Tag: Trump narcissism

Frank Figliuzzi: Trump’s ‘Obamagate’ comments and Barr’s Flynn meddling suggest troubling new pivot

Trump can’t pull off this ruse by himself, of course, but he has a partner. Barr is riding shotgun during this scorched-earth joyride against justice

In my 25 years as an FBI special agent and (now retired) head of the bureau’s counterintelligence, I learned the value of predictive analysis. Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the FBI transitioned from an investigative agency adept at investigating what happened after the fact to an intelligence agency capable of forecasting and preventing harm from happening in the future.

Forecasting is a lot easier when there are clear clues. And when it comes to assessing the trap Attorney General William Barr and President Donald Trump appear to be setting for us, the warning signs are plentiful. We don’t need to read tea leaves for this. We only need to review tweets.

On Saturday, Trump retweeted a fantastical fiction of a theory from The Federalist asserting that former President Barack Obama’s White House intelligence discussions about, in part, the trustworthiness of incoming national security adviser Michael Flynn and members of the Trump transition team were proof that Obama and former Vice President Joe Biden were malevolently conspiring against the Trump administration. Continue reading.

Trump doesn’t have a plan — he’s fueled by boredom, humiliation and narcissism

AlterNet logoIn March, after months of ignoring the looming threat of the novel coronavirus, Donald Trump decided to recast himself in a new role, declaring he was now a “wartime president,” clearly imagining himself in the mold of FDR or, more likely, as Bill Pullman’s presidential character in the 1996 film “Independence Day.”

This was a total joke from the beginning, as Trump’s behavior wasn’t hard to predict. As a sociopath and narcissist, Trump would enjoy a stint play-acting as president while doing nothing. But when it began to dawn on him that waging war is like, hard work, he would just drift away, letting the “war” effort fail.

Unsurprisingly, that is what exactly happened. As Heather Digby Parton explains in her Wednesday column for Salon, what has “become clear in the last few days is that the Trump administration has made a decision” to give up any semblance of trying to flatten the curve, stop the spread or do anything meaningful to defeat the coronavirus. Continue reading.

Amid a Rising Death Toll, Trump Leaves the Grieving to Others

New York Times logoPresident Trump has led no national mourning for the more than 63,000 Americans who have died from the coronavirus, emphasizing confidence about the future rather than dwelling on the present.

WASHINGTON — One morning this week, President Trump called food sector executives. That afternoon, he met with corporate leaders at the White House. The day before, he paraded small-business owners in the East Room, and the day before that, he showcased executives from retail giants like Walgreens and Walmart in the Rose Garden.

As he presides over the coronavirus pandemic and resulting economic collapse, Mr. Trump has hosted or called many people affected by the devastation, including health company executives, sports commissioners, governors, cruise boat company heads, religious leaders, telecommunications executives and foreign heads of state. One category that has yet to make his list: Americans who have lost someone to the pandemic.

As the death toll from the coronavirus over eight weeks surpasses the total American military casualties in eight years of major combat in Vietnam, Mr. Trump has led no national mourning. In his daily news conferences, he makes only perfunctory references to those who have died as he stiffly reads opening remarks, exhibiting more emotion when grieving his lost economic record than his lost constituents. Continue reading.

Home Alone at the White House: A Sour President, With TV His Constant Companion

New York Times logoAs his administration grapples with reopening the economy and responding to the coronavirus crisis, President Trump worries about his re-election and how the news media is portraying him.

WASHINGTON — President Trump arrives in the Oval Office these days as late as noon, when he is usually in a sour mood after his morning marathon of television.

He has been up in the White House master bedroom as early as 5 a.m. watching Fox News, then CNN, with a dollop of MSNBC thrown in for rage viewing. He makes calls with the TV on in the background, his routine since he first arrived at the White House.

But now there are differences. Continue reading.

Biden blasts Trump comments: ‘I am not running for office to be King of America’

The Hill logoFormer Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday ripped President Trump for his assertion that he has the power to make states reopen their economies amid the continuing COVID-19 outbreak.

“I am not running for office to be King of America. I respect the Constitution. I’ve read the Constitution. I’ve sworn an oath to it many times,” the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee tweeted.
“I respect the great job so many of this country’s governors — Democratic and Republican — are doing under these horrific circumstances,” he said. Continue reading.

Trump Attacks World Health Organization To Deflect From His Own Failures

President Donald Trump is now scapegoating the World Health Organization (WHO), claiming it must be held accountable for what he claims is their fault that the coronavirus spread into the United States. Trump took no responsibility for his actions allowing the coronavirus to spread throughout the U.S.

America is now the number one in the world for deaths and number of cases.

The WHO is Trump’s seventh target for blame to deflect from his horrific mismanagement of the coronavirus pandemic. Continue reading.

Four Pinocchios for Trump’s claim that he has ‘total authority’ over the states

Washington Post logo“When somebody is the president of the United States, the authority is total. And that’s the way it’s got to be. It’s total.” <

— President Trump, at a White House news briefing, April 13, 2020

Steve Holland, Reuters: “There’s a debate over what authority you have to order the country reopened. What authority do you have on this one?”

Trump: “Well, I have the ultimate authority.”

— Exchange at the briefing

At a coronavirus news briefing Monday, Trump said he could order hunkered-down states to reopen their economies. He claimed to have the “ultimate authority” on such decisions and that his authority was “total.”

This will be a short fact check, because the president of the United States is not a king.

The Facts

After declaring independence from Britain and shaking off the yoke of King George III, the Founders of the United States adopted a system of government in which power would be split between the states and a centralized federal government. Continue reading.

On The Trail: Governors rebuke Trump for claiming ‘total’ authority

The Hill logoA looming showdown between President Trump’s eagerness to revive a cratering economy and governors facing a deadly pandemic is leading to what could become the most contentious standoff between state and federal governments since the civil rights era.

For almost 250 years, the competing interests of states and the U.S. government have undergirded the most divisive debates in American history.

Now, as governors and the Trump administration grapple with the combined threats of a fast-moving outbreak that has already claimed tens of thousands of American lives and an economic catastrophe that has cost tens of millions of jobs, state leaders are increasingly at odds with President Trump over how to move through a rapidly evolving crisis. Continue reading.

In unprecedented move, Treasury orders Trump’s name printed on stimulus checks

Washington Post logoThe Treasury Department has ordered President Trump’s name printed on stimulus checks the Internal Revenue Service is rushing to send to tens of millions of Americans, a process that could slow their delivery by a few days, senior IRS officials said.

The unprecedented decision, finalized late Monday, means that when recipients open the $1,200 paper checks the IRS is scheduled to begin sending to 70 million Americans in coming days, “President Donald J. Trump” will appear on the left side of the payment.

It will be the first time a president’s name appears on an IRS disbursement, whether a routine refund or one of the handful of checks the government has issued to taxpayers in recent decades either to stimulate a down economy or share the dividends of a strong one. Continue reading.

Trump to halt WHO funding amid review

The Hill logoPresident Trump on Tuesday said his administration will halt funding to the World Health Organization (WHO) pending a review of the global body for what he described as its mismanagement of the coronavirus outbreak.

Trump said at a White House briefing that the United States would suspend funding to the organization while officials conduct a review “to assess the World Health Organization’s role in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus.”

The president criticized the WHO for opposing large-scale travel restrictions and accused it of failing to quickly vet and share accurate information on COVID-19. Continue reading.