I’m probably going to get the timeline of events wrong, so just hang with me and we’ll get through this. Donald Trump formed two panels/advisory boards/whatever, one called the American Manufacturing Council and the other the Strategic and Policy Forum. On Monday, Merck CEO Ken Frazier became the first corporate CEO to quit the American Manufacturing Council. A steady stream of CEOs followed suit over the next 48 hours: Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich, Alliance for American Manufacturing president Scott Paul, AFL-CIO president Richard Truma, 3M CEO Inge Thulin, Campbell’s CEO Denise Morrison all left, and many of them cited Trump’s comments on white supremacy and Charlottesville as the cause for their resignations. Walmart CEO Doug McMillon did not leave, but did issue a strongly worded statement about how Trump “missed a critical opportunity to help bring our country together by unequivocally rejecting the appalling actions of white supremacists.” Dell and GE’s CEOs said they would remain on the council too.
It seemed bizarre to me that THIS is what it takes for titans of industry to distance themselves from Donald Trump. What it says to me is that everything up until Saturday was A-OK with all of them. It says that they were all fine with Trump’s white supremacist views when he merely used dog whistles and called Mexicans “rapists” and mocked Gold Star families and sexually assaulted dozens of women. Openly defending white nationalists was the bridge too far. Good to know. In any case, Donald Trump is like a child, as we all know by now. He got so pissed off that all of his business buddies left his fake-news fort that he’s completely shutting this sh-t down:
Rather than putting pressure on the businesspeople of the Manufacturing Council & Strategy & Policy Forum, I am ending both. Thank you all!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 16, 2017
Which came after Tuesday’s tweet:
For every CEO that drops out of the Manufacturing Council, I have many to take their place. Grandstanders should not have gone on. JOBS!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 15, 2017
This is the presidential equivalent of taking his toys and going home after he pissed and sh-t in his diaper, basically. Still, I do find it fascinating that Dell, General Electric and Walmart’s CEOs were basically like “this is fine, I’m still ride or die for Nazi-in-Chief.” As for the CEOs who did resign… do they want a cookie or something? They knew what Trump was and is. People who are currently acting shocked or surprised by Trump’s white supremacy are truly the most precious innocents ever. He has literally been this neo-Nazi monster the entire time.
Hilariously, the WSJ reports that the CEOs had already agreed to disband the council and when they told Trump, he got on Twitter and acted like the whole thing was his idea. Because he’s that guy.
Also: there’s a rumor going around that there will soon be an exodus of White House staffers who are sick of admitting they work for Trump. Imagine what will happen if Trump starts shutting down every department or policy shop when a few staffers leave?
Photos courtesy of Getty.
Hallelujah – the end of Trump, his supporters and the Republican Party is nearing.
Pushed by all sides, Trump will do something very stupid but he will also not go down alone. He will take half of the vile Republican Party with him, Bannon, Sessions, Miller and his whole family down with him.
My parents raised me not to be gleeful about someone’s misfortunes but I can’t help myself. I will be gleeful, happy and rejoice when this man goes down.
No one here will blame you for feeling gleeful of Donald Trump’s presidential demise, we all look forward to it as well. The question is if he resigns that means the Russian collusion investigation will not continue? DT Jr. will get off the hook as well?
Nah it will continue plus there’s NY state investigations as well. So if he pardons everyone trumps can be nailed on state charges
I’m not sure, but I believe the Russian investigation will continue unless 45 get the Act AG to fire Mueller. I believe there are several people who may go to prison for several reasons including money laundering. Breaking the law will be investigated fully. Also, 45 is being investigated by the NY Attorney General.
The investigations will continue. If he resigns, he makes it easier for them to charge him.
Would he resign?
What level of negative attention – cos we know he’s not fussed about criminality or anything like that – would make him storm off in a huff of no-more-president?
Sixer, I was wondering the same thing, thinking his resignation still seems unlikely. Even though he doubled down on his horrifying support of neo-Nazis, his need to make people think he disbanded these councils seems to indicate a real fear of humiliation about something. So maybe he will resign before anyone starts impeachment proceedings, taking his proverbial ball and going home yet again.
Trump will never resign. He loves the power of being president.
I really was thinking about this. Would he resign to avoid impeachment and run away to some tax haven somewhere? Or go complete megalomaniac and have to be removed?
@Sixer, the latter, I’d imagine. I can see him simply ignoring the fact that he will have to resign for as long as possible, holding on to WH furniture until he’s literally dragged out of the building one day.
I can see him having to be removed, which none of our congressional leaders seem inclined to do what with Ryan whining about moral ambiguities and blathering on about tax cuts for rich people. But he does keep lashing out at them, hitting Flake and Graham just this morning, so some support may be crumbling. Should they ever do their jobs and impeach & remove, I can see him needing to be escorted out by the military.
Of course, as quite a number of intelligence experts have hinted, the military and intelligence communities are not behind him – with the Pentagon taking the really unusual step of speaking out forcefully against his views on white supremacy just this week and on the transgender ban a few weeks ago. They may be reaching the point where someone does something.
@lightpurple I hope to see him frog marched out the front door in hand cuffs.
We can only hope someone takes action soon to remove him. I used to fantasize about traveling abroad or hiking the Appalachian Trail…now I dream about Trump’s demise. Ugh.
Congress will never impeach him.
I have always said that if you want him gone, your best hope is that he decides that the American people don’t deserve his genius. Seriously, the only way he leaves is if he thinks the citizenry isn’t worthy of him (source: 16 years of living with someone just like that).
I don’t think he will resign, because he needs his powers to pardon to save himself and his family. But if he is cleared, I could see him resigning…but I don’t see him being cleared.
