Trump Fights the Last War

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/06/trump-fights-the-last-war/

The president reasons: “Based on decisions being rendered now, this list is more important than ever before (Second Amendment, Right to Life, Religious Liberty, etc.).” Lest we miss the characteristically Trumpian subtlety, he adds, “VOTE 2020!”

If you needed a laugh to get you through just-another-day-at-the-Apocalypse, our “Conservative” president then proceeded to post no fewer than 21 tweets describing the combined hundreds of millions of dollars in infrastructure spending he plans to shovel out to states he hopes to win in November.

By the way, with Trump in the White House and the McConnell-led Republican Senate having slyly buried periodic public debates over the debt limit, the nation is now over $26 trillion in the red. If you’re keeping score, that’s an increase of over $6 trillion since January 20, 2017. Obama spending was unprecedented, but Trump is on pace to exceed it. And don’t tell me about the unforeseen coronavirus crisis; debt was already accumulating mountainously before the lockdown, and the president keeps saying more infrastructure spending is imperative — it may be the only thing he and congressional Democrats can agree on.

The point being that the president is not a conservative, in the sense either of political ideology or temperament. He has some conservative sensibilities and has mastered some right-wing tropes. But he’s not a conservative thinker wedded to a conservative policy agenda. That’s hardly a revelation. He’s not wired to think in those terms. He’s not a progressive, either.

 

As the pandemic rages, Trump indulges his obsessions

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/29/politics/donald-trump-coronavirus-russia/index.html

"If wearing masks is important, and all the health experts tell us that it is in containing the disease in 2020, it would help if from time to time the President would wear one to help us get rid of this political debate that says if you're for Trump, you don't wear a mask, if you're against Trump, you do," the Tennessee Republican said on CNN's "Inside Politics."

Russian Bounty Report Seems Like the Kind of Thing Trump Should’ve Known, GOP Says

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/06/russian-bounty-report-seems-like-kind-of-thing-trump-shouldve-known-gop-says

Conservative commentator David Frum noted that the story being reported by the Times, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal “doesn’t mean it’s certainly true.” What it does mean, Frum wrote on Twitter, is that “very credible people in [the] U.S. intelligence service are angry and alarmed. Angry and alarmed enough to provide evidence to three leading media sources.” In addition to Trump’s denial, Frum cited former Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell’s claim that he never “heard” of the bounties and that of John Ratcliffe, the office’s current director, who tweeted that he had never “briefed” the president. But, he added, “it’s also not impossible” for these three officials to be “telling a version of the truth,” noting the possibility that “the information was withheld from Trump by briefers who have learned not to upset him”—given previous reports of Trump staff keeping Russia-related things from the president so as not to piss him off—as well as “that Grenell during his tenure at ODNI was simply not doing the work.” Frum remarked it to be “noteworthy” that no denials have come from the Pentagon, the C.I.A., or the National Security Council, all of which the Times said declined to comment.

Trump retweets video of supporter shouting 'white power'

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53212685

In the tweet, which was later deleted, the president thanked "the great people of The Villages" - referring to the retirement community north-west of Orlando where the rally took place. "The Radical Left Do Nothing Democrats will Fall in the Fall. Corrupt Joe is shot. See you soon!!!," he wrote.

The video included in the tweet showed a Trump supporter in a golf cart raising a clenched fist and shouting "white power". He appeared to be responding to a protester calling him a racist and using profanities. Other anti-Trump protesters shouted "Nazi" and other accusations at the rally-goers.

White House spokesman Judd Deere said the president "did not hear the one statement made on the video" but saw "tremendous enthusiasm from his many supporters".

 

‘No Good Answer’ To Why Trump Wasn’t Briefed On Russian Bounty Intel, Chuck Todd Says | Sunday TODAY

Top conservatives demand answers on reports Russia paid Taliban to kill US troops

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/top-congressional-conservatives-demand-answers-from-white-house-on-reports-russia-paid-taliban-to-kill-us-troops

 

One of the top Republican lawmakers in the House joined on Sunday a growing list of legislators calling on the Trump administration to explain what it knew about the reports that Russian intelligence agents offered to pay bounties to Afghan militants who killed U.S. troops in the country. 

