Category: Unpresidential

White House Twitter Goes Full Trump, Targets Sen. Kamala Harris For ‘Supporting the Animals of MS-13’

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The White House has often strained to contain President Donald Trump‘s brash rhetoric on his own personal Twitter feed, but every so often the vitriol bleeds into official channels that in previous administrations avoided trolling.

On Monday, the White House’s verified Twitter account took a page out of Trump’s book, directly targeting Democratic senators, falsely accusing them of “supporting” violent gangs.

The account typically posts statements on Trump’s achievements as president. On Monday, however, the account began by spreading positive stories about the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency — which is facing calls for its abolition by Democrats — before taking aim at lawmakers themselves.

Addressing Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), the account tweeted, “why are you supporting criminals moving weapons, drugs, and victims across our nation’s borders?”

“You must not know what ICE really does,” it added, linking to the Border Enforcement Security Task Force page of ICE’s website.

The account also targeted Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), asking “why are you supporting the animals of MS-13?”

Harris and Warren both called to abolish ICE last week, amidst outrage over the separation of migrant children from their parents at the southern border.

Meanwhile, Trump has frequently used the term “animals” to refer to MS-13 gang members, ever since his use of the term first drew outrage in May.

The president faced criticism from Democrats after he was accused of referring to undocumented immigrants as “animals” in vague comments at a televised roundtable. He later explained that he was referring to MS-13, and has exploited the confusion surrounding his comments to accuse Democrats of supporting the violent gang.

Harris later responded to the White House:

[Mediaite]

Trump on Whether We Believe Kim Jong Un: ‘I Shook Hands With Him, I Really Believe He Means It’

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During his big Fox News interview with Maria Bartiromo, President Donald Trump talked again about his relationship with Kim Jong Un.

Bartiromo asked him about the historic summit with Kim in Singapore just weeks ago, saying North Korea should be telling the U.S. “exactly where their facilities are” soon to see how serious Kim is.

“I think they’re very serious about it,” the President responded. “We had a very good chemistry.”

He again talked about ending the “unbelievably expensive” “war games” and insisted, “We gave nothing.”

Trump said he god along very well with Kim before having this exchange with Bartiromo:

BARTIROMO: But do we believe him, Mr. President?

 

TRUMP: I made a deal with him, I shook hands with him. I really believe he means it. Now, is it possible––have I been in deals, have you been in things where people didn’t work out? It’s possible.

[Mediaite]

‘We don’t even talk about the uranium’: Trump wildly attacks FBI when asked if he will confront Putin on meddling

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President Donald Trump on Sunday deflected blame for Russia’s interference in the 2016 election to the FBI.

While speaking to Fox News host Maria Bartiromo, Trump was asked if he was going to “mention the meddling” when he meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin next month.

Trump immediately changed the subject: “I would like to see some answers as to why we didn’t take the server, why the FBI didn’t take the server from the DNC.”

“Why didn’t the FBI take it? Look what they did to other people,” the president continued. “Why didn’t they take it? How can the DNC say get out of here. They threw them out of the office.”

Trump went on to complain about special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, saying it would find “nothing wrong.” And then he invoked the investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s emails.

“[Y]ou go back, how about the e-mails — deleting 33,000 e-mails?” he asked. “We don’t even have to talk about the uranium and all the different — just tell me, you get a subpoena. And after getting the subpoena from the United States Congress, right? People go to jail for doing it on a civil case. They delete 33,000 e-mails.”

“Before the FBI even walked in, they are walking in and say you have — by the way, keep your laptops and then they even say destroy your laptops or something? In a week or something you can destroy your laptops?” he said.

[Raw Story]

Trump on Democrats’ Calls to Abolish ICE: ‘They’re Going to Get Beaten So Badly’ in Elections

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In a Fox News interview that aired Sunday, President Donald Trump bashed amplified calls from the left to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement, predicting they would lead to a major triumph for the right in the midterm elections.

“I hope they keep thinking about it because they’re going to get beaten so badly,” he told host Maria Bartiromo. “These are the guys that go in and take MS-13 and they take them out because they are much tougher than MS-13 like by a factor of 10… You get rid of ICE, you’re going to have a country that you’re going to be afraid to walk out of your house. I love that issue if they’re actually going to do that.”

As more Democrats continue demanding the dissolution of ICE, Trump believes the fallout of such an action would be an invitation for chaos.

“You are going to have a country that’s crime ridden,” he said, adding that ICE and border patrol are “incredible patriots” and “the job they have is so dangerous.”

Trump also claimed that Democrats are advocating for open borders, a line he routinely repeats to link the party to that platform despite the fact that it does not hold that position.

“That’s going to be their platform,” he said. “Open borders which equals crime. I think they will never win another election.”

[Mediaite]

Trump falsely claims he never told House Republicans to vote for immigration bill

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President Donald Trump falsely claimed on Saturday that he never encouraged House Republicans to vote for an immigration bill, despite tweeting such an encouragement three days earlier.

