The Trump Presidency – 2016

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by albionmoonlight

HA!

In a strange way Trump is managing to be the most transparent President in this country's history.

[ISiddiqui]

Originally Posted by Thomkal

And the next contestant on "Who wants to be my Communication Director is?:

Hope Hicks bio, age, salary, photos: Trump new communications director - Business Insider

"Can a FEMALE Trump Communication Director ever be called "hot"?"

[Kodos]

Originally Posted by ISiddiqui

"Can a FEMALE Trump Communication Director ever be called "hot"?"

Her elbows are too pointy.

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by ISiddiqui

"Can a FEMALE Trump Communication Director ever be called "hot"?"

I'm the wrong person to answer that here

[Thomkal]

The business CEO's not the only ones to react to Trump's words:

US military leaders condemn racism - CNNPolitics

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by Thomkal

The business CEO's not the only ones to react to Trump's words:

US military leaders condemn racism - CNNPolitics

I just hope his response to this isn't, "Rather than putting pressure on the people of the USA and North Korea, I am ending them both. Thank you all!"

[JPhillips]

Originally Posted by ISiddiqui

"Can a FEMALE Trump Communication Director ever be called "hot"?"

I'm not sure I believe she's only 28.

[albionmoonlight]

Also, why did a guy so incapable of taking advice have an advisory counsel anyway?

[pbot]

Originally Posted by albionmoonlight

Also, why did a guy so incapable of taking advice have an advisory counsel anyway?

Ego boost. They all had to sit in the room and listen to him.

[JPhillips]

Originally Posted by pbot

Ego boost. They all had to sit in the room and listen to him.

Yeah, he got to tell all these CEOs how to run their businesses.

[Toddzilla]

Originally Posted by albionmoonlight

Also, why did a guy so incapable of taking advice have an advisory counsel anyway?

He wanted to be able to some how equate himself with actual successful and very wealthy business people.

[RainMaker]

Did they ever meet? The one he put together on infrastructure hasn't met yet.

This tweet did not age well.

For every CEO that drops out of the Manufacturing Council, I have many to take their place. Grandstanders should not have gone on. JOBS!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 15, 2017

[NobodyHere]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

Did they ever meet? The one he put together on infrastructure hasn't met yet.

This tweet did not age well.

For every CEO that drops out of the Manufacturing Council, I have many to take their place. Grandstanders should not have gone on. JOBS!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 15, 2017

If only he had tweeted "Cut off one head, two more shall take its place. Hail Hydra!!!"

[RainMaker]

Trump Lawyer Forwards Email Echoing Secessionist Rhetoric - NYTimes.com

[Logan]

Originally Posted by Easy Mac

I have the transcript of Trump's next exchange:

TRUMP: Well, the jerk store called. They're running outta you!

CEO: What's the difference? You're their all-time best seller!

TRUMP: Yeah? Well, I watched your wife piss on your sister!

Fixed.

[Ryche]

Amazing how many people are more upset about football players sitting during the national anthem than Nazis marching with torches and swastikas

[panerd]

Originally Posted by Ryche

Amazing how many people are more upset about football players sitting during the national anthem than Nazis marching with torches and swastikas

What world are you living in? This is major news everywhere and there is major outrage everywhere. And you act like it has to be an either/or. I hate the anthem protests and their overcoverage and hate the Nazi shit (along with 99% of the country)

Take this board for example... what is it Tarcone and JiMGa that lean Nazi if even that? There were a lot of us irritated with the anthem stuff. The media wants it to be L/R but it's anything but.

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by panerd

What world are you living in? This is major news everywhere and there is major outrage everywhere. And you act like it has to be an either/or. I hate the anthem protests and their overcoverage and hate the Nazi shit (along with 99% of the country)

Take this board for example... what is it Tarcone and JiMGa that lean Nazi if even that? There were a lot of us irritated with the anthem stuff. The media wants it to be L/R but it's anything but.

I think the statement was in regards to right-wing people. They were very upset about the anthem and are furiously defending white nationalists.

[Ryche]

Originally Posted by panerd

What world are you living in? This is major news everywhere and there is major outrage everywhere. And you act like it has to be an either/or. I hate the anthem protests and their overcoverage and hate the Nazi shit (along with 99% of the country)

Take this board for example... what is it Tarcone and JiMGa that lean Nazi if even that? There were a lot of us irritated with the anthem stuff. The media wants it to be L/R but it's anything but.

What world are you living on? We're on a left leaning board with 2. You really think the real world is skewing 99%. Hell, I have family this is true of.

