Lie, Tweet, and Steal: Just Another Week for the Donald
Weeks like these just make me wonder what Donald Trump’s life was like before anyone really cared. Before he announced his political intentions, did he stay up at night trying to think of ways to get onto the news? Did he just constantly refresh his Twitter all day like a normal person? Whatever it was like, it certainly wasn’t as perfunctory, tenuous, and straight catastrophic as it is now.
Let’s just recap the week:
Monday
The fallout from the firing of FBI Director James Comey piled up as more information was revealed. Over the weekend, Trump, Comey, and other sources released a lot of hearsay-type allegations. The highlight of which is a tweet (of course) from Trump that hinted towards there being tape recordings of conversations with Comey. This led Congressional leaders to ask the president to release the tapes [1]. Of course, the White House refused to acknowledge any of it.
Tuesday
Talking about the FBI fiasco got stale apparently, so news broke that President Trump allegedly spilled the beans on some classified information to a pair of Russian officials. Bragging is just natural for him (Insert tiny foot in mouth). Full story on this in my last article.
Wednesday
With the mounting turmoil of the Trump-Russia probe, a special counsel was finally appointed to oversee the remainder of the investigations. Robert Mueller, coincidentally a former FBI Director, is stepping in to assure unbiased command in completing the process [2].
On the same day, a former DOJ official claimed that Comey had written memos corroborating allegations that Trump had urged him to stop investigating fired advisor Michael Flynn [3]. The memos are believed to have been written in an attempt to build an obstruction of justice case against the president, as with the subsequent conversations with Trump. I kid you not.
Thursday
Trump spent the day tweeting and commenting on the addition of the special counsel and ongoing Russian investigation. Hilariously unequal comparisons between him and Hillary, as well as a shoutout to Salem witches flooded his Twitter page [4]. Then he uttered a doozy of a comment in a press conference with his favorite “I’m about to lie” phrase: “Believe me, there is no collusion” between Russia said Trump [5]. Google some of the lies he has put after “believe me” in the past, I dare you.
Friday
TGIF, am I right? President Trump was happy too, he finally got to take a nice vacation. Not to Mar-a-Lago, but a 10-day, 9-stop foreign trip where he will meet plenty of world leaders in the Middle East and Europe. His itinerary shows he’s scheduled to stop in (among others) Saudi Arabia, Israel, the Vatican (Pope’s house), and Brussels. In Brussels he will meet with EU officials, NATO members, and the new French President Emmanuel Macron [6]. This trip will show Trump just how “not as easy” being the president really is.
Saturday
After his first day in Saudi Arabia, White House officials announced that the President signed a $110 billion arms deal with the Middle Eastern country. The deal would provide $110B in weapons and military equipment immediately, with another $350B over the next 10 years [7]. Jobs for Americans and heightened security for Saudi Arabia, Trump claims. But it sounds an awful lot like the security-type deals that Trump and others claimed to have “armed” and “created” ISIS, no? We know what happens when we send weapons into the Middle East… Obviously this deal is for the large weapons manufacturers to make crazy money.
Sunday
While President Trump is in the Middle East promoting peace, denouncing terror financing, and pretending he likes Muslims, he left the U.S. in shambles. We are still awaiting an appointment for the next FBI Director. We are still waiting for that ex-Director to speak in front of Congress. We are still waiting news on the most important investigation in decades.
You can’t make this stuff up. I see a movie in the future for this epic drama that is the Trump presidency (I hope Alec Baldwin is in it).
All this his happening and taking up focus when elsewhere in the world there are important events taking place. North Korea is continuing to test nuclear missiles and expand their capabilities. China is effectively taking control of the South China Sea that sees about one-third of the world’s trade pass through it. And there is still the ongoing threat of Russia’s hacking and meddling in international affairs.
What a crazy week…
Written by: CJ Wilcox (@CJWilcox7)
1: http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN18A0TU
2: http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-trump-russia-comey-20170517-story.html
3: http://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/17/comey-may-have-been-using-memos-to-a-build-a-case-against-trump.html
4: http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/18/politics/trump-tweets-russia/index.html
5: http://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/18/trump-no-collusion-with-russia-238571?cid=apn