Allen Weisselberg is the Chief Financial Officer of the Trump Organization. He’s been a player in the company since the days that Trump’s dad was running the show. Allen is the Money guy, and has been for years. When it comes to loyalty, he would be the one person Trump would expect to have his back more than anyone. And loyalty carries a premium for Donald Trump. He values it more than just about anything. He’s made that abundantly clear. But now we’re hearing that Weisselberg has been granted immunity in his account of the Cohen affair. His willingness to talk about what he knows gives us a pretty clear idea how much loyalty Donald Trump commands, which is to say, NOT. MUCH. And I have to admit, that I find that kind of funny. Because of course people in Trump’s orbit would be cautious in regards to the loyalty they give him. He’s quick to lash out, and he throws people under the bus constantly. And at the same time, the idea that people in his employ would ever be disloyal to him seems to be completely baffling to him. As far as Trump is concerned, he’s this strong, powerful leader, who commands the greatest respect and loyalty, and yet as soon as he turns his back, people seem to be jumping ship.
How much of his day on average do you think Robert Mueller thinks about Donald Trump?
Day in and day out, Donald Trump is constantly blasting his Id all over Twitter. His angry, early morning Tweetstorms have become something of a tradition at this point. They’re like ugly, less thought out, inflammatory fireside chats. And he constantly has something to say about the probe into Russia’s meddling into the 2016 election. In fact, I’ll bet if I mention Russia or Mueller to a random person, the first word that comes to mind is “witchhunt”.
It’s Donald Trump’s omni-present narrative that got me thinking about the fact that Robert Mueller has NO narrative. Everything we know about his side of the case is entirely based around what kind of scoop news organizations get, and the veracity of ANY of those stories is questionable. Honestly, we have no concrete understanding of what Mueller’s side of the investigation looks like. We have no idea what or who he’s zeroing in on until he makes a move, but he never broadcasts it. And Trump himself is constantly maneuvering around what he think’s Mueller’s machinations are, ALSO based on what the media is saying. Remember, Trump also has NO IDEA what Mueller is actually doing.
He keeps calling this investigation a “witch hunt” without at all knowing if he’s even a credible target at this point! Only the tiny investigation team and Mueller himself know what’s actually on the table, and they aren’t giving an official narrative, because of course they aren’t! Law enforcement and prosecution teams don’t discuss ongoing cases. Which leads me to back to the question I had at the beginning. How much do you think Mueller thinks SPECIFICALLY about Trump? While we know for a fact that Trump CAN’T STOP thinking about Mueller and his investigation, I imagine Mueller isn’t plagued by a similar problem. Because Mueller’s agenda isn’t to nail the President. It’s to uncover the scope of a hostile foreign power’s penetration into our election. I would imagine Mueller’s head is much less chaotic.
The Trump camp had to fire one of their speechwriters, Darren Beattie, last week because apparently he’d been speaking at White Supremacist rallies. Now this left me asking a very honest yet surreal question: Since when has Donald Trump used a SPEECHWRITER? I mean, I know there have been a few occasions where the words Trump spoke weren’t words that he immediately blasted off from the top of his head, but certainly not full speeches worth, and most of the time, when Trump gives a “speech” he’s just bullhorning his campaign points. He talks about Mexico being criminals, his wall, bad trade and the fake news. Then when he forgets something he’ll talk about the election until he remembers what he was originally on about. It’s a pretty well established pattern at this point. The idea that someone has actually written down those half conscious ramblings is mystifying! At this point, Trump can probably give a Rally speech in his sleep. In fact, I imagine he probably does. The way I see it, if you’re gonna fire a speechwriter for Trump, I’d figure the reason would be because the position was unnecessary.
Rudy Giuliani’s tenuous grasp on reality is only getting more and more loose as his time with Donald Trump increases. Apparently Rudy now believes that Trump isn’t even beholden to the nature of reality any more. On Meet the press on Saturday, Giuliani explained with great vehemence that the Truth doesn’t have to be Trump’s truth. Indeed the Truth isn’t even the truth. Suffice to say, Chuck Todd was rightly baffled by the whole exchange, even going so far to correctly say “This is going to become a bad meme.” And goodness, Chuck couldn’t be more right! Memes almost immediately started popping up all over Twitter with Giuliani’s quote “Truth isn’t Truth” holding a special resonance for many. People are likening it to an Orwellian 1984 type sentiment. I think Giuliani is off his damn rocker, and thinks he’s in the Matrix. You remember the Matrix, right? The movie where the spoon isn’t the spoon and reality is just a computer program? Yeah, I think someone might have told him that 1999 cyberpunk classic is a documentary, and honestly, that would explain a lot of his more cryptic statements in recent days. He apparently took the “the red pill.”
Ex-CIA director John Brennan went on Rachel Maddow a few nights ago to call out Donald Trump in regards to his revoked security clearance. Some people might say that Brennan is just chewing on sour grapes, but however you choose to characterize a 25-year veteran of the intelligence community, his labeling of Trump as “Drunk with power”, while cliché, feels pretty apt. To call Trump’s behavior erratic and lacking forethought feels like an understatement. He’s all prone to angry outbursts and nonsensical diatribes. For a man who prides himself on having never consumed alcohol or taken drugs, he sure acts like he’s under the influence on a near constant basis. Maybe power really has intoxicated the President. Or he’s a incompetent, bigoted, half wit with zero common sense. But at this point, what’s the difference, really?
