Category: Insult Voters

Trump wishes ‘everyone’ a Happy New Year, ‘including the haters and fake news media’

President Donald Trump welcomed the dawn of 2019 on Tuesday with an all-caps tweet that wished “everyone” a Happy New Year — “including the haters and the fake news media.”

The president went on to say that 2019 would be a “fantastic” year for anyone “not suffering from Trump derangement syndrome” — an ailment he has diagnosed his critics with in the past.

Trump’s message was reminiscent of his tweet at the close of 2016, in which he wished a happy New Year “to my many enemies and those who have fought me and lost so badly they just don’t know what to do.” At the close of 2014, he extended his well wishes to “all haters and losers.”

Trump had planned to spend the holidays at his private Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, but put his trip on hold when the partial government shutdown began on Dec. 22.

House Democrats unveiled a plan on Monday to re-open the federal government, but their proposal did not include the funding for a border wall that the president has demanded.

The Senate’s Republican leadership said on Monday that the Senate “is not going to send something to the president that he won’t sign.”

A little over an hour after issuing his first missive, the president sent out a simpler greeting on Twitter: “Happy New Year!”

[NBC News]

 

Trump Calls Tallahassee ‘One of the Worst & Most Corrupt’ Cities in America

President Donald Trump tweeted out his support for a Republican candidate that also took a swipe at Tallahassee, Florida.

Trump supports Ron DeSantis, the Republican congressman running for governor in Florida against Democrat Andrew Gillum. Gillum is the mayor of Tallahassee, and Trump tweeted a dig at the city this morning:

“His opponent runs one of the worst & most corrupt cities in USA!”

Trump is likely referring to the ongoing FBI investigation into corruption in Tallahassee, which has become the subject of one of DeSantis’ ads. A spokesperson for Gillum responded to DeSantis by saying the Democratic candidate is “not a subject of the FBI investigation.”

[Mediaite]

‘Gina is Great’: Trump endorses book declaring him possibly the ‘most sound-minded’ president ever

As Hurricane Florence barreled closer toward the Carolinas Thursday, President Trump had time to endorse a book by a booster who called him the “most sound-minded” president ever.

Appearing on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show Sept. 5 to promote her new book, “Mad Politics: Keeping Your Sanity in a World Gone Crazy,” Gina Loudon, who describes herself as a member of the “Donald Trump for President Media Advisory Board,” proceeded to call the anonymous New York Times op-ed from a senior official within the Trump administration part of the “Trump derangement syndrome.” She then explained how she used her background in psychology to determine the commander in chief’s mental fitness.

“My book actually uses science and real data and true psychological theory to explain why it is quite possible that this president in the most sound-minded person to ever occupy the White House,” Loudon told Hannity on Sept. 5.

The Fox News host had a response ready for the sound bite for Loudon, who was one of the president’s most reliable on-air talking heads in the lead-up to the 2016 election.

As Hurricane Florence barreled closer toward the Carolinas Thursday, President Trump had time to endorse a book by a booster who called him the “most sound-minded” president ever.

Appearing on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show Sept. 5 to promote her new book, “Mad Politics: Keeping Your Sanity in a World Gone Crazy,” Gina Loudon, who describes herself as a member of the “Donald Trump for President Media Advisory Board,” proceeded to call the anonymous New York Times op-ed from a senior official within the Trump administration part of the “Trump derangement syndrome.” She then explained how she used her background in psychology to determine the commander in chief’s mental fitness.

“My book actually uses science and real data and true psychological theory to explain why it is quite possible that this president in the most sound-minded person to ever occupy the White House,” Loudon told Hannity on Sept. 5.

The Fox News host had a response ready for the sound bite for Loudon, who was one of the president’s most reliable on-air talking heads in the lead-up to the 2016 election.

“Literally, liberals’ heads are going to explode at what you just said,” Hannity said to a laughing Loudon.

“That’s the fun part of the madness is just watching them go crazy over the fact that he’s really pretty unfazed by them,” said Loudon, referring to Trump, “and I believe that. And I know him.”

