So Donald took what should have been his best week of his presidency and he managed to butcher it. He keeps getting tripped up by, well by himself and the facts. We give you this Episode of As The Donald Turns, “Stubborn Facts.”
- The White House had an actual accomplishment this week. There is going to be a bipartisan spending bill that keeps the government funded through the end of the fiscal year in September. A lot of Dems are on board, along with a lot of Republicans and they have the numbers to pass it and for the President to sign it. A cause for celebration right? Not for Donald, because those “stubborn facts” got in the way. You see, Donald made it clear he would rather have all Republican votes and zero Democrat votes, or in the absence of that, he would rather have a government shutdown:
@realDonaldTrump 6h6 hours ago
“either elect more Republican Senators in 2018 or change the rules now to 51%. Our country needs a good “shutdown” in September to fix mess!”
What has Donald’s comb-over in such a muss? The House controls the purse strings, and the Dems saw the Republicans eating their own over nearly every bill. The GOP has divided into three fragments at this point. Knowing Donald and Paul Ryan were going to need Dem votes to pass the measure and not have a government shutdown, they demanded the funding for previous measures stay in place. That means the Planned Parenthood money stays. The money for the National Institute of Health stays. No money gets cut from sanctuary cities or states. The funding for clean energy and science stays. And there is $1 billion given to enhance border security, with zero going to a wall. Never has Donald been so upset about winning.
- So there is no government shutdown and that bothers Donald. Clearly, he is going to sign the funding bill but he hates the Democrats being a part of it. At a Rose Garden ceremony on Tuesday, where he was giving the Commander-in-Chief trophy to the Air Force Academy football team, he veered off into spin management. Usually these are quick ceremonies centered on the recipients, but Donald talked about foreign policy, and jobs, and the budget and the health care bill. He claimed to be ready to start construction on the wall now. In front of the Air Force football team he said he secured the largest expenditure for border security in history, “With enough money to make a down payment on the wall.” Well sure that would be true if it weren’t for those “stubborn facts.” It is actually $1.5 billion for border security — technology and repairing existing infrastructure with language specifying no new border wall construction. Pesky, pesky facts. Just wait until Donald hears this one.
- At the Daily White House Briefing, there was no real briefing. The administration trotted out budget director Mick Mulvaney and two big photos of the border with a crumbling fence. He admitted he had no idea where along the border the fence was, but who doesn’t bring props to their presentations without any facts about them? So Mulvaney talked about the budget deal, and was asked by the media why the White House was not happy. Mulvaney made it clear the appropriations bill was not conservative enough for Donald. In other words, the GOP owns the Oval Office, the House, and the Senate and still can’t get a bill they all like. Mulvaney accused the Dems of taking a victory lap and warned them to change their behavior before September. You mean like helping pass government financing? Facts can be ugly.
- After Mulvaney took a few questions, Sparkle Pony Spicer took to the podium for the rest of the briefing and said….well, he said nothing. He left with Mulvaney and never finished the briefing. Don’t have to argue about facts when you ignore the questions to begin with.
- Of course by now, we are all familiar with Donald’s tough time with historical facts, like when he said in an interview Monday that President Andrew Jackson was very angry with what was going on with the Civil War, ignoring the fact that Jackson was dead 16 years before the war even started. Donald had to go to Twitter to clear up his thoughts:
@realDonaldTrump 20h20 hours ago
“ President Andrew Jackson, who died 16 years before the Civil War started, saw it coming and was angry. Would never have let it happen!”
Ah, that clears it up….one of the preeminent slave owners of his day had a crystal ball that looked nearly two decades into the future and would have stopped a war built around slavery before he died and it started. Thanks for the facts. Maybe he would have worked with Fredrick Douglass, because you know, Donald hears he is “an example of somebody who has done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more, I notice.” Together they got us all through that brutal Bowling Green Massacre.
- Mo Brooks has what he thinks are facts. Mo is a congressman from Alabama and has a take on the debate as to covering people with pre-existing conditions in the new health care bill. He told CNN, “My understanding is that it will allow insurance companies to require people who have higher health care costs to contribute more to the insurance pool that helps offset all these costs, thereby reducing the cost to those people who lead good lives. They’re healthy, they’ve done the things to keep their bodies healthy, and right now those are the people who’ve done things the right way,that are seeing their costs skyrocket.” Yes, Mo says if you have a pre-existing condition it is because you have not led a good, healthy life. A member of the staff here had a strong opinion on that, but we try to keep vulgarity out of the blog. People are often born with conditions, or get them later in life, and it has nothing to do with kind of life they have led. Take those facts Congressman Mo.
- You know what else is a fact? Sometimes when at Mar a Lago you get the “best chocolate cake” for dessert and sometimes they run out so they give you entertainment. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross explained how it worked last month with the Chinese president, in a speech to the Milken Foundation Monday. “Just as dessert was being served, the president explained to Mr. Xi he had something he wanted to tell him, which was the launching of 59 missiles into Syria,” Ross said. “It was in lieu of after-dinner entertainment. The thing was, it didn’t cost the president anything to have that entertainment.” Not that they don’t take “stubborn facts” of military engagement seriously in this administration.
- Circling back to the Rose Garden ceremony Monday, Donald said it was time for the health care bill to come to a vote. He said it was looking good and ready to go. Oh, those facts. As of the writing of this piece, the GOP may not have the votes to get the bill out of the House. There are 18 undecideds and if they lose just one, the bill will not come to a vote. But let’s not let facts get in the way Donald. Last week you said it was a great bill that “A lot of people are liking a lot.” Turns out the “stubborn facts” say “not so much.”
When Donald sticks to the TelePrompTer, he sounds like he has a fourth grade vocabulary. When he makes off the cuff remarks, he just makes stuff up like a fourth grader and gets caught in those pesky, “stubborn facts.”
