Asked on Fox News about President Trump’s values, Secretary of State Tillerson said, “the president speaks for himself.”
When pressed if he was separating himself from Trump’s values, and Tillerson indicated that he was: “I have made my own comments as to our values.”
Aaron Blake: “I wouldn’t be the first to note that it seems, well, counterproductive to attack your own party’s leaders. It’s entirely possible that this is Trump simply trying to motivate his team in his own divisive, Trump-ian way. It’s also possible he’s just lashing out and doesn’t actually have a plan.”
“But there’s also an Option C here. What if Trump, fed up by a lack of progress and fealty, is ready to take on his own party? What if, having systematically attacked what seems like every other institution involved in American government — the judiciary, the intelligence community, the press, the election process, law enforcement, Congress — he’s now set to attack and undermine the institution whose nomination he commandeered to obtain the presidency? What if he simply ditched the Republican Party, either officially or in spirit?”
For members: Trump’s re-election may depend upon leaving the GOP.
Stan Collender says there’s a 60 % chance of a government shutdown because there are actually seven different power groups in the Republican party.
“Trump’s political needs and goals are different from almost every congressional Republican. Not only is he not up for reelection in 2018, his base of supporters is very different from that of most GOP representatives and senators. As the Affordable Care Act debacle amply demonstrated, what’s politically correct for Trump sometimes isn’t even close to what’s right for many others in his party…and continued funding for the federal government and the debt ceiling are two of those times.”
“Trump also continues to refuse to accept that Congress is not a wholly-owned subsidiary of his presidency. His ongoing attacks on individual Senate Republicans for not doing what he wants on health care, the wall, the debt ceiling, the Russia sanctions law and the collusion-with-Russia investigation undeniably shows that he considers the House and Senate to be subservient divisions of Trump Administration, Inc. rather than the equal partners created by the U.S. Constitution.”
“The existence of these seven Republican groups all point directly to legislative and political chaos and perhaps an explosion in September on the shutdown and debt ceiling.”
“If it wasn’t clear before, it’s clear now: We are living through a battle for the soul of this nation.”
— Former Vice President Joe Biden, writing in The Atlantic.
Dan Balz: “President Trump has set his presidency on an unambiguous course for which there could be no reversal. He has chosen to be a divider, not a uniter, no matter how many words to the contrary he reads off a teleprompter or from a prepared script. That’s one obvious message from Friday’s decision to issue a pardon for controversial former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio.”
“Trump has been a divisive force from the very start of his campaign for president, a proud disrupter of the political status quo. His swashbuckling contempt for political correctness and the rules of the game endeared him to millions of Americans who were fed up with Washington, with career politicians, with liberal elites and with the mainstream media. The more he is under fire — as he is now — the more he returns to that strategy.”
Matt Taibbi: “Donald Trump didn’t just take advantage of these conditions. He was created in part by them. What’s left of Trump’s mind is like a parody of the average American media consumer: credulous, self-centered, manic, sex-obsessed, unfocused, and glued to stories that appeal to his sense of outrage and victimhood.”
“We’ve created a generation of people like this: anger addicts who can’t read past the first page of a book. This is why the howls of outrage from within the ranks of the news media about Trump’s election ring a little bit false. What the hell did we expect would happen? Who did we think would rise to prominence in our rage-filled, hyper-stimulated media environment? Sensitive geniuses?”
“We spent years selling the lowest common denominator. Now the lowest common denominator is president. How can it be anything but self-deception to pretend this is an innocent coincidence?”
“The daughter of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, like her father a Navy veteran, appears, in the rawest of terms, to have excoriated President Trump in a social media post after the announcement that transgender soldiers would be banned from the military,” the Billings Gazette reports.
Said Jennifer Detlefsen: “This man is a disgrace. I’ve tried to keep politics out of my social media feed as much as possible, but this is inexcusable… This veteran says sit down and shut the fuck up, you know-nothing, never-served piece of shit.”
Speaker Paul Ryan does not agree with President Trump’s decision to pardon controversial former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Said a spokesman: “The speaker does not agree with the decision. Law-enforcement officials have a special responsibility to respect the rights of everyone in the United States. We should not allow anyone to believe that responsibility is diminished by this pardon.”
“As Joseph Arpaio’s federal case headed toward trial this past spring, President Trump wanted to act to help the former Arizona county sheriff who had become a campaign-trail companion and a partner in their crusade against illegal immigration,” the Washington Post reports.
