TRUMP Summary COLLAGE
by Bobby Everett Smith
October 8, 2020
This “Collage” is a collection of book summaries about Donald Trump. You can read the entire summary on my blog, https://bobsmithsblog.com, or you can buy each of the books to get the whole story. This is the fastest way to get a lot of information about the 45th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump.
Trump may be accused of being a certified nutcase, but he has some skills. He can break any law or violate any tradition and get away with it and there’s nothing we can do about it. Look at the Mueller investigation: Trump concluded no collusion, total exoneration to working with the Russians to win his election. He declared victory and went on to the impeachment where the Senate refused to even hear any evidence that Trump had violated rules.
Donald has continually been given a pass for his transgressions and failures—against traditions, against decency, against the law and against fellow human beings. The lies may become true in his mind as soon as he utters them, but they are still lies. It’s just another way for him to see what he can get away with. And so far, he’s gotten away with everything.
Amongst the ten authors in this summary, the common theme is “chaos in the White House.”
Collusion by Luke Harding
“The Steele Dossier”, a 35-page report detailing the relationship that Trump had with Russia over the last 15 or more years. The dossier accuses Trump of collusion with a foreign power, a serious, potentially career-ending charge for a new president of the United States.
The accusation, vehemently denied by Trump, was that Russia had helped Trump win the presidency in the 2016 election. The Steele Dossier claims that Trump was a puppet of Putin, the president of Russia, the enemy of the United States.
Trump frequently praised Putin during the campaign while criticizing Hillary and her allies vehemently. These two issues, the praise of Putin and the request of Russia to find the Clinton emails were remarkable, leading to the question: is Putin blackmailing Trump?
Steele’s conclusion about Putin was that he was domestically repressive but internationally reckless and revisionary. Putin is a professional spy. Everything he does has to be deniable.
Trump’s Relationship with Russia
Steele started to investigate the relationship between Trump, a worldwide real estate and hotel owner, and his potential relationship with Russia. “What are Trump’s business ties to Russia?” Using sources he had developed in Moscow and around the world, Steele discovered that Russia had been following Trump for at least five years. Their aim, as endorsed by Putin, was to encourage splits and divisions in the western alliance.
Steele created a total of 16 memos that were sent to Fusion. These would become known as the Trump-Russia Dossier or the Steele Dossier. Steele declared that the content of the memos was 70 to 90% accurate and that Trump had been colluding with the Russians for at least five years. It also concluded that Russia’s chief spy agency had spent considerable money and effort to get close to Trump.
The Dossier alleged that the Trump Team had coordinated with Russia on the hacking of Hillary Clinton’s emails and that the Americans had secretly paid for the hacking operation.
Trump on KGB Target List
The exact time that Donald Trump was put on the KGB target list is not known but it might be as early as 1977. In 1986 Trump made his first visit to Moscow, Trump was talking about building a new luxury hotel just across from the Kremlin in partnership with the Soviet government. The hotel deal did not work out, but the Soviets continued to cultivate Trump. They were looking for young, ambitious, upwardly mobile individuals who might have a future with them.
The KGB had a lavish trip to Moscow available for targets. Fancy hotels, girls, lavish meals, and entertainment, sporting events, hunting trips, and other freebies were offered to Americans who might be willing to help the USSR and the Russians after the collapse of the USSR.
After the presidential election, Putin told Trump that Russia had not interfered with the election. Trump accepted his statement as truth. Trump had believed Putin over his own intelligence.
Putin, it seems, was behind the old goals of the KGB: Aggravate disagreements between the United States and Western Europe, deepen division between the U.S. and NATO, and cleave the United States from its allies.
Trump’s real estate and resort operations became a huge investment target for Russian funds for over 20 years.
“It was almost as if Putin had played a role in naming Trump’s cabinet”. Was this a pattern of collusion emerging?
House of Trump; House of Putin by Craig Unger
The Cold War started even before World War II ended. Many Americans thought the Communists from USSR were out to take over the world. But in 1991, the USSR collapsed, and Americans breathed a sigh of relief. We no longer must worry about Russia trying to take over the world.
This book by Craig Unger, explores the relationship, which lasted for 30 years, amongst Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and the Russian Mafia. Unger traces Trump from a foundering real estate tycoon to the highest office in the land.
Trump, Putin’s Man in the White House
By the end of election day in 2016, Trump was declared the winner. “Given Trump’s narrow victory in states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan, states that were expected to vote Democratic had gone to Trump by less than 1%. That put him over the top in the electoral college, and it is likely that the Russian interference made the difference.”
“Russia has never tried to use leverage over me. I HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH RUSSIA. NO DEALS, NO LOANS. NO NOTHING.” Donald Trump Twitter, January 11, 2017.
This book describes the greatest intelligence operation in history, where the Russian intelligence operatives successfully targeted and implanted a willing Russian asset in the White House who would immediately begin to undermine the Western alliance which has been the foundation of American security for the last 70 years.
Russian Strategy—cyber warfare, hacking, disinformation
The Russians accomplished all this without firing a shot. They used a new strategy–cyber warfare, hacking, disinformation.
Did Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election change the course of the election? Was that an act of war? Can we prove they did such a thing and that it is still going on? Trump denies any relationship to Russia or to Putin. Unger argues that Trump has 59 people who facilitated business between the Russians and Trump.
Trump has provided an operational home for Russian oligarchs and members of the Russian mafia for the past 30 years in Trump Tower, the crown jewel of Trump’s New York real estate empire. Russia compromised Trump’s personal activities regarding his sexual activities and used information they collected as leverage for blackmail against our president.
Trump was not the only one compromised by the Russian Mafia. Others included mostly Republicans but some Democrats. Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, is an example of one who became indebted to the Russians for the last 20 years.
The book shows that Trump was four billion dollars in debt when the Russian operatives came to his rescue and bailed him out, placing him in their debt up until now. “President Trump is an intelligence asset serving Russian President Vladimir Putin.”
“Or even worse, according to a CIA national intelligence officer, Trump is actually working directly for the Russians.”
