**President Trump 2018 Thread**

[caulfield12]

Greg, that's the whole point of this administration...that Trump takes pride in being able to shoot someone (likely to not be a white person) in broad daylight in downtown Manhattan and have absolutely nothing happen to him.

 

35% of the country won't believe ANYTHING that the Democrats or mainstream media presents, no matter what. Well, maybe not ALL of that 35%, but a good percentage of it right now.

 

The other group of Trump voters simply don't care, as long as their taxes are lower and their 401 k's/investments are up, and that the Supreme Court is controlled by conservatives. (Well, I suppose they would care if they were vacationing in Hawaii and were wiped out by an incoming ballistic missile.)

Edited January 15, 2018 by caulfield12

[RockRaines]

He basically admitted to it anyway.

 

This dude is writing the book on how to not be presidential. Policies aside, he is representing us so poorly. We are a joke around the world.

[greg775]

He basically admitted to it anyway.

 

This dude is writing the book on how to not be presidential. Policies aside, he is representing us so poorly. We are a joke around the world.

He is a poor representative, agreed. But what did everybody expect. You guys all get mad at my simplistic view of Trump, but it's kinda true.

The stereotypical rich older guy, who has had yes men and women agreeing with his every move and stroking his ego for what, 30 years now? You put an entitled rich guy who only tolerates yes men and women around him and this is what you get.

Personality wise this is what you get. The only saving grace for the US could be is as a rich businessman there's a slight chance he could turn the economy around completely. He's used to $$$ issues and we might become elite country $$$ wise again.

It would be nice if he got impeached. However, his VEEP isn't exactly great either, is he?

Edited January 15, 2018 by greg775

[caulfield12]

http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/14/politics/jef...rump/index.html

 

Speaking of being a joke around the world, Republican Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona is going to give a speech WED comparing Trump to Josef Stalin...meanwhile, the Friday government shutdown ticking clock is starting to loom. McCain has also spoken out against Trump about his "s***hole/house" comments, along with Susan Collins of ME.

 

 

According to an excerpt of the speech, Flake will criticize the President for calling the news media the "enemy of the people," calling it "an assault as unprecedented as it is unwarranted."

 

"Mr. President, it is a testament to the condition of our democracy that our own President uses words infamously spoken by Josef Stalin to describe his enemies," reads the excerpt. "It bears noting that so fraught with malice was the phrase 'enemy of the people,' that even Nikita Khrushchev forbade its use, telling the Soviet Communist Party that the phrase had been introduced by Stalin for the purpose of 'annihilating such individuals' who disagreed with the supreme leader."

Flake's prepared speech goes on to say the President's actions should be "a great source of shame" for the Senate and the members of the Republican Party.

 

"The free press is the despot's enemy, which makes the free press the guardian of democracy," Flake's remarks say. "When a figure in power reflexively calls any press that doesn't suit him 'fake news,' it is that person who should be the figure of suspicion, not the press."

 

Former Republican Senator from Nebraska and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel comes out forcefully against Trump

http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/14/politics/chu...rump/index.html

Edited January 15, 2018 by caulfield12

[RockRaines]

He is a poor representative, agreed. But what did everybody expect. You guys all get mad at my simplistic view of Trump, but it's kinda true.

The stereotypical rich older guy, who has had yes men and women agreeing with his every move and stroking his ego for what, 30 years now? You put an entitled rich guy who only tolerates yes men and women around him and this is what you get.

Personality wise this is what you get. The only saving grace for the US could be is as a rich businessman there's a slight chance he could turn the economy around completely. He's used to $$$ issues and we might become elite country $$$ wise again.

It would be nice if he got impeached. However, his VEEP isn't exactly great either, is he?

Hes used to screwing other people for his personal benefit and quite frankly he's been just ok at it. Reality TV saved him, and this isnt a TV show. Thats not exactly comforting.

[RockRaines]

Is this merit based proposal public? I'd like to know what the criteria is. My family fled Germany during the war and I'm betting many people wouldnt have wanted to let them in. They were already treated very poorly, were forced to change their names and even were detained. Today I bet they would have been turned away since they were from an "evil" country at the time.

