The digital guru who helped Donald Trump to the presidency BBC News Many of the "Tech Gods" were dismayed when Donald Trump - who holds a very different worldview - won the American presidency. But did they actually help him to win? A key insider from the Trump campaign's digital operation - Theresa Wong - unravels for ... |
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The digital guru who helped Donald Trump to the presidency - BBC News
Hole 3, Par 4
A dogleg left, not Trumps favorite hole: He shanks off the tee into the Sessions Woods, pretends that didnt happen, takes a floating mulligan, and drives down the right side of the fairway. He pulls his six-iron approach into the Manafort bunker. Blasts out into the Kushner trap on the other side of the green. His sand wedge to nine feet is good and he sinks the putt for a triple bogey 7. He marks a 5 What do you think I pay Spicer for?
Hole 4, Par 3
On this downhill short hole over the Russian Collusion Pond, Trump skies his seven-iron and plops it right in the water. Never happened, this is a witch hunt, he says, takes another floating mulligan, and fires a defiant shot to 20 feet from the pin. Holes the putt and records his bogey 4 as a birdie 2. Damn right it was a birdie, just ask Kellyanne about alternative facts.
Hole 5, Par 4
Its prudent to play short here but Trump takes a driver and arrows the ball into the Syrian Tomahawks trap. He cant think what his next shot should be. Opts for an eight-iron and pulls it into the Xi Woods, notorious for their deceptive difficulty. Cannons the ball into a Comey Pine and orders it chopped down immediately. Chips up close and holes for a bogey 5 marked as a par 4. Hillary can delete 33,000 e-mails and I cant delete a shot?
Hole 6, Par 4
Trump drives into the Foggy Bottom bunker, then throws a fit because sand is hard and theres water in it, due to budget cuts. Drops ball out. Calls Jared Kushner for advice. Goes for the green over Merkel Lake but ball disappears into the water and she wont even pay up. Drops out, hits a doozy of a chip (simple as Israel-Palestine) to four feet, but misses putt and hurls putter into the water. Marks his 7 as a par 4. Call it a Kompromat.
Hole 7, Par 3
Takes a six-iron, lands it four feet beyond pin, ball rolls back into hole. Hole in one! I am the most brilliant guy in the history of the universe. Just ask the Saudis. The hole is renamed Al Saud. Saudis underwrite Bedminster to the tune of $500 million over a decade; all Americans of Iranian descent banned.
Hole 8, Par 5
Trump hooks into the Kim Jong-un Wood and vows to burn every tree. Hacks the ball out but, furious at all the foliage, orders United States out of Paris climate accord. His approach is short and lands in the China bunker; takes him three shots to get out. Sinks a long putt for a double bogey 7, which he scores as a 6. Donald Jr. can verify that with advice from Russia.
Hole 9, Par 4
Pulls his drive into the effing Scaramucci rough. Shanks into the Priebus bunker; orders it abolished. Blasts out, calls the Marines to eliminate Scaramucci rough. Sends his approach into the McCain bunker, and decides nuking Pyongyang would be simpler than health care. Blasts out, two putts, for what Trump records as a 4 (in fact a 7). It was really a 3, says the Scaramouch. Werent you watching?
Trump score: 36. Actual score: 53. Audit to follow by Robert Mueller.
Instead, the man whose vicious attacks against Hillary Clinton, John McCain, federal judges, fellow Republican leaders and journalists helped define him both in and out of the White House simply blamed "many sides."
Trump stepped to the podium at his New Jersey golf resort and read a statement on the clashes, pinning the "egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides. ... It has been going on for a long time in our country -- not Donald Trump, not Barack Obama," he said. "It has been going on for a long, long time. It has no place in America."
"We should call evil by its name," tweeted Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, the most senior Republican in the Senate. "My brother didn't give his life fighting Hitler for Nazi ideas to go unchallenged here at home."
"Very important for the nation to hear @POTUS describe events in #Charlottesville for what they are, a terror attack by #whitesupremacists," tweeted Sen. Marco Rubio, a competitor for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination.
"Mr. President - we must call evil by its name. These were white supremacists and this was domestic terrorism," tweeted Sen. Cory Gardner, a Colorado Republican.
Scott Jennings, a former special assistant to President George W. Bush, said Trump's speech was not his "best effort," and faulted the President for "failure to acknowledge the racism, failure to acknowledge the white supremacy, failure to acknowledge the people who are marching around with Nazi flags on American soil."
In his decades of public life, Trump has never been one to hold back his thoughts, and that has continued in the White House, where in his seven months as President it has become clear that he views conflicts as primarily black-and-white.
Trump's Twitter account has become synonymous for blunt burns, regularly using someone's name when he feels they slighted him or let him down. Trump, in just the last week, has used his Twitter account to call out Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell by name, charge Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal with crying "like a baby" and needle media outlets by name.