Fear, Trump in the White House, Bob Woodward
Chaos has ruled in the White House ever since Trump was inaugurated. Something large or small would infuriate him.
One example: Gary Cohn, Trump’s National Economic Adviser, removed a letter from the president’s desk about withdrawing from KORUS, the Korean Trade Agreement. The president was angry because of an $18 Billion trade deficit with South Korea. Cohn believed that KORUS on balance was a good deal for the United States and he was determined to remove the threat from Trump’s eyesight if he could. Cohn believed that the president would forget about working on the KORUS withdrawal. Trump never noticed the missing letter.
Trump started his presidency with a good economy, but he wanted to make it even better. To do that he needed a good tax reform passage and deregulation of the shackles that were holding back many U.S. industrial giants.
President Obama briefed Trump on impending problems just before the inauguration. North Korea is the biggest threat, said Obama. They are on the verge of having nuclear warheads and a set of missiles that could deliver them on targets in the United States. Trump vowed that a nuclear capability in North Korea’s hands was unacceptable and he started then on a campaign to keep that from happening.
While they were trying to execute on Trump’s desire to withdraw from the Paris Accord on Climate Change, Priebus, the Chief of Staff and Ivanka got into a disagreement. Ivanka had free reign over the White House and Priebus was trying to bring order and organization. Ivanka launched a covert campaign to keep the U.S. in the Paris Accord. At one point when Trump was ready to sign a memo verifying the withdrawal from the Paris Accord, Ivanka introduced Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, who talked him out of it.
In July 2016, Manafort, Trump Jr., and Kushner met in Trump tower to discuss with Russian lawyers how the Trump campaign could get dirt on Hillary Clinton. The Trump team denied any kind of subterfuge with the Russians.
Trump announced via Twitter that the U.S. military would no longer support transgender personnel. He made this announcement with no notification to the Secretary of Defense, James Mattis. Rob Porter, Trump’s Secretary and Priebus, the Chief of Staff, continued to persuade Trump to curtail his use of Twitter. Trump refused, “this is my megaphone,” he told them. “this is the way I speak directly to the people, cutting through the fake news.”
Trump summarized his protectionism in a comment to Porter. TRADE IS BAD. This phrase summarized his support for nationalism, protectionism, and isolationism.
According to Rex Tillerson, Secretary of State, Trump had trouble making a decision. “He will make a decision and a couple of days later, he will change his mind,” Tillerson said.
When Trump found out that his Attorney General, Jeff Sessions had recused himself from Russian matters, he was furious. Trump thought this act of recusal made Sessions a traitor and he finally fired Sessions from the Attorney General position just after the midterm elections in November 2018.
Stephen Miller continued to grow as an influential Trump adviser. In July 2017, he made a presentation at the White House where he advocated for a shopping list of issues—the border wall, the border enforcement, catch and release, sanctuary cities.
Kushner disagreed. We need to focus on bipartisan constructive things—” a path forward so that we can actually get something done.”
Trump started almost immediately after his inauguration to denigrate our relationships with key allies. According to Mattis and Gary Cohn, Trump’s key problem was that he did not understand the importance of allies overseas, the value of diplomacy, or the relationship between the military and intelligence partnerships with foreign governments.
The president had a fervent belief that annual trade deficits harmed the American economy. Trump was on a crusade to impose tariffs and quotas despite Gary Cohn’s efforts to convince him that this was not the right thing to do. Trump needed to understand the benefits of FREE TRADE.
Cohn made the point that we need to have Free Trade with Canada, Mexico, South Korea, and Japan. The deficit we had with those countries was actually beneficial to America because they helped to grow our agricultural market in addition to providing valuable goods to American consumers at reasonable prices. Trade deficits helped grow the U.S. economy. Trump did not believe that.
Trump asked his advisers when we were going to start winning wars. The president wants to decertify the Iranian Anti-Nuclear settlement of the Obama Administration. What about Afghanistan, “let’s either start winning that war, or get out.” Trump suggested that we shift to a “military for hire” strategy in Afghanistan.
Many of the president’s advisers, especially those in national security became extremely concerned with his erratic nature, his relative ignorance, and his inability to learn as well as his dangerous views.
Rex Tillerson became fed up with the president, called him a “fucking moron,” and started to consider resigning. According to Tillerson, what was often lacking in his dealings with the president was an execution plan assigning responsibility and accountability. The result was often weeks or even months of delay.
In July 2017 fifteen ex-members of the Council of Economic Advisers sent a letter to the president advising him not to impose steel tariffs because it would damage our economy and irritate our allies. Wilbur Ross, Secretary of Commerce disagreed with this recommendation.
The President replaced his Chief of Staff with General John Kelley. Priebus stated, “the president has zero psychological ability to recognize empathy or pity in any way.”
In some ways Priebus never got over the way his departure was handled. Priebus was crushed and the president did not see where there was a problem. Two days after his departure, Trump called Priebus and said, “Priebus, how are you doing?” He did not see that they had a problem.
Priebus thought that Trump had put predators at the table of his advisers, interlopers, a band of chaos creators, people with no experience in government and frequently people who were anti-whatever department they were appointed to nurture.
In Mid-August 2017, hundreds of white supremacists poured into The University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville, Virginia to protest Jews in America. One of the protesters drove his automobile into a crowd, killing a woman and injuring 19 others. Trump called for unity and non-violence, but he recognized the white supremacists by talking about the truthfulness of the messages on many sides of the issue.
Protesters advocated to call evil by its name: domestic terrorism.
On August 18, 2017 Gary Cohn resigned. Trump called it treason. “I made a huge mistake giving this appointment to you,” (appointing Cohn to be his economic adviser.)
To Porter, the Charlottesville event had been the turning point in Trump’s presidency. Porter said, “there is no longer a White House, Trump rejected he advice of almost his entire staff. His independence and irrationality ebbed and flowed.”
Trump’s election had triggered the divide in our country. There was a more hostile relationship with the media, there was a racists tinge and Trump accelerated it.
