The Trump Daily Thought

The Trump Presidency
The Third 100 Days
The Third 30 Days + 10 (261 - 300)
The Second 30 Days (Days 231 - 260)
The First 30 Days (Days 201 - 230)

The Trump Presidency
The Second 100 Days
 The Third 30 Days + 10 (161 - 200)
The Second 30 Days (Days 131 - 160)
 The First 30 Days (Days 101 - 130)

The Trump Presidency
The Third 30 days + 10

The Second 30 Days 
The First 30 Days

Between Election And Inauguration
The Third 10 Days

The Second 30 Days

The First 30 Days

February 19, 2017, T+30: best thing about today on the Sunday news shows -- no one from a President Hillary administration will be seen.

February 18, 2017, T+29: vintage Trump at Florida rally.

February 17, 2017, T+28: vintage Trump at his first presidential press conference.

February 16, 2017, T+27: Flynn again. Much, much, more to this than meets the eyes. This whole episode should alarm guys like Zbigniew Brzezinski, Colin Powell, and Henry Kissinger.  

February 15, 2017, T+26: the "Flynn episode" may well be a turning point in the Trump administration. Good news.

February 14, 2017, T+25: a great CEO is "defined" by whom you fire, not whom you hire.

February 13, 2017, T+24: at least I'm not being told what to pack for my granddaughters' school lunches today. Trump's Secretary of Treasury is expected to be confirmed today; if so, Trump's "core" cabinet will finally be in place, but most of his cabinet and high level appointees still need to be confirmed.

February 12, 2017, T+23: at least I'm not being told I need to go out and plant a garden today. The New York Times goes so far as to say "The Saturday Night Live" skits on Trump have become tiresome, unfunny.

February 11, 2017, T+22: at least we're not talking about bathrooms any more.

February 10, 2017, T+21: Trump is gradually getting his team in place; his "temporary ban" was struck down by a federal appellate court; in many ways this will have unintended consequences. In the big scheme of things, this is much ado about nothing.

February 9, 2017, T+20:

• the more I read of Betsy DeVos, the stronger I feel the Progs were on the wrong side of this issue
• Chuck Schumer is looking more and more irrelevant every day

February 8, 2017, T+19: whether or not the "travel ban" executive order is "upheld," the fact remains, Trump and his team will figure this out.

February 7, 2017, T+18: as expected, refugees coming to America are "self-deporting" to Canada, at the invitation of Justin Trudeau. Meanwhile, the Atlantic Fed is projecting a 3.4% growth in GDP in Trump's first quarter as president. Doesn't get any better than that.

February 6, 2017, T+17: New England Patriots in a game for the ages, winning in overtime, coming back after a 25-point deficit.

February 5, 2017, T+16: no matter how the current immigration story plays out, it's better than what we would have under Hillary. The borders would be wide open and refugees would be given a voting registration card as a condition of entry.

February 4, 2017, T+15: a trifecta for the US -- plus more

• cheapest energy in the world, and plenty of it; much of it "green"
• corporate tax reform on the horizon
• repeal ObamaCare: huge corporate tax relief; huge regulatory relief 
• end of "climate change" craziness
• end of huge "multi-national deals that compromise toward mediocrity"; America on short end with multi-national deals; return to bilateral negotiations; friends of US at front of the line

February 3, 2017, T+14: the progs used to stage sit-ins, post-selfies from the floors of Congress (not allowed by rules). Now, the progs are simply not showing up for work. Makes our work easier, I guess.

February 2, 2017, T+13: Trump excitement continues. Dems blown away by Supreme Court "pick." January payrolls crush estimates.

February 1, 2017, T+12: the Dems in the US Senate are now boycotting committee meetings to delay confirmation hearings. One can expect unintended consequences of such childish behavior. Let's see: President Trump wants to work with Silicon Valley on visa reform which Silicon Valley desperately needs; visa reform cannot possibly go forward until his SecState is in place. Trump had no problem deflecting "demands" for his tax statements during the campaign, saying he was being audited. He will have no trouble saying that he cannot reform immigration policy when the US Senate has not confirmed his nominees. With talk radio and the internet, it becomes more difficult to hide the truth. Or at least "alternate facts."

