“President Trump’s trip to his luxury resort in Mar-a-Lago this weekend could saddle taxpayers with a bill upwards of $3 million and is already drawing the type of scrutiny Trump and other Republicans regularly heaped upon former President Barack Obama,” Politico reports.
Trump Knows He Can Endure More Controversy Than You
Huffington Post: “His first two weeks have been the equivalent of a political sugar rush, repeated on a daily, sometimes hourly basis. It’s left government officials both invigorated and exhausted. It’s overwhelmed staffers on Capitol Hill. And it’s made Democrats nervous that they’re playing whack-a-mole, chasing the last Trump controversy as a new one inevitably emerges. Some suspect it all may be by design.”
“For Trump’s aides, confidants, and biographers, this has a familiar feel. The Trump they know thrives on drama and chaos. When, during the campaign, he spoke about the importance of stamina and energy, it was meant both as code to mock Hillary Clinton’s health and Jeb Bush’s verve, but also in the strictly literal sense.”
“Trump believes that toughness ― or, better put, the ability to endure more pain and discomfort than the competition ― is what begets his success, his aides said. It is the best explanation they have for his kinetic, chaotic first days in office.”
Trump’s Approval at Historic Low for New Presidents
A new CBS News poll finds just 40% of Americans approve of the job he is doing — the lowest of any president just after his first inauguration since the Gallup Poll began taking those measures in 1953. Some 48% disapprove.
Trump’s Enemies Within
Politico: “Donald Trump, a self-professed Nixon admirer, is learning this history lesson about the presidency in real time: His most dangerous enemies are people who ostensibly work for him. Modern presidents always feel hectored by the news media and harried by opposition legislators. But mortal threats to their power typically come from hostile forces inside the executive branch.”
“The phenomenon has rarely been on more vivid display, with Trump buffeted by an unprecedented barrage of leaks about his decision-making and direct challenges to the decisions themselves—a new example coming almost daily—from within the permanent bureaucracy of government.”
A Case Study In Chaos
James Stewart: “All new presidents undergo a learning curve. But Mr. Trump promised a seamless transition and, with a real chief executive in charge as opposed to a career politician, an administration that would function as a well-oiled machine.”
“So it doesn’t seem premature to ask some leading management experts for an assessment of Mr. Trump’s first weeks, purely from the viewpoint of organizational behavior and management effectiveness, as I did this week.”
“The unanimous verdict: Thus far, the Trump administration is a textbook case of how not to run a complex organization like the executive branch.”
40% Support Impeaching Trump
A new Public Policy Polling survey shows 40% of American voters already want to impeach President Trump.
That’s up from 35% of voters who wanted to impeach him a week ago. Only 48% of voters say that they would be opposed to Trump’s impeachment.
White House Leaks Are a Sign of Dysfunction
“A feeling of distrust has taken hold in the West Wing of Donald Trump’s White House and beyond, as his aides view each other and officials across the federal government and on Capitol Hill with suspicion,” Politico reports.
“The result has been a stream of leaks flowing from the White House and federal agencies, and an attempt to lock down information and communication channels that could have serious consequences across the government and at the Capitol, where Trump tries to implement and advance his agenda.”
“In the White House itself, one top aide tried to take the office slated for another aide, Steve Bannon is looking to hire his own PR guru, and the details of Trump’s calls with foreign leaders, typically closely held, are suddenly out in the open. The starkest manifestation of the paranoia has played out with Trump’s executive orders, as many key players were left in the dark as the White House forged ahead with sweeping, controversial policies.”
Most Disapprove of Trump’s Executive Orders
Gallup: “Trump is not enjoying the type of honeymoon that the American public accorded his predecessors in their first weeks in office. Trump’s initial job approval rating was the lowest in Gallup history, and a majority of Americans continue to disapprove of the job he is doing. No other president going back to Dwight Eisenhower had majority disapproval in his first several months in office. A majority of Americans, in similar fashion, disapprove of several of the high-visibility executive actions Trump has taken within his first 10 days in the White House.”
Quote of the Day
“We had tremendous success on The Apprentice. And when I ran for president, I had to leave the show. That’s when I knew for sure that I was doing it. And they hired a big, big movie star, Arnold Schwarzenegger, to take my place. And we know how that turned out. The ratings went down the tubes. It’s been a total disaster… And I want to just pray for Arnold if we can, for those ratings, OK?”
