Category Archives: Donald Trump

If Donald Trump had a problem with Chris Wallace before (he did), then hes really not going to like the Fox News host after his latest critique.

Thats Wallace sharing his thoughts on the presidency at an event on Wednesday night celebrating the First Amendment at Washington, D.C.s Newseum.

Wallace pointed to this Trump tweet, in particular, from back in 2017 that said far more about him than it did about us:

Lets be honest, the presidents attacks have done some damage, the longtime broadcaster and son of journalist icon Mike Wallace said, pointing to a poll that found 77% of Americans believe fake news is a serious threat to our democracy.

Wallace also warned the media that its a big mistake to use the presidents attacks as rationale to push back too hard and cross the line.

I see it all the time on the front page of major newspapers and the lead of the evening news: fact mixed with opinion, buzzwords like bombshell and scandal, he said. The animus of the reporter and the editor as plain to see as the headline.

Heres the clip of Wallaces speech:

Wallace has strayed from the prevailing political bias on Fox News before. Of course, it hasnt gone unnoticed by Trump, the counterpuncher:

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Fox News host delivers a scathing rebuke of Trump? Yes, it happened... again - MarketWatch

Even as it became clear he would become only the fourth president to face impeachment, Donald Trump has argued to White House officials that he is, in fact, winning. Hes feeling positive, a former West Wing official told me. The prevailing view is the Democrats are blowing it. Trumps feeling is his all-out brawl strategy is working. His confidence is buoyed by an uptick in his swing state poll numbers and what he sees as Democrats failure to message impeachment effectively. Its unbelievable. Hes unfazed," another former West Wing official said. I spoke to him the other day and he was going, Can you believe this fucking witch hunt? This is a joke!

So far, Trumps wall of support from House and Senate Republicans appears as solid as ever. But Trump is less certain about the strength of his ultimate line of defense: Fox News. According to multiple sources whove spoken with Trump as impeachment has unfolded in the House, Trump is furious with pockets of Foxs coverage. Hes pissed. He thinks Fox screwed him, a former West Wing official said. The news division carried the impeachment hearings live, a rare instance in which unmediated evidence of Trumps misdeeds could pierce the Fox bubble. The networks legal commentator, Judge Andrew Napolitano, declared Trumps defiance of Congress an impeachable offense, a position that directly contradicted the House Republicans handpicked witness, George Washington University law scholar Jonathan Turley. Trump has also been engaged in a running war with Fox News anchor Chris Wallace; after Trump tweeted last month that Wallace was nasty, fellow Foxer Neil Cavuto rushed to Wallaces defense.

Fox did not respond to a request for comment.

On Sunday, Trump lashed out on Twitter, writing: Dont get why @FoxNews puts losers on like @RepSwalwell (who got ZERO as presidential candidate before quitting), Pramila Jayapal, David Cicilline and others who are Radical Left Haters? The Dems wouldnt let @FoxNews get near their bad ratings debates, yet Fox panders. Pathetic! Also over the weekend, Trump tweeted multiple stories from Fox rival Newsmax run by Trumps friend Chris Ruddy. Having any opposing voices is a problem for Trump, a Republican who spoke with the president told me. He was saying this coverage is bullshit. This was a shot across the bow to all the hosts.

Inside Fox, the message was received. Hes clearly worried were really going to cover this fairly, and hes starting to freak. This is about keeping us in line, a Fox staffer told me.

More Great Stories From Vanity Fair

Wildly incriminating emails show the White House knew Trump was extorting Ukraine Is Rudy Giuliani truly in trouble? The secret life and strange death of Quadriga cofounder, Gerald Cotten The hunt for Jeffrey Epsteins alleged enabler Ghislaine Maxwell New polling suggests Democrats impeachment push could alienate key voters From the Archive: Inside Jeffrey Wigands epic multibillion-dollar struggle

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He Thinks Fox Screwed Him: Trump Enraged At Fox, His Impeachment Bulwark - Vanity Fair

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A look at some key numbers for the 120thArmy-Navy game on Saturday:

2,527:Total yards amassed by Navy senior quarterback Malcolm Perry, recently named the offensive player of the year in the American Athletic Conference. With just 68 yards in Saturday's game, he'll break Will Worth's single-season program record for total offense.

