Trump has rejected much of the protocol and preparation associated with foreign calls, even as his national security team tried to establish goals for each conversation. Instead, Trump often sought to use calls as a way to befriend whoever he was talking to, one current senior administration official said, defending the president. “So he might say something that sounds terrible to the outside, but in his mind, he’s trying to build a relationship with that person and sees flattery as the way to do it.”...It sounds as though Trump is freakishly comfortable with being President of the United States and actually believes the leaders of other countries are fellow human beings with whom he can have a real relationship. Aides are flummoxed. To them, formality is crucial.
[S]taff fretted that Trump came across ill-informed in some calls, and even oafish. In a conversation with China’s Xi, Trump repeated numerous times how much he liked a kind of chocolate cake, one former official said. The president publicly described the dessert the two had in April 2017 when Trump and Xi met at the president’s Mar-a-Lago resort as “the most beautiful piece of chocolate cake you have ever seen.”...
Though calls with foreign leaders are routinely planned in advance, Trump a few times called Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and French President Emmanuel Macron unannounced, as if they were friends, a former administration official said....
But what if — in the end — what really matters is the cake?
Posts
183 comments:
I'll bet they had "deep and substantive discussions" in the Obama White House. They involved how to use the IRS against the Tea Party and other conservative groups opposing Obama's re-election, among other things. Why do people read this propaganda?
I've thought for a long time that a big part of Trump hatred is just people with credentials hating the idea that their credentials don't count for very much. At best, fancy degrees don't help with the 3 a.m. phone call; at worst you are caught up in group think with the Washington swamp, everyone congratulating everyone else for being wise, and you are so attached to your theories, you are unaware of reality. Trump keeps reminding us all, with a jolt, that much of what we call expertise might be bullshit.
The rapport. The bonhomie. Formerly not part of US diplomacy apparently since it looks so ‘foreign’ to ‘experts’.
Trump is different. Get over it.
Expert humans are needed, is the idea.
It's like morality, delegated to organizations and forbidden to the individual.
That's our President Trump!
Preparation for BO had to be taken seriously because he was not punching above his weight.
This is what happens when someone from the world outside of the political, or national intelligence services, or diplomatic services takes the reins of leadership in our government. This is actually how it was supposed to be before we created the worlds of the Eloi and Morlocks.
Trump speaks the language of someone who is used to creating relationships with the purpose of common productivity. He speaks like a commoner. He comes from an arena where your goal is to actually get things done. But I would not mistake his spoken language for stupidity. That is the common mistake made by all Eloi.
Tucker Carlson said …
Donald Trump should not have been on the phone with a foreign head of state encouraging another country to investigate his political opponent Joe Biden. Some Republicans are trying, but there's no way to spin this as a good idea.
Once those in control of our government use it to advance their political goals, we become just another of the world's many corrupt countries.
If being "freakishly comfortable" with being President means being comfortable abusing the power invested in him by the people then maybe "freakishly comfortable" is not such a good thing. A lot of those dictators he admires so much also seem pretty comfortable.
Paraphrasing Joel Willett: this is how Obama did it, so this is how everybody needs to do it. Because Barack Obama was so successful with his foreign policy.
And that’s assuming Willett isn’t lying.
He is not in office to befriend or be liked by other world leaders. This is ridiculous. You seem to now think lack of preparation and winging it (on matters that could literally be life or death) is somehow admirable.
I recognize that pic! It's from the infamous pie fight in the movie Dr Strangelove, which was cut from the film. Does the footage exist?
Trump is doing it correctly.
He handles the Presidency as he would handle business deals and people in positions of power as human beings rather than dignitaries. And why not? Can anyone argue that it's not as effective as the protocol-based behavior?
Guys like Trump get more from a slightly lifted eyebrow, a small change in inflection, or a second's hesitation in answering than they do from the words spoken.
So now the NYT has a twitter "scoop" that a second whistle blower may come forward.
Really? Isn't this a repeat of the Kavanaugh game plan? How'd that work out for the Dems?
"When I was at the White House, there was a very deliberative process of the president absorbing information from people who had deep substantive knowledge of the countries and relationships with these leaders."
The Washington-based intel "rocket scientists" have missed every major geo-political event over the last 70 years and are despised by the much much smaller group of intel personnel who are actually on the ground in the Field offices.
And does it really even need to be said at this point?
The Washington-based intel types primary mission since 2015 is the spying on, framing, coordinating with dems, leakibg to the press and removal of the republican candidate for President and then the duly elected President of the US.
"When I was at the White House, there was a very deliberative process of the president absorbing information from people who had deep substantive knowledge of the countries and relationships with these leaders. Preparation for these calls was taken very seriously. It appears to be freestyle and ad-libbed now."
_'___
IOW: we'd educate Presidents.
Trump won't come to class.
Time out and detention for him.
Seems like the "But we've always done it this way!" variant of civility bullshit.
I meant to write misedumacate.
But! We've always done it THIS way!!! You'll ruin everything doing it THAT way! The old ways are the best ways. The new way is scary. Yep the old ways are the best ways.
Yep.
"formality is crucial" because it gives justification for their phoney baloney jobs. They're being treated like actual aides and can't stand it.
Trump baffles folks who have no experience outside of established academic theory. He isn't in the texts and there are no answers in the back of the book. All that learning, useless. He is an original and the academic thinkers are lost.
Did someone leave the cake out in the rain?
Because, you know, it took so long to bake it.
Sounds like more fake news from someone who knows no more about PDJTs phone calls, or anything else, than he reads in the NYT or WaPo.
John Henry
It's possible that Trump sees these calls primarily as theater, knowing that the real work is being done by the State Department and others.
Which would actually be appropriate. As head of state, Trump reaches out to foreign heads of state to make personal connections, something something The Art of the Deal.
"Horrified."
I am so goddamn tired of hearing "how swell and thoughtful it used to be and how it is chaotic now" stories. FUCK those thoughtful people who have kept us in Afghanistan all these years and ruined Libya. Trump can go right on being chaotic and preserving the peace.
There is a specific way that the bureaucrats want to operate. And, Trump doesn’t agree with it. They operate in order to maximize their own value and worth, and often not to advance the good of the whole. In the realm of foreign relations, this includes a lot of effort consuming ritual, that as high priests, empowers them.
What these bureaucrats seemingly fail to understand is that by bypassing their time consuming rituals, Trump has managed to run a significantly more energetic foreign policy. He talks to a lot more foreign leaders a lot more, and seemingly meets personally, often at the White House, with better than one foreign leader a week. He couldn’t do it, if he had to operate within the confines of the rituals that these self aggrandizing bureaucrats insist are necessary, are observed.
