The Editorial Board, USA TODAY Published 5:52 p.m. ET Oct. 17, 2019 | Updated 5:58 p.m. ET Oct. 17, 2019

The longer Republicans remain silent on how President Trump is abusing the Republican Party, the more it will sound like the silence of the lambs: Our view

It has longbeen said that Republicans ought toput country over party and stop defending the indefensible behavior of President Donald Trump.

For the most part, this argument hasfallen on deaf ears for the obvious reason thatTrump still enjoys the support of the very same rank-and-file voters whomRepublican lawmakersface in primary elections.

A better argument might be that Republicans need to stand up to Trump for the sake of their party's future.

Some GOP lawmakers have, to theircredit, challengedthe presidenton foreign policy issues such as Russian sanctions and Trump's hasty, ill-conceived decision to withdraw from Syria. But in repeatedlyturning a blind eye to his abuses of office, the GOP is branding itself asbankrupt of principle andinterested only in clinging to power.

More ominously, the GOPisturningindependent voters against it and abandoningpositions such as support for law and order, fiscal responsibility, science, free trade, ethics in government and standing up to dictators abroadthat long formed its political high ground.

For much of Trump's first 1,000 days in office, a party that supposedly values the rule of law sat by as thepresident attackedprosecutors and judges who dared to question his actions. More recently, nearly all of its ostrich-like officeholders have put their heads in the sandasTrump used the power and prestige of the United States to pressureUkraine to investigate a potential general election opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden.

This is the same party that tried to politicize a tragedyat aU.S. compoundin Benghazi, Libya,in 2012 to make it look like a Hillary Clinton scandal. Itis also the party that impeached President Bill Clinton in 1998after he had anaffair with a former White House intern. As the chart belowshows, many of the same Republicans who were quick to impeach or convictthen are now drooling poodles on Trump's lap.

RNC: The future for Republicans, and America, has never looked brighter

Rally on Capitol Hill on Sept. 26, 2019.(Photo: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images)

If the GOP doesnt recover its values, it will be hard to take the party seriously when it claims that a Democrat is doing something wrong. Its candidates, moreover,will struggle to articulate what their party stands for:

Family values? Not when the president brags of grabbing womenandpayshush money to a porn star.

The rule of law and constitutional governance? Not when the president misuseshis powers for political gain.

Limited government? Not when the president uses levers of powerto go after the head of Amazon, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, the state of California, the auto industry, Americas closest allies and many others simply because they refuse to carry his water.

Concern for conflicts of interest?Not when the president selects one his own resorts to hostthe summitof the Group of Sevenmajor industrial nations. (One can only imagine how Republican politicians and conservative media outlets would have reacted if a Democratic president had done the same.)

To be sure, Republican lawmakers are politicians who can't ignore their constituents.But they are also the stewards of the GOPs future who shouldn't be cowering in fear of nasty tweets.

How is it going to help conservatives get elected if their party has offended large swaths of the electorate? Howis toleration for self-dealingand misuse of power going to be a selling point?

As they contemplate these questions, they might actually find that doing the right thing turns out to be thepolitically expedient thing.

Rep. Robert Aderholt, Ala.

Sen. (then-Rep.) Roy Blunt, Miss.

Rep. Kevin Brady, Texas

Sen. (then-Rep.) Richard Burr, N.C.

Rep. Ken Calvert, Calif.

Rep. Steve Chabot, Ohio

Sen. (then-Rep.) Mike Crapo, Idaho

Sen. Mike Enzi, Wyo.

Sen. (then-Rep.) Lindsey Graham, S.C.

Rep. Kay Granger, Texas

Sen. Charles Grassley, Iowa

Sen. James Inhofe, Okla.

Rep. Frank Lucas, Okla.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, Ky.

Sen. (then-Rep.) Jerry Moran, Kan.

Sen. (then-Rep.) Rob Portman, Ohio

Sen. Pat Roberts, Kan.

Rep. Hal Rogers, Ky.

Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, Wis.

Sen. Richard Shelby, Ala.

Rep. John Shimkus, Ill.

Rep. Chris Smith, N.J.

Rep. Mac Thornberry, Texas

Sen. (then-Rep.) John Thune, S.D.

Rep. Fred Upton, Mich.

Sen. (then-Rep.) Roger Wicker, Miss.

Rep. Don Young, Alaska

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Forget Donald Trump, Republicans. Save the GOP for the sake of your party's future. - USA TODAY

Perry "couldn't have done a better job," Trump said at a campaign rally in Dallas on Thursday night, "and he's going to be leaving at the end of the year, and probably coming back here."

Perry, formerly the governor of Texas, had largely avoided headlines since joining the Trump administration in 2017. But in recent weeks he became entangled in the Democratic-led impeachment probe into Trump's actions involving Ukraine.

Trump has criticized some of the people caught up in the inquiry including a whistleblower whose complaint spurred many Democrats to support starting impeachment proceedings. "Who's the whistleblower? We have to know! Is he a spy?" Trump asked the crowd at the rally.

But the president offered only compliments for Perry at the event, calling him "a friend of mine" who was "so tough" during the 2016 campaign but "gracious" following Trump's victory.

"He's done a phenomenal job. And Rick Perry couldn't have done a better job, and he's going to be leaving at the end of the year, and probably coming back here. Whatever he does, it's gonna be successful. But he spent three years with us, and I want to thank you, Rick. What a job you've done."

"He was also a great governor of Texas," Trump added.

Perry was one of three political appointees overseeing the U.S. relationship with the country after acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney transferred that portfolio away from career staff, George Kent, a senior State Department official, told House investigators this week behind closed doors. Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., described Kent's account to reporters.

Trump also told House Republicans that Perry urged Trump to take the July call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that has become the focus of the impeachment inquiry, according to Axios, a news website. Perry's office has said that he wanted the president to take the call to discuss energy-related matters.

House Democrats, investigating whether Trump conditioned military assistance for the country on an investigation of his political rival, hit Perry with a subpoena for documents earlier this month. The subpoena included a demand for a variety of Ukraine-related materials by Friday.

Perry recently denied reports that he was planning to leave his post.

Dear Mr. President,

The opportunity to serve in your Cabinet as the Secretary of Energy of the United States has been an extreme honor. The citizens of this country will continue to benefit greatly from the policies and accomplishments of your Administration for years to come. Your leadership has positively changed the course of this country, and there is much to be proud of, especially in the energy sector.

Mr. President, for decades, American Presidents have talked about the importance of energy independence. Under your watch, it has finally been achieved. We no longer depend on other nations for our energy supply-nor are we beholden to the geopolitics of other world leaders for our energy security. Instead, we arrive in their capitals espousing the benefits of American energy resources, technology and services. I can attest first hand that the demand for our product is stronger than it has ever been, and under your leadership that will only multiply.

Across the world, we are competing like we never have before. Not long ago, America was an importer of energy. Now, the U.S. private sector is leading the world in energy production, exploration and exports. This historic success speaks to your leadership and willingness to go places where other leaders never thought possible. Today, when the world looks for energy, they can now think of America first.

The work being done across the Department of Energy and throughout our national labs to develop more abundant, less expensive and cleaner energy is world-class. From reviving our commercial nuclear energy industry to producing historic levels of domestic oil and gas and renewable energy, America has seen a remarkable turnaround in our energy industry.

The Department of Energy has also embraced, with success, the national security mission of modernizing our nuclear enterprise to make sure our weapons are safe and work as designed. We have also achieved unprecedented success in the clean-up of our nuclear facilities.

Mr. President, the American energy story is being written every day by millions of men and women in the workforce who are innovating and dedicating themselves to achieving greatness.

A perfect example of this are the men and women who are part of the DOE mission. They will be the ones who are at the forefront of innovation, such as with artificial intelligence and cyber security.

I am proud to have established the Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security and Emergency Response and the Office of Artificial Intelligence and Technology. These new offices will help to provide the underlying research and building blocks for government and the private sector to work together in tackling challenges and pursuing opportunities.

An important part of the American energy story is what we are doing with science and technology to make our air cleaner. Greenhouse gas emissions have fallen dramatically, with remissions from the electric power sector at their lowest levels since 1987. During the same time, energy-related carbon emissions fell at an even greater pace. This was achieved through American innovation

Now more than ever, I believe strongly in the mission of the Department of Energy. The people across the enterprise have a sincere commitment to this country. I feel comfortable that the Department is well prepared to continue this mission with new leadership at the helm.

It has been a tremendous honor to serve our country in your administration in such a meaningful way. Anita and I will be forever grateful for this opportunity and I look forward to further supporting you and advancing American leadership in significant ways as a private citizen.

