August – 2017 – Mediaboss Marketing

Donald Trump Insists He’s ‘Working Hard’ After Tweet Tirade About ’24/7 Fake News’ – HuffPost

President Donald Trump, currently on a 17-day vacation at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, spent his Monday morning posting a tirade against his usual target, the 24/7 fake news, criticizing the failing New York Times.

Trump also claimed his low approval ratings were fabricated, pointing to crowd sizes at his recent rallies.

But following the tirade, he made sure to note that he was working hard from New Jersey.

On Saturday, he similarly insisted that this is not a vacation meetings and calls!

On Sunday night, Trump did call the president of South Korea, Moon Jae-in, regarding North Koreas latest missile tests.

The presidents Monday morning tweet tirade further suggested speculation that his new chief of staff,John Kelly, would helprein in Trumpandhis tweeting habitswas simply wishful thinking.

Over the weekend, Bloomberg reported that Kelly has been advising Trump on tweets that might cause an international uproar or lead to unwelcome distractions, concluding that Trumps tweets have been more buttoned down in recent days.

But it also noted that it may prove difficult for Kelly to prevail on Trump to bottle up his tweets at those who defy or criticize him or to refrain from expressing his outrage at the expanding investigations into possible ties between Russia and the Trump campaign, a subject thats given rise to some of his most explosive statements.

Trumps latest ire toward the Times followed a story published Monday detailing Trumps pervasive pattern of lying and his sheer magnitude of falsehoods and exaggerations.

Over the weekend, the paper also reported that Vice President Mike Pence is among several Republicans weighing a shadow campaign in 2020, in case Trump does not seek re-election.

Pence on Sunday responded in an unusually defensive statement pushing back on the story, calling it fake news and affirming that he was honored to be working side-by-side with a president who is making America great again.

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Donald Trump Insists He's 'Working Hard' After Tweet Tirade About '24/7 Fake News' - HuffPost

August 7th, 2017

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Peter Thiel Sours on Donald Trump – Vanity Fair

By Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg/Getty Images.

Peter Thiels support for Donald Trump did not come cheap. While Thiels $1.25 million donation to the Trump campaign could have been a rounding error on the Silicon Valley billionaires bank statement, his political advocacy cost him untold social capital in the overwhelmingly liberal Bay Area. Yet even as he became a pariah in some corners of San Francisco, Thiel was fervent in the defense of his convictions. No matter what happens in this election, what Trump represents isnt crazy and its not going away, Thiel declared in a speech at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. just before the election. He points toward a new Republican Party beyond the dogmas of Reaganism. He points even beyond the remaking of one party to a new American politics that overcomes denial, rejects bubble thinking, and reckons with reality.

Thiels incredible gamble seemed to pay off, for a time. During the transition period, Thiel was a top adviser to the president-elect, playing a crucial role in several staffing decisions and flanking Trump, opposite Mike Pence, during the administrations tech summit at Trump Tower in December. Thiel continued to serve as a kingmaker throughout the first month of Trumps presidency and was said to be consolidating his power within the West Wing. Back in San Francisco, Thiels employees reportedly began referring to their boss as the shadow president.

More recently, however, Thiel appears to have soured on his riskiest, most controversial investment. BuzzFeed News reports that while Thiel remains publicly supportive of the president, he has repeatedly criticized Trump in private, describing the White House as incompetent. Citing three sources who recounted some half-a-dozen private conversations, BuzzFeeds Ryan Mac writes that Thiel sees Trump as a one-term president and doesnt think he would win re-election in 2020. According to two anonymous sources, Thiel expressed as early as January that there is a 50 percent chance this whole thing ends in disaster. An unnamed guest who attended an event with Thiel in May said the venture capitalist appeared annoyed with the first few months of Trumps presidential tenure.

Some of the animus may be more personal than political. One person who recently spent time with Thiel told the Hive that the iconoclastic billionaire does not enjoy spending time with the president. While Trump has said he deeply loves Peter Thiel, Thiel has avoided the Trump circus in the West Wing. An avowed libertarian, Thiel was initially excited by Trumps unorthodox style and willingness to upend the establishment. But the disruption that Trump has brought to Washington doesnt appear to be the kind that Thiel was betting on.

Thiel, whose book Zero to One was a must-read for Trump campaign staffers last year, did not deny BuzzFeeds reporting. The night he won the election, I said President Trump would face an awesomely difficult task, Thiel said via a spokesperson. Today its clear that resistance to change in Washington, D.C. has been even fiercer than I anticipated. We still need change. I support President Trump in his ongoing fight to achieve it. A spokesperson for Thiel also responded to allegations that Thiel doesn't enjoy spending time with Trump. Whoever says that is wrong, he told The Hive.

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Peter Thiel Sours on Donald Trump - Vanity Fair

August 7th, 2017

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Donald Trump and Nikki Haley chalk up a victory on North Korea and China – Washington Examiner

The United Nations imposed significant new sanctions on North Korea last weekend, in response to the dictatorship's repeated ballistic missile tests. Kim Jong Un's regime will be banned from exporting goods and services and cut off from foreign investors, at least to an extent.

This combined effort to confront what is, among other things, the foremost national security threat to the United States, is a big win for President Trump.

Deploying diplomacy backed by the credible use of force, he and his UN Ambassador, Nikki Haley, were able to rally the entire 15-member UN Security Council into concerted action. While these sanctions won't alone bring Kim Jong Un to serious negotiations, they will cause him real pain. Analysts believe the sanctions will cost North Korea around a third of its $3 billion total export market.

