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House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi says she's concerned about President Donald Trump's "fitness for office" and says he needs more sleep. (June 9) AP

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Friday that President Trump "needs sleep" and she is "worried about his fitness" for office.

The California Democratmade the comments at her weekly news conference in response to questions from reporters about Trump's tweets firing back at former FBI James Comey for Comey's testimony Thursday before the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Pelosisaid no one at the White House appears to be "brave enough" to tell the president that his tweets are "beneath the dignity of the office you serve."

She also wondered about Trump's fitness for office.

"The president's fitness for office is something that has been called into question," she said. "I'm very worried about his fitness."

She said she doesn't know if anyone in the White House "has the courage" to try to make Trump be more disciplined about his actions and tweets.

"It's too bad because he needs work, and he needs sleep," Pelosi said.

Trump, who had refrained from tweeting during Comey's testimony Thursday,tweeted Friday that Comey vindicated him and accused the former director of improperly leaking details of their discussions. Trump abruptly fired Comey on May 9 in the midst of the FBI's investigation of Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential elections and possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials.

"Despite so many false statements and lies, total and complete vindication...and WOW, Comey is a leaker!" Trump tweeted.

Pelosi said Comey's testimony made it clear that Trump engaged in an abuse of power.

"I think he abused power," she said. "Whether he obstructed justice remains for the facts to come forward."

The Democratic leader also said the president'streatment of Comey mirrors how Trump behaved as a businessman. She said business leaders in New York who dealt with Trump in the past told her that Trump's pattern in trying to make a deal is to start off trying to charm his opponents, then threaten them if charm doesn't work, then walk away from the table if threats don't work, then sue them.

Two officials familiar with Trump's legal strategy said his lawyersplanto file a complaint aboutComey's leak with the Inspector General's office at the Department of Justice, and with the Senate Judiciary and Intelligence committees. The officials were not permitted to speak publicly about legal matters still under consideration.

Comey testified Thursday that he had leaked to the press, through a friend, memos describing his talks with Trump, saying he hoped the stories would spur the appointment of a special counsel to takeover the investigation of the Trump campaign's contacts with Russia. A special counsel, Robert Mueller, was appointed last month.

Contributing: Kevin Johnson

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Nancy Pelosi: Trump 'needs sleep' and she's 'worried' about his fitness - USA TODAY

President Donald Trump has encouraged the public to "Buy American, Hire American," but the patriotic plan could have consequential effects on U.S. products particularly beer .

In order to retain metal-making jobs within the States, the President in April launched an investigation into the trade policies of aluminum. Should U.S. authorities decide to take action against foreign imports, the cans and overall prices of beer could rise, brewing companies said, according to Bloomberg.

"If there are duties on aluminum coming to this country, it will obviously get passed on to us and the customer," Tim Weiner, senior commodity risk manager at Molson Coors Brewing Co, said at an industry conference in Chicago on Wednesday, Bloomberg reports. "Our prices will go up."

If the U.S. decides to impose tariffs on aluminum imports as a result of its ongoing investigation, approximately 5,000 brewers across every congressional district could be affected, Weiner said.

When asked what the likelihood of this happening, he added: "It depends on whether its politically motivated, or business motivated. I think theres political motivation for putting some tariffs on."

Weiner added that roughly 60% of Molson Coors' packing comes in aluminum cans.

"We dont expect that to change," he said. "Were giving our customers what they want, and what they want is cans."

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Donald Trump's Proposal to 'Buy American, Hire American' Could Cause Beer Prices to Rise - Money Magazine

James Comeys opening statement reads like the test answer youre supposed to give at the end of the Human Resources training video. When your superior makes you uncomfortable should you a) explain your boundaries b) discuss the issue with your direct report c) make contemporaneous notes to lock in your recollection or d) all of the above.

Comey picked D.

The question of whether the president tried to impede the FBI investigation will go many rounds, but the former FBI directors opening statement doesnt just illuminate those issues. It is also a workplace documenta window into how the president operates. Along with other developments in the Trump administration this week, the Comey testimony offers a striking picture of boss and subordinate relations.