I don't like the anthem protests either. But I'm a hell of a lot more lenient on that than I am on Nazis.

[Edward64]

Great interview with Bannon.

Bannon Tells Magazine About His White House Feuds Over China - Bloomberg

Bannon never intended for his conversation with the magazine’s co-editor Robert Kuttner to be published, according to a person familiar with Bannon who asked not to be identified. The publication comes as there is speculation that Bannon’s job is peril, reportedly over Trump’s discomfort with the credit Bannon gets for being the intellectual force behind the administration.
:
According to Kuttner, Bannon told him he reached out because he agreed with Kuttner’s past writings on China. Bannon rarely speaks with reporters on the record, let alone a liberal-leaning magazine.

In a telephone interview, Kuttner said the issue of whether his conversation with Bannon was off the record never came up, even indirectly. “He phoned and began by saying how much he agreed with my work on trade and it just went from there. He knows the rules. It’s on the record unless someone puts it off.”

Definitely agree with him on China. Surprised at his NK comment. Liked his comment on the Nazi's.

I wonder how he differentiates between alt-right, white supremacists and neo-nazi?

Bannon said he favors pushing back against Chinese economic expansion, arguing only one country will emerge as a leader from what he described as an "economic war."

“To me, the economic war with China is everything. And we have to be maniacally focused on that. If we continue to lose it, we’re five years away, I think, ten years at the most, of hitting an inflection point from which we’ll never be able to recover," he said.
:
Bannon also dismissed speculation that the U.S might consider using military action against North Korea to get the regime there to abandon its intercontinental ballistic missile and nuclear weapon programs. Trump recently vowed to deliver "fire and fury" onto North Korea.

"There’s no military solution, forget it," Bannon said. "Until somebody solves the part of the equation that shows me that ten million people in Seoul don’t die in the first 30 minutes from conventional weapons, I don’t know what you’re talking about, there’s no military solution here, they got us.”
:
In the interview, Bannon also dismissed the so called far-right that he helped organize and inflame when he led Breitbart News and during Trump’s 2016 campaign.

"Ethno-nationalism — it’s losers. It’s a fringe element. I think the media plays it up too much, and we gotta help crush it, you know, uh, help crush it more," he said. "These guys are a collection of clowns."

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by Edward64

Definitely agree with him on China.

If only there'd been some sort of trade deal that would have pushed back against Chinese economic expansion.

Unrelated:

Trump’s Trade Pullout Roils Rural America - POLITICO Magazine

EAGLE GROVE, Iowa—On a cloud-swept landscape dotted with grain elevators, a meat producer called Prestage Farms is building a 700,000-square-foot processing plant. The gleaming new factory is both the great hope of Wright County, which voted by a 2-1 margin for Donald Trump, and the victim of one of Trump’s first policy moves, his decision to pull out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

For much of industrial America, the TPP was a suspect deal, the successor to the North American Free Trade Agreement, which some argue led to a massive offshoring of U.S. jobs to Mexico. But for the already struggling agricultural sector, the sprawling 12-nation TPP, covering 40 percent of the world’s economy, was a lifeline. It was a chance to erase punishing tariffs that restricted the United States—the onetime “breadbasket of the world”—from selling its meats, grains and dairy products to massive importers of foodstuffs such as Japan and Vietnam.


The decision to pull out of the trade deal has become a double hit on places like Eagle Grove. The promised bump of $10 billion in agricultural output over 15 years, based on estimates by the U.S. International Trade Commission, won’t materialize. But Trump’s decision to withdraw from the pact also cleared the way for rival exporters such as Australia, New Zealand and the European Union to negotiate even lower tariffs with importing nations, creating potentially greater competitive advantages over U.S. exports.

A POLITICO analysis found that the 11 other TPP countries are now involved in a whopping 27 separate trade negotiations with each other, other major trading powers in the region like China and massive blocs like the EU. Those efforts range from exploratory conversations to deals already signed and awaiting ratification. Seven of the most significant deals for U.S. farmers were either launched or concluded in the five months since the United States withdrew from the TPP.

“I’m scared to death,” said Ron Prestage, whose North Carolina-based family pork and poultry business made its huge investment in the plant near Eagle Grove in part to reap expected gains from the TPP. “I don’t guess I’ve gone beyond the point of no return on the new plant, but we did already start digging our wells and started moving dirt.”

