The Front Page Cover
~ Featuring ~
Trump Finally Pivots—but Will It Last?
by Peggy Noonan
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Constitution Day 2017
by Patriot Post Staff: Today, Sept. 17, 2017, marks the 230th anniversary of the signing of our Constitution at the Philadelphia Convention in 1787.
We invite you to honor this historic event and its enduring legacy by reading Mark Alexander’s Primer on American Liberty. Keep the flame of Liberty burning bright by promoting the civic knowledge of Liberty for all those in your sphere of influence. To assist in that process, please distribute our highly acclaimed “Patriot’s Primer on American Liberty” pocket guides.
As the current generation of American Patriots, we hold all elected representatives to account for abiding by their solemn oaths to “to Support and Defend” our Constitution and the Rule of Law it enshrines.
Additionally, we invite you to read our extensive archive of columns on the Constitution as it relates to domestic and foreign policy, and, more specifically, sections on Liberty and Rule of Law and on our Republic’s First Principles.
A year ago, we marked The Patriot Post’s 20th anniversary. Today we celebrate our 21st year, and we are grateful to you, our fellow Patriots, for your financial support of our mission and operations budget in order to extend Liberty to the next generation. ~The Patriot Post https://patriotpost.us/articles/51319
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Leaked Assange Deal Conversation
With Kelly – Intel Agency Misfits or Patriots?
by rickwells.us
{rickwells.us} ~ Rep Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) is concerned that the content of a highly sensitive conversation between him and White House chief of staff John Kelly has been leaked... The conversation regarded confidential information related to his efforts with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Rohrabacher is believed to be attempting to broker a deal with the administration in which Assange would produce alleged evidence that Russia did not provide the hacked emails released by WikiLeaks during the 2016 presidential election. In a phone call with General Kelly on Wednesday, Rohrabacher described a possible agreement to pardon Assange or “something like that” born of his August London visit. Rohrabacher contends that someone leaked information about the call, possibly in an attempt to undermine his ability to speak directly with President Trump about WikiLeaks... https://rickwells.us/leaked-assange-deal-kelly/.
State Legislature OKs Law
To Make California ‘Sanctuary State’
by Jack Davis
{westernjournalism.com} ~ State lawmakers acted Saturday to clear the last legislative hurdles to make California a “sanctuary state.”... The California Senate passed the bill early Saturday. Democrat Gov. Jerry Brown has indicated he will sign it. Assemblyman Steven Choi, R-Irvine, who is also a first-generation immigrant from South Korea, said he came to the U.S. legally and the bill created “chaos” for a country built on law and order. Republicans in the California Legislature remained opposed to the measure on Friday, saying it would tie the hands of law enforcement and compromise public safety... https://www.westernjournalism.com/breaking-news-about-entire-state-of-california-lawmakers-actually-passed-it/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=patriotupdate&utm_campaign=dailyam&utm_content=libertyalliance.
State Department Waging
"Open War" on White House
by Soeren Kern
{gatestoneinstitute.org} ~ The U.S. State Department has backed away from a demand that Israel return $75 million in military aid which was allocated to it by the U.S. Congress... The repayment demand, championed by U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, was described as an underhanded attempt by the State Department to derail a campaign pledge by U.S. President Donald J. Trump to improve relations with the Jewish state. The dispute is the just the latest example of what appears to be a growing power struggle between the State Department and the White House over the future direction of American foreign policy... https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/11015/state-department-white-house.
Mueller Adds Another
Lawyer to Russia Probe Team
by Wanda Carruthers
{newsmax.com} ~ A Justice Department attorney recently left work on a high-profile money laundering case to join special counsel Robert Mueller's team, Politico reported Friday... bringing to 17 the number of lawyers working for the prosecution in the Russia probe. Harvard Law School graduate Kyle Freeny had not been previously reported to be working on the investigation. A spokesman for Mueller's office confirmed Freeny was working on his staff, but gave no details about her role. Freeny speaks Arabic and taught kindergarten in Egypt before pursuing her law degree. She also worked in liar-nObama's White House vetting potential appointees... http://www.newsmax.com/Politics/Robert-Mueller-Kyle-Freeny-Russia-probe/2017/09/16/id/813966/.
Trump Vows America
Will Help Israel Push Back Iran
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Trump Finally Pivots—but Will It Last?
by Peggy Noonan
{peggynoonan.com} ~And so, the pivot.
I thought it would come sooner, on the heels of the inaugural address in which President Trump deliberately declared his distance from the Republicans of George W. Bush’s era and the Democrats of Barack liar-nObama’s : “Washington flourished—but the people did not share in its wealth. Politicians prospered—but the jobs left, and the factories closed. The establishment protected itself, but not the citizens of our country.” That was the famous “American carnage” speech, and it was Mr. Trump saying he was something new, a beginner of things, a party of one.
He didn’t follow through.
Because the pivot has come late, after almost eight months of fumbles and blunders that hardened sides, the outlook for any new and sustained legislative progress seems doubtful at best. But yes, what we saw this week was Mr. Trump’s pivot toward the Democrats.
