President Trump makes himself an even BIGGER asshole

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Re: President Trump makes himself an even BIGGER asshole

Postby Aquila89 » Fri Apr 20, 2018 7:35 am

Doodle Dee. Snickers wrote:Mattis, because even Republican voters would likely turn on him for trying to humiliate one of the best commanders in a generation


I somehow doubt that. I think he could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot Mattis and still wouldn't lose any voters.
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Re: President Trump makes himself an even BIGGER asshole

Postby iMURDAu » Fri Apr 20, 2018 12:16 pm

He would gain voters from that and would be defended for eternity. What is a general compared to the commander in chief?

Don't answer that.
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Re: President Trump makes himself an even BIGGER asshole

Postby Doodle Dee. Snickers » Fri Apr 20, 2018 5:13 pm

I think you're both wrong. Here's my logic on this:

If there's one constant these days on both sides of the aisle, it's that the only pillar of the government anyone trusts anymore is the military. Leaving aside how inherently dangerous that worldview is, Trump's appeal to Republicans is that he picks the right targets. He rails against the media, liberals, other countries, and launches thinly-veiled attacks against minorities. These are things Republican voters broadly hate (with the exception of minorities, but that's a much longer discussion about the difference between racism and being against multiculturalism, but he generally keeps the veil thick enough to keep them comfortable), so he keeps their loyalty.

It may seem like there's no line too transgressive for Trump to cross to liberals, moderates, or outside observers, but that's because what he attacks isn't a transgression to his supporters. Republicans already hated everything he attacks, he's just been willing to do what most presidents don't do and attack everything his ideological supporters hate, and he has an approval rating that reflects why presidents don't do that.

Sure, he said he was smarter than the generals and the admirals, but he never specifically attacks them unless they're doing interviews with CNN and seem partisan to Republican voters. But if he starts publicly attacking a highly-respected veteran in his own administration (one that has the added bonus of being dicked over by Obama) a la Jeff Sessions? I don't think Republican voters would much like that at all.

There's this idea that Trump is made of Teflon, but that's not entirely true. He lost support after Charlottesville, he lost support when he went after health care, and though he gained some points for the tax bill that launched him to the dizzying heights of the lowest approval of Obama's presidency, that support has pretty much faded. If he tried to go after Social Security or Medicare, as some of the GOP want to, that'd be the end of his presidency. So yeah, I think he can lose some support from his followers.

As for Haley, it's less that he would damage his standing with voters as much as I think she could've stood a solid chance of securing the GOP nomination in 2016 had she bothered to run. You don't attack someone who can run against you and make a fight of it.
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Re: President Trump makes himself an even BIGGER asshole

Postby Aquila89 » Fri Apr 20, 2018 7:53 pm

Trump he replaced H. R. McMaster, a highly respected general with John Bolton, who despite being a warmonger has very little military background, and that didn't seem to have any effect on Repbulicans.

Doodle Dee. Snickers wrote:It may seem like there's no line too transgressive for Trump to cross to liberals, moderates, or outside observers, but that's because what he attacks isn't a transgression to his supporters. Republicans already hated everything he attacks


That's not exactly true. For instance, Republicans used to have fairly positive views on the FBI before Trump started attacking it.

Doodle Dee. Snickers wrote:As for Haley, it's less that he would damage his standing with voters as much as I think she could've stood a solid chance of securing the GOP nomination in 2016 had she bothered to run. You don't attack someone who can run against you and make a fight of it.


People (including me) thought that nearly everyone who ran for the Republican nomination has a better chance of securing it than Trump. People were wrong. I don't see why Haley would've been more successful against him than Cruz, Rubio or Kasich.
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Re: President Trump makes himself an even BIGGER asshole

Postby Doodle Dee. Snickers » Fri Apr 20, 2018 8:17 pm

Aquila89 wrote:Trump he replaced H. R. McMaster, a highly respected general with John Bolton, who despite being a warmonger has very little military background, and that didn't seem to have any effect on Repbulicans.

Doodle Dee. Snickers wrote:It may seem like there's no line too transgressive for Trump to cross to liberals, moderates, or outside observers, but that's because what he attacks isn't a transgression to his supporters. Republicans already hated everything he attacks


That's not exactly true. For instance, Republicans used to have fairly positive views on the FBI before Trump started attacking it.

