Tag: Trump ego

Most Trump clemency grants bypass Justice Dept. and go to well-connected offenders

Washington Post logoTwo days after President Trump freed a great-grandmother sentenced to life in prison, he praised the reality-television star and social influencer who had championed the woman’s release.

“Kim Kardashian was great because she brought Alice to my attention,” Trump said in 2018 of Alice Marie Johnson, who had served nearly 22 years for first-time, nonviolent drug-trafficking crimes.

Johnson’s image reappeared Sunday during the Super Bowl in an ad run by Trump’s reelection campaign touting his record on criminal justice. Continue reading.

Egomaniacal Trump’s petulant actions post-impeachment highlight his position as a vengeful, lawless and corporate toad: Ralph Nader

AlterNet logoThe day after his acquittal by the Republican Party in a trial that banned witnesses, the unhinged Donald Trump gloated for over an hour on all the television networks. Trump flattered his courtiers, one by one, and fulminated against his Congressional adversaries, Hillary Clinton and ex-FBI chief James Comey.

Donald Trump’s speech degraded his office for the ages. Trump lied about himself and others and received applause from the assembled sycophants. The morning of his speech, Trump attended a prayer breakfast. Trump never goes to church to atone for his habitual, career-long violations of seven of the Ten Commandments. His hypocrisy has no bounds.

Tightening his dictatorial grip on the U.S. government, Trump pledged to destroy his opponents— from Nancy Pelosi to Adam Schiff to the “radical, socialist Democrats.” These shameful threats cannot be taken lightly. Never forget Trump saying “I have an Article II, where I have the right to do whatever I want as President.” Continue reading.

The real reason Trump holds so many rallies is deeply disturbing — and could be weaponized against him

AlterNet logoDonald Trump’s digital advantage may be freaking out Democratic strategists, but what should worry everyone is the technology itself. What makes Trump’s operation so formidable is not so much his investment in digital or any particular architecture that he’s built. It’s more that he’s able to take advantage of monitoring people through their cell phones.

To be clear, the Democrats can and will do the exact same thing. The problem isn’t the candidate, but the capability.

Thomas Edsall discusses this in a piece for the New York Times. It begins with geofencing, a practice that involves tracking every cell phone that enters a predefined area, like a church or MAGA rally. Armed with these phone numbers, identities can be sussed out from other commercial databases, and then people can be sorted by how frequently they vote, their party registration (if any), and all manner of personal information: Continue reading.

Trump complains he didn’t get Nobel Peace Prize days after threatening to commit war crimes

AlterNet logoPresident Donald Trump complained that he was not awarded the Nobel Peace Prize just days after he threatened to commit war crimes in Iran.

Trump spoke at a rally in Toledo, Ohio, on Thursday after walking back his threat to target Iranian cultural sites, which would constitute a war crime.

Trump complained at the rally about the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize, which was awarded back in October to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed “for his efforts to achieve peace and international cooperation, and in particular for his decisive initiative to resolve the border conflict with neighboring Eritrea,” according to the Nobel Committee. Continue reading.

Critics blast Trump’s self-congratulatory tweet about the decline in cancer deaths after his administration decimated research budgets

AlterNet logoPresident Donald Trump is often quick to take credit for any good news – while pawning off responsibility for negative outcomes on others, especially his predecessor. But social media users were stunned – and many outraged – when Trump tweeted Thursday morning a clear pat on the back for himself on recent news the rate of cancer deaths in America took a steep drop.

“Cancer Death Rate in U.S. Sees Sharpest One-Year Drop,” a New York Timesheadline reported Wednesday. “The cancer death rate in the United States fell 2.2 percent from 2016 to 2017 — the largest single-year decline in cancer mortality ever reported.”

President Trump was not even in office for the full year of 2017, so it’s literally impossible that anything he has done has contributed to the welcome decline in the cancer death rate. Continue reading.

Trump’s 2020 campaign attacks Washington Post for reporting the president is not actually Rocky Balboa

President Donald Trump’s campaign attacked The Washington Post with a bizarre claim.

The attack occurred after the president posted a photoshopped a picture of his face on the body of actor Sylvester Stallone’s body from the movie Rocky III.

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The newspaper tweeted, “Trump tweets doctored photo of his head on Sylvester Stallone’s body, unclear why.”

View the complete November 29 article by Bob Brigham from Raw Story on the AlterNet website here.

King Trump: The impeachment inquiry is testing us — Do we live in a nation of laws or a nation of men?

AlterNet logoDistinguishing a monarchy from a republic is a civics lesson once taught in school. Our education system dumped civic literacy a while back, so it might be time for a national refresher course. We all need it, especially he of self-proclaimed “great and unmatched wisdom”—Trump the Infallible.

But if ever there were a fallible man—true of me and all men—the current White House occupant certainly qualifies.

Unlike President Trump, I’m usually willing to admit my mistakes, apologize when I’ve wronged someone and try to make up for my screw-ups. Being ready, willing and able to deal with my imperfections is a result of my Sunday school moral training and the ethical lessons I was taught at home.

View the complete November 30 article on the AlterNet website here.

At Benedict College, Trump Compares Himself To Victims Of Racism

Speaking at an event about criminal justice on Friday, Donald Trump compared his own situation with the ongoing impeachment inquiry to America’s long history of systemic racial inequities in the justice system.

Trump was speaking to the 2020 Bipartisan Justice Center at Benedict College, a historically black institution, in front of an audience almost entirely composed of his supporters. The Statenewspaper reported Friday afternoon that only seven Benedict students attended Trump’s speech.

“We’ll never let up on our efforts to ensure that our justice system is fair for every single American,” said Trump. “And I have my own experience, you know that. You see what is going on with the witch hunt. It’s a terrible thing that’s going on in our country. No crimes. It’s an investigation in search of a crime. It’s been going on for longer than I have been in office.”

View the complete October 26 article by Oliver Willis on the National Memo website here.

Trump can’t stop bragging to foreign leaders about his resorts

Lawmakers, and even Trump’s own staff, are questioning whether his business deals are influencing U.S. foreign policy.

President Donald Trump was sitting beside Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar in the Oval Office in March when he fondly recalled his luxury golf resort on Ireland’s west coast.

He gushed about his two tony Scottish resorts months later while standing next to French President Emmanuel Macron in France.

And in August, while meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, he first suggested that he just might bring the G-7 summit of world leaders to one of his Florida resorts in 2020. “We haven’t found anything that could even come close to competing with it,” he said.

View the complete October 20 article by Anita Kumar on the Politico website here.

Donald Trump’s bizarre, threatening letter to Erdoğan: ‘Don’t be a fool’

President vows to destroy Turkish economy if Syria invasion is not resolved humanely, but brash language and diplomatic missteps draw confusion

Donald Trump warned his counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan “don’t be a fool” and said history risked branding him a “devil” in an extraordinary letter sent the day Turkey launched its incursion into north-eastern Syria.

The letter, first obtained by a Fox Business reporter, was shorn of diplomatic niceties and began with an outright threat.

“Let’s work out a good deal!” Trump wrote in the letter dated 9 October, whose authenticity was confirmed to various news outlets by the White House.

View the complete October 17 article by Vivian Ho and agencies on The Guardian website here.