Thoughts on the Trump presidency

[DelW]

So...

The Department of Justice has dropped their case against the former Olympian who they had charged with criminally damaging the Reflecting Pool lining, admitting that the installation was flawed

An absolutely stunning reverse ferret there! Presumably even Trump's henchmen realised (eventually) that the "vandalism" line was untenable after the pool was drained.

Though even now, they can't admit that Trump made that up, the backing down is the result of "new information":

In the court filing on Friday, the Trump administration said new information from the Department of Interior (DOI) indicated "that damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in June 2026 was the result of flawed installation by the contractor" and "the rush to complete the project prior to events associated with the America 250 celebration in the weeks surrounding Independence Day 2026".

"It was not until after these documents were produced that [prosecutors] first became aware of information showing that the damage was the result of a botched installation and not vandalism as initially represented by DOI."

Which had been clear to everyone else for weeks.

Trump's prosecutor Jeanine Pirro who had brought charges against multiple people now admitted to be innocent, will probably carry the can for this initially, but it has to be highly damaging for Trump himself, who boasted that he'd selected the contractor and the materials, and who has constantly promoted and enlarged on the vandalism line.

Quote above is from the BBC News article here:

Trump administration drops Reflecting Pool vandalism charge and admits 'botched' repairs

President Donald Trump had blamed "sick" vandals, and a former Olympian had been charged, but prosecutors now say contractors caused the damage.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[swt_passenger]

The above saga really makes you wonder about the rationale of their ‘grand jury’ procedure. Seems you just tell them your latest fantasy…

 

[najaB]

The above saga really makes you wonder about the rationale of their ‘grand jury’ procedure. Seems you just tell them your latest fantasy…

If it's done in good faith it makes sense. The point of a grand jury isn't to determine guilt or innocence, but rather for the prosecution to present the evidence that they have so the grand jury can say "Yes, there's enough here to bother with a trial". How it has gone wrong in this case is that the DoJ lied... overstated the evidence that they had.

In normal times a prosecutor wouldn't do this because if they brought a weak case to trial then they look incompetent. I guess that the current DoJ has nothing to lose in that regard.

 

[martin butler]

If it's done in good faith it makes sense. The point of a grand jury isn't to determine guilt or innocence, but rather for the prosecution to present the evidence that they have so the grand jury can say "Yes, there's enough here to bother with a trial". How it has gone wrong in this case is that the DoJ lied... overstated the evidence that they had.

In normal times a prosecutor wouldn't do this because if they brought a weak case to trial then they look incompetent. I guess that the current DoJ has nothing to lose in that regard.

But Trump won't be there forever, and one day there will hopefully be someone that isn't a corrupt narcissist and a believer in law and order, then the various picks, made to do trumps bidding, will be in very deep water, facing accountability in some cases, possibly facing the rest of their lifetime in prison, for some, who have committed serious crime

 

[edwin_m]

But Trump won't be there forever, and one day there will hopefully be someone that isn't a corrupt narcissist and a believer in law and order, then the various picks, made to do trumps bidding, will be in very deep water, facing accountability in some cases, possibly facing the rest of their lifetime in prison, for some, who have committed serious crime

Unfortunately 2020-2024 suggests most of them will duck and dive and stay out of jail long enough for the possibility of a more "friendly" regime returning to power.

 

[dorsetdesiro]

Fingers crossed for the midterms to topple the Orange Emperor

- - - -

Just seen a clip from 2 days ago, Trump's aides were ushering the press out of the oval office when the press gathering ended abruptly when Trump began to ramble incoherently. Looks like something may be up healthwise?

 

[Annetts key]

If it's done in good faith it makes sense. The point of a grand jury isn't to determine guilt or innocence, but rather for the prosecution to present the evidence that they have so the grand jury can say "Yes, there's enough here to bother with a trial". How it has gone wrong in this case is that the DoJ lied... overstated the evidence that they had.

In normal times a prosecutor wouldn't do this because if they brought a weak case to trial then they look incompetent. I guess that the current DoJ has nothing to lose in that regard.

The issue here is that nearly all the good and competent prosecutors have either resigned, been forced out or been sacked from the DOJ.

This due to political interference from guess who...

As a result, the DOJ is now a complete joke, with cases being brought that will fail, lawyers failing to provide all the required documents in the required time frame, difficulties in even getting prosecutors in courts and apparently many other problems.

