Monthly Archives: August 2020

The Editorial Board, USA TODAY Published 6:59 p.m. ET Aug. 13, 2020 | Updated 7:36 p.m. ET Aug. 13, 2020

Our View: Fatal response to coronavirus, unkept campaign promises, and mountain of lies and falsehoods show what a small man he really is.

Youre readingOur View,one of two perspectives in Todays Debate.

For the Opposing View, read President Trump is helping middle-class Americans.

It seem eons ago now though only a few years that Donald Trump capitalized on the soaring stature of the Oval Office to shatterequilibriums with his brand of edicts and outrage.He would roil public discourse for weeks with his claimsthat he wonthe popular vote in 2016 because millions voted illegally, enjoyed the largest inaugural crowd in history, waswiretapped by President Barack Obama, saw moral equivalency between white supremacists and those who oppose them, and threatened"fire and fury" against North Korea.

It was all false, phony or came to nothing.But the point was his towering ability back then to shockpeople.

And today? Not so much.

When a massive explosionvaporized the center of Beirut last week, Trump thatsame day declared it an "attack ... a bomb of some kind" with a level of certainty that should have sent ripples of concern through foreign governments.As it was, fewpaid any attention. His comment barely registered as news, and evidence quickly surfaced that the blast was almost certainly a terrible accident.

And there have been other pronouncements recently that, all things being equal, should have generated quite a stir. Except they didn't.

President Donald Trump at a news conference in Bedminster, New Jersey, on Aug. 7, 2020.(Photo: Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)

The president promisedJuly19 that within two weeks, he'd produce a long-awaited plan for overhauling the nation's health care system. Days later, he committed to unveiling a strategy for defeating coronavirus "that'sgoing to be very, very powerful."And recently, Trump said that if reelected,he'dstrike a deal with Iran in four weeks.

All have been met with a collective shrug, probably because Americans sensed they would come to nothing. There hasbeen nohealth care plan and no grand COVID-19 strategy, even asU.S. deaths due to the coronavirus surpass165,000. And does anyone really believe Trump will reach an agreement with an Iranian regimethat refuseseven to speak with him?

So what hashappened? Trump's ability to shock and awehas gotten smaller.He's the incredibly shrinking president.

Even his dramatic declaration last weekend that he would "save American jobs and provide relief to the American workers" with a series of executive actionshasn't movedthe dial on his low approval ratings.

And that's because it's allsmoke and mirrors.

The promise toprovide enhancedunemployment benefits with money pulled out of anemergency relief fund (during a major hurricane season) may not be legal. Sen.Ben Sasse, R-Neb.,called it "unconstitutional slop."

The $400 in additional weekly payments would work only ifcash-strapped states kick in 25% and would only last about six weeks. In addition, apayroll tax holiday Trump is promising is really a deferral of taxes that will have to be paid back. And his commitment to blockevictionsamounts to little more than a recommendation to landlords.

The reality is that the public has grownweary of a president whose words mean very little. It probably began with all of the unkept campaign promises 4% annual economic growth, repeal and replaceObamacare, investin infrastructure and builda wall paid for by Mexico.

Certainly a growing mountain of lies and falsehoods haven't helped.The Washington Post estimates now more than 20,000.

But what mighthave finally tipped Trump toward triviality is the grotesque way he dismissed (and continues to dismiss)a deadly pandemic as something that will simply disappear, even as it ravages America.

Our View was written by editorial writer Gregg Zoroyaon behalf of the USA TODAY Editorial Board.

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Meet Donald Trump, the incredibly shrinking president - USA TODAY

There are a surprising number of Texas references in Youre Fired: The Perfect Guide to Beating Donald Trump, veteran political strategist Paul Begalas book focused on what itll take for Joe Biden to win in November. For starters, 33 pages in, by way of explaining the concept of negative partisanship, Begalas example hinges on what matters most in life: Texas Longhorn football. Its not enough, he says, that his sons love the Longhorns. They must also despise the University of Oklahoma. And indeed, Begala definitely bleeds orange; he earned both his undergraduate and law degrees at the University of Texas, named his dog after former quarterback Major Applewhite, and earlier this week, bought two Longhorn steers to raise on his ranch in Virginia. Theyre named after Earl Campbell and Vince Young.

