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 investigations, committee hearings, firings, resignations and even one or two impeachment charges. Instead Republicans, knowing their time is almost up, brace for November 6th, hoping it won't be as bad as they think. Down deep inside they know it'll be worse. And what gives them nightmares? They have Trump's coat tails to look forward to again in 2020!
A quick 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 reportedly is seriously considering his daughter Ivanka Trump as the new Ambassador to the UN. After everyone's original spit take, he reiterated it again! "Everybody wants Ivanka." She "would be incredible." (10/12)
19) Trump is now calling Dr. Christine Blasey Ford allegations of sexual assault from Brett Kavanaugh a hoax, and then added "people who are evil" tried to bring down Kavanaugh, "a flawless person." Trump, at the ceremonial swearing in, apologized to Kavanaugh's family for their pain, before falsely stating that Kavanaugh was proven innocent. (10/8)
18) Trump, at a rally in Iowa, took part in a "Lock Her Up" chant directed at Senator Dianne Feinstein, apparently because he was upset her office was the beginning of the Dr. Christine Blasey Ford/Kavanaigh investigation. This is pretty scary when you think about it. (10/9)
17) Trump's China trade tariffs seem to be backfiring as the trade deficit with China has skyrocketed. The trade deficit has widened to 34.1 billion, a new record. One analyst pointed out "the immediate effects of the trade war are the exact opposite of what the Trump Administration had been planning." Also announced, in the aftermath of the new trade deal with Canada, a trade deal which ended up giving Canada a whole lot more than the US got in return, Canada is now putting steep restrictions on 7 types of steel products coming into their country. Once again, complete opposite of what Trump promised. (10/12)
16) Trump on Wednesday started playing a game of chicken with the economy, a game he can't win. Most economic analysts are expecting an economic downturn to begin soon. Whether that would be a market correction or an actual recession remains to be seen, but there are plenty of signs the markets are not going sustain this level of growth. On Wednesday, the stock market finished over 800 points lower. Trump blamed the correction on the absolute wrong group of people, the Federal Reserve, who have been cautiously raising interest rates in an attempt to stave off a major economic collapse. Trump, who claimed you could fix the economy by just printing up more money, called the Fed "crazy" for adjusting the rates as they have. World markets responded with a massive drop overnight. (10/10-11)
15) For some inexplicable reason, USA Today printed a Trump signed health care op-ed in their paper without even doing a basic fact check. As you can imagine, the op-ed is full of lies and deception. The main point Trump is trying to make is that even though he stated numerous times health care is a right for all Americans, and after repeatedly promising better health care which would be cheaper, he is against the only option which could fulfill his two campaign promises, opening up Medicare to a single payer system. He said 'Medicare for All' would end Medicare, but in reality it would change it, not end it. Trump quoted Koch Brothers numbers which showed Medicare expansion would cost 32.6 trillion, but failed to mention that would actually be 2 trillion less than what we currently spend on Medicare. Trump claims he has protected people with pre-existing conditions, but truthfully he's gone out of his way to ensure pre-existing conditions are not covered. (10/10)
14) A motion to dismiss a new lawsuit, accusing Trump's campaign of illegally conspiring with Russian agents to disseminate the stolen Clinton/DNC emails before the election, has revealed a jaw dropping argument from the Trump legal team: the courts can't rule against Trump because the release of the e-mails should be considered 'freedom of speech.' Trump's legal team argues they were not part of the theft, and the information disseminated deals in matters of public concern, hence they haven't broken any laws. Putting aside the fact the Trump campaign in no way has been cleared of helping to coordinate the theft of the emails, Trump's team is no longer denying they were involved in the release of the stolen emails, something they'd steadfastly denied for two years. (10/10)
13) Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe and Japanese officials were shocked when Trump brazenly backed a Japanese casino for GOP mega donor Sheldon Adelson. In February of 2017, right after Trump took office, Trump and Adeslon met at the White House. The next day Adelson got a private meeting with the Japanese Prime Minister (somewhat unusual for an official state visit). Afterward, Trump, when meeting with Abe to discuss international relations, stunned the room when he started to openly back Adleson's casino venture. This is wildly inappropriate to bring up an item like this in an official state visit meeting, without previously agreeing to the topic. Trump strongly suggested Abe follow through. Abe sat quietly. (10/10)
11) Trump son-in-law and senior White House Advisor Jared Kushner, likely paid little or no income tax between the years of 2009 and 2016, according to a New York Times report. Kushner's worth over the last decade has risen to somewhere around 324 million, but he seems to have paid no federal income taxes. When approached for comment, Kushner's attorney didn't argue his client hadn't paid his taxes, only that the forms which showed he hadn't paid taxes were illegally obtained. They weren't. (10/13)
