Aug 31, 2020:
This past weekend Trump retweeted false information about deaths due to COVID-19.
Trump sat for a two-part interview with Fox News host Laura Ingraham on her show "The Ingrahman Angle". Part 1 aired today and Part 2 will air tomorrow (watch videos of Part 2 here and here).
At the beginning of the show, Ingraham played a recent video clip of Joe Biden saying:
Ask yourself. Do I look like a radical socialist with a soft spot for rioters? Really?
Ingraham then said the following:
With all due respect, that's not the relevant question because it doesn't really matter what's in Biden's heart. What matters is this. Can you trust Joe Biden to do what it takes to stop rioters and looters?...For now, the riots have been limited to the blue states. But with Biden in charge, the whole country is going to look like Portland.
Speaking about Portland and Mayor Ted Wheeler, Trump said the following:
Well, these are terrible and very incompetent people. Portland has been burning for many years. For decades, it's been burning...
They're living with a curse. They say that when you walk through the streets of Portland, this is years and years of burning...
Ingraham:
The Oregon Governor said no one is safe in Donald Trump's America. They're trying to turn the tables on you--after months of - they're not really saying much about the violence.
Trump:
Right. But they won't ever criticize anybody that's really - that's a violent person, frankly, that's violent. They stick up for the violence. They don't - the people that are getting hurt, they don't care about. They don't care about these people.
Ingrahm played another recent video clip of Joe Biden who said the following:
He may believe mouthing the words "law and order" makes him strong, but his failure to call on his own supporters to stop acting as an armed militia in this country shows how weak he is.
Ingraham:
But do you want your supporters to confront the--left-wing protesters--or do you want to leave it to law--law enforcement?
Trump:
I want to leave it to law enforcement. But my supporters are wonderful, hardworking, tremendous people.
Ingraham:
Isn't it true also, Mr. President, that Democrats have been in their own way inciting this violence--against individuals for - as almost as long as you've been in office.
Trump:
Sure.
Ingraham then plays another video clip showing four different liberals - one unidentified, and the other three prominent members of Congress - saying things that, supposedly, support what she just said about Democrats inciting the recent violence "in their own way."
Trump:
It's not only the Democrats. It's the media, the fake news. The news is so fake. Like I told you with the Mayor, where they make them look like it's a great unity thing when actually they were cursing at him and they would have done big numbers on him, but they don't show that...But NBC shows that like it's unity with the people. I don't get it. I don't know why they are doing it.
And I say - and I will say this. At some point, I will not be President. Hopefully, that will be in five years from now, but I will not be President. And they're going to die, they're all going to die. Can you imagine if they had to cover sleepy Joe Biden? It won't be very much fun.
But much more importantly, our country would go to hell, our stock markets will crash, as sure as you're sitting there. We will have problems like you've never had. But if you take Kenosha and if you take other parts of the country that I don't even talk about [something Trump referenced earlier in this interview], I could show you things that we've done to stop this kind of a thing that's happening in Portland and happening in Chicago and happening in other places.
I think Portland is very easy to handle because that's a group of anarchists that are paid by the outside.
Speaking about the protesters who have recently taken down Confederate statues Trump said:
It is an ideology for the people that are paying them. And the funny thing is - and the strange thing is, the people that are paying them and all this money because somebody is doing it...The people paying them, those people will be overthrown. Their lives will be taken away. Their lives will be endangered. They're all going to be gone. They're just stupid, foolish people that made a lot of money.
Ingraham then Trump about corporate support for Black Lives Matter:
But corporations have given an enormous amount of money in the tens of millions or - I mean, hundreds of millions to Black Lives Matter--Why are they paying that money out, Mr. President?
Trump:
Because they are weak people led by weak people in many cases...because they just do what's the easiest path. That's not the easy path. That's a very dangerous path. Black Lives Matter is a Marxist organization. You remember "pigs in a blanket, fry them like bacon." That was - first time I ever heard of Black Lives Matter, I said that's a terrible name. It's so discriminatory. It's bad for black people. It's bad for everybody.
Ingraham:
So how does a--Trump reelection calm things down in the United States? Biden says he's going to calm things down.
Trump:
Biden won't calm things down. They will take over. They will have won. If Biden gets in, they will have won. He's a weak person. He's controlled like a puppet. So it's not going to be calm things down. It's going to be they will have won. They will have taken over your cities. It's a revolution. You understand that. It's a revolution. And the people of this country will not stand for that. They're not going to stand for that. The vast majority of people feel like me. They feel like - every time I put "law and order" up on social media, it gets such an incredibly positive response. The people of this country will not stand for it.
Trump:
I don't even like to mention Biden because he's not controlling anything. They control him. People that you've never heard of, people that are in the dark shadows.
Ingraham:
What does that mean? That sounds like conspiracy theory, dark shadows. What is that?
Trump:
No. People that you haven't heard of. They are people that are on the streets, they're people that are controlling the streets. We had somebody get on a plane from a certain city this weekend. And in the plane, it was almost completely loaded with thugs wearing these dark uniforms, black uniforms with gear and this and that. They're on a plane.
I'll tell you sometime, but it's under investigation right now. But they came from a certain city, and this person was coming to the Republican National Convention. And there were like seven people on the plane like this person and then a lot of people were on the plane to do big damage. They were coming--
Ingraham:
Planning for Washington.
Trump:
Yes. This was all - this is all happening. And--Money is coming from--some very stupid rich people that have no idea that if their thing ever succeeded, which it won't, they will be thrown to the wolves like you've never seen before.
Changing the subject to Trump's "for the sake of argument" polling "deficit" with female voters, Ingraham asks Trump:
...maybe in some cases, you're too aggressive, your tone or your tweets.
Trump:
I have to be aggressive because I'm like standing here in a sea of incompetent people, stupid people and violent people. Very violent people.
Then Trump launches into a talk about racial protests during the Obama years:
And look at Ferguson. Look what happened during the - people forget. Look at all of those horrible race riots you had during Obama. Ferguson is just one that comes to mind, but you had them all the time. Look at all of what happened with Brown and this one and that one. Look at all of the problems you had under Obama. It was a disaster. It was actually worse than anything. This [the recent protests and violence] is a much different situation.
Trump then says this about America's suburbs:
They [women] have to have safety. They talk about the suburban woman. What I did recently, I ended the regulation that provided low-income housing that - that mandated low-income housing--That was the Obama rule. It was a disaster.
Continuing his assault on Obama Trump says:
Obama didn't give them [the African-American community] criminal justice reform. I did. Obama didn't give them opportunity zones. I did. Obama didn't do all of the things - didn't say - Obama could have saved the historically black colleges and universities. He didn't do anything for them. He didn't do anything for them. I've done more - and I said in the speech - some people would say you shouldn't say it, it's too aggressive. I said, what's aggressive? I've done more than any president in the history of our country except for maybe - and I say maybe - maybe Abraham Lincoln.
Ingraham asks Trump about
You want people to all be treated equally. But they [African-Americans] have a caricature of Republican voters, and you're the leader of the party. What do you say to them about that mischaracterization?
Trump:
What the black community wants in this country is they want police and they want law and order. They don't want what's happening to their communities. They're being affected in a much harsher, meaner manner than anybody else. That includes Hispanics, where I'm doing very well also. Look, they want law and order. They want the police. They do polls, and the polls are at 82, 83 percent, they want the police. They've gotten along with the police, and the police have been very badly mistreated because you got one bad apple, and it becomes a story for weeks.
Trump then goes into a discussion about police:
People choke. And people are bad people. You have both. You have some bad people, and they choke. You could be a police officer for 15 years, and all of a sudden you're confronted. You've got a quarter of a second to make a decision. If you don't make the decision and you're wrong, you're dead. People choke under those circumstances, and they make a bad decision. I've seen bad decisions of people that it looked bad but probably it was a choke. But you also have bad police, but you also, the vast -- not only the vast majority -- thousands and thousands of great acts, and one bad one, and you make the evening news for weeks.
