Search Results for: trump

Here's a thought I had the other day: Once Donald Trump became President of these United States, he had at his disposal the greatest array of investigators in the country as well as access to darn near every state secret and file in the government.  Did he say to someone, "Find me proof that Barack Obama was born in another country and that the birth certificate he released was a forgery"?

Granted, if Obama was born in Kenya and did have someone whip up a fake document, that might be unprovable…but maybe somewhere in some file previously unavailable to Trump, there is some evidence.  Did D.J.T. order a search for it?  Why the hell would he not?  His base would love it if he even hinted there is such proof.

• Our top story tonight is Frank Rich's long, long essay that flows from the new Broadway production of Tony Kushner's long. long play, Angels in America.  It's about Roy Cohn, who might not be the worst human being who ever lived but he's still not too far from the bottom of the species.  Cohn was a mentor of Donald J. Trump and Mr. Rich finds stunning and obvious similarities between the two men.
• Trump says that the White House Correspondents' Dinner ought to be discontinued.  Any time I find myself on the same side of an issue as that man, I naturally must question my own wisdom…but no, I still think it's a pernicious institution.  I just think that for different reasons.  I think the press and politicians should not be intermingling as if the different roles they play are just make-believe they engage in for the public.  Trump just thinks it's treasonous to make fun of the President unless, of course, it's not him.
• Laura McGann says that the reason some people are so outraged about Michelle Wolf's jokes about Sarah Huckabee Sanders is that so many of them were accurate — unlike, say, a Huckabee Sanders briefing.
• Matt Yglesias reminds us that impeaching Donald Trump does not poll well and could easily backfire on Democrats.  Personally, I think…well, you know what I think of the guy currently squatting in the Oval Office but I have no stomach for the trials and legal machinations of impeachment, especially if there is no reasonable expectation of success.  I also don't think Mike Pence would be that much better for the nation.  All that could, of course, change with future revelations…and does anyone think there won't be future revelations?  Trump wouldn't be working overtime to discredit the press if he wasn't expecting future revelations.
• Nathan M. Jensen asks, "Do Taxpayers Know They Are Handing Out Billions to Corporations?"  I think the answer is no…and for some reason, when you tell them that, they kind of shrug and say, "Whatever."  They aren't quite so indifferent when they think their tax dollars are going to help poor people buy groceries.
• Daniel Larison explains why it's stupid to try and rewrite the nuclear deal with Iran.  But hey, it's an Obama accomplishment and in Trumpworld, deals are just things that obligate the other guy, not us.

So what would it have been like if Trump had shown up at the White House Correspondents' Dinner? Well, it might have gone something like this…

In the pantheon of columnists I follow, my two go-to guys for war-related stuff are a liberal (Fred Kaplan) and a conservative (Daniel Larison). Neither thinks any good will come from our new air strikes against Syria though Larison seems to me to be the more outraged of the two…

• Read this Kaplan column and then this one and then this one.
• And then read this Larison column and then this one and then especially this one.
• And if you want to get terrified of what may result, read Matt Taibbi.
• In other news, we have a wide array of columns about what an incredible failure Paul Ryan was as Speaker of the House…unless, of course, all that matters to you is that rich people pay less in taxes no matter what it does to the deficit and the social safety net.  Read Matthew Yglesias, Tara Golshon, Jamelle Bouie and (again) Daniel Larison.
• Joe Conason thinks Trump is about to do something very bad to Veterans.
• And Martin Longman finds eerie similarities between Richard Nixon in his last days in office and Donald Trump in these days in office.

With all this going on, it's easy to forget that the re-trial of Bill Cosby is well under way.  They're up to the part where various alleged victims tell what Cosby did to them and Cosby's lawyers try to brand those accusers as liars and opportunists.  Coming soon: The part where Cosby is portrayed as an old, sick blind man who did so much good for so many that it would be cruel to send him to prison and therefore to his death.

The Rasmussen Poll usually favors Republicans and it's now saying Trump's popularity is fairly high. No doubt he thinks that's the only one that matters…and will until it tells him something he doesn't like. For what little it may be worth, I don't think the measure of any politician's popularity means a lot until such time as there's a named alternative to them. Asking "Would you rather have [name of elected official] or some unnamed alternative who isn't even running yet?" is different from asking folks if they'd prefer a named alternative. You not only can't beat something with nothing, you can't even measure preference against nothing.

