Mediaboss Marketing

BBC News

Donald Trump softens tone to urge 'a new unity' BBC News US President Donald Trump has called for a "new unity", a day after a campaign-style rally in which he attacked political foes and media. Speaking in Reno, Nevada, Mr Trump said "we are one people with one home and one great flag". "In America, we ... After angry rally, Trump calls for healing in NevadaCNN Donald Trump Talks Love And Unity Hours After Blaming Sick Media For Neo-Nazis At RallyDeadline Donald Trump's Rally in Phoenix Was an Unhinged Nightmare. Here Are the Lowlights.Mother Jones all 215 news articles »

Here is the original post:
Donald Trump softens tone to urge 'a new unity' - BBC News

I went through the transcript of Trump's speech -- all 77 minutes -- and picked out his 57 most outrageous lines, in chronological order. They're below.

1. "And just so you know from the Secret Service, there aren't too many people outside protesting, OK. That I can tell you."

2. "A lot of people in here, a lot of people pouring right now. They can get them in. Whatever you can do, fire marshals, we'll appreciate it."

So many people love me -- it's hard to fit them all in the building! But, try!

3. "You know I'd love it if the cameras could show this crowd, because it is rather incredible. It is incredible."

For the record: The cameras always show the crowd. Have for months and years.

4. "We went to center stage almost from day one in the debates. We love those debates."

The election ended 287 days ago, as of last night.

5. "Our movement is a movement built on love."

6. "We all share the same home, the same dreams and the same hopes for a better future. A wound inflicted upon one member of our community is a wound inflicted upon us all."

7. "I see all those red hats and white hats. It's all happening very fast. It's called: 'Make America Great Again.'"

Trump conflates a call to unity and an end to divisiveness with supporting him. The country is coming together because lots of people at a campaign rally have "MAGA" hats on!

8. "Just like (the media doesn't) want to report that I spoke out forcefully against hatred, bigotry and violence and strongly condemned the neo-Nazis, the White Supremacists, and the KKK."

9. "So here is my first statement when I heard about Charlottesville -- and I have a home in Charlottesville, a lot of people don't know."

Follow this logic: The media says I didn't condemn the white supremacists and neo-Nazis in Charlottesville. I did -- because I have a house there, which many people don't know.

10. "So here's what I said, really fast, here's what I said on Saturday: 'We're closely following the terrible events unfolding in Charlottesville, Virginia' -- this is me speaking. 'We condemn in the strongest, possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence.' That's me speaking on Saturday."

This is what he actually said (italics/bolding mine): "We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence, on many sides. On many sides. It's been going on for a long time in our country. Not Donald Trump, not Barack Obama. This has been going on for a long, long time."

Which is not the same thing. At all.

11. "I think I can't do much better, right?"

No, you could have done much, much better. Just ask your own party -- the vast majority of which condemned your Charlottesville comments. Also, Trump is always doing great!

12. "I hope they're showing how many people are in this room, but they won't"

[narrator voice]: They were.

13. "I call them anarchists. Because, believe me, we have plenty of anarchists. They don't want to talk about the anarchists."

Believe me, I know anarchists. The best anarchists. Bigly.

14. "If you're reading a story about somebody, you don't know. You assume it's honest, because it's like the failing New York Times, which is like so bad. It's so bad."

I have no idea what Trump's point is here. But MAN, the New York Times is failing, right?!?!?

15. "Or the Washington Post, which I call a lobbying tool for Amazon, OK, that's a lobbying tool for Amazon."

Amazon doesn't own the Washington Post. Jeff Bezos does.

16. "Or CNN, which is so bad and so pathetic, and their ratings are going down."

17. "I mean, CNN is really bad, but ABC this morning -- I don't watch it much, but I'm watching in the morning, and they have little George Stephanopoulos talking to Nikki Haley, right? Little George."

A few things: 1. Trump watches TV constantly. 2. "Little George": Trump as bully-in-chief.

