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Donald Trump is No "Teflon Don"

Donald Trump may already be a lame-duck. He is so embattled that none of his plans are going through and Congress is practically at a stand-still.

The White House announced yesterday he was ending two advisory commissions: one on manufacturing and one on infrastructure.

"[Donald Trump] has announced the end of the Manufacturing Council and the Strategy & Policy Forum. In addition, the President's Advisory Council on Infrastructure, which was still being formed, will not move forward," a White House official said Thursday.

The Teflon Don he is not. Republicans are so concerned about his effect on their re-election, they are distancing themselves from his as much as possible. Democrats just want to scrape him off the bottom of their shoes. His chances of doing anything while occupying a desk in the Oval Office are zilch.

Will he resign? Don't count the chickens before they're hatched. The pressure must stay on and the media must do the job now they failed to do during his campaign. [More...]

Meanwhile, where were Ivanka and Jared while Pops sank further into the mud this week? On their magic vacation bus, this time in Vermont. Vanity Fair reports:

As the Trump campaign imploded last August, the couple jetted off to Croatia, where they unburdened themselves aboard David Geffen’s yacht with Wendi Deng. When the president was in the midst of a full-court press to repeal and replace Obamacare—the first time around—earlier this year, the Trump-Kushners joined their siblings on the slopes of Aspen for a petite spring break. As the Russia investigation ramped up in July and the focus turned to Kushner’s involvement in a Trump Tower meeting with his brother-in-law and a Russian lawyer, the two spent a couple days in more familiar territory, breathing in fresh mountain air in Sun Valley, Idaho, where they attended Allen & Co.’s annual billionaire confab. On Tuesday, while Trump defended the white supremacists and pleased David Duke, Ivanka and Kushner were in Vermont, on a pre-planned, two-day vacation.

Who pre-plans a two-day "vacation."? Since they were in Bedminister with Pops last weekend, when he made his first Charlottesville speech, it sounds like they made their plans on Saturday night or Sunday morning, as soon as Shabat was over.

As Vanity Fair says,

By now, though, it is clear that they don’t have nearly as much sway as anyone had assumed. They do, however, deserve credit for perfect timing and honoring their real-estate scion roots and birthrights to a spring break in March and a subsequent August vacation regardless of the fact that they are now in charge of Middle East peace and job creation.

Meanwhile, the rabbi who presided over Ivanka's conversion was critical of Trump's remarks on Charlottesville yesterday, as were several of his high-level Jewish Republican supporters, including Sheldon Adelson.

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  • Display: Sort:
    It's obvious Trump's no "Teflon Don." (5.00 / 2) (#1)
    by Donald from Hawaii on Fri Aug 18, 2017 at 03:34:42 AM EST
    For starters, Teflon doesn't attract flies. But given that his base's olfactory senses have apparently long since failed them, it apparently doesn't matter to them. Per a CBS News poll just out today, 67% of Republicans approve of Trump's handling of the Charlottesville situation. And therein lies the political conundrum for skittish GOP members of Congress because overall, only 34% of Americans approve of Trump's behavior this past week.

    Rock, meet hard place.

    It should be fairly clear by now that (5.00 / 1) (#2)
    by Anne on Fri Aug 18, 2017 at 06:14:15 AM EST
    Donald Trump will never resign; he will have to be dragged kicking and screaming from the WH, and you can be sure that he will wreak as much damage as he can on the way out.

    I do not believe this man cares about his country, or about the people who live in it.  He cares about himself, first, last and always.  He acts based on who is nice to him and who isn't, who tries to control him and who doesn't, who is loyal and who isn't, what will make him money and what won't.  

    His ideology?  Trumpism.  Empty your brain of everything you ever learned about anything, and get a dartboard, and you, too, can be a Trumpist.  

    However this failed experiment ends, it will be ugly, and like a major tornado or hurricane, the damage he has done will last far into the future, and will not be without more violence and pain.

