"You can read Ivanka’s inane musings below, but they’re not the real point. She turned 43 on October 30."

"There is no reason to post this thread on November 4, the night before Election Day, other than to emphasize that she’s not even thinking about Donald Trump’s reelection bid. Ivanka basically found a way to tell her dad, 'I really don’t care, do U?' via Twitter thread, rather than donning an ugly jacket...."

Writes Margaret Hartmann in New York Magazine, reacting to Ivanka's stoicism-studded thread on X.

What's up with Ivanka? Who knows? She was the favored child, it always seemed, or at least the favored daughter. Maybe you're wondering Should I care? Just consult Marcus Aurelius — "You have power over your mind—not outside events" — or Epictetus — "Anyone capable of angering you becomes your master."

Trump walks out into the GOP convention: What was your reaction?

I watched live last night — did you? — and I'm rewatching now:

0:06 — Trump ambles out slowly. He's got a patch of white gauze atop his upper ear. 

0:16 — We're seeing him backstage, where he can — with his famous and his unfamous ear — hear the crowd cheering. He looks serious... and tired.

0:22  — Lee Greenwood, live on stage, begins Trump's theme song — If tomorrow all the things were gone — and Trump raises his arm into a fist pump — the gesture last seen 2 minutes after he nearly died.

0:35 — He's mouthing some words, he waves, does another fist pump, looks down, gives a thumbs up, mouths "Thank you, thank you."

0:57 — I remember thinking last night that he looks different and I flashed on the possibility there could be a body double then estimated it at zero when he turned sideways and we could see his idiosyncratic ducktail.

2:00 — Ascended onto the podium, he looks happy now. He moves to the speaker's position, but he gives no speech, only a mouthed "Thank you" and another fist pump. He smiles for a moment then walks over to join a select group of family and friends. Not Melania, but Tiffany and the 2 older boys. J.D. Vance, Byron Donalds, Tucker Carlson. Lee Greenwood: "He is here tonight to show his courage, his defiance against somebody who tried to kill him."

2:08 — His facial expression becomes softer, gentler. He seems as if he might cry.

2:25 — From the lakes of Minnesota, to the hills of Tennessee — we know he is sensitive to music, and hearing this song again, now, must be an overwhelming emotional experience. Watch his face at this point.

2:53 — He dances slightly. 

3:13 — He's calmed down a bit now and is smiling and waving. 

3:43 — There's some restrained interaction with Vance after which his eyes swivel Vanceward, as if it might be possible for Trump to observe him unnoticed.

3:51 — Vance points at something, which seems to warm things up, and the 2 men chat. Then the 2 men point together. Pointing at something out of our view — perhaps at nothing at all — is a standard political gesture, and the 2 men seem to flow smoothly into this performance.

4:09 — The song ends, Trump salutes, the crowd chants the chant from the scene of the attempted assassination: "U-S-A! U-S-A!"

4:24 — Trump joins the chant. He's got a very wide smile, and again, I feel that he's holding back tears.

"What explains the disjunction between the remote figure in the photos and the loving grandmother who once harvested onions?"

"Was it just the Trump family attempt at privacy? Or was it too hard for the media to make sense of a grandmother who seemed to prefer Manolos to fuzzy slippers?... Now, with her passing, we are learning more about Mrs. Knavs, and can connect the dots from her hardscrabble beginnings in a former Soviet bloc country to her recent life in Palm Beach. Acknowledging Mrs. Knavs’s origins during her lifetime might have gone a long way toward softening Mrs. Trump’s image during her time as first lady. Instead, Mrs. Knavs was presented to us as a near clone of her daughter, a retinal after-image of Mrs. Trump’s own inscrutable glamour."

So ends "The Inscrutable Glamour of Melania Trump’s Mother In public, Amalija Knavs did not adhere to the stereotypes of an American grandmother" by Rhonda Garelick, in The New York Times.

I was surprised to see this very positive-looking presentation on the front page:

Is the article positive? We're told in the end that Amalija Knavs could have been exploited to greater political effect, and we don't even know exactly why she wasn't. There was all this great material that could have been deployed to soften Melania Trump. Maybe when Melania dies, the NYT will discover material that could have been used to soften her.

The unexamined premise is that women are supposed to be soft. And that human beings are supposed to be used.

