[ Posted Monday, May 21st, 2018 – 17:26 UTC ]
Donald Trump supposedly wrote a book on how to be the world's best dealmaker. He didn't actually write it, of course (hence the "supposedly"), and it's even doubtful whether he's ever even read it through, cover to cover. He's not a big reading guy, to put it as politely as possible. But the thoughts contained within The Art Of The Deal were indeed Trump's, painstakingly collected by his ghostwriter. What one has to wonder right now, though, is whether North Korea's Kim Jong Un is following Trump's dealmaking script better than Trump -- because from outside appearances, this now seems to be the case. Perhaps, unlike Trump himself, Kim Jong Un actually read (and took to heart) The Art Of The Deal.
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[ Posted Wednesday, May 16th, 2018 – 16:59 UTC ]
As astonishing as it sounds, the House of Representatives may actually take action on immigration reform before the midterm elections happen. Paul Ryan isn't too happy about this state of affairs, since his original plan was to do absolutely nothing about the problem caused by Donald Trump attempting to end the DACA program. Ryan had planned for the remainder of the year for the House to only hold votes on bills that might conceivably help Republicans out on the campaign trail, and being forced to confront immigration was definitely not part of that plan. But he may have no choice, since he is now being pushed from two different directions -- within his own caucus -- to hold such votes.
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[ Posted Tuesday, May 15th, 2018 – 17:19 UTC ]
Quixotic. Peripatetic. Mercurial. These are all ten-dollar words which could describe Donald Trump's approach to foreign policy matters. A less-fancy term might be "totally incoherent." Trump stands for nothing, has a situational approach to any individual foreign policy issue, and doesn't seem all that conversant with important details -- all of which add up to a foreign policy that his own foreign policy advisors can't predict. They are continually being caught by surprise by some off-the-cuff Trump tweet or statement, and regularly scramble to provide some sort of backup to whatever bee Trump currently has in his bonnet. It's Nixon's madman theory writ large, because even Trump's own White House has no earthly idea what he'll do or say next. At least Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger were on the same page in their madman gambit, but Trump doesn't seem to be sharing his thoughts with anyone within his administration.
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[ Posted Friday, May 11th, 2018 – 18:03 UTC ]
Before we get to all the Trumpy news of the week, we had to headline what is going on in Paul Ryan's House, since it hasn't been getting enough attention yet. Because the House Republicans are revolting!
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[ Posted Thursday, May 10th, 2018 – 17:26 UTC ]
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has agreed to meet with Donald Trump next month in Singapore, which will be a historic summit meeting. This meeting will in fact be unprecedented, as no North Korean leader has ever previously sat down with a United States president. Predicting what will come out of this meeting is really anyone's guess, since both leaders can be described as mercurial (and even that's being polite to both of them, really).
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[ Posted Tuesday, May 8th, 2018 – 17:00 UTC ]
We are now exactly six months away from this year's midterm congressional elections. Today, four states are holding their primaries: Indiana, North Carolina, Ohio, and West Virginia. This means the 2018 election season can be said to have already begun in earnest. There are two races everyone will be watching tonight, one on each side of the aisle. The Senate GOP primary in West Virginia is the more important of the two, but the Democratic governor's race in Ohio is also going to garner some attention.
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[ Posted Monday, May 7th, 2018 – 16:23 UTC ]
President Donald Trump announced today that he'll be revealing tomorrow afternoon whether he will be pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal or not. Predictions about what he's going to do have been ramping up, but nobody really knows what Trump will actually announce. But if he does decide to pull out of the deal, it could have major political implications in the midterm elections in one important respect: the price of a gallon of gasoline in America.
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[ Posted Friday, May 4th, 2018 – 17:18 UTC ]
Before we get to the fresh lies emanating from the Oval Office this week, we have to begin with a look back. Because not only has President Donald Trump now hit the milestone of lying over 3,000 times while in office, but apparently it's getting too much for even Fox News personalities to take.
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[ Posted Thursday, May 3rd, 2018 – 17:04 UTC ]
Last night, President Donald Trump's new lawyer went on Fox News to admit that both Trump and everyone around him have been flat-out lying all along about the payment of $130,000 in hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels. This bombshell was almost casually dropped, appearing to catch even Sean Hannity by surprise. Other people it also apparently caught by surprise: the entire Trump legal team, and everyone else who works in the White House. But not, notably, Donald Trump himself. Rudy would never have taken it upon himself to change Trump's story in such dramatic fashion without Trump's prior approval, so I do take Rudy at his word that he had gotten Trump's approval to do so in advance.
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[ Posted Tuesday, May 1st, 2018 – 16:47 UTC ]
Yesterday I wrote about a politician committing what's known as a Kinsley gaffe (i.e., a politician accidentally telling the truth in public). Today, we have Donald Trump, who seems to have randomly stumbled upon a truth, by accident, with no actual intent whatsoever -- much like a broken clock will tell the right time twice a day, in fact. Of course, even this requires a generous reading of Trump's tweet, but that doesn't make it any less amusing.
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