“And that’s what drives ’em nuts,” said Hannity, referring to the president’s detractors.

“And that’s what drives them crazy,” said Loudon, who refers to herself as “Dr. Gina.”

A little more than a week later, the president co-signed an endorsement of Loudon’s book given earlier by Kayleigh McEnany, the national spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee. McEnany, the former on-air pundit, tweeted, “Keep up the great work you do for the @realDonaldTrump movement, Gina!”

It got the attention of the president, who has praised or congratulated other supportive Fox News personalities, such as Judge Jeanine Pirro and Gregg Jarrett, for recent books that went on to be bestsellers. “Gina is Great!” Trump tweeted Thursday.

Her book, ranked No. 436,949 in Amazon’s bestsellers rank as of early Friday, refers to her as “America’s favorite psychological expert.” Her website says she has a PhD, but it doesn’t say in what field.

The Daily Beast reported on Thursday that Loudon obtained her PhD in “human and organizations systems” from Fielding Graduate University, an online school headquartered in Santa Barbara, Calif. On her LinkedIn profile, Loudon lists her PhD from Fielding Graduate being in “human development,” adding that she has certification in “Body Language Interpretation, and Hypnotherapy.”

Jason Browning, a producer and spokesman for Loudon, told The Washington Post, “She has many degrees, including a PhD, all in the field of psychology. I see it as a distinction without a difference. Similar to how someone with a PhD in Design Science might also say they have an Engineering PhD.”

Regnery Publishing, which describes itself as “the leading publisher of conservative books,” touted Loudon, its client, as a “PhD level psychological expert” in a Thursday tweet.

Loudon, who describes herself as one of the founding writers at Breitbart, a right-leaning news site once led by Stephen K. Bannon, said she has used her “psychological expertise” as part of the Trump administration’s fight against the opioid epidemic, according to the biography listed on her website. In October 2017, she recorded a video from Trump Tower for the president’s Facebook page in which she introduced herself as Dr. Gina before talking about the crisis.

“In my professional experience, I’ve seen this devastating plague hit unsuspecting victims who didn’t know they were doing something dangerous,” she said, “and once they’ve taken the drugs, the addictive mechanism can lead a victim to heroin use or even death.”

In “Mad Politics,” Loudon makes several claims supporting her stance that Trump is the “most sound-minded person” to be president. Browning told The Post that Loudon “gives credit to his [Trump’s] upbringing, life experience, personality, birth order, and more.” One is how she concluded that the president’s Myers-Briggs type, the questionnaire that assigns letters to human traits, is ENTJ — Extraversion, Intuition, Thinking, Judging. In that part of the book, Loudon points to a description on a website called 16Personalities.com that lists the ENTJ type as “the Commander,” according to the Daily Beast.

“The ENTJ has mad presidential skills!” she wrote, the Beast reported.

Whether Trump’s endorsement of Loudon signals a spike in her book sales remains unclear. However, the Amazon customer reviews for Loudon’s book, which was published Sept. 4, offer a glimpse on the nation’s current state of political discourse: deeply divided. In the 40 customer reviews, the partisanship shows: 60 percent of customers gave the book a five-star ranking, while 35 percent entered in a one-star rating. Those who gave it high marks tend to be more favorableto the president.

“If you are looking for a book making the case for Trump and tearing leftist arguments apart, this book gives you that in a very unique way,” said one positive reviewer. “I have never owned a book with so many endorsements from people I trust.”

Others who are skeptical of Loudon, her background or are against Trump are not as fond of the president’s most recent author endorsement.

“The writing is turgid, which is amazing for a book written at the 6th grade level,” wrote one reviewer, who claimed to be a psychologist. “It is a not a thought piece; it is a political screed. And the ‘psychological analysis?’ I could not stop laughing. It would earn an F in an Intro Psych course.”

[Washington Post]

Trump urges followers to read Dershowitz book arguing against impeachment

President Trump on Thursday urged people to buy and read Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz’s new book arguing against his possible impeachment.

