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.
With the amazing fiasco that was the Ronny Jackson nomination, the question of who Trump is going to nominate next is floating in the air. Will he take some time to make a more deliberate decision as opposed to offering it as thanks for a questionable medical evaluation, or will he just offer it to the last guy he talked to? I know more than a few news outlets are concerned that he’s basically just offering jobs to anyone who wants them, and that’s pretty clearly not the most effective way to ensure the best people are getting put into the right cabinet positions. But don’t let that worry you, because Trump still wants you to know he only suggests the best people!
So Trump called Kim Jong Un “honorable”, and…well let’s just say it rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. I mean, I kind of understand where Trump is coming from on this. He’s acknowledging that Kim has given the appearance of openness and open-mindedness preceding talks between world leaders, and that is not a bad thing, but to call him “honorable” feels like a total slap in the face to everyone who opposes him and to everyone under his tyrannical thumb. Seriously, North Korea is on the constant verge of starvation, citizens have very few rights, they’re encouraged to spy everyone around them, which no doubt makes trust impossible. They have gulags and re-education facilities that are basically torture factories, and at the tippy top of that pyramid is Kim Jong Un, a man who never had to work for anything, is pampered and treated basically like a god. “Honorable” is not a word that feels appropriate sitting anywhere near Kim Jong Un.
I wonder if it’s ever going to be too much for Sarah Huckabee Sanders, aka The Huck. I mean, the questions she’s forced to contend with are genuinely unlike anything any other press secretary has had to deal with. I imagine even Bill Clinton’s Press Secretary after the Lewinsky scandal broke wasn’t as bad, because at least in that case, the number of terrible things that were being discussed were limited to one. With Trump, it’s any number of 50 things. This week it’s what Trump meant when he suggested the so-called sanctuary cities as “breeding concepts” . Because obviously there is a racially charged connotation if he was suggesting that said cities were breeding grounds for the Hispanic community. And stuff like this feels almost day to day, where the Huck is out tap-dancing around Trump’s words, and trying to deflect by calling everyone else racist for suggesting Trump meant something racist. There has to be a breaking point, yeah?
Jeff Sessions is not recusing himself from the Michael Cohen fiasco, because of course he isn’t. While many might say there is no distinction between the Cohen investigation and the Russia Investigation, I think it’s fair to categorize them mostly differently. Though I get the feeling that Sessions isn’t thinking so above the board in his reasoning. I’m pretty sure he’s just looking to keep his job. I think everyone realizes that if he had recused himself from yet another investigation that centers around his boss, that he’d be fired so hard and so quick that all that would be left are Session’s Keebler elf ears. Is there a conflict of interest when it comes to being objective about a legal investigation of the man who can fire you?
So the DNC is launching a big new lawsuit against Russia, Trump’s campaign and WikiLeaks. It’s a great big mess of a lawsuit, and frankly, I have to wonder what will actually be uncovered through this, though they seem to have a sympathetic judge in their corner, a judge who has history prosecuting the whole Watergate debacle oh so long ago. Trump’s grand plan to deal with this situation? Counter sue! Of course. It’s like his kneejerk reaction. Though the stuff he claims he wants to uncover…doesn’t make sense. Like the server he claims the DNC refused to give to the FBI, which is nonsense, because the DNC didn’t refuse cooperation with the Feds. The whole thing is weird. But for me and my money, my question is….who does he expect to litigate this case for him? Again, the dude can’t find a lawyer, and for a case that’s even less likely to yield a positive outcome, I can’t imagine he’ll have a ton of lawyers chomping at the bit.
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