I’m just hoping the state level charges happen, because those are unpardonable. I think money laundering will be his undoing.
I would be very surprised if he resigns. I read somewhere the speculation that he desperately needs the Secret Service to augment his private security protection, since by now he has more enemies than ever. Including, of course, Mr Polonium Tea Putin.
Sixer, I agree that he will have to be dragged out by his very long tie …a great dog lead, now that I think of it. What worries me is that he won’t go quietly. I can honestly see him encouraging an overthrow of govt, by his torch-wielding AR47 carrying followers. I do believe that he has slowly been seeding this — his own scorched earth (“the likes of which the world has never seen”) emergency plan. He “jokingly” suggested such a thing in case Clinton won the election, and I think now that he has been in office, he will be all the more crazed to take us all down with him, damn the consequences. For all of our sakes I hope his era ends soon, but I hope the republicans are the face of it….otherwise he will say it is a coup that demands a violent response…and many will believe him because they are ready to and now, it seems wanting, to fight.
I hate to say that I don’t think it matters if the Republican party is the face of removal/impeachment or not, because his unhinged, lunatic base is deeply mistrustful of most mainstream Republicans as well. They will go crazy no matter who takes him out, and we all know that he will do nothing to stop the crazy and will actually do everything he can to encourage it. I take comfort in the fact that there are so many more of “us” than “them”; at least a 3:1 margin.
Then that would be a good time for him to be removed from Twitter. The rage would make his head explode.
We thought a Trump presidency would be horrible, catastrophic, and painful. It has turned out to be so, so much worse. The man is unfit to lead in every way and it’s totally clear. The executive branch is falling apart. The president of the United States barely has any authority at this point. The people who voted him in will never see it, but this is what they did. This is what happens when you put a completely stupid, narcissistic, racist idiot reality star in the White House.
The only good news is that it does feel like the end is nigh.
And how will the next president rebuild the authority?
I think that is the really troubling question. Easier to break eggs and all that.
Bill Clinton left the executive branch in shambles and W quickly restored and expanded the power of the office. If the next president isn’t a clown, I think that is fixable.
As for the rest of the country, I don’t know we repair the damage Trump has done.
Ok. Makes sense.
Excuse me, Megan? Clinton walked into an executive branch that had been shredded by years of neglect by Reagan and Bush. Did you local Social Security offices couldn’t even be reached by telephone? People had to use a 1-800 number that connected them to phone banks and they could never talk to the actual person working on their file. That Reagan and Bush decimated the agencies’s ability to investigate things like major fraud and forced them to focus on ‘consumer fraud,” you know, women on welfare stealing an extra food stamp instead of paying attention to durable medical equipment manufacturers and hospitals ripping off Medicare and Medicaid for hundreds of millions. Clinton shored up the agencies and put them back to work for the people. Yes, Bush did expand the power of the office, which is why we are facing so many problems right now with Trump.
@lightpurple I think you misunderstood my comment. I wasn’t referring to the success of the Clinton administration, I was referring to the Clinton scandals. The role of the president was significantly marginalized by the end of his second term.
@Sixer, yes that is the question. I have read a few things that are encouraging lately, like the new article out from the former U.S. Office of Government Ethics, Walter Shaub, which you can find on his twitter page. He writes about what needs to happen to restore the integrity of the presidency and ethics in government.
@ Shambles- Some of the conversations I’ve been having with people lately have left me feeling so hopeless. What is happening to this country? I know, I know, we’ve always had issues but have we always been this selfish (rhetorical)? I just don’t understand how some Americans can be so callous and self-centered.
I work with the stock market and much of my career depends on its success but lately I’ve found myself hoping that they can’t get the debt ceiling raised and everything collapses because I think that’s the only thing that can get these selfish assholes to give a f*ck.
I mean really, it’s like all these m-fers care about is their 401K and no big deal that the Nazis and the GOP (redundant?) are destroying everything.
@Sixer- IDK but I think the sooner the push to repair starts the better off we are. I think 3.5 more years of this and it will be that much harder to come back. Unquestionably, irreparable damage has already been done.
It makes me so sad.
@Kitten, I have a question for you as someone in the industry – One of the big arguments I hear from trump defenders is that the stock market has never been better, and it’s all due to him, so his presidency must be doing something positive for the country. Plus, people like the CEO of my husband’s firm are a-ok with his behavior because they are only in this for the money (Funny story, the CEO is Muslim)
I have ZERO understanding of the stock market, but I find it incredibly hard to believe he is responsible for such a dramatic jump. Can you shed any insight into this? And please try not to laugh at my total lack of knowledge, haha
@Sunnydaze- Without getting too technical, the economy recovered and stabilized under Obama. Trump is a little more than six months into his term and the rate for jobs and economic growth is pretty much exactly in-line with what we had under Obama at the end of his term.
It’s really pretty modest, nothing remarkable. I’m not sure if people expected a crash or a depression or whatever after he was elected, but that has not happened.
Optimism due to massive deregulations is definitely part of what is driving the market’s success right now. But none of that matters if we can’t get the debt ceiling increased by mid-October because if we don’t, we default on our bills and can’t make payments resulting in treasury bonds going down the shitter.
So yeah the stock market is at record high but it’s based on this superficial anticipation that Trump will get all of his economic policy passed and let’s face it: legislatively, this dude hasn’t been able to pass jackshit yet. Plus before he was elected he was talking about bargaining with creditors and trying to pay less than what was owed. The bond market doesn’t like this idea at all.
