So much to say about yesterday's first press conference and first in 167 days, from the new President-elect.
The first thing that occurs to me today, after yesterday's press conference from Mr. Trump is that it is going to be an extremely casual 4 years, beginning January 20, if he stays for the entire term, that is. If you read a transcript of the conference or see videotape of it, he uses a lot of "gonna" and "lemme" and at one point, even said "crap." I tell you, folks, this is "a man of the people." Sure, he was given one million dollars once, by and from his father but he's a man of the people.
Second thing that occurs to me after yesterday is that clearly, we, we Americans, you and I, the US, owe Mr. Trump a lot. And I mean
A LOT. Check this out:
Over the weekend, I was offered $2 billion to do a deal in Dubai with a very, very, very amazing man, a great, great developer from the Middle East, Hussein Damack, a friend of mine, great guy. And I was offered $2 billion to do a deal in Dubai — a number of deals and I turned it down.
I didn’t have to turn it down, because as you know, I have a no-conflict situation because I’m president, which is — I didn’t know about that until about three months ago, but it’s a nice thing to have.
He turned down A 2 BILLION DOLLAR DEAL just to be our President. So yeah, clearly we owe Mr. Trump. Already. At least in his opinion. And he's not even in office yet.
This next, third point made me nearly angry. Here's what Mr. Trump said:
I have a no conflict of interest provision as president. It was many, many years old, this is for presidents. Because they don’t want presidents getting — I understand they don’t want presidents getting tangled up in minutia; they want a president to run the country.
Wait. Wait right there.
It isn't that we Americans "...don't want presidents getting tangled up in minutia.." Not at all. It's that WE DON'T WANT OUR PRESIDENTS TO BE BOUGHT. We don't want them to be influenced by a money deal or by any billionaires across the planet who would want their buddy, the President, to do them a favor. We'd like very much to not be a banana republic, so to speak.
What's scary about this is that HE DOESN'T GET THAT.
He then goes on to say:
I don’t like the way that looks, but I would be able to do that if I wanted to. I would be the only one to be able to do that. You can’t do that in any other capacity. But as president, I could run the Trump organization, great, great company, and I could run the company — the country. I’d do a very good job, but I don’t want to do that.
He only thinks we don't want him "getting tangled up in minutia." Oh, hell, no. Everything, we know, with this guy, from his childhood, is about money. From birth to now, at his age of 70 years, has always been about money. Having lived a life like that, who thinks he wouldn't or couldn't be bought?
Next note and this is important. Mr. Trump still thinks no one out here in the nation cares about or wants to see his tax returns.
You know, the only one that cares about my tax returns are the reporters, OK? They’re the only who ask.
Well, he's not just wrong on this point but very much so. We'd like to know a few things about him and his tax returns:
--We'd like to know he paid taxes
--We'd like to know he paid a reasonably fair share of taxes
--We'd like to know he's not in debt--deeply or otherwise--to even one, let along many people or organizations or, heaven forbid, governments in and of other nations
He goes on to admit he's got lots of foreign interests:
...my company is much bigger, much more powerful than they ever thought. We’re in many, many countries, and I’m very proud of it.
And that's just for starters. So yes, Mr. President-elect, we'd very, very much like to see your tax returns and know what's in them. You said you'd release them if you became president, anyway, not that truth or commitments mean anything to you.
He then brought out an attorney, one Sheri Dillon, to explain how Mr. Trump is going to handle business in the next four years and how he's not actually going to put all that business in a true "blind trust" while he serves as president because, hey, screw you, America. This is Donald Trump. She also went on to defend Mr. Trump's keeping his hotels while serving in the White House. Or Trump Tower, he hasn't said completely yet where he'll be operating from. The White House is so dowdy, you know?
He seemed to knock BBC news. A reporter from the BBC introduced himself for a question and this was Mr. Trump's response:
BBC news. That’s another beauty.
The BBC? You knock the BBC?
He was asked what he'd do to reform the media. He said he'd recommend people that
"that have some moral compass."
Really. That's rich. (no pun intended).
In fairness, not all of the press conference was bad. It seems Mr. Trump is speaking out for the people and against his own political party on at least one subject and that is on our nation's ability to negotiate lower drug costs from the pharmaceutical companies. Here's a bit of what he said:
We’ve got to get our drug industry back. Our drug industry has been disastrous. They’re leaving left and right. They supply our drugs, but they don’t make them here, to a large extent. And the other thing we have to do is create new bidding procedures for the drug industry because they’re getting away with murder.
Pharma, pharma has a lot of lobbies and a lot of lobbyists and a lot of power and there’s very little bidding on drugs. We’re the largest buyer of drugs in the world and yet we don’t bid properly and we’re going to start bidding and we’re going to save billions of dollars over a period of time.
Of course, he and the Republicans want to do away with the Affordable Care Act, the ACA, "Obamacare" and have no replacement for it or replacement plan but at least Mr. Trump has this one issue correct for us. It pales, in comparison, to doing away with Obamacare, but at least he has this right.
Final note: In the next four years, if Mr. Trump lasts that long as President (shudder), get used to hearing the following words out of the White House. Oh, and out of New York City, apparently:
"..the best..."
disastrous
fantastic
great, greatest
gonna'
disgrace (and this will be used both by the President, in that time frame, as well as by others, describing him)
phony
crap
Putin, Vladimir Putin, Mr. Putin, President Putin
totally (sometimes I think I'm listening to an 80's or 90's "valley girl)
horrible (again, this will be used both by and about the President)
yeah (only used by the President)
The entire phrase: "Give me a break" (this will be used by both the President and teenagers, exclusively)
"Lemme" (as a substitute for "let me." Again, only used by the President)
brilliant
phenomenal
terrific
outstanding
We are in for a rough, rough four years, ladies and gentlemen. God and the heavens help us.
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