Fox is now showing Trump's comments at Cabinet. He begins the clip by saying he's "heard numbers as high as $275 billion" for how much the U.S. loses per year from illegal immigration. That's a number he himself made up in the last month.
.@pbump has documented this the best: washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/…. Trump took a hotly contested number from an anti-immigration group, then added $162 billion more because why not.
Trump said European leaders have told him they don't know how they've gotten away with taking advantage of the U.S. so long.
This is one of the many Trump claims that can't be definitively called false but sure is super-false sounding.
This is one of the many Trump claims that can't be definitively called false but sure is super-false sounding.
Trump scoffs at the military contributions of U.S. allies to U.S.-led coalitions, saying that a mere "200 soldiers to Iraq" or "100 soldiers from a big country to Syria or Afghanistan" doesn't make up for how these countries take advantage of the U.S. on trade and such.
Trump mocked Modi, I think, for reminding Trump that India built "a library" in Afghanistan: "We're supposed to say thank you for the library. I don't know who's using it, in Afghanistan..."
Trump criticized the late John McCain by name, twice, for voting against Obamacare repeal. He was very ranty at this Cabinet meeting.
Trump said he gave U.S. generals "all the money they wanted" for Afghanistan, but they did a bad job. Of Mattis, he says, "What's he done for me? How has he done in Afghanistan? Not too good. Not too good."
Trump: "Russia used to be the Soviet Union. Afghanistan made it Russia. Because they went bankrupt fighting in Afghanistan. Russia."
Trump's assessment of Syria: "We're talking about sand and death. That's what we're talking about."
Trump says he'll protect the Kurds anyway, but: "I don't want to be in Syria forever. It's SAND. And it's DEATH."
Trump's hingedness level was not high today.
Trump says he had a meeting about Iran and the Middle East with lots of good-looking generals: "Like from a movie. Better looking than Tom Cruise, and stronger."
Trump again falsely claims that Iran is having bigger protests ("riots") than "they've ever had before." The protests in the past year aren't nearly as big as the 2009 "Green Revolution" protests, let alone the Islamic Revolution.
Trump added that there were many "computer boards" in this Iran meeting with the hottie generals. (I had to wait until other people tweeted "computer boards" to make sure I wasn't imagining this phrase.)
Trump angrily complains about inspectors general doing public reports about the conduct of U.S. wars: "What kind of stuff is this? We're fighting wars and they're doing reports?" He says: "'The public' means the enemy. The enemy reads those reports."
Asked about the Syria withdrawal, Trump said he never said it would be "fast." He said it would happen in 30 days.
Trump says that if the courts say Obama had the right to do DACA unilaterally, he can do whatever he wants on lots of other stuff. He adds: "Can you imagine me having this power? Wouldn't that be scary?"
Trump says he was all alone in his "big house" over the holidays -- "except for all of the guys out on the lawn with machine guns." He says that he's never seen so many machine guns, and they didn't even wave at him. He adds, "All alone with the machine-gunners."
PS all of these Trump comments are from the media q-and-a portion of the Cabinet meeting, not the actual meeting portion.
If a wall is "immoral," Trump says, then someone has to "do something about The Vatican," because "The Vatican has the biggest wall of them all." (The Vatican is not encircled by walls.) nytimes.com/2016/02/20/wor…
Trump on Republican voters: "I don't know why, but they like me."
Trump lies again that he has the highest approval rating in the history of the Republican Party. He's near the top, but post-9/11 George W. Bush was in the mid-to-high-90s; Trump has been around the high-80s.
Trump: "Jeff Flake is now selling real estate or whatever he's doing."
Trump on his hard line on trade and his unpopularity with European publics: "I could be the most popular person in Europe. I could be -- I could run for any office if I wanted to. But I don't want to."
Trump said Russia was "right" to invade Afghanistan in 1979, since Russia invaded "because terrorists were going into Russia." Shockingly, that is not at all what happened.