But truthfully, American presidents get more credit than they deserve when the economy is doing well and more blame than they deserve when the economy sucks. Wage and economic growth are driven by a myriad of complex factors that are largely out of the hands of politicians.
I also wanted to add that Obama NEVER took credit for the success of the stock market because he f*cking knew better. He knew that if a POTUS takes credit for the market’s success then conversely, they must take credit when it falters. And believe me, what goes up must come down–the market WILL eventually crash.
But 45 is way too much of a narcissistic egomaniac to understand these things. He just can’t stop himself from bragging or taking credit for things that have nothing to do with him.
@sunnydaze I come on later so I saw your question.
First, may I suggest that you learn about the stock market and generally how finances work? It’s important for your own financial planning to understand the nature of markets, assuming you live in a country with a stock and bond market, etc. What ever your level of investment and savings, it’s important to make informed decisions – especially for women, who are still raised to assume that someone else (the man) will “take care of these things.”
Second, the question of how much influence the president has over the economy in general, and stock markets in particular, is a good and not totally settled one. I am *not* an economist but I have been around a long long time and generally the answers seem to be:
– Presidents don’t have THAT much influence over the economy in general, especially in the short run. General economies have natural swings – inflation-recession (and much less often, depression, thankfully) – and it depends where they hit on the curve, time-wise. That said, they can appoint people to make economic decisions that can nudge various factors along (wages, housing, health insurance, securities/manufacturing regulation, and so on) and those things will clearly in the long run shape how things are doing.
– Presidents may or may not be in office when the term of the Chair of the Federal Reserve System come up. Obama appointed Janet Yellen and she assures us she’s serving out her term. That person, with the whole regional system of bankers, sets monetary policy – basically making it harder or easier to borrow money, via the setting of interest rates. That in turn helps to stimulate or dampen economic investment, as well as play a role in spurring or controlling inflation. Rates are slowly starting to go up again because the Feds think the economy is strong enough to take some inflation, but that has nothing to do with Trump. Obama did the dirty work to start getting the economy on track — stabilizing (with difficulty) the housing market – where the whole mess began, regulating (with difficulty) the banking and securities sectors, etc. All with Republican opposition, or it would have gone quicker.
– As for the stock market itself, well, markets go up (bull) and down (bear). The higher it goes, the more risk there is of a correction (up to 10%, IIRC) or a crash (worse). The lower it goes, the better the odds of more people buying into the market because it’s so cheap – which will raise the price of shares. The market seems to be nearing the end of a very long “bull” period, 7-8 years, because it had no where to go but up. PLus, savings rates and bond yields were so low that stocks were really the only attractive option DESPITE the increasing risk. But all these things were set in motion under Obama, who took emergency measures in concert with the Feds to stabilize that destructive economic policies of the George W Bush presidency. The stock market didn’t plummet with Trump (yet) because of his promise to deregulate everything, which would fuel even higher profits/returns for corporations (it takes money to clean up your poison before putting it into the air and water and food). The market is mostly controlled by institutional investors, not individuals, and it’s their job to sit back dispassionately.
The thing to remember is that the stock market is not the same thing as the economy as a whole, just one piece of it. The past few decades though, Republicans have started to make them seem like one and the same and they’re not. It’s only one piece, and it’s a piece that serves mostly the wealthy, who have the means to withstand recessions. Small individual investors don’t have the cushions to ride it out.
How sad when a Muslim who would face persecution under this president looks only at the money. At some point the market will go down, money for business investment will be harder to obtain, and the persecution will still be there.
Also I see @Kitten said everything only better!
Also @Kitten this is out of place but so happy your personal life is still blooming, I remember when Mr. Kitten came along. With all these “Best of times, worst of times” reflections — maybe we can figure that if these relationships can get through these challenges, it’s like a stress test? Maybe it’ll be harder to figure out what to do when things are boring again… ; ) Hoping we get to experience that particular challenge sooner rather than later. I’d like to remember who I was when not feeling traumatized by the Trump campaign, his ‘victory’ and its aftermath…and I live in Canada!
@Kitten, I am with you on the debt ceiling. That particular hand grenade belongs to Congress rather than Trump, but I don’t have much (any) confidence that the wingnuts there won’t do something dumb when it comes time to vote to increase the limit. It’s happened before, and not that long ago.
@Kitten & @Who ARE These People? All this sad mess aside, kudos to you both for explaining the stock market situation even better than Kai Ryssdal on “Marketplace!” Killer podcast in your futures? 🙂
@Kitten and @ WhoARE – Thank you both so much! I have a very general understanding, but not quite enough to definitively refute the claim he has anything to do with it – both of what you said make a lot of sense. I’m definitely one of those people who have the Mr handle this stuff, and he’s tried to explain it to me, but (no offense to engineers) he’s an engineer who has a certain way of explaining things without quite explaining…and I’m always too embarrassed to ask for a dumbing down. But you’re both right – I need to be much more invested (no pun intended!) in understanding this piece of the economy – and inner workings of the economy in general I suppose. Thank you for being kind and patient!
If you look at a graph of the stock market, starting in 2009 it starts a modest upward trajectory. That trajectory continues today. It makes it clear, in the big picture, that this trend didn’t start under Trump, it is just a continuation of what started under Obama.
Not just the exec branch but the legislative one as well. The founding fathers did not account for a complicit congress. It’s why midterms are essential. The checks and balances don’t work if the legislative branch fails to actually CHECK the exec branch.
Frankly I don’t think I’ll trust the govt ever again in my lifetime
@Nicole How can we trust government again? The relentless willingness of lawmakers to put party before country in even the most obscene circumstances is deeply scarring.
The only good thing about this presidency is that I know what number we’re on. (I suck at trivia.)