Bob Corker, Republican Senator from Tennessee, stated, “the president has not yet been able to demonstrate the stability and competence needed to succeed in office. Anger serves as a way to manage staff or express his displeasure. “Not one guy in the White House has come out to defend him,” said Steve Bannon.
On August 25, Trump decided to make a sweeping decision, get out of NAFTA, KORUS, and the World Trade Organization all at one time. These decisions were not executed.
Tax reform now became his number one priority. Mnuchin, Secretary of Treasury, warned Trump that many Republican Senators were free traders who were opposed to raising steel and other tariffs.
“I don’t have any good lawyers,” Trump stated one day in the Oval Office. My lawyers are weak, not aggressive, and don’t have my best interests in mind.”
Trump’s relationship with North Korea became increasingly personal. In May, Trump said he would be honored to meet with Kim Jong Um, the North Korean leader—under the right circumstances.” On September 23, Trump called Kim Jong Um, Little Rocket Man. “You never show weakness; you’ve got to project strength,” Trump said.
Tax reform legislation passed; it was the only major legislation passed the first year of Trump’s presidency.
On March 13, 2018, Trump tweeted that Mike Pompeo would replace Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State, leaving his job as Director of the CIA. Tillerson retired back to his Texas ranch.
Siege, Trump Under Fire by Michael Wolff
Siege, Trump Under Fire by Michael Wolff describes the president’s impulsive management style that has led to the chaos in the White House for the first three years of his presidency. While Trump claims to be a superior businessman, his administration has been riddled with high job turnover and indecision within his cabinet. Trump believes he is invincible but that only adds to his vulnerability.
Wolff describes Trump as a raging, self-destructive inferno, and the most divisive leader in American history.
Chaos in the White House
Siege begins in February 2018, Trump’s second year in office. Trump’s own white house staff has begun to turn against him. Chaos reigns. Some from his own base have found him to be impulsive and undependable, hopelessly distracted and in over his head. Some describe him as mentally unstable.
Trump described his own performance, “I’m good at the game. Maybe I’m the best. Really, I could be the best. I am the best. I am very good, very cool.”
My late March 2018, John Kelly, Trump’s second Chief of Staff, was in bitter disagreement about how to run the government. Trump ignored him; Kelly sulked. Jared and Ivanka operated at will in the West Wing of the White House. The Mueller team pursued the Special Investigation of the Russian Collusion in the 2016 election. Paul Ryan resigned as Speaker of the House, and the FBI raided the personal residence of Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, looking for evidence for the Mueller investigation.
Impeachment due to the Mueller investigation was a possibility and according to Stephen Bannon, to be embraced not to be avoided. Bannon was certain that the president would be acquitted in the Senate even if impeached in the House.
Trump was accused of colluding with the Russians to help him get elected president in 2016. Robert Mueller was appointed by Rob Rosenstein of the Department of Justice to lead an independent investigation to discover if there were grounds for impeachment. Mueller had a distinguished record as a U. S. Marine and Director of the FBI. He was recognized by the press as singularly qualified to lead a fair and accurate investigation.
Trump Calls the Mueller Investigation a Hoax
Trump called the investigation a hoax, a witch hunt and various other derogatory names. He had the right to fire the private investigator, but he reluctantly agreed that firing Mueller would not be politically advantageous to him. He thought many times that he should go ahead and fire him, but he always backed down.
For the mid-term elections, Fox News was the first network to announce that Democrats had won control of the House with all of the subpoena, oversight and investigative authority that went with it. Trump was slow to believe it. The Senate remained in Republican control with Mitch McConnell the majority leader from Kentucky. Bannon predicted Trump would be impeached by the House and convicted by the Senate leaving him far short of one term in office.
President’s extreme mood swings
The president’s extreme mood swings were alarming for almost everyone in the White House. After the election, his rages were greater, and his coherence more in question. Hannity told Bannon that Trump seemed totally crazy. Ivanka and Jared spent even more time with Trump at this point to their personal advantage. They came to be the power behind the throne.
In December, without Department of Defense review or approval, Trump announced that the U.S. had defeated ISIS, and that he was withdrawing all U.S. troops from Syria. Mattis resigned.
Trump, with the support of Ann Coulter, Fox News, continued to advocate for funding the Wall. On December 21, the government shutdown. On January 16, Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House disinvited Trump from making the State of the Union address. On January 25, the shutdown ended the longest shutdown in American history.
On February 14, Bill Barr was sworn in as Attorney General. The next day Trump declared a national emergency.
On March 5, Robert Mueller spelled out the conclusions of his investigation and report to Attorney General, Bill Barr. Mueller reminded his staff that they were a Special Counsel not an independent counsel; they reported to the Justice Department and as such, the conclusions of the report went to the Attorney General, Bill Barr. The Special Counsel’s office confirmed that it would issue no new indictments. Barr wrote a letter to Congress stating that he would send a summary of the report to Congress, possibly within 48 hours.
In a four page letter to Congress, Barr stated that the Special Counsel had found no evidence of conspiracy to influence the 2016 election and he continued the Special Counsel had left it to the Attorney General to determine if there had been any obstruction of justice. Donald Trump had once again slipped his pursuers.
Trump proclaimed his complete and total exoneration. He was soon on the phone seeking congratulations and congratulating himself. “I am the man,” he said. “Never, never, never, give in. I am fearless and they know that. It scared the shit out of them.”
“Of Robert Mueller, he said, “what an asshole.”
Once again, Trump had dodged a potential death blow. His exoneration changed very little because he was still guilty of being Donald Trump. It would lead him again and again to the brink of destruction. His escape, such as it was, would be brief.
David Jay Pecker (born September 24, 1951) was the CEO of American Media. He is the publisher of Men’s Fitness, Muscle and Fitness, Flex, Fit Pregnancy, Shape and Star. He was also the publisher of National Enquirer, Sun, Weekly World News, and Globe.
Allen Howard Weisselberg is the chief financial officer (CFO) of The Trump Organization. Weisselberg also serves as a co-trustee of a trust set up in 2017 by Donald Trump before Trump’s inauguration as President of the United States.