How to argue, powerfully, in the court of public opinion.

Here is Carolina asking Grandpa if he was having his birthday party at a trampoline park and if she was invited 😂 Happy Birthday @realdonaldtrump!!!! 🎂 pic.twitter.com/5rbrw2sxQd

— Lara Trump (@LaraLeaTrump) June 14, 2023

How dumb is it to attack Ivanka's story that her son built a Lego model of the White House!

So Ivankas story about her son building a lego model of the WH model is most likely a lie. She used the same story herself about Trump Towers.https://t.co/fISo2Gy45k

— Call Me Prez🌊🗽🔥🆘🍑❄️💪 (@lunaticopresid1) August 28, 2020

... here's the video of ivanka telling the story about her building a lego trump tower from an old episode of late night with @conanobrien.https://t.co/fQ7zD1gP09 https://t.co/zKFIO9OYLG

— fake nick ramsey @ 🏡 (@nick_ramsey) August 28, 2020

It's not that big a deal to build a Lego model of the White House! They sell kits. But who would attack a mother proud of her little son's accomplishment?! And it gives her the opportunity to knock you right down with a photograph:

Imagine some member of your family talking to you about one of your siblings — talking for 15 hours — and secretly recording it then picking out the worst things you said and publishing it — with audio!

I'm reading "In secretly recorded audio, President Trump’s sister says he has ‘no principles’ and ‘you can’t trust him'" (WaPo).

In response to a question from The Washington Post about how she knew the president paid someone to take the SATs, Mary Trump revealed that she had surreptitiously taped 15 hours of face-to-face conversations with [Maryanne Trump] Barry in 2018 and 2019. She provided The Post with previously unreleased transcripts and audio excerpts, which include exchanges that are not in her book....

15 hours of secretly recording her aunt!

At one point Barry said to her niece, “It’s the phoniness of it all. It’s the phoniness and this cruelty. Donald is cruel.”...

How many siblings do you have? How would you like to hear the worst things your sister said about you and have it made public just days after the death of a brother you loved very much.

"He is definitely the only guy in my life whom I ever call ‘honey.'"

Wrote President Trump in "The Art of the Deal," quoted in "President Trump’s brother Robert dies after hospitalization in NYC" (NY Daily News).

“Robert, who is two years younger than I am, is soft-spoken and easygoing, but he’s very talented and effective,” Trump wrote. “I think it must be hard to have me for a brother, but he’s never said anything about it and we’re very close. He is definitely the only guy in my life whom I ever call ‘honey.' Robert gets along with almost everyone, which is great for me, since I sometimes have to be the bad guy."

I didn't watch Trump's interview with Chris Wallace, but I'll read the transcript.

Why didn't I watch?! I told myself to watch, but I did not. I've turned away from watching the news on television. It's becoming a real aversion. I prefer to get my information from reading, so let's look at this transcript. I'll just do a few excepts, I think:

WALLACE: But -- but this isn't burning embers, sir? This is a forest fire.

TRUMP: No, no. But I don't say -- I say flames, we'll put out the flames. And we'll put out in some cases just burning embers. We also have burning embers. We have embers and we do have flames. Florida became more flame like....

Ugh. They're debating about the metaphor — the ember/flame distinction.

They don't talk about Mexico.... But you take a look, why don't they talk about Mexico? Which is not helping us. And all I can say is thank God I built most of the wall, because if I didn't have the wall up we would have a much bigger problem with Mexico....

He wants to tell you about this wall he built "most of."

They have a dispute about how high the "mortality rate" is in the United States. I think that means the number of deaths in proportion to the population (not in proportion to the number of detected cases), and the website I look at puts the U.S. in 10th place. Wallace said we were in 7th place. Trump asserts, "I think we have one of the lowest mortality rates in the world." That's just wrong and Wallace tells him so. Trump doubles down, "I heard we have one of the lowest, maybe the lowest mortality rate anywhere in the world."

That sound crazily wrong, but he might be thinking the "mortality rate" is the ratio of deaths to cases. We do so much testing that we get a very high number of cases, and that causes the percent who die to look very low. Trump asks Kayleigh to get the numbers and insists, "I heard we had the best mortality rate... number one low mortality rate." Knowing this disarray looks bad, he says: "I hope you show the scenario because it shows what fake news is all about." Ridiculous to attack Chris Wallace like that, to call him "fake news" to his face.