It’s amazing he didn’t try it sooner. Mr. Trump is not, as all know, a conservative; he has in his history of statements and positions been at least as much a Democrat as a Republican, and long contributed money to both parties. His core supporters have always been misunderstood as right-wing when they’re something broader and more complicated than that. Mr. Trump has never been a standard Republican. He beat all the standard Republicans in the primaries. On top of that, to govern successfully in an increasingly postpartisan nation, he always needed Democrats on the Hill more than he needed Republicans. He could always, for instance, get most Republicans to support some kind of tax reform, but he’d need Democrats to get a bill comfortably over the top and broadly accepted by the people. Mr. Trump instead threw in with Republican leaders, was disappointed on health care, and concluded they were useless.
Now, after weeks of insulting them—“They look like fools,” he tweeted after that loss—comes what reportedly happened in the Oval Office this week. The president, meeting with Hill leaders from both parties, rebuffed Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and embraced Senate Minority Leader Chuck clown-Schumer’s recommendation to raise the debt ceiling and finance the government for only three months. He did this literally in front of the Democrats, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pulosi, and while overruling his own Treasury secretary. Later the president spoke of his great meeting with “clown-Chuck” and “Nancy.” At a tax-reform rally in Mandan, N.D., he invited the state’s Democratic senator, Heidi Heitkamp, who’d flown out with him on Air Force One and is up for re-election next year, onto the stage, and praised her as a “good woman.”
As Ben Domenech noted in the Federalist, it can be assumed there was something of a personal angle in the pivot: Mr. Trump “doesn’t like McConnell and Ryan, never did. He likes Chuck clown-Schumer, and knows him, and thinks he can work with him. And he knows clown-Chuck always makes money for his partners.” That last is a brilliant allusion to “The Godfather, Part II.”
I suspect most voters will like the deal made this week—get something done, pass a bill! America doesn’t need a government shutdown or a prolonged debt-ceiling debate or a stupid argument over helping Houston and soon Florida. North Korea is bubbling, hurricanes are battering—people won’t mind this deal, and a lot of them will actively approve of it. The president’s core supporters won’t hold it against him. Again, he had a lot of support from traditional Democrats. His core is not far right, it’s opposed to how Washington has comported itself the past few decades. They have a tropism toward the outsider, and the more the mainstream media hate him, the more they’ll stick with him.
Will the pivot last? There are plenty of reasons to doubt it.
Mr. Trump’s nature lacks constancy. He’s shown he’s unsteady in his direction. He’s changeable. This is part of why he doesn’t do long-term strategy but focuses on daily, shifting tactics. The Dreamers can depend on him, he’ll take care of them. The Dreamers are out of here in six months. The Dreamers have nothing to fear, he’ll work something out. Soon Mr. clown-Schumer or Mrs. Pulosi will get him mad, and he’ll be on the phone with Mr. McConnell saying: “I miss you, at least you have principles. Come see me.”
Mr. Trump isn’t moving toward the Democrats from a position of strength. After the inauguration, he would have had the mystique and power of a new force who’d just won an amazing election. Now he’s battered. Mr. Trump has always put himself forward as the best deal-maker in history, and his core supporters have respected that—he’s “The Art of the Deal,” a survivor who finagled his way through bankruptcies; he’s shrewd. But he hasn’t demonstrated this in the presidency.
Triangulating—making deals with the other party while holding on to your own—requires real policy depth. You have to know what’s nonnegotiable, what can be given up without much damage. It requires a kind of philosophical reach—knowing what you and your supporters stand for and why. Without that knowledge you’ll get outfoxed. Without it you’ll get rolled.
As for the Democrats, their base has come to hate the president as never before. He’s done little to bring them over or blunt their antagonism. That base with its rising left will make Democrats on the Hill pay a heavy price for working with him. They’ll howl and call Democratic leaders sellouts, complicit, accuse them of doing deals with the devil. To get around this, Democratic leaders will have to press Mr. Trump hard to the left in the deals they make.
That in turn would set Republican lawmakers on a path of true rebellion. The president gives the leadership no credit for it, but Republicans have been patient with him, squelching their criticism after embarrassing tweets and statements. They did so not only because they fear Mr. Trump’s core supporters, which they do, but because they hoped to make real progress with him, as they did early on, with Justice Neil Gorsuch’s appointment. But if a Trump being forced too far left frees them from the idea that they must work with him, some will turn on him, venting their long-tamped-down fury. This will further, and in a formal way, rupture the party.
Finally, a Trump in close alliance with Democrats will be disorienting to his closest allies in the House, the conservative members of the Freedom Caucus. They broke with the president on health care, but they come from largely pro-Trump districts, they’ve defended him more vocally and enthusiastically than the GOP leadership has, and they have good relations with him. But they are traditionally conservative in their philosophy and stands. They would in many ways be philosophically opposed to the new Trump.
For now the pivot is a major development. Democratic leaders in Congress are smiling and preparing wish lists. If the pivot lasts and works, it will be remembered as big.
If not, it’s just another zany, fleeting, unconnected moment in Trumpland.
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