Archive for the ‘Donald Trump’ Category

Seth Meyers: Sean Hannity Makes Terrible Donald Trump Wingman – Deadline

Late Night host Seth Meyers looked at all the things President Donald Trump and Fox News Channel have been doing to distract their followers from the fact that the GOP controlled Senates Trumpcare embarrassment.

The Congressional Budget Office projected this Trumpcare bill will leave about 22 million people uninsured, forcing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to scrub his plans to rush the bill written in secrecy to a vote, because it lacked the needed support inside his own party.

So what has Trump been up to, Meyers faux-wondered.

Yesterday he got up bright and dearly to retweet four different stories in a row from Fox & Friends attacking the Russia investigation and Democrats.

Fox & Friends showered Trump with so much praise theyre starting to sound like the helicopter parents of a shitty private school kid, Meyers snarked. Our Donnie would never collude with Russia! How dare you! Do you know how much money we give to this school?!

Among the stories Trump retweeted was a link to monologue from Fox News Channel primetime star Sean Hannity, who may have done more harm than good, Meyers thinks. Because while trying to defend Trump, Hannity repeated a certain lurid rumor about POTUS.

Cue clip of Hannity reading a recent New York Post headline: Sketchy Firm Behind Trump Dossier Is Stalling Investigators.

Oh, interesting! Hannity sneered, adding, Remember, thats the dossier that talked about Trump at a Ritz Carlton in Moscow, with two prostitutes urinating on his bed?

Well, we do now! Meyers smiled, telling Hannity: You are a terrible wingman!

So obsessed with media praise is Trump that he has a framed Time magazine cover hanging in several of his golf clubs, featuring Trumps image and headlines that way The Apprentice is a smash! and Trump Is Hitting On All FrontsEven TV!

This according to Washington Post reporting.

Except, of course, the cover is a fake, as WaPo added, and non-Fox-News cable news TV has been feasting on since Tuesday.

This would be the saddest thing Ive ever ever heard, if it wasnt the funniest thing Ive ever heard, Meyers acknowledged.

Trump did not like this report from the Washington Post and took a page out of the Strongman Playbook and attacked Amazon, whose CEO also owns Washington Post, Meyers explained.

Trump accused Amazon of not paying internet taxes.

Just one thing: there is no internet tax, Meyer noted of Trumps stab at a bright shiny media-distracting light.

While Trump tweeted, far more urgently in Washington, the Senate was trying to ram through its Trumpcare plan.

The vote delayed, McConnell has time to cut backroom deals. Question is, what role will Trump play? Meyers said, cutting to Texas Sen.John Cornyn saying, delicately, were trying to hold him back a little bit.

The rest is here:
Seth Meyers: Sean Hannity Makes Terrible Donald Trump Wingman - Deadline

Vice Retracts Articles About Donald Trump’s Animatronic Robot at Disney World – Variety

Vice Medias Motherboard tech site has retracted two articles supposedly revealing discord at Disney Parks about Donald Trumps presence in the Hall of Presidents attraction citing factual errors and questions about sourcing for the pieces.

After a thorough investigation into the sourcing of two stories, Heres the Secret Backstage Trump Drama at Walt Disney Worlds Hall of Presidents and Behind the Scenes of Disneys Donald Trump Hall of Presidents Installation, and the identification of several factual errors, we have decided to retract both pieces, Motherboard said in an editorial note posted Wednesday in place of the two articles.

The note added, We are conducting a full editorial review to pinpoint how this source was vetted, and how these stories were approved and published in violation of our usual editorial workflow. We fell short of our standards, and regret the error.

The Motherboard story published on Monday, June 26, alleged that there was internal debate at Disney about whether Trumps animatronic figure would be speaking in the exhibit. The story also claimed, citing an anonymous source, that Trumps team was insisting on writing the entire speech for his robotic avatar in Disney Worlds Hall of Presidents.

That led Disney Parks to issue a statement that Trump will in fact be represented in the Hall of Presidents with a speaking role. The earlier Motherboard story, Heres the Secret Backstage Trump Drama at Walt Disney Worlds Hall of Presidents, published May 19, had cited an anonymous source close to Walt Disney Imagineering who claimed the animatronic Trump will probably not have a speaking role.