Shambles – The other good news is that Kim in North Korea is acting like the adult in the room, comparatively speaking… That lessens Trump’s ability to start a war in that area. Many thanks to the diplomats from other countries who helped this situation, since my government is hopeless.
We can only hope that the Iranian government resists any temptation to get back at our blowhard POTUS while also somehow convincing the ignoramus that Iran will be no pushover if he thinks it’s a neat idea to invade and occupy Iran. Hopefully his idol Putin will help in that regard.
i am worried that he will pull some kind of stunt, i.e. start a war or some staged terror attack in order to distract from this. The audience is fickle, so the minute something terrible happens, all this will be forgotten, but by his most fervent opponents.
I would not put anything like that past him, Miller and Bannon. like at ALL.
Yes, distract people’s attention. He does not like to be criticized or laughed at. He is being backed into a corner and will lash out in some way
Brannon gave an interview saying fire and fury was all talk, there will be no war with NK. He says that’s all bluster. 45 pretended to be strong when he’s a blustering fool. Thanks to pres Brannon for telling the truth.
That interview was Brannon’s way of “reassuring” Republicans that Trump isn’t batsh*t crazy and no need to get all twisted up about the neo-nazis because they are just a bunch of clowns. Sadly, some in the GOP will be dumb enough to fall for this.
Yikes. But just judging from the constant bad judgement of his whole circle, I don’t think they have the collective cleverness to create and execute such a plan successfully. Unless the GOP helps.
I was thinking the same thing.
I don’t doubt that they would love this…but who would they go to war with?
They are itching to do something in Venezuela, but other countries in the region don’t want anything to do with it, and besides, it would be a ‘war’ that would be over in 2 days and then it would just be a mess.
They would be absolutely insane to attack North Korea, because it would mean the death of millions in South Korea. I truly think the rest of the republicans wouldn’t let it happen.
Apart from putting troops on the ground in Syria, or invading Mexico to stop the drug trade (!?) I don’t see many other feasible options.
Also, you need a particular kind of war to make this strategy work…one where the American people have to feel a bit frightened and have the need to band together. I don’t see any conflict (apart from North Korea) that would do that.
See the movie “Wag the Dog” (it may ring a bell these days) and hope that maybe it will just be a studio-produced war…with very convincing green screen munitions.
I think the coordinated message from the joint chiefs was a warning to Trump that they are not his pawns.
Yes.
Also, and maybe this was raised somewhere else, aren’t the military heavily dependent upon recruiting among POC? It’s not in their self-interest to come across as racist/intolerant, even if people can experience a hard time once they are serving.
Maria F. – That’s what all his talk about “alt-left” (!) is about. He knows the alleged anti-fascist Antifa in particular is violent to the core and is bound to continue making trouble at protests. This is very desirable for Trump. He wants to paint Antifa as much more significant than they are because they will come through for him. One of these days, they will end up killing somebody themselves with their antics. Trump has a harder time getting people on board with the idea that Black Lives Matter is inherently violent as an organization, but that doesn’t stop him from trying.
I think media should start looking for possible ties between Antifa and the Trump Administration. They sound so much like Bannon in their approach. It is not out of line to suspect that either leadership or individuals are on government or other such as neonazi) payrolls. They certainly have the desired effect of discrediting the vast majority of protesters who are not trying to damage other people or setting fire to things.
Frazier wasn’t the first to leave the council. Elon Musk resigned after Trump announced he wouldn’t fulfill our commitment to the Paris Accords.
Disney’s Bob Iger also left after the Paris withdrawal.
There were two (or more) councils. Musk and Iger were on the Strategic and Policy Forum council. Frazier was the first to leave the Manufacturing Jobs council if I’m not mistaken.
As a commentator on MSNBC put it, it’s like your boyfriend loaded all your things in his car, he’s driving them to your house to end it, you see him coming, and you suddenly get on the phone to say “We’re through!”
A CNN story claims the CEOs on one council had a conference call and decided to disband (versus multiple separate resignations). They called Nagini’s spouse to tell him before they did a public statement. Orange tweeted within minutes of their call to his son-in-law, beating them to the punch.
Forget courtesy – they should have tweeted the announcement and let the chips fall.
Yes. The correct headline is “Trump falsely takes credit for disbanding council after it had already voted to disband itself”
Trump is such a baby! I love seeing people standing up and walk away from him. Hopefully everyone out there can follow them and be stong.
Of course, Trump had to say JOBS, because he never stops bragging about how millions of people supposedly have gotten jobs since January 20th
The sad thing is that, in this case, America’s moral authority now seems to lie with the collective CEOs of big business. That’s how bad it’s gotten. Those CEOs obviously listen to their employees and customers and maybe even see the nihilism in the WH for themselves and want no part of being complicit. Someone ought to remind Donnie Two Scoops about the Presidential Oath he took in January – defending the Constitution and working for ALL Americans not just lunatic fringe on the Right. What a sh*tshow.
They also probably ditched the idea that they needed to keep a seat at the table, once they realized there was no table and the chairs were collapsing. Trump was so atrocious to the guy from Merck who resigned first after Charlottesville. He obviously had no respect for the Council members and wasn’t going to listen to anything they said unless it fit in with his agenda.
Council members had been strongly dissenting from his policies such as on the Paris accord and immigration. So they really weren’t being mindless Trump supporters just because they were on the councils. I think they honestly thought they could influence policy for the better. Yes, they like reduced regulations because that’s more profitable for them. But so many other Trumpian policies are disastrous for them.
I think the union head, Truma said the councils were a waste of time. They never met and there wasn’t an agenda.
