Opinion The man that is Trump

[magpies42]

So you don't really get White House Media/Press Conferences then?

Yeah it's an extension of Hollywood, they seek to sensationalise and push agendas with their questioning and general petulance.

Do more people watch the daily press briefing directly or follow his tweets?

And by watch daily press briefings I don't mean the doctored versions on the television networks.

No matter what you think of trump, you can't deny that his media and marketing strategy has been en pointe.

 

[Maggie5]

Charge against Papadopolous. Interesting reading.

 

[Schraderbrau]

So many things going on at once here.

Mueller's strategy here seems to be to indict on whatever he can and then use plea bargains as a means of obtaining evidence against the Trump administration. The indictments against Manafort and partner don't directly implicate Trump but he's facing a long time in prison and, by most accounts, the case is strong and potential defences weak. The way out is to start talking to Mueller about other stuff but so far the not guilty pleas indicate that he's standing firm. The fact Trump has the presidential pardon power further complicates things (and potentially whether such a pardon would constitute an obstruction of justice??).

The Papadopulous guilty plea suggests that he's cooperating but there are questions about how well he was connected to the campaign and to what extent he was acting on his own.

Anyone who has lied to the FBI about contacts with Russians should be very worried at this point - Jarred Kushner??

There are so many dodgy operators around Trump, and the investigatory powers of a special prosecutor so wide, that there's a very good chance that we'll end up getting to the bottom of this whether Trump is involved or not. It may take years though.

 

[76woodenspooners]

Thanks Maggie5 , it is interesting reading.

The thing in that that really seems to damn the Trump campaign is that Papadopoulos lied about it.

He could have so easily have said "Yeah, sure, I met with high ranking Russian officials. I'm a foreign policy advisor, meeting with foreign officials is part of what foreign policy advisors do."

It also provides some insight into the cohort of evil geniuses that the FBI are dealing with here. Lying under oath to an FBI agent about something that you'd posted on your Facebook page? Really??

 

[Maggie5]

76woodenspooners, Schraderbrau, I honestly don't think that we will ever know the truth.

The Trump family is very well organised. As an example they are spinning the Papadopolous charge as someone who worked for a short time on the campaign as an unpaid volunteer. Then they go on to asking when is Hillary going to be charged.

Mueller may catch some low hanging fruit, but...

 

[Baltimore Jack]

Papadopoulos was wearing a wire from around July (what has Mueller got on those tapes).

Mueller is way to clever for the morons running the White House and Trump campaign, he will just pick them off one at a time.
The real issue is at what point Trump either fires Mueller or Pardons those convicted

 

[Baltimore Jack]

76woodenspooners, Schraderbrau, I honestly don't think that we will ever know the truth.

The Trump family is very well organised. As an example they are spinning the Papadopolous charge as someone who worked for a short time on the campaign as an unpaid volunteer. Then they go on to asking when is Hillary going to be charged.

Mueller may catch some low hanging fruit, but...

Manafort and Gates are much more than "low hanging fruit".

It goes like this:
Manafort and Gates "stole" $19 mill from the Russians
The Russians want their money back
Manafort and Gates both get on the Trump campaign in senior positions, they tell the Russians "Hey don't worry about your $19 mill, Trump has told us he will do deals with you that will make the $19 mill look like peanuts"

Boom...down goes Manafort

 

[Maggie5]

Manafort and Gates are much more than "low hanging fruit".

It goes like this:
Manafort and Gates "stole" $19 mill from the Russians
The Russians want their money back
Manafort and Gates both get on the Trump campaign in senior positions, they tell the Russians "Hey don't worry about your $19 mill, Trump has told us he will do deals with you that will make the $19 mill look like peanuts"

Boom...down goes Manafort

Unless they get something closer to or during the campaign, not sure that much will come from it. But I agree, this is just an appertizer with more to come.

Read somewhere that after George was arrested in July has been wearing a wire and there is more to come. Start with the low hanging fruit...

Was it Sting who said, "Every step you take, every law you break, I'll be watchin' you?" "Every word to speak, Every time you leak, ......

Bit of fun...

 

[Baltimore Jack]

Unless they get something closer to or during the campaign, not sure that much will come from it. But I agree, this is just an appertizer with more to come.

Gates worked on the campaign and later in the White House up until April 2017
These indictments may well be used to get Manafort/Gates to roll over as they are both facing long prison terms and the forfeiture of all their assets.
In any event it would appear they are just the first of many.

