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Here is how some members of Trump's own party responded to his decision to withdraw US troops from Syria and Afghanistan, a decision which led to the resignations of James Mattis and Brett McGurk -- and a decision which drew high praise from Trump's BFF Vladimir Putin:
Lindsey Graham: "The conditions in Afghanistan make American troop withdrawals a high risk strategy. If we continue on our present course, we are setting in motion the loss of all our gains and paving the way toward a second 9/11."
Marco Rubio: "This is a colossal mistake that will have grave consequences. ISIS has members who spend all day plotting and inspiring attacks against Americans. The more territory they control, the easier it is for them to do that."
John Kasich: "This chaos, both foreign and domestic, is putting America in danger and must stop immediately."
Adam Kinzinger: "They're celebrating in Moscow and Tehran right now. They're trembling in Tel Aviv. And in Washington we're confused, because nobody saw this coming."
I imagine Trump is thinking, "Hey, as long as Putin is happy, I'm happy."
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Many previously blind Republicans are finally realzing the Emperor has no clothes. (Of course I'm speaking figuratively, not literally.) Florida Representative Carlos Curbelo said the "instability and chaos in our government" are evidence that "things are not right in the USA." Gee.......ya think?
Trump's week of tumult shakes many in the GOP
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...nyDx?ocid=AMZN
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'Tis the night before Christmas and back in DC, the President's woefully tweeting "poor me." He also said Democrats were always in favor of a border wall until he announced he would build one. Of course that isn't true. Most of what Trump says isn't.
Trump's 'poor me' Christmas Eve tweet draws mockery as 800,000 federal workers go without pay
Los Angeles Times, Dec 24 2018
Marooned in the White House on a gray Christmas Eve, unable to fly off to his beach resort in Florida to play golf, President Trump unleashed a morose tweet today bemoaning his fate in the world's most famous gilded prison: "I am all alone (poor me) in the White House waiting for the Democrats to come back and make a deal on desperately needed Border Security."
It was one of a dozen tweets in which Trump praised the autocratic regime in Saudi Arabia, lashed out at his outgoing Pentagon chief, said he hoped to meet North Korea's dictator again, slammed the Federal Reserve as "the only problem" in the US economy and blamed Democrats for the partial government shutdown that he said last week he would be "proud" to cause.
On Friday, Trump rejected a bipartisan stopgap funding bill to keep the government open. That forced a shutdown early Saturday, paralyzing about a fourth of the federal government and forcing about 800,000 federal workers to go without pay over the holidays. At issue is Trump's demand for a $5-billion down payment to extend existing walls and fences along the border with Mexico and Democrats' refusal to pay more than $1.3 billion for a mix of border security measures.
"It's Christmas Eve and Trump is plunging the country into chaos," said Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Senator Charles Schumer in a joint statement. "Instead of bringing certainty into people's lives, he's continuing the Trump Shutdown just to please right-wing radio and TV hosts. The President wanted the shutdown but he seems not to know how to get himself out of it."
https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na...224-story.html
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The narcissistic, egotistical blowhard in the White House who once bragged that he knows "more about ISIS than the generals do" decided, against the advice of our generals and without consent of Congress, to withdraw US troops from Syria and Afghanistan. Here is what happened on Christmas Eve in Afghanistan:
Militants attack government building in Kabul, killing at least 43
CBS News, Dec 24 2018 10:58 PM ET
A suicide bomber and extremists armed with assault rifles and explosives attacked a government building in the Afghan capital of Kabul today in an eight-hour-long siege that left at least 43 people dead and more than 20 wounded, authorities said. It ended when the three gunmen were killed. The attack came four days after President Trump announced the withdrawal of half of the 14,000 American troops and just hours after Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi was in Kabul to discuss a negotiated end to Afghanistan's 17-year war.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/kabul-a...ay-2018-12-23/
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Some children ask Santa Claus to bring them a pony or a bicycle. The child in the White House keeps asking for a much larger gift: a "big beautiful wall." He couldn't even speak to our troops on Christmas Day without demanding a wall, attacking Democrats and making false claims.
Trump wallows in his woes during Christmas Day talk with troops
CNN, Dec 25 2018 12:38 PM ET
In President Donald Trump's Christmas Day telling, the drugs are flowing over the border, the Federal Reserve is imperiling the economy and the Democrats are preparing to harass him with oversight requests. "It's a disgrace, what's happening in our country," Trump fumed, "but other than that, I wish everybody a Merry Christmas."
