The Most Hated-- And Least Fit-- U.S. President Ever?

This was the alternative title I decided not to use: Is Putin Paying Trump To Destroy America's Influence And Leadership Abroad?

Trump's unpopularity here in the States has spilled over throughout the free world. (Note: he's still admired in fascist countries). The new Pew Research Center Global Attitudes and Trends survey was released this week shows that our country's global image plummeted since Trump was installed in the White House. Throughout the world there is widespread opposition to his Regime’s policies and a widely shared lack of confidence in his leadership. Pew surveyed 25 countries and found that the U.S. is far less admired than it was during Obama's presidency. People around the world despise Trump. Israel is the exception. Ever watch Fauda?

The poll also finds that international publics express significant concerns about America’s role in world affairs. Large majorities say the U.S. doesn’t take into account the interests of countries like theirs when making foreign policy decisions. Many believe the U.S. is doing less to help solve major global challenges than it used to. And there are signs that American soft power is waning as well, including the fact that, while the U.S. maintains its reputation for respecting individual liberty, fewer believe this than a decade ago.

Even though America’s image has declined since Trump’s election, on balance the U.S. still receives positive marks – across the 25 nations polled, a median of 50% have a favorable opinion of the U.S., while 43% offer an unfavorable rating. However, a median of only 27% say they have confidence in President Trump to do the right thing in world affairs; 70% lack confidence in him.

Frustrations with the U.S. in the Trump era are particularly common among some of America’s closest allies and partners. In Germany, where just 10% have confidence in Trump, three-in-four people say the U.S. is doing less these days to address global problems, and the share of the public who believe the U.S. respects personal freedoms is down 35 percentage points since 2008. In France, only 9% have confidence in Trump, while 81% think the U.S. doesn’t consider the interests of countries like France when making foreign policy decisions.

Critical views are also widespread among America’s closest neighbors. Only 25% of Canadians rate Trump positively, more than six-in-ten (63%) say the U.S. is doing less than in the past to address global problems, and 82% think the U.S. ignores Canada’s interests when making policy. Meanwhile, Trump’s lowest ratings on the survey are found in Mexico, where just 6% express confidence in his leadership.

...The country giving the U.S. its lowest rating in the survey, and the place where the biggest drop in U.S. favorability has taken place over the past year, is Russia. Just 26% of Russians have a favorable opinion of the U.S., compared with 41% in 2017. A 55% majority of Russians say relations have gotten worse in the past year, and the share of the public with a positive view of Trump has dropped from 53% to 19%.

The survey examined attitudes toward five world leaders, and overall Donald Trump receives the most negative ratings among the five. A median of 70% across the 25 nations polled lack confidence in the American leader. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping also receive mostly negative reviews.

...European attitudes toward Trump are strikingly negative, especially when compared with the ratings his predecessor received while in office. Looking at four European nations Pew Research Center has surveyed consistently since 2003 reveals a clear pattern regarding perceptions of American presidents. George W. Bush, whose foreign policies were broadly unpopular in Europe, got low ratings during his presidency, while the opposite was true for Barack Obama, who enjoyed strong approval in these four nations during his time in office. Following the 2016 election, confidence in the president plunged, with Trump’s ratings resembling what Bush received near the end of his second term (although Trump’s numbers are up slightly in the United Kingdom this year).

In several European nations, Trump receives higher ratings from supporters of right-wing populist parties. For example, among people in the UK who have a favorable view of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), 53% express confidence in Trump, compared with only 21% among those with an unfavorable view of UKIP. Similar divides exist among supporters and detractors of right-wing populist parties in Sweden, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Germany. However, it is worth noting that, other than in the UK, there is no European country in which more than half of right-wing populist party supporters say they have confidence in Trump.

A common criticism about American foreign policy over the past decade and a half has been that the U.S. only looks after its own interests in world affairs, ignoring the interests of other nations. As Pew Research Center surveys showed, this belief was especially prevalent during George W. Bush’s presidency, when many around the world thought the U.S. was pursuing unilateralist, and unpopular, policies. Strong opposition to the Iraq War and other elements of Bush’s foreign policy led to rising complaints about the U.S. acting alone and ignoring the interests and concerns of other nations.

Opinions shifted following Barack Obama’s election, with more people saying the U.S. considers their country’s interest, although even during the Obama years the prevailing global sentiment was that the U.S. doesn’t necessarily consider other countries. Now, the Trump presidency has brought an increase in the number of people in many nations saying the U.S. essentially doesn’t listen to countries like theirs when making foreign policy.

This pattern is especially pronounced among some of America’s top allies and partners. For instance, while the share of the French public who believe the U.S. considers their national interest has not been very high at any point over the past decade and a half, it reached a low point near the end of Bush’s second term (11% in 2007), rose somewhat during Obama’s presidency (35% in 2013) and has declined once more under Trump. Today, just 18% in France say the U.S. considers the interests of countries like theirs when making policy.

America’s reputation as a defender of individual liberty has generally been strong in Pew Research Center surveys since we first started asking about it in 2008. The prevailing view among the publics surveyed has typically been that the U.S. government respects the personal liberties of its people, and that is true again in this year’s poll. However, this opinion has become less common over time, and the decline has been particularly sharp among key U.S. partners in Europe, North America and Asia.

The decline began during the Obama administration following revelations about the National Security Agency’s electronic eavesdropping on communications around the world, and it has continued during the first two years of the Trump presidency. The drop is especially prominent in Western Europe, where the share of the public saying Washington respects personal freedom has declined sharply since 2013.

The same pattern is found among several other U.S. allies as well, including Canada, where the percentage saying the U.S. respects individual freedom has dropped from 75% to 38% since 2013, and Australia, where it has gone from 72% to 45%.

White House Push-Back Against Woodward's Book Is... Pretty Anemic

The Diplomat by Nancy Ohanian

You may have noticed that yesterday, Bob Woodward's book leaked and some of Trump's top aides made some very disparaging remarks about his stupidity and his character that make him sound as unfit for any office as many of us suspected all along.

Although many of the people Woodward interviewed, like Gary Cohn, Reince Priebus, Rob Porter, John Dowd, Steve Bannon, have jumped ship-- or were pushed overboard-- Chief of Staff Bill Kelly, John Kelly and others are still hanging around the White House, although probably not for long. Woodward was quoted as saying that Trump was "unhinged" and that "he's an idiot. It’s pointless to try to convince him of anything. He’s gone off the rails. We’re in Crazytown. I don’t even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I’ve ever had."

