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Imagine youre a member of Donald Trumps administration, or a Republican member of Congress. Whats the most important question youre asking yourself right now?

Theres a good chance its this: How can I manipulate the president into doing what I want him to do?

This may be the most important question in Washington as a whole, because this is a president like no other.

Lets take a few news items weve seen just in the past day or so:

The picture were getting is of a president spending long stretches of time watching television, consumed with anger at slights real or imagined, as aides and other political actors circle around him trying to find a way to use his capricious whims to their advantage or at least minimize the damage he can do. The agenda is liable to be seized by whatever happens to be bothering Trump that day, whether its the size of the crowd at his inaugural or the fact that more people voted for Hillary Clinton than for him, both profound threats to his ego that he cant seem to let go of.

President Trump questioned media reports and photographs that showed the size of Inauguration Day crowds, speaking to CIA employees at CIA headquarters on Jan. 21 in Langley, Va. (The Washington Post)

Even apart from the substance of these reports is the fact that the Trump administration is already leaking like a sieve, as people within the inner circle voice their frustration, jockey for position, and use the press to discredit their rivals. Yes, in every administration there are competitions for the presidents ear and internal squabbles as people try to maximize their influence. Whats remarkable is how in this one theyre becoming public so quickly and that even his loyalists are treating the president like a child whose disturbing behavior has to be managed.

Trumps personal quirks and weaknesses could turn ordinary internal conflicts into outright chaos. Because he not only knows so little about policy but seems to have few fixed beliefs, his public statements are completely unpredictable. So he might say that Republicans will give insurance for everybody, leaving both administration spokespeople and members of Congress scrambling to explain a promise they have no intention of keeping.

It isnt just that Trump is uninterested in policy. To take one comparison, Ronald Reagan didnt much care about the details either. But Reagan had a clear ideological vision that guided his administration, and it wasnt hard to predict what hed think about any particular proposal or action. In the Trump administration, on the other hand, you have traditional Republicans who will sometimes be at odds with the nationalist/populist cohort led by Steve Bannon, and which side the president favors at a given moment could be determined by something the nincompoops on Fox & Friends said that morning.

That means that most of the time, no one can claim or believe that theyre carrying out Trumps true wishes or agenda, since those are subject to complete revision at a moments notice. Thats not exactly a recipe for a smoothly efficient administration. Instead, it may wind up with dozens or even hundreds of power centers spread throughout the government, each pursuing its own agenda, sometimes in concert, sometimes in conflict.

At the moment theres an almost comical element to all that, and Democrats might take some solace in it. After all, its better to face an adversary at war with itself than one that knows exactly what it wants to do and how to do it. But what happens when the Trump administration confronts a crisis, as it surely will before long? To just take one example, Trump has repeatedly said that NATO is obsolete and suggested that if one of its members were threatened he might not come to its defense. Yet Secretary of Defense James Mattis just told the British defense minister that America has an unshakable commitment to NATO. So which is it? We may not find out until Vladimir Putin invades Estonia.

So the shape of the Trump administration could be determined less by a vision the president himself is guided by than by how skillful each faction of inside players is at manipulating him. Its not exactly reassuring.

Read more:
The coming struggle for control of Donald Trump's mind - Washington Post (blog)

Donald Trumps inaugural address produced yet another torrent of commentary about his populist, isolationist ideology and what it means for the future of the republic and the world. Unfortunately, he is all about neither of those things.

Its true that he deployed the voice of a demagogue to rant about elites and powerful politicians and repeatedly evoked the people. But considering that his hires includesix Goldman Sachs alums, three billionaires and several more vastly wealthy multimillionaires for his Cabinet, his alleged populism seems a bit strained. After all, to the extent thehellscape he described in that speech exists, it was created by the very people he is now empowering.

Calling Trump anisolationist rests mostly on his use of the archaic term America First, which was associated with attempts to keep America out of World War II (and also came with strong undercurrents of anti-Semitism.) But there is no evidence that Trump had a clue about that association when he started using the phrase.

Recall that whenjournalist Michael Wolff interviewed himin June, just before the big vote in the U.K., Trump clearly hadnt heard of Brexit.Granted, he subsequently become fast friends with Brexit architect and right-wing provocateur Nigel Farage. But his idea of isolationism in this case is a simplistic belief that any nation run by smart guys can make better deals without having other countries represented at the table.

As far as security is concerned,Trumps threats to withdraw from NATOand other alliances arentreally about wanting to pull America to remainwithin its borders. He never says that. In fact, he wants a huge military and wants to show it offso everyone in the world will be in awe of American power. He just wants NATO and other alliances to pay protection money to the U.S. for whatever price he sets.