Disney is among Vice Medias investors, holding a $400 million stake in the millennial-skewing media company.

View post:
Vice Retracts Articles About Donald Trump's Animatronic Robot at Disney World - Variety

Time Asks Donald Trump’s Golf Clubs to Remove Phony Magazine Cover – NBCNews.com

Although Donald Trump has repeatedly appeared on the cover of Time Magazine in the last year, the company is asking that a framed cover image of Trump be taken down from the walls of several golf clubs.

That's because the cover hanging in several Trump Organization clubs is a phony, a Time spokesperson confirmed to NBC News.

The March 1, 2009, cover was first identified as fake by The Washington Post in a story published on Tuesday, and several markers give away that the cover isnt genuine.

The magazine's red border is thinner on the Trump cover than a real cover and is missing a thin, white border on the inside of the red. A barcode in the right-hand corner is the same as a design tutorial created by a Peruvian designer, according to the Post.

Headlines on a real cover appear across the top of the page. The fake covers headlines appear down the right side.

Another factor complicating the authenticity of the Trump cover Time didnt publish a March 1, 2009, cover, according to the Post. It published a cover featuring actress Kate Winslet the following day.

On the mocked-up cover, which is framed and hung in some of the Trump golf clubs, according to the Post, Trump appears with arms crossed beneath a banner that reads, TRUMP IS HITTING ON ALL FRONTS EVEN TV!

In the lower left corner, beneath Trumps name, a headline reads, The Apprentice is a television smash!"

Other headlines discuss real stories that appeared in the Kate Winslet issue, including a story about then-President Barack Obamas plan for health care and another about global warming.

Related: Sarah Palin Sues New York Times Over Editorial Linking Her to Violence

Its unclear who mocked up the fake cover and why, and its also not known if Trump himself was ever aware of the fake cover.

The Trump Organization did not immediately respond to NBC News request for comment.

Washington Post reporter David Fahrenthold, who broke the story, said he had tallied seven locations where the cover was spotted as of Wednesday morning, and was continuing to look for additional sightings.

Scott Keeler, a photojournalist for the Tampa Bay Times, posted a photo on Twitter of the framed Time cover hung on the wall of Trumps Palm Beach resort Mar-a-Lago.

Despite the fake cover, Trump has appeared on the front of the magazine several times. First, before he got into politics, Trump appeared on a 1989 cover holding an ace of diamonds next to his face.

The teaser read, This man may turn you green with envy or just turn you off. Flaunting it is the game, and Trump is the name.

After announcing his campaign to become president and his election, Trump has appeared on the cover of Time in both photos and illustrations more than a dozen times.

See the original post:
Time Asks Donald Trump's Golf Clubs to Remove Phony Magazine Cover - NBCNews.com

Donald Trump vs. CNN: How the White House Just Escalated Its War on the Free Press – Newsweek

Tuesday was a glorious day for those who believe that the free press is all thats keeping America from being made great again. It saw the right escalate its war on the media, in part because of mistakes committed by CNN and The New York Times. Those errors may have been troubling, but they were corrected quickly and unambiguously.

Far more troubling was the response of the pro-Trump camp, which zealously sought to discount all journalism on the basis of those two mistakes, to weaken an emboldened press corps by revealing its supposed anti-Trump biases. Those biases may exist, but if they do, the White House has done a marvelous job of confirming them at every opportunity with its own incompetence, maliciousness and dishonesty.

What the president really wants was best articulated in a New York Times interview with chief White House strategist Stephen K. Bannon earlier this year. The media should be embarrassed and humiliated and keep its mouth shut and just listen for a while, the splenetic nationalist said. The media here is the opposition party.

Daily Emails and Alerts- Get the best of Newsweek delivered to your inbox

Tuesdays developments were unrelated, except they showed how eagerly Trumps supporters will pounce on the media mistakes while ignoring the presidents penchant for conspiracy theories and alternative facts, if not outright deceptions. They see nothing wrong with holding CNN to a far higher standard than the White House, to scrutinize the words of a Times editorial while dismissing Trumps tweets as harmless presidential fun.

