Category: Trump Administration

Embarrassing Trump video re-emerges after he insists the world ‘didn’t laugh’ at us when he was president

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On Thursday, former President Donald Trump released an angry statement attacking Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker’s upcoming book “I Alone Can Fix It.” In particular, he took aim at the book’s coverage of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) expressing fear he would use nuclear weapons after the election, calling her a “known nut job.”

“I was the one that got us out of wars, not into wars,” wrote Trump. “And I was the one who got respect for our Country again, not like now when the leaders of the entire World are laughing at us. They didn’t laugh when I was there!”

Trump’s comments prompted the recirculation of an old video of the former president giving a speech at the United Nations, where global dignitaries literally laughed at him after he said, “In less than two years, my administration has accomplished more than almost any administration in the history of our country.” Continue reading.

Judge loses patience with MAGA rioter: ‘I can no longer give the defendant the benefit of the doubt’

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A federal judge on Thursday lost patience with an accused Capitol rioter who expressed “no regrets” about his involvement in the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Brandon Fellows, a former grocery store worker from Schenectady, New York, was ordered back to jail while awaiting trial after a federal judge ruled he had violatedthe terms of his pretrial release by calling his probation officer’s mother.

“I can no longer give the defendant the benefit of the doubt,” said District Court Judge Trevor McFadden. “I’ve tried, but we are where we are.” Continue reading.

Trump used Melania’s phone to circumvent John Kelly’s demand to listen to his calls: new book

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Among the bizarre factoids in Michael Bender’s new book, “Frankly, We Did Win This Election,” was the ways in which new President Donald Trump worked to circumvent all of the traditional rules and security barriers put in place.

One such rule was that then-chief of staff John Kelly listen in on all of Trump’s calls. Traditionally, calls are made through the White House system, but Trump apparently wasn’t about to do that. 

“When John Kelly, a retired, four-star Marine general whom Trump had recruited into his administration, invoked his chief of staff authority to listen in on any call that was patched through to the president from the West Wing switchboard, Trump gave friends the number to Melania’s phone to circumvent this official channel,” Bender wrote. Continue reading.

Michigan GOP official who said Trump ‘blew it’ resigns from executive director post

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The executive director of the Michigan Republican Party, who said the 2020 presidential election wasn’t stolen and blamed Donald Trump for the GOP loss, has resigned.

Jason Roe, a veteran strategist who was brought on in February, stepped down from the post but declined to expand on why he resigned less than six months later, the Detroit Free Press reported.

“I resigned my position as executive director and the reasons will remain between me and Chairman Weiser,” he said in a statement to the newspaper, referring to Michigan GOP Party Chairman Ron Weiser. “We’ve built an amazing team and I know they will be very successful in 2022. I look forward to helping however I can.” Continue reading.

Leaked Kremlin documents suggest Putin holds blackmail leverage over Trump — and that’s why Russia backed him

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A leaked document appears to confirm rumors that the Kremlin holds blackmail leverage over former president Donald Trump.

Russian president Vladimir Putin personally authorized a secret spy agency to back “mentally unstable” Trump for U.S. president during a Jan. 22, 2016, closed session of that country’s national security council, according to what appears to be leaked Kremlin documents obtained by The Guardian.

“It is acutely necessary to use all possible force to facilitate his [Trump’s] election to the post of U.S. president,” the paper says. Continue reading.

Man who dangled from Senate balcony pleads guilty in Capitol riots, will cooperate against others

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An Idaho man photographed hanging from the Senate balcony and sitting in the presiding officer’s chair in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot pleaded guilty Wednesday to felony obstruction of Congress, admitting to joining a group who came to Washington armed with firearms, knives and body armor to support President Donald Trump.

Josiah B. Colt, 34, became the latest defendant to agree to cooperate in the breach investigation, seeking to pare down a possible recommended five-year prison sentence.

Though Colt is not accused of being part of a larger militia-like group, he admitted in plea papers to joining at least two men from Nevada and Tennessee who arranged travel, raised funds, bought paramilitary gear and recorded themselves before breaking in to the building and rushing to the Senate just evacuated by lawmakers. Continue reading.

Trump went on profane rant about ‘krauts’ after getting into argument with Angela Merkel: bombshell book

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CNN on Wednesday reported that a new book written by Washington Post reporters Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker claims that former President Donald Trump used an ethnic slur to rant about Germans after getting into an argument with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

While discussing the new book — titled I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump’s Catastrophic Final Year — reporter Jamie Gangel paraphrased an excerpt that detailed Trump’s “strained” relationship with Merkel, with whom he regularly clashed over foreign affairs.

While discussing the new book — titled I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump’s Catastrophic Final Year — reporter Jamie Gangel paraphrased an excerpt that detailed Trump’s “strained” relationship with Merkel, with whom he regularly clashed over foreign affairs. Continue reading.

Joint Chiefs chairman feared potential ‘Reichstag moment’ aimed at keeping Trump in power

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In the waning weeks of Donald Trump’s term, the country’s top military leader repeatedly worried about what the president might do to maintain power after losing reelection, comparing his rhetoric to Adolf Hitler’s during the rise of Nazi Germany and asking confidants whether a coup was forthcoming, according to a new book by two Washington Post reporters.

As Trump ceaselessly pushed false claims about the 2020 presidential election, Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, grew more and more nervous, telling aides he feared that the president and his acolytes might attempt to use the military to stay in office, Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker report in “I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump’s Catastrophic Final Year.”

Milley described “a stomach-churning” feeling as he listened to Trump’s untrue complaints of election fraud, drawing a comparison to the 1933 attack on Germany’s parliament building that Hitler used as a pretext to establish a Nazi dictatorship. Continue reading.

House Dems launch investigation into Arizona ballot review

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The oversight committee is seeking a wide range of information from Cyber Ninjas, the firm overseeing the Arizona effort.

The House Oversight Committee is launching an investigation into the ballot review being run by the Republican-controlled state Senate in Arizona, the committee announced on Wednesday.

“Americans’ right to vote is protected by the Constitution and is the cornerstone of our democratic system of government,” Oversight Chair Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), who helms the subcommittee on civil rights and civil liberties, said in a statement. 

The committee is seeking a wide range of information from Cyber Ninjas, the firm overseeing the Arizona effort, including communications it had with Maricopa County officials, former President Donald Trump or his representatives, and those who have advanced election-related falsehoods such as Sidney Powell, Mike Lindell and Lin Woods. Continue reading.

How Trumpism has become outright ‘fascism’

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Although conservative journalist David Frum has been a blistering critic of Donald Trump, he has been reluctant to use the word “fascist” to describe the former president. The words “fascist” and ‘fascism,” Frum has stressed in the past, should never be used casually simply to attack policies one does not like. But in an article published by The Atlantic on July 13, the Never Trump conservative lays out some disturbing reasons why Trumpism does, in fact, fit the definition of fascism.

“Through the Trump years, it seemed sensible to eschew comparisons to the worst passages of history,” Frum explains. “I repeated over and over again a warning against too-easy use of the F-word, fascism: ‘There are a lot of stops on the train line to bad before you get to Hitler Station.'”

Frum continues, “Two traits have historically marked off European-style fascism from more homegrown American traditions of illiberalism: contempt for legality and the cult of violence. Presidential-era Trumpism operated through at least the forms of law. Presidential-era Trumpism glorified military power, not mob attacks on government institutions. Post-presidentially, those past inhibitions are fast dissolving.” Continue reading.