Trump’s disturbing answer about how he could ‘unite’ the country echoes his maniacal demand for loyalty

I was somewhat surprised when, during her interview with Trump, Laura Ingraham asked, “What could you do to unite the country at a time of great polarization?” Throughout his presidency, Trump has demonstrated that his only concern is to ignite his base of supporters against those he defines as their enemies.

True to form, here is the president’s response.

So, I think success should unite the country but I will tell you the more successful we’ve come the more angry people like Nancy Pelosi, who don’t have what it takes, if they don’t know what’s going on they get angry.  They should – an example is Mexico, I said we’re going to put tariffs on because we want you to help us because they won’t pass any legislation in Congress and I have Senators and others and Pelosi coming out saying how horrible.  What they’re doing is they’re hurting a deal, they should be saying we’re with the President, we’ll do whatever he wants to do and Mexico would fold like an umbrella.  Now, I have these people and I’m saying there’s some republicans too, I think they should be ashamed of themselves but we have Pelosi, we have crying Chuck Schumer who’s a disaster by the way, he’s a total political, you know, jerk but we have Schumer, we have all these people, they come out and they  talk about tariffs so bad so they can killing– they hurt my negotiation…

View the complete Jun 7 article by Nancy LeTourneau from The Washington Monthly on the AlterNet website here.

Trump’s enablers are misreading the stars

The following commentary by Joe Scarborough was posted on the Washington Post website February 1, 2018:

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), left, and House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.). (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves,” Cassius counseled his friend and fellow republican Marcus Brutus. In Shakespeare’s telling of the tragedy of Julius Caesar, the triumphant general returns to Rome and is feared to be plotting to become an emperor capable of laying waste to the Roman republic. But Brutus takes to heart Cassius’s reminder that loyalties flow first to the republic and not to political friends. He acts on the warning, helps to kill Caesar and then dies a miserable death. Alas, no one lives happily ever after.

This week’s story line out of Washington is less grim but still of great concern. Despite daily reminders that President Trump holds democratic traditions in deep contempt, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) and his Republican caucus are allowing themselves to become co-conspirators in the president’s push to compromise U.S. constitutional norms. While no one expects the GOP to take grisly cues from Shakespeare, is it too much to ask that Ryan place grave national security concerns from the Justice Department ahead of his political peonage to Trump? Continue reading “Trump’s enablers are misreading the stars”