Tag: Trump authoritarian tendencies
While bemoaning Mueller probe, Trump falsely says the Constitution gives him ‘the right to do whatever I want’
President Trump believes the Constitution gives him a wide breadth of power. That’s the message he delivered ― not for the first time — on Tuesday while addressing a crowd of teenagers and young adults at the Turning Point USA Teen Student Action Summit in Washington.
There are numerous viral video clips from Trump’s 80-minute speech at the conference, but one of the most controversial moments came as he discussed Article II of the Constitution, which describes the powers of the president.
Trump lamented the duration and cost of the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election led by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, which he has repeatedly said found “no collusion, no obstruction.”
View the complete July 23 article by Michael Brice-Saddler on The Washington Post website here.
Trump attacks the ‘Squad’ as ‘Racist group of troublemakers’
President Trump on Monday stepped up his attacks on a group of four freshman Democratic lawmakers, calling the group of minority women a “Racist group of troublemakers.”
“The ‘Squad’ is a very Racist group of troublemakers who are young, inexperienced, and not very smart,” Trump tweeted while en route to the Supreme Court to pay his respects to the late Justice John Paul Stevens.
For more than a week, the president has battled charges of racism after telling the group, made up of Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (Minn.), Rashida Tlaib (Mich.) and Ayanna Pressley (Mass.), to “go back” to where they came from.
View the complete July 22 article by Jordan Fabian on The Hill website here.
Trump lashes out at Washington Post over reporting: ‘Presidential Harassment!’
President Donald Trump on Sunday lashed out The Washington Post over its reporting on his attacks against a group of minority congresswomen, calling it an example of “Presidential Harassment.”
“The Washington Post Story, about my speech in North Carolina and tweet, with its phony sources who do not exist, is Fake News,” Trump tweeted, referring to a rally in North Carolina his campaign held last week. “The only thing people were talking about is the record setting crowd and the tremendous enthusiasm, far greater than the Democrats. You’ll see in 2020!”
“Presidential Harassment!” Trump added in a separate tweet, before tweeting “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN” in a subsequent one.
View the complete July 21 article by Justin Wise on The Hill website here.
‘He always doubles down’: Inside the political crisis caused by Trump’s racist tweets
President Trump’s own top aides didn’t think he fully understood what he had done last Sunday, when he fired off a trio of racist tweets before a trip to his golf course.
After he returned to the White House, senior adviser Kellyanne Conway felt compelled to tell him why the missives were leading newscasts around the country, upsetting allies and enraging opponents. Calling on four minority congresswomen — all citizens, three born in the United States — to “go back” to the “totally broken and crime infested places from which they came” had hit a painful historical nerve.
Trump defended himself. He had been watching “Fox & Friends” after waking up. He wanted to elevate the congresswomen, as he had previously discussed with aides. The Democratic lawmakers — Reps. Ayanna Pressley (Mass.), Ilhan Omar (Minn.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.) and Rashida Tlaib (Mich.) — were good foils, he had told his advisers, including campaign manager Brad Parscale. The president said he thought he was interjecting himself into Democratic Party politics in a good way.
Trump complains of ‘crazed’ media coverage over ‘send her back’ chants
President Trump on Friday bemoaned the amount of media coverage devoted to supporters at his Wednesday night rally chanting “send her back” about Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) as he dug in on his attacks against the first-term congresswomen and three of her colleagues.
Trump fired off a trio of tweets in which he shifted blame for the uproar over the chants onto the media one day after he sought to distance himself from the refrain. He again accused Omar of hating the country and blasted “vile and disgusting statements” made by progressive lawmakers he has attacked for six consecutive days.
View the complete July 19 article by Brett Samuels on The Hill website here.
How Dictators Come To Power In A Democracy
Dictatorships are often unexpected. They have arisen among prosperous, educated and cultured people who seemed safe from a dictatorship – in Europe, Asia and South America.
Consider Germany, one of the most paradoxical and dramatic cases.
During the late 19th century, it was widely considered to have the best educational system in the world. If any educational system could inoculate people from barbarism, surely Germany would have led the way. It had early childhood education — kindergarten. Secondary schools emphasized cultural training. Germans developed modern research universities. Germans were especially distinguished for their achievements in science – just think of Karl Benz who invented the gasoline-powered automobile, Rudolf Diesel who invented the compression-ignition engine, Heinrich Hertz who proved the existence of electromagnetic waves, Wilhelm Conrad Rőntgen who invented x-rays, Friedrich August Kekulé who developed the theory of chemical structure, Paul Ehrlich who produced the first medicinal treatment for syphilis and, of course, theoretical physicist Albert Einstein. It’s no wonder so many American scholars went to German universities for their degrees during the 19th century.
View the complete February 5, 2013, article by Jim Powell on the Forbes website here.
Trump claims he has presidential power ‘that nobody has ever seen before’
President Donald Trump has many verbal ticks that often act as tells about what he is really thinking or doing. For example, CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale has argued that when the president tells a story in which someone calls him “sir,” he’s usually lying. Another tell is that when Trump refers to a true fact that “no one ever knew” or that “people have no idea about,” it almost certainly means that the president himself just learned about this fact, even though it’s widely known.
Trump indulged in this tick during a gaggle with the press Friday morning when discussing the House of Representative’s ongoing efforts to get witnesses and officials involved in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation to testify.
Yet again, the president tried to argue that all the questions raised by the Mueller report about Trump’s ties to Russia and his potential obstruction of the investigation were moot.
View the complete July 12 article by Cody Fenwick on the AlterNet website here.
Park Service diverts $2.5 million in fees for Trump’s Fourth of July extravaganza
The National Park Service is diverting nearly $2.5 million in entrance and recreation fees primarily intended to improve parks across the country to cover costs associated with President Trump’s Independence Day celebration Thursday on the Mall, according to two individuals familiar with the arrangement.
Trump administration officials have consistently refused to say how much taxpayers will have to pay for the expanded celebration on the Mall this year, which the president has dubbed the “Salute to America.” The two individuals, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, confirmed the transfer of the Park Service funds Tuesday.
The diverted park fees represent just a fraction of the extra costs the government faces as a result of the event, which will include displays of military hardware, flyovers by an array of jets including Air Force One, the deployment of tanks on the Mall and an extended pyrotechnics show. By comparison, according to former Park Service deputy director Denis P. Galvin, the entire Fourth of July celebration on the Mall typically costs the agency about $2 million.
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BERLIN — When President Trump returned from the French Bastille Day military parade in July 2017, he was enamored of the display, calling it “one of the most beautiful parades I have ever seen.”
Months later, Trump made a decision: He wanted his own parade. Ideally, a bigger and better show than the one he had watched in Paris. “We’re going to have to try and top it,” he said.
On July 4, his plans to display military might will come to fruition during expanded Independence Day celebrations on the Mall, dubbed the “Salute to America” — complete with the deployment of tanks and fighter jet flyovers.
View the complete July 4 article by Rick Noack on The Washington Post website here.