Here are some articles I read today which you might want to read today…

• Trump has been hammering Amazon — gee, I wonder why he'd attack a company owned by Jeff Bezos — and insisting they don't pay high-enough postal rates. Here's what that's all about and why he's probably wrong.
• Fred Kaplan wonders (and has a theory) about who made the single worst decision of the Iraq War. There were a lot of "worst" decisions made during that mess but only a couple of folks who could have made the real "worst one."
• William Saletan tries to get to the bottom of how John Bolton, Trump's incoming national security adviser, feels about Muslims and Islam. As you'll see, this is not an easy thing to figure out.
• A political theorist offers political theories as to why Trump's base doesn't seem to care if he's corrupt. I think it's a lot simpler. They hate not having one of "their guys" in power so much that they're willing to overlook anything.
• Jonathan Chait explains why Trump signs a budget then denounces it as terrible. It's because if he said it was great, then he'd have to take some responsibility for what results from it.
• Charles P. Pierce on how Wisconsin governor Scott Walker's idea of democracy is to not hold elections he fears Republicans will not win. And hey, what's more democratic than not letting people vote?

Like you, I'm aghast at some of the lies and personal attacks being hurled at the young survivors of the Parkland school shooting. Some people will say or do anything just to deny an opponent a smidgen of Higher Moral Ground…or even Equal.

Haven't done one of these for a while. Trump doing something harmful and outrageous is feeling less and less like news. It's like getting up each morning, as I often do, to find that raccoons have pooped in my back yard. (There are times when it seems like they're coming from all over the city to do this. I've started leaving out Cottonelle for the dear creatures.)

Here are some articles I've read in the last twenty-four hours or so about what's going on in Trumpworld…

• Here's a piece Fred Kaplan wrote about National Security Advisor Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster. Assuming McMaster is fired, as most are assuming, we're going to be hearing a lot about that firing for months after.
• Matt Yglesias has finally found an issue on which Democrats and Republicans can agree: We all hate Mitch McConnell.
• Jonathan Chait suggests a possible reason that Donald Trump is behaving like a very guilty man. That possible reason does not seem to have occurred to many of his supporters.
• I'm thinking of making everyone in my life sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement where if they say something about me I don't like, they have to pay me $10 million dollars. But I'll wait to see how well that works out for Mr. Trump.
• Daniel Larison believes, as I do, that the Iraq War was a serious mistake and a serious crime. Alas, too many people just don't accept the premise that the United States doesn't make serious mistakes (except maybe when your political opponents are in power) and our leaders don't commit serious crimes.
• Sinan Antoon, a native of Iraq, tells what it was like from his perspective.
• I think I disagree with articles like this one that says Trump lies to his base because he thinks they're stupid.  I think he lies to them because he understands that they emotionally like the results they think they're getting so they'll play along with him.  Back when President Obama's position was that he was kinda/sorta against Gay Marriage, a lot of us played along with that because we sensed he was playing a long-term game that would eventually get us what we wanted on that issue.
• Amy Davidson Sorkin is trying to figure out why Trump is playing the Stormy Daniels case the way he's playing it. We may understand that better when we find out what it is he's trying to stop her from revealing. I'm guessing it's that in the heat of passion, he shouted out his own name and then fired her.
• And Paul Krugman discusses how Trump is surrounding himself with people who believe that if tax cuts for the rich don't help the economy…try, try again.

I assume you all watched John Oliver last Sunday or that you've caught one of the replays. In these Times of Trump, we are very fortunate to have a man who can find that much humor in that much bad news.

