The official Donald Trump inauguration poster, produced by the Library of Congress, has a spelling error in it:
My only question is, did they do it on purpose?
If not, did the Trump administration get rid of the regulation about proper spelling, or fire the bureaucrat in charge of it?
Unlike his boss, Vice President Mike Pence is an experienced politician. In fact, before becoming VP, Pence was the governor of Indiana. So we should be able to get some idea of what kind of president Pence might be, if (for some reason) Donald Trump stops being the president.
Which is why this report from an Indiana newspaper is worrisome. The article is titled “With Pence gone, fellow Republicans undo his work in Indiana”.
When Pence became the vice president, he was able to handpick Eric Holcomb (who had been his lieutenant governor) to be his successor as Indiana governor. Plus Republicans hold supermajorities of both chambers of the Indiana legislature. One might think that not much would have changed after Pence left the state to join the White House.
One would be wrong. The new governor and the legislature immediately started reversing Pence’s policies in the state:
Why are Republicans trying to seemingly erase Pence’s legacy? Because Pence is an ideologue. Some might even call him a religious zealot, who governs based on his religious convictions. That may have made his religious base happy, but was not good for the state. There is no doubt that he would do the same thing as president.
But perhaps even more important to Pence than his religion is his ambition, which is why he supports Donald Trump with unquestioning devotion, even though Donald Trump is a completely non-religious person who is only too happy to commit grievous religious sins (coveting other’s wives, adultery, lying, bearing false witness, stealing, etc.) and even brag about them.
This does not bode well for the future, as Time magazine has already published an editorial calling for Trump’s impeachment.
UPDATE: Plus bookmakers are very close on the question of whether Trump will make it through his first term. The question doesn’t seem to be whether Trump deserves to be impeached, but whether the Republicans will have the guts to do it.
Melissa McCarthy again pokes fun at White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer. And Kate McKinnon adds an incomprehensible Jeff Sessions. This SNL parody just keeps getting better. I think Donald Trump will be forced to get rid of Spicer just to stop this. Either way, we win.
Rumors are that one potential candidate has already been interviewed, and this guy might be an even better target for satire. For example, he suggested we should put Muslims into internment camps, like we did to Japanese Americans during WWII.
UPDATE: See more SNL skits from last night, including Donald Trump in “The People’s Court”.
[Jokes from Jan. 16, 2017]
“I saw that Donald Trump himself is selling inauguration sweatshirts for $79. I know it sounds expensive for a sweatshirt, but just imagine how much they would have cost if they were made in America.” – Jimmy Fallon
“Dozens of Democratic members of Congress are boycotting Donald Trump’s inauguration. Which is shocking because I didn’t know there were still dozens of Democratic members of Congress. I guessed there were like two left.” – Conan O’Brien
“I read that Trump raised a record $90 million in private donations to pay for his inauguration. Trump said, ‘Just another $10 million and we can cover my appearance fee.'” – Jimmy Fallon
“Donald Trump’s inauguration ceremony is this Friday, which means Mike Pence’s is on Monday.” – Conan O’Brien
“A Bruce Springsteen cover band is the latest musical act to drop out of performing [at the inauguration]. Yeah. That’s right. That’s the situation we’re in right now. It is not a good sign when a cover band thinks you’re not a legitimate president.” – Conan O’Brien
“Over the weekend, Donald Trump sent out angry tweets blasting civil rights legend John Lewis. So I guess we all celebrate Martin Luther King Day differently.” – Conan O’Brien
“Donald Trump tweeted about Martin Luther King Jr. this morning, saying people should celebrate, quote, ‘All the many wonderful things that he stood for.’ He then quickly logged off before anyone asked him to name one.” – Conan O’Brien
“Donald Trump observed the holiday by visiting the National Museum of African American History, or more accurately, canceling his visit to the National Museum of African American History. Although I guess in a way that might be good. The last thing we need is Trump learning more about segregation.” – Stephen Colbert
“After civil rights leader John Lewis called Donald Trump an illegitimate president, incoming chief of staff Reince Priebus claimed that Republicans never questioned the legitimacy of President Obama’s election. And then President Obama sighed so hard his hair turned white.” – Conan O’Brien
“Donald Trump met with Steve Harvey at Trump Tower on Friday. Meanwhile, Trump’s toupee and Harvey’s mustache met for a play date.” – Conan O’Brien
“In an interview yesterday, Donald Trump said he has a replacement for Obamacare that will provide insurance for everybody. Yeah, it’s called move to Canada.” – Conan O’Brien
“Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey is officially cutting down. Apparently, the circus doesn’t think it could compete against a Trump presidency.” – Stephen Colbert
“In an interview, President Obama said that reading books helped him get through difficult times during his presidency. Reading books, yeah. So he said, ‘Thank you, Judy Bloom.'” – Conan O’Brien
“There’s a new app out there that describes itself as Tinder for adopting babies. So one day, siblings will be taunting each other with, ‘Ha ha, mom right-swiped you. You shouldn’t be here.'” – Conan O’Brien
How long can Trump supporters keep believing the lies spewing from the right-wing media?