[caulfield12]

Greg, running a real estate company that specializes in branding doesn't mean you're an economic expert.

 

There are many Chinese students here at my school who have a better basic understanding than he does.

 

There are also MANY billionaires who would have been better suited to manage the economy (thinking someone like Warren Buffett), but they've never been interested in running for office. It's difficult to find someone with a worse, more abrasive personality. He can't be edited in real life like on his t.v. show, where Mark Burnett controlled his image so carefully.

 

Turning the economy around completely just isn't possible...because that would mean GDP growth of 4-5%, and that's not realistic without huge reforms targeting job training/retraining, our entire public educational system from K-12 (as well as making 2 years of community college free if you maintain a 3.0 or 3.5 GPA)...reallocating money away from defense spending and towards a much more effective infrastructure bill than Obama got through. As Balta has mentioned a number of times, the interest rates will be going up by at least 3/4's of a point to head off potential inflationary pressures, and that's going to work as yet another brake on the economy (which already has slowed down from the 3's to the 2.8 range the last report).

 

Bigger than that, it would require Trump being MORE open to the best international STEM workers coming to the US to supplement the gaps in our current labor force.

 

It would also require negotiating more favorable bilateral trade deals with the rest of the world...the problem is that we haven't been able to do that with ONE SINGLE COUNTRY in over a year with the likes of Cohn, Navarro, Ross and Lighthizer studying this problem and making recommendations.

 

 

"Donald Trump has no regard for rules, he has thumbed his nose at rules his entire life," said David Cay Johnston, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who has known Trump for 30 years and has a new book out on Trump's presidency coming on Tuesday.

 

"He is a dictator in waiting, he talks as a dictator and he will do whatever he wants," said Johnston, whose book "It's Even Worse Than You Think: What the Trump Administration is Doing to America" concludes that Trump is unique in being the only US president not to pursue policies in the national interest.

 

"The Trump presidency is about Trump. Period. Full stop," Johnston writes.

 

If that is true, the political system itself is facing an unprecedented challenge.

 

Indeed, the President's recent assault on the credibility of the FBI and the Justice Department, interference being run by Capitol Hill Republicans on the Russia probe, combined with attacks on Mueller by pro-Trump media outlets raise profound questions about the system of checks and balances.

 

http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/15/politics/don...ency/index.html

Edited January 15, 2018 by caulfield12

[caulfield12]

Is this merit based proposal public? I'd like to know what the criteria is. My family fled Germany during the war and I'm betting many people wouldnt have wanted to let them in. They were already treated very poorly, were forced to change their names and even were detained. Today I bet they would have been turned away since they were from an "evil" country at the time.

 

This was the latest, from August.

 

The proposed system, contained in a Senate bill, would replace one largely based on extended family ties with one that prioritizes education, English language proficiency, age, vocational skills and high-paying job offers as well as considering any criminal record and possible national security risks.

 

...

The proposal resembles policies in Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea and the United Kingdom.

 

But despite that, it didn't take long for the critics to weigh in.

 

"Once again White Nationalists are pushing their ethnic cleansing agenda, scapegoating immigrants for their own inability to create a labor market that works for everyone," Sulma Arias, a spokesperson for the Fair Immigration Reform Movement, said in a statement.

 

Critics claim using merit to screen immigrants is wrong, but many other countries do it. (Associated Press)

 

"Today's announcement ... is a direct attack on all immigrants, on our legal immigration system, and on one of the core principles that drives immigration — family reunification."

 

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/08/03...d-policies.html

[Dick Allen]

Maybe Teump will be able to hire Americans to work at Mar a lago and pay them a decent wage with the tax cuts instead of hiring a bunch of Haitians with special visas with these tax cuts. Haitians cleaning Mar a lago? That place must be a s***hole.

Edited January 15, 2018 by Dick Allen

[Middle Buffalo]

Some of Trump's best friends are Haitian....