Theyre actually orange-and-white, says Begala, a chief strategist for the 1992 Clinton-Gore campaign who served as counselor to the president in the Clinton White House, where he coordinated policy, politics, and communications. Theyre the most beautiful animals Ive seen. And they dont know how lucky they got. They were headed to Wendys and now theyre at my place being hand-fed. Theyre so gentle and docile.

Later in the book, Begalaa Missouri City, Texas nativedusts off a less gentle, but classic, Texanism to describe Texas Republican leaders: half a bubble off plumb. He believes Governor Greg Abbott, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, and Attorney General Ken Paxton are out of step with a state he says might very well turn blue in November.

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Theyre driving with their eyes on the rearview mirror, he told me on this weeks National Podcast of Texas. They think its still the tea party era. Theyre stuck in 2010, in a Texas where the Republicans dominate the state and the tea partiers dominated the Republicans. And therefore they think theyll just cater to 25 percent of Texans. And its a losing strategy over time. I think theyre going to wake up and be astonished that the state they thought they were governing disappeared right out from under them.

Youre Fired: The Perfect Guide to Beating Donald Trump is built around the central theme that the way to beat Trump is to focus less on him and more on the people who are hurt by his policies. But in a coronavirus-focused chapter that includes a section on H-E-Bs early COVID-19 preparation efforts, Begala suggests the virus has wound up testing his central theme; he advises Democrats to highlight at every turn how the administration mishandled the crisis.

Trumps superpower is diversion, and he uses division for diversion, Begala says. COVID ended that superpower. With 168,000 dead Americans, COVID became the kryptonite. We cant turn the cameras away. And I think thats part of what he is trying to do. And the reason hes saying these quiet parts out loud, is hell do anything, even declare war on democracy, to get the cameras, to turn away from the things he has done and failed to do on COVID. So I think Democrats need to keep their eyes on the prize. I think its important for Democrats to pull the lens back and say, We had 5 million people infected. We have 168,000 dead, and youre doing nothing except declaring war on the postal service, which will make more people sick because they wont be able to vote by mail. Always return the focus to peoples lives, not just Trumps outrage.

On the National Podcast of Texas, recorded Thursday morning by phone, Begala details the Joe Biden hes gotten to know over 34 years of friendship and lays out what we can expect across the next 80 days or soand how to tell whos really winning.

Three takeaways from our conversation:

Begala believes Texas will turn blue in November. Full stop.

Most Texans celebrate diversity. I grew up in Fort Bend County. Today, its thriving because of immigrants. Less than 50 percent of that county is white now and Its become the most diverse county in America and the wealthiest county in Texas. Immigrants are a source of wealth, of strength, and of brains. And Texans get that now. Its changing because of patterns of increasing diversity and the Republicans alienating those diverse Texans. Trump has pushed diverse Texans from all overSouth Asia, Africa, Latin Americainto the arms of Democrats. And Democrats have welcomed them. But also, the attitude, particularly of college-educated white people, has changed dramatically in the last couple of years. So if Beto ORourke can get within two and a half points in a non-presidential year, I think MJ Hegar can win. I think Joe Biden can make up that last two and a half points with the surge of turnout in a presidential year.

Begala says that, instead of polls, the best predictors of whos ahead will come from monitoring the economy and interest in early voting.

