Trump in Transition (v35)

As expected, everyone's fact-checking statements made by the president while he read tweets from the Oval Office last night on national television, and by Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, speaking from a hallway somewhere, I think,  after Trump was done.

You can check out the AP, WaPo, NY Times, Fox News, CNN and Politico fact-checking yourself - not a lot of new ground broken in any of this, because there wasn't a lot of new ground in any of last night's comments. That said, it seems there's consensus that we don't really have a security crisis at the southern border.

In addition to the fact-checking, pretty much everyone is also chiming on 'how he did' or 'who won' in last night's series of uncomfortable conversations. Trump was obviously constrained by having to look and act presidential, instead of being able to unleash his rally-carnival barker persona, the one we hear from most days. For their parts, Chuck and Nancy did their best to appear stern, as if disciplining a misbehaving child, which to a large degree, they were.

Let's take a look at what folks are saying.

Trump Charlottesville Take 3

The more he speaks, the more I cringe. Trump let his freak flag fly at a press conference today, addressing again the murder in Charlottesville of Heather Heyer, who died when a white supremacist apparently purposefully gunned his car into the back of a group of people.

Want some examples? Here's why it took 48 hours to get his second statement out. 

I wanted to make sure — unlike most politicians, that what I said was correct. Not make a quick statement. The statement I made on Saturday, the first statement, was a fine statement. But you don't make statements that direct unless you know the facts. It takes a little while to get the facts. You still don't know the facts, and it's a very, very important process to me, and it's a very important statement, so I don't want to go quickly and just make a statement for the sake of making a political statement. I want to know the facts. If you go back to — I brought it. I brought it. I brought it. As I said — remember this, Saturday — we condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence. It has no place in America, and then I went on from there. Now, here's the thing. Excuse me, excuse me. Take it nice and easy. Here's the thing. When I make a statement, I like to be correct. I want the facts. This event just happened. In fact, a lot of the event didn't even happen yet, as we were speaking. This event just happened. Before I make a statement, I need the facts, so I don't want to rush into a statement.

So, making the statement when I made it was excellent. In fact, the young woman, who I hear is a fantastic young woman — and it was on NBC — her mother wrote me and said — through I guess Twitter, social media — the nicest things, and I very much appreciated that. I hear she was a fine, really actually an incredible young woman. But her mother on Twitter thanked me for what I said. And honestly, if the press were not fake and if it was honest, the press would have said what I said was very nice. But unlike you and unlike — excuse me — unlike you and unlike the media, before I make a statement I like to know the facts.

Um... I don't even know where to start. Maybe birtherism? I'm pretty sure you still owe us the 'facts' on that one.  And the young woman who you hear is a fantastic young woman, a fine, really actually an incredible young woman? Her name is Heather Heyer. Say her name. Pick up the phone, have a conversation with her mother. 

Here's another, on whether the CEO of WalMart was correct that a critical opportunity was missed in helping bring the country together. 

Not at all. I think the country — look, you take a look. I've created over a million jobs since I'm president. The country is booming, the stock market is setting records. We have the highest employment numbers we've ever had in the history of our country. We're doing record business. We have the highest levels of enthusiasm. So, the head of WalMart, whom I know, who is a very nice guy, was making a political statement. I mean, I do it the same way. You know why? Because I want to make sure, when I make a statement that the statement is correct, and there was no way — there was no way of making a correct statement that early. I had to see the facts, unlike a lot of reporters — unlike a lot of reporters. I know, David Duke was there. I wanted to see the facts, and the facts as they started coming out were very well-stated. In fact, everybody said his statement was beautiful. If he would have made it sooner, that would have been good. I couldn't have made it sooner because I didn't know all of the facts. Frankly, people still don't know all of the facts. It was very important — excuse me, excuse me. It was very important to me to get the facts out and correctly, because if I would have made a fast statement — and the first statement was made without knowing much other than what we were seeing. The second statement was made with knowledge, with great knowledge. There's still things — excuse me, there's still things that people don't know. I want to make a statement with knowledge. I wanted to know the facts. Okay.

No, no, no, no -- seriously: you were asked if you missed a critical opportunity to bring the country together, and THAT was your answer? #WhatTheEverlovingSniff

How about throwing Steve Bannon under the bus, are you willing to do that? Sorry, that was the answer, not the question - the question was "do you still have confidence in Steve?"