Please accept this letter as my official notification that I plan to resign at a date later this year.

Most respectfully,

Rick Perry

Read the original post:

Trump says Energy Secretary Rick Perry will step down at the end of the year - CNBC

While writing a New Yorker profile on Donald Trump in the late 1990s, Mark Singer attempted to discover something about the businessmans private thoughts, as opposed to his outsized, public persona. When Singer asked him what he thought about when shaving in front of the mirror, Trump did not really understand the question.

OK, I guess Im asking, do you consider yourself ideal company? Singer said. You really want to know what I consider ideal company? replied Trump. A total piece of ass.

Divining, assessing and adjudicating the mental health of this US president has become more than just a parlour game

Divining, assessing and adjudicating the mental health of this US president has become more than just a parlour game. Following a 2017 conference, 27 psychiatrists, psychologists and other mental health experts wrote a book, The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, arguing it was their moral and civic duty to warn America that for psychological reasons, Trump was more dangerous than any president in history. They diagnosed him with everything from severe character pathology to delusional disorder, which can be added to the more common verdicts of narcissistic personality disorder and antisocial personality disorder which are regularly offered.

His behaviour and comments over the past fortnight would appear to not only confirm these conclusions, but to suggest his condition is deteriorating. There has been the appalling treatment of Harry Dunns parents, and his reference to his own great and unmatched wisdom. He sent a letter to the Turkish president, Recep Erdoan, warning him: Dont be a tough guy. Dont be a fool. I will call you later. On Wednesday, in a single press conference with the Italian president, Sergio Mattarella, he attacked Google, Amazon, Germany, France, Spain, his guest and the European Union, as well as several US intelligence and law enforcement officials.

Later that day, Democratic leaders walked out of a White House meeting with him after he continually insulted them. But not before he told House speaker Nancy Pelosi: I hate Isis more than you do, and claimed I captured Isis in one month.

As the threat of impeachment leaves him more isolated, and an election he may lose makes him more vulnerable, we can expect more bizarre behaviour and, consequently, more attempts to frame his actions as those of an unstable and unhinged despot. Such depictions are tempting. They should also be resisted.

Trumps state of mind is, of course, relevant. He is the commander-in-chief of the most powerful military forces in the world. He has the nuclear codes. He is impulsive and capricious. He lies constantly, unashamedly and apparently compulsively. It is deeply worrying that the executive powers of the presidency lie in the hands of a man who is at one and the same time so brittle, aggressive, vindictive, ridiculous and self-obsessed. His decision to abandon a longstanding ally in Kurdistan and pull US troops out of Syria, against all military advice, is a case in point.

But to reduce his presidency to this one man and his frail mind is to ignore how he got there, all he has said and done since he has been there, and how he remains there. (It also risks reducing mental health to a lazy slur.) Just because he believes he will go down in history as a great man doesnt mean we have to subscribe to the great man theory of history the theory which claims events are moulded not by ordinary people, social movements and economic processes, but by key individuals who stamp their will on the world through force of personality.

For along with Trumps personal frailties is a series of political characteristics that underpins his anomie. He is a misogynist, a racist, a xenophobe and a nationalist. Those are not psychological descriptors but political ones, fortified by systems and ideology.

As such, his behaviour has been irascible but hardly erratic. The rhetorical objects of his disdain are not random. He has not lashed out at the National Rifle Association, the religious right or white people. Politically, his tantrums invariably find their mark in the weak, the poor, the dark, the female, the Muslim, the marginalised and the foreigner. (He will attack powerful people, but not simply for existing. They must cross him first.)

These inclinations were clear when he stood for the presidency. He has been every bit as bigoted, undisciplined, indiscreet, thin-skinned and braggadocious as his campaign promised. And he won.

This was not because people didnt see those things, but because they either didnt care, cared about other things more, preferred him to the alternative, or simply didnt show up. As such, his victory marked a high point for the naked appeal of white supremacy in particular and rightwing populism in general, and a low point for the centre-left, neoliberal agenda.

True, he did not win the popular vote, but nonetheless close to 63 million people voted for him. True, his party lost the House of Representatives in the 2018 mid-term elections. But they also gained two seats in the Senate the first time the party holding the presidency has achieved that since 2002 in the wake of a synagogue shooting and mail-bomb attacks inspired by his rhetoric. True, more than half of the country wants to impeach him; but about 40% still approve of the job hes doing. The one thing that stands between him and impeachment is the party behind him in both houses.

Even his thuggish America first foreign policy stands as part of a tradition. In 1964, when the Greek ambassador tried to point out the shortcomings of the US plan to partition Cyprus, President Lyndon Johnson replied: Fuck your parliament and your constitution We pay a lot of good American dollars to the Greeks, Mr Ambassador. If your prime minister gives me talk about democracy, parliament and constitution he, his parliament and his constitution may not last long. He would never have put that in a letter. But three years later, Greece was under a brutal military junta backed by the US from which it did not emerge for seven years.

In other words, this particular form of insanity if that is what it is enjoys mass, if not majority, support, institutional defence and historical precedent. It is the mindset of more than just an individual. Trumps presence serves a purpose and interests. If he is a lone wolf, how do we explain the likes of Boris Johnson or Silvio Berlusconi, who share so many of his idiosyncratic traits, from accusations of sexual harassment to a cavalier attitude towards democratic norms and casual racism.

The great man of the age, wrote Friedrich Hegel using great to mean powerful rather than wonderful is the one who can put into words the will of his age, tell his age what its will is, and accomplish it. What he does is the heart and essence of his age; he actualises his age.

As such, in his desire to blame everyone but himself, in his lies, bullying, despotism, insecurity, ineptitude, cheating, scapegoating, preening self-regard, vanity and ignorance, Trump is an emblem of the free-market, white supremacist nationalism that is ascendant in this moment.

Ultimately there may be a medical or therapeutic intervention that can help him; but only a political intervention can help us get rid of him.

Gary Younge is a Guardian columnist

This article was amended on 18 October 2019 to correct an indiscrete/indiscreet homophone

Excerpt from:

Donald Trumps sanity is not the question. The real issue is how he got into office - The Guardian

Over the past five years, millions of Americans have ascended to a higher plane of fulfillment by tidying up their homes. By talking to our possessions, one by one, and asking if they spark joy, we have achieved a kind of contentment we never dreamed possible.

Now its time to tidy up a residence that belongs to all of us: the White House.

At first, this seems like a daunting task. After all, the White House has a hundred and thirty-two rooms. There is much culling to be done.

But theres no reason to despair. Many useless things have already been hauled away. Reince Priebus, John Kelly, Steve Bannon, Kirstjen Nielsen, Michael Flynn, John Bolton, Sean Spicer, Hope Hicks, Sarah Huckabee Sandersnone of them sparked joy. And now they are all gone. And Anthony Scaramucci, who sparked joy as briefly as those paisley pants you immediately regretted buying at H&Mhe is gone, too.

Clearly, though, more culling remains to be done.

We must look at Donald Trump and ask ourselves, Does this spark joy? And, although the answer to that question might be somewhat different in Russia, North Korea, and Turkey, the answer here is a resounding no.

Remember how, once you tidied up your dwelling, you discovered hidden treasures buried under all of those needless possessions? Well, once that garish orange thing that sparks no joy has been removed from the Oval Office, youll be amazed what youll find underneath. Things you forgot you even had, like democracy.

In the video above, from last weekends New Yorker Festival, I speak about the happiness we can attain by decluttering the country of Trump. Much like Marie Kondo, the authors of the United States Constitution gave us a unique tool for improving our surroundings: impeachment. And the Twenty-fifth Amendment is pretty good, too.

See the article here:

The Life-Changing Magic of Impeaching Donald Trump - The New Yorker

President Donald Trumps reelection campaign has capitalized on the investigations into the presidents conduct, new campaign finance reports show.

Seven of the reelection campaign committees 10 days with the most unique donors this year came at the end of September, on the days immediately following House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announcing a formal impeachment inquiry into the president. One of the other top days came in April, when news broke that former special counsel Robert Mueller objected to Attorney General Bill Barrs characterization of his report on Russian interference in the 2016 election, according to FEC data.

In the hours after Pelosis Sept. 24 press conference, the Trump campaign had emailed supporters and posted ads on Facebook asking for donations to the Impeachment Defense Task Force. The emails reviewed by BuzzFeed News sent supporters to a fundraising page for a joint fundraising committee between the Republican National Committee and the Trump campaign while Facebook ads BuzzFeed News reviewed prompted supporters to directly support the Trump campaign.

