Donald Trump

Merkin Baller

DewieCox said:

He was stopped from stealing the spotlight today from the sound of things.

Seriously... this is so unfuckingcomplicated; the man attempted to arrange a military send off, it was denied. He wanted a big send off rally. People didn't show up because they are done with him. 

That he didn't steal the spotlight from Biden is simply because he was denied the spotlight. 

But sure, let's give him credit for not getting what he tried to get. 

mace1229

gimmesometruth27 said:

mace1229 said:

Halifax2TheMax said:

mace1229 said:

For years many on here said Trump would never leave willingly, that he'd be physically dragged out. That isn't happening. I just don't know what is laughable. If he was making today about him he'd be staging a rally at the white house during the inauguration until he was forced to leave. Then he'd stage protests around the white house or capitol during the inauguration and celebrations that go with it. None of that his happening. He left this morning without issues. I don't see how that is making today about him? But to some comparing a good bye rally in the morning and leaving the office and traveling out of state hours before required to as not making a scene is laughable I guess. 

Maybe because there's a wall around the White House and Capitol with 20,000 National Guard troops patrolling the area? Or that many of the instigators, ring leaders and MAGA storm troopers have been arrested or are under investigation? Yup, all normal.

The first POOTWH not to attend since 1869. Yup, not about the POOTWH. Normal, same-same.

You may be right. I never commented on why he didn't steal the spotlight. He very well may have wanted to and couldn't pull it off. I don't know, I wouldn;t put it passed him if he did. I just said he didn;t steal the spotlight today. Thats all I said (with a couple examples included why I believe so), and it somehow turned into a lot more. 

do you think trump would have tweeted some BS today if he had the ability to do so?

i 100% guarantee he would have.

I don't know. If not, it wouldn't be for honorable reasons. I think once he realized there was literally zero chance to remain in office he was embarrassed of a loss and didn't want the attention. He could have had press conferences every day for the last 2 weeks, even without Twitter, he could have had his press sec make comments on his behalf, and he didn't. I think once he realized it was really over and nothing was going to change it and that he really had lost, he probably doesn't want the attention. Its not that he wouldn't have tweeted out of respect for Biden or the process. But if he wanted to be heard, Twitter wasn't going to stop him. Fox probably would have stopped coverage of the inauguration and put on some live interview or rally if Trump wanted to. He threw his tantrum, it didn't work. But I wouldn't be surprised if he tweeted throughout the process too (assuming it was active).

Gern Blansten

I guess he left a note for Biden.  Curious what that says.

I am curious if he will ever show up at any events where normal former presidents attend.  What a fucking baby.

gimmesometruth27

trump is a malignant narcissist. he craves the attention. and it was denied to him today. so he is suffering right now.

good.

hopefully it is a dose of the pain he has caused so many people the last 5 years.

HughFreakingDillon

Gern Blansten said:

I guess he left a note for Biden.  Curious what that says.

I am curious if he will ever show up at any events where normal former presidents attend.  What a fucking baby.

if he does, i want every other living president present to fucking publicly snub him. but that won't happen. just like the obamas, for whateve reason, seem to have embraced Bush II. 

Halifax2TheMax

Too bad Mar-I-Lieo doesn't have live webcams scattered throughout so you could log in and see what the POOTWH was up to. Like the panda cam at the National Zoo. Yea, I'm a glutton for depravity and morbid fascination.

HughFreakingDillon

so he's headed to Mar a lago, but he's not legally allowed to live there. there is a maximum amount of time he's allowed to stay. wonder if his neighbours who forced that maximum will have him forced out in a month or two. 

gimmesometruth27

HughFreakingDillon said:

so he's headed to Mar a lago, but he's not legally allowed to live there. there is a maximum amount of time he's allowed to stay. wonder if his neighbours who forced that maximum will have him forced out in a month or two. 

he does not believe the law applies to him. he will do what he wants. 

