Trump Damage Report – 12/28/2017

Christmas lip reading, defending liars, eating lead paint, troop count, Kremlin hacker, global drop, shuffling the deck, abdicating superpower, and fake news trophy.  All this and more in your daily Trump Damage Report for Thursday, December 28th, 2017.

• Bad Lip Reading did a Donald Trump video.
• If the Traitor Flynn is just a liar, then why did Trump keep defending him? New York Mag asks.
• The EPA wanted years to study the lead paint rule that sets the standards for dangerous levels of lead paint, but in the Trump administration, it got 90 days, The New York Times reports.  More lead paint in more houses means more Trump voters.
• BuzzFeed offers a review of the US troops who were killed in combat during Trump’s first year in office.  A few of them were killed in unusual circumstances in Niger, where we still don’t have the full picture of what happened, or why our troops were there.
• One of the fleeing Republican congresscritters says that Trump is definitely a factor in his decision to not seek re-election, CNN reports.  A significant number of Republicans have declined to return.  They see what’s about to happen.
• A jailed Russian says he hacked the DNC on the Kremlin’s orders and can prove it, McClatchy reports.  Trump has offered that he believes Putin when Putin tells him they had nothing to do with election meddling.
• Pew Research reports that Trump’s presidency has had a major impact on how the world sees the United States.  Our favorability dropped 15% across the planet.
• Trump’s chaotic White House is expected to shuffle the card again in the new year, Axios reports.  Churn and burn is his tactic.  Utmost loyalty is demanded, and you must sacrifice every last principle you have to serve the orange tyrant.  That’s a heavy cost to some Republicans who still possess spines.
• The Atlantic walks us through the great abdication of American superpower around the globe under Trump.  The policy is best described, as the article says, as not “leading from behind”, but “leaving from behind”.
• Trump asked his insane fringe supporters to help award a “fake news” trophy, The Hill reports.  Trump continues to attack the reality-based free press in America.
• Trump boasted that he signed more laws than any president since Truman, but he’s actually signed the fewest, Slate reports.