Id look at jobs, income, and now, God help us, this terrible disease. Presidents who had a strong economy have done well. Weve only fired four presidents in the last hundred years, and they were Herbert Hoover, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and George H.W. Bush. Every one of them had a bad economy. Trump has the worst economy. The virus is not his fault, but the response has been, and he is now holding up life-saving funds just so that he can cripple the postal service so that people cant vote. Im also looking at voter registration and early voting. Voter registration has been surging. And in those states where you register by party, which we dont in Texas, its been much more Democratic in the requests for absentee ballots, which has always been a Republican strength. Republicans have always done best in voting by mail, so Trump has hurt his own cause because hes telling his voters dont vote by mail, but when the Democrats hear that they dont obey him. They think, Oh, this guy doesnt want me to vote by mail. Im going to make sure I do. Soon well have people sending those ballots in. Well have early voting in places like Texas. So those will be good predictors. But also you can watch Trump. The more panicked he gets, the more he realizes that hes losing. Hes a very good politician and he gets it. I think he knows hes losing. And its like these glaciers, they melt slowly. And then huge ice sheet falls off. And Trump is dropping huge sheets of ice because he knows his presidency is melting away.

In the book, Begala says he believes too often Democrats appeal to the head, not to the heart. He says the Joe Biden hes known for 34 years represents a chance for Democrats to appeal to both.

If Trump werent president, I believe that [Biden] would let someone else step up. But I believe that hes called to this moment because of his empathy. And when he announced, he talked about Charlottesville and he said, This is a battle for the soul of America. I certainly responded to that. And most Democrats did. Joe won 45 states. Thats a lot better than Barack Obama did in the primaries. And I think Democrats responded to that because they saw his empathy. I think he needs to talk about those things. No good person wants to see children in cages, and very, very, very few Republicans do. Im telling you, I have a lot of Republican friends and family and none of them like seeing children ripped away from their mamas and locked in a cage. None think those were very fine people screaming anti-Semitic and racist stuff in Charlottesville. So Joe can reach out to folks. He is simultaneously exciting his base and reassuring Trump voters that they can come over. And its a hard thing to do in politics, but he has been masterful at it. And I think the key to it is his empathy.

(Excerpts have been condensed and edited for clarity.)

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Paul Begala Wrote the Book on Defeating Donald Trump - Texas Monthly

Rapper Kanye West ranted against historical figure Harriet Tubman and became emotional when speaking about abortion. AP Domestic

WASHINGTON White House adviser Jared Kushner said Thursday he spoke recently with rapper Kanye West but not about any plan to have West run for president in order to help father-in-law Donald Trump win re-election.

"We had a general discussion, more about policy," Kushner told reporters.

Kushner said he and West "both happened to be in Colorado" at the same time last weekend, and got together because "he has some great ideas for what he'd like to see happen in the country. And that's why he has the candidacy that he's been doing."

Democrats described the Kushner-West meeting as the latest piece of evidence that Trump's re-election team is helping the famed producer and recording artist get on as many state ballots as possible.

The idea,they said, is that West would drawAfrican-American voters away from Democratic candidateJoe Biden, helping Trump prevail in closely contested states.

"This is a desperation ploy because they know they can't win in a head-to-head contest," said Democratic strategist Jesse Ferguson.

Democrats have also cited local news reports that Republican operatives have helped West's aides put together ballot petitions in Wisconsin, Colorado and other states.

Senior Advisor Jared Kushner listens to President Donald Trump on Thursday.(Photo: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI, AFP via Getty Images)

More: Kanye West announces he's running for president in 2020; Mark Cuban, Elon Musk tweet support

More: Kanye West calls out President Trump in new rap; Trump brushes off rapper's run in interview

Trump and members of his re-election team have denied collusion with West and his makeshift presidential campaign.

Kushner and West have described each other as friends for years, and worked together on criminal justice issues.

West, who announced his candidacy by tweet on July 4, has said both supportive and not-so-supportive things about Trump over the years. He has also sent conflicting signals about the seriousness of his third-party presidential bid.