Good prosecutors should consider each case and only start a prosecution or court case if there is a reasonable possibility of it being successful.

 

[Cloud Strife]

Just seen a clip from 2 days ago, Trump's aides were ushering the press out of the oval office when the press gathering ended abruptly when Trump began to ramble incoherently. Looks like something may be up healthwise?

To be honest, I think it's pretty clear at this point that he's struggling with his health. Whether it's something brain related or just general poor health, who knows, but he's repeatedly falling asleep in public as well as having these incidents where he just goes off on one without any sort of filter.

The only question left for me is whether the Republicans will finally stand up to him before the midterms. They're running out of time, and there's a very real possibility that Trump will cause them to lose both the House and the Senate. In the Senate, both Maine and Alaska look like they could conceivably flip to the Democrats, the Democrat in Ohio is outspending the Republican almost 3:1, and Michigan may well fall into the hands of the Democrats too.

The mess in Iran also can't be helping the Republicans: for all the money spent, they've got almost nothing to show for it.

 

[DerekC]

The mess in Iran also can't be helping the Republicans: for all the money spent, they've got almost nothing to show for it.

Oh yes they have - the cost of living has gone up for the average Joe.

 

[jupiter]

The cost of living has gone up for everyone.

 

[brad465]

To be honest, I think it's pretty clear at this point that he's struggling with his health. Whether it's something brain related or just general poor health, who knows, but he's repeatedly falling asleep in public as well as having these incidents where he just goes off on one without any sort of filter.

The only question left for me is whether the Republicans will finally stand up to him before the midterms. They're running out of time, and there's a very real possibility that Trump will cause them to lose both the House and the Senate. In the Senate, both Maine and Alaska look like they could conceivably flip to the Democrats, the Democrat in Ohio is outspending the Republican almost 3:1, and Michigan may well fall into the hands of the Democrats too.

The mess in Iran also can't be helping the Republicans: for all the money spent, they've got almost nothing to show for it.

According to current predictors, Race to the WH currently predicts 51D vs 47R, with 2 tossups. In this scenario Maine, North Carolina, Ohio and even Texas all flip, with Alaska and Iowa as tossups. Other recent predictions are slightly less generous, but still give it to the Democrats if they take all the tossups.

Other seats that currently look to remain Republican, but can't be ruled out for being flipped, are South Carolina and Florida. In the former Lindsay Graham was supposed to contest until his sudden death, and now his sister is there, where the loss of incumbency and apparent nepotism are not going to help in her favour, while Florida is a Special Election which is 'Lean R' currently.

 

[najaB]

Oh yes they have - the cost of living has gone up for the average Joe.

I don't think the comment was meant as a serious suggestion of something positive for the GOP.

 

[sor]

To be honest, I think it's pretty clear at this point that he's struggling with his health. Whether it's something brain related or just general poor health, who knows, but he's repeatedly falling asleep in public as well as having these incidents where he just goes off on one without any sort of filter.

The only question left for me is whether the Republicans will finally stand up to him before the midterms. They're running out of time, and there's a very real possibility that Trump will cause them to lose both the House and the Senate. In the Senate, both Maine and Alaska look like they could conceivably flip to the Democrats, the Democrat in Ohio is outspending the Republican almost 3:1, and Michigan may well fall into the hands of the Democrats too.

The mess in Iran also can't be helping the Republicans: for all the money spent, they've got almost nothing to show for it.

I think it's shown a weakness of their system. The 25th amendment requires a majority of the cabinet plus the vice president to agree that Trump is not competent to serve as president, and Vance (as one of the few people Trump can't fire in retaliation) won't want to sign on until after the actual mid term has been reached and he can become president without losing the ability to have two full terms in his own right.

Not that Vance as president is likely to improve on the polling much.

 

[dgl]

And when you thought he couldn't get any worse he's now wanting to limit children's vaccines, recols kids will be healthier without so many, really!?

Trump signs order to limit and split childhood vaccines

The Trump administration has long pushed a discredited link between vaccines and autism.

www.bbc.co.uk

US President Donald Trump has signed an order that calls for fewer childhood vaccines and also recommends splitting the mumps, measles and rubella (MMR) vaccine into three individual shots.
"Decades ago, children received only a small fraction of the vaccines required today," Trump said on Monday. "In those times, people were much healthier and of course the high rates of autism now observed did not exist."
The Trump administration has long pushed a discredited link between vaccines and autism.
Multiple studies have found no link between the MMR vaccine and autism.