His campaign was defined by his direct attacks. He pointedly attacked Khizr Khan, the father of a Muslim U.S. soldier killed in Iraq in 2004, for his speech at the Democratic National Committee that challenged his understanding of the Constitution, suggested federal Judge Gonzalo P. Curiel was unable to be impartial because of his Mexican heritage and said in a CNN interview that then-Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly had "blood coming out of her wherever" after she questioned him at a debate.
Even before Trump was a presidential candidate, he was driven by a guiding principle imparted on him by Roy Cohn, his lawyer-turned-mentor: "If they screw you, screw them back 10 times as hard."
"What happens is they hit me and I hit them back harder," he told Fox News in 2016. "That's what we want to lead the country."
On Saturday at his Bedminster resort, Trump's bluntness gave way to vagueness as he failed to mention the impetus behind the violence that left at least one person dead in the streets of Charlottesville.
In doing so, Trump left it to anonymous White House officials to explain his remarks, leaving the door open to questions about his sincerity and why he won't talk about the racists at the heart of the protests.
"The President was condemning hatred, bigotry and violence from all sources and all sides," a White House official said. "There was violence between protesters and counter protesters today."
By being equivocal, Trump also failed to follow the same self-proclaimed rules he used to hammer other politicians.
Trump constantly slammed Obama and Clinton during his run for the presidency for failing to label terrorist attacks as such. He called out the two Democrats for failing to use the term "radical Islamic terrorism."
"These are radical Islamic terrorists and she won't even mention the word, and nor will President Obama," Trump said during an October 9 presidential debate. "Now, to solve a problem, you have to be able to state what the problem is or at least say the name."
Trump declined to do just that on Saturday, as video of white nationalists flooded TV screens across the country hours after a smaller group marched through Charlottesville at night holding tiki torches and chanted, "You will not replace us."
Instead, Trump called for "a swift restoration of law and order" and said the federal government was "ready, willing and able" to provide "whatever other assistance is needed." He saluted law enforcement for their response and said he spoke with Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat, about the attack.
But the businessman-turned-president also touted his own economic achievements during his brief speech, mentioning employment numbers and recent companies that decided to relocate to the United States.
"We have so many incredible things happening in our country, so when I watch Charlottesville, to me it is very, very sad," he said.
The reality for Trump is that his presidency helped white nationalists gain national attention, with groups drafting off his insurgent candidacy by tying themselves to the President and everything he stood for.
"I don't want to energize the group, and I disavow the group," Trump told a group of Times reporters and columnists during a meeting at the newspaper's headquarters in New York.
He added: "It's not a group I want to energize, and if they are energized, I want to look into it and find out why."
But men like David Duke, possibly the most famous white nationalist, directly tied Saturday's protests to Trump.
"We are determined to take this country back. We're gonna fulfill the promises of Donald Trump," Duke said in an interview with The Indianapolis Star on Saturday in Charlottesville. "That's why we voted for Donald Trump because he said he's going to take our country back."
When Trump tweeted earlier on Saturday that everyone "must be united & condemn all that hate stands for," Duke grew angry, feeling that the man who help bring white nationalist to this point was slamming them. He urged Trump -- via Twitter -- to "take a good look in the mirror & remember it was White Americans who put you in the presidency, not radical leftists."
Though earlier in the day Trump billed Saturday's event as a press conference, the President declined to respond to shouted question that would have allowed him to directly take on white nationalists.
"Mr. President, do you want the support of these white nationalist groups who say they support you, Mr. President? Have you denounced them strongly enough," one reporter shouted.
"A car plowing into people, would you call that terrorism sir?" another asked.
Trump walked out of the room.
CNN's Jeff Zeleny and Athena Jones contributed to this report.
Read this article:
Trump -- once again -- fails to condemn the alt-right, white supremacists - CNN
It is not the responsibility of the president of the United States to make specific statements every time a gang of KKK cretins marches up and down a town square. I fear that well never be rid of such people, and in normal times our political leaders are so far removed from hateful movements that no reasonable person could believe they had the slightest sympathy for that kind of vicious bigotry. But today was different, the alt-right movement is different, and this president is different.
Today, a person died. A car rammed into a crowd of left-wing protesters, sending bodies flying across the street. I wont embed the footage, but it looks horrible, and its hard to escape the conclusion that it was intentional. The car rammed the crowd at speed, backed up, and sped away. This horrific incident capped a day of street brawls after hundreds of alt-right activists, neo-Confederates, and outright Nazis marched together to express and defend their blood and soil white nationalism. It was a disgusting and reprehensible display.
