March 1, 2018

Trump Declares War on California, Baffling Even the White House

I’ve been trying with notably mixed success to avoid writing about Donald Trump’s daily ragetweets, which is why I didn’t write about this one yesterday:

This makes no sense that I’m aware of. Today, the LA Times informs me that I haven’t lost my marbles. Nobody else knows what it means either:

His threat confused just about everyone involved in the fight over border protection. If the goal was to gain leverage in his fight for the wall, the warning shot seemed oddly aimed: California officials have fought vigorously against Trump’s project, his top priority as a presidential candidate, even going to court to try to block it….Administration officials could not point to any change in policy — either proposals or executive actions — to accompany Trump’s tweet. Nor were officials sure what “sections of the wall” Trump was referring to as elements that “California wants.”

….Elected officials also didn’t offer much of a hint that Trump’s words had moved them. Even the current border upgrades are “not a priority in our view,” said Drew Hammill, a spokesman for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco). Rep. Scott Peters (D-San Diego) said a full wall on the border isn’t needed. “If he wants to waste that money in some other part of the country, that’s fine with me,” he added.

I suppose if I looked into it, it would turn out that Fox & Friends had a segment that sent Trump into a froth yesterday morning and this tweet was the result. It’s just another warning to me and everyone else that we should ignore everything he says on Twitter.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

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Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

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