Trump Damage Report – 12/30/2017
Golfer-in-Chief, how to count, rifts for the GOP, Aspen neighbors, boozy campaign staff, private prisons on deportations, Hexxus’ EPA, tanker talk, and bringing inflation back. All this and more in your daily Trump Damage Report for Saturday, December 30th, 2017.
- Trump plays golf for the fifth straight day in a row, The Hill reports. Hopefully he spends considerably more time in 2018 playing golf. The less he spends as president, the better.
- Trump’s Justice Department is pushing for a question about citizenship on the US census, alarming experts, ProPublica reports. The census is supposed to measure the number of people – not the number of citizens. Representatives represent all the people in America – not just the citizens. And I know that because that part of the Constitution was written before black people and women were considered citizens, and they were counted (to at least some degree) in the census.
- Republican attacks on Mueller and the FBI are opening a new rift for the GOP, The New York Times reports. Trump has managed to sever most of the ties Republicans pretended to have with their principles; this is one more for the heap.
- Trump’s VP Mike Pence gets a message from his Aspen neighbors: Make America Gay Again, The Aspen Times reports.
- The Russia inquiry began thanks to a campaign aide who got boozy and boasted about Russia having political dirt on Hillary Clinton, The New York Times reports.
- Private prisons are about to cash in on Trump’s deportation regime, Mother Jones reports. Private prison companies are hoping to be able to increase detentions that aren’t going to be litigated in order to charge the government for holding people, and are looking to receive a return on investment after donating hundreds of thousands to Trump.
- Amazon isn’t ripping off the US Postal Service, despite what Trump says, Vox reports.
- Trump says West Virginia “is doing fantastically now”, but no, no it’s not, New Republic reports. West Virginia is struggling, and coal isn’t going to bring it back.
- The Daily Beast offers up a top ten list of the worst things Scott “Hexxus” Pruitt has done at the EPA under Trump. You may want to invest in water filters, folks.
- Russian tankers are reportedly smuggling oil to North Korea, and Trump hasn’t said a thing about it, despite blasting China for it the day before, ThinkProgress reports. So weird that when it comes to Russia, Trump is just the most polite, kind, courteous guy for some reason.
- Trump wants to bring inflation back, Yahoo Finance reports.
- “Wrong again”, The Weather Channel called out Trump’s scientifically illiterate climate change tweet, RawStory reports. Trump doesn’t know the difference between climate and weather, and he doesn’t read.
- Trump’s denial of Russia collusion is “rotten at core”, Senator Blumenthal said today, The Hill reports. He warns us to expect more indictments and convictions, as well as more panicky attacks from Republicans.