[caulfield12]

We did get a lovely tweet from “Senior Advisor” Lara Trump (one of his sons’ wives) on MLK and Trump at the golf course all day instead of doing a volunteer project...which would probably turn out about as well as his aid distribution in Puerto Rico.

 

 

https://www.thesun.co.uk/fabulous/5265576/j...-meghan-markle/

Auditioning to be Trump’s next wife?

Edited January 15, 2018 by caulfield12

[Dick Allen]

Trump who made fun of a disabled reporter, then denied he ever did. Who , when criticized for not paying taxes iby Hillary in a debate, who replied that make him smart, then said he never said that. Who bragged about grabbing women by the p****. Then said they were just words, lockeroom talk, and denied ever doing it despite multiple accusers, then said he thought the tape of him saying it was probably a fake, now, despite admitting to friends what he said, despite Lindsey Graham acknowledging he crossed a line, is now taunting During, calling him Dicky. and his misrepresentation was s***hole vs.s***house which I posted a few days ago.

[iamshack]

I watched Obama on David Letterman’s “My Next Guess Needs No Introduction.”

 

The juxtaposition was even larger than what I had in my mind.

 

Three more f***ing years.

[caulfield12]

Trump who made fun of a disabled reporter, then denied he ever did. Who , when criticized for not paying taxes iby Hillary in a debate, who replied that make him smart, then said he never said that. Who bragged about grabbing women by the p****. Then said they were just words, lockeroom talk, and denied ever doing it despite multiple accusers, then said he thought the tape of him saying it was probably a fake, now, despite admitting to friends what he said, despite Lindsey Graham acknowledging he crossed a line, is now taunting During, calling him Dicky. and his misrepresentation was s***hole vs.s***house which I posted a few days ago.

 

Durbin, just to be clear...the story's all over the news now.

 

http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/15/politics/tru...ysis/index.html

Why the specific word used (s***house vs. s***hole) doesn't matter

 

http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/15/opinions/dac...nion/index.html

Don't Let Trump's Bad Words Kill DACA Deal

Edited January 16, 2018 by caulfield12

[Balta1701]

http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/15/opinions/dac...nion/index.html

Don't Let Trump's Bad Words Kill DACA Deal

Too F***ing late. Mitch said he will not pass something that Donald Trump doesn't approve and Donald Trump does not want all these S***house races.

 

You know what? Hey 2k5 remember how in 2007 your reason for opposing any comprehensive immigration reform was that it was unfair to the rest of the world and people from Africa and Asia deserve to have equal chance even though they're not that close? That's what Donald Trump's #1 priority to get rid of is - the Immigration lottery does that, even if it's only 50k people, that's the Republican Senate and President's current biggest enemy!

 

(To stress, this is me defending a deal that GWB was in favor of).

[caulfield12]

The diversity visa program has been around for more than 20 years, offering a limited number of visas to people from parts of the world that have relatively few immigrants in the United States.

 

Schumer did play a key role in drawing up the program in 1990. His proposals eventually became part of a broader immigration package that was passed by Congress in a bipartisan vote and signed into law by a Republican president, George H.W Bush.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning...m=.1212ee22369c

 

Sen. Jeff Flake (twitter)

Actually, the Gang of 8, including @SenSchumer, did away with the Diversity Visa Program as part of broader reforms. I know, I was there...In fact, had the Senate Gang of 8 bill passed the House, it would have ended the Visa Lottery Program AND increased merit based visas.

 

 

 

For DV-2017, natives of the following countries are not eligible to apply, because more than 50,000 natives of these countries immigrated to the United States in the previous five years:

Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China (mainland-born), Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, South Korea, United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories, and Vietnam.

 

Please note that the term "50,000 immigrants" includes only those people who immigrated via the family-based (including immediate relatives of U.S. citizens) or employment-based immigration categories. It does not include other categories such as refugees, asylum seekers, NACARA beneficiaries, or previous diversity immigrants. Therefore, even though the countries like Cuba, Ukraine, Russia, Iran and Ethiopia sent more than 50,000 immigrants in previous five years, they are still in the list of eligible countries.

