monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

President Trump may have just made the most demonstrably false statement of his life.

On Tuesday, Trump met with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's Secretary General to seemingly discuss nothing related to NATO at all. After all, beyond the fact that Germany is in the military alliance, there was no apparent reason for Trump to falsely claim his father was "born in a very wonderful place in Germany" when he was definitely born in New York City.

Trump just said "my father is German, was German. Born in a very wonderful place in Germany." Fred Trump was born in New York. pic.twitter.com/U6eWYPzjrJ

— Tommy MMXIXtopher (@tommyxtopher) April 2, 2019

Beyond this random gaffe, Trump answered — or tried to answer — questions about Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. While trying to say someone should look at the "origins" of the probe, Trump definitely said "oranges" three times before swapping it for "beginnings" instead. Kathryn Krawczyk

Wow -- Trump repeatedly mangles the word "origins," on three separate occasions saying "oranges" instead. pic.twitter.com/EZggYhIAO7

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 2, 2019

A woman carrying two Chinese passports and a device with computer malware allegedly lied to enter US President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago club.

The woman, Yujing Zhang, 32, told security she was at the Florida club to go to the pool, according to a criminal complaint filed in US District Court.

"Due to a potential language barrier issue," staff believed she was related to a club member and let her in.

Mr Trump was in Palm Beach at the time of the incident on Saturday 30 March.

Ms Zhang - who was described in the affidavit as an "Asian female" - is charged with making false statements to a federal officer and illegally entering a restricted area.

According to the court documents, upon entry to the club Ms Zhang changed her story, telling a front-desk receptionist she was there to attend a "United Nations Chinese American Association" event.

The receptionist, who knew that such an event had been scheduled, became suspicious of Ms Zhang.

The suspect was transported off the property for further questioning.

She told agents she had been instructed by a friend, identified only as "Charles", to travel from Shanghai, China, to Palm Beach to attend the purported United Nations event, but did not provide any more details, according to court documents.

She said "Charles" had encouraged her to attempt to speak to a member of the president's family about Chinese-American economic relations, said the affidavit.

Secret service agent Samuel Ivanovich said Ms Zhang carried four mobile phones, a laptop, an external hard drive and a thumb drive containing a computer virus, but no swim suit.

In the court document, Mr Ivanovich notes that Ms Zhang "freely and without difficulty conversed" in English, becoming "verbally aggressive" with authorities as the investigation progressed.

The Secret Service said in a statement that it "does not determine who is invited or welcome at Mar-a-Lago; this is the responsibility of the host entity.

"The Mar-a-Lago club management determines which members and guests are granted access to the property."

Ms Zhang's lawyer has so far declined comment.

She will remain in custody until a hearing next week.

If convicted, she could face a maximum of five years in prison.

According to Washington Post reporter Aaron Blake, this is the third time Trump incorrectly stated that his father was born in Germany.

Seeing a black woman who also happens to be gay win the mayoralty of chicago is a fine thing indeed.

Many of us in Chicago also didn't really care, as turnout was dismal.

At one point during his remarks to the National Republican Congressional Committee last night, Donald Trump complained, "Someone's going to leak this whole damn speech to the media." The remarks were being broadcast live by C-SPAN at the time.

That was, alas, not the strangest part of the president's speech.

Quote:

In a speech tonight to House Republicans, Trump claimed that wind turbines cause cancer.

"They say the noise causes cancer," the president of the United States asserted.

Wind turbines do not cause cancer. Some people blame the noise for causing a variety of other health ailments, but these charges have zero scientific validity. Cancer is not caused by noises of any kind.

This comes on the heels of related remarks the president made last week, when he argued at a campaign rally that homes powered by wind can't watch television when the skies are calm. (This is not how any of this works.)

Trump added that the audience should trust that he knows what he’s talking about. “I know a lot about wind,” the Republican said. “I know a lot about wind.”

In 2006, Trump bought 1,800 acres of land on the coast of Aberdeenshire, Scotland, the country where his mother was born. He announced plans to build a golf course on the site, a proposal that he coupled with a pledge to invest heavily in the surrounding community after locals expressed hesitation.

One farmer, Michael Forbes, refused to sell his land to Trump. That kicked off a feud between Forbes and the Trump Organization that became the subject of a documentary, “You’ve Been Trumped.” When Forbes was voted “Top Scot” in 2012 as part of a competition sponsored by Glenfiddich whisky, Trump banned Glenfiddich from Trump properties.

But that’s not the fight we’re here to talk about.

Trump was fighting a proposal, announced before he bought the property, to build an offshore wind farm near the Aberdeenshire coast. Trump’s concern? The rotating turbines would spoil the views from his course.

Trump sued, unsuccessfully, to prevent the wind farm from being built. He attacked Scottish politicians, especially then-Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond, for allowing the project. Those attacks, involving nearly 100 derogatory tweets between 2012 and 2014, would be familiar to any observer of Trump. Some focused on trying to convince Salmond not to support the wind farm proposal. Others were retweets of people disparaging Salmond. Still others tried to disparage Salmond by suggesting ethically questionable behavior and criticizing his involvement in the release of the man convicted of bombing an airplane that crashed in Lockerbie, Scotland.

At the same time, Trump was waging a public-relations campaign in the media and through his Twitter account. Any negative information about wind turbines was embraced and retweeted with breathless pseudo-concern about their effects.

... ... ...

like their bloodstreams have turned to pate.

Trump claims that wind farms cause cancer for very Trumpian reasons

Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 2, 2019