At some point, even the right will start getting pissed off at Trump.
For example, during the campaign, Trump was a font of nasty rhetoric against China, promising to label China a currency manipulator on day one (he didn’t) and to impose big tariffs on Chinese imports to the US (again, didn’t happen). The only thing Trump actually did was to talk to the leader of Taiwan after the election (and perhaps even initiated the call), which plenty pissed off the mainland Chinese government.
But on Thursday night, Trump had his first talk with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, and Trump rolled over like a dog and was “extremely deferential“. In a complete flip-flop from the call between him and Taiwan, Trump affirmed the “One China” policy and promised to do nothing to recognize or even imply the legitimacy of Taiwan or its independence.
So much for Trump’s promise to put America first. Maybe he’s tired of “winning”.
Nordstrom department store announced on Feb. 3 that they were dropping Ivanka Trump’s line of clothing, because it wasn’t selling well. On Feb. 8, so-called president Donald Trump tweeted:
My daughter Ivanka has been treated so unfairly by @Nordstrom. She is a great person — always pushing me to do the right thing! Terrible!
This is completely insane.
Yes, Trump has criticized other businesses — including Boeing, Carrier, and the US automakers — because they said or did things Trump didn’t like, but this tweet was about his daughter’s personal business and appeared on the official White House twitter account. What an ethical nightmare.
Donald Trump is acting like a tinpot dictator, who takes personal offense if a company makes a routine business decision that doesn’t favor him or his family.
Luckily, Trump’s tantrum didn’t work. After the tweet the shares of Nordstrom dropped briefly, but then recovered and closed up over 4 percent.
Of course, White House spokesman Sean Spicer defended Trump’s tweet, telling reporters that the president was responding to an “attack on his daughter” and that “he has every right to stand up for his family and applaud their business activities, their success.”
Spicer was also asked by a reporter why the tweet was posted at 10:51am, which is during the time the president was scheduled to receive his daily intelligence briefing. Spicer responded that the president was not otherwise occupied when he wrote the tweet.
Adding insult to injury, on Thursday morning Trump’s top advisor Kellyanne Conway gave an interview from the White House on Fox News where she urged viewers to buy products from Ivanka Trump’s clothing and accessories line, saying “Go buy Ivanka’s stuff. … I’m gonna give it a free commercial here. Go buy it today, everybody. You can find it online.” Federal employees are prohibited by law from endorsing products.