At a National Security Council meeting on Jan. 19, Trump disregarded the significance of the massive U.S. military presence on the Korean Peninsula, including a special intelligence operation that allows the United States to detect a North Korean missile launch in seven seconds vs. 15 minutes from Alaska, according to Woodward. Trump questioned why the government was spending resources in the region at all.

“We’re doing this in order to prevent World War III,” Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told him.

After Trump left the meeting, Woodward recounts, “Mattis was particularly exasperated and alarmed, telling close associates that the president acted like-- and had the understanding of-- ‘a fifth- or sixth-grader.’”

Rudy Giuliani, Trump's personal p.r. man, scurried over to CNBC and told them "That’s the kind of disloyalty that leads to you leaving, not staying and undermining the president." He said the leakers "should be questioning why they are there” and said they should "get another job." Too late to fire Gary Cohn who was worried about Trump's judgment, reported the NY Times and took a letter from Trump's desk authorizing the withdrawal of the U.S. from a trade agreement with South Korea, according to Bob Woodward's new book. Cohn told an associate that Trump never realized it was missing." We're still in the trade deal.

Moments later, Huckabee's daughter tried to sound authoritative, saying "This book is nothing more than fabricated stories, many by former disgruntled employees, told to make the President look bad." Well, if that was their motivation, they certainly succeeded-- spectacularly.

Jonathan Chait had a somewhat different take than Sarah and Rudy: Everybody in the White House Considers Trump an Idiot. He refers to the book as "tales from the court of the mad king." A case could be made-- and Trump makes it-- that everyone in the U.S. except the Southerners he disparages as "dumb hicks," considers Trump and idiot, not just the people working for him.

Woodward confirms that Trump’s former secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, described him as a “fucking moron,” a fact that has been reported previously. He adds several more officials to the list of people who have blurted out this obvious conclusion.

...Jay Sekulow, tried to argue to Robert Mueller that Trump could not be asked to give an interview because he is a compulsive liar. They literally explained to Mueller how they conducted a mock interview with Trump, and he was so unable to tell the truth that they considered him mentally disqualified from testifying:

Jay Sekulow went to Mueller’s office and re-enacted the mock interview. Their goal: to argue that Trump couldn’t possibly testify because he was incapable of telling the truth.

  “He just made something up. That’s his nature,” Dowd said to Mueller.

It seems somehow unfair to let somebody remain on the job as president because he’s such a compulsive liar he can”t be allowed to testify under oath.

...However dumb and crazy you might think Trump is, the reality always turns out to be even worse.

Bizarrely, Trump didn't tweet about Woodward's book yesterday, at least not 'til the evening, when his self-control dissipated-- and not 'til he got written statements from some of his team. (I wonder who actually wrote the statements.) But that was  probably because, in his reptilian little mind, he didn't want to turn him into another Omarosa. Too late, Señor T; Bob Woodward is already more famous than that-- and way, way more credible (than either of you).

Trump Loves A Parade

Trump already had his parade

Trump, who apparently never bothered reading the Constitution, wants Mr. Magoo to arrest Omarosa and lock her up. Gee, what a sore loser! So far the idiot has fallen into every Trumpian trap she's et for him and he knows exactly what's coming, just not the order it's coming in. All his advisors and relatives and advisor/relatives told him to ignore Unhinged and her self-serving provocations. He didn't have the self-control and he's managed to create a best-seller for her and make her a household name, exactly the opposite of what he hoped to do. What would Mr. Magoo arrest her for? Lèse-majesté?

I bet that kook Supreme Court nominee of his, Kavanaugh, would uphold that.

He's not getting any work done-- and preventing people in the White House who actually do work-- because the only thing on his mind is his death struggle with Omarosa.

Trump's Parade by Nancy Ohanian

Oh, wait! There is one thing the grifter-in-chief still manages to working: his parade-- and how, of course, to steal money by staging it. Remember when he claimed it would "only" cost $12 million to put it on (November 10, a couple days after either the Democrats regain control of Congress or everyone is talking how the Russians did it again). In any case, the new estimate for the cost is... $92 million. That's 80 million more than the original price-- a typical used car/condo/time-share salesman trick, which is what Trump excels at. [UPDATE: The Pentagon put Trump's parade off 'til "next year," apparently hoping he'll be too busy being impeached by them to keep bothering them about a parade.] [UPDATE on the UPDATE: Trumpanzee cancelled the parade altogether this morning, blaming the local DC elected officials, who just happen to be African Americans, always his favorite target for attacks.]

The official also said that experts put to rest concerns about whether the Abrams tank, which weighs just shy of 70 tons, would ruin infrastructure in Washington. Their analysis found that, because of the vehicle's distributed weight and track pads, the streets of the nation's capital would not be compromised.

The parade is also expected to include helicopter, fighter jet, transport aircraft as well as historical military plane flyovers. Troops in period uniforms representing the past, present and future forces will march in the parade, as well.

The ceremony is said to be largely inspired by Trump's front-row seat at France's Bastille Day military parade in Paris.

Trump's Parade II by Nancy Ohanian

Want To See Trump Impeached?

The Weekly Standard is a neo-con Republican publication founded by News Corp (Rupert Murdoch) in 1995. Many of their top writers are conservative ant-Trumpers. I'll bet some of them were watching Trump's favorite TV show Wednesday morning, Fox and Friends, when Brian Kilmeade explained how Omarosa "out-smarted" the obsessed Trump. Remember, while normal heads of state are dealing with issues of war and peace and issues impacting the lives of their countrymen, Trump is fighting childish twitter wars with random imbeciles like himself. Since he managed to worm his way into the White House with the help of the Kremlin, overdose deaths have increased to an all-time high, despite his campaign promises on the subject, and the White House was formed to apologize for lies about black employment figures Trump had just pulled out of his ass.

Trump is inadvertently help Omarosa sell her book and it is sending him into a dark rage. Kilmeade: "She has come out with a series of tapes and in many ways, seems to have outsmarted the president who has taken the bait and gone out and tweeted directly after her." Her strategy for using the senile "president" to accomplish her goals are stunning. You think Putin or Xi couldn't do it much better? This clown is a complete joke on the world stage.

