Summations Only

Trump is being sued in civil court for violations of the foreign and domestic emoluments clauses of the constitution by the attorneys general for Maryland and Washington D.C.: President Trump receives court summons at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue--Percy

As I have been saying, challenges to the Presidency are not anything Trump will worry about but follow the money...

Isn't it amazing that Don Trump Jr gets an uncontested divorces , with a transfer of funds to his soon to be ex-wife just a Mueller supeona's his financial records?

But did he get a Non-Disclosure Agreement from his Ex-Wife as part of the settlement.

Tillerson Scrubbed From State Dept Website - TPM – Talking Points MemoI thought this was going to be an April 1 joke. I had lost track that Tillerson had indeed been given the boot (had to Wiki to confirm that).Still pretty extreme, but not as extreme as if he were still Secretary of State.Side note: On Pence’s Resignation, Trump’s Stroke, and Ryan’s Defection to RussiaMoose

Just now saw this news: Warning of ‘repercussions,’ Trump company lawyers seek Panama president’s help. Trump has, in my view, just threatened the Panamanian government to interfere in his favor in a legal dispute between the Trump Organization and the owner of one of his branded hotels (the Trump International Hotel in Panama City), or else. Panama maintains independence of their executive and judicial branches, just as in the United States.This is (again, in my view) the worst single thing Trump has done. Agree or disagree with his actions on healthcare, tax cuts, trade, environment, etc., he did nothing improper. He may be involved in obstruction of justice, but that hasn't been demonstrated yet, so so far nothing improper. But pressuring a foreign government to intervene on behalf of his business, that is clearly an improper conflict of interest and is why presidents should divest their ownership in any enterprise, public or private, commercial or nonprofit. I include nonprofits because of all the trouble surrounding the Clinton Foundation.--Percy

I certainly believe that Trump has done improper things that are worse than this one. This particular action would appear to be blatantly illegal if Trump were involved, but then Trump is not overseeing the day to day activities of his hotels. Someone else is doing that. We can speculate on Trump's personal involvement here, but isn't that pretty much what we are doing for a lot of stuff?

I don't think that's relevant, and anyway, even before he became POTUS and relinquished his roles as chairman and president of the Trump organization he was not likely "overseeing the day-to-day activities of his hotels," just my opinion. Trump just doesn't seem like a detail "day-to-day" kind of guy to me. The Trump business was placed in a trust (not a blind trust, just a trust) run by his sons Donald and Eric. But the trust and the sons' management is just a smokescreen. Trump still owns the business, and I believe Trump has just as much control over The Trump Organization as he ever did.But the issue, as I interpret it, is that a business owned by POTUS sent the Panamanian president a letter threatening "repercussions" if the issue concerning a property was not resolved in POTUS's favor. You can find a copy of the letter here, but here are some scary excerpts:

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We are the law office Britton & Iglesias and we write to you...to URGENTLY request your influence in relation to a commercial dispute involving Trump Hotel aired before Panama’s judiciary.

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Aware of the separation of powers of the State,...

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How's that for chutzpah? They're aware that Panama has the same separation of executive and judiciary as the US, but they nonetheless request the Panamanian president's influence to resolve a judicial matter in their favor.

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...we would like to raise a situation that even though is currently being addressed by Panama’s judiciary, has repercussions in the Panamanian State, which You preside over.

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They say the situation has repercussions for the Panamanian State. The specifics are never spelled out, but given that the property's owner is POTUS and given the volatility and impulsivity of the current POTUS, the mention of repercussions must be very concerning to Panama's interests.

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We appreciate your influence in order to avoid that these damages are attributed not to the other party, but to the Panamanian government due to a clear violation of the Treaty protections, specifically due to a denial of justice in the form and terms that said protection must be understood in international investment arbitration.

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They say the damages to the Trump Organization are attributed to the Panamanian government because of "Treaty violations." I'd feel very threatened if I were the Panamanian president.--Percy

The BBC reports that House Speaker Paul Ryan is leaving. Reportedly, the main reason was the frustrations of dealing with Trump.

I agree. What I take issue with is the idea that this is somehow worse than the other stuff he has done. I had thought your argument was that you could attribute this directly to Trump in a way that made it blatantly illegal. But, first, the management by his sons is enough to remove the blatancy in my opinion. I get you. But private companies do this kind of crap all of the time. In some cases, we applaud countries for flaunting the local law. But, yeah, in this case we are talking about some extremely important democratic principles when we talk about judicial independence. At least we lefties seem to think that is an important principle. Trump and his supporters may not think it is all that important even here in the US.

