Category: Trump Administration

‘There Was No Plan’: Trump’s Hollow Promise To Save Manufacturing

Bob Kemper recalls the hope Donald Trump intentionally stirred in 2016 by pledging to revive manufacturing and keep factories busy producing steel, aluminum and other materials for a major infrastructure overhaul.

Kemper knows that seductive rhetoric won over many Americans, including some of his co-workers at U.S. Steel’s Great Lakes Works in Michigan.

Over the past four years, however, Trump repeatedly showed Kemper’s colleagues and millions of other workers that his vow to save manufacturing was just a con to win the election, not a promise he ever intended to keep. Continue reading.

Trump administration rescinded Courage Award for woman who criticized Trump, then gave false explanation for its decision, watchdog finds

Washington Post logo

The Trump administration rescinded an award recognizing the work of a journalist from Finland last year after discovering she had criticized President Trump in social media posts, then gave a false explanation for withdrawing the honor, according to a report by the State Department’s internal watchdog.

The report tracks how the discovery of the journalist’s remarks worried senior U.S. officials and prompted a decision to withdraw the honor to avoid a possible public relations debacle.

The report’s release is likely to worsen tensions between the department’s leadership and the inspector general’s office, which has undergone several shake-ups following the firing of Inspector General Steve Linick in the spring at the request of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Continue reading.

Top Official Admits Trump’s Order On Pre-Existing Conditions Is Worthless

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar on Thursday announced that Donald Trump will sign an executive order declaring that it is the “the policy of the United States” that people with preexisting conditions will be protected.

However, Azar admitted on a call before Trump’s announcement that the order holds no legal weight. As the Daily Beast’s Sam Stein reported, Azar said the executive order would have no affect if the Supreme Court strikes down Obamacare and said it is merely a “defined statement of U.S. policy that people with preexisting conditions are protected.”

That policy that protects people with preexisting conditions is Obamacare, which bans insurance companies from denying coverage to those with preexisting conditions. Continue reading.

Trump Facebook Ads With ‘Real People’ Actually Feature GOP Political Operatives

President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign is currently running Facebook ads with “real people” who support the president. And while it’s accurate to say these people are “real” in the sense that they’re human beings and not robots from the TV show Westworld, they’re not just average people off the street. Many are political operatives.

Take this ad that’s currently running on Facebook. It shows Kim Sherk, who’s not identified by name in the ad, and yet is the president of the Georgia Federation of Republican Women. A Georgia newspaper, the Marietta Daily Journal recognized Sherk, which might be why these ads are running in states like California, Illinois, and Mississippi, according to the Facebook ad library, rather than her home state of Georgia.

“As a small business owner, President Trump has been the greatest president we have seen,” Sherk says in the video, which is also available on Trump’s official YouTube page. “He has increased jobs. I know there are more women who have been employed and minorities than ever before.” Continue reading.

Disinformation, QAnon efforts targeting Latino voters ramp up ahead of presidential election

The Hill logo

Disinformation targeting Latino communities is ramping up ahead of Election Day, when the demographic is expected to play a crucial role in key battleground states. 

Advocacy groups and election security experts alike say material is circulating on social media platforms and online messaging apps that pushes false conspiracies that echo larger disinformation campaigns in English.

The misinformation efforts, some of which reflect the QAnon conspiracy theory, are especially critical in Florida, a crucial swing state where polls show Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is running behind Hillary Clinton’s 2016 support among Latino voters.  Continue reading.

Trump dumbfounds GOP with latest unforced error

The Hill logo

Senate Republicans were left dumbfounded Thursday by President Trump’s latest self-engineered controversy, a suggestion there might not be a peaceful transition of power after Election Day, which left his GOP allies on Capitol Hill scrambling for political cover.

GOP lawmakers expressed frustration that a week that had started so positively with the Senate Republican Conference quickly unifying ahead of a Supreme Court confirmation battle had turned into a circus.

“The president figured out how to take an overwhelmingly good week and change the subject? Shocking. I don’t know what to say,” said one senior Republican senator, referring to the dismay Republicans felt over what they see as Trump’s latest unforced error. Continue reading.

Never Mind! ‘Misplaced’ Ballots Were Result Of Minor Error

Donald Trump’s war on mail-in voting this week turned out to be all for naught after election workers in Pennsylvania admitted to an envelope mix-up that Trump had initially claimed was part of a broader fraud scheme.

On Thursday morning, Trump complained about the supposed mail-in voter fraud on Fox News radio, claiming that ballots cast for him had been recently found in the trash.

“They found six ballots in an office yesterday in a garbage can,” he told host Brian Kilmeade. “They were Trump ballots. Eight ballots. In an office yesterday in a certain state. And they were. They had Trump written on it, and they were thrown in a garbage can.” Continue reading.

Justice Dept. statement on mail-in ballot investigation appalls election law experts

Washington Post logo

The Justice Department alarmed voting-law experts Thursday by announcing an investigation into nine discarded ballots found in northeastern Pennsylvania, a case immediately seized upon by the Trump campaign as evidence of a dark Democratic conspiracy to tamper with the presidential election.

President Trump also appeared to cite the case, telling reporters at the White House that ballots had been found “in a wastepaper basket in some location. . . . We want to make sure that the election is honest, and I’m not sure that it can be.”

The president’s comments marked his latest attempt to stoke uncertainty and alarm about the legitimacy of the upcoming election. Continue reading.

WHO warns 2 million deaths ‘not impossible’ as global fatalities approach 1 million

Washington Post logo

NOTE: This article is provided free of charge by The Washington Post.

With the world fast approaching 1 million deaths officially related to covid-19, a doubling of that number is “certainly unimaginable, but it’s not impossible,” World Health Organization expert Mike Ryan said Friday at a news briefing.

“If we look at losing 1 million people in nine months and then we just look at the realities of getting vaccines out there in the next nine months, it’s a big task for everyone involved,” Ryan, the executive director of WHO’s health emergencies program, said. Continue reading.

Americans are finding out this emperor is naked

AlterNet logo

All of us are being subjected to what we can only hope is Trump’s last attempt to con Americans into believing he has any of their interests whatsoever at heart. With an election looming in just thirty-nine days—an election which Trump is losing—we should all have expected this.

But the moment is finally upon us when the American people have become wise to the con. This is the worst moment for any con man, and Trump knows this, so the lies are becoming more fanciful, more divorced from reality as he gropes into what is fast becoming a very empty bag of tricks.

First example—the health care plan that doesn’t exist. Continue reading.