The Juggler

mace1229 said:

PJ_Soul said:

mace1229 said:

For years many on here said Trump would never leave willingly, that he'd be physically dragged out. That isn't happening. I just don't know what is laughable. If he was making today about him he'd be staging a rally at the white house during the inauguration until he was forced to leave. Then he'd stage protests around the white house or capitol during the inauguration and celebrations that go with it. None of that his happening. He left this morning without issues. I don't see how that is making today about him? But to some comparing a good bye rally in the morning and leaving the office and traveling out of state hours before required to as not making a scene is laughable I guess. 

He left the way he did because his insurrection attempt failed and he was forced to back down. I don't get why you're acting like Trump chose to go out gracefully, when he had the intention of dong anything but, and most certainly did not, and the attack on the Capitol is the main demonstration of that. By this morning the idiot literally had none of his desired options left, so he slunk out quietly, with every intention of continuing to poison America's democracy any way he can going forward. But hopefully he will be too busy losing all his money to do that.

I never said he is going out gracefully. My comment was in response to Trump trying to take the spotlight today. I don't see how he is trying to take the spotlight, he's getting on a plane and leaving before he was even out of office. But that has nothing to do with going out gracefully. I would agree that he did not.

He had no choice but to leave. You make it seem like him leaving was Trump doing something on his own. He literally had no choice unless he planned on sleeping in the street.

So he became the first president in 160 some years to not go to the inauguration, creating an awkward spotlight on himself. He had to leave today. So before he left he held a rally in his honor. He had cannons go off in his honor. He had all the same music playing that are usuallty played at his political rallies. He got up there and repeated much of the same kinds of lies he always says. He never mentioned his successor's name. He never mentioned that he lost. He mentioned that he will be back "in some form." Then he had air force one take off in perfect unison to Frank Sinatra's "My Way" as if its the final scene of a ridiculous reality show.

All of the above, mind you, delayed the Bidens leaving for mass by over twenty minutes. Their day was help by Trump's ridiculous going away party.

I ask you, short of refusing to leave the White House, which was never realistic, what more could he have done to make this morning about himself, considering just two weeks ago he failed to overthrow the incoming administration with a violent invasion of the capitol. 

The Juggler

Gern Blansten said:

I guess he left a note for Biden.  Curious what that says.

I am curious if he will ever show up at any events where normal former presidents attend.  What a fucking baby.

He won't be invited.

dignin

The Juggler said:

Gern Blansten said:

I guess he left a note for Biden.  Curious what that says.

I am curious if he will ever show up at any events where normal former presidents attend.  What a fucking baby.

He won't be invited.

Prisoners still get mail, don't they?

The Juggler

mace1229 said:

gimmesometruth27 said:

mace1229 said:

Halifax2TheMax said:

mace1229 said:

For years many on here said Trump would never leave willingly, that he'd be physically dragged out. That isn't happening. I just don't know what is laughable. If he was making today about him he'd be staging a rally at the white house during the inauguration until he was forced to leave. Then he'd stage protests around the white house or capitol during the inauguration and celebrations that go with it. None of that his happening. He left this morning without issues. I don't see how that is making today about him? But to some comparing a good bye rally in the morning and leaving the office and traveling out of state hours before required to as not making a scene is laughable I guess. 

Maybe because there's a wall around the White House and Capitol with 20,000 National Guard troops patrolling the area? Or that many of the instigators, ring leaders and MAGA storm troopers have been arrested or are under investigation? Yup, all normal.

The first POOTWH not to attend since 1869. Yup, not about the POOTWH. Normal, same-same.

You may be right. I never commented on why he didn't steal the spotlight. He very well may have wanted to and couldn't pull it off. I don't know, I wouldn;t put it passed him if he did. I just said he didn;t steal the spotlight today. Thats all I said (with a couple examples included why I believe so), and it somehow turned into a lot more. 

do you think trump would have tweeted some BS today if he had the ability to do so?

i 100% guarantee he would have.

I don't know. If not, it wouldn't be for honorable reasons. I think once he realized there was literally zero chance to remain in office he was embarrassed of a loss and didn't want the attention. He could have had press conferences every day for the last 2 weeks, even without Twitter, he could have had his press sec make comments on his behalf, and he didn't. I think once he realized it was really over and nothing was going to change it and that he really had lost, he probably doesn't want the attention. Its not that he wouldn't have tweeted out of respect for Biden or the process. But if he wanted to be heard, Twitter wasn't going to stop him. Fox probably would have stopped coverage of the inauguration and put on some live interview or rally if Trump wanted to. He threw his tantrum, it didn't work. But I wouldn't be surprised if he tweeted throughout the process too (assuming it was active).