Not sure Trump will be able to keep from interfering in which case the manure may really hit the fan
US politics is in a very bad place

 

[76woodenspooners]

The real issue is at what point Trump either fires Mueller or Pardons those convicted

IMHO the real issue is the dynamic around the midterms (Nov 2018). Trump's approval is currently hovering around 40% (source realClearPolitics) which is disasterous. If Trump gave the republicans a reason to invoke the 25th amendment (to sack the president) in order to save their own skins then surely they would.

They'd need a damn good reason to invoke it if they want to avoid the wrath of the electorate (40% is still a lot of people). Sacking Mueller (via sacking Sessions / Rosenstein) would probably provide that reason, so Mueller is probably safe.

Trump's biggest problem is his low approval rating. If he gets that up he can probably save himself (from impeachment even) ...

... which makes the whole North Korean thing a tad worrying. A good old fashioned war is probably the best chance Trump has of getting the American population behind him.

 

[Baltimore Jack]

IMHO the real issue is the dynamic around the midterms (Nov 2018). Trump's approval is currently hovering around 40% (source realClearPolitics) which is disasterous. If Trump gave the republicans a reason to invoke the 25th amendment (to sack the president) in order to save their own skins then surely they would.

They'd need a damn good reason to invoke it if they want to avoid the wrath of the electorate (40% is still a lot of people). Sacking Mueller (via sacking Sessions / Rosenstein) would probably provide that reason, so Mueller is probably safe.

Trump's biggest problem is his low approval rating. If he gets that up he can probably save himself (from impeachment even) ...

... which makes the whole North Korean thing a tad worrying. A good old fashioned war is probably the best chance Trump has of getting the American population behind him.

Trumps approval is at 33% according to Gallup
25th amendment is about proving he is incapacitated (mental health) and unable to make decisions

If he sacks Mueller, I think the GOP might still back him, but you are correct, after the mid terms it probably won't matter as the Dems should easily control both Houses

 

[Schraderbrau]

IMHO the real issue is the dynamic around the midterms (Nov 2018). Trump's approval is currently hovering around 40% (source realClearPolitics) which is disasterous. If Trump gave the republicans a reason to invoke the 25th amendment (to sack the president) in order to save their own skins then surely they would.

They'd need a damn good reason to invoke it if they want to avoid the wrath of the electorate (40% is still a lot of people). Sacking Mueller (via sacking Sessions / Rosenstein) would probably provide that reason, so Mueller is probably safe.

Trump's biggest problem is his low approval rating. If he gets that up he can probably save himself (from impeachment even) ...

... which makes the whole North Korean thing a tad worrying. A good old fashioned war is probably the best chance Trump has of getting the American population behind him.

I remember reading that something ridiculous like 80% of republicans still support Trump and I'm guessing that about 1/2 of them are the rusted on base who will support him to the end. The GOP establishment is screwed by their right wing base in a similar way to what Turnbull is over here. They are terrified of the base punishing them in 2018 if they are disloyal to Trump. Meanwhile you have Bannon and the Mercers etc organising to hit GOP establishment seats in 2018 with their own anti establishment candidates. So if they attack Trump they face electoral annihilation, if they do nothing then they risk having the party taken over by anti-establishment crazies. Right now the establishment are keeping quiet. The only guys who have anything to say are like corker who probably had very small chance of winning in 2018 anyway.

Luckily (I guess) starting a war is the one of things that will play really badly with his base.

 

[Schraderbrau]

Trumps approval is at 33% according to Gallup
25th amendment is about proving he is incapacitated (mental health) and unable to make decisions

If he sacks Mueller, I think the GOP might still back him, but you are correct, after the mid terms it probably won't matter as the Dems should easily control both Houses

Wouldn't bet on this given that only 15% of republican senate seats are up in 2018, the pro-republican gerrymander still exists in the congressional elections, and that the Dems are so unpopular that they just lost a presidential election to the most unpopular candidate ever.

 

[Maggie5]

IMHO the real issue is the dynamic around the midterms (Nov 2018). Trump's approval is currently hovering around 40% (source realClearPolitics) which is disasterous. If Trump gave the republicans a reason to invoke the 25th amendment (to sack the president) in order to save their own skins then surely they would.

They'd need a damn good reason to invoke it if they want to avoid the wrath of the electorate (40% is still a lot of people). Sacking Mueller (via sacking Sessions / Rosenstein) would probably provide that reason, so Mueller is probably safe.

Trump's biggest problem is his low approval rating. If he gets that up he can probably save himself (from impeachment even) ...

... which makes the whole North Korean thing a tad worrying. A good old fashioned war is probably the best chance Trump has of getting the American population behind him.