The EU’s deal is all the more noteworthy because American farmers were relying on the TPP—to which the EU was not a member—to give them an advantage over European competitors. But in a further rebuke to the United States, Tokyo decided within a matter of weeks to offer the European nations virtually the same agricultural access to its market that United States trade officials had spent two excruciating years extracting through near-monthly meetings with their Japanese counterparts on the sidelines of the broader TPP negotiations; the United States is now left out.

The EU, which also recently inked a deal with Vietnam, is now moving forward with talks with Malaysia and is in the process of modernizing a pre-existing trade deal with Mexico.

Meanwhile, a bloc of four Latin-American countries—Mexico, Peru, Chile and Colombia, known as the Pacific Alliance—is quickly becoming the leading force for free trade in the region, announcing near the end of June it would commence its own negotiations with New Zealand, Australia and Singapore, heedless of its neighbor to the north.

On its own, Australia, which in 2015 cut a deal to undersell the United States in beef exports to Japan, announced another round of scheduled tariff cuts with Japan. Without the TPP, Australian ranchers eventually will enjoy a 19 percent tariff advantage over U.S. competitors. Australia is also prioritizing the conclusion of trade talks with Indonesia, the largest nation in Southeast Asia by gross domestic product.

As China, which was never a part of the TPP, senses blood in the water, it is moving quickly to assert itself, rather than the United States, as the region’s trade arbiter. China is aiming to close talks by the end of this year on its behemoth Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership—a trade agreement involving 15 other Asia-Pacific countries.

None of these deals are yet in effect. But already there are signs that competitors are gaining market share over U.S. producers in the post-TPP landscape, as Pacific nations take a closer look at alternatives to U.S. exporters.

[stevew]

Originally Posted by Easy Mac

I have the transcript of Trump's next exchange:

TRUMP: Well, the jerk store called. They're running outta you!

CEO: What's the difference? You're their all-time best seller!

TRUMP: Yeah? Well, I had sex with your wife.

CEO: My wife's in a coma

TRUMP: Oh sorry Newt, i didnt recognize your voice. And ahem.

[stevew]

I usually bathroom boycott the anthem at sporting events unless it's kids or instrumental.

[stevew]

Dola-our anthem is like a pufferfish. In the hands of a skilled chef, it's great. In the hands of a hack it's straight up poisonous to the ears.

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

I think the statement was in regards to right-wing people. They were very upset about the anthem and are furiously defending white nationalists.

I have family who I don't think gave a shit about Kaepernick but any criticism of Trump's response to the white nationalists at Charlottesville has been met with some variation of "but Obama."

It's reflexive. Because a Republican shat himself on the proper response to fascists, they have to reach for a reason why the other side is bad also instead of admitting that Republicans are ever capable of being wrong.

[ISiddiqui]

Originally Posted by mckerney

If only there'd been some sort of trade deal that would have pushed back against Chinese economic expansion.

Unrelated:

Trump’s Trade Pullout Roils Rural America - POLITICO Magazine

It's amazing how many people didn't realize the strategic reasons for TPP.

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by SackAttack

I have family who I don't think gave a shit about Kaepernick but any criticism of Trump's response to the white nationalists at Charlottesville has been met with some variation of "but Obama."

It's reflexive. Because a Republican shat himself on the proper response to fascists, they have to reach for a reason why the other side is bad also instead of admitting that Republicans are ever capable of being wrong.

Republicans aren't the only party that struggle to admit they're wrong.

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by ISiddiqui

It's amazing how many people didn't realize the strategic reasons for TPP.

I'm okay with removing TPP assuming there would be a Trump replacement that does it "his way" e.g. anything is better than nothing.

However, it doesn't seem there is a Trump replacement and we are doing nothing?

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by Edward64

I'm okay with removing TPP assuming there would be a Trump replacement that does it "his way" e.g. anything is better than nothing.

However, it doesn't seem there is a Trump replacement and we are doing nothing?

Trump doesn't have a way, he's clueless on trade and he doesn't have the desire or ability to learn anything that can't be stated in a few sentences on Fox & Friends. He didn't know anything about TTP beyond that Fox News said it was bad because Obama wanted it. He had to be told 10 times he couldn't make a trade deal with but Germany. His depth of knowledge on health insurance is him thinking it costs $12 a year because of an ad for life insurance for infants that airs on Fox.

If he was interested in having qualified individuals negotiating trade deals he wouldn't be leaving the State Department understaffed.

[digamma]

It almost sounds like you're saying the emperor has no clothes.

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

Republicans aren't the only party that struggle to admit they're wrong.

