Weirdness.

A felon pleaded his case on ‘Fox & Friends.’ Days later, Trump pardoned him.

Some 1.6 million people tune in to “Fox & Friends” every morning, but when Kristian Saucier told the network why he believed he should be pardoned for his national-security-related felony conviction, he clearly had one very specific, very powerful fan of the show in mind: the viewer-in-chief.

“Obviously, there’s two different sets of laws in this country, for the politically elite and for those lower-level individuals, Americans like myself,” he said on the network Sunday. “And I think that’s very upsetting on a basic level for most people. It should be.

“I accepted responsibility. I didn’t go to trial. I pleaded guilty. I said,

Oh, that meeting with Kim that Trump was going to have? Never mind. He got excited and he didn’t mean it and it was all a misunderstanding. Next question?

South Korean official Chung Eui-yong was in the White House yesterday meeting with other officials. Trump decided to see Chung right away; maybe Fox News was in repeats or something. Trump “then asked Mr. Chung to tell him about his meeting with Mr. Kim,” reports the New York Times. “When Mr. Chung said that the North Korean leader had expressed a desire to meet Mr. Trump, the president immediately said he would do it, and directed Mr. Chung to announce it to the White House press corps.”

It sounds

About this lawsuit that Stormy Daniels (Stephanie Clifford) filed to break the NDA: it could be the thing that brings Trump down.

As any longtime legal hand in the capital remembers well, it was a sexual harassment lawsuit brought by an Arkansas state employee, Paula Jones, against Bill Clinton that led to his impeachment for lying about his affair with Monica S. Lewinsky.

The case of the adult film actress, Stephanie Clifford, who uses the stage-name Stormy Daniels, may not get past even the first considerable obstacles. But if her court case proceeds, Mr. Trump and his longtime personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, may have to testify in depositions, several lawyers said in interviews on Thursday. Ms. Clifford’s suit

The Times solemnly reports on Trump’s North Korea caper as if it were sane and normal and likely to produce excellent results, and doesn’t talk to anyone who sees it differently until the last few paragraphs. Waaaay down at the bottom we get:

Analysts expressed skepticism about Mr. Trump’s decision to meet Mr. Kim, saying there was no indication that North Korea had given up its determination to be a nuclear weapons state.

“There is every reason to believe that North Korea is attempting to blunt sanctions and secure de facto legitimacy for its nuclear weapons program with this gesture,” said Michael J. Green, a former Asia adviser to President George W. Bush, speaking by telephone from Tokyo.

Evan S.

Catching up on one from a week ago:

[Editing to add: actually a year and a week ago. I should have realized. I knew he’d started doing it as soon as he got the chance, but I assumed this was a new phase. Reminder to self: check the year.]

President Trump stepped up his attack on federal environmental protections Tuesday, issuing an order directing his administration to begin the long process of rolling back sweeping clean water rules that were enacted by his predecessor.

……………………………What kind of fucking evil sack of shit gets rid of clean water rules?

Stupid question; I know; the fucking evil sack of shit who stole the election and now gets to destroy everything. … Read the rest

Another boom. The Times reports Trump doing something you’re really not supposed to do…something that a punctilious observer could consider witness tampering.

The special counsel in the Russia investigation has learned of two conversations in recent months in which President Trump asked key witnesses about matters they discussed with investigators, according to three people familiar with the encounters.

In one episode, the president told an aide that the White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, should issue a statement denying a New York Times article in January. The article said Mr. McGahn told investigators that the president once asked him to fire the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III. Mr. McGahn never released a statement and later had

18 U.S. Code § 713: Use of likenesses of the great seal of the United States, the seals of the President and Vice President, the seal of the United States Senate,…United States House of Representatives, and the seal of the United States Congress

(a) Whoever knowingly displays any printed or other likeness of the great seal of the United States, or of the seals of the President or the Vice President of the United States, or the seal of the United States Senate, or the seal of the United States House of Representatives, or the seal of the United States Congress, or any facsimile thereof, in, or in connection with, any advertisement, poster, circular, book, pamphlet, or other publication,

You know how Trump has a long history of using fake names to promote himself and his scams?

TheWashington Post set off a controversy last week when it published a story alleging that Trump posed as a public relations man named John Miller to energize the tabloid scandal raging over his affair with the model/actress Marla Maples and his divorce from his first wife Ivana. Trump last week denied that he’d made the call. The report provoked a new round of questions about Trump’s character. What could possibly motivate a grown man running a business empire to do such a thing? And what does this say about Trump’s temperament?

In fact, Trump’s use of fake names is far more

So is Putin really deciding what Secretary of State we can have?

Jane Mayer reports a memo of Christopher Steele’s that indicates a maybe.

In the spring of 2017, after eight weeks in hiding, Steele gave a brief statement to the media, announcing his intention of getting back to work. On the advice of his lawyers, he hasn’t spoken publicly since. But Steele talked at length with Mueller’s investigators in September. It isn’t known what they discussed, but, given the seriousness with which Steele views the subject, those who know him suspect that he shared many of his sources, and much else, with the Mueller team.

One subject that Steele is believed to have discussed with Mueller’s investigators is a

Prepare to gag.

Pro Publica reports:

President Donald Trump loves putting his name on everything from ties to steaks to water — and, of course, his buildings. But now the Trump Organization appears to be borrowing a brand even more powerful than the gilded Trump moniker: the presidential seal.