Trump tweeted that Dershowitz is “a brilliant lawyer, who although a Liberal Democrat who probably didn’t vote for me, has discussed the Witch Hunt with great clarity and in a very positive way.”

“He has written a new and very important book called “The Case Against Impeaching Trump,” which I would encourage all people with Trump Derangement Syndrome to read!,” Trump continued.

Dershowitz, who supported Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election, has emerged as a regular voice in the media defending Trump on legal issues, including special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russia’s election interference.

The Harvard law professor, who is an opinion contributor for The Hill, said earlier this month that his new book argues that the Supreme Court could intervene and reverse a vote to remove Trump from office.

Dershowitz also makes the case that if incriminating evidence of collusion with the Russian government emerged, it wouldn’t be a criminal offense because it’s “not a crime to collude with a foreign government.”

Dershowitz writes in the book that impeaching Trump would be possible “if he did it because he was paid or extorted.”

Democratic lawmakers have introduced articles of impeachment against Trump several times since he took office. None of the attempted votes have succeeded, and top Democrats have also warned against impeachment efforts.

This is the second book Trump has promoted this week: Fox News host Jeanine Pirro posted photos on Tuesday of her and Trump in the Oval Office with a copy of her new book, “Liars, Leakers and Liberals: The Case Against the Anti-Trump Conspiracy.”

[The Hill]

Trump Declares His Supporters the ‘Smartest, Strongest, Most Hard Working’ in America’s History

President Donald Trump just declared his supporters the “smartest” in the history of the country.

Writing on Twitter early Saturday, Trump said this: “My supporters are the smartest, strongest, most hard working and most loyal that we have seen in our countries history. It is a beautiful thing to watch as we win elections and gather support from all over the country. As we get stronger, so does our country. Best numbers ever!”

[Mediaite]

Trump blasts ‘haters & losers’ in typo-filled tweet from Singapore

President Trump addressed the “haters & losers” in a typo-filled tweet from Singapore ahead of his historic summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

“The fact that I am having a meeting is a major loss for the U.S., say the haters & losers,” Trump tweeted on Monday evening, just hours before the scheduled summit.

The president then addressed his successes with the rogue nuclear nation, proclaiming that the arrangement was a win for the US.

“We have our hostages, testing, research and all missle launches have stoped [sic],” he added. “And these pundits, who have called me wrong from the beginning, have nothing else they can say!”

Critics have charged that Trump meeting a dictator could send the wrong message on human rights and other issues — especially after the president’s contentious meeting at the G7 in Canada.

But Trump concluded, “We will be fine!”

[New York Post]

Trump Argues He Won New Hampshire Because It Is a ‘Drug-Infested Den’

President Donald Trump, in a conversation with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, labeled New Hampshire “a drug-infested den,” according to a transcript of Trump’s January 27 call that was published by The Washington Post on Thursday.

During the call, according to the Post, Trump lashed out at Peña Nieto for the quantity of illegal drugs that come into the United States from Mexico.

“We have a massive drug problem where kids are becoming addicted to drugs because the drugs are being sold for less money than candy,” Trump said.

He later bragged that he won the Granite State because of the opioid epidemic.

“I won New Hampshire because New Hampshire is a drug-infested den,” he said.

Asked by CNN to comment on the transcript, Michael Anton, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said only that he “can’t confirm or deny the authenticity of allegedly leaked classified documents.”

Trump did, in fact, win the Republican primary in New Hampshire, more than doubling the vote total received by his nearest competitor, Ohio Gov. John Kasich. Trump, however, narrowly lost the state to Democrat Hillary Clinton in the general election.

Trump seized on the opioid epidemic while campaigning in New Hampshire throughout 2015 and 2016, promising the people of the state that he would boost local clinics, help those who are already hooked on opioids and stop the flow of drugs coming into the state.

The issue was so critical to Trump that he headlined an event in New Hampshire focused strictly on opioids days before the 2016 election.

“I just want to let the people of New Hampshire know that I’m with you 1,000%, you really taught me a lot,” he said before promising to help people who “are so seriously addicted.”