“The president asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions whether it would be possible for the government to drop the criminal case against Arpaio, but was advised that would be inappropriate… After talking with Sessions, Trump decided to let the case go to trial, and if Arpaio was convicted, he could grant clemency.”
“So the president waited, all the while planning to issue a pardon if Arpaio was found in contempt of court for defying a federal judge’s order to stop detaining people merely because he suspected them of being undocumented immigrants… His effort to see if the case could be dropped showed a troubling disregard for the traditional wall between the White House and the Justice Department, and taken together with similar actions could undermine respect for the rule of law, experts said.”
In a recent trip to Jordan, Defense Secretary James Mattis told U.S. troops in an informal speech to “hold the line until our country gets back to understanding and respecting each other.”
An Arizona Republic editorial:
After Trump was elected, many hoped he would abandon his habit of appealing to the worst instincts of disaffected white Americans who have been left behind by economic changes that had little to do with undocumented immigration.
Many hoped Trump would decide to become the president of all the people.
But Trump spent last week demonstrating that he wants to be president of the few.
By pardoning Arpaio, Trump made it clear that institutional racism is not just OK with him. It is a goal.
That should trouble every American who believes that our duty as a nation is to continue working on behalf of equal justice.
David Frum: “Trump has given hope to anyone implicated in his own scandals that—if they keep loyal to him—he will defy all other considerations and ignore all contrary advice to protect them. Like his presidency, Trump’s pardons will be a one-man show, conducted without regard to ethical niceties or even ordinary political calculations. That must come as reassuring news to a whole host of characters embroiled in the Russia probe.”
Bob Bauer: “An act of this kind cannot fail to affect Mueller and his team as they investigate obstruction of justice and evaluate evidence bearing on the President’s motives and respect for law. Trump will have added more telling detail to the picture prosecutors are piecing together of ‘how he operates.’ Congress may now or in the future also have occasion to conduct its own inquiry.”
“And while the president may well get away with the specific act of pardoning Arpaio, this action will not be without effect on future calls for impeachment. Unlike a pardon of himself, family members, or aides in the Russia matter, pardoning Arpaio would probably not result in the immediate demand for an impeachment inquiry. If, however, impeachment pressure increases, or a formal impeachment inquiry is launched on the basis of Russian ‘collusion,’ obstruction, or on other grounds, an Arpaio pardon in the background will be highly damaging to the President’s position. It will immeasurably strengthen the hand of those arguing that Donald Trump does not have the requisite respect for the rule of law, or an understanding of the meaning of his constitutional oath, to be entrusted with the presidency.”
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) blasted President Trump’s pardon last night of Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
Said McCain: “No one is above the law and the individuals entrusted with the privilege of being sworn law officers should always seek to be beyond reproach in their commitment to fairly enforcing the laws they swore to uphold. Mr. Arpaio was found guilty of criminal contempt for continuing to illegally profile Latinos living in Arizona based on their perceived immigration status in violation of a judge’s orders.”
He added: “The President has the authority to make this pardon, but doing so at this time undermines his claim for the respect of rule of law as Mr. Arpaio has shown no remorse for his actions.”
“Republicans on Capitol Hill lament President Trump’s aggressive behavior toward them, but some people in the president’s orbit are urging him to up the ante even further,” The Hill reports.
“They say that, far from making nice, Trump needs to instill fear so that lawmakers do not feel at liberty to thwart him.”
Said longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone: “Most members of Congress are arrogant, and until a scalp is actually taken they are going to continue to be defiant. All he needs to do is punish one incumbent and I think you’d see a sea-change.”
Politico: “Priebus, these people said, told people he was staying around even after he publicly said he resigned and flew to Long Island on Air Force One, a strange move if one had already resigned… Regardless, he wandered around the halls of the Executive Office Building for days, taking occasional meetings, looking for other gigs and taking a vacation before his employment formally concludes at the end of August. Priebus declined to comment.”
“No one is exactly sure what Spicer is doing these days at the White House; he quit five weeks ago but is still there while negotiating his next gig and meeting with TV networks, while staying on the payroll.”
“If the goal is to accomplish absolutely nothing and fundamentally destroy the Republican Party from a national perspective, I wouldn’t change a thing.”
— Josh Holmes, a former chief of staff and adviser to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), quoted by Politico about President Trump’s sustained criticism of GOP lawmakers.
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.