Tag: Trump false reality

The GOP’s Alternate Convention Reality

As protests for racial justice continue, the coronavirus rages and a hurricane looms, Republicans present President Trump as the protector-in-chief.

WITH AMERICA ON EDGE Wednesday night over a looming, powerful hurricane, unrest over the shooting of African American Jacob Blake by Wisconsin police and the coronavirus pandemic, Republicans at their national convention Wednesday night presented an alternate reality, downplaying those crises and casting President Donald Trump as the protector-in-chief.

The theme of the third night of the Republican National Conventions was “Land of Heroes,” and the speakers – including several veterans – underscored the planned message. Headliner Vice President Mike Pence made his speech from Ft. McHenry, site of the 1814 battle that inspired the national anthem.

Barely mentioned was Hurricane Laura, which was headed toward the Gulf Coast as the convention (much of it taped) continued. Pence called for prayers, and a promise that the federal government would respond, but other speakers largely ignored the looming disaster. Continue reading.

Trump’s War Against ‘the Deep State’ Enters a New Stage

New York Times logoThe suggestion that Lt. Col. Alexander S. Vindman should now face punishment by the Pentagon was one sign of how determined the president is to even the scales after his impeachment.

WASHINGTON — As far as President Trump is concerned, banishing Lt. Col. Alexander S. Vindman from the White House and exiling him back to the Pentagon was not enough. If he had his way, the commander in chief made clear on Tuesday, the Defense Department would now take action against the colonel, too.

“That’s going to be up to the military,” Mr. Trump told reporters who asked whether Colonel Vindman should face disciplinary action after testifying in the House hearings that led to the president’s impeachment. “But if you look at what happened,” Mr. Trump added in threatening terms, “I mean they’re going to, certainly, I would imagine, take a look at that.”

This is an unsettled time in Mr. Trump’s Washington. In the days since he was acquitted in a Senate trial, an aggrieved and unbound president has sought to even the scales as he sees it. Colonel Vindman was abruptly marched by security out of the White House, an ambassador who also testified in the House hearings was summarily dismissed, and senior Justice Department officials on Tuesday intervened on behalf of Mr. Trump’s convicted friend, Roger J. Stone Jr., leading four career prosecutors to quit the case. Continue reading.