18. "I didn't say I love you because you're black, or I love you because you're white, or I love you because you're from Japan, or you're from China, or you're from Kenya, or you're from Scotland or Sweden. I love all the people of our country."

19. "How about -- how about all week they're talking about the massive crowds that are going to be outside. Where are they? Well, it's hot out. It is hot. I think it's too warm."

It was warm! (105 or so.) But, again, multiple media reports -- including CNN's -- show that there were thousands of protesters.

20. "You know, they show up in the helmets and the black masks, and they've got clubs and they've got everything -- Antifa!"

21. "Then I said, racism is evil. Do they report that I said that racism is evil?"

22. "Now they only choose, you know, like a half a sentence here or there and then they just go on this long rampage, or they put on these real lightweights all around a table that nobody ever heard of, and they all say what a bad guy I am."

"Racism is evil -- and those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and other hate groups are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans," Trump said in response to the attacks in Charlottesville, Virginia, over the weekend.

23. "But, I mean do you ever see anything -- and then you wonder why CNN is doing relatively poorly in the ratings"

See #16.

24. "But with me, they wanted me to say it, and I said it. And I said it very clearly, but they refused to put it on."

The issue was that Trump said -- on Saturday, August 12, and then again on Tuesday, August 15 -- that the violence and hate on display in Charlottesville was "on many sides" and then that "both sides" were responsible for it. And, the news media didn't condemn Trump for that; it was his own party who did that.

25. "I hit him with neo-Nazi. I hit them with everything. I got the white supremacists, the neo-Nazi. I got them all in there, let's say. KKK, we have KKK. I got them all."

This is revealing in a way Trump doesn't mean it to be. He views the naming of the KKK and the neo-Nazis who were responsible for this violence as a box-checking exercise. I said their names -- so what's the problem?! (Of course,Trump didn't call out these groups in his initial statement on Saturday, which was the problem.)

26. "So then the last one, on Tuesday -- Tuesday I did another one: 'We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence. It has no place in America.'

27. "So that was my words."

Over 2,000 of them in fact. All dedicated to rewriting what he actually said about Charlottesville.

28. "Now, you know, I was a good student. I always hear about the elite. You know, the elite. They're elite? I went to better schools than they did. I was a better student than they were. I live in a bigger, more beautiful apartment, and I live in the White House, too, which is really great."

29. "The words were perfect. They only take out anything they can think of, and for the most part, all they do is complain. But they don't put on those words. And they don't put on me saying those words."

Trump is not sorry. Not ever. He has convinced himself that what he said initially about Charlottesville was "perfect." And, I realize this may be getting repetitive, but the media reported every word Trump said about Charlottesville. Period. The end.

30. "And yes, by the way -- and yes, by the way, they are trying to take away our history and our heritage. You see that."

This is demagogic language from Trump about the media. "They" are trying to rob us of "our history and our heritage." You don't have to look very hard to see racial and ethnic coding in that language.

31. "I really think they don't like our country. I really believe that."

Trump's claim that the media doesn't "like" America is hugely offensive. Offensive and dangerous. Imagine ANY other president saying anything close to this -- and what the reaction would be.

32. "Look back there, the live red lights. They're turning those suckers off fast out there. They're turning those lights off fast."

33. "CNN does not want its falling viewership to watch what I'm saying tonight, I can tell you."

See #16.

34. "If I don't have social media, I probably would not be standing."

Same.

35. "They'll say, 'Donald Trump is in a Twitter-storm.' These are sick people."

Your guess is as good as mine.

36. "You would think -- you would think they'd want to make our country great again, and I honestly believe they don't. I honestly believe it." The media, in Trump's telling, is rooting against the country. Let me say again: Rhetoric like this is offensive, dishonest and dangerous.

37. "The New York Times essentially apologized after I won the election, because their coverage was so bad, and it was so wrong, and they were losing so many subscribers that they practically apologized."

