APRIL 8, 2018 / 9:11 PM / UPDATED 11 MINUTES AGO
Reuters Staff
3 MIN READ
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The spokesman for President some rich asshole’s National Security Council plans to leave the administration, the White House said on Sunday, a day before the rich asshole’s third national security adviser formally takes up his post.
Michael Anton, who also worked for former President George W. Bush’s National Security Council and is a former BlackRock managing director, is leaving after serving under the rich asshole for more than a year, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement.
“Michael is one of the smartest and most talented individuals I’ve ever worked with,” Sanders said. “He will be greatly missed.”
the rich asshole telephoned Anton on Sunday to thank him for his service, a White House official said.
The White House did not offer a reason for Anton’s departure or say exactly when he would leave. The departure is the latest in a string of staff changes in the administration.
Anton told Politico he planned to join Hillsdale College’s Kirby Center in Washington as a writer and lecturer. Anton did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Anton published a widely read essay in conservative circles before the 2016 election under a pseudonym that compared the presidential race to the doomed Sept. 11, 2001, flight that crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers charged the cockpit.
“2016 is the Flight 93 election: charge the cockpit or you die,” he wrote. “To compound the metaphor: a Hillary Clinton presidency is Russian Roulette with a semi-auto. With the rich asshole, at least you can spin the cylinder and take your chances.”
Last month, the rich asshole said he was replacing H.R. McMaster as national security adviser with John Bolton, a hawk who has advocated using military force against North Korea and Iran. A week earlier, the rich asshole fired Rex Tillerson as secretary of state and nominated Central Intelligence Agency Director Mike Pompeo to replace him.
Bolton begins work on Monday.
McMaster replaced Michael Flynn, who resigned soon after the rich asshole took office following disclosures he had discussed U.S. sanctions on Russia with the Russian ambassador to the United States before the rich asshole took office.
Flynn pleaded guilty in December to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia.
the rich asshole Somehow Just Blamed Obama For The Chemical Attack In Syria
some rich asshole promised a quick U.S. withdrawal from Syria, going against his own military’s advice. Pentagon officials and top generals have issued dire warnings about the possibility that terrorist groups will surge back in Syria if the U.S. leaves the country. Just days after the rich asshole’s announcement of a withdrawal, at least 70 civilians, including children, were killed in a suspected chemical attack in Douma. Photos and footage emerged showing dead children foaming from their mouths, and to some rich asshole, it’s all Barack Obama’s fault.
“If President Obama had crossed his stated Red Line In The Sand, the Syrian disaster would have ended long ago!” the amateur president tweeted. “Animal Assad would have been history!”
Twitter users responded.
Obama's family was a model of mutual respect and support. Your family is a mire of venality and debauchery.
With a president like trump US needs no enemy
Talk to your buddy putin
THE OBAMA THE HILLARY BLAME GAME IS OVER @realDonaldTrump @POTUS @PressSec THE PREVIOUS ADMINISTRATION BLAMING IS OVER. YOU YOU YOU HAVE BEEN PRESIDENT NOW FOR OVER A YEAR AND 4 MONTHS. YOU COULD HAVE DONE SOMETHING BESIDES MAKING FRIENDS WITH PUTINJasmine Aguilar added,
But what are you going to do about it now though. You have been in office almost 2 years (ugh) and nothing has been done...so other than use your little fingers to tweet a complaint why not show some action.....
Woulda, coulda, shoulda. Quit whining and blaming others you are in the drivers seat now so do something about it you useless POS.
A PUSSY TO PUTIN! Vote in November and take back the house!!
It is absolutely ridiculous to blame Syria on Obama. But by your logic, your pulling us out now while this goes on makes you just as culpable. Do you think before you tweet?
All the time... every time... someone else is to blame!
You swore an oath Jan 20...
and you have NOT lived up to it!!!!!!!!!
So far, the rich asshole lashed out Sunday morning at Hillary Clinton, Obama, the FBI, the Washington Post, and China.
Days without the rich asshole blaming Obama for his failures: zero.
Stormy Daniels lawyer tweets photo of her with forensic artist
BY BRETT SAMUELS - 04/08/18 05:55 PM EDT
Stormy Daniels’s lawyer on Sunday shared a photo of Daniels and a forensic expert who is believed to be working with her to identify an individual who she claims threatened her over an alleged affair with President the rich asshole.
Michael Avenatti tweeted the photo of Daniels alongside Lois Gibson, whom he touted as “the foremost forensic artist in the world.” Daniels can be seen reviewing images of faces while Gibson sketches on an easel.
Stephanie Clifford @StormyDaniels with Lois Gibson, the foremost forensic artist in the world. #thugsearch #searchforthetruth #basta
Gibson claims she has helped law enforcement identify more than 750 criminals.
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, filed the suit last month claiming that a nondisclosure agreement she signed regarding an alleged affair with the rich asshole is invalid because he never signed it.
Her alleged 2006 affair with the rich asshole has remained in the spotlight since The Wall Street Journal reported in January that the rich asshole's attorney, Michael Cohen, paid her $130,000 in “hush money.”
Last week, the rich asshole denied knowing about the payment. It was the first time he had addressed the issue publicly.
"You'll have to ask Michael Cohen," the rich asshole said. "Michael is my attorney. You'll have to ask Michael."
Chuck Todd repeatedly nails the rich asshole trade chief for using term ‘fake news’
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April 8, 2018
'That's a cheap shot.'
NBC News host Chuck Todd hit back at White House Trade Adviser Peter Navarro’s use of the term ‘fake news’ Sunday morning, calling it a “cheap shot” that takes aim at the First Amendment.
Todd made the remarks during a segment on NBC’s “Meet the Press” during which Navarro characterized the Washington Post as “fake news.”
Disputing a recent story in the Post about Chief of Staff John Kelly reportedly threatening to quit his job, Navarro took a jab at the newspaper, saying, “When you read stuff in the Washington Post, frankly, that’s fake news most of the time.”
“I think that expression is a pretty unfair thing about a major news organization,” Todd responded. “That’s a cheap shot.”
Navarro tried to defend his use of the term, arguing that it’s fair to call the Post “fake news” because its coverage is more critical of the rich asshole than other newspapers.
“That is not a cheap shot,” Navarro said, “because if you look at the newspapers that I read every day across the spectrum, the Washington Post in my judgment tends to attack the president more than any other newspaper in its news stories.”
In defending his use of the term ‘fake news,’ Navarro inadvertently admitted what we already knew: It has nothing to do with the accuracy of the reporting. As he stated, he only described the Washington Post as “fake news” because he doesn’t like the negative stories it runs about the rich asshole.
And that’s exactly what makes it so dangerous. By using the term “fake news” to discredit legitimate reporting and ignore scandals they don’t want to deal with, the the rich asshole administration has given other government officials — and other governments — permission to do the same.
Todd made that point Sunday morning, telling Navarro, “The term fake news is not exactly a way to hold up the First Amendment, especially when the Russian government just this morning is [using] that phrase” to discredit reporting about the chemical attacks in Syria.
Navarro’s attempt to defend the term caps off a week during which the the rich asshole administration’s assault on the First Amendment reached a startling new level. In their eyes, the problem is not the unprecedented incompetence, corruption, and chaos in the the rich asshole White House — the problem is that we know about it.
Washington Post senior editor: the rich asshole is jealous of Jeff Bezos
BY AVERY ANAPOL - 04/08/18 03:28 PM EDT
Washington Post senior editor Marc Fisher said Sunday that President the rich asshole has “a jealousy issue” with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.
In an interview on CNN's "Reliable Sources," Fisher responded to the rich asshole’s attacks on The Washington Post, which Bezos owns, and on Amazon.
the rich asshole has lashed out at Amazon in recent days, and has referred to the Washington Post as a “chief lobbyist” for the company, a claim Fisher called “absurd.”
“It’s an absurd claim. The Washington Post has done really a lot of critical reporting of Amazon,” Fisher said. “What’s really going on here is that the president, according to some people inside the White House, has kind of a jealousy issue with Jeff Bezos.”
Fisher pointed specifically to the recent publication of the Forbes list of richest people in the world, on which the rich asshole came in at No. 766 and Bezos topped the list.
