He's been too busy

That was enough.  What more do you want?



I think he already told us why when he said he opposed the war in Iraq.

Presidential forecast

Will the second two years of his first term be any different from the first two years? His actions and words in the days following the midterm elections indicate things actually could get worse rather than better. He has never been a gracious winner. In defeat, he has shown worse: ill-tempered, withdrawn, even more unpredictable.

[...]

He has driven suburban voters, especially college-educated women, away from the Republican Party. His hold on rural America remains strong, but the midterms suggest possible slippage.

[...]

He was elected to lead a world in transition and under stress. He has added to that stress by weakening traditional alliances and embracing authoritarian leaders, while offering no clear strategy for key areas of the world. He has sought to dismantle or redraw global trade deals and other arrangements that his predecessors helped to construct.

  WaPo

Captain Destructo. It's all he's ever done in his life: take things and destroy them. A large toddler clomping through the world knocking things down.

He has reinforced what his presidency has wrought, domestically and internationally, and left others to worry about what comes next.

At home, Trump claimed that the midterms were “close to complete victory” for his party and especially for himself. It was an extravagant assertion at the time he made it — the day after the elections — and even more so today. Other presidents have accepted some responsibility for the losses of their party in midterm elections, or at least acknowledged the reality of defeat. Trump is having none of that.

[...]

Republicans defeated three red-state Democratic senators. GOP candidates also won or are leading in four high-profile statewide races — gubernatorial elections in Florida and Georgia and Senate races in Florida and in Texas. But the party surrendered GOP-held Senate seats in Nevada and Arizona and lost senatorial or gubernatorial contests in three presidential battlegrounds in the Midwest.

The House results produced a string of defeats that have left the GOP weaker in key parts of the country, states such as New Jersey and Pennsylvania, for example. In New England, other than Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Republicans will have no congressional representation. In California, Orange (as in County) is the new blue, after several victories by Democrats in competitive House districts in a county that once was the symbolic and real heartland of American conservatism.

[...]

DuPage County, outside Chicago, has been a Republican stronghold for years, though the GOP’s grip had been weakening. Now, not a single House member in the new Congress whose district includes a part of DuPage County will be a Republican.

[...]

The 2020 elections will test the resilience of these new members, whose races will enjoy less prominence and potentially less money than they had this year, given the overriding attention the presidential race will receive.

But this year’s elections laid a foundation, thanks in large part to voters’ negative reactions to the president. Young voters supported Democrats by margins well beyond those rung up even by Barack Obama in his two presidential campaigns.

[...]

The president’s advisers argue, fairly, that people should be cautious about projecting forward as to how those rural areas will vote in 2020, when Trump’s name is again on the ballot. But if the suburbs are trending away, he will need all the rural ground he had in 2016 and perhaps more.

[His] trip to Paris to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the armistice of World War I brought a reminder of the degree to which he has chosen to stand apart from traditional U.S. allies. He was absent physically at key moments, and absent intellectually in providing the leadership that long has come with being the American president.

[...]

The centenary was meant to be the biggest such commemoration in decades. Yet Trump did not go, as scheduled, to pay respects at an American cemetery outside Paris, where more than 2,000 American troops are buried. Weather was blamed for the decision, but he later vented at his staff for making him look bad.

The next day he chose not to march in the rain with other global leaders on the Champs-Elysees, choosing instead to be driven to the Arc de Triomphe for the later ceremony. Another leader who skipped the solidarity march was Russian President Vladimir Putin.

[...]

After returning to the United States last Sunday night, Trump chose not to make the traditional presidential trip to Arlington Cemetery the following morning to observe Veterans Day. Later in the week, apparently seeking to make amends, he went to the Marine Barracks in Washington for a lunchtime visit. On Friday, he acknowledged he had made a mistake by not going to Arlington Cemetery. He said he was busy making “calls for the country.”

Actually, he said it MIGHT have been a mistake, before lying that he was busy making calls, which even if that had been true, was no excuse.

He has plodded through the days after the election, seeming mostly unhappy in what was “close to compete victory.” He now must know what was lost in the midterms, but he seems lost in knowing how to respond.