672.5: Combined rushing yards per game recorded by Navy and Army this season. They rank first and second in the Football Bowl Subdivision, respectively, in that category.

253.8: Combined rushing yards allowed by Army and Navy. The Midshipmen boast a top-20 rushing defense, while Army ranks 52nd.

119:Games played between Army and Navy, dating to the inaugural meeting in West Point, New York in 1890. The Midshipmen lead the series 60-52-7.

Army players and cadets celebrate last season's 17-10 to win over Navy.(Photo: Danny Wild, USA TODAY Sports)

In their words: Army-Navy game: NFL player will remember 'for the rest of my life,' when Cadets broke losing streak

In their words: Former Navy player recalls thrill of winning Army game 'all four years'

88:Army-Navy games played in Philadelphia. Lincoln Financial Field, home of the NFL's Eagles, will host three of the next four Army-Navy games including Saturday's contest; The two teams will face off at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey in 2021 following the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks in nearby New York.

47.7%:Army's third-down conversion rate since 2010, which leads the country over that span.

21:Career pass breakups by Army cornerback Elijah Riley, second in program history. Riley, a semifinalist for this year's Jim Thorpe Award, has played a role in six of his team's 17 forced turnovers in 2019, intercepting three passes and forcing three fumbles.

14:The length of Navy's winning streak over Army from 2002 through 2015, the longest streak in the history of the series.

3:Consecutive wins for Army since ending its skid in 2016. Another win over Navy on Saturday would give the Black Knights their first four-game winning streak in the rivalry since 1993 to 1996.

10: Sitting presidents who have attended the game, including Donald Trump, who will be there for the third time on Saturday, twice while in office and once while president-elect.

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Army Navy game by the numbers includes President Donald Trump attending for the third time - USA TODAY

Back to the question of what makes U.S. Jews politically different. Much of the answer is historical memory. Most of us, I think, know that whenever bigotry runs free, were likely to be among its victims.

The Trump administration is, beyond any reasonable doubt, an anti-democratic, white nationalist regime. And while it is not (yet) explicitly anti-Semitic, many of its allies are: Jews will not replace us chanted the very fine people carrying torches in Charlottesville, Va. You have to be willfully ignorant of the past not to know where all this leads. Indeed, its happening already: anti-Semitic incidents have soared (and my hate mail has gotten interesting).

Jews arent the only people who have figured this out. Many Asian-American voters used to support Republicans, but the group is now overwhelmingly Democratic. Indian-Americans, in particular, are like American Jews: a high-income, high-education group that votes Democratic by large margins, presumably because many of its members also realize where white nationalism will take us.

In all of this, Republicans not just Trump, but his whole party are reaping what they sowed. Their strategy for decades has been to win votes from working-class whites, despite an anti-worker agenda, by appealing to racial resentment. Trump has just made that racial appeal cruder and louder. And one has to admit that this strategy has been quite successful.

But it takes, well, chutzpah, a truly striking level of contempt for your audience, to foment hatred-laced identity politics, then turn to members of minority groups and say, in effect, Ignore the bigotry and look at the taxes youre saving!

And some of the audience deserves that contempt. As I said, people are pretty much the same whatever their background. There are wealthy Jews who are sufficiently shortsighted, ignorant or arrogant enough to imagine that they can continue to prosper under a white nationalist government.

But most of my ethnic group, I believe, understands that Trump is bad for the Jews, whatever tax bracket we happen to be in.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. Wed like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And heres our email: letters@nytimes.com.