Regarding the possibility of further economic stimulus for Americans:
Nancy Pelosi doesn't want to give any stimulus. We should have it...We'd like to get it for the people because it wasn't their fault, but she doesn't want to give it because that will make the economy a little bit better, and that would be a terrible thing [being sarcastic].
Source:
(August 31, 2020). "President Trump joins Laura Ingraham to discuss violence in Democrat-run cities, planned visit to Kenosha". Fox News. Retrieved 2020-09-01.
Falconer, Rebecca. (August 31, 2020). "Trump says Black Lives Matter is 'discriminatory' and 'bad for Black people'". Axios. Retrieved 2020-08-31.
Samuels, Brett. (August 31, 2020). "Trump says Black Lives Matter is 'bad for Black people'". The Hill. Retrieved 2020-08-31.
Commentary:
Before I specifically address some of the things Trump said, if you pause and think about everything he said in this interview about protests and violence, it's clear that to him, the issue is merely transactional. To him, all you need do is send in the "heavy artillery", they shut down the violence, they go back home, and the problem is resolved. What this one-dimensional view doesn't address is how a military presence also helps to inflame existing tensions because it's a show of force, and it does absolutely nothing to address the core issue which is racial injustice. Keep in mind that the "show of force" is an integral part of the racial injustice problem.
Regarding the "anarchists" in Portland and groups trying to remove confederate statues and monuments, Trump says both are being paid by "the outside." OK, if that's true, where is your evidence?
Trump called "Black Lives Matter" a "Marxist organization." He also said that "Black Lives Matter" is a "terrible name", that it's "so discriminatory", that it's "bad for black people", and that it's "bad for everybody." This is Trump with his extremism on full display. The name "Black Lives Matter" fits the cause, perfectly. It's not "discriminatory". Why isn't Trump calling "White Lives Matter", or "Blue Lives Matter" discriminatory?
Ingraham asks Trump how his reelection will "calm things down" regarding the protests and violence. Trump doesn't answer the question. Instead he immediately launches into a "takedown" of Joe Biden saying he is weak, that he won't calm things down, and so on. If you read the rest of the transcript you'll see that Trump never did answer Ingraham's question. This is classic, textbook Trump - deflecting away from the question so he doesn't have to answer it and then going into a rant about whoever or whatever he's upset about on any given day. It's really amazing - in a really, really bad way - to have watched Trump do this over and over and over again for so long, and to see how often people just let him get away with it.
Trump calls what's happening a "revolution", and that the "vast majority" of people feel like him. Regarding Trump's "revolution", here he goes again exaggerating for political effect. Yes, people want real change, but there is no "revolution" happening. Regarding Trump's "vast majority" of people, that means "his people" - his social media followers - not the "vast majority" of Americans. Here again, Trump lives in his own little "sycophant base" of reality and simply ignores the fact that at least as many other people don't share his feelings.
Next, Trump puts forth a conspiracy theory that people in the "dark shadows" are controlling Biden. These people, according to Trump, are people "you haven't heard of", they are "on the streets", they are "controlling the streets", and some of these "thugs" were on a plane dressed in "black uniforms" and "gear" headed to the RNC to do "big damage." Trump says his conspiracy theory is "under investigation."
There are two parts to Trump's conspiracy theory. The first part is that Biden is being controlled, for which Trump provides no evidence. This is pure political propaganda. The second part is about the people on the streets and in planes. Even if the second part turns out to be true (we'll have to wait and see what the "investigation" turns up), what does this have to do with Biden? The answer is, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! This is yet another pathetic example of "Trickster Trump" trying to connect his opponent (in this case Biden) with something bad and creating suspicion.
Next, Trump talks about the "horrible race riots" and problems during Obama's presidency. Trump said it was a "disaster" (his favorite word), "actually worse than anything", and that the current protest situation is "much different." How is what's been happening recently any different than what happened during Obama's presidency? The core issue is EXACTLY THE SAME and the violence and destruction of property during some of the recent protests has been very substantial. This is "Trickster Trump" at work again, trying to paint an incorrect narrative.
When asked about equal treatment for blacks, Trump never answers the question. Instead, he tells Ingraham what he thinks they want - "police" and "law and order." Trump conveniently leaves out the essential part about how blacks want and need to be treated as equal to whites when it comes to how they are treated by police.
Finally, Trump says that Nancy Pelosi doesn't want another round of coronavirus stimulus. This is a de facto lie. Just because Trump and Democrats don't agree on the amount of the stimulus, that doesn't mean Pelosi doesn't want more stimulus. In fact, Pelosi and Democrats want more stimulus than Trump and Republicans.
Aug 30, 2020:
Trump and Portland, Oregon Mayor Ted Wheeler got into a "sparring match" on Twitter. Here's what Trump tweeted:
Ted Wheeler, the wacky Radical Left Do Nothing Democrat Mayor of Portland, who has watched great death and destruction of his City during his tenure, thinks this lawless situation should go on forever. Wrong! Portland will never recover with a fool for a Mayor....
....He tried mixing with the Agitators and Anarchists and they mocked him. He would like to blame me and the Federal Government for going in, but he hasn't seen anything yet. We have only been there with a small group to defend our U.S. Courthouse, because he couldn't do it....
....The people of Portland, like all other cities & parts of our great Country, want Law & Order. The Radical Left Democrat Mayors, like the dummy running Portland, or the guy right now in his basement unwilling to lead or even speak out against crime, will never be able to do it!
You can read Wheeler's tweets in the Source link below.
Source:
Klar, Rebecca. (August 30, 2020). "Trump, Portland mayor trade blame for rise in violence". The Hill. Retrieved 2020-08-30.
Aug 29, 2020:
On Twitter, commenting on his niece Mary Trump, John Bolton, Bob Woodward, CNN, and MSNBC, Trump said the following:
About the only way a person is able to write a book on me is if they agree that it will contain as much bad "stuff" as possible, much of which is lies. It's like getting a job with CNN or MSDNC and saying that "President Trump is great." You have ZERO chance. FAKE NEWS!
..Even whether it's dumb warmongers like John Bolton, social pretenders like Bob Woodward, who never has anything good to say, or an unstable niece, who was now rightfully shunned, scorned and mocked her entire life, and never even liked by her own very kind & caring grandfather!
Source:
Axelrod, Tal. (August 29, 2020). "Trump goes after niece who wrote critical book: 'Unstable' and 'shunned' entire life". The Hill. Retrieved 2020-08-30.
Commentary:
Trump's Twitter "tantrums" are still truly amazing, but of course, not in a good way. He just can't keep from discrediting, trash-talking, and blaming everyone else for his woes.
Aug 27, 2020:
Trump gave a speech at the last night of the RNC. Read a transcript of Trump's speech here.
See what factcheck.org has to say about Trump's speech here.
Speaking at the RNC, Trump's daughter Ivanka defended her father's use of Twitter saying the following:
I recognize that my dad's communication style is not to everyone's taste. And I know his tweets can feel a bit...unfiltered. But the results speak for themselves...Dad, people attack you for being unconventional, but I love you for being real, and I respect you for being effective.
Meghan McCain, the daughter of the late U.S. Senator John McCain, responded with the following on Twitter:
It's not a "communication style", its cruelty and indecency. Trump said he didn't like POW's who were captured, implied my father was burning in hell after he died and constantly trashed him while he was fighting brain cancer. This is how they have lost all decent people.
Source:
Seipel, Brooke. (August 27, 2020). "Meghan McCain hits Ivanka Trump's defense of president's Twitter: It's not a 'communication style,' it's 'cruelty'". The Hill. Retrieved 2020-08-28.
Commentary:
Like her father, it seems Ivanka is also in her own little "bubble" of reality. Ivanka said that Trump's tweets sound "a bit...unfiltered." Wow, I think that's the most grand understatement I've ever heard! Honestly, I don't know how anyone could say this with a straight face. Unbelievable.
She goes on to say that Trump's results "speak for themselves" and that he's been "effective." I agree with her assessments, but for completely different reasons.
Trump's "results" are that now more than ever our nation is bitterly divided.