Trump has repeatedly made the fatuous claim that hes going to make the military so massive that no one will ever want to mess with us but never has actually suggested that he would have any reluctance to use it. Indeed,hes made it clear that he intends to do just that, telling his rowdy crowds during the campaign:

ISIS is making a tremendous amount of money because of the oil that they took away, they have some in Syria, they have some in Iraq, I would bomb the shit out of them.

I would just bomb those suckers, and thats right, Id blow up the pipes. Id blow up the refineries. Id blow up ever single inch. There would be nothing left.

And you know what, youll get Exxon to come in there, and in two months you ever see these guys? How good they are, the great oil companies.Theyll rebuild it brand new. . . . And Ill take the oil.

This has been his promise from Day One. Yesterday, press secretary Sean Spicer, reacting to Russian reports that the U.S. military was already engaged with Russiasforces in bombing Syria, offered up this startling answer:

Spicer: I know its still developing and I would refer you back to the Department of Defense. I know that theyre theyre currently monitoring this and I would refer you back to them on that. And I think . . .

Question: Generally open?

Spicer: I think, the president has been very clearly. [sic] Hes gonna work with any country that shares our interest in defeating ISIS. Not just on the national security front, but on the economic front. If we can work with someone to create greater market access and spur economic growth and allow U.S. small businesses and companies to. . .

Question:[inaudible] to doing joint military actions with Russia in Syria?

Spicer: I I think if theres a way that we can combat ISIS with any country, whether its Russia or anyone else, and we have a shared national interest in that, sure well take it.

The Pentagon adamantly deniedthat the U.S. military was currently helping Russia in Syria, where the Russian military has beenaccused by the U.N. of committing war crimesby using bunker-busting and incendiary bombs on civilian populations.Spicer didnt mention any of that, but Trump is undoubtedly unconcerned since his strategy is the same: Bomb the shit out of them.

As for taking the oil, which is a suggestion Trump has repeated for months (including as recently as Saturday when he told the CIA officials they might get another chance at it) even conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer was taken aback, correctly noting that seizing the oil is a war crime.

If you have listened to Trump talk about China over the past 18 months, it is clear that he is not simply talking about a potential trade war but is prepared to confront the worlds largest nation militarily. In his confirmation hearings, secretary of state-designate Rex Tillerson made it clear that he agreed with Trump that the U.S. would not allow China to build military bases on islands in the South China Sea, and Spicer made that official yesterday:

I think the U.S. is going to make sure that we protect our interests there. If those islands are in fact in international waters and not part of China proper, then yes, were going to make sure that we defend international territories from being taken over by one country.

Does that sound like any definition of isolationism youve ever heard?

When Donald Trump says America First, he really means Were No. 1. He talks incessantly about winning, so much well be begging him to stop. He openly declares that he believes in the old sayingto the victors belong the spoils, either suggesting that he has no clue about the Wests colonial past and how that sounds to people around the world or simply doesnt care. Hes not talking about isolationism but the exact opposite American global dominance without all those messy institutions and international agreements standing in the way of taking what we want.

No, Trump is not an isolationist. Hes not a realist. Neither is he a liberal interventionist or a neoconservative idealist. Hes an old-fashioned imperialist. He wants to Make America great again by making it the worlds dominant superpower, capable ofbullying other countries into submission and behaving however we like. He doesnt seem to understand that the world wont put up with that.

See the original post here:
Donald Trump, imperialist: Forget isolationism Trump longs to build up our military and then use it - Salon

In the first days of his presidency, Trump has shown he will continue to wreak havoc on established facts, even as he ticks items off his political to-do list.

The latest false claim, which legislators reported to CNN and other news outlets, has no basis in fact and apparently originated on websites that peddle conspiracy theories.

However, like many of the distortions in which Trump has trafficked, the voter fraud narrative suggests he deserves more credit and acclaim than he has received.

Throughout his life Trump has insisted he is richer than people acknowledge. Now winning the presidency isn't sufficient. He wants the final score to be adjusted in his favor.

Trump's complaints and distortions suggest that even as he carries out his duties as President, he will reflexively promote his alternative view of reality.

The day after his inaugural address, Trump -- in a speech to the CIA -- denied ample photographic evidence, insisting that his swearing in was in fact attended by a crowd that "looked like a million, a million and a half people."

Coming on his first full day in office, Trump's 15-minute talk was delivered as he stood before the Wall of Stars that memorializes CIA agents killed in action.

It's hard to imagine that anyone could occupy this spot and speak with so little regard for accuracy and truth. However, this is Donald Trump, and he didn't get where he is by exercising care, precision and restraint.

Donald Trump became a public figure in New York by promoting himself as a high-achieving real estate mogul -- before he'd built a single project.

