All Things Trump

[rainbow]

It's not a problem for me. I think it's pretty obvious that if someone says "I don't live in a country that does X", it's impossible to investigate the claim without knowing what country the person is talking about, don't you think?

I really don't give a toss whether you do, or not.

You come across sounding the exact opposite of that.

Just goes to show how wrong you can be.

[Scot Dutchy]

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner commercial income revealed

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner earned at least $82m (£61m) in outside income in their first year as unpaid senior advisers to the president, disclosure forms cited by US media say.

Nice falsies Ivanka.

[pErvinalia]

She's got false teeth?!

[tattuchu]

Trump playbook

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/pl ... -g7-279483

The whole G7 thing was an obvious message sent to Kim Jong Un. Trump will walk away from the table even when it's his closest allies.

Canada will be fine. The G7 will be fine. They're talking about tariffs. Trump doesn't really want to raise tariffs. He wants the rest of the G7 to reduce their tariffs on American goods. So, we're raising ours until they agree to reduce theirs so the US doesn't pay higher tariffs than them. He's proposed a G7 tariff free zone, so if they object to tariffs, let them put their money where their mouth is.

It's always amazing, when the US raises tariffs it's all trade wars this, and economic collapse that, but when any other country raises tariffs, often much higher, the sound of crickets is all the media plays.

So, you don't see deliberate crude insults to close allies (soon to be former allies) as a problem?

He's cagey, that one. Playing it close to the vest. See, most people think Trump is an imbecile. But they're wrong! Oh, he's clever, all right. Fiendishly clever!

[Forty Two]

Trump playbook

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/pl ... -g7-279483

The whole G7 thing was an obvious message sent to Kim Jong Un. Trump will walk away from the table even when it's his closest allies.

Canada will be fine. The G7 will be fine. They're talking about tariffs. Trump doesn't really want to raise tariffs. He wants the rest of the G7 to reduce their tariffs on American goods. So, we're raising ours until they agree to reduce theirs so the US doesn't pay higher tariffs than them. He's proposed a G7 tariff free zone, so if they object to tariffs, let them put their money where their mouth is.

It's always amazing, when the US raises tariffs it's all trade wars this, and economic collapse that, but when any other country raises tariffs, often much higher, the sound of crickets is all the media plays.

So, you don't see deliberate crude insults to close allies (soon to be former allies) as a problem?

He's cagey, that one. Playing it close to the vest. See, most people think Trump is an imbecile. But they're wrong! Oh, he's clever, all right. Fiendishly clever!

It's not so much clever as obvious. What did he criticize Trudeau for doing? Saying one thing, and then reversing himself and "stabbing Trump in the back." In reaction, Trump tore up the G7 agreement and walked away. The analogy is clear, that there were agreements already made leading up to the Singapore summit, and that they were meeting to finalize. It says what Trump will do if someone reverses on him. And that was friend. Kim needed to think what would happen if he had a bait-and-switch in mind.

Trump is not stupid. And, much of what he does all along is calculated. This is a guy that never held a government post, and won the presidency over many other competitors. He was laughed at by the media when he first announced. They reported that he would never win. Would never become President. The very idea was absurd. That's the main reaction to him from the mainstream media - scoffing - he's unprepared, he's uninformed, he doesn't have the experience, he's stupid, etc. But, what happens, time after time - he gets what he says he wants.

And, the Korea summit went off without a hitch, and Kim signed a paper to denuclearize and to destroy a nuclear missile testing sight. Trump agreed to suspend some war games with ROK. They met and will work together to get to the end result. And, the G7 will, of course, be fine. Trudeau was insulted, but he has no choice. He has to reduce the tariffs they have on agricultural products from the US. Germany will have to reduce their tariffs on American cars. Etc. No matter how the media wants to report it - which is always that the rest of the G7 are innocent lambs, playing fair, and the US is so mean and unfair, the reality is that they are the ones subsidizing industries, imposing higher tariffs than the US imposes, and erecting other non-tariff barriers. You want to bitch about tariffs, guys? Let's bitch about tariffs, subsidies, and other non-tariff barriers.

[Forty Two]

Trump playbook

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/pl ... -g7-279483

The whole G7 thing was an obvious message sent to Kim Jong Un. Trump will walk away from the table even when it's his closest allies.

Canada will be fine. The G7 will be fine. They're talking about tariffs. Trump doesn't really want to raise tariffs. He wants the rest of the G7 to reduce their tariffs on American goods. So, we're raising ours until they agree to reduce theirs so the US doesn't pay higher tariffs than them. He's proposed a G7 tariff free zone, so if they object to tariffs, let them put their money where their mouth is.

