“I was down there also, but I’m not considering myself a first responder,” Donald Trump said. “But I was down there. I spent a lot of time down there with you.” Except Trump was a bystander on the day — watching the events unfold from his offices (and home) at Trump Tower, which was several miles from Ground Zero. This according to politico.
He has also claimed that he helped pay for several hundred workers to help clean up the wreckage in the aftermath of 9/11.
He also said later on after 9/11 that “40 Wall Street actually was the second-tallest building in downtown Manhattan, and it was actually, before the World Trade Center, was the tallest-and then, when they built the World Trade Center, it became known as the second-tallest. And now it’s the tallest.” He seems to care more about tallest building than what happened.
Trump attacked another prominent African American lawmaker, Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, tweeting that his Baltimore district is a “disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess.” Trump suggested that conditions in Cummings’ district, which is majority black and includes parts of Baltimore, are “FAR WORSE and more dangerous” than those at the US-Mexico border. Trump said the “district is considered the Worst in the USA” and “no human being would want to live there.”
Trump attacked Cummings for erupting at acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan over border conditions during a congressional hearing on July 18.
Cummings’ committee has also launched a number of investigations into the Trump administration related to Trump’s finances and White House practices, including security clearances and Hatch Act violations.
Trump gave no indication of the basis of the claim but the tweets followed a segment that aired an hour earlier on Fox News, in which a Republican strategist said conditions in Cummings’ district were worse than those at the southern border. So definitely no proof. The Maryland chapter of the NAACP dubbed Trump’s tweets racist and called for launching impeachment proceedings into Trump.
The district is actually one of the most affluent black areas in the US with a high percentage of educated residents. Acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney insisted that Trump would criticize any lawmaker, no matter their race, in a similar way if he felt the person spoke unfairly about his policies. “It has absolutely zero to do with race,” he said. Sure Mick. Sure.
“Really bad news! The Baltimore house of Elijah Cummings was robbed. Too bad!” Trump tweeted sarcastically.
Ironically, Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, owns many of the dilapidated buildings in Baltimore that Trump may be complaining about. Kushner’s properties have been fined many times over the years for various infractions related to bad conditions. However, drug and murder rates have gone up over the past while.
Kushner’s family real estate firm owns thousands of apartments and town homes in the Baltimore area. Residents have complained about mold, bedbugs, leaks and, yes, mice — plenty of mice. And they say management appears in no hurry to fix the problems. The Kushner Cos. had violated housing codes more than 200 times in just 10 months and only moved to fix the problems after being threatened with fines.
In a statement, the Kushner Cos. said it was proud of its Baltimore-area apartments and has worked to maintain a “high quality residential experience for our tenants” by investing “substantial amounts” in upkeep. The Kushner Cos. told the New York Times at the time that it is had spent $10 million on its properties, but their age means issues can still arise.
A Baltimore Sun story in 2017 found the Kushner Cos. used the courts to arrest tenants late on rent more than any other landlord in the state. A Lawsuit seeking class-action status for residents alleges Westminster Management, the Kushner subsidiary that oversees rental properties in Maryland and other states, often charges tenants illegal and excessive fees that keeps them in constant fear of eviction and guessing what they owe.
Now Trump is going after longtime African-American activist, Al Sharpton. This time Trump tweeted “I have known Al for 25 years. Went to fights with him & Don King, always got along well. He “loved Trump!” He would ask me for favors often. Al is a con man, a troublemaker, always looking for a score. Just doing his thing. Must have intimidated Comcast/NBC. Hates Whites & Cops!”
He then added “Al Sharpton would always ask me to go to his events. He would say, “it’s a personal favor to me.” Seldom, but sometimes, I would go. It was fine. He came to my office in T.T. [Trump Tower] during the presidential campaign to apologize for the way he was talking about me.” Now how much of this is true. Well, you know the man.
Trump told reporters “The African American people have been calling the White House. They have never been so happy as what a president has done….. But they’re so happy that I pointed out the corrupt politics of Baltimore. It’s filthy dirty. It’s so horrible. And they are happy as hell” and that African Americans are so delighted with his attacks on the city of Baltimore and Cummings. You can stop laughing now.
