The Former Trump Presidency Thread

[Blackhawk]

Also, #1 is like the underpants gnomes' famous ???? line item.

That was the first thing that popped into my mind, too. As soon as they figure out what #1 is, profit!

[Jaymon]

The question is, are there any adults on the republican side willing to see through the crazy, and just start with line number 5. Anybody with sufficient enough smooth talking skills to get Trump to go alone with the plan? Well, not like Trump has to do much. Getting him placed as speaker, and then drafting the articles of impeachment, thats all work that can be handled by toadies. Trump would need to do nothing except agree.

[Smoove_B]

NEW: Trump charged the Secret Service another $18,699 in June for rooms that agents used while protecting him in Bedminster, receipts show.

In six months as an ex-POTUS, Trump has already charged his protectors more than $72,000.

[malchior]

This is so sleazy. Congress should bundle a provision into the reconciliation package to only authorize prevailing room rates for Secret Service protection details -- for Trump specifically. He and his family have been abusing it since day 1. Time to turn off the graft tap.

[LawBeefaroni]

This is so sleazy. Congress should bundle a provision into the reconciliation package to only authorize prevailing room rates for Secret Service protection details -- for Trump specifically. He and his family have been abusing it since day 1. Time to turn off the graft tap.

We elected him and this is what we get. He's a former American President forever.

Remember when impeachment wasn't worth the political capital? He would have lost most of these perks if he was impeached, convicted by Congress., and removed from office. But nah, waste of time.

[Alefroth]

Do agents stay at Bedminster even when he isn't there? Hasn't he been in Mar a Lago most of the time?

[LawBeefaroni]

Do agents stay at Bedminster even when he isn't there? Hasn't he been in Mar a Lago most of the time?

They stay while he is there and part of the detail is there before and after. So if he's there a week, they may be there 14 days or something. Don't know the exact numbers.

[Kraken]

We don't seem to have a Russia thread, at least not in the most recent four pages, so I'll dump this here: If these leaked Kremlin papers are legit, we now know that trump was Putin's stooge.

Vladimir Putin personally authorised a secret spy agency operation to support a “mentally unstable” Donald Trump in the 2016 US presidential election during a closed session of Russia’s national security council, according to what are assessed to be leaked Kremlin documents.

The key meeting took place on 22 January 2016, the papers suggest, with the Russian president, his spy chiefs and senior ministers all present.

They agreed a Trump White House would help secure Moscow’s strategic objectives, among them “social turmoil” in the US and a weakening of the American president’s negotiating position.

Russia’s three spy agencies were ordered to find practical ways to support Trump, in a decree appearing to bear Putin’s signature.

By this point Trump was the frontrunner in the Republican party’s nomination race. A report prepared by Putin’s expert department recommended Moscow use “all possible force” to ensure a Trump victory.
...
There is a brief psychological assessment of Trump, who is described as an “impulsive, mentally unstable and unbalanced individual who suffers from an inferiority complex”.

There is also apparent confirmation that the Kremlin possesses kompromat, or potentially compromising material, on the future president, collected – the document says – from Trump’s earlier “non-official visits to Russian Federation territory”.

The paper refers to “certain events” that happened during Trump’s trips to Moscow. Security council members are invited to find details in appendix five, at paragraph five, the document states. It is unclear what the appendix contains.
...
Putin has repeatedly denied accusations of interfering in western democracy. The documents seem to contradict this claim. They suggest the president, his spy officers and senior ministers were all intimately involved in one of the most important and audacious espionage operations of the 21st century: a plot to help put the “mentally unstable” Trump in the White House.

The papers appear to set out a route map for what actually happened in 2016.

This would not be complete without a trump staff reaction:

“This is disgusting. It’s fake news, just like RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA was fake news. It’s just the Radical Left crazies doing whatever they can to demean everybody on the right.

“It’s fiction, and nobody was tougher on Russia than me, including on the pipeline, and sanctions. At the same time we got along with Russia. Russia respected us, China respected us, Iran respected us, North Korea respected us.

“And the world was a much safer place than it is now with mentally unstable leadership.”

So basically an admission of guilt.

[Formix]

The best part is, "leaking" the documents further destabilizes America's faith in our own systems and government and divides us even more between those of us who will believe this, and those of us who won't.

[malchior]

This is a 'Deathwatch of the 4th Estate' observation but I watched the news for 2 hours this morning and there were zero mentions of this story. I can't find anything online in any US papers (as of this morning yet). First observation is the Guardian has a legit scoop and US media had no insight. Also US media doesn't know what to do with the story. This should be blowing up the air waves here but isn't. I'm guessing without independent confirmation they are paralyzed by the risk that they'll get burned if the story falls apart. It's really telling that they are so afraid of repercussions that they won't even talk about a story reported by a very reputable source in the UK. Unless you are attuned to Twitter where some representatives from the big papers retweeted or commented on it, you'd think this had fallen into a news black hole.