The strange thing is that his approval rating among republican voters is about 80%, so those in the house and congress are in a bit of dilemma.

I can't see them sacking at this stage unless Mueller gets him on something.

 

[Black_White]

Haven’t followed this thread.
But have followed the Trump Presidency.
As far as the thread title goes, I don’t th8nk there is a media bias.
Every politician in the world has had their own battles with the media. Going back centuries.
Why suddenly has one man focused our attention towards the media?
In the past, Presidents, Prime Ministers, have had to defend their opinions and actions under the scrutiny of the free press.
Now Presidents, and yes even our own PM, can squirm away from scrutiny by citing “Fake Press”.
I don’t buy it for a minute.
And everyone should question the story when a politician cites fake news.

 

[Schraderbrau]

Haven’t followed this thread.
But have followed the Trump Presidency.
As far as the thread title goes, I don’t th8nk there is a media bias.
Every politician in the world has had their own battles with the media. Going back centuries.
Why suddenly has one man focused our attention towards the media?
In the past, Presidents, Prime Ministers, have had to defend their opinions and actions under the scrutiny of the free press.
Now Presidents, and yes even our own PM, can squirm away from scrutiny by citing “Fake Press”.
I don’t buy it for a minute.
And everyone should question the story when a politician cites fake news.

There have been plenty of instances of stupid or hysterical Trump stories but the media bias angle is massively exaggerated by the Trump people to work around the real news that he's failing as president. Also fits into the narrative that the mainstream media are part of the swamp that Trump wants to drain.

The hilarious thing about Trump's media complaints is that the free uncritical coverage he received from the mainstream media in the early days of his campaign went a long way to securing the nomination. The media thought he was an idiot and handicapped the other candidates accordingly.

 

[Baltimore Jack]

Latest polling for Congress

Political Polls‏ @Politics_Polls 5h5 hours ago

Democrats 50% (+10)
Republicans 40%

 

[TW Sherrin]

In a "normal" political world Mueller would be untouchable.

Trump, however, is likely to fire him whilst reaching for a fresh handful of Quilton.

I doubt he will get impeached and expect him to him to the GOP candidate in a couple of years. If the GOP dont endorse him he will blow the party and its base up.

 

[Maggie5]

Trump has tried to make the media his new foil over the course of the year without Hillary Clinton to kick around anymore (or at least as much) but he’s not succeeding. Voters trust each of the 6 media outlets Trump has attacked the most by 15-18 points more than Trump when pitted against each other. It’s an 18 point edge for each of NBC, ABC, and CBS (54/36), 17 for the New York Times (54/37), and 15 each for CNN and the Washington Post (52/37):
Which do you trust more:

Donald Trump or…

Winner
ABC ABC, 54/36
CBS CBS, 54/36
NBC NBC, 54/36
New York Times New York Times, 54/37
CNN CNN, 52/37
Washington Post Washington Post, 52/37

 

[76woodenspooners]

Strangely, look at the Fox News poll results for President Trump's approval rating ...

Approve: 38%
Disapprove: 57%

(source)

 

[Maggie5]

Strangely, look at the Fox News poll results for President Trump's approval rating ...

Approve: 38%
Disapprove: 57%

(source)

I actually made myself watch US Fox whilst the arrests were going on, barely spoke about them.
A lot about Hillary, Niger and the wife of the soldier that died and comments about something else but I must have switched off as my brain hurt.

 

[left at home]

I actually made myself watch US Fox whilst the arrests were going on, barely spoke about them.
A lot about Hillary, Niger and the wife of the soldier that died and comments about something else but I must have switched off as my brain hurt.

CNN talks about Trump. Fox does the same with Hillary. Evens it’s out, depending on ones point of view of course.

 

[Maggie5]

CNN talks about Trump. Fox does the same with Hillary. Evens it’s out, depending on ones point of view of course.

Not really, Hillary lost and is no longer relevant. That is a fact, not an opinion.

 

[left at home]

Not really, Hillary lost and is no longer relevant. That is a fact, not an opinion.

Fair enough, but l think you will find Hillary will be news, and big news for a little why’ll longer. And that is also a fact.
American politics has gone to the nut house for a while, and there does not seem a way out.

 

[Maggie5]

Fair enough, but l think you will find Hillary will be news, and big news for a little why’ll longer. And that is also a fact.
American politics has gone to the nut house for a while, and there does not seem a way out.

Only because the only two talking Hillary are Trump and Fox, purely to deflect from the real issues.