CNNs troubles stemmed from a story, published last Thursday, about Anthony Scaramucci, a New York financier and Trump supporter. The article made allegations about Scaramuccis supposed dealings with Kirill Dmitriev, who heads a Russian investment fund. Scaramucci complained to CNN head Jeff Zucker, reportedly threatening a $100 million lawsuit. The story was retracted, three staffers resigned and Scaramucci tweeted, Apology accepted. Everyone makes mistakes. Moving on.

Related: Trump's perfect press secretary

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gestures and declares "You're fired!" at a rally in Manchester, New Hampshire, June 17, 2015. REUTERS/Dominick Reuter

But while Scaramucci took the high road, Trump took the low one. He lambasted CNN in tweets unbefitting a candidate for the Palookaville Municipal Advisory Council, let alone the leader of the free world:

His deputy press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, channeled the same contemptuous attitude at Tuesdays daily White House press briefing. She railed against the constant barrage of fake news that is directed at this president. Of course, she couldnt name a single story that was fake. Sanders did, however, take a swipe at CNN, which she said had been repeatedly wrong and had to point that out or had to correct it.

Yes, absolutely. When a news outlet is wrongand every news outlet gets it wrong sometimesit acknowledges its mistakes and corrects them. Meanwhile, Trump trots out his press secretary to lie about inauguration crowds while spreading lies about the FBI, Hillary Clinton and anyone else he sees as an opponent. Its no secret that Trumps favorite show is Fox & Friends, which CNNs media reporter Brian Stelter calls Trumps safe space because it showers the president with positive attention.

Tuesday also saw Sarah Palin, former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential nominee, file a lawsuit against The New York Times, for an editorial published in mid-June. The Times editorial in question, titled Americas Lethal Politics, came after the shooting of Representative Steve Scalise in northern Virginia. The shooter, James Hodgkinson, was a vociferous supporter of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.

In its editorial, The Times alluded to the 2011 of shooting of Representative Gabby Giffords by Jared Lee Loughner. The original piece suggested Loughner was motivated by right-wing rhetoric. It specifically cited a map published by a political group affiliated with Sarah Palin. The editorial, as originally published, described the map as showing Giffords and 19 other Democrats under stylized cross hairs.

But the descriptions of Loughners intentions, and Palins map, were both erroneous. The Times was forced to issue a two-part correction:

An editorial on Thursday about the shooting of Representative Steve Scalise incorrectly stated that a link existed between political rhetoric and the 2011 shooting of Representative Gabby Giffords. In fact, no such link was established. The editorial also incorrectly described a map distributed by a political action committee before that shooting. It depicted electoral districts, not individual Democratic lawmakers, beneath stylized cross hairs.

That wasnt enough for Palin who filed suit against the Times on Tuesday. Notably, two of the lawyers she is using successfully litigated the invasion of privacy suit filed by Terry Gene Bollea, professionally known as Hulk Hogan, against the gossip website Gawker, which had published a sex tape of Bollea in sexual congress with the wife of a friend. Bollea was awarded more than $100 million by the jury, a decision that led to Gawkers demise.

Michael J. Naborski, a partner in the Los Angeles office of Pryor Cashman LLP whose expertise is defamation, says Palin may well have standing in her suit against the Times. A media defendant does not automatically escape the possibility of liability under a libel claim by issuing a retraction or a correction, he told me in an email. Palins attorneys will certainly argue that the two corrections were insufficient as a matter of law to even qualify as a correction and retraction. But even if they were, they did not serve to mitigate any of the damage caused to her reputation and feelings by the initial article.

Lets get something basic out of the way. The Times should have gotten the facts right, especially in an editorial that was presumably reviewed by multiple members of its editorial board. I say this as someone who spent several years as a member of the editorial board of the New York Daily News. While the role of the unsigned editorial has no doubt diminished, it remains the voice of the newspaper (specifically, its publisher). The facts around the Giffords shooting were not obscure or in dispute. The Times had a duty to get them rightand, given its journalistic talent, should have done so. It doesnt have to like Palin, but it does have to be honest about what she did and didnt say.