Well, we'll see. Look, I like Mr. Bannon, he's a friend of mine, but Mr. Bannon came on very late — you know that. I went through 17 senators, governors and I won all the primaries. Mr. Bannon came on very much later than that, and I like him, he's a good man. He is not a racist, I can tell you that. He's a good person, he actually gets a very unfair press in that regard. But we'll see what happens with Mr. Bannon, but he's a good person and I think the press treats him frankly very unfairly.

Hey Steve, get Reince on the phone, maybe he can pick you up and give you a ride home? Unless, I drag you on a junket with me and kick you out of the big boy car like I did to him, that was fun.

Is the president concerned about race relations, are they better or worse since he took office? 

I think they have gotten better- or the same- I- look. They've been frayed for a long time, and you can ask President Obama about that because he'd make speeches about it. But, I believe that the fact that I brought in, it will be soon, millions of jobs — you see where companies are moving back into our country — I think that's going to have a tremendous positive impact on race relations. We have companies coming back into our country, we have two car companies that just announced, we have FoxConn in Wisconsin just announced. We have many companies, I say pouring back into the country. I think that's going to have a huge, positive impact on race relations. You know why? It's jobs. What people want now, they want jobs. They want great jobs with good pay and, when they have that, you watch how race relations will be. 

I gotta tell you, I think people marching around giving Nazi salutes don't really give a good goddamn about jobs. Unless "Jew will not replace me" means "I can't wait to go work in a coal mine."

How about reaching out to Heather Heyer's family, have you done that yet?

No, I'll be reaching out. I'll be reaching out. 

When will you be reaching out?

I was very — I thought that the statement put out, the mother's statement, I thought was a beautiful statement. I must tell you, I was- it was something that I really appreciated. I thought it was terrific, and really under the- under the kind of stress that she's under and the heartache that she's under, I thought putting out that statement to me was really something I won't forget. Thank you all very much. Thank you. Thank you.

One more. When asked if he was going to go to Charlottesville, not for a golfing vacation or anything like that, but you know, to help heal the wounds and presidential stuff. 

I own a house in Charlottesville. Does anyone know I own a house in Charlottesville?  (Reporter: Where is it?)

Oh, boy, it's going to be- it's in Charlottesville, you'll see. (Reporter: Is it in the winery or something?)

It's a- it is the winery.

I mean, I know a lot about Charlottesville. Charlottesville is a great place that's been very badly hurt over the last couple of days. I own- I own actually one of the largest wineries in the United States that's in Charlottesville.

Before you make a statement, you need to know the facts. You would not want to make a statement without knowing the facts. You still don't know the facts, and it's a very important process to me. 

Revisiting 'Time for a Trexit Strategy?'

How time flies!

Was it really only a year ago that I posted Time for a Trexit Strategy?, the post in which I wondered (hoped?) that Trump would realize he had proved his point, and that he could get the heck out of dodge and let a more qualified person take the Republican nomination and roar out of Cleveland into the general election campaign?

How. Time. Flies.

Here's what a former campaign staffer said way back a year ago:

You can give Trump the biggest gift possible if you are a Trump supporter: stop supporting him.  He doesn't want the White House. He just wants to be able to say that he could have run the White House. He's achieved that already, and then some. If there is any question, take it from someone who was recruited to help the candidate succeed, and initially very much wanted him to do so.

A year ago, I noted several things he had done that looked like he was trying to get out. An example? Calling Arizona Senator and former POW John McCain a loser. I thought for sure that would work, in and of itself, but even McCain ended up supporting Trump, so that shot down my hopes.

And now, we're what, 115 days or so into his Administration? I'm still not convinced he has the faintest clue what he's doing, or what he's supposed to be doing - but I'm still not sure there's enough to get members of his party to drop their support of him.

• Is it enough to hold up documents for the cameras, his boldly illegible signature on display for all to see, even if we have no clue what he's just signed (nor does he?)

• Is it enough to run off to a Trump-branded property every weekend, have meetings or chase a golf ball around or drop in on a charity event while he's there?

• Is it enough to give frighteningly rambling, incoherent interviews with people, and expose his lack of knowledge and comprehension of issues? (I mean, let's be clear, there's a very real difference between life insurance and health insurance. We all know that, but he doesn't seem to understand that, even when he's talking about one of his own priorities?)

