(Who you gonna to call? SPACE FORCE!!!)
Even though this clown is supposedly on vacation, he still delivers! These are the 20 largest chunks of incompetence coming from Trump and his Administration for this week alone. All the things on this list should lead to ridicule, investigations, committee hearings, firings, resignations and even one or two impeachment charges. Instead we all watch as the Republicans embody Nero, playing their fiddles while they watch Rome D.C. burn to the ground.
Quick note: the next Top 20 will be the week of September 3rd. I'm going to enjoy the last few weeks of summer with the kiddos.
An online search will give you plenty of news options on all of these stories. The ranking is purely on me. Please feel free to disagree and comment why below.
On with the countdown!
20 - Trump aides are sweating out Trump's vacation week at his golf course in New Jersey. Apparently Trump doesn't have a lot of 'structured time,' and when he's unsupervised he has a tendency of getting revved up by friends on the course. There's potential for horrible decisions his staff will have to clean up after the fact. "It was at Bedminster he made the decision to fire James Comey...bashed Mitch McConnell." (8/9)
19 - Trump is furious the NFL players have once again not bowed to his demands. At some early pre-season games, multiple players knelt during the National Anthem, protesting racial injustice in America. Trump reiterated his demand they forgo their Right to Protest and be ordered to stand up. He accused the NFL players of not really knowing what their protesting (an absolute boldface, racially tinged lie). Last year, after Trump threatened to destroy the NFL for allowing such protests, the NFL had their most profitable season ever. New Orleans Saints defensive end Cameron Jordan went further, calling out Trump for attacking black athletes protesting while he says nothing about neo-Nazis marching in DC this weekend. (8/10)
18 - Continuing with the bizarreness of Trump, Space Force actually looks like a thing the Administration is going to try to make happen. Vice President Mike Pence had a policy speech where he said we can't lose 'space supremacy,' touting a military-esque version of NASA (I guess to go beat the crap out of Neptune???). Many scientific experts and policy experts quickly trashed the idea of potentially wasting billions on a space based military force, but Trump chimed in, tweeting "Space Force all the way!" WOW! (8/9)
17 - The Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke wrote an op-ed for USA Today about the wildfires in California. In the editorial, he avoids talking about climate change, and the impacts of climate change, (like the California Wildfires), instead blaming the wildfires on "radical environmentalists." (8/8)
15 - First Lady Melania Trump's parents have become US citizens using the EXACT same process (allowing naturalized US citizens to bring in family into the US) that Trump wants to eliminate for (non-white) naturalized US citizens. (8/9)
14 - Proving Trump is just a cruel SOB, reports are he plans on holding back the $200 million in relief aid Congress had already dedicated to Palestinian civilians in the West Bank and Gaza. The living conditions for these people is horrific, and the Israelis only allow certain countries to give Palestine aide. This would be pretty much all of the humanitarian aid the US grants Palestinians directly, and comes on the heals of Trump's cuts in contributions to the UNRWA, the UN agency which assists Palestinian refugees. Trump's decision to do this seems to have originated with Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner. (8/12)
13 - Trump attacks the FBI on Twitter (again), this time for not handing over all their files on former Deputy Director Andrew McCabe to a NON-government, private conservative advocacy group, Judicial Watch. The same man who refused to release his tax returns for review is now proposing good governance means Government agencies handing internal documents to privately run, far right conservative groups. He then insisted the reputation of the FBI is permanently ruined. Reminder: Trump believes the FBI, as part of a grand conspiracy against him, let him WIN the election. GENIUS! (8/11)
12 - White House spokeswoman Kellyanne Conway sounded like an idiot when she was asked on ABC's This Week to name an African American advisor working in the West Wing with Trump. Asked to followup on Omarosa Manigault Newman's claims of racism in Trump's White House, Conway claimed she'd never heard anything, even though her husband was allegedly the target of Trump's racism (spoiler). When asked about black advisors on the White House staff, she first stated Ben Carson, the Housing and Urban Development Secretary, a person who is NOT on the West Wing staff. She then alluded to someone named 'Jeron,' but when asked if 'Jeron' has an office in the West Wing, she admitted he actually works out of the Executive Office building, not in the West Wing. She finally ducked away from the question by stating the host was focused on African Americans only, and that there were other minority individuals working for Trump. (8/12)
11 - Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross might be a crook, as Forbes Magazine describes him as "among the biggest grifters in American history." A new report says he might have wrongly siphoned more than 120 million dollars from business associates. The people cited in the investigation also say "he's a pathological liar," "pushing to the edge of truthfulness and using whatever power he has to grab assets." They describe a man obsessed with money. Ladies and Gentelmen, the Commerce Secretary... (8/7)
10 - Former Trump Campaign Aide and former Paul Manafort Business partner Rick Gates testified at the trial of Manafort. Gates admitted to committing multiple crimes with Manafort, Trump's former Campaign Chariman. He stated he and Manafort had 15(!!!) overseas accounts that weren't reported. After being accused by Manafort's lawyers of embezzling millions of dollars from Manafort, Gates did admit to cheating Manafort out of several hundred dollars via false expense reports. (8/6)
9 - Trump's Election Integrity Czar, Kris Kobach is now ignoring the findings of his own committee, findings which state there's no widespread voter fraud, voter fraud Trump and Kobach have long insisted did happen. Kobach tried to counterpoint his own committee's finding by pointing to numerous cases of alleged voter fraud. His co-chair, Maine Secretary of State Matt Dunlap, stated all of those alleged cases were investigated by the committee and none of them had any merit or evidence to back them up. They were fiction, "absolutely without basis in fact." (8/6)