It's always amazing, when the US raises tariffs it's all trade wars this, and economic collapse that, but when any other country raises tariffs, often much higher, the sound of crickets is all the media plays.

So, you don't see deliberate crude insults to close allies (soon to be former allies) as a problem?

Does Trump have any personal friends? People that actually like him the person?

Probably not many. Tom Barrack, Steve Feinberg, Keith Schiller, Rudy Giuliani, Richard LeFrak, Howard Lorber. Guys he's been friends with for decades.

[Brian Peacock]

She's got false teeth?!

I think he's referring to her hairpiece.

[pErvinalia]

Trump is not stupid.

[Rum]

Trump is not stupid.

I blame Obama. Clearly far too clever for his own..or the rest of us' good.

[Scot Dutchy]

The cunt has never made a "good deal" in his life.

[tattuchu]

Trump is not stupid.

[L'Emmerdeur]

Meh, I'd say that Trump is functionally stupid, in that he's willfully ignorant, has an absurdly over-inflated view of his own intelligence, perspicacity, and knowledge and so is apparently inclined to believe that he already knows it all; he has practically no intellectual curiosity. I don't think he's inherently stupid though, in that he's probably of slightly above average intelligence.

[Forty Two]

Trump is not stupid.

I blame Obama. Clearly far too clever for his own..or the rest of us' good.

It really isn't about who is smarter than whom. To say that Trump is "stupid," though is just wishful thinking, and it's such a boring refrain. Every Republican President, and candidate, except Nixon, since Herbert Hoover, has been called "stupid." Eisenhower was stupid. Ford was stupid. Reagan was stupid. Bush Sr. was stupid. Bush Jr. was stupid.

One can certainly rationally disagree with Trump's policies, and can certainly object to his lack of class and decorum, and the way he talks to other world leaders. But that stuff doesn't make him stupid. He beat all his competitors. Do people forget the Republican nomination process? 16 competitors there, all of whom were supposed to be able to beat Trump easily. Every polling company - Princeton Election Consortium, Nate Silver's 538.com, Gallup, all the big predictors - everyone, said Trump had next to no chance, right up to the eve of the election - universally, reporting was that Hillary had a 93% to 98% chance to win. But the stupid idiot won.

Did anyone watch the CNN, MSNBC and other mainstream media coverage of Trump's Singapore summit? The coverage was miserable, and was all about how Trump alienated his allies when he needs them most (apparently to be on his side during the summit) - none of them acknowledged the message Kim would have received from Trump's exit of the G7 conference. It was a constant refrain that Trump had already given Kim what he wants most: a photo op. And, Trump is the idiot? The anti-Trump press thinks that Kim was in this for a photo op, and already got what he wanted, and they say Trump is the idiot? Think on that.

Did anyone see Chris Cuomo on CNN get embarrased by Dennis Rodman during his interview? When Rodman said that he had come back from North Korea with information for President Obama, and President Obama rebuffed him, and wouldn't even listen to what Rodman had to say. So, Rodman appeared on Cuomo's show with a MAGA hat on and praising Trump for doing what Rodman had been trying to help Obama do. And, Cuomo looked sad when James Clapper agreed that the CIA and intelligence agencies have used celebrities as assets in the past, and that Rodman was the "professional" (who had first-hand knowledge of Kim Jong Un) while "the rest of us were amateurs." And Clapper agreed that Trump starting with denuclearization was the pragmatic place to start, and that human rights had to take a back seat (while the media was bleating on about how Trump was just ignoring the human rights issues, and needed to put that right on the table front and center...) - of course only a true idiot would think these talks would be helped by putting prison camps and political killings on the table from the get go, and focusing on that. But, they want to say Trump is stupid.

Legendary California Democrat Willie Brown took to the pages of the San Francisco Chronicle on Saturday to tell fellow Democrats that they should "stop bashing President Trump."

"Like it or not," he wrote, "a significant number of Americans are actually happy these days. They are making money. They feel safe, and they agree with the president's protectionist trade policies, his call for more American jobs, even his immigration stance.

"The jobs growth reports, the North Korea summit and the steady economy are beating out the Stormy Daniels scandal and the Robert Mueller investigation in Middle America, hands down.

"So you are not going to win back the House by making it all about him."

https://www.investors.com/politics/edit ... elections/

Meanwhile, the latest CNN poll shows Democrats with a meager 3-point advantage on the generic ballot question. The Reuters/Ipsos poll has Democrats up by only one point, and the Real Clear Politics average is +5, down from +13 in December. Trump's approval rating has been steadily, if slowly, rising since December, going from an average 37% approval to over 43% now.