"'The House,' she writes, capitalizing it like this throughout, giving it a special, sort of sinister air, 'seemed to grow colder as I got older.'"

"She takes us in, past the neglected cement slab of a porch, into the library with studio family photos on the shelves but no books, down into the basement with fluorescent lights and black-and-white tile, 'an old upright piano that stood largely ignored because it was so badly out of tune it wasn’t even worth playing,' and 'my grandfather’s life-sized wooden Indian chief statues that were lined up against the far wall like sarcophagi,' as she describes. 'Across from the stairs, a huge mahogany bar, fully stocked with barstools, dusty glasses, and a working sink but no alcohol, had been built in the corner—an anomaly in a house built by a man who didn’t drink. A large oil painting of a black singer with beautiful, full lips and generous, swaying hips hung on the wall behind it. Wearing a curve-hugging gold-and-yellow dress with ruffles, she stood at the microphone, mouth open, hand extended. A jazz band made up entirely of black men dressed in white dinner jackets and black bow ties played behind her. The brasses glowed, the woodwinds glistened. The clarinetist, a sparkle in his eyes, looked straight out at me. I would stand behind the bar, towel slung over my shoulder, whipping up drinks for my imaginary customers. Or I would sit on one of the barstools, the only patron, dreaming myself inside that painting.' It’s these types of keen peeks into private places that give this book its oomph. We’re in the House."

From "'He Is and Always Will Be a Terrified Little Boy'/Mary Trump has not indicted her uncle. She has indicted the whole family. And that might be even more valuable" (Politico)

"She" = Mary Trump, describing Trump's childhood home.

Isn't there a rule — never read a book that has "PhD" next to the author's name on the cover?

Here, somebody asked the question at Quora, "Should I put 'PhD' after my name on the cover of my book?" Top answer:

Serious academic books rarely if ever include the author's qualification on the cover. I suppose it's a bit like saying "Trust me, I'm a doctor" - it makes you look shifty. A book should be judged on its content, not the author's educational status, which can be indicated in other parts of the book.

The trouble with advertising your qualification upfront is precisely the one you have indicated: is it relevant? is it even a proper degree? (Let's face it there is no shortage of dodgy PhDs out there.) I work in a library, and I have found that PhD or MD or whatever after the author's name on a cover is an almost certain sign of a book to be avoided.

ADDED: Overheard at Meadhouse:

"There, I made a post out of your idea."

"What was my idea?"

"I just wrote a whole post. Read the post!"

"I have to read your blog to know what my own ideas are?"

"Donald Trump suffered 'child abuse' at the hands of his father', the President's niece will claim in her explosive memoir...."

"Mary calls Fred Sr a ‘high functioning sociopath’, marked by a lack of empathy, a facility for lying and a lack of interest in others.... 'Donald's mother became ill when he was two and a half, suddenly depriving him of his main source of comfort and human contact. His father, Fred, became his only available parent. But Fred firmly believed that dealing with young children was not his duty, and kept to his twelve-hours-a-day, six-days-a-week job at Trump Management, as if his children could look after themselves. From the beginning, Fred's self-interest skewed his priorities and his care of children reflected his own needs, not theirs. He could not empathize with Donald's plight, so his son's fears and longings went unsoothed. Love meant nothing to Fred; he expected obedience, that was all. Over time, Donald became afraid that asking for comfort or attention would provoke his father's anger or indifference when Donald was most vulnerable. That Fred would become the primary source of Donald's solace when he was much more likely to be a source of fear or rejection put Donald in an intolerable position: total dependence on a caregiver who also caused him terror. Donald suffered deprivations that would scar him for life.'"

From "EXCLUSIVE: Donald Trump was a victim of 'child abuse' at the hands of his father, who 'caused him terror that would scar him for life', claims President's niece who believes he could be a 'sociopath' in explosive memoir" (Daily Mail).

The appellate court — lifting the TRO against Mary Trump's book — said "while parties are free to enter into confidentiality agreements, courts are not necessarily obligated to specifically enforce them."

It noted that NDAs are "alternatively enforceable through the impassion of money damages."