Though the rich asshole has repeatedly criticized The Washington Post as part of his attacks on the media as “fake news,” he has upped his criticism in recent weeks in conjunction with criticism of Amazon.
He hit the paper on Sunday in a tweet responding to the recent Post report that chief of staff John Kelly has lost influence in the White House.
“The Washington Post is far more fiction than fact. Story after story is made up garbage - more like a poorly written novel than good reporting,” he tweeted. “Always quoting sources (not names), many of which don’t exist. Story on John Kelly isn’t true, just another hit job!”
The Washington Post is far more fiction than fact. Story after story is made up garbage - more like a poorly written novel than good reporting. Always quoting sources (not names), many of which don’t exist. Story on John Kelly isn’t true, just another hit job!
New York Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet also commented on the rich asshole’s rhetoric Sunday, saying that his attacks on the media are“out of control.”
the rich asshole holds call with Iraqi leader after reports of Syria chemical attack
BY BRETT SAMUELS - 04/08/18 03:17 PM EDT
President the rich asshole on Sunday spoke with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi in the aftermath of an alleged chemical attack on Syrian civilians and amid uncertainty over whether the U.S. will withdraw its troops from the war-torn country.
The two leaders discussed the situation in Syria after reports emerged early Sunday that dozens died in a suspected chemical weapons attack on a hospital in the city of Douma. The death count will likely rise.
The two also discussed the future campaign to defeat the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, according to a White House readout of the call. Al-Abadi thanked the rich asshole for the United States’s support in the fight against the terrorist group, and the two talked about how to defeat the remaining pockets of the organization.
The call comes as the rich asshole sends mixed signals about the future of U.S. involvement in Syria. Two weeks ago, the president said U.S. military forces in the country would return home “very soon.”
He doubled down on that claim last week, saying other countries in the region, like Saudi Arabia, could pay for the U.S. to extend its military presence in Syria.
Following the reported attack, however, the rich asshole slammed Syrian President Bashar Assad and tweeted there would be a "big price to pay" for the incident.
the rich asshole sends mixed signals on Syria amid calls for action
BY MALLORY SHELBOURNE - 04/08/18 02:05 PM EDT
Lawmakers on Sunday urged President the rich asshole to take action in response to a reported chemical attack in Syria that comes as the rich asshole pushes for a draw down of U.S. troops in the war-torn nation.
Senators in both parties pressed the rich asshole to act amid reports that at least 70 individuals are dead in the Syrian city of Douma. Meanwhile, the president in a rare tweet called out Russian President Vladimir Putin for his role in Syria’s ongoing civil war that just entered its eighth year.
But the rich asshole has sent mixed signals about his likely response to Syria, advocating getting the U.S. out of the conflict there but also on Sunday tweeting criticism of his predecessor President Obama's hands-off response to a similar situation.
Following the rich asshole's Sunday tweets, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who has long advocated U.S. military action in Syria, issued a statement in which he urged the president to respond to the alleged chemical attacks.
"the rich asshole was quick to call out [Syrian President Bashar] Assad today, along with the Russian and Iranian governments, on Twitter," McCain said. "The question now is whether he will do anything about it."
The senator noted that the rich asshole had responded with military force against Assad's forces following similar reports last year.
"He should do so again, and demonstrate that Assad will pay a price for his war crimes," McCain said.
Other lawmakers on Sunday pushed for the administration to do more as well.
“Clearly there needs to be a response, it needs to be an international response,” Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
The State Department, in its initial response on Saturday, also said the attacks "demand an immediate response by the international community."
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, echoed Cardin, but also advised the rich asshole to stay the course in Syria, arguing a United States departure would empower groups like the Islamic State in Iraq & Syria and Hezbollah.
“But President the rich asshole can reset the table here. To me, I would destroy Assad's air force,” Graham told ABC’s “This Week."
“I would create safe zones in Syria where people can come back to their country from the surrounding area and live a better life. Train up Syrians to take on Assad so we can negotiate in Geneva from a position of strength.”
White House homeland security adviser Tom Bossert on Sunday maintained that nothing is “off the table” in regard to Syria.
But the most recent chemical attack follows the president’s public pledge late last month to get U.S. troops out of Syria “very soon.”
"Let the other people take care of it now. Very soon. Very soon, we're coming out. We're going to have a hundred percent of the caliphate, as they call it. Sometimes referred to as land, taking it all back. Quickly, quickly," the rich asshole told a crowd in Ohio on March 29.
The remarks put the president at odds with his military advisers, who worry the absence of U.S. forces could lead to a vacuum for terrorist groups in a country ravaged by civil war.
“I think the president is going to have to reconsider his plan for an early withdrawal, in light of what has happened,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) told CNN’s “State of the Union.”
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) also weighed in on Sunday, saying that Putin must be held responsible for backing Assad.
“Members of Congress expect a comprehensive intelligence briefing on this attack as soon as possible," Pelosi said in a statement. "The the rich asshole Administration must finally provide a smart, strong and consistent strategy in Syria.”
the rich asshole's move to withdraw from Syria aligns with his "America-first" foreign policy as well as the response he advocated on Syria in 2013, when he urged Obama not to react to reported chemical weapon use there.
"President Obama, do not attack Syria. There is no upside and tremendous downside. Save your 'powder' for another (and more important) day!" he tweeted then.
Still, the rich asshole on Sunday attacked Obama for failing to deal with Syria during his term in office, tweeting, "if President Obama had crossed his stated Red Line In The Sand, the Syrian disaster would have ended long ago!"
Obama had said in 2012 that Syria using chemical weapons would cross a "red line" with the U.S. However, in 2013 he chose to negotiate along with Russia a deal for Syria to give up its weapons.
the rich asshole has previously responded militarily to reported chemical weapons use. The most recent reported attack comes almost one year to the day since the rich asshole ordered the U.S. military to launch Tomahawk missiles at a Syrian airfield believed to be the launching point of a deadly chemical weapons attack last April.
The Syrian government denied a role in the most recent attack through state media on Sunday, as did the Russian foreign ministry. While the source of the suspected chemical attack has yet to be named, the city of Douma is home to rebel fighters battling the Syrian government.
the rich asshole publicly accused Putin on Twitter of backing Assad, who has received political and military support from Moscow throughout the civil war.
“Many dead, including women and children, in mindless CHEMICAL attack in Syria. Area of atrocity is in lockdown and encircled by Syrian Army, making it completely inaccessible to outside world,” the rich asshole said. “President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad.”
The White House said the rich asshole discussed the reported attack with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi in a phone call on Sunday.
Republican Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) said in an interview that he believes the rich asshole will hold both Syria and Russia accountable for the recent attack.
“I think he will hold not just Syria, but I think he will make it very clear that he believes that Russia is also responsible,” Rounds told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Cardin, who said the rich asshole’s tweet referencing Putin by name constituted “a significant change,” also said Assad should be held responsible. Although the State Department often meets Russia with firm rhetoric, the rich asshole has been notably less direct with Putin.
“Well first and foremost President Assad needs to be held accountable for his war crimes,” Cardin said Sunday.
Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Sunday also said Assad must be held accountable for the suspected attack.
“The chemical attack in Syria is a horror that cannot be tolerated by responsible nations,” Ryan said on Twitter. “The U.S. must continue to lead an international effort to hold the Assad regime and Russia accountable for their actions.”
Updated: 4:26 p.m.
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April 8, 2018
Borrowing the rich asshole's despotic language, Russia invoked the term 'fake news' to discredit reports about the chemical attacks in Syria.
Taking a cue from the rich asshole, the Russian government on Sunday dismissed reports of a deadly chemical attack in the Syrian town of Douma, referring to the reporting as “fake news” and accusing rebel groups of fabricating the story.
According to the International Rescue Committee, more than 70 people were reportedly killed Saturday when Syrian forces dropped barrel bombs filled with toxic gas over the rebel-held city of Douma. An additional 500 people — mostly women and children — were injured in the chemical attack.
This marks the eighth chemical weapons attack on Syrian civilians since the rich asshole took office.
Just as we’ve seen in each previous attack, the Russian government, which supports the Syrian regime, was quick to dismiss reports that Syrian forces were to blame — and thanks to the rich asshole, Russia had a script to follow.