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Donald Trump Is Bad for the Jews - The New York Times

I agree and I cannot wait to take that out of context for the next 100 years. SAMANTHA BEE

O.K., will the last vertebrae to leave Lindsey Grahams spine please remember to turn off the lights? STEPHEN COLBERT

Lindsey Grahams point was, I guess that the parties involved in the investigation were biased against Donald Trump. They didnt want him to be president, which is a crazy point to make, because I can think of someone else back then who didnt want him to be president, too. JIMMY KIMMEL

I guess he had a change of heart, because Lindsey Graham was one of the most outspoken critics of Trump; now he suckles at his teat like a baby goat. JIMMY KIMMEL

Those messages dont prove anything. You cant go anywhere in the world without hearing opinions about Trump. Im pretty sure there are people stranded on deserted islands in the Bermuda Triangle putting rocks together that say, Trump is a douche. SETH MEYERS

Meanwhile, every Democrat was like, I allot my time to Lindsey Graham. Just keep going. JIMMY FALLON

A damning chain of texts. Ill tell you what: I can understand why Graham is furious. Not only is that overt bias by F.B.I. agents, theyre stealing Grahams best material. STEPHEN COLBERT

Time magazine today unveiled their person of the year for 2019 and that person is Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old activist, the youngest woman, youngest human ever to be named person of the year. And to honor this young woman whos dedicated her life thus far to saving the environment, Time will cut down thousands of trees to print 2 million copies of the magazine. JIMMY KIMMEL

When asked what she thought about Time, Thunberg said, We probably have about five, six years left. SETH MEYERS

It was like, Great news, Greta. Were going to cut down a million trees and print your face on them, and then were going to put them on airplanes and send them all over the world! TREVOR NOAH

"Its so cool to be named the person of the year while youre still in high school, all right? All the other kids are like, I was voted most likely to succeed. And Greta is slapping her magazine like, I already did, bitch. TREVOR NOAH

Plus she doesnt have to fill out a college application she can show them this. But it will be awkward when she presents it to Harvard: Wait a second Aunt Becky told us her daughter was person of the year. TREVOR NOAH

After being told, the 16-year-old girl asked, Whats a magazine? CONAN OBRIEN

Greta famously sailed across the Atlantic Ocean on a boat with no kitchen, no showers and no toilets. And anyone whos ever been on a carnival cruise was, like Hey, I did that. Where is my award? JIMMY FALLON

Jon Hamm and Keri Russell play Mad Lib Theater on Wednesday's The Tonight Show.

Excerpt from:

Late Night Takes a Swig of Trumps Impeachment Light - The New York Times

Editors note (December 11th): This article has been updated.

UNION LEADERS and Democratic lawmakers were cool at first towards the USMCA, a replacement for the 25-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) which was signed by American, Canadian and Mexican trade negotiators over a year ago. But on December 10th, after months of further talks, they swung behind a reworked version. Richard Trumka, the head of the AFL-CIO, Americas largest trade-union group, proclaimed a new standard for future trade negotiations. Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives, called it a victory for Americas workers.

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The reversal may seem surprising. The AFL-CIO has not endorsed an American trade deal in nearly two decades, and Ms Pelosi is trying to get President Donald Trump, whose deal this is, impeached. According to polling data provided to The Economist by YouGov and published on December 11th, though 79% of Americans say that trade and globalisation are important to them, only 37% say the same of replacing NAFTA with the USMCA.

But both the politics and the content of the deal have led to unexpected alliances. Supporting the USMCA lets Democrats claim that they are not obstructing Mr Trumps agenda for the sake of it. And on trade, Mr Trump has more in common with the left wing of the Democratic Party than with his own Republicans. Many Democrats agree that previous deals made trade too free, with too few of the benefits going to American workers. And several of the changes secured by the Democrats are meaningful. Some are sure to be to Mr Trumps taste, too.

Among the revisions are an end to intellectual-property protections for biologics, a specific class of drug, and weaker patents for pharmaceuticals in general. Democrats say such protections stifle competition from generics and raise drug prices. Unsurprisingly, those changes went down badly with the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, an industry lobby. Its president said they amounted to an abandonment of protections for American companies.