38. "I must tell you, Fox has treated me fairly. Fox treated me fairly."

39. "How good is Hannity? How good is Hannity? And he's a great guy, and he's an honest guy. And 'Fox and Friends in the Morning' is the best show, and it's the absolute, most honest show, and it's the show I watch."

40. "Oh, those cameras are going off. Wow. That's the one thing, they're very nervous to have me on live television."

41. "I'm a person that wants to tell the truth. I'm an honest person, and what I'm saying, you know is exactly right."

42. "You've got people outside, but not very many."

He is obsessed with crowd size. Obsessed.

43. "So, was Sheriff Joe convicted for doing his job?"

44. "He should have had a jury, but you know what? I'll make a prediction. I think he's going to be just fine, OK?"

The "pardon" tease! Make sure to stay tuned for next week's episode!

45. "It was like 115 degrees. I'm out signing autographs for an hour. I was there. That was a hot day."

It was hot. But I am still very popular. Extremely popular. Believe me.

(And for what it's worth, CNN White House reporter Kevin Liptak emails: "It was 106 degrees and he spent no more than 25 minutes shaking hands.")

46. "But believe me, if we have to close down our government, we're building that wall."

47. "'Extreme vetting' -- I came up with that term."

...he says proudly.

48. "And we have to speak to Mitch and we have to speak to everybody."

49. "But, you know, they all said, Mr. President, your speech was so good last night, please, please, Mr. President don't mention any names. So I won't. I won't. No I won't vote -- one vote away, I will not mention any names. Very presidential, isn't' it? Very presidential."

This is Trump taking a shot at John McCain, who is currently battling brain cancer, for voting against the repeal and replace health care legislation. It's also Trump showing how closely he reads press coverage and how he likes to openly flout suggestions of being more "presidential."

50. "And nobody wants me to talk about your other senator, who's weak on borders, weak on crime, so I won't talk about him. Nobody wants me to talk about him. Nobody knows who the hell he is."

Jeff Flake is a sitting Republican senator. Trump is running him down in his home state at a campaign rally less than a week removed from touting one of his primary challengers on Twitter.

51. "Did you see Gruber got fired yesterday? He got fired because he defrauded somebody or something. Something very bad happened. Check it out. Something happened."

52. "One vote -- speak to your senator, please. Speak to your senator."

53. "I think we've gotten more than anybody, including Harry Truman, who was number one, but they will tell you we've got none."

54. "But Kim Jong Un, I respect the fact that I believe he is starting to respect us. I respect that fact very much. Respect that fact."

Respect. That. Fact.

55. "I don't believe that any president has accomplished as much as this president in the first six or seven months. I really don't believe it." Trump believes that by saying things, he wills them into existence and truth.

He doesn't.

56. "They're trying to take away our culture. They are trying to take away our history."

[dog whistle]

57. "So I think we'll end up probably terminating NAFTA at some point, OK? Probably." Way to throw a major policy pronouncement into the end of a speech while negotiations are ongoing!

View post:
Donald Trump's 57 most outrageous quotes from his Arizona speech - CNN

President Trump speaks with newly sworn-in White House chief of staff John Kelly at the White House on July 31. Kelly is one of four former generals who were appointed to top administration positions. Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

President Trump speaks with newly sworn-in White House chief of staff John Kelly at the White House on July 31. Kelly is one of four former generals who were appointed to top administration positions.

When White House chief strategist Steve Bannon was pushed out of his job last week, it underscored the growing clout of President Trump's chief of staff, John Kelly, a retired Marine Corps general.

And when Trump announced he was increasing U.S. troops in Afghanistan on Monday, after suggesting for years that he wouldn't, administration officials were quick to note that he was heeding the advice of "the generals."

Trump, who attended the New York Military Academy as a teenager, has made clear he admires the toughness and discipline of military life and has appointed four former generals to top administration positions.

