Archive for the ‘Donald Trump’ Category

S.N.L.: Watch Alec Baldwin’s Donald Trump Humiliate Paul Ryan – Vanity Fair

Portraits of Gilda Radner as Baba Wawa and John Belushi as Samurai Futaba, hand tinted by S.N.L.s longtime photographer, Edie Baskin.

By Edie Baskin/Courtesy of S.N.L.

Dan Aykroyd takes a call backstage while dressed as Beldar Conehead.

By Edie Baskin/Courtesy of S.N.L.

Chevy Chase in a wig and prosthetic nose, 1977.

By Edie Baskin/Courtesy of S.N.L.

Land Shark takes a bite out of John Belushi while Gilda Radner sits idly by.

By Edie Baskin/Courtesy of S.N.L.

Nerds Bill Murray and Gilda Radner take in the view, 1978.

By Edie Baskin/Courtesy of S.N.L.

Writer Erin Maroney, Chris Farley, Ryan Shiraki, and Billy Baldwin backstage during the 1990s.

By Edie Baskin/Courtesy of S.N.L.

The fabled van down by the river, home of iconic motivational speaker Matt Foley, played by Chris Farley.

By Edie Baskin/Courtesy of S.N.L.

Party time! Wayne Campbell and Garth Algar, coming to you live from Aurora, Illinoiss community access channel.

By Edie Baskin/Courtesy of S.N.L.

Inside the writers room: Executive producer Lorne Michaels sits at the head of the table, the host to his right, and the head writer to his left.

By Edie Baskin/Courtesy of S.N.L.

Will Ferrell as Harry Hugs for the sketch Happy Smile Patrol, 1999.

By Mary Ellen Matthews/Courtesy of S.N.L.

Thank you for smoking: Tracy Morgan observing workplace smoking regulations.

By Edie Baskin/Courtesy of S.N.L.

In the makeup chair: Garrett Morris as Idi Amin, Fred Armisen as Prince, and Dana Carvey as George Michael.

From left: by Edie Baskin, Mary Ellen Matthews, and Suzy M. Drasnin. Courtesy of S.N.L.

Face off: Special-effects experts rig busts of Kenan Thompson, Nasim Pedrad, and Bobby Moynihan with explosives.

By Alison Castle/Courtesy of S.N.L.

Photographer Mary Ellen Matthews shooting Will Ferrell ahead of his second stint as host.

By Dana Edelson/Courtesy of S.N.L.

Behind the scenes of Laser Cats 7 in Lorne Michaels office, with Steven Spielberg, Bill Hader, and Andy Samberg.

By Dana Edelson/Courtesy of S.N.L.

Seth Meyers and Amy Poehler at the Weekend Update desk during rehearsals, 2004.

By Mary Ellen Matthews/Courtesy of S.N.L.

Bob Dole and Norm MacDonald as Bob Dole, shortly after the 1996 election.

By Mary Ellen Matthews/Courtesy of S.N.L.

Playing politics: Alec Baldwin, Sarah Palin, and Lorne Michaels backstage with Tina Fey as Palin on the monitor. Amy Poehler and Hillary Clinton, 2008.

By Dana Edelson/Courtesy of S.N.L.

Barack Obama makes a cameo at Bill and Hillary Clintons Halloween party, 2007.

By Dana Edelson/Courtesy of S.N.L.

Saturday Night Live: The Book (Taschen), out February 25.

Courtesy of S.N.L.

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S.N.L.: Watch Alec Baldwin's Donald Trump Humiliate Paul Ryan - Vanity Fair

Trump Threatens To Stop Holding Press Briefings – HuffPost

President Donald Trump on Friday lashed out at the media, threatening to stop holding press briefings.

The threat appeared to be in reference to media backlash against Trumps surrogates, who this week offered contradictory explanations of the presidents decision to fire FBI Director James Comey.Trump claimed in a tweet that it wasnt possible for them to be accurate because hes so busy.

At first, the White House claimed the president had acted on recommendations from the Justice Department and that the decision was not related to the FBIs probe of the Trump campaigns Kremlin ties. But just two days later, Trump admitted that hed been considering firing Comey since before he took office and that he didmake his decision partly because of the Russia investigation.

Its not the first time the White House has threatened to cut off press access. Earlier this year, he suggested he might limit which news organizations could attend briefings.

Some people in the press will not be able to get in, he said at the time.

Trump often lashes out at media outlets, wielding the phrase fake news. He repeatedly banned certain news outlets and journalists from attending his events during the presidential campaign, and even raised the idea of changing libel laws to make it easier to sue news organizations.