Borrowing the rich asshole’s despotic language about the press, Russia invoked the term “fake news” to discredit reports about the atrocity and foster distrust of the news media in an effort to delegitimize future reporting.
“Fake news on the use of chlorine or other chemical agents by the government forces continue,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “Another piece of such fabricated information on the alleged chemical attack in Douma emerged yesterday.”
The Russian government also referred to the attack as a “hoax” that was “fabricated” to justify Western intervention in Syria.
Online, Russian media outlets like RT and Sputnik have been busy pushing propaganda to discredit news reports about the chemical attacks.
Russian-linked networks on social media have also joined in the effort, pushing out “alternative facts” to spin the narrative. On Sunday, topics and hashtags related to the chemical attacks dominated the activity on Securing Democracy’s Hamilton 68 Dashboard, which tracks 600 Twitter accounts linked to Russian influence operations.
Screenshot/Hamilton 68 Dashboard
This is just the latest example of how the rich asshole’s use of the term “fake news” has been used by repressive regimes around the world to undermine the free press, reject evidence of human rights abuses, and stoke cynicism about the objectivity of news media.
Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and other Syrian government officials have repeatedly borrowed the term, using it to dismiss evidence that the government summarily executed prisoners and murdered civilians with chemical weapons.
“You can forge anything these days. We’re living in a fake-news era,” the Syrian dictator said in February, referencing an Amnesty International report that up to 13,000 prisoners had been executed in one of his military prisons.
In December, Politico identified 15 instances in which autocratic leaders or state media have used the term “fake news” to dismiss questions about human rights violations.
“By aligning themselves with the rich asshole’s words, despots have been able to use the U.S. president as a shield for their attacks on press freedom and human rights,” Politico reported.
There is clear evidence that the use of the term “fake news” to dismiss allegations of widespread human rights atrocities has picked up since the rich asshole took office. Politifact found more than a dozen such instances since the rich asshole took office — and none before then.
Despots use information (and disinformation) as a weapon, and the rich asshole’s anti-press rhetoric has armed dictators around the world, emboldening them to carry out atrocities — and giving them a roadmap to get away with it.
After days of threatening a trade war, the rich asshole dials down the rhetoric with China
the rich asshole tweets that he and Xi Jinping "will always be friends."
Trade war? What trade war?
Just weeks after some rich asshole declared that trade wars were good and easy to win, his administration sought to ease concerns over a brewing standoff over tariffs on China, with the president tweeting Sunday that Beijing ultimately will take down its trade barriers “because it is the right thing to do.”
“President Xi and I will always be friends, no matter what happens with our dispute on trade. China will take down its Trade Barriers because it is the right thing to do,” the president tweeted on Sunday. “Taxes will become Reciprocal & a deal will be made on Intellectual Property. Great future for both countries!”
The president’s tweet was part of a chorus of administration officials seeking to soothe markets, during a week where the Dow plunged by 724 points — the fifth largest point decline in its history — amid fear that the rich asshole’s tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese imports would spark a full-on trade war.
“We don’t think there will be a trade war. Our objective is to continue to have discussions with China,” Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin told CBS News’ Margaret Brennan. “We want to have free and fair reciprocal trade. We’re just looking for our companies and our workers to have a level playing field.”
“Whatever happens in trade, I don’t expect it to have a meaningful impact on our economy,” he added.
“We’re clear-eyed about this. We’re moving forward on a measured way with tariffs, with investment restrictions,” Peter Navarro, director of the White House National Trade Council, told NBC’s Meet the Press. “What we want from China is very clear. We want fair and reciprocal trade.”
The rhetoric is a marked change from just last week, when the administration threatened to impose tariffs on $100 billion worth of Chinese goods, in addition to the tariffs already imposed on $50 billion of Chinese products. The new tariff threats, which were made on Thursday, were met with fierce criticism from politicians in states where agriculture accounts for a large part of the economy.
“If he’s even half-serious, this is nuts,” Sen. Ben Sasse told the New York Times. “Let’s absolutely take on Chinese bad behavior, but with a plan that punishes them instead of us. This is the dumbest possible way to do this.”
The 25 percent tariffs imposed by Beijing in response to the rich asshole have hit U.S. agriculture hard, especially as they include items like pork and soybeans.
“As the Chinese saying goes, it is only polite to reciprocate,” a Chinese Ministry of Commerce statement read last week.
“We hope that the U.S. side, with sense and long-term picture in mind, refrain from going further down the wrong path.”
‘They’re lazy and they’ve been sloppy in their corruption’: Watch MSNBC analyst break down why the rich asshole is so screwed
Christina Greer on MSNBC/Screenshot
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some rich asshole seems genuinely surprised at the doggedness of Robert Mueller and the other investigators digging into his ties to Russia and other possible illegal conduct. He’s repeatedly claimed there was “NO COLLUSION” even as his former campaign manager prepares to go to trial on charges of hiding money he got from Russians for campaign work.
Why is the rich asshole so flummoxed by this process? MSNBC analyst Christina Greer, an New York University professor broke it down on Sunday.
“What this particular president does not do is take pride in his work and be thorough—we’ve seen how his lawyers just willy-nilly throw forms out,” she said. “This president doesn’t understand someone taking time to do something well.”
Greer’s take is the rich asshole is so lazy and lacking in fortitude that it’s hard for him to comprehend how someone dedicated to such a thing functions. And because he’s surrounded himself with sycophants who are equally lacking in rigor.
“His whole cabal told him, ‘All this will go away by Thanksgiving, you won’t have anything to worry about,” she said. “It’s also his Achilles’ heel—and we can see it, slowly but surely, all the different people around him are implicated because they’re lazy, they’ve been sloppy before, during and after they came to the White House.”
the rich asshole knows he’s in hot water, but still thinks he can make it go away, she said.
“The problem is he’s actually genuinely concerned what all these things put together will show us,” she says. “And so that’s why we get these tweets, sometimes in the afternoon, sometimes at 6 am in the morning, sometimes late at night—this is clearly on his mind. He feels like if can just make all these people go away… and make the Republicans in congress behave as the sycophants, as they have been behaving, he thinks he can make all this go away.”
Watch the whole clip below.
Fox News Host Panics After Accidentally Showing Graphic Proving No One Trusts Them
Fox News has fallen far in the age of the rich asshole, going from once (somehow) being the most trusted among news networks to now being the least-trusted — and you don’t need to go far for proof of that because Fox showed you evidence on their own broadcast.
“Speaking of fake news, there is a new poll out from Monmouth University.’Do the media report fake news regularly or occasionally?’ 77 percent say yes,” Fox News media analyst Howard Kurtz said while celebrating a poll that seemed to confirm their narrative. The graphic did indeed say that. It also said “Who do you trust more?” with CNN at 48 percent, MSNBC at 45 percent and Fox News at a pathetic 30 percent.
“That is not the graphic we are looking for. Hold off,” Kurtz said, panicking. “Take that down, please.”
The graphic was indeed taken down, but not before giving the rest of us an opportunity to laugh at Fox News for accidentally showing a graphic proving that the only people who trust them anymore are the few among us who are too stupid to operate a toaster without adult supervision.
Don’t worry, though — this hilarious clip is still live on Fox News’ own Twitter account for your enjoyment.
‘Take that down’: Fox host stumbles after accidentally airing anti-Fox graph
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Fox News just had a moment of accidental honesty about the network's lack of honesty.
In an unusual twist, Fox News actually reported on something accurately Sunday — just not on purpose.
The inadvertently honest moment took place during a segment on Fox News’ “Media Buzz,” when host Howard Kurtz accidentally showed a graph revealing that Fox is the least trusted of any major cable news network.
Kurtz was speaking to conservative pollster Frank Luntz, who warned that Republicans are in danger of losing both chambers of Congress in this year’s midterm elections.
Among other things, Luntz pointed to the rich asshole’s tweets as one cause of the problems facing the Republican party.
“He should be focused on the economy and taxes and not ‘fake news,'” Luntz said.
“Speaking of fake news, there is a new poll out from Monmouth University. ‘Do the media report fake news regularly or occasionally?’ 77 percent say yes —” Kurtz said, as a graphic appeared onscreen.