Enforcement has been beefed up. Improvements to NAFTAs dispute-settlement system are probably the most important thing in the whole treaty, says Jess Seade, Mexicos chief negotiator. Under NAFTA, countries could block the appointment of arbiters to hear awkward disputes. This should no longer be possible.

The shared vision of the Trump administration and Democratic lawmakers is clearest when it comes to labour standards. The aim was to make it less attractive to move jobs from America to Mexico than had been the case under NAFTA by supporting Mexican workers employment rights. But in the first version of the USMCA, the AFL-CIO complained, the bar for proving a breach of the rules was too high and enforcement mechanisms were too onerous. Critics pointed to the only labour complaint ever to make it as far as a formal dispute as part of an American trade deal: a case against Guatemala in which arbiters agreed that the rules had been broken, but not that any harm to trade or investment had been demonstrated.

The new deal shifts the burden of proof regarding such harm. To avoid penalties, defendants will have to show that it did not happen. Moreover, accusations that manufacturers are breaking Mexican laws covering freedom of association and collective bargaining will be sent for speedy consideration to panels of independent labour experts. Rule-breaking will lead to penalties on exports. Overall, the revised labour provisions are good for Mexico, Mr Seade says, and will reinforce its governments own labour reforms.

The revised USMCA will restrict trade a bit more than NAFTA did. It will probably not live up to the hype. Even if greater use of collective bargaining raises Mexican wages, the USMCAs official impact assessment suggests that American wages would rise by just 0.27% in response. But for Mr Trump, his Democratic foes and their neighbours in Mexico, it counts as a win.

See the rest here:

Why the revised USMCA pleases both Democrats and Donald Trump - The Economist

A Trump campaign Twitter account on Tuesday blasted out a doctored video featuring the Marvel super villain Thanos proclaiming, "I am inevitable."

Only, Thanos' purple, CGI'd version of Josh Brolin's chin-heavy mug is courtesy of some cheesy graphic effects overlaid with President Donald Trump's smirking face. And when Thanos-Trump snaps his fingers, the video cuts to House Democratic leaders, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, fading into mere dust.

The tweet, put out by the official Trump War Room account, tied the meme to the Trump impeachment inquiry in the House, which kicked into a new phase on Tuesday as the leaders announced they would seek two articles of impeachment against the president. The message: Impeachment can't stop Trump's reelection next year.

Critics were puzzled and aghast by the choice to depict Trump as literally laying his political opponents to waste. Thanos is a villain, after all. Not just any villain, either. The biggest villain in the biggest series of global blockbuster films ever. When Thanos snaps his fingers at the end of "Avengers: Infinity War," he wipes out half of all life in the universe.

The creator of the Thanos character, comic book artist and writer Jim Starlin, weighed in, too.

"After my initial feeling of being violated, seeing that pompous fool using my creation to stroke his infantile ego, it finally struck me that the leader of my country and the free world actually enjoys comparing himself to a mass murderer," he said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. "How sick is that? These are sad and strange times we are going through. Fortunately, all things, even national nightmares, eventually come to an end."

Doesn't the Trump campaign realize they were likening their candidate to a super villain?

Don't be naive. Of course they do.

They know that to liberals and Democrats especially, Trump is a villain. And they love it. Remember that Trump and his followers embraced the "deplorable" label gifted to them by Hillary Clinton during the 2016 campaign.

Even before running for office, Trump himself thrived as a pop culture villain. This is the guy who turned "you're fired" into a catchphrase. He is in the WWE Hall of Fame. He only likes to watch the violent scenes in Van Damme movies. Sure, Trump also thrives on the adulation of his followers and memes depicting him as heroic and strong. Remember the doctored "Rocky III" image from just a few weeks ago. But make no mistake, being a larger-than-life heavy is integral to the Trump persona, and his success.

So in this context, the Trump campaign's meme masters were consistent and on brand. But they also messed up. Villains, after all, are often victims of their own hubris. This is certainly the case for Thanos.

The "I am inevitable" scene is from "Avengers: Endgame," and, well, things don't actually go so well for Thanos after he issues his doom-laden quip. Bear with me as I get into some nerdy detail. (This is also a big spoiler for the end of "Avengers: Endgame." But, let's face it, it's the highest-grossing movie of all time, so you've either seen it, or, if you haven't seen it by now, you don't care whether it's spoiled for you.) In that moment, he is actually outsmarted by Iron Man, who has snatched all the Infinity Stones. So after Thanos' big line, Iron Man offers a rebuttal -- "I am Iron Man" -- and snaps his fingers to make Thanos disappear.

Trump's reelection is anything but inevitable. He is likely going to be impeached by the Democratic-led House, although he probably won't be removed from office by the Republican-led Senate. He'll continue running for reelection. And even though his Democratic rival is a long way from being determined, the president will likely be in for the fight of his life leading up to November's election. He's the incumbent, and he has a strong economy behind him, at least for the time being. But his approval rating has remained consistently underwater.

All signs point to another tight contest. And, honestly, no one can predict the outcome. It would be good for Trump and his campaign to understand that, with a snap of their fingers, a handful of American voters in swing states could well make Trump's hope for a second term fade away in a cloud of dust.

Mike Calia is the politics editor for CNBC.com. You can follow him on Twitter: @Michael_Calia

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Trump is in the endgame now, but he is far from inevitable - CNBC

A leading host on Fox News, a conservative network notorious for its loyalty to the White House, has lambasted Donald Trump for mounting the most direct attack on press freedom in American history.

Chris Wallace, widely admired for breaking ranks from Fox colleagues by putting tough questions to administration officials, delivered his most stinging critique yet of the US president at an event celebrating the first amendment.

I believe that President Trump is engaged in the most direct sustained assault on freedom of the press in our history, Wallace said to applause at the Newseum, a media museum in Washington, on Wednesday night.

He has done everything he can to undercut the media, to try and delegitimise us, and I think his purpose is clear: to raise doubts when we report critically about him and his administration that we can be trusted. Back in 2017, he tweeted something that said far more about him than it did about us: The fake news media is not my enemy. It is the enemy of the American people.

Wallace recalled that retired admiral Bill McRaven, a navy Seal for 37 years, had described Trumps sentiment as maybe the greatest threat to democracy in my lifetime because, unlike even the Soviet Union or Islamic terrorism, it undermines the US constitution.

The veteran broadcaster added: Lets be honest, the presidents attacks have done some damage. A Freedom Forum Institute poll, associated here with the Newseum, this year found that 29% of Americans, almost a third of all of us, think the first amendment goes too far. And 77%, three quarters, say that fake news is a serious threat to our democracy.

Wallace is a rare dissenting voice at the Rupert Murdoch-owned Fox News, where opinion hosts such as Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham are fiercely pro-Trump. Longtime anchor Shep Smith, who was also praised for his independence, stepped down in October and warned that intimidation and vilification of the press is now a global phenomenon. We dont have to look far for evidence of that.

Wallace, son of distinguished journalist Mike Wallace, conducts some of the sharpest grillings of any of Americas long running Sunday politics shows. When he recently took House minority whip Steve Scalise to task, Trump responded with a tweet that called Wallace nasty and obnoxious.

But at Wednesdays event, a farewell to the Newseum which is closing down after nearly 12 years at its current location, Wallace also warned the media against overreach. I think many of our colleagues see the presidents attacks, his constant bashing of the media as a rationale, as an excuse to cross the line themselves, to push back, and that is a big mistake, he said.

I see it all the time on the front page of major newspapers and the lead of the evening news: fact mixed with opinion, buzzwords like bombshell and scandal. The animus of the reporter and the editor as plain to see as the headline.

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Fox host lambasts Trump over 'most sustained assault on press freedom in US history' - The Guardian

Fox News anchor Chris Wallace has delivered a blistering assessment of President Donald Trumps repeated and sustained attacks on the press that report critically on him and his administration.

I believe that President Trump is engaged in the most direct sustained assault on freedom of the press in our history, the host of Fox News Sunday said at an event celebrating the First Amendmentat the Newseum media museum in Washington on Wednesday.

