“U.S. Treasury Department agents have recently obtained information about offshore financial transactions involving President Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, as part of a federal anti-corruption probe into his work in Eastern Europe,” the AP reports.
Manafort Associate Still Within Trump Inner Circle
Washington Post: “But even as Trump officials downplay Manafort’s role, his decade-long business associate Rick Gates remains entrenched in the president’s operation. Gates is one of four people leading a Trump-blessed group that defends the president’s agenda. As recently as last week, he was at the White House to meet with officials as part of that work.”
“Through Manafort, Gates is tied to many of the same business titans from Ukraine and Russia, including Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch with strong ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.”
Trump Approval Sinks to New Low
A new Quinnipiac survey finds President Trump is losing support among Republicans, white voters and men, leaving him with a negative 37% to 56% job approval rating from American voters, his worst score ever.
Said pollster Tim Malloy: “Most alarming for Trump, the demographic underpinnings of his support, Republicans, white voters, especially men and those without a college degree, are starting to have doubts.”
Comey Is Very Unpopular
A new Harvard-Harris Poll survey finds that FBI Director James Comey is unpopular across the political spectrum, with voters having a negative opinion of him by a more than two-to-one margin.
Just 17% have a favorable view of Comey, compared to 35% who have a negative view of him.
Trump’s Falsehoods Are Eroding His Credibility
A Wall Street Journal editorial:
If President Trump announces that North Korea launched a missile that landed within 100 miles of Hawaii, would most Americans believe him? Would the rest of the world? We’re not sure, which speaks to the damage that Mr. Trump is doing to his Presidency with his seemingly endless stream of exaggerations, evidence-free accusations, implausible denials and other falsehoods.
The latest example is Mr. Trump’s refusal to back off his Saturday morning tweet of three weeks ago that he had “found out that [Barack] Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory” on Election Day. He has offered no evidence for his claim, and a parade of intelligence officials, senior Republicans and Democrats have since said they have seen no such evidence.
Yet the President clings to his assertion like a drunk to an empty gin bottle, rolling out his press spokesman to make more dubious claims…
Two months into his Presidency, Gallup has Mr. Trump’s approval rating at 39%. No doubt Mr. Trump considers that fake news, but if he doesn’t show more respect for the truth most Americans may conclude he’s a fake President.
Why Can’t Trump Just Let It Go?
New York Times: “First, aides say that Mr. Trump, who often says, ‘I’m, like, a really smart person’ in public, is driven by a need to prove his legitimacy as president to the many critics who deem him an unworthy victor forever undercut by Hillary Clinton’s three-million-vote win in the popular vote.”
“Second, fighting back — in this case, against Mr. Obama, the F.B.I. director and members of his own party who say his claim about phone taps is false — is an important part of the president’s self-image. The two most influential role models in Mr. Trump’s youth were men who preached the twin philosophies of relentless self-promotion and the waging of total war against anyone perceived as a threat.”
Extra Bonus Quote of the Day
“There’s just never been any question in my mind about that. I’ve been inside a cover-up. I know how they look and feel. And every signal they’re sending is: ‘We’re covering this thing up.'”
— Ex-Nixon White House counsel John Dean, quoted by The Hill, on the Trump administration’s reaction to ongoing investigations of Russian ties and Trump’s wiretapping accusations.
Trump Won’t Forget If You Vote Against Him
Politico: “For a president with a penchant for vengeance – who named ‘an eye for an eye’ as his favorite biblical passage, who banned media outlets from campaign events when he didn’t approve of their coverage, who ousted a GOP state chairman after the election whom he viewed as disloyal, who reminded a GOP governor just last week who didn’t endorse him that ‘I never forget’ – the roll call vote on the Republican health care plan, expected Thursday, will be the first accounting of who’s with him and who’s against him on Capitol Hill.”
“Those close to Trump describe his largely binary world view: you’re either on Team Trump or against Team Trump. ‘Get even with people,’ Trump outlined his philosophy in a 2011 speech. ‘If they screw you, screw them back 10 times as hard. I really believe it.'”
