Category Archives: Donald Trump
Shutdown Timeout
Click image to enlarge
Trump says $5.6 billion isn’t much for border security.
Pelosi says, “We are giving the Republicans the opportunity to take yes for an answer,” “Senate Republicans have already supported this legislation, and if they reject it now, they will be fully complicit in chaos and destruction of the President’s third shutdown of his term.”
But no money for a wall.
They’re meeting this afternoon in the situation room.
Syria Pullout
ISIS J.V. Team
President Trump got off the phone with Turkish President Erdogan and announced he’s pulling the troops out of Syria. And Secretary of Defense James Mattis resigned.
Democrats and Republicans found common ground slamming the Syria pullout decision. They say the pullout sells out the Kurds and creates a vacuum that ISIS will fill. Same as when Obama pulled out of Iraq. (At least the Republicans say that.)
Pro Syria Pullout
But Reason’s Nick Gillespie and Andrew McCarthy of NR think Trump did the right thing. If we stay in Syria we’d have to choose sides in a war between Turkey and the Kurds. Erdogan’s nasty but Turkey is a NATO ally. Besides, we’re there illegally. Congress never approved it and that makes it unconstitutional.
Real Oval Office Guests
Public Political Bickering
Pelosi and Schumer visited Trump and Pence in the Oval Office. At least I think Pence was visiting. He was plastered silent and motionless into a chair.
After the photo-op no one shooed the press away. So they stayed. This was more transparency than Nancy could bear and she kept asking them to leave. But they stayed anyway and recorded the four – okay, three – of them bickering about five billion dollars for the Mexican wall.
No one asked the Mexicans to cough up the cash, but the president said he would be proud to shut down the government until he gets the money from Congress.
Republican Senators later did some public political bickering of their own and backed away from Trump’s threat, but The Donald got the last word.
Bush Funeral All About Humility
Click on someone humble to enlarge the image.
The funeral for President George H. W. Bush was beautiful, and informative. W’s eulogy was touching.
I drew Bush 41 a lot, and felt like I understood him pretty well as a goofy but decent guy. And I was aware of of his other virtues like integrity, kindness, courage, high speed golfing and fishing, airplane jumping and lip reading. But hearing the speakers, all of whom were close to him and loved him, one virtue seemed to stand out – humility. Maybe that’s because it’s a rare commodity these days, especially in Washington. Anyway, former Senator Alan Simpson nailed it in his warm and witty eulogy:
Those who crave the high road of humility in Washington , DC are not bothered by heavy traffic.
Then the camera panned to President Trump and the past presidents the front row and, well, this cartoon idea kind of jumped out.
It’s not often you get a pack of presidents together in one shot. So I try to make the most of it. Here’s a cartoon I drew when they gathered for Nixon’s funeral.
Click a president to enlarge the image.
Maybe I’ll do the Bush bunch pondering, “If Perot hadn’t run…”
I know. I left Jimmy Carter out of the humility cartoon. It’s not the first time.
Click a football helmet or the lump on President Ford’s head to enlarge the image.
Tariff Man
Click on Tariff Man to enlarge the image.
On Saturday President Trump and Chinese President Xi backed away from the precipice of trade war. And stocks jumped up.
But on Wednesday, Trump being Trump, tweeted “I am Tariff Man.”
And Wall Street jumped out the window.
