Trump's Card

[MsD]

He is first and foremost a narcissist. He is quite happy for any change to happen as long as he can take the credit personally. I doubt he assessess things in terms of their positive or negative overall impact, it's all about how they reflect on him.
That would be a way of managing him (just like it's a way of managing children) if other politicians weren't lesser narcissists, unwilling to give up their own credits on issues.

Yes, as anyone who's had to work with a narcissist boss will know. Suggest things to him. Listen politely when he dismisses them. Don't protest when he then presents them as his own ideas. Praise him for HIS great idea.

[Jah Womble]

Sure, this is how the majority deal with the emotionally immature - they indulge them, for a quiet life.

In the short-term, I can understand why many do this to protect their own interests. In the long-term, it seldom ends well.

[Eggchaser]

Unfortunately for this particular narcissist boss, his every action is scrutinised and often parodied or satirised.

I imagine Trump is having an awful time. Good.

[anton pulisov]

Sacha Baron Cohen had him sussed. "It's Trump innit? [starts writing] T-R-".

"hundreds of millions of years ago" hahahaha

[anton pulisov]

It doesn't get mentioned a lot but Trump has no sense of humor, which I believe is also a hallmark of narcissism.

Even his "jokes" are self-promotion.

[ad hoc]

"At one point, Trump expressed admiration for Australia’s refusal to allow refugees arriving on boats to reach its shores, saying it “is a good idea. We should do that too.” In a remark apparently meant as a compliment, Trump told Turnbull, “You are worse than I am.”"
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...Bnation&wpmk=1

[anton pulisov]

US Muslims more accepting towards gays than white evangelicals.

[anton pulisov]

"At one point, Trump expressed admiration for Australia’s refusal to allow refugees arriving on boats to reach its shores, saying it “is a good idea. We should do that too.” In a remark apparently meant as a compliment, Trump told Turnbull, “You are worse than I am.”"
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...Bnation&wpmk=1

Full transcripts of his calls with Nieto and Turnbull here.

So many leaks. Everybody is watching, it's like the Big Brother presidency. With weekly evictions from the house.

[Wouter D]

Jon Chait gives a run-down of the complete imbecility of Trump's responses to Turnbull.

Link fixed.

[Tubby Isaacs]

This letter signed by 45 Democrat senators on tax which said the cuts couldn't go to the top 1%. Why did the 3 others not sign it? They're in Trump voting states, I notice.

[San Bernardhinault]

They want to be seen as being bipartisan, rather than from what will be characterised by Republicans as the "Sanders Warren Wing". If they sign the letter they'll be a bit hamstrung when it comes to voting, and they may well vote for a Republican tax bill. Someone like Manchin, in particular, is actually pretty conservative and from his perspective it might not even be cynical. He might believe it.

[Janik]

Mueller conveying a Grand Jury sounds like very big news. Right?

[San Bernardhinault]

Mueller conveying a Grand Jury sounds like very big news. Right?

My instincts tell me that it is - it appears that Mueller must think he has enough material that he thinks a case can be made to a Grand Jury that proceedings should being. But someone more knowledgeable than me might have a better idea of whether it's basically just standard practice and not a big deal at all.

[ursus arctos]

It is a significant development, but it also a completely logical next step given what we have seen so far.

A new Grand Jury gives Mueller and his team the power to subpoena evidence and take sworn testimony from individuals whose connection to the investigation do not directly relate to the Flynn inquiry, for which there already is a Grand Jury across the Potomac that was impaneled before Mueller was appointed. It would also allow for the issuance of indictments in that context, but we are a good distance away from that (and may never get there).

That said, it is exactly what you would expect from a super-professional inquiry featuring some of the best prosecutors in the country, especially as material evidence keeps falling into their laps.

[San Bernardhinault]

That said, it is exactly what you would expect from a super-professional inquiry featuring some of the best prosecutors in the country, especially as material evidence keeps falling into their laps.

Surely it's only what you'd expect from a super-professional inquiry if the people running that investigation believed that there was a "there" there. That there was something of substance worth pursuing.

[Janik]

Once in a while a journalist writing a neutral news piece will allow their feelings to slip through. This is from the BBC about Trump's tweets following signing the Russian sanctions bill.

"Our relationship with Russia is at an all-time & very dangerous low," [Trump] wrote on Twitter.

"You can thank Congress, the same people that can't even give us HCare!" he added, in reference to his inability to repeal and replace his predecessor Barack Obama's flagship health reforms.

I would so like Trump to read that with someone recording his reaction. Which won't happen obviously, not just the recording but him reading it/having it read to him.

[Satchmo Distel]

Transcripts

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graph...=.f41942726a4d

[Tubby Isaacs]

West Virginia governor joins the Republicans. If one state can't afford Trump are it's this one. Any chance of a flip by Manchin?

[San Bernardhinault]

I think that's unlikely. Manchin is a proper Blue Dog Democrat.

Jim Justice is a billionaire coal-magnate who was a Republican until 2015 and only became a Democrat as a badge of convenience for getting on the ballot, I think. This is a Really Small Deal. Particularly given that he's a governor, so not whipped, and not caucusing with anyone.

[San Bernardhinault]

The more I read about the Grand Jury thing, the more it appears to be nothing particularly dramatic. At least, not yet. My reading of what a grand jury did was over-egged, I suspect. It could become a big deal, but at this point it seems more that it's just part of the expected process.

[Gerontophile]

This guy is a coal magnate who sold his coal company to a Russian company for $436 million (plus a shedload of stock options) in 2009, and bought it back from them in 2015 for $6 million.

Nothing at all untoward there.

*Although, to be fair, the price of coal slumped in that period.

[Janik]

Jon Chait gives a run-down of the complete imbecility of Trump's responses to Turnbull.

Obviously Trump comes off very badly in this. However he does refuse to engage with a couple of bits of Aussie mendacity.
He keeps insisting that Australia has got these people in prison. Turnbull demurs. But if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck...
Trump's 'Why do you discriminate against boats? No, I get it' about the Aussie policy of not accepting immigrants on boats is also cutting through the bullshit. Turnbull insists it's purely about safety. I'm sure the demographics of those arriving by boat are exactly the same as those seeking to emigrate to Australia who arrive by plane with a nice, legal tourist visa all sorted out. Trump is, of course, impressed that Australia have managed to formulate a policy that succeeds in being both disproportionately affecting immigrants from poorer backgrounds and having a fig leaf to make it legal.

[anton pulisov]

Yeah, if you squint very hard you can make out New York sarcasm.

[Satchmo Distel]

Trump is a throwback to the White Australia policy, which Turnbull has to officially deny might still be an underlying guiding force, albeit expanding white to include rich Asians.

[Uncle Ethan]

Nothing underlying about it.