Trump: The Other 1361 Days

[Kozmos]

Since the first 100 days are long gone by now, I thought we should have yet another thread that encompasses all things POTUSsential. To kick things off, I present to you an interview of Trump with the Economist:

http://www.economist.com/Trumptranscript

Here's a few choice excerpts:

Interviewer: Some people think this is a negotiating tactic—that you say very dramatic things but actually you would settle for some very small changes. Is that right?

President Trump: No, it’s not, really not a negotiation. It’s really not. No, will I settle for less than I go in with? Yes, I mean who wouldn’t? Nobody, you know, I always use the word flexibility, I have flexibility. [Goes off the record.] [Our] relationship with China is long. Of course by China standards, it’s very short [laughter], you know when I’m with [Xi Jinping], because he’s great, when I’m with him, he’s a great guy. He was telling me, you know they go back 8,000 years, we have 1776 is like modern history. They consider 1776 like yesterday and they, you know, go back a long time. They talk about the different wars, it was very interesting. We got along great. So I told them, I said, “We have a problem and we’re going to solve that problem.” But he wants to help us solve that problem.

---

Interviewer: Priming the pump?

President Trump: Yeah, have you heard it?

Interviewer: Yes.

President Trump: Have you heard that expression used before? Because I haven’t heard it. I mean, I just…I came up with it a couple of days ago and I thought it was good. It’s what you have to do.

---

President Trump: The repatriation. Inversion. The corporate inversions, which is a disaster, with the companies leaving. But they want to bring back their money. Number one, the tax is too high but the other thing that’s too high is the bureaucracy.

Mr Mnuchin: Correct.

President Trump: I have a friend who said even if you wanted to bring it back in you can’t because you have to go through so many papers, so many documents, so many…

Mr Mnuchin: We’re going to make it simple

President Trump: You have to do…Steve, they told me you’ve got to sign books and books of stuff, you pay millions of dollars in legal fees and they almost don’t allow you to bring it back in.

Interviewer: Can I ask you a question about the politics of tax?

President Trump: It should be like one page.

Interviewer: The politics of this? Do you need to get Democratic support to get this tax plan passed?

President Trump: Um. Little bit.

---

I've added a fluid poll (you can change your vote) with a binary choice to evaluate our beloved CinC that will keep running for 1350 more days as informed by this (https://www.tickcounter.com/countdown/137730/trump-presidency-time-remaining). Discuss, meme occasionally, but above all play nice gentlemen.

 

[Kyriakos]

+1 for thread title

 

[Lexicus]

Worst President we've ever had, managed to actually have more badness in four months than most Presidents managed in 4 or 8 years.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Interviewer: Priming the pump?

President Trump: Yeah, have you heard it?

Interviewer: Yes.

President Trump: Have you heard that expression used before? Because I haven’t heard it. I mean, I just…I came up with it a couple of days ago and I thought it was good. It’s what you have to do.

Just when you think Dingbat Don has taken us as far into theater of the absurd as possible, he goes further.

 

[Silurian]

He can use twitter but not google

 

[Bootstoots]

Worst President we've ever had, managed to actually have more badness in four months than most Presidents managed in 4 or 8 years.

Still no Iraq War type thing yet. I'd hold back on this until he invades Iran or something.

 

[Kyriakos]

He can use twitter but not google

He is The twittering machine:

 

[Sommerswerd]

This thread = winning

 

[onejayhawk]

Make this thread great again.

Worst President we've ever had, managed to actually have more badness in four months than most Presidents managed in 4 or 8 years.

You say that about every Republican.

It could be worse. It could be Dick Cheney or Hillary Clinton.

J

 

[Timsup2nothin]

You say that about every Republican.

J

I used to say it about GWBush, but he's been surpassed handily already. I've never said anything like "worst" about Reagan, Nixon, or GHW Bush, who are the other Republican presidents of my lifetime. The last two efforts that the GOP have coughed up are hairballs, and not in the same league.

 

[Kozmos]

Trumpo: "This country has wasted $6trn in the Middle East. Wasted. Like taking it and throwing it right out that window. Right in to the Rose Garden. See that beautiful Rose Garden? Look at those very nicely dressed people. It’s religious liberty out there."

[NB. Immediately after this interview, President Trump was due to sign an executive order promoting religious liberty]

On a more serious note, what are the conditions for mental health checks on the President? Cause I'll be damned if he doesn't suffer from the senility or dementia.

 

[Sommerswerd]

Make this thread great again.


You say that about every Republican.

It could be worse. It could be Dick Cheney or Hillary Clinton.

In many ways it arguably already was Dick Cheney and Hillary Clinton... it wasn't worse... at least not under Clinton for sure.

 

[JollyRoger]

Given that the White House has more leaks than a hotel room full of Russian prostitutes, it's at least going to be entertaining.

 

[Kyriakos]

I used to say it about GWBush, but he's been surpassed handily already. I've never said anything like "worst" about Reagan, Nixon, or GHW Bush, who are the other Republican presidents of my lifetime. The last two efforts that the GOP have coughed up are hairballs, and not in the same league.

I wouldn't say that Trump has already surpassed the W administration in regards to having a ruinous global effect. No massive wars, massive debt built-up or patriot act, at least not yet. Sure, he sounds even more cretinous, but that isn't enough to surpass what W did yet.
Maybe the sole positive effect of what he is doing is that it is unlikely for him to be able to declare some great war -- though i am not putting it past him. So yeah, he may easily become even worse than W, just is not currently. To paraphrase W, i believe that the human being and Trump can co-exist.

 

[Kozmos]

You don't need to start a war to make bad decisions that reverberate for decades.

http://www.igmchicago.org/surveys/tax-reforms

 

[Flying Pig]

Moderator Action: Discussion of the War of 1812 split off to a new thread.

 

[Kozmos]

This could help Trump politically, reaffirm his status as the dealmaker that always gets ahead.

On a more serious note:

I said, “You don’t use steam anymore for catapult?” “No sir.” I said, “Ah, how is it working?” “Sir, not good. Not good. Doesn’t have the power. You know the steam is just brutal. You see that sucker going and steam’s going all over the place, there’s planes thrown in the air.”

It sounded bad to me. Digital. They have digital. What is digital? And it’s very complicated, you have to be Albert Einstein to figure it out. And I said — and now they want to buy more aircraft carriers. I said, “What system are you going to be—” “Sir, we’re staying with digital.” I said, “No you’re not. You going to goddamned steam, the digital costs hundreds of millions of dollars more money and it’s no good.”

https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/05/1...erald-ford-emals-steam-launch-catapults-navy/

 

[civver_764]

I can't help but love the guy. He just doesn't care, it's refreshing. I love the way he stands up to the media. Imagine if Obama had this level of confidence? We'd probably have a single-payer health care system right now.

 

[Kyriakos]

Steam-punk

 

[Sommerswerd]

Somebody owes Tim a beer for that call