Donald McGahn is an American lawyer who served as White House Counsel for Trump, from the day of Trump’s inauguration through October 17, 2018, when McGahn resigned. In November 2019, McGahn received a court order to testify before the U.S House of Representatives. In August 2020, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled 7-2 that the House can sue him to comply.
Jamal Ahmad Khashoggi was a Saudi Arabian dissident, author, columnist for The Washington Post, and a general manager and editor-in-chief of Al-Arab News Channel who was assassinated at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2 October 2018 by agents of the Saudi government. He also served as editor for the Saudi Arabian newspaper Al Watan, turning it into a platform for Saudi progressives
Sheldon Adelson is an American businessman, investor, philanthropist, and political donor. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Las Vegas Sands Corporation, which owns the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, and the parent company of Venetian Macao Limited, which operates The Venetian Resort Hotel Casino and the Sands Expo and Convention Center. He created the Adelson Foundation in 2007 and made the largest single donation to any U.S. presidential inauguration when he gave the Trump inaugural committee US$5 million.
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) is a United States immigration policy that allows some individuals with unlawful presence in the United States after being brought to the country as children to receive a renewable two-year period of deferred action from deportation and become eligible for a work permit in the U.S. Unlike the proposed DREAM Act, DACA does not provide a path to citizenship for recipients. The policy, an executive branch memorandum, was announced by President Barack Obama on June 15, 2012. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) began accepting applications for the program on August 15, 2012.
William Barr is an attorney and is the two-time and current United States Attorney General. He served as the 77th Attorney General from 1991 to 1993 during the George H. W. Bush administration and returned to the post as the 85th AG in February 2019 during the Donald Trump administration.
FBI and Justice Department part of a broad conspiracy?
Now, the allegation that FBI and Justice Department officials are part of a broad conspiracy against President Trump is suddenly center stage, amplified by conservative activists, GOP lawmakers, right-leaning media, and the president himself. The clamor has become a sustained backdrop to the special counsel investigation, with congressional committees grilling a parade of law enforcement officials in recent days.
“Until recently, it has been a lonely battle,” said Tom Fitton, whose conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch has helped drive the charges by unearthing internal Justice Department documents. “Our concerns about Mueller are beginning to take hold.”
The partisan atmosphere is a sharp departure from the near-universal support that greeted Mueller’s selection as special counsel in May — and threatens to shadow his investigation’s eventual findings. Trump, while vowing to cooperate with the special counsel, has also encouraged attacks on Mueller’s credibility, tweeting that the investigation is “the greatest witch hunt in U.S. political history.”
The controversy, percolating for months, escalated dramatically in early December with the revelation of text messages in which one of Mueller’s former top investigators, Peter Strzok, called Trump an “idiot” and predicted Hillary Clinton would win the election in a landslide.
As the deputy head of counterintelligence at the FBI, Strzok played a critical role in both the Clinton email investigation and the Russia probe before he was removed by Mueller this summer.
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) alleged that the FBI was working against Trump’s election and said in an interview that many of his Republican colleagues now share his view that there has been an orchestrated effort against Trump.
Among current and former law enforcement officials, the public attacks on the FBI are seen as an indirect way of trying to discredit Mueller and blunt future findings he may issue, a view shared by many Democratic lawmakers.
“There is a concerted push from the White House to bring the investigations to a halt,” Rep. Adam B. Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee,” said in an interview. “They are also trying to attack Mueller’s credibility and the credibility of the FBI, so that whatever Mueller finds can be rejected as a fake.”
President Trump suggested the special prosecutor’s team might not be fair, impartial investigators.
A spokesman for Mueller declined to comment.
Some of the key players in the campaign against the special counsel probe are veterans of politically charged investigations, having helped drive attacks against the Clintons in the 1990s and during last year’s presidential campaign.
One leading critic is David Bossie, a former Trump deputy campaign manager. He was a congressional investigator who examined President Bill Clinton’s campaign finances in the late 1990s and currently leads Citizens United, a conservative advocacy group that produced movies critical of Hillary Clinton and other Democrats.
Bossie now makes frequent appearances on Fox News and other conservative media outlets, arguing that the special counsel is being used to try to delegitimize Trump. He said it is crucial to make a sustained fight against the probe.
“It is not that I wake up and say, ‘How do I match the Clinton playbook?” Bossie said. “I just have the experience of understanding the rapid-response aspect of messaging. You have to be out there with a counter, set-the-facts-straight message or highlight what the problems are very quickly, or these things get away from you.”
He argues there is no evidence that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia.
“I’m not against Mueller; I’m against the concept of an investigation as a red herring,” he said.
Fitton’s Judicial Watch group, too, has a long history of investigating the Clintons, having filed numerous lawsuits against the administration of President Bill Clinton. During the 2016 campaign, the organization obtained thousands of emails written by Hillary Clinton when she was secretary of state.
This year, Judicial Watch has helped stoke the attacks against the Mueller probe with material it obtained through lawsuits and Freedom of Information Act requests. The nonprofit group, which has a $35 million budget and 50 employees, does not release the names of its roughly 500,000 donors, Fitton said.
Fitton has frequently gone on Fox News, conservative websites, and Twitter to report his findings. On Dec. 2, after Fitton tweeted that Trump “needs to clean house at FBI/DOJ,” Trump retweeted another user’s summary of Fitton’s statement.
In one email obtained through a Judicial Watch lawsuit, Andrew Weissmann, a senior lawyer working for Mueller, wrote in January that he was “so proud” of then-acting attorney general Sally Yates’s decision to defy Trump’s executive order banning travel by certain immigrants. The FOIA request was filed in May and was received in the fall, Fitton said. Other requests have taken longer or been rejected all together, he said.
Judicial Watch also obtained emails regarding FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe that the group says show he was involved in helping his wife, Jill, run as a Democratic candidate for a state Senate seat in Virginia.
McCabe was told in one email that then-Director James B. Comey had “no issue” with McCabe’s wife seeking the seat. Another document said Clinton attended a June 2015 fundraiser for Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s political action committee, which in turn gave nearly $500,000 to Jill McCabe for her state Senate bid.