While North Korea's transgressions it's evil, so let's say it plainly are undeniable, this sanctions vote was far from simple. It required China to change. Beijing would not have done so without believing that Trump might take military action against North Korea. Up until now, China's actions against Kim have been limited. Allowing this vote to pass the United Nations Security Council, where it has a veto, however, demonstrates that when Trump makes a military threat, China takes him seriously.

That is a 180-degree about face from its approach to North Korea over recent decades, reflecting a shift in U.S. policy.

In 1994, the Clinton administration, acting after on the vapid advice and after the grating intervention of former President Jimmy Carter, offered fuel aid to North Korea in return for its promise to suspend nuclear research. The deal lacked safeguards and North Korea immediately began cheating, as sensible people predicted it would.

In May 2009, after North Korea tested a nuclear weapon, Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, gave a vintage Obama administration response, "I think we were all impressed with the fact that the Russians and the Chinese denounced this so strongly." The Chinese were surely laughing up their sleeves at this absurdity. It would set the tone for the remainder of Obama's years in office.

In 2010, after Kim Jong Un orchestrated the North Korean sinking of a South Korean ship, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pledged to respond with a "clear and unmistakable message". As good as her word, she did nothing message received and clearly understood.

In January 2016, her successor, John Kerry, tried to persuade China to restrain North Korea's nuclear program. But when asked whether the U.S. would increase its pressure on China if it didn't act, he havered, saying, "It's time for everybody to make sure that this does not continue as business as usual." Predictably, it did.

Shortly before leaving office, the Obama administration passed a U.N. resolution restricting North Korea's coal exports. But unlike Trump's resolution, that one lacked a corollary threat and so China continued dancing with Kim.

Trump's approach has changed everything and shown his ability to do what others have not. Supported by Nikki Haley, Trump has, on China and North Korea at least, strengthened the foundations of American diplomacy. The combination of hard and soft power is important. Authoritarian regimes such as China's are unimpressed if international agreements don't have teeth as well as smiles.

This diplomatic success is also crucial in the precedent it sets. With Iran rapidly advancing its own ballistic missile program, Washington must ensure that hostile adversaries are aware that ballistic missiles offer only existential danger, not security. If North Korea's ballistic missile program is allowed to rise unchallenged, Iran and others will pursue that technology as their first priority. Why wouldn't they? If North Korea gains regime security from the possession of ballistic missiles, other regimes will seek the same safety. The stakes are high, considering Iran's penchant for theologically rooted expansionism and the political sectarianism that defines Middle Eastern politics.

Further action will be needed against North Korea, Iran, and any other actor who follows their path.

First, Rex Tillerson urgently needs to get on the Trump-Haley script and stop presenting a message of American confusion. Second, Trump must continue his military buildup around the Korean Peninsula, which has been instrumental not just in pressing China to corral North Korea, but also in ensuring that American commanders have the means to take decisive action if necessary. Third, in return for supporting the Iran nuclear deal's continuation, Trump must rally U.S. allies to support a crackdown on Iran's ballistic missile program.

In Ukraine, Syria, and the East and South China Seas, Obama's policies persuaded the Chinese that America was weak and would offer only ineffectual opposition to those threatening its interests and security. That has now changed. Cultivating a perception of inherent unpredictability, crafting credible diplomacy, and broadcasting confident military strength, Trump is turning heads in the capital of our long-term strategic rival.

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Donald Trump and Nikki Haley chalk up a victory on North Korea and China - Washington Examiner

August 7th, 2017

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Donald Trump is ‘Obsessed With His Own Self-Image,’ Ex-RNC Chair Michael Steele Says – Newsweek

The former chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC) has described President Donald Trump as a man obsessed with his own self-image, who needs to know everything is playing to a narrative he has developed in his own head.

Michael Steele, who was chair of the RNC from 2009 to 2011, made the comments in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

This is who he is. This is a guy obsessed with his own self-image,how his numbers are doing, whether everything is playing to a narrative he has developed in his own head, Steele said.

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U.S. President Donald Trump arrives at a rally in Huntington, West Virginia, on August 3. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

Not everyone listens to you just because you're president. You have 535 members of Congress who have a different view. You have Cabinet secretaries who, while they might work for you, still carry out different agendas, he addedinapparentreference to Trumps criticism of the members of the GOP who have failed to back him on issues including health care.

Despite having a Republican majority inthe House and the Senate, Trump has failed to find popular support on his cornerstone election pledge to repeal and replace Obamacare, andhas made no secret of the fact he isunimpressed with members of his own party.

He tweeted after the Senate health care bill collapsed: 3 Republicans and 48 Democrats let the American people down. As I said from the beginning, let ObamaCare implode, then deal. Watch!

Steele also suggested Trump had difficulty dealing with people who did not agree with his opinionincluding those in what the president describes as the fake news mediabecause he had always been in a position of power in business.

When he said he wanted something done at Trump Tower, it got done. No one said, 'No sir, I really don't think we should do that,' because if you did, you didn't come into work the next day, as there was no job, Steele explained.

Steele was elected chairman of the Maryland Republican Party before serving as the state's lieutenant governor from 2003 to 2007. He was the first African-American politician to head the RNC when he was elected in 2009.

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Donald Trump is 'Obsessed With His Own Self-Image,' Ex-RNC Chair Michael Steele Says - Newsweek

August 7th, 2017

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