2017 Feb 16^th

Donald Trump is having a press conference as I write this. He is using this national exposure to complain about his treatment by most networks, although he singled out a Fox morning show as an exception, as indeed they are. Very little derogatory news about Donald Trump will ever appear on any Rupert Murdoch owned “news” outlet.

Trump is having a swell time at his news conference; I know that because Trump said so. He really does have a good time when he is the center of attention and he can dominate the proceedings. Unfortunately, Trump has put himself in a bind: He claims that poor Michael Flynn was the victim of the media’s fake news, but if he knew the news was fake, as he claims, why did he ask for Flynn’s resignation. He hasn’t claimed that Flynn’s lies to the Vice President were fake news and those lies were the reason for Flynn’s firing, not his conversation with the Russian ambassador.

Multiple organizations are investigating the Russian connections of the various Trumpeters and that is a very good thing. Some congressional committees can hide the results of their findings from the public; The FBI’s investigation can be called off by the new attorney general, Jeff Sessions, if it seem to be turning up any dirty dirt; the Army’s investigation can be stopped by Secretary of Defense Mattis, if that looks bad for any principal Trumpeters. There is a remedy: leaks. These investigations will be carried out by career officials of the various departments involved and if they get on to something, it only takes one of them to blow the whistle on any attempt to squelch their findings. Trump hates leaks although he loved them when he thought they benefited him when he was a candidate; now they enrage him and no wonder. He hates not having control.

In a remarkable bit of fake news, Trump, at his news conference, claimed that he had inherited a “mess” both a foreign and a domestic mess.  Then he claimed that his administration was so far running like a “fine-tuned machine.” Within the last day this “fine-tuned machine” has gotten some grit in its gears; it has seen the departure of the ill-advised selection of Andy Puzder for Secretary of Labor. This was a nominee who had a proclivity for using soft-porn ads to bring customers into his fast food restaurants, and who claimed that if the ads weren’t racy enough he would spice them up, and then he said that he would rather have robots working for him than the humans he employed. Short of nominating a Chinese field marshal as secretary of defense, this nomination is about as bad as it could get. I guess somebody got to him because his new nomine is Dean Alex Acosta, dean of the law school at Florida Atlantic University. That could work.

We also had this “fine-tuned machine” produce an executive order quickly struck down by the courts because it obviously discriminated against Muslims. Trump allowed a 31-year-old staffer to write this gem and he is still trying to get the egg off his face as a result. Then to compound the problem Steve Miller, the author of this disaster, went on a group of TV shows to announce that whatever the president did in the area of national defense “was not reviewable…by anybody.” (The fine-tuned machine was beginning to sputter.)

Kellyanne Conway is so absorbed in her own world that she goes on network TV and touts Ivanka Trump’s clothing and accessory line. Using the oval office’s clout to push a commercial line is very illegal, particularly when it benefits a member of the president’s family. Kellyanne will need serious counselling. Kellyanne has another problem; She is so addicted to fake news that she is no longer welcome on some morning shows; “Morning Joe” for an example.

For Trump to say his first weeks in office have produced a fine-tuned machine is nonsense and opens him to charges that he is delusional.

Lastly, Trump’s pick to replace General Flynn, Admiral Robert Harward, has turned down the offer. It seems that Trump decided Flynn’s deputy, K.T. McFarland, could remain in place thus depriving any new security advisor the opportunity to pick his own assistant.

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