What stories were they talking about with Trump instead today? The upcoming books by Washington Post reporters 'Only I Can Fix It'. And on morning joe when they talked about excerpts from the book she even ended it with the disclaimer that they didn't independently confirm the story. So they for whatever reason haven't decided to report out 'The Guardian' account even with a strong disclaimer. This story may be too toxic at the moment. It's sort of fascinating in a train wreck sort of way.

[pr0ner]

There's enough stuff that doesn't add up in that Guardian story that the US media shouldn't be running with it.

[malchior]

There's enough stuff that doesn't add up in that Guardian story that the US media shouldn't be running with it.

Care to expand on that claim? I haven't seen anything disputing the authenticity yet.

Edit: Aside from the idea that papers at this level almost certainly wouldn't 'leak' out though we can't dismiss they were intentionally leaked if real.

[pr0ner]

The Rid thread and Krebs tweets showed up on my timeline yesterday afternoon; emptywheel's stuff today. This wasn't hard to find.

[malchior]

Right I saw that stuff. I don't understand how that should prevent publication. My take is the risk this is disinformation is real but that has to be balanced that this is still an incredibly important and legitimate news story. This is pretty the equivalent of saying we are worried about the provenance of a story published in the NY Times. No media agency is perfect but it's still odd that everyone here thinks it is too radioactive to touch despite the high quality of the source. That says volumes to me.

[pr0ner]

It can't be disinformation and legitimate at the same time. Come on.

[hepcat]

Count me amongst those who believe this is too good to be true. The worst thing those who oppose Trump and his cult can do is jump on the bandwagon for stories like this. If (well...in my opinion, when) it blows up in our faces and is revealed as fake, it's just going to give the Trump universe even more ammo in their bid to discredit any negative news item that comes up.

Hell, I'm not even convinced Trump himself hasn't released this in order to pull back the curtain later and yell "I GOT YOU!".

[LawBeefaroni]

They're waiting on the reaction from the Kremlin. No need to risk lead/polonium poisoning or "accidental" defenestration.

[malchior]

It can't be disinformation and legitimate at the same time. Come on.

That isn't what I said.

[malchior]

Count me amongst those who believe this is too good to be true. The worst thing those who oppose Trump and his cult can do is jump on the bandwagon for this. If (well...in my opinion, when) it blows up in our faces and is revealed as fake, it's just going to give the Trump universe even more ammo in their bid to discredit any negative news item that comes up.

Totally agree that is the risk they are worried about. That's the interesting part to me that I'm getting out. They are so cowed by the #fakenews narrative that they are afraid to even remark on a 'peer' publication.

Hell, I'm not even convinced Trump himself hasn't released this in order to pull back the curtain later and yell "I GOT YOU!".

He isn't this clever.

[hepcat]

Tell that to the folks who think Trump is bucking to become Speaker of the House in a House of Cards way of getting back to the presidency.

[malchior]

Tell that to the folks who think Trump is bucking to become Speaker of the House in a House of Cards way of getting back to the presidency.

Yeah anyone who thinks Trump is behind that fan fic needs to buy a totally still structurally intact bridge in Georgia from me.

[Kraken]

Heather Cox Richardson's take on the Kremlin "leak":

There are many reasons to be skeptical of this “leak,” but, in the end, whether true or not, it doesn’t tell us much that we don't already know. There is ample evidence, articulated most clearly in the Senate Intelligence Report on Russian interference in the 2016 election, that Russia worked hard to get Trump elected in 2016.

What is interesting about this story is, if you will pardon this fan of Sherlock Holmes, “the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.” In that old Arthur Conan Doyle tale, the key to the mystery was that the family dog didn’t bark at an intruder in the night and therefore must have known the villain.

Shortly after The Guardian story broke, Trump himself announced that he and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) were meeting over general issues, although these two big stories simply had to be on the agenda, not least because McCarthy was caught on tape in June 2016 saying: “There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump.” (Dana Rohrabacher was a Republican representative from California.) Later today, through his spokesperson, Trump appeared to call the story “fake news,” along with his usual descriptions of stories of his connections to Russia, but, despite a flurry of statements he issued today, these comments were not issued as a statement but were only quoted in his spokesperson’s tweets.

As near as I can tell, the former president is the only Republican who has responded to the story. Other leaders are talking about the border, masks, Cuba, and Britney Spears. Their lack of a response to a deeply damaging story about the leader of their party suggests to me that, at best, they are hoping the story will disappear and, at worst, they believe it’s true.

[hepcat]

To be fair, Trump responds to EVERYTHING. I know of 8 year olds who have written "Trump is a doo doo head" in crayon on their bedroom wall who have received official responses on "From the Desk of President Trump" stationary.

[Holman]

It can't be disinformation and legitimate at the same time. Come on.

It could be both true and leaked intentionally.