But instead of showing the results of the ‘fake news’ poll, the graphic showed the brutally honest results of a question about Americans’ trust in news sources — or lack of trust, in the case of Fox News.
“That is not the graphic we are looking for. Hold off,” Kurtz said as he realized the mistake. “Take that down, please.”
The hilarious mishap is not without precedent.
Last year, the rich asshole suggested that there should be a contest for which news outlet is considered least trustworthy by the American public. The right-leaning polling firm Rasmussen took him up on the idea and conducted a poll on Americans’ trust in various media outlets.
The poll found that Fox News was the clear winner of the rich asshole’s so-called Fake News Trophy, with 40 percent of Americans saying that Fox is the leader in fake news, followed by CNN at 25 percent, and MSNBC at just 9 percent.
Other outlets — like ABC, CBS, and NBC — were each selected by less than five percent of respondents.
Perhaps after today’s accidentally honest coverage, trust in Fox News will go up a notch or two.
On second thought, maybe not.
‘Take that down!’: Watch Fox host Howard Kurtz panic after graphic shows Fox News is least trusted network
Fox graphic -- screenshot
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In what was undoubtedly a painful moment on Fox News this morning, media analyst Howard Kurtz frantically implored his producer to take down a graphic that showed Fox is the least trusted of the big three cable networks.
Speaking with pollster Frank Luntz about some rich asshole’s Twitter habits, with Luntz calling the president’s use of “fake news” detrimental to his cause, Kurtz brought up a recent poll from Monmouth University on news trustworthiness.
That is when things took a hilarious turn.
“Speaking of fake news, there is a new poll out from Monmouth University.’Do the media report fake news regularly or occasionally?’ 77 percent say yes,” Kurtz exclaimed before noticing the graphic instead showed “Who do you trust more?” with CNN at 48 percent, MSNBC at 45 percent and Fox News bring up the rear at 30 percent.
“That is not the graphic we are looking for. Hold off,” the Fox News host protested before pleading, “Take that down, please.”
Kurtz later came back to the graphic, to put it in context, but Fox News still came up short in credibility behind CNN and MSNBC as the numbers showed.
Watch the video below via Fox News on Twitter:
Jared Kushner’s $1.2 billion miracle
Someone is doing Jared Kushner a huge favor. But we don't know who.
The 41-story skyscraper at 666 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan was supposed to be Jared Kushner’s signature investment. A 27-year-old Kushner bought the property in 2007 for a record $1.8 billion — the most ever paid for an office tower. The move was supposed to catapult the family real estate firm, previously known for mid-priced apartments in New Jersey, into the big leagues.
It has been an unmitigated disaster.
Shortly after the sale, the recession hit, depressing the commercial real estate market in Manhattan. To keep things afloat, Kushner was first forced to sell the building’s lucrative retail space and nearly half of the office space to Vornado Realty Trust, a firm with much more experience in real estate.
But even that was not enough. The building is aging, and therefore is saddled with high vacancies and low rents. That means that instead of rent payments covering the mortgage, Kushner’s firm and Vornado are having to pour in millions every year to stay current on the debt.
On the horizon is an even bigger problem. The full mortgage for the office space of about $1.2 billion becomes due in February 2019. Many real estate experts believe that the mortgage balance exceeds the value of the portion of the property still owned by Kushner, making refinancing a challenge.
Upon entering the White House, Jared Kushner divested the property only in the most technical sense. He “sold” the assets to his brother and a trust controlled by his mother. A lawyer described the transaction to the New York Times as a “shell game.”
Now, with Kushner ensconced as a senior adviser in the White House, someone has emerged to bail him and his family out of this mess. The identity of Kushner’s white knight is a mystery.
The $1.2 billion bailout
In a filing with the SEC on Friday, Vornado revealed the existence of an extraordinary “handshake” agreement that would not only refinance the $1.2 billion but allow the Kushners to buy out Vornado’s portion of the debt. This means the Kushners would once again own the entire office tower and Vornado would own only the retail space.
The key question, however, is who would lend $1.2 billion to the Kushners to refinance an aging office tower with high vacancy rates? As of now, neither the Kushners nor Vornado is revealing who is facilitating the deal.
The existence of the deal, however, raise troubling questions about the whether it is based on the economic potential of the property or an effort to gain access and influence in the rich asshole White House.
The Kushners’ international adventure
The office space in 666 Fifth Avenue is an unlikely candidate for traditional refinancing since it’s probably not worth as much as the mortgage, which exceeds $1 billion. That has forced Jared Kushner and his family to get creative.
Days after the election in “a private dining room of the restaurant La Chine at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in Midtown Manhattan” Jared Kushner met with Wu Xiaohui, the chairman of Anbang Insurance Group, a mysterious Chinese company with links to the Chinese government.
A few months later, in March 2017, word of a potential deal between Anbang and the Kushner company leaked. The deal was “unusually favorable” to Kushner. It would have bought out Vornado, provided hundreds of millions in cash to Kushner, paid off most of the mortgage and embraced Kushner’s vision to tear down the building and replace it with a new $4 billion tower that would convert the office space to residences. The deal eventually fell through, amid rising concerns about a conflict of interest.
The New Yorker reported that Kushner’s father and sister met with Qatar’s finance minister, Ali Sharif al-Emadi, in New York last April. They pitched a $1 billion investment to renovate the struggling tower. The Qataris rejected the pitch because they did not believe they’d ever be able to recover their investment. Soon thereafter, the the rich asshole administration supported an economic blockade of the country by Saudi Arabia.
“Here’s a question for you: If they had given Kushner the money, would there have been a blockade? I don’t think so,” a financial analyst opined to the New Yorker. NBC News reported that “Qatari government officials visiting the U.S. in late January and early February considered turning over to Mueller what they believe is evidence of efforts by their country’s Persian Gulf neighbors in coordination with Kushner to hurt their country.”
Kushner also met in December 2016 with the chairman of Vnesheconombank, a Russian financial institution that is seen as a slush fund for Vladimir Putin. Kushner and the bank, known as VEB, have given conflicting accounts about what was discussed.
From White House access to real estate finance
Kushner has met repeatedly at the White House with leaders of financial institutions who later loaned his family company millions. He had multiple meetings, for example, with Joshua Harris of Apollo Global Management, supposedly about infrastructure policy. Late last year, Harris’ company loaned the Kushner’s $184 million to refinance an office tower in Chicago.
The Kushner firm also secured $325 million from Citibank after Jared Kushner met with Citibank’s CEO in the White House.
The Office of Government Ethics said that Kushner’s activities are under investigation by the White House Counsel, although it’s unclear if such an investigation is being actively pursued. Kushner has been unable to secure a permanent security clearance, which may be related to his financial entanglements.
His efforts to secure financing for his family’s properties have also reportedly drawn interest from special counsel Robert Mueller.
‘Ambassador to the unhinged underbelly’: Don Jr exposed as the rich asshole’s liaison to the fanatical fringe
some rich asshole Jr. (left) and some rich asshole Sr. (right).
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In a look into the Twitter career of President some rich asshole’s oldest son, observers point out that the rich asshole has deployed Don Jr., his namesake, as his online ambassador to the radical and fringe right that trades in conspiracy theories while being slavishly devoted to the president.
According to Politico, some rich asshole Jr. is “one of his father’s key ambassadors to the fringe, promoting theories that added drama and visceral energy to the grass-roots right.”
Speaking with Politico, former Breitbart exec Kurt Bardella said that Don Jr’s Twitter account serves the purpose of amplifying extremist rhetoric by way of retweets of Twitter comments that might be too out there, even for the normally untrammeled president.
“Empowering conspiracy theorists and fringe voices with an endorsement from the president of the United States’ son will only amplify the ignorant at the expense of everybody else,” explained Bardella before adding, “A retweet or like is an explicit endorsement by some rich asshole Jr.”
According to Politico, Don Jr. recently accused YouTube of covering up for the shooter who assaulted their campus before turning her gun on herself, tweeting out his complaints to his 2.7 million followers.