Yes, but Republicans (that I've met, and Mitch McConnell) are more than likely to respond to that admission (or even the admission that they might be wrong) with "see I was right, you were wrong, and now that's my justification for whatever it is you were wrong about." So much of it is a competitive power struggle that any chance for correction and cooperation and conflict resolution becomes impossible. Granted, this is just from my own experience in dealing with that, rather than an overall, national observation. It's why the Democrats are always seen or accused of being weak. They're never allowed to fight the same way. Then if they do, they're called hypocrites, or losers because they should have known better or that the "competition" would use it against them, so they're dumb too. That is true.

[albionmoonlight]

Unbelievable. He actually did bring the Middle East together. pic.twitter.com/miP9MyVLsS

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) August 17, 2017

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by mckerney

Trump doesn't have a way, he's clueless on trade and he doesn't have the desire or ability to learn anything that can't be stated in a few sentences on Fox & Friends. He didn't know anything about TTP beyond that Fox News said it was bad because Obama wanted it. He had to be told 10 times he couldn't make a trade deal with but Germany. His depth of knowledge on health insurance is him thinking it costs $12 a year because of an ad for life insurance for infants that airs on Fox.

If he was interested in having qualified individuals negotiating trade deals he wouldn't be leaving the State Department understaffed.

That's why I was surprised at Bannon's comments about China being his primary concern. I would have thought Bannon would have laid out a strategy for Trump even before these recent issues (e.g. when he came on the Trump team).

Well maybe he did and Trump isn't really taking his advice. Regardless, I would like to know how Bannon would approach China, would be interesting.

[NobodyHere]

Trump condemns Barcelona attack | TheHill

I bet his PR team is loving this attack because it takes the spotlight away from Charlottesville.

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by NobodyHere

Trump condemns Barcelona attack | TheHill

I bet his PR team is loving this attack because it takes the spotlight away from Charlottesville.

Woah, not worried he's jumping the gun before getting all the facts? Maybe both sides are to blame.

[Shkspr]

Originally Posted by NobodyHere

Trump condemns Barcelona attack | TheHill

I bet his PR team is loving this attack because it takes the spotlight away from Charlottesville.

Damn foreigners taking more White jobs.

[Atocep]

And now he's tweeting about urban legends as a way of stopping terrorism.

[Easy Mac]

Originally Posted by Atocep

And now he's tweeting about urban legends as a way of stopping terrorism.

Also, when he recounted the story on the campaign trail, it stopped radical muslims for 25 years. Now its 35.

I say we adapt it to those phony anti-gluten people when we go for them.

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by Atocep

And now he's tweeting about urban legends as a way of stopping terrorism.

I knew news that clowns would be fighting Nazis is DC wouldn't be the strangest news today.

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

Yes, but Republicans (that I've met, and Mitch McConnell) are more than likely to respond to that admission (or even the admission that they might be wrong) with "see I was right, you were wrong, and now that's my justification for whatever it is you were wrong about." So much of it is a competitive power struggle that any chance for correction and cooperation and conflict resolution becomes impossible. Granted, this is just from my own experience in dealing with that, rather than an overall, national observation. It's why the Democrats are always seen or accused of being weak. They're never allowed to fight the same way. Then if they do, they're called hypocrites, or losers because they should have known better or that the "competition" would use it against them, so they're dumb too. That is true.

I disagree. I see it equally on both sides. I notice it more on Dems, but I recognize my bias. Basically, whether you are GOP or Dem, you see it happen. Everyone is human (believe it or not).

[AlexB]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

I disagree. I see it equally on both sides. I notice it more on Dems, but I recognize my bias. Basically, whether you are GOP or Dem, you see it happen. Everyone is human (believe it or not).

Yeah, that's what turns a lot of people off politics, constant point scoring and failure to admit when things are wrong, bad, etc - using diversionary tactics in general. It's universal, not just to GOP/Dems, but across the world.

I've always felt that if the opposition had a great idea, I would respect a government that took it on baord, gave the opposition credit and pushed it through...

While I'm no Teresa May fan, she voiced an idea of asking our opposition parties into groupthink sessions. In a naiive, idealistic light, this seems good for the country, get people together of differing perspectives to hopefully work together.

What actually happened means no-one will ever try this again, as the opposition proved that their main priority isn't the good of the country but points scoring: their reaction was to literally laugh at the proposal and took great delight in screaming 'the government has run out of ideas!' (which tbf may have been true!)