Dude. Do you not watch the news?

He has not spoken to the press, not out of embarrassment, but out of fear of further incriminating himself to legal exposure as a result of his failed coup attempt a couple weeks ago. There were reports as recently as the other night of him telling his aides that he still believes he won the election.

I'm sorry to keep dogging you but, come on man.

mace1229

The Juggler said:

mace1229 said:

PJ_Soul said:

mace1229 said:

For years many on here said Trump would never leave willingly, that he'd be physically dragged out. That isn't happening. I just don't know what is laughable. If he was making today about him he'd be staging a rally at the white house during the inauguration until he was forced to leave. Then he'd stage protests around the white house or capitol during the inauguration and celebrations that go with it. None of that his happening. He left this morning without issues. I don't see how that is making today about him? But to some comparing a good bye rally in the morning and leaving the office and traveling out of state hours before required to as not making a scene is laughable I guess. 

He left the way he did because his insurrection attempt failed and he was forced to back down. I don't get why you're acting like Trump chose to go out gracefully, when he had the intention of dong anything but, and most certainly did not, and the attack on the Capitol is the main demonstration of that. By this morning the idiot literally had none of his desired options left, so he slunk out quietly, with every intention of continuing to poison America's democracy any way he can going forward. But hopefully he will be too busy losing all his money to do that.

I never said he is going out gracefully. My comment was in response to Trump trying to take the spotlight today. I don't see how he is trying to take the spotlight, he's getting on a plane and leaving before he was even out of office. But that has nothing to do with going out gracefully. I would agree that he did not.

He had no choice but to leave. You make it seem like him leaving was Trump doing something on his own. He literally had no choice unless he planned on sleeping in the street.

So he became the first president in 160 some years to not go to the inauguration, creating an awkward spotlight on himself. He had to leave today. So before he left he held a rally in his honor. He had cannons go off in his honor. He had all the same music playing that are usuallty played at his political rallies. He got up there and repeated much of the same kinds of lies he always says. He never mentioned his successor's name. He never mentioned that he lost. He mentioned that he will be back "in some form." Then he had air force one take off in perfect unison to Frank Sinatra's "My Way" as if its the final scene of a ridiculous reality show.

All of the above, mind you, delayed the Bidens leaving for mass by over twenty minutes. Their day was help by Trump's ridiculous going away party.

I ask you, short of refusing to leave the White House, which was never realistic, what more could he have done to make this morning about himself, considering just two weeks ago he failed to overthrow the incoming administration with a violent invasion of the capitol. 

Of course he had to leave. Seems like our disagreement is in our definition of stealing the spotlight. I don't see his good-bye rally and 21 gun salute as out of the normal. I never heard of it before, but never paid attention to what an outgoing president does either. When I got up at 7 AM (9 eastern) the coverage was already on Biden and the inauguration. Watched for about 40 minutes and never heard 1 thing about Trump. Watched for about an hour during my plan period at work, not 1 word about Trump. That does not fit my standards of stealing the spotlight. Perhaps you have different standards for that. 
That says nothing about Trumps character or intentions or motivations. Just the facts for today and who the spotlight was on. 

HughFreakingDillon

gimmesometruth27 said:

HughFreakingDillon said:

so he's headed to Mar a lago, but he's not legally allowed to live there. there is a maximum amount of time he's allowed to stay. wonder if his neighbours who forced that maximum will have him forced out in a month or two. 

he does not believe the law applies to him. he will do what he wants. 

well not if a judge and law enforcement say so. 

mcgruff10

CNN just reported the contents of the letter: 

cutz

https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status/1351779626968866818

The Bannon Pardon Is Worse Than You Think

Federal investigators will have to scrutinize this pardon extensively——as it looks rotten.