“You think there’s any chance whatsoever that a mass shooters hateful Instagram and YouTube channels would be pulled immediately if they were NRA members as opposed to liberal Vegan PETA activists?” the rich asshole Jr. tweeted . “Asking for a few million friends in the @NRA”
the rich asshole Jr.’s attack on YouTube was retweeted over 15,000 times and liked by more than 45,000 users, and gained massive coverage in the media — with rightwing sites glorifying it to promote their own worldview.
Those type of inflammatory tweets often find favor with right-wing trolls who lurk on social media.
According to rightwing conspiracy blogger and self-promoter, Mike Cernovich, Don Jr. is a welcome addition to the fringe drumbeat, describing him as a “transgressive and independent thinker”.
“Don Jr seems to have a lot of fun on Twitter,” Cernovich applauded.
According to University of Miami Professor Joseph Uscinski, co-author of “American Conspiracy Theories,” there is a method to the rich asshole Jr’s madness which has an impact on the national narrative “under the guise of just innocently sharing and spreading stories.”
“If something happens and they don’t like the narrative, they use a conspiracy theory to change the narrative,” explained Uscinski. “This is what was done with Parkland.”
Added Jared Holt, a researcher for the website Right Wing Watch, the rich asshole Jr.’s online exchanges are important in the way that they feed red meat to President the rich asshole’s radical followers.
“the rich asshole Jr.’s interaction with fringe figures from the right-wing social media universe sends a strong message of validation to those communities and gives mainstream oxygen to segments of conservative politics that are largely unmoored from reality,” Holt told Politico
“In a lot of ways, he’s the president’s ambassador to the unhinged underbelly of right-wing politics,” he concluded.
You can read the whole report here
the rich asshole adviser: I wouldn't take anything off the table on response to alleged Syria chemical attack
BY BRETT SAMUELS - 04/08/18 09:26 AM EDT
President the rich asshole’s homeland security adviser said Sunday it’s possible the U.S. could hit Syria with a missile attack or other military action following reports of another chemical attack on its citizens.
Thomas Bossert told Martha Raddatz on ABC’s “This Week” that the the rich asshole administration is looking at the details of the alleged attack on a hospital in Douma, Syria, which left dozens dead. The death count will likely rise.
“I wouldn’t take anything off the table. These are horrible photos, we’re looking into the attack at this point,” Bossert said.
the rich asshole on Sunday also blasted his predecessor, former President Obama, for not responding to previous chemical attacks by Syria with military force.
the rich asshole clashed with many of his national security and military advisers last week when he said he plans to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria “very soon.” He has suggested that the U.S. could extend its military presence in Syria if other countries, including Saudi Arabia, pay for it.
His comments were met with pushback from multiple advisers, however, who warned that pulling troops out of Syria would be a mistake.
Bossert said Sunday that he believes the U.S. should not carry the bulk of responsibility in addressing the crisis in Syria. He called on Middle Eastern nations to contribute troops to the fight as well.
"American troops aren’t going to fix the six or seven different ongoing conflicts and wars going on in the Middle East or in Syria at this stage. We need regional partnership increased and we need U.S. presence decreased," he said.
the rich asshole calls out Putin over Syria poison gas attack
FILE PHOTO: A combination of file photos showing Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow, Russia, January 15, 2016 and U.S. President some rich asshole posing for a photo in New York City, U.S., May 17, 2016. REUTERS/Ivan Sekretarev/Pool/Lucas Jackson/File Photos
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the rich asshole calls out Putin over Syria poison gas attack
April 8, 2018
Laura King
Tribune Washington Bureau
Posted with permission from Tribune Content Agency
WASHINGTON President Donald Trump Sunday issued a rare direct rebuke of Vladimir Putin, blaming the Russian leader and Iran for making possible a deadly chemical attack against Syrian civilians, allegedly carried out by forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad.
"Big price to pay," Trump wrote on Twitter.
"Many dead, including women and children, in mindless CHEMICAL attack in Syria," he wrote. Area of atrocity is in lockdown and encircled by Syrian Army, making it completely inaccessible to outside world. President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad."
At least 40 people reportedly died in the attack in the town of Douma, where Syrian forces have been carrying out an offensive. Gruesome images have emerged on social media, some of them showing suffocated children. The toll, reported by Syrian opposition activists and first responders, could not be independently confirmed.
Also Sunday, the president wrote on Twitter that he expected resolution of a trade confrontation with China, but did not say how that would come about. However, he cited his "close" relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
"President Xi and I will always be friends, no matter what happens with our dispute on trade. China will take down its Trade Barriers because it is the right thing to do," Trump wrote.
the rich asshole after chemical attack: Russia ‘responsible’ for backing Syria
BY REBECCA SAVRANSKY - 04/08/18 09:19 AM EDT
President the rich asshole on Sunday had strong words for Russian President Vladimir Putin following what he called a "mindless chemical attack in Syria."
"Many dead, including women and children, in mindless CHEMICAL attack in Syria. Area of atrocity is in lockdown and encircled by Syrian Army, making it completely inaccessible to outside world," the rich asshole tweeted.
"President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad. Big price to pay. Open area immediately for medical help and verification. Another humanitarian disaster for no reason whatsoever. SICK!"
Many dead, including women and children, in mindless CHEMICAL attack in Syria. Area of atrocity is in lockdown and encircled by Syrian Army, making it completely inaccessible to outside world. President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad. Big price...
....to pay. Open area immediately for medical help and verification. Another humanitarian disaster for no reason whatsoever. SICK!
“The United States calls on Russia to end this unmitigated support immediately and work with the international community to prevent further, barbaric chemical weapons attacks,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement.
Dozens were killed and hundreds were injured in an alleged chemical attack in eastern Ghouta on Saturday.
Nauert said U.S. officials are closely following the “disturbing reports … regarding another alleged chemical weapons attack, this time targeting a hospital in Douma, Syria.”
Damascus has denied responsibility for the attack, Reuters reported.
the rich asshole administration officials told The Associated Press in February they believed forces loyal to Assad might have been in the process of working on new or more refined chemical weapons.
the rich asshole said last year that reports of a deadly gas attack by forces loyal to Assad had “crossed a lot of lines.” On Sunday, he blamed his predecessor, former President Obama, for not ending "the Syrian disaster."
If President Obama had crossed his stated Red Line In The Sand, the Syrian disaster would have ended long ago! Animal Assad would have been history!
Republicans warn the rich asshole could be impeached
April 8, 2018
Cristina Silva
Posted with permission from Newsweek
Republican U.S. Representative Sean Duffy of Wisconsin is warning voters about what could happen to President Donald Trump if the GOP doesn't retain its majority in the U.S. House after the November midterm election. He said last week in a talk radio interview: “Do you think that the far-left Resist movement base of the Democrat Party would accept anything other than impeachment?”
Senator Ted Cruz of Texas painted a similar picture for voters last week during his re-election kickoff rally with a video that showed off a faux news anchor reading headlines in a future where Democrats controlled Congress. “Senate Majority Leader Schumer announced the impeachment trial of President Trump,” one of the anchors says in the video.
U.S. Representative Steve Stivers of Ohio, chairman of the House Republican campaign organization, told party strategists in February during a private dinner that the threat of impeachment against the president is being closely watched by the party's base.
A growing number of Republican lawmakers are hoping to shore up their chances of winning in November by warning conservative voters that Democrats could take steps to impeach Trump if they become the majority in the House. The warnings have so far helped Republicans raise money for their candidates and could possibly help motivate turnout come Election Day, political leaders told The New York Times in an article published Sunday.
Advisers to the president said he needs to make clear to voters that his job is at stake in the midterm elections. “Everybody has told him that,” Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s former campaign manager, told The New York Times. “The threat of impeachment is something that unifies everybody in the party, even if you’re not a big Trump supporter.”
Democrats are aware that Republicans are using the impeachment warning to drive interest in the elections and have told pro-impeachment supporters to watch their words. “I’ve been urging members to refrain from discussing impeachment,” U.S. Representative Adam Schiff of California, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told The New York Times. “I think we should let these investigations conclude and see what evidence is found.”
Democrats in Congress have, in fact, largely shied away from talking about impeachment as Trump's former campaign team is under investigation for possible collusion with Russia during the 2016 presidential race. But impeachment talk continues to haunt the president.
