Trump has allowed, if not encouraged, latent hate to blossom. [WW]
The President is in a war with the truth. [Bob Woodward]
Trump has managed to insult or otherwise put a finger in the eye of just about every ally of the United States. [WW]
According to official government estimates, 64 people died in Puerto Rico due to Hurricane Maria, which devastated the island in September 2017.
A new study by the George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health, commissioned by the Governor of Puerto Rico, found the actual number of deaths attributable to the hurricane was 2,975. In the 9/11 attacks, 2,997 people died, excluding the hijackers.
In October 2017, Trump visited Puerto Rico and said that residents of the island are lucky that the hurricane was not “a real catastrophe, like Katrina.” The death toll of Hurricane Katrina was 1,833.
Back in DC a few days later Trump graded himself a 10 out of 10 for the administration’s response to Puerto Rico. “I give ourselves a 10…We have provided so much, so fast. We were actually there before the storm hit,” Trump said in an event with Puerto Rico’s Governor at the White House.
Hurricane Harvey struck Texas about a month earlier. An exhaustive report on the response to Hurricane Maria by Politico found “the Trump administration — and the president himself — responded far more aggressively to Texas than to Puerto Rico.”
Trump “spent the first weekend after the Puerto Rico crisis tweeting repeatedly about NFL players kneeling for the national anthem.”
Helicopters were slow to arrive, fewer federal personnel were sent, and much of the island remained without power for months. More resources were sent to Texas even though the damage to Puerto Rico was far greater.
Even today, the federal government is funding permanent fixes to Texas’ infrastructure but has yet to begin such investments in Puerto Rico.
63% of Americans support the investigation of the president and his associates by Robert Mueller. 64% think that Trump should not fire Attorney General Sessions. [WP/ABC, 8/29/18]
52% of Americans feel very warm toward Canada but only 23% of Americans feel very warm toward Mexico. 63% of Democrats/Leaners feel warm toward Canada as do 39% of Republicans/Leaners. Only 9% of Republicans/Leaners feel warm toward Mexico while 34% of Democrats/Leaners feel that way. [PEW, 8/28/18]
President Trump describes Mexico as “a very large trading partner” and refers to Canada as a “smaller segment”. The reality is that trade with Canada in 2017 was $57 billion larger than trade with Mexico. [Factcheck.org, 9/1/18]
There are 9 Supreme Court Justices, 167 Appeals Court Justices and 667 District Court Judges.
| Total | Supreme Ct | Appeals Ct | District Ct | |
| Trump – thru 9/6/18 | 68 | 1 | 26 | 41 |
| Obama – 8 years | 329 | 2 | 55 | 268 |
| GW Bush – 8 years | 327 | 2 | 62 | 261 |
| Clinton – 8 years | 378 | 2 | 66 | 305 |
| GHW Bush – 4 years | 193 | 2 | 42 | 148 |
| Reagan | 383 | 3 | 83 | 290 |
| Carter | 262 | 0 | 56 | 203 |
| [uscourts.gov] | ||||
(There are currently 73 nominations pending: 1 Supreme Court, 10 for the Courts of Appeals, 60 for the District Courts, 2 for the Courts of International Trade)