Tag: Trump egotism

White House: President Biden’s name will not appear on $1,400 stimulus payments

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The checks are a key part of the $1.9 trillion stimulus plan the House is expected to vote on Wednesday.

The White House said Tuesday that President Biden’s name would not appear on the $1,400 stimulus payments set to be sent out to millions of American families as part of the administration’s relief package, a reversal from the precedent set under President Trump.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Tuesday that the payments approved under Biden would instead by signed by a career official at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, an office within the Department of Treasury. The House is expected to vote on the $1.9 trillion stimulus plan as soon as Wednesday, putting it on course to be signed into law by Biden next week.

The decision marks a reversal from the Trump administration. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin included Trump’s signature on the memo line of the payments approved in March last year, as well as a gushing letter signed by Trump taking credit for the benefit. Continue reading.

A Deal on Drug Prices Undone by White House Insistence on ‘Trump Cards’

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The White House and the pharmaceutical industry were nearing a major deal to lower drug prices. Then the administration demanded that $100 cash cards be sent to millions of seniors before the election — and the industry balked.

WASHINGTON — After months of heated accusations and painstaking negotiations, the White House and the pharmaceutical industry neared agreement late last month on a plan to make good on President Trump’s longstanding promise to lower drug prices.

The drug companies would spend $150 billion to address out-of-pocket consumer costs and would even pick up the bulk of the co-payments that older Americans shoulder in Medicare’s prescription drug program.

Then the agreement collapsed. The breaking point, according to four people familiar with the discussions: Mark Meadows, Mr. Trump’s chief of staff, insisted the drug makers pay for $100 cash cards that would be mailed to seniors before November — “Trump Cards,” some in the industry called them. Continue reading.

‘Sell It Tonight on eBay’: Trump Gives Emergency Officials His Autograph, Claims It’s Worth $10K

President Trump on Saturday took a moment to hand out autographed photos of himself to emergency officials following a roundtable discussion of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Laura, which bashed Louisiana and Texas as a Category 4 storm earlier this week. He advised the officials to put the autographs up for auction online. “Sell this tonight on eBay. You’ll get $10,000,” he told one attendee. Signing a sheet of paper, he said, “If I put your name down, it loses a lot of value. So sell it tonight on eBay.” The event was part of a tour of Louisiana and Texas to survey damage and hear from state and local leaders about what they need for efforts to recover from the hurricane.

Continue reading.

The Trump administration has contradicted itself on coronavirus no fewer than 14 times in less than a month

Washington Post logoInitially, warmer weather would kill it. Then it wouldn’t.

The number of cases would soon be close to zero. Then they rose.

It should be treated like the flu. Except Americans should know it is deadlier.

As many as 1 million people could be tested by the end of last week. Until they weren’t. Continue reading. Continue reading.

Trump’s Phony Adoration Of The Military Is All About Him

Many women are acquainted with a certain type of boyfriend. He’s generous with gifts, meals and compliments. In public, he’s the picture of devotion. But when you need him, he’s not there. When you have a problem, it’s your fault. Eventually, you have to accept: He’s just not that into you.

For the U.S. military, Donald Trump is that kind of boyfriend. He claims to be their greatest champion. But by now it should be clear he doesn’t really love our men and women in uniform. He’s merely using them.

He’s even open to renting them out. He explained his deployment of troops to Saudi Arabia: “I said, ‘Listen, you’re a very rich country. You want more troops? I’m going to send them to you, but you have to pay us. They’re paying us. They’re already deposited $1 billion in the bank.’” Continue reading.

Donald Trump has his finger on the button: We now know he’ll push it — if he thinks it can get him re-elected

AlterNet logoThese are the most frightening words Trump has uttered since becoming president:

“Sometimes you have to let them fight a little while. Sometimes you have to let them fight like two kids. Then you pull them apart.”

He said this at a campaign rally, naturally. In Texas, naturally. He tossed out the remark like just another chunk of red meat, so we can assume he meant what he said, because that’s when Trump tells us who he is, when he’s standing before an adoring crowd and he goes “off script.”

View the complete October 19 article by Lucian K. Truscott IV from Salon on the AlterNet website here.

