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President Trump has never been all that willing to acknowledge his own faults. He occasionally admits he might have some, mind you, but he prefersto treat them like Voldemort.

Such was the case in an interview with Fox and Friends on Tuesday morning. Check out this exchange, when Trump and Brian Kilmeade were talking about Trump pulling out of the White House correspondents' dinner, where Trump was roasted a few years ago:

KILMEADE: You said before, 'I can take hits when it's justified.'

TRUMP: Correct.

KILMEADE: Right.

TRUMP: One hundred percent.

KILMEADE: Can you give me an example of a time when someone was critical of you and you thought to yourself, I deserved that hit, I deserved that column, I deserved

TRUMP: No, probably I could never do that.

And there it is.

This isn't entirely new territory, mind you. There was that time during the campaign when Trump acknowledged having said the wrong thing a rare expression of contrition, it seemed. But then he spent days declining to point to anything specific, leaving all of us to guess as to what precisely he meantand even whether he really believed in his own faults.

He had previously said that he wasn't opposed to apologizing but was still in search of something to apologize for. I fully think apologizing is a great thing, but you have to be wrong, Trump told Jimmy Fallon in 2015, perhaps jokingly. I will absolutely apologize sometime in the distant future if Im ever wrong. (That moment finally came and Trump did apologize for the Access Hollywood tape in October.)

Trump has also said he didn't think he has ever asked God for forgiveness, despite it being a core tenet of Christianity. I am not sure I have, he said in July. I just go on and try to do a better job from there. I don't think so.

But within the same interview with Fox on Tuesday, Trump did flash a bit of his ability for self-reflection at a somewhat granular level. He admitted that his messaging over the first month-plus of his presidency has been somewhat lacking and contrasted it with the results, which he assures us are fantastic.

In terms of achievement, I think I'd give myself an A, because I think I've done great things, he said. But I don't think I have I and my people, I don't think we've explained it well enough to the American public. I think I get an A in terms of what I've actually done, but in terms of messaging, I'd give myself a C or a C-plus.

And that's about it for Trump's ability to self-reflect. What's remarkable is that it's not really all that self-critical. This is actually something President Barack Obama said regularly about himself excusing his poor reviews for bad messaging but assuring the product was good. If the reviews are bad, after all, it has to be something and blaming the messaging absolves the quality of the actual output.

Obama said this repeatedly over his years as president, telling Bill Simmons in 2015 that in his first years, a certain arrogance crept in, in the sense of thinking as long as we get the policy ready, we didnt have to sell it.

Messaging is also something Trump isn't totally in charge of, so it has the bonus effect of placing the blame on other people's shoulders along with himself which Trump, it should be emphasized, did.

So while the C or a C-plus comment might get some play, just remember that this is still the same Trump who doesn't really admit his own flaws.Not that he doesn't have them, of course. (Wink.)

Excerpt from:
Donald Trump just admitted he's incapable of acknowledging legitimate criticism - Washington Post

President Trump sat down with "Fox and Friends" on Tuesday morning to preview his address tonight to a joint session of Congress. Using Genius, I annotated it. You can too! Sign up for Genius and annotate alongside me!To see an annotation, click or tap the highlighted part of the transcript.

DOOCY: Mr. President, thank you very much for the invitation.

TRUMP: Thank you.

DOOCY: And by the way, thank you very much for the shout-out you gave at your press conference about 10 days ago.

TRUMP: That's true, I did. And you treated me -- you have treated me very fairly and I appreciate it. I like your (INAUDIBLE)...

DOOCY: Did you take much heat for that from the other networks?

TRUMP: No, not really. I think they know it's true. You know, they know what's fair and not. But you have treated me very fairly. And I've been a friend of your show for a long time.

Remember those call-ins, right (INAUDIBLE)?

DOOCY: For years.

TRUMP: Maybe without those call-ins, somebody else is sitting here.

AINSLEY EARHARDT, HOST: Let's talk about your speech. You're addressing Congress tonight. You have talked about spending $54 billion in additional money for our military.

Senator John McCain has said that is not enough.

What's your reaction?

TRUMP: Well, we're going to spend a lot more money on military. We really have to. We have no choice. And a lot of people think it's a tremendous amount of money. It could be, actually, $30 million, $30 billion more than that. We're going to upgrade our military very substantially.

Remember this, I also am going to get involved in negotiating. we have many planes and boats and ships and everything that we are spending too much money individually on.

We're going to get involved in negotiating. We're going to be able to get, I think, a lot more product for a buck and I'm going to be very, very serious about it.

We saved $700 million plus on an F-35 after I got involved. And I have to tell you, Lockheed was terrific.