I don’t believe for one second that anyone is resigning. I’m so sick of the faux outrage bullsh*t. Look how many republicans remained silent. They’re not saying anything because THEY AGREE WITH HIM.
Agree. They all like power and control too much to resign. If something is truly abhorrent and goes against your moral values, you get the hell away from it asap. They are all still there.
The super wealthy donors want those tax cuts and abolishing the estate tax, which has already been gradually raised to several million during the past few years.
Let’s just hope that absolute power does corrupt absolutely, and that the majorities they hold will crumble.
I’m never shocked or surprised at Drumpf’s antics. I just get bloody angry that #ImpeachTrump is slow and that contortionists try to defend him.
Yeah, they want a cookie for leaving but the most I can give them is a partially crumbled granola bar (no insult to granola bars). They left because they feared damage to their brand, not because of any humanitarian reason. Obviously Dell, Walmart and GE still think there is meat left to pick from the carcass.
As ever, while it has been pleasant to watch him squirm and be denied praise by any other than his rabid Nazi base, I agree with other posters that all this will do is result in a childish lashing out in some other way to punish everyone for not liking him. And frankly, for all the hypocritical admonitions from the GOP, they’re not going to push for serious measures to be taken, not while they still have an agenda to pass.
It makes me want to stand on my porch and scream “FUUUUUUU***KKKK” over and over again, that he can literally do anything, including defend Nazis and suffer no real consequences. But the reality is, he isn’t going anywhere. The end is still long in the distance and he will do a lot more damage before he’s forced out. If he ever is.
He’s attacking Lindsey Graham and Jeff Flake this morning. And he’s exploiting Heather Heyer to do so.
I don’t believe he has called heather’s parents to give his condolences to them as yet. A man without a moral compass.
He can’t say her name out loud but he can Tweet it. Gross.
Attacking members of his own party is pathetic. I think he should keep doing it.
And I think we should keep attacking members of his own party, too.
I hope he doesn’t call Heather’s parents, They’ve suffered enough. Really, Trump should never be making such calls. He is not emotionally equipped for it.
It’s 2017 we aren’t passing out cookies for doing the bare minimum anymore
I laugh and feel vindicated when this kind of thing happens to him. I was watching a news show and the guest said, “Well all of us in New York knew he was a bigot and a con artist.” And then another said, “Why wasn’t he vetted more?” And then another “He most likely isn’t a billionaire, and he is a failed businessman.”
He is not friends with the power brokers and big money moguls. He is not part of the club. I have been saying this to my Southern relatives and anytime I get a chance. I didn’t need to pick up a book or research it. It has been known all along by people in New York and Palm Beach.
This burned this malignant Nazi right where he lives. I am telling you this hurt his ego in his most vulnerable place. He can’t get credit from American banks anymore, so he is tied up with foreign banks and shut out of the American financial power sector. He has bankrupted and run businesses to the ground over and over. His claim to fame is tacky beauty pageants, failed casino, some real estate, branding low-quality products, and a reality show that exaggerates his business prowess.
He is a joke to those CEOs, but they were willing to use him to further their agendas. Tangerine could finally be part of the club. He could throw around his power and rub elbows with people he wanted the world to think were his peers, and he was in charge. Chit chat about you know, Fortune 500 CEO stuff.
But NOPE DENIED B.TCH! He has never even been close to Fortune 5,000 much less 500.
I know that is what prompted his racist ranting that ripped off his hood at the presser. He saw that elusive mogul club door slam in his face yet again. Loud. Just like in his fever dreams in the dead of the night when every now and then, for one brief second, he knows he is a fake and that maybe there are people that know.
“I didn’t need to pick up a book or research it. It has been known all along by people in New York and Palm Beach.”
It’s been known by me and lots of us down here in Aladumba. I imagine it’s been known by nearly every poster on CB. Anyone who didn’t know it is obstinately obtuse..
I love what the Mayor of Birmingham did by covering the Conderate statue. His statement that Birmingham is a Civil Rights city, not a Civil War city was great. He also said Birmingham wasn’t established until after the Civil War so why have a Confederate statue.
Birmingham mayor did that? Awesome
Anyone who followed years of tabloid and mainstream news could detect it was smoke and mirrors. His personal and business dealings have not exactly been stellar examples to follow.
And the fools who bought his “businessman” bullshit. Idiots!
http://www.newsweek.com/2016/08/12/donald-trumps-business-failures-election-2016-486091.html
And, of course, the Alabama AG is suing about this.
http://wiat.com/2017/08/15/mayor-william-bell-orders-linn-park-confederate-monument-covered-considering-removal/
Ilsalund- Actually, those are mass-produced statues that were installed long after the war at periods where they were obviously a threat to people objecting to Jim Crow laws at the end of the 19th Century and desegregation efforts in the 1950s. They weren’t really due to popular affection for their ancestors’ bravery in battle. Reminds me of those Ten Commandments monuments places in front of so many public buildings like our courthouses- turned out that they actually were provided for free as a promotion for the movie.
As a matter of fact – Robert E. Lee himself objected strongly to Confederate statues and flags. He felt healing required discarding such reverence for the past and for battlefields and felt they should not be used that way. He was not buried in his uniform and former Confederate soldiers who walked in his funeral procession did not wear theirs either. No Confederate flags were flying. So if he were alive today, he would be giving Trump and the neonazis an earful and supporting the counterprotesters. He certainly would not mind people removing his statue from anywhere.
The descendents of Lee, Jackson and Davis say take them down.
http://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2017/08/16/us/robert-e-lees-grandson-comments-on-statue-removal/index.html
Same with Hollywood, He desperately wants to be accepted, and they consistently turn their backs.
