What does a TRUMP presidency look like?

[LaCroix]

I think he just thought I was being sarcastic in my response to minsky. no, I was wrong and was admitting to that

[viper37]

Is he the highest profile Republican critic of Trump now?

Yes, he is.  Given that he's the only one, it's not a very tough achievement either.

[viper37]

Clearly we can't let French Canadians into the US.

That's gonna create jobs for sure, building another wall like that

[The Minsky Moment]

What you are missing LaCroix, is that this is an opening negotiating position just like you say with Mexico, except now on the domestic front.  Trump doesn't  care about the Constitution or the rule of law.  He is testing limits, seeing how far he can go.  Treat this like a joke and brush it off and he will keep pushing.  The only thing that he respects is a hard push back and rebuke.

[Syt]

The President published an official statement on, erm, Facebook. Whatever happened to press releases?

https://www.facebook.com/DonaldTrump/posts/10158567643610725

Statement Regarding Recent Executive Order Concerning Extreme Vetting

"America is a proud nation of immigrants and we will continue to show compassion to those fleeing oppression, but we will do so while protecting our own citizens and border. America has always been the land of the free and home of the brave.

We will keep it free and keep it safe, as the media knows, but refuses to say. My policy is similar to what President Obama did in 2011 when he banned visas for refugees from Iraq for six months. The seven countries named in the Executive Order are the same countries previously identified by the Obama administration as sources of terror. To be clear, this is not a Muslim ban, as the media is falsely reporting.

This is not about religion - this is about terror and keeping our country safe. There are over 40 different countries worldwide that are majority Muslim that are not affected by this order. We will again be issuing visas to all countries once we are sure we have reviewed and implemented the most secure policies over the next 90 days.

I have tremendous feeling for the people involved in this horrific humanitarian crisis in Syria. My first priority will always be to protect and serve our country, but as President I will find ways to help all those who are suffering."

"this is not a Muslim ban" - it's only a ban on people from evil countries - that happen to be overwhelmingly Muslim - who are not part of a religious minority in that country.

[Phillip V]

The President published an official statement on, erm, Facebook. Whatever happened to press releases?

https://www.facebook.com/DonaldTrump/posts/10158567643610725

And POTUS twitter handle is mostly used to retweet his personal account and facebook posts.

https://twitter.com/POTUS

[garbon]

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/316797-poll-majority-of-americans-disapprove-of-president-trump-faster

Poll: Trump reaches majority disapproval in eight days

A majority of Americans disapprove of President Trump's work during his first week in the White House — breaking a record of how long it generally takes the majority of Americans to disapprove of a president.

On Saturday, 51 percent of Americans disapproved of Trump, a Gallup poll found.

The poll tracks daily approval ratings for Trump by surveying 1,500 Americans.

It took just eight days to reach these ratings. It took at least several hundred days for the majority of Americans to disapprove of past presidents.

Days until achieving MAJORITY disapproval from @Gallup

Reagan: 727
Bush I: 1336
Clinton: 573
Bush II: 1205
Obama: 936

Trump: 8. days.

Former President Barack Obama reached the 51 percent disapproval rating in August 2011 — years after he took office in 2009. It took more than 1,000 days for former President George W. Bush to reach that mark.

Trump's first week in office has been met with massive backlash, as protesters gathered across the nation last weekend and this weekend to protest his actions as president so far.

Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators marched in the historic Women's March last week, and thousands of protesters gathered at airports across the country to protest Trump's executive order banning people from several Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S.

The executive order, which also bans Syrian refugees from entering the country, has been met with international and bipartisan criticism.

[Tamas]

Polling fraud! Nobody has ever had better polling numbers than President Trump. Fake news can't give up. Sad!

[Syt]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/29/us/politics/stephen-bannon-security-council.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share&mtrref=t.co

Trump Administration Defends Bannon's Role on Security Council

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration defended on Sunday a reorganization of the National Security Council that elevates the president's chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon — a political adviser with no direct national security role — to full membership and downgrades the director of national intelligence and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The alteration was contained in a memorandum issued late Saturday defining the organization of the National Security Council and the Homeland Security Council, the top decision-making bodies inside the White House on everything from diplomacy to counterterrorism to crisis management to nuclear and cyberpolicy.

