by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
New York : Heavily criticised for the use of Twitter to often launch personal attacks on media outlets and the opposition, US President Donald Trump has defended his regular use of social media and said he might not have won the election without it.
In an interview airing on US channel Fox Business Network, Trump said he could bypass what he labels unfair media coverage by speaking directly to his followers.
“Tweeting is like a typewriter — when I put it out, you put it immediately on your show. I doubt I would be here if weren’t for social media, to be honest with you,” he was quoted as saying.
Calling his social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram “a tremendous platform”, Trump said, “When somebody says something about me, I am able to go bing, bing, bing and I take care of it.”
“The other way, I would never be [able to] get the word out.”
Several leaders have urged Trump to avoid or minimize the use of Twitter and the US President also acknowledged that some friends suggested him not to use the social media.
Trump, who has 40.9 million followers on Twitter, regularly uses Twitter to attack news media and political opponents often sending out missives in the early morning or late evening hours.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
New York : US billionaire Tom Steyer of California state kicked off an online and TV advertising campaign against President Donald Trump on Friday, calling for people to write letters to Congress members for the president’s impeachment.
In a one-minute-long video ad posted on Youtube, Steyer calmly listed the reasons why the president should be impeached, including “brought us to the brink of nuclear war, obstructed justice at the FBI, taken money from foreign governments and threatened to shut down news organisations that reported the truth,” Xinhua reported.
Steyer also blamed the members of Congress in the ad, saying that “people in Congress and his own administration know this president is a clear and present danger who is mentally unstable and armed with nuclear weapons, and they do nothing.”
So Steyer called on people who viewed the ad, which was paid by himself for $10 million, to rise voices together to tell their members of Congress that they have moral responsibility to “stop doing political, start to doing right.”
Steyer, the former hedge-fund manager, at the same time launched a website www.needtoimpeach.com in order to collecting signatures for petition.
On the website, Styer wrote an open letter to “elected official,” saying “I am asking you today to make public your position on the impeachment of Donald Trump, and to urge your federal representatives to remove him from office at once. ”
Steyer is a leading Democratic activist and fundraiser.
The 60-year-old billionaire became one of Barack Obama’s most prolific fundraisers in 2012 and was reported contributing more than $87 million in funds exclusively to liberal candidates during the 2016 election cycle.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
Washington : US President Donald Trump plans to spend at least $430,000 of his personal funds to help cover the legal costs incurred by his aides related to the ongoing investigations of Russian meddling in the 2016 election, a White House official said.
The White House official said on Saturday that Trump’s pledge was not meant as a reimbursement to the Republican National Convention (RNC), but that it does not preclude Trump from doing that at a later time or for increasing the amount available for his aides, reports The Washington Post.
The official said many issues remain to be resolved, including how the money will be accessed and who can request it.
The White House’s and campaign aides’ legal costs are expected to increase well beyond what Trump was putting forward.
Russian meddling and other related issues are being investigated by special counsel Robert S. Mueller as well as House and Senate committees.
The RNC reported last month that it paid $100,000 to Trump’s personal attorney John Dowd and $131,250 to Jay Sekulow, another member of his legal team, reports The Washington Post.
The party is also covering the mounting legal costs for Donald Trump Jr., spending nearly $200,000 on lawyers who helped him prepare for testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Those payments included more than $166,000 to attorney Alan Futerfas.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
Tehran : US President Donald Trump’s recent anti-Iran speech was under the influence of lobbyists from Israel and Saudi Arabia, Iran’s Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said.
It was clear that the Zionist regime of Israel and some countries like Saudi Arabia have played a major role in writing Trump’s speech and guiding him, Larijani was quoted as saying on Sunday by Press TV, Xinhua reported.
Trump’s aggressive rhetoric was aimed to cause commotion and prevent international economic cooperation with Iran, he added.
On Friday, the US President refused to certify Iran’s international nuclear deal and accused Tehran of sponsoring terrorism, saying that he would deny Iran’s “all paths to a nuclear weapon”.
Accordingly, Saudi Arabia and Israel welcomed the new strategy towards Iran announced by Trump.