Trump is a salesman. His calls reflect that attitude. Honestly, I'll take it over the "deliberative process" of before, which left the world a mess.
Remember when Comey was upset that that Trump kept talking about the Beautiful handwritten menus and the great food? The oaf. And imagine being the Chinese dictator and the POTUS talks about chocolate cake to break the ice and as a relief from all the serious talk. What an oaf!
Funny how these aides and WH Officials never say anything GOOD - and are always fretting - about Trump. Its almost as if the liberal MSM is only talking to people who hate trump.
I can remember when Reagan "Broke all the rules" too. He wasn't supposed to talk to Gorbachev about getting rid of nukes. he wasn't supposed to say "tear down this wall" or "Evil Empire" and he wasn't supposed to go to Bitburg and heal the wounds of WW2.
The only time Reagan got in Foreign Policiy trouble is when he took the "The experts" clever advice and we got the Lebanon bombing and Iran-Contra.
UAW with Trump
I'm pretty sure that there have been less Americans killed in foreign lands during Trump's Presidency than in the two presidents who preceded him. You cannot with justification say that Trump is mismanaging the economy when the economy is so good. I just don't see where our relations with foreign countries are noticeably worse than under previous Presidents.....I will say this: there's a good chance that Trump had more relations with porn stars than any previous President with the exception of Bill Clinton. If, as will probably happen, Warren becomes the nominee, that should be her issue. She should promise the American people that she has never had nor never will have sex with a porn star. That's the one issue where she can claim moral superiority over Trump.
Deep State soounds angry that they can't program this president to say what they want him to say.
Yeah technocratic preparation sure helped the Obama foreign policy succeed....
Obama and Hillary and Kerry and Biden made sure their children were established on boards of foreign corporations before speaking with foreign leaders. Even Pelosi made sure the right palms were greased. Hers, for example.
That way, things turn out well in the family finances. Trump doesn't care because he was already rich before entering politics.
That violates rule #1.
This is just one more way to make Trump seem inept or crazy or whatever, but even if true, what difference would it make? Nobody wins an election for President based on foreign policy issues, most Americans couldn't name more than one or two foreign leaders, if that many, and most Americans think inane chatter is perfectly acceptable when talking to people you don't really know all that well.
So some foreign leader is going to react how? Decide Trump is a goofball and declare war on the US or what? Get real. Electing Trump as President is a clear sign of our greatness. They all know that, those foreign leaders. No one would dare mess with a country who could do that.
This is what I hear these long time, lifelong for some, government functionaries saying: Trump is doing it differently from the way we've always done it so it must be wrong. As if their way has worked so swimmingly and his is utter failure.
Xi is flummoxed. It’s great that Trump talks chocolate cake to him. The ChiComs are scrambling. This Trump guy isn’t a predictable idiot like Obama and W. Trump just asked Xi to look into the corruption of Xi paying Biden’s kid $1.5 billion to funnel among the Dem aristocracy. Enjoy the cake Xi!
The head of Ukraine is basically Jerry Lewis. The Obama and W experts must be poring over his movies and talking to Jean Claude Van Damme for deep insights.
They are human beings and they do respond to the humanity in others. Wouldn't it be more worrisome if he were calling them up and bullying them or insulting them? Sounds like he might know what he's doing. Is this whole CIA whistle blower crap is really about some lower level aide/intelligence officer being insulted that his advice isn't being taken?
The King is acting like a commoner.
King’s Court hardest hit.
Interesting. I’ve been told that if you want to build trust and then move people you need do some small talk. If it’s always business the other guy will always and immediately think “What’s the point?” and “What’s he after?”
Some exert influence trough personal relationships.
Others through the perfect creases on their pants.
"When I was at the White House, there was a very deliberative process of the president absorbing information from people who had deep substantive knowledge of the countries and relationships with these leaders. Preparation for these calls was taken very seriously. It appears to be freestyle and ad-libbed now."
_'___
IOW: we could misedumacate Presidents.
Trump won't come to class.
Time out and detention for him.
Let me repeat myself from not too long ago --
Sounds like it is time for Trump to stop having all these people listening in on his phone calls.
The priesthood feels slighted. It has to go through *us*!
Reporters know nothing. Read a book about FDR.
Yalies hardest hit? Hard to see this as a triumph of diplomacy. Trump sees it hasn't worked so well, so...
Mel Brooks said it best https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTmfwklFM-M
Rcocean
About the menus. Althouse had one of her most insightful posts ever about that, reading the conversation as Trump giving Comey a job interview, which Comey flubbed.
He is not in office to befriend or be liked by other world leaders. This is ridiculous.
Freder prefers war. Even Churchill said, "When you have to kill a man, it cost nothing to be polite."
Freder prefers world leaders that put their kids on the Board of Directors before speaking to the foreign leader.
worried aides
It takes a worried aide to write a worried note,
It takes a worried aide to write a worried note,
I'm worried now but I won't be a worried stoat!
Another reason impeachment is going nowhere.
First, in a seismic overall political shift the striking UAW workers support President Trump, not democrats. Why? Because President Trump has been calling out GM CEO Mary Barra for not negotiating a win/win. There is no economic reason for a strike. Second, the striking workers can see through the insufferable political agenda of the Democrats. This outcome is devastating to the democrats overall.
I think the "Squad" pushed Pelosi into a trap.
Trunmp spontaneously called Trudeau and Macron without letting the national security team first establish goals? Sounds like an impeachable offense to me, who knows how many lives may have been lost due to an unscripted slip of the tongue. We need to see the transcripts.
ARM and Freder and the rest of the lefty/LLR-lefty "sophisticates" told us in no uncertain terms Trump would have us ina nuclear conflict and numerous wars in record time.
It gies without saying the opposite has occurred.
You can never go wrong reading what our resident lefty morons write and immediately assuming the opposite is the truth.
It has become axiomatic.
Hey, remember waaaaay back in 2018 when the Russians executed a "Pearl Harbor"-like attack on our 2016 election?....
....well, dont feel bad if you dont because neither do the idiot lefties here who claimed it happened.
Mark: "Sounds like it is time for Trump to stop having all these people listening in on his phone calls."
What Trump has done is use a tight group of professionals and trusted individuals to carry important messages to and from foreign leaders to ensure privacy and the phone calls are all high level and general discussions only since Trump knows they will all be weaponized against him.
