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Donald Trump has been taken to task for claiming, in his speech announcing the United States would exit from the Paris climate "treaty," that "I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris." Numerous people have pointed out that Trump did not carry the city of Pittsburgh; it voted for Hillary Clinton by a margin of 75 to 21 percent. They might have added that surrounding Allegheny County, taken as a whole, voted 56 to 39 percent for Clinton over Trump.

But it's also true that Trump did carry the Pittsburgh metropolitan area, which by government definition includes Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Washington and Westmoreland Counties. After all, when people mention a city's name, they are often referring not just to the area within the municipal limits of the central city, but to the larger metropolitan area.

Boston is often understood to include Cambridge, Los Angeles to include Beverly Hills, etc., etc.

Trump carried metro Pittsburgh over Hillary Clinton by 50 to 46 percent, rounding off each result to integers. This was only the fourth time in the last 75 years that a Republican presidential candidate has carried metro Pittsburgh: Mitt Romney won it 50 to 49 percent in 2012, Richard Nixon by 56 to 42 percent in 1972 and Dwight Eisenhower by 53 to 46 percent in 1956. The latter two were in years of national Republican landslides, and the only two times in 65 years when a Republican nominee won a significantly higher percentage there than did Trump (49.6 percent) or Romney (49.7 percent). And Trump received more popular votes in metro Pittsburgh (573,467) than any other Republican except Nixon in 1972 (580,268) and Eisenhower in 1956 (575,540).

In contrast, Clinton's 46 percent was the second-lowest percentage in metro Pittsburgh of any nominee in the last 65 years, ahead of George McGovern's 42 percent in 1972 and fractionally lower than Adlai Stevenson's 46 percent in 1956. The number of popular votes she won in the metro area (531,901) was 497 votes ahead of Barack Obama in 2012 (531,404), but behind Obama in 2008 (575,893), John Kerry in 2004 (597,172), Michael Dukakis in 1988 (559,611), Walter Mondale in 1984 (597,418), Jimmy Carter in 1976 (535,784), Hubert Humphrey in 1968 (573,276), Lyndon Johnson in 1964 (754,677), John F. Kennedy in 1960 (647,611) and Adlai Stevenson in 1952 (573,390).

These numbers reflect significant changes in political alignment and attitudes in metro Pittsburgh that are typical of some other parts, but not most parts, of the nation. This is an area with very low population growth: Turnout in 1960 (1,162,995) was higher than in 2016 (1,157,318), though that latter number was higher than in any election year in between. Historically, Pittsburgh was dominated economically by the steel industry and politically, from the 1930s to the 1980s, by management/union differences. The shutdown of many steel mills in the 1979-82 period produced a swing toward the Democratic party, contrary to the national trend: Walter Mondale carried metro Pittsburgh 56 percent to 44 percent and Michael Dukakis carried it 59 percent to 40 percent.

Since then, metro Pittsburgh has developed a post-industrial economy, heavily weighted toward meds and eds: healthcare (it's the only million-plus metro area with more deaths than births) and tech, driven by institutions like Carnegie-Mellon University. The central city of Pittsburgh has only about half the population it did in 1950 and casts only 13 percent of the metro area's votes; it is also increasingly gentrified, with many old buildings rehabilitated and neat entertainment and restaurant districts.

Pittsburgh is something of an outlier among our 50 or so million-plus metro areas. Once more Democratic than most, especially in the 1980s, it is now more Republican than most proof that the Trump constituency is not simply a revival of the Reagan constituency. Its voting over the years shows the waning of affection for the Democratic party among blue collar and Catholic voters. Its voting in 2016 were not widely out of line with a movement this century away from the Democratic party, but was a significant extension of it enough to give the Republican nominee, for the first time since 1988, Pennsylvania's electoral votes.

This trend provides justification for Donald Trump's statement that he was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, but only if you understand him to be referring to the metropolitan area, not the central city that cast 13 percent of its votes.

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Donald Trump actually did carry (metro) Pittsburgh - Washington Examiner

President Donald Trumps response to the terroristattack in London Bridge has prompted an MSNBC commentator to question whether the Republican is intending to provoke a similar attack in the U.S.

Trump took to Twitter in the wake of Saturday nights attack on London in which seven people were killed and a further 48 injured, making comments about gun crime that prompted a backlash on social media.

The president wrote: Do you notice we are not having a gun debate right now? That's because they used knives and a truck!

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Speaking on MSNBCSunday, anchor Thomas Roberts questioned whether the president was attempting to provoke a terror attack with his Twitter rant.

"Let's not be [politically correct] about this," Roberts said, turning to Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and then asking: "Is the president trying to provoke a domestic terrorist attack with this Twitter rant becauseonly to prove himself right?"

Reed opted not to answer the question, although he did later speak about the use of Twitter as inappropriate in the aftermath of such an attack, The Hill reported.

Roberts repeated his suggestion Trump was politicizing the incident, asking former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean: "I asked this of Mayor Reed, but it seems like the president is trying to provoke something that he can politicize more for his own gain in America. Do you feel that way?

Former President Barack Obamas speechwriter, Jon Favreau, also questioned Trumps stream of tweets in the wake of the attack.

"It's hard to read Trump's tweets this morning and not think that we're one domestic attack away from the most dangerous version of this guy," Favreau tweeted.

Rather than issuing a simple response to the attack, Trump followed up his initial pledge to stand with the U.K. with a number of tweets some viewed as provocative, including lashing out at London Mayor Sadiq Khan over his instructions for Londoners to remain calm in the presence of increased security and armed police on the streets.

Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn defended the London mayor, stating in comments carried by The Guardian: "At this time it is more important than ever that we stay united in our communities. It is the strength of our communities that gets us through these awful times as London mayor Sadiq Khan recognised but which the current occupant in the White House has neither the grace nor the sense to grasp."

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Is Donald Trump 'Trying to Provoke a Domestic Terror Attack' With London Tweets? - Newsweek

In the wake of another terrorist attack in London, President Trump said Sunday night he will do whatever it takes to prevent such carnage in the U.S., saying this bloodshed must end.

At a fundraising gala at Fords Theatre in Washington, Mr. Trump said he had spoken with British Prime Minister Theresa May to express the unwavering support of the U.S. after terrorists killed seven people and wounded at least 48 others in London Saturday night. He called the episode an evil slaughter.

We renew our resolve, stronger than ever before, to protect the United States and its allies from a vile enemy that has waged war on innocent life, Mr. Trump said. And it has gone on too long. This bloodshed must end. This bloodshed will end. As president, I will do what is necessary to prevent this threat from spreading to our shores.

Referring to the London attacks, the president said the U.S. will do everything in its power to bring those that are guilty to justice.

America sends our thoughts and prayers to the United Kingdom, he said.

The attackers in London drove a van into pedestrians on London Bridge, then stabbed people in a nearby neighborhood of restaurants and pubs. Police shot all three terrorists dead, and authorities have arrested about a dozen people in the ongoing investigation.

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Donald Trump says 'bloodshed must end' from terrorist attacks - Washington Times

The planet doesn't care about Donald Trump's bluster

As it turns out, Earth doesn't care about Trump. It's operating by the laws of science, which show that climate change is real, we are causing it, and there are potentially disastrous consequences if we continue polluting at this rate.

Every second, humans pump 1,200 metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Those gases trap heat. The consequences of global warming are staring us in the face.

Few would predict the entire West Antarctic Ice Sheet would disappear this decade or even this century. But a third of the ice mass could go in as soon as 100 or 200 years, said Rignot, the NASA scientist. And if that happens, he said, the collapse of the rest of the sheet would be inevitable.

"We're not looking at something that will start in the future," he told me. "We are looking at something that is ongoing already."

It's "already on the trajectory of collapse," he said.

It should be abundantly clear that we are gambling with the future.

Trump won't admit any of this. Neither will Scott Pruitt, head of the US Environmental Protection Agency.

Of course it is. It is exactly about that.

But it's time to refocus: In the wake of the United States' withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, it's no longer enough to push back on Trump and Pruitt and their parade of falsehoods. The international community, as well as American states and cities and business leaders around the world, must work swiftly to ensure that this administration is irrelevant on climate.

The world must redouble efforts to fix climate change -- in spite of Trump.

But the Trump administration is steering so wide of fact and reason that it risks losing relevance.

Global winds shifted Thursday when Trump bailed on Paris.

China and the European Union already are trying to take the lead on climate change.

There are bright spots within the United States, too.

It is amoral to continue with pro-fossil fuel policies in 2017.

But the ice sheets aren't listening to Trump.

And perhaps neither should we.

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What if Donald Trump doesn't matter? - CNN

A tearful Kathy Griffin spoke out in response to backlash after she posted a short video of herself holding a decapitated likeness of Donald Trump's head -- saying that the president "broke me" by calling her stunt "sick."

The photo that Griffin posted sparked an immediate and widespread backlash as well as condemnation from the president, who called her actions "sick" in a tweet. First lady Melania Trump called the image "disturbing" and said it makes you wonder about the mental health of the person who did it."

"I'm gonna be honest, he broke me," Griffin said today of Trump's response. "I may get arrested today, I dont know."

The comedian said she is also getting "detailed death threats."

"This is America, you shouldn't have to die" over comedy, she added.

In the photo, which Griffin tweeted on May 30, then took down, she captioned herself holding up a fake Trump head, covered in fake blood, "I caption this 'there was blood coming out of his eyes, blood coming out of his ... wherever,'" referring to an exchange between Donald Trump and former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly during the presidential primary season.

Griffin's First Amendment lawyer, Lisa Bloom, said that the Secret Service reached out to her and that she had to retain a criminal attorney as well. Griffin maintains she was not threatening the president.

Griffin explained that her and photographer Tyler Shields only spent five minutes coming up with the idea and that the pictures were part of a larger photo shoot that didn't include Trump.

The picture was never meant as anything malicious and that it was supposed to be interpreted in different ways, she added.

"I have no desire to threaten him," she said. "I made a horrible mistake and made a horrible call."

When talking about the aftermath of the pictures, Griffin said "I dont think I have a career after this." She was recently let go from CNN's New Years Eve special and added today that five concert venues have already canceled some of her shows.

The 56-year-old comedian also spoke about the tweets in response from Trump himself, calling the act "sick" and from the President's wife Melania, which focused on their son Baron's well-being.

"Kathy Griffin should be ashamed of herself. My children, especially my 11 year old son, Barron, are having a hard time with this. Sick!" Trump wrote the morning after the picture started trending on the internet.

Bloom said that Griffin couldn't have imagined that her stunt would be misinterpreted and that other artists have done worse.

"I'm not afraid of Donald Trump ... I'm gonna make fun of him more now," she said Friday.

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Kathy Griffin breaks down, says Donald Trump 'broke me' - ABC News