 

https://www.immihelp.com/green-card-lottery...-countries.html

Edited January 16, 2018 by caulfield12

[StrangeSox]

Inside the tense, profane White House meeting on immigration

 

A good look inside last week's "s***hole" meeting and how Trump went from "I'll sign whatever you put in front of me" to "no black countries" in a matter of days or even hours thanks to far right Republicans.

 

When President Trump spoke by phone with Sen. Richard J. Durbin around 10:15 a.m. last Thursday, he expressed pleasure with Durbin’s outline of a bipartisan immigration pact and praised the high-ranking Illinois Democrat’s efforts, according to White House officials and congressional aides.

 

The president then asked if Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), his onetime foe turned ally, was on board, which Durbin affirmed. Trump invited the lawmakers to visit with him at noon, the people familiar with the call said.

 

But when they arrived at the Oval Office, the two senators were surprised to find that Trump was far from ready to finalize the agreement. He was “fired up” and surrounded by hard-line conservatives such as Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), who seemed confident that the president was now aligned with them, according to one person with knowledge of the meeting.

 

Trump told the group he wasn’t interested in the terms of the bipartisan deal that Durbin and Graham had been putting together. And as he shrugged off suggestions from Durbin and others, the president called nations from Africa “s***hole countries,” denigrated Haiti and grew angry. The meeting was short, tense and often dominated by loud cross-talk and swearing, according to Republicans and Democrats familiar with the meeting.

 

Trump’s ping-ponging from dealmaking to feuding, from elation to fury, has come to define the contentious immigration talks between the White House and Congress, perplexing members of both parties as they navigate the president’s vulgarities, his combativeness and his willingness to suddenly change his position. The blowup has derailed those negotiations yet again and increased the possibility of a government shutdown over the fate of hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants known as “dreamers.”

 

Trump complained that there wasn’t enough money included in the deal for his promised wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. He also objected that Democratic proposals to adjust the visa lottery and federal policy for immigrants with temporary protected status were going to drive more people from countries he deemed undesirable into the United States instead of attracting immigrants from places like Norway and Asia, people familiar with the meeting said.

 

Attendees who were alarmed by the racial undertones of Trump’s remarks were further disturbed when the topic of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) came up, these people said.

 

At one point, Durbin told the president that members of that caucus — an influential House group — would be more likely to agree to a deal if certain countries were included in the proposed protections, according to people familiar with the meeting.

 

Trump was curt and dismissive, saying he was not making immigration policy to cater to the CBC and did not particularly care about that bloc’s demands, according to people briefed on the meeting. “You’ve got to be joking,” one adviser said, describing Trump’s reaction.

 

After Graham left, he told associates that he was disturbed by what he heard in the Oval Office, according to people who spoke with him, and that it was evident the deal’s antagonists had gotten to Trump. Graham and Durbin also told allies that they were stunned that the other lawmakers were present — and that Trump’s tone seemed so different than it had been days or even hours before, according to people close to them.

 

But some White House officials, including conservative adviser Stephen Miller, feared that Graham and Durbin would try to trick Trump into signing a bill that was damaging to him and would hurt him with his political base. As word trickled out Thursday morning on Capitol Hill that Durbin and Graham were heading over to the White House, legislative affairs director Marc Short began to make calls to lawmakers and shared many of Miller’s concerns.

 

Soon, Goodlatte, one of the more conservative House members on immigration, was headed to the White House. Trump also called House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and asked him to come, McCarthy said. Sens. David Perdue (R-Ga.) and Cotton were also invited to rush over

 

In the late morning, before Durbin and Graham arrived, Kelly — who had already been briefed on the deal — talked to Trump to tell him that the proposal would probably not be good for his agenda, White House officials said. Kelly, a former secretary of homeland security, has taken an increasingly aggressive and influential role in the immigration negotiations, calling lawmakers and meeting with White House aides daily — more than he has on other topics. He has “very strong feelings,” in the words of one official. But he’s not a lone voice. Trump in recent weeks has also been talking more to conservatives such as Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) on immigration, these people said.