He has supporters like James Woods and Scott Baio, for god’s sake. He can’t stand it.
I agree Kaiser, and that was my first thought as well. I was reading on twitter, everyone congratulating those who left. They shouldn’t have been there in the first place.
I know they hoped to work with the administration, exert some influence, but it’s hopeless. No one controls or influences trump. I’m still waiting for kelly to resign though 🙁
My opinion is that they were there because Trump promised tax cuts to businesses. Not looking like that will happen any time soon. Also heard that there had been no meetings up til now and no work was being done.
I think they were there to influence. That’s what happens when you sit on boards. A commenter on MSNBC said if you can’t get access to someone in an administration you aren’t as big a deal as you thought – it’s been happening for decades, and there are enough different people to influence. There shouldn’t have been councils. But that’s how business works, not politics, and we’re seeing that politics don’t work as a business, no matter how hard the Right is trying.
I think Kelly signed on to guard the hen house. Didn’t he make a pact with Mattis? I doubt he is a full out Orangino supporter. He told the staff that they should be loyal to the country, the president and themselves. In that order. Notice what is before orangino? Yep the country.
CNN filmed Kelly’s reaction while that crazy moron was doubling down on his support of the KKK. Kelly turned all shades of red and he looked embarrassed. That says it all.
Secty of Treasury Steve Mnuchin should quit and go back to producing movies. He produced Wonder Woman – I bet no one knew about that.
I think Trump wants to sow as much discord and craziness as he can to continue to divide the country. What’s that old saying, “divide and conquer”. For him it’s the only way he can stay in power…to continue having everyone fight amongst themselves.
A Divided Country Is Exactly What Trump Wants
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-strategy-charlottesville_us_5994b068e4b06ef724d61291
He also seems to be the kind of person is going to take everyone down with him, so he can’t be singled out as the only failure – if everyone goes down, no one can blame just him, it would be a fault with the system.
I don’t know why the 3 haven’t resigned yet, I can’t read minds. However, I may have at least one answer as to why all of the CEO’s accepted the appointments in the first place.
These type of groups can be very influential to policy and decision making within the government. We have the same types of things up here in Canada as well. When a person is wanting to lobby the gov for something, these are the type of groups that you need to get behind your idea and if they buy in, your golden. Many of the members of these boards/committees accept the invitation to join as a way to 1) be able to work from the inside to help change policy and views 2) lobby for their industry 3) have a voice that will be taken seriously 4) work with others to help build and promote policy for the gov 5) prestige (can’t even lie about that, it looks great on a resume). Are these all the right reasons to accept? Maybe not to some of us, but they are understandable and I honestly believe that many people who accept these invitations really do want to keep the gov going in the right direction. Stifling the growth of industry is not in their best interest. My personal experience with these groups is also that many like to be able to work with those that they may not have a chance to work with otherwise. It is through things like this that regular people like me get to do some really cool policy work with highly intelligent people they would otherwise never in a million years get to talk to.
Anyway, back to resignations. Maybe Michael Dell, Doug McMillon and John Flannery are still hoping to be able to make change from the inside. Maybe they are hoping to still be able to use their positions for something good. I’m trying to give them the benefit of the doubt. Just because they are staying on doesn’t mean they agree with Trump.
This is exactly where my mind was going, that *maybe* they thought if they were a part of the administration they could influence some change. I’m trying to think to my own experience, I was asked to be part of an advisory group that was comprised of about 15 people who had the exact opposite view I did, and I felt their views were not only terribly misguided, but potentially dangerous. I thought about it for a while, and decided against it as I would have been the only one coming from the perspective I held, and it would take a significant amount of time away from my actual job where I was able to influence real change on a daily basis.
However, HAD there been maybe one or two other people on this advisory board that shared my perspective, I would have felt it was worth while. Maybe, just maybe, that’s what happened here – a few like minded people went in cautiously optimistic then looked at each other with a resounding “NOPE” while the others were trying to salvage something, anything. At least, this is the story I like to tell myself.
These CEOs were frightened of his backlash. When Merck’s stock saw a slight uptick on Monday after Trump attacked their CEO, the others realized there was no longer a downside to leaving Trump.
I don’t congratulate any of them for doing the bare minimum, but this is a sign things are moving in the right direction. He is more and more isolated by the day.
I’m in the UK and I’ve just watched a report on CNN from a small town in Kentucky and the overwhelming consensus was that DT was right to hold BOTH sides accountable for the violence in Charlottesville. The reporter asked one man what could the President do to lose his support and at first he couldn’t think of anything, but then said maybe if he banned “White Supremacists” or “The Left” from being able to hold rallies.
It’s just so sad. We’ve got the bigoted-Brexiteers and you have the Trumpers. Our nations are seriously in the midst of a shared nervous breakdown caused by ignorant, narcissistic, bigoted fear-mongers like Nigel Farage and Donald Trump
I really wish they would stop interviewing these dumb-ass Trumpsters. I get it: they’re a f*cking freak show, they’re like a terrible car crash that you can’t look away from; they appeal to our morbid fascination like Faces of Meth.
I get it.
But really, what we SHOULD be doing is putting these people in a lab and study their brains to see how/why they are so susceptible to brainwashing.
Also, why are we giving these f*cktards a public platform?
Why are we rewarding stupidity and ignorance?
Look, there was a time when Trump was first elected and we all wanted to understand how this happened. THAT was the time to interview these people and attempt to grasp what appealed to them about Trump and how Dems can improve their messaging.
That time is OVER.
Well over.
Long over.
