Day: 2/28/2018

Who Will Trump Choose to Replace Hope Hicks? (Hint: Is He Watching Fox News?)

Posted by on February 28, 2018 at 4:32 pm. 4 Comments :

Another day, another White House staffer falls out of the sinking ship. This time it’s one of Donald Trump’s most loyal and longest serving aides, communications director Hope Hicks. The camera shy press liaison is reported to be leaving within the coming weeks. And I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that yesterday she admitted at a congressional inquiry that she has been telling “white lies” as a part of her official duties.

Hope Hicks

That’s probably the problem. Hicks was telling only white lies when the President had warned her to stick to only the darkest of all possible lies. He gave her plenty of examples via his own behavior to make it clear what was expected of her. Obviously, she wasn’t able to cut it. Although she had her moments. Like when she helped to draft the false excuse for why Don Jr. was meeting with Russians. Or when she wrote the press release defending her boyfriend, Rob Porter, after he was revealed to be a wife-beater.

Trump will not likely make the same mistake again. He has a strong track record of hiring brazen liars to staff his White House operation. Champion fabricators like Sean Spicer, Anthony Scaramucci, and the current mistress of propaganda, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, have distinguished this president’s press office.

So who will Trump turn to to fill this critical post? It will have to be someone who doesn’t care about having a good reputation with the public or the media. In fact, the more hate for the media the better. After all, Trump regards the press as “the enemy of the American people.” The Hicks successor will need to be able to lie on camera, even when it’s painfully obvious that they are lying. He or she should have a relationship with other professional prevaricators like Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh.

However, it isn’t necessary that the communications director candidate have any actual experience in communications. Trump prefers people who have little or no idea what they are doing. Probably to assure that they know less than he does (admittedly, a low bar). And in the end, he wouldn’t really trust anyone other than himself. An article in the Associated Press noted that Trump “increasingly sees himself as the White House’s only effective spokesperson.”

Given the criteria for filling this job, only one source for human resources comes to mind. Trump will have to poach another staffer from the pool of Trump-fluffers at Fox News. The Fox studio is a rich vein of inexperienced, dishonest, shameless, butt-kissers. It’s a vein Trump has tapped many times before for aides including K.T. McFarland, Ben Carson, Sebastion Gorka, Heather Nauert, Richard Grennell, and Jonathan Wachtel.

There are two names at Fox that stand out as potential White House flacks. Laura Ingraham would slide right into the role with her smug arrogance and jaunty know-it-allism. But having just secured a primetime show on Fox, Ingraham may be reluctant to bail. She may also be locked into a long-term contract.

That leaves Kimberly Guilfoyle. She has been on deck for a Trump slot for quite a while. Last year Trump insiders were telling the media that he “wants Fox News host Kimberly Guilfoyle to take [Sean Spicer’s] place.” She is currently a co-host of Fox’s right-wing gab-fest, The Five. She has never been a journalist and has no experience in press relations. So she has those assets going for her. Trump may also appreciate Guilfoyle’s admiration for Vladimir Putin, who she thought would be a better president than Barack Obama.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

There are a few other names that could be thrown into the pot. Ainsley Earhardt of Trump’s favorite Fox News program, Fox and Friends. Evening Anchor Martha MacCallum could bring back some blondness to the gig. Or maybe, in a bid for the millennial audience, Tomi Lahren’s juvenile outbursts could be just the right spice for Trump’s media taco bowl. Only time will tell. And there’s no hurry since Hicks will still be around for a few weeks, or until she has to meet with special counsel Robert Mueller.

American Dreamer? Trump is Peddling This New Hat to Profit From His Anti-DACA Racism

Posted by on February 28, 2018 at 11:30 am. 4 Comments :

Last year Donald Trump single-handedly killed the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that allowed undocumented residents who were brought into the country as minors to remain and to work without fear of deportation and separation from their families. The initiative was implemented by President Obama and widely regarded as humanitarian and necessary.

Despite pretending to care about DACA, Trump has callously exploited the issue to malign Democrats and bargain for his asinine and useless border wall. He brazenly demeans innocent people in order to ram his ludicrous agenda through Congress. And the suffering he causes is of no concern to him or his uncaring comrades in the Republican Party.

So it should come as no surprise that Trump is escalating the grotesque bigotry inherent in his exclusionary policies by seeking to profit off the pain of others. He has just introduced a new product on his website that Trump cultists and Deplorables can waste their money on. It’s an “American Dreamer“ hat.

Donald Trump Dreamer

In the spirit of his silly headgear hucksterism, Trump is expanding his “Make America Great Again” product line in the most disgusting way possible. The new hat is apparently a premium item because, at $50.00 a pop, it is twice the cost of a MAGA hat. But it is also twice as repulsive. The Trump website pitches it in language that is trite and unrelated to the tribulations of DACA kids:

“Because Americans are dreamers too. We all want to live the American dream and our 45th President is helping to make that dream a reality for each and every American. With our American Dreamer Hat you can show that you believe we can Make America Great Again.”

DACA recipients are called “Dreamers” because they hope to have their status as Americans recognized officially. They are model citizens who serve in the military, attend school, and contribute to their communities. They cannot participate in the program if they have any criminal record. Their dream is to become citizens of the country they love – the only one they have ever known.

Trump introduced his “American Dreamer” bastardization of this movement in his State of the Union address. It was an attempt to hijack the dreams of DACA kids for the benefit of already privileged white citizens. There is no logical connection to the DACA program by Trump’s deliberate misdirection. It is similar to the racist appropriation of “Black Lives Matter” by the Klan-sponsored distortion, “All Lives Matter.”

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

Leave it to Trump to find a way to insult a whole class of people who only want their dignity and freedom from fear. And only Trump could manage to turn that insulting action into a commercial venture that makes him richer. It’s the defining characteristic of his utter lack of character and disregard for ethics and compassion. But at least it will help the rest of us to recognize his dimwitted disciples as they parade around with their flags of prejudice firmly planted on their hateful, empty heads.