As a member of the Official Impeachment Defense Task Force, you will be a leader in defending me, the President, against these baseless and disgusting attacks, one of the ads reads. You will be responsible for defending American Greatness.

In other Facebook ads, the campaign revived Trumps total witch hunt slogan to characterize the impeachment inquiry. Don't let Democrats and the Fake News Media silence YOU! the ad reads, encouraging supporters to donate to the impeachment defense fund.

The Democrats know they have no chance of winning in 2020, so now they are crying, Impeachment!, one fundraising email from Trumps campaign said on the day Pelosi announced the inquiry. The Democrats thrive on silencing and intimidating his supporters, like YOU, Friend. They want to take YOUR VOTE away.

The email told supporters that the campaign was launching an Official Impeachment Defense Task Force that would be made up of President Trumps most LOYAL supporters, the ones committed to fighting for him, re-electing him, and taking back the House.

Pelosi and House Democrats reached a consensus on launching the impeachment inquiry amid reports that Trump had pressured the president of Ukraine to open an investigation into former vice president Joe Biden and his son and withheld aid from the country.

Campaigns often have bursts of donations at the end of September its the final days of the quarter, and campaigns typically try to end strong with a concerted fundraising push.

But the campaigns ads in the days after Pelosis announcements focused closely on impeachment. The initial ads centered on downplaying the significance of the presidents call with the Ukrainian president, after the White House released a non-verbatim transcript showing Trump asking for a favor. Another ad posted to Facebook features Trump saying my conversation with the new president of Ukraine was perfect, there was no quid-pro-quo; there was nothing. It was a perfect conversation.

The Trump campaign raised over $14.2 million in the third quarter from individual donors, not including money raised from affiliated committees or the Republican National Committee. Altogether, those groups raised $125 million, Trumps campaign manager said.

The top Democratic fundraisers are well behind that overall total: Sen. Elizabeth Warren raised $24.6 million and Sen. Bernie Sanders raised $25.2 million. Trumps campaign alone still has over $83 million in cash on hand.

The donors factored in by the FEC include only donors who gave more than $200, as reporting requirements do not mandate campaigns disclose donors who give smaller amounts.

Some Democrats have worried that pushing to impeach Trump could just solidify and energize his base. Sanders, one of the leading candidates in the Democratic primary who does support impeachment, told reporters last month that he feared that if Trump is impeached in the House but not convicted in the Republican-controlled Senate, I know and you know what [Trump] will do: I am vindicated! I am vindicated!

Their goal has always been to silence YOU, they want to steal YOUR voice and YOUR vote, another Trump fundraising email, sent with a Call Transcript subject line, read. This is only the beginning of yet ANOTHER nasty Witch Hunt against me, and we need to fight back BIGGER and STRONGER than ever before.

Read more from the original source:

Donald Trump's Campaign Is Cashing In On Impeachment - BuzzFeed News

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), a longtime opponent of endless wars, just blocked a resolution condemning President Donald Trumps decision to withdraw American troops from northern Syria.

I object to this resolution because it does nothing to fix this problem, Paul said, while pushing his own bill to stop arms sales to Turkey. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer had called for the Senate to consider a vote on this resolution, which passed the House with a bipartisan 354-60 majority on Wednesday, with the goal of sending Trump a message about Congresss disapproval of his recent actions.

Because of the presidents precipitous action ... ISIS prisoners are escaping, Schumer said in a floor speech on Thursday. The presidents incompetence has put American lives in danger.

Schumer is far from the only one whos criticized Trumps decision, which many Republicans also view as a betrayal of the United Statess Kurdish allies in the region, whove been forced to confront a Turkish military offensive. Despite their outcry on the subject, its still not clear just how much Republicans are willing to clash with the president explicitly on this issue. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is unlikely to allow the non-binding resolution condemning Trump to come to the floor, and he has previously said it has some serious weaknesses.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), a prominent Trump ally, has questioned the presidents efforts in Syria and is also pushing his own legislation alongside Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), which would impose stricter sanctions on Turkey that target military transactions and energy resources. Paul, meanwhile, is taking specific aim at arms sales.

The congressional backlash to Trumps decision began last week when he announced that hed be withdrawing American troops from the region, prompting concerns that the US was abandoning its Kurdish allies and offering an opening for the Islamic State. Since the decision, ISIS members have begun to break out of prisons in the region.

The disagreement between Trump and Congress on this subject culminated in an explosive meeting between lawmakers on Wednesday when Speaker Nancy Pelosi stormed out in concern. We will come back to this issue; it will not go away, Schumer said Thursday.

Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoan on Thursday and announced a temporary ceasefire of the attacks in Ankara, Turkey. But there are a number of unanswered questions about what it means for the Kurds long-term security and broader stability of the region. In the meantime, many members of Congress are focused on keeping the pressure on Trump, even if the Senate wont vote on a non-binding resolution.

Originally posted here:

Rand Paul just blocked a vote to condemn President Donald Trumps withdrawal of troops in Syria - Vox.com

On Aug. 16, 2019, Huffington Post White House correspondent S. V. Dte tweeted that U.S. President Donald Trump had, at that point in time, spent 278.5 years of annual presidential salary in taxpayer money to play golf. This statistic served as a headline to a viral Politicus USA article posted the next day.

Assessing the validity of this statistic requires knowledge of two numbers: the presidents annual salary and the amount of money Trump has cost taxpayers via trips to golf clubs. The first number is easy: Its $400,000, as stipulated by Congress. The second number is a bit more challenging to derive with precision. The number would necessarily include costs like transportation, security, and other logistical support, but how these items are calculated involves estimates or assumptions.

Huffposts methodology was what they described as a conservative approach based on a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report of Trumps first four outings to Mar-a-lago as president. One example of the kind of choices people estimating these costs have to make, they noted, concerns how much of the per-hour Air Force One cost to add to the golf outing calculation:

The HuffPost analysis took a conservative approach to determining costs. For example, it used a per-hour rate of $15,994 for Trumps use of the smaller Air Force One that he takes to Bedminster, New Jersey, even though that figure accounts only for fuel and maintenance, not the additional factors that GAO used when it determined the $273,000-per-hour cost of operating the larger plane.

The 278.5 years of presidential salary would equate to $111,400,000 in total costs up to August 2019, when Dte tweeted the statistic. This number, to give a sense of the range of estimates, was a bit higher than a figure promoted within the body of the Politicus USA article, which cited the Trump Golf Count website as calculating, at the time of their reporting, 207 golf trips at a cost to taxpayers of $108 million and counting. Trump Golf Count is run by self-described data junkie Sophie Germain and dedicated to tracking the presidents golf time.

At the time of our reporting here, October 2019, that website reports that Trump has spent $109,505,631 of taxpayer money on visits to golf properties broken down in this way:

Trump Golf Count Cost Breakdown:

Total Cost: $109,505,631

Divided by $400,000, this total represents 273.8 annual presidential salaries still below the headline claim of 278.5 years. These differences are negligible if you take into account how precise the above numbers actually are, however. As Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler put it, such figures are a great example of false precision. We do not know exactly how many days Trump has golfed, and we do not know how much has been paid by taxpayers for his golf outings. That being said, Kessler noted that Germains estimates were in the ballpark of figures released by the Government Accountability Office. Still, he argues that one cannot fairly attribute all of these costs to golf, given the round-the-clock security required for a president.

The bottom line is that multiple analyses have calculated figures that are in rough agreement with either Germains or Dtes claims that the cost is presently in the $109 million area, but numbers as precise as those stated in tweets mislead a reader into thinking a level of accuracy not reflective of reality has been achieved. The numbers vary, additionally, based on how one approaches the problem: Do you include all the maintenance costs for Air Force One? Do you include security costs that would be present regardless of golf outings? There is no one right answer, and as such there is no single number that can be verified as the number.

For these reasons, we rank the claim that Trump spent 278.5 years of presidential salary on taxpayer-funded golf outings as a Mixture.

Read more:

Has Trump Spent '278.5 Years' of Salary on Taxpayer-Funded Golf Outings? - Snopes.com

On Friday afternoon, James Baker, the former general counsel of the F.B.I., felt a tinge of optimism. Almost two years ago, he was ousted from his position as the Bureaus top legal official, after President Trump fired the F.B.I.s director, James Comey. Baker, a career Justice Department official and a longtime Comey ally, had approved the F.B.I.s Trump-Russia investigation and the monitoring of a former Trump campaign advisers communications. Trump welcomed the news of Bakers removal in a tweet: Wow, FBIlawyer James Baker reassigned. In subsequent tweets and retweets, the President accused Baker of lying to Congress and being part of an Unconstitutional Hoax and an attempted coup.