Although political craft often includes cherry-picking facts and battles with straw men, Trump far exceeds the norm and has confounded analysts and pundits who try to assess him.

During his campaign, which included many specious claims about his opponents, much was written and said about how he might "pivot" to show he could be presidential. This change never happened and, now that he holds the office, he seems equally disinclined.

Understanding why requires acknowledging both the man's record and the dynamics that are engaged when people lie and get away with it.

Knowing that character is destiny, parents teach their children to tell the truth, but invariably preschoolers discover that honesty isn't always required.

Adolescent adjustment requires that we come to grips with the fact that lying is part of human nature. People tend to rank deceptions according to the harm they cause, or, in some cases, the greater good they may achieve.

Economists and other social scientists have documented the prevalence of lying and shown that people feel more comfortable lying if they think their deceit will help someone worthy.

Of course most of us want to be considered trustworthy and we know that all relationships, from the personal to the political, depend on reliable truth telling. The exceptions are those who discover they can get away with distortions, and even profit from them. Those capable of the most sophisticated deceptions are bold, brazen, and may even enlist others in support of the process.

History is replete with examples of lies, told and agreed to, with scandalous results. The crime and coverup that doomed Richard Nixon's presidency was a florid display of the danger in deception.

The collapse of so-called dot-com companies -- including Enron and Worldcom -- came when systemic lies unraveled.

After the election, prominent Trump supporter Scottie Nell Hughes told public radio talk show host Diane Rhem "there's no such thing, unfortunately, anymore as facts."

Amid the controversy over Trump's statement at the CIA, his press secretary Sean Spicer used his first appearance before the White House press corps to support the boss's claims with a lecture riddled with inaccuracies about the inauguration. (He even offered inflated numbers for the local transit system's ridership.)

Conway's reference to alternative facts, and Spicer's strange Saturday rant, provoked pointed criticism of the sort that would trouble someone unaccustomed to Trump-style combat against the facts.

When he next met with reporters, whom he must deal with on a regular basis, Spicer tried to make them understand him -- in a way that Trump never would.

He said: "The default narrative [of the press] is always negative, and that's demoralizing. It's a little demoralizing because when you are sitting there and you are looking out and you are in awe of just how awesome that view is and how many people are there and you turn on the television and you see shots comparing this and that."

It is easy to empathize with Spicer's experience, but if he is demoralized it's mainly because he is part of a team led by a man who has never been satisfied with his real achievements.

When you demand that others reject what they know to be true in favor of a gilded vision that favors your side, you are bound to receive a demoralizing response.

See more here:
Lying has worked for Donald Trump -- so why stop now? - CNN

U.S. President Donald Trump listens during a swearing in ceremony of White House senior staff in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Jan. 22, 2017.Photograph by Andrew HarrerBloomberg/Getty Images

On his third full day in office, President Donald Trump faces a lawsuit accusing him of violating the U.S. Constitution.

A group comprised of former White House ethics lawyers and constitutional law scholars are alleging that Trump has contravened the Emoluments Clause by accepting payments to his many businesses from foreign governments, reports the New York Times .

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, the group behind the legal effort, seeks to block Trump from receiving such payments to his businesses without Congressional approval.

The group fears that Trump's sprawling global empire of hotels and other businesses and his functioning as U.S. President could become entangled otherwise. According to CNN, Trump is linked to over 500 entities with businesses in at least 25 countries outside the U.S.

"We did not want to get to this point," executive director Noah Bookbinder said in a press release. "It was our hope that President Trump would take the necessary steps to avoid violating the Constitution before he took office."

Earlier this month, Trump announced plans to avoid any conflicts of interest while he is in office, in part by refraining the Trump Organization from making overseas business deals. According to one of his lawyers, the President will transfer his assets into a trust run by his sons, Donald Jr. and Eric.

Eric Trump, an executive vice president at the Trump Organization, told the Times that the lawsuit is "purely harassment for political gain" and "sad."

For more on Donald Trump's potential conflicts of interest, watch Fortune's video:

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington is far from the only group scrutinizing the potential intertwining links between Trump's businesses and his behavior in office. Calling this a "good government issue," Senator Elizabeth Warren introduced a bill earlier this month which, while largely symbolic, would have required the President and Vice President to sell their business interests.

Read the rest here:
Donald Trump Is Facing an Ethics Lawsuit After Just Three Days in Office - Fortune

New York Times

Donald Trump, Benot Hamon, Gambia: Your Monday Briefing New York Times Mr. Trump attacked the news media, claiming enormous turnout numbers for the inauguration in the face of photographs showing the contrary. Kellyanne Conway, a counselor to the president, drew derision by portraying Mr. Trump's assertions as ...

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Donald Trump, Benot Hamon, Gambia: Your Monday Briefing - New York Times