Tag: Trump fragile ego

Justice Department seeks emergency order to block publication of Bolton’s book

Washington Post logoThe Justice Department on Wednesday night sought an emergency order from a judge to block the publication of former national security adviser John Bolton’s forthcoming White House memoir, escalating a legal battle against the former Trump aide even after many of his book’s most explosive details had spilled out into public view

The move came after the administration filed a civil suit against Bolton on Tuesday, targeting the proceeds of the book and asking a court to order him to delay its scheduled June 23 release. Less than 24 hours later, the Wall Street Journal released an excerpt of the memoir, and lengthy accounts were published by other news organizations.

Wednesday’s move sought to formally enjoin Bolton from allowing his book to be published, a legal strategy experts said was unlikely to succeed, particularly given that the book has already been printed and shipped to warehouses and copies distributed to the media for review. Continue reading.

READ: CNN’s response to Trump campaign’s demand for an apology over poll that shows Biden leading

David Vigilante, CNN’s executive vice president and general counsel, issued a pointed response Wednesday to the demand by President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign that the network retract and apologize for a recent poll that showed him behind presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.

The demand, which contained numerous incorrect and misleading claims, was immediately rejected by the network, which stands by its poll.

“To my knowledge, this is the first time in its 40-year history that CNN had been threatened with legal action because an American politician or campaign did not like CNN’s polling results,” Vigilante wrote in his response. “To the extent we have received legal threats from political leaders in the past, they have typically come from countries like Venezuela or other regimes where there is little or no respect for a free and independent media.” Continue reading.

Trump campaign demands CNN apologize for poll that shows Biden leading

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s campaign is demanding CNN retract and apologize for a recent poll that showed him well behind presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.

The demand, coming in the form of a cease and desist letter to CNN President Jeff Zucker that contained numerous incorrect and misleading claims, was immediately rejected by the network.

“We stand by our poll,” said Matt Dornic, a CNN spokesman. Continue reading.

Trump lashes out at Obama in Mother’s Day tweetstorm

The Hill logoPresident Trump on Sunday repeatedly lashed out on Twitter at former President Obama, days after reports that Obama had expressed concern over the Justice Department’s decision to drop the case against former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Trump spent much of his Mother’s Day tweeting and retweeting various accounts, with many of the posts aimed at his predecessor. In one tweet he simply wrote “OBAMAGATE!” In another post, in which he retweeted a supporter’s declaration that Obama was “the first Ex-President to ever speak against his successor,” Trump wrote, “He got caught, OBAMAGATE!”

Earlier on Sunday, Trump retweeted conservative commentator Buck Sexton, who claimed that “the outgoing president” — an apparent reference to Obama — “used his last weeks in office to target incoming officials and sabotage the new administration.” Trump in his retweet wrote, “The biggest political crime in American history, by far!” Sexton is a former employee of Hill.TV. Continue reading.

Trump desperately tries to gaslight America as he faces humiliation from Lysol-gate

AlterNet logoIt’s gone mainstream in recent years, but the word “gaslighting” used to be an esoteric term from the world of psychology and domestic abuse counseling. The word refers to the 1944 film “Gaslight,” in which Ingrid Bergman plays a woman whose husband tries to drive her insane by hiding her belongings and otherwise manipulating her environment, and telling her that the changes she perceives are all in her head. Experts in domestic violence developed the term to describe the way that abusers in real life try to manipulate victims. The gaslighter works by denying reality, often when the facts are plain as day, with such conviction and repetition that the victim starts to question themselves and the evidence of their own senses.

For instance, this might take the form of the abuser denying that he hit his victim or falsely claiming that she provoked it, and then browbeating her until she accepts the lie and even starts to wonder whether she imagined the whole thing.

Under Donald Trump’s administration, however, the term has ventured into politics. It’s become a way to talk about how Trump and his defenders won’t merely tell lies, but will stand by even the dumbest and most obvious lies, holding their ground until the defenders of reality simply give up fighting. This started from the very beginning of the administration, when Trump and his administration claimed his inauguration crowd was bigger than Barack Obama’s, and insisted on repeating that lie and intimidating government agencies into backing it up. Needless to say, this has continued throughout the coronavirus pandemic, dialed up to an extreme. Continue reading.

This is what happens when the president acts like an angry 5-year-old

AlterNet logoWhen Trump suggested that the medical community should look into injecting ultraviolet rays and disinfectant into the body in order to combat COVID-19 at his Thursday press briefing, it frankly didn’t surprise me. After all, this is the same guy who thinks exercise kills you, windmills cause cancer, and that we should try dropping a nuclear bomb into hurricanes. In other words, he is an idiot and has been for a long time. What makes his latest nonsense so dangerous is that he is the President of the United States and some people still take him seriously.

So what does the guy who refers to himself as a “stable genius” do when he makes a laughing stock of himself for all the world to see? First of all, he claims that he was asking reporters a sarcastic question, while lying about what he actually said.

Then, when the media zeroed in on the reaction from Dr. Deborah Birx to Trump’s outlandish suggestions, he claims that he was addressing his comments (not sarcastically) to HHS official Bill Bryan. Continue reading.

Trump rips media after taking criticism over coronavirus briefings

The Hill logoPresident Trump on Monday ripped the media’s coverage of his administration’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, returning to a familiar theme as the White House canceled its coronavirus briefing — another signal is it changing its strategy on messaging.

“There has never been, in the history of our Country, a more vicious or hostile Lamestream Media than there is right now, even in the midst of a National Emergency, the Invisible Enemy!” Trump tweeted Monday morning.

Trump’s attacks on the media are old news at this point, but the new tweet came amid changing circumstances at the White House. Continue reading.

Freed of briefing duty, wounded Trump airs full collection of grievances on Twitter, retweeting claim of ‘coup attempts’

Washington Post logoPresident Trump’s first tweet Sunday came unusually late, popping up a few minutes after noon — hours behind schedule for a president who is often awake and tweeting as the sun rises.

“Happy Birthday to Melania, our great First Lady!” Trump tweeted at 12:06 p.m.

The celebratory tweet kicked off a long day of tweeting and retweeting that really ramped up at around 2 p.m. when Trump observed, in response to a recent New York Times article, that those who know him regard him as “the hardest working President in history.” Continue reading.

Trump expands battle with WHO far beyond aid suspension

Washington Post logoPresident Trump and his top aides are working behind the scenes to sideline the World Health Organization on several fronts as they seek to shift blame for the novel coronavirus pandemic to the world body, according to U.S. and foreign officials involved in the discussions.

Last week, the president announced a 60-day hold on U.S. money to the WHO, but other steps by his top officials go beyond a temporary funding freeze, raising concerns about the permanent weakening of the organization amid a rapidly spreading crisis.

At the State Department, officials are stripping references to the WHO from virus fact sheets, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has instructed his employees to “cut out the middle man” when it comes to public health initiatives the United States previously supported through the WHO. Continue reading.

Leaked Memo Shows Officials Warned Trump Against Defunding WHO

An internal memorandum written by U.S. officials and addressed to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warns that cutting funding to the World Health Organization, as President Donald Trump said he would do Tuesday, would erode America’s global standing, threaten U.S. lives and hobble global efforts to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

The memo, which was prepared before Trump’s Rose Garden announcement, was written by officials within the State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs and includes a detailed list of how U.S. funding to the WHO helps countries in the Middle East control the pandemic.

A draft version of the memo, which was labeled “Sensitive But Unclassified” and was titled “Information Memo for the Secretary,” was seen by ProPublica. Continue reading.