I haven't done as many of these lately because, frankly, even I'm getting tired of stories about how incompetent and dishonest the guy and his administration are. And here's one opinion I've come to which I'll pass along for what little it may be worth: Those who are predicting what Robert Mueller will do and when he will do it are speculating blindly. It sure looks to me like all the leaks are coming from the Trump side, none from Mueller's office. He'll tell us what he's doing when he's good and ready. Now, this…

• Kellyanne Conway, Jared Kushner and other members of Trump's mob seem to have been violating the Hatch Act.  I'm sure Trump will take immediate action to discipline them.
• As the New York Times editorial writers point out, Trump sure loves them dictatorial leaders who rule for life and can silence their critics.
• Daniel Larson thinks Trump's decision about tariffs was (a) a bad one and (b) arrived at almost on a whim.  This is not a good way of running the country.
• And William Saletan tells us how much other Republicans don't like them.  For once, they're not following Donald like sheep.
• How come Paul Ryan so fiercely backs Trump on just about everything?  Jonathan Chait has a good explanation: "[Ryan] was inculcated at a young age with the works of theorists like Ayn Rand, George Gilder, and Jude Wanniski, all of whom share a belief that the core mission of political life is to protect the earned wealth of the rich from political redistribution by the masses."

And I see that Trump's top economic advisor, Gary Cohn, is jumping ship. He got his big corporate tax cut and now he doesn't want to take the blame for what happens next. Can't wait to hear Trump's next speech about loyalty.

Last week was not a good week for Donald Trump. Given how many shoes seem to be droppable in his many and varied scandals, I suspect we'll be saying that for most weeks to come. Here's some stuff…

• Nate Silver attempts to answer the unanswerable question as to how much Russian meddling had to do with Trump winning the presidency. He doesn't really know and I doubt anyone ever will.
• A year ago, correspondents for Slate made a lot of predictions about Trump's first year and now it's time to score how they did. Not bad, guys…
• Obama's chief economist Jason Furman thinks Trump's forecasts for the American economy are absurd. One wonders if anyone's chief economist (including Trump's) really believes them.
• Trump's National Security Adviser Says Proof of Russian Election Meddling Is "Incontrovertible." Trump apparently says that's Fake News and we shouldn't listen to his National Security Adviser. Is it? If so, why is this person his National Security Adviser?
• Since it's Presidents Day, the New York Times asked scholars to rank our presidents, best to worst. Trump did not do well even among Republican scholars. I always regard any of these rankings as click bait and not much more but if you're baited to click, here's the link.
• Thomas Friedman dives into the theory that Trump is either being blackmailed by Russia, could be blackmailed by Russia or is really, really foolish with regard to Russia. I'm not sure which one I'd fear most.
• Must Trump testify in Robert Mueller's investigations? Joe Conason thinks he does and Conason's probably right. Which doesn't mean he will.

John Oliver had a strong season-opener last night, focusing on the hard-to-argue premise that Trump is becoming the most mocked and ridiculed person on this planet. If you didn't see it, the show reruns many times this week. I suspect once a week at Comedy Central, they have a little ritual where everyone responsible for letting Oliver get away gathers in a room and they just kick each other for forty-five minutes.

We haven't been Trump Dumping lately because, frankly, I've grown way too accustomed to waking up to him doing something that would have had Republicans howling for impeachment had it been done by Obama or Clinton.

One of the arguably-good things Trump and the current partisanship overload has accomplished is to make me totally cynical about Republican Outrage.  I used to be at about 75% on that. I used to think there was some non-partisan component to Evangelicals and G.O.P. leaders who were offended by things like Obama not wearing his jacket in the Oval Office. Reagan, they liked to remind us, never took his off in there.

I'm not sure there's anything Trump could do in there — or anywhere — that would get more than token criticism from G.O.P. reps running for re-election in blue states.  Maybe if he did something that was fair to immigrants.

I also become more cynical about Democratic Outrage. It's not quite at 100% yet but it's getting there. The main difference between the Republican kind and the Democratic kind is that Democrats just aren't very good at outrage. Imagine what Republicans could do with even the rumor of a Democratic president paying hush money to cover up an extra-marital, condom-free affair with a porn star. Once when Barack Obama ordered a hamburger with dijon mustard, Sean Hannity made it sound more unAmerican than what the entire Democratic Party has been able to do with evidence that Trump may have conspired with Russia to rig our elections.