Doodle Dee. Snickers wrote:As for Haley, it's less that he would damage his standing with voters as much as I think she could've stood a solid chance of securing the GOP nomination in 2016 had she bothered to run. You don't attack someone who can run against you and make a fight of it.


People (including me) thought that nearly everyone who ran for the Republican nomination has a better chance of securing it than Trump. People were wrong. I don't see why Haley would've been more successful against him than Cruz, Rubio or Kasich.


For your examples, context is everything. When I talk about attacking, I'm talking about him trying to throw someone under the bus like Kudlow tried to do to Haley, or subjecting them to wildly needless humiliation like Sessions.

McMaster was shuffled out of his position without fanfare or Trump shitting on him, and Trump in fact did at least favor him over...say...Steve Bannon, who was explicitly against McMAster. It was a personnel move, not a feud, and he was replaced by a guy that most Republicans hold in high regard since he's been a fixture in like...every Republican administration since Teddy Roosevelt. I suspect it would've been a much different story had Trump been laying into him.

As for the FBI, they're kinda seen by Republican voters as being an out of control agency arrayed against the president because of Comey and that whole investigation, which preceded Trump shitting on them. My point hinges, of course, upon there not being a preceding public event that leads to Trump turning against Mattis or if it's something he does that's not really a big deal like Sessions and Trump just goes nuclear.

As for Haley, I don't know, I just get the feeling that she's enough of a full package politician--sensible, competent, charismatic, and for bonus points she's also not white and a woman(which I think would play better than people think in a GOP primary)--that she may have been able to consolidate mainstream voters under in the primaries in a way that Rubio and Cruz and Jeb and Kasich were too uncharismatic to do, Carson and Fiorina were too extreme to do, Lindsey Graham was too 'establishment' to do, etc. Of course, Haley is an establishment figure, but voters tend to look at governors a little differently than congressmen. Granted, I too didn't think Trump would become the nominee, and perhaps the characteristics of a field of 800 candidates would've made it impossible to beat Trump's 30% appeal, but I think there are a vast minority of GOP officials that could've done it, and I think she's one of them.
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Re: President Trump makes himself an even BIGGER asshole

Postby blehblah » Sat Apr 21, 2018 3:56 pm

Only in these Trumpian times do these two stories make sense.

https://www.axios.com/exclusive-trump-p ... 11a35.html

President Trump is so unhappy with Attorney General Jeff Sessions that he has raised the possibility of bringing back Rudolph Giuliani to head the Justice Department, according to West Wing confidants.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics ... b40cf7e9db

Former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and two other former federal prosecutors joined President Trump’s legal team Thursday following weeks of turbulence and struggles to find attorneys who would agree to represent the president in the ongoing federal probe into Russian election interference.


Since the WaPo article is paywalled, here is Vanity Fair giving their (hilarious) take, with the headline:

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/04 ... legal-team

LEGENDARY LEGAL MIND RUDY GIULIANI COMES OUT OF SEMI-RETIREMENT TO SAVE DONALD TRUMP


The Axios report notes that Trump often yaps about such moves, only to not carry them out. In this case, I'd call that a "no shit, Sherlock" kind-of thing. To achieve even the remotest chance that Rudy would be confirmed by the Senate, he'd have to guarantee to recuse himself from all things Mueller because he's as up to his eyeballs in the whole thing as Sessions.

So far as negotiating an end to the Mueller probe, I think the New Yorker sums it up nicely.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-colu ... nd-mueller

Rudy Giuliani’s Wishful Thinking About Trump and Mueller


Appearing on Rachel Maddow’s show on Thursday night, James Comey, the former director of the F.B.I., said that, under his leadership, the agency had looked into whether Giuliani received advance notice, from sources within the agency, of Comey’s controversial decision in October of 2016 to reopen the investigation into Clinton’s use of a private e-mail server while she was Secretary of State. Comey couldn’t say what the outcome of the inquiry was; he was fired before it was completed.


Besides, how the hell does one "negotiate" their way out of an investigation? What does Rudy think Trump has that Mueller could possibly want, and not get himself? Inclusion on Trump's Christmas-card list?