Mr. Trump's document drew from organizational precedents in the Obama and George W. Bush administrations. But the ascension of Mr. Bannon, who until last year was the head of Breitbart News, and the diminishment of the president's top intelligence and military advisers took Democrats and Republicans by surprise.

The new memo said that the intelligence director and the Joint Chiefs chairman would attend the "principals meetings" — the meeting of cabinet-level officials — only when "issues pertaining to their responsibilities and expertise are to be discussed."

Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, said Sunday that Mr. Bannon's past service as a Navy officer merited his attendance at all meetings, as part of a "streamlining" of decision-making. He did not explain the downgrading of the four-star general who heads the Joint Chiefs, Joseph F. Dunford Jr., who rose through the Marine Corps and served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Well, he is a former naval officer," Mr. Spicer said of Mr. Bannon on ABC's "This Week." "He's got a tremendous understanding of the world and the geopolitical landscape that we have now."

He added, "Having the chief strategist for the president in those meetings, who has a significant military background, to help make, guide what the president's final analysis is going to be, is crucial."

When pressed on General Dunford's role, Mr. Spicer said, "The president gets plenty of information from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff."

Current and former military officials said they suspected that the decision, in part, was prompted by the national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, who retired as a three-star general after he was dismissed during the Obama administration as the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency. It was the previous director of national intelligence, James R. Clapper, who delivered the news to Mr. Flynn that he was being removed from his post.

Throughout the transition, Mr. Flynn was reportedly hesitant to place many people around the National Security Council table who had outranked him in the military. Nonetheless, there are two in the cabinet: Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who retired as a four-star general, and the secretary of homeland security, John F. Kelly, a retired four-star Marine Corps general who served for 45 years, ending his military career as the commander of United States Southern Command.

Both men remain principals on the council.

The C.I.A. director, Mike Pompeo, is not mentioned at all in the reorganization order. A week ago, Mr. Trump went to C.I.A. headquarters to assure officers there that he had their backs and valued their contributions. But Mr. Pompeo's predecessor, John O. Brennan, was also not a formal member of the council, though he often attended meetings to provide intelligence assessments.

Susan E. Rice, Mr. Flynn's predecessor as national security adviser, denounced the downgrading of the intelligence director and the Joint Chiefs chairman. "This is stone cold crazy," she wrote on Twitter. "Who needs military advice or intell to make policy on ISIL, Syria, Afghanistan, DPRK," she said, using abbreviations for the Islamic State and North Korea.

Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, also appearing on ABC, questioned the wisdom of the move.

John Bellinger, who was the counsel to the National Security Council during Mr. Bush's administration, noted in a commentary on the Lawfare blog that Mr. Bannon's role was highly unusual, because "the N.S.C. function usually does not include participants from the political side of the White House." He noted that Karl Rove, Mr. Bush's top political strategist, did not attend council meetings.

But in the early days of the Obama administration, David Axelrod, also a top political strategist, did attend many meetings resetting policy on Afghanistan and Pakistan — as a guest and an observer, but not as a full member of the council.

[Tamas]

Bannon does seem to be hell-bent on taking over the country using Trump as his puppet, and Trump seems hell-bent on assisting to it.

I think the whole modern democracy thing with checks and balances is going to be put under a proper stress test in the next couple of years.

[Valmy]

Man it has only been a little longer than a week.

[grumbler]

huh, like five hours later literally no reputable (or even non-reputable looks like) news company has released anything screaming considtutuonal crisis -- trump's america fascist, federal executive ignores judiciary. crazy, not even slate is saying that

Classic red herring.  Dunno why you think we are dumb enough to fall for it, though.

[grumbler]

Why are y'all engaging the troll?

The only excuse is being bored. Apart from that let him stew in his own feces.

Because he's hilarious.  Alas, he's no CC; CC would be hurling the insults by now, whereas LaCroix is being strictly professional about his trolling.  Still, one can admire a professional troll at work.

[grumbler]

Polling fraud! Nobody has ever had better polling numbers than President Trump. Failing Fake news can't give up. Sad!

You left out a key word.  His critics are always "failing" or some variant.

[garbon]

Man it has only been a little longer than a week.

But feels like years.