Trump, the man with a dream of a Wall

[Tero]

I think they just shoot them after 10 steps into America.

[Tero]

WP:
MATIAS ROMERO, MEXICO — After days of walking from Mexico’s southern border, the caravan of hundreds of migrants that has drawn President Trump’s Twitter ire has now halted on a brown-grass soccer field, its participants unsure and anxious about the way forward.
The men and women, most from Central America, were squatting Tuesday in a walled public park while government officials decided their fate.
“We are scared, just like you,” Irineo Mujica, the head coordinator of the migrant caravan, told the assembled group through a megaphone Tuesday morning. “Now President Donald Trump has said that he wants to hit us with nuclear bombs.”
Trump has made the migrant caravan a central theme in his tweets for three days running — although he hasn’t in fact threatened a nuclear strike. The president has warned that Mexico must stop the group or risk being penalized in the negotiations over reforming the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). He also has threatened to reduce foreign aid to Honduras, the home country of many of the marchers.
For several years, migrants have traveled north in caravans through Mexico around this time of year, both to protect themselves from crime and to highlight the plight of those fleeing Central America to escape poverty and danger. Trump’s comments have turned the event into a fresh source of tension between the United States and its southern neighbors.

[Seabass]

[Seabass]

So, his popularity, while still under 50, is at its highest level so far, at 42% -- http://theweek.com/articles/764645/why- ... -than-ever
Could he push 50? According to the Republican leaning Rasmussen Reports, he recently hit 50% among probable voters. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/0 ... -per-cent/ I am not too trusting of Rasmussen. They haven't been right much.
A far more trustworthy source is 538.com, and they have him at 53% disapprove and 40% approve. https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/tr ... l-ratings/ That leaves about 7% uncertain or neither. 538 got the election wrong, of course. But, Nate Silver knows what he's doing and they probably, I would imagine, are focusing really hard on their Trump predictions these days.
So, some upcoming interesting events might be big for the Trump-meister. The meeting with Kim Jong Un -- high risk, high reward - if he comes out of that with a denuclearization agreement, Trump will get a great boost.
He needs some development on the Wall - http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-bo ... bp-2017-10 - he's got prototypes going, but he needs to get shovels in the ground, so to speak, so he can show a fulfilment of at least part of that promise. Nobody expects the wall to be done completely, but he needs to have something going on it.
An economic growth of 5.4%, if that becomes real, would be astounding. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/01/economy ... shows.html
We had success in Syria, and now he is pulling the troops out. That's an excellent development that will prove very popular, I believe.
Trump's first year or so has been a nice success - https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/ ... 968842001/ and underreported https://www.indystar.com/story/opinion/ ... 963040001/ and http://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/ ... n-year-one
So what else can be said constitutes Trump success, and what more good news can be expected in the coming year or so?

[Joe]

[Seabass]

How will 42, who is ostensibly a supporter of free markets, defend this shit?

“TRUMP IS LIKE, ‘HOW CAN I F--K WITH HIM?’”: TRUMP’S WAR WITH AMAZON (AND THE WASHINGTON POST) IS PERSONAL

With the West Wing finally calm, Trump is contemplating a multi-front campaign against Jeff Bezos.

For the first time in Donald Trump’s presidency, the West Wing soap opera appears to be in hiatus, with many of its starring characters (Gary Cohn, Hope Hicks) either permanently offstage or with much reduced roles (John Kelly, Jared Kushner). Currently, there’s one star—a situation Trump is obviously enjoying—and his new freedom is used to focus ever more closely on his perceived enemies and obsessions. Amazon, whose owner, Jeff Bezos, also owns The Washington Post, is currently the main target. Trump has ripped into Amazon in recent days, claiming in a series of tweets that Jeff Bezos’s tech giant benefits from billions in subsidies from the U.S. Post office while skirting sales taxes. “Unlike others, they pay little or no taxes to state & local governments, use our Postal System as their Delivery Boy (causing tremendous loss to the U.S.), and are putting many thousands of retailers out of business!” Trump tweeted. On Monday, he wrote: “Only fools, or worse, are saying that our money losing Post Office makes money with Amazon. THEY LOSE A FORTUNE, and this will be changed. Also, our fully tax paying retailers are closing stores all over the country . . . not a level playing field!” The tweets caused Amazon’s stock to plunge 5 percent on Monday.