CNN reports.

As you may know, that's what I said yesterday, and so many of you jumped on me in the comments.

But I need to check another source. I can't believe the court wrote "the impassion of money damages." It has to be "the imposition of money damages." Who made the mistake? I hope it's CNN and not the court.

AND: Here's the New York state court opinion. It's the intermediate court, the Appellate Division, Second Department (Brooklyn):

While Ms. Trump unquestionably possesses the same First Amendment expressive rights belonging to all Americans, she also possesses the right to enter into contracts, including the right to contract away her First Amendment rights. Parties are free to limit their First Amendment rights by contract.... A court may enforce an agreement preventing disclosure of specific information without violating the restricted party’s First Amendment rights if the party received consideration in exchange for the restriction... A party may effectively relinquish First Amendment rights by executing a secrecy agreement in which the party receives significant benefits....

Here, the plaintiff has presented evidence that Ms. Trump, in exchange for valuable consideration, voluntarily entered into a settlement agreement...

It bears noting that, while parties are free to enter into confidentiality agreements, courts are not necessarily obligated to specifically enforce them. Whether to issue an injunction is a matter of equity. Confidentiality agreements are alternatively enforceable through the imposition of money damages.

So the error is CNN's.

"Mary Trump’s attorney, Theodore Boutrous Jr., said in a statement that while the judge’s order is temporary, 'it still is a prior restraint on core political speech...'"

"'... that flatly violates the First Amendment. We will immediately appeal. This book, which addresses matters of great public concern and importance about a sitting president in an election year, should not be suppressed even for one day.'... Simon & Schuster said in a filing late Tuesday night that it had already printed 75,000 copies and argued that it would be unconstitutional to stop it from distributing the book. At the same time, the publisher for the first time said that it did not know until recently that Mary Trump had signed a nondisclosure agreement as part of the inheritance settlement."

From "Publication of explosive tell-all book by Trump’s niece temporarily blocked by New York state judge" (WaPo). If prior restraints are indeed a problem here, let Trump collect damages for the breach of contract (if there is one).

"In a seminar... Mary [Trump] and her 15 or so fellow students analyzed the Compson family portrayed in novels such as 'The Sound and the Fury.' The Compsons bore some similarities to her own family..."

"...Like Donald Trump’s mother, the Compsons immigrated to the United States from Scotland, and the family was riven by dysfunction. At the time, Donald Trump was running his Atlantic City casinos, which went into bankruptcy, and preparing to divorce his first wife, Ivana, and marry Marla Maples."

From "Mary Trump once stood up to her uncle Donald. Now her book describes a ‘nightmare’ of family dysfunction" (WaPo).

The Compson family, eh? Here's the rundown of the supposedly Trump-like clan:

Jason Compson III – father of the Compson family, a lawyer who attended the University of the South: a pessimist and alcoholic, with cynical opinions that torment his son, Quentin. He also narrates several chapters of Absalom, Absalom!.
Caroline Bascomb Compson – wife of Jason Compson III: a self-absorbed neurotic who has never shown affection for any of her children except Jason, whom she seems to like only because he takes after her side of the family. In her old age she has become an abusive hypochondriac.
Quentin Compson III – the oldest Compson child: passionate and neurotic, he commits suicide as the tragic culmination of the damaging influence of his father's pessimistic philosophy and his inability to cope with his sister's sexual promiscuity....
Candace "Caddy" Compson – the second Compson child, strong-willed yet caring. Benjy's only real caregiver and Quentin's best friend. According to Faulkner, the true hero of the novel. Caddy never develops a voice; rather, her brothers' emotions towards her provide the development of her character.
Jason Compson IV – the bitter, openly racist third child who is troubled by monetary debt and sexual frustration. He works at a farming goods store owned by a man named Earl and becomes head of the household in 1912. Has been embezzling Miss Quentin's support payments for years.
Benjamin (nicknamed Benjy, born Maury) Compson – the mentally disabled fourth child, who is a constant source of shame and grief for his family...

Which one is Trump? Obviously, none, but WaPo is likening these characters to the Trump family, as if Mary Trump's book is a literary work like something by William Faulkner. There's even a long quote from the professor in that long-ago college seminar. He remembers here — 40 years later — as "smart and accomplished." She wrote "absolutely stunning papers, long, deep and elegant."