The Washington Post reported on Monday that Democrats are now fretting about "a shifting political landscape" and an energized GOP base.

In fact, Democrats are starting to complain that the press is too focused on Trump scandals and not paying enough attention to "issues," and that this could hurt them in November.

"Eager to move a message that focuses on things like minimum wage hikes and health care premiums," the Daily Beast reported on Monday, "they have been overtaken by a steady stream of stories of Russia meddling, porn star payoffs, and shady Trump-world figures."

Democrats fear, the story goes on, that "a perception is taking hold that the party is obsessively focused on a Russia-collusion message above all else."

Never mind the flagrant rewriting of history here. The only stab at "issues" has been a lame, warmed over set of liberal policy prescriptions wrapped up in the generic title of "A Better Deal." Other than that, their only agenda has been to attack Trump at every turn.

Nevertheless, it's a sign Democrats are starting to realize that their plan to ride Trump hatred to victory this November isn't panning out the way they'd hoped.

The Mueller investigation — now in its second year — has failed to bear any impeachment fruit. Trump is racking up successes foreign and domestic — the tax cut and resulting economic boom, the embassy move to Jerusalem, the impressive progress with North Korea, tough stands with China and Iran. More importantly, the public is starting to realize that Trump isn't the cartoon villain Democrats had portrayed.

But if Trump-bashing won't work, what else can Democrats talk about? Repealing Trump's tax cuts? Imposing still more ObamaCare? The return of job killing regulations and mandates? Gun control? Free college?

No wonder Democrats are now looking for someone else to blame if they don't win big in November.

[Forty Two]

Meh, I'd say that Trump is functionally stupid, in that he's willfully ignorant, has an absurdly over-inflated view of his own intelligence, perspicacity, and knowledge and so is apparently inclined to believe that he already knows it all; he has practically no intellectual curiosity. I don't think he's inherently stupid though, in that he's probably of slightly above average intelligence.

Well, Hillary Clinton's campaign - the most qualified candidate for President ever with a seasoned, well-heeled, well-funded campaign of functionally intelligent, intellectually curious, professionals - lost to a functionally stupid person with an overinflated sense of intelligence and no intellectual curiosity, as did every Republican challenger, and the entirety of the mainstream news media, all polling sources, and all expert statisticans like PEC and 538.com, all were completely wrong about Trump's chances. Every supposed expert vowed and promised "Trump will never be President" and giggled at the mere thought of it.

Once elected, the experts promised that Trump's policies would cause a recession. All of Wall Street and big business knew Clinton was better for the economy, and there would be an immediate crash that never came. Trump said 3% GDP growth was reasonable, and he was laughed at and the prospect was ridiculous. Bringing manufacturing jobs, anti-Trump experts said, could never happen - even Obama scoffed at the idea - those jobs are never coming back, he said, because he's the intellectually curious and functionally intelligent one - the smartest guy in the room, with perfectly creased pants. What deals could Trump even make to get that done, he asked, shrugging his shoulders, because the smartest guy in the room couldn't imagine what could be done about it. Yet, manufacturing jobs are up. US Steel just fired up another blast furnace, and is bringing back thousands of jobs. The economy is humming, with the lowest unemployment in going on 50 years, tax revenues are way up, despite the tax cuts, etc.

A Trump win was supposed to sink the stock market -- http://money.cnn.com/2016/10/24/investi ... index.html and https://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/ ... ets-230164

Paul Krugman said that Trump's policies, if carried out, would hurt the economy - https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/pro ... ic-fallout We're supposed to be in a global recession, according to the smartest economist around, Paul Krugman....with no end in sight.

Who has an overinflated view of their own intelligence?

Remember, the experts and functionally intelligent laughed at Donald Trump and his "foolproof" plan to defeat ISIS. ISIS stands defeated, and the refrain is that it was just Obama's doing which defeated ISIS. I.e., before Trump was elected, to say we'd easily destroy ISIS was laughable. After he gets elected and does it, well, it was already effectively defeated anyway, and anyone could have done it. http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_ ... trine.html ISIS was defeated in less than a year, and either the news is ignored or the media reported it as Obama's victory. https://www.nationalreview.com/2017/12/ ... -one-care/

For a functionally stupid moron, he's doing a pretty good job in accomplishing his goals and keeping his promises, isn't he?

[Scot Dutchy]

Trump is just thick. He has that thickness found in bullies and spoilt brats.