His "results" are that we still have the coronavirus and all of the accompanying economic hardship to deal with - something he can could have "nipped in the bud" a long time ago if he hadn't been in denial.
His "results" are that people across America are protesting the horrific killing of George Floyd, and now Jacob Blake, and that some of the protests have been violent. And what has Trump said or done to address the underlying, core problem of racial injustice? Nothing.
His "results" are that he has made matters much worse between Israel and the Palestinians with his and his administration's ill-conceived, one-sided strategy.
His "results" are that now the Iran nuclear deal is in shambles, Iran is once again enriching uranium, and Iran is touting new ballistic missiles.
His "results" are that climate change continues to threaten our planet while his administration has continued its relentless assault on regulations designed to curb it, and he continues to "buddy up" to the fossil fuel industry.
I could go on and on, but I think you get my point.
Trump's use of Twitter, like Meghan McCain said, is cruel, indecent, and also a disgrace to Americans. It's been extremely "effective" in fueling the fires of division and further deepening the political divide. A president is supposed to unify, not divide, and Trump's use of Twitter has been one of his main divisive weapons of choice.
Trump commented on NBA team protests and the league's support of "Black Lives Matter" saying the following:
They've become like a political organization, and that's not a good thing. I don't think that's a good thing for sports or for the country.
Source:
Samuels, Brett. (August 27, 2020). "Trump rips NBA, calls it 'political organization'". The Hill. Retrieved 2020-08-28.
Commentary:
Trump has been trashing the NFL for player protests for quite some time, and now he's going after the NBA.
I don't see these protests as political in nature. To me, they're about basic human rights and morality. Trump and his supporters are just trying to politicize and weaponize the protests to use them against the left.
Aug 26, 2020:
In an Oval Office interview with the Washington Examiner, Trump said the following about Joe Biden and their upcoming debates:
I don't know how he could have been so incompetent in his debate performances [referring to the Democratic primary debates] and then all of a sudden be OK against Bernie. My point is, if you go back and watch some of those numerous debates, he was so bad. He wasn't even coherent. And against Bernie, he was. And we're calling for a drug test.
Trump said he based his statement on personal observations and that he didn't have any inside knowledge of Biden's campaign. He also said:
All I can tell you is that I'm pretty good at this stuff.
Source:
Axelrod, Tal. (August 26, 2020). "Trump calls for drug tests before debate with Biden". The Hill. Retrieved 2020-08-26.
Commentary:
This is just more Trump continuing to think of and say anything he can dream up to discredit Biden. In case you missed it, a Trump campaign ad aired last week questioning Biden's mental and cognitive abilities.
Trump can "call for a drug test" if he wants, but to my knowledge there's nothing that says Biden or Trump must take a drug test before a debate. If anything, Trump should be required to take a psychological personality test - that would give us empirical evidence to show America and the entire world just how big of a narcissist this guy is.
And, once again, there goes the "stable genius" pumping himself up by saying he's "pretty good at this stuff", highly reminiscent of comments he made during a tour of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia on March 6, 2020.
Aug 24, 2020:
Trump spoke during the first night of the Republican National Convention. Here's some of what he said:
Because we have to win. This is the most important election in the history of our country...Our country is counting on it. This is the biggest, this is it.
...before the plague came in from China...Everybody was doing well and we were actually coming together.
You know success brings people together, maybe better than anything else. Success brings people, so many times they say we're divided. Well we were very divided under President Obama, very divided. People have no idea how divided. They didn't talk about it as much, they didn't say it as much...
Number one, we will not be taking the word, God, out of The Pledge of Allegiance. Okay. Like they did a number of times at their caucuses, so they took the word God out. I heard it.
Not working well in Texas, by the way. I just looked at a poll. And by the way, it just came out that we have received 51% in the big and very important Rasmussen poll, and my numbers actually went up during the Democratic National Convention, 51%.
Think of it, they'll be sending them [mail-in ballots], they'll be dumping them in neighborhoods. People are going to be picking them up. They'll be bribing. They'll be paying off people to grab some. This is going to be one of the greatest scams...But what it means is they're trying to steal the election from the Republicans, that's what it means...But this is big stuff. This is stealing millions of votes.
Think of it, they'll be sending them [mail-in ballots], they'll be dumping them in neighborhoods. People are going to be picking them up. They'll be bribing. They'll be paying off people to grab some. This is going to be one of the greatest scams...But what it means is they're trying to steal the election from the Republicans, that's what it means.
But this is big stuff. This is stealing millions of votes. And it's going to be very hard. Now we're in courts all over the country. And hopefully, we have judges that are going to give it a fair call because if they give it a fair call, we're going to win this election. The only way they can take this election away from us is if this is a rigged election. We're going to win this election.
I'm just saying we cannot have these live, we call them live, some people call them universal, I like the word live, these live mail-in ballots sent to everybody, including mostly people that never asked for them.
What they're doing is using COVID to steal an election. They're using COVID to defraud the American people, all of our people, of a fair and free election. And we can't do that.
We've built our wall, which will be finished very shortly.
Source:
(August 24, 2020). "Donald Trump 2020 RNC Speech Transcript August 24". Rev. Retrieved 2020-08-24.
Commentary:
Trump acknowledged how important it is for him to win the upcoming election. This, and his ego, are the reasons he will stop at nothing to make it happen.
Trump said that before the "plague", "Everybody was doing well and we were actually coming together." I don't know what planet this guy is living on, but in the United States of America, on planet earth, we are absolutely, positively NOT COMING TOGETHER. And to say that "Everybody" was doing well? Are you kidding me? What a joke!
Trump says we were divided when Obama was in office, and yes that's true. But we were NEVER as divided under Obama as we are now, and Trump is the reason.
Of course, Trump had to say something about the Pledge of Allegiance - just more pandering to his base.
Trump touts the Rasmussen poll showing him at 51% (in Texas, or across the U.S., it's hard to tell from what he said what he means). Rasmussen is virtually always the most favorable poll in regard to conservatives and Republicans and it doesn't mean much of anything taken by itself. The only poll that has any real meaning is the RCP average which averages all of the major polls, which you can see on the Real Clear Politics website here. This is just Trump "pumping himself up" and trying to convince others that he's really in the race.
Trump went on and on and on about mail-in voting, saying there will be ballot dumping in neighborhoods, bribery, payoffs, claiming the Democrats are trying to "steal" the election (using COVID-19 to steal it), and reiterating what he recently said that the only way he can lose is if the election is "rigged". As the election gets closer and closer, Trump's words are getting more and more extreme, and this rant about mail-in voting shows how he's amping up his game.
Trump's comment about "our wall" being "finished very shortly"? The last I heard his wall still had a long, long way to go before it was completed. And, just for the record, it's not "our" wall, it's "your" wall.
Today, speaking with former Philadelphia Eagles linebacker Emmanuel Acho on his YouTube series "Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man", NFL commissioner Roger Goodell further clarified his June 5, 2020 reversal of his prior stance on kneeling protests saying the following:
Well, the first thing I'd say is I wish we had listened earlier, Kaep [referring to former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick who was the NFL player who started the kneeling protests several years ago], to what you were kneeling about and what you were trying to bring attention to.
It is not about the flag. The message here that what our players are doing is being mischaracterized. These are not people who are unpatriotic. [bold added for emphasis] They're not disloyal. They're not against our military. In fact, many of those guys were in the military and they're a military family. What they were trying to do is exercise their right to bring attention to something that needs to get fixed [bold added for emphasis], and that misrepresentation of who they were and what they were doing was the thing that really gnawed at me.
Source:
Folley, Aris. (August 23, 2020). "NFL's Goodell to Kaepernick on protesting: 'I wish we had listened earlier". The Hill. Retrieved 2020-08-24.
Commentary:
On August 11, 2020, Trump made some comments about the fall college sports season and about kneeling in protest prior to games (see August 11, 2020 entry below).
Goodell makes it clear that the protests are NOT about the American flag, that they are being mischaracterized (i.e., politicized), and that something must be done. I commend Goodell for his remarks.