Of course, we wont know the lefties are serious about these concerns until they launch a 16 year old swedish girl at us to explain it all.
So, there was this wonderful, deliberative process under Obama. But, the outcomes mostly sucked. On the big things they were more wrong than correct.
Trump is free-wheeling and does not look to have every conversation pre-scripted. But the outcomes are better. Not perfect, but better.
What does that tell you? Trump is better at it and more effective than Obama? Obama surrounded himself with incompetents and then took them too seriously?
Episode of "Yes Minister."
Read a book about FDR.
I too was reminded of FDR, especially his relationship with Churchill.
The two leaders spent 113 days together between 1941 and 1945, and Churchill stayed at the White House on four different occasions.
Looking back, few presidents have much experience doing things outside of politics. Eisenhower and Trump are among the few exceptions. Eisenhower was an astute observer of people and knew how to deal with them.
Another a Trump hit piece.
Yet somehow Trump is doing a lot overseas.
Perhaps the prior methods are not best practices?
No new wars, yet.
US enemies are suffering.
US has finally woken to China’s imperialistic actions.
Just think what Trump could have done big he was not in a fight with the resistance.
From Article II of the US constitution; Presidents also rely on other clauses to support their foreign policy actions, particularly those that bestow “executive power” and the role of “commander in chief of the army and navy” on the office. From this language springs a wide array of associated or “implied” powers. For instance, from the explicit power to appoint and receive ambassadors flows the implicit authority to recognize foreign governments and conduct diplomacy with other countries generally. From the commander-in-chief clause flow powers to use military force and collect foreign intelligence.
When I was running wild as a a green side corpsman, I first heard the epithet, ‘palace guard’. It was spoken with contempt and vehemence by a very grizzled master guns and so like a dumbass, I asked the obvious. He gave me chapter and verse and I left the lecture with the complete understanding of how people can be lower than whale shit in character. Clearly, the palace guard is shaken by this president and all Americans should absolutely understand, the palace guard in DC means you harm as so they can keep power.
"You seem to now think lack of preparation and winging it (on matters that could literally be life or death) is somehow admirable."
For a group whose political identity was that they were NOT George W Bush, the Obama administration dealt a lot of death and confusion on the world stage for no discernible gain. Trump's done pretty well in comparison.
Just doesn’t know his place, does he?
And Lloyd W. Robertson at 7:56 nails it.
"If being "freakishly comfortable" with being President means being comfortable abusing the power invested in him by the people then maybe "freakishly comfortable" is not such a good thing."
Looking at politicians generally, "freakishly comfortable" hardly seems a prerequisite to abusing power. Trumps sins, if sins they be, are venal in comparison. Based on the evidence alone, "freakishly comfortable" may instead retard rather than advance abuse of power.
Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...
Tucker Carlson said …
Donald Trump should not have been on the phone with a foreign head of state encouraging another country to investigate his political opponent Joe Biden. Some Republicans are trying, but there's no way to spin this as a good idea.
Evidently that kind of stuff is supposed to be delegated on order to the rogue intelligence and law enforcement officials with secrecy and plausible deniability like it was under Obama.
Quite frankly, I like the unabashed openness of Trump and Rudy in getting to the bottom of what was, in fact, the Obama's secretive way of doing its business.
"When I was at the White House, there was a very deliberative process of the president absorbing information from people who had deep substantive knowledge of the countries and relationships with these leaders. Preparation for these calls was taken very seriously."
"Mr President, I have deep substantive knowledge of the Tran and relationships with their leaders. They want pallets of cash."
"Prepare pallets of cash. Yes, I'm serious."
"Supreme Leader, the pallets of cash are on the way. Now please will you stop preparing to blow up the world ... hello, hello, anyone there?"
"I'd like to absorb some information from people who have deep substantive knowledge of Tran and relationships with its leaders on why they were laughing when they just hung up."
CWJ said...
Based on the evidence alone, "freakishly comfortable" may instead retard rather than advance abuse of power.
No evidence presented to support this statement. I supplied a quote from Trump apologist Tucker Carlson, distancing himself from Trump's abuse of power.
ARM and the rest of the lefty crew are very very very upset that apparently we are going to learn precisely what the origins of the dems coup attempt were as well as the role foreign govts played in that coup attempt.
Yes, our hyperventilating lefties/LLR-lefties are very very very upset indeed.
It's almost as if our resident lefties have a sixth sense about what those investigation results will be.
It certainly appears there was a "freakishly comfortable" feeling amongst the dems at the highest levels of govt to weaponize the federal govt against domestic political opponents. Very Stasi-like. Very.
ARM: "No evidence presented to support this statement."
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL
Yes.
A lefty wrote that. Just now. In October of 2019. As if the previous 11 years had never happened at all.
History began 15 minutes ago for ARM and he'll be darned if any of you deplorables will be allowed to look back past those 15 minutes!!
When they talk about a politician going off-script, they don't mean it metaphorically. There really is a script.
Increasingly, I think, people are learning that their elites really have shit for brains. You wouldn't trust them to change a flat tire.
Clearly, the palace guard is shaken by this president and all Americans should absolutely understand, the palace guard in DC means you harm as so they can keep power.
ARM is the most shaken of the trolls today.
I supplied a quote from Trump apologist Tucker Carlson, distancing himself from Trump's abuse of power.
Any port in a storm, eh ARM ? What else of Tucker's do you agree with ? Any ? Have you read "Ship of Fools ?"
RMc
On you I bestow great respect for answering my querying mind. I knew that was George C. Scott. That grin. The way he's holding the cigarette.
Stumped on the movie.
Cheers
J2
"Gentlemen! We have to protect our phony-baloney jobs!"
Remember, ARM bought in completely to the hoax dossier and the hoax russia collusion claims and the hoax gang rape charges against Kavanaugh and the hoax accusations against the Covington kids just as ARM has bought in completely to the hoax abuse of power claims.
And all without a shred of evidence.
Just this morning, Adam Schiff has announced that the dems will proceed with their hoax "impeachment inquiry" even though they already know they will not have specifics to attach to that "impeachment inquiry" effort!!
LOL
And now the NYT, since hoax "whistleblower 1" (who worked for a dem candidate and was sent over to the obama White House by Brennan in order to conduct oppo research for the dems with Ukrainians!! LOLOLOL) has already been blown out of the water, is offering up, without evidence, another tantalizing tale of "whistleblower 2" who will "corroborate" (LOL) "whistleblower 1" fantasies.