He really is clueless about proper social behavior. He's a complete and total narcissist. After constant tweet-slamming the process (and the Dems who were stealing elections) when it looked like Florida and Georgia votes might go against the Republicans, now that the counts have finally been made in favor of Rick Scott and Brian Kemp, he's tweeting about what great races Democrats Gillum and Abrams ran and how they'll be great candidates in future races. I don't even know if he realizes that people can see right through him, but I suspect he doesn't. He's gone through his life unconcerned about his effect on other people; I see no reason to believe he's gained any insight along the way. He's very much in a self-centered toddler state of mind all the time.  Never any attempt to mature or behave like a genuine human being.

Wait for the tweet rant about this Post article being FAKE NEWS!

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

From an interview with Chris Wallace:



Other people are no concern of his.

Looks like someone is making him read something

Yes, we see how you HONOR and CHERISH the veterans with your neglect of their health needs and your refusal to show up at ceremonies in their honor on Armistice and Veterans Days.

Shameless dickhead.




Wow.  Traveled all the way to the Marine Barracks in DC!

He has yet to pay a visit to any soldiers overseas.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Grump in Paris

TGrump in Paris.  Image source: Washington Post

[On his way to Paris, a]board Air Force One, Trump again lost his cool, this time during his phone call with May. He berated the British prime minister on Iran, trade and Brexit, among other topics. The White House did not announce that the call took place nor did it provide an official readout, but U.S. and European officials said in interviews that Trump’s mood was sour and his conversation with May was acrimonious.

On his flight there and throughout the weekend, Trump was preoccupied by political developments back in the United States. He watched TV with rapt attention as late-counting votes resulted in the Senate race in Arizona and a number of House contests to slip out of Republican hands, and as recounts got underway in Florida’s Senate and gubernatorial races. He also complained about the lack of congressional funding for his promised wall at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Trump sent political aides in Washington scrambling to prepare detailed briefings for him on the still-to-be-called races. He aired baseless allegations of voter irregularities on Twitter — writing from the plane that elections attorney Marc Elias was the Democrats’ “best Election stealing lawyer” but that he would send “much better lawyers to expose the FRAUD!”

Still, the president told aides he felt disconnected from the action in his suite at the U.S. ambassador’s residence in Paris — even as he consumed countless hours of television news on the trip.

[...]

“He was frustrated with the trip. And he’s itching to make some changes,” said one senior White House official. “This is a week where things could get really dicey.”

During his 43-hour stay in Paris, Trump brooded over the Florida recounts and sulked over key races being called for Democrats in the midterm elections that he had claimed as a “big victory.” He erupted at his staff over media coverage of his decision to skip a ceremony honoring the military sacrifice of World War I.

[...]

“He’s just a bull carrying his own china shop with him when­ever he travels the world,” presidential historian Douglas Brinkley said.

[...]

“Trump needs adulation, so heading into the midterms, holding these rallies, he was cheered and it became narcissistic fuel to his engine,” Brinkley said. “After the midterm, it’s the sober dawn of the morning.”

  WaPo

I like that. A bull carrying his own china shop.

Trump was awake Saturday well before dawn, if he got much sleep at all, tweeting at 4:52 a.m. Paris time a two-part defense of Whitaker as “highly thought of” and “outstanding.” Later in the day, he scuttled plans to attend a ceremony honoring the military sacrifice of World War I at an American cemetery outside the French capital, citing bad weather.

[...]

But Trump quickly grew infuriated by a torrent of tweets and media coverage suggesting that the president was afraid of the rain and did not respect veterans.

[...]

Trump told aides he thought he looked “terrible” and blamed his chief of staff’s office, and Fuentes in particular, for not counseling him that skipping the cemetery visit would be a public-relations nightmare.

Because he couldn't figure that one out on his own? I call bullshit. He didn't want to go, because it was misty, and he wanted to stay in and watch the TV election results coverage.

Meanwhile, Trump was plotting a shake-up in his administration. He told advisers over the weekend that he had decided to remove Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and that he also was seriously considering replacing White House chief of staff John F. Kelly, who scrambled early this week to try to save Nielsen’s job.

The senior White House official, who speaks to the president regularly, said Trump has been grousing lately about getting rid of Kelly. “But he’s done this three or four times before,” this person said. “Nothing is ever real until he sends the tweet.”

[...]

During Sunday’s flight to Washington from Paris, aides filed into the president’s private cabin to lobby against the leading contender to replace Kelly, Nick Ayers, who is Vice President Pence’s chief of staff. These aides told Trump that appointing Ayers would lower staff morale and perhaps trigger an exodus.

Are they stupid? That was probably the very thing that cemented the deal.