It would be much easier to write off this small band of racists if they werent also part of a larger alt-right movement that was responsible for an unprecedented wave of online threats, intimidation, and harassment throughout the 2016 campaign season. Journalists, writers (including me and my family), and ordinary citizens were targeted with obscene and threatening images, racist messages, doxing, and sometimes promises of physical violence all for the sin of criticizing Trump.
Violence then started to spill into the real world. A man wielding a sword hunted and killed a black man in New York City. A member of an alt-Reich Nation Facebook group killed another black man in Maryland. A man opened fire on two immigrants at a bar in Kansas, killing one. A white supremacist in Portland murdered two men on a train who intervened when he harassed a Muslim and her black friend. And thats not an exclusive list. Meanwhile, the online hate campaigns roll on.
Incredibly, key elements of the Trump coalition, including Trump himself, gave the alt-right aid and comfort. Steve Bannon, the presidents chief strategist, proclaimed that his publication, Breitbart.com, was the the platform for the alt-right, Breitbart long protected, promoted, and published Milo Yiannopolous the alt-rights foremost respectable defender and Trump himself retweeted alt-right accounts and launched into an explicitly racial attack against an American judge of Mexican descent, an attack that delighted his most racist supporters.
In other words, if there ever was a time in recent American political history for an American president to make a clear, unequivocal statement against the alt-right, it was today. Instead, we got a vague condemnation of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides. This is unacceptable, especially given that Trump can be quite specific when hes truly angry. Just ask the Khan family, Judge Curiel, James Comey, or any other person he considers a personal enemy. Even worse, members of the alt-right openly celebrated Trumps statement, taking it as a not-so-veiled decision to stand against media calls to condemn their movement.
America is at a dangerous crossroads. I know full well that I could have supplemented my list of violent white supremacist acts with a list of vicious killings and riots from left-wing extremists including the recent act of lone-wolf progressive terror directed at GOP members of the House and Senate. There is a bloodlust at the political extremes. Now is the time for moral clarity, specific condemnations of vile American movements no matter how many MAGA hats its members wear and for actions that back up those appropriately strong words.
As things stand today, we face a darkening political future, potentially greater loss of life, and a degree of polarization that makes 2016 look like a time of national unity. Presidents arent all-powerful, but they can either help or hurt. Today, Trumps words hurt the nation he leads.
Read the rest here:
The Alt-Right's Chickens Come Home to Roost - National Review
Welcome to 2017, where America is wondering whether we're going to see nuclear war and white nationalists are marching in Southern towns. On Friday night, a crowd of hundreds of white supremacists and far-right advocates with torches gathered at the University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville, Virginia. But as mind-boggling and disturbing as it is that we're still dealing with issues of racism and white supremacy in 2017, there are some small rays of light: like just how ridiculous this photo from the alt-right rally at UVA on Aug. 11 is.
Demonstrators gathered at a local park and marched to the UVA campus, chanting phrases like, you will not replace us and blood and soil, according to The Guardian.
When they reached a group of counter-protesters centered around a statue of Thomas Jefferson, a fight ensued: the counter-protesters said they were attacked with torches, pepper spray, and lighter fluid. Photos of the event showed people suffering the effects of pepper spray, and one protester told The Guardian that the counter-protesters had been completely surrounded, with no means of escape.
But as horrifying as the situation is, there's one thing that's caught people's eye. And not for the intimidating, take-us-seriously way that the alt-right mob might have preferred.
This photo. Every single guy in this photo looks like they're super mad they just got rejected for the role of Pete Campbell on Mad Men. The number of polo shirts alone is overwhelming. And what's with the tiki torches, guys? Did you all meet up at Crate and Barrel beforehand to pick up supplies?
Twitter noticed.
How many of them do you think were actually citronella candles?
While many mocked the ridiculousness of a group that wants so badly to be taken seriously, for protesters on the ground the risk was real.
A video from counter-protester Emily Gorcenski, who The Guardian identified as one of those encircled, showed what it was like to be there. A live-streamed video shared to Twitter showed what appear to be alt-right marchers surrounding the counter-protesters and screaming slurs. In the final secondsof the 34-minute video, violence appears to break out.
A secondvideo, taken from another angle, showsmarchers closing around the counter-protesters, and torches being thrown. A chant of black lives matter is heard for a moment, before being drowned out.
On Saturday, white nationalistsare expected to gather for aUnite The Right rally to protest the removal of a statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee, according to The New York Times. Authorities said that they were prepared for unrest and the Virginia National Guard is standing by.
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Lilli Petersen is the Night News Editor at Elite Daily. She previously covered News & Politics for Refinery29, and has also been published at The Mary Sue. She writes people and argues with things.
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Twitter Is Absolutely Roasting This Dumb Photo From The UVA Alt-Right March - Elite Daily