In a Quinnipiac University poll conducted from July 25 to July 28 — two days before the tweets, the day of the tweets, and one day after the tweets — Trump had a 6% approval rating and 84% disapproval rating with black voters. Eighty percent of black voters said Trump is racist, while just 11% said he is not.
A Fox News poll conducted from July 21 to July 23 had Trump at 75% disapproval among black registered voters, with 22% approval. 76% in the Fox News poll said it is racist to tell a person of color to “go back” to their country of origin, while 9% said it was not. In a Washington Post/ABC News poll conducted June 28 to July 1, 81% of African Americans said they disapproved; 18% approved. Both of those approval numbers were substantially better than the one in the new Quinnipiac poll, but still: On the whole, large majorities of African Americans were displeased with him.
In the 2016 election, just 8% of African Americans voted for Trump. I can not see him getting that amount in the next election.
The Trump administration announced it has formally withdrawn from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty with Moscow, putting an end to a landmark arms control pact that has limited the development of ground-based missiles with a range of 500 to 5,500 kilometers.
“Russia is solely responsible for the treaty’s demise,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement adding “Russia failed to return to full and verified compliance through the destruction of its non-compliant missile system.”
NATO allies said in a statement that Russia remains in violation of the INF Treaty, “despite years of US and Allied engagement,” adding that they fully support the US decision to withdraw and added that over the past six months Russia had a “final opportunity” to honor the treaty but failed.
National Intelligence director Dan Coats resigned and will leave office on Aug. 15, after a somewhat tumultuous relationship with Trump. The former senator became director of national intelligence at a difficult time and spent his tenure in the administration at odds with Trump, helming a constellation of over a dozen agencies that the President has publicly mocked, ignored and dismissed.
Texas Republican Rep. John Ratcliffe, who aggressively questioned former special counsel Robert Mueller last week during Congressional hearings involving his report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, will be nominated by Trump to replace Coats.
Trump tweeted “Trade talks are continuing, and during the talks the U.S. will start, on September 1st, putting a small additional tariff of 10% on the remaining 300 billion dollars of products coming from China into our country.” But after a setback in negotiations in May, he announced that he’d put them off indefinitely of any further tariffs.
The Justice Department inspector general’s office referred former FBI Director James Comey for potential prosecution over his handling of memos that the FBI later determined contained classified information. But Justice Department prosecutors declined to prosecute Comey, in part because they didn’t believe there was evidence to show Comey knew and intended to violate laws on handling classified information. Expect Trump to complain.
Oh Trump was at a rally this past week in Cincinnati. As usual, he made false or misleading comments about his 2016 win, the environment, immigration, etc. the usual. Waste of space to post his comments here.
Trump tweeted “Consideration is being given to declaring ANTIFA, the gutless Radical Left Wack Jobs who go around hitting (only non-fighters) people over the heads with baseball bats, a major Organization of Terror (along with MS-13 & others). Would make it easier for police to do their job!” But it has prompted a backlash in Germany, where thousands of social media users have pledged solidarity with the group.
Trump said that he prefers American wine over French wine even though he doesn’t drink wine. He said “I just like the way they look.” How do they look better? The label? But he did say “we make the finest [Trump labeled] wine.” He never attested wine. How does he personally know they are good?
Trump retweeted a post from an account operating under the name “Lynn Thomas” that accused Democrats of being “the true enemies of America.” The account, which created in September 2018, described itself as a “Fierce Trump supporter.” Just a few hours later, Twitter had suspended the account saying the account had broken the platform’s rules.
Trump once called Twitter an “incredible way of communicating,” as well as a way to combat negative coverage. Or in his case creating negative coverage.
He claimed that Twitter was making it difficult for people to follow him on the platform, claiming at the time, “People come up to me: ‘Sir, we want to follow you; they don’t let us on.” Sure Donnie.
Nearly 1,400 people were detained in a violent police crackdown on an opposition protest in Moscow as well as some people were hurt. Police justified their response by saying that the rally was not sanctioned by authorities. Don’t expect the “leader of the free world” Trump criticize his buddy/mentor Vladimir Poutine about this.
Ed's Blogue 