But we saved a lot of money on airplanes and that number is going to increase very substantially as we keep going, We will be having the greatest military that we ever had by the time I finish.

BRIAN KILMEADE: Mr. President, you'll have the biggest -- if tradition means anything, and I know everything is a little bit different these days...

TRUMP: Right.

BRIAN KILMEADE, HOST: -- you'll have the biggest audience for a State of the Union like address this year, bigger than any other year.

Having said that, how do you plan on capturing that opportunity for yourself and for your administration?

TRUMP: You know, Brian, all I can do is speak from the heart and say what I want to do. We have a really terrific, I believe, health care plan coming out. We have to understand, ObamaCare has been a disaster. It's way out of control, it doesn't work.

We're coming out with a health care plan that I think will be terrific. It will be very inclusive and I think it's going to do, really, what people are wanting it to do.

But I'll be talking about that. I'll be talking about the military. I'll be talking about the border. And remember this, on the border and throughout our country, we're getting the bad ones out, the bad people -- gang members, drug lords, in some cases, murderers...

KILMEADE: Has that not been communicated...

TRUMP: We're getting them out.

KILMEADE: -- do you think that that has not been communicated effectively?

TRUMP: I don't think so. No, I don't think it's been -- maybe it's my fault. But, you know, when they show people being taken out, these are people that are -- we're looking at the bad ones. And I said that from day one. I said from the day I'm president, we're getting rid of the bad ones. And a lot of people understand it.

I can tell you, the communities where we're removing people that are really trouble and really frightening to a lot of the people that live there...

DOOCY: Right.

TRUMP: -- those communities are very, very happy.

DOOCY: Sure. Mr. President, you're going to spend $54 billion, at least, more on the military. And the people who -- in our audience like that -- love this and you've said you were going to do that all along. You're going to make big spending cuts at the EPA...

TRUMP: Right.

DOOCY: And State Department.

Where does the money come from?

TRUMP: Well, the E...

DOOCY: Because it doesn't seem -- if you cut all the money from EPA and all the money from State, that's about $50 billion.

TRUMP: Well, I think the money is going to come from a revved up economy. I mean you look at the kind of numbers we're doing, we were probably GDP of a little more than 1 percent and if I can get that up to 3 or maybe more, we have a whole different ball game. It's a whole different ball game.

And that's what we're looking to do.

DOOCY: But to get the economy going, you've got to get the Affordable Care Act...

TRUMP: Right.

DOOCY: -- replaced and repealed.

TRUMP: Right.

DOOCY: And then you've got to do something about taxes and how close are we to either of those?

TRUMP: Right. We're going to be doing things having to do with other countries, because we're treated very, very unfairly. We're going to be doing cuts on so many different things.

We're also going to be -- when we help other countries, when we help them, even militarily, we're going to ask for a form of reimbursement, which right now -- I mean we have countries where we're taking care of their military, we're not being reimbursed and they're wealthy countries.

We have a lot of things happening.

We're going to get those numbers way up and we're going to take care of -- and we're going to have a lot of great friends, but we're going to get the numbers way up and we're going to get jobs back in our country. You see what I've done. Ford has announced, General Motors, Fiat has announced. They're all building big plants. They're all coming back into the United States.

They were fleeing. They were fleeing our country. And you mentioned EPA. We have, right now -- I call it the veins of the country. We have, right now hundreds and hundreds of massive deals that are tied up with environmental protection. When they are -- Scott Pruitt, who is terrific. Just got approved.

But when he gets going, those projects are going to be freed up and they're going to be sailing. And you're talking about thousands -- and millions, actually, of jobs.

Also, look at the Keystone Pipeline. Look at the...

DOOCY: It's all connected.

TRUMP: It's all -- it's all together. We're going to have jobs. We're going to have a better economy. But we're going to have jobs again for our people. They don't have the jobs.

EARHARDT: You ran on jobs. You ran on draining the swamp.

TRUMP: Yes.

EARHARDT: You ran on repealing and replacing ObamaCare.

When do you start to put pressure on Congress, the swamp, to get something done, to repeal and to replace?

TRUMP: Well, I think that Paul Ryan and his whole group have been terrific. I just left Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell. And, you know, Paul is working very hard.

You know, health care is a very complex subject. If you do this, it affects nine different things. If you do that, it affects 15 different things.

I think we have a great plan and I think Congress is absolutely taking a lot of blame but it's not their fault. And don't forget, I've only been here for like four weeks.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.

TRUMP: Somebody said he hasn't done health care. They've been working on health care for 30 years.

DOOCYE: Right.

TRUMP: I've only been here for -- what is this, my fifth week?

