PUTIN ISN’T THE ONLY ONE THAT KNOWS HOW TO DEAL WITH TRUMP

…With Trump, flattery always works…..just ask Putin

 

Our president demands personal loyalty, even of the federal judges he nominates

 

Well, once again, we get another example as to how insecure and thin-skinned is our current White House resident.

 

We now learn from in-house insiders that the president had talked about rescinding Neil M. Gorsuch’s nomination to the Supreme Court because Mr. Gorsuch was rightfullly critical of Trump’s attacks on the federal judiciary.  As it turns out, the president had vented angrily to his advisers after, in his initial meeting with Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Gorsuch had told the Democratic senator that he found Trump’s repeated attacks on the federal judiciary very disturbing. 

 

“I told him how abhorrent Donald Trump’s invective and insults are toward the judiciary,” Blumenthal told The Post in an interview. “And he [Gorsuch] said to me that he found the insults ‘disheartening’ and ‘demoralizing’, Gorsuch’s own words.”

 

As we know, Trump feels that everyone he nominates for any position, they must be “loyal to him personally”.  This may be fine if the nominee works for you as the CEO of a company.  But the Supreme Court and the federal judiciary are totally independent, and they are from separate branches of the government.  They do not report to the president.

 

Trump, according to several knowledgeable people, was very upset that Gorsuch spoke against the president’s comments, during his private meeting with the Democratic senator.

 

It is unclear whether Trump’s verbal “explosion”, as another administration official described it, truly did put Gorsuch’s nomination in jeopardy.  Or was it just the president expressing his frustration aloud, as he most often does.

 

However, at the time, some in the White House and on Capitol Hill feared that Gorsuch’s confirmation, which at the time, had been the only clear triumph of Trump’s tumultuous young presidency.  (That is until these latest positive votes on the GOP’s and Trump’s horrible tax plan.)

 

But as usual, Trump went after the Washington Post report on Gorsuch’s comments as “FAKE NEWS” on Twitter.  According to Trump:  “I never even wavered and am very proud of him and the job he is doing as a Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court,” he tweeted. “The unnamed sources [that made this claim] don’t exist!”  However, based on some White house leaks, this was just another Trump lie.

 

As it turns out, the judge had early on, sent the president a handwritten letter, thanking him for the nomination and explaining how grateful he was.  This is according to a copy of the letter obtained by The Post.  “Your address to Congress was magnificent,” Gorsuch wrote. “And you were so kind to recognize Mrs. Scalia, remembering the justice, and mentioning me. My teenage daughters were cheering the TV!”  The reference to “the justice” was to Antonin Scalia, the late justice whom Gorsuch replaced, and “Mrs. Scalia” is Antonin’s widow, Maureen.

 

Aides have said that Trump did not immediately receive the note, but it was retrieved by his legislative affairs director, Marc Short and then seen by Trump, helping ease his thin-skinned concerns.

 

Gorsuch, as it should be, through his spokeswoman declined any comment.

 

It was two months after Trump’s temper-tantrum, when the Senate confirmed Gorsuch on a vote of 54 to 45. Trump and his allies promptly began boasting about the appointment as one of the president’s major achievements.

But the Gorsuch incident had so angered Trump, which was right after another federal judge had issued a nationwide stop to the president’s travel ban targeting a list of majority-Muslim countries.  At the time, the president disparaged that “so-called judge” on Twitter, writing that the ruling: “put our country in such peril.  If something happens, blame him and the court system,” Trump wrote. “People pouring in…….Bad!” 

 

Trump had additionally said that a panel of the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit that held oral arguments to review the judge’s order.  The review was “disgraceful” said Trump, and that the judges cared more about politics than following the law.

 

But as usual,  Trump then did a 180° turn on his newly appointed justice. 

 

In April, Trump bragged to the National Rifle Association (NRA) that Gorsuch “is really something very special”, and in June Trump told the Faith and Freedom Coalition that no president had accomplished more in their first 100 days, citing Gorsuch as a key achievement.  “I appointed and confirmed a Supreme Court justice in the mold of the late, great Antonin Scalia,” he said, “and now Justice Gorsuch has a seat on the United States Supreme Court.”

 

However, in his second thank you note to Trump, Gorsuch was properly effusive.

 

“The team you have assembled to assist me in the Senate is remarkable and inspiring,” he wrote. “I see daily their love of country and our Constitution, and know it is a tribute to you and your leadership for policy is always about personnel.”  He concluded, “Congratulations again on such a great start.”

 

As does Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Justice Gorsuch also knows how to flatter and deal with Donald J. Trump.

 

Copyright G.Ater  2017