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presidency

Friday 26th of April 2024

2016 Presidential election Anti-democracy Republican Party leaders including Jason Chaffetz, Trent Franks, Louie Gohmert, Ron Johnson, Peter King, Michael McCaul and James Sensenbrenner, and Fox News dumbass Sean Hannity openly call for a coup d'état by, impeachment if Hillary Clinton is elected president © 2016 Kwiple.com
2016 Presidential election Fuck the law. I don't give a fuck about the law. I want my fucking money. Shut it down. Donald Trump, reacting to the news that his campaign was paying for its transition team members, as is required by federal law © 2019 Kwiple.com
2020 Presidential election The insurrection may be over, but the plot to steal the presidency is intact. Jamelle Bouie, New York Times, June 10, 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
2020 Presidential election President Trump is wrong: I had no right to overturn the election. The presidency belongs to the American people and the American people alone. And, frankly, there is no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person can choose the American president. Under the Constitution, I had no right to change the outcome of the election. Mike Pence, February 4, 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
2020 Presidential election Running as a universe-saving Luke Skywalker against his [Trump's] Darth Vader could work at the ballot box. But it would be a vapid basis for governing. Edward Luce, Financial Times, January 4, 2019 © 2019 Kwiple.com
2020 Presidential primaries Every Democrat wants to be president. No one wants to be elected senator or governor. Those who have been still appear to want to be in the White House. Democrats are far more obsessed than Republicans by who captures the presidency than by who runs the rest of America. Edward Luce, Financial Times, june 27, 2019, on what he calls the Democrats' “West Wind syndrome” © 2019 Kwiple.com
2024 Presidential primaries The Election Code [of Colorado] allows  the Electors to challenge President Trump’s status as a qualified candidate based on Section Three [of the 14th Amendment]. Indeed, the Election Code provides the Electors their only viable means of litigating whether President Trump is disqualified from holding office under Section Three. Anderson v. Griswold, majority decision, Supreme Court of the State of Colorado  © 2023 Kwiple.com
2024 Presidential primaries A majority of the Court holds that President Trump is disqualified from holding the office of President under  Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Because he is disqualified, it would be a wrongful act under the Election Code for the Colorado Secretary of State to list him as a candidate on the presidential primary ballot. Anderson v. Griswold, majority decision, Supreme Court of the State of Colorado  © 2023 Kwiple.com
Alt-righters say Keep the White House white © 2018 Kwiple.com
Boys In America, any boy may become President and I suppose it's just one of the risks he takes. Adlai Stevenson, 1952 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Brief encounter That was when he was a four-star general and had some power. Bob Hope, on meeting President Dwight D. Eisenhower for the first time, in 1943 © 2017 Kwiple.com
Bullshitters say I am fighting for future Presidents and the Office of the President. Other than that, I would actually like people to testify [before Congress]. Donald Trump, 7:43 AM – 26 Nov 2019, defending his claim that his associates have absolute immunity from testifying © 2019 Kwiple.com
Bullshitters say The people that know me and know the history of our Country say that I am the hardest working President in history. Donald Trump, 2:21 PM – Apr 26, 2020 © 2020 Kwiple.com
By the numbers Estimated ratio of time Trump spent in intelligence briefings to golfing during his presidency's first month: 1:4 Harper's Index, May 2017 © 2017 Kwiple.com
By the numbers Number of species that scientists have named after Barack Obama: 7 After the four previous U.S. presidents combined: 1 Harper's Index, December 2016 © 2016 Kwiple.com
Civil wars One study revealed that all of the democracies that experienced civil war between 1960 abd 1995 had majoritarian or presidential systems. None of them were based on proportional representation. Barbara F. Walter, How Civil Wars Start  © 2022 Kwiple.com
Cocks of the walk say ….Actually, throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart. Crooked Hillary Clinton also played these cards very hard and, as everyone knows, went down in flames. I went from VERY successful businessman, to top T.V. Star…. ….to President of the United States (on my first try). I think that would qualify as not smart, but genius…. and a very stable genius at that! @realDonaldTrump 4:27 AM - 6 Jan 2018 4:30 AM - 6 Jan 2018 on his mental stability and fitness for office © 2018 Kwiple.com
Cocks of the walk say  Jimmy Carter used to get off Air Force One carrying his luggage. I don't want a president carrying his luggage. Donald Trump © 2020 Kwiple.com
