* We all know that the White House is desperate to change the narrative that is developing about what a complete and utter failure Trump has been in his first 100 days. But who knew that their attempt to provide an alternative narrative would be such a mangled mess? Today they released a press statement titled, “President Trump’s 100 Days of Historic Accomplishments.” It lists three areas of accomplishments:
GETTING GOVERNMENT OUT OF THE WAY: President Donald J. Trump has done more to stop the Government from interfering in the lives of Americans in his first 100 days than any other President in history.
TAKING EXECUTIVE ACTION: In office, President Trump has accomplished more in his first 100 days than any other President since Franklin Roosevelt.
A SLEW OF LEGISLATION SIGNED: Despite historic Democrat obstructionism, President Trump has worked with Congress to pass more legislation in his first 100 days than any President since Truman.
Rather than list actual executive orders or bills Trump signed, they compare the number of them to how many have been signed by previous presidents. On executive actions, they got it all wrong, as you can read in this tweet storm from Peter Shulman. In counting the number of bills Trump signed, Oliver Willis fills you in on some of the particulars of what was included. Here’s a taste:
Allowing someone to serve as secretary of defense within seven years of leaving active military duty.
Clarifying some of the details of the General Accounting Office.
Encouraging women to be entrepreneurs (not any programs or initiatives, just recognition).
Naming the “Abie Abraham VA Clinic” in Center Township, Pennsylvania.
You get the idea. Real historic, huh? Especially in comparison to one of the measly little bills Obama signed in his first 100 days that was called the “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.”
* This tweet should be followed by a mic drop.
Executive orders by black President =dictatorship. Executive orders by white President =accomplishment!
— Deborah Roseman (@roseperson) April 25, 2017
* Now that Trump has made peace with China, he seems to want to start a trade war with Canada.
* We can now add something to that list of things Trump doesn’t know. Apparently he’s not real good at geography.
In case your son-in-law and daughter aren’t able to properly advise you on this one, here’s a map that makes it clear for future reference. pic.twitter.com/mrwbnJU7aw
— Brian Klaas (@brianklaas) April 25, 2017
* Ivanka Trump didn’t seem to have a very good day either.
Ivanka Trump arrived in Berlin on Tuesday morning armed with facts and figures to recite at what was expected to be a highbrow international summit to discuss women’s entrepreneurship, alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
But on her first trip abroad as an official representative of the United States, the first daughter was put on the spot about her father’s attitudes toward women, booed and hissed at by the crowd, and grilled by the moderator about what, exactly, her role is in President Donald Trump’s administration.
* I’ll bet you can count on one hand the times that Representatives Chaffetz and Lewis have agreed on anything. Here’s an actual Trump accomplishment: it happened today.
President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser did not properly disclose payments from Russia and may have broken the law, House Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz and ranking Democrat Elijah Cummings said Tuesday after reviewing Michael Flynn’s application for a security clearance.
* Nate Cohn says that the special election in Georgia’s 6th district brings some potentially good news for Democrats – even before the runoff.
Jon Ossoff benefited from an unusually strong turnout in the first round of voting in Georgia’s Sixth Congressional District last week, surpassing all recent benchmarks for Democratic turnout in an off-year election, according to an Upshot analysis of newly released voting data.
Past Democratic primary voters represented a larger share of the district’s voters than they did in 2016 or 2014, and they turned out in greater numbers than in a typical midterm election.
* Finally, I know I’m late to the party on this one, but if you haven’t already watched HBO’s “Big Little Lies,” you really should do so. It may be about mostly rich, mostly white women. But the story is gripping, the acting is out of this world, and it even has a fantastic sound track. One of my favorite things about it is that there are a couple of scenes with therapists – who happen to actually seem sane and good at their job. That almost never happens in TV or the movies.