• Is it enough to continue spewing alternative facts and claiming everything else is fake news, while he suggests that it's impossible for his spokespeople to tell the truth? Can he ever tell the truth?

• Is it enough to have him threaten people via Twitter, and spill highly classified information to foreign visitors, and to entertain said foreigners with their media people present and our locked out of the room? 

• Is it enough to have fired the FBI Director, lied about the reason, lied about the lie, and lied about the lying lie lying there for all to see?

What will it take? Will it take the 'nuclear option' that I tossed out there last year?  I'm beginning to think it will need to be something that extreme.

Dictionary Definitions

Alternative facts, we're told by Sean Spicer, are not lies. They're like two different weather forecasts.

The press was trying to make that seem like we were ignoring the facts. You can look at a weather report and one weather report comes out and says it's going to be cloudy, and the next one says there's going to be light rain. No one lied to you, it just means you interpreted the data in a way that you felt got you to a conclusion.

 Uh, Sean, is it warmer in the summer than it is in Virginia?

The Trump Administration, apparently not understanding the difference between facts and conclusions, might want to spend some time with Merriam-Webster, the dictionary with a great sense of timing, and humor.

You see, the MW has been helping people with the definitions of words like fact (shown below) and other trending searches, using its Twitter feed to educate people as Spicer, Conway, other surrogates and yes, even Trump himself, spout their alternative worldview.


In addition to attacking facts, the Trumpeters have kept up their attacks on the media, keeping the narrative that started early in the campaign when someone asked Trump a question he didn't like, or reported facts that Trump didn't like, or doubted an answer that Trump provided, or used unflattering pictures of him.

Texas Congressman Lamar Smith, described by the San Antonio Current as Congress' top climate change denier (who's been into "alternative facts" long before they were cool), had this to say on the House floor the other day:

Just think what the media would be saying about President Trump if he were a Democrat. "He has tremendous energy. He campaigned for 18 months, puts in 15-hour days, and has the stamina of a bull elephant, like Teddy Roosevelt He is courageous and fearless. Given the amount of hate directed his way, no doubt he constantly receives death threats, but that doesn't curtail his public appearances or seem to worry him in the least..."

The national liberal media won't print that, or air it, or post it. Better to get your news directly from the president, In fact, it might be the only way to get the unvarnished truth.

OK, forget for a moment the fact that there's a whole lot more to being president than having stamina, even though Trump used that effectively during the primary (remember "Low Energy" Jeb! Bush?) and during the general election with his comments about Hillary Clinton. I don't think we'd have to look all that hard to find examples of effective presidents who did not possess elephantine strength.

The media would be saying about a Democrat who said what Trump says, does what Trump does, exactly what they're saying about Donald Trump. They would call a Democrat on their lies, point by point, just as they're doing with Trump. They would question a Democrat's every move, should a Democrat do the same as Trump is doing. 

But the second part, getting the unvarnished truth, from Donald Trump himself? Seriously? 

I've been plenty critical of the media and how they handled things from the very beginning of Trump's candidacy, but I would never shift my news (and opinion) sources from established media outlets - newspapers, magazines, TV news, public television, (and their online components, some of which are fine and some of which are horrid) and start using the the president or his minions as the source of truth, varnished or otherwise.

Because, Representative Smith, you're talking about the man who suggested this:

I'm going to open up our libel laws so when [journalists] write purposely negative and horrible and false articles, we can sue them and win lots of money.

You're talking about the man who

• banned media outlets during his campaign because they were 'mean' to him
• threatened a libel suit against the NY Times 
• thinks everything written or posted that is not flattering is fake news a lie, or a personal attack, 
• lies repeatedly, 
• appeared with an applauding crowd at his first 'press conference' and who takes a claque with him for other appearances. (And yes, in case you're wondering. claque is trending on MW).  

This is not the man who will provide us the unvarnished truth., unless you were thinking of the second definition, explained by the words crude and unfinished. Maybe that's what you meant?

No, this is the man who will provide us something else entirely. 

We'll get his view, which you might note, is in the bottom 50% of popular words, similar to Trump's approval rating according to Gallup and Quinnipiac polling after his first week in office. Coincidence, I wonder?

We'll get his opinion, his preference, his sentiment, his slant, and all the rest.

But at least for now, I'll look elsewhere for the truth. You can look to Trump for this other thing.