Bats in his belfrey

But why would he want to?

Welp, that's our president.









Hilarious.

But there's more.  There's always more.  Daniel Dale is following Trump's news conference with Finland's president:



He couldn't say "jock"???

Trump called Adam Schiff a "lowlife," bashing him for his rendition of Trump's phone call. "He should resign from office in disgrace, and frankly they should look at him for treason," Trump said, though treason has an actual definition that is not this.

Trump attacked San Francisco to attack Pelosi, saying "there's needles and drugs all over the street, there's tents, there's people...dying in squalor...it used to be a great city." 

Trump was exceptionally ranty in these opening comments in the Oval Office. It wasn't like the usual back-and-forth intermittent rant, just one straight rant. He then said, "I think I've answered most of your questions." 

Trump now says that his "corruption" discussion with Ukraine's president was mostly about Democratic corruption in 2016. (Along with the Biden stuff, he did vaguely raise the weird conspiracy theory about Ukraine and "the server.")

Trump: A whistleblower should be protected "if the whistleblower's legitimate." Trump said "the person" who gave the whistleblower his information is "a spy." Trump said Lindsey Graham told him of the Ukraine call: "You never asked him for anything." Trump made specific requests of Ukraine's president.

Trump: "I'd rather run against Biden than almost any of those candidates." He says Biden has "never been a smart guy" and is "less smart now than he was."

Trump said he knew that the new book out about him and immigration and moats and such was going to be fake because it was written by people from the "Washington Post." It was written by New York Times reporters. 

Trump says he doesn't use fake news anymore and will now say corrupt news because fake isn't strong enough. He tweeted a tweet about fake news less than three hours ago. 

Trump, reading material on the US-Finland relationship, stops to ad-lib midway through a prepared sentence about Finland's participation in NATO activities even though it's not a member -- he says they "save a lot of money" by not being a member.

Trump says the European Union has not been treating the US right for many years, and he tells them, "and they know it."  Finland's president is pushing back on Trump's criticism of the US-European relationship: "USA needs also Europe. We know the price of everything. We should recognize also the value of everything."

Niinisto then talks about the danger of black carbon emissions in causing melting sea ice. This is not exactly how foreign leaders usually speak when appearing beside Trump. 

As often, Trump gives the first question to John Roberts of Fox News. Roberts asks about subpoenas to the White House. "I always cooperate," Trump says (?), and calls all this a "fraudulent crime on the American people." He promises to "work together with Shifty Schiff." 

Trump accuses Adam Schiff of having a "mental breakdown."

If there is anyone who projects more than Trump, I have not heard of him.

He falsely says that the rough transcript released by the White House was an "exact transcript." It literally says on the piece of paper that it is not a verbatim transcript. Trump says Schiff's rendition of his phone call has to be a crime. It very much is not. He also says some people even say it was treason. Those people are not people who understand what treason is.

Those are the people in his head.



He's probably making that up.  On the other hand, he probably doesn't know what stenographers are.

Trump is repeating his false claims about Democrats' letter to Ukraine, which did not threaten to withdraw US aid.

 

President Niinistö is going to have a great story to tell when he gets back to Finland.

Trump is now attacking the Mueller investigation. "I get three days of peace," he complains, and now "I hear about the word impeachment. I said, 'What did I do now?'" He says he learned it was about a "beautiful conversation."

Trump gives Fox's John Roberts a hard time about asking a second question, tells him to ask a question of the Finnish president, then says it seems like Roberts might have a good question and lets him ask it.

Trump implores the president of Finland to pick a "really nice" reporter, then adds that he thinks "they're all nice in Finland." The Finnish reporter asks the president of Finland, "What kind of favors has Mr. Trump asked from you?"

Oh, SNAP.  LOL.

 Trump says, "I think you mean the other way around."

.@jeffmason1 of Reuters asks if anyone who opposes him is treasonous. Trump says no, only when "they lie." (Aside from the merits of Trump's claims about people lying, lying about the president is not treason.) 

"Believe it or not, I watch my words very carefully," Trump says. He adds[, "There are those that think I'm a very] stable genius." 

Those in his head again.

Trump says he's going to bring "a lot of litigation" against "a lot of people," apparently related to the Mueller investigation. (He has sued a lot of people in his life; he has also threatened a lot of litigation he has never actually initiated.)

Asked to specify what he wanted Zelensky to do with regard to Joe and Hunter Biden, Trump says, not answering, "Why are we the only one that give the big money to the Ukraine?" That is not true; European countries have given a whole lot of aid.  Trump calls Ukraine a "big, wide, beautiful wall" between Russia and Europe. He claims that all of this was about not wanting to be "the sucker" in providing aid. He doesn't answer about the Bidens. Mason asks over and over what he wanted Zelensky to do with regard to the Bidens. Trump is pointedly refusing to answer. Eventually, he demands that Mason ask a question to the president of Finland, advising him not to be "rude."

But he did rant about Biden:  "Biden and his son are stone. Cold. Crooked.  And you know it. His son walks out with millions of dollars. The kid knows nothing.  You know it, and so do we."  And then he gets very rude with the reporter asking.  "Ask [the president of Finland] a question....Did you hear me!? Ask him a question.  I've given you a long answer.  Ask. This. Gentleman. A question. Don't be rude."  Watch this clip.

Trump falsely claims that the US didn't have "wins" at the WTO under previous presidents. He alleges with no evidence that the WTO is now giving the US wins so that he is "happy." 

Trump calls the US a great democracy but says it would be better if the media were honest. He concludes by singling out "the CNNs of the world, who are corrupt people," then walks off. 

That was quite a rant.



He's going to get uglier and uglier and uglier.

UPDATE:





At the very least.  But, like I said, he's gonna have some great stories when he gets home.



Nice try, Sauli, but you can't break through that skull.