Republicans have also raised questions about the FBI’s handling of a dossier produced by Christopher Steele, a former British spy who was hired by a research firm called Fusion GPS to investigate Trump’s ties to Russia. Senate Intelligence Committee investigators on Thursday interviewed Bruce Ohr, a Justice Department official whose wife, Nellie, worked for Fusion GPS in 2016.
In a recent court filing, Fusion GPS said it was being targeted by congressional committees “coordinating with the President [and] his personal lawyers . . . to misdirect attention to Fusion . . . due to their perceived role in exposing the ties between the Trump campaign and the Russians.”
Jay Sekulow, one of Trump’s outside attorneys, has called for a second special counsel to be appointed to investigate the Fusion GPS matter. He said in an interview that his proposal “is in no way related to Robert Mueller,” with whom he said he has “a professional and cooperative relationship.”
The pressure on Mueller’s team has increased as prosecutors unveiled charges this fall against four former Trump advisers.
Less than two weeks after former national security adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI, the Justice Department disclosed anti-Trump and pro-Clinton texts that Strzok exchanged with another senior FBI official, Lisa Page, while they were having an affair and overseeing sensitive political investigations of those candidates.
The texts were uncovered in July by the Justice Department’s inspector general, which has been investigating FBI decision-making during the probe into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server when she was secretary of state.
When the IG warned Mueller in the summer about what the probe had found, Mueller immediately removed Strzok from his team. Strzok was reassigned to a job in the FBI’s human resources division.
Page had also worked on the Mueller team, but left two weeks earlier for what officials said were unrelated reasons.
Former colleagues defended him, saying Strzok’s personal opinions had no impact on how he conducted investigations.
“To think Pete could not do his job objectively shows no understanding of the organization,” said Michael Steinbach, former executive assistant director of the FBI’s National Security Branch, adding: “We have Democrats, we have Republicans, we have conservatives and liberals. . . . Having personal views doesn’t prevent us from independently following the facts.”
But as news of Strzok’s text messages spread, Trump jumped on the story, tweeting: “Report: ‘ANTI-TRUMP FBI AGENT LED CLINTON EMAIL PROBE’ Now it all starts to make sense!”
Republicans in Congress took the cue, seizing upon the texts to attack the credibility of the FBI and the Mueller investigation.
“The senior levels of the FBI have been infected with an intractable bias that seemed to favor Hillary Clinton and work against President Donald Trump,” said Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida on Fox News on Wednesday, adding, “It’s time for Bob Mueller to put up or shut up: If there’s evidence of collusion, let’s see it.”
The calls for Mueller’s ouster are strongest in the House, where a group of Republicans have been calling for the special counsel to resign.
House Speaker Paul D. Ryan has said Mueller’s investigation should proceed without interference. But he has allowed several committee investigations that are calling into question the integrity of the probe.
“The House has a constitutional obligation to exercise congressional oversight, and the speaker is supportive of our committee chairmen carrying out their work,” said Ryan spokeswoman Ash Lee Strong.
In recent days, for example, three House committees grilled McCabe over his participation in the FBI’s Russia investigation and his role in the FBI examination into Clinton’s use of a private email server.
Democrats called it a thinly veiled attempt to weaken McCabe and slow down Mueller’s probe. McCabe plans to retire in a few months when he becomes fully eligible for pension benefits, people familiar with the matter told The Post.
“Those people should be investigating the real crime, which is Russia’s interference in our democracy, and instead they’re being hauled before a six-hour series of interviews,” said Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthy (D-Ill.).
At the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) and a small group of Republican lawmakers are discussing writing a report next year that would highlight alleged “corruption” at the FBI, according to people familiar with the plans. Such a report would focus on information about the conduct of FBI officials in the course of the Russia investigation, those people said.
On the Senate side, one of the loudest voices has been Republican Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, who chairs the Judiciary Committee and has raised questions about the impartiality of Mueller’s probe.
He has called for McCabe to be fired and shown a willingness to dig into Mueller’s past tenure as FBI director, complaining Thursday that the FBI and DOJ have been too slow to rout out people peddling “political influence.”
Grassley has also called for a second special counsel to look at decisions the FBI and DOJ made at the time that the Obama administration approved a uranium deal giving Russia a significant stake in the U.S. market. The inquiry would bring de facto scrutiny on Mueller, who was FBI director at the time.
Grassley said that his staff is in touch with Nunes’s staff, though he would not specify exactly what elements of their committees’ parallel inquiries they were communicating about.
“I wouldn’t want to say there’s coordination,” Grassley said. “There’s communication.”
The Room Where It Happened by John Bolton
John Bolton, author of The Room Where it Happened, A White House Memoir, served as National Security Advisor to President Donald Trump from April 9, 2018 to September 10, 2019. Bolton started the position as a friend and ally of Trump and ended with Trump filing suit to prevent publication of this book.
According to Wikipedia, Bolton is a foreign policy hawk and is an advocate for regime change in Iran, Syria, North Korea, and other entities. He served as the 25th United States Ambassador to the United Nations from 2005 to 2006 and was a foreign policy adviser to 2012 presidential candidate Mitt Romney. He is a graduate of and has a law degree from Yale.
Bolton shows a president who embraces our enemies like Russia and spurns our friends like NATO.
Bolton shows a president addicted to chaos who embraces our enemies like Russia and spurns our friends like NATO. Trump is deeply suspicious of his own government and approaches foreign policy like he was closing a real estate deal.
Bolton described his relationship with Donald Trump stating that Trump performed in a style that encouraged only yes men as his closest advisors. Trump believes that he can run the Executive Branch on instinct.
Soon after he started as NSA, Bolton realized that the key problem in the Trump cabinet was Jim Mattis, Secretary of Defense.
On Iran, Trump was worried about Russian casualties or damage to Russian assets in a retaliatory attack against Iran coming from the U.S. Bolton assured the president that any missiles launched would not target Russian forces.
Bolton informed Trump that they were being sandbagged by Mattis on the range of target options, but that the strategy he had developed was the correct one for the retaliation against the Syrian regime.
