The Next President of the United States

[MintTrav]

One of the key points in the Fire and Fury book is that Trumps main trait/failure is he judges everything on a personal level. Many accounts in there of him hating people for a spell because they disagreed with some of the things they discyussed because they didn't agree with him. Then moving on to hating the next person when they disagreed with him.  You think this could be the main reason he is turning over staff so quickly?

I'm sure it is. The second CNN link puts it as a combination of Trump's personality and the inexperience of many of his appointees.

He often resents staff who disagree with him, and sometimes undermines them publicly. Conversely, he is often influenced by the last person who got to speak with him, leading to his numerous policy flip-flops.

[TightEnd]

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[MintTrav]

One interesting recent resignation is Rachel Brand, bottom left corner in the block above, as Associate Attorney General, which is the No 3 position  in the Justice Dept.

In 1973, Nixon ordered his Attorney General to fire the Special Prosecutor. The AG refused and Nixon fired him on the spot. He then ordered the Deputy AG to carry out the sacking. He also refused and Nixon sacked him too. The Solicitor General was brought to the White House, sworn in as Acting Attorney General, and ordered by the President to carry out the sacking. He did it and the Special Prosecutor was out. All this happened the same day (the Saturday Night Massacre).

There has been a lot of speculation that Brand left because of the Mueller investigation. Jeff Sessions, as AG, would usually be responsible for overseeing the investigation, but he stepped out as he had become entangled himself. Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein took charge of it and appointed Mueller, which means that he is the only person who can fire him. It seems likely that he would resist pressure from Trump to do so, and has said several times that he wouldn't fire Mueller without good reason. If Trump sacks Rosenstein for not complying, Brand would then have had the responsibility and would be likely to face the same instruction. If anyone is capable of another Saturday Night Massacre, it's Trump. The theory goes that she either got out voluntarily to avoid this scenario or was pressured to do so. She is off at the end of tbe month to take charge of Walmart's corporate governance and Trump is free to appoint anyone he feels like to her role.

[MintTrav]

Trump campaign emails photo of Parkland survivor, asks for donations

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http://ktla.com/2018/02/25/trump-re-election-campaign-emails-photo-of-florida-shooting-survivor-asks-for-donations/

[MintTrav]

Donald needed to nominate a new head of the Federal Aviation Administration, so who better for the job than his own long-term personal pilot? The guy doesn't have an administration background, but he does have a lot of beefs about delays caused to pilots, and homegrown ideas on how to fix them. That's what's needed - someone with a chip on his shoulder going in to champion one particular interest group.

I suppose we've had Ivanka leading the US delegation at the Olympics and briefing President Moon on economic sanctions against North Korea, and Jared responsible for half the White House (Fire and Fury claims that Trump would like to make him Secretary of State), so why not?

http://www.newsweek.com/who-john-dunkin-trump-wants-his-personal-pilot-head-faa-819300

Incidentally, neither Ivanka nor Jared have been granted permanent security clearance, which means that she either obtained improper access to classified information or gave a worthless briefing. As for him; he has access to everything and reads Trump's daily brefings, which is off the scale of improper access. Somehow, this stuff doesn't seem to matter any more.

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[MintTrav]

No Hope!

OMG - Hope Hicks has resigned!

This is huge - more significant than any of the previous departures (apart from Bannon, maybe, though for different reasons). Hicks is the closest person to Donald who is not family.

She was quizzed by a House investigation panel for nine hours yesterday, and admitted telling "white lies" for Trump, while declining to answer questions on some subjects. There were complaints that the panel had been 'Bannoned'.

The reasons for her resignation are not clear. She is likely to be called back for more questions and could be subpoenaed. To complicate things further she was (still is?) in a new relationship with the recently-departed Rob Porter. They are trying to spin that she was intending to leave anyway to pursue other opportunities, but that doesn't ring true. The investigations suddenly to be getting much closer to the President, with Hicks, Bannon and Kushner all having been interviewed or due for more hearings soon.

I don't think this is the last we will hear of Hope.

Meanwhile, the White House will be looking for yet another Communications Director.

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Hope arriving for her hearing yesterday

[Marky147]

Was just about to come and ask about her

Thanks, as always, MintTrav.

[bobby1]

The one thing Hicks did that Bannon implored her not to do was to help come up with the adoption story as a cover for meetings with Russians.

He apparently angrily told her she was making a big mistake voluntarily getting involved in that when senior members of the team that were on Air Force one at the time were all steering well clear. The story goes that Bannon told her 'either you get yourself a lawyer now or I am going to ring your dad and tell him to get you one. Because you are going to need one now. You have no idea what trouble you are going to be in if you get involved in any of this Russian stuff'

As Mint says this could be big if she does any kind of deal in regards to knowing who, if anyone was hiding what about those meetings.

[MintTrav]

Just a few weeks since apparent tension between Trump and Hicks first emerged.

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[MintTrav]

"You're afraid of the NRA"

Background checks
Assault weapons
Bump stocks
Raising buying age to 21

Trump is taking on the gun lobby, bravely, at huge personal political risk. He may get some success but it's hard to see him winning. Perhaps he feels invincible because of his previous victories but his base will desert him if he persists with this.

This is how you become a one-term President.

[Omm]

"You're afraid of the NRA"

Background checks
Assault weapons
Bump stocks
Raising buying age to 21

Trump is taking on the gun lobby, bravely, at huge personal political risk. He may get some success but it's hard to see him winning. Perhaps he feels invincible because of his previous victories but his base will desert him if he persists with this.

This is how you become a one-term President.

“I’m a big fan of the NRA, there is no bigger fan”

Does he actually realise how many times he says stuff like this? I wonder has anyone shown him the YouTube clip that going around.

[DropTheHammer]

Much as I dislike Trump, fair play to him taking the stance of regulating gun purchases more tightly. I thought he might have done an about-turn by now but I haven't seen that yet.

[MintTrav]

Sessions Next to Go?
He has put up with a lot from Trump, but now it seems that Jeff has finally had enough and is willing to dare the President to fire him.

Donald Trump tweet 28 Feb:
"Why is A.G. Jeff Sessions asking the Inspector General to investigate potentially massive FISA abuse. Will take forever, has no prosecutorial power and already late with reports on Comey etc. Isn’t the I.G. an Obama guy? Why not use Justice Department lawyers? DISGRACEFUL!"

Jeff Sessions statement 28 Feb:
"We have initiated the appropriate process that will ensure complaints against this Department will be fully and fairly acted upon if necessary. As long as I am the Attorney General, I will continue to discharge my duties with integrity and honor, and this Department will continue to do its work in a fair and impartial manner according to the law and Constitution.”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-blasts-sessions-disgraceful-handling-of-justice-department-surveillance-probe-1519839815

[MintTrav]

That prediction is wrong already. One of the most critical diplomats, the Ambassador to Mexico, has resigned today.

Rumours are also rife that Trump's chief economic advisor Gary Cohn will resign at last - with a new 25% tariff on imported steel being the tipping point.

Meanwhile, it was virtually confirmed that HR McMaster will be forced out within a month.

So, a fairly quiet day in Trumpland.

Sessions has said many times that he won't resign - he would have to be sacked to leave. At this rate there could be many other departures before he is rooted out.

It's hard to keep up.

[MintTrav]

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