At the same time, the paper swiftly corrected its errors. Thats what a publication is supposed to do. Thats what CNN did, too. The free press cant be flawless, but it must be accountable.

Palin, meanwhile, is preposterous in complaining about offended sensibilities, as much as Trump is crowing about CNNs supposed deceptions. The suit her lawyers filed says that it took Mrs. Palin years to overcome the detrimental impacts of the false speculation that she caused Loughner to commit murder. Unfortunately, members of the media perceive Mrs. Palin as a convenient target for attacks against conservative policies and a subject likely to spark readership interest.

One wonders why Palins tender sensitivities werent similarly injured during the 2008 presidential race, when her campaign rallieson behalf of GOP nominee John McCainfrequently descended into expressions of hatred against then-candidate Barack Obama. She eagerly stoked that anger, accusing Obama of palling around with terrorists, leading some to wonder if violence against the Democratic candidate was inevitable.

Palin didnt get any calmer after the election, when she joined the bastion of civility and sensitivity that is Fox News. She called the president Barack Hussein Obama, using his foreign-sounding middle name to suggest the he wasnt quite American. Last year, during the presidential race, she called Obama a special kind of stupid. Later, after Trump won the 2016 election, she went to the White House with country singer Ted Nugent, whod once told Obama to suck on my machine gun and deemed Hillary Clinton a worthless bitch, among many other inciteful statements.

Sarah Palinvoice of conservative values and beacon of faith and family, according to her Times lawsuitdidnt appear troubled by any of that.

But as Niborski explains, it is possible that what she really wants isnt money. Part of the goal of certain plaintiffs is not necessarily to win a libel case, but rather to force media defendants to spend money on defending themselves, and therefore make it less likely that they will target a certain public figure in the future. In other words, Palins goal is to punish the Times, just as it was Bolleas goal to punish Gawker.

There was another media-related development on Tuesday, one that didnt involve a lawsuit. David A. Fahrenthold of The Washington Post found that some of Trumps golf resorts are decorated with a fake Time magazine cover that crows about his Apprentice being a television smash.

It takes a certain kind of chutzpah to attack the free press while using fake magazine covers for decor. More than that, it takes a profound insecurity, the kind of thing most people overcome in high school. What Trump fears, above all, is not that we will uncover some Nixonian plot involving Russia. Rather, what makes Trump afraid is that we, the people, will see him for his astonishing smallness of spirit, his lack of vision, his boundless vanity.

A man who wraps himself in fakery will see fakery everywhere.

Continued here:
Donald Trump vs. CNN: How the White House Just Escalated Its War on the Free Press - Newsweek

Donald Trump has a chance to step up for a signature win – CNN

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's failure to ram through an Obamacare repeal bill before the July 4 recess does more than reveal tribal divisions ravaging the Republican Party.

It also highlights President Donald Trump's role -- or lack of one -- in forging a GOP majority to squeeze the bill through the Senate, on an issue that has grave implications for the fate of the rest of his presidency.

Almost as soon as McConnell shelved a bid to vote on the measure this week, senators piled into a blue Capitol Police bus to head down to the White House for a brainstorming session with Trump.

The contrast was obvious to the euphoric Rose Garden rally that Trump hosted with GOP House members after they passed their Obamacare repeal bill in May. This time, Republicans sat around tables in the East Room expressing frustration at negative ads being aired against moderate Sen. Dean Heller, who has opposed the bill.

The delay in the Senate vote represents a failure -- that could yet be temporary -- by the GOP that has a monopoly on power in Washington yet can't yet honor the fundamental promise it has made to its voters for years.

But in this Washington cloud, there could be a silver lining for Trump.

A significant effort to reshape argument on the bill, to breach deep party divides on the issue and to sell a vision of health care reforms to Americans, could do a lot of good to a presidency that has been under siege for months.

It would also suggest that the President has a decent chance of building support for the rest of his agenda, that includes a push for tax reform and a program to repair the nation's decaying infrastructure.