Kelly and Bolton met, and Kelly said that the White House was a terrible place to work and he could hardly wait to get out of it. “I am desperate to get out of it. You will soon find out.”
Trump negotiates with North Korea
On the North Korea denuclearization, Trump expected the North Koreans to be willing to give up their nuclear program entirely. North Korea had no such plans.
Trump opposed endless wars in the Middle East, but he had no coherent strategy for dealing with the withdrawal of U.S. Forces plus what to do in the region after our forces came home.
Immigration issues, according to Bolton, stumbled along rather than following any coherent or organized plan.
Kelly’s resignation as Chief of Staff: “With Kelly’s departure and Mulvaney’s arrival, all effective efforts at managing the Executive Office of the President, disappeared. Personnel decisions deteriorated further, and general chaos spread.
Xi, the President of China, visited Trump in the White House. Xi told Trump how wonderful he was, and Trump ate it up.
Afghanistan, the hard part was getting Trump to agree and then stick to the decision.
The National Security Advisor had two objectives in Afghanistan. 1) prevent the potential resurgence of ISIS and al Qaeda and the potential threats of terrorist attacks against America.
2) Remaining vigilant against the nuclear weapons program in Iran on the West and Pakistan on the East. The hard part was getting Trump to agree and then stick to the decision.
Trump wanted to get out of Afghanistan completely. White House staff members wanted to keep enough forces there to prevent ISIS, Taliban, and Al Qaeda terrorists from attacking the U.S.
Quid pro Quo with Ukraine
Trump sent Rudi Giuliani to Ukraine with the request that the Government investigate criminal activity by Joe Biden and his son Hunter which Trump wanted to use for political purposes in the 2020 U.S. Presidential election. Trump threatened to withhold $400 million in military aid if the Zelensky government did not follow his request.
On February 28, 2019 Trump and Kim Jong-Un held a 1-1 conference in Vietnam. Trump, busy watching testimony by Michael Cohen, cancelled the prepatory briefings for the meeting. Trump was prepared for an “I Walk” outcome to the meetings because he doubted that North Korea would agree to denuclearization, a requirement.
After an hour or so of negotiations, Trump acknowledged that they had reached an impasse that was politically impossible for him to accept in the current meeting. Trump walked away from the meeting effectively showing the rest of the world that he would do it in Vietnam or anywhere else for that matter. Trump did not think of “walking away” as a failure.
On September 10, 2019, Bolton resigned his position as National Security Advisor. President Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives and Bolton was in the process of getting this book published.
The House wanted Bolton to testify as to his knowledge about the impeachment allegations. Trump wanted Bolton not to publish the book and he filed suit in Federal Court to prevent the book’s release.
Bolton believed that the advocates of impeachment in the House were committing impeachment malpractice. At the end of the day, Bolton did not testify before the House; the book was published, and we are reading it now. The Senate did not even listen to testimony that would possibly have convicted Trump who was acquitted. At the middle of August 2020, we are in the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic and the Democratic Convention to nominate the next President of the United States is scheduled to start as the first-ever on-line party convention. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are the de-facto Democratic nominees and Donald Trump is the de-facto Republican. Pence as Republican VP is yet to be confirmed.
It Was All a Lie by Stuart Stevens
Stuart Stevens has spent decades working as a Republican in Washington, D.C. This book is a devastating portrait of a party that has lost its moral compass. Stevens explains how racism has always lurked in the GOP party’s DNA. When a party stands for nothing, he claims it is inevitable that it will be taken over by the loudest and angriest voices in the room. Stevens helped to create the modern GOP that kneels before a morally bankrupt con man and now wants nothing more than to have it held accountable.
Republican Party thinks Democrats have too much sex
The Republican Party thinks Democrats have too much sex and it is their job to regulate that and modify the amount of sin that is going on in our country. Abortions would not be needed if men and women just quit having sex. The Christian Right would like the world to believe it was the political arm of Jesus Christ. It was more about the acquisition of power than a commitment to Christianity.
For over a decade, Trump lost more money in business than any other businessman in America, yet this is the man that Republicans have chosen to be their leader because of his business smarts.
“You can draw a straight line from that blend of kooky conspiratorial, anti-foreign alliance and instinctual victimhood to Donald Trump worldview. To Trump the internal forces conspiring against the country are the Deep State, not the Communists.” Trump’s vision of the world through the heavy fog of fear and paranoia.
The Manion Radio program became a model of the radio hosts who helped Barry Goldwater became the leader of the Conservative Movement in 1959.
Most Republican leaders know that Donald Trump is unfit to be president, but they pretend otherwise.
Most Republican leaders know that Donald Trump is unfit to be president, but they pretend otherwise. The most distinguishing characteristic of the current Republican Party is cowardice. The price of admission is to accept that a pathological liar is the leader of the party and pretend that is not true.
Republicans believe in cutting taxes. All good in government comes from cutting taxes. This is what Republicans believe. There is a direct line between the raising of the national debt and the Republican belief in cutting taxes in accordance with the beliefs of the Americans for Tax Reform.
He simply refuses to make the effort to prepare himself for the job of commander in chief.
Trump refuses to make the effort to prepare himself for the job of commander in chief.
The Washington Post reported, “Trump’s lack of basic understanding of nuclear weapons is concerning enough but even more troubling is the lack of progress he has made in the last few months.” He simply refuses to make the effort to prepare himself for the job of commander in chief.
The Trump obsession with immigration reform reflects the belief that every non-white person or immigrant is a threat to the future of the Republican Party. To counter this trend, the Republican strategy is to make it harder for non-whites to vote, a continuation of white elites to remain in power by preventing non-whites from voting.
Why did the Republican Party embrace a man who mocked the disabled? Attacked a former POW and war hero? Defended Putin’s murder of a journalist? Blackmailed foreign governments into investigating political opponents? Bragged about assaulting women?
Republicans (and sometimes Democrats) took a sworn oath to defend the country, yet they chose to support Donald Trump, the most “anti-American president in our nation’s history.”