— President Trump, quoted by the Washington Post, at the National Prayer Breakfast.
Schwarzenegger put out a pretty good response.
No Sign of Melania
“President Trump and his wife, Melania, have not been seen together in public since the inauguration nearly two weeks ago – indeed, there are doubts the two have been together in private since then — reviving speculation about the first lady’s role,” RealClearPolitics reports.
“There were no public sightings of Melania Trump at the White House last weekend – although a pool report noted an Ivanka Trump appearance then in the West Wing. White House staff didn’t respond to repeated inquiries from RealClearPolitics as to when the couple were last together.”
Democrats Plot Protest for Trump’s Speech to Congress
“House Democrats are rallying behind a plan to make President Trump’s first speech to Congress as uncomfortable as possible by inviting guests they say will suffer under new White House policies,” The Hill reports.
“The strategy means Trump will likely face a crowd including ethnic minorities, LGBT people, undocumented immigrants, the disabled and others when he addresses a joint session on Feb. 28.”
The Great Manipulator
Josh Rogin: “If the first two weeks of the Trump presidency has shown anything, it’s that chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon has outmaneuvered his White House rivals, Cabinet secretaries and even Republican leaders in Congress. But Bannon is just getting started; he’s got a longer-term strategy to dominate White House policy making for months and years.”
Time: “There is only one President at a time, and Donald Trump is not one to cede authority. But in the early days at 1600 Pennsylvania, the portly and rumpled Bannon (the only male aide who dared to visit Trump’s office without a suit and tie) has the tools to become as influential as any staffer in memory. Colleagues have dubbed him ‘the Encyclopedia’ for the range of information he carries in his head; but more than any of that, Bannon has a mind-meld with Trump.”
“They share the experience of being talkative and brash, pugnacious money magnets who never quite fit among the elite. A Democrat by heritage and Republican by choice, Bannon has come to see both parties as deeply corrupt, a belief that has shaped his recent career as a polemical filmmaker and Internet bomb thrower. A party guest recalled meeting him as a private citizen and Bannon telling him that he was like Lenin, eager to ‘bring everything crashing down, and destroy all of today’s Establishment.'”
Quote of the Day
“I have spoken more with Donald Trump in the last month more than I have spoken with Barack Obama in the last eight years.”
— Speaker Paul Ryan, quoted by the Washington Examiner.
Trump Takes Hair Growth Drug
President Trump’s personal doctor told the New York Times that the commander-in-chief takes a drug to stimulate hair growth.
“The disclosure that Mr. Trump uses a prostate-related drug to maintain growth of his scalp hair, which has not been publicly known, appears to solve a riddle of why Mr. Trump has a very low level of prostate specific antigen, or PSA, a marker for prostate cancer. Mr. Trump takes a small dose of the drug, finasteride, which lowers PSA levels. Finasteride is marketed as Propecia to treat male-pattern baldness.”
Quote of the Day
“I have to tell you that in all of my life there was always a grace period, right? New president’s coming in. I think they call it a honeymoon, right, where the media, like the others, gives the new administration a chance to come in and start to do what they do. And boy, if there was a honeymoon, it was pretty short. I sure don’t remember that.”
— Vice President Mike Pence, quoted by Politico.
Melania May Stay In New York City
“Though Donald, 70, and his wife Melania announced in November that the first lady would relocate from New York City to Washington D.C. once their 10-year-old son Barron finished up the school year, a family insider reveals in the new issue of Us Weekly that may not happen.”
Said the source: “They will reevaluate toward the end of the school year if they will keep this arrangement or if Melania and Barron will move to Washington. They could go either way right now. They will ultimately do what’s best for Barron.”
State Department Dissent Gets 1,000 Signatures
New York Times: “Within hours, a State Department dissent cable, asserting that President Trump’s executive order to temporarily bar citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries would not make the nation safer, traveled like a chain letter — or a viral video.”
“The cable wended its way through dozens of American embassies around the world, quickly emerging as one of the broadest protests by American officials against their president’s policies. And it is not over yet.”
“By 4 p.m. on Tuesday, the letter had attracted around 1,000 signatures, State Department officials said, far more than any dissent cable in recent years. It was being delivered to management, and department officials said more diplomats wanted to add their names to it.”
When a Ban Is Not a Ban
It’s no wonder why George Orwell’s 1984 is a bestseller again…
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