Archive for the ‘Donald Trump’ Category

Jeff Sessions committed the one sin Donald Trump can’t forgive – CNN

No more.

Why? It's simple: Sessions admitted he did something wrong. He made a concession that, in Trump's mind, is the root of many of the Russia-related problems he is now dealing with.

Apparently his decision caught Trump by surprise. And the President was not happy. You can tell that by reading the statement he put out at the time. Here it is:

"Jeff Sessions is an honest man. He did not say anything wrong. He could have stated his response more accurately, but it was clearly not intentional. This whole narrative is a way of saving face for Democrats losing an election that everyone thought they were supposed to win. The Democrats are overplaying their hand. They lost the election and now, they have lost their grip on reality. The real story is all of the illegal leaks of classified and other information. It is a total witch hunt!"

Remember -- because Jeff Sessions apparently didn't -- that one of the cardinal rules of Trumpism is that you never ever apologize or concede anything. Give them an inch and they'll take a mile -- and all that.

To Trump's mind, you can draw a straight line between what he believes was Sessions' very dumb decision to recuse himself and the fact that former FBI Director Robert Mueller is now leading a special counsel investigation into Russia's meddling and the possibility of collusion between the Russians and elements of the Trump campaign.

Sessions' recusal, in Trump's mind, led to then-FBI Director James Comey leading the investigation. Comey's aggressiveness on the Russia probe -- wholly misguided to Trump's mind -- led the President to fire him using the pretext of a memo bashing Comey written by deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. And, because Rosenstein wrote that memo, he felt the need to appoint a special counsel to oversee the investigation for fear his reputation was on the line. Hence, Mueller.

See? It all makes sense! Right? Right???

Donald Trump is big on scapegoats. Usually the media fills that role nicely. But, as it relates to the trouble he finds himself in on Russia, it's Sessions who has become the fall guy for Trump.

The truth, of course, is that a large chunk of Trump's Russia problems are his own fault. Had he, from the start, welcomed the investigation with open arms or, I don't know, not fired the guy leading it, he would be in a much better place than he finds himself today.

It's a self-inflicted wound that Trump is blaming someone else for inflicting. Which, come to think of it, is the story of his presidency to date.

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Jeff Sessions committed the one sin Donald Trump can't forgive - CNN

President Trump’s Approval Rating Hit Another New Low – TIME

President Donald Trump's approval rating has sunk to a new low at 34%, according to a recent poll.

According to a poll by Quinnipiac University , 34% of voters approve of Trump, while 57% disapprove, a dip from the university's previous survey on May 24, which found that the President had a 37% approval rating. The latest poll results are Trump's lowest scores so far in April, he hovered around 35% approval, according to Quinnipiac.

The poll found that 31% of voters think Trump did something illegal in his relationship with Russia, while 29% say that the president did something unethical, not illegal. About 32% of voters think Trump did nothing wrong. A majority of voters see Trump's general relationship with Russia as concerning 68% said they are "very concerned" or "somewhat concerned," while 54% said he is too friendly with the country.

Quinnipiac University polled 1,361 voters from May 31 to June 6. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.

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President Trump's Approval Rating Hit Another New Low - TIME

Donald Trump Is Never to Blame – New York Times


New York Times
Donald Trump Is Never to Blame
New York Times
Poor Donald Trump, so late to the lesson that so many plutocrats before him learned: You can't find good help. Jeff Sessions? What a bust. True, he was never the nimblest newt in the swamp and had all that racial muck in his past. But he mirrored his ...

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Donald Trump Is Never to Blame - New York Times

Donald Trump Profited from Kids Cancer Charity Fundraiser: Report – PEOPLE.com

When people had signed up for the Eric Trump Foundations largest annual fundraiser, a golf outing and dinner at a Trump golf course in Weschester County, New York, they understood their donations would go to help fight childrens cancer at St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital in Memphis.

And much of the donations had: Eric Trump has helped raise and donate more than $11 million to St. Judes, the vast majority of it via this annual golf event, according to Forbes.

Eric has claimed the golf course and most of the other costs associated with the fundraiser were donated, so that more money could benefit the sick kids.

We get to use our assets 100% free of charge, Eric toldForbes.

But according to the outlet, not only was the course and other assets not free of charge, but Donald Trumpalso allegedly used donations to make money for the Trump Organization at the expense of kids with cancer.