On Tuesday, amid reports that the president had decided to oust deputy national security adviser Mira R. Ricardel over tensions between her and other administration officials, the first lady’s office issued an extraordinary statement to reporters calling for her firing.

[...]

In her role as No. 2 to national security adviser John Bolton, Ricardel berated colleagues in meetings, yelled at military aides and White House professional staff, argued with Melania Trump regarding her recent trip to Africa and spread rumors about Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, according to three current and two former White House officials.

Kelly has sought for months to oust Ricardel, calling her a problematic hire in the West Wing, and Mattis has told advisers that he wants her out as well, the officials said.

Hmmm...so why isn't she gone?

On Sunday, he got angry at Macron for his remarks at a ceremony honoring the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I. The French president denounced rising nationalism around the world and called it a “betrayal of patriotism,” with two of the world’s leading nationalists — Trump and Russian President Vladi­mir Putin — in attendance.

Trump told advisers he considered Macron’s comment a personal insult, and it came on the heels of a disagreement between the two leaders over Macron’s call for a “true European army.” At their bilateral meeting on Saturday, Trump appeared subdued and almost sullen.

"Almost"? Let's be honest, he's a big baby. He sulks and pouts and throws tantrums. It's good to know he can recognize a personal insult, though.

Once he was back home in Washington, Trump unloaded on his French counterpart, likening Macron’s call for a European army to Germany’s military expansion in World War I and World War II. Trump tweeted Tuesday morning, “How did that work out for France? They were starting to learn German in Paris before the U.S. came along. Pay for NATO or not!”

[...]

And then he attacked Macron for his unpopularity in France — while providing a bit of sloganeering advice.

“The problem is that Emmanuel suffers from a very low Approval Rating in France, 26%, and an unemployment rate of almost 10%,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “He was just trying to get onto another subject. By the way, there is no country more Nationalist than France, very proud people-and rightfully so!.. MAKE FRANCE GREAT AGAIN!”

Once he got home where he was encased in his bedroom bubble and felt protected again. Just like every other whiney bully in the history of the world.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 11/18:



He did well in France.

UPDATE 5/28/19:

Let the French bashing begin

I'm surprised it took this long. I guess he had to wait until he talked to Sean Hannity.









Please don't.  You see how that's going here.

Who's lying - Trump or Secret Service?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 5/28/19:

Failing Bigly

For the first 18 months of Trump’s volatile presidency, European leaders shell-shocked by the American’s bombast, especially his provocative rhetoric that seemed to call into question the very pillars of the transatlantic relationship, sought to soothe tensions by minimizing disagreements, and giving Trump space to adjust to his role as leader of the free world.

They shuddered as Trump applauded Brexit and expressed disdain for the EU, but they mostly held their tongues. They pulled their punches when he contemplated pulling out of the Paris climate change accords. When he moved the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, they quietly stated that they thought it an unhelpful mistake. When he slammed European allies for not spending enough on their militaries, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg assured him that he is right.

But Trump’s thinly veiled threat to withdraw from NATO at last summer’s leaders’ summit left leaders deeply unsettled. His unilateral withdrawal from the Iran nuclear accord shows he has no respect for past agreements, even the Iran deal, which is enshrined in a U.N. Security Council resolution.

Most recently, Trump’s announcement that he is pulling out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty sent a message to Europe that he truly does not care about their security. The INF treaty, which eliminated all missiles and launchers with a range of 500 to 1,000 kilometers, first and foremost serves to protect Europe. It was Trump’s callous disregard for the treaty’s importance that led Macron in an interview broadcast last week to call for an EU army to help defend its people.

Even as Trump touched down in Paris, Europe was already firing shots at him — though there is a good chance he was unaware of it. On the occasion of Trump’s visit — his second to Paris as president — France’s most prominent newspaper, Le Monde, began publishing a three-part series on the diplomatic damage Trump has wrought. The first instalment opens with a description of the leaders of the Baltic nations — Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia — returning from a visit to the White House aghast because Trump had made remarks about their responsibility for the war in Yugoslavia, apparently mistaking the Baltics for the Balkans.

[...]

Trump is no longer allowed to steal the show — at least not when it’s being held on Europe’s stage.

At a G7 summit in Quebec last June, and a NATO leaders’ summit in Brussels a month later, the American president grabbed the limelight and disrupted proceedings, leaving his counterparts reeling and struggling to contain any damage.