“I never pushed the Republicans in the House to vote for the Immigration Bill, either GOODLATTE 1 or 2, because it could never have gotten enough Democrats as long as there is the 60 vote threshold,” the president wrote on Twitter. “I released many prior to the vote knowing we need more Republicans to win in Nov.”

Trump explicitly called for Republicans to support Virginia Rep. Bob Goodlatte‘s bill on Wednesday with an all-caps Twitter endorsement.

“HOUSE REPUBLICANS SHOULD PASS THE STRONG BUT FAIR IMMIGRATION BILL, KNOWN AS GOODLATTE II, IN THEIR AFTERNOON VOTE TODAY, EVEN THOUGH THE DEMS WON’T LET IT PASS IN THE SENATE,” Trump wrote on Twitter before the Wednesday vote. “PASSAGE WILL SHOW THAT WE WANT STRONG BORDERS & SECURITY WHILE THE DEMS WANT OPEN BORDERS = CRIME. WIN!”

At the time, House Republicans were trying to gather votes to pass a compromise bill that they were hoping would draw support from both conservatives and moderates in their conference. The proposal was expected to fail beforehand and did so by an overwhelming 121-301 vote.

Trump‘s position on the bill wavered several times before it even came to a vote, with the president at one point saying he wouldn’t sign the bill. He also said last week that the Republicans’ bill wouldn’t pass the Senate. By Wednesday he had tweeted his support.

The president’s reversal Saturday comes as he has sent a number of tweets during his weekend in New Jersey, ranging from news about his Supreme Court appointment to thoughts on progressive outrage over the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency and even encouragement to buy former White House press secretary Sean Spicer’s new book.

Trump is in Bedminster for the weekend with his family, although he may mix in some work with possible interviews with people on his shortlist for Supreme Court seat.

[Politico]

President Donald Trump: ‘Our Laws are the Dumbest Anywhere in the World’

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On the same day as immigration protests and marches were held throughout the nation, President Donald Trump called for those entering the country without proper paperwork to be immediately escorted “back out.”

“When people come into our Country illegally, we must IMMEDIATELY escort them back out without going through years of legal maneuvering,” Trump opined in a midafternoon tweet.

He then added this about U.S. law: “Our laws are the dumbest anywhere in the world. Republicans want Strong Borders and no Crime. Dems want Open Borders and are weak on Crime!”

Trump’s tweet follows an earlier tweet where he claimed, “I never pushed the Republicans in the House to vote for the Immigration Bill.” Just a few days ago, however, he said just that.

[Mediaite]

Off-the-rails Trump rages at Democrats and accuses them of wanting to get rid of all law enforcement – even police

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President Donald Trump was up bright and early and raging at calls for the breaking up of ICE — going so far as to say Democrats want to get rid of all law enforcement.

On Twitter he wrote, “The Democrats are making a strong push to abolish ICE, one of the smartest, toughest and most spirited law enforcement groups of men and women that I have ever seen. I have watched ICE liberate towns from the grasp of MS-13 & clean out the toughest of situations. They are great!”

He then claimed, “To the great and brave men and women of ICE, do not worry or lose your spirit. You are doing a fantastic job of keeping us safe by eradicating the worst criminal elements. So brave! The radical left Dems want you out. Next it will be all police. Zero chance, It will never happen!”

You can see the tweets below:

[Raw Story]

Trump responds to “Abolish ICE” with false claims America is being overrun by MS-13

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As thousands of protesters gathered across the country to protest President Donald Trump’s immigration policies and the chorus of voices calling to abolish ICE grows, the president is going on the offensive. He’s warning of an America overrun by MS-13 — an America that doesn’t exist.

Trump’s zero-tolerance immigration policy and his administration’s increasingly aggressive actions have energized a progressive push to abolish the Immigration and Customs Enforcement(ICE). Hundreds of women protested against the separation of migrant families and called for the end of ICE in Washington, DC on Thursday, and multiple Democrats, including Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI), and New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio have joined in. A group of nearly 20 ICE investigators has called for the agency to be abolished, reformed, or restructured, and “abolish ICE” was a rallying cry at Saturday’s “Families Belong Together” marches across the country.

Trump is pushing back on the anti-ICE calls, in part by invoking MS-13 and warning that the gang might take over the country — or already has.

In a tweet on Saturday morning, the president lauded ICE agents as “one of the smartest, toughest, and most spirited law enforcement groups of men and women that I have ever seen.” He then, inexplicably, said that he has “watched ICE liberate towns from the grasp of MS-13” and “clean out the toughest of situations.”

In an interview with Fox Business host Maria Barroom set to air on Sunday, Trump said ICE agents “take [MS-13] out” and that they’re “much tougher than MS-13” by a “factor of 10.” He warned that if ICE is abolished, MS-13 will overrun the country to the point that “you’re going to be afraid to walk out of your house.”

