The official Trump thread. It's true. It is. No it's not. The President said it is

[amispartacus]

Because 24 hours is a long time in US politics

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/2841897-Trump-thread-6

USA TODAY ‏*@USATODAY* now5 seconds ago
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Phoenix might be next.
www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/02/02/phoenix-consider-petition-become-sanctuary-city/97386928/?hootPostID=f06982313ee7439d9d2ba9704af52895

USA TODAY ‏*@USATODAY* 3m3 minutes ago
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Cincinnati is officially a sanctuary city: usat.ly/2k1JEIo

Hear Hitler's phone is up for sale. Expect to see it on the Oval Office desk any day now

"According to reports that were apparently based on a leaked White House document, the US president told Peña Nieto: “You have a bunch of bad hombres down there. You aren’t doing enough to stop them. I think your military is scared. Our military isn’t, so I just might send them down to take care of it.”

It's fascinating to see what is NOT BEING REPORTED in certain media outlets.....

Sean Spicer's press conference tonight -
troops into Mexico
Australia
Iran
Yemen
Sanctuary cities.

Day 11...

*I occasionally lurk on these threads and thought you all might like this.
trumpdonald.org/ *

Was that created by the Last Leg team? Similar to the Hunt one. Still amusing. Thank you

I really am very interested in who leaked that Trump-Turnbull phone call, and why.

This article in the Sydney Morning Herald states that Steve Bannon, Michael Flynn and Sean Spicer were in the Oval Office when the call was made. And there was clearly an AP photographer. Don't know who else.
www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/steve-bannon-sean-spicer-michael-flynn-and-trump-who-heard-malcolm-turnbulls-phone-call-20170202-gu3zo9.html

The call was leaked 4 days later rather than immediately.

The SMH suggests it was Bannon to try to demonstrate that Trump is anti-refugee despite the deal.

But I don't buy that. Would Trump get brownie points with the US public for being anti-unspecified refugees? I reckon many slightly Trump-ish Americans would have been thrilled to say, "Look! America's wonderful! We DO take refugees! Just not those nasty proto-terrorists." (They wouldn't even have known that refugees to Australia include those scary Syrians, etc.)

And Trump didn't make that Tweet about "thousands of illegal immigrants from Australia. Why? I will study this dumb deal!" until after the call was leaked. He's reacting to the leak, rather than an immediate idea to "look tough on refugees".

So I don't think it's a plan to boost Trump's popularity for being anti-refugees-in-general. I can imagine it's a plan by someone other than Trump to stop these particular refugees - which would certainly fit with Bannon's professed desire to have few Muslims in the US.

But standing further back, who benefits? Well there's now major popular fall-out between the US and Australia. And that will CERTAINLY make the Russians happy.

I mean, Trump's doing plenty anyway to blow relationships between NATO, EU and Five Eyes nations. But in this case Turnbull kept the outrage private... so a few days later, someone makes it public and predictably recruits the Australian people to a choir singing "fuck off USA, why would we have anything to do with you?'

TLDR: while it could "just" be Bannon beavering away on a white Judao-Christian supremacist agenda, the leak will certainly have made the Russians very, very happy.

I really am very interested in who leaked that Trump-Turnbull phone call, and why

Strings are being pulled.

Looks at finding a nice boat to an island somewhere in the Pacific.

Destiny: "Trump allegedly preparing an order declaring pre marital sex, gay marriage and abortion to be wrong. . ."

I suspect we have to be very careful with these rumours. Bannon is a master propagandist - and part of his strategy will be to start a million and one wildly over-the-top "leaks" to get the opposition running every direction at once. Then pull back with something that is merely extremely conservative rather than ludicrously, insanely conservative and say "look, we're just doing something moderate..."

I think the pre-marital sex bit will be dropped as well. Make people think it's even worse than it is, then ibtroduce the (still terrible, but slightly better) actual legislation.
I think they did a similar thing with Green cards over the Muslim ban: There were definitely reports of green card holders turned away from US flights, as that was how the order was being interpreted on the ground. Later John Kelly said that the order did not apply to green card holders, but a lot of people had already latched onto this issue.
If I was being generous, I would say that not explicity exempting green card holders in the order was incompetent and caused a lot of unnecessary chaos and disruption. This confusion is still on their heads - it's not the fault of the airlines, or the border guards for misunderstanding a badly written, confusing order no matter what angry Spice says.