Oh, well. Here are some links that I think might be worth reading…

• Matt Taibbi calls Trump's musings about using nuclear weapons "insane and ignorant." It sounds like "incoherent" oughta be in there also.
• Ezra Klein explains why the Trump administration is in chaos. Key excerpt: "During the campaign, Trump repeatedly promised to 'hire the best people.'  But the best people want to work for the best bosses, in the best organizations, supported by the best cultures. Trump hasn't created anything of the kind. The Trump administration is a leaky, chaotic, dangerous place, where staffers operate under constant threat from Trump and each other…"
• Fred Kaplan, who might just be the only person in the country who actually reads military budgets, tells us what Trump would do to ours. It's the old belief that spending more money on defense makes you safer no matter what you spend it on. We've spent billions on planes that didn't fly but that didn't matter to a lot of people. The important thing for them was that we cared enough to spend the money.
• Jonathan Blitzer on how Trump's immigration policies are tearing families apart and creating misery. This is a lot of what the next election will be about. And the one after that and the one after that…
• John Cassidy on the White House's budget proposal. Time to haul out all the old quotes about fiscal responsibility that are no longer applicable.
• And lastly for now: Trump's answer to hunger in America? Get rid of food stamps and we'll assemble some crates of canned food and pass them out to poor people. He'll probably toss them into the crowds like rolls of paper towels. Eric Levitz has more.

As much as I love Stephen Colbert, I don't think I'll be a regular viewer of his new series, Our Cartoon President. It's well done but I'm starting to O.D. on Trump parodies. I need to limit them to two hours a day.  That includes the Trump parodies being done on a daily basis by Trump.

The days we go without a Trump Dump on this site are generally days when I stay off political and news sites.  Something needs to be written that day for what I jokingly call my writing career and I decide that thinking too much about Donald Trump will distract me and maybe put a dent in my sense of humor…so I avert my eyes.  Today is not one of those days…

• As we all expected, Trump is congratulating himself on the fabulous, record-setting ratings for his State of the Union address.  He was going to do that no matter what the numbers were and, of course, they weren't that great.  You get the feeling that after Trump eats a bowl of Froot Loops, he tells everyone, "No one has ever eaten a bowl of Froot Loops better than I just did"?
• There are certain lines of political hyperbole that I never believe…like when someone vows to pass a Constitutional Amendment to right what they see as some egregious wrong.  That almost certainly means they are not going to raise a finger to do anything about passing a Constitutional Amendment.  By the same token, saying something is "Worse than Watergate" pretty much guarantees that it isn't.  But Lucian K. Truscott IV (not to be confused with all the other Lucian K. Truscotts out there) says that's what's going on with Trump and Obstruction of Justice is "Worse than Watergate" and he makes a good case that it is.
• Sean Illing on why the effort to discredit the F.B.I. is so unprecedented and dangerous.  It makes you think that Trump and his mob are terrified of what may come out about their self-dealing and double-dealing.
• Matt Yglesias explains what we know of Trump's proposals on Infrastructure. We don't know much because apparently Trump doesn't know much except that it sounds good in a speech to say he has some.  And he must figure there's some way to shovel a lot of government money to him and the people with whom he does business.
• Jonathan Chait on the empty promises and fibs that filled Trump's State o' the Union speech.  Note what Trump says about "clean coal."  Contrary to what some people think, there actually is something called "clean coal" and it's very expensive and difficult to produce.  When Trump talks about "clean coal," he's not talking about that stuff.  To him, all coal is "clean coal."
• Daniel Larison explains why it would not be a good idea to launch a military strike against North Korea.  And isn't it horrifying that such a piece even needs to be written these days?
• And finally, you can find a lot of fact-checks of the State of the Union speech online.  Here's Politifact's.

I thought Stephen Colbert's post-speech live broadcast was pretty good…and kudos to his writers for assembling that monologue on a tight deadline.  Once upon a time, major speeches were followed by much better "instant analysis" than we now get from our newspeople.  Maybe the networks should turn than job over to their late night comedians.

Here are two articles that say the Obstruction of Justice case against Donald Trump is getting stronger. One is from Jeffrey Toobin and the other is from William Saletan. The two pieces say pretty much the same thing and I don't think there was any, as they say, collusion.

Matt Yglesias analyzes a recent interview of Donald Trump and concludes that the man isn't really president. He's just kind of a front for the people who are actually doing the job.

Jonathan Chait says that Trump promised to raise clean air standards and has instead lowered them. Anyone surprised?