The issues raised are not just of obstruction of justice but obstruction of progress. How can Trump administration officials operate in such an unpredictable environment? The president delights in breaking norms, but he undermines his colleagues who cant predict where hes going. That contributes to an atmosphere of chaos and saps from administrative veterans the greatest skill they bringthe ability to anticipate events that occur along normal patterns.

Bernie Sanders's Religious Test for Christians in Public Office

Things were so unpredictable in Comeys first meeting with President-elect Trump, the former FBI director immediately took notes in his car after the interaction. The president, by asking for a loyalty pledge and crossing boundaries, so destabilized the relationship between the two men Comey reportedly tried to blend into the White House drapery at one event to avoid an exchange. This had ripple effects. The president also destabilized the bureaucratic system. Comey worried that the pressure from Trump to end the Flynn investigation or remove the cloud of the larger investigation would infect the investigation if he let others working on the case know about it. You dont need to believe the particulars of each exchange to see that this mode of management was not productive to a larger purpose.

A number of Donald Trumps supporters told me during the campaign they had faith that he would be a good president because he would be helped by the experts around him. But the presidents improvisation saps experts of their key skill: pattern recognition. Chess masters dont evaluate all the possible moves. They know how to discard 98 percent of the ones they could make and then focus on the best choice of the remaining lot. Thats the way expertise works in other fields too: Wise practitioners recognize familiar patterns and put their creativity, improvisation, and skill toward the marginal cases.

President Trump has this skill in politics and no doubt in business. But the president cant demonstrate pattern recognition across all topics, and cant acquire a lifetime of experience to learn it fast enough for issues hes never encountered. Thats why he needs experts to be allowed to apply their similar skills. Thats the theory behind his hands-off approach to the military. But where the president does assert himself, he does not simply introduce chaos. He also demands loyalty in response to his unpredictable moves, which asks experts to embrace a move theyve already discarded as too improbable to ponder. Its only possible to use pattern recognition if the patterns are not changing after youve made your assessment, or as long as someone doesnt flip the board over and send the pieces rolling under the breakfront.

This week, experts throughout the administration were having their plans scrambled. Department of Justice officials fighting to defend the second Trump order limiting immigration from terrorism-linked countries were undermined by the presidents tweeting. The Justice Dept. should have stayed with the original Travel Ban, not the watered down, politically correct version they submitted to S.C., he wrote. Thats his justice department hes talking about there, carrying out his orders. This caused George Conway, the husband of presidential counselor Kellyanne Conway, to plead with the president on Twitter to stop undermining his case.

Over at the Pentagon, officials reasserted support for Qatar after its Arab neighbors cut ties. The U.S. has a base in Qatar. But in a tweet, the president sided with Qatars opponents, and took credit for the move against the country as fruit of his recent overseas trip. In Politico this week, Susan Glasser detailed how the president surprised his foreign-policy team at a NATO summit during that trip. Though the president's top advisers had told allies he would offer public support for the bedrock Article 5 commitmentan attack on one is an attack on allat the last minute, Trump decided not to read that line in his speech.

Successful presidents know how to translate their will to their staffers, and successful staffers know how to move without the ball. Aides to presidents of both parties that Ive talked to over the years tell a version of the same story. A White House works well when a presidents staff can intuit what its president wants and act without needing direct contact. A former senior Obama official spoke approvingly about Ronald Reagan when explaining this phenomenon to me. Reagans team didnt need to check in with Reagan to know his desires: increase personal freedom, limit the growth of government and fight the communists.

Oliver North went a little too far, of course, but the Trump White House faces the opposite problem. In the Trump White House, when staffers try to anticipate the boss they get undermined by the boss.

When Trump fired James Comey, Vice President Pence offered a dramatic explanation for the decision, suggesting that it was based solely on the recommendation from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein: A man of extraordinary independence and integrity and a reputation in both political parties of great character, came to work, sat down, and made the recommendation for the FBI to be able to do its job that it would need new leadership. Then the president explained he had already made the decision and the Russia investigation at least factored in.

Three weeks ago, National-Security Adviser H.R. McMaster issued sweeping statements knocking back reports that the president passed on sensitive information to Russian officials in an Oval Office meeting. The next day, the president offered a different story.