If politicians actually cared about the country they wouldn't act the way they do - this also seems to me to be a universal truth. But it ain't gonna change.

[EagleFan]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

Yes, but Republicans (that I've met, and Mitch McConnell) are more than likely to respond to that admission (or even the admission that they might be wrong) with "see I was right, you were wrong, and now that's my justification for whatever it is you were wrong about." So much of it is a competitive power struggle that any chance for correction and cooperation and conflict resolution becomes impossible. Granted, this is just from my own experience in dealing with that, rather than an overall, national observation. It's why the Democrats are always seen or accused of being weak. They're never allowed to fight the same way. Then if they do, they're called hypocrites, or losers because they should have known better or that the "competition" would use it against them, so they're dumb too. That is true.

I think you just proved his point...

[JPhillips]

Originally Posted by AlexB

Yeah, that's what turns a lot of people off politics, constant point scoring and failure to admit when things are wrong, bad, etc - using diversionary tactics in general. It's universal, not just to GOP/Dems, but across the world.

I've always felt that if the opposition had a great idea, I would respect a government that took it on baord, gave the opposition credit and pushed it through...

While I'm no Teresa May fan, she voiced an idea of asking our opposition parties into groupthink sessions. In a naiive, idealistic light, this seems good for the country, get people together of differing perspectives to hopefully work together.

What actually happened means no-one will ever try this again, as the opposition proved that their main priority isn't the good of the country but points scoring: their reaction was to literally laugh at the proposal and took great delight in screaming 'the government has run out of ideas!' (which tbf may have been true!)

If politicians actually cared about the country they wouldn't act the way they do - this also seems to me to be a universal truth. But it ain't gonna change.

I don't know the situation in the UK, but in general the whole let's come together stuff only works if the different parties agree on the problem. If they don't, it's just a way for one party to frame the debate in a way that's most favorable to them.

For example, here in the US I can see the parties coming together for a bill to strengthen S. Korea. There would be different ideas, but the problem would be recognized by both the GOP and the Dems. However, there is no way for the parties to come together for a universal college bill or a ban on abortion. There's no way to come together, and claiming to want to would be seen by the other party as the cynical framing trick that it is.

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by Edward64

I'm okay with removing TPP assuming there would be a Trump replacement that does it "his way" e.g. anything is better than nothing.

However, it doesn't seem there is a Trump replacement and we are doing nothing?

He doesn't understand the basics of economic policy. This is a guy who wanted to put giant tariffs on imports and didn't know whether a strong dollar was good for the country or not.

He didn't like TPP because Obama was for it. I doubt he even knows what the agreement was.

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by Atocep

And now he's tweeting about urban legends as a way of stopping terrorism.

It's fucked up too because he's defaming a war hero who did a lot for this country.

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

It's fucked up too because he's defaming a war hero who did a lot for this country.

The National Review had something to say about it:

Just minutes ago the president of the United States – the man who just yesterday said, “When I make a statement, I like to be correct. I want the facts� – fired out a tweet ostensibly in response to the dreadful terror attack in Barcelona, Spain. Here | National Review

[Edward64]

I predict the "when I make a statement, I like to be correct. I want the facts" will come back to haunt him numerous times in the next 3.5 years.

Unfortunately I don't think it'll do much to move his core base.

[thesloppy]

I find the TPP ballet particularly fascinating, from all sides. 6 months before the election there was a national tour/rally against the TPP featuring notable conservative icons like Tom Morello, Anti-Flag and Jello Biafra. Most of the search results from 2016 relating to stopping the TPP are from far-left sources, but after Trump actually pulled out seemingly everyone in the entire world shifted their opinion/narrative.

[tarcone]

We had a state senator post on her personal FB page "I hope Trump is assassinated."
She is refusing to step down. But she is not going to survive I dont think.

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by thesloppy

I find the TPP ballet particularly fascinating, from all sides. 6 months before the election there was a national tour/rally against the TPP featuring notable conservative icons like Tom Morello, Anti-Flag and Jello Biafra. Most of the search results from 2016 relating to stopping the TPP are from far-left sources, but after Trump actually pulled out seemingly everyone in the entire world shifted their opinion/narrative.

TPP seemed to be opposed by the far-left (because it gave breaks to companies) and the far-right (Obama supported it). The people that seemed to support it the most were moderates.

The idea behind TPP is good. Let us control trade around the world. There were however things in it that I think needed to be changed so I'm kind of torn. I was hoping we would renegotiate some of the terms instead of just handing a gift to China.