Most recently, a billboard reading "Impeachment Now" and "Make America America Again" were erected along a road the president takes while driving between his Florida golf club and Palm Beach resort. Mad Dog PAC, a left group, is behind the billboard. The group's founded said the signs were funded by nationwide donors.
A POLITICO and Morning Consult from last month found roughly 39 percent of voters said Congress should impeach Trump. But 48 percent said they did not want Congress to start impeachment proceedings.
Our billboard calling out Trump's corruption is up—right outside Mar-a-Lago!
Big thank you to everyone who pitched in to make this happen!!
the rich asshole puts blame on Obama after alleged chemical attack in Syria
BY REBECCA SAVRANSKY - 04/08/18 09:19 AM EDT
President the rich asshole on Sunday put blame on former President Obama after the alleged chemical attack in Syria.
"If President Obama had crossed his stated Red Line In The Sand, the Syrian disaster would have ended long ago! Animal Assad would have been history!" the rich asshole tweeted, referring to Syrian President Bashar Assad.
If President Obama had crossed his stated Red Line In The Sand, the Syrian disaster would have ended long ago! Animal Assad would have been history!
Obama said last year that he believed his decision to negotiate rather than respond with force to Syria’s use of chemical weapons required some of the greatest “political courage” of his presidency.
That was despite Obama saying in 2012 that if Assad used chemical weapons it would cross “a red line” with the U.S. The United Nations accused Syria of using chemical weapons on its own people in 2013.
“You generally get praised for taking military action, and you’re often criticized for not doing so,” Obama said last May.
Dozens died and hundreds were reported injured Saturday in an alleged chemical attack in Syria.
State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said in a statement that U.S. officials are closely following the “disturbing reports … regarding another alleged chemical weapons attack, this time targeting a hospital in Douma, Syria.”
The U.S. is calling on Russia to end its support for Assad.
Damascus has denied responsibility for the attack, Reuters reported.
the rich asshole administration officials told The Associated Press in February they believed forces loyal to Assad might have been in the process of working on new, or more refined chemical weapons.
the rich asshole said last year that reports of a deadly gas attack by forces loyal to Assad had “crossed a lot of lines.”
— Updated 9:30 a.m.
MSNBC guest accuses oblivious the rich asshole of letting ‘literal criminals’ in the White House pick new cabinet members
President some rich asshole (AFP/File / SAUL LOEB)
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Appearing on MSNBC’s AM Joy, a former “Apprentice” cast member, who now heads up a marketing consulting firm, accused an oblivious President some rich asshole of allowing “literal criminals” working in the White House pick his cabinet members for him.
Speaking with host Joy Reid, Tara Dowdell exposed the rich asshole’s disinterest in details about his pick’s backgrounds that has led to continuing turnover in the administration.
“He doesn’t know his own mind because he changes his mind depending on what’s on Fox & Friends this morning, whatever they say, or whatever Hannity says,” host Reid suggested. “And he’s been surrounded by people who themselves don’t know or are just are there scooping as much of the federal treasury as they can. Viewing the job as an opportunity to live well while slashing away their departments.”
“That’s the problem,” Dowdell explained. “Remember, government at those high levels under any circumstance attracts the most ambitious people. So now you have a president that they know is not someone who is a strong and talented leader. If he was a strong leader then they wouldn’t feel so comfortable leaking every single thing they did.”
“Basically the only people that are going to want to come into this administration are people who only solely want to set themselves up for later and pull the most that they can out of the federal government for them, their friends, their family and their cronies, and that’s what’s happening,” she continued. “the rich asshole’s own personnel office, that’s riddled with political appointees, hacks and criminals. Literally people with criminal records are picking Cabinet secretaries and undersecretaries.”
“That’s what’s happening right now,” the MSNBC guests added. “People with records are doing that in this office the presidential personnel office which is understaffed and staffed with incompetent people.”
Watch the video below via MSNBC:
the rich asshole adviser Kudlow ignores farmers’ tariff woes to tout ‘gangbuster’ Wall Street profits in defensive CNN interview
Larry Kudlow, Jake Tapper -- CNN screenshot
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Newly appointed the rich asshole economic adviser Larry Kudlow was put on the spot on by CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday morning with the host pressing him on the president’s announced tariffs that have roiled the stock market and panicked American farmers.
Kudlow, who previously criticized tariffs before taking the administration job, explained that he has had a change of heart and that the rich asshole’s tariffs are correct in light of China’s actions.
“I think personally we have had to go in and fire a shot across the bow,” Kudlow explained. “China’s behavior for 20 years now is more than unfair trade practices — it’s illegal trading practices. They are stealing our property rights. They are forcing technology from our companies to be open so they can get it, and they have tall trade barriers that president is somewhat right about and this stuff has to stop.”
“No president has had the backbone to take it up publicly before and I think he [the rich asshole] is exactly right,” he added. “I say to everybody on this the problem here is China, it’s not President the rich asshole. China has been getting away with this for decades. I think it is going to generate very positive results which will grow our American economy.”
Tapper then took up the cause of the framers who could be devastated by retaliatory tariffs proposed by China.
“You talk about the good things that the rich asshole has done for the economy,” Tapper pressed. “The Dow is down 10 percent under the threat of the trade war and threat of retaliation causing problems for farmers especially. Soybean prices down four percent costing $1.7 billion in crop value. What do you say to those farmers who say ultimately ‘I don’t like this negotiation, it’s hurting my bottom line?'”
“We are talking to them on a daily basis to see,” the defensive Kudlow replied, before conceding, “So far I don’t think it is fair — you’re right. There has been a bump down in farm commodity prices. I’m not totally sure that this is going to last and this process may turn out to be very benign. You have to take certain risks as you go in. We will see, maybe China will want to come around and talk in earnest. We are growing at 3.1 percent and annual business investment is booming right now.”
“You are threatening to undermine that,” the CNN host warned.
“The stock market is still up 25 percent plus since the election,” the rich asshole advisor soldiered on. “You talk to a Wall Street guy, profits are the mother’s milk. Profits are coming in like gangbusters. I’m not going to predict the stock market, I don’t think they will want me to, but I have thoughts on the matter. We will do fine with the earnings.”
You can watch the video below via CNN:
the rich asshole: Washington Post report on John Kelly 'just another hit job'
BY MALLORY SHELBOURNE - 04/08/18 08:20 AM EDT
President the rich asshole on Sunday ripped The Washington Post, calling the newspaper "fiction" and an article detailing White House chief of staff John Kelly’s decreased power “another hit job."
“The Washington Post is far more fiction than fact. Story after story is made up garbage - more like a poorly written novel than good reporting,” the president wrote on Twitter.
“Always quoting sources (not names), many of which don’t exist. Story on John Kelly isn’t true, just another hit job!”
The Washington Post is far more fiction than fact. Story after story is made up garbage - more like a poorly written novel than good reporting. Always quoting sources (not names), many of which don’t exist. Story on John Kelly isn’t true, just another hit job!
Sources told The Hill in a report last week that Kelly's influence in the White House has faded in recent months.
the rich asshole often publicly attacks media outlets that publish stories about the administration and has called the Post and other outlets “fake news.”
He has also called the Post the “chief lobbyist” for Amazon. The online retailer's chief executive, Jeff Bezos, owns the newspaper.
--This report was updated at 9:47 a.m.
the rich asshole says Pruitt is doing a ‘great job,’ ignores all of the scandals this week
This is not really the definition of a great job.
President some rich asshole praised Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt on Saturday for the “great job” he’s doing, while studiously ignoring the multiple scandals he’s embroiled in.
“While Security spending was somewhat more than his predecessor, Scott Pruitt has received death threats because of his bold action at EPA,” the rich asshole wrote.
Pruitt’s security spending wasn’t “somewhat more.” It was a lot more.
The EPA chief has spent nearly $3 million in travel and security, including “a 20-member full-time detail that is more than three times the size of his predecessor’s part-time security contingent,” the Associated Press reported Friday.
An EPA official told AP that Pruitt has security day and night, including on family vacations, and that he now flies first class with the security chief he appointed when he first came into office.