EDIT: Bonus article; a former Forbes journalist writes about Trump conning his way onto the Forbes 400 as John Barron (with recordings!).

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/ ... 59604e5df7
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Re: President Trump makes himself an even BIGGER asshole

Postby Crimson847 » Sun Apr 22, 2018 2:14 am

I agree with Doodles that Trump's voters have red lines, but I disagree that shitting on Mattis or Haley would be one of them. Support for the military does not equal support for every person within the military. Yes, Mattis is particularly distinguished, but then so was McCain. McCain lost his "heroic warrior" sheen within the GOP base by supporting policies that they strongly dislike in his capacity as a politician, and Mattis has likewise pursued policies as SecDef that Trump supporters strongly dislike and tries very hard to thwart many of Trump's ideas. Little has been made of that so far, but if Trump decided tomorrow that he's tired of Mattis contradicting him and went off on him on Twitter, I'd bet money that Fox News would spend the following week harping on Mattis' heresies against Trumpism and thereby cratering his approval with the base.

If Trump shies away from shitting on Mattis or Haley for any reason I'd say it's simply because they intimidate him or at least aren't intimidated by him. Consider Trump's favorite targets for public humiliation thus far, like Sessions, Christie (remember him?), McConnell, Pence, and Tillerson. What you notice is A) they're all men (which may or may not be relevant), and B) they're all visibly intimidated by Trump. They exude the sort of nonverbal signals that tell a bully they are a safe target to attack.

Why? I haven't figured Tillerson out, but the others all desperately need Trump's approval for their own reasons. Sessions and McConnell can't get their policies enacted or bills passed without Trump's approval, and both men have reasons to be unusually desperate to make that happen--Sessions mainly because of his ideology, and McConnell mainly because of his ambition. Christie and Pence were lame ducks who had no political future without Trump, and neither were inclined to go quietly back to private life. In short, they all badly needed Trump, and that meant they were willing to put up with just about anything to avoid seriously offending him. Trump, of course, takes this as a sign of weakness and pounces.

By contrast, Mattis and Haley don't really need Trump. Haley is a young star with a bright political future of her own and a base relatively separate from Trump's, and Mattis was a retiree who already had a very accomplished career. Though they certainly have strong political beliefs, they both seem to be able to look past them and see a bigger picture--they're not ideologues who think all the country's major problems stem from letting the other side make policy. Obviously they both prefer to be in their current positions or they would leave, but they don't have enough riding on Trump's approval to be willing to publicly debase themselves for his benefit.
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"If it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them; but the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?"
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Re: President Trump makes himself an even BIGGER asshole

Postby Tuli » Wed Apr 25, 2018 12:08 pm

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Re: President Trump makes himself an even BIGGER asshole

Postby blehblah » Thu Apr 26, 2018 8:36 pm

Trump on Fox and Friends.

https://globalnews.ca/news/4170054/dona ... y-daniels/

Arguing that Cohen was one of his “many attorneys,” Trump said: “He represents me like with this crazy Stormy Daniels deal,” and added, “From what I see, he did absolutely nothing wrong. There were no campaign funds going in.” The telephone connection seemed to cut out for a few seconds after Trump mentioned Daniels.


He.. just... how is this possible?

More here:

https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/26/politics ... index.html

EDIT: And the whole interview, it all its glory:

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Re: President Trump makes himself an even BIGGER asshole

Postby Crimson847 » Sat Apr 28, 2018 10:34 am

Tuli wrote:
Spoiler: show
Image


Image captured mere seconds before a steamy makeout session behind a hedge in the Jackie Kennedy Garden.
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"If it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them; but the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?"
- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
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Re: President Trump makes himself an even BIGGER asshole

Postby Aquila89 » Wed May 02, 2018 10:52 pm

Remember Trump's doctor, Harold Bornstein, who back in 2015 released a letter claiming that Trump's health is “astonishingly excellent” and if elected, he will be "the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency”?

Well, Bornstein now confirmed what many suspected back then: the words came from Trump.

He dictated that whole letter. I didn’t write that letter,” Bornstein told CNN on Tuesday. “I just made it up as I went along.


He also said: "(Trump) dictated the letter and I would tell him what he couldn't put in there." Good God, Bornstein allowed "astonishingly excellent" and "his physical strength and stamina are extraordinary" but Trump said things that were even too much from him? Did Trump also want the letter to state that his penis is 13 inches long?