UPDATE: Seth Meyers takes a closer look at this mess, and finds humor:
[Jokes from Jan. 12, 2017]
“All of these accusations are coming out about Trump’s ties with Russia. In fact, a 2013 interview just resurfaced where Trump says he has a relationship with Vladimir Putin. While Putin’s like, ‘Ugh, you poke someone back on Facebook, next thing you know you’re in a relationship.'” – Jimmy Fallon
“There’s these allegations that Russia has compromising information on Donald Trump. It’s all based on 35 pages of opposition research that was evidently put together by a British MI6 agent. Yesterday, we didn’t know his name, and now we know his name is Steele — Christopher Steele. So, a Brit spy named Steele? Is he Remington Steele’s cousin?” – Stephen Colbert
“Now Penthouse is offering a million dollars to anyone who has compromising videos of Donald Trump. When he heard about the offer, Trump provided the videos himself. ‘I know a good deal when I see one.'” – Jimmy Fallon
“The CIA is now saying that the Kremlin has multiple sexual recordings of Donald Trump. After hearing this, Trump smirked and said, ‘Yeah, all from the same night… #stamina.'” – Conan O’Brien
“The head of the office of government ethics said yesterday that the only way for Donald Trump to completely avoid conflicts of interest is to sell his assets and place them in a blind trust. Trump was like, ‘Fine, I trust Ivanka.'” – Seth Meyers
“Donald Trump has named 72-year-old Rudy Giuliani to be his adviser on cybersecurity. Trump explained, ‘I’m not up to speed on the latest technology, so I wanted to get somebody two years older.” – Conan O’Brien
“Yesterday, Trump held his first big press conference since the election, and he got into a shouting match with a CNN reporter who claims that Trump tried to have him thrown out. Then the other reporters were like, ‘Oh, come on. Why does HE get to leave?'” – Jimmy Fallon
“Meanwhile, in our nation’s capital, our elected officials had a late night of work. After seven hours of debating, they voted to approve a resolution that would rid the country eventually of Obamacare. Can you imagine, the senators finally worked until 1:30 in the morning, and it was for this? How would Congress like it if we all met in the middle of the night and voted to take THEIR healthcare away?” – Jimmy Kimmel
“Senate Republicans today passed a budget blueprint marking the first steps towards repealing Obamacare. Which means it’s going to cost us a lot more to get this mole looked at.” – Seth Meyers
“If Obamacare is repealed, 20 million Americans could lose healthcare which is a very big deal, but we don’t seem to be as fired up. If they voted to take Netflix away from us, we’d go nuts. We would burn things. It would be crazy.” – Jimmy Kimmel
“President Obama is wrapping things up at the White House. You know, cleaning out his desk, handing over the keys, and spackling over the holes in the office wall so he can get the security deposit back, squeeze a little toothpaste in there.” – Stephen Colbert
“President Obama today awarded Vice President Joe Biden the Presidential Medal of Freedom With Distinction, which is an honor only three other people have been given over the last 30 years. Then Biden gave Obama his highest honor, double finger guns with a wink.” – Seth Meyers
“Ben Affleck was patted down by TSA security at Los Angeles International Airport this week. Though when it was over, the woman whispered, ‘I’m not in the TSA.'” – Jimmy Fallon
The original Trump haters, the Scottish, give some fine pointers on what to do about Trump:
Even though Donald Trump promised to release his tax returns that were not under audit, he never did. We can easily surmise that they are full of conflicts of interest, or worse.
But what we didn’t realize is that legally, Congress actually has the power to obtain individual tax returns and even disclose them publicly, if it is in the public interest (which in this case, it certainly is). And it doesn’t even take all of Congress to do this, it only needs a Congressional committee.
There is precedent for this. Back in 1974 Nixon cheated on his taxes, and the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation obtained his return, and discovered that Nixon actually owed roughly half his net worth at the time in back taxes. Because this was definitely in the public interest, the committee released both their findings and Nixon’s tax return information to the public.
Interestingly, this whole scandal is what prompted Nixon to famously declare “I am not a crook“.
Of course, all such committees are currently controlled by Republicans, but enough Republicans could get fed up enough with Trump in order to investigate Trump’s taxes. It would only take a single committee. Or else the Democrats could win back either House of Congress and do it themselves.
On Saturday, Donald Trump angrily tweeted his displeasure at federal judge James Robart, who had just temporarily blocked Trump’s travel ban:
The opinion of this so-called judge, which essentially takes law-enforcement away from our country, is ridiculous and will be overturned!
Calling Robart a “so-called judge” is clearly an attempt to delegitimize the US judiciary. After all, Trump can’t accuse Robart of issuing a partisan decision, as Robart was nominated by George W Bush and was unanimously confirmed by the Senate.