Celebrating the holiday at the White House instead of his Palm Beach estate, Trump used a phone call session with American troops to advance his case for a border wall, his isolationist foreign policy views and his insistence that his campaign did not collude with Russia.
Trump acknowledged the standoff with Democrats over funding for his long-promised border wall has no foreseeable end date. "I can't tell you when the government is going to be open. I can tell you it's not going to be open until we have a wall, a fence, whatever they would like to call it," he said.
He claimed, without evidence, that federal employees on furlough or working without pay understand his demand for a border wall and support him in his mission. "Many of those workers have said to me and communicated, stay out until you get the funding for the wall. These federal workers want the wall," he claimed, though he didn't identify who the workers were.
He insisted the prolonged shutdown was the fault of Democrats and repeated his demands a border barrier be funded before the government can reopen. But he did not offer any new method of getting Democrats to sign off on funding, beyond saying he was always willing to meet with Democratic leaders Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi. Instead, he decried his political opponents as preparing for "presidential harassment" once they gain control of the House in January. "We know how to handle that," Trump said. "I know how to handle that better than anybody."
https://www-m.cnn.com/2018/12/25/pol...mas/index.html
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Daniel Dale, Washington bureau chief for The Toronto Star, has been keeping track of President Trump's lies -- a formidable task, to be sure. In 2017, Trump averaged 2.9 lies per day. In 2018, he has told an average of 8.9 lies a day! Why do his supporters believe everything he tells them? If they only had a brain.......
Trump's rapid pace of lies in 2018
https://www.msnbc.com/deadline-white...-1407757379511
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What were we just saying about Trump's lies? Several Democratic leaders pointed out that these temporarily-out-of-work people are non-partisan: they work for the government, not for the Democrats or Republicans.
Trump claims without evidence that 'most of the people not getting paid' in partial government shutdown are Democrats
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...uryD?ocid=AMZN
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What were we just saying about Trump's lies? Here is another one which he has repeated many times -- and which many newscasters and politicians have called him out on. Retired Rear Admiral John Kirby said Trump's lying to our troops is "unconscionable." Of course Trump has no conscience.
Trump misleads about military pay raises again
CNN, Dec 27 2018 10:58 AM
President Donald Trump incorrectly told troops in Iraq on Wednesday that he gave them their first pay raise in more than 10 years -- a falsehood he has repeatedly told. Speaking at Al Asad Air Base during his surprise visit to Iraq, Trump told troops: "You protect us. We are always going to protect you. And you just saw that, 'cause you just got one of the biggest pay raises you've ever received. You haven't gotten one in more than 10 years. And I got you a big one. I got you a big one."
In fact, military pay has increased every year for more than three decades. It was raised 2.4% in 2018 and then 2.6% in the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act. The 2.6% pay raise is the largest in the past nine years.
"They had plenty of people that came up, they said, 'You know, we could make it smaller. We could make it 3%, we could make it 2%, we could make it 4%,'" Trump told the troops about the latest pay raise. "I said, 'No. Make it 10%. Make it more than 10% 'cause it's been a long time. It's been more than 10 years. That's a long time," Trump said, repeating the false claim.
https://www-m.cnn.com/2018/12/26/pol...ain/index.html
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Elizabeth Drew is a former Washington correspondent for The Atlantic and The New Yorker. She was a longtime panelist on Meet The Press, she has written 14 books and she moderated the 1984 Democratic candidates' debate. Drew feels Trump's "turbulent" Presidency is "unsustainable." Citing the many criminal investigations of Trump and his associates, his decision to withdraw troops from Syria, the resignation of James Mattis, the government shutdown and other factors, Drew speculates that key Republicans will start to see Trump as "too great a burden to the party or too great a danger to the country." She sees a growing likelihood of Trump facing impeachment -- and resigning to "save face."
Watergate reporter pens op-ed on 'inevitability' of Trump's impeachment
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...vEpS?ocid=AMZN
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A Los Angeles Times editorial points out that illegal immigration is at its lowest level in a decade and most of the drugs that enter the US from Mexico are brought in at legal ports of entry or via underground tunnels. We do not need Trump's stupid wall. You remember? The one he said Mexico would pay for? The one he wants to start building with five billion dollars of money from US taxpayers? The one that would have to be built north of the Rio Grande and would take away huge sections of border residents' land and deprive them of their right to use the river for fishing and for letting their horses and cattle drink? "If I don't get my money, I'll shut down the government and blame Democrats"? Yeah, that wall.
Trump is keeping the government shut down over an immigration crisis that doesn't exist
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/la-o...htmlstory.html