Some Trump video clips for your amusement or pain.

This is art. pic.twitter.com/ZPJxHu20TV

— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) June 21, 2020

The walk of shame. pic.twitter.com/u0GRFnnKeY

— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) June 21, 2020

Out of context this is the funniest thing I’ve ever seen in my life pic.twitter.com/6xzFFfpaGV

— Rachel Fisher (@TheRachelFisher) June 21, 2020

How to happy father's day pic.twitter.com/2utaibecfE

— Sarah Cooper (@sarahcpr) June 21, 2020

"If Trump owned a media company, which advisors say he discussed when he believed he would lose the 2016 election, it might look something like 'Team Trump Online'..."

"... the current production. And if he or his family start one after he leaves the White House, this could be the pilot. 'This is the warm-up act,' said Frank Sesno, a former CNN anchor and the director of the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University. 'There's nothing he would like more than to throw his name on a channel, a digital brand'.... Biden, also hoping to reach supporters during the coronavirus shutdown, has a podcast called 'Here's the Deal' and appears at times on YouTube. But the Trump channel is on almost nightly, while Biden's shows are intermittent... [T]he content on Trump TV is purer, if a bit clunkier, than even on avowedly pro-Trump OANN. And the hosts are closer to Trump's inner circle. They include Donald Jr., his girlfriend and former Fox host Kimberly Guilfoyle, the president's daughter-in-law Lara Trump, and a small group of campaign officials and surrogates in the tight-knit Trump family troupe.... [U]nlike 'The View,' which has one conservative panelist to spark tension and debate, 'The Right View' hosts never disagree as they review current events. In a recent episode, they took turns blaming Biden 'for the dangerous "Defund the Police" movement.' The former vice president has specifically rejected calls to defund police.... 'Imagine what we would live in in Biden’s America — with open borders, no police and 'CornPop' on the radio,' [Katrina] Pierson said... Lara Trump laughed, and Guilfoyle, on a separate screen, smiled and said she can't get 'CornPop' out of her head...."

From "Trump gets an all-Trump channel. It could be his future" (MSN (originally L.A. Times)).

It sounds perfectly awful, but I think all the usual cable news channels are awful. As for network news — I never look at it. Haven't watched it since the 80s.

I have been assuming that if Trump loses the election, he will go on to found a significant media organization. I'm willing to believe he is some kind of media genius — "The Apprentice" and the 2016 political victory and his wild Twitter persona prove he is — and I think he's better at that and more suited to that than he is at being President. If he wins in 2020, he can never run again. He will be, forever, not a candidate. But if he loses, he can run again. From the sidelines, he can attack the new President and really swing freely. He can tease a 2024 run for the presidency the entire time and we can watch that crystalize (or not). He will be in his element.

But reading about Trump TV, I think: Where's the genius? This sounds awful. And yet, I don't expect the L.A. Times to make anything Trump does sound good. I could watch a little Trump TV myself, but to tell you the truth, I googled and I couldn't find it. Is there some internet conspiracy to hide it? Whatever. I don't really want to spend time watching this stuff, and I don't think what it is now proves what it will be once Trump is out of the White House and into the enterprise of building a media empire.

ADDED: I guess this is the YouTube channel. That's just the "Donald J Trump" YouTube page. There's no YouTube channel called "Team Trump Online." Not that I could find.

"The book will... allege that Trump and his father, Fred Trump Sr, contributed to the death of Trump's alcoholic elder brother Fred Trump Jr by failing to help him."

From "Donald Trump’s niece reveals in new book that she leaked details of his 'fraudulent' tax schemes, alleges he contributed to his brother’s death and says his retired federal judge sister disapproves of him" (Daily Mail).

The niece is the daughter of the brother who died. It's sad to think about what could have been done to prevent a death — sad to look for living persons to blame.

Most of the time, we soothe the survivors and tell them there's nothing they could have done, and when we choose to say, no, there are things you could have done that you did not do, it is probably not because those things were more obvious or had more potential to help.

"I had a great mom. I loved my mom and she loved me, which... is probably not easy to do."

"She was so good to me. I couldn’t do any wrong, which is a big problem. Maybe that’s why I ended up the way I ended up. I don’t know. I couldn’t do any wrong in her eyes."

