December 15, 2017

Trump Terrible 10: Misogynist Disgrace Edition

Trump Terrible 10: Misogynist Disgrace Edition

Who are we referencing in the headline? We’ll be letting you know in two or three weeks. Kidding! We’ll tell you today.

Since 2017, Republic Report‘s “Trump Terrible 10” has ranked the week’s 10 most disgraceful figures in Trump world.

Republic Report, which focuses on how money corrupts democracy, has met its abusive dream mate with the kleptocratic administration of President Donald J. Trump. Trump and his lieutenants personify how money and greed, mixed with disrespect for constitutional values, know-nothing ignorance, serious bigotry, and an endless capacity for lying, can really, really corrupt democracy.

Permanent spoiler alert: We can’t imagine anyone other than Donald Trump ever occupying the top spot in the rankings. But we won’t get tired of him winning. Believe me.

10. Roy Moore, Insistent Republican candidate for Senate, Alabama. Last week’s ranking: 2

One of his attorneys may have been a Jew, and he and his wife may have fellowshipped with blacks, but Roy Moore is a vile bigot; a law-breaker as a judge; a man who, when asked by an African-American voter when our country was last great, answered that it was the slavery era; and a man accused of child sexual abuse by multiple credible victims. Instead of conceding defeat to Doug Jones, Moore has insisted on waiting until God’s absentee ballot has been counted.

9. Scott Pruitt, Administrator, Environmental Protection Agency. Last week’s ranking: —

The free-flying Scott Pruitt is just back from Morocco, where he brought a big entourage and supposedly focused on the questionable trend of exporting U.S. natural gas overseas, even though that issue is within the jurisdiction of federal agencies other than the EPA. Meanwhile, Pruitt’s disgracefully conflicted pick to run the EPA’s chemicals division, Michael Dourson, was forced to withdraw, and even the White House is now reportedly expressing doubts about Pruitt’s plan to have a lengthy “red team, blue team” exercise aimed at somehow discrediting the widely accepted science of climate change.

8. Stephen Bannon, executive chairman, Breitbart, and former Chief Strategist to the President. Last week’s ranking: —

Bannon’s quest to broaden his appeal beyond Trump, the Mercers, and nutty Internet white supremationalists, and become his own political star, hit a wall this week when Alabama voters rejected his boy, bigot Roy Moore. Keep up the great work, Steve. You’re super-compelling on the stump, okay?

7 and 6. Omarosa Manigault Newman, Assistant to the President and Director of Communications, Office of Public Liaison, and John Kelly, White House Chief of Staff. Last week’s ranking: —

Press reports allege that chief of staff Kelly fired Omarosa, after which she headed for the White House residence to try to appeal to Trump and then was escorted off the grounds. Omarosa denied that was the case, claiming that what went on between her and Kelly was that she announced her plan to resign effective January 20. But if that were so, why isn’t she working at the White House anymore, and instead was on “Good Morning America” teasing a tell-all book?

Feud lover Omarosa has been awful and childish in her White House job. However, any black woman fired by General Kelly, after his shameful performance regarding Representative Frederica Wilson and Gold Star widow Myeshia Johnson, was entitled to seek to appeal to someone else. It’s been two months and still no apology from General Kelly for his disgraceful comments following the death of U.S. Army Sgt. La David Johnson.

5. Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), chair, House Education and the Workforce Commitee, and Betsy DeVos, Secretary of Education. Last week’s ranking: 8 (DeVos)

Like DeVos, Rep. Foxx, who once seemed to compare critics of for-profit colleges to the Nazis, has turned her back on struggling students and is working to grant predatory schools their entire wish list; this week she rammed through her committee, with no support from Democrats, the disgraceful PROSPER Act, which would free bad colleges from accountability for waste fraud and abuse with taxpayer dollars. Foxx and DeVos have also teamed to devise the Secretary’s first appearance ever before this committee; it will be Wednesday, December 20 at 2 pm, when, as these two gifted education leaders know, many people will be downing eggnog, racing to buy gifts, and not paying attention.

4. Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), chair, House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Rep. Steve Chabot (R-OH), and other GOP clowns on the committee. Last week’s ranking: —

Numerous Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee swarmed on Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein at a hearing, calling Robert Mueller’s Russiagate investigation corrupt and demanding that Mueller be fired. Instead of being concerned about the clear evidence already revealed of Trumpsmen lying to the FBI, obstructing justice, unlawfully lobbying for pro-Russia interests, laundering money, and engaging in numerous troubling contacts with Russians, these irresponsible congressmen are serving as hatchetmen in the effort to undermine the investigation and give Trump the green light to fire Mueller or issue blanket pardons. They have no integrity, no credibility, no nothing.

3. Steven Mnuchin, Secretary of the Treasury. Last week’s ranking: —

At least the Laffer curve was written on a napkin well before Congress took up the Reagan tax legislation. Mnuchin’s post-hoc one-page rationale for the Trump tax bill, which balloons the deficit while transferring billions from working Americans to the super-rich like Mnuchin and First Lady of Money Louise Linton, is just a stark fuck you to the senators who called out the stilted Secretary for his deceptions.

2. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, White House Press Secretary. Last week’s ranking: —

There’s a super-special place in Hell for White House press secretaries who dismissively reject legitimate questions about ugly presidential misogyny and charge that it’s reporters’ minds that are in the gutter.

1. Donald J. Trump, President of the United States. Last week’s ranking: obviously

Of all the disgusting aspects of Donald Trump — including his bigotry, dishonesty, and crookedness — the foulest is his ugly misogyny, a quality that was on grotesque display this week. As you know, more than a dozen women have made detailed, highly-credible allegations of sexual abuse by Trump, illustrating a pattern that is also consistent with Trump’s recorded Access Hollywood boast. Trump’s response has been to deny, deny, deny, and label the women as liars — and to say that some of them were too unattractive for him to have ever wanted to harass.  Trump is lying. But nearly as sickening as Trump’s physical assaults on women, and his crude denials, have been his verbal attacks aiming to reduce women to sexual acts or bodily functions, most recently his repulsive Twitter attack on Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who had called on Trump to resign over the abuse allegations.

Nothing can redeem a person that awful, but Trump’s ugliness extends in so many other directions. We llearned that, according to government officials, Trump’s daily intelligence briefing “is often structured to avoid upsetting him,” especially regarding his anti-American idol Vladamir Putin. Today on the White House lawn, before departing to address graduates of the FBI’s National Academy, Trump resumed his attacks on the Bureau and the Mueller investigation, claiming to reporters: “Even the Democrats admit, there was no collusion.” He added, “I don’t want to talk about pardons for Michael Flynn, yet. We’ll see what happens. Let’s see.” And he stressed, “It’s a shame what’s happened with the FBI,” calling events at the Bureau — his word — “disgraceful.”

Even some GOP senators are now raising concerns about Trump picking unqualified Federalist Society youths to be federal judges.

Despite all his bragging, Trump’s volume of lies is the only record he’s setting.

On the fifth anniversary of the Sandy Hook massacre, Trump did nothing to honor the 26 children and school staff who were shot to death; instead Trump hosted a holiday party whose guests included the country’s most aggressive gun lobbyist, National Rifle Association head Wayne LaPierre.

And Trump’s hilariously pathetic post-election effort to distance himself from the Alabama Senate candidate he endorsed, Roy Moore, followed his hilariously pathetic post-election effort to distance himself from the GOP primary candidate he endorsed, Luther Strange. We look forward to Trump distancing himself from the 2020 presidential loser.

Trump is again number one — the most disgraceful figure in the Trump administration. Trump is not merely a disgrace; he’s a total and complete disgrace.

This article also appears on HuffPost.

Vintage disgracefulness:

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Trump Terrible 10: Rocket Man Golf Strike BLT Steak Edition

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Trump Terrible 10: Great Job A+ Moron Edition

Trump Terrible 10: Adult Day Care Edition

Trump Terrible 10: Self-Imposed National Crisis Edition

Trump Terrible 10: Total And Complete Disgrace Edition

Trump Terrible 10: Manafort Indictment Edition

Trump Terrible 10: Always Russian Edition

Trump Terrible 10: Big Olde’ Fat Man Edition

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