These are the 20 most boneheaded things coming from Trump and his Administration for this week. All the things on this list should be the catalyst for investigations, committee hearings, firings, resignations and even (by my count of this weeks list) up to five impeachment charges. Instead, Trump is starting to cosplay the role of an evil dictator while Congressional Republicans act like an absentee parent being forced to attend their kid's Science Fair.
On with the countdown!
20 - Hillary Clinton effectively trolled Trump, while keeping up with a Yale tradition of their commencement speakers wearing hats. She wore a Russian hat, telling the students "If you can't beat them, join them." She got a rousing ovation. (5/20)
19 - The BBC is trolling Trump with pictures of the Royal Wedding crowd size, which was massive, and comparing it to his paltry crowd size numbers for Trump's sparsely attended Inauguration. (5/19)
18 - Trump decided to pass on attending the dedication ceremony for the new US Embassy in Jerusalem, Israel, instead sending a contingency of Senior Administration officials, Trump/Republican bankrollers and Trump daughter and White House staffer doing...something (???), Ivanka Trump. Trump's schedule for that day was listed as being completely wide open; there's literally nothing on his schedule for the day (something which should warrant it's own countdown position). By the way, most Middle Eastern experts now say peace in the Middle East is impossible with Trump's embassy move. 58 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces at the border, as the dedication ceremony took place. (5/14)
17 - Former Trump Campaign Manager Paul Manafort's former son-in-law Jeffery Yohai has made a deal to cooperate on multiple criminal probes in regards to Robert Mueller's investigations. It's believed Yohai will specifically be used to apply pressure to Manafort, who recently had another judge deny his attempt to have Mueller's charges against him dismissed. (5/17)
16 - Congress is putting the breaks on Trump's attempt to privatize the International Space Station. Trump wants to divert the money from the ISS to either getting the US to Mars, or getting the US back to the moon, without any additional NASA funds. Congress has pointed out, since the US would still have to pay to send astronauts and supplies to the station, the savings would be so minimal (a few million at best) NASA wouldn't be able to fund any new major space programs. Plus we'd be out one space station. (5/18)
15 - Trump misspells his wife Melania's name in a tweet. He referred to her as Melanie. A reminder: Trump claimed his Administration would be the most detail oriented Administration, EVER! (5/19)
14 - Trump has asked the Postmaster General, Megan Brennan to double Amazon's shipping rates, because he hates the CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos. Brennan has had to repeatedly tell Trump these are contracts which can't be broken, contracts which are subject to review by regulartorty commission, hence she can't do it, even if she wanted to. (5/18)
13 - In more bad news for American farmers, Bloomberg reports Chinese soybean orders from Russia have tripled as the Chinese are actively signing soybean delivery agreements with countries which are not the United States. It's unclear what Trump and the Administration are trying to do to counter this war on our agricultural sector. His chief Chinese trade negotiators, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and White House Economic Advisor Peter Navaro are apparently fighting, having profanity laced screaming attacks with each other. (5/17)
12 - It's revealed Trump talks with Fox News host Sean Hannity almost daily, even multiple times a day, getting advice and railing against Trump and Hannity's perceived enemies. Can you imagine the outrage right now if it was discovered President Obama was talking with Michael Moore or Keith Olbermann on a nightly basis about being President? There'd be immediate hearings in Congress, with some vocal calls for impeachment. (5/15)
11 - The Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos visits New York City and is still refusing to visit any public school. The VAST majority of schools in this country are public schools and she still has yet to visit one. She did visit two religious schools, and blasted the idea tax payer money couldn't be used for private religious school education. (5/19)
10 - Trump's trade war stare down with the Chinese has resulted in failure. The Chinese are refusing to agree to Trump's demands for $200 billion in cuts to the Chinese/USA trade deficit, refusing to set specific figures. They did say they plan on importing more American products, but insist it only has to do with their population growing, NOT any additional demand, and definitely not due to any threats from Trump. The White House is claiming victory, but, with China calling their bluff, they've announced they're dropping the threats of tariffs against China, with no concessions to the US. (5/20)
9 - Prior to Trump negating the Iranian Nuclear Deal, our European allies sent him a five page condensed explanation of why it would be a HUGE mistake to negate the deal. Apparently Trump never even bothered to read the 5 page document. The US' European allies are furious with Trump's self imposed ignorance. (5/15)
8 - Donald Trump Jr. (Tweedle Dee) has been caught having met with foreign agents during the campaign to help his father secure victory. He met with Saudi Arabian and UAE princes who had pledged to help Trump win, and he also met with a social media maniluption company, a company from Israel which specializes in online manipulation, using thousands of fake social media accounts. The Israeli company is named Psy-Group, who's motto is "Shape Reality." It's unsure the outcome of those meetings, but Psy-Group had taken the next step to consult with an American law firm about the legality of what they wanted to do in the US, implying they were given a 'go ahead' by Trump Jr. (5/19)