Said Trump, quoted at AP.

I like his comical use of "which": "I loved my mom and she loved me, which... is probably not easy to do.... I couldn’t do any wrong, which is a big problem."

He uses "which" to signal a change in voice, from serious/positive to comical/self-effacing.

Is this a racial joke (about a little girl's dog)?

I think these folks are taking this White House thing a little too literally. https://t.co/2HRPEYhoQz

— Neal Katyal (@neal_katyal) July 21, 2019

Neal Katyal was Acting Solicitor General of United States under Barack Obama.

In the conversation at Twitter, somebody writes: "They are so white on the outside, even Arabella s dog is white. Yet they are so dark inside so dark."

That sounds tantalizingly close to the old joke, "Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read" (attributed to Groucho Marx).

Jokes have changed!

IN THE COMMENTS: gilbar asks: "I wonder what they would have complained about, if they'd gotten a black lab?"

The jokes write themselves, don't they? A black dog is the only black creature that will go anywhere near them. What did they name him, Token? Etc.

AND: I wouldn't rule out the possibility that somewhere in the process of choosing that white dog, the Kushners realized their antagonists would make racial jokes and decided that would be a plus. What kind of jerks say racial things about a little girl's dog?

And look, there's Neal Katyal, scampering right into the trap! And there's Ann Althouse, kicking him around for being so rash and out of control.

ALSO: Isn't it time we stopped calling the White House the White House? The place was called the "Executive Mansion" until the racist Theodore Roosevelt took the trouble to change the official name to "The White House." There should be a movement to change the name back to "Executive Mansion." Repaint it too — not white and not any monochrome either. I recommend earth tones.

"Trump’s granddaughter gets praise and sympathy for singing for Chinese president."

Here's the video of his daughter Arabella that Trump showed to China's president Xi Jinping:



The Washington Post has to give it a mixed review. The headline is "Trump’s granddaughter gets praise and sympathy for singing for Chinese president." But it seems so positive:

Her Chinese is very good: She is reported to have been learning it from her Chinese nanny since she was an infant.

She sang a children’s song about sweeping rice fields, a jade-green river and a lake studded with lotus flowers, stocked with fat, golden carp and with flocks of ducks hiding in the reeds. She also recited the Three Characters Classic, an ancient text used to teach children the key values of Confucianism, as well as two other poems and another song.

On the Chinese Internet, Arabella won praise — one netizen called her an “adorable girl” whose Chinese is great, according to one widely shared post.

“This little girl is so smart, hope in the future that she can make a bigger contribution between friendly exchanges China and the United States,” wrote another netizen.

China’s Foreign Ministry even brought it up at its regular news conference on Thursday.

“Arabella as a small messenger of Sino-American friendship is deeply loved by the Chinese people,” said spokeswoman Hua Chunying. “I believe it will also help to narrow the feelings and distance between the peoples of China and the United States.”

What's the negative? A child was made to perform "in public," someone is quoted as saying, but she's just in a video, not knowing people would be watching. (Over 11 million watched on the first day.) I'm personally opposed to the use of children in politics, but as uses go, this one is great, because the child isn't saying anything political. She's just showing her knowledge of Chinese language and culture. Confucianism is sort of political, but so ancient that it hardly counts as political, and the ideas Arabella incanted were things like: respect your parents and teachers.

Of course, the haters at WaPo had to spring into action in the comments. The top-rated comment is: "Did Arabella sing for Grandpa Vladimir too?" Second:

Exploiting his granddaughter is "par for the course." (pun intended.... All this admiration and all those compliments from the Chinese.... Clearly the Chinese got the message that flattering this narcissistic fool will get you anywhere you want to go......I would love to hear what the Chinese president says when this clearly insane Trump is not in hearing....they must be laughing their heads off that we have chosen such a "dotard." And, they are right!!!!!!

Third:

There isn't enough therapy in the world to fix the problems that kid is going to have, springing from that gene pool. Apparently, you can never start using your offspring early enough to clinch a deal.

And here's Scott Adams doing his Periscope this morning. Somewhere in there he calls the Arabella video the positive equivalent of the powerful negative persuasion that was the anti-Ed Gillespie pickup truck ad.