Cocks of the walk say With the exception of the late, great Abraham Lincoln, I can be more presidential than any president that's ever held this office. That I can tell you. It's real easy. Donald Trump, Phoenix rally, August 22, 2017 © 2017 Kwiple.com
Congress As politics has become polarized, Congress has increasingly become a check only on presidents of the opposite party. David Frum, “How to Build an Autocracy” © 2017 Kwiple.com
The Constitution of the United States Few Americans are aware that under the Constitution, a candidate could lose the popular vote and the Electoral College and still become president. In fact, it’s already happened [in 1824]. … In other words, assuming Mr. Trump is still a free man, he could be picked by  the House to be the 47th president, even if  Mr. Biden wins millions more popular votes and the most electoral votes. James Wegman, New York Times, October 14, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
The Constitution of the United States Thus the requirement that an amendment must gain the votes of two-thirds of the members of the Senate gives a veto power to Senators from the small states, and these Senators may act in concert with other colleagues who foresee a reduction in the influence of their states on the presidency. Robert A. Dahl, How Democratic Is the American Constitution?  © 2018 Kwiple.com
Corruption The results of a survey released today by Transparency International show that compared to early 2016 more Americans now believe corruption is on the rise in the US and that the White House is the most corrupt of nine key institutions. Transparency International, December 12, 2017 © 2019 Kwiple.com
Dead-in-the-heads say Different people say different things but as I understand it, if you're the president of the United States, you can declassify just by saying  it's declassified, even by thinking about it. Because you’re sending it to Mar-a-Lago or wherever you’re sending it. There doesn't have to be a process. There can be a process, but there doesn’t have to be. You're the president — you make that decision. Donald Trump, when asked by Sean Hannity about his process for declassifying the documents he took to Mar-a-Lago after leaving the White House © 2022 Kwiple.com
Dead-in-the-heads say He's the president-elect, so that's presidential behavior. Kellyanne Conway, when asked whether Trump exhibited presidential behavior when falsely claiming that millions of people voted for Clinton illegally or when mocking a disabled reporter © 2017 Kwiple.com
Decision making When you put a snake and a rat and a falcon and a rabbit and a shark and a seal in a zoo without walls, things start getting nasty and bloody. That's what happens. Reince Priebus, Trump's former Chief of Staff, on decision making in Trump's White House © 2018 Kwiple.com
Dog whistlers say Well, I just don't think she has a presidential look, and you need a presidential look. Donald Trump, about Hillary Clinton © 2016 Kwiple.com
Foreign relations If you have an American president at foreign summits eating with his mouth closed and not throwing cutlery around, the world will give him a standing ovation. Unnamed Biden adviser quoted by Edward Luce, Financial Times, August 13, 2020 © 2020 Kwiple.com
Globalization We are fortunate that, thanks to globalization, policy decisions in the U.S. have been largely replaced by global market forces. National security aside, it hardly makes any difference who will be the next president. The world is governed by market forces. Alan Greenspan, 2007 © 2016 Kwiple.com
Impeachment Impeachment should'nt be considered as merely a cleaner and more orderly form of assassination. Rather it's a democratic process by which the American people, speaking through Congress, decide that for the constitutional system to live, a presidency must die. Laurence Tribe and Joshua Matz, To End a Presidency  © 2020 Kwiple.com
Impeachment There will be presidents who are neither criminals nor mental incompetents but who are wrong for the role, who pose a danger to the country and the world. It is a principle that sounds radical until you say it, at which point it seems obvious: Being extremely bad at the job of president of the United States should be enough to get you fired. Ezra Klein, “The case for normalizing impeachment” © 2017 Kwiple.com
Kwiple dictionary barr (bär), v., barred, barring To pander to presidential power. © 2019 Kwiple.com
Kwiple dictionary modern day presidential (mod'ərn dā prez'i den'shəl) adjectival phrase. Synonoym for certifiable  or insane,  as in “His behavior is modern day presidential.” © 2017 Kwiple.com
Kwiplers say Amend the Constitution to replace the electoral college with direct election of the president by popular vote © 2015 Kwiple.com
Kwiplers say Make Election Day for federal government office holders a paid federal holiday © 2016 Kwiple.com
Kwiplers say Not everyone who voted for Trump is a liar and a racist and a sexist, but everyone who did is someone who wanted one in the White House  © 2017 Kwiple.com
Kwiplers say Prohibit publishing presidential primary exit poll or election results prior to the close of voting in the western-most U.S. voting district © 2015 Kwiple.com
