How Donald Trump uses his tweets to control the narrative.

Trump uses social media as a weapon to control the news cycle. It works like a charm. His tweets are tactical rather than substantive. They mostly fall into one of these four categories. pic.twitter.com/XaK8tCpRy6

— George Lakoff (@GeorgeLakoff) January 3, 2018

Yep, that sounds about right to me.

Really?

CNN’S slogan is CNN, THE MOST TRUSTED NAME IN NEWS. Everyone knows this is not true, that this could, in fact, be a fraud on the American Public. There are many outlets that are far more trusted than Fake News CNN. Their slogan should be CNN, THE LEAST TRUSTED NAME IN NEWS!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 9, 2017

Does anybody else's head hurt as much as mine does?

Twitler seems to be awfully agitated this morning. Gee, I wonder why?

The Fake News is working overtime. As Paul Manaforts lawyer said, there was "no collusion" and events mentioned took place long before he...

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 31, 2017

....came to the campaign. Few people knew the young, low level volunteer named George, who has already proven to be a liar. Check the DEMS!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 31, 2017

I hope people will start to focus on our Massive Tax Cuts for Business (jobs) and the Middle Class (in addition to Democrat corruption)!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 31, 2017

"Democratic corruption?"There's a desperation play.

It's like Trump's ONLY go to move when in trouble is to shift the blame to the other guy.

He must have been a huge pain in the ass to his siblings growing up.

Trump's tweets are kind of like social media mental health checks.

You can literally gauge his level of stress or mental fragility based on what he posts on Twitter each morning.

The prognosis for today is, "panic stricken." 

Just a reminder that you do not want to bring that unsubstantiated Hillary Clinton finger pointing to the AM Joy Show.

Have you ever seen Wolf Blitzer do this? Brian Williams? pic.twitter.com/qqBxg3EDir

— Jay Rosen (@jayrosen_nyu) October 29, 2017

Joy Reid clearly does not suffer fools lightly, and she fact slapped this woman into virtual incoherence.

This whole Uranium One bullshit has been a transparent attempt to distract from these indictments from the get go.

Joy Reid has just made it to my must watch list.

According to White House spokesperson Trump had no reaction to his former campaign director's indictment "because it does not have anything to do with us." Say what?

Reporter: How did President Trump react to indictments and guilty plea?

Sanders: “Without a lot of reaction” https://t.co/i0KJKcBVgK

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) October 30, 2017

Huckabee Sanders spent almost her entire time at the podium claiming that they barely knew Paul Manafort, and that this George Papadopoulos was just some volunteer that nobody in the campaign ever even bothered to talked to.

And this is despite the fact that Trump introduced Papadapolous early in the campaign as "energy and foreign policy expert," which certainly does not sound like a freaking volunteer licking envelopes in the back room somewhere. And Manafort was his campaign manager and the guy that a lot of people credited with turning the campaign around.

.@newtgingrich: "Nobody should underestimate how much Paul Manafort did to really help get this [Trump] campaign to where it is right now."

— Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) August 20, 2016

See?

However Huckabee's main reason for taking the podium today was crystal clear from the beginning.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders checking her notes at today's Press Briefing: pic.twitter.com/xclrI30WWF

— Nick Jack Pappas (@Pappiness) October 30, 2017

Several times Huckabee Sanders made the case that the REAL evidence of collusion was between the Clinton campaign and the Russians, and that all of this is all just smoke and mirrors.

Which of course is the same meme that her boss was pushing this morning as well.

Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign. But why aren't Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus?????

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 30, 2017

....Also, there is NO COLLUSION!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 30, 2017

By the way that does not exactly sound as if Trump had the no reaction that Huckabee described in her lies to the White House press corps.

The facts are that the Trump White House is fully engaged in damage control right now, and that it is all about deflection, distraction, and denial.

Well gee if it's "indisputable" what can you do?