January 31, 2017, T+11: Kardashian-on-Steroids.  Daily meeting in the White House -- networks shift to that "reality show." Generally makes a huge announcement. Today, Trump will announce his Supreme Court nominee on television, prime time, this evening, 8:00 p.m. ET. He follows up the  morning reality show with next reality show: signing one to three executive orders. Executive orders often correlate with the earlier morning reality show -- the daily morning meeting. This is one of the most transparent presidencies I have ever seen: he told us what he was going to do if elected president; he telegraphs in advance what executive orders he will sign; he signs those executive orders on television during the NBC "Today Show"; and, then tells us what he has planned for the next day. No Friday night "news dump"; no midnight-signing-executive-order parties. 

January 30, 2017, T+10: late this past week, the Mexican fiasco and now the airport demonstrations; now Lindsay Graham and John McCain joint issue statement with concerns; Trump tweets back that Graham and McCain are weak on immigration. Rex Tillerson has not been confirmed by the Senate.

January 29, 2017, T+9: the power of persuasion, Scott Adams blog.

January 28, 2017, T+8: 800,000 non-citizens voted in presidential election (that's probably an under-count; probably closer to one million). Eighty-one percent statistically likely to have voted for Hillary. 640,000 votes greatly exceeds the margin by which Trump barely won Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

January 27, 2017, T+7: Miami-Dade mayor drops sanctuary policy: Trump tweet.

January 26, 2017, T+6: Trump has directed Homeland Security to publish on a weekly basis every crime committed by an illegal alien. He should also do this for every felony sentence that was commuted and every felon pardoned by his predecessor. Prior to the mid-term elections in 2018, Homeland Security should provide an update on all felons pardoned by President Obama.

January 25, 2017, T+5: it's been eleven (11) years since the US has seen even one quarter of 3%. President Obama was first president in recent history to not have even one quarter of 3% growth in GDP. Trump's goal: 4%.

January 24, 2017, T+4: two items --

Alternative facts: once we start referencing Bertrand Russell, Aristotle, George Boole, and Ayn Rand, we are way beyond what the average Democrat can understand. Before we get too far afield regarding "alternative facts," consider:

Bertrand Russell in his introduction to the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus says that facts are what make propositions true. Suppose we have a fact A and that the proposition "A is true" is true and we have an alternative fact B and "B is true" is also true. In itself this is not a problem and so there can be alternative facts. For example if A is "I own a cat" and B is "I own a dog". However if A and B contradict each other then any reader of Aristotle or George Boole or even Ayd Rand would tell you that both A and B cannot be true. So, yes there are alternative facts but there are none that contradict other facts.

2nd full business day for President Trump: existing house sales hit highest level since 2006. 

January 23, 2017, T+3: Jane Eyre-style negotiations. Trump's style is going to make for some interesting negotiations by his department secretaries with their national counterparts, foreign "enemies" and foreign allies. To wit: as negotiations are proceeding, if the opposing party is not "coming around" the Trump negotiator only has to say this:

"Donald Trump is the mad man in the White House (sort of like the mad woman in the attic). You can deal with me and my negotiating team, or I can go back to the President and tell him you said he was an asshole."

I would think that even the guy running North Korea might be willing to negotiate in good faith. This is even better than "giving you an offer you can't refuse."

Wheels, The String Alongs
January 22, 2017, T+2: the Trump White House: this is going to be Kardashian-on-Steroids. The cool thing: the Trumps know it. With little fanfare, US Department of Justice says Donald's son-in-law, Jared, can indeed be his senior White House advisor; the anti-nepotism law does not apply to the executive branch (unless you are the hapless Jimmy Carter [by the way, I've gained a lot of respect for this man; if nothing else, he is a gentleman]).

The inauguration and the inaugural balls: already channeling Camelot. Trump's tweets generally get about 25,000 "hearts." He posted the video of dancing with Melania at one of the inaugural balls at his twitter account: already 235,000 "hearts."

Might as well start looking at the top songs of 1960 (by the way, 1961 is going to be even better). Let's start with a movie inside a movie inside a movie, sort of like the "reality show" already playing out at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW:

Sixteen Reasons, Connie Francis

January 21, 2017, T+1: two executive orders. I forget the first; the second one, some bizarre EO on ObamaCare.