So, getting back to the Weekly Standard. yesterday, one of the editors, Jonathan Last, was fretting about Omarosa's tapes and explaining the uniquely dangerous ground Trump is now on. "I hope," wrote Last, a solid Republican, "there isn’t a tape of Donald Trump using the N-word in a manner that’s clearly meant to be offensive, bigoted, and derogatory. We’ve now reached the stage where the existence of such a tape is not proven, but is more than theoretically possible. We have a recording of Trump campaign aides talking about the potential of such a tape in a manner that suggests they find it within the realm of possibility. And we now have Penn Jillette saying that he was in the room when Trump said-- frequently-- 'racially insensitive things.' (Jillette won’t say exactly what he heard Trump say.) Lastly, we have the bizarre spectacle of President Trump insisting that his former business partner, TV producer Mark Burnett, called him to say that no such tapes exist-- while Burnett himself remains publicly silent." Can you imagine how leaders in other countries are looking at Trump fighting with-- spending all his energy on-- some random person from his old TV reality show?

This is insane... and everyone inside the White House knows it. Trump's base, of course, for whom this is all one great big reality show to take them out of their miserable hateful existences, absolutely loves it. And, no, "hard evidence" in the way of tapes means absolutely nothing to them. Anything can happen on TV to alter reality, right? Last asked about what will happen when the tapes get played publicly. "Do you think he’d lose support from his base? Do you think he’d pay a price for lying about the tape’s existence? Or for using the N-word? I do not. Everything we know about the president's base supporters suggests that there is no straw that will break the camel's back-- only goalposts, receding constantly to the horizon. This is a comment on the character of his base, certainly. But it’s more about how narrow his base already is to begin with. Trump’s approval rating among strong Republican partisans is extremely high: 93 percent of the people who voted for him in 2016 approve of him to this point. His approval among everyone else is dismal: 39 percent among independents; 9 percent among Democrats. Just as a structural matter, he doesn’t have very far to fall with either of these groups. And if the last two years are any guide-- Stormy Daniels, tariffs, denigrating America while praising Russia, the fluffing of Kim Jong-un, personnel scandals-- then Trump is already resting on his foundation.

The Trump presidency is oddly dependent on tapes. Trump’s entire existence is so strange and outside the norms of decent behavior that many of his foibles simply cannot be believed, absent hard evidence. Who would believe that Donald Trump would call reporters pretending to be a publicist in order to brag about himself? If you didn’t have the tapes, no one would. Who would believe that Trump would admit-- almost to a total stranger, while wearing a microphone-- to grabbing women by their genitals and forcing them to do whatever he wanted? Without the tapes, no one would. People have speculated for almost two years about a Russian pee tape that almost certainly doesn’t exist. And everyone will continue to view it as a fantasy. Unless it surfaces. At which point we will all shake our heads and say, “Actually, we should have known...”

The other factor in why you need documentary materials is that the president, his advisers, and his supporters in the media use gaslighting as their primary means of defense. They make frictionless transitions from “no one ever met with Russians,” to “the meeting with Russians was about adoption,” to “of course they met with Russians about getting oppo on the Clintons and why do you have have a problem with that?”

Without tapes, or emails, or hard evidence, Trump World simply denies everything as a matter of course.

The N-word tapes occupy a middle ground in the public consciousness between the Access Hollywood and the Russian pee tape. There is circumstantial evidence to suggest they might exist-- and people within Trump World have privately acted as though they believe the tapes might exist. But so far they remain mythical.

Last made the point that Trump's moron fans won't care if the tapes are released but he worries that when they do come out Trump will be like a cornered rat, refusing to resign, with a cowardly, partisan Senate that won't impeach him. "What then?... The only way Trump leaves is if he loses re-election in 2020. For both good and ill, President Trump is our reality and he will continue to affect the world around him. So now we must imagine what a weakened Trump would be like for the next two years. Do you think he’d knuckle down, start acting like a statesman, and try to unite the country? Or do you think he’d push for more chaos and division in the hopes of somehow drawing to an inside straight (again)? Assuming he does, the only possible downside of such a strategy, from Trump's perspective, would be salting the ground of American political life for any potential successor. And he would view this not as a bug, but as a feature. If you look at the Trump administration and think it can’t get worse, then you haven’t contemplated what a scorched-earth Trump might be like."

But the worst outcome is the one that requires the least speculation and imagination. As things stand right now there are still a handful of norms left in public life. Not saying the N-word is one of them. It would be nice if we could hold on to that norm. If we have a tape of the president of the United States saying it and he suffers no proximate consequences, that norm will be shattered.

Think of it this way: The Access Hollywood tape didn’t break Donald Trump. It broke the Republican party’s willingness to insist that character matters.

How about obstruction of Justice? Yesterday Trumpanzee admitted to the Wall Street Journal that he took away Brennan's security clearance because of his involvement in the Putin-Gate probe. This morning the John Brennan OpEd in the NY Times, President Trump’s Claims of No Collusion Are Hogwash, was pretty conclusive. "Russian denials are," he wrote, "in a word, hogwash."

Before, during and after its now infamous meddling in our last presidential election, Russia practiced the art of shaping political events abroad through its well-honed active measures program, which employs an array of technical capabilities, information operations and old-fashioned human intelligence spycraft. Electoral politics in Western democracies presents an especially inviting target, as a variety of politicians, political parties, media outlets, think tanks and influencers are readily manipulated, wittingly and unwittingly, or even bought outright by Russian intelligence operatives. The very freedoms and liberties that liberal Western democracies cherish and that autocracies fear have been exploited by Russian intelligence services not only to collect sensitive information but also to distribute propaganda and disinformation, increasingly via the growing number of social media platforms.

...The already challenging work of the American intelligence and law enforcement communities was made more difficult in late July 2016, however, when Mr. Trump, then a presidential candidate, publicly called upon Russia to find the missing emails of Mrs. Clinton. By issuing such a statement, Mr. Trump was not only encouraging a foreign nation to collect intelligence against a United States citizen, but also openly authorizing his followers to work with our primary global adversary against his political opponent.

  Such a public clarion call certainly makes one wonder what Mr. Trump privately encouraged his advisers to do-- and what they actually did-- to win the election. While I had deep insight into Russian activities during the 2016 election, I now am aware-- thanks to the reporting of an open and free press-- of many more of the highly suspicious dalliances of some American citizens with people affiliated with the Russian intelligence services.

  Mr. Trump’s claims of no collusion are, in a word, hogwash.

...[H]ow many members of “Trump Incorporated” attempted to defraud the government by laundering and concealing the movement of money into their pockets.

Is there a way to persuade Republican senators that it is in their own best interest to disassociate themselves from Trump? Self-interest. The Democrats are likely to win over 50 House seats in November, perhaps many more than that. But the Senate map for this year is very favorable for Republicans. There is one Senate seat-- one-- that would send Republican senators scurrying: Texas. If Beto O'Rourke beats Ted Cruz, Trump is D.O.N.E.-- done. There is no excuse Republicans can come up for in their minds to write that off. And this week Beto actually came in first in a poll; he's been gaining on Cruz consistently. In 2020, the Senate map is much more favorable to Democrats. At the very minimum, we'll be looking at Cory Gardner (R-CO), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Susan Collins (R-ME), Steve Daines (R-MT) and Thom Tillis (R-NC) all looking over their shoulders and doing the calculus about how much damage Trumpism will do to them. If Last's scorched earth scenario plays out Dan Sullivan (R-AK), David Perdue (R-GA), Pat Roberts (R-KS), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Ben Sasse (R-NE), Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) are suddenly in play as well. Most of those people hate Trump's guts. Almost all of them would vote "guilty" when the House impeaches him-- if they think their careers are on the line. But it all starts with Beto O'Rourke. That's what that Senate thermometer in all about.

Why Don't People Like Trump Personally?

The new Quinnipiac poll asked people if they "like" Señor Trumpanzee as a... um, person. Only 31% do. (59% do not.) Let's break that number down among various demographic groups. They reported on how much each of these groups like him as a person:

• Republicans- 66%
• Democrats- 8%
• Independents- 24%
• Men- 36%
• Women- 27%
• Whites with college degree- 28%
• Whites- 34%
• Blacks- 24%
• Hispanics 19%
• 18-34 year olds- 28%
• 35-49 year olds- 30%
• 50-64 year olds- 36%
• people over 65 years old- 31%

"There's a lot of corrupt that went on both in the campaign and in the White House," said Omarosa. "And I'm going to blow the whistle on all of it." That may be a reason when people don't like him. She also asserted that he knew the content of the stolen (hacked) e-mails before wikileaks released them. That's stunning.



There are lots of reasons for Americans to dislike Trump. The Daily Beast came up with another one yesterday, an Orwellian situation straight out of 1984: Chinese Cops Now Spying on American Soil. And that's more than icky. Start with as many as a million Uighursand other ethnic minorities-- maybe more-- held in concentration camps in northwest China.

As part of a massive campaign to monitor and intimidate its ethnic minorities no matter where they are, Chinese authorities are creating a global registry of Uighurs who live outside of China, threatening to detain their relatives if they do not provide personal and identifying information to Chinese police. This campaign is now reaching even Uighurs who live in the United States.

...At the same time, Beijing has been constructing an experimental high-tech totalitarian regime in Xinjiang. They’ve lined the streets with security cameras equipped with facial-recognition software, created a region-wide DNA database of all residents, and implemented a rating system encoded in every person’s ID card, categorizing the individual as “safe” or “not safe” based on criteria including how often the person prays.

These technologies, first tested on Uighurs and other ethnic minority groups, are now being exported to countries like Pakistan as part of China’s “safe cities” project.

As a result of the growing oppression, many Uighurs have tried to flee abroad. But Beijing has launched an unprecedented global campaign to get them back, or to monitor them where there are. China has used its geopolitical clout to repatriate, forcibly if necessary, Uighurs living or studying in countries from Thailand, Egypt, Turkey, and even the United States. Of those who returned to China, many immediately disappeared, presumably into one of the camps. China also recruits Uighurs living abroad, as detailed in a Buzzfeed report in July.

Now, Beijing is seeking to create a detailed database of those who haven’t returned.

“The reason that Uighurs are a canary in a coal mine,” explained Millward, “the reason that everyone should pay attention to this, even if they aren’t concerned about the fate of this ethnic group, is that these are tools of control that are now being employed by the CCP and are easily applied to other individuals as well.”

“The totalization and securitization of information in China, and then the globalization of that reach, is most apparent with regard to the Uighurs but is by no means limited to Uighurs,” he said.

The growing human rights crisis in Xinjiang, and China’s expanding campaign of control and harassment abroad, has attracted growing attention from U.S. lawmakers and human rights groups. On July 26, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China held a hearing on the crisis there, and lawyers and activists are pushing for the U.S. government to levy sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Act on the Chinese officials directly responsible for the concentration camps.

For Uighurs living in the United States, demands from Chinese police thousands of miles away serve as an unwelcome reminder that nowhere, not even the United States, is free from the long arm of the Chinese state.

The National Circus

Absolute proof that Trump is neither a racist nor a misogynist

Bradley Moss did a good post Monday for Politico, Trump’s Purge of the FBI Is Complete.

The announcement Monday morning that former FBI Special Agent Peter Strzok had been fired likely brings to a conclusion the personnel debate within the bureau regarding the behaviors of certain high-profile officials during the 2016 campaign cycle. Agent Strzok—a counterintelligence expert with particular expertise on Russia—played a significant role not only in parts of the investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s email server but also—in his role as deputy assistant director of the Counterintelligence Division—in the initiation of the still-ongoing probe into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials. He also committed the serious political sin of exchanging private text messages (at least some on a government phone) with Lisa Page, an FBI attorney with whom he was having an affair, in which the two officials expressed their severe distaste for President Trump personally (as well as other candidates). Like former Director James Comey and former Deputy Director Andrew McCabe before him, Agent Strzok was terminated in the midst of a highly politicized environment in which the president of the United States has repeatedly attacked FBI officials by name and denounced the probe of his campaign as a “witch hunt.

...With the firing of Peter Strzok, the president’s purge of senior FBI leadership who helped launch that investigation is now complete. For those wondering whether Trump would allow the bureau to do its job without political interference from the White House, I think we have our answer.

If Trump-world weren't so topsy turvy, someone someone might be tempted to think that all the hubbub about Omarosa is just to distract people away from the FBI story. Or maybe Trump gave Alaska back to Russia and he's trying to distract from that. But no... Trump-world is topsy turvy and his war with Omarosa is more real than the things that real presidents take seriously. She's in his head and she's winning... and he's going bonkers. She's part of the real Donald Trump world, not the fake presidency world that he's mucking up so badly. So first the loony NDAs that Josh Dawsey and Ashley Parker explained so well for Washington Post readers Monday. Señor Trumpanzee's "bitter fight with a former top White House aide," they wrote, "has highlighted his aggressive and unconventional use of nondisclosure agreements to prevent current and former government employees from revealing secrets or disparaging him or his family." The Trumpists tried to get Omarosa to sign one for $15,000/month and she refused, although she had signed one for her campaign job.

Dozens of White House aides have signed NDAs in exchange for working for Trump, who has long relied on such agreements in his business career, according to current and former administration employees. But NDAs have not been widely used by past administrations outside the transition time between presidents, in part because most legal experts believe such agreements are not legally enforceable for public employees.

Copies of Trump NDAs obtained by the Washington Post or described by current and former aides lay out breathtakingly broad prohibitions on behavior and appear to be drawn heavily from similar contracts used in the past by the Trump Organization, the president's family firm.

Under one agreement from the 2016 campaign, signers promised not to "demean or disparage publicly" Trump, his company or any member of his family-- and also not to assist any other politician exploring a federal or state office.

An agreement circulated in the White House last year barred signers from sharing any information they had learned in the building, according to several aides who signed the document.

And the agreement proposed to Manigault Newman after her firing from the White House would have forbidden her from releasing derogatory information not only about Trump and his family, but about Vice President Mike Pence and his family as well.

The rampant use of such nondisclosure agreements underscores a culture-- fostered by Trump himself-- of paranoia, leaks, audio recordings and infighting that has pervaded his dealings for decades and continues into his presidency, according to current and former aides.

...The NDA that she declined to sign prohibited sharing information "including but not limited to the assets, investments, revenue, expenses, taxes, financial statements, actual or prospective business ventures, contracts, alliances, affiliations, relationships, affiliated entities, bids, letters of intent, term sheets, decisions, strategies, techniques, methods, projections, forecasts, customers, clients, contacts, customer lists, contact lists, schedules, appointments, meetings, conversations, notes and other communications" of "Trump, Pence, any Trump or Pence Family member, any Trump or Pence company, or any Trump or Pence Family Member Company."

The proposed agreement also said her nondisclosure promise would last forever, even if the agreement and payments did not.

So two questions arise: 1- you're not even allowed to disparage Fuck-Up, Jr?

And 2- What do people have on Pence?

Aside from a series of deranged tweets from the Asshole-in-Chief yesterday (and Omarosa referring to Trump's Education Secretary as "Ditzy" DeVos), the big news was that the Trumpanzee campaign is trying to get "millions" out of Omarosa through arbitration. That should be an exciting episode. Yeah, so they filed for arbitration "claiming that she broke a 2016 nondisclosure contract by disparaging the president in her new book and revealing private talks from the ultra-secret White House Situation Room." But the NDA was for the campaign, long before anyone ever imagined either of them would ever be allowed to step foot in the Situation Room.

While Manigault Newman has claimed that she did not sign a nondisclosure as part of her White House work or in exchange for a 2020 campaign job that did not materialize, her signing of the agreement during her 2016 campaign work remains in force because it is with the same campaign organization and never went out of force, said the campaign.

“The campaign is holding her accountable for the 2016 nondisclosure,” said a Trump ally.

An official said on background that Manigault Newman has made “egregious” violations of the agreement and as a result they are seeking millions of dollars in retaliation. As the case unfolds, they might also seek any “ill-gotten profits” she has received from the book, including her fee for writing it.

In an arbitration, which both sides agreed to in the nondisclosure agreement, each agree to an arbitrator, often a retired judge, who will hold a hearing and consider evidence. In the end the arbitrator will dismiss the case or issue a penalty. It has the full force of law. Typically the arbitration process moves faster than in a court.

Manigault Newman has 14 days to respond to the Trump campaign’s demand for arbitration.

The media has noted that nondisclosure agreements were common in the Trump organization, as they are in many businesses. And administration aides said that White House officials were also required to sign one.

Often described as the “villain” on Trump’s TV show, The Apprentice, Manigault Newman has remained part of the president’s world for years. She was in the first season of the show. He brought her into the White House as a community liaison but several aides said she was a disruptive force who did not help the president much.

She drew controversy when she brought her bridal party into the White House for a tour. Axios called her time inside the West Wing a “reign of terror.”

Has no one ever noticed that Trump always seems to pick high profile media fights with black celebrities? It sure excites his racist base. He's far worse than even Nixon in this regard. Now, how about introducing a new character into the season? "My name is Lynne Patton and I am a senior official in the Trump Administration." She was the event planner who Trump appointed to head Region II (New York and New Jersey) of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. She did the planning for Eric Trump's wedding, worked in casting for The Apprentice in 2012, and also claimed, on her Facebook page, that she went to Yale, which Yale denies. The Trumps always roll her out when they need a black person to say they're not racists. I don't know if she gets paid extra for that or not. Remember when someone from the Trumpanzee Regime called April Ryan, the White House correspondent and Washington bureau chief for American Urban Radio Networks, "Miss Piggy?" That wast Trump had her put out yesterday:

White House leadership, both past and present, can confirm that I was the closest confidante & friend to Ms. Manigault-Newman during her tenure at the White House, Transition and Campaign-- texting and speaking multiple times per day.

To that end, Omarosa attempted to contact me just two days ago, but I refused to accept her call.

Like Ms. Manigault-Newman, I have also known and worked for both the President and his family for over a decade and am confident that they would collectively confirm that I know them far better than she.

To be clear, at no time did I participate in a conference call with Katrina Pierson advising me, Jason Miller and Omarosa Manigault-Newman that Frank Luntz had heard President Donald J. Trump use a derogatory racial term-- a claim that Luntz himself has also denied.

What I can confirm is the following:

On December 12, 2017, at approximately 11:30PM (EST)-- a date I now know to be the evening Omarosa was relieved of her official duties by General Kelly-- I received a telephone call from her informing me that she had personally heard a second-hand recording of President Trump using the “N-word” in a derogatory fashion.

She proceeded to tell me the full name of the individual who played this second-hand tape for her, from whom the primary audio tape had originated, as well as the specific context of the President’s usage of this term and to whom the derogatory term was allegedly directed.

Omarosa also proceeded to inform me that she had officially submitted her resignation to General Kelly and that I should promptly do the same before the audio surfaced.

The next morning, I immediately notified senior communications officials and a Trump family member of the same, only to discover the true nature of her departure was termination.

Today, the individual who Omarosa confirmed to me as having played the second-hand audio recording to her last year confirmed that they have no tape, never had possession of a tape, never claimed to have possession of a tape and never played such a tape for Ms. Manigault-Newman.

Tonight, on the MSNBC program, Hardball, Omarosa revealed to the general public what she had told me last December: That former Apprentice producer, Bill Pruitt, was the original source of the “N-word” tape. Bill Pruitt is a mutual friend.

I just spoke to Bill Pruitt tonight before releasing this statement.

He confirmed to me (before Hardball had even gone off the air) that he does NOT have an audio tape of President Trump using the “N-word” and has NEVER had an audio tape of President Trump using the “N-word.” Period.

Suffice it to say that the past few weeks have been wrought with disappointment, immense sadness, anger and outright disgust.

Based upon her conflicting accounts and the newfound information revealed in my statement, it should be abundantly clear to everyone that not only is her book a complete work of fiction, but that the existence of this elusive “N-word” tape is a figment of her imagination and merely a destructive tool of manipulation applied only when it best serves her interests.

Like countless other minorities and women, the President has given me the opportunity of a lifetime to rise up through the ranks of The Trump Organization and now proudly serve this country.

Therefore, unless directed otherwise, this will be my only statement on this baseless accusation and imaginary audio tape, as falsely claimed by a former friend.

My primary and sole focus remains the low-income and public housing residents of New York & New Jersey, as the President would expect it to be-- and as the President has hired me to do.

Thank you. 🇺🇸 #MAGA

Fuck-Up, Jr.

Trump has zero credibility. Zero. Omarosa doesn't seems like someone who has much credibility either-- but I don't know for sure. She was just a character on a TV show that Trump dragged into the White House with him-- as much a bad joke-- compliments of Vlad Putin-- as he was. Trump I know for sure. Zero. I'd believe Omarosa over him... cautiously. I mean, no matter what he says, he's lying-- unless the truth is coincidentally self-serving. But the Omarosa part about Trump going after Fuck-Up, jr... That I totally believe. That stands up to examination, regardless of the trustworthiness of the source.

In fact, I was totally dismayed that Saturday Night Live got the family dynamic wrong in regard to Fuck-Up, Jr and Eric. Anyone who has paid attention to the Trumps, knows it was always Jr. who was the family Fredo, not Eric. But Saturday Night Live got it completely wrong and then pounded it in, week after week. What the hell was that about? Why did they do that? Did someone get to them? I would love to know why that happened and how.

Trump blasted his firstborn son as a “fuckup” after learning he had released emails about a controversial Trump Tower meeting attended by a Kremlin-connected lawyer who had promised dirt on Hillary Clinton, according to Omarosa Manigault Newman’s forthcoming book.

Manigault Newman, who was unceremoniously fired from the White House last December, says the President erupted in anger after she met with him in July 2017 and told him she was “sorry to hear” Donald Trump Jr. had posted screen grabs on Twitter of his email exchanges with British publicist Rob Goldstone.

“He is such a fuckup,” Trump said of his son, according to Manigault Newman’s tell-all book, a copy of which was obtained by the Daily News. “He screwed up again, but this time, he’s screwing us all, big-time!”

Omarosa's book was released today. I'll read it-- when all those kidnapped children are returned to their families... and when I've read every other book in my "to read" pile.

My Wonderful Sons by Chip Proser

Fealty At Trump Realty

Trump is the center of Trump-world. Everything else is just a revolving blip on his giant screen. And you better believe when he hires a cabinet secretary of an FBI head or a judge, he expects that person to remember their fealty to him and him alone. Like when Hitler insisted the German military pledge allegiance to him, not to the nation. This is the original Reichswehreid:

I swear loyalty to the Reich's constitution and pledge, that I as a courageous soldier always want to protect the German Reich and its legal institutions, (and) be obedient to the Reichspräsident and to my superiors.

By 1934 it has devolved and become much more personalized-- quite a bit so-- into the Führereid:

I swear by God this holy oath, that I want to offer unconditional obedience to the Führer of the German Reich and people, Adolf Hitler, the commander-in-chief of the Wehrmacht, and be prepared as a brave soldier to risk my life for this oath at any time.

Of course, this isn't the same as Trump's NDAs but it is the same as what he expects from the people he "gives" jobs. So, absolutely, in Trump-world, Omarosa is a "low-life," currently being turned into an arch-villain for the fans before being written out of the script entirely, if he has his way... which he won't since she's already volunteered to give Robert Mueller her trove of Trump-world audio tapes. But imagine how Señor Trumpanzee feels about Judge Dabney Friedrich, who he "gave" a plumb job on the U.S. District court for the District of Columbia, only to see her rule against "him" yesterday in the case nearest and dearest to his heart.

Actually, Dabney, a far right ideologue, ruled that the Russian company that is fronting for Trump, Concord Management and Consulting LLC, was incorrect in arguing that Mueller was unlawfully appointed and lacked authority. She's the forth judge to uphold Mueller's legitimacy. The Kremlin controls Concord Management through a nortorious Putin lackey, Evgeny Prigozhin.

She also slapped down Concord's argument that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein had no authority to hire Mueller to investigate Kremlin interference in the 2016 presidential election. Dabney: "By investigating and prosecuting Concord, the Special Counsel did not exceed his authority."

Judges overseeing the two trials of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort-- D.C. judge Amy Berman Jackson and Eastern District of Virginia Judge T.S. Ellis-- rejected Manafort's bid to invalidate Mueller.

Earlier this month, the D.C. circuit's Chief Judge Beryl Howell issued a lengthy ruling rejecting similar legal arguments offered by Andrew Miller, a longtime associate of Trump confidant Roger Stone, who was attempting to beat back a subpoena to testify before Mueller's grand jury. Miller's lawyer, Paul Kamenar, told Politico on Monday morning that Miller still intends to appeal the decision. Last week, Miller was held in contempt of court for again ignoring the grand jury subpoena, a move Kamenar said was necessary in order to pursue his appeal.

Mueller indicted the Russian company, Concord Management, in February along with 13 individual Russians — including Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The indictment alleges that Concord, Prigozhin's firm, funded and organized an army of internet trolls, the purchase of social media ads and even directed operatives to travel to the United States to set up political rallies. Their goal, Mueller alleged, was to sow discord in the 2016 U.S. election and ultimately assist Donald Trump's candidacy.

Concord pleaded not guilty to the charges and though the indicted Russians aren't expected to participate in the proceedings, the firm tapped American attorneys to represent it in court, a move seen as an attempt to gain insight into the evidence Mueller has gathered.

Though Friedrich upheld Mueller's probe, she did offer a significant nod to his critics: that no laws "explicitly authorize" Mueller's appointment. Rather, she concluded that Watergate-era Supreme Court precedent -- as well as Howell's recent ruling-- found that the Justice Department had the authority. They concluded this "without analyzing specifically how any individual provision combination of provisions accomplished this," Friedrich wrote.

Concord's lawyers had argued that Mueller's appointment was flawed at multiple levels -- and at its core was unconstitutional. Mueller was appointed last year by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. But Mueller's power is so vast, Concord contended, that he should have been subject to presidential nomination and Senate confirmation, rather than treated as an "inferior" officer who may be appointed and supervised by the attorney general. Though Mueller, in theory, reports to Rosenstein, Concord contended that Justice Department regulations prevent Rosenstein from overturning many of Mueller's decisions, giving him an authority that should only be permitted for individuals appointed by the president.

Friedrich agreed that the regulations governing Mueller's probe are ambiguous enough to grant him some sweeping authority, but she found one fatal flaw in the argument: Justice Department leaders may rescind the special counsel regulations at any time. If Attorney General Jeff Sessions or Rosenstein decide to exert more control over Mueller, they can simply rewrite the rules, she noted.

Who's Surprised The White House Is A Dysfunctional, Chaotic Mess?

What Would Freud Do? by Nancy Ohanian

Did anyone ever think a Trump White House wouldn't be the most dysfunctional hell hole in history? Putin sure made the best bet any Russia leader ever made! Monday morning everyone was talking about Omarosa-- what the fuck is that? Did that ever belong in a United States government? "A lowlife," as the asshole who hired her, called her!n She had just given NBC's Today show "an exclusive" on a secretly recorded tape of the former host of The Apprentice. It shows Putin's pick for "president" clueless and "having no idea that Newman had been dismissed by his Chief of Staff John Kelly."

“Omarosa? Omarosa what’s going on? I just saw on the news that you’re thinking about leaving? What happened?” Trump is heard saying on the tape, which Newman said was made one day after her termination in December 2017 when Trump called her.

Newman responds, “General Kelly-- General Kelly came to me and said that you guys wanted me to leave.”

“No…I, I, Nobody even told me about it,” Trump replies.

Newman then says, “Wow,” before Trump reiterates his shock.

“You know they run a big operation, but I didn’t know it,” Trump is heard saying on the tape. "I didn’t know that. Goddamn it. I don’t love you leaving at all.”

NBC News does not know what was said before or after that exchange. The White House had no comment when asked about the exchange between Trump and Newman.

Newman’s disclosure of the recording came just one day after she told NBC’s Meet the Press, in an exclusive interview, that she has personally heard a tape of Trump using the N-word during filming for NBC's The Apprentice-- a revelation she says "confirmed that he is truly a racist."

Like someone didn't know he is a racist?

It's Loony Toons time in the White House

As for his feigned shock at finding out Kelly had fired her? Give me a break. That's his tactic for pushing blame onto his subordinates. It's always a sign of a cowardly and pathetic executive, which is another Trump trait-- as much as his racism-- and another symptom of a dysfunctional, in this case, White House. She told the Today audience that he's a con. What a surprise! Here's Senator Marco Rubio in 2016-- "a con artist":



Here's Mike Bloomberg saying the same thing: "a con."



And here's the classic Mitt Romney 2016 speech pointing out that Trump is "a con man, a fake":



How about Ted Cruz? Republican voters heard it from their own elected politicians over and over and over. And they elected him president of the United States and ushered chaos and dysfunction into the White House:



Dysfunction? Chaos? Please read this OpEd in Politico from the uncle, a retired neuropsychologist, of the White House neo-Nazi, Stephen Miller, who is probably Trump's closest advisor. And is definitely his closest advisor when it comes to immigration policy.

Let me tell you a story about Stephen Miller and chain migration.

It begins at the turn of the 20th century in a dirt-floor shack in the village of Antopol, a shtetl of subsistence farmers in what is now Belarus. Beset by violent anti-Jewish pogroms and forced childhood conscription in the Czar’s army, the patriarch of the shack, Wolf-Leib Glosser, fled a village where his forebears had lived for centuries and took his chances in America.

He set foot on Ellis Island on January 7, 1903, with $8 to his name. Though fluent in Polish, Russian, and Yiddish he understood no English. An elder son, Nathan, soon followed. By street corner peddling and sweat-shop toil Wolf-Leib and Nathan sent enough money home to pay off debts and buy the immediate family’s passage to America in 1906. That group included young Sam Glosser, who with his family settled in the western Pennsylvania city of Johnstown, a booming coal and steel town that was a magnet for other hard-working immigrants. The Glosser family quickly progressed from selling goods from a horse and wagon to owning a haberdashery in Johnstown run by Nathan and Wolf-Leib to a chain of supermarkets and discount department stores run by my grandfather, Sam, and the next generation of Glossers, including my dad, Izzy. It was big enough to be listed on the AMEX stock exchange and employed thousands of people over time. In the span of some 80 years and five decades, this family emerged from poverty in a hostile country to become a prosperous, educated clan of merchants, scholars, professionals, and, most important, American citizens.

What does this classically American tale have to do with Stephen Miller? Well, Izzy Glosser, is his maternal grandfather, and Stephen’s mother, Miriam, is my sister.