A party rooted in decency and values does not embrace the vicious hate of Donald Trump that he peddles as patriotism. What the Republican Party must realize is that they need the country more than the country needs them.
Rage by Bob Woodward
Donald Trump, 45th president of the United States granted to Pulitzer winning author, Bob Woodward, a total of 17 on-the-record interviews in a seven-month period of 2020. These interviews are the basis of this book, Rage, Woodward’s second book about this president.
Corona Virus Covid 19 potential threat
On his Intelligence Briefing, January 28, 2020, Trump was informed about the Corona Virus Covid 19 potential threat. Intelligence officers and health officials played down the threat but Robert O Bryan and his assistant, Matt Pottinger, agreed that it was the biggest problem the president would face in his presidency
Richard Burr of the Senate Intelligence Committee announced that there was no evidence of collusion between Trump and Russia in the 2016 election. Trump was cleared by the Senate Intelligence Committee.
On April 3, Trump seemed to be at war against the rules established by the health professionals in the U.S. “This is voluntary,” Trump said, “I don’t think I’m going to be doing it, “referring to the wearing of facemasks.”
During the first couple of years in Trump’s administration, Mattis and Tillerson, Sec Def and Sec State, developed a good personal relationship although they did not agree on every point. Meeting weekly when they were both in Washington, they reviewed issues and their relationship with Trump.
Trump Fires Comey, FBI Director
On May 9, 2017Trump fired Comey because of his involvement in the Russian investigation of collusion between Trump and Russia in the 2016 election.
Trump appointed Andrew McCabe as the new FBI director.
Trump took on North Korea early in his term of office. At first relationships with the North Korean dictator were strained and seemed to be heading inexorably to nuclear war. Trump started dealing with Kim Jung Um directly, met with him personally three times in Singapore, Vietnam and the boundary between North and South Korea.
It was difficult to have a discussion with him. He frequently changed the subject in mid-stream to the topic at hand. Facts would be dismissed, and Trump would head down one of those threads that may have been suggested by Fox News earlier in the day. It was hard and time-consuming to get back on subject.
Trump administration, dynamite behind every door.
In the Trump administration, there seemed to be dynamite behind every door. On analysis, Woodward concluded that the dynamite was Trump himself—the oversized personality, the failure to organize, the lack of discipline, the lack of trust in others he had picked and in experts, the undermining of American institutions, and unwillingness of acknowledge errors, and failure to do his homework.
The media was fake news and accomplished leaders like Mattis, Tillerson, and Coats each departed from their posts on Trump’s staff with bitter words from their leader.
According to Kushner, understanding Trump meant understanding Alice in Wonderland.
Trump talks a lot, almost incessantly. Anything can happen in the Trump presidency, anything.
“I alone can fix it,” was a typical attitude about almost any issue that Trump considered.
Trump has installed personal impulse as a governing principle of his presidency. Trump is the wrong man for the job.
As of September 24, 2020, the United States had 216,089 deaths and 7,733,218 cases.
Too Much and Never Enough by Mary L. Trump, PhD
Growing Up
Mary L. Trump, a trained psychologist, niece of Donald Trump, President of the United States, and author of Too Much and Never Enough, shines a bright light on the toxic family where the president was raised in Queens, NY. Mary Trump is qualified to judge the traits that make the president tick through her professional training as a psychologist and her participation as a day to day member of the Trump extended family.
Mary Trump describes a nightmare of traumas, destructive relationships, and a tragic combination of neglect and abuse which formed the upbringing of our current president. She describes how specific events and general family patterns created the damaged man who now resides in the White House. She describes how Donald dismissed and derided his father when he succumbed to Alzheimer’s.
Family
Fred and Mary Trump, Donald’s parents, lived in a large house in Queens, NY in the late 1940’s. Maryanne, the oldest child, lived there with them in 1948 when she was 12 years old, she found her mother bleeding in the bathroom. She and her father took the mother to the hospital where she subsequently underwent a hysterectomy. Robert, the youngest child, was 9 months old.
Fred, the father, seemed to have no emotional needs at all. He was a sociopath, and Mary, the mother had many physical and psychological needs. Fred was lacking in empathy, and indifference for right and wrong, abusive behavior, and a lack of interest in the rights of others.
Fred’s lack of real human feelings, his rigidity as a parent and husband, and his sexist’s belief in a woman’s innate inferiority left Mary and the children feeling unsupported. Fred did not believe that caring for the children was his job and he kept to his 12 hour per day job at Trump Management expecting the children to look out for themselves.
Fred focused on what was important to him, Trump Management, Inc., building garages and later starting to build a large apartment development, Shore Haven. Comforting behavior towards the children was considered weak, and annoying. For the two boys, Donald and Robert, needing became equated with humiliation, despair, and hopelessness. It was best for Fred if the children did not need anything, from him.
To cope, Donald developed primitive defenses marked by hostility to others and a pattern of bullying, disrespect, and aggressiveness. These characteristics became hardened into Donald’s personality and exist there today. Fred Trump came to validate and encourage the things about Donald that make him the most unlovable—all things that are a direct result of Fred’s abuse.
Shore Haven, the first development, turned out to be a phenomenal success bringing in piles of money.
Financial worth to Fred was the same as self-worth.
For the kids, lying was defensive and a way of life, a mode of self-aggrandizement meant to convince other people that he was better than he was.
Fred did not respect his oldest son and so neither did Donald. Fred thought Freddy was weak and Donald was determined not to fit in the same category. ‘
“Dad’s trying to teach us to be real men and Freddy’s failing.” Donald said.
Lying is ok, admitting you are wrong, or apologizing is weakness. In life, there is only one winner and everybody else is a loser. Kindness is weakness as is the willingness to share. Many people now confuse arrogance of Donald with strength, and false bravado for accomplishment, superficial interest in them with charisma.
The family was split deeply along gender lines.
Donald had plenty of experience watching his older brother trying to please his father and failing. Later Freddy began to observe Donald’s disrespect for authority, and he tried to adapt it as his own.