10) Trump is golfing for his 210th day since taking office. Since Sunday was his 632nd day in office, Trump has spent a whopping 1/3rd of his time in the White House golfing, not including other non-golfing vacation days he's had. Reminder: Republicans used to complain former President Obama golfed too much. (10/14)
9) To meet a court ordered deadline, the Trump Administration just released hundreds of US asylum seekers in Arizona without following any protocols to ensure they can reunite with family members. There's also a tremendous amount of questions of where these people will stay and how will they get to their court dates. The Administration is claiming to 'help them' by fitting each of them with an ankle bracelet monitor. Meanwhile, Trump's brownshirts, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), sent a four year old home to Guatemala without telling anyone they were shipping her back. This in not the only time ICE has just thrown a child on a plane and flew them back to their country without telling the child's family their child was returning. (10/9,12)
8) In Russian investigation news, Cybersecurity experts have found evidence of suspicious communications in 2016 between a Trump computer and a Russian Bank. A Trump server located in Pennsylvania was reportedly contacted nearly every day in the summer of 2016, up to 200 times between May and September, and these interactions are labeled as actual humans attempting to talk with each other, not just computers talking. The timing of the communications were not random. Only one other entity reached out to the same Trump server over the same time, a computer owned by Spectrum Health out of Michigan, a company chaired by Richard DeVos, husband of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. It's also been discovered Rick Gates, when he was a Trump campaign official, took proposals from an Israeli intelligence firm on how to manipulate social media users. The company, called Psy Group, has handed over the Trump Campaign presentations to the Mueller investigation and some of the company employees have been interviewed by the investigation as well. (10/8)
7) Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is in trouble for outright lying to Congress. Under oath, Ross was asked where exactly the question which asks the citizenship status of the person answering the question, featured in the upcoming 2020 Census, came from. Ross lied. He said it didn't come from him or anyone in the White House. Emails show that the question came directly from former White House Senior Advisor Steve Bannon, while he was serving in the Administration. Bannon got it directly from Trump's anti-Voting Rights Czar, Kris Kobach. (10/14)
6) As reports come to light of Saudi Arabia executing Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a lot of attention is focused on Trump's lack of condemnation of the killing. One major reason seems to be Trump's Middle East strategy. Trump's goal with Israel and Palestine is to side with Israel and allow Palestinians to be imprisoned for cheap labor for Israelis. To get Saudi Arabia on board, they helped with a kingdom coup, allowing certain Arabian princes to be purged so crown prince Mohammed bin Salman would have a clear path to leadership. This has opened up Saudi Arabia to major US arms deals, amongst other things. Still the emboldened execution should garner more condemnation than it has, maybe even the cancelling of certain weapons sales. One reason Trump might be silent is Saudi Arabia is pouring tons of money into Trump properties, properties which would be in extreme financial difficulty without the infusion of Saudi money. Meanwhile, Donald Trump Jr. (Twiddle Dee) promoted a tweet which accuses Khashoggi of being a secret terrorist ally, a boldface lie. (10/11)
5) Trump is trying to hide documents from Congress which show he has installed un-appointed, unconfirmed officials to run the Veterans Administration. Three of Trump's friends, Ike Perlmutter, Bruce Moskowitz and Marc Sherman have apparently been running the VA out of Mar-A-Lago. VA officials deny the three are actually setting policy, but leaked emails show they're indeed doing so. Ranking Democrat on the House Veterans Affairs Committee Tim Walz states "The reports of corruption and cronyism are serious and we cannot allow the VA to sweep this under the rug." (10/9)
4) First a reminder. When Former First Lady Michelle Obama welcomed various poets to the White House in 2011, one of whom was rapper/musician Common, the right wing went bonkers. They accused Former President Obama of having a 'gang meeting,' insisting someone who used the language of Common should NEVER be allowed in the White House. Cue up today, when in one of the weirder moments of this entire fiasco, Trump welcomed Kanye West to the Oval Office for a visit. West ran into the Oval Office and threw his arms around Trump. What followed would best be described as an unhinged subway rant. West told Trump he has been diagnosed with bi-polar disorder, said the Hillary Clinton "I'm with Her" campaign line made him feel less of a man, said his MAGA hat gives him powers like Superman, talked about having "balls," and to cap it all off, West then used the term "crazy motherf*cker." Mind you, ALL of this was not an outtake from Idiocracy. This actually happened in real life. Trump for his part was clearly uncomfortable with Kanye, and hardly said a thing. Most of Trump's aides were "hugely embarrassed" by the craziness. (10/11)