As pointed out, there's no big revelation here other than what everyone already knew and has (in the interests of short attention-spans and chasing novelty) decided to forget. Bringing it up again stirs the pot and predictably heightens domestic tensions.

Moscow has already seen that MSM reporting on Trump-Russia provokes PRO-Russia feelings on the American Right.

[malchior]

Another Trump flunkie might have been doing something shady and found out adjacent to a Trump investigation.



Edit: looking like FARA violations and obstruction for lying to federal agents about it.

[Isgrimnur]

CNBC

Thomas Barrack, a private equity investor who is a close friend of former President Donald Trump, was arrested Tuesday morning in Los Angeles on federal charges of illegally lobbying Trump on behalf of the United Arab Emirates.
...
The Santa Monica, California, resident is accused with the other defendants of secretly advancing the interests of the UAE at the direction of senior officials of that country by influencing the foreign policy positions of Trump’s 2016 campaign, and then the foreign policy positions of the U.S. government during Trump’s presidency through April 2018.

The indictment noted that Barrack during that time informally advised American officials on Middle East policy, and also sought appointment to a senior role in the U.S. government, including as special envoy to the Middle East.

Charged with the 74-old Barrack are Matthew Grimes, 27, of Aspen, Colorado, and a 43-year-old UAE national, Rashid Sultan Rashid Al Malik Alshahhi. Barrack also is charged with obstruction of justice and making multiple false statements during a June 2019 interview with federal law enforcement agents.

[El Guapo]

CNBC

Thomas Barrack, a private equity investor who is a close friend of former President Donald Trump has never ever heard of, and who is probably some nobody loser who was separate to try to glam onto the greatness of Donald Trump, was arrested Tuesday morning in Los Angeles on federal charges of illegally lobbying Trump on behalf of the United Arab Emirates. "Barrack who?" said President Trump, "I've never ever spoken to or been in the same room as the guy. You're probably thinking of Barrack Obama."

[Octavious]

In normal times this would be major news. Now? 2-3 hours tops.

[malchior]

In normal times this would be major news. Now? 2-3 hours tops.

It's Trumpland. This is boring graft. FARA violations are one of those things they take seriously since it is national security adjacent.

[malchior]

Trump appointee found to have corruptly attempted to discipline officials at Global Media Agency

The U.S. Agency for Global Media welcomed a watchdog’s recent decision to clear six top officials targeted under the previous agency leader of any malfeasance.

The Government Accountability Project, a whistleblower advocacy organization representing one of the employees, announced on July 9 that the State Department inspector general cleared the employees of any wrongdoing after they were deemed “disloyal” by former CEO Michael Pack. Last August Pack suspended the top officials’ security clearances and then put them on indefinite suspension. He also hired an outside law firm (McGuireWoods) to conduct internal investigations that cost at least $1 million, according to GAP. The six officials filed whistleblower complaints with the State IG and Office of Special Counsel in September and five of them filed a lawsuit against the agency in October. When President Biden came into office, all were reinstated except for one who decided to retire.

The Office of Inspector General found “Pack’s suspension of their clearances was unjustified and retaliatory,” which was “unjustified partly because his political staff ordered agency employees to compile dossiers on each executive and told them to include rumors, gossip and uncorroborated statements ‘heard in the halls,’” said a press release from GAP. The IG “rejected the dossiers, saying they were ‘pretextual and were simply created to support the predetermined decision to suspend the clearances of the individuals.’”

Pack’s actions toward these top officials––the chief financial officer, general counsel, executive director, deputy director for operations, director of management services and chief strategy officer––were among many controversial actions during his tenure as CEO, which was June 2020 to January 2021. Government Executive reported in March about how the agency is working to restore morale and trust under the Biden administration.

“[The U.S. Agency for Global Media] welcomes the recent decision by the State Department's Office of Inspector General clearing six senior executives of any wrongdoing,” said Laurie Moy, agency director of public affairs, in a statement to Government Executive this week. “This decision reaffirms the need for individuals to be able to raise concerns, without fear of retaliation, about unethical management practices that might otherwise go undetected. [The agency] is fully committed to protecting the rights of whistleblowers within our agency.”

The IG also flagged other issues that happened at the agency under Pack’s leadership, said GAP. This included Pack and his political appointees having “disregard” of dangers Voice of America journalists faced, Pack’s appointees not taking the novel coronavirus pandemic seriously and agency officials refusing to cooperate with the IG in the investigation. The IG also noted that in August 2020 Pack published a full and complete Office of Personnel Management report about the agency’s personnel suitability and vetting programs. OPM had cautioned against the report’s public release, GAP noted.

[Kurth]

Donald Trump is Keeping the money

Donald Trump isn’t going anywhere because he has finally found a swindle in American politics where he can quite literally just ask people for money and they simply give it to him by the millions. It’s not complicated. It never is with Trump. He’s just doing the thing he telegraphed he would do from the very beginning and stated explicitly in the small print.