Tag: Trump ego

Trump escalates fight against press with libel lawsuits

The Hill logoThe Trump campaign’s libel lawsuits against The New York Times, The Washington Post and CNN mark a dramatic escalation in the president’s long fight with the media.

Legal experts have said the suits are dead on arrival, failing to meet the high bar to prove defamation of a public figure, but they fear an environment in which powerful elected officials try to use the courts to intimidate the press.

“The concern here is not that one of these suits would win on the merits — it’s the chilling effect that it has on public discussion of political affairs,” Jonathan Peters, the Columbia Journalism Review’s press freedom correspondent and a University of Georgia media law professor, told The Hill.  Continue reading.

Which is Trump more worried about: Coronavirus numbers or coronavirus patients?

Washington Post logoA comment on Friday suggests it’s the former.

A comment President Trump made during his visit to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday brought into focus a unifying theory of his administration’s fumbling response to the growing spread of the coronavirus.

He was asked if passengers on a cruise ship anchored near San Francisco, some of whom have been exposed to the virus, should be brought ashore.

“From my standpoint, I want to rely on people. I have great experts, including our vice president who is working 24 hours a day on this stuff. They would like to have the people come off,” he said, wearing a baseball cap promoting his reelection campaign. “I’d rather have the people stay, but I’d go with them. I told them to make the final decision.” Continue reading.

Here are 7 ridiculous and disturbing moments from Trump’s visit to the CDC

AlterNet logoAs the administration tries to cope with the ballooning coronavirus crisis, President Donald Trump visited the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday to assess the response.

Unfortunately, the visit did not inspire confidence in the president’s management of the situation. In fact, it included more of the disinformation campaign Trump has been engaging in to diminish the negative impact the reality of the crisis might have on his public standing.

Here are seven of the most ridiculous and disturbing moments: Continue reading.

Trump Weekends in Florida as Fear of the Coronavirus Rises

With the number of covid-19 cases in the United States having risen above three hundred, and the number of cases around the world now topping a hundred thousand, Donald Trump is spending the weekend hosting Jair Bolsonaro, the right-wing President of Brazil, at his private beach resort in Florida. On Friday night, Trump announced that Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, was leaving the position, and would be replaced by Mark Meadows, a conservative congressman from North Carolina who has been one of the President’s staunchest defenders on Capitol Hill. In other circumstances, the shakeup would be a major story. But, much to Trump’s chagrin, the spread of the coronavirus is increasingly dominating all other news.

Public concern about the spread of the coronavirus is rising, with officials from New York and other cities complaining about a chronic lack of test kits from the federal government. On Saturday, the governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, said that the state had been running its own tests “around the clock.” He announced that the total of confirmed cases in the state had risen to seventy-six and declared a state of emergency.

Trump, meanwhile, evidently decided that the situation isn’t serious enough to keep him in Washington. From the beginning, he has sought to minimize the seriousness of the emerging epidemic, and he is still at it. That’s when he’s not praising himself for how he and the U.S. government have responded to the crisis or offering himself as an expert. During a remarkable press conference at the Atlanta headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on Friday, Trump mentioned an uncle who had taught science at M.I.T. and said, “I like this stuff. I really get it. People are surprised that I understand it. Every one of these doctors said, ‘How do you know so much about this?’ Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should have done this instead of running for President.” Continue reading.

At CDC, Trump Blurts Damning Remark About Coronavirus Ship

President Donald Trump has an odd habit of confirming critics’ worst fears about him by just blurting out his inner feelings.

On Friday, while appearing at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Trump did just that when he revealed he wanted to keep passengers on a cruise ship exposed to Covid-19, the new coronavirus, quarantined on the vessel — not for public safety reasons or to reduce the spread of the disease — but so that they wouldn’t count as American cases of the illness.

“I like the numbers being where they are,” Trump said. “I don’t need to have the numbers double because of one ship! That wasn’t our fault. And it wasn’t the fault of the people on the ship either.” Continue reading.

‘Maybe I have a natural ability’: Trump plays medical expert on coronavirus by second-guessing the professionals

Washington Post logoPresident Trump likes to say that he fell into politics almost by accident, and on Friday, as he sought to calm a nation gripped with fears over coronavirus, he suggested he would have thrived in another profession — medical expert.