Kwiplers say Require all presidential primary elections to be held on the same weekend day from 7:00AM to 10:00PM local time © 2015 Kwiple.com
Local politics I would rather have a thousand school board members than one president and no school board members. Ralph Reed, 1996 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Money in politics Winning the White House in 2016 is expected to cost the successful candidate more than $1bn. Billionaire mega-donors like the Koch Brothers have already pledged to raise nearly $900m through their sprawling political network, to back conservative candidates. Financial Times, April 1, 2015, a mere 587 days prior to election day, November 8, 2016 © 2015 Kwiple.com
Nukes The president of the United States for 50 years is followed at all times, 24 hours a day, by a military aide carrying a football that contains the nuclear codes that he would use and be authorized to use in the event of a nuclear attack on the United States. He could launch the kind of devasting attack the world's never seen. He doesn't have to check with anybody. He doesn't have to call the Congress. He doesn't have to check with the courts. Dick Cheney, 2008 [It's a briefcase, not a football.] © 2016 Kwiple.com
Partisanship For all its viciousness, partisanship makes for a perverse kind of stability in which electoral outcomes only ever vary within a tight range, even when one candidate is an impeached Twitter addict. The incentive structure this sets up for politicians is too dismal to contemplate, suggesting as it does that one can do literally anything and remain electorally viable for the grandest office on Earth. Janan Ganesh, Financial Times, January 1, 2020 © 2020 Kwiple.com
Partisanship In 1992, 38 percent of Americans lived in “landslide counties,” which went for a presidential candidate by a margin of 20 percentage points or more, the Times  has reported; in 2016, the number reached 60 percent. Sasha Issenberg, “Divided We Stand,” New York magazine, November 12-25, 2018 © 2018 Kwiple.com
Presidency By placing presidential nominations in the hands of voters, binding primaries weakened parties' gatekeeping function, potentially eliminating the peer review process and opening the door to outsiders. Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, How Democracies Die  © 2018 Kwiple.com
Presidency Constitutionally, it is wrong to conceive of the President as simply the highest officer within the Executive branch hierarchy. He alone is the Executive branch. William Barr, apologist for unlimited presidential power © 2020 Kwiple.com
Presidency Donald Trump did not — and does not — recognize any distinction between himself and the office of the presidency. He is it, and it is him. This view is as close a fundamental rejection of American constitutionalism as you can imagine — and it helps explain much of the former president’s behavior in and out of office. It is why he could not abide any opposition to anything he tried to  pursue, why he raged against the “deep state,” why he strained against every limit on his authority, why he rejected the very idea that he could lose the 2020 presidential election and why he decided he could simply take classified documents to his home in Florida. Jamelle Bouie, New York Times, June 23, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Presidency For presidents, the White House is a kind of prison with butlers. Rich Reilly, Commander in Cheat  © 2019 Kwiple.com
Presidency The greatest presidents  end up on our currency. Donald Trump could end up on our hush money. Stephen Colbert © 2018 Kwiple.com
Presidency The hyper-partisan environment means that any American president will be a symbol with double meaning. She will be an icon of American leadership for half the country and an icon of oppression and illegitimacy for the other half. Symbolism matters. Countries live and die by symbols. No American president of either party, now and for the foreseeable future, can be an icon of unity, only of division. Stephen Marche, The Next Civil War  [2022] © 2022 Kwiple.com
Presidency I began by telling the president that there was a cancer growing on the presidency and if the cancer was not removed that the president himself would be killed by it. John Dean, June 25, 1973 © 2018 Kwiple.com
Presidency Imagine just for a moment, if 9-11 had happened with Donald Trump behind the desk. The first thing he would’ve done was run to the bunker to protect himself. He would’ve put himself first, before the country. And anyone who is unwilling to say that he is unfit to be President of the United States is unfit themselves to be President of the United States. Chris Christie, Windham, NH, January 10, 2024 © 2024 Kwiple.com
Presidency In the United States, anybody can be president. That is the problem. George Carlin © 2019 Kwiple.com
Presidency One word sums up probably the reponsibility of any vice president, and that one word is “to be prepared”. Dan Quayle © 2023 Kwiple.com
