Donald Trump Presidency discussion thread III

everlast75

everlast75 wrote: »

Apparently 2 senior republicans have mentioned to reporters that Trump has Sessions next on his list to fire.

It would be a huge move but hasn't he kept pushing the boundaries to date and not suffered for it. It's become his thing

Rumours that he will be replaced by Scott Pruitt, who would immediately shut down the special counsel investigation.

pixelburp

Deleted User wrote: »

Rumours that he will be replaced by Scott Pruitt, who would immediately shut down the special counsel investigation.

Surely the Mueller Investigation is the one untouchable even Trump knows he can't nuke without bringing a sh*tstorm down on himself?

I mean OK, we've been here before, sure in our presumption that Controversy X would definitely sink Trump this time, but the Mueller probe seems like a different ball-game - something whose legal wheels are in motion; shutting it down would seem like a blanket admission of guilt. I'd be shocked-not-shocked if no Republicans didn't finally step away from Trump for real - plus you'd imagine the impact in the midterms would become even more pronounced.

Mind you, Pruitt being moved away from the EPA would certainly be an absolute godsend for anyone of an environmental mindset; along with every other appointee the man has been a total disaster. Well, for about 5 minutes until whatever creationist Trump dredges up steps in to replace him.

Leroy42

Deleted User wrote: »

Rumours that he will be replaced by Scott Pruitt, who would immediately shut down the special counsel investigation.

I'm sure others will be able to correct me, but I think technically Sessions, or whomever replaces him, does not have the power to stop the investigation. That lies with the deputy as he appointed Mueller.

I say technically as I seriously doubt that will get in the way.

I am actually surprised they have allowed it to go on as long as they have.

In saying that, IMO, Mueller has a lot more than he is letting on. I think he is holding stuff back, not letting his cards out and looking to keep tightening the noose.

I am basing this on the fact that we saw before that he has filed sealed indictments that nobody knew about until he released them, I am thinking of Papodopolus as an example.

In addition, no one saw the Flynn plea coming.

So I would think that if Trump did move to shut it down Mueller would take his chances with what he has got to at this stage. It might not be 100% but he will hope it is enough to either halt any shutdown or make it so that it hardly makes a difference.

In terms of Trump being allowed to do it, there is no way that the GOP will stand in his way. So it really will come down to whether he thinks the risk is worth it. Even looking at it from the POV of him having done nothing, what advantage will he get from shutting it down. His base don't care about it anyway, those who dislike him will see it as trying to obstruct the investigation, and those in the middle will be left to wonder why an innocent man is so worried about an investigation.

Gbear

We'd surely be heading towards civil war territory of Mueller gets the sack. There'd be hundreds of thousands of people marching on the White House.

Leroy42

Gbear wrote: »

We'd surely be heading towards civil war territory of Mueller gets the sack. There'd be hundreds of thousands of people marching on the White House.

No there wouldn't. If kids getting shot in schools doesn't bring them out then a simple shut down of an investigation ain't going to do it. There will be an outcry, lead by CNN etc but then Trump will say something stupid, or fire Kelly, or send a tweet blaming Obama for the civil war and the media will lose focus.

Skedaddle

There's a general sense of apathy and helplessness over there at the moment. People who I've spoken to seem to be of the opinion that there's no point because they won't be listened to anyway.

It's also increasing a police state and protests can be put down quite aggressively with accusations of "causing a riot" being used against people and disproportionately huge penalties and risk of extreme violence. The result is that people don't protest as readily as they might somewhere like France or even here.

A lot of traditional American values are just evaporating away and also a lot of the most conservative areas never really had a history of tolerating protest anyway. Look at how civil rights protesters were met by police in the 1960s in the deep south.

The US is far from a homogeneous place - your civil rights really do vary substantially from state to state and from "north" to "south".

aloyisious

Re the Stormy affair [pun] the online WaPo is running a story that [it's wording] A Trump company lawyer took part in effort to keep Stormy Daniels silent, document shows. A top Trump Organization attorney filed a secret legal document on Feb. 22 to keep the porn actress from talking about her alleged affair with the president. Trump’s company said the lawyer filed the document in her personal capacity.
[Report filed] By Emma Brown, Beth Reinhard and Frances Stead Sellers.

Interesting that the company is saying the lawyer filed the document in her personal capacity, give the impression it was NOT done officially on behalf the company. Whatever about how much longer the lawyer remains with the company, it's possible this is a sign the company is backing away from a face-off with Stormy, they are terrified about what Stormy has on Don and another deal is in the offing.

I copied the WaPo wording as I don't have an account with it and any link I copied and pasted wouldn't work.

aloyisious

Leroy42 wrote: »

No there wouldn't. If kids getting shot in schools doesn't bring them out then a simple shut down of an investigation ain't going to do it. There will be an outcry, lead by CNN etc but then Trump will say something stupid, or fire Kelly, or send a tweet blaming Obama for the civil war and the media will lose focus.