We now know that at this stage in Trump’s presidency that his supporters are mainly robots, white supremacists, rich self-interested whites, and the uneducated folks who generally shun politics completely.
Does anybody want to hear from these assholes anymore?
Because I’m busy trying to pretend that they don’t exist just so I can face people on the train or on the street without wondering if they’re moronic Trumpsters.
I’m busy trying to pretend they don’t exist so that I can get up every morning and face the day, so that I don’t end up despising the US even more than I already do.
CNN and any news organization that persists on giving these people a voice just for the sake of entertainment, because it’s *funny* to witness their ignorance, or for whatever other reason will NEVER get my viewership.
Sorry for the crazy rant…just cannot take it anymore.
CBS This Morning interviewed three trump supporting women today. They’re still trump’s cockholsters.
http://wdef.com/2017/08/17/female-trump-voters-defend-presidents-charlottesville-response/
I am also tired of the New York Times constantly searching out these idiots and giving them a platform. They are moronic racist idiots who voted for a buffoon against their own self interest. End of. Who cares what they think anymore.
Yes to everything you said, Kitten. NPR gave way too much air time yesterday to Trumpers and neo-Nazi sympathizers. I broke a glass because I slammed it so hard in the sink when yet another a$#hole recited the right’s talking points about BLM being a hate group.
Heather Heyer looked like she could be a member of their family and she was killed by neonazis. The line has been crossed because we’ve moved from the many ways of enabling racism -(genteel racism) with consequences for nonwhite people to racism with violent and fatal repurcussions for white people, the desired customer base for these CEOs. Trump is bad for business.
Trump believes in one thing and one thing only: he is the greatest, most important person on the planet and everyone and everything else is simply a tool for him to use to serve himself. Period. Whatever makes him feel powerful or look powerful (in his own mind) will be used. That’s it. That’s as far as it goes. He is a malignant narcissist and everything he does and says is in service of his own overblown, hollow ego. The lower his approval ratings go, the more open resistance and protest he encounters, the more he will shriek and flail and posture and say anything that comes into his deteriorating mind to rile people up. If you can’t make people love you and respect you and think you’re awesome, you destroy them. End of story.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE stop saying Trump disbanded the councils. My firm chairman was on the Strategy Policy Forum and let our company know that the group decided yesterday morning due to Trump and his handling of Charlottesville to disband.
Trump is lying, both councils chose to disband, Trump had nothing to do with except look like the idiot he is.
Well, I guess there wasn’t a rush of folks to take the place of those “grandstanders” after all.
Major applause for The Economist.
http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_59958319e4b0acc593e579b0/amp?ncid=NEWSSTAND0001
His days are numbered and I do believe there’s a silver lining somewhere in this.
The news just reported a truck ran into a big group of people in Barcelona. Normally, 45 would be yelling terrorists attack. He can’t say anything now because he told us he has to wait for the facts before saying anything about what happened in CVille.
It’s so scary that cars driving into crowds on purpose happens so often. Unfortunately, one innocent person just died and they’re still looking for the armed guys who were in the van
Elon Musk (SapceX and Tessa) and Bob Iger (Disney) resigned in June over the Paris Agreement withdrawal. Travis Kalanick of Uber dropped out in Feb over the immigration ban. Now we have these 5. I’m curious why a company like GE, which espouses a diverse work environment and innovation and clean energy is still on board. I’m not surprised about Wal-Mart one bit.
One of the two councils had already disbanded when they simply informed Trump of their decision. The other one was scheduled to a conference call to probably do the same thing. Individuals had already announced their decision to resign.
Trump is full of it trying to claim it was his decision to disband the councils. The council members probably will go along with his nonsense in hopes of maintaining a shred of beneficial government contacts, but I think they misjudge the intensity of Trump’s continuing thirst for vengeance. He now hates them all with a very white hot passion….
I find it hilarious that Trump’s side basically boils down to, “YOU’RE NOT BREAKING UP WITH ME, I’M BREAKING UP WITH YOU, CEO COUNCIL. SO THERE.”
I want to ask these people who thought Trump was going to save the economy because he was The Great Businessman and ask them in what economics class did anybody tell you that supporting Neo-Nazis publicly was a good business move.
He wants to save the economy like he saved his Casinos. Five to six bankruptcies, stealing from poor people to line his pocket. His workers filed several law suites against him for mot paying what they bargained for when they put in their bids and was told “sue me” knowing they could not afford to sue and have a long drained out case paying lawyers for years while their cases dragged through court. Or save the economy by not paying almost a billion $ in taxes. That’s how he was going to help them. Now 45 is taking all the credit for what Pres Obama started and kept going for years, e.g. low unemployment and great stock market etc. the conman will be exposed in due time.
Trump has never had good business sense. I keep saying that without his dad’s money bailing him out periodically, he would be living under a bridge.
No good businessman ends up with all US banks refusing to loan him money and several bankruptcies. He even managed to lose money with casinos. His credit rating must be in the negative numbers.
Since his dad is no longer a source of millions, Trump just deals with shady types to get his money for the smoke and mirrors show. I don’t think his children have any special skills in business either. He’s not a member of the real business mogul club because the real ones recognize that he is a fake. And know not to trust him.
I think his father’s money getting him started (and bailed out) is one of his hot buttons. Deep down, he likely knows his own ability is not responsible for whatever wealth remains.
