When you go to work in the White House, you divest yourself of your secrets for the same reason you divest yourself of your financial holdings: so people can’t blackmail you.
via The Stormy Daniels Saga Shows How Vulnerable Trump Is To Blackmail | HuffPost
Trump only hires the best and brightest, folks.
And the breaking news on Friday is that Trump’s genius lawyer Michael Cohen used Trump.org email account to discuss a payoff of hush money to the porn star.
But His Emails! Trump Lawyer Used Trump.org Email For Stormy Payoff | Crooks and Liars
The White House has made a mysterious claim that Donald Trump won a case “in arbitration” against a pornographic film actor who alleges that she had sex with him a decade ago.
Press secretary Sarah Sanders’ surprise assertion appears to confirm that a contract existed between Trump and Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.
Stormy Daniels on Trump: pajamas, unprotected sex and … scary sharks
Read more“This case has already been won in arbitration and anything beyond that, I would refer you to the president’s outside counsel,” said Sanders, who insisted that Trump denies Daniels’ allegations.
The special counsel in the Russia investigation has learned of two conversations in recent months in which President Donald Trump asked key witnesses about matters they discussed with investigators, according to three people familiar with the encounters.
The episodes demonstrate that even as the special counsel investigation appears to be intensifying, the President has ignored his lawyers’ advice to avoid doing anything publicly or privately that could create the appearance of interfering.
The White House did not respond to several requests for comment. Priebus and McGahn declined to comment through their lawyer, William A. Burck.
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via Reports Trump spoke to witnesses over Russia investigation
Collectively, the world’s 2,208 billionaires hold $9.1tn – more than three times the gross domestic product (GDP) of the UK. The billionaires increased their combined wealth by $1.4tn over the past year.
via Donald Trump’s wealth has fallen for second year running – Forbes | US news | The Guardian
Trump said he wouldn’t have time for golfing if he became president. That was bullshit. Trump is now on a record pace to golf more than any president, and has spent 1 in every 4 days he’s been in office at a golf course
via Trump’s Milestone: 100 Days At His Golf Courses | Crooks and Liars
Washington: US President Donald Trump has praised his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping for his recent move to consolidate his grip on power.
“He’s now president for life. President for life. And he’s great,” Trump said in a speech to Republican donors in Florida on Saturday, according to broadcaster CNN.
The US broadcaster said it had obtained a recording of the closed-door remarks made at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
“And look, he was able to do that. I think it’s great. Maybe we’ll give that a shot some day.”
via Trump praises China’s Xi Jinping for power grab as trade row escalates
WASHINGTON ― President Donald Trump on Monday suggested that he would have personally fought off the school shooter at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School even while not armed, despite the fact that he previously deferred military service due to bone spurs in his foot.
“I really believe I’d run in there even if I didn’t have a weapon, and I think most of the people in this room would have done that too,” he said during a White House event with the nation’s governors.
via Trump Says He Would Have Fought Off Parkland Shooter Without A Weapon
Washington: President Donald Trump called for paying bonuses to teachers who carry guns in the classroom, embracing a controversial proposal to curb school shootings hours after offering a full-throated endorsement of the National Rifle Association.
Trump told state and local officials gathered at the White House on Thursday to discuss school safety that “you can’t hire enough security guards” and teachers could carry concealed weapons and “nobody would know who they are.” He said that teachers would go through “rigorous training” and could get “a little bit of a bonus.”
via Trump suggests ‘bonus’ for gun-trained teachers, praises the NRA
Daniel S. Markey, who helped coordinate South Asia policy at the State Department during the George W. Bush administration, told the Times that it “is just bizarre” that “the president’s son would be going and shilling the president’s brand at same time Donald Trump is president and is managing strategic and foreign relations with India.”
The Post reports that Trump Jr.’s “unofficial” visit will also include delivering “a foreign policy speech on Indo-Pacific relations at an event with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.”
West Palm Beach: US President Donald Trump questioned the special counsel’s intensifying Russia probe on Sunday while attacking his own national security adviser, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Hillary Clinton, former president Barack Obama, Congress, CNN and others in a nine-hour span of tweets that included swearing and grammatical errors.
The Twitter tirade coincided with a trip to Europe during which US officials and lawmakers told foreign policy leaders to ignore the President.
via ‘They’re laughing their asses off in Moscow’: Trump on the attack over Russia probe
Bolstering his “image as an aspiring dictator” and further demonstrating that he has zero interest in drawing down the endless U.S.-led wars overseas that have killed millions, President Donald Trump has reportedly ordered the Pentagon to begin planning for a massive military parade in an effort to celebrate American military power and fuel his own ego.
“The marching orders were: I want a parade like the one in France,” a military official told the Washington Post, referring to the Bastille Day festivities that so impressed the president during his Paris visit last year.
Given that the U.S. is currently bombing seven countries and that civilian casualties have soared since Trump took office, anti-war groups were quick to denounce Trump’s “marching orders” as “totally disgusting.”
via As Endless Wars Rage, ‘Aspiring Dictator’ Trump Orders Massive Military Parade | Common Dreams
Trump Jr. ― whose father greatly benefited from the FBI’s disclosures about their investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails during the 2016 campaign ―accused Democrats of weaponizing the Justice Department and the FBI against his father. Asked by Jesse Watters of Fox News whether the Russia investigation was rotten to its core, Trump Jr. replied that “it always has been.”