"I think that he likes the idea of military leadership, because military leadership is very decisive and audacious at times, and general officers are very good at simplifying problems and then getting the job done," said Thomas Kolditz, a retired brigadier general and the director of the Doerr Institute for New Leaders at Rice University.

While other administration figures have come and gone, Kelly, Defense Secretary James Mattis and national security adviser H.R. McMaster are still on the job, with varying degrees of power and influence. (A fourth general, Michael Flynn, held a brief, stormy tenure as national security adviser.)

But as much as Trump reveres the military, his own management style could put him in conflict with the very generals he has appointed.

Leadership is a core part of military service, and promising recruits are taught from the beginning how to inspire and command respect.

"The heart and soul of who we are in the military is about leadership, and leadership on a day-to-day basis but very importantly leadership in combat," said retired Marine Corps Gen. John Allen.

"So recruiting young men and women who have those skills early in their lives and then working hard to foster and nurture those skills are very important," he added.

Those qualities can make a big difference later on, when those men and women leave the military and venture into public life or the corporate world.

Former Procter & Gamble Chief Executive Robert McDonald attended West Point as a young man and later served five years in the Army, before leaving for a corporate job.

He had to make certain adjustments, he recalls. Because people in the Army move around so much, they're provided with manuals telling them how to do everything.

"So when I got to the Procter & Gamble Co., I went to my boss and I said, 'Where's the field manual that tells you how to organize your desk?' And of course they thought I was crazy," McDonald said.

But the leadership skills he learned in the military stayed with him throughout his career. McDonald likes to cite some words from the West Point Cadet Prayer.

"Those words are, 'Help me to choose the harder right rather than the easier wrong.' And it's remarkable, but in business as in life, the easier thing is usually the wrong thing to do," he said.

Carola Frydman and Efraim Benmelech, professors of finance at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, have studied the track records of chief executives who served in the military.

Among their findings: CEOs who are also vets are more cautious about spending money on research and development, and they tend to commit less corporate fraud.

They also don't tend to do any better than other chief executives, the research suggests.

But Frydman and Benmelech say CEOs who are also vets do tend to perform better during economic downturns. They can be good in a crisis.

"They bring the capacity to operate under stress, and in so many cases, this stress has been tempered in the hot flame of war. And you just can't pay enough for that kind of experience," Allen said.

That may be one of the qualities that appeal to Trump, whose administration has been plagued by leaks, aborted policy initiatives and high-level staff defections.

But Kolditz notes that Trump may not fully grasp the ethos of public service and loyalty to the country that military officers are brought up in.

"Donald Trump's grown up in a scrappier place, where it was pretty much about making money for yourself, and he is brand new to public service," Kolditz said.

"Many of the things that Donald Trump expects from his people require [their ideas about public service] to be set aside for personal loyalty to Donald Trump. And so we're going to see this meeting of the minds, and I think it will be a process of consistent negotiation in how things happen," Kolditz added.

"What he's looking for is success," Allen said. "And so in his mind it would seem he has concluded that among the many other people that might come into the administration, retired generals offer perhaps a time-tried and battle-proven executive who can come into the administration and provide critical leadership in key positions.

"And with Kelly, Mattis and McMaster, he has certainly found three of the best and he has placed them I think in three pretty critical positions," Allen said.

Read more from the original source:
Why Donald Trump Likes To Surround Himself With Generals - NPR

Barack Obama was comfortable rousing partisans with jabs at the GOP at a convention and singing "Amazing Grace" in Charleston, South Carolina.

Think back to FDR and it's easy to recognize that modern presidents have often shown the world different sides depending on the moment, but always in the context of a steady personality.

Then there is Donald Trump, who also has shown two sides, most dramatically in the past 10 days. After giving a measured statement last week condemning hatred and violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, he struck a wildly different tone in an exchange with reporters the next day, drawing widespread condemnation by appearing to equate the far right protesters in that city with those rallying against bigotry.

Then this Monday, he swung back to his earlier tone when, in a speech on his new Afghanistan policy, he condemned hatred and division.

