times HERE (https://www.seattletimes.com/author/david-horsey).

https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/were-all-in-the-path-of-hurricane-trump (https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/were-all-in-the-path-of-hurricane-trump)