Of course, you can see the problem here for the dems, can't you? Trump released the call from the same server that obama used to store call info!!!
Our flatfooted dems and LLR-lefties really did not expect the Stable Genius to release the call and torpedo their effort!
A lefty blind spot for the lefties as big as the sun itself. No different really than the intel community missing every major geo-political event of the last 70 years. Without exception.
Yancey Ward: "Increasingly, I think, people are learning that their elites really have shit for brains. You wouldn't trust them to change a flat tire."
Irrefutable.
And since ARM has decided to offer up Tucker Carlson for our benefit, here's another Tucker Carlson quote which I'm sure ARM will be happy to agree with:
The US has the "worst elites in its history".
watching ambassador stevens get executed by al queda, giving 150 billion to iran, that is the sign of some serious efforts,
’I supplied a quote from Trump apologist Tucker Carlson, distancing himself from Trump's abuse of power.’
So much stupidity packed into one sentence. Keep up the good work, ARM!!
from Trump's abuse of power
What's this abuse of power of which you speak? Leftie media is pounding away about how I'm supposed to react to it but none of them seems able to articulate what it is...
The cake is a lie.
The way they've "always" done it wasn't hugely (yugely?) successful. Trump's different way seems to be working okay. It's certainly not coming up with worse results.
This guy's prehistoric ancestors were probably screaming, why do you want to walk on just two legs? Using all fours was fine for our parents and our parents' parents! What's wrong with you?
Who has more experience in successfully conducting commerce and negotiations with rich, powerful people? Trump or all the national security and diplomatic personnel?
Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...
No evidence presented to support this statement. I supplied a quote from Trump apologist Tucker Carlson, distancing himself from Trump's abuse of power.
Carlson is articulating a categorical imperative as needed as a general prophylactic, not making a specific charge of abuse in this case.
For that imperative to be truly categorical, however, all instances of this kind of activity must be understood and agreed by consensus.
If you want a new rule, make a new rule.
But don't make a new rule simply to enforce it against one side in order to cover-up your own previous transgression.
Beasts: "So much stupidity packed into one sentence. Keep up the good work, ARM!!"
Well, since LLR ***** is busy plotting his gallant "comeback" on Althouse blog (awaiting Reid Hoffman/Seminar blogger directions, no doubt) and Freder is performing as he always has with hilarity naturally ensuing, ARM is simply doing his part to advance the already exposed and collapsed "story".
LOL
It seems no one here has an argument with Tucker Carlson's statements. Trump Awakenings occurring in the most unlikely places now.
ARM: "It seems no one here has an argument with Tucker Carlson's statements."
LOL
I disagree with Tucker and the full context of the call shows Tucker is being a little too "careful" here. Which is okay.
Trump wants corruption investigated as well as the origins of the dems coup attempt.
I can see why that would scare the bejeesus out of you.
Would it be a bad thing if it turned out that the “whistleblower” was in Ukraine in 2016 digging up dirt on Trump? Wouldn’t that be a major conflict of interest and make his hearsay “report” self serving in the extreme?
https://twitter.com/paulsperry_/status/1179962400554008576?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1179962400554008576
It is most important that this man never be subject to cross examination! Our way of life depends on removing Trump! Nancy Pelosi says so!
ARM, tireless defender of kleptocrats and war mongers.
I'd still like an explanation from ARM why it was he so "freakishly comfortable" accepting the establishment "wisdom" that Trump would lead us willy-nilly into wars across the globe (which the establishment was pushing hard for!!) and yet that has not come to pass in any shape manner or form.
What say you ARM?
Do you have an excuse for your astonishing gullibility? I mean, fool me once, shame on you, fool me 17,034 times, shame on.....you!
In the realm of foreign relations, this includes a lot of effort consuming ritual, that as high priests, empowers them.
Great analogy, Bruce! Especially for anyone at all familiar with the Old Testament/Torah.
BTW, who wouldn't want to be a fly on the wall when Durham interviews Brennan in the coming days?!
LOL
And that will be AFTER Barr and Durham and conferred with ALL of our allies (UK, Italy, Australia, Ukraine) that the dems used in their coup attempt via Brennan's "Crossfire Hurricane" small group operating out of Langley.
Gee, I sure hope Brennan is completely forthcoming, particularly about Crowdstrike and Mifsud and Downer and Halper.
ARM,
We just think Carlson is sometimes wrong. Argument from authority is pretty weak tea.
Since Obama and Clinton did the exact same thing, we no longer agree to abide by double standards. This is Trump's biggest success, in my opinion- he blows up these double standards with energetic aplomb, and you trying to enforce the double standard just leaves us laughing our asses off at you- you just don't get it- the double standard is over with.
If you want to start making an effective argument, you have to start with an apology and mea culpa for what happened in 2016, but you won't do that- you will stick with the lie that Trump wasn't investigated for 3 years based on a lie purchased from the country's enemies. So, until you do that, go fuck yourself.
Oooh Ahhhh Waaa! The Bad Orange Man is not doing things our way. Bad, bad, bad. We are horrified.
These guys can't hit a knuckleball so they would be terrified of the Niekro brothers. Fastballs across the middle of the plate, they can handle. But knuckleballs? They ought to be illegal!
When I read pieces like this it reminds me of the constant belittling Truman got in office from what he called "cookie pushers and the striped pants boys" who opposed everything he did because mostly it had never been tried before. Here we have two accidental presidents getting the identical treatment in Washington by the establishment and media.
My favorite part of "whistleblower 1" serial lies?
The fact that he "forgot" to mention to the ICIG that he, the whistleblower, had already been in contact with the Schiff dems (to help him write the bogus "complaint").
Just plumb forgot to mention that.
Even though the complaint form has several questions relating to any previous congressional interaction!!
LOL
Perhaps english isn't the "whistleblowers" primary language so he missed that, along with being "forgetful".
Very very "forgetful".
Very.
A new definition. Abuse of power = kicking Joe Biden. It is awful, he is old, and he drives a Corvette. How dare you.
Are we getting a glimpse into the inner workings of one of the likely most catastrophic foreign policy disasters, even worse that Obama re-establishing slave markets in North Africa? The Soviet Russia collapsed, and since then the situation has gone from hopeful to awful. Has the seemingly common practice of shuffling off the useless sons of Washington into positions of selling influence set a pattern of corruption and poisoned any goodwill the US may have had in these countries, in effect creating enemies?
If so, and I suspect Trump has personal knowledge of this, then his discussion with the Ukrainian is fully justified.
