So North Korea is starting to get skittish about their negotiations for peace and denuclearization, which I think a lot of people probably saw coming. They cancelled their talk with South Korea, and are threatening to kill the summit with Trump over military maneuvers our military has been doing for decades. So yeah, for those of you who thought that things with North Korea seemed to be going a little TOO smoothly, it looks like you were right. But, as a few news articles have noted, there is speculation as to whether North Korea’s sudden skittish behavior regarding denuclearization may dash Trump’s hopes of getting that Nobel Peace Prize that he feels he so richly deserves. And that loss…that would be the true tragedy….
So, news outlets have been noting that Mike Pence has been taking a number of interesting political maneuvers in recent weeks. There has been some open tension between Pence’s aides and Trump’s and Pence seems to be leveraging his own political movement from inside the White House. He’s even recruited Trump’s former campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, as the new leader of his PAC. Multiple reports use the term “Political apparatus” in reference to what Pence is trying to do, and the idea of him being a shadow candidate in the 2020 election seems to be the primary assumption in media speculation. But the weird thing is that with this White House, this administration, none of this seems shocking or out of the blue. Duplicity and cynicism have become far too normal for comfort.
I feel like Rudy Giuliani has really completed the sitcom feel of the White House. He’s the Barney Fife to Trump’s Andy Griffith, the Kramer to his Seinfeld. He goes on TV and says something dumb or regrettable Trump has an “Oh Rudy!” Moment, and the nation has a good laugh as we all continue watching him steer us toward Armageddon. The thing of it is, Michael Avenatti seems to be getting ammunition out of Giuliani’s interviews, and I think Giuliani kind of knows it. Avenatti squarely said that he’d love to have a conversation with Giuliani, on whatever network he chooses, under fair conditions for both parties. Giuliani though was having none of it. He called Avenatti a pimp and said that he didn’t involve himself with pimps! Considering his stance on paying people off on behalf of clients, I don’t know if I believe him.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Trump’s legal team is saying one of the key reasons why Trump may not be able to give an interview to Mueller is because Trump simply doesn’t have the free time to give! After all, the day in the life of a POTUS is highly regimented and scheduled. Down to the minute! I mean, he has to keep his mornings wide open so he can watch Fox and Friends, and maybe call them and have a friendly chat. The truth is that if even half the reports we’ve heard regarding the day to day within the White House, the President shouldn’t find himself too hard pressed to find a few minutes to give an interview without giving up on some meeting that will determine the fate of the world.
So, I know that Trump likes to threaten to shut down the government over his border wall — He’s done so on several occasions by this point– but now his rhetoric is starting to sound…weird. Now he’s saying we need to “Shut down the country” and…I mean what does that even mean? How do you shut down a country? Is he just missing words, or is he legitimately talking about closing the US for business: Turning off the lights, no customers get to come in? It’s bonkers, ya’ll. Bonkers.
Trump is shaking things up with his legal team. He’s brought on an old White House bulldog of a lawyer, Emmet Flood, who could potentially be quite a benefit to the Trump legal team. So to balance out that intelligent move, he made a crazy, possibly suicidal move to really keep us all on our toes, by bringing on Rudy Giuliani as well. I know that Giuliani has a good reputation during his time as mayor in New York, but in recent years, the man has kind of gone off the rails. Naturally, the first thing he does as soon as he’s appointed is to go on Sean Hannity to torpedo Trump’s cases. Among the fun things revealed in that interview, he said that Trump did in fact reimburse Michael Cohen for his $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels. Despite his backtracking immediately after that statement, there is no way that revelation, or any of the others that Giuliani continues to unleash off the cuff, could benefit Trump’s position. I think it’s time for Rudy to officially retire from being the crazy old Republican bullhorn.
Michelle Wolf pretty savagely ripped on Trump, Sarah Huckabee-Sanders, Kellyanne Conway and basically the entire administration in her 19 minute treatise on terrible during the White House Correspondents dinner. Now, comedians taking the piss out of the President is basically a tradition, and while it wasn’t as nuanced as Stephen Colbert giving Bush the business, it didn’t make her routine any less the norm of that tradition. Also, it was hilarious, and I can’t seem to stop using the word “savage” in reference to it. Trump of course immediately went on the defensive calling the whole institution out and specifically calling Wolf “filthy”…which is some grade A hypocrisy, isn’t it? Here is the guy who has a 30+ year history of publically belittling women and people of all stripes in equally “filthy” ways, and it’s only when that self righteous pendulum swings back in his direction does he get in a tizzy. Because of course. That’s Donald Trump.
So the New York Time released a possible list of questions that Mueller reportedly gave Trump’s legal team. Now of course, that situation has created a firestorm of stories and questions. Who leaked the list? Why? Who aims to benefit? How many tweets was Trump going to devote to it? How many times would he say “Collusion” or “Witch Hunt”? But what has been noted is the phrasing behind the question. Their design seem intended to appeal to Trump’s love of explaining things as opposed to short, succinct, yes or no answers. Now, critics of the investigation say that the point of these questions is to catch Trump in a lie. I say any question, no matter how it’s phrased, is likely to have that happen, because the man publicly lies, on average, 5 times a day, and that’s not hyperbole. The funny thing is, I wouldn’t be surprised if Trump went and answered these questions anyway, because all the people around him are almost certainly telling him not to, and Trump a) doesn’t like being told what to do, and b) thinks he’s too intelligent to be tricked. Gotta love his confidence, right?
Donald Trump really wants the world to know that he deserves the Nobel Peace prize. And honestly, he’s got some people on board with that rhetoric, and not just his usual sycophants. Listen, I don’t feel like I know how much Trump’s input had in how things are shaking about between both Korean states, but at this point, I don’t know that it’s fair to say that anyone but the people involved really know. South Korea’s president wouldn’t object to Trump receiving the honor. But from my perspective, it seems like Trump’s rhetoric could’ve done more to provoke war than peace. And despite his insistence that any positive developments out of North Korea are entirely his fault, maybe, just maybe, the delegations from South Korea and Japan have also, perhaps, been involved in making some headway. I dunno. I mean, surely Trump isn’t a braggart who likes to bolster his own accomplishments and prop up weak or non-existent victories. Right? But at the end of the day, I’m just worried it sets a poor precedent if you give a Nobel Peace Prize to people who threaten Nuclear Armageddon.
So, Friday’s amazing Fox and Friends rant was pretty great. Even the Friends of Fox and Friends were caught off guard by it. They all looked deeply uncomfortable by the whole thing by the end, and as it was pointed out by just about everyone, you could absolutely tell that they could not wait for it to be over. So it was to everyone’s surprise when Kellyanne Conway announced over the weekend that Trump enjoyed the experience so much, and he thought it was so beneficial, that he was going to do it once a month! And the friend, well they were just speechless! I’m assuming speechless with unbridled joy and not with frustration, fear, anxiety and a little bit of dread. Because that was kind of what it looked like when Kellyanne dropped that bomb with just her most bubbly tone.
Mind the Exit 