3) Just when you didn't think the Trump Administrations actions toward immigrant children couldn't get worse, a new report out from the AP shows due to loopholes in state courts, state court judges can grant legal custody of a child from immigrant parents to other people in the US. This includes children of parents who have been deported without their children due to no fault of their own. There is also no requirement to notify the parents their child is now officially someone else's kid. Some Republicans are calling this process adoption, but is more correctly labeled US government approved abduction. Such actions are not just a threat, as there have been cases where immigrant children have been given to US families without any notification to the actual parents of the child. Currently there are numerous immigrant children in US custody whose parents have already been deported. To repeat: the Trump Administration can take a person's child at the border, ship the parents back to their original country, and then allow a US family to take custody of that immigrant child. WOW! (10/10)
2) In a bit of a surprise, Trump's Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley announced her resignation. She will stay in her position until the end of the year as speculation begins on who will be her replacement. Reports are Haley was frustrated about her diminished role. National Security Advisor John Bolton steamrolls her decisions at the UN, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has taken a much larger role on the international stage and Evil Jackass Steven Miller has undermined her on refugee issues. She did reiterate she wasn't the author of the anonymous op-ed which ran in the New York Times. She also denied rumors she's planning on running against Trump in 2020. Reports state Haley was one million dollars in debt at the time of her announcement. Her resignation also comes as reports emerge Haley grossly under reported flights she received from South Carolina businessmen by tens of thousands of dollars. (10/9)
1) Trump appeared on 60 Minutes and it went as badly as you would've expected. Leslie Stahl sparred with Trump on a variety of issues. On the instability of the White House, Trump stated it's not chaos, right before stating Defense Secretary Mattis might be leaving soon, implying he's more of a Democrat anyway. "I mean at some point everybody leaves." Trump then insisted he's entitled to hire and fire anyone he wants. In regards to Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was likely executed by the Saudis, Trump said retaliating against them would be bad because of "jobs."(?) When asked about Russian Election interference, Trump stated "How stupid would I be?" Let me leave that there for a second...
Trump then denied climate change, but when pressured, insisted he doesn't not believe it (double negative). He does insist climate change scientists have an agenda. (??) When asked about North Korea, about how they haven't gotten rid of any of their weapons, and are actually building more, Trump insisted "no one really knows." In truth Trump should know, as his daily security briefings mention this. Trump often skips those meetings. When asked about his friendship with a murderous dictator Kim Jong-un, as Stahl listed his crimes, Trump snapped "I'm not a baby. I know these things." (???) When asked what Trump regretted most about his Admisnitration so far, Trump stated being treated unfairly by the media. When Stahl clarified she was asking if he felt he'd made any mistakes, he said he wished he'd done NAFTA sooner. Stahl asked if he regretted ripping young children from their parents at the border and putting them in baby prisons. Trump avoided answering, stating 'there have to be consequences.' He added it was the same policy as former President Obama (an outright lie!!! Obama NEVER had this same policy. This was solely on Trump). Trump railed against the politicians, calling it the "most deceptive, vicious world." When asked to give an example, he said "I don't want to give you an example." He then praised himself repeatedly for the inflated record he has created in his own mind. Stahl said she was going to change the subject, to which Trump complained about how he was being asked questions. He reiterated the 'Obama had the same baby prisons policy' lie. (????) Talking about how the country has been ripped apart by Kavanaugh: "I don't think they want to heal. I want to heal." (?????) When it came to Trump's mocking of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who made accusations against Kavanaugh, Trump repeatedly denied he mocked Ford (he clearly did) "I didn't really make fun of her." When pushed on this, Trump restated Kavanaugh was the one who was mistreated at the hearings, and claimed Dr. Ford was treated with great respect. Referring back to the speech where he mocked Dr. Ford, "Had I not made that speech, we would not have won." (??????!) Yes indeed, NONE of this made any real sense. On the wall behind Trump during the interview was a painting of former Republican Presidents with Trump painted along side. The Trump in the painting was not regular Trump, but a WAY too thin version of him. Who has such levels of narcissism? The same man who told Leslie Stahl on national television, "That''s OK. I'm the President and you're not." (10/14)
Can you imagine what the Republicans would be like if President Obama had admitted he didn't go to his daily National Security Briefings? Seriously! They'd be going ballistic for weeks, with memes which would carry on for years. When that little nugget is disclosed about Trump, it gets completely lost in the insanity of the overwhelming incompetence pile. Remembering the lesser stuff this fool did/does is like remembering brain freezes; it's never pleasant.
#2018IsEverything! Get registered to vote, and know where your polling place is. Help a Democrat running in a Republican district! I know you might be tired, but saving Democracy is not a light weight activity.
And make sure you VOTE!!! Vote early if your state offers it, and then help others get to the polls on Election Day!
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