Well, Donald, TGIF! It’s been a busy week, and while it looked for a while that your tweeting the last 24 hours would turn out to be just the normal stuff one might expect from a calm, deliberative President — hurricane warnings, and visits to military installations, and your son speaking before party leadership — it’s good to see you diving deep into the shallow end of the political rhetoric pool and making a big splash.
Let’s see what’s got you hot and bothered …
If Senate Republicans don't get rid of the Filibuster Rule and go to a 51% majority, few bills will be passed. 8 Dems control the Senate!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 25, 2017
That’s kind of an odd way to put it, Donald.
In the current Senate, the GOP has 52 votes. The Democrats have 46. Independents have 2. For most legislation, the Senate requires 60 votes to close debate (3/5 of sworn Senators). So, assuming that all Republicans vote as a block, they also need to get 8 votes from Democrat and/or Independent Senators to invoke cloture. Or, if any Republicans “defect,” more are needed.
That’s not quite the same “8 Dems control the Senate”. Any eight votes beyond 52 will do. Put another way, Donald, if the criticality of a bill is not sufficient to pull in not just the full Republican caucus (which also seems kind of a big sticking point) but eight additional Senators, then debate can continue.
I’m sure that’s terribly frustrating, Donald, but some previous great Presidents have managed to live under that burden — are you suggesting your salesmanship and leadership aren’t up to the challenge?
Especially when you couldn’t even be bothered to wrangle a mere 50 vote majority (even counting the Vice President) for “Repeal & Replace”?
General John Kelly is doing a fantastic job as Chief of Staff. There is tremendous spirit and talent in the W.H. Don't believe the Fake News
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 25, 2017
And, yet, here you are, Donald, tweeting away.
Kelly certainly seems to have cleaned up at least some of the act in the White House, changing it from a political viper pit to something that seems to be functioning decently without the constant drama of the Bannon/Priebus struggle. And the press seems to generally agree upon that, despite your claim otherwise.
Indeed, most of the drama coming from there since Kelly’s installation has come from you, Donald.
Few, if any, Administrations have done more in just 7 months than the Trump A. Bills passed, regulations killed, border, military, ISIS, SC!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 25, 2017
If all that incredible achievement has taken place, why do you keep turning around and saying nothing can happen because of Democratic obstructionism, Donald? I mean, both can’t be true. Either you are achieving record-breaking accomplishments, or else you’re being stymied.
Also, since you keep bringing it up. how is appointing a Supreme Court Justice something to brag about? The position was already open. You had a list of names provided to you by a conservative think tank. It only required a simple majority of Senators that you hadn’t yet alienated and that were clearly already going to go along with anyone you chose. It’s something that happened, certainly, and it’s something that will have a tremendous impact for decades … but it’s not like you, personally, did that much to make it happen.
Nick Adams, "Retaking America" "Best things of this presidency aren't reported about. Convinced this will be perhaps best presidency ever."
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 25, 2017
Well, yes, certainly I’m convinced that a conservative author who’s previously said nice things about you is still saying nice things about you.
The question is — why should I be convinced that what he says is true, and, more importantly, why are you spending your time trying to convince us that some people think you are a great president? How is that at all normal, let alone presidential?
Sad.
Strange statement by Bob Corker considering that he is constantly asking me whether or not he should run again in '18. Tennessee not happy!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 25, 2017
Okay, well, maybe that’s why you’re so eager to tout a conservative book writer, since there seem to be a growing chorus of people within your own party who don’t think this is a particularly great presidency. Like Bob Corker from Tennessee, the latest GOP Senator to incur your wrath.
Corker’s a highly reliable conservative vote, and was reportly on your short lists to be VP or Secretary of State, but he had the audacity to question your performance around Charlottesville:
The President has not yet been able to demonstrate the stability nor some of the competence that he needs to demonstrate in order to be successful. He has not demonstrated that he understands what has made this nation great and what it is today, and he’s got to demonstrate the characteristics of a president who understands that.
Yeah, that sounds like something that would kind of tick you off, Donald, even if Corker over-uses the word “demonstrate.”
The funny thing (well, one of the funny things) is that he said that a week ago, last Friday. So you’ve been nursing this grudge for a week to slap back at him as someone who not only keeps consulting you about his career (oh, yes, of course we all believe that) but who is making Tennessee “not happy.”
For someone who keeps forgetting comments he made about Charlottesville (“many sides” and “very fine people”), you sure have a good memory for slights, Donald.
* * *
You and/or your Social Media Minion tweeted under your name …
… about a visit to the CBP site in Yuma, AZ. (3 times) (and retweeted on @POTUS)
… warnings about Hurricane Harvey. (twice) (and retweeted on @POTUS)
… retweeting your son, Eric, speaking to the RNC Summer Meeting in Nashville.
"I mean, both can't be true. Either you are achieving record-breaking accomplishments, or else you're being stymied."
Typical again of the delicatessen in the discourse of invertebrate [sic] bullshitters, simultaneous claim to two circumstances, both self-serving, that are mutually incompatible. These are guys so poor at awarding the benefit of the doubt to others, that they don't realize they force even the most charitable of rational listeners into a double bind.
More bills than Obama ever passed
+Jaffar Black Fang that's not true
+Jaffar Black Fang According to the Govtrack.us data graphed in the article below, the two are actually pretty close (Obama slightly in the lead to date). Both surpass W. Bush, both are well behind Clinton.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/08/25/trump-i-pass-a-lot-of-bills-also-the-democrats-wont-let-me-pass-bills/
I think he was saying that it's really hard to pass bills, but he's gotten several through despite it.
+josiah jenks If that's his message, he's not getting it out very well. Honestly, I think he's not even drawing that connection.
+Boris Borcic Of course a president can achieve record-breaking accomplishments while still being stymied when it comes to passing legislation. Most of Trump's major accomplishments are due to changes in or the elimination of regulations, done with no legislation needed. He has also had successes derived from his executive orders (also no legislative victory required). That Trump lists accomplishments yet still complains about legislation not passing is not a contradiction, it is what is actually happening. Is there a limit to what he can do without legislation? Of course there is, that is why he is encouraging his supporters to contact their senators and representatives to remind them of the promises they made in their campaigns.
+George Ford Assuming that's the message he wanted to send, rather than having two conflicting impulses ("Complain about bad things!" "Brag about good things!"), the simple thing to do is to say, "Have gotten so much passed, but could get still more if Mitch weren't such a pussy vs Obstructionist Dems".
Trump's unwillingness, even inability, to even pretend to seek a bipartisan approach — instead just wanting to change the rules so he can get his way — speaks volumes of his need to win.
+George Ford As a representative of the people of the old world — I am not even geographically American — my job is to transcend the aversion that came to my communities with Trump and the evaluation of all Americans as those behind Trump. The prescribed way to do that is to fight the aversion to take a closer look long enough to not any more paint all Americans with the same Trump-lovers brush.
This means that as a rational person, all other things equal, I am less than if I was American compelled to respect your perfect execution of optimal Trump advocacy.