Trump’s campaign is asking his working class base to pay the legal fees of his millionaire dilettante son in law https://t.co/7hAS3FDQtD
— Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) February 8, 2019
Category: Trump family
Trump, Jr’s calls with blocked numbers
It turns out that Trump, Jr.’s calls to a blocked number were to family friends and not to Trump. That still leaves lots of questions:
- Did Trump know about the meeting? He says he didn’t but he lies all the time. If he got the calls, this would have proven he knew but it still doesn’t put him in the clear.
- Why did they lie about the meeting? Trump prepared a false statement saying it was about adoptions.
- If the calls were to business associates, why didn’t Trump, Jr. just provide that information?
NEWS: Senate investigators have obtained information that shows Donald Trump Jr.'s calls with a blocked number surrounding the Trump Tower meeting were NOT with his father, but with two business associates. W/ @PamelaBrownCNN @mkraju https://t.co/IGZFmZnNPS
— Jeremy Herb (@jeremyherb) January 31, 2019
Trump Jr.'s calls ahead of 2016 Trump Tower meeting weren’t with his father
— Cuomo Prime Time (@CuomoPrimeTime) February 1, 2019
"[This] new information doesn't change the fundamental concern about what the President knew. It just means he wasn't those blocked numbers — not that he didn't know about the meeting." – @ChrisCuomo pic.twitter.com/52wgF7bW1Q
.@DonaldJTrumpJr on the speculation the blocked numbers had belonged to his father: “After a year of hearing about this one ad nauseam, yet another left-wing narrative officially bites the dust.” https://t.co/Fh6Z3BWeqU
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) February 1, 2019
Didn’t say it exonerated Trump. Just said it undermined the case because there had been widespread suspicion that Don Jr had called the old man prior to meeting. https://t.co/5OLRgNicN3
— Max Boot (@MaxBoot) February 1, 2019
“I believe that there are serious questions about Donald Trump Jr.’s appearance before our committee … I’m suggesting there are serious questions. He needs to come back before the committee. He ought to be subpoenaed,” says Dem @SenBlumenthal of the Senate Judiciary Committee. pic.twitter.com/e1p3jppEtZ
— The Situation Room (@CNNSitRoom) January 31, 2019
As investigators learn Trump Jr.'s blocked calls weren't w/ his father, Rep @GerryConnolly notes theirs is a relationship where "son really wants to make daddy happy," adding it "stretches credulity to believe he never told" his dad about the 2016 meeting.https://t.co/VnqsQ77xjX pic.twitter.com/2OAn3H96sk
— OutFrontCNN (@OutFrontCNN) February 1, 2019
The fact that Trump Jr’s phone calls to blocked numbers around the time he set up the Trump Tower meeting weren’t with his Dad is not proof the two didn’t discuss the meeting in some other setting. https://t.co/EqviGVLHzF
— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) February 1, 2019
Per CNN and ABC: Don Jr.'s blocked phone calls before Russia meeting weren't to Trump. These are the calls Adam Schiff considered suspicious and planned to probe. https://t.co/8JwPYUZmuw
— Jonathan Swan (@jonathanvswan) February 1, 2019
Kushner shouldn’t have a Top Secret security clearance
Two House Democrats asked acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney to immediately revoke senior White House adviser Jared Kushner's security clearance https://t.co/tIuSNoSXEf pic.twitter.com/FSBctIXFr9
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) January 31, 2019
If you’re not paying attention to this story, you should be. Our intelligence and national security professionals recommended that Kushner and others should not receive a Top Secret clearance and they were overruled by the White House.
— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) January 29, 2019
Our national security is at stake. https://t.co/L26eNwrV40
Officials rejected Jared Kushner for top secret security clearance, but were overruled https://t.co/4afEJbyEig
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) January 25, 2019
In May 2018, Kushner’s criminal defense lawyer said he’d received permanent clearance. What he didn’t say was that a Trump hire overruled two career adjudicators to grant the clearance & the CIA denied him a higher level clearance. https://t.co/QHL6mSYzue
— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) January 25, 2019
Agreed. Anyone familiar with the process knows it's virtually impossibly Jared—or Ivanka for that matter—would be approved for a TS/SCI considering the known issues. To have it confirmed is still the makings of a massive scandal.