If you know anything about the pardon of Steve Bannon that outgoing president Donald Trump just issued, you know that Bannon was allegedly involved in a scam that Trump would have been proud of (right up to the moment the former CEO of the 2016 Trump campaign was indicted for it): taking money from Trump voters to “build the wall”—that would be Trump’s xenophobic and purposeless vanity wall on America’s southern border—and pocketing it. Advisers to the scam included other major Trumpworld figures, like Erik Prince.

(As of 1AM on January 20, we don’t know if Trump will be pardoning Prince as well. Prince is the subject of a criminal referral to the DOJ for shamelessly and repeatedly lying to Congress during the Mueller investigation.)

If you know a second thing about the Trump pardon of Steve Bannon, it’s that Trump only entertained the idea of pardoning Bannon in the first instance because, unlike so many other Republicans, Bannon was—in Trump’s view—“loyal” to him post-election.

Forget those two things.

Bannon wasn’t pardoned because Trump admired his grift or was tickled that the grift involved Trump’s pet project on the U.S.-Mexico border. And he wasn’t pardoned as a reward for his loyalty. I wrote a book (Proof of Corruption, Macmillan, 2020) about Trump’s history of bribery, and I can tell you that the man is instinctively transactional rather than sentimental: he doesn’t reward past loyalty, he rewards the promise of future benefit. Even sometimes Trump apologist Maggie Haberman of the New York Times writes that Trump pardoned Bannon because he decided that Bannon “could be useful to him in some way.”

That “some way” is a bit of a dodge, however, as we know exactly how Bannon can help Trump: by keeping his mouth shut about Trump’s affairs whenever possible, and lying about those affairs if compelled to participate in any ongoing federal investigations of Trump himself.

So what does Bannon know about Trump’s illicit activities post-2015? A lot.

Bannon was a witness in the Roger Stone trial, which focused tangentially on how much Trump knew about his adviser corps being in touch with a Kremlin cutout during the 2016 presidential election. The idea was that Bannon had the goods on what Trump knew about WikiLeaks being in contact with his campaign and, as importantly, when and how he found out what he knew. Bannon was also involved, in the final weeks of the 2016 campaign, in a series of secret meetings with Saudi and Emirati agent George Nader, who funded a joint Saudi-Emirati-Israeli pro-Trump interference operation in the 2016 general election, and is now serving time in federal prison on child pornography-related charges. Bannon, Kushner, and several others met with Nader in the final weeks before election day in 2016, when Nader associate Joel Zamel was working feverishly on Trump’s behalf on a cyber-intelligence campaign designed to dovetail with the Kremlin’s attack on America’s electoral infrastructure.

After the 2016 election, Bannon was again involved in a series of secret meetings that involved Kushner and shady figures from the Middle East, including “MBZ”—Mohammed bin Zayed, the ruler of the UAE, who had slipped into the United States to meet Trump without telling the U.S. government, a breach of diplomatic protocol—and the head of Saudi intelligence, who would later be involved in the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The history of Bannon being present for major Trump-Sunni Arab meetings is actually quite a long one; when now-disgraced Trump national security adviser George Papadopoulos coordinated a meeting between Trump and “Red Sea conspiracy” figure Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi—the autocratic Egyptian president—in the late summer of 2016, Bannon was one of the few Trump aides in the room.

Throughout the 2016 presidential transition, Bannon was in touch with Trump adviser Erik Prince, including during the period that Prince secretly went to the Seychelles on Trump’s behalf to meet with the very Russians and Emiratis who had illegally aided Trump’s campaign months earlier. By the time Special Counsel Robert Mueller got to Bannon and Prince in 2017, however, both their phones had been wiped of any and all correspondence between them. Their explanations for their synchronized wipes, and the improbably convenient date-range of those wipes, were obvious lies that Mueller all but admitted were such on page 10 of Volume I of his now-famous 2019 report.

Following the 2020 election, Bannon returned to his prior role as a top Trump adviser, and was in contact with both Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and Trump himself as the two men—it now appears—plotted an armed insurrection against the U.S. government with several Congressional and far-right-activist accomplices.

Trump has a history of buying or seeking to buy the silence of federal witnesses with official government actions—conduct that qualifies as the impeachable federal crime of bribery. He also has a history of being open to payment for official government actions, and in this case we know from recent major-media reporting that Giuliani is alleged to have been brokering Trump pardons for around $2 million a pop. Given that Bannon was in regular contact with Giuliani in December 2020, the concern about a pardon being sold or otherwise traded by Trump in a way that violates federal law is a serious one.

So don’t be confused about the Bannon pardon: it’s corrupt. And that’s exactly why, according to the Daily Beast, every White House attorney told the president not to issue it. But the promise of Bannon becoming a pliable witness in the future federal investigations Trump is now almost certain to face may have been too much for the venal about-to-be former president to pass up. Expect this Bannon pardon to be the subject of at least one federal investigation in the months ahead.

The Juggler

mace1229 said:

The Juggler said:

mace1229 said:

PJ_Soul said:

mace1229 said:

For years many on here said Trump would never leave willingly, that he'd be physically dragged out. That isn't happening. I just don't know what is laughable. If he was making today about him he'd be staging a rally at the white house during the inauguration until he was forced to leave. Then he'd stage protests around the white house or capitol during the inauguration and celebrations that go with it. None of that his happening. He left this morning without issues. I don't see how that is making today about him? But to some comparing a good bye rally in the morning and leaving the office and traveling out of state hours before required to as not making a scene is laughable I guess. 

He left the way he did because his insurrection attempt failed and he was forced to back down. I don't get why you're acting like Trump chose to go out gracefully, when he had the intention of dong anything but, and most certainly did not, and the attack on the Capitol is the main demonstration of that. By this morning the idiot literally had none of his desired options left, so he slunk out quietly, with every intention of continuing to poison America's democracy any way he can going forward. But hopefully he will be too busy losing all his money to do that.

I never said he is going out gracefully. My comment was in response to Trump trying to take the spotlight today. I don't see how he is trying to take the spotlight, he's getting on a plane and leaving before he was even out of office. But that has nothing to do with going out gracefully. I would agree that he did not.

He had no choice but to leave. You make it seem like him leaving was Trump doing something on his own. He literally had no choice unless he planned on sleeping in the street.

So he became the first president in 160 some years to not go to the inauguration, creating an awkward spotlight on himself. He had to leave today. So before he left he held a rally in his honor. He had cannons go off in his honor. He had all the same music playing that are usuallty played at his political rallies. He got up there and repeated much of the same kinds of lies he always says. He never mentioned his successor's name. He never mentioned that he lost. He mentioned that he will be back "in some form." Then he had air force one take off in perfect unison to Frank Sinatra's "My Way" as if its the final scene of a ridiculous reality show.

All of the above, mind you, delayed the Bidens leaving for mass by over twenty minutes. Their day was help by Trump's ridiculous going away party.

I ask you, short of refusing to leave the White House, which was never realistic, what more could he have done to make this morning about himself, considering just two weeks ago he failed to overthrow the incoming administration with a violent invasion of the capitol. 

Of course he had to leave. Seems like our disagreement is in our definition of stealing the spotlight. I don't see his good-bye rally and 21 gun salute as out of the normal. I never heard of it before, but never paid attention to what an outgoing president does either. When I got up at 7 AM (9 eastern) the coverage was already on Biden and the inauguration. Watched for about 40 minutes and never heard 1 thing about Trump. Watched for about an hour during my plan period at work, not 1 word about Trump. That does not fit my standards of stealing the spotlight. Perhaps you have different standards for that. 
That says nothing about Trumps character or intentions or motivations. Just the facts for today and who the spotlight was on. 

OH MY GOD. 

Guy admits he doesn't know what usually happens, yet tells others, who know what usually happens, that they are wrong.

Then he admits that he woke up AFTER the Trump rally and was confused at why people thought Trump was trying to steal the spot light. Dude....it was OVER by then!

I gotta stop responding to this nonsense. 

mace1229

mcgruff10 said:

CNN just reported the contents of the letter: 

Haha, that's fake, right? I mean, the white house needs new printers if it cant type a letter all in one font and clarity.

The Juggler

mace1229 said:

mcgruff10 said:

CNN just reported the contents of the letter: 

Haha, that's fake, right?

No man, it's real.

cutz

dignin said:

Hopefully soon to be indicted. 

He hasn't been yet? If not , what's taking them so long? LOL !