Secretary of State Mike Pompeo admitted Wednesday that he was on that fateful call between President Trump and Ukraine’s president — about a week and a half after playing dumb about the call’s contents in an interview. As The Post’s Philip Bump writes, it’s a great example of a politician saying things that are strictly true while completely misleading the people he’s supposed to serve.
“For the head of the DOT to have a financial interest in an asphalt company, that is not sending a message to employees of DOT that she is making ethics a priority.”
Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao still owns shares in a major construction firm despite pledging to divest them, according to a new report by the Wall Street Journal. Chao had served on the board of the company, Vulcan Materials, for about two years before joining the Trump administration as head of the Transportation Department.
In part of her ethics agreement, Chao said she would end her financial interests in the company by taking “a cash payout for all of my vested deferred stock units” by April 2018. But a financial disclosure report released by the Transportation Secretary’s husband, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), revealed Chao had maintained ownership of somewhere between $250,000 and $500,000 worth of Vulcan stock.
The Wall Street Journal estimates Chao has netted more than $40,000 from the stock since April 2018, the date she agreed to cash out on her shares. The Transportation Secretary has been one of the most vocal advocates of President Trump’s plan to invest $1 trillion into U.S. infrastructure, and critics are concerned federal funds would be directly allocated to Vulcan, one of the nation’s largest suppliers of construction materials.
The following article by Zack Ford was posted on the ThinkProgress website March 7, 2018:
Ben Carson wants HUD to do less to improve the housing experience across the country.
HUD Secretary Dr. Ben Carson with Pres. Trump in the White House. Credit: Mark Wilson/Getty Images
The Department of Housing and Urban Development has a new mission statement, thanks to Secretary Ben Carson — and gone is language about creating communities that are inclusive and free from discrimination or working to strengthen the housing market to protect consumers.
The following article by Amy B. Wang was posted on the Washington Post website December 24, 2017:
A suspicious package addressed to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin prompted a bomb scare Dec. 23, but was later discovered to contain horse manure. (Reuters)
A suspicious package that appeared Saturday night in the swanky Los Angeles neighborhood of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin prompted lengthy street closures and a sizable response by local and federal authorities, including members of the Los Angeles Police Department’s bomb squad.
The follwong article by Andrew Joyce was posted on the mic.com website October 13, 2017:
President Donald Trump nominates Kirstjen Nielsen as secretary of Homeland Security. Evan Vucci/AP
As the sexual assault allegations against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein and President Donald Trump’s multipleexecutive decisions to undermine the Affordable Care Act dominated the news cycle, several major news stories — including the nomination of a new Cabinet secretary, flew completely under the radar this week.
Here are six major news stories from the Trump administration you may have missed:
Trump finally named John Kelly’s replacement as Homeland Security chief
The following article by Joe Davidson was posted on the Washington Post website October 2, 2017:
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke speaks March 29 at the Interior Department in Washington. (Molly Riley/AP)
While Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s accusation about the loyalty of his workforce is the Trump administration’s most outrageous statement about federal employees, it fits a deplorable pattern of verbal aggression against them.
Zinke’s declaration that “I got 30 percent of the crew that’s not loyal to the flag” is an escalation that demands denunciation.
“This is the latest in a long line of attacks by this administration on federal workers, starting with his claim that the country needs another ‘good shutdown,’ ” said Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (Md.), the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. “The idea that President Trump, Secretary Zinke or anyone else in the administration would threaten the jobs of hard-working civil servants unless they pledge loyalty to the president is grossly abusive and, if carried out, against the law.” Continue reading “Disloyalty slur latest in series showing Trump administration’s mistrust of feds”
The following article by Abby Phillips and Anne Gearan was posted on the Washington Post website August 28, 2017:
Three Cabinet secretaries have appeared to distance themselves from President Trump in the wake of his response to the violence in Charlottesville. (Video: Bastien Inzaurralde/Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
The following article by Linda Qiu was posted on the New York Times website June 13, 2017:
Source: Wikipedia (public domain)
Members of the White House cabinet took turns praising President Trump at a gathering on Monday, adopting the commander in chief’s evaluations of himself. Their mimicry was not limited to a day of flattery; several have also adopted Mr. Trump’s rhetorical style of doubling down on false claims and pushing so-called alternative facts.