After a media report on his latest meeting with Kushner, West tweeted that "Im willing to do a live interview with the New York Time about my meeting with Jared where we discussed Dr Claude Andersons book Powernomics."

At the White House, Kushner said of West: "There's a lot of issues that the president's championed that he admires, and it was just great to have a friendly discussion."

So far, West has qualified for the ballot in Arkansas, Colorado, Oklahoma and Vermont.

The deadlines for other states have already passed, including battleground states like Michigan, Pennsylvania,Florida, and North Carolina.

West's attempts to get on the ballot in Wisconsin, a key battleground,are being challenged because of questions about the identities of some of the petition signers.

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Jared Kushner: I spoke with Kanye West, but not about the Donald Trump campaign - USA TODAY

He said it in an interview with Jonathan Swan, of Axios, who asked how Trump could argue that the Covid-19 pandemic was "under control" since "1,000 Americans are dying a day." Trump responded, "They are dying, that's true. And you have it is what it is. But that doesn't mean we aren't doing everything we can. It's under control as much as you can control it. This is a horrible plague that beset us."

But not Trump. In a long career -- in real estate, reality TV and the White House -- Trump has reached often for exaggeration and falsehoods to convince people it is what it isn't.

At another point in the Axios interview, more in character, he praised his administration for doing a "great job" on Covid.

The mystery of Dr. Birx

At key moments, Dr. Deborah Birx has been the face of the White House's effort to fight the coronavirus. Widely respected for her years of work on HIV/AIDS, Birx has lately been the target of criticism from some medical experts and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. She even drew fire from President Trump, after she acknowledged the "extraordinarily widespread" nature of the pandemic in the US. A fellow expert on infectious disease, Dr. Kent Sepkowitz, wrote, "All of her work shows Birx to be a sophisticated physician-scientist with genuine interest in the health of vulnerable and underserved populations."

But he argued that as response coordinator for the White House Coronavirus Task Force, Birx has made "a real hash out of the entire effort, with a series of poor decisions -- changing hospital data reporting protocols for coronavirus patients to cut out the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and report directly to Health and Human Services, painting a rosy picture of the problem and of the President's engagement and still developing no national plan for testing, tracking, opening schools and businesses."

What's killing us

One of the biggest Covid-related questions facing Americans right now is whether to send children back to school. Biologist Erin Bromage said his are going back but acknowledged that the decision is made easier by the fact they attend private school in an area where community transmission of the disease is low.

Veep search

There's one thing Joe Biden doesn't lack in his search for a running mate: advice.

For more on the 2020 campaign:

Devastation in Beirut

As white smoke billowed out of a warehouse Tuesday at the port of Beirut, an enormous explosion, captured on video as a gigantic red flash, decimated the area, killing at least 158 people, wounding more than 5,000 and forcing half of the city's population out of their homes. The blast was attributed to a huge cache of ammonium nitrate stored at the port.

"Perhaps the shared anger over this event can bring the Lebanese together to push back against the incompetent and the greedy, the functionaries, politicians, and outside players, who have hijacked their country and created conditions for the Lebanese people's never-ending tragedy; admittedly a monumental task."

Where is Congress?

Democrats and Republicans remained far apart last week on the outline of a new pandemic relief bill. The jobless rate in July, although modestly lower than in June, was 10.2% -- a number slightly higher than the peak of the Great Recession. But there was no agreement in Congress on extending any portion of the $600 a week in extra aid for the unemployed. On Saturday, Trump signed executive actions that could provide additional aid and defer payroll taxes for some workers, but they face serious hurdles.

Among the hardest hit industries is restaurants, John Avlon noted: "Independent restaurant owners face an economic apocalypse." The industry employs "11 million Americans, with an economic impact that is felt up and down the supply chain, from farmers to fishermen," he wrote. Often barely eking out a profit pre-pandemic, restaurants faced closure at the beginning of the crisis, and now, in many cases, are trying to survive on takeout or outdoor dining. Restaurants are backing legislation to create a $120 billion federal grant program.

