Trump: 'Manafort this, Manafort that'

[kpete]

paragraph # 4 is a riot, mho, kp



Trump pivots to border wall, China and ‘Manafort this, Manafort that’
The president's trip to his Bedminster, N.J., country club was set up as a 'working vacation' ahead of the fall campaign season.

By CHRISTOPHER CADELAGO, NANCY COOK and ANDREW RESTUCCIA 08/10/2018 06:55 PM EDT


Trump’s respite has provided him hours of downtime, with aides sprinkling his comparatively sparse schedule with meetings and phone calls as he prepares to stump all fall for Republican candidates. He’s spent long stretches in high spirits, according to several accounts, gloating about the economy and gross domestic product, and riding high following recent ballot-box victories.

But Trump has found time to rage about the Russia investigation led by Robert Mueller and what he views as the unfair treatment of his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who is on trial in Virginia on charges of tax and bank fraud.

Trump’s mood has darkened during periods when the Russia story has dominated, according to close confidants. “Every day you wake up and it’s Manafort this, Manafort that. It’s crazy,” said one close adviser. “How do you get away from it?”

Trump “can’t miss” the media coverage of the trial, his attorney Rudy Giuliani added in an interview with POLITICO. “The only thing he keeps reiterating is he thinks Manafort has been treated in an unfair way for a guy who’s alleged to have committed a white-collar crime,” he said.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/08/10/trump-vacation-bedminster-manafort-china-border-wall-773388?nname=playbook&nid=0000014f-1646-d88f-a1cf-5f46b7bd0000&nrid=0000014e-f100-dd93-ad7f-f905c62a0000&nlid=630318

[JoeOtterbein]

1. "How do you get away from it?" Easy. Resign!!! n/t

[Cracklin Charlie]

2. How does he think rich, white criminal traitors be treated?

If only we had a system of laws to deal with such matters.

Oh, wait...that’s what the big orange baby is whining about!

[SeattleVet]

3. I hope that Trudeau is able to reprint this strip from 1974 very soon.

It was when that S.O.B. Nixon resigned.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

7. The "building a wall" metaphor is so appropriate for Trump.

He seems obsessed with walls -- literally wanting to build a wall on the border, and figuratively building a wall between himself and those who would hold him accountable for his actions.

[Pluvious]

8. The Great Wall of China is a piece of history...

He feels his towers are not enough of a legacy.

I can't say it.

When will this nightmare be over ?!!

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

10. The pharaohs would build pyramids that have lasted millennia.

We've got to keep Trump out of Egypt! He'll start getting ideas, like he did about having a fucking military parade after he saw the one in France.

BTW, if he gets his parade this year he'll want another one next year, only bigger.

[Pluvious]

12. OMG now you're scaring me !!

Makes me wonder what movie he'd seen that gave him the Space Farce plan ?

Or why he pursued his idea to invade Vensuella ?!!

Hopefully he'll not watch Pacific Rim...

[MaryMagdaline]

4. Oh my god he doesn't think white collar crimes are real crimes

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

5. "[H]e keeps reiterating is he thinks Manafort has been treated in an unfair way..."

It's a signal to Manafort: "Stay strong, I've got your back!"

Here's his past reasons for pardons:

Link to tweet

D'Souza, former Bush White House aide Scooter Libby and former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio were all seen, by some elements within the conservative movement/Trump's base, as martyrs -- people unfairly persecuted by some combination of out-of-control Democrats and the "deep state."

When Trump was considering a pardon for famed businesswoman Martha Stewart and a commutation for former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich’s sentence, he told reporters that while Blagojevich was “stupid” for what he said, he felt the sentence was too harsh. He also said that Stewart was treated “unfairly,” and noted that she “used to be my biggest fan in the world before I became a politician.”

CNN's Chris Cillizza, described Trump's actions this way:

Then there is the other, larger and more important group of Trump pardons: People the President views as being persecuted and prosecuted by the so-called "deep state," a rump group of entrenched bureaucrats -- largely clustered within the Justice Department and FBI -- who are out to get anyone who isn't them.

Libby, Arpaio and D'Souza all fit neatly into that category. (Worth noting: In each of these examples, Trump did not seek counsel from the Office of Pardon Authority within the Justice Department. He is not required to do so, but presidents typically do.)

In each case, there was an argument made by some element within the conservative base that these individuals were being unfairly treated by a bureaucracy that simply disagreed with their ideas. Libby, a top aide to then Vice President Dick Cheney, was, to some, being martyred for Cheney's hawkishness in the Middle East. Arpaio's conviction on his refusal to obey existing immigration laws was a prisoner of conscience. D'Souza was punished by Obama's Justice Department for suggesting that the former president held "anti-colonial" views due to his father's Kenyan heritage.

In each case, an out-of-control and/or politically motivated Justice Department had railroaded a conservative hero.

Sound like anyone you know?

Yes, of course, this is about Donald Trump. Trump believes strongly that the ongoing special counsel probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election (and possible collusion between members of his campaign and the Russians) is all one big "deep state" conspiracy being run by Democrats unhappy with losing the 2016 election. (Robert Mueller, who is running the special counsel probe, is a Republican who was appointed to his current role by Trump's own deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.)

The more pardons Trump offers up to people who further that narrative -- see, all these people are victims of the "deep state" too! -- the easier it is for the President to convince his core supporters that whatever Mueller's report says is fundamentally illegitimate because it is a product of the same "deep state" that convicted these other conservative heroes.

I imagine Manafort has a copy of the tweet about Dinesh D’Souza tucked in his wallet, and he pulls it out and looks at it every time he starts to feel anxious about his future.

[magicarpet]

6. He is afraid the treatment Mueller dished out to Manafort....

..... is the same treatment Mueller has in-store for the White Collar/White Trash guy who currently resides in the Oval Office.

trDump thinks naughty rich white boys should just get a slap on the hand, a fifty dollar fine, and then sent on their way to resume their unethical and grifter conduct.

[wishstar]

9. But he and his cohorts have continued leading chants to "Lock Her Up"

so it's good to see at least some karma biting them in the butt and their time in the barrel has begun

[peekaloo]

11. he gloats over being our grossest domestic product.