The president most recently invited criticism after he banned U.S. press from his meeting with the Russian ambassador on Wednesday, but let in Russian state media.

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Trump Threatens To Stop Holding Press Briefings - HuffPost

The one little number that so far is all the protection Donald Trump needs – Washington Post

Donald Trumps unorthodox candidacy blossomed into an unorthodox presidency. In the White House, Trump carries with him all of the complex, tricky and fraught behaviors and tendencies that powered him through the 2016 campaign. He also carries with him the decisions and interactions that led him to victory including a staff that may have some nebulous ties to a Russian government that wanted to see him victorious.

Trumps sudden firing of FBI Director James B. Comey was an accelerant to the smoldering question of Russias role in the election. After various people emerged from the White House to insist that the termination had nothing to do with the investigation being conducted by the FBI, Trump on Thursday announced to all of America that, no, that was a big part of it. When the interview in which he said that became public, it took only minutes for observers to wonder how this didnt constitute obstruction of justice, given that Trump was essentially firing someone looking into what his campaign had done. And once you start wandering into the territory of crimes or misdemeanors, others will rapidly venture one step further and start speculating about impeachment.

The White House on May 11 continued to defend President Trump's dismissal of James B. Comey as FBI director. (Bastien Inzaurralde,Alice Li,Jayne Orenstein/The Washington Post)

Those engaging in such speculation, though, are warned: Theres one little number that makes such a move unlikely. That number is 84 percent, Trumps job approval rating among Republicans in the most recent weekly average from Gallup.

Whys that one number so important? Allow me to explain.

On Thursday, shortly before the interview with Trump aired, NBCs political team released numbers from a poll conducted with the firm SurveyMonkey. A majority of Americans disagreed with Trumps decision on Comey, it turns out, with 54 percent saying that Comeys termination was inappropriate. A majority also said that allegations that the campaign was in contact with Russian actors was a serious issue, and not a distraction.

But notice how those figures break down by party. On the Comey question, majorities of Democrats and independents think that the move was inappropriate but three-quarters of Republicans are fine with it.

On the question of whether the allegations are serious, theres a similar split. Republicans think its a distraction. Everyone else disagrees.

The initial excuse for the firing offered by the White House was that it was rooted in criticism from a deputy attorney general of Comeys handling of the investigation into Hillary Clintons use of a private email server. While a plurality of Americans believed that the firing was a function of Trumps concern about the Russia investigation, Republicans largely accepted the White Houses original argument.

That pattern Republicans being enthusiastic, while independents are skeptical and Democrats furious is consistent across views of Trump. No president has been more polarizing in Gallups history of approval polling, and no president has been viewed less positively at this point in his first term. That pattern is the reason why. Democrats loathe him and independents are something shy of lukewarm, which strong Republican support cant outweigh enough to keep him from record lows.

Whats more, this pattern holds on nearly every issue. On Thursday, Quinnipiac University unveiled new polling looking at signature policy issues of the Trump administration. The health-care bill that passed the House this month continues to be broadly unpopular, but almost half of Republicans view it approvingly.

Trumps nebulous tax plan is also broadly disliked again, except among Trumps own party.

Those issues, of course, overlap with the concerns of Trumps allies on Capitol Hill. Having Republican voters broadly approving of Trumps initiatives is important to Hill Republicans for a variety of reasons, including that they want those policy measures to pass, too. (The American Health Care Act, for example, was a bill developed by congressional Republicans that Trump championed with relative indifference.)

Keeping Hill Republicans happy is important for Trump, too, because they control the relative few points of leverage over his presidency.

If there is to be an independent investigation of the possible links between Trumps campaign and Russia, either Trump needs to appoint someone unlikely or Hill Republicans have to leverage their control of Congress to create a robust independent body, to change the law or to bring pressure against Trump. Those are the only options, and all come down to the will of Trump or members of his party. If things were to progress to the point of impeachment, same deal: A Republican Congress would need to move the process forward.

At this point, its not simply a coincidence that Republicans approve of what Trump is doing and of what is happening in Congress. Trumps popularity with Republicans is driving popularity of Congress. Since his election, views of Republican leaders in Congress have spiked among members of their party.

Quinnipiac asked how a House candidates demonstration of support for Trump might affect a voters support. Overall, it was a liability but among Republicans, support for Trump was seen as either unimportant or as a boon.

If Republican members of Congress are confident that their partys voters will support them if they ally with Trump, thats all that many will need to hear. The electoral fights in the GOP over the past eight years have been largely primary fights: Republicans battling each other for the right to dispatch a Democrat in November. The average general-election margin of victory for Republicans in 2016 was 33.2 percentage points, according to Ballotopedia. Last November, 216 Republicans won by 10 points or more, a function of the power of incumbency, of the informal movement of voters into politically similar regions and of gerrymandering.