100 years later ...

August marks the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the vote and will be celebrated on Women's Equality Day, August 26.

Today it's viewed widely as the long-delayed but almost inevitable political empowerment of more than half the population. So, it's surprising to read, as Nicole Hemmer recounted, that more than a few of the activists opposing suffrage were women.

"The women who opposed women's right to vote have often been left out of the story of suffrage," Hemmer wrote. "Talk of women's interests, like the interest of other marginalized groups, often trades in flat stereotypes, treating all members of the group as though they think, and vote, the same. But as the anti-suffragist women show, women have been shrewd political actors, understanding -- and protecting -- their sources of power in unexpected ways."

Hemmer sees echoes of the anti-suffrage women in the activists, led by Phyllis Schlafly, who fought off the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s, a story told in the recent FX series, "Mrs. America."

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AND...

Michelle Obama and Melinda Gates

In a piece for CNN Opinion, Michelle Obama and Melinda Gates expressed concern about students like Fortunate Ayomirwoth, who lives in a suburb of Kampala, Uganda. Her school has been closed since the pandemic erupted, they wrote. While Fortunate does chores and cares for four younger siblings, she hopes "there will be enough food to eat. Since her mother lost her job, money has been tight -- and for Fortunate, her window of opportunity feels like it, too, is getting tighter."

"We know from past crises, like the 2014 Ebola outbreak, that adolescent girls in low and middle-income countries are particularly at risk of being overlooked and left behind," noted Obama and Gates. "During a crisis like this one, adolescent girls face a heightened threat of physical and sexual violence, early and forced marriage, and unintended pregnancy on top of sustained economic hardship."

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Donald Trump's five revealing words - CNN

Rihanna is counting down the days until the 2020 election.

The pop star a vocal critic of President Donald Trump on Friday tweeted images of what appeared to be someone painting the words FUCK TRUMP on the roof of an out-of-commission vehicle.

She captioned the post: Art. #81 days.

Its unclear if Rihanna is the person featured in the pictures, and representatives for the singer did not immediately respond to HuffPosts request for further information.

The exact location of the photos is also unknown, but social media users suggested the photos were taken along Route 66 at theCadillac Ranchnear Amarillo, Texas.

Rihanna confirmed the post was about the election with this response:

The singers fans lapped up the photos.

Stylist Matthew Mazur dubbed her BadGalBanksy in reference to the musicians BadGalRiri Instagram handle and the anonymous British street artist, Banksy.

Rihanna has previously slammed Trump over his immigration policies, for failing to call mass shootings terrorism, and his disastrous handling of the federal response to Hurricane Maria that hit Puerto Rico in 2017.

In 2018, she sent Trump a cease-and-desist notice to stop him from playing her songs at campaign rallies.

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Rihanna Spells Out Exactly What She Thinks Of Donald Trump With Graffiti Photos - HuffPost

Aug. 14 (UPI) -- President Donald Trump is expected to visit his ill younger brother in the hospital when he travels to New York City on Friday, the White House said.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Matthews told USA Today that the president's sibling, Robert Trump, had been admitted.

"I have a wonderful brother. We have a great relationship for a long time, from day one," the president told reporters at a news briefing Friday afternoon. "He's in the hospital right now.

"Hopefully he'll be alright, but ... he's having a hard time."

ABC News, citing unnamed sources, reported that Robert Trump is "very ill," but neither the network nor the president specified his condition or diagnosis.

The White House added the president's trip to New York City as an update to his Friday schedule. He'll also deliver remarks to the City of New York Police Department Development Association at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in New Jersey.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said the president would later provide more information about his brother's illness. She described the two men as having "a very good relationship."

ABC News' report said Robert Trump, who's two years younger than the president, also was hospitalized in the intensive care unit at Mount Sinai hospital for a week in June. Earlier this year, he filed a lawsuit on behalf of his family to block the release of a tell-all book by his niece, Mary Trump.

