January 8, 2019--Know-It-All Trump

During Trump's rambling spritz of a news conference late last week, when talking about various ways to secure the border, to show his mastery of using concrete or steel as wall-building materials, while also acknowledging the need for more high-tech methods to intercept immigrants and asylum seekers, he said, "I know more about technology then anyone."

He has been using this trope--about being more expert about [fill in the blank] than anyone since even before he was elected. In fact, I have been gathering a list of things he claims to know more about than anyone in history. 

Drones and TV Ratings and ISIS made my list, but then yesterday morning AXIOS published a much more inclusive list.

Below are selections from their list--

• Campaign finance: "I think nobody knows more about campaign finance than I do, because I'm the biggest contributor." (1999.) 
• TV ratings: "I know more about people who get ratings than anyone." (October 2012.)
• ISIS: "I know more about ISIS than the generals do." (November 2015.)
• Social media: "I understand social media. I understand the power of Twitter. I understand the power of Facebook maybe better than almost anybody, based on my results, right?" (November 2015.)
• Courts: "I know more about courts than any human being on Earth." (November 2015.)
• Lawsuits: "[W]ho knows more about lawsuits than I do? I'm the king." (January 2016.)
• Politicians: "I understand politicians better than anybody." 
• The visa system: "[N]obody knows the system better than me. I know the H1B. I know the H2B. . . Nobody else on this dais knows how to change it like I do, believe me." (March 2016.) 
• Trade: "Nobody knows more about trade than me." (March 2016.) 
• The U.S. government system: "[N]obody knows the system better than I do." (April 2016.) 
• Renewable energy: "I know more about renewables than any human being on Earth." (April 2016.) 
• Taxes: "I think nobody knows more about taxes than I do, maybe in the history of the world." (May 2016.)
• Debt: "I’m the king of debt. I’m great with debt. Nobody knows debt better than me." (June 2016.)
• Money: "I understand money better than anybody." (June 2016.) 
• Infrastructure: "[L]ook, as a builder, nobody in the history of this country has ever known so much about infrastructure as Donald Trump." (July 2016.) 
• Sen. Cory Booker: "I know more about Cory than he knows about himself." (July 2016.) 
• Borders: Trump said in 2016 that Sheriff Joe Arpaio said he was endorsing him for president because "you know more about this stuff than anybody." 
• Democrats: "I think I know more about the other side than almost anybody." (November 2016.) 
• Construction: "[N]obody knows more about construction than I do." (May 2018.)
• The economy: "I think I know about it better than [the Federal Reserve]." (October 2018.) 
• Technology: "Technology — nobody knows more about technology than me." (December 2018.) 
• Drones: "I know more about drones than anybody. I know about every form of safety that you can have." (January 2019.) 

My hands-down favorite--

How he knows more about Cory Booker than Cory Booker knows about himself.

December 24, 2016--Merry Christmas At the White House

It is Christmas Eve day and I am sure you are feeling cozy that our nation's First Love Birds are huddled together roasting chestnuts on the White House Yule Log's open fire.

This in spite of the fact that our president painted himself into a political corner only to get rolled by Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter who once called Trump a "god" but late last week referred to him as a "gutless douchebag." This because he was willing to trade away his Wall to the Dems so they could strike a budget deal and everyone could slip out of town.

So sure was Trump that things would work out that his wife and a few of his sons hopped on the First Lady's plane (why, by the way, do First Ladies have their own taxpayer-paid-for plane?) and lit out for 16 days (16!) of baking in the sun at their gaudy Palm Beach chateau, Mar-a-Lago.

Trump had to stay behind for politically cosmetic reasons--he couldn't be seen in shorts teeing off at one of his golf courses while nearly a million federal workers would not be getting paychecks.

Rush and Ann, these two Grinches spoiled his Christmas. Poor thing. 

So much so that Trump unleashed a series of tweets that suggested he was becoming even more unhinged. Saturday night, for example, he referred to himself as "the most popular hero in America" for withdrawing all our troops from Syria and "your favorite president." He does need to check the most recent polls.

But a funny thing happened on the way to that deal--after Limbaugh and Coulter slammed him for being weak, calling his manhood into question, he had no recourse but to pull the plug on the budget deal and cancel his golfing getaway.

Then, most interesting, a day after arriving, Melania had them gas up her plane and she flew back to Washington so she could spend Christmas with her beleaguered husband.

Unusual loving behavior for a couple where the wife won't hold hands with her husband in public and for a husband and wife who famously do not exchange Christmas gifts, unless Melania's renegotiating their prenup when Trump was exposed, in a manner of speaking, for having affairs with a porn star and a Playboy Playmate might be considered a gift that keeps on giving.

I suspect that daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared were so shaken by Trump's railing after Defense secretary Mattis summarily quit, refusing to endorse Trump's precipitous and dangerous decision to pull all U.S. forces out of Syria and effectively turn the country over to Putin, Iran, Hezbollah, and ISIS that they were so shaken that he was about to completely lose it if he couldn't make a deal to fund his Wall and shut down the encroaching Mueller investigation, that the children thought the situation was approaching 25th Amendment territory and that Melania better get back in DC and try to calm him down.


And so there they are, Donald and Melania snug in the White House which is full of Melania's blood red Christmas trees. 

Perhaps, to get away from reruns of White Christmas Trump can practice his putting on the White House green. The weather is forecast to cooperate.