Presidency The presidency is a performance. You are not just making decisions, you are also acting out the things people want to believe about their president — that the president is in command, strong, energetic, compassionate, thoughtful, that they don’t need to worry about all that is happening in the world, because the president has it all under control. Whether it is true that Biden has it all under control, it is not true that he seems like he does. Ezra Klein, The Ezra Klein Show, Feb. 16, 2024 © 2020 Kwiple.com
Presidency The president of the United States, on the other hand, is restrained first and foremost by his own ethics and public spirit. What happens if somebody comes to the high office lacking those qualities? David Frum comparing American presidents to British prime ministers, who can be quickly removed from office if they lose Parliament's confidence © 2018 Kwiple.com
Presidency Presidents are not just dependent variables; they are significant independent variables as well. This is consistent with a growing literature on the importance of individual leaders. A president's psychological makeup matters more than ever. Daniel W. Drezner, The Toddler in Chief © 2018 Kwiple.com
Presidency The question I get asked more than any other question: “If you had to do it again, would you have done it?” The answer is, yeah, I think so. Because here's the way I look at it. I have [made] so many rich friends and nobody knows who they are. Donald Trump, on running for, and being, president © 2022 Kwiple.com
Presidency A remarkable fact … is the extent to which presidentialism is a Third World phenomenon.  Matthew Soberg Shugart and John M. Carey, Presidents and Assemblies: Constitutional Design and Electoral Dynamics © 2018 Kwiple.com
Presidency Section Three [of the 14th Amendment] encompasses the office of the Presidency and someone who has taken an oath as President. On thie point, the district court committed a reversible error. Anderson v. Griswold, majority decision, Supreme Court of the State of Colorado  © 2023 Kwiple.com
Presidency A self-coup is well underway in America aleady. The rise of executive power is the rare case of a truly bipartisan trend. The use of executive legislation, by  bypassing Congress, began in earnest with Ronald Reagan, continued under Clinton, expanded under Bush, and became standard under Obama and Trump.  What was once an exception made for cases of national emergency now goes unremarked. Stephen Marche, The Next Civil War  © 2022 Kwiple.com
Presidency Somewhere out in this audience may even be someone who will one day follow my footsteps, and preside over the White House as the president's spouse. I wish him well. Barbara Bush © 2015 Kwiple.com
Presidency These dual imperatives – choosing a popular candidate and keeping out demagogues – may, at times, conflict with each other. What if the people choose a demagogue? This is the recurring tension at the heart of the presidential nomination process, from the founders' era through today. Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, How Democracies Die  © 2018 Kwiple.com
Presidency We weren't going to know whether you could bring down a presidency with iambic pentameter until somebody tried it. Calvin Trillin, A Heckuva Job:  More of the Bush Administration in Rhyme  © 2017 Kwiple.com
Presidential debates If we want to more realistically show what a candidate might be like as president, there should be ten people on the stage, but only two candidates. And each candidate should have five advisors on all the different policy arenas sitting right behind them … And these advisors should be able to pass notes to the candidate … And, we should give the candidates the questions in ad- vance so that we can get their best, most thoughtful answers – answers that they arrive at with the help of their advisors, exactly the way the would responsibly do their job. Lawrence O'Donnell, The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, August 1, 2019 © 2019 Kwiple.com
Presidential debates Presidents Don't Debate Title of the Last Word segment on The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, August 1, 2019 © 2019 Kwiple.com
Presidential debates We're going to continue to have TV debates that serve the purposes of TV, especially commercial TV, rather than the interests of the voters. … The debates are not designed for you. The debates are not designed to enlighten us about who can do the job of the presidency because the debates have absolutely nothing to do with the job of President of the United States. Lawrence O'Donnell, The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, August 1, 2019 © 2019 Kwiple.com
Presidential harassment Yes, presidential harassment – it's like sexual harassment, only Republicans take it seriously. Stephen Colbert, responding to Trump's complaint that Democratic investigations of him are “presidential harassment” © 2019 Kwiple.com
Presidential immunity from criminal prosecution I think it’s paradoxical to say that his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed allows him to violate criminal law. Karen LeCraft Henderson, a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, responding to a claim by Trump's lawyers that presidents cannot be criminally prosecuted for official acts performed while they were in office once they have left it, unless they had been impeached and convicted for the acts before leaving it © 2024 Kwiple.com