Now, according to four sources close to the White House, Trump is discussing ways to escalate his Twitter attacks on Amazon to further damage the company. “He’s off the hook on this. It’s war,” one source told me. “He gets obsessed with something, and now he’s obsessed with Bezos,” said another source. “Trump is like, how can I fuck with him?”

According to sources, Trump wants the Post Office to increase Amazon’s shipping costs. When Trump previously discussed the idea inside the White Hose, Gary Cohn had explained that Amazon is a benefit to the Postal Service, which has seen mail volume plummet in the age of e-mail. “Trump doesn’t have Gary Cohn breathing down his neck saying you can’t do the Post Office shit,” a Republican close to the White House said. “He really wants the Post Office deal renegotiated. He thinks Amazon’s getting a huge fucking deal on shipping.”

Advisers are also encouraging Trump to cancel Amazon’s pending multi-billion contract with the Pentagon to provide cloud computing services, sources say. Another line of attack would be to encourage attorneys general in red states to open investigations into Amazon’s business practices. Sources say Trump is open to the ideas. (The White House did not respond to a request for comment.)

Even Trump’s allies acknowledge that much of what’s fueling Trump’s rage toward Amazon is that Amazon C.E.O. Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post, sources said. “Trump doesn’t like The New York Times, but he reveres it because it’s his hometown paper. The Washington Post, he has zero respect for,” the Republican close to the White House said. While the Post says that Bezos has no involvement in newsroom decisions, Trump has told advisers he believes Bezos uses the paper as a political weapon. One former White House official said Trump looks at the Post the same way he looks at the National Enquirer. “When Bezos says he has no involvement, Trump doesn’t believe him. His experience is with the David Peckers of the world. Whether it’s right or wrong, he knows it can be done.”

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/04 ... s-personal

[Seabass]

[pErvinalia]

Going back to 42's optimistic post, I can't see how a massive trade war with China and Mexico etc won't cause the US economy to start tanking. Even the gamblers on the stockexchange seem to be worried about this. 5.5% growth? Lol. I'll believe it when I see it.

[Tero]

Obama unpopularity likely to do with "you must buy health insurance" which was reality by midterm election Obama's second year


TRUMP SAYS HIS APPROVAL IS HIGHER THAN OBAMA'S, IGNORING THE POLLS THAT SAY IT ISN'T

Three other polls published the same day by Gallup, Harvard, and Investor's Business Daily show the president with between 38 and 44 percent approval and 55 to 56 percent disapproval.

A combined average of polls give Trump a 41.8 percent approval and 53.2 percent disapproval rating.

Trump made a similar claim in early March. “Rasmussen and others have my approval ratings at around 50%, which is higher than Obama, and yet the political pundits love saying my approval ratings are ‘somewhat low,’” he tweeted March 11.


It was not clear what Trump meant by “Cheatin’ Obama.” In Gallup polling from March 28 to April 3 in 2010, around the same time as in Trump’s presidency, Obama’s approval rating sat at 49 percent approval to 44 percent disapproval.

Read more: Trump claims he’s more popular than Obama, tells voters to ignore low approval ratings

Rasmussen polls from around the same time had Obama’s approval at around 47 percent and disapproval at 53 percent. A Fox News poll from early April 2010, however, had Obama’s approval at 43 percent and disapproval at 48 percent.

[Tero]

"Continuous stream of refugees walking straight to America, must stop with guns!" It's fake news.
CNN
Reality: There is an annual event organized by activists where migrants caravan through Mexico to the US, designed to highlight the dangerous journey that immigrants must undertake to escape violent and unstable conditions in their home countries. The migrants on the journey hope to make it to the US border, where they can make a claim that they qualify for asylum.
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen tweeted Tuesday that Mexican officials had told her the "caravan is dissipating" and that several hundred of the migrants had been sent back to their home countries, while others are being offered refugee status. "I thank the GOM (Government of Mexico) for their partnership on this and other security issues," she tweeted.

[pErvinalia]

She's fired!

[Scot Dutchy]

Wall Street tumbles as China-US tariffs fuel trade war fears - business live

Is this Trump's plan B. He makes a killing on Wall Street?

[Tero]

Trump's call to militarize border comes as illegal crossings last year were lowest since 1971
CBS

[Seabass]

Sometimes Trump is so full of shit that even Fox News has to fact check him.

[L'Emmerdeur]

It seems that a good percentage of loyal Fox News viewers hate Shepard Smith with a passion, and have done for a couple of years at least.