Bashar Ali, a writer for New York Magazine and HuffPost, previewed the remarks on Twitter.

MS-13 is not taking over the United States

MS-13, a Salvadoran-American gang, has a presence in a number of United States cities, including Los Angles, New York, Boston, and Washington, DC. Despite Trump’s claim last year that MS-13 had “literally taken over towns and cities,” there are no American municipalities ruled by it. Nor are there any that have been “liberated” from it.

Trump and Republicans have used MS-13 as a proxy to demonize immigrants and given it outsized importance compared to its actual impact. As Vox’s Dara Lind explains, MS-13 hasn’t reversed nationwide trends of declining violent crime (even in the areas where their presence is strongest), and the gang only has about 10,000 members in the United States — a fraction of the estimated 1.4 million members of US gangsnationally.

The president has sought to cast immigrants as violent and dangerous criminals who pose an imminent threat to the US. Just last week, the White House held an event highlighting families who have lost loved ones to crimes committed by unauthorized immigrants, bizarrely autographing victims’ photos.

[VOX]

Trump’s private NATO trashing rattles allies

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You’ve already read a hundred stories about President Trump’s clashes with some of America’s closest allies at the G7 summit in Canada. But we’ve got new details from his private conversations with heads of state that have put some of these leaders on edge leading into next month’s NATO summit.

What we’re hearing: In one extraordinary riff during his meeting with the G7 heads of state earlier this month in Quebec, Trump told the other leaders: “NATO is as bad as NAFTA.” An official read this quote to me from notes transcribed from the private meeting.

Behind the scenes: Trump made the comment after telling the G7 leaders that Crimea probably should belong to Russia because everyone there speaks Russian, the source added. Trump then went on his usual riff about Germany not paying its fair share of defense spending, said the Europeans weren’t paying enough and that the U.S. is being ripped off.

  • Then Trump said of the NATO Summit on July 11-12 in Brussels: “It will be an interesting summit. NATO is as bad as NAFTA. It’s much too costly for the U.S.”

Why this matters: NATO member states are worried about Russian aggression and they want an unambiguous sign that America has their back. By linking NATO to NAFTA — a trade deal that Trump considers an unmitigated disaster for America — Trump reinforced some of the Europeans’ worst fears that he’ll take a purely transactional approach to next month’s summit.

  • Officials from four NATO member countries have told me they’re worried Trump undercut the shared values and commitments of the NATO alliance by spending most of his time bashing NATO members for not “paying enough” and meeting their defense spending commitments.
  • Trump is broadly correct about the defense spending. Many NATO members have been shirking their responsibilities and are nowhere near their promise to spend 2 percent of their Gross Domestic Product on defense.
  • But, as one senior European official put it to me: Trump could do a victory lap of sorts at next month’s summit, instead of bashing NATO members (which would please Putin.)
  • Trump, the official said, could point out that NATO members have been increasing their defense spending, and say that it’s only because of his pressure. The official said he hoped — but wasn’t confident — Trump would take this gentler, more diplomatic route.

When Axios shared this reporting with the White House, officials did not attempt to deny these specific comments that were relayed from notes from the G7 heads of state meeting. But NSC spokesman Garrett Marquis said: “The president engaged in a constructive dialogue with his counterparts at G7. Any allegations otherwise are simply wrong.”

1 fun thing: In the same meeting, Trump cracked to the leaders about what was then his upcoming Singapore summit with Kim Jong-un. “It’s like baseball,” Trump told the G7 leaders, according to the source reading from the meeting notes. “You never know if you are going to hit the ball.”

[Axios]

Trump Lied About Parents Of Korean War Vets, Now He’s Lying About Returned Bodies

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Having already invented “thousands” of parents who begged him to bring home the bodies of their Korean War veteran children, President Donald Trump is now inventing hundreds of such repatriations that haven’t actually happened.

The return of the remains of American service members who were killed in that war has become a major “victory” Trump likes to claim from his June 12 meeting in Singapore with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.

“It was the last thing I asked,” he told a gathering of Nevada Republicans on Saturday. “I said, ‘Do you mind, would I be able to get the remains back of all those great heroes from so many years ago?’ And he said, ‘I will do that.’ And you probably read, they have already done 200 people. Which is so great.”

On Monday, Trump told a rally audience in South Carolina: “We’re getting the remains of our great heroes back.”

The only problem: No remains have yet been returned, and it is unclear when that might happen. “We have not yet physically received them,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told the Senate Appropriations Committee on Wednesday, but said that he is “optimistic” it would take place “in the not-too-distant future.”

That explanation was not sufficient for Iraq War veteran Will Fischer, with the progressive veterans group VoteVets.

“It’s beyond the pale to lie about remains of fallen service persons already being returned, when they, in fact, haven’t been,” Fischer said. “Remains like these aren’t some prize, where you can make up some big fish stories. These are troops who died in war, and whose families have had no closure. He disrespected Gold Star families during the campaign, and he’s doing it now.”

[Huffington Post]

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