    One thing's for sure: if there's a decision to impeach or censure or invoke the 25th Amendment, it better be a lock, because if it fails, that's when we're going to see the fire and fury.

    Mitt Romney has posted on facebook. (none / 0) (#3)
    by Chuck0 on Fri Aug 18, 2017 at 09:18:12 AM EST
    Calling for Cheeto to "acknowledge that he was wrong". Is he serious? I thought Romney was a reasonably smart guy. Hasn't figured out who or what this guy is? He will NEVER, EVER apologize for ANYTHING. He is never wrong. He doesn't make mistakes. EVER. Why do these people like Romney still believe that this guy is human. That he possesses any real human emotion or empathy. He does not.

    IMO (none / 0) (#4)
    by Ga6thDem on Fri Aug 18, 2017 at 11:20:31 AM EST
    Romney knows that Trump is never going to renounced Nazism. However it looks like he has been chosen as one of the first to come out and demand that Trump renounce Nazism. He's probably just testing the waters for other Republicans.

    Parent
    Matt Drudge via the Twitter going off (none / 0) (#5)
    by Militarytracy on Fri Aug 18, 2017 at 11:42:26 AM EST
    Seems to be trying to report that Steve Bannon is fired.

    Soon we will get to taste his fire and see exactly how much spin and strike ability he has.

    Parent

    Bannon is out. Today. (5.00 / 3) (#7)
    by Towanda on Fri Aug 18, 2017 at 01:14:28 PM EST
    Reportage initially was that he would stay on for a while, but now are that Kelly had his way in getting Bannon out today.

    And initial reports were that this was in response to Bannon's misread of how to respond to Charlottesville, or to Bannon's weird call to and interview with the American Prospect -- but reports also are that Bannon was told two weeks ago, and that it's because he is the source of the White House leaks.  In that context, his call to a liberal publication is even more interesting . . . as is his alleged forgetting to say that it was off the record.

    But, of course, this unleashes Bannon to be even worse.

    Parent

    Every day Bannon stays (none / 0) (#9)
    by Militarytracy on Fri Aug 18, 2017 at 07:31:02 PM EST
    He's just collecting possible half truths he can use to prop up/validate his propaganda against you with. The guy is brilliant at screwing people utterly over, zero conscience. He subscribes to no creed or sense of order and justice.

    Parent
    And I dare Bannon to leak some heavy (none / 0) (#10)
    by Militarytracy on Fri Aug 18, 2017 at 07:34:52 PM EST
    Intel he ingested from the NSC. I think Kelly and McMaster are ready for him to be arrested and questioned and even imprisoned. But knock yourselves out Steve. You've got nuthin to lose.

    Parent
    yeah (none / 0) (#6)
    by Ga6thDem on Fri Aug 18, 2017 at 12:00:17 PM EST
    I just saw that. I wonder if it was Bannon calling his own followers names or what. Either way the more Nazis that are gone out of Washington the better.

    Parent
    It was that Bannon is a liar and a manipulator (none / 0) (#8)
    by Militarytracy on Fri Aug 18, 2017 at 07:27:07 PM EST
    And cares not one fig for the US and the integrity it must attempt to uphold. Every nation falls short, but you must get out of bed and strive for it again and again. Military officers cannot abide the Steve Bannon that they must buy used cars from. It disgusts them, makes them nauseous.

    Getting him out because he's a leaker I'm certain was important to national security to Kelly and McMaster. The real nail in his coffin with Kelly? That Bannon tried to phuck the NSA of the United States of America, no matter who that is! If it was Susan Rice, Kelly would behead Bannon for that as well.

    McMaster has an incredibly intense job, and then some rotwad is attempting to make your life difficult and undermine you via trolls and bots! Kelly got Bannon out of the White House as soon as he could making whatever arguments worked with Trump. I bet Panetta helped him map that out too.

    That SOB Bannon would sell his own mother. Our national security was deeply at risk with him in the wing. Feck Bannon!!! I have to survive Trump. That prospect is singularly difficult and risky enough.

    Parent