But the hypocrisy here is that — as noted by this blog and others — Trump commonly accuses others of things of which he himself is guilty. Which means Trump should be called a “so-called president”.
Why would the president attack one of the other two branches of our government? Especially the branch whose most important job is to provide checks and balances on executive power?
Even Republicans noticed this. In a rebuke, Senator Ben Sasse (R-NE) said:
We don’t have ‘so-called judges,’ we don’t have ‘so-called’ senators, we don’t have ‘so-called presidents’. We have people from three different branches of government who take an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution.
But Trump continues to attack Judge Robart. As long as he does that, it is only fair that we should call Trump a “so-called president”.
[Jokes from Jan. 11, 2017]
“Donald and Melania Trump are scheduled to ride with the Obamas to the Capitol on Inauguration Day. And you thought your Uber pool was uncomfortable.” – Jimmy Fallon
“In his farewell speech, President Obama said being a father to his daughters was his proudest achievement. In response, Donald Trump said being a father to his daughter is the reason he’s not allowed to date her.” – Conan O’Brien
“Obama offered to leave behind the swing set that he had installed for his kids so that Trump’s grandkids could use it, but Trump turned him down. Trump said he’ll be building a bigger, better swing set and he’s going to make the kids pay for it.” – Jimmy Fallon
“At his press conference today, Donald Trump said America will build the border wall and then be reimbursed by Mexico. The invoice will be submitted to Mexico’s Department of ‘In Your Dreams, Pendejo.'” – Conan O’Brien
“CNN reported that last Friday intelligence chiefs presented Trump with claims of Russian efforts to compromise him. I gotta say, that is an awkward first meeting with your new boss. ‘Hey, so, looking forward to working together, watercooler’s down the hall, we heard you’re a puppet of a hostile foreign government, Barbara validates parking any time you need it, any questions?'” – Stephen Colbert
“The big story right now is the new report claiming that Russia has enough embarrassing material on Donald Trump to blackmail him. On the other hand, so does anyone who follows Trump on Twitter.” – Jimmy Fallon
“Intelligence officials prepared a two-page summary of allegations that Russian operatives claim to have compromising personal and financial information about Mr. Trump. Trump received these documents as part of his intelligence briefing, so we know one thing for sure: He didn’t read them.” – Stephen Colbert
“In a tweet today, Donald Trump compared the way he’s been treated to Nazi Germany. Which is unfair, because everyone knows Hitler won his election without the help of the Russians.” – Conan O’Brien
“Trump immediately denied the report, tweeting, ‘Intelligence agencies should never have allowed this fake news to leak into the public. One last shot at me. Are we living in Nazi Germany?’ So true — we all remember how unfair Nazi Germany was to their charismatic leader. Those people were always going ‘Talk to the hand!'” – Stephen Colbert
“There will be a ’20/20’ special on Trump’s inauguration that has forced ABC to push back its premieres of ‘Scandal’ and ‘How to Get Away With Murder.’ Yeah, to make room for the special about Trump called ‘Scandal and How to Get Away With Murder.'” – Jimmy Fallon
I think it is important to show what the Muslim ban means to real people. In that vein, meet Mo Farah, who is a British athlete living in the US.
Farah was born in Somalia — one of the seven countries listed in Trump’s ban — but at the age of eight was welcomed into the UK as a refugee. Farah followed his dreams and went on to win three gold medals in Track and Field at the Olympics — the most ever won by Britain in that sport. On January 1 of this year, he was knighted by the Queen, even though six years ago he became a Nike athlete and started living in Oregon in the city that is Nike’s headquarters.
When Donald Trump announced his ban on people from Somalia entering the US, Farah was in Ethiopia. As a top athlete, Farah often travels all over the world for events or just to train with people. Realizing that he may not be able to come home, Farah wrote on this Facebook page:
On 27th January, President Donald Trump seems to have made me an alien. I am a British citizen who has lived in America for the past six years – working hard, contributing to society, paying my taxes and bringing up our four children in the place they now call home.