Aug 23, 2020:
Trump tweeted the following regarding the Pledge of Allegiance and the DNC event this past week:
The Democrats took the word GOD out of the Pledge of Allegiance at the Democrat National Convention. At first I thought they made a mistake, but it wasn't. It was done on purpose. Remember Evangelical Christians, and ALL, this is where they are coming from-it's done. Vote Nov 3!
Source:
Axelrod, Tal. (August 23, 2020). "Trump targets Democrats over Pledge of Allegiance". The Hill. Retrieved 2020-08-24.
Commentary:
According to factcheck.org, the Pledge of Allegiance was recited near the beginning of each of the four main evening segments with the words "under God", but it was omitted from two of the daytime caucus meetings.
What Trump said is very misleading. When you hear him say "The Democrats took the word GOD out of the Pledge of Allegiance at the Democrat National Convention.", it sounds to the average listener as if it was completely taken out of everything, which is categorically false. But, the fact that it's very misleading and leaves out a very important piece of information (that all four nighttime segments had the words "under God") is of no concern to Trump because he knows that when he tweets, his message will go viral in a matter of hours and he'll have all of his supporters in an uproar.
This is classic Trump, and like Trump it's pathetic, beyond words.
Aug 22, 2020:
Trump tweeted the following regarding the FDA:
The deep state, or whoever, over at the FDA is making it very difficult for drug companies to get people in order to test the vaccines and therapeutics. Obviously, they are hoping to delay the answer until after November 3rd. Must focus on speed, and saving lives! @SteveFDA
Source:
Axelrod, Tal. (August 22, 2020). "Trump rails against the FDA over vaccine testing". The Hill. Retrieved 2020-08-22.
Commentary:
Here Trump goes again, just making things up. Where is the evidence for what Trump is saying? Trump doesn't provide any evidence in his tweet because there is no evidence. His tweet is just political propaganda that he thinks will make him look tough and on top of things. He's trying to blame the FDA to distract from his completely unacceptable response to the coronavirus pandemic.
This kind of baloney, which he frequently employs - trashing and complaining about everybody and everything - only servers to undermine and reduce confidence in the institutions and science we all Americans depend on for our health and well-being.
The bottom line is that Trump's top, number one priority and concern right now is reelection, so everything he says and does is really about that, not about "saving lives" or whatever other poppycock he dreams up.
Aug 21, 2020:
Speaking at the 2020 Council for National Policy Meeting in Arlington, Virginia, Trump said the following:
So the future of our country, and indeed our civilization, is at stake on November 3rd.
Source:
Trump, Donald. (August 21, 2020). "Remarks by President Trump at the 2020 Council for National Policy Meeting". whitehouse.gov. Retrieved 2020-08-26.
Commentary:
Now, Trump says it's not just the future of the United States that's at stake in the upcoming election, it's the future of "civilization" as well. I must say he is really amping up his game. Talk like this makes it sound like he's the only one who can save the world, and unless he's reelected the whole world will go up in flames.
Aug 19, 2020:
Trump tweeted the following:
Don't buy GOODYEAR TIRES - They announced a BAN ON MAGA HATS. Get better tires for far less! (This is what the Radical Left Democrats do. Two can play the same game, and we have to start playing it now!).
According to an Associate Press article, Goodyear said that it asks its workers to:
...refrain from workplace expressions in support of political campaigning for any candidate or political party, as well as similar forms of advocacy that fall outside the scope of racial justice and equity issues.
The article also quotes White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany as saying:
If you can wear a Black Lives Matter hat, guess what, you should be able to wear a Blue Lives Matter one, too.
Source:
Gstalter, Morgan. (August 19, 2020). "Lincoln Project hits Trump for criticizing Goodyear, 'an American company'". The Hill. Retrieved 2020-08-26.
Freking, Kevin. (August 19, 2020). "Trump lashes out at Goodyear about its policy on 'MAGA' wear". Associated Press. Retrieved 2020-08-26.
Commentary:
First, for Trump to suggest a ban on Goodyear tires is ridiculous and anti-productive to our economy. He is showing, once again, just how vindictive he is, at the expense of his "pride and joy" economy. It's just Trump being his "knee-jerk" idiot self.
Second, this incident brings up a contentious debate about the difference between political issues, issues of morality and human rights, and how liberals and conservatives view things differently. I'm going to write at length about this in a future post because it's one of the critical, core issues we face in America.
For now, let me say the following. If you want to argue that nothing regarding political, moral, or human rights issues should be worn at work, and that Goodyear's policy is discriminatory, you can do that. But if you do that, you must also acknowledge that the two elements of the discussion (i.e., "Black Lives Matter" and "White/Blue Lives Matter") are NOT equal and they are NOT the same thing. By saying what McEnany said, she is making a false moral equivalency which only helps to add fuel to the fire of the racial injustice issue in the United States.
At a press briefing at the White House, Trump said the following regarding QAnon:
I don't know much about the movement other than I understand they like me very much, which I appreciate. But I don't know much about the movement.
These are people that don't like seeing what's going on in places like Portland and places like Chicago and other cities and states. I've heard these are people that love our country and they just don't like seeing it.
A reporter briefly explained to Trump what the QAnon conspiracy theory is about, to which Trump replied:
Well, I haven't heard that, but is that supposed to be a bad thing or a good thing? If I can help save the world from problems, I'm willing to do it. I'm willing to put myself out there.
Source:
Samuels, Brett; Rodgrigo, Mills. (August 19, 2020). "Trump praises QAnon supporters: They 'love our country'". The Hill. Retrieved 2020-08-19.
Commentary:
Here goes Trump, again, deflecting away from the "gist" of what QAnon stands for, and trying to paint it's supporters in a good light.
Trump is "playing dumb" about his knowledge of QAnon. To say that he doesn't know much about the movement is pure baloney.
Aug 18, 2020:
A speech by Michelle Obama was aired in a segment of the first night of the Democratic National Convention last night. Read a transcript of the speech here.
Today, Trump commented on her speech:
She was over her head, and frankly she should've made the speech live, which she didn't do. She taped it...It was taped a long time ago because she had the wrong deaths. She didn't even mention the vice presidential candidate in the speech...She gets these fawning reviews. If you gave a real review it wouldn't be so fawning...I thought it was a very divisive speech. Extremely divisive.
Source:
Samuels, Brett. (August 18, 2020). "Trump hits back at Michelle Obama over 'extremely divisive' convention speech". The Hill. Retrieved 2020-08-18.
Commentary:
This is Trump just rambling on, hitting back like a boxer who's getting punched in the gut, like he always does. I can't think of one instance in his tenure when he hasn't made some comment on something someone said about him that he didn't like. He's like an angry, immature, adolescent boy who just can't let anything go.
Who cares if the speech was taped? The point of her speech is that Trump is not the right person to lead our country. Whether it was taped or not is immaterial.
Here's what Michelle said regarding the coronavirus and deaths:
More than 150,000 people have died, and our economy is in shambles because of a virus that this president downplayed for too long.
According to data on the Johns Hopkins University website, today's total USA COVID-19 death toll is 171,823. Trump said "she had the wrong deaths". There's nothing "wrong" about what Michelle said. It's accurate and correct. TRUMP LIED!
Michelle talked at length about Joe Biden in her speech and mentioned his name 14 times. Trump said she didn't mention the vice presidential candidate. Once again, TRUMP LIED!
I watched the speech in it's entirety. It was an emotionally moving speech, and any "fawning" reviews are certainly accurate and well-deserved as far as I'm concerned.
But the most amazing statement by Trump is that he called Michelle's speech "extremely divisive." Wow! I understand this is Trump talking and that he says a lot of ridiculous things, but for him to say something like this makes my head want to explode! Trump is THE MOST DIVISIVE PRESIDENT in my lifetime. No other president even comes close to the degree of division Trump has created and continues to fuel in America. And here he is calling Michelle's speech "extremely divisive?" I can't think of a better, more blatant example of the hypocrisy of Trump than this!
Aug 17, 2020:
Speaking to a small group of supporters in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, Trump said the following:
Make sure [you vote] because the only way we're going to lose this election is if the election is rigged. Remember that. It's the only way we're going to lose this election, so we have to be very careful...The only way they're going to win is that way. And we can't let that happen.