 

Reminder that Kelly started the purging while running DHS early last year and has said he wants to allow in "between 0 and 1" refugees, i.e. he largely agrees with Trump's racist immigration policies.

 

Trump was not particularly upset by the coverage of the meeting and his vulgarity after it was first reported by The Washington Post, calling friends and asking how they expected it to play with his political supporters, aides said.

 

“Everyone was saying it would help with the base,” which would agree with his characterization, one person who spoke with the president said.

 

Three White House officials said Perdue and Cotton told the White House that they heard “s***house” rather than “s***hole,” allowing them to deny the president’s comments on television over the weekend. The two men initially said publicly that they could not recall what the president said.

 

Representatives for both men declined to comment.

 

Going forward, a path to an immigration deal remains hazy.

 

“I expect that we’ll get more Republican support for the proposal because it’s really the only game in town. I expect there will be more negotiations — we didn’t write the Bible,” Graham said Monday. “We wrote a proposal that over time we can make it better.”

 

Republicans lying to cover for Trump's racism in order to push hardline anti-immigration policies, and pretending that a difference between "s***house" and "s***hole" even matters without addressing the underlying racism guiding Trump's policies and preferences rather than the 'vulgar' words used to express his ideas.

[StrangeSox]

And DOJ/DHS just issued a "report" getting on the "STOP IMMIGRANTS TO STOP TERRORISM" train:

 

DOJ, DHS REPORT: THREE OUT OF FOUR INDIVIDUALS CONVICTED OF INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM AND TERRORISM-RELATED OFFENSES WERE FOREIGN-BORN

 

Funny thing about that methodology, though. They specifically don't count domestic terrorism for *some reason* (it's mostly white people), and they count people who committed or planned attacks overseas and were extradited to the US for trial as *immigrants*.

 

This 'report' was crafted to reach a "immigrants are bad and scary and we must ban them" conclusion.

 

 

[caulfield12]

Trump apparently didn’t feel so discriminating about Haiti that he was unwilling to take money from the Haitian treasury through a money laundering scheme concocted by former dictator Baby Doc Duvalier. Note the financial ties to Russia beginning even in the 1980’s..

 

 

According to the Buzzfeed News report, the Haitian government complained in the 1980s that former dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier laundered money stolen from the Caribbean nation’s treasury by purchasing an apartment in Trump Tower.

 

Duvalier, nicknamed “Baby Doc,” was overthrown in 1986, but three years earlier used a Panamanian shell company called Lasa Trade and Finance to buy apartment 54-K in Trump’s Manhattan tower for $446,875 cash.

 

Federal prosecutors charged a Russian native in 1984 with laundering the proceeds from a gasoline bootlegging operation through five Trump Tower condos purchased for $4.9 million.

 

David Bogatin pleaded guilty in 1987 and served eight years in federal prison.

 

http://www.nationalmemo.com/haiti-accuses-...y-doc-duvalier/

[Dick Allen]

I still don't understand why DACA is tied into funds for a wall. Trump said Mexico is paying for the wall. According to some, he doesn't lie, it's the reporters who lie when they interpret his remarks incorrectly on purpose. Greg, tell me, when is Mexico wiring the funds?

[Quin]

Bannon subpoenaed to testify before the Grand Jury.

[RockRaines]

I still don't understand why DACA is tied into funds for a wall. Trump said Mexico is paying for the wall. According to some, he doesn't lie, it's the reporters who lie when they interpret his remarks incorrectly on purpose. Greg, tell me, when is Mexico wiring the funds?

He's a real estate genius, we are all just going to get a special assessment send to us for the wall

[StrangeSox]

A lot of this stuff ends up going under the radar thanks to regular racist tirades or displays of total incompetence, but the corruption and ethical breaches in the Trump Administration are really unprecedented.

