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James Comey testified earlier this week about Donald Trumps apparent attempt to obstruct justice, and once again the word impeach is showing up in my Facebook feed.

It might seem like there has to be an end to this, that this cataclysm of awful and probably true accusations will break the system. The problem is that the system only breaks if people are motivated to break it.

Impeachment is the word people run to, but its important to remember a few simple truths about the possibility of Trump being impeached:

I want to focus on the third. Maybe its because Pence actually had a job in politics before becoming Vice President that he seems less destructive than Trump. But thats unlikely.

There is very little ideological diversity in the GOP. There may have been a couple dozen Republican primary candidates in 2016, but it wasnt because there was much disagreement about policy.

Pence appears to pride himself on his conservative orthodoxy. I could go through the issues with Pence like his staunch and long-standing opposition to LGBTQ rights but this comment from last week about climate change sums it up:

For some reason or another, this issue of climate change has emerged as a paramount issue for the left in this country and around the world, Pence said during an appearance on Fox & Friends.

Pences identity is so dependent on being conservative that he sees predictions of millions dying as an issue for the left. Someone like that isnt going to break ranks with the GOP on anything important, just as Trump isnt going to break ranks with the GOP.

For different reasons, Fox News rules both of their worlds.

That said, there are minor points of competence, and it hardly seems possible that Pence would be more incompetent than Trump.

On the other hand, one of the reasons the transition to the Trump Administration has been so slow is Trumps laziness when it comes to appointing people to jobs. Trumps inability to stick to a single topic makes passing sweeping legislation hard. While he might accidentally start a war with a country just because he doesnt really know whats going on, theres a case to be made against competence.

Anyway, this topic is really just academic. Trump is only leaving office if he chooses to or if he gets voted out in 2020.

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Forget about impeaching Trump, Mike Pence would be worse - LGBTQ Nation

The public portion of these gatherings of all of the president's top advisers are usually staid affairs. Photographers are let in to take pictures. The president makes a very brief statement. A reporter shouts a question, unanswered. The end.

Donald Trump did something very different in his Cabinet meeting Monday.

First, he reviewed the various alleged successes of his first 143 days and made this remarkable claim: "Never has there been a president....with few exceptions...who's passed more legislation, who's done more things than I have."

(Nota bene: You can't say "never has" something happened and then say "with few exceptions." Either it's never happened or it, well, has.)

But, that wasn't even close to the weirdest part of the Cabinet meeting!

Once Trump finished touting his administration's accomplishments, he turned to several of his newly-minted Cabinet secretaries like Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue. Each of those Cabinet secretaries lavished praise on Trump, which he accepted without comment but with a broad smile.

At first, I thought Trump was just going to have the new members of the Cabinet spend a few minutes praising him. NOPE! It soon became clear that Trump planned to have every Cabinet member speak. And when I say "speak" what I really mean is "praise Trump for his accomplishments, his foresight, his just being awesome."

I mean, WHAT?!?

The whole thing reminded me of a scene directly from the boardroom of "The Apprentice." A group of supplicants all desperately trying to hold on to their spots on the show by effusively praising Trump -- each one trying to take it a step further than the last. And Trump in the middle of it all, totally and completely pleased with himself. (Reminder: Around that Cabinet table are hugely accomplished generals, billionaires and political people with long track records of success.)

What those contestants knew is the same thing Trump's Cabinet has now realized: Flattery will get you everywhere. Donald Trump's favorite topic of conversation is Donald Trump. The best way to talk about Donald Trump, if you want to keep working for Donald Trump, is to praise Donald Trump. The more over-the-top, the better.

Chuck Schumer was quick off the line to mock Trump with this re-creation of the Cabinet meeting:

There's a tendency in Trump's presidency to overlook or dismiss these smaller sorts of things. "Keep focused on the stuff that really matters," people tweet at me every day, all day. (For liberals sending those tweets, it's about Russia and Trump's finances. For conservatives, it's Trump's many accomplishments that are being allegedly ignored.)

My contention is that things like this Cabinet meeting -- while totally inconsequential in terms of actual policy -- are deeply revealing about who Trump is and how he views himself, the people who work for him and the world. And how he views all of those things is this: With Trump at the center and everyone a spoke emanating from his hub.

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Donald Trump just held the weirdest Cabinet meeting ever - CNN

President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference with Romanian President Klaus Werner Iohannis in the Rose Garden at the White House, Friday, June 9, 2017, in Washington. Andrew HarnikAP

As a number of legal experts warned, Donald Trump's tweets about his "travel ban" helped convince an appeals court to block the controversial plan. It's the second time his own comments have helped the courts knock down the executive order.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision on Monday, ruling that Trump's attempt to block immigration from six predominantly Muslim countries "exceeded the scope of the authority delegated to him by Congress."