I have watched with dismay and increasing horror as my nephew, who is an educated man and well aware of his heritage, has become the architect of immigration policies that repudiate the very foundation of our family’s life in this country.

I shudder at the thought of what would have become of the Glossers had the same policies Stephen so coolly espouses— the travel ban, the radical decrease in refugees, the separation of children from their parents, and even talk of limiting citizenship for legal immigrants— been in effect when Wolf-Leib made his desperate bid for freedom. The Glossers came to the U.S. just a few years before the fear and prejudice of the “America First” nativists of the day closed U.S. borders to Jewish refugees. Had Wolf-Leib waited, his family would likely have been murdered by the Nazis along with all but seven of the 2,000 Jews who remained in Antopol. I would encourage Stephen to ask himself if the chanting, torch-bearing Nazis of Charlottesville, whose support his boss seems to court so cavalierly, do not envision a similar fate for him.

Like other immigrants, our family’s welcome to the USA was not always a warm one, but we largely had the protection of the law, there was no state sponsored violence against us, no kidnapping of our male children, and we enjoyed good relations with our neighbors. True, Jews were excluded from many occupations, couldn’t buy homes in some towns, couldn’t join certain organizations or attend certain schools or universities, but life was good. As in past generations there were hate mongers who regarded the most recent groups of poor immigrants as scum, rapists, gangsters, drunks and terrorists, but largely the Glosser family was left alone to live our lives and build the American dream. Children were born, synagogues founded, and we thrived. This was the miracle of America.

Acting for so long in the theater of right wing politics, Stephen and Trump may have become numb to the resultant human tragedy and blind to the hypocrisy of their policy decisions. After all, Stephen’s is not the only family with a chain immigration story in the Trump administration. Trump's grandfather is reported to have been a German migrant on the run from military conscription to a new life in the USA and his mother fled the poverty of rural Scotland for the economic possibilities of New York City. (Trump’s in-laws just became citizens on the strength of his wife’s own citizenship.)

These facts are important not only for their grim historical irony but because vulnerable people are being hurt. They are real people, not the ghoulish caricatures portrayed by Trump. When confronted by the deaths and suffering of thousands our senses are overwhelmed, and the victims become statistics rather than people. I meet these statistics one at a time through my volunteer service as a neuropsychologist for HIAS (formerly the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society), the global non-profit agency that protects refugees and helped my family more than 100 years ago. I will share the story of one such man I have met in the hope that my nephew might recognize elements of our shared heritage.

In the early 2000s, Joseph (not his real name) was conscripted at the age of 14 to be a soldier in Eritrea and sent to a remote desert military camp. Officers there discovered a Bible under his pillow which aroused their suspicion that he might belong to a foreign evangelical sect that would claim his loyalty and sap his will to fight. Joseph was actually a member of the state-approved Coptic church but was nonetheless immediately subjected to torture. “They smashed my face into the ground, tied my hands and feet together behind my back, stomped on me, and hung me from a tree by my bonds while they beat me with batons for the others to see.”

Joseph was tortured for 20 consecutive days before being taken to a military prison and crammed into a dark unventilated cell with 36 other men, little food and no proper hygiene. Some died, and in time Joseph was stricken with dysentery. When he was too weak to stand he was taken to a civilian clinic where he was fed by the medical staff. Upon regaining his strength he escaped to a nearby road where a sympathetic driver took him north through the night to a camp in Sudan where he joined other refugees. Joseph was on the first leg of a journey that would cover thousands of miles and almost 10 years.

Before Donald Trump had started his political ascent promulgating the false story that Barack Obama was a foreign-born Muslim, while my nephew, Stephen, was famously recovering from the hardships of his high school cafeteria in Santa Monica, Joseph was a child on his own in Sudan in fear of being deported back to Eritrea to face execution for desertion. He worked any job he could get, saved his money and made his way through Sudan. He endured arrest and extortion in Libya. He returned to Sudan, then kept moving to Dubai, Brazil, and eventually to a southern border crossing into Texas, where he sought asylum. In all of the countries he traveled through during his ordeal, he was vulnerable, exploited and his status was “illegal.” But in the United States he had a chance to acquire the protection of a documented immigrant.

Today, at 30, Joseph lives in Pennsylvania and has a wife and child. He is a smart, warm, humble man of great character who is grateful for every day of his freedom and safety. He bears emotional scars from not seeing his parents or siblings since he was 14. He still trembles, cries and struggles for breath when describing his torture, and he bears physical scars as well. He hopes to become a citizen, return to work and make his contribution to America. His story, though unique in its particulars, is by no means unusual. I have met Central Americans fleeing corrupt governments, violence and criminal extortion; a Yemeni woman unable to return to her war-ravaged home country and fearing sexual mutilation if she goes back to her Saudi husband; and an escaped kidnap-bride from central Asia.

President Trump wants to make us believe that these desperate migrants are an existential threat to the United States; the most powerful nation in world history and a nation made strong by immigrants. Trump and my nephew both know their immigrant and refugee roots. Yet, they repeat the insults and false accusations of earlier generations against these refugees to make them seem less than human. Trump publicly parades the grieving families of people hurt or killed by migrants, just as the early Nazis dredged up Jewish criminals to frighten and enrage their political base to justify persecution of all Jews. Almost every American family has an immigration story of its own based on flight from war, poverty, famine, persecution, fear or hopelessness. These immigrants became the workers, entrepreneurs, scientists and soldiers of America.

Most damning is the administration's evident intent to make policy that specifically disadvantages people based on their ethnicity, country of origin, and religion. No matter what opinion is held about immigration, any government that specifically enacts law or policy on that basis must be recognized as a threat to all of us. Laws bereft of justice are the gateway to tyranny. Today others may be the target, but tomorrow it might just as easily be you or me. History will be the judge, but in the meanwhile the normalization of these policies is rapidly eroding the collective conscience of America. Immigration reform is a complex issue that will require compassion and wisdom to bring the nation to a just solution, but the politicians who have based their political and professional identity on ethnic demonization and exclusion cannot be trusted to do so. As free Americans, and the descendants of immigrants and refugees, we have the obligation to exercise our conscience by voting for candidates who will stand up for our highest national values and not succumb to our lowest fears.

Crazy chaos boy wants some attention this morning! And... she's in his ahead (and in control)