Public discourse The words of a president matter. Even a lousy president. Joe Biden © 2020 Kwiple.com
Punt returners say Why should she? She's already leading Facebook. Unnamed participant at a meeting of corporate executives responding when asked if he thought Sheryl Sandberg could run for president one day Quoted by Rana Foroohar, Financial Times, July 7, 2019 © 2019 Kwiple.com
Punt returners say You're the president. Your're not, like, somebody's crazy uncle who can just retweet whatever. Savannah Guthrie, responding to Trump's defense for retweeting a QAnon theory that Obama and Biden had members of SEAL Team 6 killed to cover up the fake death of Osama bin Laden by saying, “That was a retweet. That was an opinion of somebody. And that was a retweet. I put it out there. People can decide for themselves. I don't take a position.” © 2021 Kwiple.com
Republicans say Letting Republican presidents use a presidential pardon to block the enforcement of a court order is change we believe in © 2017 Kwiple.com
Republicans say Preventing public access to the White House visitors log to prevent anyone learning who's whispering in Trump's ears is change we believe in  © 2017 Kwiple.com
Republicans say Set the tone by ensuring that early presidential primaries are in states dominated by white evangelicals, like Iowa, South Carolina, Nevada, Alabama, Arkansas, etc. © 2015 Kwiple.com
Resisters say [O]ur constitution does not begin with “I the President.” It begins with “We the People.” Gloria Steinem, at the Women's March held on January 21, 2017, the day after Trump's inauguration © 2022 Kwiple.com
Resisters say Real presidents pay their taxes  Placard, New York City Women's March, January 21, 2017 © 2017 Kwiple.com
Selfie I am not fit for this office and should never have been here. Warren G. Harding on the presidency © 2023 Kwiple.com
Selfie If you elect me president, I promise you wont' have to think about me for 2 weeks at a time. Michael Bennet, 2:27 PM – Aug 6, 2019 © 2020 Kwiple.com
Selfie I'm a C student. He's the PhD. He's the adviser. I'm the president. What does that tell you? George W. Bush © 2023 Kwiple.com
Selfie I'm probably never going to be president because I'm not a politician. I don't want to be a politician because politicians do what is politically expedient. I want to do what's right. Ben Carson, announcing 2016 presidential campaign © 2015 Kwiple.com
Selfie I'm president and you're not. Donald Trump, the puerile president (The Pee Pee) © 2018 Kwiple.com
Selfie It's very possible that I could be the first presidential candidate to run and make money on it. Donald Trump, when considering running for President as the Reform Party candidate in 2000 © 2016 Kwiple.com
Selfie With the exception of the late, great Abraham Lincoln, I can be more presidential than any president that's ever held the office. That I can tell you. It's real easy. Donald Trump © 2019 Kwiple.com
Sleepers at the wheel say Close relatives can give presidents more candid advice than any outsider © 2017 Kwiple.com
Sleepers at the wheel say The major God-given responsibility, the state's primary calling, is to moralize a fallen world through the use of force. I think the best President is the one who is best going to use government as an adjudicator of wrongdoing. And I always thought that Trump would be the best at that. Ralph Drollinger, host of a Trump White House Bible-study group for Cabinet officers © 2017 Kwiple.com
Sleepers at the wheel say Whoever follows Trump in office will make America great again in the eyes of the world © 2018 Kwiple.com
Snapshot Barr and Trump are pursuing very different projects – the one a crusade to align government with his idea of religious authority, the other a venal quest for self-aggrandizement. But they serve each other's purpose by collaborating to destroy the independence of anything – federal agencies, the public servants who work in them, even the other branches of government – that could restrain the president. William Barr and Donald Trump portrayed by George Packer, The Atlantic, April 2020 © 2020 Kwiple.com
Snapshot White skin notwithstanding, this is our first black president. Blacker than any actual black person who could ever be elected in our children's lifetime. Bill Clinton portrayed by Toni Morrison © 2015 Kwiple.com
Snapshot He'll sit there, and he'll say, “Do this! Do that!” And nothing will happen.  Dwight Eisenhower portrayed by Harry Truman, his predecessor as president  © 2019 Kwiple.com
Snapshot This is the problem we face: We have a person occupying the presidency who is impetuous, fragile, hostile, irrational, intentionally uniinformed, information-averse and semiliterate.  Donald Trump portrayed by Charles M. Blow, January 8, 2018 © 2018 Kwiple.com
Snapshot What happens when you combine ignorance with performance talent? A president who tells the country to inject bleach. Donald Trump portrayed by Andy Borowitz © 2023 Kwiple.com
