Scripted Empathy

I Hear You:  Yesterday, Trump held his first study session on guns, this one with students, parents and teachers from several of the schools that had experienced gun related massacres.  Representatives from  Stoneman Douglas, Columbine, and Sandy Hook were included.  The White House contingent included Mike Pence and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.  Someone in the White House prepared Trump for the session by providing him with a neatly written list of questions.  That Trump came with a few prepared questions isn’t all that remarkable, frankly it was encouraging to know that he can actually read,  however, it was disturbing to see that the list, which Trump clasped in his little hands, also included some scripted responses like “I hear you,” a recognition by his handlers that Trump’s own empathy skills are weak at best.  The invited guests had been carefully screened and at first appeared more awed by Trump, the White House environment and the cameras and strangely respectful given their tragic life experiences.  The first to speak sounded like they belonged in one of Trump’s cabinet meetings, they were a little too fawning and complimentary of Trump and his presidency but then a few of the family members went off script displaying raw emotion and pleading for something to be done about the easy availability of semi-automatic weapons.  One Parkland teen expressed his frustration by pointing out the irony that since he had turned eighteen the day after the massacre, he could now go out and buy an AR-15, the weapon used to mow down his classmates.  For the most part Trump listened, uttering one or two of those scripted empathy comments, Betsy DeVos nodded continuously like a smiling bobble head doll and Pence remained stuck with his usual fawning VP stare. Trump got his Groucho Marx moment when one family member called for better school security, the secret words that gave him the opening he was looking for and an opportunity to give his practiced NRA approved solution to school massacres, more guns, this time in the hands of teachers.  What could go wrong with that?  Trump again left the impression that he might support a tweaked version of the Cornyn-Murphy bill that calls for better reporting of people with backgrounds that should disqualify them for gun ownership. That and the slow walking of a regulation to ban bump stocks is probably as far as he will go. The NRA has little to worry about, at least with regard to Trump. They should be far more worried about the impressive, articulate and relentless Parkland teens who are doing their best to change gun laws and may be in the process of sparking a national movement, one with legs. Yesterday, during a CNN town hall in Miami they pushed back hard against an NRA representative and left the gun friendly Senator Rubio sputtering to defend his NRA financed positions.  They also embarrassed the NRA-A+ rated Florida Governor Scott into showing up for a meeting he was doing his best to avoid.  To the extent that Scott moves forward with his plans to run against the proudly “F-rated” Democratic Senator Nelson in November, the student inspired anti-gun movement could be the deciding factor that keeps Nelson in office.  

More on Manafort: The Mueller team has amended the filing against Paul Manafort and Rick Gates. The filing is sealed so it’s unclear whether new criminal charges have been added or whether the action indicates the widely expected Gates plea agreement.  Also on the Manafort front, NBC news reports that investigators are now probing whether Manafort promised Chicago banker Stephen Calk a job in the Trump White House in return for $16 million in curious home loans for his properties in NYC, Virginia and the Hamptons.  The loans were made in December 2016 and January 2017 by Federal Savings Bank, Calk is Chairman of the bank, and initially raised suspicion because $16 million represents nearly a quarter of the small bank’s portfolio.  Banks do not generally lend that high a percentage of their capacity to one borrower. At the time that the loans were made others inside the bank questioned them and at least one bank official is now cooperating with Mueller’s team. Ultimately Calk, who was a senior economic advisor to Trump during the transition period, did not get a cabinet position, instead the reward for his largesse is involvement in the Manafort investigation.  Mueller is also looking into whether Manafort misrepresented his financial resources and inflated his income statements to qualify for the loans, another one of those things that is a bigly problem.

Immigration Hypocrisy:  During the 2016 election, after questions were raised about whether Melania Trump had violated US visa laws by working in the US before she had attained legal status, Trump promised that Melania would be holding a press conference in two weeks to prove that she had followed all of the rules.  Of course that press conference never took place probably because Melania couldn’t document that she had followed applicable laws.  Yesterday, it was reported that Melania’s parents are now green card holders on their way to becoming naturalized US citizens.  They are beneficiaries of those “chain migration” provisions, the ones that Trump wants to eliminate.  In the meantime, a DACA resolution remains mired in Congress, with chain migration one of the issues blocking passage of any immigration resolution.  Remember when Trump said that he would treat the Dreamers with love.  Just some more scripted empathy.