At age 13, Donald went to New York Military Academy which employed a system of punishment and reward, something new to Donald. Even so, at the Academy, Donald reaffirmed the belief that whoever had the power got to decide what was right and wrong. Anything that helped you maintain power was right even if it was not always fair.
Freddy, Donald’s Brother
Freddy put himself through flight school in college, and he got a job as a commercial airline pilot with TWA after graduation. He flew the Boston to Los Angles route for less than a year, but his drinking got the better of him and he left the airline and returned home to work for Trump Management.
Linda Trump was Freddy’s wife and the mother of Mary L. Trump, author of this book. TWA offered Freddy a chance to resign and he could keep his license because of drinking too much. Freddy accepted the offer and the family moved back to New York.
After working in New York and Oklahoma for two small airlines, Freddy was out of the pilot business in less than a year.
Freddy attempted to work for his father on a large real estate development, but that did not work out and Freddy fell from approval by his father. Donald recognized the opportunity and jumped in to begin his own real estate career.
It remained for Donald to get his degree, and he picked Wharton at the University of Pennsylvania. It was a hard school to get into and Donald hired Joe Shapiro to take his SAT test for him. Donald, not lacking for funds, paid his friend well to take the test for him. He was not a great student at Wharton, but he used the skills he had learned growing up in the Trump family and his charm to help him finish at Wharton. He had a way of getting others to do what he wanted them to. He had the confidence of a bully who knows what he wants and for some reason never has to fight for it.
Personality Traits
As Donald grew up under the guidance of his critical father, he became his own cheerleader and began to believe his own hype. To this day he lies, misrepresents, and fabricates whatever is convenient now. Mary Trump, our author, has no problem calling him a narcissist and a sociopath. He also meets the psychologist’s definition for the problem known as antisocial personality disorder. He is commonly found guilty, at least out of court, for criminality, arrogance, and disregard for the rights of others.
Health
Donald drinks up to 12 Diet Cokes per day and sleeps little. Except for golf he does not exercise much but he does not drink alcohol nor use drugs. A true clinical diagnosis of his behavior would be impossible while he occupies the institution known as the West Wing.
The stresses he experiences in the White House are the most he has ever suffered in his life and his delusions have been revealed more starkly than ever before.
Currently the Covid 19 pandemic, the economic crisis, and the countries’ deepening divides have exacerbated his mental ailments and his trend towards devastating uncertainty about our future. Managing those challenges successfully would require courage, strength of character, deference to experts, and the confidence to take responsibility for the problems. None of those are traits that Donald Trump possess. His current traits have become official U.S. policy, affecting millions of Americans. Donald understands nothing about history, constitutional principles, geopolitics, or diplomacy.
As of the time this report was written, the death count for Covid 19 has risen to 165,000 amongst over 2 million cases of the virus nationwide. “If he is allowed a second term, it will be the end of American democracy,” according to Mary L. Trump.
Donald has always needed to perpetuate the fiction Mary L. Trump’s grandfather started that he is strong, smart, and extraordinary because facing the truth, he is none of these things and facing the fact is too terrifying for him to contemplate.
Education
Donald graduated from Wharton in the Spring of ‘68 and went straight to work for Trump Management. From the beginning Donald was given more respect and paid more money than Freddy had ever been. This helped to consolidate Donald’s position in Trump Management as heir apparent.
Trump Management
The Steeplechase project was blocked by the city, but the father walked away with $1.3 million in profits and Freddy got the blame. In 1971 Donald was promoted to President of Trump Management at age 24. At that time, Donald had been on the job with Trump Management for three years, had little experience and even fewer qualifications.
The next project was an affordable housing project funded by the government. Donald seemed to think his job description was to brag about his accomplishments and refuse to rent apartments to black people although that was a requirement of the federal money that funded the project.
Fred sold the project for $6.75 million. Donald got all the credit and took most of the profits.
In 1973 the Justice Department Civil Rights Division sued Trump Management for violating the 1968 Fair Housing Act. Trump Management using Roy Cohn, as attorney counter-sued the Justice Department for $100 million. They alleged that the government was claiming false and misleading statements about his clients. ‘
Donald’s debts began to grow, exceeding $300 million as he bought casinos in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Donald’s personal obligations grew to $975 million by the end of 1990.
Donald bought a yacht for $28 million. His divorce settlement with Ivana was $10 million and he continued to live well. In 1990 the banks reached agreement with Trump to furnish him with a $450,000 per month allowance which was for doing nothing and in fact for having failed miserably with his casinos and other businesses.
Donald continued spending cash he did not have but the banks kept a close eye on him, a short leash which Donald did not like but he kept taking the money.
Bankruptcies and failures continued to mount. Donald did not accept failure nor admit that he had made a mistake in any case. Donald’s habit was to call every failure a victory knowing that he would be bailed out by his father or his lenders.
The Countersuit was thrown out of court and the government’s suit was completed with no penalties although Trump Management was required to change their requirements for renting practices.
Moving to Manhattan
Donald’s first two projects in Manhattan were the Grand Hyatt and Trump Tower, both of which were finished on time and on budget.
Maryanne was appointed and approved as Federal District Judge in Manhattan.
Fred Trump died on June 25, 1999.
Conclusion
Donald was never required to acquire expertise to acquire or retain power. All of this has protected Donald from his own failures while allowing him to believe himself a success. Donald only had one liability left at this time, the ease with which he could be duped by more powerful men. Fred surrounded Donald with people who knew what they were doing while giving him the credit; people who propped him up and lied for him and who knew how the family business worked.
As president, Donald is like he was at three years old, incapable of growing, learning, or evolving, unable to regulate his emotions, moderate his responses, or take in and synthesize information.
Donald’s need for affirmation is so great that he doesn’t seem to notice that his largest group of supporters are people who would not be caught with him outside of a Trump Rally. His insecurities have created a need for compliments that disappear as soon as he has soaked them in. Nothing is ever enough. The amount of stress he is under has grown enormously since his inauguration. His biggest effort is keeping Americans from knowing his weaknesses. He is totally unprepared to solve his own problems or adequately cover his tracks. The people that support him in the White House are weaker than he is, and they are the people keeping him in his position.
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