 

THE MOST UNETHICAL PRESIDENCY: YEAR ONE

 

In the lead-up to President Trump’s inauguration, we at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and concerned people across the United States urged the president to take key steps to avoid corruption and conflicts of interest and demonstrate a commitment to ethical government. The most notable of these demands was that he follow the example of all presidents of both parties for decades and sell his businesses. By the time he placed his hand on the Bible at noon on January 20, 2017, it was evident that he had not done so, and an ethics crisis was brewing. That’s why we filed our first conflicts complaint concerning the president at 12:01 p.m. that day, and a groundbreaking conflicts lawsuit on constitutional grounds shortly thereafter. We hoped President Trump would correct his course, and we worried for the impact on our democracy if he did not.

 

A year later, we at CREW have initiated 180 other legal matters against the president and his administration. It has long since become clear that our initial concerns – and those of so many Americans – were well founded. Indeed, in retrospect they were understated. The Trump administration is confronted by an extraordinary scale and scope of legal and ethics scandals. It is unrivaled in the modern era, and perhaps in the history of the nation, for a first-year administration. The conduct of this administration, from the president on down, threatens our centuries-old tradition of a government that functions to serve the interests of the American people, rather than to serve the interests of those in power. A year in, it is clear that a failure to address this crisis, or a normalization of the corrupt conduct of this administration, risks lasting harm to the country.

 

The problems begin at the top. Indeed, the original sin of the Trump administration was the president’s decision to retain ownership of his businesses. While he has apparently transferred day-to-day management of his businesses to his sons, he continues to own his vast global empire of hotels, golf courses, office buildings, and other businesses; he knows what the companies are, he monitors their activities, he profits when the companies do, and the trust he formed allows him to access those profits at any time. That creates a massive web of conflicts of interest. For virtually every decision President Trump makes, from taxes to environmental regulations to foreign policy, the American people cannot be sure whether he made his decision in the public interest or to benefit his bottom line.

 

President Trump’s conduct in the past year has made clear that the conflicts of interest problem is not just theoretical; it is real. Countries from Saudi Arabia to Malaysia to China have provided business to the president in the form of hotel stays, special events, rental of office space, and the provision of valuable trademarks, among many other transactions that represent not only conflicts of interest but violations of the constitution’s prohibition on emoluments, meaning profit or gain, from foreign governments. The federal government, by allowing President Trump to hold an illegal lease for his Washington, D.C. hotel, and states like Maine, which paid for officials to stay in the president’s hotel, have also provided him with constitutionally prohibited benefits.

 

Meanwhile, President Trump has again and again used his office personally profit, most prominently by spending roughly a third of his days as president at his resorts, but also by constantly promoting his businesses, as he did when he wore hats sold by his campaign to hurricane relief photo opportunities. Those who pay to be members of his club or guests at his hotel obtain access to the president, and the possibility of influencing him, not available to regular Americans. No president in the history of our nation has held businesses creating the kinds of conflicts, constitutional violations, and self-dealing we see with this one.

 

But it does not stop there. A disregard for ethics at the height levels often leads to mushrooming scandal and that is just what happened here. Beginning in January 2017 and continuing through the year, President Trump’s conduct toward the investigation into Russian interference into the 2016 election has been increasingly troubling. Indeed, there is now significant evidence that President Trump may have obstructed justice. That began with his attempts to influence former FBI Director James Comey, demanding Comey’s loyalty and then asking him to back off of the investigation of National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, and continued through his decision to fire Comey and his efforts to discredit the investigation of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, among other problematic actions. While special prosecutors have investigated past presidents, and specifically have investigated them for obstruction, no past president has faced a special prosecutor so early in his term.

 

A president sets the tone for an administration, and when President Trump made clear that he was not concerned with ethics rules, corruption laws, or democratic norms, the message spread like a cancer throughout the executive branch. The result is a vast array of ethics problems and improper influence among White House staff, cabinet officials, and senior agency officials.