In their ruling, the judges cited a tweet from the president that was posted after the recent terrorist attack in London, in which Trump argued that the U.S. needed a travel ban "for certain dangerous countries."

The Trump tweet was cited in a footnote in the decision, at a point where the court questioned the justification for the ban.

"The Order seeks to ban people from specific countries, but it does not provide any link between an individuals nationality and their propensity to commit terrorism or their inherent dangerousness," the judges said. "In short, the Order does not provide a rationale explaining why permitting entry of nationals from the six designated countries... would be detrimental."

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The court also noted that press secretary Sean Spicer recently confirmed that Trump sees his tweets as official statements from the White House.

Immediately after the president posted his thoughts on the travel ban in the wake of the London attacks, a number of people were quick to respond that this was probably unwise, given the fact that the immigration order was still before the courts.

The American Civil Liberties Union, for example, warned in a tweet that it was planning to use Trump's tweets as evidence in its ongoing fight against the order.

Even someone fairly close to TrumpGeorge Conway, a New York lawyer and husband of Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway suggested that posting such comments was unwise. "These tweets may make some ppl feel better, but they certainly won't help OSG get 5 votes in SCOTUS, which is what actually matters," he said.

Conway went on to say that he was a big supporter of Trump and of the immigration ban, but added that tweets from the administration on legal matters "seriously undermine Admin agenda and POTUS."

To make matters worse, Trump didn't stop at one tweet about the ban (which his own administration had previously argued was not actually a ban, and shouldn't be referred to as such). The president said that he supported his original order, not the "watered down, politically correct version" that his own advisers had convinced him to sign.

That earlier version of the law was struck down by two lower courts because it was targeted at Muslims, and blocking travel based on a person's religion is unconstitutional.

"I think he shot himself in the legal foot," Cornell Law School immigration professor Stephen Yale-Loehr said of Trump's comments about his preference for the original version of the ban.

One would think that the Trump administration or the president himself may be more careful with posts on Twitter about a legal case, since this isn't the first time that his tweets have been used against him in a court decision blocking his immigration order.

A lower court in Hawaii that blocked the most recent version of the order, in the case that led to the current ruling by the court of appeal, also cited tweets from the president, as did an earlier 9th Circuit decision on the previous version.

Original post:
Trump's Own Tweets Help Kill His Government's Travel Ban, Again - Fortune

Considering former FBI Director James Comey testified lastThursdaythat the president was a liar, last weekwasn't particularly great for Donald Trump. And this week isn't off to a great start for the president, either.

Trump's approval rating sunk to just 36 percent in the latest Gallup daily tracking pollreleased Monday. That's nearly the lowest point for Trump in the Gallup survey. Trump previously hit 35 percent approval on March 28shortly after the Republican Obamacare replacement, the American Health Care Act,failed before the House of Representatives could even take a vote.

Trump's disapproval rating, meanwhile, has ticked upward to tie the president'srecord-high of 59 percent, according to Monday's Gallup survey. He previously hit 59 percent disapproval in the Gallup tracking pollon March 28.

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Gallup tracks Americans feelings on the president daily, measuring approval and disapproval through telephone interviews of 1,500 national adults. The survey hada margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.

Trump's approval rating has steadily trended downward since he took office and most recently took a dipafterthe president's decision to fire Comey and anud continued revelations related to the investigation into his administration's potential connections with Russia. FiveThirtyEight's weighted average of Trump's approval had him at just 38 percent Monday, the lowest mark of his presidency. His disapproval average in the FiveThirtyEight tracker hit56 percent, thehighest mark yet.

The beginning of Trump's tenure in the White House has proven historically unpopular. Typically speaking, presidents are given a grace period of sorts during which Americans typically gift them a good approval rating. At this point in his first term, for instance, Obama's approval rating stoop at about 61 percent, according to Gallup. While Trump did briefly rise above former President Bill Clinton'sapproval rating at the same point in his first term, thatvictory proved to be short-lived. According to FiveThirtyEight's tracker, Clinton's approval rating in 1993 on day 144where Trump is nowwas2.1 percentage points better than theformer reality star's approval.

Trump also hit a new lowlast week inQuinnipiac University's survey, his approval rating coming in at just34 percent. The poll was full of bad resultsfor Trump, including the fact that 40 percent of voters thought his advisers had done something illegal in their interactions with Russia.