Snapshot Trump truly is something new – the first president whose entire political existence hinges on the fact of a black president. And so it will not suffice to say that Trump is a white man like all the others who rose to become president. He must be called by his rightful honorific – America's first white president. Donald Trump portrayed by Ta-Nehisi Coates © 2020 Kwiple.com
Snapshot I always knew, you know, who he was and what he was and so on, but it didn't really matter because it's – he's a small microcosm of New York real estate. Donald Trump portrayed by Michael Cohen, who added that it's a “very different” matter to accept that behavior in a president © 2019 Kwiple.com
Snapshot  Trump is susceptible to such giveaways, not only because he is ignorant, but because he does not see himself as the president of the United States. He sees himself as the president of his base. And because that's the only support he has left, he feels the need to keep feeding his base by fulfilling crude, ill-conceived promises he threw out to them during the campaign. Donald Trump portrayed by Thomas Friedman, referring to Trump's having given China and Israel what they wanted most (scrapping TPP and recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital) while getting nothing in return © 2017 Kwiple.com
Snapshot The worst human being ever to enter the presidency, and I include all the slaveholders. Donald Trump portrayed by David Frum, 8:06 AM – Jan 20, 2017 © 2020 Kwiple.com
Snapshot Nothing in his presidency became him less than his leaving of it. Donald Trump portrayed by Janan Ganesh, January 5, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Snapshot [S]leeping with a porn star while your wife has a new baby,  then paying the porn star to be quiet? That's what everyone expects of this president. Donald Trump portrayed by Michelle Goldberg © 2018 Kwiple.com
Snapshot Having never served his country before being elected President, he chose to serve his family instead. Donald Trump portrayed by Rudyard Kwipler © 2018 Kwiple.com
Snapshot He's proof that even if you don't grow up, you can still become President of the United States  Donald Trump portrayed by Rudyard Kwipler © 2017 Kwiple.com
Snapshot Mr Trump is everywhere at all times. If you measure a presidency by media saturation, Mr Trump is already on his fourth term. Donald Trump portrayed by Edward Luce in Financial Times, July 25, 2019 © 2019 Kwiple.com
Snapshot Donald Trump hasn't grown into the job because he can't. And the consequences of that failure are severe. Donald Trump portrayed by Barack Obama © 2020 Kwiple.com
Snapshot It is true that all presidents lie: the difference is that for Trump, telling the truth was the exception. Donald Trump portrayed by Timothy Snyder © 2021 Kwiple.com
Snapshot We may have our first post-rational president. Mr Trump has rejected the view of modern science on global climate change, has embraced economic forecasts and trade theories outside the range of reputable opinion, and relied on the idea of alternative facts rather than evidence-based truth. Donald Trump portrayed by Lawrence Summers © 2017 Kwiple.com
State of the union The delusional is no longer marginal. It has come in from the fringe, to sit in the seat of power in the Oval Office and in Congress. Bill Moyers, 2005 © 2017 Kwiple.com
State of the union For the first time in history, we are living through a time period where we're learning about the presidency at the same time as the president. Trevor Noah, 2017 © 2019 Kwiple.com
State of the union c Trump's lawyers  don't want him to testify under oath  before special council Robert Mueller because, they say, he's incapable of not lying and not committing perjury  Gist of “In Russia Inquiry, Lawyers Tell  Trump to Refuse Mueller Interview,” New York Times, February 5, 2018  © 2018 Kwiple.com
Surely you jest Everybody wants to work in the White House. They all want a piece of that Oval Office. They want a piece of the West Wing. … So many people want to come in. I have a choice of anybody. I could take any position in the White House and I'll have the choice of the top ten people having to do with that position. Everybody wants to be there. Donald Trump, talking about his White House, which has never attracted A-listers and can't keep its flock of B- and C-listers --> © 2018 Kwiple.com
Trumpism The presidency and dishonesty have become synonymous. Alliances are founded on trust. When that goes, they begin to dissolve. Roger Cohen, New York Times, October 29, 2020 © 2020 Kwiple.com
Trumpism The surreal nature of his presidency was captured on Saturday when his lawyers, including former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, held a press conference at a nondescript small business on the outskirts of Philadelphia called Four Seasons Total Landscaping, nestled between a crematorium and a sex shop called Fantasy Island. Financial Times, November 8, 2020 © 2020 Kwiple.com