One way or the other, I think we're going to be talking about the Donald Trump presidency for the rest of our lives…which Trump would probably consider a "win" for him, even if we're all saying what a monster he was.   He strikes me as the kind of guy who would prefer that to not being mentioned at all.

You may find this hard to believe but there are moments lately when I kinda feel sorry for the guy.  I know he's the cause of a lot of his woes and I know he gleefully did the same things to his opponents but, for example, I didn't think any pundit or commenter from afar knew as much about the Clintons' marriage as they pretended they did.  I didn't think any pundit or commenter from afar knew as much about the Obamas' marriage as they pretended they did.  And I don't think any pundit or commenter from afar knows as much about the Trumps' marriage as they pretend they do.

I also think there is such a thirst out there for jokes and insults of Trump that the Stephen Colberts and Seth Meyerses of the world are faulting him for every stupid thing he says (which is fair) and a lot of picayune, arguable ones (which is not).  There are plenty of the legit kind, guys.

The other night, Michael Wolff was on with Trevor Noah, and I didn't get that Mr. Noah had a high opinion of Mr. Wolff.  He kept pressing Wolff on his new allegation that Trump is currently having an affair with someone on the White House staff and that you can figure this out if you "read between the lines" of Wolff's new book.  It sure sounded like Wolff has insufficient proof to say it out loud but he's suggesting it anyway because, hey, the idea is to sell books, right?

I haven't made it all the way through Wolff's Fire and Fury yet and I may not.  Much of it feels a little too National Enquirer for me…and by the way, I flipped through the latest Enquirer while waiting in the supermarket check-out line lately and I think their new Mission Statement is to make Fox News look fair and balanced by comparison.  Did you know that every bad thing you hear about Trump is a lie planted by Barack Obama?  Apparently, he's even found a way to make Trump say stupid, racist things.  If Obama could do that, how come he couldn't get us real, bulletproof Universal Health Care?  Now this…

• Fred Kaplan has one of those Good News/Bad News columns.  The good news is that with regard to foreign action and military operations, Trump is doing what the generals tell him to do.  The bad news is what the generals are telling him to do.
• Trump has been tossing red meat to his base, warning them that to let one immigrant in is to let in dozens.  Politifact explains how it really works and — surprise, surprise! — it's not the way Trump says it does. Also, immigrants have a much lower crime rate than he'd like you to believe.
• Here's two views on the same matter.  Zack Beauchamp says the Obstruction of Justice case against Trump is pretty strong.  Andrew Prokop thinks otherwise.
• Jonathan Chait makes a good case that "Trump Hasn't Destroyed Obama's Legacy. He's Revealed How Impressive It Was."  Part of the reason Trump's approval rating isn't in the twenties is that most of the economic news is fairly good.  But if you look at any chart of any indicator, I don't think there's one that doesn't show the good news is all continuing some trend from the Obama years or before.
• Matt Taibbi discusses the Trump News Cycle, where it's All Donald, All the Time.
• And finally: Evangelical leaders are still standing behind their boy Trump despite the story about him cheating on his wife with a porn star and paying hush bucks to cover it up.  I'm sure they'll apply the same standards of judgment to the next Democrat who gets enmeshed in a sex scandal.

Speaking of that scandal: The porn star, Stormy Daniels, was out of the business but she's back now, touring strip clubs with her "Make America Horny Again" tour.  Donald always was a great Job Creator.

Imagine a few years ago, I'd come to you with the following prediction/offer…

Within in a year after the next president is inaugurated, it'll be revealed that he cheated on his wife with a porn star — and probably other women, as well. What's more, during the presidential campaign, he paid a six-figure amount to the porn star to keep quiet about it. But as this comes out, his supporters really won't care much about it. A lot of them thought Bill Clinton was unfit for office just because of Monica but they'll be fine with their boy doing what he did and there'll be no real outrage over it.

