Day 132: Donald Trump’s Wild Start to First Week Back Home

Odd is the new normal in the White House, and a foreign trip didn’t change that.

Since returning from a foreign trip to the Middle East and to meet NATO partners, Donald Trump has had a rough go of it.

U.S. Likely Pulling Out of Climate Pact

Numerous reports indicate that the U.S. will pull out of the Paris Climate Accord, joining Syria and Nicaragua to do so. While Trump has indicated that he will announce his official position soon, sources have told numerous media outlets that his mind has been made up.

The pact was signed by 195 nations and officially ratified by 147. Its aim was to stem climate change by reducing fossil fuel emissions and increasing focus on clean air and green energy. The U.S. is eschewing those principles basically to help the domestic coal industry. (Most other fossil fuel providers were actually in favor of keeping the accord in place.) Of course, last week, Trump’s chief economic advisor Gary Cohn said coal is irrelevant in 2017.

Even China, the world’s largest greenhouse gas polluter, has promised to stay in the pact and continue to take steps aimed at curbing climate change, regardless of what the U.S. does.

Of course, if the U.S. does pull out, the enforcement of the accord’s provisions will likely be weakened since the U.S. played a key role in transparency and oversight in emission monitoring, verifying and reporting.

Trump is Miserable

CNN reported that Trump is unhappy as president. Apparently, he’s complaining about Russia, meeting with lawyers, hates his lawyers, lonely, angry, emotionally withdrawing, gaining weight, doesn’t trust anyone, lost on finding someone to take the FBI director gig, having trouble filling White House roles, doesn’t understand the political or legal landscape of the country and is generally frustrated about the job.

Trump Handing Out Cell Phone Number to World Leaders Like a Teenager

Trump continues to give his cell phone number to world leaders, including heads of state from Mexico, Canada and France and urging them to call him personally. Conversations on cell phones are not secured and bring up the possibility that the calls can be readily eavesdropped on.

Last year, Trump blasted Hillary Clinton over a private email server and the security implications stemming from that. His desire to use a cell phone is just as bad and reeks of hypocrisy.

Trump Wants New Health Care Bill

Apparently sensing just how unpopular the proposed American Health Care Act was, Trump has called on senators to draft a new bill.

This tweet seems to ignore that just weeks ago Trump and many GOP members of the House of Representatives yukked it up in the Rose Garden to celebrate AHCA’s passing in the House.

Trump Defends Carter Page — A Man He Allegedly Doesn’t Know

First of all Trump is weighing the credibility of the former directors of the FBI and CIA against…Carter Page? This isn’t the soundest of logic.

Next, Trump’s information came from a one-off story aired on — obviously — Fox News this morning.

Finally, in January, just before inauguration, then-incoming press secretary Sean Spicer said, “Carter Page is an individual who the president-elect does not know . . . .”

In combination, this seems like a weird hill for Trump to climb atop, but in his mind, any shred of positive, spinnable news about the Russia probe must be good news.

Spicer Praises Trump-Merkel Relationship Despite Evidence to Contrary

During his first press briefing since returning from Trump’s foreign trip, Spicer looked and sounded like a beaten man. The spin continued to flow, however. Spicer claimed that Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have a “fairly unbelievable” relationship.

However, Merkel was quoted earlier this week that Germany and the rest of Western Europe must take matters into their own hands. The implication being that the U.S. is an unreliable partner.

To which Trump replied, sort of, on Twitter.

Trump Stymies Own Rant

Trump seemed ready to go an a typical rant about the media late last night when a typo seemed to throw him off…for 5 hours.

This morning, Trump seemed to make light of the situation:

But what’s odd is that no one in the White House — with a full team of communications members whose full time job it is to manage Trump and White House’s message — had access to Trump’s account to get rid of the embarrassing gaffe for so many hours.

132 days in, 1330 to go

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