Trump's first crime was winning the election, and it seems his second one is shining light on a rather disgusting influence peddling scheme that has enriched the esteemed denizens of Washington.
I noted bill taylor, who was ambassador back in the 00s, then returned as dcm under jovanich, he was in Moscow, with the first round of theft, that summers and sachs cooked up, that created the oligarchs, then he was in Afghanistan, at the start, he was with the cpa initially, which made their share of mistakes, and was subsequently part of the quartet that pushed Jerusalem to surrender territory, not a track record of success,
Tucker Carlson said …
Donald Trump should not have been on the phone with a foreign head of state encouraging another country to investigate his political opponent Joe Biden. Some Republicans are trying, but there's no way to spin this as a good idea.
Just because Donald Trump was under investigation by Schiff for the baseless Russia accusation cooked up by Schiff pal, Glenn Simpson of Fusion GPS while in the employ of Hillary Clinton does not mean that Trump has any right of defense, nor can his lawer look into these matters!
You see, if the Ukraine were to help Trump clear his name of the mud slung in part by Ukrainians in 2016, that would be interference the the pristine 2020 election!
Tucker Carlson is not some author of perfect texts which must be treated as holy writ by conservatives. He obviously underestimates the media’s willingness to lie on behalf of the Democrats and I would suggest that he read the transcript again carefully, not to mention read the news reports which characterize attempts to get to the bottom of election interference in 2016 as “investigations of political opponents.” You have to hand it to them. It’s technically true, just completely dishonest.
Boy there are really a lot of Chuck types embedded in government! Obama’s pants were creased! He listened to us!
What a bunch of whiny assholes.
Areasonable man: so you are ok with the practice of powerful politicians placing their useless sons into foreign capitols for an influence peddling scheme?
On Drago's point above--"no phone calls" for sensitive messages. I've just finished reading Charles Brandt's "The Irishman". Frank Sheeran (the "Irishman") pointed out that Mafia leaders knew their phones were tapped. If they wanted to send a sensitive message, they sent a messenger who would deliver it in person, in private.
With all these weaselly leakers, Trump may be reduced to that.
Skylark "It is most important that this man never be subject to cross examination! Our way of life depends on removing Trump! Nancy Pelosi says so!"
Indeed.
So "confident" are the ARM-supported Dems that they are refusing to allow the republicans to participate in their hoax impeachment inquiry and hoax "subpeona's" play acting and they have already said republicans would not, NOT, be allowed to call witnesses!!
The complete collapse of all previous dem/left/LLR-left hoaxes has left the Impeachment Cupboard bare and the dems are forced to move forward with the hilarious ghost skeleton of a hoax accusation!
Look at ARM! He's quoting Tucker Carlson whom all dems assure us is a white supremacist and likely mass murderer!!
Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...
It seems no one here has an argument with Tucker Carlson's statements. Trump Awakenings occurring in the most unlikely places now.
See me @10:26.
And it is ironic that you use the metaphor of making a cake. Cake baking requires precise measurement and careful preparation.
I doubt you cook much.
When you've lost Tucker Carlson ...
Not really all that many people left at this point. Fortunately we have many of the true believers here, including our hostess, and little Scotty Adams. The last stand.
ARM forgot to include this Tucker Carlson quote in his post.
America is better than that. That’s also why it’s good that there are finally investigations looking into the extent to which the Obama FBI may have used our government — and even foreign governments — to try to crush Trump in the last election.
I guess you missed that part, ARM.
Well well well.
Which bring us to the issue of some photographs taken at the prestigious Aspen security conference last July.
They show Schiff meeting at the event with Fusion GPS Founder Glenn Simpson, one of the key and most controversial figures in the Russia collusion scandal. Both men insisted to me through spokesmen that they met only briefly last July.
https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/429041-adam-schiff-glenn-simpson-and-their-forrest-gump-like-encounter-in-aspen
Sorry, but Schiff’s credibility has already been ‘impeached’ in the Washington Post, of all places. Schiff is protecting himself from investigation into his role in the Simpson/Fusion GPS dossier hoax that sidetracked Washington for two fucking years, and oh, BTW, he is still ‘investigating’ Trump on that one, purportedly.
I didn’t offer a substantive reply to ARM because I knew he’d merely reply with a non sequitur. Seeing his reply to others’ attempts, i was correct in saving myself some typing... :)
now is this ancient history, not in the least, billions of dollars has been sent through aid and other orgs, to the Ukraine, at least 1.7 billion due to one particular enterprise, hunter was the piano player in the bordello, who watched as mr z, shipped some 14 billion dollars through Cyprus, like the steyn piece in last Sunday's thread,
Seal Of Lion said...
"formality is crucial" because it gives justification for their phoney baloney jobs. They're being treated like actual aides and can't stand it.
Trump realizes that he only has 8 years to accomplish what he wants to accomplish. Career bureaucrats are looking at 40 years and how to mark time with causing as little disruption (read: work) as possible. Formality helps by pushing every task out to the maximum time allotted.
ARM: "When you've lost Tucker Carlson ..."
LOL
ARM literally believes this is 1975 and we only have access to the info Team Dem decides we should have.
Too funny.
Tucker defends Trump and his policies every single night on his show. ARM, you should watch it once in awhile. Assuming you aren't afraid of the stigma that would attach to you for having done so.
Courage laddie. Stiff upper lip and all that.
I remember reading the novel The Hunt for Red October which was a great read, and one of the things they talked about was cold war submarine encounters. The idea was that if you kept on the trail of a diesel submarine long enough that they were forced to come up for air in range of your guns, you had “won” the encounter. The fact that you could have killed them was understood.
Well I think of that when a commenter resorts, as ARM just did, to name calling. He could point out why we are wrong....
Cake baking requires precise measurement and careful preparation.
I doubt you cook much.
Freder the pastry chef. Some of us cook and some even approximate recipes.
Wince: "See me @10:26."
He saw it.
He is simply pretending now that he didn't and it doesn't exist.
Who was it that said that to be a leftist, you have to pretend not to know lots and lots of things?
ARM is a master of Not Knowing.
We still don’t know who changed the whistleblower form so that it could be filed based on hearsay, conveniently days before it was filed.
The Democrats only hope of removing Trump, or even passing an impeachment that non Democrats will accept, is if. Trump really did fuck with the transcript.