Iran has insisted that its nuclear energy programme is aimed at civilian purposes.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Books
By Vikas Datta,
Title: The Beautiful Poetry of Donald Trump; Author (compiler): Rob Sears; Publisher: Canongate Books; Pages: 144; Price: Rs 699
What can we make of Donald Trump? While history will be the ultimate judge of his presidency, despite all the ominous signs, attempts to be articulate, and gaffes so far, he may claim (with some unsolicited help) to challenge illustrious predecessors — eloquent Abraham Lincoln, highly articulate John F. Kennedy and restless polymath Theodore Roosevelt — on the literary level.
Forget Trump’s ceaseless exhibitions of misogyny and xenophobia or complaints of victimisation and targeting by most media, his crude, personal attacks on opponents or critics, the inexplicable coinages (“covfefe”), for there is a “sensitive, poetic side” to this President of the United States as expressed in his words over the years. Especially in his bid to win the White House, his victory and his tenure.
Trump himself may never have realised this ability nor would have we — but now we know.
“It is a little known alternative fact that the 45th President, Donald J. Trump, is a remarkable poet. This book aims to redress this oversight on the part of the literary world, and showcase his finest and most revealing words in a previously unknown form.
“While discoursing on politics, walls, gender issues or his own excellent genes, Trump’s poems are nothing if not beautiful. Terrific, in fact. Amazing…” says Rob Sears, who has compiled five dozen-odd of his “poems”.
Wonder why this Trump skill was not known so far? Well, for one, these are not conscious poems by Trump, but a deft repackaging of his tweets, public statements, his reality show dialogues, and sentences from his correspondence to make poetry.
Take “All I Ask is Fairness”: “People are constantly attacking my hair/I think it’s very unfair/Obama said he never met his uncle, Oscar/Imagine if I made that statement/It would be the electric chair”.
Or “I am the best”, which goes: “I predicted Apple’s stock would fall/I will build a great, great wall/I build buildings that are 94 stories tall/My hands – are they small?” and then “Slowly the hair dries” – which has just one line: “It’s a process that can take 18 months to two years”.
Behind this uproarious but revealing venture is Sears, a writer of fiction and comedy for American not-for-profit publishing concern McSweeney and Amazon’s Audible, who very tongue-in-cheek contends that they “reveal a sensitive and shyly artistic side to Trump that may prompt a reappraisal of the man even among his critics”.
Relying on the Trump Twitter Archive, the Trump Archive and American Presidency Project to collect tweets, including those long-deleted, and quotes, also from the pre-internet era, Sears has fashioned a remarkable range of verse detailing Trump’s views on various issues — more trenchantly, on his opponents in the race for the presidency.
And he uses a variety of styles, be it the sonnet, the quatrain (as shown above), the couplet (as in “I am open-minded” which goes “I use both iPhone and Samsung/A great leader has to be flexible”) and even the haiku for the purpose.
The haiku is best used for attacking opponents, be it Republican rival Jeb Bush (“Low energy ‘stiff’/Said he would take his pants off/He wants to look cool”) or anchor Megyn Kelly, Senators John McCain and Elizabeth Warren but also — rarely — to praise, especially Russian President Vladimir Putin.
But the slightly longer ones, dealing with his pet peeves (“Very dishonest media”), stand out on their own, and show both Trump’s mindset and Sears’ creativity and expansive efforts. Take “I make this promise” — which starts with his presidential oath, then a 2015 tweet mocking John Kerry, a 1999 remark on Larry King Live, a 2012 attack on Cher, and ends with his closing words at a 2015 rally in South Carolina.
Sears, who identifies the origins of the remarks — tweets, speeches, etc on a facing page, also contributes a foreword that is not only a masterly exposition of Trump’s “poetic skills” but of his psyche — and the epitome of satire.
This is not the first work to use poetry to lampoon Trump, but among the best to use his own words for the purpose. And where reason crumbles before resentment, ridicule may be the only hope.
(Vikas Datta can be contacted at vikas.d@ians.in)
—IANS
