(07-13-2018 11:57 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  Did you lift that last paragraph verbatim from CNN or the NYT?

Nepotism - usually that refers to hiring unqualified relatives. The ones he is using are all highly capable individuals. If he put Barron on the IRS payroll for six figures, that would concern me. But nepotism is nothing new on either side of the aisle, is it?

He hired Ivanka and Kushner into senior roles. What are their qualifications for their roles? They have none, other than being related to Trump.

Quote:What profiteering? Is he buying national parks for a song? Selling them?

Trump is personally profiting from being POTUS, outside of his salary, because he did not divest his assets. He is forcing the government to use Trump properties (Mar-a-lago), his hotels have seen unexpected and increased attendance because of his status (see the many articles on the DC hotels), and there is evidence that his children are using their connection to dad to win business deals in foreign countries (see trade marks in China and development deal in Indonesia).

Quote:
What laziness? He seems pretty active to me. I couldn't have kept up with his schedule 20 years ago.

Trump's daily schedule is reportedly filled with downtime and numerous hours for TV watching. And he is actually fulfilling the right's nightmare scenario that they thought Obama would - playing more golf than is almost humanly possible. Trump has already played more golf than Obama did during his entire presidency.

Quote:The language he uses sometimes is unprecedented, I agree. But that is not necessarily a bad thing. We have already had a speak-nice, do-nothing president.

The type of language Trump uses IS a bad thing. It's not bad because it is "unprecedented" or "different." It's bad because it's overly simplistic, incoherent, and regularly either a lie or incredibly divisive.

Quote:As I said earlier, by 2020 we will have outcomes of a lot of things that are in the works. Whatever we have in the way in North Korea, NATO, and other foreign policy will be known. I don't understand why you need an assessment as of July 13, 2018. Are we not going to do anything else for two years? On NK, and NATO, what we have is so far, so good. Better than what we had four years ago. Where those will be two years from now, hope better still. On trade wars and tariffs we will see results for good or bad by 7-13-2020.

We will have a resolution of the immigration crisis, for better or worse. We will have the nonresults of the Mueller investigation. All this on top of the results already in, the tax bill and the justices, as you note. I meant that Trump would run on his record in 2020, not today. I think he will have plenty to point to then. How about giving it a couple of years before demanding we publish his platform.

I am not so sure he will run again. But if he does, he will point to some of the things he accomplished or tried to accomplish. Your guys will be talking about his laziness and choice of language. Bottom line, though, will be the economy.

And to your last point - you had made it sound like he had already accomplished things, so I was asking what he had accomplished. After all, you said he was getting results.

I agree that he hasn't done much yet, but that he is focusing and working on certain areas. And those are areas that are caustic, troubling, and difficult. I don't expect solutions to develop overnight, but I would hardly say he is taking care of business in these areas yet - it appears as if the NK talks have deteriorated back to baseline (they were a no show at our meeting at the DMZ), nothing substantial has been proposed on immigration that is tenable (all Trump has done is created a logistical nightmare that separated families), and so on. You're right that he'll run on his record in 2020, but let's not suggest he has been able to accomplish much with respect to keeping promises or taking care of business.