 

The broader problems began in the administration’s first days. The appointments of Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, President Trump’s daughter and son-in-law, to senior White House positions violated at least the spirit and purpose of the federal anti-nepotism law, and each of them brought a raft of potential conflicts of interest of their own into their jobs. Both Ms. Trump and Mr. Kushner have business interests that present continuing conflicts, most visibly when the two of them attended a dinner with the Chinese president on the same day that the Chinese government provisionally approved new trademarks for Ms. Trump’s brand. Mr. Kushner’s dozens of amendments to his financial disclosure forms as more and more errors have been discovered, and his omission of significant information on his national security questionnaire, raise additional questions about his forthrightness and about whether he has sought to hide potential conflicts. CREW was among the first to call attention to these issues.

 

Similarly, several of President Trump’s cabinet members have been plagued by conflicts of interest stemming from massive financial holdings or prior positions that conflict with their job responsibilities. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has held on to massive interests in global shipping and natural gas companies, and he appears to have acted on matters that could affect these interests. He also appears to have failed to fully disclose his net worth and his ownership interest in problematic entities including the Bank of Cyprus. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has similarly continued to hold a significant interest in an education-related company that could present a significant conflict. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt attempted to get clearance to participate in cases and matters upon which he had worked, often in direct opposition to the EPA, while serving as Oklahoma Attorney General; ultimately, he partly but not fully backed down. CREW was active in uncovering the problems and demanding real remedies.

 

Ethics rules violations have also been rampant in the administration’s first year. Two senior officials, United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley and White House Social Media Director Dan Scavino Jr., were both found by the Office of Special Counsel to have violated federal law by using official Twitter accounts to post messages in favor of or against candidates for office, and two other officials are under investigation for similar political law violations. Perhaps even more troubling, multiple cabinet officials are under investigation for potential misuse of government resources for travel, with Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price resigning after incurring more than $1 million in travel costs. Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway misused her office to promote Ivanka Trump’s clothing brand, and EPA Administrator Pruitt has spent taxpayer money extravagantly, including on a $25,000 telephone booth.

 

While the president’s executive order on ethics purported to curtail the revolving door between the White House and lobbying in order to “drain the swamp,” in fact it contained significant loopholes, and the administration’s approach in practice has been much worse still. The administration hired multiple lobbyists, waived ethics and conflicts requirements for 17 officials, initially secretly, and worse still, has filled its ranks with numerous senior officials pulled from the industries they are now tasked with regulating.

 

Even as ethics violations and improper influence have become rampant throughout the executive branch, the administration and federal agencies have worked to keep their activities secret, blocking the transparency that allows Americans to uncover abuses and understand who is influencing decision-making. Agencies have been resisting obligations to disclose information under the Freedom of Information Act, and the White House has cut off access to visitor logs, which the Obama administration had made public. EPA Administrator Pruitt even instructed agency employees to avoid making records, in violation of the Federal Records Act, and the White House has appeared to violate the Presidential Records Act including by using messaging applications that do not preserve messages.

 

This report lays out all of these violations of law, ethics rules, and norms and many more, setting out an issue-by-issue accounting of a year characterized by contempt for ethical and legal obligations. Still, it only provides an overview of the administration’s ethics problems – so much is still unknown that we are only beginning to understand the scope of the problem. Nonetheless, looking back on the first year of the Trump administration, it is now clear that the president has operated with a clear disregard for ethics and the rule of law, and this attitude has infected his administration. From the smallest incidents of using official positions to promote hats or clothing to the most damning examples of business conflicts that could influence American foreign policy and systematic obstruction of justice, President Trump and his administration are sending a signal that they view the government as working for them, rather than for the American people. If we want government of the people, by the people, and for the people to continue, it is time for Congress, enforcement agencies, and most importantly the American people to demand an end to the violations and a return to an ethical and lawful government.

[Dick Allen]

Stormy Daniels, the porn star Trump allegedly paid off, although he denies, has a friend who was on Megyn Kelly today. Her friend stated Stormy told her when it happened Trump was chasing her around in his underwear. That would be a sight.

[RockRaines]

Stormy Daniels, the porn star Trump allegedly paid off, although he denies, has a friend who was on Megyn Kelly today. Her friend stated Stormy told her when it happened Trump was chasing her around in his underwear. That would be a sight.

Its funny how many people dont understand what an NDA is.