Bornstein also claimed that in February 2017, Trump's bodyguard and lawyer "raided" his office and took Trump's medical files. Bornstein said that Trump got angry at him after he told The New York Times that Trumps takes a drug to stimulate hair growth.

A framed 8-by-10 photo of Bornstein and Trump that had been hanging on the wall in the waiting room now lies flat under a stack of papers on the top shelf of Bornstein's bookshelf. Bornstein said the men asked him to take it off the wall.
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Re: President Trump makes himself an even BIGGER asshole

Postby iMURDAu » Wed May 02, 2018 11:04 pm

I just have to say that guy is kind of paranoid if he thinks anyone is paying attention to the whereabouts of that picture. Over a year later.

Something is weird about this whole thing to me. Can I pass the bar and raid the files of medical offices? Or can I graduate med school and be so weak that a pigfucker in a nice suit can D-Bo me for medical records?

I'm always leery of someone who says "Yo, check it, I was lying to help this person", then turns around and spins a wild yarn about how they were wronged by the person they lied for.
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Re: President Trump makes himself an even BIGGER asshole

Postby jbobsully11 » Thu May 03, 2018 6:41 am

Aquila89 wrote:He also said: "(Trump) dictated the letter and I would tell him what he couldn't put in there." Good God, Bornstein allowed "astonishingly excellent" and "his physical strength and stamina are extraordinary" but Trump said things that were even too much from him? Did Trump also want the letter to state that his penis is 13 inches long?

No, probably just that his hands aren't tiny and his hair, it's real, it's totally natural, and it's the best hair that a presidential candidate has ever had, believe me.
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Crimson847 wrote:In other words, transgender-friendly privacy laws don't molest people, people molest people.

(Presumably, the only way to stop a bad guy with a transgender-friendly privacy law is a good guy with a transgender-friendly privacy law, and thus transgender-friendly privacy law rights need to be enshrined in the Constitution as well)
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Re: President Trump makes himself an even BIGGER asshole

Postby Krashlia » Thu May 03, 2018 7:08 am

Tuli wrote:
Spoiler: show
Image


Exhibit A: Trump rushes a reluctant French president to his private quarters for a session he wasn't really into.
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Re: President Trump makes himself an even BIGGER asshole

Postby Crimson847 » Thu May 03, 2018 7:21 am

Aquila89 wrote:Remember Trump's doctor, Harold Bornstein, who back in 2015 released a letter claiming that Trump's health is “astonishingly excellent” and if elected, he will be "the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency”?

Well, Bornstein now confirmed what many suspected back then: the words came from Trump.

He dictated that whole letter. I didn’t write that letter,” Bornstein told CNN on Tuesday. “I just made it up as I went along.


He also said: "(Trump) dictated the letter and I would tell him what he couldn't put in there." Good God, Bornstein allowed "astonishingly excellent" and "his physical strength and stamina are extraordinary" but Trump said things that were even too much from him? Did Trump also want the letter to state that his penis is 13 inches long?


The nice thing about superlatives like "astonishingly excellent" and "extraordinary" is that they're so vague they can't ever really be proven false, at least not to the satisfaction of a court. That's why advertisers are so inordinately fond of them--they allow you to say something good about any product, no matter how pointless or awful, without committing fraud.

My guess is, if Bornstein had said in his letter that Trump is 10 feet tall with 120/80 blood pressure and a 9% body fat percentage, he would be making verifiably false statements, and thus would face professional or even legal consequences for fraud if and when another doctor examined Trump and found that Bornstein was full of shit. By contrast, saying that Trump's health is "astonishingly excellent" and "extraordinary" only risks his reputation, which he doesn't seem to have much concern about.

Of course, if he's concerned about losing his license to practice medicine, that raises the question of why he allowed Trump to dictate the letter in the first place. According to this Atlantic article on the subject, written by a doctor, that's also an ethical breach that could cost him his license. Maybe he thought he wouldn't be caught, but I can't imagine how he managed to maintain that belief while writing the words "Mr. Trump, I can state unequivocally, will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the Presidency".
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"If it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them; but the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?"
- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
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