 

[najaB]

And when you thought he couldn't get any worse he's now wanting to limit children's vaccines, recols kids will be healthier without so many, really!?

Trump signs order to limit and split childhood vaccines

The Trump administration has long pushed a discredited link between vaccines and autism.

www.bbc.co.uk

I wish I could be surprised that he's pushing the link between vaccines and autism, but... it's all just so sad.

And as for the "we didn't have such a high rate of autism" we really shouldn't expect more from the man who said of Covid that if they didn't test as much then there wouldn't be so many cases.

 

[brad465]

Something going on behind the scenes that is causing Trump, and in particular Bessent, problems, is the falling value of the Yen, which prompted a botched intervention from the US recently.

If the Yen loses further value, Japanese holders of US Treasury bonds (the largest single share of such bond holders) will be prompted to sell them, which then makes US debt servicing much harder.

While Japanese domestic policy has contributed to this, Trump's decisions to go to war with Iran and various tariffs have exacerbated the whole affair.

The intervention also prompted this from Trump:

https://www.ft.com/content/5de204a4-4db6-458c-aa9a-324e6bd5e766?syn-25a6b1a6=1

President Donald Trump said on Sunday night: “We have a good relationship with Japan . . . they have a weakening yen, and they wanted a little bit of help, and we’re always there for Japan. Japan’s been very good to us, with the exception, of course, of Pearl Harbor.”

 

[Bald Rick]

I wish I could be surprised that he's pushing the link between vaccines and autism, but... it's all just so sad.

And as for the "we didn't have such a high rate of autism" we really shouldn't expect more from the man who said of Covid that if they didn't test as much then there wouldn't be so many cases.

Well quite. O the bright side, this is natural seelction in force…

 

[brad465]

This is an interesting revelation - Trump had to secretly swap planes due to an Iranian security threat when leaving the NATO summit:

Trump hid in catering truck in secret plane swap over Iran threat, reports say

The US president was part of a ruse where reporters were falsely told he was with them on Air Force One leaving a Nato summit in Turkey.

www.bbc.co.uk

Donald Trump secretly swapped planes as he left a Nato summit in Turkey last month, as part of an elaborate ruse in response to a possible Iranian threat, US media report.
The US president boarded Air Force One in view of television cameras before being transported to a military aircraft with the help of a catering truck, the Washington Post said. Journalists and some White House staff on board did not know he had been smuggled out.
Officials told the BBC's US partner CBS News that the US had detected a credible Iranian threat to fire a missile at the plane. The White House has not confirmed the secret switch.
Trump had earlier said he was Iran's "number one target" during the summit in Ankara.
The clandestine manoeuvre came a day after the US renewed military strikes on Iran following a breakdown of negotiations between Washington and Tehran to end the war.
Trump had arrived in Turkey aboard a newer Boeing 747-8 donated by Qatar, but announced that he would leave on the old Air Force One "for old time's sake".
On 8 July, footage showed him boarding the presidential jet at Ankara airport. But according to the Washington Post, he was then secretly taken to a smaller C-32A military aircraft - a modified Boeing 757 often used by the vice-president - via a catering truck which had been elevated to plane level on the opposite side to where he had boarded.

 

[edwin_m]

This is an interesting revelation - Trump had to secretly swap planes due to an Iranian security threat when leaving the NATO summit:

Trump hid in catering truck in secret plane swap over Iran threat, reports say

The US president was part of a ruse where reporters were falsely told he was with them on Air Force One leaving a Nato summit in Turkey.

www.bbc.co.uk

I wouldn't want to have been any of the people who stayed on the original plane, whether aware or not at the time of a threat to it.

 

[najaB]

I wouldn't want to have been any of the people who stayed on the original plane, whether aware or not at the time of a threat to it.

It does say a lot about this administration that they basically used the press corps as bait for an Iranian attack.

 

[ainsworth74]

I wouldn't want to have been any of the people who stayed on the original plane, whether aware or not at the time of a threat to it.

Surely you would be overjoyed at the prospect of dying to protect the Dear Leader?

 

[OuterDistant]

I wouldn't want to have been any of the people who stayed on the original plane, whether aware or not at the time of a threat to it.