But early signs are not encouraging for those who hope that the President can mine a golden seam of political support to get the bill passed.

Before grim faced senators, the President spoke in vague terms about the bill, showing the lack of specificity that has hampered his attempts to wield political influence on Capitol Hill.

"We are going to try and solve the problem. So, I invited all of you. ... We are going to talk. We are going to see what we are going to do," Trump told the group, before offering an assessment that did not seem to reflect the aggravated state of Republican debate over the bill or address the specific concerns many senators have with the bill.

"We are getting very close," he said. "This will be great if we get it done," he said, before asking reporters to leave the room.

By now, everyone knows in Washington that the President is not keen on thrashing through the details of a bill to try to win wavering votes.

In fact, he's often seemed ready to embrace any measure that he could portray as a political win -- whatever it contains.

There's certainly no sense that he is driving the debate towards an outcome that would fit into any ideological vision of his presidency. More often, he's shown more appetite to simply slam Obamacare than offer solutions.

Even Trump's supporters would admit that the President is yet to impose his considerable persona on Washington or shown he has the political skills and stock of capital to pilot legislation through Congress.

His consistency is also in question, since he labeled the House health care bill "mean," hanging members out to dry after celebrating its passage with them.

"Here's what I would tell any senator: If you're counting on the President to have your back, you need to watch it," GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham said Monday.

"This President is the first president in our history who has had neither political nor military experience," Maine Sen. Susan Collins told reporters on Capitol Hill Monday.

That impression will have to change if the President is to play on the loyalty of Republican senators who are against the bill, who McConnell said used their White House meeting, to explain their reservations to Trump.

Trump is the most unorthodox President in memory, and has broken many political norms. But if he is to amass a significant legislative legacy, he may have to put more political skin of his own in the game.

"He would knock peoples' socks off if he came forward with a venture of his own proposing," said Bruce Buchanan, a presidential historian at the University of Texas at Austin, who doubts Trump has such a play "in his playbook."

The next few weeks, as McConnell and Trump seek to unpick the GOP deadlock over the Senate proposal, pose a stern test for the President.

He must calm moderate senators scared about the consequences of voting for a measure the Congressional Budget Office says will lead to 22 million more people without coverage over the next decade.

Senate Republicans are also split on issues like cuts to the Medicaid expansion under Obamacare, the prospect of rising premiums for low income and working class Americans, and fears that opioid addicts could lose vital treatment.

Bringing Republicans together will test the clout of a president whose approval rating has dipped below 40% and has little support outside his, albeit solid, base. It will also reveal just how much loyalty Republican senators feel towards a President who has often departed from the orthodoxies of his own party.

Trump's stock on Capitol Hill may have taken a dent after a group that supports him, America First Policies, started airing ads against Heller in Nevada.

At the White House Tuesday, Heller and other senators complained, calling for party unity. Heller, a source said, brought the issue up first, while joking that he was disappointed that they used Matt Damon's face instead of his in the ad.

Trump may also need to up his persuasion game because though he's been speaking to holdout senators it's not clear he has changed many minds.

Utah Sen Mike Lee, a conservative who opposes the bill because he believes it does not do enough to strip down Obamacare, spoke to Trump by phone on Monday.

An aide said the tone of the call was "positive" but was also at a "high level" with no sign Trump addressed specific policy details.

McConnell said Tuesday that the President had been helpful and engaged. But he also appeared to hint that Trump would have to do more.

"We always anticipated the president would be very important in getting us to a conclusion. After all, under our system, he's the man with the signature," he said, adding that for Trump to show his cards earlier would have been a waste of time.

But Trump's time is now.

"There have been presidents that have been able to break through and Senate Majority leaders that have been able to put together a coalition," said Julian Zelizer, a CNN political analyst.

"(But) McConnell has been dealing with a President who has not been totally invested in this fight and is not selling to Americans what the idea is, behind the change other than people are going to lose many benefits."

CNN's MJ Lee, Lauren Fox and Jim Acosta contributed to this report.

Go here to see the original:
Donald Trump has a chance to step up for a signature win - CNN