These kinds of moves lead to embarrassing paralysis. No staffer wants to get too far out on a limb when theyre working for an unpredictable arborist. For two days in a row this week, White House spokespeople couldnt answer if the president still had faith in his attorney general. Usually a staffer would say, Of course he does, but that guess cant be made in the Trump administration. Press Secretary Sean Spicer was asked if the president had confidence in Comey and said of course he did, but then six days later, Trump fired Comey. Soon enough, the president was describing Comey as a nut who was mentally unstable.

Earlier this week, staffers were criticizing the excessive focus on Trumps tweets only to have the president point to them as vital to his communication. The president surprised his aides by announcing his new choice for FBI director without letting the team know just as he surprised his aides by rushing the announcement of a tax package. Aides cant explain his views on climate change or defend his unverified claims on voter suppression, or what he meant by "add more dollars to healthcare and make it the best anywhere long after the House negotiations were over.

The culture of undermining sends signals of disrespect. This approach not only saps motivation and undermines teamwork, it also lowers the motivation to work extra hours anticipating what can go wrong. If people feel like the boss doesnt respect them, they dont stretch for the boss.

So far, Trump has picked nominees for only 80 of the 558 important appointments he needs to fill. Only 40 of them have cleared Senate confirmation. He lags far behind his predecessors, according to the Partnership for Public Service. To fill those spots the president doesnt just need warm bodies, he needs the highly talented types that were the implicit promise of electing a novice to the job. Ive talked to several who have been approached for short- or long-term duty in the Trump administration. The evidence of the work environment that mounts with each passing day makes them highly wary. There is no human-resources training for how to respond when you work for an unpredictable president. Its perhaps fitting that when you visit the website of the White House Office of Administration it says Check back soon for more information."

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Donald Trump Is an Impossible Boss - The Atlantic

New York Times

Donald Trump Wrote a Cookbook New York Times The Kanamits are the space aliens who come to Earth in an old Twilight Zone episode. We ask only that you trust us, only that you simply trust us, the benevolent-seeming Kanamit emissary tells United Nations delegates while promising to foster the ...

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Donald Trump Wrote a Cookbook - New York Times

During his recent announcementaboutthe United Stateswithdrawalfromthe Paris climate agreement which makes our nation the third in the world to not be part of the accord, along with Syria and Nicaragua President Donald Trump repeatedly insistedthathis decision had to do with simple fairness. It was the same kind of sentiment that he frequently conveyed during his presidential campaign: The rest of the world has been disrespecting, mistreating and, worst of all, laughing atus for years.

At what point does America get demeaned? asked the president. At what point do they start laughing at us as a country? We want fair treatment for its citizens and we want fair treatment for our taxpayers. We dont want other leaders and other countries laughing at us anymore, and they wont be.

Like candidate Trump, President Trump seems to hearsnickering voicesin his head (presumablyforeign, non-English voices) and believes they are laughing at him and his country. In Trumps paranoid mind, every nation on the planethastaken advantage of America in one way or another, and the Paris agreement is just the latest example of this abuse.Ironically, the insecure man who constantlydemands respect from the rest of the worldis actually in the process of driving his countrys reputation into the ground, and the Paris exit is simply the latestembarrassment.

It is often said it is easier to destroy than to create, and over the past months Donald Trump has proven this maxim correct when it comesto governing. Trumps presidency has been like a violent wreckingball demolishing everything in sight. And nothing has been more grievously damaged by Trump than the United States credibility in the world. Americas global image has collapsed in record time, and with the presidents decision to pull out of the Paris agreement, the most powerful country in the world is well on its way to becoming an international pariah. As the former president of Ireland, Mary Robinson,declared,The U.S. reneging on its commitment to the Paris Agreement renders it a rogue state on the international stage.

As Americas standing in the world crumbles, many people will no doubt recall how Republican politicians regularly claimed during the previous administration that the country was no longer respected under the leadership of President Barack Obama. As with mostRepublican positions,this was flat-out delusional, and polling revealedthat the countrys global image steadily improved under Obama after having fallen to historic lows during George W. Bushs presidency.