Source:
Chalfant, Morgan. (August 17, 2020). "Trump: 'The only way we're going to lose this election is if the election is rigged'". The Hill. Retrieved 2020-08-19.
Commentary:
This isn't the first time Trump has warned of a "rigged election". If you recall, during his 2016 campaign he claimed that election was "rigged" many times. He claimed the election was in fact "rigged". Now, he's claiming something a bit different. Now he's saying that there's no way he will lose the 2020 election unless it's "rigged."
The obvious evidence to dispute Trump's claim regarding 2016 is that he won the election. If that election was rigged (against Trump), then Hilary Clinton would have won, right? But, if you read the source article referenced above (and do some additional research), Trump assumes that his specific concerns about rigging would all result in votes against him. How does he know that some of the "rigged" votes wouldn't be cast for him?
As we know, the Mueller Report concluded there was no collusion between Russia and the 2016 Trump campaign. But, if you read the details, it's clear that Trump associates were "walking a thin line" with Russia as far as collusion is concerned. My point is, if there was any "rigging" going on, real evidence suggests it was being done by the Trump campaign.
Regarding Trump's statement today, he is "priming" his supporters, and the rest of Americans, and really the entire world, to believe that his winning reelection is a foregone conclusion. He's laying the groundwork for how he might dispute the results of the election if in fact he loses, because losing to him can mean only one thing - that the election was "rigged." I suggest you let that sink in and think about it for a moment. This is the kind of thinking and behavior displayed by oppressive dictators, not U.S. presidents in a democracy.
In reality it's a form of "brain-washing". As I said, it's a way of "priming" the electorate, so that if Trump loses, he will say something like, "See? Remember what I told you back in August about a "rigged" election? I was right, and now I have to do something about it."
Trump will stop at NOTHING to win reelection. Now, more than ever, truth and facts don't matter to Trump. All that matters to Trump is winning, and his ego is on the line.
Also in Oshkosh, speaking about his decision to move the Israeli capital to Jerusalem, Trump said the following:
And we moved the capital of Israel to Jerusalem. That's for the evangelicals. It's amazing with that. The evangelicals are more excited about that than Jewish people. It's incredible. But we did, we did that. And Golan Heights, don't forget Golan Heights. We did Golan Heights.
Source:
(August 17, 2020). "Donald Trump Speech Transcript Wisconsin August 17'". Rev. Retrieved 2020-08-23.
When Trump announced the move to Jerusalem on December 6, 2017 he said the following:
I've judged this course of action [moving the capital to Jerusalem] to be in the best interests of the United States of America and the pursuit of peace between Israel and the Palestinians. This is a long-overdue step to advance the peace process and to work towards a lasting agreement.
Source:
(December 6, 2017). "Statement by President Trump on Jerusalem". whitehouse.gov. Retrieved 2020-08-23.
Commentary:
On December 6, 2017 Trump said he moved the capital because it was in the "best interests of the United States" and for the "pursuit of peace between Israel and the Palestinians." Today he said we did it "for the evangelicals", adding that "We did Golan Heights."
This is pure pathetic pandering to his base! He didn't move the Israeli capital to Jerusalem, nor did he sign a presidential proclamation recognizing Israel's sovereign right over the Golan Heights for evangelicals.
There is an article on the Vox website entitled "This is why evangelicals love Trump's Israel policy" which delves into why Israel and what happens there is so important to evangelicals.
Aug 14, 2020:
Today Trump said he would approve USPS funding as part of a coronavirus relief package as long as Democrats make some concessions to certain White House priorities.
Also today, The Washington Post reported that the USPS recently sent letters to 40 U.S. states saying that state deadlines to request, return, and count mail-in ballots might not allow the USPS to ensure delivery of those ballots in time to be counted. This seems to contradict what U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said yesterday.
And, during a press briefing Trump was asked by a reporter if he supports Marjorie Taylor Greene's belief in and support of the QAnon conspiracy theory. Trump did not answer the reporter's question. He simply reiterated what he said in a tweet back on August 12, 2020 and then quickly moved on to a different reporter. The original reporter interjected her question again, but Trump ignored her.
Commentary:
I usually recommend against watching videos, but I suggest you watch the video of Trump ignoring the reporter when asked about QAnon. It's really amazing to watch how quickly Trump "moves on" without saying one word about QAnon.
It's impossible to know for sure how Trump feels about QAnon, but I'm sure he doesn't want the subject brought up by the media. Any real president would do the right thing, set the record straight, and make a definitive statement about a conspiracy theory like this.
Late yesterday, at a press briefing Trump seemed to change his tune on USPS funding saying he would sign legislation giving more funds to the USPS.
Commentary:
This is classic Trump, saying whatever is politically expedient in the moment.
The only thing we can say for sure about what's going on in Trump's mind is that now, more than ever, the most important thing to him is doing everything he can to help portray the image that he's doing a good job as president (as evidenced by his "COVID reboot" on July 19, 2020 when he did a complete turnabout regarding wearing masks saying that it's "patriotic") and to do everything he can to win reelection.
Aug 13, 2020:
At a press briefing, Trump was asked by a reporter if he regretted all of his lies. Here's the exchange:
Reporter:
Do you regret at all all the lying you've done to the American people?
Trump:
All the what?
Reporter:
All the lying. All the dishonesties.
Trump:
That who has done?
Reporter:
You have done.
Trump paused for a moment, then immediately called on a different reporter, failing to answer the question.
Source:
Samuels, Brett. (August 13, 2020). "Trump ignores question when asked if he regrets 'all the lying you've done'". The Hill. Retrieved 2020-08-30.
Trump continued to express his opposition to giving more money to the financially-troubled United States Postal Service (USPS). Trump also said that Democrats want "universal mail-in voting." This comes at a time when, because of the coronavirus pandemic, there will be considerably more mail-in voting in this year's November election.
Regarding an additional $3.5 billion that Democrats have proposed for election resources amid the coronavirus pandemic, Trump said:
They [Democrats] want $3.5 billion for something [mail-in voting] that will turn out to be fraudulent. That's election money, basically!
Trump also said:
They want $25 billion for the post office. Now, they need that money in order to have the post office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots. Now in the meantime, they aren't getting there. By the way, those are just two items ([I assume he means the $3.5 billion additional, and the $25 billion in a bill proposed by Democrats in May of this year]. But if they don't get those two items that means you can't have universal mail-in voting, because they're not equipped to have it.
Here's what U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy told the U.S. Postal Service governing board last week:
Although there will likely be an unprecedented increase in election mail volume due to the pandemic, the Postal Service has ample capacity to deliver all election mail securely and on-time in accordance with our delivery standards, and we will do so.
Source:
Samuels, Brett. (August 13, 2020). "Trump says no Post Office funding means Democrats 'can't have universal mail-in voting'". The Hill. Retrieved 2020-08-13.
Riechmann, Deb; Izaguirre, Anthony. (August 13, 2020). "Trump admits he's blocking postal cash to stop mail-in votes". Associated Press. Retrieved 2020-08-13.
Daly, Matthew. (August 13, 2020). "House rescue package includes $25 billion for Postal Service". Associated Press. Retrieved 2020-08-13.
Commentary:
In the recent past Trump has said that mail-in voting is rife with fraud, but there is no evidence to support his claim. Read what factcheck.org has to say about Trump's claim here.
The November election is less than three months away. For sure, there will be millions of people who won't feel comfortable waiting in long polling place lines or venturing out among other people, even wearing a mask and with social-distancing guidelines in place.
Another consideration is that the November election will most likely see record turnout. That means very long lines and waits at polling stations.
Five states already have permanent automatic mail-in ballot systems, where ballots are submitted primarily by mail. An additional five states have implemented temporary automatic mail-in ballot systems in response to the coronavirus pandemic (All-mail voting).
To say that Democrats want "universal mail-in voting" is not accurate. Yes, Democrats want to expand mail-in voting due to the pandemic, but they are not suggesting that every American citizen should vote by mail. This is just another Trump exaggeration.