Baker considered Trumps claims about him to be completely false, but he said nothing publicly at the time. (The Republican-controlled Senate Intelligence Committee investigated the origins of the F.B.I.s Trump-Russia investigation and found no wrongdoing.) I believed that, once I was out of the F.B.I., I could resume a normal life and avoid the spotlight, he told me last week, in his office at the R Street Institute, a conservative and libertarian think tank, where he directs the national-security program. But that was inaccurate, because the damage had already been done by the Presidents tweets and stories about me on Fox News and other outlets. Baker, once considered one of the governments most trusted national-security officials, found that Trumps attacks impacted his ability to find a job. Certain corporations and law firms thought that I was too controversial and didnt want to hire me, Baker recalled. It surprised me and was dispiriting. Over time, he became convinced that Trump was improperly using his powers as President to maintain his hold on power. Baker decided to push back. At a certain point, I became unafraid of Donald Trump, he said. I felt, O.K., I can speak out. And also, I have an obligation to speak out. In May, Baker began publicly attacking what he called Trumps false narrative that there was a coup, and a conspiracy, and treason.

On Friday, Baker lauded Marie Yovanovitch, a career foreign-service officer and the former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, who also decided to push back against Trump. During nearly nine hours of closed-door testimony before the House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs, and Oversight committees, Yovanovitch responded to months of attacks from Trump and his allies. In a blistering opening statement that was released to the press, she said that Trump had pressured State Department officials to remove her from her ambassadorship based on made-up allegations. Although I understand that I served at the pleasure of the president, her statement read,I was nevertheless incredulous that the U.S. government chose to remove an ambassador based, as best as I can tell, on unfounded and false claims by people with clearly questionable motives.Sean Maloney, a Democratic congressman from New York, said that, during the hearings, Yovanovitch grew visibly upset as she gave a gripping and emotional account of abuse of power by the President.

More potentially damaging testimony is expected this week, as House Democrats continue the impeachment inquiry that they launched after a U.S. intelligence official filed a whistle-blowers complaint regarding Trumps dealings with Ukraine. On Monday, Fiona Hill, who served as the top Russia expert in Trumps National Security Council, is expected to testify that Trumps personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, circumvented the normal White House process to pursue a shadow foreign policy in Ukraine. On Thursday, Gordon Sondland, a donor to Trumps Inauguration committee who was named U.S. Ambassador to the European Union, is expected to testify that he does not know if Trump was telling the truth when he denied withholding U.S. military aid to pressure Ukraines President to investigate Joe Biden.

Baker told me that Trumps failure so far to discredit the whistle-blower had weakened his power to silence current and former officials. He tried to smash the whistle-blower, and it didnt work, Baker said. One of the things that Donald Trump has trafficked in is fear. And, once people are no longer afraid of him, I think more people will come forward.

According to Chuck Rosenberga career federal prosecutor who served as a senior adviser to Comey and Robert Mueller at the F.B.Ithe Presidents public attacks are a calculated effort to pressure government officials. Rosenberg, who served as the acting director of the D.E.A. in the Trump Administration but resigned, in 2017, told me that the Presidents repeated denunciations of Mueller and his team were designed to hamper the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Rosenberg said that Trumps smears did not impact the probes findings, but didincrease the pressure on Mueller. Trump may lack a sophisticated understanding of the federal government, Rosenberg warned, but the effectiveness of his public diatribes should not be underestimated. I think its very intentional, he said. You can be not well read in a classic sense but very cunning and successful as a street fighter.

Trump seems likely to continue to declare any current and former officials who criticize him part of a secret cabal trying to remove him from office. After the Times reported that Giuliani was under criminal investigation for possibly breaking lobbying laws in his dealings with Ukraine, Trump tweeted, Such a one sided Witch Hunt going on in USA. Deep State. Shameful! A former National Security Council aide, who asked not to be named, scoffed at Trumps claim of a plot. The aide described the vast majority of State Department officials as loathe to publicly criticize a President and as risk-averse. It has to be really bad for people to speak out, the former aide said. Its a mentalitydont break anything.

The likelihood that the testimony of Yovanovitch or other government officials will significantly undermine Trumps messaging is low. The Presidents willingness to traffic in conspiracy theories, and to play on Americans long-running suspicions of government, together with his vast social-media following give him far more power to sway public opinion. Baker, though, believes that it is worth trying to counter Trumps narrative. As part of his personal effort, he published an essay, in May, on the Lawfare Web site: Why I Do Not Hate Donald Trump. In it, he argues that deriding the President and his supporters is the wrong tactic. Instead, citing Martin Luther King, Jr.,s Letter from a Birmingham Jail, Baker suggests responding with grace, decency, and fact. He concedes that this approach may strike many as foolish or nave. All I know is that I have a small grain of sand that I can contribute to the effort, and I want to put it on the right side of the scale, he told me. If many people do that, then it can make a difference. He commended Yovanovitch, saying, Shes taking a risk and putting her grain of sand on the scale. It sounds like she is pursuing the truth with the goal of helping protect the American people and upholding the Constitution.

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Public Servants Are Starting to Respond to Donald Trumps False Attacks - The New Yorker

Donald Trump has said or done something certifiably insane nearly every day of his presidency. And not like, This guys a little kooky-level insane, but full-on Mr. President, put down the stapler and unhand the president of Finland-level insane. But last week, apparently seeking to prove to the world that we aint seen nothing yet re: the depths of his mental instability, he wrote and reportedly proudly distributed the following letter to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoan, for all the world to see:

Each line of the letter contains an obvious Trumpismtalk of deals, reference to tough guysbut packaged together, in all its batshit glory, in an official letter to another world leader, it seemed unbelievable even for a guy who most people agree shouldve been placed under conservatorship some time ago. The immediate reaction from the media was HOW IS THIS THING REAL, and yet, according to the White House, it totally is! That means that the president of the United States sat down and either pennedor more likely dictateda letter in which he told the president of Turkey, Dont be a tough guy, Dont be a fool, history will look upon you forever as the devil if good things dont happen, and then, in what might be the absolute craziest way to end a piece of correspondence that references slaughtering thousands of people, signed off with: I will call you later.

Its the kind of thing that even Donald Trump Jr. will have to admit is a sign someone needs to place an emergency phone call to Dr. Bornstein, and that we assume has caused Ivanka to tell aides that Daddy is resting and isnt to be disturbed.

Incredibly, the Erdoan letter wasnt the only example of Trumps mental decline on Wednesday afternoon, which also saw the president lash out at Democrats like a machete-wielding madman on the subway and claim that he personally defeated ISIS:

He was insulting, particularly to [Nancy Pelosi]. She kept her cool completely. But he called her a third-rate politician.... It was sort of a diatribea nasty diatribe not focused on the facts, Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) told reporters after the meeting, which focused on Syria and during which impeachment was not discussed.

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Is This Real?: Trump Sends Third-Grade Reading-Level Letter to Erdoan - Vanity Fair

When he took the stage at campaign rallies across the country, presidential hopeful Donald Trump often had a piece of paper in his pocket, ready to go if the moment seemed right.

On it was printed something unlikely: the lyrics to a song written in the 1960s by civil rights activist Oscar Brown Jr. Based on a fable, The Snake tells the story of a kind woman who takes an injured snake into her home to nurse him back to health only to be shocked when she is fatally bitten.

In Trumps hands, however, Browns words were imbued with a new and specific meaning.

As the opening scene from the upcoming FRONTLINE documentary Zero Tolerance explores, Trump recast the lyrics as an anti-immigration allegory equating people seeking to enter America with killer snakes who would inevitably cause harm to those who welcomed them. Trump built to a crescendo around the songs last lines, an exchange between the dying woman and the snake:

I saved you, I saved you, I saved you, cried that woman.And youve bit me, heavens why?You know your bite is poisonous and now Im going to die.Oh shut up, silly woman, said the reptile with a grin.You knew damn well I was a snake before you took me in.

Trumps embrace of that comparison kicks off Zero Tolerance, a FRONTLINE documentary premiering Tuesday, Oct. 22, that investigates how the president turned anti-immigration fervor into a powerful political weapon. The films opening moments depict Trumps use of The Snake in such a way that its never before been seen juxtaposing the then-candidates reading with stark images of men, women and children struggling to reach the U.S.-Mexico border.

As the documentary explores, Trumps comparison of immigrants to killer snakes was just the beginning. He would go on to make opposition to immigration the signature policy of his presidency, using virulent anti-immigration sentiment to animate his supporters and fuel a political movement. He continued to recite the lyrics to The Snake at several public events as president.