And he has made similar comments in the past about how inexpensive drugs can be.

“We’re becoming a drug-infested nation,” Trump said in February. “Drugs are becoming cheaper than candy bars.”

Trump’s comments about New Hampshire drew a quick rebuke from the state’s two Democratic senators.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen tweeted that Trump needed to apologize to the state of New Hampshire and “then should follow through on his promise to Granite Staters to help end this crisis.”

“It’s absolutely unacceptable for the President to be talking about NH in this way — a gross misrepresentation of NH & the epidemic,” she wrote.

Sen. Maggie Hassan called Trump’s comments “disgusting.”

“As he knows, NH and states across America have a substance misuse crisis,” Hassan wrote. “Instead of insulting people in the throes of addiction, [Trump] needs to work across party lines to actually stem the tide of this crisis.”

New Hampshire is one of the states most directly impacted by the opioid crisis. According to the NH Drug Monitoring Initiative, drug overdose deaths have climbed in the state since 2012 and it expected to again hit an all-time high once data from 2016 is tabulated.

A national study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 25% of all drug overdose deaths were related to heroin in 2015. That number was just 6% in 1999.

In response to the epedemic, Trump created a White House panel tasked with looking into how the federal government should respond. The panel, which is being led by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, released its interim report earlier this week and suggested that Trump declare a state of emergency to combat opioids.

“Our citizens are dying. We must act boldly to stop it,” read its report. “The first and most urgent recommendation of this Commission is direct and completely within your control. Declare a national emergency.”

The report added: “America is enduring a death toll equal to September 11th every three weeks,” noting the fact that 142 Americans die from drug overdoses every day.

[CNN]

Eric Trump: Democrats Are ‘Not Even People’

President Trump’s son Eric Trump on Tuesday said Democrats are “not even people” to him after their obstruction of his father’s agenda.

“I’ve never seen hatred like this,” he said on Fox News’s “Hannity” Tuesday night. “To me, they’re not even people. It’s so, so sad. Morality’s just gone, morals have flown out the window and we deserve so much better than this as a country.”

“You see the Democratic Party, they’re imploding. They’re imploding. They became obstructionists because they have no message of their own.”

Trump additionally criticized the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) leadership without directly naming Chairman Tom Perez.

“You see the head of the DNC, who is a total whack job,” he told host Sean Hannity. “There’s no leadership there.”

“They lost the [2016 presidential] election that they should have won because they spent seven times the amount of money that my father spent.”

Democrats have tried capitalizing on liberal dissatisfaction with Trump’s administration and its agenda despite Republicans controlling the White House and both chambers of Congress.

Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) has emerged as a vocal critic of Trump and is reportedly readying the articles of impeachment that mark the first official step of any congressional bid to remove a sitting president.

Green’s criticisms focus on Trump’s controversial firing of former FBI Director James Comey last month amid the bureau’s probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential race.

Trump reportedly urged Comey to halt the investigation of his former national security adviser Michael Flynn ahead of his ouster.

The president’s decision roiled Washington as the FBI’s probe includes possible collusion between Russia and Trump’s campaign.

[The Hill]

Media

Jeff Sessions Dismisses Hawaii as ‘an Island in the Pacific’

Attorney General Jeff Sessions spoke dismissively about the State of Hawaii while criticizing a Federal District Court ruling last month that blocked the Trump administration from carrying out its ban on travel from parts of the Muslim world.

“I really am amazed that a judge sitting on an island in the Pacific can issue an order that stops the president of the United States from what appears to be clearly his statutory and constitutional power,” Mr. Sessions said this week in an interview on “The Mark Levin Show,” a conservative talk radio program.

Mr. Sessions’s description of Hawaii, where the federal judge who issued the order, Derrick K. Watson, has his chambers, drew a rebuke from both of the United States senators who represent the state. Annexed as a territory of the United States in the late 19th century, Hawaii became the 50th state in 1959.