The evidence Clinton campaign, DNC & Russia colluded to influence the election is indisputable->https://t.co/nLRAMrJK3c

— Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) October 28, 2017

I often wonder if these people KNOW they are lying, or if the first lie they tell themselves each morning is that every thing that falls out of their maw is the indisputable truth despite any facts to the contrary?

This is clearly a demonstration that Huckabee Sanders has been not only drinking the kool-aid but perhaps even bathing in it.

John Kelly sacrifices his dignity to protect Donald Trump and to attack the Congresswoman who dared criticize him.

John Kelly confirms that Trump made insensitive remarks to widow of Green Beret. Just wishes no one heard him do it pic.twitter.com/6hfo5ZHAuP

— The Daily Edge (@TheDailyEdge) October 19, 2017

Courtesy of Newsweek: 

White House Chief of Staff John Kelly ripped into a congresswoman who's been at the center of a controversy over a phone call President Donald Trump made to the family of Sgt. La David Johnson, a Green Beret killed in an ambush in Niger on October 4. 

"I was stunned when I came to work yesterday morning and brokenhearted at what I saw a member of Congress doing," Kelly said in an extraordinary White House briefing on Tuesday, referring to Florida Rep. Frederica Wilson who said Trump told the grieving widow that Johnson "he knew what he was getting into," setting off two days of controversy over the president's perceived insensitivity. 

Kelly later described Wilson as an "empty barrel" in a "long tradition of empty barrels making the most noise."

By the way Rep. Wilson was a family friend who was IN the car with the family as they traveled to retrieve the body of this young woman's dead husband as it arrived at the airport. It was the family that put the call on speaker phone.

Kelly then went on to say that HE was the one who told Trump to say that the soldier "knew what he signed up for," which he claims was what he was told by the officer, a family friend, who contacted him after his son was killed in the line of duty.

Kelly's contention was that Trump meant well, but perhaps phrased things indelicately.

Of course that flies in the face of every single thing that we know about Donald Trump.

Kelly also went on to lament the loss of things that were once held "sacred" in this country, such as women, life, religion, and Gold Star families.

Treatment of Gold Star families was once "sacred," Gen. Kelly says; "I think that left in the convention over the summer." pic.twitter.com/C7Ox48iFQN

— CBS News (@CBSNews) October 19, 2017

Of course Kelly seemed to forget that it was his boss who disrespected the Khans, a Gold Star family, during the campaign.

As for women, he just finished attacking a female member of Congress.  (By the way that was even made more egregious by the fact that he essentially confirmed, despite what his boss had said, that she had been telling the truth.)

In his remarks Kelly confirmed that President Obama did not call him after his son died, but said that it was not a bad thing since it is hard for presidents to call everybody especially if there are frequent casualties.

However he failed to mention that he attended a White House hosted Gold Star family breakfast at which he sat at table with Michelle Obama.

It was clear from the outset that Kelly had been sent out to preform clean up duty for Trump.

However to do that Kelly had to reveal that he was essentially comfortably seated in the basket of deplorables who will stick with Donald Trump no matter what he might do, or how he might damage the country. 

And since a number of us were hoping that Kelly was somehow able to exert some control over Trump, that is very troubling to learn.

I am now left questioning John Kelly's integrity, and wondering if he is someone that can be counted on to rein in Trump's worst instincts, or if he is pouring gasoline on the embers of anger and frustration that Trump seems always to have smouldering under the surface?

White House spokesperson angry that reporters are "pushing a narrative that just doesn't exist," invents one of her own instead.

.@SarahHuckabee: The only thing I see misleading is year's worth of stories that have been fueling a false narrative about Russia collusion. pic.twitter.com/BDzIaiHzNU

— Fox News (@FoxNews) August 1, 2017

Transcript courtesy of the Washington Examiner:

"The only thing I see misleading is a year's worth of stories that have been fueling a false narrative about this Russia collusion, a phony scandal based on anonymous sources," Sanders said after being asked how much Trump helped his son write a statement about a meeting he had last year with a Russian lawyer. 