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Trump to visit 'very ill' younger brother in NYC hospital - UPI News

So how did a centuries-old American institution end up at the center of the most heated political fight in Washington? Its a little complicated, but we break down the mail-in ballot battle.

The Biden campaign called the comments explicit proof of what Democrats have been claiming all along: that Johnson's probe of corruption allegations against the intelligence community and Biden's diplomatic efforts in Ukraine were thinly veiled efforts to weaponize the powerful Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee to damage the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.

"This damning acknowledgment totally exposes that Ron Johnson's disgraceful conduct is the definition of malfeasance," said Biden spokesman Andrew Bates. "It is beyond time for him to end this embarrassing and deeply unethical charade once and for all as a number of his Senate Republican colleagues have long wanted."

As Election Day approaches, Johnson has found himself besieged by the left and the right, distrusted by some intelligence officials and facing allegations that his committee has partly relied on information obtained from a Ukrainian lawmaker whom the U.S. intelligence community has now deemed a tool of a Russian election interference effort. (Johnson says he hasn't received anything from the lawmaker, Andrii Derkach). Johnson, who claims he's being targeted for destruction by Democrats and the press, also hinted in one Tuesday radio interview that he had some friction with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who he said had "sidelined" him at one point during his investigation.

Asked about Johnson's comment, McConnell aides said it would be up to Johnson to elaborate. A source close to Johnson said McConnell's decision to tap the Senate Intelligence Committee to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 election combined with the lengthy investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller "made obtaining documents and information very difficult." The source noted that McConnell had voiced general support for aiming subpoenas at former Obama administration officials.

In short, Johnson increasingly finds himself on an island while presiding over a politically loaded investigation less than 100 days before the election. The contours of his investigation are a bit blurry, overlapping with a similar probe into alleged intelligence community abuses by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, even as Johnson vows to ramp it up and issue a full report on his findings in September.

Johnsons probe examines allegations of corruption within the U.S. intelligence community during the transition of power from the Obama administration to President Donald Trump, as well as claims of abuses by intelligence community officials stemming from the FBI's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election, known as Crossfire Hurricane.

Johnson has emphasized that his investigation's overlap with Graham is another reason he hasn't pursued certain lines of inquiry. Graham is pursuing allegations of abuses by the FBI in its investigation into the Trump campaign's 2016 contacts with Russia. That overlap became particularly evident this week: Johnson subpoenaed the FBI on Monday, demanding all records related to Crossfire Hurricane and accusing Director Chris Wray of stonewalling his investigation.

Yet on Thursday, Graham issued a statement insisting that Wray "is committed to being helpful in an appropriate manner by balancing the needs of privacy for Bureau employees with public transparency for the benefit of the American people." Graham made no mention of Johnson's subpoena and noted that Wray had vowed to share information with his committee.

Trump has repeatedly encouraged investigations into former President Barack Obama, claiming without evidence that Obama committed grave crimes against Trumps incoming administration. Trump dubbed the alleged scandal Obamagate but has offered no details to support allegations that Obama committed any wrongdoing.

Johnson is also pursuing widely discredited allegations that Biden engineered the removal of a Ukrainian prosecutor to shield his son Hunter from a corruption probe. At the time, Hunter was serving on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company, a conflict that several Obama-era officials said presented the appearance of a conflict of interest even if they saw no evidence of wrongdoing.

A series of State Department officials told Congress during impeachment proceedings against Trump that Ukraine's top prosecutor at the time, Viktor Shokin, was an impediment to anti-corruption efforts and Biden's push to remove him was part of the U.S. government and international community's efforts to root out bad actors in Ukraine. Shokin's ouster made it more likely not less that Burisma would face a serious investigation, witnesses said.