The president specifically commanded that the for-profit Trump Organization start billing hundreds of thousands of dollars to the non-profit Eric Trump Foundation, according to Forbes.

The Trump Organization received payments for the use of the golf course, part of more than $1.2 million that has no documented recipients past the Trump Organization, perForbes. Golf charity experts told the outlet that the listed expenses defy any reasonable cost justification for a one-day golf tournament.

Also, more than $500,000 in donations that donors believed were going to help kids with cancer at St. Judes were actually given to other charities, many of which were connected to Trump family members or interests, including at least four groups that subsequently paid to hold golf tournaments at Trump courses, Forbes reports.

Watch: Natasha Stoynoff Breaks Silence, Accuses Donald Trump of Sexual Assault

In addition, Forbes discovered, the Donald J. Trump Foundation apparently used the Eric Trump Foundation to funnel $100,000 in donations back to the Trump Organization as revenue.

All of this seems to defy federal tax rules and state laws that ban self-dealing and misleading donors, Forbes reports.

The tournament began in 2007, and for the first four years to 2010, the total annual expenses averaged about $50,000, according to the tax filings reviewed by Forbes.

Not quite the zero-cost advantage that a donor might expect given who owned the club but at least in line with what other charities pay to host outings at Trump courses, Forbes reported.

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But beginning in 2011, the expenses shot up, reaching $322,000 for 2015, according to the the most recent IRS filing on record, according to Forbes.

Even if the Eric Trump Foundation had to pay the full rate for literally everything, Forbescouldnt come up with a plausible path to $322,000 given the parameters of the annual event (a golf outing for about 200 and dinner for perhaps 400 more), Dan Alexander writes. Neither could golf tournament experts or the former head golf professional at Trump National Westchester.

In December, Eric announced he would stop fundraising. The foundation changed its named to Curetivity and continue to hold golf tournaments to raise money for St. Jude, Forbes reports.

Eric reacted to harsh criticism that followed the storys publication with a tweet.

I have raised $16.3 million dollars for terminally ill children at @StJude with less than a 12.3% expense ratio. What have you done today?! Eric said.

The New York Timescolumnist Nick Kristof tweeted, Its one thing to rip off contractors or even voters. But kids with cancer? Really, Mr. President?

The Washington Posts David Fahrenthold, who won a Pulitzer prize largely for his reporting that uncovered the presidents untruths about donating to charities, tweeted, Im just writing something up about how this great@forbes story contradicts what@EricTrump told me last yr.

And Susan Odell, who describes herself as a mom to three boys, tweeted, Just so wrong. Ask any parent who has a child with cancer. When you think it cant get any worse

On Tuesday, Eric Trump also criticizedDemocrats who support the investigation into his fathers campaign and Russia, calling them not even people.

Actress Alyssa Milano, a vocal Trump critic, fired back in a tweet:

Your fathers approval rating is 38% @EricTrump. That means the majority of Americans are not even people?!?

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Donald Trump Profited from Kids Cancer Charity Fundraiser: Report - PEOPLE.com

Donald Trump has a lot of feelings about fame – CNN

Trump "joked" that Kushner, who is married to Ivanka Trump and also serves as a White House strategist, has "become much more famous than me," adding: "I'm a little bit upset about that."

Ah ha ha ha. Ha. Ahem. Cough.

That's not to say Kushner will follow Comey's trajectory. He almost certainly won't -- because Trump values nothing as much as he values loyalty to family.

But even though Kushner isn't on his way out of the White House anytime soon, Trump's aside about his fame is revealing -- in two ways.

1. Trump views the entire world through the lens of fame and notoriety: Trump's measure of success is money, sure. But, even more importantly, it's fame. Lots of people are rich. Not all of those people are also cultural figures. He is. And he uses himself as a measuring stick by which to gauge others and his interactions with them.

Trump is a public figure who embraces that status with both arms. Fame is the way you can tell the winners from the losers in life.

2. Trump makes very little distinction between good press and bad press: Like most people who crave and court the spotlight, Trump isn't someone to split hairs about how positive or negative the coverage of him is.

Sure, he will thunder about how the media is so against him. But true defeat in Trumpworld is not bad press, it's no press.

Trump's asides and "jokes" -- not to mention his tweets -- are almost always more revealing than his formal speeches and statements. This "famous" comment is no exception.

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Donald Trump has a lot of feelings about fame - CNN