Finally, having apparently strained to act appropriately on Monday, Donald Trump returned from his bad boy timeout Tuesday to address a Phoenix crowd as the familiar, raging and erratic character who appears at his rallies.

He once again bashed the mainstream press and senators in his own party. Then he distorted his record on the racial tragedy in Charlottesville, reminding the world that he lacks the moral core that has allowed previous presidents to display strong personalities while keeping faith with a nation that needs a stable leader.

The fact is, many presidents have been adept at showing different sides to different audiences, but all in the service of a sensible set of goals. Trump's wild tacking from one personality to the other is self-destructive.

If an instrument were devised to measure Trump's mood -- call it a Trumpometer -- it would generally register on the far right-hand side of the scale. This is where "Reckless Trump" muses about the "very fine people" who joined the recent march of the racists in Charlottesville, which culminated in a deadly vehicular attack on anti-hate demonstrators. Heather Heyer died, many more were injured.

Scripted Trump appears when the President is persuaded to accept a little discipline -- and a teleprompter. His first State of the Union speech was delivered with the aid of the machine and he got generally positive reviews.

By denying the facts about Russia's effort to influence the election, Trump neglected his duty to defend American democracy and respect the intelligence services that help safeguard the nation. He did, however, soothe his concern that others might see his election as tainted, and his ego requires this comfort. When Reckless Trump is in the room, it is easy to see that ego is his main concern.

Although Reckless Trump often sabotages his own agenda, he causes the greatest damage when he indulges himself on an issue that is vital to both public safety and national unity.

The Trump Tower performance was a wild swing away from the more reasonable statement he had made just the day before. It also fit a pattern. When Trump has chosen to moderate himself, to be more like other presidents, he has often snapped back almost immediately to his more combative identity.

For his Monday Afghanistan speech, he pulled himself together for the teleprompter session, which included a reminder that, "loyalty to our nation demands loyalty to one another. Love for America requires love for all of its people."

After all, this is the man who likes to keep people in suspense, wondering which version of him will appear, which has the effect of casting doubt upon every statement. Indeed, as if to prove he's not to be trusted, Trump followed his Monday peacemaking remarks with a trip to Phoenix, where local officials had asked him to stay away because they feared violent protests.

What were people upset about? Well, Trump was reportedly considering a pardon for recently convicted ex-sheriff Joseph Arpaio, whose anti-immigrant demagoguery has made him a living symbol of prejudice for many Americans.

"I've started to use them a little bit. They're not bad. You never get yourself in trouble when you use a teleprompter. You know, the problem is, it's too easy. We have a president who uses teleprompters. It's too easy. We should have non-teleprompter speeches only when you're running for president. You find out about people. The other way you don't find out about anybody."

Read more:
Donald Trump is a president at war with himself - CNN

We took a look at an energy claim President Donald Trump made at his rally in Phoenix on Aug. 22, 2017.

In a 75-minute rally speech that revisited his response to the Charlottesville, Va., unrest and scolded the national media, President Donald Trump slid in a note of pride about the United States balance of trade in energy.

"We're going to do an infrastructure bill," Trump said. "We will build gleaming new roads, bridges, highways, railways, waterways, all across our beautiful land. Our greatest creations, our most incredible buildings, our most beautiful works of art are just waiting to be brought to life. American hands will build this future. American energy will power this future. We have become an energy exporter for the first time ever just recently."

Was he correct to say that the United States has "become an energy exporter for the first time ever just recently"?

Short answer: No.

But to get to the short answer, you have to wade through several possible interpretations of what Trump meant. (The White House did not clarify his meaning for us.)

First possible meaning: The U.S. has just begun exporting energy

One way to read Trumps statement is to take it literally -- that the United States only recently began to export energy. This is flat wrong.