8 - Trump, while on his vacation, welcomed 'Bikers for Trump' to his Bedminster Golf Course in New Jersey. Most of the rally was Trump bashing on Omarosa Manigault Newman (the former White House staffer with a book coming out) Harley Davidison motorcycles, and he repeatedly attacked the media. No one in the Administration thought it'd be a good idea to screen the patches and tattoos of the bikers Trump posed with. One biker right next to Trump is clearly seen with a jacket patch stating "I 💟guns and titties." (apologies if you're offended) Another one of the biker rapscallions is proudly sporting a Nazi 'SS' tattoo. A further examination of this bikers Facebook page(?) shows a man with proud ties to the Nazis. That man was allowed on the stage. Trump a day earlier, a year after the Charlottesville white supremacist rally which left one woman dead, stated he has no tolerance for racism. Apparently he does tolerate it, as long as it's on a biker standing next to him. (8/11)
7 - Once again, considering the messenger I'd be careful about taking this for fact, but there are more allegations coming from former White House staffer Omarosa Manigault Newman, as she gets ready to release her new book. Omarosa claims Trump has made racist comments about staff and their family while in the White House, particularly going after Kellyanne Conway's husband. She claims she believes there are tapes of Trump using the N-Word for African American on the set of his TV show The Apprentice. She also claimed she was offered $15,000 per month (180K per year) to keep her mouth shut in regards to Trump and his activities on both the TV show and in the White House, with the offer being presented to her by Eric (Tweedle Dum) Trump's wife, Lara Trump. The money would've come from the Trump re-election campaign. While the racism in the White House has been known, as well as the rumor of racist comments made by Trump on the Apprentice, it's the $15K which has some people's attention. Trump's former bodyguard Keith Schiller is also getting $15K a month, but his money is being routed through the RNC. Questions on whether Schiller's $15K is to keep his mouth shut haven't be answered. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders states Omarosa's entire book is lies. (8/10)
6 - As expected, China has lashed back at the US with new tariffs on a wide variety of US products. The total of new tariffs from China is around 16 billion. The products affected are cars and crude oil products, like grease, asphalt and vaseline. An interesting stat shows imports to the US from China are pretty much staying the same, and Chinese exports as a whole (worldwide) are actually increasing. While China has yet to feel the real pain of US tariffs, many US industries are already being hurt by Trump's unnecessary and foolish trade war. Due directly to Trump's tariffs on steel and aluminum, a South Carolina TV assembly plant is closing down entirely. The plant's management did not mix words, claiming their closure is a direct response to Trump's tariffs. (8/7-8)
5- Trump has decided to get into a border dispute with Canada. Mathias Seal Island is a Canadian island off the coast of Maine. There are no trees on the 20 acre sliver of land, only a lighthouse with a few people operating it. The waters around the island have traditionally been both countries to work, but US border agents are detaining Canadian lobster boats who are found in US waters around the Canadian Island, and the US is stopping Canadian bird watching groups from visiting the island. This harassment, which has never happened before, began after Trump and Trudeau sparred at the G7 Summit. (8/11)
4- After a near disastrous night of primaries, special elections and ballot questions for Republicans, Trump brags about the outcome and insists he went 5 for 5 for Tuesday's Primary Election Day. The reality, the Republicans look like they BARELY held onto a +7 R House seat in the OH12 district, a seat they won by 135,000 votes only 20 months ago, a seat they had to outspend the Democrats 3 to 1, not including the dark money advantage. Also an anti-union bill was firmly trounced in Missouri, not exactly a liberal stronghold. Most experts point to Tuesday being an ominous sign for the Republicans for November, with speculation being that 40-60 GOP seats might end up in Democrat hands. Still Trump claimed victory, especially in primary elections where he endorsed a handful of candidates. It's unclear if he understands the primaries only mean the winner is the official GOP candidate come November, not that they are the overall winner. (8/8)
3 - The reunification of immigrant children with their parents is at a stand still, as the federal government isn't having a lot of luck locating the parents they deported before their children were given back to them. In the last week, the number of children under US care has only dropped slightly from 572 to 559. The government is whining because apparently it's hard to locate people they've thrown out the country. One might say they probably shouldn't have shipped them off without their kids, but then again, they probably shouldn't have ripped the kids away from the parents in the first place. (8/10)
2 - Omarosa Manigault Newman is proving be a massive headache for Trump's White House. On Meet the Press, she played for the show a secret audio recording she made of her firing by Chief of Staff John Kelly. When asked if she was being fired or forced to resign, Kelly clearly downplayed the firing. Kelly also put a threat out; "Things can get ugly for you." Omarosa says this proves the story of her running around the White Hosue after she was fired was false. On a separate but far more concerning note, the same people furious about Hillary Clinton's email issues seem to have no problem with someone smuggling a personal cell phone into a (supposedly) secure, intelligence sensitive area of the White House, AND said individual was able to record. That's an astounding breach of US security. Earlier, Omarosa had told TMZ many staffers in the White House are having sex. When the name Hope Hicks was brought up, a woman who is closely tied to Trump, she just smiled and left. (8/12)
1 - The real death toll for Hurricane Maria has been released; 1427. This after the Trump Administration kept insisting only 64 people had died on the hurricane ravaged island. This number includes people who died during the storm and people who died of storm related issues for up to a few months after the storm struck. (8/9)
Just on Trump's failures in Puerto Rico alone we should throw his worthless caboose out of office.
Sometimes this gets so damn overwhelming...you need to find your happy place.
#2018IsEverything. The Minnesota Primaries are over. Tim Walz, Tina Smith, and Ilhan Omar are some of the winners. Focus your attention on the main prize in November. Vote Blue and we'll start pulling the United States back from the brink. More Countdowns in a few weeks.
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