Donald Trump

[Svensson]

Trump tweeted out this rather odd photograph of him supposedly writing the inaugural speech. It turns out the photo was taken for some reason in the concierge area of his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.

Plus, he looks like he's actually writing a cheque to someone.

[Patrick S]

Plus, he looks like he's actually writing a cheque to someone.

He's writing a check to the American people. But that check can't be cashed for riches alone. That check will serve to bring every American security, peace, international prestige, unlimited access to clean water and healthy food, an unbiased media, more quality television programming, better tasting light beer, a zero calorie sugar substitute that's good for you, a colony on Mars, a cure for cancer, and, yes, unimaginable wealth. This check huge. And big league. Almost as big league as the guy writing it. And after he wrote it he went and made love to his super-model wife before settling in to design the worlds next great golf course on the Gelapagos Islands.

[Pcdunn]

Ha! Very witty, Patrick. I love the statue of the bald-eagle, contrasting with the echoes of Rome in that pseudo-Mediterranean title behind him.

This article sums up my viewpoint today:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/01/20/america-s-trial-by-fire-begins-today.html

[Pcdunn]

President Trump is still getting his facts wrong. sigh...

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/facts-contrast-u-s-carnage-trump-inauguration-article-1.2951849

[Karl]

President Trump is still getting his facts wrong. sigh...

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/poli...icle-1.2951849

Hardly surprising. Inauguration speeches are dreadfully uninspiring at the best of times, and they are invariably a collection of platitudes. This was no exception. Indeed, it just sounded like a regurgitation of old speeches, and he was going down a list of required points:

"America first, check. Economy, check. Poverty, check. Crime, check. Unity, check. God, check."

All completely meaningless, and fact checking is neither here nor there. The same old drivel, which supporters are invariably going to gobble up. I thought the God references in particular stood out as artificial, as I've never heard him invoke God like that at any point in the past.

Also, what's with Americans and cheering at everything? Even when it is completely illogical to do so. "We've defended other nations' borders while refusing to defend our own." ("Woooo!" [applause])

In Europe, closer to the Russians, people might be worried about Trump's implied FU to US allies, but I really don't think it was intended - he was just operating with the intention of giving the audience the drivel they wanted, focusing on an entirely American audience. The fact that he did not consider how other nations might interpret his speech is worrying in and of itself, though, but hardly surprising coming from him. The only thing more worrying would be if he did consider it, in which case we must assume he actually meant what he said.

Of course, he did also have one sentence where he said the US would "reinforce old alliances and make new ones" - whatever he means by that. But this is countered by everything else he said on the topic of foreign policy, which was the exact opposite of reinforcing alliances.

Donald Trump is now the president of the United States. And we still have no idea what he's going to do. Doesn't sound like he's got much of an idea, either.

[John G]

Looks like Trump's approval ratings have fallen off a cliff and he hasn't even started the job yet! http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017...t-two-decades/ And: http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefi...w-hours-before

[ChrisGeorge]

Trump has expressed admiration for the Germans, saying he likes order and strength. His father's family was German, the original family name being Drumpf. Trump's earliest known ancestor, the lawyer Hanns Drumpf, was recorded in Kallstadt in 1608. See article on Trump's grandfather, Frederick Trump, who began as a barber and became an operator of hotels and restaurants -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Trump. Apparently Trump's people enquired if there would be a possibility of including in the inaugural parade tanks and rocket launchers. Shades of Red Square, Beijing, or Pyongyang!

Cheers

Chris

[ChrisGeorge]

Trump was arguably the most litigious private citizen in the United States prior to becoming president, and it's certain that no president has been involved in so many lawsuits -- 3,500 according to USA Today. See http://www.usatoday.com/pages/intera...rump-lawsuits/ -- a counter on the site puts the current count at 4,095 lawsuits over three decades.

[Harry D]

I want to hate Trump but the SJWs and limousine liberals make it so damned difficult!

Also, y'know, Melania.

[ChrisGeorge]

In terms of Trump's possible ethics violations, because he refuses to release his taxes, the full extent of his business interests, both in the United States and internationally, is unknown, so he is in effect hiding any possible conflicts of interest. And while he has declared that only the press is interested in his tax returns, the Office of Government Ethics is going to take a close interest in those business affairs. So even though it's only a day since the man was sworn in as President of the United States, he is already in deep water.

[ChrisGeorge]

A reporter mistakenly tweeted out that the bust of Martin Luther King had been removed from the Oval Office but he was wrong and apologized for his mistake. This was the big thing that Sean Spicer, the new White House spokesman, opened his statement with last evening -- that the press was lying about the MLK bust.

Then he went on to say that the press lied about the size of the crowd at the inauguration, and that the amount of people witnessing the inauguration was larger than any previous inauguration, including Obama's two inaugurations, despite photographic evidence to the contrary. Clearly it was not Spicer speaking but the new President, Donald J. Trump.

In fact, in terms of the bust of Dr. King, Trump needs the optics of having the bust in the Oval Office, to win over whatever African Americans he can.

Meanwhile on the night between the last night of the Obamas in the White House and the inauguration on Friday, the red curtains that Obama had in the Oval Office have been changed for gold drapes. The White House is going to look like Trump Tower in NYC shortly.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-gold-curtains-oval-office_us_5882b0a4e4b096b4a231dde1

[Pcdunn]

Also, Trump sent out from the @POTUS44 Twitter account a misspelled Tweet, deleted it, and reposted the same message with the error ("honered") corrected. But apparently rules forbid official Presidential communications from being deleted. After this was mentioned, the second, corrected Tweet was also deleted.

So he's broken the rules twice already.

[Karl]

A reporter mistakenly tweeted out that the bust of Martin Luther King had been removed from the Oval Office but he was wrong and apologized for his mistake. This was the big thing that Sean Spicer, the new White House spokesman, opened his statement with last evening -- that the press was lying about the MLK bust.

Then he went on to say that the press lied about the size of the crowd at the inauguration, and that the amount of people witnessing the inauguration was larger than any previous inauguration, including Obama's two inaugurations, despite photographic evidence to the contrary. Clearly it was not Spicer speaking but the new President, Donald J. Trump.

But Spicer wasn't lying, he was just giving "alternative facts", at least according to Trump's Counselor Kellyanne Conway:

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/wh-spokesman-gave-alternative-facts-inauguration-crowd-n710466

Seriously, she, Trump and even Spicer would all come out better had she chosen to say that Spicer was in error instead. "Alternative facts"? Does that sound remotely palatable in her head? Such a term immediately invokes the images of a propaganda ministry, hard at work concocting the official truth for public consumption.

[Pcdunn]

Agreed, Karl.

http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/22/media/alternative-facts-donald-trump/index.html

The last paragraph of this article tells us the "real" reason his team is making a fuss about the so-called war with the media. It was to take air time away from images of people protesting.

[Mayerling]

But Spicer wasn't lying, he was just giving "alternative facts", at least according to Trump's Counselor Kellyanne Conway:

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/wh-spokesman-gave-alternative-facts-inauguration-crowd-n710466

Seriously, she, Trump and even Spicer would all come out better had she chosen to say that Spicer was in error instead. "Alternative facts"? Does that sound remotely palatable in her head? Such a term immediately invokes the images of a propaganda ministry, hard at work concocting the official truth for public consumption.

Welcome to the wonderful world of Orwellian "Newspeak" or "Double-speak". Now "Slavery is Freedom", "War is Peace"....