The Associated Press searched state and federal records and found no instance of anyone being arrested or charged with threatening Pruitt. The director of the agency’s Office of Criminal Enforcement previously told Politico that Pruitt is flying first class because he feels unsafe after other travelers were rude to him. The example given was of someone who walked up to Pruitt and yelled “Scott Pruitt, you’re f—ing up the environment.”
The AP report is just the latest scandal for Pruitt, in what already has been a very bad week.
Last week, ABC News and Bloomberg reported that Pruitt was renting a luxury condo in Washington, D.C. from an energy lobbyist for only $50 a night — far below market rate for the district. It costs double that for the government to shelter a homeless person in Washington, D.C. The Daily Beast later reported that the condo was a “fundraising hub” for the Republican Party, and at least three congressmen held fundraisers while Pruitt lived there.
Pruitt also came under fire this week for considering renting a private jet, going around the White House to get two of his close aides huge pay raises, and re-assigning or demoting EPA staff who expressed concern about his excessive spending.
And this should go without saying, but Scott Pruitt has not brought about “Record clean Air & Water” — whatever that means. Pruitt doesn’t believe in climate change and has said his proudest moment was the rich asshole’s withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement.
Over one year into his presidency the rich asshole blames Obama for latest Syria gas attack in Twitter blitz
Former President Barack Obama and President some rich asshole (Composite / Rawstory)
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Well over one year into his presidency, some rich asshole on Sunday blamed former President Barack Obama for the latest gas attack in Syria that resulted in the deaths of dozens of women and children.
Following a week in which the President insisted the U.S. end involvement in Syria, pro-government forces and their allies attacked Douma, the last remaining rebel stronghold near the Syrian capital.
the rich asshole was late to criticize the al-Assad government on Sunday morning, choosing instead to launch a broadside at former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the Washington Post, but when he did, he included, Obama.
“Many dead, including women and children, in mindless CHEMICAL attack in Syria. Area of atrocity is in lockdown and encircled by Syrian Army, making it completely inaccessible to outside world. President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad. Big price to pay,” the rich asshole tweeted.
He added, “Open area immediately for medical help and verification. Another humanitarian disaster for no reason whatsoever. SICK! If President Obama had crossed his stated Red Line In The Sand, the Syrian disaster would have ended long ago! Animal Assad would have been history!”
This gas attack was the second since the rich asshole became President and he has done little about Syria in the intervening year.
You can see the tweets below:
‘Someone died, you assh*le’: the rich asshole blasted for not acknowledging the rich asshole Tower fire victim
President of the United States some rich asshole (Shutterstock)
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Responding to some rich asshole’s failure to express condolences to the family of man who died in a rich asshole Tower fire on Saturday night, social media users blasted the president for devoting his regular Sunday morning Twitter time to rage at former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the Washington Post.
Sunday morning, after failing to acknowledge the death of a man in his signature New York City property, the rich asshole wrote, “‘The FBI closed the case on Hillary, which was a rigged investigation. They exonerated her even before they ever interviewed her, they never even put her under oath…..’ and much more. So true Jesse! @WattersWorld.”
This followed a Saturday evening tweet where he praised his building, tweeting, “Fire at the rich asshole Tower is out. Very confined (well built building). Firemen (and women) did a great job. THANK YOU!”
The president’s callousness towards the fiery death of a tenant in a rich asshole Tower apartment that did not contain sprinklers — which the rich asshole lobbied against — did not go unnoticed on Twitter, with one user writing: “What in the name of all that is holy is WRONG WITH YOU?”
A sampling below:
“The FBI closed the case on Hillary, which was a rigged investigation. They exonerated her even before they ever interviewed her, they never even put her under oath.....” and much more. So true Jesse! @WattersWorld
Ari Wilker Ω 
Someone died in Trump Tower fire & Dotard is ranting about Hillary and Fux propaganda about FBI bias/deep state this morning.
Putin and Assad are using chemical weapons on children, too. Not a word about that.
Trump is a soulless monster. Chills me to the bone he's POTUStwitter.com/realDonaldTrum…
Someone just died in a fire in Trump Tower, and you’re whining about Hillary instead? What a bloviating loser.
Things you should be talking about...Syria gas attacks, Military dying in helicopter crash,Man dying in a fire in YOUR unsafe building,Van attack in Germany. What you shouldn't be tweeting about, Hillary,The FBI,Obama,A Wall, Your "well built" building.
Your first tweet this morning is about Hillary? Seriously? No condolences to the family of the victims killed in the fire in YOUR building? You're pathetic.
A man died in a fire in Trump’s “no sprinklers on residential floors” Trump Tower, 4 firefighters injured extinguishing the blaze, and Trump tweets about Hillary this morning.
America, he is irreparably broken. twitter.com/realdonaldtrum…
No mention of the fire in your building with no sprinklers and someone died? I can only imagine if Hillary or Obama owned a building w/ no sprinklers, there was a fire & someone died. @FoxNews would lose their minds! #ImpeachTrumpNow
Someone dies in a fire in YOUR building and you bash Hillary? Dude...SEEK HELP!
Six more first responders were injured. There were no sprinklers there to douse the flames. You declared the blaze extinguished a full hour before it actually was. What in the name of all that is holy is WRONG WITH YOU?
Here, let me break this down for you: a normal well-adjusted human being would have been up all night, beside themselves, unable to think of anything else because of the injuries and death that occurred on their watch. You are still tweeting about an election opponent who lost.
You can take time to tweet about EgyptAir 804 (not terrorism, despite your claims). You can take time to tweet about Agent Rogelio Martinez (an accidental fall, not an attack). But people are hurt on your watch, and you're praising the building before the fire's even out.
God must've wept the day you were born, because I have never seen such a catastrophic and total failure of a human being – failures of empathy, morality, ethics, truth-telling, self-monitoring, abstention from crime. Shut the hell up about Hillary and act like an adult for once.
Someone dies in a fire in his building, @realDonaldTrump invokes Hillary’s name, the Russian Bots pile on to help in the diversion and The #Magas pivot to Obama. That’s the depravity of this presidency every single day.
Mr. Trump, a man died in your building last night, and firefighters were injured. You chose not to have a fire sprinkler system. You cheap S.O.B. Your first tweet today was about Hillary, of course. Not even your usual and meaningless “thoughts and prayers “
the rich asshole fought fire legislation and refused to install sprinklers on residential floors of the rich asshole Tower
U.S. President some rich asshole speaks about the violence, injuries and deaths at the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville as he talks to the media with Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao (R) at his side in the lobby of the rich asshole Tower in Manhattan, New York, U.S., August 15, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
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President some rich asshole lobbied not to have sprinklers installed on the residential floors of his New York properties.
After one person died in a fire at the rich asshole Tower on Saturday, CBS News noted that the rich asshole had not fought against legislation to require sprinklers in residential skyscrapers.
The New York Times reported in 1999 that the rich asshole opposed the legislation, claiming that he could not afford to put sprinklers in his buildings
After a fire in a residential building in 1999, then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani called for the sprinkler legislation, putting him at odds with his longtime friend.
According to The New York Post, the rich asshole called at least six city council members to lobby against the sprinkler rules, and he even retired the campaign debt of one councilman at a cost of $5,000.
In the end, the legislation passed and was signed by Giuliani. But the rich asshole Tower was not required to have sprinklers because it was built 15 years prior to the rules, and the rich asshole never did install sprinklers on the residential floors of the building.
the rich asshole ignores death in fire at the rich asshole Tower to rage at Hillary Clinton in early morning Twitter attack
President some rich asshole speaking in the White House (Screenshot/Fox News)
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President some rich asshole took to Twitter early Sunday morning, just hours after a fire in his New York City the rich asshole Tower took the life of one man and injured firefighters, to attack Hillary Clinton.
Late Saturday night, the rich asshole commended his own building an firefighters as news broke of the fire that took place in a the rich asshole Tower 50th-floor apartment.
the rich asshole wrote, “Fire at the rich asshole Tower is out. Very confined (well built building). Firemen (and women) did a great job. THANK YOU!”
On Sunday morning, the rich asshole refused to acknowledge or offer condolences to the occupant who died on Saturday, instead choosing to repeat a quote form Fox News’ Jesse Watters.