The latest indications of pent-up anger on the right that Johnsons probe hasnt gone far enough came during a contentious radio interview Wednesday with the usually friendly conservative host Hugh Hewitt, who told Johnson he had "failed" in his investigation by declining to subpoena key Obama-era figures like FBI Director James Comey and CIA Director John Brennan. During an occasionally heated 10-minute exchange, Johnson attributed his pace to resistance from multiple Republicans on his committee, who he said could block him from issuing subpoenas.

But Johnson's office later acknowledged this wasn't the case the committee's Republicans already voted to empower Johnson to subpoena Brennan, Comey and others during a June business meeting. Rather, aides said Johnson had opted against issuing subpoenas because he wanted to exhaust efforts to obtain documents and seek voluntary cooperation from witnesses.

Aides to the Wisconsin Republican declined to discuss the status of those negotiations, but a source familiar with the probe indicated that Brennan has not been contacted by the committee about the prospect of voluntary testimony. The source close to Johnson, however, indicated that the panel is in talks with a "dozen or so" witnesses related to the Ukraine inquiry and that interviews are being scheduled.

"The committee is going through the process of building documents and a schedule for additional interviews in an organized manner," the source said.

Johnson has faced pushback from within his own party. Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah has criticized the probe as appearing overtly political, though he later relented and approved Johnson's subpoena authority, saying he was given an assurance that witness interviews would be done behind closed doors to avoid a political spectacle.

Johnson took aim at his critics earlier this week with an 11-page letter, accusing unnamed Democrats and media outlets of trying to topple his probe with allegations of Russian disinformation, while being guilty of disseminating it themselves.

"The very transparent goal of their own disinformation campaign and feigned concern is to attack our character in order to marginalize the eventual findings of our investigation," Johnson wrote. "They are running the same play, out the same playbook they have been using for the last three and a half years."

Asked about the attacks on his probe during a Tuesday radio interview with a conservative host in Wisconsin, Johnson put a finer point on it: "There's a coordinated effort now to destroy me."

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Besieged on all sides, Ron Johnson says his probe 'would certainly' help Trump win reelection - POLITICO

Donald Trumps attack on Bill Maher, apparently triggered by the HBO hosts mock eulogy of the president on his show last week, is only his latest swipe at the comedian.

Watched @billmaher last week for the first time in a long time. Hes totally SHOT, looks terrible, exhausted, gaunt, and weak. If there was ever a good reason for no shutdown, check out this jerk. He never had much going for him, but whatever he did have is missing in action!

Maher reacted to Trumps tweet, writing on Twitter, Really? This is what the president of the United States does with his time?

Last year, Trump wrote that he accidentally watched Real Time, and six years ago, in 2014, he wrote that Maher looks pathetic, bloated & gone!

Back then, Trump had sued Maher after the host joked that he would donate $5 million to the charity of Trumps choice if he could prove that he was not a half-orangutan. The lawsuit was not defamation, but over Mahers failure to pay the amount after Trumps then-lawyer Michael Cohen produced his birth certificate showing that his father was Fred Trump.

Maher had been doing a riff on Trumps offer of $5 million to charity if then-President Barack Obama released his college records.

Maher told Variety in 2016, So he actually goes into court and says, Bill Maher owes me $5 million because heres my birth certificate and look, it doesnt say orangutan on it. I mean, I cant even begin to describe how insane that is. Trump later dropped the lawsuit.

On his show on Friday, Maher said that the only bipartisan agreement we seem to have these days is that neither party wants Donald Trump at their funerals.

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Donald Trump Attacks Bill Mahers Looks After HBO Host Delivers A Mock Eulogy Of The President - Deadline

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On Saturday, President Donald Trump held a press conference at his New Jersey golf course to sign a series of executive actions relating to the coronavirus pandemic. They would in his characterization, extend a moratorium on evictions, freeze payroll taxes, and provide a $400-a-week unemployment benefit for people who have been laid off during the pandemic. Democrats were opposed to the $400-a-week payment, Trump said, which is technically true, inasmuch as Democrats actually wanted it to be $600. Saturdays action came after the Trump administration, Senate, and the House, deadlocked over the terms of a coronavirus relief package. Trump called the executive order and memos bills, but it is very significant that they are notits possible hell face legal challenges for overstepping his own authority. After all, can a president really justcancel taxes?