As I see it, one way for Don to go is through the people he's fired getting their own back on him. In politics words spoken harshly in the chamber are forgotten in the members bar but when it come's to being "stiffed" by Don in a personal way, there has to be persons waiting in the long grass with vengeance on their minds.

spacecoyote

aloyisious wrote: »

Re the Stormy affair [pun] the online WaPo is running a story that [it's wording] A Trump company lawyer took part in effort to keep Stormy Daniels silent, document shows. A top Trump Organization attorney filed a secret legal document on Feb. 22 to keep the porn actress from talking about her alleged affair with the president. Trump’s company said the lawyer filed the document in her personal capacity.
[Report filed] By Emma Brown, Beth Reinhard and Frances Stead Sellers.

Interesting that the company is saying the lawyer filed the document in her personal capacity, give the impression it was NOT done officially on behalf the company. Whatever about how much longer the lawyer remains with the company, it's possible this is a sign the company is backing away from a face-off with Stormy, they are terrified about what Stormy has on Don and another deal is in the offing.

I copied the WaPo wording as I don't have an account with it and any link I copied and pasted wouldn't work.

If she manages to crowd source the 130k, is it possible to payback the silence money & nullify the contract, or is she bound by the agreement either way?

aloyisious

Teacher accidentally discharges pistol during advanced public safety lesson in class hurting three students, one with ricochet shrapnel. Parents weren't informed by school, finding out about it from kids and had to report it to police, school [in California] not commenting.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/14/us/teacher-gun-accidental-discharge.html

jooksavage

If the GOP are ever going to stand up to Trump, they'll do it if he attempts to shut Mueller down. The elections in the last 12 months have demonstrated that Trump can't save them from their own electorate. I dont think they would act out of principle (I'm sceptical they'll act at all) but if they think the wind is blowing a certain way, who knows.

It might be too late to shut Mueller down anyway. Mueller runs a tight ship but if the investigation is killed, there is no way that accummulted work isn't going to leak out and cause lasting damage.

aloyisious

spacecoyote wrote: »

If she manages to crowd source the 130k, is it possible to payback the silence money & nullify the contract, or is she bound by the agreement either way?

Don't know, all depends on the small print, if there is any. If deal is with lawyer and Don is truthful about it being nothing to do with him or his company, then [IMO] Stormy has nothing to fear about countersuit from Don on breaking any deal. If Stormy hasn't signed any deal with the lawyer then...... The way it's reportedly have been set up by the lawyer may compromise him career-wise and ability to practice in any court action.

Leroy42

aloyisious wrote: »

Teacher accidentally discharges pistol during advanced public safety lesson in class hurting three students, one with ricochet shrapnel. Parents weren't informed by school, finding out about it from kids and had to report it to police, school [in California] not commenting.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/14/us/teacher-gun-accidental-discharge.html

Trevor Noah had a great line on this.

Talking about the child being hit in the neck, he said if only the child's neck had a gun this could have been avoided!

Thought it summed up the total fallacy of the gun advocates thinking on the issue

mcmoustache

US Treasury imposes sanctions on those responsible for the cyber attacks and shít-stirring on social media - basically the ones indicted by Mueller. These aren't the sanctions that are sitting on Trump's desk, waiting to be implemented.

I wonder how much the WH knew about this?

everlast75

aloyisious wrote: »

Re the Stormy affair [pun] the online WaPo is running a story that [it's wording] A Trump company lawyer took part in effort to keep Stormy Daniels silent, document shows. A top Trump Organization attorney filed a secret legal document on Feb. 22 to keep the porn actress from talking about her alleged affair with the president. Trump’s company said the lawyer filed the document in her personal capacity.
[Report filed] By Emma Brown, Beth Reinhard and Frances Stead Sellers.

Interesting that the company is saying the lawyer filed the document in her personal capacity, give the impression it was NOT done officially on behalf the company. Whatever about how much longer the lawyer remains with the company, it's possible this is a sign the company is backing away from a face-off with Stormy, they are terrified about what Stormy has on Don and another deal is in the offing.

I copied the WaPo wording as I don't have an account with it and any link I copied and pasted wouldn't work.

there are a number of problems for Trump re oul Stormy

1) Either he was privy to the NDA and says it is binding (despite not signing it) - in which case he admits that he paid a porn star for sex or he denies that the NDA relates to him, in which case she can speak freely
2) Either the Solicitor paid the 130k out of his own funds and without Trump knowing, in which case he acted without instructions which means it becomes a disciplinary matter for him and the Bar, or Trump told him to - in which case he is privy to the NDA (see above)

Couldn't happen to a nicer pair of blokes

Pelvis

mcmoustache wrote: »

US Treasury imposes sanctions on those responsible for the cyber attacks and shít-stirring on social media - basically the ones indicted by Mueller. These aren't the sanctions that are sitting on Trump's desk, waiting to be implemented.