"You guys are focused on a meeting that Don Jr. had no consequence," she said. "[T]he Democrats actually colluded with a foreign government, like Ukraine, the Democrat-linked firm Fusion GPS actually took money from the Russian government while it created the phony dossier that's been the basis for all of the Russia scandal fake news."

"And if you want to talk further about a relationship with Russia, look no further than the Clintons," Sanders said. "As we've said time and time again, Bill Clinton was paid $500,000 to give a speech to a Russian bank and was personally thanked by Putin for it." 

"Hillary Clinton allowed one-fifth of America's uranium reserve to be sold to a Russian firm whose investors were Clinton Foundation donors, and the Clinton campaign chairman's brother lobbied against sanctions on Russia's largest bank and failed to report it," she said. 

"If you guys want to talk about having relations, which you seem obsessed with doing, look no further than there." "If you want to talk about somebody who's actually been tough on Russia, look at President Trump. He wants more fracking, more coal, more energy, a stronger military, a stronger defense. Those things aren't good for Russia." 

"I think the distinctions are very clear," she concluded. "You guys want to create a narrative that just doesn't exist."

Do you know what narrative doesn't exist? The one about the Trump campaign's ties to Russia, with all of the evidence.

But do you know which narrative DOES exist? The one about the Clinton's that I just pulled out of my ass.

Actually that is not fair.

Sanders read that response verbatim from a sheet of paper on her podium, which means it was pulled out of Donald Trump's ass and handed to her in order to create this narrative.

And of course it is indeed a putrid pile of excrement, with virtually no real factual basis.

I already dealt with that uranium nonsense here, the rest is just as bad.

The Clinton campaign chairman's brother? I mean come on!

Is there also a connection between Russia and the Clinton housekeeper's second cousin's, second wife's, former brother-in-law's kid brother?

This definitely smacks of desperation.

Trump's morning tweets smell of desperation.

Drain the Swamp should be changed to Drain the Sewer - it's actually much worse than anyone ever thought, and it begins with the Fake News!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 24, 2017

So why aren't the Committees and investigators, and of course our beleaguered A.G., looking into Crooked Hillarys crimes & Russia relations?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 24, 2017

Man he can never leave this Hillary thing alone.

At this point it seems pathological.

It's almost like he wishes he had lost the election so that he could spend all of his time trolling Hillary and the Democrats. 

Sleazy Adam Schiff, the totally biased Congressman looking into "Russia," spends all of his time on television pushing the Dem loss excuse!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 24, 2017

Oh yeah, he's losing it.

Even Joe Scarborough senses it.

Our president sounds beleaguered and frightened this morning. You can sense his fear in every terrified tweet. Justice must be closing in. https://t.co/CA4PbkUYpp

— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) July 24, 2017

Well, he could always just resign.

Donald Trump compares colluding with a foreign government to steal an election with the possibility of receiving debate questions ahead of time.

HillaryClinton can illegally get the questions to the Debate & delete 33,000 emails but my son Don is being scorned by the Fake News Media?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 16, 2017

Damn, that is just pathetic.

Every time Trump feels under attack his first response is to deflect by saying "They did it too," or making something up to direct attention to others.

Just want to point out that there is no evidence that Hillary actually received any questions ahead of time, this was a town hall not a debate, and that Hillary would have been prepared for that question anyhow.

As for those 33,000 emails he keeps going on about remember that the Bush Administration "lost" 22 million of their emails.

But Trump was not quite done this morning.

With all of its phony unnamed sources & highly slanted & even fraudulent reporting, #Fake News is DISTORTING DEMOCRACY in our country!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 16, 2017

That's right, it's the news media that is distorting democracy in this country.

Not the attempts by Trump's Russian pals to hijack our election process, or widespread voter suppression, or GOP gerrymandering.

Nope its the press.