"There is zero good news for President Donald Trump in this survey, just a continual slide into a chasm of doubt about his policies and his very fitness to serve,"Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll, said in a statement at the time. "If this were a prizefight, some in his corner might be thinking about throwing in the towel. This is counterpuncher Donald Trump's pivotal moment to get up off the mat."

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Donald Trump's Approval Rating Sinks Further As Disapproval Hits Record High - Newsweek

Caitlyn Jenner (front) arrives for the Candlelight Dinner at Union Station in honor of President-elect Donald J. Trump, one day before Trump was sworn in as the 45th President of the United States.(Photo: ERIK S. LESSER, EPA)

Caitlyn Jenner has a growing voice in the transgender community, but it also is one that is misconstrued at times.

Part of the reason for that, Jenner concedes, could be based on her choice for president in November. Jenner, a Republican her entire life, spoke to President Trump on the campaign trail and says she felt assured he would protect the LGBT community as he promised at the Republican National Convention.

Listen, I understand the Democratic party is better on all LGBT issues, Im not an idiot, Jenner says.

For me, philosophically, Im on the Republican side. I have conservative views. But Im also trans. I would much rather convince Republicans to do better with (LGBT) issues than to try to convince Democrats to lower taxes and have less regulations and less government. I work hard, mostly behind the scenes, to change (Republicans) views. When I sit down with Republican senators, theyll tell me theyve never met a trans person before and theyll mention their faith. I explain how faith has played a big part in what I have done and am doing right now. Just sitting at the table with someone, that can change peoples minds.

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Caitlyn Jenner's growth into transgender advocate role

Jenner, who attended the Presidential Inauguration in January, says she expected Trump to reinforce the federal protection guidelines for transgender youth set in place by the Obama administration. Before Trump took office, a U.S. District Court judge blocked the Obama-scripted rules allowing transgender students to use bathrooms and locker rooms based on their gender identity. The Trump administration removed the guidelines, preferring to allow individual states to create the policy a decision Jenner describes as a crushing blow for the community shes fighting for.

When (Trump) pulled back on the Title IX (guidelines), it kind of killed It destroyed me, Jenner says. This of all cases is when we need (the government) to step in. The bottom line is bullying in schools is going to be worse, and then theres already bullying online where theres no protection, no escape. When you take away protection in schools, to be honest with you, it is devastating to these kids. These politicians say it is to protect their children in bathrooms. But young peoplewilldie. And they are transgender. Suicide rates will go up. What if thats your kid? The federal government is basically saying, you dont really exist.

I was outspoken when Trump did that. And I should be.

Jenner, right, speaks at an American Unity Fund brunch at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland on July 20, 2016, on the sidelines of the Republican National Convention.(Photo: Josh Lederman, AP)

Jenner, who has been fighting for transgender rights for the past two years since her own coming out, lived her life for 65 years as Bruce Jenner once the epitome of masculinity after winning the 1976 Olympic decathlongold medal. Now as a woman and member of an often-stigmatized minority group,Jenner says she wants to meet with Trump as soon as possible to help lift the curtain she believes is over his eyes.

I would try to enlighten President Trump or anyone about transgender rights that these are real issues because these are real people suffering, Jenner says. The President and so many people out there havent taken the time to meet or get to know a transgender person. They dont know the community. Its affecting so many people beneath everything.

I didnt know any transgender people before I came out, because I was afraid. I want to tell people, dont be afraid of trans people, show a little love, hear our stories. You hear people say, but its biology. Thats right. I didnt ask to be this way. Its just the way I am.

Jenners memoiropens with a quote from Milton Diamond that reads, Biology loves variation. Biology loves differences. Society hates it.

This is not an issue where you take two aspirin and wake up the next morning and itll go away, she says. No, this feeling lasts your ENTIRE LIFE. The question isnt whether itll go away, but how you choose to deal with it.

Jenner says she plans to speak this month about LGBT issues at the College Republican National Committee Convention in Washington D.C., noting that its up to the next generation to change the agenda of the Trump administration and fellow elder Republicans.

I think the best thing the Republican party can do is embrace peoples differences, Jenner says. I think it could do wonders. Itll take a couple generations to change peoples thinking, but the perception that Republicans are rich, white, evangelical Christians who are anti-LGBT could be changed. If they do it over 10-20 years, you can turn that around. You can do that with legislation, on the books, you can turn around the next generation so people dont look at the party that way that it doesnt promote (diversity).

Original post:
Caitlyn Jenner and Donald Trump's on again, off again relationship - USA TODAY