"What do you call thirteen journalists at the bottom of the ocean? A good start!"
- Donald Trump, probably

 

[Trackman]

I wouldn't want to have been any of the people who stayed on the original plane, whether aware or not at the time of a threat to it.

Some of the White House staff onboard didn't know either, I'd be asking questions later...

This is an interesting revelation - Trump had to secretly swap planes due to an Iranian security threat when leaving the NATO summit:

He switched back as well!

 

[najaB]

Some of the White House staff onboard didn't know either, I'd be asking questions later...

So not only the press corps were used as decoys, but even White House staff. I'm not sure why but the word sociopath is coming to mind again:

Core Traits

• No empathy: Hard time caring about the feelings or pain of others.
• No remorse: No guilt after hurting or using people.
• Frequent lying: Constant deceit and manipulation for personal gain.
• Impulsive acts: Sudden choices made without planning or thinking about safety.
• Breaking rules: Disregard for laws, social norms, and job duties.
  

 

[The exile]

Some of the White House staff onboard didn't know either, I'd be asking questions later...

They might not have known about this specific occasion, but I would imagine that those likely to travel with any President are briefed that thus sort of thing may happen.

 

[edwin_m]

From this article: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9d84874dzjo

McDonald's assessment was echoed by Marc Polymeropoulos, a 26-year veteran of the CIA who served in both Iraq and Afghanistan and oversaw clandestine missions around the world.

"The key part of this is the nature of the threat, and what was so severe that the Secret Service would put forth such a deception operation," he said.

A key question going forward, according to Polymeropoulos, is whether the government and intelligence community then had a duty to warn those on the aircraft.

"Let's say the plane was blown out of the sky, and we knew about it," he said. "We don't do that…we can't. If we know ISIS is going to attack a target in Moscow, we warn the Russians. Why do we warn the Russians? Because if there's an American citizen killed in that, we can't let that happen."

So if the threat was serious enough to take precautionary measures in relation to the President, why wasn't it serious enough to warrant safeguarding everyone else on board?

They could, for example, have held the 747 in Ankara on some pretext until the President was out of danger.

 

[Broucek]

From this article: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9d84874dzjo

So if the threat was serious enough to take precautionary measures in relation to the President, why wasn't it serious enough to warrant safeguarding everyone else on board?

They could, for example, have held the 747 in Ankara on some pretext until the President was out of danger.

Need to know. And we don't.....

 

[brad465]

Next up in the "everyone who associates with Trump turns to muck", propaganda Barbie:

Trump says Press Secretary Leavitt to leave post

Leavitt will depart from her role to spend time with her young children and family, the president says.

www.bbc.co.uk

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt will step down from her position at the end of the month, President Donald Trump has announced.

Leavitt, whom the president called one of his "most trusted aides", will depart from her role to spend time with her young children and family - "a decision I totally understand and respect", Trump wrote in a social media post.

"Karoline will now be one of my top outside advisors, and an influential voice within the Republican Party," he added.

Leavitt, 28, took the job as White House Press Secretary last year - becoming the youngest person to ever have the role.

"Serving as the White House Press Secretary over the past year and a half has been the honor and adventure of a lifetime," Leavitt wrote on X following the president's announcement.

"Most of all, I am thankful to the President for entrusting me with the distinct privilege of speaking on his behalf at the White House podium," she added.

Leavitt welcomed her second child, a baby girl, with husband Nicholas Riccio in May. She also has a two-year-old son.

"Being a mother and welcoming a new baby while working in one of the most demanding jobs in the world has been the most rewarding yet challenging season of my life, to say the least," she wrote.

 

[jon0844]

Scooby-Doo: The Mystery of the Reflecting Pool

(Parody cartoon about the Reflecting Pool, using AI)

 

[Bantamzen]

Next up in the "everyone who associates with Trump turns to muck", propaganda Barbie:

Trump says Press Secretary Leavitt to leave post

Leavitt will depart from her role to spend time with her young children and family, the president says.

www.bbc.co.uk

I'm 110% sure that she has left as a result of Trump's "Great Catering Truck Escape". She cites wanting to spend more time with her family, but has only just returned from maternity leave following the birth of her child. So what she really means to say is "I'm off because I'm not going to be bait for the Iranians whilst Trump runs away".