— Susan Hennessey (@Susan_Hennessey) January 25, 2019
Get them out of the White House, immediately. https://t.co/tXfQwfUUOL
1/ Having worked on security clearance issues at the White House, this story is terrifying. It is not normal for the head of the Personal Security Office to ever overrule the career employees who adjudicate clearances. This says it's happened 30 times in the last 1.5 years! https://t.co/aO3hF9LDwZ
— Daniel Jacobson (@Dan_F_Jacobson) January 25, 2019
In other words, they got overrruled on determining Kushner was denied clearance. https://t.co/yCCJ01t6M8
— Juliette Kayyem (@juliettekayyem) January 29, 2019
Trump organization fired undocumented workers who worked at Trump golf club for years
.@realDonaldTrump's golf club in NY state employed undocumented workers for years — then fired 12 of them, en masse, during the shutdown.
Trump Org. said it had just discovered their papers were fake.https://t.co/skvSEuGwRe— David Fahrenthold (@Fahrenthold) January 28, 2019
Hear from Margarita Cruz, who was fired for being undocumented after working for Trump's Westchester golf course for eight years. And hear the audio she recorded of her own firing, in this amazing video from @DDaltonBennett and @jnebraska https://t.co/PCBUyxe88d
— Rosalind Helderman (@PostRoz) January 26, 2019
He could have joined e-verify. But he didn’t. https://t.co/gQgKDAkN82 https://t.co/9VFgKD6Qif
— Maria Sacchetti (@mariasacchetti) January 29, 2019
Trump has described them as rapists and thugs, but his golf courses have relied on undocumented migrants for years. "I'd never done anything wrong, only work and work," said one who worked 15 yrs at NJ course — until he was fired amid wall showdown. "I started to cry." @partlowj https://t.co/eJblLwCA1E
— Greg Miller (@gregpmiller) January 27, 2019
7 questions about Trump’s use of undocumented workers at his golf courses, answered by the reporters who broke the story, @fahrenthold and @partlowj. Starting with, "How did The Post find these workers?" https://t.co/gemX4OQ9BJ
— Peter Wallsten (@peterwallsten) January 28, 2019
Until Trump’s NY golf course fired a dozen undocumented workers in recent days, the odds of encountering an illegal immigrant there were much greater than at the one on the border https://t.co/5FDxKCk9FU
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) January 29, 2019
Undocumented workers get no gov’t benefits, yet many pay taxes. Today I met some of the undocumented women you hired at your golf club in my district. Your people arranged their fake papers and then withheld their Social Security taxes. https://t.co/bwbSCGhcv8
— Tom Malinowski (@Malinowski) January 29, 2019
Um….?
Eric Trump: It’s ‘truly heartbreaking’ that NBC made Trump golf course look bad for firing undocumented workershttps://t.co/255S3lVltz
— Raw Story (@RawStory) January 29, 2019
Ross is clueless
Billionaire Trump cabinet member Ross doesn’t have any idea what the unpaid federal workers are going through. Neither does Trump’s daughter-in-law or Kudlow. Many people live paycheck to paycheck.
Trump has referred to the shutdown as a "strike." He has complained that furloughed workers could hurt his economic numbers. He he groused that many are Democrats and part of the "deep state." And he has made comments seen by many as out-of-touch. https://t.co/jY5UZyr9o6
— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) January 25, 2019
So a few things:
1) This isn’t remotely what Wilbur Ross was saying;
2) The world Trump describes sounds surreal; and
3) It’s amazing that Trump is this bad at offering advice at the one thing he is an expert on: indebtedness. https://t.co/sf5O2KnDj7— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) January 24, 2019
What Wilbur Ross and the Trump team’s tone-deaf shutdown comments really say https://t.co/S8am6D3O8z
— Post Politics (@postpolitics) January 24, 2019
Yesterday, Trump’s wealthy daughter-in-law Lara Trump said the #TrumpShutdown was just a “little bit of pain” for 800,000 federal workers. Today Trump’s wealthy Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross says he doesn’t understand why unpaid federal workers would go to a food bank for help. pic.twitter.com/CvGRbvef7O
— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) January 24, 2019
Today in billionaire cabinet secretaries https://t.co/a3AeYh1bmv
— Abby D. Phillip (@abbydphillip) January 24, 2019
It's called "hunger" Wilbur. https://t.co/e2DyaCt3Vg
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) January 24, 2019
Thoughts on unpaid federal workers:
"In some sense they're better off."
