White House in crisis

Four months into Donald Trump's Presidency, Reuters reported:

At a White House in crisis, Trump looks increasingly isolated

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-u...-idUSKCN18G013

In October, Senator Bob Corker told the New York Times, "Trump concerns me. He would have to concern anyone who cares about our nation. I know for a fact that every single day at the White House, it's a situation of trying to contain him. It’s a shame the White House has become an adult day care center."

Also in October:

Donald Trump has 'turned into a pressure cooker that frequently explodes', say White House staff

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...-a7993011.html

"I hate everyone in the White House!': Trump seethes as advisers fear the President is 'unraveling'

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017...house-advisers

This thread is for discussion of Donald Trump and the White House. Discussion. That means other people share their opinions. Otherwise, this thread is nothing more than my own political blog. Let's have some participation!

Senator John McCain, speaking October 16 in Philadelphia: "To fear the world we have organized and led for three-quarters of a century, to abandon the ideals we have advanced around the globe, to refuse the obligations of international leadership and our duty to remain 'the last best hope of earth' for the sake of some half-baked, spurious nationalism cooked up by people who would rather find scapegoats than solve problems is as unpatriotic as an attachment to any other tired dogma of the past that Americans consigned to the ash heap of history."

John McCain just delivered a total and complete takedown of Trumpism

http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/17/politi...ism/index.html

Arizona Senator Jeff Flake announced on October 24 that he is putting principles above his career and is retiring because of Donald Trump. Flake said, "We must never regard as normal the regular and casual undermining of our democratic norms and ideals. We must never meekly accept the daily sundering of our country, the personal attacks, the threats against principles, freedoms and institutions, the flagrant disregard for truth or decency, the reckless provocations, most often for the pettiest and most personal reasons, reasons having nothing whatsoever to do with the fortunes of the people that we have all been elected to serve."

Senator Jeff Flake announces retirement in scorching speech against Trump

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slate...nt_speech.html

Yesterday Trump tweeted, "Do not underestimate the UNITY within the Republican Party!" A more honest assertion would be, "There is very little unity within the Republican party."

Senator Chuck Schumer calls Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin a liar and a 'suck up' to Trump
CNBC, Oct 25 2017

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is not a fan of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. Schumer directly attacked Mnuchin's claims the Republican tax reform plan will reduce the country's budget deficit. "I don't know if the man's deliberately lying but it seems so," Schumer said in a Politico Money podcast interview. "His statements are outlandish, and he seems just to want to suck up to Trump, flatter Trump. This man cannot be believed. And if he used these kinds of arguments at Goldman Sachs, they would have fired him."

Schumer also rejected Mnuchin's prediction of a "significant" market drop if tax reform doesn't pass. "It's absurd. No one believes Steven Mnuchin," he said. "He has lost his credibility because of statements like that. Wall Street was doing great, it was going up at a dramatic rate before the president even took office. And it's doing fine now, because the economy's doing well, because corporate profits are way up."

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/25/sen-...-to-trump.html

For many months Trump has denounced the investigations as a "witch hunt." Apparently some witches have finally been caught and there will surely be more.

Report: First charges approved in Robert Mueller's Russia investigation

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2...tion/809079001

CBS Radio affiliate KNX in Los Angeles is reporting that charges will be filed against Paul Manafort. It is unknown how many others are facing charges.

Majority of Americans think politics have reached 'dangerous low point' under President Trump
Veuer, Oct 28 2017 2:19 PM

A majority of Americans think politics have reached a dangerous low point under President Trump, according to a new poll released on Saturday from the Washington Post and the University of Maryland. The survey found that 70 percent of those surveyed say political divisions are as big as they were during the Vietnam War. Meanwhile, the percentage of Americans that view politicians themselves as honest has reached a 30-year low. Just 14 percent of respondents said the ethics of politicians is excellent or good. Even 25 percent of Trump supporters polled say they’re not proud of how democracy is working under his watch.

https://www.aol.com/article/news/201...rump/23259390/

I love this headline:

Paul Manafort indicted: It's a fact, not fake news

https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/ma...pendent-probe/

Business Insider headline:

Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, indicted in Mueller probe, plead not guilty

Of course they did. Nobody ever pleads guilty to anything. The full indictment document can be viewed at

https://www.scribd.com/document/3630...d-and-redacted

Headline from Business Insider, November 1:

Trump is reportedly souring on Jared Kushner in the White House as Mueller's Russia probe intensifies
President Donald Trump blamed senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner for some of the decisions that led to special counsel Robert Mueller's appointment. Trump complained about Kushner in phone calls to former chief strategist Steve Bannon and longtime adviser Roger Stone.

https://www.aol.com/article/news/201...fies/23263798/

Let's see what the man who pardoned Joe Arpaio has been up to:

Hours after Trump calls US justice system a 'joke' and a 'laughingstock' during a televised Cabinet meeting, White House denies he ever did

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/01/hours...-ever-did.html

Calls for President Trump's impeachment grow louder

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politi...D=ansmsnnews11

Not even Vanity Fair can ignore the Mueller investigation:

"You can't go any lower": Inside the West Wing, Trump is apoplectic as allies fear impeachment

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017...ar-impeachment

How Papadopoulos's testimony could implicate Trump
As the White House distances itself from the former Trump campaign staffer, Mueller’s collusion case is coming into focus.

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017...s-donald-trump

ABC News/Washington Post poll: 49% say Trump likely 'committed a crime in connection with possible Russian attempts to influence the election'

http://www.langerresearch.com/wp-con...estigation.pdf

This essay is by Allan Lichtman, a history professor and author of The Case For Impeachment.

After this week, Trump is a lot closer to being impeached

www.time.com/5007533/allan-lichtman-impeachment/

This is what we call "selective memory." This is from the New York Daily News:

Trump claims he doesn’t recall adviser pitching Putin meeting

President Trump — who a week ago bragged he had "one of the greatest memories of all time" — said today he has no recollection of a campaign meeting with an adviser who bragged of connections with the Kremlin. Trump called the 2016 sitdown with his foreign policy advisers a "very unimportant meeting" and said he doesn't "remember much about it." Trump's claim comes as a former campaign adviser says the president listened as adviser George Papadopoulos presented the idea of a meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin.

'I don't like him': George H.W. Bush calls Trump a 'blowhard' in new book The Last Republicans, confirms he voted for Hillary Clinton

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017...-like-him.html

Paul Manafort offers $12 million in assets in bid to avoid house arrest
Reuters, Nov 4 2017 5:36 PM

President Donald Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort offered to pledge $12 million in real estate and life insurance assets and limit his travel in a bid to avoid continued house arrest, according to court documents filed today. Manafort, who ran Trump's presidential campaign for several months last year, and associate Richard Gates earlier this week pleaded not guilty to a 12-count indictment by a federal grand jury. The charges included conspiracy to launder money, conspiracy against the United States and failing to register as foreign agents of Ukraine’s former pro-Russian government. In the court filing, Manafort also offered to limit his travel to New York, Washington and Florida.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-us...KBN1D40V8?il=0

In a new essay on the Politico website, Annie Karni and Eliana Johnson point out the obvious: Since being elected, Donald Trump "has relished personal fights and nursed grudges; continued to vilify Clinton and defend his own legitimacy amid the expanding Russia probes; stirred racial tensions while measuring his success by the strength of his base; and taken more interest in throwing elbows on cultural issues than on the matters of policy that preoccupy Republican leaders in Congress. The first six months of his tenure were hobbled by infighting among a band of government first-timers recruited to the White House on the basis of loyalty rather than merit."

Trump’s year of anger, disruption and scandal
On Election Night last year, Trump ripped up his speech and made a personal appeal for national unity. It was a glimpse of a presidency that might have been.

https://www.politico.com/story/2017/...-office-244542

More "witches" have been caught.

Mueller has enough evidence to bring charges against Michael Flynn and son

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/...gation-n817666