 

House Republican Conference chair Liz Cheney of Wyoming tweeted on Sunday morning that if the reports in the New York Times about the bounties is true, then the White House needs to explain what it knew about the intelligence and how it responded. Cheney, the third-ranking Republican in the House, specifically focused on the denials by both Trump and White House staff that neither the president nor Vice President Pence were briefed on the matter, and asked for more information on why this is the case.

"If reporting about Russian bounties on US forces is true, the White House must explain: 1. Why weren’t the president or vice president briefed?" Cheney tweeted. "Was the info in the PDB? 2. Who did know and when? 3. What has been done in response to protect our forces & hold Putin accountable?"

Russia offered cash rewards to Taliban fighters to kill US troops in Afghanistan

Panicking Trump tries to change the subject

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/27/opinions/trump-tries-to-change-the-subject-coronavirus-statues-ghitis/index.html

With the prospect of losing reelection by a landslide, Trump views any acknowledgment of the pandemic disaster as another mark against him. So, he not only lies about it himself, he sent Vice President Mike Pence to do a more elegant version of his misleading claims. Pence, appearing Friday for the first time in almost two months with the White House Coronavirus Task Force, claimed against all evidence, "all 50 states," are "opening up safely and responsibly." He told Americans, "we've all seen encouraging news as we open America again," misleadingly saying the upsurge in cases is "a reflection of a great success in expanding testing."

 

Trump Is OBSESSED With Convincing Voters That He's Not Mentally Unstable

White House admits Trump was involved in firing of top US attorney after Trump claimed he wasn't

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/22/politics/trump-us-attorney-fired/index.html

 The White House on Monday admitted that President Donald Trump was involved in the removal of US Attorney Geoffrey Berman after Trump had claimed he was "not involved" in the process this weekend.

Speaking at the White House Monday, press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Trump was "involved in the sign-off capacity" as she sought to explain the removal of Berman as a simple swap that would allow Jay Clayton, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, to take the post.

 

How Donald Trump's Mistakes Became Joe Biden's Big Breaks

https://time.com/5858837/donald-trump-joe-biden-luck/

It’s unusual for the challenger to be a clear favorite for the presidency at this stage in the election. Only three candidates have beaten an incumbent President since Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated Herbert Hoover in 1932, and the last time any candidate had such a large lead at this phase in the race was Bill Clinton’s re-election campaign almost 25 years ago. The only thing more remarkable than Biden’s advantage is how little he’s had to do to get it.

“Trump is just constantly serving up wins for him,” says Democratic strategist Jess Morales Rocketto. “All he has to do is nothing.”

 

Trump's brother fails in bid to block niece's tell-all book

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/25/trump-brother-robert-niece-mary-memoir-book

 An attempt to block publication of a book claiming to tell the inside story of the Trump family by the US president’s niece has been dismissed by a court in New York.

 

Queens county surrogate court judge Peter Kelly said on Thursday “several improprieties” in the filing by Robert Trump, the president’s younger brother, meant the bid to stop the book was “fatally defective”.

Ted Boutros, an attorney for Mary Trump, said in a statement: “The court has promptly and correctly held that it lacks jurisdiction to grant the Trump family’s baseless request to suppress a book of utmost public importance and concern.

Michael Flynn: Former US national security adviser

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38025057

 

Mr Flynn earlier this year requested immunity from the congressional committees investigating alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election, in exchange for his testimony.

"As a former military officer, you simply cannot take money from Russia, Turkey or anybody else," said Republican Congressman Jason Chaffetz.

"And it appears as if he did take that money. It was inappropriate, and there are repercussions for a violation of law."

Lawmakers want answers from Trump Administration on reports Russia paid Taliban to attack US troops

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/lawmakers-want-answers-on-russia-paying-taliban-to-attack-us-troops

Lawmakers on both sides the aisle in Washington want answers on new explosive reporting that a Russian spy unit paid the Taliban to attack U.S. troops stationed in Afghanistan.

The New York Times first reported that American intelligence officials have determined a Russian military unit secretly offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants for killing coalition forces, including targeting American troops. The Wall Street Journal and Washington Post also reported on the Kremlin's effort to orchestrate attacks on Western troops.