What was notable, also, was what Trump didnt decide to do with powers he may or may not have. There was no additional funding for school reopening, and no second round of stimulus checks to Americansbut he did talk up the possibility of cutting capital gains taxes, in case you wanted to feed your family with those. To pay for the unemployment extensionwhich is really a massive, 33 percent cut to what people are getting currentlyhe diverted money from disaster-relief assistance. Deferring payroll taxes (and Trump said he would eventually terminate them) means, in real terms, cutting off a funding source of Social Security and Medicare. Inasmuch as it was a statement of values, it was revealing one.

But Trump made little effort to hide the true purpose of both the hastily scheduled event and the papers he was there to sign: It was a campaign rally. Repeatedly during his remarks, he launched into attacks against former vice president Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, and presented the orders he was signing in deliberately electoral terms.

Take the payroll tax freeze. If Im victorious on November 3rd, I plan to forgive these taxes and make them all permanent, he said. Now, Joe Biden and the Democrats dont want that. If Biden wins, he warned, Theyll have the option of taking this all awaybut if I win, I may extend and terminate it. Your call!

Biden probably wont be doing that, he continued. Youll have to ask him. I dont think he knows what hes doing.

Later he talked up the stock market, but warned that whatever gains had been made under his tenure would go away if he lost. I hope you have confidence in your president, and confidence that hell be re-elected, he said. Otherwise, Trump declared, the stock market might crash.

Sleepy Joe Biden wants to rip the wall down, Trump said, referring to the construction of the border fence, something that has nothing to do with coronavirus relief, but a core part of every Trump campaign stump speech. At another point, he said that Biden is totally supported by the Bernie Sanders wing of the party, and as a matter of the fact, hes gone further left than Bernie. This would be welcome news for Sanders supporters if true. (It is not.)

The pandemic shut down Trumps stadium rallies (and the sputtering attempt in Tulsa discouraged his campaign from even trying), but in its content and stagecraft, it was obvious this event was some kind of heir. For the second consecutive day, Trump even invited supportive members of his golf club to attendand cheeras he spoke to the cameras. Dubbed as a press conference, he cut off questioning after just a few minutes, and it ended with the audience cheering as he sparred with the media. It sounded like one of his rallies.

Its worth stepping back every now and then and acknowledging how not normal this is. Presidents arent supposed to just campaign like this on the job. Turning official White House business into a re-election rallyparticularly a special rally, at your own golf course, for people who pay you for accessis using taxpayer money for personal use. Thats corruption. Just last week, the Washington Post reported that the president was considering giving his Republican National Convention speech directly from the White House lawn. For years, good-government types have lamented the decline of publicly funded campaigns. Well, youre funding this one. Be careful what you wish for, I guess.

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Donald Trump Is Running for Reelectionand You're Paying For It - Mother Jones

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President Donald Trump was back at it with the racism and sexism Thursday morning, lobbing insults at prominent women of color during an appearance on Maria Bartiromos Fox News show.

After referring to Sen. Kamala Harris as a mad woman, Trump turned his attention to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), making unfounded claims about her academic performance. AOC was a poor student, he said. This is not even a smart person, other than shes got a good line of stuff. I mean, she goes out there and she yaps.

Ocasio-Cortezs high school research on longevity, including how antioxidants can prolong the lifespan of roundworms, earned her an asteroid named in her honor. Meanwhile, Donald Trumps niece, Mary Trump, says the very stable genius paid someone else to take the SATs for him.

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Donald Trump, Who Bragged About Passing a Cognitive Test, Is Attacking AOC's Intelligence - Mother Jones