He tapped into something in a very profound way that began to redefine the debate in the political year of 2016 and continues to redefine the politics of the country today, Dan Balz of The Washington Post tells FRONTLINE in the above clip.

Trump didnt do it alone. The documentary, from veteran FRONTLINE filmmaker Michael Kirk and his team, tells the inside story of how an improbable group of outsiders Stephen Miller, Jeff Sessions and Steve Bannon became the driving force behind Trumps most controversial initiatives, as part of a grand anti-immigration strategy they would call Zero Tolerance.

Miller is the only one still left in the Trump administration, but the film shows how the trios years of planning around immigration are still shaping decisions. Zero Tolerance is a must-watch look at how Americas immigration policies and the rhetoric surrounding them reached this moment.

Zero Tolerancepremieres Tuesday, Oct. 22 at 10 p.m. EST/9 p.m. CST. Tune in or stream onPBS (check local listings), at PBS.org/frontline and on thePBS Video App. More than 30 interviews from the making of the documentary will go live on FRONTLINEs website in tandem with the premiere, in the newest installment of The FRONTLINE Transparency Project.

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WATCH: Donald Trump and The Snake | Zero Tolerance | FRONTLINE - FRONTLINE

But in July 2018, the doctored film clip was further altered to include new targets. Other news organizations, like PBS, NPR, Politico and The Washington Post, were added to the mix.

Mr. Trump was also depicted killing and maiming political enemies like Representative Maxine Waters of California, Senator John McCain of Arizona, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, as well as Hillary Clinton and others.

The video, which had fewer than 1,000 views on YouTube as of Sunday night, had clocked nearly 200,000 views by midday Monday. On Sunday, TheGeekzTeam appeared to celebrate the videos success, posting a new video on Twitter that showed CNNs logo exploding after coming into contact with the phrase Trump memes.

An email to an address listed on the creators YouTube channel was not immediately returned. American Priority denounced the video shown at its event as not approved, seen or sanctioned by the organizers and denounced violence of any kind. But the groups founder, Alex Phillips, has his own longstanding relationship with Mr. Cook, and in the past has supported his work online.

In a video posted to Facebook in June, Mr. Phillips and Mr. Cook played down the idea that such content can foment hate and violence. As far as Im concerned, hate speech is a made-up word, Mr. Cook says in the video. You cant cause violence with words.

Mr. Phillips said he agreed. The truth hurts sometimes, he responds. Deal with it.

Annie Karni and Katie Rogers reported from Washington, and Kevin Roose from New York. Jeremy Peters and Kitty Bennett contributed reporting from Washington.

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Violent Video Was Product of Right-Wing Provocateurs and Trump Allies - The New York Times

The American people are tired of war. After 18 years of continuous conflict so long that fathers and sons have fought in the same war fatigue and frustration with the exercise of US military force abroad pervade our political culture. This is not new. Nominally anti-war candidates have won the past three presidential elections. Indeed, one of the many perverse features of the 2016 campaign was that the strongest denunciation of the 2003 US invasion of Iraq came not from the Democrat on the debate stage but from Donald Trump. So seemingly indifferent to the painful toll of endless war was Hillary Clintons campaign that it could very well have cost her the election.

Trump, of course, did not campaign as a principled anti-interventionist or anti-imperialist but as an amoral dealmaker, willing to pull the US out of entanglements deemed too costly or arrangements with allies deemed ungrateful. Yet he has governed, at least for the bulk of his term, much more like a conventional Republican than the flouter of the bipartisan foreign policy consensus he sometimes postured to be. Hawkish generals, neocons and hardcore Islamophobes have largely occupied the key policy-making positions in his administration. Instead of ending endless wars, as he has periodically pledged to do, Trump has mostly done the opposite: vetoing in April a resolution that would have ended US military involvement in the Saudi-led war in Yemen; expanding US military presence in Saudi Arabia; and repeatedly risking armed conflict with Iran.

It is a sad irony that Trumps recent catastrophic decision to withdraw US troops from north-eastern Syria and approve Turkeys invasion may be the closest his administration has come to substantially contravening the foreign policy establishments dictates and actually reducing US military presence abroad. The withdrawal from Syria is the exact opposite of principled anti-interventionism: incoherent, inconsistent and likely to imperil already vulnerable progressive and democratic forces. As Meredith Tax writes, it is a colossal betrayal of the Kurds, many of whom have fought and died alongside US troops trying to expel the Islamic State from their territory, and a terrible blow to the revolutionary experiment in Rojava, which has offered the international left a glimpse of a new political paradigm in practice.

An unstrategic, chaotic move that has already taken innocent peoples lives, Trumps Syria withdrawal should be a warning to those too easily seduced by the presidents erratic opposition to US foreign involvement an orientation grounded in the mercenary logic of the protection racket, not respect for international law or a commitment to human rights. It is crucial not to confuse the presidents cruel calculus with a genuine commitment to ending protracted wars, regardless of what he might tweet.

It is crucial not to confuse the presidents cruel calculus with a genuine commitment to ending protracted wars, regardless of what he might tweet

Trumps Syria withdrawal should also serve as a reminder to liberals and leftists of the urgent need to articulate a strong alternative to the policies of imperial maintenance a swollen defense budget, drone strikes and targeted assassinations advocated by Democrats and Republicans alike as well as to the cruel, cynical foreign policy of Trump.

This is a moral imperative: not only in light of US imperial maintenances direct human cost, felt most acutely by those whose countries and societies have been torn apart by US invasion or intervention, but also in light of what could be accomplished domestically by taking the substantial resources currently used to end lives abroad and reallocating them to improve and save lives at home through reinvestments in the countrys fraying social safety net.

And, in the midst of a presidential election campaign, it is a political imperative. Trumps re-election campaign may be mired in scandal and seemingly disorganized, but there is no doubt that Trump and his operatives understand the electoral benefits of an anti-interventionist posture; it worked for them before, and it could work for them again. The Syrian withdrawal should be understood with this in mind, as should Trumps proposed drawdown of US troops from Afghanistan. After all, the places where it matters that loved ones have returned from active duty are places where the Democratic nominee will need to win if Trump is to be defeated.

They will fail to do so if the Democratic foreign policy position is characterized by kneejerk defensiveness about the Obama administrations foreign policy legacy (eg Joe Biden) or the pabulum of American leadership (eg Pete Buttigieg) that, in practice, means sending more US soldiers, and civilians, in countries around the world, to their deaths.

Instead, the Democrats must put forward a vision of US foreign policy that pairs a principled opposition to endless wars with a commitment to begin a responsible, comprehensive pullback of US military presence abroad. Fears of a possible backlash to this are probably overstated. In ways not always intelligible as such, a war-weary people demands a respite.

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Americans want an end to forever wars. But that's not what Trump offers - The Guardian

"If you want to destroy an organization, any organization, you destroy it from within, you destroy it from without and then what you do is you convince everybody that you're doing the right thing," McRaven told CNN's Jake Tapper on "The Lead."

"So when you take a look at what the President has done, he's undermined the intelligence community, the law enforcement community, the Department of Justice, the State Department. He has called the press the enemy of the American people and I will tell you, I've fought a lot of America's enemies. The press is not the enemy of the American people."

McRaven, who oversaw the 2011 raid that killed Osama bin Laden, added that Trump is also "undermining us from without."

McRaven's comments to CNN expand on his New York Times op-ed published earlier Thursday under the headline "Our Republic Is Under Attack From the President."

"...if this president doesn't demonstrate the leadership that America needs, both domestically and abroad, then it is time for a new person in the Oval Office -- Republican, Democrat or independent -- the sooner, the better," he wrote. "The fate of our Republic depends upon it."

Trump has previously dismissed criticism from McRaven, labeling him a Hillary Clinton supporter in 2018.

CLARIFICATION: The headline and story have been updated to properly reflect McRaven's statements on CNN.

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Architect of bin Laden raid says Trump is working to 'destroy' the country - CNN

President Donald Trump pumps his fists as he arrives for a "Make America Great Again" rally at Minges Coliseum in Greenville, North Carolina, on July 17, 2019.

Nicholas Kamm | AFP | Getty Images

President Donald Trump looks likely to cruise to reelection next year under three different economic models Moody's Analytics employed to gauge the 2020 race.

Barring anything unusual happening, the president's Electoral College victory could easily surpass his 2016 win over Democrat Hillary Clinton, which came by a 304-227 count.

Moody's based its projections on how consumers feel about their own financial situation, the gains the stock market has achieved during Trump's tenure and the prospects for unemployment, which has fallen to a 50-year low. Should those variables hold up, the president looks set to get another four-year term.

The modeling has been highly accurate going back to the 1980 election, missing only once.

