2017 Jan 27^th

The big meeting between President Trump and President Pena Nieto of Mexico was called off. After President Trump’s repeated insults about Mexicans and his insistence that this sovereign government must pay for a 15 billion dollar border wall, the Mexican President finally said “enough” and cancelled the meeting. Trump immediately claimed that the meeting was cancelled by mutual agreement. Of course that’s true in the sense that If the Mexican President doesn’t show up for the meeting then President Trump would likely not go to the location of the previously scheduled meeting either. Perhaps this is not another alt-fact after all.

Trump has suggested that he will impose a 20 percent tax on all goods entering the country from Mexico. Let’s face it, increasing taxes on anything for any reason is a dreadful thing to suggest within the hearing of any Republican legislator. For elderly tea party Republicans it can lead to a stroke. So it was that Reince Priebus very quickly stepped in to say that this border tax was just one of several options being considered. That didn’t work well because boss Trump reiterated his position on the border tax shortly after Priebus tried to clean up his boss’s gaffe.

This potential tax will simply increase the price of all imports from Mexico and will be paid for by the American citizens who buy these goods. Texas will be most obviously affected by this price increase and Texans are not happy.

A new photo of the vast crowds attending President Trump’s inauguration on January 20^th  hangs in the White House. The crowds at this event have been a particular sore point for the new president. He simply cannot be outdone, publically, on any measure of popularity by anyone. To this end poor Sean Spicer, his newly minted press secretary, announced to the press that Trump’s inaugural crowds were “the largest ever to see an inauguration. Period.” (Adding the word “period” is a good indication that the speaker is out of persuasive ammunition.) Sean was severely criticized by his boss for not being forceful enough about the huuuge inaugural crowds and also about his ill-fitting grey suit. Given the challenges President Trump faces it is nice to see him still concerned about how his press secretary’s clothes fit. No detail is too small for our new president.

With this photo, President Trump has finally found a solution, albeit temporary, to the inaugural crowd problem. Unfortunately, for President Trump, the picture now on the White House wall showing monster crowds was, in fact, taken January 21^st , the day after the inauguration, and is not of the inaugural crowds but is of the Women’s March on Washington. But hey, if seeing those crowds makes this poor old man feel better what harm is there in that?

Trump’s alt-right, the politically correct term for his white supremacist, advisor Steve Bannon, has had quite enough of these reports about his boss’s gaffes.  The latest was perhaps Trump’s daughter, Tiffany’s, dual voting registration both in New York where she lives and in Pennsylvania where she goes to school. The unfair press reported that fact and Bannon told them to, “just shut up,” that the new administration considered them “the enemy.” Well, no wonder, just because he’s President of the United States, the press, Fox news excepted of course, feels it necessary to report on every last stupid thing he says. Very unfair!