Trump Business Partners Look to Cash In
Forbes: “Never has an American president taken office with such immense and complicated assets. Nor has one brought along a busload of rich partners who, by dint of previous deals and brand association, stand to reap profits in real time, as the president serves.”
“To better understand this global network, Forbes looked into each of these 36 partners, traveling to five countries to interview more than a dozen of them… But perhaps the most interesting tidbit comes in the aggregate. Trump’s network extends to at least 19 countries. And these guys (yes, they’re all men) share a set of consistent traits, even as property developers go. This group is uniformly rich–seven are members of the Forbes Billionaires list; many more claim centimillionaire status. They reflect their partner–a mélange of bombastic marketing, over-the-top style and political connections.”
“And all of them are trying to figure out, to various degrees, how to cash in on the 45th president.”
Trump Officials Still Talking on Background
Associated Press: “Trump administration officials briefed reporters on condition they not be identified publicly. That was despite President Donald Trump’s repeated insistence that anonymous sources should not be trusted.”
Fake Fake News
“I am not trying to get ‘top level security clearance’ for my children. This was a typically false news story.”
— President-elect Donald Trump, quoted by Politico, on November 16, 2016.
“Ivanka Trump to get top security clearance and office, White House official says”
— CNN headline, March 21, 2017.
Bonus Quote of the Day
“The whole world had a chance to watch this unfold, and it was a direct test of his credibility. And the whole world now knows he lied about it. We’ve seen it again and again. When we have a president who is a congenital liar, it really matters.”
— Former White House aide David Gergen, quoted by the Washington Post.
White House Doesn’t Know Extent of FBI Investigation
Just two hours before FBI Director James Comey testified before Congress, a White House official told Ryan Lizza that Comey would confirm that Trump campaign officials had no contact with Russia.
“The large gap between what the White House believed about the F.B.I. investigation and the actual facts of that investigation reveals several things. First, Comey has been successful in concealing details from Trump’s closest advisers. One of the reasons that Trump and the White House have been exuding a smokescreen of misinformation is because they are as clueless about what Comey knows as everyone else is.”
“In fact, there are very few officials who understand the true extent of the investigation.”
Advice for the White House
Why Trump Accused Obama of Wiretapping
New York Times: “People close to the president say Mr. Trump’s Twitter torrent had less to do with fact, strategy or tactic than a sense of persecution bordering on faith: He simply believes that he was bugged in some way, by someone, and that evidence will soon appear to back him up.”
White House Deliberately Tried to Mislead Public
McKay Coppins: “If you watched James Comey’s sensational testimony on Capitol Hill Monday—or read about it in the ensuing avalanche of coverage from mainstream media organizations—you saw something extraordinary take place: For the first time, the FBI director publicly confirmed that the Justice Department is investigating whether President Trump’s campaign colluded with the Russian government to influence the 2016 election… But if you happen to be one of the millions of Americans who gets your news—at least in part—from Trump’s presidential Twitter feed, you saw a very different story unfold Monday.”
“In an unprecedented—and somewhat surreal—attempt at real-time revisionism on the part of the White House, the official @POTUS Twitter account spent the afternoon live-tweeting the House Intelligence Committee hearing where Comey and NSA Director Michael Rogers were testifying. Over the course of three hours, the presidential Twitter feed posted half-a-dozen video clips from the hearing, each with a brief description that aimed to advance Trump’s self-interested version of the Russia controversy.”
Why Trump Should Be Very Worried About the FBI
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Trump Gets Warm Reception In Kentucky
Louisville Courier-Journal: “President Donald Trump was met with thunderous approval on a campaign-style stop in Louisville Monday, offering a familiar blend of promises to restore jobs, cut taxes, rebuild the nation’s ‘crumbling infrastructure,’ strengthen the military and stop illegal immigration.”
Said Trump: “We will build a great border wall. We will stop radical Islamic terrorism. We are going to drain the swamp of government corruption. We are going to keep our promises.”
“But one of the biggest cheers of the night erupted when Trump promised to restore the nation’s struggling coal industry, which has hit Kentucky especially hard with job losses — a pledge most experts believe is unlikely because of an abundance of cheaper natural gas and the costs and pollution of coal.”
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