The U.S. Postmaster General said that the USPS can handle the likely increase in mail-in ballots due to the pandemic. So, there is no reasonable, logical reason to "pooh-pooh" the expansion of mail-in voting. Is it possible that due to the expansion of mail-in voting we won't know the final results of the election on election night because all mail-in ballots haven't yet been counted? Yes, absolutely, and I doubt we will know the final results until at least several days after the election. In fact it could be even longer. So what? I think it's much, much, much more important that people feel safe voting than getting "instant results".
This is nothing more than a Trump "conspiracy theory" and his fear that somehow mail-in voting might help him lose the election.
But there is another important issue you need to know about to fully understand Trump's opposition to USPS funding. It has to do with Trump's belief that the USPS is losing money on it's contracted delivery rates with Amazon, and the fact that Amazon is owned by Jeff Bezos, who also owns The Washington Post (a liberal news source that is often critical of Trump). I'm not going to get into all the "gory details", but you can read about them here:
Trump's Amazon Attack | factcheck.org
Fact Check: Is The Post Office Losing Money By Delivering Packages For Amazon? | NPR
U.S. Postal Service reviewing delivery contracts: WashPost | Reuters
Aug 12, 2020:
Trump tweeted congratulations to Marjorie Taylor Greene for her win in the GOP primary in Georgia's 14th District:
Congratulations to future Republican Star Marjorie Taylor Greene on a big Congressional primary win in Georgia against a very tough and smart opponent. Marjorie is strong on everything and never gives up - a real WINNER!
Source:
Nadler, Ben; Bynum, Russ. (August 12, 2020). "QAnon-supporting candidate unrepentant despite GOP criticism". Associated Press. Retrieved 2020-08-13.
In June of this year Politico discovered Facebook videos of Greene expressing racist, Islamophobic, and anti-Semitic views. Greene also believes in and supports the Qanon conspiracy theory. I strongly suggest you read the quotes from her videos and more about QAnon in the links below:
House Republican leaders condemn GOP candidate who made racist videos | Politico
QAnon Supporter Who Made Bigoted Videos Wins Ga. Primary, Likely Heading To Congress | NPR
What is QAnon? How the conspiracy theory gained traction in 2020 campaign | PBS
Commentary:
So, here we have Trump congratulating and giving his support to someone who makes racist comments and who believes in QAnon. Do you think it's OK for the president of the United States to support someone like this? When Trump does things like this, can you understand why so many people in this country think he's a racist?
Aug 11, 2020:
The Big Ten conference presidents and chancellors voted to postpone all fall sports seasons.
The The Pac-12 CEO group voted unanimously to postpone all fall sports seasons.
Trump was interviewed on two different radio programs.
Speaking on Fox Sports Radio Trump said:
These football players [college] are very young, strong people and — physically. I mean, they're physically in extraordinary shape. So they're not going to have a problem. You're not going to see people — you know, could there be? Could it happen? But I doubt it. You're not going to see people dying.
It's been horrible for basketball [a reference to players kneeling before the start of a game and wearing shirts with "Black Lives Matter"]. Look at the basketball ratings. People are angry about it. They have enough politics with guys like me. They don't need more. There was a nastiness about the NBA and the way it was done. The NBA is in trouble. Big trouble.
Speaking with Hugh Hewitt on his radio program Trump said that college players "should play football" and that they should "stand for our flag and respect our flag." He also said:
Basketball didn't do that, and they're down [the] tubes. Their ratings are terrible. Like, terrible. People are angry about it.
Trump also tweeted the following:
More Testing, which is a good thing (we have the most in the world), equals more Cases, which is Fake News Gold. They use Cases to demean the incredible job being done by the great men & women of the U.S. fighting the China Plague!
Source:
Forgey, Quint. (August 11, 2020). "Trump unloads in morning interviews as U.S. struggles to tame virus". Politico. Retrieved 2020-08-19.
Thorne, Will. (August 18, 2020). "Are NBA TV Ratings Really 'Big Trouble' for Basketball?". Variety. Retrieved 2020-08-19.
Trump, Donald. (August 11, 2020). "Tweet". Twitter. Retrieved 2020-08-19.
Commentary:
Before I get into the details of Trump's comments, let me remind you of one key moment in the pandemic. On April 3, 2020, Trump missed a golden opportunity to significantly reduce the spread of the coronavirus by not setting an example and not fully supporting the CDC's newly announced recommendation to wear a mask. I think he should have gone one step further and issued a nationwide mask mandate (I will discuss this missed opportunity in detail in a future segment of this series). If he had seriously addressed mask wearing at that time, as any reasonable, rational person would have done, it would have helped to contain and manage the spread of the coronavirus, and it's quite possible that some college sports conferences would not now feel the need to cancel their fall seasons.
Yes, I agree that young, fit football players are probably less likely to get sick from the coronavirus, but Trump describes them as being nearly super-human and that there won't be any deaths. This is NOT a realistic assessment. Trump has no way of knowing if or how many people might die. And, of course, Trump fails to mention, again, one more very important point - it's not all about a person getting sick themselves, it's about how they might spread it to others.
Think about how close football players are in contact with one another during a game, on the sidelines, and in the locker room. If you factor in pre-game and post-game time, you're probably talking about 4-5 hours per game. How about travel time on an airplane or a bus? How about practice time during the week between games? I doubt Trump thinks about any of these things because again, his priority is getting things back to "normal" in order to help him win reelection, not the health and welfare of American citizens.
Regarding Trump's comments about the NBA, when he says "people are angry about it" you have to ask the question, "What people?" I'm sure there are a fair number of Trump supporters out there who detest the Black Lives Matter movement and all it stands for. And I'm sure some of those people are probably angry when they see someone take a knee in protest before a game, or see Black Lives Matter on the back of a jersey. So what?
In case you're not aware of it, on June 5, 2020, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell reversed his prior stance on kneeling protests, saying the league now encourages players to speak out and protest. I realize Trump is only talking about the NBA here, but Trump has also spoken out about NFL protests in the past. So, if the NFL commissioner says it's OK to protest, to Trump I say, "What the hell is your problem?"
Trump goes on to say "They [the NBA] have enough politics with guys like me." Well, I don't think the Black Lives Matter movement is about politics. I think it's about morality, and right and wrong. Apparently, Trump doesn't "get" that most of the NBA players are people of color, and that the death of George Floyd is, in all likelihood, "much closer to home" to them. Not that I would expect Trump to understand this, because I don't think Trump has the capacity to empathize.
Trump said that the NBA is in "big trouble". He's referring to TV ratings, claiming that ratings are down because of kneeling and Black Lives Matter shirts. An article on the Variety website entitled Are NBA TV Ratings Really 'Big Trouble' for Basketball? sheds more light on Trump's claim, essentially saying there are other factors that account for the decline in ratings.
This is just Trump spreading more disinformation, again because it fits into his own narrative and "bubble" of reality.
Regarding Trump's tweet about coronavirus cases, how does reporting cases "demean" COVID-10 frontline workers? It doesn't "demean" anyone. Confirmed cases is just a number, a number that is compiled and tracked by every country in the world, including the U.S. It's used to determine how fast the virus is spreading and to identify where surges are taking place. This is just more Trump absurdity and "spin".
Aug 8, 2020:
Speaking at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, Trump said the following:
If the Democrats controlled in Washington — the Democrats' control of Washington — they'd pass — with all of the things they do — legislation gutting every single police department in America. They truly do; many of these people want to defund the police department. At a minimum, they're to stop money from going to the police department, but in many cases they actually wanted to defund, completely, the police department.
No city, no town, and no suburb would be safe. Your suburbs would be a disaster. Your cities, your towns would be a disaster. They want every city to be a Portland or to be a Chicago, which is totally out of control, and we're waiting for the mayor. We've sent people in to help them from an intelligence standpoint, but we're waiting for them to call — the governor, the mayor. We could do a very good job in Chicago. Nobody's ever seen anything like that — this country.