But European leaders have wised up. French President Emmanuel Macron showed at commemorations in Paris for the World War I Armistice centenary over the weekend that there is a new approach. No longer will Europe simply appease and contain Trump, as they did for the first 18 months of his unorthodox presidency. Instead, they are now prepared to push back and isolate Trump if necessary, denying him the attention he craves.

[...]

Ahead of his meeting with Trump in the Elysée Palace, the French president said he agrees with his counterpart’s call for European allies to spend more on their militaries.

But Macron also went on CNN — the U.S. cable network that Trump loathes — and gave an interview in which he pushed back hard, saying that while Europe should spend more, he did not want the money going to purchases of American-weapons and other hardware.

  Politico

Thank goodness we still have Saudi Arabia to sell our weapons to.

European officials said they now have enough experience with Trump to know what to expect and that a soft stance is pointless.

“Sometimes it’s better to be more assertive and have a clear idea of the point you yourself want to make,” said one European official who helped prepare for bilateral interaction with Trump. “He’s a power player — so he respects more those who will push back a little than those who will just lay down on the ground.”

He respects no one.

Macron and the Elysée Palace appeared to move assertively to prevent Trump from stealing any thunder from the historical import of the day. German Chancellor Angela Merkel was immediately by Macron’s side at the formal ceremony — in a powerful show that the somber day belonged more than anything to France and Germany (Theresa May had declined an invitation to represent Britain at the ceremony, instead playing her role in extensive commemorations in London on Saturday and Sunday.)

Let me guess...she was afraid to be seen to be taking a stance with her European counterparts against Trump.

Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin had seats close by — but it was clear that they were supporting cast members — not the main attraction of the day.

Interfax, the Russian news agency, also reported that the seating plan of a leaders’ luncheon following the ceremony was designed to keep Trump and Putin apart. Instead, the Russian news agency, reported, Trump was placed in between United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. Yury Ushakov, a high-level foreign policy adviser to Putin, told Interfax that Macron’s office “quite persistently” asked that Putin and Trump not hold a bilateral meeting that would inevitably draw attention away from the formal program.

[...]

Trump arrived in his own motorcade at the ceremony (for security reasons, a White House spokesperson said) and appeared on the dais later than most of the other leaders.

For security reasons. Sure.

They had arrived together by bus and formed a somber umbrella-carrying crowd. Macron and his wife, Brigitte, at the center along with Merkel, Juncker and an array of other familiar European faces, processed toward the Paris monument beneath a flypast of French jets trailing red, white and blue smoke.

But Trump’s solo arrival, with other leaders already in their places, was quickly upstaged by Putin who was the last major leader to appear — at least as television showed it. His motorcade, like Trump’s, had arrived quite a bit earlier.

After lunch, Trump also skipped a Peace Forum attended by Macron and Merkel and instead went off on his own to visit an American military ceremony [...] Evidently more comfortable at a U.S.-organized event, Trump pointedly declared it the “highlight” of the trip.

They did their best to steal the show, as pathetic as their best is.

Europe’s new assertiveness was not only on display in Paris. In a speech in Poland on Saturday, European Council President Donald Tusk bluntly took Trump to task.

“Today for the first time in history we have an American administration which, to put it delicately, is not very enthusiastically tuned in to a united, strong Europe. And I’m talking here about facts, not about propaganda statements,” Tusk said. “And I say this as someone who has — let’s say — the satisfaction of having fairly frequent direct exchanges with the president of the United States.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Forced to communicate by blinking

The Russians are having a good time.

Apparently, he thought he was going to get to sit beside Putin, but at the very last minute, the French changed the seating arrangement.




Nobody's paying attention to him.  Waaaaaah. 

Can he get any dickier?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Armistice Day and Trump's disgrace

Appearing on MSNBC’s AM Joy, [authoritarian state expert Sarah] Kendzior explained Trump’s actions in Paris that have drawn scorn from pundits and the military alike.

“It is strangely predictable,” Kendzior began. “I think we have two things going on. One is Trump’s fear of sacrifice. His lack of ability to understand sacrifice for a cause greater than yourself.”

“He has contempt for veterans. this is something that is consistent,” she elaborated. “He was cruel to [Republican Senator John] McCain, our troops — he has them stationed in Texas to put off an alleged horde of migrants coming toward Tijuana, and it makes no sense.”