7 - Ruh-Roh! It seems Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos' brother Erik Prince, the founder of military contractor Blackwater, has been caught lying under oath to the House Intelligence Committee. Under oath, Prince had denied there was any contact between himself and the Trump campaign. A New York Times article shows he did indeed, on August 3rd, 2016, facilitate high level meetings between Trump Jr./Trump Campaign and foreign agents. Prince set up a meeting with the princes from Saudi Arabia and from the United Arab Emirates. He also set up the meeting with the social media expert from Israel, who had Israeli government ties. (5/19)
6 - Sounding more like an evil dictator, Trump's demanding the DOJ investigate whether or not the FBI-DOJ infiltrated and surveilled the Trump Campaign, and if Obama was behind it. What he's referring to is a report an FBI informant approached George Papadopoulos, a horribly incompetent member of the Trump team who blabbed to the Australians the Trump camp was aware of the Russians having the Hillary Clinton e-mails. The approach seems to have been about determining if the Trump campaign had been compromised, but Trump, scared his BFF Roger Stone is looking to be the next guy charged in the Mueller investigation, is insisting this is proof his campaign (which won the election) was infiltrated. He's just trying desperately to find some way to discredit and shut down the Mueller investigation. (5/20)
5 - Trump creates a masterpiece of stupidity in tweet form. He claims the leaks from the White House are fake, created by the media to make him look bad. IN THE VERY NEXT SENTENCE OF THE SAME TWEET, he calls leakers traitors and cowards and vows to find out who they are. WOW! (5/14)
3 - A lot more shocking discoveries with the release of the Senate Intelligence Committee's documents of the Trump Tower meeting, and the Trump/Russia investigations. Trump Advisor and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner has claimed publicly he wasn't interested in the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting, but we now find out he personally was livid when Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya didn't deliver the knockout punch the Trump camp thought they were going to get. Donald Trump Jr called a blocked number right before and right after the meeting. He says he doesn't recall who he phoned, but his father had a blocked number at the time. It's also been proven the Kremlin used the National Rifle Association to funnel money directly into the Trump campaign. Two Russians are confirmed to be the point people for working with the NRA, and the NRA seems to have been aware of the entire scheme. These Senate Intelligence Committee revelations prove the House Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee, with their sham findings from earlier this year, were defending Trump, outright refusing to perform their duty of oversight. (5/16)
2 - Trump's horrible negotiation style rears it's ugly head again. Like a corrupt businessman, he always starts with the most extreme position and tries to work his way back from there. That's not how diplomacy works. Not only has that derailed his attempts at trade negotiations, it now seems to be derailing his attempts at peace with North Korea. Mind you, most of the negotiations up until this point have bene done by the South Koreans and the Chinese, but when the USA let the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un know what we wanted (a complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula PRIOR to the US making any concessions) it was a WAY too extreme starting point. National Security Advisor John Bolton called for 'the Libyan Model,' which led to Libya's former leader being killed in the streets. Anything like, or remotely similar to, 'the Libyan Model' is a non-starter for peace talks, leading some to ask if Bolton was purposely trying to derail them. Realizing North Korea is starting to balk at such an extreme opening salvo, Trump himself tried to walk back Bolton's Libyan definitives. As of right now, it seems peace on the Korean Peninsula might not happen due to the White House's ham handed negotiation style. (5/20)
1 - There is brazen, and then there is BRAZEN. Three days after the Chinese government agreed to put up a half a billion dollars for an Indonesian project which will benefit Trump's personal business (a transaction which undeniably should be getting a tremendous amount of scrutiny itself) Trump seemed to reverse course on a few different campaign promises. Trump has ordered a US bailout of a Chinese government owned cellphone maker, a cell phone company who's been accused by our intelligence officials of helping the Chinese Government spy on the US, and their phones are currently banned from being used on ALL US military bases. The company, ZTE, doesn't have a US presence, and it's unsure if any of their parts are purchased from the US (although it's unlikely). Trump's ordering the US Government to help prop up a foreign company in a foreign country, a move which won't benefit American workers. The White House is refusing to answer whether there's a connection between the two actions (the Chinese Indonesian investment and Trump's gift to ZTE), with Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah telling media they should contact the Trump Organization (the private business) for details. To reiterate: the White House told the media to contact a private business for answers on official Government business. WOW! (5/15)
Every freaking week there's SOMETHING Trump and his Administration does which warrants at least a discussion about impeachment, but Republicans are hoping...no PRAYING you forget everything. Unfortunately, apathetic independents and Democrats are usually too freaking happy to oblige and not participate. Not this year!
The Republicans know the country is furious about where we are at, and are terrified of what might happen this November. To keep his far right base in line, Trump is outright pandering to them. He's putting forward new abortion restrictions and talking about a possible tax cut in November, attempting to dangle carrots in front of his mules.
#2018IsEverything! If we don't take back the US House (amongst numerous other seats) your outrage will have been for nothing. Find five Democrats running in seats currently held by Republicans and vow to help them with a donation or by volunteering in some way this summer!
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