And yet, nationwide numbers are good, despite the Chicagos and the Portlands — and, frankly, the New Yorks, when you look at what's happened in New York. Three hundred and forty-eight percent increase in the last number of months. Nobody has seen anything like that. It's so sad. To me, it's so sad because I love New York. And it's so sad. And it — all it is, is horrible, horrible incompetent management by politicians that truly don't know what they're doing.
It would be nice to be able to do it with the Democrats, but they're really just interested in one thing, and that's protecting people that have not done a good job in managing cities and states. And nothing to do with COVID, nothing to do with — or little to do. They want to be able to make up for many, many years — in some cases, decades — of bad management. We can't do that. So that's what they want. They want to do that, and we don't want to do that.
Source:
Trump, Donald. (August 8, 2020). "Remarks by President Trump in Press Briefing | Bedminster, NJ". whitehouse.gov. Retrieved 2020-08-11.
Commentary:
Again, as always, Trump is spreading lies and disinformation. Democrats DO NOT want to pass legislation "gutting every single police department in America." Nor to Democrats want to "in many cases defund completely the police department". Nor do Democrats "want every city to be a Portland or to be a Chicago". All of these accusations are completely absurd and just a bunch of Trump baloney. Trump says these things strictly for political impact, because to him it sounds good and fits his highly distorted view of reality. Lies and gross exaggerations do not help our democracy - they only help to destroy it.
Notice that Trump said he sent "intelligence" people to Portland, but he conveniently left out the fact that he also sent in military personnel who were actively engaged in the protests. Why do you think he would omit that? I think it's because his decision to send in active military has been met with wide criticism, and he doesn't want to reiterate that point.
Hogan Gidley, the national press secretary for the Trump campaign, exaggerated threats regarding mail-in fraud in an interview with CNN host Michael Smerconish.
Read a transcript of the interview here and read a detailed analysis on factcheck.org here.
Aug 6, 2020:
Speaking in Cleveland, Ohio, Trump said the following:
Look, we are running against a radical left ideology. Their messenger is Sleepy Joe. He doesn't know what the message is. He has no idea what the message is, but he will do whatever they tell him to do because he is not all there.
Joe Biden's policies put China first and America last, and that is what he will continue to do if he ever got the shot. And you will have a disruption in markets the likes of which our country has ever seen. You will have a crush in the markets because he will double and triple your taxes. He is going to do things that nobody would ever think impossible - think even possible because he is following the radical left agenda. Take away your guns, destroy your Second Amendment, no religion, no anything, hurt the Bible, hurt God. He's against God.
Joe Biden responded to Trump with the following:
President Trump's comments reveal more about him than they do about anyone else. They show us a man willing to stoop to any low for political gain, and someone whose actions are completely at odds with the values and teachings that he professes to believe in.
Source:
Lambert, Lisa. (August 6, 2020). "Trailing in election polls, Trump says rival Biden opposes God and guns". Reuters. Retrieved 2020-08-06.
(August 6, 2020). "President Trump Delivers Remarks in Cleveland, Ohio". C-Span. Retrieved 2020-08-06.
Aug 3, 2020:
Trump spoke with Axios reporter Jonathan Swan in an interview on July 28, 2020. The interview aired today on HBO. Watch the video here.
Regarding the severity of the coronavirus pandemic:
Trump:
Under the circumstances right now, I think it's under control.
Swan:
How? 1,000 Americans are dying a day.
Trump:
They are dying. That's true. And it is what it is. But that doesn't mean we aren't doing everything we can. It's under control as much as you can control it.
Swan:
You really think this is as much as we can control it? 1,000 deaths a day?
Trump:
First of all, we have done a great job. We've gotten the governors everything they needed, they didn't do their job. Many of them didn't and some of them did...We had good and bad. And we had a lot in the middle, but we had some incredible governors...We gave them massive amounts of material...I got them tremendous amounts of equipment that they would have never gotten. Jonathan, they wouldn't have equipment now, if I didn't get.
Regarding coronavirus testing:
Trump:
And there are those that say you can test too much.
Swan:
Who says that?
Trump:
Oh, just read the manuals, read the books.
Let me explain. What testing does, it shows cases. It shows where there may be cases. Other countries test… you know when they test? They test when somebody is sick. That's when they test. And I'm not saying they're right or wrong. Nobody has done it like we've done it. We've gotten absolutely no credit for it.
Trump then goes into a long discussion about coronavirus testing in the U.S. To paraphrase Trump, he says that the quality of coronavirus testing has improved a lot in the U.S. over the course of this year so that even a kid with "just a little runny nose" might now show up as a case. He finishes his discussion about this by saying:
The point is, because we are so much better at testing than any other country in the world, we show more cases.
The discussion then turns to coronavirus deaths:
Swan:
The figure I look at is death. And death is going up now.
This statement by Swan starts a long back-and-forth between Swan and Trump. Swan keeps coming back to deaths as a percentage of the U.S. population. Trump says "you can't do that" and keeps insisting that deaths as a percentage of cases is the correct statistic to consider.
Swan states that nationally, deaths had gone down, but were now back up to 1,000 per day. Trump never acknowledges this, instead continuing to say how deaths have recently declined in a few states. Trump also continues to "hammer home" his praise for U.S. coronavirus testing, to which Swan eventually replies:
If hospitals rates were going down and deaths were going down, I'd say, terrific. You deserve to be praised for testing.
Next, Swan pivots to Russia and recent reports that Russia offered to pay bounties for American soldiers killed by the Taliban in Afghanistan. When asked by Swan, Trump said he did not bring this subject up with Vladimir Putin in a phone call with him on July 23, 2020.
Trump:
It's interesting. Nobody ever brings up China. They always bring Russia, Russia, Russia. If we can do something with Russia in terms of nuclear proliferation, which is a very big problem...Bigger problem than global warming...A much bigger problem than global warming in terms of the real world...
The discussion then centers around how much Trump trusts U.S. intelligence and whether Trump actually reads his daily intelligence briefings. At one point Trump says:
I comprehend extraordinarily well, probably better than anybody that you've interviewed in a long time. I read a lot. I spend a lot of time at meetings. Usually it's once a day or at least two or three times a week, intelligence meetings.
Swan then puts Trump on the spot by asking the following regarding the disputed reports about Russian bounties:
The reason I say this is, even if you don't believe this particular piece of intelligence, and there is dispute, no doubt, there is dispute in the intelligence committee about it, John Nicholson, former head of forces in Afghanistan said, and this is when he was working for you, that Russia is supplying weapons to the Taliban. Isn't that enough to challenge Putin over the killings of U.S. soldiers?
Trump never directly answers Swan's question, instead talking about how the U.S. supplied weapons to Afghanistan when it was at war with Russia many years ago.
Next, the discussion becomes another long back-and-forth regarding troop levels in Afghanistan. Here's the essence of what was said:
Swan:
The US troop level in Afghanistan right now is roughly the same as it was when you-
Trump:
No, you're wrong. No.
Swan:
Look, when you came in, it was 8,800. You boosted to 14,000, and now you're back down to 8,500...On election day, how many American troops will be in Afghanistan?
Trump:
Probably anywhere from four to 5,000.
Regarding whether Trump will accept the results of the upcoming presidential election:
Swan:
You told Fox News recently that you couldn't say whether you'd accept the results of the 2020 election. What does that actually look like as the sitting president? I mean, it's unprecedented. What would that actually look like?
Trump:
Well, Hillary Clinton never accepted them.
Swan:
Well, she conceded on them.
Trump:
I mean, she doesn't accept them and she got beaten very easily.
After more back-and-forth about this Swan says:
I'm not disputing you beat Hillary Clinton. Listen, what of asking is you'll be the sitting president in the White House. What does that look like not accepting-
This question launches another long back-and-forth about mail-in voting, applications versus ballots, and current court cases. Here's the essence of that discussion:
Trump:
There is no way you can go through a mail-in vote without massive cheating.
And now because of the China virus, we're supposed to stay home, send millions of ballots all over the country, millions and millions. You know, you could have a case where this election won't be decided on the evening of November 3rd.