"We have been exporting coal, natural gas, electricity, refined products and energy technologies for a very long time," said Paul Sullivan, a professor at National Defense University and an adjunct professor at Georgetown University who specializes in energy security issues. "We were once, during the time of JD Rockefeller, the world's near monopoly on kerosene. Liquefied natural gas exports from Alaska to Japan have been around for a long time. Piped gas to Mexico and Canada are normal events. We have a massive electricity trade with Canada."

Second possible meaning: The U.S. is now a net energy exporter

Trump might have meant that the United States had only recently become a net exporter of energy -- meaning the total of all U.S. energy exports recently overtook the total of all U.S. energy imports. This is less wrong, but still not accurate.

"This has been falling, but we are still a huge net energy importer," said Jason Bordoff, who directs Columbia Universitys Center on Global Energy Policy.

In its most recent projections, the federal Energy Information Administration concluded that the United States would become a net energy exporter around 2026, depending on the course of future patterns of global supply, demand and pricing.

Whats clear is that the United States has not yet become a net exporter of energy, as Trumps past-tense remark indicated. If that day comes in 2026 -- and it may or may not -- that would be two years after Trump finishes a possible second term.

Third possible meaning: U.S. crude oil export ban lifted

Perhaps rather than "energy," Trump meant to say "crude oil."

If this is what Trump meant, the statement would still be problematic. It wouldnt be the first time "ever." And the relevant change was signed under his predecessor, President Barack Obama.

On Dec. 18, 2015, the United States enacted legislation to repeal a ban on most crude-oil exports that had been in place since the energy-crisis days of 1975. (Exports of refined petroleum were not blocked by the law, just crude.)

Heres a chart showing U.S. crude-oil exports going back to the 1980s. (The years between 1975 and 2015 show some export activity because trade with some countries, such as Canada, was exempt from the law.) The rapid rise in crude-oil exports near the end of the chart reflects the lifting of the export-restriction law.

Other possible meanings

Its possible to substitute any number of energy subcategories into Trumps remark to see whether they make the statement more accurate. Some do, some dont.

The United States has been a net coal exporter for many years. It has been a net exporter of refined petroleum products since around 2011. So neither of those would make Trump correct.

Natural gas is a more promising option. The United States is not yet a net exporter of natural gas, but the difference between imports and exports has narrowed for nine consecutive years, according to EIA, falling to its smallest gap ever in 2016. And the agency projects that the United States will become a net exporter of natural gas once the 2017 numbers are tallied up.

Energy experts say that this is a significant development, though one that Trump can take little credit for.

"It has been a trend that was activated by the U.S. shale boom and made possible by the Obama administration's policy on liquefied natural gas exports," said Anna Mikulska, a fellow with Rice Universitys Center for Energy Studies.

Ironically, Bordoff added, a different Trump policy goal -- reviewing Obama-era increases in fuel-efficiency standards for vehicles -- could make it harder for the United States to become a net exporter of energy, the very thing he applauded in Phoenix.

"Trumps stated intention to ease fuel economy standards actually undermines the goal of becoming a net energy exporter, because it means the U.S. will be consuming more oil than we would otherwise," he said. "The EIA projections assume the planned increases in fuel economy go into effect, so the EIA projection of when we become a net exporter of energy would be pushed further out if we weaken fuel economy standards."

Our ruling

Trump said that "we have become an energy exporter for the first time ever just recently."

This statement is problematic regardless of how you interpret his statement -- gross energy exports, net energy exports, gross crude-oil exports, and net natural gas exports. The closest he would come to being accurate is if he were referring to net natural gas exports, but even there, it hasnt happened yet, contrary to what his past-tense statement indicates. We rate the statement False.

Share the Facts

2017-08-23 21:33:46 UTC

2

1

7

False

http://time.com/4912055/donald-trump-phoenix-arizona-transcript/

"We have become an energy exporter for the first time ever just recently."

a rally in Phoenix

Tuesday, August 22, 2017

2017-08-22

Go here to read the rest:
Donald Trump wrongly says US is a net energy exporter - PolitiFact