So, to recap fake "whistleblower 1" (not to be confused with the hinted at replacement for exposed fake "whistleblower 1", "whistleblower 2"!):
Worked for a current dem candidate
CIA punk working with the Ukraine in 2016 to dig up dirt on Trump and his campaign
Lied to ICIG about congressional contacts
Let the Schiff-ty lawyers help him write his "complaint"
Was not on the call
Did not expect the actual call info to be released
Put forward about 15 exposed lies in his "complaint"
Other than that, stellar job Team Dem!! It's right up there with your Kavanaugh was the leader of a roving and marauding rape gang terrorizing the hills and backwoods of Maryland for the better part of 2 decades!
Seriously lefties, great effort. People like, totally, like, believe you now......
Schiff is simply not smart enough, doesn’t have the tradecraft, to bring off a conspiracy like this in an age when there are cameras and recording devices on every phone, and cameras on every wall.
"I didn’t offer a substantive reply to ARM because I knew he’d merely reply with a non sequitur. Seeing his reply to others’ attempts, i was correct in saving myself some typing... :)"
With ARM, you can rarely go wrong with following that strategy. All he ever does is make someone else's argument, Carlson in this example, and then just endlessly repeat it like a parrot. And, as Michael K pointed out, he even conveniently edited what Carlson actually said in full.
Speaking of "losing people", lefties are now clamoring that Schiff be removed as figure head of this hoax "impeachment" non-inquiry given how lies have put the dems in a hilarious and much deserved maligned position.
Personally?
I want Schiff-ty front and center (not Nadler as the degree to which he simply appears so pathetic might generate a modicum of sympathy from the sorts of people who wince when they see a puppy with a slight wound) in this effort and I want Nancy to continue backing Schiff-ty to the hilt.
You know, the Machiavellian in me is perhaps thinking that Pelosi, enraged that she has lost control of her caucus to the far left crazies like Freder, is simply going to give the far lefties what they want in spades and let the chips fall where they may.
Afterwards, when the ARM's and Freder's are poking around the rubble of their effort she can swing by to say "I told you so, you idiots!!"
Master Chef Freder: "I doubt you cook much."
LOL
Don't watch the Cooking Channel Freder. You'll go into shock....
"lefties are now clamoring that Schiff be removed as figure head of this hoax "impeachment" non-inquiry given how lies have put the dems in a hilarious and much deserved maligned position." I noticed that too which I didn't expect so soon. Their internal polling after the last 3 weeks must be dreadful. Not even their sycophants in the media can keep this coup alive.
FNC’s Chris Wallace: Kurt Volker’s Testimony Is ‘Quite Devastating to the President’
Now ARM is quoting NeverTrumper Chris Wallace!!
Well, that certainly settles it!
LOL
Hey ARM, if "everyone" wants impeachment and the "evidence" is so crystal clear, why won't the dems vote on it?
LOL
You have to be a real moron at this point to continue believing in the obvious charade.
Next up for ARM: providing "devastating "hot takes"' from Andrew Napolitano and Shep Smith!!
BTW, can one of the dems explain how it is illegal for Trump to ask for Ukraine assistance in investigating corruption and potential criminal behavior by Americans in Ukraine when Billy "Cigars Find Interesting Hiding Places" Clinton literally signed a treaty with Ukraine which establishes a criminal investigative cooperative agreement which allows precisely that?
LOL
Looks like ARM is going to have go digging for something Bill Kristol wrote about that way back when and Impeach Clinton after the fact as well!!
That dastardly Trump!! What did he do in the 90's to force Billy Boy to sign that Treaty!! Sounds like we need ANOTHER investigation into the nefarious Trump!
Trump's got his own style. He never went to a "finishing" school, he went to the School of Hard Knocks.
Yes, this is especially disturbing considering the excellent job our Ivy League political elites and bureaucrats have been doing for the past 6 decades. What a wonderful world they've created.
We rubes are truly blessed to have them 'working for us.'
Chaos preceded the creation of the world.
I can't wait for the next NeverTrumper editorial: "The Conservative Case For Believing Every Accusation Against Republicans Coming From Former Democrat Candidate Opposition Researchers Who Then Worked For Brennan's CIA And Who Lie On Their Whistleblower Reports"
I think it is very brave of ARM to hold out the troll spot for Inga and Ritmo and Chuck and all the other phonies.
It's like the poor guy who finally admitted he was getting paid to post comments.
But you guys don't even have that,
“And now the NYT, since hoax "whistleblower 1" (who worked for a dem candidate and was sent over to the obama White House by Brennan in order to conduct oppo research for the dems with Ukrainians!! LOLOLOL) has already been blown out of the water, is offering up, without evidence, another tantalizing tale of "whistleblower 2" who will "corroborate" (LOL) "whistleblower 1" fantasies.”
“Of course, you can see the problem here for the dems, can't you? Trump released the call from the same server that obama used to store call info!!!”
“Our flatfooted dems and LLR-lefties really did not expect the Stable Genius to release the call and torpedo their effort!”
Classic case of getting inside their OODA loop. More significant though in this respect was getting AG Barr confirmed and the Mueller investigation shut down before the House Democrats could get organized enough to accept their mountain of evidence. The whole Ukrainian scandal was contrived as a last minute Plan B, when they came to the rude awakening that they weren’t going to get the Mueller stuff that the entire impeachment effort, starting probably in Nov 2016, had been planned around.
Matt observes: Yes, this is especially disturbing considering the excellent job our Ivy League political elites and bureaucrats have been doing for the past 6 decades. What a wonderful world they've created.
We rubes are truly blessed to have them 'working for us.'
And don't you find the term 'public servant' the most ridiculously misleading title in our lexicon?
Bill Kristol said ...
Putting Russia First: “In a summer 2018 call with Prime Minister Theresa May, Trump...disputed her intelligence community’s conclusion that Putin’s government had orchestrated the attempted murder and poisoning of a former Russian spy on British soil.”
Never Trumper and noted war monger Bill Kristol now. Ha ha ha ha ha ha.
The “whistleblower”
Worked for a current dem candidate
CIA punk working with the Ukraine in 2016 to dig up dirt on Trump and his campaign
Lied to ICIG about congressional contacts
Let the Schiff-ty lawyers help him write his "complaint"
Was not on the call
Did not expect the actual call info to be released
Put forward about 15 exposed lies in his "complaint"
Maybe as relevant, in terms of this thread, is that the “whistleblower” was apparently one of the bureaucratic functionaries working for the NSC in the Obama White House, as the Ukrainian expert, who presumably was the bureaucratic high priest who got to brief Obama before his calls with Ukrainian leaders. Trump effectively defrocked him, sending him back to the CIA, as he no doubt did with many of the other CIA “experts” whose religious rituals just got in the way of Trump getting something done. No wonder he was butt hurt enough to try to destroy Trump, who took one of the major tokens of bureaucratic success away from him - a hard pass to White House.