Swan:
Absolutely. What's wrong with that?
Trump:
This election could be decided two months later...It could be decided many months later...You know why? Because lots of things will happen during that period of time. Especially when you have tight margins, lots of things can happen.
Regarding the arrest of Ghislaine Maxwell on charges of sex-trafficking:
Swan:
Mr. President, Ghislaine Maxwell has been arrested on allegations of child sex trafficking. Why would you wish such a person well?
Trump:
Well, first of all, I don't know that, but I do know this-
Swan:
She has. She's been arrested for that. You know that.
Trump then talks about the death of Jeffrey Epstein, interjecting the following:
And I do wish her well. I'm not looking for anything bad for her. I'm not looking bad for anybody.
Regarding Portland protests:
Swan:
I'm sure you've seen the disturbing footage of people in fatigues beating the Navy veteran.
Trump:
No, no, no, no, no, no. No. No.
Swan:
Well, it's there.
Trump:
here you go, the fake news.
Swan:
It's not fake news, it's on video.
Trump:
No, no.
Swan:
Pepper spraying him.
Trump then starts talking about the protests, how long they've been going on, and so on. After being interrupted by Trump and more back-and-forth, Swan eventually gets his question out regarding a Homeland Security Inspector General investigation into unconstitutional behavior by some of the federal military people sent to Portland.
Swan:
There's an investigation. Do you support that investigation?
Trump:
Well, I haven't seen the result yet. Let me see the result.
Swan:
But you support the initiative of it?
Trump:
I think Antifa should be investigated, not the law enforcement.
Swan:
They shouldn't be investigating?
Trump never answers this confirmation question by Swan.
Then, the discussion turns to "Black Lives Matter" and racial injustice:
Swan:
There were Americans out in the streets asking for change. Mr. President, have you ever met with a Black Lives Matter activist to hear them out, hear their arguments?
After more back-and-forth, Trump finally says:
Nobody's asked for a meeting, right? I've never been, nobody's ever asked me for a meeting.
Swan:
Do you believe though, Mr. President, that many police treat black people differently from white people?
Trump:
Well, I hope not. I hope not. Certainly the...The knee on the neck was a disgrace. Okay?
Swan:
I'm talking about what does systemic racism mean to you?
Trump:
I hope the answer to that question is no. Does anybody really answer that question accurately? Does anybody really know?
Swan:
But what about not hope? What about analysis? What's your cold-hearted view of it?
Trump:
I have seen where there is a difference and I don't want there to be a difference. I don't like that there would be a difference.
Swan:
Why do you think Black men are two and a half times-
Trump:
Police have killed white people-
Swan:
I know, but why do you think Black men-
Trump:
… in larger number, police have killed white people.
Swan:
In quantity, but why do you think Black men are two and a half times more likely to be killed by police than white men?
Trump:
That I don't know-
Swan:
In quantity, but why do you think Black men are two and a half times more likely to be killed by police than white men?
Trump:
That I don't know-
Swan:
But proportionally, what does it speak to?
Trump:
If that's the number [two and a half times], it speaks to something that to me is unacceptable.
Swan:
And what do you do about it then?
Trump:
Well, I think we've already done a lot of things-
Swan:
But you haven't, it still exists.
Trump:
Well, I think we've already done a lot of things-
At this point Trump launches into an explanation of all the things he has done for blacks, while Swan tries to get him to answer the core question of what has he done to address racial injustice.
Swan:
You really believe you did more than Lyndon Johnson who passed the Civil Rights Act?
Trump:
I think I did, yeah.
Regarding the late Congressman John Lewis:
Swan:
John Lewis is lying in state in the U.S. Capitol. How do you think history will remember John Lewis?
Trump:
I don't know. I really don't know. I don't know. I don't know John Lewis. He chose not to come to my inauguration.
Swan:
Do you find his story impressive?
Trump:
He didn't come to my inauguration. He didn't come to my State of the Union speeches, and that's okay. That's his right...He should've come. I think he made a big mistake by not showing up.
Source:
(August 3, 2020). "Donald Trump Interview Transcript With Jonathan Swan of Axios on HBO". Rev. Retrieved 2020-09-07.
Commentary:
First, I didn't count them all, but Trump interrupted Swan many, many times during this interview. THIS IS NOT OK. Just because you don't agree with someone's opinion or their set of "facts" doesn't give you the right to interrupt, dominate, and control the narrative. Trump does this all the time, day after day, almost every time he opens his mouth during an interview. That's not how America and democracy work. In a democracy, all sides and all viewpoints are heard. This is yet another example of the erosion of civility and the erosion of our democracy with Trump as president. It's shameful, it's a disgrace, and every American citizen should be outraged by this kind of pathetic behavior.
Trump's discussion of the coronavirus pandemic just illustrates his continuing downplay of its severity and his continued touting of how good his administration has responded.
Regarding Russia, Trump said that nuclear proliferation is "A much bigger problem than global warming in terms of the real world." Knowing how Trump feels about climate change and climate science, this statement doesn't surprise me. But "in terms of the real world", I say global warming is a much greater threat than nuclear proliferation by Russia.
Regarding whether he will accept the results of the upcoming presidential election, Trump plays a little "game of semantics" with Swan regarding what's meant by "accepting" and "conceding." And Trump never really answers Swan's question regarding what not accepting the election results would look like.
Regarding mail-in voting Trump said, "There is no way you can go through a mail-in vote without massive cheating." If ever there was a statement intended to lay groundwork for a contested election, this is it. Trump also thinks that with a large volume of mail-in votes we won't know the final results for "many months", and that over those months "lots of things can happen." Once again, this is Trump being extreme and trying to paint a "dark and gloomy" picture of what might happen.
Trump vehemently asserts that the brutality against a Navy veteran at a protest in Portland is "fake news." A Reuters article entitled "Navy veteran says he was beaten 'like a punching bag' in Portland" says otherwise.
When asked if Trump has ever sat down with a "Black Lives Matter" activist to listen to what it is they want from the movement, Trump responds that no one has asked him for a meeting. What part about being president and leading does Trump not understand? It's HIS RESPONSIBILITY to do everything he can to address the core issues. HE is the one who should be seeking a meeting with representatives of "Black Lives Matter." But no, not Trump, because Trump is not a leader, and he certainly doesn't understand what's really going on in the hearts and minds of people of color when it comes to racial injustice.
Trump said he thinks he has done more for blacks than former President Lyndon Johnson's passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Wow, Trump's massive ego is certainly on display with that remark! If what Trump says is true, then why is there so much racial unrest, and why are there so many protests? If Trump has been "that good" in dealing with the situation, then why are things so bad? This shows just how distant from reality Trump's "reality bubble" really is.
Finally, when asked how history will remember John Lewis, Trump says "I don't know." four times, and then immediately mentions the fact that Lewis did not attend Trump's inauguration. When asked if Trump finds the John Lewis story impressive, Trump doesn't answer the question, but instead repeats the fact that Lewis didn't attend Trump's inauguration, and he adds that Lewis didn't come to any of Trump's State of the Union speeches either. Trump ends that remark by saying Lewis made a big mistake by not showing up.
Wow, once again this is highly telling about Trump's personality and his inner self. John Lewis is an icon. He was a prominent crusader for racial justice most of his life. But Trump makes his passing all about himself. He makes it all about how he was "snubbed" by Lewis. It's almost beyond my comprehension that any person could respond this way to Swan's questions, but there it is, staring all of us right in the face.
Commentary:
The false information is about information posted on the CDC website regarding deaths due to COVID-19.
The information in question - that only 6% of people that have died from COVID-19 had that listed as the sole cause of death - is highly misleading because so many people who have COVID-19 also develop other conditions (e.g., respiratory failure), and one or more of these other conditions are the final cause of death.
At first glance, it sounds like 94% of the deaths noted in the CDC statistics are not due to COVID-19 - a statistic that fits Trump's unrealistic pandemic narrative - but that's not what the statistics mean.
The information retweeted by Trump is just another attempt at downplaying the severity of the pandemic and to, yet again, mislead the American public.