Childcare crisis: €50m black hole in State scheme
An extra €50m will have to be found next year to plug a black hole in the Government's new childcare scheme, Children's Minister Katherine Zappone has warned.
ThinkLab | Infectious Disease. 1. The Presidential Tell - All Is Dead . The author of Fire and Fury is back with another juicy account of the current president —but the latest entry simply highlights the emptiness of the genre.
Perform all the actions noted above in the overall section. Investigate why all the precincts were reported complete on election night and why the SEVEN Milwaukee Wards Report More Presidential Votes than Registered Voters — State Voter Turnout Is Nearly 90% Which Is Virtually Impossible.
© Jonathan Ernst / Reuters Here we go again: another juicy book about the White House, early leaks, a round of flat denials, shortly to be followed—in all likelihood—by a set of fevered interpretations and recriminations.
The book is Siege, by Michael Wolff. The Guardian obtained an early copy of the book, which is due out next week, and the first details suggest that it will provide fodder for days of news coverage and debate—following in the path of Wolff’s previous book, 2018’s Fire and Fury.
Yet it’s hard to imagine Siege achieving the same impact as its predecessor. In part that’s because Wolff didn’t have the same unfettered access to the White House this time, and in part that’s because of questions that were raised about his methods and results in Fire and Fury. But the bigger problem is the format. Tell-alls about Donald Trump’s administration feel increasingly obsolete. What more can we learn about a president who is already so heavily exposed?
Family devastated after Irish mother of two dies in ‘tragic accident’ in California
An Irish mother of two has died in a ‘tragic accident’ in California, friends have said. Geraldine Barry, 55, who’s originally from Cashel, Co Tipperary had been living in the Californian city of San Jose, died on May 15. Mrs Barry is thought to have recently returned to work after a hiatus period by working with an organisation that helps people deal with the grief of losing someone. Gallery: President Michael D.
That same day Obama’s former VP Joe Biden began wearing a boot that could hide an ankle bracelet, although he claimed the boot was due to an ankle Military rendition flights were all over the US. It was said that hundreds of treasonous actors were being extracted, put onto flights and interrogated
A renowned whistleblower of Big Pharma and vaccines has been found dead roughly a year after she released a public statement saying she’d never commit suicide. Additionally, healthnutnews.com is reporting Vaughan made it clear that if anything happened to her it would most likely be homicide.
© Reuters Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump return from their trip to Japan to the White House. Once upon a time, the tell-all would actually tell something new about a president. My colleague James Fallows’s 1979 Atlantic article on Jimmy Carter revealed the president’s strengths and shortcomings, including a tendency toward micromanagement that led him to personally approve requests to use the White House tennis courts. The former George W. Bush press secretary Scott McClellan’s 2008 What Happened offered just what its title promised—a full, inside account of the administration’s workings, especially in the run-up to the Iraq War. Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates revealed the extent to which domestic political considerations weighed on Barack Obama’s foreign-policy decisions. Articles and books like these offered both new detail and new interpretation that could help the public understand leaders and perhaps change public opinion about them.
Bailey rejected €600 from hotel to pay her medical bill after fall
The hotel where Maria Bailey fell off a swing wanted to pay for her medical treatment, but the TD declined the offer. In court papers, lawyers for the Fine Gael politician revealed she returned a cheque for €600 given to her by the Dean Hotel in Dublin following the incident in 2015. Despite rejecting the offer, a claim for hospital and dental costs has been included in the Dún Laoghaire TD's personal injuries action against the hotel.
The Ultimate American Presidential Election Book: Every Presidential Election in American History He has written songs about all of the Presidents and has created music videos for all of them. However, going into election day, it was difficult to tell who would win. Everyone knew it would be
Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden suggested that children as young as eight-years-old should be allowed to change their gender identity if they decide they "want to be transgender." The comment came on Thursday night at an election town hall hosted by ABC News, where a woman who
At its outset, the Trump administration looked like a perfect setting for new tell-alls. It featured a president who disregarded all norms, a public that couldn’t look away, and lots of current and former staffers with axes to grind, making them the perfect sources for, or authors of, exposés. And indeed, the first year or so of the presidency was fertile. Early on, every Friday afternoon brought a contest between The New York Times and The Washington Post for the splashiest report. After that came the books, climaxing with Wolff’s entry in January 2018.
© Reuters Donald Trump with military personnel aboard the USS Wasp as he participates in a Memorial Day Address in Yokosuka, south of Tokyo, Japan. Fire and Fury sold, well, furiously, which encouraged the market for such books. In February, the Times wondered, “Is everyone in Washington writing a tell-all? It sure seems like it.” The books came from White House aides (Omarosa Manigault-Newman, Cliff Sims, Sean Spicer); career G-men settling scores (James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Preet Bharara); others in the general Trump vicinity (Chris Christie); and reporters, including the éminence grise of the White House potboiler, Bob Woodward. There are plenty more coming.
Nobel Prize-winning physicist Murray Gell-Mann dead at 89
Murray Gell-Mann, a physicist who theorized the existence of the quark and won a Nobel Prize for his method of classifying particles, has died at age 89, the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) said. Considered among the most important physicists of the 20th century, the American scientist theorized in the 1960s that subatomic particles -- protons and neutrons -- were composed of paired subunits he called quarks.
The report also found that all security logs from Election Day, and the days prior to and after November 3, had vanished. Trump, who has repeatedly accused Dominion systems of tampering with the presidential election results “Dominion Voting Machines are a disaster all over the Country.
