A DAY IN THE LIFE OF TRUMP’S SWAMP

August 10, 2018 - a day in the life in Trump’s swamp: 

The following stories all appeared in the media on an ordinary news day in Trumpland. Trump on the campaign trail, to hysterical shouts and cheers, promised to drain the Washington swamp and substitute it with transparent honest government with administrators who believed in the rule of law. At his recent rallies his team dished out posters claiming “PROMISES MADE PROMISES KEPT”. 

To showcase the swamp created and infested by Trump in his five hundred and seventy odd days in office would take a tome so Jay H. Ell decided to examine just one day - 8/10/18 - the day when the idea hit him.

TEAM TRUMP AND THE SWAMP

Trump  explained to the screaming masses, most of whom were poor, why he wouldn’t put poor  people in his administration as rich people had no need to steal. He promised to associate only with the best in his campaign and in running the country. While this claim and the humungous turnover in his administration, largely dictated by their swampy behavior, has become the basic material of every late night comedian or comedienne, Jay H. Ell will just enumerate those who landed in the swamp on 10/8/18. Well there was his personal lawyer, his campaign manager, his deputy campaign manager, his Secretary of Commerce, his main defender in the Legislature, and the first legislator in the House of Representatives to support his candidature for President. There was his long time political advisor and several of his sidekicks . To complete the day’s dive into the swamp his former Apprentice associate and subsequent liaison with the African American community jumped out with a book.  

Wilbur Ross - Secretary of Commerce.

The conservative Forbes Magazine published an expose of Ross’s theft, corruption and grifting to the extent of a hundred and twenty million dollars, lying to the Federal Government and shorting shares of a company based on his inside knowledge. Ross has been labelled the biggest creature in the swamp.  Not surprisingly Ross has had suspicious contacts and involvement with the Putin based oligarchs. Presumably all or most was known to swampy Trumpy as he had to have seen Ross’s background check.

Michael Cohen - Former personal lawyer and fixer.

Cohen has been in the news lately following the seizure of his documents. He is being investigated for multiple crimes and is desirous, according to reports, of cooperating with the Mueller Investigation. Cohen was involved in contacts with the Russians. His exposure to a long term jail time has been increased exponentially by reports that his partner in the taxi business, also an underworld character, has ratted on him and there is a ton of cash that no tax was paid on. Trump smeared Cohen as being a “lowlife”. A "lowlife" who Trump employed for years to clean up all his "lowlife" messes.  

Paul Manafort - Campaign Manager for four months.

Manafort’s extensive connections with Russia, his bank fraud and tax evasion spilled over into the court proceedings. On 8/10/18 his connections with Russian oligarchs close to Putin were in evidence. 

Rick Gates - Deputy Campaign Manager from 2016 and working in one or other capacity in the Campaign till June 2017

Gates was as implicated as Manafort but elected to receive immunity in return for joining the Mueller team.

Devon Nunes - Head of the House Intelligence Committee

Nunes has been the unashamed fixer for Trump in the House of Representatives even proposing the impeachment of Rod Rosenstein Deputy Attorney General, who is supervising the Mueller Probe. Nunes was taped at a private fundraiser arguing that the reason that the Republicans must retain the House was to protect Trump from the Investigation.

Republican Representative of New York 27th District, Christopher Collins

Collins was the first Congressman to endorse candidate Trump and has been rewarded handsomely. The Feds announced that he acted on inside information and shares were sold in a company that he was a director of. Footage of him making the illegal calls on the WhiteHouse lawn were featured.

Roger Stone - long time political advisor to Trump including his campaign

Stone came into focus when he recently predicted that he is probably going to be indicted by Mueller. He was mentioned in the indictment against the twelve Russian hackers. He has admitted contact with Julian Assange of Wikileaks prior to his Clinton document dump. His comments on the subpoenaing of his associates were all of the rage in the media on 8/10/18. Stone is thought to be one of those who put the “collusion” into “no collusion”.

Andrew Miller - long time associate of Roger Stone

Miller gave the Stone issue sunlight by refusing to testify to Mueller’s Grand Jury. This after a ninety - two page judgement ordered him to do so.

Kristen Davis - Stone’s Former Secretary

Davis gave evidence to Mueller’s grand jury being the fifth known Stone associate to be in Mueller’s notebook.

Omarosa - Trump’s Personal Assistant and decade’s long confidant.

This pretty normal news day for Trump was punctuated by the announcement of the publication of an expose by former Trump insider and confidant Omarosa Manigault - Newman. Always referred to as Omarosa she goes back a long way with Donald Trump matching him for outrageousness on his TV show “The Apprentice”. She had been cast as the villain in a number of the series starting on day one in 2004. She was the ideal foil for Trump relishing in the attention in being the female counterpart of the boorish host of the show. Then to all and sundry’s amazement, Trump appointed her as a close highly paid personal advisor in the WhiteHouse. She was considered the consummate insider, Ivanka only being that close for longer, so her  tell all slashing memoir, which has a host of salacious disturbing but mostly unconfirmed insights, will attract maximum media attention. Having been around this long and as Director of Communications for the Office of Public Liaison and serving as Trump’s go to person to the African American community where she was reviled, Omarosa is very much a recognizable controversial public persona. 

Besides labelling Trump as a racist and claiming that there were tapes where he repeated the N word multiple times she details incidents such as Trump asking her if he should take his Presidential Oath on “The Art of The Deal”. She justified her claim that Trump’s relationship with his daughter Ivanka was inappropriate by detailing touchings and verbal banter. There are also political allusions such as the real collusion in the election was between Fox News and Trump.

In a different age with a different President this book would have been a sensation. However it is just more slime in the swamp that is Trump’s. She is ensured of great sales as already Sarah Huckabee Sanders has attacked it. Trump ensured more attention to her claims by calling her a “lowlife”. Another “lowlife” whom Trump appointed to the access to the WhiteHouse in his effort to drain the swamp.

One thing is for sure, however self serving Omarosa may be, her claim that Trump was a racist was supported by Trump himself as on that same day reference was made to the POTUS calling Lebron James, Maxine Walters and Don Lemon “low intelligence”. Her greatest ally is the fact that the WhiteHouse has zero credibility.

TRUMP’S GOOD GOVERNMENT AND THE SWAMP

There was a litany of cronyism, nepotism, authoritarianism, racism and lies in evidence on 8/10/18.

That’s what friends are for.

Trump in his bizarre trade war fight created another situation ripe for graft. The aluminum tariffs is one such an example as companies are entitled to file for an exclusion from the tariffs. Exclusions were to be granted for products that could not be produced in the USA. The New York Times, on 8/10/18, reported of an exclusion granted to a close Putin associate, Mr. Deripaska. The latter is the major shareholder in a company called Rural. The Russian oligarch had been blacklisted in response to Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. He had another red flag item in his resume, he was the oligarch that Trump’s campaign manger Paul Manafort offered briefings to on the 2016 election.

If you can’t help family who can you help?

Keeping America safe and pure was his promise on immigration. The ideal solution would be to curtail immigration totally and throw out of the country the approximately eleven million who were “illegal”. One of the other stratagems was to ban “ chain” immigrants, who were defined as close relatives of other immigrants who had become citizens. As anyone who has applied for a parent or a sibling can attest to the wait is very long as only a limited number of entries are allowed of per year. While Trump was attacking “chain” immigration mercilessly having characterized it as NOT ACCEPTABLE his in laws were being processed. 

It takes forever to obtain a green card and once that arrives there is a five year wait. If then one applies for citizenship there is yet another wait for the ceremony. All in all on a fast track, if someone’s application is accepted to settle in America it would take seven to ten years to become a citizen. The parents of the POTUS’S wife, First Lady Melania, citizenship was announced on 8/10/18. Nobody knows how long it took the Knavs whose application was based on “family reunification”, (a.k.a. “Chain” immigration). What is known that while he was making the axing of “chain” immigration a key plank in his policy pitch his in laws application was being  successfully processed.

Trump’s Zero Tolerance policy and the abrogation of the rule of law

One of Trump’s big arguments on resolving America’s immigration mess was that America was a nation of laws. Apparently Trump and his administration believe that this only applies to laws that they agree with. Trump and Sessions have been hammered in the court of public opinion for months now for their base cruelty in splitting up families and holding children in detention often in shocking conditions. There are also laws relating to the processing of those without papers who reach and or cross the border. These laws have been flaunted in the Zero Tolerance policy and the Trump Administration have had a torrid time as the Courts have ripped them apart for their transgressions, inter alia, demanding that they reunite the broken families. 

On 8/10/18 the Trump Administration deported a mother and daughter while their case for asylum was being heard. Federal Judge Emmet Sullivan, opined, “This is pretty outrageous that someone seeking justice in a U.S. Court is spirited away while her attorneys are seeking justice for her. This is not acceptable”. The Judge then ordered the plane they were on to turn around and threatened to hold the Attorney General Jeff Sessions in contempt of court should his order not be carried out. Sessions complied. The same morning papers were filed in Federal Court that the Court’s order to reunite all the children with their parents had been defied, hundreds of cases were still in abeyance. 

Trump takes on NFL players again - lying in his tweet

“The NFL players are at it again - taking a knee when they should be standing proudly by the National Anthem. Numerous players from different teams, wanted to show their “outrage” at something most of them are unable to define. They make a fortune doing what they love.” - the POTUS tweeted

There are two palpable lies in that tweet. The players have made it abundantly and repeatedly clear that they are not protesting the National Anthem but rather racial injustice. The second lie relates to the fact that the players are unable to define why they are taking a knee. They have spelt out the reasons which include the high number of African Americans that are incarcerated for minor crimes including five thousand children in adult facilities. The initial issue related to the deaths of unarmed blacks at the hands of the police. 

Trump will hammer this issue into the ground even though he has reportedly been asked to cease and desist by the owners who by and large are his supporters. It is a cultural issue that stirs up his base. To quote Le Bron James, “He is using sport to divide us”.

Anniversary of Charlottesville.

The right wing groups decision to “celebrate the anniversary” of their carnage at Charlottesville by holding a “Unite The Right” rally next to the WhiteHouse, resulted in the resurfacing of Trump’s remark following the death of one of those protesting against the racists and Neo Nazis that there was wrong on both sides of the divide, thereby sanctioning a moral equivalency between the racists and the counter protestors.

ALL IN A DAY’S WORK

 Trump himself was front and center of the Trumpy swampy news of 8/10/18 being the dinosaur in the swamp.