Nancy

Documentation. Witnesses. Facts. Truth. That's what they're afraid of.

Friday, April 28, 2017

The Daily Combover - April 28, 2017

After a very candid AP interview less than a week ago, Trump sat down with Reuters on Thursday to clear up a few misconceptions about his first 100 days in office. To be sure they knew he won, he made sure to hand out maps of his victory before they got started:

We're just as confused as you are.


Let's dig into a few of the highlights:
ON POSSIBLE "MAJOR" CONFLICT WITH NORTH KOREA
"There's a chance that we could end up having a major, major, conflict with North Korea, absolutely."
QUESTION: Is that your biggest global worry at this point?
"Yes, I would say that's true, yes. ... North Korea would be certainly that."

When President Bush said he would be remembered the way Truman was remembered, his approval rating was sitting at his low of 28%. Trump, on the other hand, polling at his highest approval yet -- 43% -- seems determined to follow that path as well. But this time with a second Korean War.
ON GETTING SOUTH KOREA TO PAY FOR THAAD MISSILE DEFENSE SYSTEM
"On the THAAD system, it's about a billion dollars. I said, 'Why are we paying? Why are we paying a billion dollars? We're protecting. Why are we paying a billion dollars?' So I informed South Korea it would be appropriate if they paid. Nobody's going to do that. Why are we paying a billion dollars? It's a billion dollar system. It's phenomenal. It's the most incredible equipment you've ever seen - shoots missiles right out of the sky. And it protects them and I want to protect them. We're going to protect them. But they should pay for that, and they understand that."
I'm still amazed at his complete and utter ignorance about everything. "Shoots missiles right out of the sky." We've employed similar technology since 1990. Yes, this is much more advanced, but it's nothing we haven't seen before.
ON WHETHER THE WAR AGAINST ISLAMIST EXTREMISM WILL EVER END
"Yours is the toughest question. Because at what point does it end? But we can't let them come over here. I have to say, there is an end. And it has to be humiliation. There is an end. Otherwise it's really tough. But there is an end. We are really eradicating some very bad people. When you take a look at what's going on with the cutting off of the heads. We haven't seen that since Medieval times. Right?"
Again, utter ignorance of recent history. Beheadings are fairly common in Saudi Arabia -- and have been increasing over the last two decades. But hey, the Medieval Times near his golf course puts on quite the show.
ON CHINESE PRESIDENT XI'S EFFORTS TO REIN IN NORTH KOREA
"He certainly doesn't want to see turmoil and death. He doesn't want to see it. He's a good man. He's a very good man and I got to know him very well ...
We'll see how it all works out. I know he would like to be able to do something. Perhaps it's possible that he can't. But I think he'd like to be able to do something."
Two weeks ago, Trump admitted that he had no idea how complicated the relationship was between China and North Korea. Now he seems to be right back where he was before his meeting with Xi.
ON NORTH KOREAN LEADER KIM JONG UN
"He's 27 years old, his father dies, took over a regime, so say what you want but that's not easy, especially at that age. You know you have plenty of generals in there and plenty of other people that would like to do what he's doing. So I've said this before and I've, I'm just telling you, and I'm not giving him credit or not giving him credit. I'm just saying that's a very hard thing to do."
"As to whether or not he's rational, I have no opinion on it. I hope he's rational."
It really sounds like he's giving him credit. I wonder if he's still waiting for Kim Jong Un's birthday invitation.
ON NAFTA AND TRUMP'S THREAT TO TERMINATE PACT
"I get a call from Mexico yesterday, 'We hear you're going to terminate NAFTA.' I said that's right. They said, 'Is there any way we can do something without you – without termination?’ I said, 'What do you want to do?' He said, 'Well, we'd like to negotiate.' I said we'll think about it. Then I get a call, and they call me, I get a call from Justin Trudeau and he said, 'We'd like to see if we can work something out,' and I said that's fine. Because I've always - I've been very consistent. It's much less disruptive if we can make a fair trade deal than if we terminate."
As we Combovered on Wednesday, terminating NAFTA would destroy our economy. He's obviously lying about these calls, but at least someone convinced him that ending NAFTA would be a terrible idea.
ON TRADE AGREEMENT WITH SOUTH KOREA
"It's unacceptable. It's a horrible deal made by Hillary. It's a horrible deal. And we're going to renegotiate that deal, or terminate it."
QUESTION: When will you announce it?
"Very soon. I'm announcing it now."
"By the way, with South Korea, just so you know. They're ready for it. Mike Pence was representing me, he was just over there, he's told them. And we have the five-year anniversary coming up very shortly. And we thought that would be a good time to start ...
It's a great deal for South Korea. It's a terrible deal for us."
 I really wish Reuters would have followed up here and asked him why the KORUS deal was so terrible. Trump hears the word trade and jumps to "terrible deal." As it turns out, KORUS has been a net boon for US manufacturers. But you won't hear that from Trump.
ON SAUDI ARABIA'S TREATMENT OF UNITED STATES
"Frankly, Saudi Arabia has not treated us fairly, because we are losing a tremendous amount of money in defending Saudi Arabia."
As if he would pull out of Saudi Arabia. He owns several properties there.
ON ANOTHER CALL WITH TAIWAN'S PRESIDENT?
"Well, my problem is that I've established a very good personal relationship with (Chinese) President Xi. And I really feel that he is doing everything in his power to help us with a big situation, so I wouldn't want to be causing difficulty right now for him ... So I would certainly want to speak to him first."
So is he admitting that he made a mistake challenging One China?
ON POSSIBLE GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN
"If there's closure, there's closure. We'll see what happens. If there's a shutdown. It's the Democrats' fault. Not our fault. It's the Democrats' fault. Maybe they'd like to see a shutdown."
Math is clearly not his strong suit. Republicans have majorities across the board. If there's a shutdown, it's completely on them.
ON TRUMP'S PLAN TO GENERATE REVENUE TO OFFSET TAX CUTS
"We will do trade deals that are going to make up for a tremendous amount of the deficit. We are going to be doing trade deals that are going to be much better trade deals ...
"There will be other ways that we are going to raise revenues. But we are going to run the country properly, and we are going to be reimbursed when we do things. Why should we be paying for somebody else's military?"
 Unless you plan on imposing tariffs, trade deals will not deliver tax dollars. And tariffs will lead to counter-tariffs that will slow GDP growth which will lead to fewer tax dollars collected on the domestic front. Either way, there's no chance he offsets additional cuts.
ON MIDDLE EAST PEACE AND POSSIBLE TRIP TO ISRAEL, SAUDI ARABIA
"It's a possibility, we're talking to both. It's a possibility, but I want to see peace with Israel and the Palestinians. There is no reason there's not peace between Israel and the Palestinians - none whatsoever. So we're looking at that and we're also looking at the potential of going to Saudi Arabia."
Good thing he appointed someone with no career experience working on peace deals to oversee a resolution between Israel and her Arab neighbors. Experience is overrated.

Have a good weekend.

Catch you on the flip side.

No comments:

Post a Comment