"If the economy a year from now is the same as it is today, or roughly so, then the power of incumbency is strong and Trump's election odds are very good, particularly if Democrats aren't enthusiastic and don't get out to vote," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics and co-author of the paper along with Dan White, the firm's director of government counsulting and fiscal policy research, and Bernard Yaros, an assistant director and economist. "It's about turnout."

Three models show Trump getting at least 289 electoral votes, assuming average turnout. His chances decrease with maximum turnout on the Democratic side and increase with minimum turnout expected.

Of the three models, he does best under the "pocketbook" measure of how people feel about their finances. In that scenario, assuming average nonincumbent turnout, he gets 351 electoral votes to the generic Democrat's 187. "Record turnout is vital to a Democratic victory," the report said.

In the stock market model, Trump gets a 289-249 edge, while the unemployment model shows a 332-206 advantage. Across all three models, Trump wins 324-214.

"Our 'pocketbook' model is the most economically driven of the three. If voters were to vote primarily on the basis of their pocketbooks, the president would steamroll the competition," the report said. "This shows the importance that prevailing economic sentiment at the household level could hold in the next election."

Stock market levels also are key, and the two are intertwined. Zandi said that even a garden-variety 12% market correction around election time could sway the race, as could an unexpected downturn in the economy.

The results might come as a surprise given Trump's consistently low favorability ratings 40% in the latest Gallup poll and as most head-to-head matchups against Democrats show the president losing.

However, the report said that Trump's relatively stable ratings help provide a good benchmark for how he will do once election time comes.

Zandi said the race could come down a few key counties in Pennsylvania, which Trump flipped in 2016 after the state had voted Democrat in the previous five presidential elections.

Specifically, he said Luzerne County, in the northeast part of the state, "is the single-most important county, no kidding, in the entire election." The longtime Democratic stronghold favored Trump, 51.8% to 46.8% in the election.

Trump doesn't even have to win the county, but merely needs a strong turnout, Zandi said.

The Moody's models have been backtested to 1980 and were correct each time except in 2016, when they ndicated Clinton would get a narrow victory. The authors attributed "unexpected turnout patterns" in Trump's favor caused the error and they adjusted for that in the latest projections. They also said the will be updating the projections as conditions develop and change.

WATCH: Josh Brown on what Trump's tax bill means for your money

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Trump is on his way to an easy win in 2020, according to Moody's accurate election model - CNBC

WASHINGTON President Trump said on Wednesday that he had tried unsuccessfully to arrange a White House meeting between the parents of a teenager killed in an August crash in Britain and the American driver involved in the crash.

The parents, Charlotte Charles and Tim Dunn, met with Mr. Trump in the Oval Office Tuesday evening but balked when he said that Anne Sacoolas, the wife of an American diplomat whom British police are seeking for her involvement in the crash, was in a nearby room and wanted to meet with them.

I offered to bring the person in question in, the president told reporters at the White House on Wednesday. They werent ready for it. But I did offer.

The attempted intervention added another painful twist to a case that has enraged Britons in the weeks since Ms. Sacoolas, 42, claimed diplomatic immunity and left the country in the days after the crash that killed Harry Dunn, 19. Since then, British and American officials have said that Ms. Sacoolas's claim to immunity is no longer relevant since she has returned home.

Shortly after her 15-minute meeting with the president, Ms. Charles said Mr. Trump proposed that she and her husband meet with Ms. Sacoolas, but Mr. Dunn said that the meeting felt rushed and that it would not have gone well.

The bombshell was dropped not soon after we walked in the room, Ms. Charles told reporters. We would still love to meet with her, but it has to be on our terms and on U.K. soil.

Ms. Charles added that Ms. Sacoolas needs to come back and face the justice system.

In talking to reporters on Wednesday, Mr. Trump said he had arranged the meeting at the request of Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain.

He asked me if Id do that, and I did it, Mr. Trump said.

But an official in Mr. Johnsons office, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe a private conversation, denied that the prime minister had suggested that Mr. Trump arrange the meeting in the way it was eventually formatted. The president brought up Ms. Sacoolas when the two leaders spoke last week, but no plans were completed.

The prime minister asked the president to do all he could to help resolve this tragic issue, a spokeswoman for Mr. Johnson said in a statement The president agreed to work on trying to find a way forward.

The end result was not what either side had envisioned.

Ms. Sacoolas was said to be devastated by this tragic incident, according to a statement made on her behalf by her lawyer, Amy Jeffress. No loss compares to the death of a child and Anne extends her deepest sympathy to Harry Dunns family, the statement said.

A person familiar with what transpired said Ms. Sacoolas had wanted to meet privately with the family, but was directed to come to the White House to participate in Mr. Trumps plan.

Mark Stephens, a lawyer for the Dunn family, called the presidents surprise offer of a meeting a gargantuan miscalculation, and suggested that the meeting had been orchestrated for the benefit of the news media.

Mr. Stephens told reporters that the meeting was attended by the head of U.S. spying, and later clarified in a phone interview on Wednesday that he was referring to Robert C. OBrien, the presidents national security adviser.

This OBrien had effectively curated the idea that there would be a confrontation between the Dunns and Mrs. Sacoolas and that the press would film it, Mr. Stephens said.

White House officials denied the claim that the meeting had been arranged with the idea that the news media would capture it, and reiterated that the British prime minister had helped hatch the plan.

The president met with members of the Dunn family to personally offer his condolences for the loss of their son, Mr. Trumps press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, said in a statement. His intent was to do all he could to comfort the victims of a tragic accident. This was at the request of Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Apart from expressing anguish at the familys loss through her lawyer, Ms. Sacoolas has not spoken out publicly about the crash, which occurred on Aug. 27 in Brackley, a town in Northamptonshire about 60 miles northwest of London near a Royal Air Force base that hosts a United States Air Force communication station.

The Northamptonshire police said it believed that Ms. Sacoolas had been driving on the wrong side of the road when her vehicle collided with a motorcycle ridden by Harry Dunn.

After the accident, the authorities said, Ms. Sacoolas told officers that she had no plans to travel abroad. But she abruptly left Britain, claiming diplomatic immunity and setting off an international uproar. On Sept. 5, Britain made a formal request for a waiver of diplomatic immunity to the United States Embassy in London. It was declined eight days later.

Despite being caught off guard by the presidents suggestion for an unplanned meeting with Ms. Sacoolas, Harry Dunns parents appeared grateful for Mr. Trumps interest in the case.

Ms. Charles said that the president was very gracious and very welcoming, and that though he did not suggest that Ms. Sacoolas would return to Britain, he said he would now push to look at this from a different angle.

I think he generally will look to try and resolve this in a way to help us, Mr. Dunn told reporters.

Last week, Mr. Trump described the death as a terrible accident, adding that it was a very, very complex issue because were talking about diplomatic immunity.

He also expressed understanding for Ms. Sacoolas, suggesting that he himself had driven on the wrong side of the road in Britain. On Wednesday, the president again expressed his sympathy for Ms. Sacoolas, whom he said had been confused by British driving laws.

I believe it was going down the wrong way because that happens in Europe, Mr. Trump told reporters. The roads are opposite. And she said thats what happened. That happens to a lot of people, by the way.

The president said that he had a beautiful meeting with the desperately sad parents, but that his involvement in the matter was through.

Now they say they only want to meet if theyre in the U.K., he said. And thatll be up to them.

Katie Rogers reported from Washington, and Iliana Magra from London. Adam Goldman contributed reporting.

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Trump Stuns Grieving Britons: Meet the Suspect in Your Sons Death - The New York Times

Every now and then, the internet coughs up a viral video that has the quality of found art. It may be jittery amateur iPhone footage; it may be a spontaneous moment captured by a pool photographer covering a news event. But it has the elegance and integrity and uncanny formal symmetry of something scripted.

One remarkable example is a recent video of the teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg, shot at the United Nations in New York on the morning of Sept. 23. The clip begins with Thunberg standing at the edge of a lobby crowded with onlookers and reporters. The camera is tightly focused on her face, and we watch that face transform. Thunbergs eyes narrow and harden; her mouth twists into a skeptical scowl. Suddenly, the camera whizzes back to reveal the object of her glare.

President Trump has entered the room. He is flanked by aides and dignitaries, and his mouth is moving rapidly, as it often does. But what seizes our attention is Trumps imposing physical presence in the foreground of the shot. We watch him move, with an imperious rhinocerine trudge, into the center of the frame, until he obscures our view of Thunberg almost altogether.