In recent weeks, the Trump Organization has ordered the manufacture of new tee markers for golf courses that are emblazoned with the seal of the President of the United States. Under federal law, the seal’s use is permitted only for official government business. Misuse can be a crime.

Is using it to advertise and glorify the president’s profit-making golf courses misuse or is it official government business? That’s a tough … Read the rest

Another surprise story out of the White House: Trump is in a bad mood. Really?!! Well that caught us all flat-footed.

Barry McCaffrey says he’s “starting to wobble in his emotional stability,” which comes as a huge shock because we never knew he had any emotional stability to wobble in.

[T]he developments have delivered one negative headline after another, leading Trump to lose his cool — especially in the evenings and early mornings, when he often is most isolated, according to advisers.

But surely Melania and Barron are there to cuddle and cheer him. No? They’re in their own quarters with the doors triple-locked?

For instance, aides said, Trump seethed with anger last Wednesday night over cable news coverage

Trump hits 100.

President Donald Trump reached a presidential milestone at his Palm Beach County, Florida, golf club on Saturday: One hundred days in office at a golf club that bears his name.

100 days in 13 months: not too shabby.

Trump, once a critic of presidential golfing, has ignored his own advice and made a habit of visiting some of the many golf courses emblazoned in his moniker. The habit is part of the broader trend of the President and first lady making frequent trips to properties owned and operated by the Trump Organization.

So, you see, he’s not actually golfing in the recreational sense, he’s working to exploit the presidency to promote his businesses.

In total, Trump

Sometimes you just have to laugh.

REST IN PEACE BILLY GRAHAM! pic.twitter.com/2qMoUccVC2

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 2, 2018

Nothing like shouting at people to make them have a good nap.… Read the rest

This morning:

Alec Baldwin, whose dying mediocre career was saved by his terrible impersonation of me on SNL, now says playing me was agony. Alec, it was agony for those who were forced to watch. Bring back Darrell Hammond, funnier and a far greater talent!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 2, 2018

The Times has background:

Mr. Trump had refrained from remarking on the show on Twitter for many months. But on Friday morning, Mr. Baldwin’s remarks were highlighted on Fox News and Mr. Trump weighed in soon after.

They share the tweet.

(An earlier version of the post in which Mr. Trump misspelled Mr. Baldwin’s name as “Alex” was deleted.)

It also spelled “dying” “dieing.”

Oh sweet

Inside the West Wing:

But a president who has long tried to impose his version of reality on the world is finding the limits of that strategy. Without Mr. Porter playing a stopgap role on trade, the debate has been marked by a lack of focus on policy and planning, according to several aides.

Morale in the West Wing has sunk to a new low, these people said. In private conversations, Mr. Trump lashes out regularly at Attorney General Jeff Sessions with a vitriol that stuns members of his staff. Some longtime advisers said that Mr. Trump regards Mr. Sessions’s decision to recuse himself from the Russia investigation as the “original sin,” which the president thinks has left him

Europe to Trumpistan: ok you’ve done it now – we’re slapping a tariff on bourbon and blue jeans, so ha.

It’s a clever move. Trump will hate that, because American Greatness!

The European Union will hit back at the heart of the United States, slapping tariffs on products like Harley-Davidsons, Kentucky bourbon and bluejeans, if President Trump goes ahead with a plan to place tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, the president of the bloc’s executive arm vowed on Friday.

Harleys! They really know how to attack Americanitude, don’t they.

Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, made the remarks to the German news media in reaction to the proposed tariffs. Mr. Junker said the plans to tax the

So what happens when Don has a really bad day? He starts trashing the place in earnest.

President Trump whiplashed Washington through 24 hours of chaos and confusion, culminating Thursday with a surprise announcement that he will unilaterally impose steep tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports.

His own aides were stunned. The stock market plunged. It was the moment many of his advisers had long feared would occur when he grew tired of talking points and economic theory and decided to do things his way.

Maybe next time it will be starting the nuclear Armageddon.

Trump often likes to sow misdirection, running the White House like a never-ending reality show where only he knows the plot. But even

The White House story yesterday was that Hope Hicks had been planning to quit for weeks n weeks, and her all-day session in front of the Intelligence Committee had nothing to do with it despite the temporal proximity. Nobody believed that, but now there’s reporting to the contrary.

[A] report from CNN’s Erin Burnett suggested Trump had made it clear he was not happy with Hicks following the revelation that she sometimes needed to tell “white lies” in her role, according to a close ally of the president who spoke with Burnett.

Trump asked Hicks “how she could be so stupid,” after the testimony, Burnett said, adding, “Apparently, that was the final straw for Hope Hicks.”

That’s so Don. … Read the rest

No theory of mind and no self-knowledge either. Trump now is telling us he “really believes” he would have run into MSD School even without a gun, because he’s so brave and awesome and everything.

Donald Trump was unable to serve his country during the Vietnam War due to his crippling bone spurs. He has spent his life since then proclaiming his love of the military that his affliction prevented him from joining (or sometimes using his love of the military as political cover). Today, Trump told a meeting of governors he would have stopped the Parkland school shooting had he been an officer on the scene. Indeed, he would have charged the shooter if he had no weapon: