Category: Donald Trump

Donald Trump’s New Strategy: Publicly Suggest Foreign Governments Investigate Political Rivals

Well, all of those Trump defenders who questioned the Intelligence Community whistleblower can be quiet now because Donald Trump just publicly suggested what was once private. Watch starting at 1:38:

Trump said President Zelenskyy should start an investigation into the Bidens and “China should start an investigation into the Bidens because what happened in China is just about as bad as Ukraine.”

Twitter was abuzz with reaction:

Law professor Orin Kerr said:

Christian Post political writer Napp Nazworth asked:

Congressman Justin Amash wrote:

This from Zack Hunt is pretty funny and inspired my headline:

In sum, the new strategy seems to be to dare the nation to do something about it. He seems to be saying to his base that he will do whatever he wants and thus far, they seem to be going along with it. My question is about Republican office holders. Will they see the problem here? This is setting the tone for any future presidency. If the GOP does not act in some manner, there will be no obvious limits. Will soliciting foreign help in our elections be the new normal? Will foreign governments fight their battles via our candidates? This is not a sustainable position.

Robert Jeffress Doubles Down on Civil War Comment

First Baptist of Dallas pastor and Trump court evangelical Robert Jeffress doubled down on his warning of a “civil war like fracture” if Trump is removed from office via impeachment and conviction. Watch:

One of the CBN hosts gave him an opportunity to ratchet back his rhetoric but in Trump-like fashion, he called his analogy to the Civil War “a perfect idea.”

When the same host cited Illinois GOP Representative Adam Kinzinger’s tweet condemning the reference to the Civil War, Jeffress said:

Read the comment and if they come away with that conclusion that I’m advocating or the president’s is a civil war, then they either can’t read or are too stupid to understand what we’re saying.

Here is Kinzinger’s tweet:

Trump Releases Ukraine Conversation; Impeachment Open Forum (UPDATED)

UPDATE: 9/26 – The DNI complaint has been declassified and is available to the public. You can (and should) read it here.

UPDATE: 9/27 – Now the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community’s letter about the DNI complaint has been released to the public. You can read it here.  Readers should remember that the IG is a Trump appointee. He believes there is reason to believe laws may have been broken by the conduct described by the whistleblower and that the matter is of urgent concern.

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Yesterday was dominated by news of Nancy Pelosi directing House committees to explore articles of impeachment and then today President Trump released a summary of his conversation with Ukrainian president Zelenskyy.

You can read the summary of that conversation here.

My purpose with this post is to give regular readers a place to comment and contribute links to reactions from evangelical leaders on these topics. I haven’t seen anything specific from any of the usual suspects but I imagine they will come out soon with defenses of Trump. There are serious problems in the conversation with Zelenskyy and I hope some evangelical leaders will think of the country first.

UPDATE: Hunter Biden did nothing wrong according to Ukrainian prosecutor at the heart of the Trump controversy.

Trump Boosts Promotional Video Which Borrows White Nationalist Logo (UPDATED)

UPDATED: Mediaite posted an op-ed from an anonymous meme-maker who claims the logo is innocent. While I think it is good of Mediaite to provide a forum for a possible explanation, I don’t know enough about “Carpe Donktum” to evaluate his/her claims. I also need to add that I originally thought the ad came from the Trump campaign. However, it was produced by a supporter of Trump and retweeted by the president. I have corrected my post to reflect that.

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Somebody supporting the Trump re-election effort is too familiar with white nationalist symbols. Recently, Trump retweeted a video that ended with a lion logo surrounded by red, white, and blue which has been promoted by a white nationalist group. Watch:


As first reported by Mediaite this morning, Snopes managing editor Brooke Binkowski found a tweet from white nativist group VDARE using the logo in 2016 and showed it next to the final shot of the Trump/Pence video.

Note the 2016 date. The logo is the same as the one used in the Trump/Pence ad just this week.

The Lion’s Guard

The logo is also associated with a group called “The Lion’s Guard.” This group (which was promoted and praised on white supremacist site Daily Stormer in 2016) aims to provide security at Trump rallies and was removed from Twitter for awhile. They are back now with the same logo.

Note the slogan on the group’s website:

Better to be a lion for a day, than a lamb for eternity.

The slogan is a simpler version of a quote attributed to Mussolini:

It’s better to live one day as a lion than 100 years as a sheep.

In 2016, Trump retweeted this quote knowing the attribution was to Mussolini:

Donald Trump and/or his social media team thought it would be a good idea to promote a symbol which communicated nativist themes. They who have eyes to see, let them see.

 

 

 

Marc Stanley in The Times of Israel: Dear Great Leader

In this The Times of Israel op-ed, attorney Marc Stanley has taken note of Donald Trump’s assessment of Jews who support the Democratic party and at first seems to strike a penitent note.

With the High Holy Days around the corner, I just can’t wait for Yom Kippur to begin atoning. As you recently proclaimed, Jews who vote Democratic are “disloyal.” Well, I hope you will find a way to forgive me, for I have been disloyal—very disloyal.

Then Stanley lists the many ways he has “misunderstood” the president. If only he understood Dear Great Leader Trump’s special ways of showing respect to Jews, then maybe he wouldn’t be so “disloyal.”

In the op-ed, Stanley reminds readers that most American Jews are just as “disloyal” as he is which should give the president some reason to worry about his current strategy.