I wonder how much the WH knew about this?

Does trump have to sign off on them though?

mcmoustache

Pelvis wrote: »

Does trump have to sign off on them though?

Good question. I don't actually know yet. I'll do some reading later and hopefully find out.

B0jangles

So it appears the wholesale destruction of the US state department (which has brought about a situation where the US now has to deal with multiple highly sensitive international negotiations without any experienced diplomats) was the result of a purge of those perceived as disloyal to Supreme Leader Trump.

https://twitter.com/kyledcheney/status/974316185067098114

These were career civil servants by the way, not political appointments for a fixed term.

everlast75

B0jangles wrote: »

So it appears the wholesale destruction of the US state department (which has brought about a situation where the US now has to deal with multiple highly sensitive international negotiations without any experienced diplomats) was the result of a purge of those perceived as disloyal to Supreme Leader Trump.

https://twitter.com/kyledcheney/status/974316185067098114

These were career civil servants by the way, not political appointments for a fixed term.

I won't say what I think of Newt because it would contravene the forum rules. Not surprised he would be involved at all

Call me Al

Ny times are reporting the Mueller has subpoenaed the Trump Organisation to turn over documents some of which relate to Russia.

PopePalpatine

I'd love to see Gordon Ramsey try to match this "nothingburger"!

Professor Moriarty

B0jangles wrote: »

So it appears the wholesale destruction of the US state department (which has brought about a situation where the US now has to deal with multiple highly sensitive international negotiations without any experienced diplomats) was the result of a purge of those perceived as disloyal to Supreme Leader Trump.

https://twitter.com/kyledcheney/status/974316185067098114

These were career civil servants by the way, not political appointments for a fixed term.

Just The Donald draining the swamp as he promised.

Loafing Oaf

everlast75 wrote: »

there are a number of problems for Trump re oul Stormy

1) Either he was privy to the NDA and says it is binding (despite not signing it) - in which case he admits that he paid a porn star for sex or he denies that the NDA relates to him, in which case she can speak freely
2) Either the Solicitor paid the 130k out of his own funds and without Trump knowing, in which case he acted without instructions which means it becomes a disciplinary matter for him and the Bar, or Trump told him to - in which case he is privy to the NDA (see above)

Couldn't happen to a nicer pair of blokes

Nit sure how down n dirty we're supposed to be getting in this thread, but if Trump was forced through whatever legal procedure to admit to extramarital sex with 'Stormy,' would that be seriously damaging to him. Has he said anything beyond 'mind your own business' re his fidelity or otherwise to Melania?

everlast75

Loafing Oaf wrote: »

Nit sure how down n dirty we're supposed to be getting in this thread, but if Trump was forced through whatever legal procedure to admit to extramarital sex with 'Stormy,' would that be seriously damaging to him. Has he said anything beyond 'mind your own business' re his fidelity or otherwise to Melania?

No other president has had sex with a porn star.. so there is that unwanted accolade..

everlast75

P45 tweet on the way for McMaster I am guessing before the end of the weekend...

Christy42

everlast75 wrote: »

No other president has had sex with a porn star.. so there is that unwanted accolade..

I am shocked he is not saying how much better the USA would be if Barack had slept with porn stars.

Samaris

everlast75 wrote: »

No other president has had sex with a porn star.. so there is that unwanted accolade..

I dunno, I wouldn't bet my life that JFK didn't.

aloyisious

Pelvis wrote: »

Does trump have to sign off on them though?

Don't think so, but Steve Mnuchin is the Sec appointed by Don with OK from the hill. It'd be a huge sign of independence if he hadn't mentioned it to Don.

Re the subpoena for Trump business financial documents. Admin positions might be in flux this weekend. If Don dumps Jeff and replaces him with Ron, I don't know if the promotion would take the task of firing RM out of his hands into those of a new Deputy AG or if Ron would still have to end what he started by appointing RM. Don might feel the urge to start with a clean slate on Monday. If I was them, I'd be watching Don's twitter feed.

Itssoeasy

everlast75 wrote: »

P45 tweet on the way for McMaster I am guessing before the end of the weekend...

Not the smartest move given what happened Rex. Although isn't there a pact between him, Rex and general Mattis or has that ever been confirmed. I also the ambassador to the UN wasn't shy in blaming Russia for the attack.

Itssoeasy

Christy42 wrote: »

I am shocked he is not saying how much better the USA would be if Barack had slept with porn stars.

Wouldn't surprise me as the man is utterly obsessed with obama. I mean it's ridiculous.