He has done everything he can to undercut the media, to try and delegitimize us, and I think his purpose is clear: to raise doubts when we report critically about him and his administration that we can be trusted, Wallace continued, per The Guardian.

Wallace also reportedly said this tweet from Trump in February 2017 said far more about him than it did about us.

Wallaces pointed criticism of Trump is in stark contrast to the praise his prime time colleagues on the widely watched conservative network including Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham often shower on the president.

On Monday, Wallace rejected the claim that the case for the impeachment of Trump over the Ukraine scandal is narrow.

The allegation that President Trump conditioned support for a key foreign policy ally on political benefit to him, strikes me as not narrow but far broader than the Clinton impeachment, he said.

Wallace last month explained why he believed it would be a terrible idea for Trump to testify in the House impeachment inquiry with an analogy about Prince Andrew and his friendship with the late financier pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

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Fox News' Chris Wallace Torches Donald Trump's Attacks On The Press - HuffPost

While much is unpredictable about the attempt to impeach Donald Trump, one thing can be anticipated with certainty. The US president will show no respect for the process and no contrition if found guilty.

Mr Trumps approach will be consistent with his already familiar political style: deceit, cronyism, distraction and bullying. It is the success of that technique that makes impeachment necessary and also difficult. A president who is so obviously unworthy of the office must be held accountable and yet, because Mr Trumps methods have corrupted American public discourse, the unworthiness is not at all obvious to a large swathe of voters.

Democrats have their work cut out persuading many US citizens that there is even a case to answer. They must overcome a conservative propaganda machine that presents impeachment as a crooked enterprise in itself. Facts that should be beyond dispute battle for attention with an army of lies. Partly to overcome that challenge, Democrats have kept the draft articles of impeachment, published this week, succinct. They set out a streamlined version of Mr Trumps offences, focusing on abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. At the heart of the matter is the alleged attempt to use US military aid to induce Ukraines president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, to collude in discrediting Joe Biden, the former US vice-president. Mr Trump denies any such scheme.

The longer trail of misdeeds dating back to the 2016 election campaign is not explicitly cited in the articles. Many Democratic supporters would have preferred a wider-ranging account of corruption, racism, deception, interference with the judiciary and reckless dereliction of duty. The defence of a narrower focus is both legal and political. The charges have to stick. Democrats in Congress felt that the Ukraine affair contained the vital ingredients of judicable crime and misdemeanour the constitutional threshold for impeachment. Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker, also had to contend with qualms from colleagues who feel constrained by undecided voters who are not viscerally hostile to Mr Trump. Much though it would be gratifying to scoop up everything appalling about the current White House regime and land it on the president with a cathartic knockout blow, that is not available in the climate of US politics. A perception of indiscriminate assault on the commander-in-chief could backfire on Democrats who, for now, just about have the balance of public opinion on their side.

Whether the president deserves to be removed from office should not be decided by opinion polls. But next Novembers ballot creates a febrile environment in which gravitation towards polarised positions is more powerful than any bipartisan instinct. To complete an impeachment will require a two-thirds Senate majority, which depends on Republican votes. Those senators must either believe that their president is so toxic that electoral interest requires abandoning him, or they must value the resilience of the constitutional order above popularity with the voters who propelled Mr Trump to office. Neither seems likely. If there were a limit to what most Republicans can tolerate in aberrant behaviour, the president would have found it by now. He has crossed every line that might have been drawn. He cannot clear a bar set at the lowest conceivable threshold of decency, competence or integrity.

But the impeachment process serves a function that goes beyond next years electoral tests. It asserts the supremacy of law in a political system imperilled by a leader who believes with despotic certainty in his own immunity from criticism or sanction. It is not a partisan move against the president but a defence of the foundational principles of the American republic. To declare Mr Trump unfit for office is to anchor US democracy in a self-evident truth when it is dangerously adrift on a sea of lies.

Continued here:

The Guardian view on Trumps impeachment: the integrity of US democracy is at stake - The Guardian