Now, me and many others like me are being told that we may not be welcome. It’s deeply troubling that I will have to tell my children that Daddy might not be able to come home – to explain why the President has introduced a policy that comes from a place of ignorance and prejudice.
When did we forget that America is a country of immigrants? You just have to look at a piece of money to see the slogan “e pluribus unum”. It is what made us great. We forget at our own risk.
PolitiFact already has a file on Sean Spicer and 83% of his statements are on the negative side of the truth spectrum — Mostly False, False, or Pants on Fire.
Melissa McCarthy does a hilarious take on White House press secretary Sean Spicer. Trump is already making Saturday Night Live great again!
Is this a parody, or a reenactment? And props to the props.
[Jokes from Jan. 10, 2017]
“Tonight on all the channels President Obama gave his farewell speech. It’s the Obama speech that Republicans have been looking forward to.” – Jimmy Kimmel
“Obama said while he was preparing the speech, he said ‘I’m thinking about this as a chance to say thank you for an amazing journey’ — sounds to me like someone’s been watching ‘The Bachelor’.” – Jimmy Kimmel
“Music streaming app Spotify today offered President Obama a job as ‘President of Playlists’. And they say America isn’t racist – white ex-presidents get offered jobs as corporate lobbyists and they ask the black guy if he wants to be a DJ.” – Seth Meyers
“President Obama gave his farewell address tonight in Chicago and thousands of people waited outside in freezing temperatures to get tickets. Now those people have a week to get over their pneumonia before they lose their health insurance.” – Jimmy Fallon
“Republican Senator Rand Paul said that this week he will introduce a GOP replacement plan for Obamacare. The new comprehensive health initiative will be called ‘Don’t Get Sick’.” – Conan O’Brien
“Rumors are circulating that Hillary Clinton could run for mayor of New York City later this year. While Bill could run to be the next ‘Naked Cowboy’ in Times Square.” – Jimmy Fallon
“Hillary and Bill Clinton announced that they are going to attend Donald Trump’s inauguration next Friday. Trump was really excited when he heard because they’re the first celebrities that said they’ll actually go. Even more awkward, she’s sitting right next to Putin.” – Jimmy Fallon
“CNN is reporting that the Russians have disgusting and damaging information about Donald Trump. Apparently, the Russian report on Trump contains ‘everything we already know’.” – Conan O’Brien
“Eric Trump recently said that the Trump Organization will ‘probably not’ pursue business deals in Russia in the next few years. They’ll also ‘probably not’ tell us if they do.” – Seth Meyers
“Today on Capitol Hill, Trump’s pick for attorney general, Jeff Sessions, was grilled by senators during the first confirmation hearing of the Trump administration. Sessions is a controversial pick. For instance, in the past, he’s been a vocal opponent of marijuana legalization. At one point he said, ‘Good people don’t smoke marijuana.’ That dude needs to chill out and smoke some marijuana.” – James Corden
“After past accusations of racism, attorney general nominee Senator Jeff Sessions said today, ‘I abhor the Klan and its hateful ideology.’ Though he refused to answer the follow-up question, ‘Ku Klux or Wu Tang?'” – Seth Meyers
“Another controversial moment was in 1986, when Sessions was accused of racism while up for a federal judgeship. Sessions responded, ‘I am not a racist. I am not insensitive to blacks.’ And as everyone knows, the best way to prove you’re not a racist is to use the term ‘blacks’.” – James Corden
“Donald Trump appointed his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, as White House senior adviser. I bet when they first met, Trump was like, ‘What are your intentions with my daughter?’ Kushner was like, ‘I’ll be honest. I’m just sleeping with her to get close to you.’ And Trump was like, ‘Nice’.” – James Corden
“On Twitter, porn actress Jenna Jameson bashed Meryl Streep for her Golden Globe speech. Wow, it’s going to be awkward the next time Jameson and Streep do a movie together.” – Conan O’Brien
“It’s being reported Yahoo might be changing its name to Altaba. The announcement was made so people could get a jump start on saying, ‘You’re still using Altaba?'” – Conan O’Brien
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