If I was being cynical, I would say it was deliberately spreading misinformation to help undermine objections. When protestors and the media highlight the injustices of the ban, they can be "fact checked" and "corrected" for reporting that the ban applies to green card holders when it doesn't. This then distracts from the many, real injustices and violations that the EO does create, and feeding into the "fake news" and "protestors overeacting" narrative.

Took too long to write my last post, and cross posted with M0stlyHet, who says it much more concisely.

Mostly lurk as don't feel I have anything I can contribute to the thread other than my thoughts. Don't use Twitter but I am greatful for these threads and have been following a lot.

It's an understatement that the UK is in between a rock and hard place, May should give him the metaphorical bird.
We don't need to be best buddies with US the obvious fact that Trump can't be trusted an inch nor to deliver or give any length of respect that doesn't suit his own agenda., Go for civil May We don't need to maintain a friendship through a sunken costs fallacy meanwhile severing any chances with the EU.

I go from thinking the U.K should back Pedal like fuck on Brexit(screw pride) or atleast not holds hands with the Orange one.(where's her pride? )

Absolutely agree with being extra careful with rumours. Trump's team can tell 99 lies, and one true statement and claim to be truthful. Liberal (or anyone to the left of Bannon) commentators can report 99 facts, and one lie and be branded as fake news and completely untrustworthy (like the fuss over the MLK bust).

This is all highly irregular and unpredictable, I don't think we should make an open enemy of trump, where is it all going?

The Moral maze last night in Trump and the UK

Some heated debate

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08c0rr7

Trump's team can tell 99 lies, and one true statement and claim to be truthful. Liberal (or anyone to the left of Bannon) commentators can report 99 facts, and one lie and be branded as fake news and completely untrustworthy (like the fuss over the MLK bust

You've noticed that tactic

It's so obvious - there must be a word for that tactic.

Ever played the Unbelievable Truth on Radio 4? Truths hidden in lies.

There's a hell of a lot of middle ground between making Trump an open enemy, and fawning obsequiousness.

"Ever played the Unbelievable Truth on Radio 4?"
Yes! I think they did a round on Donald Trump (before he won) and the comedians trying to guess the lies did really badly, because the truth was so much more ridiculous than the lies that were made up.

Looks at finding a nice boat to an island somewhere in the Pacific.

Bikini Atoll?

CNN Politics ‏*@CNNPolitics* 2m2 minutes ago
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Nearly two weeks after his inauguration, President Donald Trump's White House isn't yet open to the public for tours cnn.it/2jZ87eW

Can you imagine the nightmare THAT would be???

Jim Roberts ‏*@nycjim* 3m3 minutes ago
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Trump treats Putin like a best friend, but treats Australia PM like a hostile foe. www.heraldsun.com.au/business/work/donald-trump-still-undecided-about-deal-made-with-malcolm-turnbull-to-take-in-refugees/news-story/fbdac6ae86d62ff0f03bd8d51637a47a …

New York Times World ‏*@nytimesworld* 4m4 minutes ago
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Vladimir Putin travels to Hungary, hoping to capitalize on European divisions nyti.ms/2kkWRut

With Trump's attitudes to climate change, I wouldn't be pinning my hopes on low lying Islands or Attols.

Vice President PenceVerified account
‏*@VP*

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As #BlackHistoryMonth begins, we remember when Pres. Lincoln submitted the 13th Amendment, ending slavery, to the states #NationalFreedomDay
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Tax-free Hands. ‏*@thewayoftheid* 10h10 hours ago
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Tax-free Hands. Retweeted Vice President Pence
First they erased the Jewish folk from Holocaust Remembrance Day, then they erased us from Black History Month.

Caroline O.
‏*@RVAwonk*

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State Dept. released a statement on Russia's renewed aggression against Ukraine. Except they didn't mention Russia 👀 www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2017/01/267379.htm …

Jim Roberts ‏*@nycjim* 3m3 minutes ago
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Trump threatens funding cut if UC Berkeley "does not allow free speech.” Follows violence and cancelation of #Milo. thehill.com/homenews/administration/317494-trump-threatens-no-federal-funds-if-uc-berkeley-does-not-allow-free#.WJMlAkiEtt4.twitter …

2/2 Berkeley only canceled #Milo’s appearance when protests/violence began to gather steam, as this account shows: www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Protesters-storm-Milo-Yiannopoulos-event-at-UC-10901829.php#photo-12296798 …