This sequence lasts only a few seconds, but it is a complete narrative, a story told so deftly with such faithfulness to Aristotelian dramatic principles and so sure a command of cinematic clichs that its hard to believe that it wasnt cooked up in Hollywood. The blocking, the beats, the zipping camera movement and, especially, the exaggerated actions and reactions of the protagonists all seem designed to heighten the drama and to underscore, for anyone who may have missed the point, that we are witnessing a stark morality play. The episode even had a foreshadowing prologue. That morning, in a speech to the world leaders gathered at the United Nations Climate Action Summit, Thunberg delivered a warning. My message is that well be watching you, she said. The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And there she was, not long afterward, fixing the planets most notorious climate-change denier with what the internet quickly deemed a death stare.

The video rocketed around the internet, generating memes and quips, none of them especially clever: Make America Greta Again; This Greta Thunberg stare-down is life goals; Find yourself someone who looks upon your worst enemy the way Greta Thunberg looks at Trump. Julin Castro, the Democratic presidential candidate, tweeted out the GIF under the caption I think a lot of us can relate.

The eagerness of so many to claim Thunberg as their glowering proxy was curious. That withering death stare was directed at Trump but was it directed only at Trump? Thunbergs message, reiterated that day in her speech at the United Nations, is a broad generational indictment that spares no one, at least no one over 18, for their empty words and inaction on the climate crisis. The countless thousands who have crammed social media feeds with variations on the theme We are all Greta Thunberg are seeking an absolution that Thunberg is not offering.

In fact, the viral popularity of this video may have little to do with climate change, or with the scouring power of Thunbergs gaze. The clip concisely encapsulates an experience to which, as Castro suggests, millions of us can relate. The key moment comes with that abrupt shift in focal point, when the camera seems to jump up and flee, zooming away from Thunberg to document the arrival of the president. It is a jarring bait and switch, a visual joke with a grim punch line. Thunberg is a small person but a mighty moral force; Trump, it seems fair to assert, is in both respects Thunbergs antithesis. Yet the camera is drawn away, and Thunberg recedes from view, her sharp features and bright magenta blouse reduced to indistinct splotches. She is eclipsed by the person of Trump, who heaves into the center of the frame like one of those giant cruise ships that arrive in the harbor to blot out the sun.

Famous, powerful people are known to make grand entrances. It is part of the gig. But Trumps way of lurching into a room is inseparable from his propensity for creating chaos and obliterating meaning. Thank you very much, thank you very much, he booms as he steps into the United Nations lobby. He seems to be addressing this thanks to everyone in the room, as if all those present have just burst into applause. (They havent.) He is merely Being Trump, doing what he does when he shows up anyplace, whether its a meeting of the Group of 7 or a wreath-laying commemoration at Arlington National Cemetery or a Super Bowl party at Mar-a-Lago: subjugating the entire purpose of the event to his own ego and id. It is a demeanor that announces that if anything is going to get done today, it will happen in spite, probably in defiance, of the president of the United States.

Trump wound up attending the climate meeting for about 15 minutes. There were more pressing matters to attend to. He posted on Twitter a dozen times that day, including tweets mocking Mitt Romney, Joe Biden and Adam Schiff. He also directed a trolling tweet at Thunberg: She seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see!

We are not all Greta Thunberg, but all of us know what its like to be ambushed by Donald Trump. He pops up on your social media feed with hateful words and impulsive policy announcements. He flickers on TV screens in bus terminals and airport departure lounges, forever looming over your shoulder. He barges unbidden into your dreams. It is a condition of being alive in America in 2019. No matter who you are or what youre trying to accomplish, whether youre a 16-year-old working to save the planet or an ordinary citizen trying to make it through the day with some peace of mind intact, you will inevitably confront the specter of Trump, drifting into the frame in a cloud of disorder and bad vibes. Even the presidents most dedicated enablers scan the sky warily, awaiting todays cyclone, the next reckless, capricious twist of the plot. The door swings open, the president enters, all heads turn. The camera whips around, and suddenly, everything else better angels, higher ideals, common decency, common sense, beauty, truth blurs into the background.

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Staring Down Donald Trump, the Same Elephant in Every Room - The New York Times

Traders in the Chicago pits have been watching these kinds of wagers with an increasing mixture of shock and awe since the start of the Trump presidency. They are used to rapid fluctuations in the S&P 500 index; volatility is common, of course. But the precision and timing of these trades, and the vast amount of money being made as a result of them, make the traders wonder if all this is on the level. Are the people behind these trades incredibly lucky, or do they have access to information that other people dont have about, say, Trumps or Beijings latest thinking on the trade war or any other of a number of ways that Trump is able to move the markets through his tweeting or slips of the tongue? Essentially, do they have inside information?

Theoretically, market regulators are supposed to be keeping an eye on big trades such as these, to try to figure out whether they are just happy coincidences or whether there is something more nefarious afoot. And they say they do. But calls to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, where the trades takes place, the Securities and Exchange Commission, which regulates the equity markets, and to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which regulates futures contracts, such as e-minis, were answered in different ways. Christopher Carofine, at the SEC, declined to comment. The CFTC did not respond to my inquiries, while a spokeswoman for the CME says the trades in question did not originate from a single source and they were of no concern.

There is no way for another trader, let alone an outsider such as me, to know who is making these trades. But regulators know or can find out. One longtime CME trader who has been watching with disgust says hes never seen anything quite like these trades, not at least since al-Qaida cashed in before initiating the September 11 attacks. There is definite hanky-panky going on, to the worlds financial markets detriment, he says. This is abysmal.

In the case of Trump, market manipulation also yields political dividends. Perhaps the most obvious example dates to late August, when Trump, desperate to reignite trade talks with China, boasted during the G7 summit that his counterparts in Beijing had come back to the table. Weve gotten two callsvery, very good calls, he told reporters. They mean business. The market rose more than 900 points over the next few days. But a spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry said he was not aware of any such calls. An editor at the Global Times, the state-controlled newspaper, tweeted that he knew of no calls made in the days leading up to the G7 meeting and that China wont cave to US pressure. Two U.S government officials later told CNN that Trump misspoke and conflated comments from Chinas Vice Premier Liu He with direct communication from the Chinese. According to CNN, the officials said Trump was eager to project optimism that might boost markets.

Indeed, this single Trump lie briefly inflated domestic markets by hundreds of billions of dollars. What this describes is, quite literally, market manipulation that constitutes criminal violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, commented George Conway, the conservative attorney and Trump critic.

Whether Conway is right or wrong is a matter of legal opinion, but given how fishy and coincidental the trading in e-minis seems to be these days, the SEC or CFTC would be doing a great service (and their job) for the American people by investigating who is behind these lucrative trades, and what they knew before they placed them. At the moment, what were getting from them is an indifferent shrug.

Federal regulators might start here: In the last 10 minutes of trading on Friday, August 23, as the markets were roiling in the face of more bad trade news, someone bought 386,000 September e-minis. Three days later, Trump lied about getting a call from China to restart the trade talks, and the S&P 500 index shot up nearly 80 points. The potential profit on the trade was more than $1.5 billion.

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There Is Definite Hanky-Panky Going On: The Fantastically Profitable Mystery of the Trump Chaos Trades - Vanity Fair

As Congress joined the widespread condemnation of Donald Trumps withdrawal of US forces from northern Syria and exposed the Kurds living there to Turkish assault, the French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lvy has launched a stinging attack on a fundamental betrayal of both the Kurds and American values.

It is a terrible deceit for democracy, a nightmare for the Kurdish people and, alas, completely predictable, Lvy told the Guardian in an interview.

Lvy published a book earlier this year, The Empire and the Five Kings, predicting that America would abandon its role in the region, leaving it to the ambitions of Russia, China, Turkey, Iran and Saudi-backed Sunni radical Islam.

I dont know which of Trumps justifications for the withdrawal of US troops is more stupid to say that the Kurds did not fight at Normandy, or to say, unlike Saudi Arabia, Kurds do not buy enough American goods.

I could not believe he would play his cards so openly or in such an obscene way, Lvy continued. It surpasses all my worst predictions.

On Wednesday, in a rare break with a president they are typically unwilling to criticize, two-thirds of Republicans in the House of Representatives, including all of the partys elected leaders, joined Democrats in approving a resolution opposing Trumps decision to greenlight Recep Tayyip Erdoans assault on the Kurds in semi-autonomous north-eastern Syria.

Turkeys president is fulfilling his war goals, and hes doing that with the encouragement of the United States, and to the indifference of the international community. As soon as his target is fulfilled, he will say I am a good guy and I will adhere to international pressure. And all of this will be done under the umbrella of the alleged peacemaker Vladimir Putin. It is a nightmare for the Kurdish people and, alas, predictable.