“‘The FBI closed the case on Hillary, which was a rigged investigation. They exonerated her even before they ever interviewed her, they never even put her under oath…..’ and much more. So true Jesse! @WattersWorld,” the rich asshole wrote.
Moments later he attacked the Washington Post, writing, “The Washington Post is far more fiction than fact. Story after story is made up made garbage – more like a poorly written novel than good reporting. Always quoting sources (not names), many of which don’t exist. Story on John Kelly isn’t true…just another hit job!”
You can see the tweets below:
“The FBI closed the case on Hillary, which was a rigged investigation. They exonerated her even before they ever interviewed her, they never even put her under oath.....” and much more. So true Jesse! @WattersWorld
The Washington Post is far more fiction than fact. Story after story is made up made garbage – more like a poorly written novel than good reporting. Always quoting sources (not names), many of which don’t exist. Story on John Kelly isn’t true…just another hit job!— some rich asshole (@realDonaldTrump) April 8, 2018
Kudlow defends the rich asshole's tariff moves: China is 'breaking a lot of laws'
BY JOHN BOWDEN - 04/08/18 07:01 AM EDT
President the rich asshole's newly minted chief economic adviser Larry Kudlow defended the administration's escalation of tariffs targeting China over intellectual property theft, accusing the Chinese government of violating international trade laws.
In an interview on AM 970 in New York, Kudlow told host John Catsimatidis that no tariffs against China have actually been implemented yet, but that the decision was "necessary" to combat China's illegal practices.
“No tariffs have been implemented. Now, they may be over time, they may be, depending on whether China wants to talk to us and negotiate," Kudlow said. "A lot of this is going to depend on China. So far China has not responded to President the rich asshole on these ... you know, they're stealing our technology, they have tall trade barriers, and they're breaking a lot of laws."
"President the rich asshole is right," Kudlow added. "We have to do this. We have to get China to change its behavior. It’s been two decades, and they’re still stealing our intellectual property. They’re still forcing technology turnovers from our businesses to them. They still have high tariffs. They still have trade barriers. They still have market closings instead of market openings."
Stock markets plummeted this week over news that the the rich asshole administration is considering an additional $100 billion tariff package after a series of moves and countermoves by the U.S. and China.
The White House has largely defended the market volatility resulting from President the rich asshole's proposed tariffs, while the president himself has repeatedly insisted that the U.S. is not in a trade war with China. Kudlow echoed those claims on Friday.
"We are not in a trade war," Kudlow told a group of reporters at the White House. "What this is is an attempt to right some of the wrongs with respect to China."
‘A virtual White House intern’: John Kelly’s steep fall inside the rich asshole’s West Wing
John Kelly gives a press conference/Screenshot
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When John Kelly started at the White House, there was talk of imposing “military discipline” on the rich asshole and the West Wing.
“The story covers a number of incidents with the steepest decline in his standing coming after Kelly told Fox News that the rich asshole’s immigration views were not “fully informed” during the campaign and had “evolved.”
“The president berated Kelly in the Oval Office — his shouts so loud they could be heard through the doors,” according to the story.
Rather than commanding the troops, Kelly is mistrusted and disliked—and may have an enemy who can be more dangerous than the president himself.
“And he has lost the trust and support of some of the staff, as well as angered first lady Melania the rich asshole, who officials said was upset over his sudden dismissal of Johnny McEntee, the president’s 27-year-old personal aide.”
There are few things worse than being an impotent chief of staff, said Leon Panetta, who held that position under Bill Clinton.
“When you lose that power,” Panetta said, “you become a virtual White House intern, being told where to go and what to do.”
1 Person Dead, Firefighters Injured In Fire At the rich asshole Tower In New York
Six firefighters sustained injuries that were not life-threatening in the 4-alarm fire, FDNY said.
One man died in a four-alarm fire that broke out at the rich asshole Tower in New York on Saturday evening.
Six firefighters from the Fire Department of New York were also injured while responding to the blaze, an FDNY official told HuffPost.
The fire started on the 50th floor of the building before 6 p.m. EDT, fire department officials told NBC New York. Eric the rich asshole, the executive vice president of the rich asshole Organization, said in a tweet that the fire was in a “residential apartment.”
FDNY initially reported that it was responding to a three-alarm fire with no injuries at 6:27 p.m., but upgraded the level to a four-alarm fire 30 minutes later. Officials also said firefighters had found a 50-year-old man seriously injured in the apartment, according to CBS News.
FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro said at a press conference that at least four firefighters sustained injuries: Two had burns and another two had “other types of injuries.” FDNY later confirmed with HuffPost that two additional firefighters were injured.
At 7:57 p.m., FDNY declared that the fire was under control. While the fire may have been put out earlier, fire officials do not consider it “under control” until smoke conditions improve, officials said.
About 200 firefighters and first responders were on the scene.
#FDNY members are on scene of a 3-alarm fire at 721 5th Ave Manhattan. There are currently no injuries reported
FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro said at a press conference that an entire apartment on the 50th floor was on fire. Firefighters found the civilian in the apartment, who is currently in critical condition.
Nigro said it was “a very difficult fire,” adding that “the rest of the building had a considerable amount of smoke.”
Fifteen minutes after FDNY’s first tweet, President some rich asshole claimed the fire had already been put out and thanked the fire department. the rich asshole also complimented the “well built building.”
The president was not in the building at the time, but secret services escorted firefighters to his penthouse to investigate the fire.
His son, Eric the rich asshole, also thanked FDNY and the New York Police Department for responding to the incident.
Thank you to the amazing men and women of the NYFD who extinguished a fire in a residential apartment at @TrumpTower. The @FDNY and @NYPD are truly some of the most incredible people anywhere!
Videos filmed from 5th Avenue, where the building is located, show the fire growing as people watch on from the street.
Brian Lawton, a National Hockey League analyst, tweeted photos and video of the fire. Lawton said the fire “was small and then something happened where the size doubled in seconds!”
the rich asshole’s Retail Website Only Pays Sales Taxes In 2 States. Amazon Pays Taxes In 45.
Is TrumpStore.com the real “no tax” company?
President some rich asshole has railed against Amazon, falsely claiming the company fails to pay state and local sales taxes on online shipments. But it turns out the rich asshole Organization retail website collects sales taxes only on goods shipped to two states — while Amazon collects sales taxes in 45 states.
The TrumpStore.com website sells the rich asshole-labeled glassware, baseball caps, luggage tags, spa slippers and key chains, among several other items. It collects sales tax only on orders shipped to buyers in Florida and Louisiana, according to the company’s own website, The Wall Street Journal was the first to point out on Friday.
TrumpStore.com, which touts itself as the “official retail website of the The the rich asshole Organization,” doesn’t even pay sales taxes on its online shipments in New York, according to the information on its site. Its physical store and headquarters are located in the rich asshole Tower in Manhattan.
the rich asshole, who maintains his ownership of the rich asshole Organization even while president, has been slamming Amazon on Twitter for dodging sales taxes. He has called it a “no-tax” company and has blasted Amazon for paying “little or no taxes to state & local governments.”
According to regulatory filings, Amazon paid a combined total of $412 million in federal, state, local and foreign taxes last year. In 2015, it paid $273 million. Amazon currently charges consumers sales taxes in all 45 states where such taxes exist, plus Washington, D.C. All states except Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon collect sales tax.
Amazon doesn’t have to pay all those taxes. A 1992 Supreme Court ruling effectively restricts states from forcing online retailers to pay state and local sales taxes if the company has no physical presence or employees in the state.
Amazon reportedly also supports legislation that would require all online retail operations — such as TrumpStore.com — to pay local taxes so companies operate on a level competitive playing field.
It’s impossible to know what state and local taxes the TrumpStore has paid because it’s a private company and the rich asshole has not released any tax information.
“Trumpstore.com has always, and will continue to collect, report, and remit sales taxes in jurisdictions where it has an obligation to do so,” a spokeswoman told The Wall Street Journal.
A “terms and conditions” section of the rich asshole’s online store informs consumers that they’re responsible for paying any applicable tax on merchandise they purchase.
TrumpStore.com could soon be forced to catch up to Amazon on state sales taxes, thanks to the president. The rich asshole administration last month filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court urging it to allow states to require that online retailers collect and pay sales taxes even where they have no physical presence.
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