Bearing Witness to Trump Week 17

Week 17: May 14 – 20

There is so much to report from this past two weeks; where does one begin in a summary?

The FBI Director James Comey was fired while in the middle of an investigation of the Trump campaign and Russian influence. The White House has a different story and reason for firing Comey for many days following his dismissal.

Trump met with the Russians the day after firing Comey and bragged about firing Comey, whom he called  “crazy, a real nut cake”. All in the Oval Office. You cannot make this up.

During the same meeting with the Russians at the White House, Trump discloses classified material that came from a U.S. ally. The only photo of the meeting shows them laughing it up was taken by the Russian press because no American press was allowed in.

Comey claims and has written proof documenting a meeting with Trump that he was asked by the President, his boss, to let the criminal investigation of Flynn and the Russians go.

A special prosecutor Robert Mueller is appointed by the Justice Dept. which is feeling the heat. Trump immediately goes on the attack claiming that no politician has been treated worse or more unfairly.

The Turkish President and strong-man Erdogan, one of Flynn’s past clients,. visits the U.S. for meeting with Trump. His bodyguards charge and assault peaceful protesters outside of the Turkish embassy, demonstrating to Trump what thugs do best so suppress opposition.

It appears that most Republicans love power and their party more so than their country by their silence and complicity in deception with the president.

Insider reports swirl that the White House is in constant chaos and jobs have been threatened.

Trump spends much time talking about himself and that no president has ever experienced a witch hunt like he has, and of course blames the media for his troubles. In graduation ceremonies at the Coast Guard academy. he says no president has been treated worse or more unfairly.

A report surfaces that Trump in a February meeting once asked Comey to jail reporters.

Trump ends the week by leaving the U.S. on his first trip of his Presidency. The first stop: some great beacon or model of democracy? Of course not. Saudi Arabia where it is sickening to see yet another President honor a kingdom that is not a democracy but represses so many of the basic human rights and values America proclaim to stand for.

The media reports that during the recent oval office visit by the Russians, the day that Comey was fired, President Trump disclosed classified information provided to the U.S. by an ally. Remember the alarm Trump fanned when Hillary’s emails might have had classified information, and that Hillary should have been locked up for that?

A former U.S. intelligence chief James Clapper warns that America is under assault from both the outside from Russia and inside from the Trump administration.

Trump’s expected head of the top USDA science job is not a scientist, of course, but an economist and former radio talk show host from Iowa. Previous appointees to this position were typically scientists with advanced degrees.

AG Jeff Sessions says we need to harden sentences for drug offenders as a top priority of the Justice Dept. Yes, another war on crime is just what the doctor ordered cause the last one has been so successful.

Comey says President Trump back in February asked him to drop the investigation of Flynn and the Russians, which he declined to do. Can you say obstruction of justice and special prosecutor?

Trump threatens Comey that he better tell the truth because tape recordings may exist. Can you say Nixon and Watergate?

A Republican Congressman writes in a fundraising note to a board member of a bank that one of their employees is a ringleader of the opposition critical of Trump. Can you say Nazi behavior?

The Trump administration blocks over $9B of international aid funding to women’s health programs around the world as a gag rule if they talk about family planning and abortion.

U.S. immigration arrests have increase by over 40% as over 40,000 people have been detained, some without much due process of law, leaving behind families, jobs, and even businesses they owned. Many of them had no criminal record.

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The above news items have been taken from a number of international, national, regional, and local news media sources, both print and digital. Additional editorial opinions and comments about these news items are those of this author.