Here is our commander in chief disbursing his military planning via twitter. What could there possibly be to gain by taunting our adversaries over twitter? And what happened to the idea of not telling our plans before we take action?

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Russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at Syria. Get ready Russia, because they will be coming, nice and new and smart! You shouldn’t be partners with a Gas Killing Animal who kills his people and enjoys it!

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Apparently, this dumbass had not discussed any of this stuff with anybody before tweeting. Meanwhile, Russia takes advantage of Trump and looks like a bunch of statesmen.

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Konstantin Kosachev, the head of foreign affairs committee in the upper house of Russian parliament, said it's "really scary to think what kind of people control the largest military arsenal the planet has ever seen."

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Earlier, President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov earlier said in televised remarks that "we don't participate in Twitter diplomacy," adding that "it's important not to make any steps that could further destabilize the already fragile situation."

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I was reading today that the there will be no "Official Guests" for the wedding between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle and that neither Trump or Obama or will be invited. I think that is what most people had predicted for quite some time.Now, the wedding would not have been a state visit, and in pondering that, I was curious about whether Trump not having a state visit yet is something unusual. I have concluded that it is not. Obama, of course, did have a state visit on which we met Queen Elizabeth, but it was not until well into his first term. And so far only two US presidents have had a state visit with a meeting with Queen Elizabeth dating back to the early 1950s. Obama and George W.Now what is unusual is that Trump has not been to England at all a year into his presidency. Obama made his first visit (which was not a state visit) three months into his presidency. Trump has yet to drag his orangeness over there.

Actually, the term I was using wasn't "blatantly illegal" but "improper conflict of interest." I couldn't comment about possible illegality, I'm not familiar with the relevant laws. But in my view The Trump Organization has threatened Panama with "repercussions" if the legal matter involving the hotel and The Trump Organization isn't resolved in their favor. It's no secret that the owner of The Trump Organization is the president of the United States, so threats of "repercussions" is especially chilling. Panama is a tiny country to whom a loss of American good will would have a serious impact - I have little doubt the matter of the hotel will soon be resolved in The Trump Organization's favor.If that does happen then it adds to arguments in favor of laws requiring full divestiture of businesses for incoming presidents, not to mention disclosure of tax returns.--Percy

After his Twitter announcement of missile attacks on Syria caught enormous flack, Trump tweets this today...

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Never said when an attack on Syria would take place. Could be very soon or not so soon at all! In any event, the United States, under my Administration, has done a great job of ridding the region of ISIS. Where is our Thank you America?

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The man is a fool and a narcissist to boot. Who elected this man to anything? Edited by NoNukes, : No reason given.

Trump is a liar. We already knew that, but he is even better than we thought.In today's Washington Post Jonathan Greenberg describes how he was duped by Trump to get included on the Forbes 400 list of richest people in America when he didn't belong there (Trump lied to me about his wealth to get onto the Forbes 400. Here are the tapes.). How'd he do it? This way:

• For the inaugural 1982 Forbes 400 list Greenberg contacted Trump who claimed his properties were in Forest Hills when they were in fact in Jamaica Estates, making them far less valuable.
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• Knowing Greenberg was skeptical of his claims Trump called him six weeks later and claimed again that he was far richer than whatever Greenberg's estimate was.
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• Trump had his lawyer Roy Cohn (yes, that Roy Cohn, he of the McCarthy era) call him claiming to have a bank statement showing Trump had $500 million in liquid assets. When Greenberg requested a copy of the statement he was told it was confidential. Trump was placed on the 1982 list at a net worth of $100 million. But information that only came out years later revealed that his net worth at the time was around $5 million, and he should not have been on the list at all.
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• For the following year's 1983 list Cohn called Greenberg again and made many unsubstantiated claims about Trump's wealth. Trump was included on the list at $200 million, but again he should not have been on the list at all.
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• For the next years's 1984 list Trump called Greenberg posing as John Barron (the deception only came to light years later - Trump's youngest son is named Barron) and told him that he owned 90% of the family business, making him a billionaire. While Greenberg didn't believe this, Forbes did increase Trump's net worth on the list to $400 million. Turns out Trump as Barron had lied about almost everything. Years later it was revealed that Trump did not own any of the family business and was worth only around $5 million. He again should not have been on the list.
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• The deceptions continued. In 1988 Trump was on the list at $1 billion, and in 1989 at $1.7 billion. But required financial disclosures to the New Jersey Casino Commission when he was building his Atlantic City casino revealed an estimated net worth worth around $205 million.

See the article for lots more, it's a fascinating read. People may also be interested in Inside The Epic Fantasy That’s Driven Donald Trump For 33 Years by Forbes editor Randall Lane in 2015.--Percy