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Greg Sargent
@ThePlumLineGS
, 3 tweets, 2 min read Read on Twitter
Please stop saying Trump "doesn't understand how tariffs work."

When Trump says China pays us in tariffs, he's *lying.*

He's staking his reelection on this lie.

The lie is that he's taking money from China and giving it to his voters.

My new piece:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/…
It's amazing that some still think Trump's trade wars amount to "economic populism."

The only surviving remnants of his populism are the *xenophobic nationalist* elements of it.

It's no accident that Trump says he's making both Mexico & China "pay" us:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/…
Here's the game, I think. No deal with China, or a bad deal, could be disastrous for Trump.

So Trump has a backup plan. He's swapping in a new story: He's forcing China to "pay" us tariffs, and he's giving the spoils to his voters:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/…
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More from @ThePlumLineGS see all

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Greg Sargent
@ThePlumLineGS
NEWS:

Tom Steyer is launching a $1 million ad campaign blasting Democratic leaders for failing to launch an impeachment inquiry.

It features ordinary Americans asking: Why isn't Congress holding this lawless president accountable?

Check it out here: washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/…
Dems widely declared that they must "Wait For Mueller" before deciding whether to launch an impeachment inquiry.

Even if you oppose an impeachment inquiry, you should be able to admit that the "Wait For Mueller" strategy was a total failure:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/…
Those who think Dems will be portrayed as responsible if they take impeachment hearings off the table aren't being realistic about realities of today's unbalanced media environment or downside risks of not acting (cc @MalcolmNance @CharlesPPierce):

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/…
Read 3 tweets
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Greg Sargent
@ThePlumLineGS
We need to step back and ask a bigger question here.

Why are Trump, the administration and his GOP allies going to such enormous lengths to choke off any and all further inquiry, if Russiagate has been conclusively settled in Trump’s favor?

My new piece: washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/…
Also in this piece:

The NYT reports on something that deserves more attention:

Trump privately mused on releasing the full, unredacted Mueller report, but his lawyers suggested *this would be bad for him.*

*Why* would this be bad for him?

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/…
Why aren't the counterintelligence findings being released to the House Intel Committee in response to its requests?

Why is this happening, if Mueller found "no collusion" and proved Trump was right all along about the Russia "hoax"?

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/…
Read 5 tweets
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Greg Sargent
@ThePlumLineGS
Of all the ugliness at last night's rally, among the worst is Trump lying about aid to Puerto Rico.

But there's a deeper deception here: Trump is falsely pitting disaster victims from different regions against each other.

The crowd applauded.

New piece: washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/…
Making this disaster-aid impasse worse, everyone has to work around Trump's falsification of the situation.

Pence told Senate Rs to find a deal -- then showed them a chart illustrating Trump's "view" that Puerto Rico has already been given $91 billion:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/…
One final point about this disaster aid impasse.

There's a perverse irony here. The Republicans' need to tip toe around Trump's lie about $91 billion in aid to Puerto Rico is actually hamstringing their ability to deliver aid to *their own constituents*:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/…
Read 3 tweets

Related threads

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Luna Jade
@lunajade
#Trump admin, #GOP: Please stop lying. We have the receipts.

Trump cult: Please stop citing Christian values as you support this cruelty. You make a mockery of the religion you claim to fervently follow. You know dang well this isn't how Jesus wanted us to treat each other.
As one who attended Catholic grade school all 6 years, I had the Bible and Jesus' words drilled into my brain. What the zealot "Christians" are espousing as religious values on people who are "different" than you - immigrants, LGBTQ, etc. - is a far departure from The Word.
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Alamo_on_the_rise
@AlamoOnTheRise
Trump: Day 678
-Cohen Reaches Plea Deal w/Mueller
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Add...
Day 783 since Donald Trump admitted to sexual assault — yet he’s still in the Oval Office
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Day 634 of NO EVIDENCE produced by Trump that his phones were tapped by Obama.

The FISA warrant Trump referenced targeted Carter Page. #TrumpLies
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snarke
@snarke
So #Trump is holding a news conference in about five minutes. I’ll be watching (and probably tweeting). Follow/mute at will!
Okay, #Trump has started speaking. He's already slurring. He's already made a joke about "a lot of......MEDIA.".

This does not bode well.
#Trump is now saying that China wants to "see me lose an election because they've never been challenged before."

It's not just China, pal.
Read 63 tweets
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Paula Chertok🗽
@PaulaChertok
NOW: DNI Coats: The President has specifically directed us to make the matter of election meddling and our election security a top priority… We continue to see "pervasive messaging campaign by Russia…Russia isn't the only country trying to influence our elections. #Midterms2018
FBI Wray: Foreign Influence Task Force designed to root out operations is multidisciplinary just as the threat is. The scope of foreign influence is broad and deep. Our adversaries don't just threaten elections but society. Russia is a threat we need to take extremely seriously.
Make no mistake. This is a public intervention. Intelligence and military chiefs (NSA, DNI, DHS, FBI, Navy) are now speaking directly to the American people from Sarah Sander's WH podium to assure Americans that our govt IS taking Russia's threat seriously, even if Trump is not.
Read 10 tweets
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Adam Wagner
@AdamWagner1
1/ Please stop saying Trump is having a 'massive tantrum' or sour grapes because of his reception in the UK.

How can we not have learned this yet? He is a calculating actor and an expert propagandist. He is the world's greatest troll. He is behaving strategically not impulsively
2/ It suits Trump to keep people guessing on whether he is out of control. He is not. He is working towards a very consistent set of goals in this Europe trip which couldn't be clearer:
- Weaken EU (so weaken possibility of May's soft Brexit)
- Weaken NATO
- Strengthen Russia
3/ By wrongly interpreting his actions as irrational/emotional we play into his tactics and divert attention from the only appropriate response, which is to reach across political boundaries and form a pro-EU/post-WW2 international order alliance against him and his allies
Read 5 tweets
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Robert E Kelly
@Robert_E_Kelly
Please stop saying Trump-Kim was a success bc at least we’re talking; symbolism is important; last year was so much worse; and so on. Those are preposterously low thresholds for a leader-level summit. These are things you say after some diplomats meet at UN. The N Koreans /1
love to talk. They always want to yak and yak and issue statements. After 25 years of that, why does anyone consider never-ending process progress anymore? Esp at the summit level? Same with symbolism. How many ‘symbolic’ summits do we have to have bf we actually have, you /2
know, substance? As with the endless yakking, the Norks love lots of symbolism too. We know this. All those flags, handshakes, hugs, etc. make them look like a regular country, a peer equal to the US and the real Korea - you know, the not-1984 one without gulags. And the war /3
Read 7 tweets

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