Trumpism This is a presidency marked by chaotic lurching actions that often make no sense, leaving even some top Trump appointees baffled. The political termites Trump has loosed into our government are a wrecking crew doing damage not so obvious because they eat away at the foundations of good government … This is a kakistocracy, a government of the worst people. The Trump administration can be described with three words: Dissemble, Dismantle, and Destroy. David Cay Johnston, It's Even Worse Than You Think © 2019 Kwiple.com
Trumpism  The Trump presidency is about Trump. Period. Full stop. David Cay Johnston, It's Even Worse Than You Think  © 2019 Kwiple.com
< Trumpists say @realDonaldTrump has single-handedly changed the definition of what behavior is “presidential” from phony, failed & rehearsed to authentic, successful & down to earth Jerry Falwell, 7:50 PM - Jan 9, 2018 © 2020 Kwiple.com
Trumpists say The country wants the President to be “one of us” who bears the same responsibilities of citizenship that all share. But I believe that the President should be excused from some of the burdens of ordinary citizenship while serving in office. … the indictment and trial of a sitting President, moreover, would cripple the federal government, rendering it unable to function with credibility in either the international or domestic arenas. Brett Kavanauhg, arguing presidents should be above the law © 2018 Kwiple.com
Trumpists say I'm here today because I think he's the greatest president there ever was in this country. Attendee at Trump's 2020 campaign kickoff rally quoted by The Atlantic, June 19, 2019  © 2019 Kwiple.com
Trumpists say The president's prime function as the chief executive ought not be hampered by requests for interview. Having him testify demeans the office of the president before the world. John M. Dowd and Jay A. Sekulow,  Trump's lawyers, in a letter to Special Counsel Robert Mueller © 2018 Kwiple.com
Trumpists say  To authorize the prosecution of a president  for official acts would open a Pandora’s box from which this nation may never recover. D. John Sauer, a lawyer for Trump, who told the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that a president cannot be criminally prosecuted after leaving office for any official act he perfored while in it unless s/he had been impeached and convicted while in it, even if the act was to order a Seal team to assassinate her/his political rivals [Presumably, Sauer would argue that the Seal team members could not be tried or convicted for obeying an illegal order if the president had pardoned them while s/he was still in office] © 2024 Kwiple.com
Trumpists say When is there not a proud moment when you have Donald Trump as your president? Attendee at Trump's 2020 campaign kickoff rally quoted by The Atlantic, June 19, 2019  © 2019 Kwiple.com
Tweeting  Why does Donald Trump tweet so much? Why do his supporters love it when he does? It is because a tweet gives the illusion of a direct relationship between leader and follower. For the follower, the tweet is addressed just to him- or herself with no intermediary. The follower imagines a personal relationship with the president. The pretense of presence and the person- alization of power go hand in hand.  Albert Weale, The Will of the People  © 2019 Kwiple.com
Voting Lunatics vote in the primaries and Americans vote in the generals. That's why we don't have a Republican president. It's pretty simple. Fran Lebowitz © 2015 Kwiple.com
Wannabe autocrats say He's now President for life. President for life. No, he's great. And look, he was able to do that. I think it's great. Maybe we'll give that a shot some day. Donald Trump, on China's President Xi Jinping getting its parliament to abolish its constitutional presidential term limits, to applause and cheers from attendees at a fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago © 2018 Kwiple.com
Wannabe autocrats say I have an Article II where I have the right to do whatever I want as president. But I don't even talk about that. Donald Trump © 2019 Kwiple.com
Wannabe autocrats The president, Barr argued, has “complete authority to start or stop” investigations and can “give direction” on individual cases, including those that touch on his political or financial interests. “The Constitution itself places no limit on the president's authority to act on matters which concern him or his own conduct,” Barr wrote. Law enforcement, he argued, was a power exclusively held by the president, because “he alone is the executive branch.” Mattathias Schwarta, New York Times Magazine, June 7, 2020 © 2020 Kwiple.com
Wannabe autocrats say  When the president does it, that means it's not illegal. Richard Nixon © 2018 Kwiple.com
 
Whites With Obama, there was this narrative: “Woo, we have crossed the racial Rubicon! We have overcome! We put a Black man in the White House!” Without looking at the data that shows that a majority of white people did not vote for Barack Obama and that they have not voted for a Democratic candidate for president since 1964, the year Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act. Carol Anderson, New York Times Magazine, March 20, 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com