“Then you have his consistent love of dictatorships, his worship of raw power. That is something he understands, that is something he sought to emulate,” Kendzior continued. “You saw this especially with Putin, but with Kim Jong-un and with anybody who is able to abuse power in an open and flagrant way with no regard for any actual representative body.”

“That’s an alarming thing because in this visit to France you see him once again moving away from a Western democratic alliance and towards an access of autocrats. That is his goal and objective,” she concluded.

  Raw Story

For all his macho posturing and exhortations about his beloved generals, Trump–a draft dodger who referred to avoiding STDs as “my personal Vietnam”–has long treated veterans and their loved ones with contempt. This contempt is not rooted in an aversion to the military as an institution–Trump bloated the military budget and has been striking the Middle East while threatening North Korea and other states–but an aversion to the concept of service to one’s nation itself.

Serving one’s country is a sacrifice, and sacrifice terrifies Trump. The idea that one would risk oneself–out of love, loyalty, or duty–is alien to him. Sacrifice, to Trump, is a sucker’s bet, a gamble beyond his comprehension–but one he is all too willing to let other Americans make.

[...]

Trump’s brand is risk–the high-stakes deal, the bold venture. But for most of his life, Trump has only taken a risk when the reward is guaranteed by others.

[...]

Trump followed his father into the family business to become richer, and remained in his hometown his whole life. His inner circle has been tightly controlled and contained, consisting mainly of his family and his lawyers–who serve not only to salvage his businesses by exploiting loopholes and requiring NDAs–but by threatening perceived enemies.

[...]

With [lawyer Michael] Cohen sidelined, Trump is more exposed than ever–and more out of control. Trump has always functioned best in scripted reality ––supplying his own tabloid fodder, playing a successful version of himself on The Apprentice. He demands attention but shuns scrutiny.

[...]

As a businessman, Trump paid no mind to the victims of his disaster capitalism, an indifference to suffering that prevailed even [...] when a Trump Tower tenant burned to death due to Trump’s refusal to install a sprinkler system. Trump offered no condolences. He epitomizes this casual disregard for human life as commander-in-chief. About nukes, Trump has said, “If we have them, why can’t we use them?” When told last week that the CIA waited until a target left his family before dropping a drone, Trump asked, “Why did you wait?” His apathy toward the death of others is broad and all-encompassing, extending from military targets to civilians to the dead U.S. troops whose names he can’t remember and whose families he insults.

[...]

Trump’s obsession with “winning” is infamous. But the winning is always more about Trump more than it is about the United States–and at times the concepts are mutually exclusive. Trump’s definition of an attack on the U.S. is when his lawyer’s home is raided by the FBI, not when Russia attacks our elections and infrastructure. As president, his main goals have been building a kleptocracy and dodging criminal prosecution, and any war– particularly when it involves Russia–will be enacted with those twin aims in mind. If Trump distracts the public from his own misdeeds, and financially benefits and consolidates power through war, it will not matter to him how many lives are lost–including the lives of U.S. servicemen and servicewomen. His callousness toward U.S. troops places him in stark contrast to any predecessor.

[...]

Trump has shown that human beings have little inherent value to him. If Trump senses he may have to make a personal sacrifice, he will sacrifice the world instead.

  Sarah Kendzior

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

It wasn't going to be fun

We know it wasn't the rain.  All the major news would be about Merkel an Macron at the memorial he couldn't be part of.  So why go to a Marine cemetery?





...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Today in Paris

Since his arrival late Friday night, Trump’s every action seemed emblematic of the unilateralism he has made the hallmark of his administration. And the whiplash he tends to inflict on his hosts. First,Trump tweeted a direct attack on Macron, who has been calling for Europe to step up its own defense. The two men acted as if they had made up Saturday morning when they appeared—both manspreading in their chairs with forced smiles—making brief remarks at the Elysée Palace before a bilateral meeting. Trump said he wanted a strong Europe. But it was clear the romance was over.

Then came the news that Trump would skip a central event of his 48-hour trip: a visit to the Aisne-American Cemetery and Memorial outside Paris, where he had been expected to honor American soldiers who had died in the World War I. The White House said inclement weather prevented his helicopter from flying. But the site is an hour’s drive outside Paris, and the weather wasn’t that bad. What was Trump doing instead? Whom was he meeting with? No details have yet emerged.

  The Atlantic

Forgot one point: that helicopter has been pictured in various Obama presidency shots having flown him to various places in the rain. That helicopter was NOT grounded because of the weather.

