Our ex-president is Donald Trump and as such I have to respect him. I do not have to agree with him. I’m an Independent voter and I’ve voted both ways for years. Always I’ve tried to pick the person I thought best for the job. Sometimes it was picking the lesser of the two evils. I won’t say how I voted in 2016 but I was tempted not to vote at all.
Donald Trump has certainly provided us with entertainment these past few years. Sometimes it has been good and sometimes not so good. I heard one commentator today refer to him as an “useful idiot” and I think she said that was Putin’s opinion. Who knows?
Outspoken
While Donald Trump may be saying things that many people have felt for years, as for me as an Independent, I would prefer that he would be less abrasive. I feel he is stirring up extremist groups. And I feel he is dividing us, rather than bringing us together as a nation. Neither side is all good nor all bad – all right or all wrong. There is a middle ground and I strongly feel that we should be moving back toward the middle away from the extremes.
The Mueller Report is Out
This weekend the Mueller Report was released to the Justice Department. I certainly hope that the report will be released to all of us, so we can stop speculating about what’s in it and what’s not. If it’s not disclosed, there will always be questions and doubts. Put the facts from the report out onto the table and let each of us make up our own mind instead of being lead by the pundits on either side.
My Opinion
I am 83 and have seen many Presidents come and go, but I have never seen America as divided as we are now. This makes me worry about what is being left for my grandchildren and the children to come afterward. We have a wonderful, bountiful country. And we need to be thankful for our blessings and be sure that our fellow countrymen are free to enjoy these blessings as well. Here with Rory, the motto is – Pay it Forward. I think that is a good thought for everyone, every day. Positive thoughts do more good than Negative ones. Help others less fortunate to help themselves. Cherish our Freedom.
GOD BLESS AMERICA
Below is some interesting biological information about the First Lady and the President from Nick Swift https://www.nickiswift.com/7996/things-didnt-know-donald-trumps-wife/. I present only what I believe are facts.
Things you didn’t know about Donald Trump’s wife
by Nicki Swift
Although Donald Trump has made quite a show for himself, his current wife, Melania, has mostly kept to the background. We’re taking a closer look at Trump’s right-hand woman, from her childhood, to their first run-in, to their marriage today.
She used to be a model
Born in Slovenia, Melania began modeling at the age of five. By 16, she was doing commercials. “I went professional after my studies,” Melania recently told Parenting magazine (via the New York Post). “My mom loved fashion. We loved to travel and go to Italy and Paris.” Melania would go on to pose for some of the most iconic fashion photographers in the business, including Patrick Demarchelier and Mario Testino, and posed for everything from Sports: Illustrated to Vogue.
Speaking to Harper’s Bazaar in 2016, Melania admitted she met Donald at a Fashion Week party in 1998 while he was still dating someone else. “He wanted my number, but he was with a date, so of course I didn’t give it to him,” she said. Instead, she wanted his number. The reason: she wanted to see what kind of digits he’d give her and would determine what to do from there. (Hint: personal numbers = good; business = bad.) To Melania’s surprise, Donald gave her all of his numbers. “The office, Mar-a-Lago, home in New York, everything.” Melania called him after she returned from a photo shoot in the Caribbean. No word on what happened to the other woman, though we’re guessing she’s pretty bitter.
She stayed out of Donald’s campaign
If you’re wondering why you don’t hear or see much of Melania on the campaign trail, it’s by choice. “I’m choosing not to go political in public because that is my husband’s job. And I’m very political in private life, and between me and my husband I know everything that is going on. I follow from A to Z,” she told Harper’s Bazaar in 2016. “But I chose not to be on the campaign. She made that choice. I have my own mind. And I am my own person, and I think my husband likes that about me.”.
She doesn’t always agree with him
Considering Donald Trump is one of the most blunt and outspoken figures in the world, it should come as no surprise that his wife can dish it right back. In fact, Harper’s Bazaar took specific note of Melania’s reported “unflappability.” “I give him my opinions, and sometimes he takes them in, and sometimes he does not,” she told the magazine. “Do I agree with him all the time? No. I think it is good for a healthy relationship. And I am not a ‘yes’ person. No matter who you are married to, you still need to lead your life.” She adds: “I don’t want to change him. And he doesn’t want to change me.”