ARM has lowered himself to quoting Bill Kristol ?
OMG!
ARM,
Nice- quoting Bill Kristol will convince people!
Aren't you just Chuck without the intellectual firepower?
well the in bruges crew, didn't kill the target, just everyone around them, they are getting their best from bala shita (spetznaz and svu training facility)
Bill Kristol!!!
LOLOLOLOLOLOL
Yes, that would be the far left billionaire Pierre Omidyar funded Bill Kristol!
Keep going ARM! It just gets more and more amusing.
I never thought I'd see ARM reduced to Inga level posting, but here we are.
Pat Buchanan has some questions for Biden.
What's the matter ARM? Can't you find anything from David French and Tom Nichols?!!
Get with it man! Get. With. It.
We are literally just moments away from ARM giving Jonah Goldberg the Strange New Respect treatment!
I mean 'killing eve' which was written by a vanity fair and guardian scribe, luke Jennings raised certain expectations of competence, so the supposed source, which the treehouse has integrated into the matrix, once presided over a proposed version of treadstone,
Drago asked for a Kristol quote and ARM obliges.
Damn!
I did not see that coming.
Nancy Pelosi's kid was on the board of a Ukrainian company.
Seems legit.
North Korea said ...
Talks with US have FAILED, urges Washington to ‘reconsider position’
Jonah Goldberg said ...
Just this week, the same people who insisted that Trump would never collude with a foreign nation for his political interest are now defending collusion with a foreign nation for his political interest.
Rich Lowry said ...
The big story of the last 48 hours wasn’t President Trump’s outlandish call for China to investigate the Bidens ... but the release of the texts documenting some of the internal back-and-forth over Ukraine policy. They are bad news because they are a sign that this controversy won’t be limited to the four corners of the transcript of the July 25 call. The best case was that Trump was shooting from the hip on the call and nothing much came of it, a scenario that got at least a little more credence from reports that the Ukrainians didn’t know until a month later that their aid was being withheld. Now, we know that the matter was more involved than that, and also went beyond Rudy Giuliani.
Birkel: "Drago asked for a Kristol quote and ARM obliges."
I'm beginning to think ARM is a Roger Stone invention to discredit leftists.
BTW, did you know that one of the media outlets the Glenn Simpson of FusionGPS fame used to push his fake narratives?
Billy Kristol at The Weekly Standard!!
LOL
ARM is now quoting Glenn Simpson associates for "corroboration" of Fusion fed smears.
You can't make this up.
a 'clean energy company' which means a clean grift for those selling the product,
Now, we know that the matter was more involved than that, and also went beyond Rudy Giuliani.
Yes, Hunter Biden m ay end up in jail. Keep digging ARM. There has to be a pony in there somewhere.
Inga appreciates your efforts.
ARM, have you missed any NeverTrumpers ? I'll check and see if I can find more for you to quote. There has to be a few more.
So was all that “information absorbed” by Obama the source of his brilliant foreign policy decisions? Just askin’.
If you didn't understand two scoops then I don't expect that you'd understand chocolate cake. Spelled out:
We aren't going to talk about that. We are going to talk about what I choose. Shut up and listen.
Kurt Volker said ...
At that breakfast, Mr. Giuliani was accompanied by Ukrainian-American businessman Lev
Parnas. We had a long conversation about Ukraine. To my surprise, Mr. Giuliani had
come to the conclusion on his own that Mr. Lutsenko was not credible and [was] acting in a self serving capacity.
ARM then doubles down.
I kind of feel bad for ARM. Stuck with the weekend shift when the other trolls are out enjoying a beautiful autumn day. Do you think he’s even making minimum wage cutting and pasting from people who are well known to everybody to have admitted to have closed their minds three years ago?
The problem with frontal lobotomies was that once a person had one, they were fine as long as their life never changed, but they couldn’t adapt as circumstances changed. ARM just keeps cutting and pasting from the ranks of the self lobotomized, cut and paste and cut and run. It’s kind of sad to see him laid so low.
Well, you got Trump now, ARM! All the NeverTrump crowd has finally turned against Trump.
"The best reads on the internet are the people who you know what they are going to say, whatever the facts, before they say it!” - ARM.
OK, it’s a paraphrase.
When is ARM going to quote Romney about how bad it is to fight back. That real Republicans bend over and take it and lose with dignity!
"To my surprise, Mr. Giuliani had come to the conclusion on his own that Mr. Lutsenko was not credible and [was] acting in a self serving capacity”
This one I don’t get. Is ARM upset that the presidents attorney was chasing down leads in the Ukraine regarding the source of the Russia hoax, and election interference coming from the UK, and evaluating the evidence for himself?
I thought that efforts to clear Trump’s name of the Hillary concocted mud by investigating its source in foreign lands was election interference. Indeed, if Trump were to expose this foreign interference that led to the whole hoax, would that be some kind of exact opposite of “obstruction of justice” and also a crime?
And yet, dirt on Manafort came out of the UK during the election, while Podesta’s portfolio contained millions of dollars worth of Gazprom stock awarded to him for his “services” meaning that he had the future POTUS’s direct line.
ARM is actually doing us a good service by reminding us of the hollowed out husk of the Never trumpers at NR and the launch of the Bulwark. Isn't it interesting how even their staple "Orange Man Bad" editorials tapered off since last year? It's hard to lead a parade when you have no followers. Kathy Griffin isn't the only person Trump has broken, apparently.
If nothing else, Trump has exposed these people for the assholes they really are.
Good.
ARM = Chuck
I thought most of you would've figured it out by now.
Lets just cut to the chase.
ARM/Uhr, please provide a list of prominent dems that DID NOT have corrupt connections with Ukrainian and/or Russian energy interests.
It will save valuable time approaching the question that way.
LOL
I wish he’d change it up and cut and paste from the Bulwark for a change. That place is comedy gold.
Poor ARM. He quotes about 5 NeverTrumpers and then it slowly dawns on him that there aren't very many more.
ARM, like all lefties, was fooled by the fact the MSM hires these same 12 to 15 people to simply regurgitate their left wing talking points across all media channels. This makes ARM think they represent millions when, in fact, they represent literally only a few hundred. The rest of the NeverTrumpers already made peace with coming out honestly as the democrats they've always been.
