Daily News Dump – Feb 4

Hey guys! Took the weekend off (shame on me, right?) so I have a little bit to catch up on.

‘Willful Ignorance.’ Inside President Trump’s Troubled Intelligence Briefings

By far the most-important story of the weekend, this highlights how dysfunctional and dangerous this administration is. I’ve complained about how disinterested in — and hostile to — our intelligence services Trump is since I’ve been on Twitter. This story does a great job bolstering that complaint. Quotes taken from Time.

“Citing multiple in-person episodes, these intelligence officials say Trump displays what one called “willful ignorance” when presented with analyses generated by America’s $81 billion-a-year intelligence services. The officials, who include analysts who prepare Trump’s briefs and the briefers themselves, describe futile attempts to keep his attention by using visual aids, confining some briefing points to two or three sentences, and repeating his name and title as frequently as possible.”

OK, first off, this man is 73 years old. You should NOT have to keep his attention by repeating his name or reminding him that he’s the president. Secondly, it’s simply not possible to adequately explain intelligence matters in two or three sentences. This is our *most* classified material; the material Trump is supposed to make crucial decisions based on, and he can’t even be bothered to read or listen to more than three sentences.

“What is most troubling, say these officials and others in government and on Capitol Hill who have been briefed on the episodes, are Trump’s angry reactions when he is given information that contradicts positions he has taken or beliefs he holds. Two intelligence officers even reported that they have been warned to avoid giving the President intelligence assessments that contradict stances he has taken in public.”

The IC should not have to wear kid gloves when briefing the President. EVERY President has to have at least one person who can tell them, “Mr. President, you can’t do that.” or, “Mr. President, that’s incorrect.” Trump doesn’t have that since Mattis left, because he throws the mother of all tantrums when he’s told he’s wrong.

“Intelligence officials from multiple agencies later warned Trump that entrances at the [nuclear] facility [in North Korea] that had been closed after the summit could still be reopened. But the president has ignored the agencies’ warnings and has exaggerated the steps North Korea has taken to shutter the facility, those officials and two others say. That is a particular concern now, ahead of a possible second summit with the Kim Jong-Un later this month.”

This is also something I’ve been complaining about on Twitter since shortly after the first summit. We know for a fact, 100% concrete, indisputable fact, that North Korea has done *nothing* to curb their nuclear ambitions. Trump has been briefed on this several times, but he completely ignores it because it contradicts his political narrative. This is dangerous for the country.

Trump Sought a Loan During the 2016 Campaign. Deutsche Bank Said No.

Trump couldn’t get a loan the year he was elected President. All quotes from NYT.

“To finance his business’s growth, Mr. Trump turned to a longtime ally, Deutsche Bank, one of the few banks still willing to lend money to the man who has called himself “The King of Debt.”

Mr. Trump’s loan request, which has not been previously reported, set off a fight that reached the top of the German bank, according to three people familiar with the request. In the end, Deutsche Bank did something unexpected. It said no.”

Most of you probably know by now, but Deutsche Bank has long been suspected of being a money laundering front for — or at least an ally of — high-level Russians. Trump’s history with Deutsche Bank is set to be scrutinized by the House Intelligence Committee and the House Financial Services Committee, so I’m sure that will be interesting.

“The funding of Mr. Trump’s golf empire has been something of a mystery.

In the decade before he was elected president, Mr. Trump’s company spent hundreds of millions of dollars buying or renovating about a dozen clubs and resorts around the world. Despite Mr. Trump’s self-proclaimed fondness for relying on debt, the Trump Organization has reported that it used its own money for most of the acquisitions and upgrades.

A prominent golf journalist, James Dodson, said Mr. Trump’s son Eric had told him in 2013 that the company’s golf properties were funded by Russians. Eric Trump has denied making the comment.”

What?! Russians? Fund Trump? I. Can’t. Believe. It.

(Narrator: He believed it.)

Let’s pause a second to look at some stuff that was said about Trump and Russia before everyone developed Russian amnesia, shall we?

• Don Jr: “Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets.”
• Eric: “We don’t rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia.”
• Then this Bloomberg investigative piece with blockbuster findings: “a third of the units sold on floors 76-83 by 2004 involved people or limited liability companies connected to Russia and neighboring states.”

You’ll probably either remember this Business Insider piece on the 2nd time Trump wanted to fire Mueller, or me yelling about it on Twitter.

“After reports surfaced in December that the special counsel Robert Mueller had subpoenaed Deutsche Bank seeking records related to the Trump family’s business dealings, Trump said he wanted the Russia investigation to be shut down, The New York Times reported.

Trump apparently believed the reports indicated Mueller had crossed the “red line” Trump said Mueller would breach if he investigated Trump’s or his family’s personal finances.

However, when Trump’s lawyers reached out to Mueller’s office to ask about the reports of the Deutsche Bank subpoenas, Mueller’s office said they were inaccurate, and Trump subsequently backed off.”

That leaves us with one obvious question: What is in Trump’s financial portfolio that made him panic when he thought Mueller was looking at it? I suppose we’ll be finding out soon.

Trump spends around 60% of his day on “Executive Time”

No surprise there. He’s lazy AF. Probably a good thing, to be honest. Think about all the damage he could do if he was actually engaged.