How much money could I have won from you if we'd bet? You could have cleaned me out if you'd told me that and I don't even get that they're ignoring it because they don't believe it. It's more like "We're in power. That's all that matters." So forget about that and let's look at some links…

• Fred Kaplan discusses America's place in the world under Trump. As Kaplan notes, other countries question whether America will honor its commitments. Why do they do this? Well, maybe it's because the president keeps saying he's not sure if he will honor our commitments.
• William Saletan discusses the "shithole" matter and the squabble over did he say it or didn't he say it? I'm amazed and maybe amused about Lindsey Graham who, when asked if Trump had used the "s" word, refused to say because "I want to make sure that I can keep talking to the president." Do we think that Trump would stop talking to someone who said, "I agree with the president's account"?
• Here's Ezra Klein on where we stand at this moment in the battle to get a continuing resolution that will fund the government and keep the lights on and the doors open. This story may be obsolete by the time I finish this post and put the whole thing up. Oh, if only we could have a continuing resolution of our continuing resolutions.
• Jonathan Chait notes how little Trump's inaugural address — you know; the one that a bazillion people filled the National Mall to hear — has to do with anything he's done since.
• As Joe Conason notes, polls say that by pretty lopsided margins, Americans view Robert Mueller and his investigation as fair. And they'll continue to feel that way until he tells them something they don't want to believe.
• And lastly for now: Doug Bandow reminds us that Republicans once preached Fiscal Responsibility and said how awful it was that our nation was in debt. Yeah, remember that time? It was any time a Democrat was in the White House.

I have nothing to say about Trump's medical report except that isn't it amazing that we don't even trust it when someone tells us what this guy weighs?

I don't think I know the language well enough to do it but I think someone should write the article that a right-wing pundit would write and the speech that a right-wing political office holder or candidate would write if it had turned out that Bill Clinton or Barack Obama had paid off porn stars to keep a relationship secret.

No, let me amend that last part: "…if it had turned out that there was this much evidence that Bill Clinton or Barack Obama had paid off porn stars to keep a relationship secret." It wouldn't have to proven without a scintilla of doubt for that article to be written or that speech to be given. Take the reports about Trump and porn stars, replace Trump's name with Clinton's or Obama's and tell us what Sean Hannity would have said.

I won't write it and I won't run it here but if someone does write it, I'll link to it.

Also, it turns out that the online news site Slate had this story about Trump and one of the porn ladies pretty much nailed down a few weeks before the election. They never ran it because they didn't have it absolutely nailed down but it's out now because The Wall Street Journal believed it had sufficient verification.

Slate is thought of as a largely left-wing site, though on most days you can point to an article or two there from the other side of the street. Right now, there are probably folks praising them for having high-enough standards that they didn't run it because it didn't yet meet a high-enough bar of proof. And there are probably folks out there vilifying them for sitting on a story that was a lot more verified than most of what was being hurled then at Hillary Clinton. Could it have swung the election the other way?

Maybe. I don't know how I feel about this. It's the old argument over whether it's foolish to play fair when your opponent is cheating and stands to get away with it.

While we all ponder that, let's watch as some Republican leaders express tepid outrage. It'll be wrong but not wrong enough to stop supporting a Republican president. The rest of them will probably try to pretend it never happened. I like the ones who try the ol' Climate Change Dodge. They'll say, "I'm going to reserve judgment until all the facts are in" and then they'll never agree that all the facts are in.

Okay, I give up. A million years ago on this blog, I tried out the theory that Donald Trump was not exactly a racist. It seemed to me that the "them" in his "them or us" was not black people or brown people so much as it was non-successful people. Even if there's some truth to that, it's becoming a distinction not worth making. Forget I ever mentioned it.

Of course, the other "them" in Trump's world is anyone of any color or financial status who doesn't serve the needs of Trump's greed and ego, genuflecting to him, going along with the delusion that he's accomplished more than any prior president in his first year, burying lyin' Hillary in the popular vote…and hey, how about those record crowds at his inauguration? And also, I see the guy who couldn't serve in the military because of bone spurs is now telling us what a great athlete he was in college.

Here's some other stuff that might interest you…

• Dylan Matthews reads Trump's interview with the Wall Street Journal so you don't have to.
• Matt Taibbi reads Fire and Fury by Michael Wolff so you don't have to.
• German Lopez lists some good reasons to believe Trump has always been some sort of racist.
• William Saletan looks at the talking points that Trump repeats over and over (there's been no colluson, there's been no collusion, there's been no colluson, there's been no collusion, there's been no colluson, there's been no collusion…and did I mention there's been no collusion?) and concludes that he doth protest too much.
• And Paul Krugman reminds us of some of the brilliant, rational things done so far by the Very Stable Genius.

