The following opened “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” February 17, 2017:
Tag: Donald Trump
Warring West Wing factions dismay management experts
The following article by Annie Linskey was posted on the Boston Globe website February 18, 2017:
Donald Trump rode into the White House on a promise that he’d be a strong leader who could run the government with the efficiency of a CEO. He’d hire “the best people” and manage the country with the same success that he has had running his business empire.
The reality has been much, much different.
Management experts from across the country view Trump’s tumultuous style in the White House as deeply troubling, unlikely to produce the type of helpful internal team debate that can solve difficult problems and well outside the norms of a coherent management philosophy. Continue reading “Warring West Wing factions dismay management experts”
The Rudderless Ship of State
The following article by Eliot A. Cohen* was posted on the Atlantic website February 14, 2017:
The departure of Michael Flynn leaves the administration with a feuding crew, and no one at the helm.
There are two theories of the future of President Trump’s foreign policy and the National Security Council. In one, the good ship NSC, like a Nantucket whaler of old, has had a hard shakedown cruise, but is coming to. A couple of misfits have been tossed overboard, and the captain has given up trying to run the ship. He periodically shows up on deck to shake his fist at the moon and order a summary flogging, but for the most part he stays in his cabin emitting strange barks while competent mates and petty officers sail the NSC. It’s not pretty—the ship rolls and lurches alarmingly—but it gets where it needs to go.
This could happen. Trump, overwhelmed by a leadership task far beyond his experience and personality, will focus his efforts on infrastructure projects and the like, and quietly concede the direction of foreign policy to his sober secretaries of state and defense, with a retired general or admiral to reassemble something like an orderly White House process. He is erratic but not stupid: he knows he is in over his head, hates the bad publicity his first few weeks bought him, and has family members nudging him in this direction. Continue reading “The Rudderless Ship of State”
Our Thoughts on Rep. Paulsen and Trump Lavish Travel on Public Tab
As we learned last October, 2016, President Trump will not be paying taxes for almost 20 years. He also will not release his tax returns. Yet, those of us who do pay taxes will be paying hundreds of millions of dollars for the security and travel of his extended family, with some of that flowing right back into Trumps’ own pockets. Trump expenses in just one year are expected to be double what Obama’s were in all eight years combined.
By tolerating President Trump’s existing conflicts of interest in his businesses, we encourage further conflicts, hurting all Americans financially and morally. We urge our “so called” fiscally conservative elected Republicans including Congressman Paulsen, as well as the working class supporters of Trump to please stand up to “King” Trump.
If Trump can’t arrange his own meeting with the Congressional Black Caucus, how does he unite the country?
The following article by Terence Samuel was posted on the Washington Post website February 16, 2017:
President’s Trump news conference on Thursday turned quickly into a fireworks display of rants and recriminations as the new chief executive blasted away at the media, belittled his detractors and discounted the obvious chaos that has enveloped his White House.
“I don’t think there’s ever been a president elected who in this short period of time has done what we’ve done,” Trump declared at the outset, ignoring all the controversy that has consumed his first weeks in office. Continue reading “If Trump can’t arrange his own meeting with the Congressional Black Caucus, how does he unite the country?”
AP Exclusive: DHS Weighed Nat Guard for Immigration Roundups
On February 17, 2017, an article by Garance Burke wrote an article with the above title that was posted on the Associated Press website. Here are the first 2 paragraphs, click the link below to go to their site for the complete article:
The White House distanced itself Friday from a Department of Homeland Security draft proposal to use the National Guard to round up unauthorized immigrants, but lawmakers said the document offers insight into the Trump administration’s internal efforts to enact its promised crackdown on illegal immigration.
Administration officials said the proposal, which called for mobilizing up to 100,000 troops in 11 states, was rejected, and would not be part of plans to carry out President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration policy.
Click here to go to the complete article
Michael Flynn Scandal Shatters GOP Dream Of Protecting Trump In “Alternative Fact” Cocoon
The following article by Eric Boehlert was posted on the Media Matters website February 15, 2017:
With the White House facing perhaps the most serious political crisis of its young life, Kellyanne Conway was dispatched on Tuesday to spin as best she could the sudden forced resignation of President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Flynn.
But the effort didn’t go well because Conway wasn’t really able to address even the most basic questions surrounding the Flynn controversy. And that inability came five days after The Washington Post first reported that Flynn “privately discussed U.S. sanctions against Russia with that country’s ambassador to the United States during the month before President Trump took office, contrary to public assertions by Trump officials,” including past statements by Vice President Mike Pence, and possibly in violation of U.S. law. Continue reading “Michael Flynn Scandal Shatters GOP Dream Of Protecting Trump In “Alternative Fact” Cocoon”
A United States of Hate Has Exploded Under Trump
The following article by Steven Rosenfeld was posted on the AlterNet website February 15, 2017:
A United States of Hate Has Exploded Under Trump
Donald Trump’s campaign and presidential election have brought racism in America out of the shadows in a manner not seen in decades, with Muslims becoming the top target of attacks and violence, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center’s annual survey of domestic hate groups and extremists.
“There’s something going on right now in our country that’s really dramatic,” said Mark Potok, SPLC senior fellow and author of its “Year in Hate” analysis, an annual index of groups promoting ideologies elevating one race above others. Continue reading “A United States of Hate Has Exploded Under Trump”
The price of loyalty to Donald Trump is high and rising
The following article by James Hohmann with Breanne Deppisch was posted on the Washington Post website February 17, 2017:
THE BIG IDEA: Donald Trump has an unending need to feel like he’s in total control of his surroundings. That helps explain why he’s felt so frustrated and lashed out so much over the past month. The president’s alpha male personality drives him to firmly assert himself whenever he can, whether in handshakes with foreign leaders or at lunch with friends.
It’s a little thing, but it’s telling: When Chris Christie came to the White House to discuss the opioid epidemic earlier this week, Trump made him order the meatloaf. Continue reading “The price of loyalty to Donald Trump is high and rising”
Trump family’s elaborate lifestyle is a ‘logistical nightmare’ — at taxpayer expense
The following article by Drew Harwell, Amy Britain and Jonathan O’Connell was posted on the Washington Post website February 16, 2017:
On Friday, President Trump and his entourage will jet for the third straight weekend to a working getaway at his oceanfront Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Fla.
On Saturday, Trump’s sons Eric and Don Jr., with their Secret Service details in tow, will be nearly 8,000 miles away in the United Arab Emirates, attending the grand opening of a Trump-brand golf resort in the “Beverly Hills of Dubai.” Continue reading “Trump family’s elaborate lifestyle is a ‘logistical nightmare’ — at taxpayer expense”