One of the most vocal proponents of this fallacious line of attack was, of course, a conspiracy theorist named Donald Trump, who was convinced that everyone was laughing at his country because it had twice elected a Muslim foreigner as president. Today that unhinged man-child is making the world feel somewhat nostalgic for George W. Bushs America. According to Pew Research Center, countries around the world have almost no confidence in Trump(compared to theirhigh confidence in Obama), and the freshman presidenthas turnedthe U.S. intoalaughingstockthat can no longer be trusted by its allies, asGermanys Chancellor Angela Merkelindicatedlast week.

Of course, President Trump continues to maintain that he is restoring the countrys status in the world after the U.S. has been mistreated (and laughed at!) for so many years. For example, he claimed in his exit speech that the Paris agreement gives other countries an economic edge over the United States and handicaps the United States economy in order to win praise from the very foreign capitals and global activists that have long sought to gain wealth at our countrys expense. Not only that, continued Trump, but the nations that are asking America to stay in the agreement (that is, the rest of the world) are countries that have collectively cost America trillions of dollars through tough trade practices and in many cases lax contributions to our critical military alliance. Like most of his speeches, this one was full of falsehoodsand exaggerations, and the president cited industry-funded studies and misinterpreted other onesto make his harebrained case.

The great irony of Trumps begrudging speech (and his parochial worldview in general) is that America has long been the worlds leading imperialist force. If any country qualifies as a bully that has treated other nations unfairly over the past halfa century, it is the United States. This is evidencedby the many overseas coupsthat have been orchestrated by the U.S. government,often to serve the interests of American business,withthe classic case involvingthe United Fruit Company and Guatemala. The majority of Americans have not benefited personally from U.S. foreign policy; it has been themultinational corporations and the power elite, as C. Wright Millsonce called the countrys political and corporate establishments, that have benefited from such interventions.

Consider Americas economy, which Trump claims has been losing for decades because other countries have treated us horribly, stealing our jobs and thenlaughing at us to add insult to injury. This view is so facile and childishit seemsunworthy of comment. But, alas, it is espoused bya very powerful man. Itgoes without sayingthat American workers have suffered over the past 40 years due to numerous factors, including globalization andcorporatetrade deals; that doesnt mean the United Stateshas been losing to other countries. In fact, American businesses have done exceedingly well over the past three decades, as havethe top 1 percent of earners. Only working- and middle-class Americans have been losing in any real sense of the word and not because foreign governments are so cunning and inconsiderate but because of our capitalist economy.

In addition to arguing that the Paris agreement is designed to hurt Americaseconomy, Trump bitterly complained that it was unfair to the U.S. ascompared withthe fate of less-developed countries like China and India. China will be able to increase these emissions by a staggering number of years, said the president, claiming that the Chinese will be allowed to build hundreds of additional coal plants. The president then declared that the agreement doesnt eliminate coal jobs; it just transfers those jobs out of America . . .and ships them to foreign countries. This, in typical Trumpian fashion, is extremely misleading. China isactuallyin the process of canceling projects to build coal plants, and its coal consumption has declined since 2013, but such pesky facts are unwelcome in Trumps reactionary, zero-sum worldview.

Once again, the irony here is that America has contributed more than any other country in the worldto climate change and is responsible for nearly a third of the excess carbon that has built up in the atmosphere.In cumulative terms, we certainly own this problem more than anybody else does, saidclimate scholar David G. Victor to The New York Times. Furthermore, Americas per capita carbon emission is more than double that of China (and about eight times that of India).If one were truly interested in fairness, as Trump has claimedto be, thenthe U.S. would be doing much more than it agreed to in the Paris accords.

Withdrawing from the Paris agreement not only erodes Americas credibility and standing in the world, but is an importantstep toward dooming the planet or more accurately dooming the human species. It is somewhat fitting that the United States, under the leadership ofa vulgar and self-absorbedman who epitomizes the ugly American, may end up ensuring the collapse of human civilization. During the election campaign, many speculated that the narcissistic Trump was running for president because he had realized in old age that he would quickly be forgotten after he died. Whether that was true,Trumpwill doubtless be remembered now as the man who signaled the end of the American epoch and perhaps the human era as well.

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Donald Trump is destroying America's standing in the world and may end up destroying the world - Salon