And we're set to propose a plan and I'll be talking about it, as you know, tonight. And -- but we're all set to do a plan. And I think it's going to be something that's going to be really respected

And you take a look at what's going on with the stock market. Trillions of dollars of value have been created since I won the election -- I mean, trillions.. TRUMP: No, I mean the stock market is very enthused and that's jobs.

KILMEADE: But I just have to bring back two things in your cabinet.

TRUMP: Right.

KILMEADE: You have an OMB director, finally. He says you have to take an ax to entitlements. Your Treasury secretary says we're not touching it.

Who's right?

TRUMP: Well, I'll tell you what who's right. If the economy sails, then I'm right, because I said I'm not touching Social Security.

KILMEADE: So your OMB is wrong?

TRUMP: I'm not saying anybody is wrong. I'm just saying this. If we -- and I think this is what's going to happen, Brian. I think our country is going to sail.

DOOCY: Mr. President, you announced via Twitter the other day you're not going to go to the White House Correspondents Dinner.

How come?

TRUMP: Well, I am not a hypocrite. And I haven't been treated properly. And that's OK, which is fine. You know, let...

DOOCY: Well, some...

TRUMP: -- everybody treat me...

DOOCY: -- some of the left say you just can't take a joke.

TRUMP: Maybe we'll have a small -- oh, no.

Do they say that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

TRUMP: Well, I've taken it.

You know, one of the great misconceptions, when President Obama was up -- was -- now, a long time ago, five years ago or whatever, I loved that evening. I had the greatest time...

DOOCY: You were there.

TRUMP: I was there.

KILMEADE: You were there -- you were there target of the hit.

TRUMP: I was the target.

DOOCY: You were the pinata.

TRUMP: And can I be honest?

I had the greatest time. Now, I can't act like I'm thrilled because they're telling jokes. I mean he was telling jokes I'm going to change (INAUDIBLE) the White House, the Trump House and other things.

And he was very -- I thought he did a good job. And he was very respectful and it was fun. And I enjoyed it. And I left and I told the press, they were all said, did you have a good time?

And I said it was fantastic.

The next day I read Donald Trump felt terrible about the evening. I loved the evening. I had a great time.

KILMEADE: You said before, I can take hits when it's justified.

TRUMP: Correct.

KILMEADE: Right.

TRUMP: One hundred percent.

Read more from the original source:
Donald Trump's A+/C+ presidency - Washington Post

Reporters ushered into the Oval Office to look at President Trump meeting with health-care executives on Monday tried to wring a little news out of the moment, asking the president as they were being shuffled back out the door if he thought there should be a special prosecutor to look at Russias role in the 2016 election. According to the pool report, Trump waited until the media was almost gone and then mouthed no to the executives who were still there.

Then he said something weird: I havent called Russia in 10 years.

A normal person would hear that and blink for a few seconds. It has the fingerprints of a guy who is denying accusations of marital infidelities by saying specifically that he had not ever driven another woman in his car. There are other ways to shuttle around love interests; there are other ways of contacting foreign powers and their representatives.

Its also weird because its not true. Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this month. When he was still just Businessman Trump, he held the Miss Universe pageant in Russia that was 2013. Maybe theres a loophole at play here: Trump didnt place that call to Putin and, sure, he showed up in Moscow but he didnt telephone anyone beforehand. Or maybe its hyperbole.

Or maybe its another example of how Trump assigns a weird moral calculus to the giving and receiving of phone calls.

Here, for example, Trump dismisses fellow wealthy-guy Mark Cuban by noting that Cuban tried to call him, but he didnt take the call.

We can use this tweet to theorize an aspect to telephone-based relationships in Trumps eyes: The person making the call is the person in the weak position.

Remember that, for Trump, there are three ways of being in touch with other people. There are in-person meetings, there are tweets and there are phone calls. Trump doesnt use email, and its safe to assume that he also therefore doesnt use direct messages on Twitter. So for him to hold a relationship with another person who isnt standing in front of him, its by phone.

He became a tabloid sensation by calling up the New York Post, often pretending to be his own publicist. The effect of that? Trump isnt the weak person making the call to try to gin up attention for himself hes the strong person who has a weak person make the weak move of calling a reporter. I mean, hes both, but thats one reason for the fiction.

Another example came after Election Day, when Bill Clinton mentioned having spoken on the phone with Trump. What did Trump correct? Who called who.

When Trump was pushing back against an unflattering New York Times story about his relationship with women in his business life, he dismissed one critic by pointing out that shed called him.

When he came under fire for speaking with Taiwan, he twice pointed out that hed been the recipient of a call, not the originator of it.

Granted, that was more to establish that he was not in the wrong by breaching American diplomatic tradition, but it also established that the foreign leader was calling him, establishing the direction of the flow of power in the relationship.