Likewise, I think the lashing out episodes could indicate he kmows there are other forces he cannot deny or control (like investigations). The walls are closing in, the brand is diminished beyond repair…
Most of his “empire” is an illusion. Turns out many of the condos and other buildings with his name on them were built by other developers who pay him a fee to use his name and have him do some marketing. He didn’t put any of his own money into getting them built. A lot of those developers and investors are, wait for it, Russian.
https://newrepublic.com/article/143586/trumps-russian-laundromat-trump-tower-luxury-high-rises-dirty-money-international-crime-syndicate
Took my daughters to a peaceful solidarity rally at our state capital this morning. They are as upset as I am with what is going on. As one speaker said… we have a long and hard fight ahead of us but we must fight on.
At the end people were chanting…. silence is a crime! Silence is a crime!
We will be looking for more ways to become involved.
Stay strong @Tate.
Thanks B n A. I am a shy person by nature but I have to do something. My kids are 12 and 14. They know what is going on. I am proud of them for wanting to be involved.
@ Tate:
I love that you’re doing something….please keep at it, we’re behind you!
👍👍👍
Praying for the people in Barcelona. Stay safe. Doesn’t look good from the pictures showing on tv.
This isn’t the first time that The King of Lies and Fake News has done this. When Paul Ryan made the decision to end voting on TrumpRyancare, The King of Lies and Fake News called up Bob Costa from WaPo to put out that he was the one who made the decision to stop the voting, not Paul Ryan. This is what he is most concerned with? When is enough going to be enough for the GOP? These CEOs walked out on The King of Lies and Fakes News, so what are the GOP and WH press reporters waiting for?
The best thing to come out of this were the headlines. How can he dissolve a council that has already disbanded? The King of Lies and Fakes has made a mockery of the presidency.
I don’t feel sorry that The King of Lies and Fakes News is now verbally attacking Lindsey G and Jeff F. They have had numerous opportunities to stop him, but they continue to do nothing. Lindsey Graham says one thing in public, but does another thing. During Sally Yates hearing, it was Lindsey Graham who tried to deflect, asking questions about unmasking and who exposed Flynn. What a difference would he have made had he focused on Trump and Russia.
I work for GE.. and we got an email that said that we were leaving the council. I don’t believe there was ever an intention to stay. Please update the article to clear my company’s name.
When is enough going to be enough? The GOP need to put their words into action. The King of Lies and Fake News wouldn’t call the attack in Charlottesville terrorism, but what is he tweeting about today? Today he had no problems calling ramming a car into crowds of people an act of terror.
The King of Lies and Fake News is always talking about how the press spreads fake news and then he spreads fake news:
“Study what General Pershing of the United States did to terrorists when caught. There was no more Radical Islamic Terror for 35 years!”-Trump
It looks like Mueller has fallen into a trap and become complicit. His investigation is starting to stall just like what happened in House and Senate.
“The public is learning (even more so) how dishonest the Fake News is. They totally misrepresent what I say about hate, bigotry etc. Shame!”-Trump
How exactly did the press misrepresent what he said? When will someone start holding The King of Lies and Fake News responsible for his actions? The public isn’t learning that the press is dishonest, the public is learning what they should have known, that The King of Lies and Fake News is incompetent and full of hate. He sat all this in motion when he decided to blame the counter-protesters 3 days in a row.
“Sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statues and monuments. You……..can’t change history, but you can learn from it. Robert E Lee, Stonewall Jackson – who’s next, Washington, Jefferson? So foolish! Also……the beauty that is being taken out of our cities, towns and parks will be greatly missed and never able to be comparably replaced!”-Trump
Beautiful statues? Changing history by removing statues that were put in place to intimidate people? The statues added beauty to the cities, towns, and parks? Then he has the audacity to claim that the press are twisting his words. Every day he demonstrates that he is unfit to be president. Every day the GOP demonstrate that they are unfit to lead this country. It’s been 6 days since the attack, why haven’t the GOP removed The King of Lies and Fake News and Pence(who supports every disgusting thing that The King of Lies and Fake News does) from the office?
He also praised Session’s on his policies against Sanctuary Cities. Again, he blames the press for twisting his words.
In the end I hope the public boycotts all his businesses. Let’s be honest those CEOs abandoned ship because they know there would be a massive boycott. The entire Trump fortune can go down in flames for all I care. There are only so many religious zealots who can actually afford to stay in his tacky hotels.
Morning joe tweeted today that 45 is trying to change the CVille racist kkk, white supremacy Terrorists attack that an innocent woman, Heatherv H. Was killed and 19 others injured into a talking point about taking down of statues. Joe says we should not let 45 get away with it. I noticed it did not take 45 days to call Barcelona “terror attack” out but it took him days to mentioned that his followers were responsible for what happened in this country because he “always wait for the facts”, what a load of $&@$&@.
He’s circling the drain.
The Russian bots are very active right now. They are posting “I voted for Trump” hashtags and it’s trending. This is their opposition to the NYT in which someone admits that they voted for The King of Lies and Fakes News and now regrets their decision. Now the bots have turned into their rallying cry. I wish the press was more vocal in how the bots have been trolling and messing with the results of polls and now this “I voted for Trump” hashtag. Where were these “I voted for Trump” people when his approval rating hit 33%? It’s already been exposed that any of his supporters are either bots or characters created as a marketing tool.
I’ve been a lurker from Australia on CB for as long as I can remember – since the site’s inception and I just came to say:
When this is all over, I want to have a beer and a BBQ with all the sane, lovely, but outraged people who have protested, and stared gob-smacked as each new day has brought a new round of WTF. I don’t think all the problems will go away just because Trump and some of his cronies leave the WH – but it’s a damn good start.
Bottoms up, I’ve got the popcorn and champers ready.
I will be crashing that party from London! 🎉🎉🎉🎉😁😁😁🎊🎊🎊👍👍👍