A source tells me that Stephen Colbert's staff is working very hard to try and get Trump aide Stephen Miller on their show. If they aren't, they should be.

The most important link I have for you today is to Ezra Klein giving you his take on the Michael Wolff book. I still have a little trouble with the premise that Trump didn't really want to win the presidency. I would have trouble with the suggestion that Donald Trump didn't want to win a game of tic-tac-toe.

In fact, if you played tic-tac-toe with this guy and he lost, the first thing he'd do is tell you you're wrong, he actually won and it's Fake News to say otherwise. You cheated, he got three-in-a-row and it was misreported, seeming to lose was all part of a master plan which he has won, et cetera, et cetera. As I am writing this, I just got a new pop-up that says "Trump says he would beat Oprah in 2020." Well, of course he'd say that. He would say he would beat anybody.

You know the old line about the dog who chased a car, caught it and then didn't know what to do with it? I think Trump may be like a dog who caught a car and then figured that proved he knew how to drive.

Anyway, read Klein. The "he didn't want to win" premise makes enough sense in some areas that I'm not able to dismiss it. I'm just not convinced. Now, this…

• Politifact takes a look at Wolff's book. They point out a number of inconsequential errors but raise some serious questions of the "How did Wolff know this?" variety.
• We are now to the point with Donald Trump where most people will believe any story about him that contains elements of outrageous lying, outlandish self-obsession or utter cluelessness. I hope the anti-Trump movement does not develop an in-the-bubble mentality like the pro-Trump movement. Rod Dreher thinks we're getting there.
• I kinda agree with Yascha Mounk that calling Trump "mentally ill" is not going to solve anything and might make it worse. I also have a bit of a problem with anyone, including licensed psychiatrists, making that diagnosis from afar.
• But then I also like what Kevin Drum suggests about how Trump could disprove all those allegations about his sanity or lack, thereof. He needs to give a calm, rational address which deals with issues of policy and not with his two favorite topics: Revenge Against His Enemies and His Own Greatness. That's all.
• Will Trump sit for questioning by Robert Mueller and his investigative team? Cristian Farias says any lawyer in the world would tell him that's a crazy thing to do…which would ordinarily make me assume he'll do it but I'd like to think he's not that crazy. It would be kind of fun to watch all the Republicans who insisted Bill Clinton had to be ousted because he didn't tell the absolute truth in one deposition have to defend everything Trump would get wrong if he was questioned under oath.
• Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux dives into the question of whether a sitting president can be indicted for criminal actions. The folks who might have done that to Richard Nixon during the Watergate investigation side-stepped that question. My guess is that will remain the default action.
• Remember how Trump was going to be the guy who was going to make Coal Mining a great, booming industry again and save the noble profession of Coal Miner? Well, that seems to be over.

And speaking of Coal Miners, remember how John Oliver is being sued by a coal magnate for allegedly defaming him on Last Week Tonight? Some months ago, I read where the case was going before a judge on 1/10/2018. I don't know if it still is but there oughta be some news about it soon. I gather from various articles that the plaintiff, Robert Murray, is not as enchanted with Mr. Trump as he used to be.

My shoulder healed itself — without so much as one Ibuprofen — so I am able to type this special edition for you. It deals, of course, with Michael Wolff's new book on the Trump White House…

• Matt Taibbi hopes that that new book is correct in portraying Trump as a buffoon. Taibbi's logic is that if D.J.T. knew how to accomplish anything, he might really be dangerous. I'm not sure I buy this.
• William Saletan tackles the part of Michael Wollf's book that says Trump never wanted to be president and says that explains a lot. I'm pretty sure I don't buy this but I might believe he was unprepared to win.
• Did author Michael Wolff actually have access to the White House — a claim Mr. Trump seems to be denying? Politifact says yes.
• So…how much of this book should we believe? Andrew Prokop offers some guidelines. I'm thinking the rule should be that a book about a famous person doesn't have to be totally accurate. It just has to be more accurate than the famous person.
• And here's one of many online excerpts of the book.

Meanwhile in other news: Mathematicians have discovered a new prime number and it takes 23 million digits to write it out. This will come in so handy.