How important is the placing or receiving of calls to Trump? He spells out that bidirectionality in a tweet from shortly after the election, where he only has 140 characters to use. (Or, here, 280.)

Who did he call (weak) and who called him (strong)? Hard to say. We know, though, that Russia must have called him (as per the first tweet) since he hasnt called Russia in 10 years.

But we also now know why he told the audience in the Oval Office that he hadnt called Russia: To demonstrate that Russia isnt even important enough for him to call. Clearly he couldnt have been aware of a Russian effort to get him elected; he doesnt even care enough to pick up the phone!

Or maybe that tweet from November was the equivalent of a blurry photo of Trump in his car, Russia in his passenger seat.

See the article here:
The telephone protocol of Donald Trump, explained - Washington Post

Donald Trump is anything but a man of few words.

Especially on Twitter, the US president scarcely restrains himself from reacting to a range of events. In the last few days, for instance, his official Twitter handle @POTUS and personal handle @realDonaldTrump have produced the usual flurry of tweets, covering everything from fake news and the leaking of confidential information to a museum visit and shootings in Chicago.

Yet, the voluble president hasnt uttered a word on the shooting in Kansas that killed 32-year-old Indian techie Srinivas Kuchibhotla and injured two others. Kuchibhotla and his colleague, Alok Madasani, were grabbing a beer at a bar in Olathe when they were attacked by 51-year-old Adam Purinton, who apparently mistook them for Middle Eastern men. Ian Grillot, a patron who tried to intervene, was seriously injured.

Get out of my country, Purinton allegedly shouted, before opening fire.

So far, the Trump administration has said precious little. When White House press secretary Sean Spicer was asked about a possible link between Trumps rhetoric and rising racist violence, his response was this: Obviously, any loss of life is tragic, but Im not going to get into, like, to suggest that theres any correlation I think is a bit absurd. So Im not going to go any further than that.

Trumps silence is unsettlingand infuriatingfor more than one reason.

By choosing not to openly condemn the attack in Kansas at a time when the US is deeply divided along racial lines, Trump risks giving the impression that he cares little for Americas influential Indian immigrantsor Indians in general.

If the situation in Kansas were reversed, if two Indian immigrants attacked a group of white patrons to intimidate the larger community, theres little question that Trump would respond with anger and condemnation, Slates Jamelle Bouie wrote last week.

Such a stance flies in the face of Trumps pre-election proclamation that the US and India would be best friends if he made it to the White House. If Im elected president, the Indian and Hindu community will have a true friend in the White House, that I can guarantee you, he said last October at a campaign event organised by the Republican Hindu Coalition in New Jersey.

Indian-Americans are among the most successful and educated minority groups in the US today, with a particularly strong presence in the technology sector. And a legion of middle-class Indian engineerssome of who have risen to the top of Silicon Valleyhave bolstered the communitys grip on the industry, while raising its profile globally.

That is why the attack in Kansasand the lack of a responsehas touched a raw nerve: What did a well-educated, law-abiding, and legally-employed immigrant do to deserve this?

The situation seems to be pretty bad after Trump took over as the US President, Madasani Jaganmohan Reddy, Alok Madasanis father, said last week. I appeal to all the parents in India not to send their children to the US in the present circumstances.

Indias $146 billion information technology (IT) industry, the main exporter of Indian immigrants to the US, already fears that Trumps clampdown on work-visa programmes might make life difficult. So, the lack of empathy from the White House after the Kansas shooting will only add to the anxiety.

Read the original:
The infuriating silence of Donald Trump over an Indian engineer's murder in Kansas - Quartz

Breaking News

President Trump just put an end to any and all hope he'd attend this year's White House Correspondent's Dinner.

Trump tweeted Saturday, "I will not be attending the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner this year. Please wish everyone well and have a great evening!"

The event, to be held at the end of April, is put together byan organization of journalists who cover the White House and President. The dinner is usually hosted by a comedian who has some fun at the President's expense ... however, a host for this year's ceremony had not yet been announced.

According to The Washington Post, since 1924 each President has attended at least one of the annual dinners ... President Obama attended all 8 of his.

2:50 PM PST-- Jeff Mason, the WHCA president just released a statement, saying, "The WHCA takes note of President Donald Trump's announcement on Twitter that he does not plan to attend the dinner, which has been and will continue to be a celebration of the First Amendment and the important role played by an independent news media in a healthy republic."

He continues, "We look forward to shining a spotlight at the dinner on some of the best political journalism of the past year and recognizing the promising students who represent the next generation of our profession."

See more here:
Bails On White House Correspondents' Dinner - TMZ.com