‘Me! Me!’: An aggrieved Trump spins an alternate reality as impeachment probe escalates

Washington Post logoThe Debrief: An occasional series offering a reporter’s insights

President Trump paced. He pointed. He parried — jokingly shaking one reporter’s hand and blocking another’s iPhone with his own.

But then came the denouement, a sudden shift into the aggrieved alternate reality that has consumed him since House Democrats launched their impeachment inquiry into Trump urging his Ukrainian counterpart to dig up dirt on a political rival.

“I feel there was in the 2016 campaign — there was tremendous corruption against me,” said Trump, transforming himself — a man who has now publicly asked no fewer than three foreign countries (Russia, Ukraine and China) to look into his political opponents — into the victim of corrupt behavior.

View the complete October 4 article by Ashley Parker on The Washington Post website here.

Trump takes credit for GOP’s North Carolina win, tweets photo suggesting a third term for himself

Washington Post logoAfter hosting a rally in North Carolina with Vice President Pence earlier this week and then blasting out endorsements for two GOP candidates running in special elections there, President Trump closely tracked the returns on Tuesday night. When it became clear that both men vying for open House seats had won, the president took to Twitter in triumph.

In a flurry of tweets sent well into early Wednesday morning, Trump celebrated the “TWO BIG VICTORIES” and boasted about his influence on the results — while also taking time to bash the “Fake News” and share a photo suggesting a third term for himself.

“BIG NIGHT FOR THE REPUBLICAN PARTY,” he tweeted in all-caps. “CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL!”

The wins came as Trump has faced downturns in national polling and amid new White House turmoil as he ousted national security adviser John Bolton. A Washington Post-ABC News poll released Tuesday found that 56 percent of voting-age Americans say they disapprove of Trump’s performance in office, and his approval rating among that demographic stands at 38 percent.

View the complete September 11 article by Allyson Chiu on The Washington Post website here.

President and First Lady Pose with Infant Orphaned in El Paso Massacre

New details have emerged about Wednesday’s visit to El Paso by the president and first lady Melania Trump. Reporters were barred from following the Trumps as they toured the University Medical Center of El Paso, where victims of Saturday’s mass shooting were treated. None of the eight survivors who were still receiving treatment agreed to meet with the president. But a cellphone video given to local station KDBC shows the president smiling and laughing with medical workers as he boasts about the size of a crowd at a Trump campaign rally in El Paso in February, while disparaging a competing campaign rally held by Beto O’Rourke.

President Donald Trump: “That was some — that was some crowd. And we had twice the number outside. And then you had this crazy Beto. Beto had like 400 people, in a parking lot.”

CNN reports a hospital official said President Trump showed an “absence of empathy” during the visit. On Thursday, Melania Trump’s Twitter account published a photo from the trip showing the first lady holding a 2-month-old infant who was orphaned when both her parents were gunned down Saturday. In the photo, President Trump stands next to his wife, flashing a “thumbs up” sign. Both the president and first lady are grinning widely. Relatives brought the child back to the hospital for the Trumps’ visit. The child’s parents, Jordan and Andre Anchondo, died as they shielded their baby from the alleged white nationalist shooter whose online manifesto — published moments before the assault — echoed President Trump’s rhetoric about an “invasion” of immigrants. The baby was grazed by a bullet and was treated for broken fingers.

View the August 9 article on the Democracy Now! website here.

Trump lashed out at his aides even as they tried to protect him from the ‘debacle’ he created: reports

AlterNet logoEven when it comes to the solemn duties of the office, President Donald Trump can’t help but make everything about himself and obsess about the media coverage.

So it went for Trump’s trips to Dayton and El Paso this week, which featured the president pointlessly lashing out with lies at Democratic critics and  — and as a new video released Thursday revealed — bragging about his crowd sizes at the hospital where mass shooting victims were being treated.

And according to reports from CNN and the New York Times, the Trump grew angry with his aides during the trip even as White House staff tried to prevent the visits from becoming the disaster they inevitably devolved into.

View the complete August 8 article by Cody Fenwick on the AlterNet website here.