Category Archives: Donald Trump
Manafort’s Money
Click on Manafort to enlarge the cartoon.
President Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort was convicted on eight charges of bank and tax fraud. The judge ruled a mistrial on 10 other charges. The conviction isn’t related to Robert Mueller’s collusion investigation.
But maybe it was related to Manafort’s taste for the the finer things in life. He once spent $15,000 on an ostrich jacket. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Except that he lied to banks for loans and didn’t pay taxes on $16 million.
Vox follows Manafort’s money here.
Free Press Group-Think
The Boston Globe organized an editorial writing campaign last week. The idea was for independent newspapers to tell Trump to stop calling them “the enemy of the people.” All on the same day.
Three hundred plus papers including the New York Times obliged.
Some of the editorials also complained about Trump calling the media an “opposition party.” But here’s Jim Rutenberg in the NY Times two years ago:
If you view a Trump presidency as something that’s potentially dangerous, then your reporting is going to reflect that. You would move closer than you’ve ever been to being oppositional.
Free Press Group-Think
Others like the Los Angeles Times and Washington Post took a pass on the campaign. Carl Cannon in Real Clear Politics called the joint effort “group-think.” And he recalled H.L. Menken’s journalistic advice to “be a party of one.”
Jack Shafer in Politico added this bit of advice:
Editorial pages of America, don’t unite! Think for yourselves! Reject this stupid pro-press assignment!
He also agreed with Cannon that the whole scheme played into Trump’s tiny hands. (Okay, he didn’t really say “tiny.”)
Strzok Strikes Out
Peter Strzok was the lead FBI investigator of both the Hillary Clinton email caper and Russian 2016 election meddling. His own text messages showed his bias in favor of Clinton and against Trump. He claimed he could smell Trump supporters at Walmart. But he insisted he was too professional to allow his opinions to affect his work.
Strzok Strikes Out
Deputy Director David Bowdich wasn’t buying it . He fired Strzok on Monday. So Strzok responded with a link to a GoFundMe account. By Tuesday it was worth $325,000.
Here’s a Washington Post story about the Steele dossier funded by the DNC and Clinton campaign .
Antifa Hate Warriors
There was an alt-right white supremacist rally in Washington over the weekend. But only twenty people showed up. Without their tiki torches.
White supremacists aren’t what they used to be.
Still a couple hundred Antifa were on hand to battle the hate. Mostly they did that by threatening cops, journalists and President Trump.
Koch Brothers Abandon Trump
The Koch brothers have jumped ship. They’ve given millions to Republicans in the past but they say they’re more interested ideas than party.
Daniel Henninger in the WSJ reports, “In an interview, Charles Koch said trade wars and prosperity were incompatible and that his organization’s financial support wouldn’t depend on party affiliation.”
Donald Trump called Koch “a total joke in real Republican circles.”
Koch Brothers Abandon Trump
Henninger askes, “what Republican circles?”
Rather than a one-off event or joke, the Kochs look more like a phenomenon emerging on the right and left, including MoveOn, Daily Kos, Breitbart, Black Lives Matter, Club for Growth and Netroots Nation.
Some voters will tie themselves to the Trump mast and ride it out. But Charles and David Koch aren’t a joke. That feud was a warning shot.