After a week that featured a $130,000 payoff to a porn star to keep quiet about an affair soon after they were married, and further intimations by Trump nemesis Michael Wolff that Trump is currently embroiled in yet another affair, apparently First Lady Melania wants nothing to do with the “tiny fingered, Cheeto-faced, ferret wearing shitgibbon”
via Stormy Weather: Trumps Forego 13th Wedding Anniversary Celebrations | Crooks and Liars
When is a President too busy to be a President?
via Donald Trump lashes out at FBI role in Russia probe
and
Thursday, December 14, 2017 – 12:40
Trump has announced the transfer of the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem in six months. Will Jared be there for the ceremony, or under house arrest like Paul Manafort?
President Donald Trump unleashed a flurry of messages attacking Hillary Clinton and Democrats, a day before the first charges may be announced in Russia probe.
Source: Donald Trump unleashes tweet flurry ahead of expected Russia probe charges
Woman makes her feelings clear as she is overtaken by the US president’s motorcade on its way out of one of his golf clubs
Source: Hail to the chief: cyclist gives Trump the middle finger | US news | The Guardian
“Kushner can’t even fill out the most basic paperwork without screwing it up, so it’s a mystery why anyone thinks he’s somehow going to bring peace to the Middle East,” Brad Bainum, a spokesman for the Democratic political action committee American Bridge, told Wired.
Source: Jared Kushner registered to vote as a woman; it’s not his first paperwork mistake
Most of the millions of Americans who watched the total solar eclipse did so wearing safety glasses. US President Donald Trump did the opposite.
Incidentally, a press release sent out to journalists shortly before the eclipse took place explained that the Commander-in-Chief would be “watching the total eclipse from the Truman Balcony [of the White House] with the First Lady.” BuzzFeed’s Zahra Hirji noted that from Washington DC, only a partial eclipse would be seen – and shortly afterward, the White House press statement was updated
The Trump administration and its figurehead already have the ignominious reputation of being the most anti-scientific federal government in living memory, but this may be a new record. Honestly: how can anyone get a solar eclipse wrong – on multiple occasions?
Well, there’s a first time for everything, we suppose.
I didn’t get his endorsement when I ran for governor — but the severely troubled man I met has only gotten worse
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Over the years the smug Western pundits have had a good …
Source: If an Iranian president talked like Trump we’d think them all nut cases
Trump has followed the same manipulative script over and over again, in politics as in business. We’re the marks
Trump surrounds himself with generals he views as more gold-plated bling to show off to his buddies. He has gutted America’s diplomatic capability just when it’s needed the most. Worst, this pig sty of a presidency has sucked all the oxygen out of the room so that none of the above issues are getting the attention they deserve from anyone.
Source: ‘Wait until the Donald Trump faces a real crisis’: Here’s the problem with that.
This was a send-a-message-to-the-boss leak – a desperate effort to help Trump help himself.
Source: In a stunning cry for help, Trump’s aides admit he misled the American people
How Trump’s lawyers, Sean Hannity, and a Sinclair outlet tried to cover up Trump Jr.’s Russia meeting
By Ad astra No, I don’t mean ‘hopping mad’. We know that he is hopping mad with the media and its ‘fake news’, with CNN particularly, and with some of its commentators whom he has chosen to label as intellectually deficient, and unpleasant to the eyes (bleeding from a face lift!). We know he is…
Source: Is Donald Trump mad? – » The Australian Independent Media Network
You get the impression that Russians were trying to pressure and influence this political neophyte.
Source: Kushner’s damning account: At the very least, he’s in over his head
Any president with an ounce of sense would put as much distance between himself and the lying campaign operative as humanly possible. But Trump can’t do that, because the person in question is his son.
Source: When Trump chooses between country and family, family wins every time
It’s a tale of two very different commander-in-chiefs. Former US president Jimmy Carter, 92, spent this week building homes for the needy in Winnipeg, Canada. Despite being rushed to hospital on Thursday after collapsing from dehydration under the hot sun, he returned to the construction site the following day after a clean bill of health. This week was the 34th time that Jimmy and his 89-year-old wife Rosalynn have volunteered on a project with Habitat for Humanity, an affordable housing charity for vulnerable people.
Macbeth, Agamemnon, Caligula: history and literature heave with warnings for princelings like Donald Trump Jr who abuse their power and privilege
Mr Trump was said to have told Mrs May that he had not had “great coverage” in Britain and had urged her to “fix it for me”, according to The Sun on Sunday.
Source: Donald Trump tells Theresa May he wants ‘better reception’ in Britain
How Donald Trump’s “America first” policy doesn’t appear to apply to his daughter, Ivanka Trump.
Source: ‘Do as I say, not as I do’: Inside Ivanka’ Trump’s business empire
On the flight to Paris, President Trump discussed the question of the week: His son Donald Trump jnr’s meeting with a Russian lawyer.
Source: By the time Trump jnr walked into that Russia meeting, the damage was already done
No, colluding with a hostile foreign power is not normal “opposition research”
Source: No, colluding with a hostile foreign power is not normal “opposition research”
In the emerging White House narrative, Trump, Jr., is an outsider—a well-connected freelancer who wasn’t speaking or acting on behalf of his father.
Source: Is Donald Trump, Jr., Taking the Fall for the White House? | The New Yorker
This looks an awful lot like collusion.
Source: The 7 Most Important Things About The Trump-Russia Emails Donald Jr. Just Released
Another New York Times scoop.
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