The other winner, Lvy asserts, is Iran. The practical consequence of the withdrawal of US troops is to aid its effort to establish a corridor of military control from Tehran to Beirut.

In a speech aired on Iranian television on Monday, Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force of Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, boasted that Iran has now created territorial continuity by connecting Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.

Iran has completed it goal, Lvy says. Isis, which was on the edge of being defeated, has regained its head. That the word of America is becoming worthless is the source of great anxiety for Israel, and the US has no regional ally that can now sleep quietly.

On Thursday the US vice-president, Mike Pence, announced that Turkey had agreed to a five-day ceasefire in Syria,to allow Kurdish fighters to leave the strip of territory where they have set up their administration. Trump tweeted that it was a great day for civilization, but the deal essentially gives Turkey what it had sought to achieve with its incursion and places no obligation on Erdoan to withdraw his forces.

Lvy, no enemy to dressing simplistic ideas in shiny, philosophical costume, has made two films about the Kurdish resistance: Pershmerga and The Battle of Mosul, and he argues that when the US abandons the Kurds it abandons its own values.

This is an act of suicide for America directed by Donald Trump and we Europeans are taken in the process.

For the principles of America, for the values of America, for the creed of America, this is suicide. Whatever Trump says in the next hours, days or weeks, his words have no value, and it will take time for American words again to have value. For the moment they are worth zero.

Lvy is no stranger to controversy himself. He has written extensively about his love for America, has come under fire for his support of Frances burqa ban, his unconditonal love of Israel and claimed a role in encouraging the overthrow of Libyas Muammar Gaddafi, throwing the country into violent chaos.

Equally controversial has been his criticism of rape cases against Roman Polanski and Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former managing director of the IMF. Lvy claimed Strauss-Kahn, a friend, had been thrown to the dogs.

But he is deeply concerned over Americas retreat from its role on the world stage.

Lvy says his friends in America, from both sides of the political spectrum, are ashamed of what is happening.

We have seldom seen such a betrayal. Of course in all wars you have blood on your hands. Generally it is the blood of your enemies. In this case it is the blood of your friends.

Originally posted here:

Bernard-Henri Lvy: Trump's Syria withdrawal is 'a nightmare and completely predictable' - The Guardian

In between, on March 14, Jaros posted, Shout out to my ukranian boss and brother Lev Parnas thank you for eberything you and your team doing for me, i cant repay you enough!!!!!!!! and i want to meet the donald soon!!!!!!

That post suggests the meeting captured in the photo was not a chance interaction, and that Parnas had discussed his access to Trump with Jaros.

President Donald Trump alongside Lev Parnas.

Trump has sought to distance himself from Parnas, the Florida businessman at the center of a ballooning scandal over illicit foreign influence in his administration and, more broadly, the American political system. But the photograph and post provide further evidence that the two men are more closely tied than Trump has let on.

Other Facebooks posts by Jaros around that time describe Parnas as a business partner. Jaros does not reveal the nature of their work together, but on March 14, 2014, he posted, three letters llc!!!!!!!!!!!! on his Facebook page. May 28, 2014, he posted, two words foreign investments!!!!!!!!!!!! on his Facebook page. On May 22, he posted, i was told today some people i deal with have 300 mllion in dong in their posession.

A year later, on May 12, 2015, he posted a photo of Parnas sitting in the backseat of a Rolls Royce with the caption, the big homie, okk, one call and bammm!!!!!!

Jaros is an itinerant musician and music producer, who has worked in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Queens, New York; Atlanta and Minneapolis, according to his LinkedIn profile.

The profile also describes it as his job to "negotiate and close deals centered on gold oil, rough diamonds" for a business called Gabriel and Jaros Holdings. Jaros's work appears to be lucrative. He regularly posts photos of large piles of cash on his social media accounts.

Jaros did not immediately respond to requests for comment made over social media. A lawyer for Parnas, John Dowd, said he did not know anything about the photographed interaction and declined to answer further questions.

Following the unsealing of Parnas indictment last week for campaign finance violations over alleged schemes to buy political influence on behalf of foreigners, Trump said he did not know Parnas or his business partner and co-defendant, Igor Fruman. I dont know those gentleman, he told reporters before boarding Marine One en route to a campaign rally in Minneapolis. Maybe they were clients of Rudy. Youd have to ask Rudy.

On Thursday, The Wall Street Journal described Parnas attendance at a Trump campaign fundraiser attended by the candidate and Giuliani in October 2016 as his first known appearance in Mr. Trumps circle. Parnas, 47, told The Washington Post that he sold Trump Organization condos while Trumps father, Fred, was still running the business.

POLITICO reported on Friday that the French newspaper Le Figaro interviewed Parnas at the Trump campaigns invite-only election night party in 2016, and that Parnas described himself to the paper as a friend of Trumps.

Those are not Parnas only ties to the campaign. His son, Aaron, volunteered for the Trump campaign in Florida in 2016, according to a 2017 profile in The Palm Beach Post.

A man answering the phone at a number listed for Aaron Parnas hung up after hearing they had been reached by a reporter. The person did not respond to follow-up text messages.

In May 2018, Parnas posted a photo of himself with Trump at the White House with a caption describing an incredible dinner and even better conversation, in a screenshot captured by The Campaign Legal Center. Later that month he posted a picture of himself with Fruman and Donald Trump Jr. in Beverly Hills, with the caption Power Breakfast!!!

Spokespeople for the White House and the Trump reelection campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Susan Wiles, who co-chaired Trumps 2016 campaign in Florida, also did not respond to a request for comment.

Marc Caputo contributed to this report.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story cited a French newspaper report. The report appeared in Le Figaro.

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2014 photo shows earlier ties between Trump and indicted Giuliani associate - POLITICO

Last Updated Oct 15, 2019 7:51 AM EDT

Dohuk, Iraq Dismissing warnings from President Donald Trump and the imposition of economic sanctions, Turkey's leader has defended his attack on America's former Kurdish allies in northern Syria and insisted he will push on with the offensive until his government's "objectives have been achieved." Turkey considers the Kurdish militias who helped the U.S. defeat ISIS in Syria to be terrorists, and for years Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has wanted to push them back from his southern border, deeper into Syrian territory.

As CBS News correspondent Charlie D'Agata reported on Tuesday, it may be hard to hear Mr. Trump's demands for a ceasefire over the deafening explosions on the battlefields of northern Syria.

Despite growing international pressure to bring an end to the violence, Erdogan's forces have, if anything, stepped up their military campaign to grab land before advancing Syrian regime forces arrive to retake key Kurdish cities.

On Mr. Trump's orders, the roughly 1,000 American forces who had operated for years in northern Syria, effectively shielding the Kurds from a Turkish offensive, have been ordered out, leaving the U.S. military largely out of the picture.

Retreating U.S. troops have been seen on the move, fearful of being caught between the advancing Turkish army and its allies pushing south, and the forces of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad as they push north. U.S. officials have told CBS News they intend to get all the U.S. troops out of northern Syria within a month.

A journalist who works for Russia's state-run press posted video on Tuesday allegedly from inside the abandoned U.S. base in Manbij, right on the western edge of the Kurdish territory, saying: "I'm now at the American base. Let's see how they're living." The reporter also posted video of himself operating a steel barrier meant to thwart suicide truck bombs. There were no Russian troops seen at the base with him, nor any of Assad's forces who they back.

America's quick exit changed the landscape of northern Syria dramatically and immediately. D'Agata and his team not only had to avoid Syrian regime forces as they headed for the Iraqi border on Monday, but the Turkish military and its allied extremist militias, and an emerging ISIS threat, too.

Tens of thousands of Kurdish civilians have been caught up in the widening chaos in the region. Victims of indiscriminate shelling have packed into over-stretched hospitals and D'Agata saw for himself how under-resourced the facilities are.

One surgeon told CBS News they're desperate for medicine and equipment, and on the verge of collapse.

The United Nations estimates at least 160,000 people have been displaced by the fighting already, and that figure keeps climbing.

Defending the offensive in an op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal, Turkey's Erdogan said his country had "reached its limit," dealing with the 3.6 million refugees from the Syrian conflict who have sought shelter in his country.

Turkey views the Syrian Kurdish fighters - forces who were once America's most loyal ally in the fight against ISIS - as terrorists who must be eradicated.

Kurdish commanders told CBS News on Tuesday that some American troops had actually requestedtheir help in Kobani, where the U.S. has its biggest base in the region, to keep the advancing Syrian regime forces out of the area until they're able withdraw.

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Turkey pushes Syria offensive against Kurds in spite of US President Donald Trump warning and sanctions today - CBS News