This one I don’t get. Is ARM upset that the presidents attorney was chasing down leads in the Ukraine regarding the source of the Russia hoax, and election interference coming from the UK, and evaluating the evidence for himself?
I thought that efforts to clear Trump’s name of the Hillary concocted mud by investigating its source in foreign lands was election interference. Indeed, if Trump were to expose this foreign interference that led to the whole hoax, would that be some kind of exact opposite of “obstruction of justice” and also a crime?
The obvious problem with Giuliani doing the digging, from the Dems’ point of view, is that he is not a government employee, a time serving bureaucrat, member of the Deep State, who can be manipulated by Democrats through mutual self interest. Even the principal officers nominated by Trump who came up through the federal bureaucracy, like Rosenstein, Wray, and Atkinson, seem to willingly undergo capture by the government bureaucrats they were installed to oversee. Their jobs are not to protect the bureaucrats from the President, but, instead, make sure that the bureaucrats are obeying the President’s will. They all forget that their entire Constitutional legitimacy derives from the President’s Article II, first sentence, Executive Power.
OT, but one thing popped to mind as I wrote this. It is becoming ever more evident that DAG Rosenstein was a lot more corrupt and involved in the Deep State, than we knew while he was still in that position. Trump, no doubt knew that. So, why wasn’t his resignation strongly suggested (I,e., effectively fired)? I think that the answer is that the Mueller/Lawfare Obstruction of Justice interpretation that putatively changed the crime of Obstruction from specific intent to general intent, that was used to protect the existence of the Mueller investigation, as well as the FBI participants in the Russian Collusion hoax, was also used to protect him from Trump. In other words, the independent counsel investigation that he was putatively overseeing and supervising protected him from the consequences of his mismanagement and failure to oversee that very same investigation. He couldn’t be fired, because AG Sessions was recused, so was acting AG, and he couldn’t be reined in, because that would be interfering with Mueller’s investigation, and thus treated by Mueller’s prosecutors as Obstruction of Justice. Hence, the necessity of Session’s resignation, confirmation of Barr, his refusal to recuse himself, and the almost immediate shutdown of the Mueller investigation, now that Rosenstein was no longer acting AG in that matter.
ARM just keeps cutting and pasting from the ranks of the self lobotomized, cut and paste and cut and run.
He's doing jobs Inga can't do since Althouse took away her troll badge,.
President Trump as the head of the Executive branch lacks article II powers to investigate American politicians potential acts of corruption on foreign soil.
As I have been told by my moral and intellectual betters have told me.
No one has told me exactly where in the constitution that restriction resides. I'm guessing its an emanation hiding in the penumbra.
Neo has a post on the Volker testimony.
First Volker’s pending appearance was hyped to the skies by the Democrats: this was going to implicate Trump.
Then Volker was interviewed in closed session, and the results were misrepresented by the MSM and the Democrats.
Now the testimony is out, although the lie probably got halfway around the world first:
Congressional testimony from the former top American envoy to Ukraine directly contradicts the impeachment narrative offered by congressional Democrats and their media allies.
No surprise. There is a link to the transcript.
I just saw an interview with John Solomon of Politico where he said he'd seen FBI evidence of financial transfers from Burisma to Biden of 2x $80,000/Month. not the $50,00 Joe spoke of.
Hence, the necessity of Session’s resignation, confirmation of Barr, his refusal to recuse himself, and the almost immediate shutdown of the Mueller investigation, now that Rosenstein was no longer acting AG in that matter.
Maybe Trump should get a third term. Since the first was dominated by disinformation.
Just kidding but it would be an interesting scene if he suggested it. Too bad it is an amendment.
Them that takes cakes
Which the Parsee-man bakes
Makes dreadful mistakes.
'President Trump as the head of the Executive branch lacks article II powers to investigate American politicians potential acts of corruption on foreign soil.”
THAT’S THE FUCKING LIE! He is compiling a defense regarding 2016, since Schiff won’t let that go and was planning to impeach him on it. His personal attorney is exactly the person to do that. Now Schiff is trying to impeach him for defending himself. “Pursuit of Justice” is the charge, I think.
Bruce Hayden, I think you're largely correct re Rosenstein. I like how Bart kept him around to hang the no-prosecution decision post Mueller report on Rosenstein's neck. That was cold.
Drago said...
Remember, ARM bought in completely to the hoax dossier and the hoax russia collusion claims and the hoax gang rape charges against Kavanaugh and the hoax accusations against the Covington kids just as ARM has bought in completely to the hoax abuse of power claims.
And all without a shred of evidence.
Wigga pleez, ARM believes nothing that he quotes and nothing that he says. He just hopes it works on somebody else. F--'s Law.
Has nobody read Gulliver's Travels?
University of Adelaide › au › ebooks › ...
Web results
Gulliver's Travels, by Jonathan Swift : chapter18 - eBooks@Adelaide
jonathan Swift flappers from ebooks.adelaide.edu.au
This flapper is likewise employed diligently to attend his master in his walks, and upon occasion to give him a soft flap on his eyes; because he is always so ...
All the flappers are afraid for their phoney-baloney jobs so they get the Lilliputians to try and tie him down.
Jim at said...
ARM = Chuck
I thought most of you would've figured it out by now.
10/5/19, 2:18 PM
How do ya figger? ARM is very deeply flawed but doesn't chew the rug like Hitler, er, LLR did.
Althouse: Conduit of propaganda exemplar.
Xi formed his first impression of Trump at that dinner where the chocolate cake was served. I don't think the talk about the cake mattered very much. What mattered was Trump taking him aside to tell him that he, Trump, had just launched cruise missiles at Syria. I doubt Xi went away thinking that Trump was a fool or an oaf.
Trump is a businessman and a salesman. Both require building relationships; it's what he's done his whole life to execute The Art of The Deal. I read the transcript and found nothing objectionable about it. Ukrainian government officials say nothing happened. But grifters like Schiff and his ilk are so eager to find the man so they can find the crime.
Beyond that, fair or not, official Washington wants everything cordoned-off, buttoned-up, and arms-length. To our Beltway Betters and the Manhattan Mooks, Trump is Vulgar. Crass. Common. Everyman. The Patron Saint of the Sea of Red in Flyover Country.
He is the Sneer coming from voters who see the Elect Elite and vomit at the sight.
He sounds like "Yes Minister's" Sir Humphrey Appleby.
‘You do the politics, Minister, and leave us to run the country. It’s not your job to run the country, just because the people voted you to do it.’
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