“I like this stuff. I really get it,” Trump boasted to reporters during a tour of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, where he met with actual doctors and scientists who are feverishly scrambling to contain and combat the deadly illness. Citing a “great, super-genius uncle” who taught at MIT, Trump professed that it must run in the family genes.

“People are really surprised I understand this stuff,” he said. “Every one of these doctors said, ‘How do you know so much about this?’ Maybe I have a natural ability.” Continue reading.

Inside Trump’s frantic attempts to minimize the coronavirus crisis

Washington Post logoMinutes before President Trump was preparing Wednesday to reassure a skittish nation about the coronavirus threat, he received a piece of crucial information: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had identified in California the first U.S. case of the illness not tied to foreign travel, a sign that the virus’s spread in the United States was likely to explode.

But when Trump took to the lectern for a news conference intended to bring transparency to the spiraling global crisis, he made no explicit mention of the California case and its implications — and falsely suggested the virus might soon be eradicated in the United States.

“And again, when you have 15 people — and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero — that’s a pretty good job we’ve done,” he said. Continue reading.

William McRaven: If good men like Joe Maguire can’t speak the truth, we should be deeply afraid

Washington Post logoWilliam H. McRaven, a retired Navy admiral, was commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command from 2011 to 2014. He oversaw the 2011 Navy SEAL raid in Pakistan that killed Osama bin Laden.

Edmund Burke, the Irish statesman and philosopher, once said: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Over the course of the past three years, I have watched good men and women, friends of mine, come and go in the Trump administration — all trying to do something — all trying to do their best. Jim Mattis, John Kelly, H.R. McMaster, Sue Gordon, Dan Coats and, now, Joe Maguire, who until this week was the acting director of national intelligence.

I have known Joe for more than 40 years. There is no better officer, no better man and no greater patriot. He served for 36 years as a Navy SEAL. In 2004, he was promoted to the rank of rear admiral and was chosen to command all of Naval Special Warfare, including the SEALs. Those were dark days for the SEALs. Our combat losses from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were the highest in our history, and Joe and his wife, Kathy, attended every SEAL funeral, providing comfort and solace to the families of the fallen.

But it didn’t stop there. Not a day went by that the Maguires didn’t reach out to some Gold Star family, some wounded SEAL, some struggling warrior. Every loss was personal, every family precious. When Joe retired in 2010, he tried the corporate world. But his passion for the Special Operations soldiers was so deep that he left a lucrative job and took the position as the president of the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, a charity that pays for educating the children of fallen warriors. Continue reading.

George Conway: There is no one to stop Trump now

Washington Post logoWhen the subject of Attorney General William P. Barr comes up these days, it’s hard not to think of John S. McCain. Not the late senator, mind you, but the USS John S. McCain, the naval destroyer named after his father and grandfather.

It was an incident involving this ship that, as much as anything else, captures how the Trump administration — and its attorney general — operates. It explains Barr’s intervention into the criminal sentencing of Trump’s longtime friend and adviser, felon Roger Stone, and much, much more.

The McCain was docked at the Yokosuka Naval Base in Japan in May 2019, when the 7th Fleet issued a directive that had originated from conversations with the White House Military Office. The president was coming to Yokosuka on Memorial Day, and so, accordingly: “USS John McCain needs to be out of sight.” So sailors were ordered to hang a tarp over the vessel’s name, and they removed any coverings that bore the words “John S. McCain.” Continue reading.

Sen. Joe Manchin Slams Trump’s ‘Munchkin’ Dig: I’m Taller, He’s Heavier

People want some adults in the room and Trump isn’t one, the West Virginia senator said.

Size clearly matters to Donald Trump. On Sunday, the president described Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) as “Joe Munchkin,” and it was just one of many similar digs he’s made about his foes’ stature.

But Manchin gave as good as he got on Monday, telling CNN’s Jake Tapper that Trump was confused.

“I am a little taller than him,” Manchin said. “He’s got me about 30 pounds on weight.” Continue reading.