– Kevin Hassett"It is a little bit of pain but it's going to be for the future of our country."
– Lara Trump"There’s no real reason why they shouldn’t be able to get a loan."
– Wilbur Ross— Binyamin Appelbaum (@BCAppelbaum) January 24, 2019
Hey Wilbur Ross: Let me explain this to you:
1. @realDonaldTrump shut down the government;
2. That means many federal workers, such as FBI agents & Coast Guard personnel, are working without pay;
3. Food is not free.Get it @SecretaryRoss? https://t.co/SkqEJ8741o
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) January 24, 2019
If you live paycheck to paycheck, ‘eventually’ can be devastating. https://t.co/8bwgIWVIUf
— Juana Summers Markland (@jmsummers) January 24, 2019
Wilbur Ross is @realDonaldTrump’s Secretary of Commerce.
Wilbur Ross is a billionaire.
And this is billionaire Wilbur Ross saying he doesn’t understand why federal workers not getting paid during the #TrumpShutdown don’t just take out loans *to feed their families*.
Unreal. pic.twitter.com/YHHZqKa8sx
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) January 24, 2019
Sen. Schumer calls Wilbur Ross comments "appalling" and "the 21st century equivalent of 'let them eat cake.'"
"Secretary Ross, they just can't call their stock broker and ask them to sell some of their shares." https://t.co/5OkzsDv0CV pic.twitter.com/zT3ErjyBiN
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) January 24, 2019
54% of people say they could only miss 2 paychecks before they wouldn't be able to pay their bills, per a Fox News poll.
Federal workers are about to miss their 2nd paycheck. pic.twitter.com/6vRKXSatBI
— Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) January 24, 2019
Because they need food? Because they are not getting paid? And many live paycheck to paycheck? https://t.co/5jF0uNgoFA
— Seung Min Kim (@seungminkim) January 24, 2019
Paul Krugman points out that the US has started a trade war over fewer employees than the number affected by the shutdown.
Wilbur Ross, who has been leading us into a trade war on behalf of the steel industry, says that the number of workers affected by the shutdown is small, so it's no big deal. A useful chart pic.twitter.com/5sWkjtwug8
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) January 24, 2019
Actually primary metals is just 0.3% of GDP, and a lot of that is stuff that uses the output from steel mills. The industry being protected is much smaller. https://t.co/FZ4OjlvmqU
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) January 24, 2019
After telling the press that federal workers are "volunteering" by continuing to come to work without pay, a reporter calls out Larry Kudlow's incorrect assessment and he fumbles further, saying they are working without pay out of respect for the presidency and Trump. pic.twitter.com/ofN3unRVSY
— Amee Vanderpool (@girlsreallyrule) January 24, 2019
Open this tweet to get the thread of reactions from federal employees:
Feds working unpaid: I will anonymously tweet out any reactions I get to Kudlow's assessment. DMs are open. https://t.co/aOJiAGEvgW
— Dara Lind (@DLind) January 24, 2019
Kushner firm will benefit from Trump administration Opportunity Zones
White House boosts tax break that’s attracted Kushner, Scaramucci and other wealthy investors
New York-based Cadre, in which Jared Kushner still holds at least a $25 million passive stake, is a high-profile example of how early investor interest in the program appears focused on the places that need it the least https://t.co/1qJGatNlUB
— TribLIVE.com (@TribLIVE) December 16, 2018
A real estate investment firm co-founded by Jared Kushner, is betting on the Trump administration’s Opportunity Zone tax breaks but isn’t that interested in steering its investors to the poorest, most-downtrodden areas that the program seeks to revitalize. https://t.co/DmZteFweft
— PBS News (@NewsHour) December 16, 2018
Melania Trump is not the first First Lady who has been mocked and criticized
Remember how they talked about Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama?
You had nothing to say when Michelle Obama was called a man, was called an Ape, when she was accused of disrespecting the White House for showing her bare shoulders. I actually agree with you that Melania shouldn’t even be the focus as her husband directs a criminal enterprise. https://t.co/o60t1ISHeV
— Wendell Pierce (@WendellPierce) December 16, 2018
In case you were wondering (or were not alive in 1990s), the Fox/Kurtz claim that Melania Trump has endured uniquely harsh criticism is, ummm, incorrect.