“Hawaii was built on the strength of diversity & immigrant experiences — including my own,” Senator Mazie Hirono, Democrat of Hawaii, wrote on Twitter. “Jeff Sessions’ comments are ignorant & dangerous.”

The other senator from Hawaii, Brian Schatz, who is also a Democrat, expressed similar sentiments, writing on Twitter: “Mr. Attorney General: You voted for that judge. And that island is called Oahu. It’s my home. Have some respect.”

Asked for a response from Mr. Sessions, Ian Prior, a spokesman for the Justice Department, said in an email: “Hawaii is, in fact, an island in the Pacific — a beautiful one where the attorney general’s granddaughter was born. The point, however, is that there is a problem when a flawed opinion by a single judge can block the president’s lawful exercise of authority to keep the entire country safe.”

(The State of Hawaii is a chain of islands, one of which is also called Hawaii; the judge’s chambers, however, are in Honolulu, which is on the island of Oahu.)

Judge Watson, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, was confirmed in 2013 by a 94-to-0 vote; Mr. Sessions, then a United States senator from Alabama, was among those who cast an approving vote. A former federal prosecutor, Judge Watson earned his law degree from Harvard alongside Mr. Obama and Neil M. Gorsuch, the newly seated Supreme Court justice. He is the only judge of native Hawaiian descent on the federal bench.

Last month, Judge Watson issued a nationwide injunction blocking President Trump’s travel ban, ruling that the plaintiffs — the State of Hawaii and Ismail Elshikh, the imam of the Muslim Association of Hawaii — had reasonable grounds to challenge the order as religious discrimination. He cited comments dating to Mr. Trump’s original call, during the 2016 campaign, for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.”

During the arguments, the government had contended that looking beyond the text of the order to infer religious animus would amount to investigating Mr. Trump’s “veiled psyche,” but Judge Watson wrote in his decision that there was “nothing ‘veiled’” about Mr. Trump’s public remarks. Still, Mr. Sessions reiterated that line of argument in the radio interview, saying he believed that the judge’s reasoning was improper and would be overturned.

“The judges don’t get to psychoanalyze the president to see if the order he issues is lawful,” Mr. Sessions said. “It’s either lawful or it’s not.”

(h/t New York Times)

Media

 

Trump: Only ‘Stupid People’ Don’t Want a Good Relationship With Russia

President-elect Donald Trump is hitting Twitter hard on Saturday, one day after the release of an intelligence report that concluded Russia interfered in the U.S. presidential election with the intention of helping him win.

After two earlier tweets that criticized Democrats and downplayed Russia’s role in the election, Trump tweeted that “only ‘stupid’ people” do not want a good relationship with Russia, adding that the United States has “enough problems around the world.”

“Having a good relationship with Russia is a good thing, not a bad thing. Only ‘stupid’ people, or fools, would think that it is bad! We have enough problems around the world without yet another one. When I am President, Russia will respect us far more than they do now and both countries will, perhaps, work together to solve some of the many great and pressing problems and issues of the WORLD!” the president-elect wrote on Twitter early Saturday.

On Friday, the Intelligence Community released a declassified report that concluded Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign to help Trump win the White House.

“Russia’s goals were to undermine public faith in the U.S. democratic process, denigrate Secretary [Hillary] Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency. We further assess Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump,” the report said.

Trump, who signaled throughout his presidential campaign that he was open to warmer relations with the Kremlin, has criticized United States intelligence agencies over reports about Russia’s cyber activity.

Earlier on Saturday, the president-elect said that there is “no evidence” Russia’s cyber activities affected the election outcome.

“Intelligence stated very strongly there was absolutely no evidence that hacking affected the election results. Voting machines not touched!” he wrote on Twitter.

The Intelligence Community’s report notes that it did not analyze the impact of Russia’s actions.

“We did not make an assessment of the impact that Russian activities had on the outcome of the 2016 election. The US Intelligence Community is charged with monitoring and assessing the intentions, capabilities, and actions of foreign actors; it does not analyze US political processes or US public opinion,” the report said.

(h/t The Hill)

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