#In a February 14 tweet, Trump attacked three of his favorite targets, by referring to the " 'disgraced' McCabe [Andrew] pretends to be a 'poor little angel' when in fact he was a big part of the crooked Hillary Scandal & the Russia Hoax and a puppet for Leakin' James Comey."
#The New York Times reported that Trump called Corey Lewandowski, his former campaign chief, over last year's Fourth of July weekend, to pressure Attorney General Jess Sessions to resign. Lewandowski said on MSNBC's "The Beat" that he was going out with his children to get ice cream, or something like that. The trip for ice cream doesn't account for the entire weekend.
*Again, according to The New York Times, President Trump asked Matt Whitaker if he could put Geoffrey Berman, a Trump ally, and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, as the head of the widening investigation of Trump's possible crimes.
*Max Boot, a Never Trump Republican, has listed five Trump crimes: 1.) Conspiracy to defraud the U.S. based on Trump's speakerphone conversation with Roger Stone about WikiLeak's email dump; 2.) Lying to the FBI and the Department of Justice about Trump's claim that Roger Stone did not tell him about WikiLeaks; 3.) Suborning perjury based on Michael Cohen's assertion that Trump indirectly told him to lie; 4.) Campaign finance law violations; and 5.) Bank, wire and tax fraud based on Trump's inflating and deflating his assets.
*President Trump has called on Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn) to resign: "I think she should either resign from Congress or she should certainly resign from the House Foreign Affairs Committee." Rep. Omar suggested that U.S. support for a Jewish state is the result of money flowing from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Omar also said: "It's all about the Benjamins, baby," referring to money.
*Donald Trump had a different view of declaring national emergencies when Barack Obama was president. Trump's tweet of November 20, 2014 said: "The pubs must not allow pres Obama to subvert the Constitution of the US for his own benefit & because he is unable to negotiate w/Congress."
*President Trump has had an effect of influencing others to upend democratic norms. Although Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell probably doesn't need much coaching in ignoring democratic norms, he has advised Trump to use every legal means to get funding for the border wall. McConnell is urging, in effect, Trump to stretch the rationale for finding other money to the breaking point. This effort is similar to the effort of Republican senators to find some way to get around the House resolution calling for the termination of Trump's national emergency declaration.
*Sen McConnell has a rule that he will not hold a vote on any bill that President Trump will not sign. This means that Trump can veto in advance any bill that comes before the Senate. Thus, Trump has usurped the power of Congress.
*In the realm of Trump putting in place officials who make socially destructive decisions, Kathy Kraninger, head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), announced that the CFPB will rescind the most important part of an Obama-era rule on payday lenders: The part that would force lenders to confirm if someone has the ability to repay a loan, instead of tipping them into further debt.
*The U.S. Department of Agriculture has paid out $7.7 billion in aid to farmers to offset the effects of tariffs, Trump has imposed. Blake Hurst, a soybean farmer who is president of the Missouri Farm Bureau, appreciates the payout, but says "it's not enough in the sense that it in no way makes us whole for what we suffered from these trade disputes." Unfortunately, six interviewed Iowa farmers acknowledged that the tariffs on China were hurting them economically, yet they continued to support Trump.
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