The following article by James Poniewozik was posted on the New York Times website June 12, 2017:
President Trump’s first full cabinet meetingVideo by CNN
The meeting, held before press cameras and microphones, began with President Trump going around the table to ask each attendee their thoughts, particularly those pertaining to his glory, leadership and success. Vice President Mike Pence called working for Mr. Trump “the greatest privilege of my life,” and the hosannas rose higher from there.
At one point, the White House chief of staff, Reince Priebus, utters what sounds almost like a prayer, thanking Mr. Trump for “the opportunity and the blessing” of working for him.
The whole proceeding — Mr. Trump basking in the competitive adulation of his underlings — resembled a meeting of nervous regional commissars pledging fealty to the Dear Leader.
But it also resembled something else.
The Apprentice U.S. – BEST FIRINGS (Part 1)Video by Smithson City
Americans once watched Donald Trump on TV sitting at a boardroom table, with anxious underlings competing for his favor. That dynamic, on “The Apprentice,” framed him as decisive, powerful and important. Week after week, contestants scrambled against each other to earn his approval.
Donald Trump fires three celebrities at once – The Celebrity ApprenticeVideo by The Celebrity Apprentice
Andrew Dice Clay, on the other hand, demonstrated the folly of trying to say that anything — even something as small as the availability of snacks — was Mr. Trump’s fault.
Andrew Dice Clay offends Donald Trump, part 1 – The Celebrity ApprenticeVideo by The Celebrity Apprentice
Mr. Trump knows his symbolism. The boardroom scene, like a lot of reality TV staging, draws on an iconic image — the captain leading his team around a table. We’ve seen it in movies and on TV in great councils, boiler rooms and situation rooms. We saw it, beneficently, in Kevin Kline draining the swamp in the movie “Dave.”
Dave (6/10) Movie CLIP – Balancing the Budget (1993) HDVideo by Movieclips
In an administration reportedly roiled by power struggles, the tableau might suggest something more like Robert De Niro as Al Capone, playing ball with his “team” in “The Untouchables.”
Batter Up – The Untouchables (3/10) Movie CLIP (1987) HDVideo by Movieclips
The real-life scene was not quite so ominous. But a classic Monty Python sketch captures something of its social discomfort, as a deranged movie producer drives his writers to mental breakdown by insisting they neither disagree with him nor be yesmen nor be indecisive.
Monty Python – Twentieth-Century VoleVideo by Chadner
The Trump cabinet example, with its rounds of hamhanded, stagy praise, brought to mind another familiar image: the boss packing a meeting with yesmen, like the General Electric corporate board in an episode of “30 Rock.” (To be fair, while Mr. Trump has been known to bring his family members into meetings, he has not yet drafted hunting dogs.)
Jack Donaghy: General Electric’s Board of DirectorsVideo by FermatSim
Did anyone buy the performance? The obviousness was so glaring that by afternoon, Senator Charles Schumer of New York, not necessarily known as a laugh riot on camera, had produced a parody video.
Of course, the effectiveness of Trump’s stunt may depend on what he was trying to get out of it. Maybe you can’t claim that you’re wildly successful and universally loved, particularly when your Gallup disapproval rating has matched its all-time high. But you can show you’re still powerful enough that your people still must at least pretend that you are.
This weird televised suck-up spectacle may not raise Mr. Trump’s approval numbers. But it demonstrated that — in Mel Brooks’s words from “Blazing Saddles” — he can still get a harrumph out of that guy.
Blazing Saddles (3/10) Movie CLIP – Harrumphing with the Governor (1974) HDVideo by Movieclips
The following article by Eric Umansky and Marcelo Rochabrum was psoted on the ProPublica website March 2, 2017:
Attorney General Jeff Sessions isn’t alone.
Betsy DeVos, secretary of education, Jeff Sessions, attorney general and Steve Mnuchin, treasury secretary, listen as President Donald Trump speaks during a joint session of Congress Feb. 28, 2017 (Jim Lo Scalzo/Pool via Bloomberg)
As most of the world knows by now, Attorney General Jeff Sessions did not tell the truth when he was asked during his confirmation hearings about contacts with Russian officials.
But Sessions isn’t the only one. At least four other cabinet members made statements during their nomination hearings that are contradicted by actual facts: EPA Chief Scott Pruitt, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, and Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price.
“For the head of the DOT to have a financial interest in an asphalt company, that is not sending a message to employees of DOT that she is making ethics a priority.”