She’s Trump’s third wife
Anyone who paid attention to the tabloids in the ’80s and ’90s knows that Donald’s marriage to Melania isn’t exactly his first time at the rodeo. In fact, Trump’s previous two marriages were filled with the kind of gossip and scandal that would put the entire Kardashian family to shame. He married his first wife, Ivana, in 1977. The couple quickly became one of the most powerful and talked about duos on the New York social scene. That is, until Trump began a scandalous affair with Marla Maples, catalyzing one of the most high-profile divorces of the end of the century. Trump ultimately married Maples in 1993, about a year after his divorce from Ivana. They lasted for six long and painful years that basically kept the New York Post in business.
She’s barely older than her step-kids
At age 45, Melania is a mere seven years older than Donald’s oldest son, Donald Trump, Jr., who is 38. She’s not that far off in age from Trump’s other children, either; Eric, Ivanka, and Tiffany are ages 34, 32 an 22, respectively. Melania and Donald have one son together, Barron, whom they welcomed in 2006.
If Donald and Melania Trump move into the White House, (which they have since this was written) expect them to be drastically different from, say, Ronald and Nancy Reagan—at least when it comes to talking about their personal lives.
Their wedding was extravagant.
When you’re a real estate mogul worth billions of dollars (is he really?) there’s no question as to whether your wedding is going to be over-the-top. Such was especially true for Donald and Melania’s January 2005 nuptials at Trump’s resort in Palm Beach, Florida. For the wedding, Melania wore a gown made by John Galliano, which reportedly took 1,000 hours to make, 550 hours of which were dedicated to hand-sewing 1,500 crystal rhinestones and pearls. If that wasn’t enough, the guest list included everyone from Katie Couric, to former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, to American Idol judge Simon Cowell, to Billy Joel, who sang “Just the Way You Are.” Ironically, former President and First Lady Bill and Hillary Clinton were also in attendance. A photo of the Trumps and Clintons smiling and laughing at the ceremony went viral at the end of 2015.
Trump Twitter
You can find him on Twitter – so have millions of others around the world. . See: Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) | Twitter – probably one of the most BOLD presidents in our time. And definitely in the age of Social Media. I wonder what it would be like if the Founding Fathers were on Social Media today… wow the things they would be saying. Don’t you think they might be ashamed or appalled at where things have been allowed to go.
Trump had kicked up a firestorm in economic and political circles when, in an interview on CNBC, the then presumptive Republican nominee seemed to suggest that rather than pay its outstanding national debt in full, the country could renegotiate.
Fox anchor challenges Trump on deficit plans
Asked if the U.S. needs to pay its debt in full or if it could negotiate a partial repayment, Trump said: “I would borrow, knowing that if the economy crashed, you could make a deal.”
Such a renegotiation risks creating financial turmoil because U.S. Treasuries are considered the safest assets on the planet and a major benchmark for valuing other securities.
In CNBC Interview
During a CNBC interview, Trump also said that interest rates should be kept low — contradicting his remarks on CNN Monday — because a rate jump could trigger a catastrophic increase the cost of borrowing.
“We’re paying a very low interest rate,” he said. “What happens if that interest rate goes up 2, 3, 4 points? We don’t have a country.”
And Trump signaled that he would be inclined to replace current Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen, who has defended the Fed’s low rate policy, saying that while “people I know have a high regard for her,” “she’s not a Republican.”
Republican Official Platform
The Republican Party’s official platform argued that the U.S.’s looming “debt explosion” should be averted through “immediate reductions in federal spending, as a down payment on the much larger task of long-range fiscal control.” Trump’s request for $8.1 billion for his wall is in contrast to this platform, it would seem.
These cuts “must be accompanied by major structural reforms,” according to the platform, and pointing to programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. The GOP argues that “we must restructure the twentieth century entitlement state.”
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