These two clips while HRC was FLOTUS. The second, by later Atlantic editor, did not mean “Saint Hillary” in a positive way. pic.twitter.com/wZI2wjcFtY
— James Fallows (@JamesFallows) December 16, 2018
If only @HowardKurtz had been alive in the 1990s. https://t.co/zMeN8QccQO
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) December 16, 2018
2/ On Thursday, CNN contributor @katebrower wrote that FLOTUS's answer "proved that she doesn't understand what it means to be first lady…Is her family's legacy the thing that worries her most?…"https://t.co/eQDZ2P0q9v
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) December 16, 2018
Melania's spox wrote a long column attacking a column by CNN contributor @katebrower. Missing Melania's spox's column is any responsibility for Melania's words or actions. Melani's spox lied about her being birther and lied about Melani's jacket. https://t.co/t1cYeGqV8f
— andrew kaczynski (@KFILE) December 16, 2018
I’ll just drop @ktumulty’s thread here in case @HowardKurtz missed it. https://t.co/lnrf1jj0UD
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) December 16, 2018
Trump family scammed tenants of their buildings
A hidden scam lurked behind the mysterious rent increases for thousands of New Yorkers.
Donald Trump and his siblings set up a phony business to pad the invoices for the buildings, allowing them to inflate rent increases on the rent-regulated apartments. https://t.co/yUfUZbg3aH— The New York Times (@nytimes) December 15, 2018
Investigation into Trump’s inauguration
Grifters! Sad!
Trump’s campaign. Trump’s transition. Trump’s inauguration. Trump’s presidency. Plus Trump & family. All are now under state and federal criminal and civil investigations. This is much more damning than Watergate, and it is just getting started.
— John Dean (@JohnWDean) December 14, 2018
NEW: Federal prosecutors are investigating the $107 million raised by Trump’s 2017 inaugural committee, including whether any donors gave money to influence official administration positions.
Scoop by @rebeccadobrien @rebeccaballhaus @aviswanatha https://t.co/MroTpIDPHD
— Nicole Hong (@nicole_hong) December 13, 2018
New: Trump's inaugural committee fundraising was a mess from the start. Here are some big questions still unanswered that the feds could shed light on. https://t.co/egYSvMME1r
— Christina Wilkie (@christinawilkie) December 14, 2018
Analysis: How money flowed into — and out of — Trump’s inaugural committee https://t.co/88Bw1xB9ON
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) December 15, 2018
I’m going to go out on a limb here and say Ivanka’s probably not going to be the first female president now. https://t.co/4RwPy0MXNz
— Molly Jong-Fast (@MollyJongFast) December 14, 2018
After months of reporting, we have an answer: some of the money went to the Trump Organization. Ivanka Trump personally connected inauguration planners with her family’s DC hotel. We know, because we have emails. https://t.co/vAD0DDoZSa
— Ilya Marritz (@ilyamarritz) December 14, 2018
Kushner pushed the State and Defense departments inflate the value of the Saudi arms deals
This is an excuse to support the Saudis and accept their lies about the murder of Khashoggi.
From Day 1, the Saudis told Kushner their interest was in A TOTAL of $15 Bil of arms (which has yet to be completed).
Kushner pushed for the Saudi arms deal “headline” to read $110 Bil.
All while he pursued the Saudis to finance 666 5th & family assets.
https://t.co/vfXbuhwvLn— Rula Jebreal (@rulajebreal) November 27, 2018
Jared Kushner pushed State and Defense Department officials to inflate the Saudi arms deal to $110 billion, two U.S. officials and three former White House officials tell ABC News. Jim Mattis reportedly supported Kushner's effort. https://t.co/keZQOHMQ6I
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) November 26, 2018
Congress must investigate Trump’s and Jared Kushner's financial dealings with Saudi Arabia and Mohammed bin Salman and resulting conflicts of interest. https://t.co/JM5Mdw1ovw
MbS once reportedly bragged about having Kushner “in his pocket”https://t.co/MXD1vP5mHN
— Karen Attiah (@KarenAttiah) November 21, 2018
Sad! 