What a day yesterday was for the grand scale of the office of the President. You know, I was certain that the biggest news of the day was certainly going to be the conviction of Paul Manafort. After days of deliberation, Trump was starting to brag that this just showed the indecision, and what he saw as a likely acquittal was just more “proof” of a witchhunt. Then the jury came back with “guilty” verdicts and….you know what, don’t care. Not the biggest news of the day! It’s important, but I feel like it was only moments later that the big fish fell on deck: Michael Cohen, Fixer extraordinaire and Ex-Trump attorney, pled guilty to eight total counts, including five counts of tax evasion, one count of making a false statement to a financial institution, and another count of “willful cause of unlawful corporate contribution” — as well as a count of “excessive campaign contribution.” If you get the chance, I recommend reading the case file. At 22 pages, it’s pretty illuminating, especially the parts that pertain to work Cohen did for “Individual-1”. Now, one would, rightly, assume that Individual-1 is Donald Trump. I mean, if you’re looking for hints, there is a big one in that Individual-1 “had become President of the United States” according to paragraph 2. But how Trump-like would it be for Trump to claim that Individual-1 could be anyone! That the fact that he wasn’t addressed by name is absolute proof of his innocence! Witch hunt!
I guess Trump is cancelling his grand military parade because, at it turns out, to create the parade he wanted, it would run about $92 million! $92 MILLION. If that number doesn’t raise your blood pressure a few points, it should be noted that that number is about $80 million over budget. And that’s not hyperbole. That’s about 766% over the expected budget. And it leaves me once again with the question, who the hell was this parade for? I mean, what was the purpose? Listen, I appreciate the troops as much as the next guy, but sending our tanks and missiles down Pennsylvania Ave. doesn’t make me think of our troops. It makes me think Trump is proud of our guns. And the reality is, I think that’s more of the point. As much as Trump wants us to believe this was about troop morale, I think it’s more akin to Trump really wanting to show off the nation’s firepower. Because we all know what people say about the size of one’s guns…that’s it’s reflective of the size of their insecurity.
Peter Strzok is a recently fired FBI agent who was accused of having a political opinion that didn’t favor the current administration. That accusation is pretty obviously true, if not when the accusation surfaced, then definitely now, as that served as the reason for his job termination. In the wake of that, his friends and family created a highly publicized GoFundMe page to help Strzok in terms of his mounting legal fees and lost income. GoFundMe is a crowdsourced funding site. Basically, you can donate to causes and projects that tickle your fancy. Well apparently rather a lot of people were on board with Strzok, as in less than a day, he blasted past his $250,000 goal, and started closing in on double that amount. When all is said and done, Strzok could walk away with a pretty hefty payday for the sole reason of people thinking he was unjustly terminated. And that HAS to piss Donald Trump right the hell off. Think about it. Donald Trump has put no small amount of energy into tarnishing Peter Strzok’s name and reputation. And he did it because this guy who he feels owed him personal loyalty, didn’t like him. And if there is one thing that Donald Trump hates, it’s the idea that people don’t like him. So the notion that not only are people taking Strzok’s side in this thing, but are actively making sure he’s financially taken care of HAS to stick in Trump’s craw. But I also want to believe that Trump sees this and undoubtedly thinks he could do it better, and raise WAY more money.
Sunday’s utterly distasteful “Unite the Right” rally, meant to celebrate the anniversary of what most would consider the tragedy of the events in Charlottesville, was a big fat failure in every respect. First of all, the turnout…well it was actually pretty good for the protestors who came to shame the people throwing the rally. Thousands showed up to let the White Supremacists in charge know how they felt. Unfortunately, the turn out for the actual rally part was rather impotent. I think at last count there were 12 people who ultimately showed up? So much for solidarity. For the millions of people concerned about the rise of this alt-right, neo-Nazi, white radical ideology, the lack of traction of this event should perk you up a bit. Indeed, the fact that thousands of people came out to make their voice heard against this kind of hatred and bigotry maybe shows that our country isn’t too lost after all. We may need to make our voices better well heard, but we still have the numbers. And I have to believe this event sticks somewhere in Trump’s craw. Because whether he’s willing to admit it, this is the voice of his base that’s floundered. While he probably would never openly endorse the success of such a rally, I believe Trump was hoping at least in part that this “Unite the White” event, held out in front of the White House, would have showed the power behind his message and his base. And the fact that it made that group look so small and ineffectual hopefully gives Trump a picosecond of pause regarding his message.
On the same day that Donald Trump condemned racism and violence for the anniversary of the tragedy in Charlottesville, Trump also called his ex advisor, and “Apprentice” contestant Omarosa a “low life.” To me that brings up a whole host of issues. First, it’s important to remember why Trump attacked Omarosa. She of course, among many other claims, has suggested there are recordings of Trump rather frivolously using the n-word. Also (and this may just be reading too much into things, I’ll freely admit that), but the term Trump used to denigrate Omarosa, “low life”, feels a little dog whistle-y. In my defense, when Trump goes for character assassination, he usually finds a childish way to call someone dumb, corrupt or a liar. But “Low life” feels like a term used to describe someone you think is a low class street thug. Again, maybe I’m reading too much into it, but regardless, the whole thing makes Trump’s condemnation of violence and racism ring hollow. But frankly, I feel like Trump’s statements when talking about racism, violence and unity usually do.
Mind the Exit 