But why are Republicans so much more favorable to Trump and his actions? Part of it is the increase in partisanship over recent years. Part of it, too, is that Trump is bolstered by positive coverage in outlets that more Republicans watch.

Last October, Suffolk University polled on the presidential race, including a question about the respondents most-trusted news or commentary outlet. Fox News was the most popular outlet overall thanks to the fact that more than half of Republicans and Trump voters said it was what they trusted most.

How did Fox cover the Comey firing? Slate said the network was covering it from an alternate reality. The Times wrote that the attitude on Fox toward Comeys firing was almost celebratory. The Post noted that Fox and other conservative outlets were closing ranks behind Trump on the subject.

This couples with new research published this week by Pew Research showing that Republicans are suddenly much less likely to say that the medias criticism of politicians helps keep those politicians in line.

The partisan numbers on that question always align with the party in the White House, but the gap between the parties has never been bigger.

Trumps current favorable numbers actually arent very good for Trump. In the 2016 election, nearly a third of the votes he got were from independents enough to give him the slight edge he needed to win the Electoral College.

If his support from independents stays as soft as it is now, its hard to see how he wins a second term.

But thats not the Hill Republicans problem. If Trump stays popular with Republicans, if that popularity continues to rub off and if conservative news outlets continue to help keep all of that in place, theres little political incentive for Republicans in safe (or safe-ish) seats to call for an independent investigation, much less an impeachment.

If that 84 percent approval starts to sag significantly? Trump moves from political asset to political liability. And nothing in this world moves as quickly as a politician looking for distance from something unpopular.

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The one little number that so far is all the protection Donald Trump needs - Washington Post

Stephen Fry Explains Why Some People Believe Everything Donald Trump Says – HuffPost

Some supporters of President Donald Trump believe just about everything he says, even when hes wrong.And Trump himself seems to have absolute confidence in his own beliefs again, even when he is demonstrably wrong.

But there is a psychology lesson that could help explain it, according to Cambridge University-educated actor Stephen Fry, who was voted the most intelligent person on TV in the United Kingdom.

For example,researchers found students who were least proficient often overestimated their own abilities.

The skills they lacked were the same skills required to recognize their incompetence, Fry said. The incompetent are often blessed with an inappropriate confidence buoyed by something that feels to them like knowledge.

Thats now known as the Dunning-Kruger effect.

In a new clip that Pindex put together,Fry also explains how SalienceBias and the power of repetition help shape views more than facts.

The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, Fry says in the clip. It is the illusion of knowledge.

Start your workday the right way with the news that matters most.

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Stephen Fry Explains Why Some People Believe Everything Donald Trump Says - HuffPost

Inside a White House dinner with Donald Trump – New York Post

Thats just cold.

President Trump reportedly got two scoops of ice cream to go with his chocolate pie during a recent meal with White House staffers while everyone else got one.

The dessert diss was described in vivid detail Thursday in a lengthy interview that the president gave to Time Magazine.

Not only did Trump do their reporter and his staff dirty on the ice cream, but he also served everyone water while he, on the other hand, washed his food down with Diet Coke.

The waiters know well Trumps personal preferences, the article reads.

As he settles down, they bring him a Diet Coke, while the rest of us are served water, with the Vice President sitting at one end of the table. With the salad course, Trump is served what appears to be Thousand Island dressing instead of the creamy vinaigrette for his guests. When the chicken arrives, he is the only one given an extra dish of sauce. At the dessert course, he gets two scoops of vanilla ice cream with his chocolate cream pie, instead of the single scoop for everyone else.

According to Time, Trump viewed the meal as more of a pitch meeting than anything else with him going over a list of his past accomplishments and future plans.

The big story is that we are doing a good job for the country, the president said at the time. Were cutting costs, big, big costs.

While the rest of the interview includes discussions about Russia and other important issues, Twitter users couldnt seem to get enough of what went down at the dinner table.

If Trump getting two scoops of ice cream while everyone else gets one scoop isnt a metaphor for this entire bullst, idk what is, tweeted one person.

Today was the day the mainstream media broke the biggest of political stories. Trump gets 2 scoops of ice cream at dinner when staff get 1, wrote journalist Richard Lewis.

Gwen C. Katz added, Trump really is the kind of guy who would become president just so he could get more ice cream than everyone else.

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Inside a White House dinner with Donald Trump - New York Post