The vanishing act was classic Trump—dominating the news cycle, insulting and upstaging his hosts, to say nothing of U.S. soldiers and veterans. [...] [H]ere in Europe, Trump’s political theater underscored exactly what Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other European leaders are increasingly concerned about: Europe is being isolated, if not hung out to dry, by the United States.

[...]

French commentators noted that Trump was also shunning the Paris Peace Forum, a kind of Davos for multilateralism that opens on Sunday, inaugurated by Macron, Merkel and the secretary general of the United Nations.

[...]

French television commentators called it “symbolic” that the U.S. president shunned the group [arriving solo to Sunday morning's commemorative ceremony], and also noted, as Trump stiffly took his place next to Merkel, that “he didn’t look very smiley.” He was more smiley when Putin arrived.

The Russian president gave Trump a thumbs up and a brief friendly pat on the arm.

In a somber speech beneath the Arc de Triomphe, Macron recalled how with World War I, Europe almost committed suicide. He said “old demons” were resurfacing and history was threatening to repeat itself, and threatening Europe’s history of peace. He decried “the selfishness of countries that regard only their own interests,” which sounded like a remark clearly aimed at the United States. “Patriotism is the exact opposite of nationalism,” he said. “Nationalism is its betrayal. In saying ‘Our interests first and others don’t matter,’ we erase what is most precious to a nation, what makes it live, what makes it great, what is most important: its moral values.” It was impossible not to hear Macron’s words, before so many other world leaders, as aimed at Trump, a sign of how the rest of the world is contending with the repercussions of “America First.”

[...]

Macron called on nations to work together to fight climate change, poverty, hunger, sickness and inequality.

[...]

This was very much Macron’s show. A way of positioning himself on the world stage as a uniter of Europe, a force against populism, ahead of elections for the European Parliament in May. It was also a chance for Macron to shore up the post-war Franco-German alliance. On Saturday, while Trump stayed in Paris doing whatever he was doing, Macron and Merkel went to Compèigne, a site outside Paris freighted with 20th-century history. It is the site where Marshal Ferdinand Foch, the supreme commander of the western front, signed the ceasefire agreement with Germany, ending World War I, and where Adolph Hitler forced France to sign a capitulation agreement in 1940.

Oh, SLAP - Part 2

He has three options:  rage tweet when he gets back, pretend none of this happened, spin it all with some ridiculous tweets about how it shows they love him.  Which do you think he'll pick.  (I left off repent and concede, for obvious reasons.)

Oh, SLAP

French President Emmanuel Macron tore into “nationalism” in an apparent jab at President Trump during his Armistice Day remarks in Paris.

Speaking Sunday at the Arc de Triomphe beside Trump and other world leaders, Macron decried nationalism as “a betrayal of patriotism.”

“Patriotism is the exact opposite of nationalism,” Macron said. “Nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism. By saying our interests first... we erase what a nation holds dearest, what gives it life, what gives it grace, and what is essential: its moral values."

  The Hill

Cue the nasty tweets.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Unwelcome around the world

George W Bush must be happy that he ins't going down in history as the most internationally hated US president.

More than 66 leaders gathered on Sunday on a rainy day in Paris a century after the guns fell silent in a global war that killed millions.

The US president was accompanied by the first lady, Melania Trump, at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the base of the Arc de Triomphe.

As he was arriving, a woman ran out toward the US presidential motorcade with slogans including the word “fake” written on her chest. The woman was tackled by police and the motorcade continued.

  Guardian

video
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.


UPDATE:

Armistice Day

This is actually rather touching.

They died so we can have Trump.

US President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump will not visit the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery and Memorial on Saturday afternoon, as planned, because of poor weather.

  CNN

Really? Macron and Merkel didn't seem to have any trouble with the weather.

Not to mention...

An American delegation led by Chief of Staff General John Kelly and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joe Dunford will attend on their behalf.”

[...]

The late change of plans leaves Trump's afternoon in Paris largely empty before he attends a dinner for leaders at the Musée d'Orsay.

Kelly and Dunford can go?

Pig.





UPDATE:

Happy Birthday Marines, Love Donald Trump

He could still tweet!



And his Happy Birthday tweet is a picture of him.

Disgusting.



Will Marines be the next Kanye West, realizing they're being used?


UPDATE:













We know it wasn't the rain.  All the major news would be about Merkel and Macron at the memorial he couldn't be part of.  So why go to a Marine cemetery?