Officials say there are safeguards against using the identifies of dead voters, and it can't happen on a scale needed to influence the presidency . Simpson said in the past it was easier to sway an election by pulling stunts like stuffing ballot boxes with bogus ballots. Chicago, after all , is where Mayor
Many of these books sold well, but they shed more heat than light. At best, they offered new detail about Trump and some of the more important or interesting moments in his tenure. But they struggled to teach any larger lessons about the president, and as a result, they haven’t made much of an impact on politics.
“Beyond a considerable boost to the profit margins of Simon & Schuster,” Jeff Greenfield wrote of Woodward’s Fear in the fall, “the response in Washington from President Donald Trump’s allies, and even from his longtime critics, has been a virtual shrug.”
Gallery: Donald Trump's most outrageous quotes (Photos)
On alleged wiretapping by the Obama administration
"Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my "wires tapped" in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!"
"Is it legal for a sitting President to be "wire tapping" a race for president prior to an election? Turned down by court earlier. A NEW LOW!"
"I'd bet a good lawyer could make a great case out of the fact that President Obama was tapping my phones in October, just prior to Election!"
Australia's Dead Sea comes to life: Spectacular images shot from space show Lake Eyre turning into a rare paradise
Enough water to fill Sydney Harbour seven times over has flowed into Lake Eyre between February and May and has left the lake almost filled for the first time since 1974. Adam Voiland of the NASA Earth Observatory told The Advertiser Lake Eyre, also named Kati Thanda, is on track to be 75 per cent full by the end of this week. 'Water will likely cover about three-quarters of the lake's surface area toward the end of the month, putting the lake on track to reach its fullest state in more than 40 years,' he told the publication.
"How low has President Obama gone to tapp [sic] my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!"
In a series of four tweets, sent on the early morning of March 4, 2017, Trump accused Barack Obama of wiretapping him in the run-up to the presidential election.
On Sweden
“You look at what’s happening last night in Sweden. Sweden, who would believe this?”
Trump's remark at a Florida rally on Feb. 18, 2017, raised many questions since there were no terrorist attacks in the country unlike in Germany and France - the two countries he followed up after Sweden. The U.S. president took to Twitter and clarified: "My statement as to what's happening in Sweden was in reference to a story that was broadcast on @FoxNews concerning immigrants & Sweden."
On unfavorable news
"Any negative polls are fake news, just like the CNN, ABC, NBC polls in the election. Sorry, people want border security and extreme vetting."
Trump tweeted on Feb. 6, 2017, after polls showed a lack of support for his ant-immigration moves.
On Iran's missile test
"Iran is playing with fire - they don't appreciate how 'kind' President Obama was to them. Not me!"
White House wanted USS John S. McCain obscured during Trump’s Japan visit
The destroyer was covered with a tarp on request from White House officials who did not want the president to be upset during the Memorial Day stop.
As part of a diplomatic standoff regarding Iran's ballistic missile test, Trump tweeted this on Feb. 3, 2017. Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted back, "Iran unmoved by threats as we derive security from our people. Will never initiate war, but we can only rely on our own means of defence."
On protests after his inauguration
"Watched protests yesterday but was under the impression that we just had an election! Why didn't these people vote? Celebs hurt cause badly."
The 45th president of the U.S. tweeted on Jan. 22, 2017, following the massive turnout at the Women's March on Washington that was held a day after his inauguration.
On CNN
“I’m not going to give you a question. I’m not going to give you a question. You are fake news!”
In a Jan. 11, 2017, press conference, the then president-elect refused to take questions from CNN's Jim Acosta (pictured, R), labeling his channel "fake news."
On inauguration excitement
“There will be plenty of movie and entertainment stars. All the dress shops are sold out in Washington. It’s hard to find a great dress for this inauguration.”
Trump told the New York Times on Jan. 9 about the excitement that his approaching inauguration was generating among the American people.
On friends and enemies
“Happy New Year to all, including to my many enemies and those who have fought me and lost so badly they just don’t know what to do. Love!”
Clean-up on Mount Everest removes 24,000lbs of rubbish and four dead bodies
A clean-up expedition on Mount Everest has removed 24,200lb of rubbish and four dead bodies from the world’s highest mountain, according to Nepalese officials. The clean-up initiative was launched in April and a team of 12 Sherpa climbers spent a month collecting food wrappings, cans, bottles and empty oxygen cylinders. Some of the waste from the mountain, which rises 8,848 metres above sea level, was flown to Kathmandu and handed to recyclers in a ceremony to officially conclude the cleaning campaign. © Provided by Oath Inc. Nepali workers pile up sacks of waste collected from Mount Everest for recycling, in Kathmandu on June 5, 2019.
The then president-elect's New Year's Eve tweet.
On Meryl Streep's Golden Globe speech
"Meryl Streep (pictured), one of the most over-rated actresses in Hollywood, doesn't know me but attacked last night at the Golden Globes. She is a Hillary flunky who lost big. For the 100th time, I never 'mocked' a disabled reporter (would never do that) but simply showed him "groveling" when he totally changed a 16 year old story that he had written in order to make me look bad. Just more very dishonest media!"
Trump tweeted on Jan. 9, 2017, in response to Streep's speech at the 2017 Golden Globe Awards. At the awards, the actress had spoken against the 2015 mocking of a disabled reporter without naming anyone.
On 'dishonest media'
"As you know, I have a running war with the media. They are among the most dishonest human beings on Earth. They sort of made it sound like I had a 'feud' with the intelligence community. Nonsense, it is exactly the opposite, and they understand that too."
While addressing the press personnel at the CIA headquarters in McLean, Virginia, U.S., on Jan. 21, 2017.
On Clinton's possible 'jail' sentence
“If I win, I am going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation. Because there has never been so many lies.”
During the second presidential debate on Oct. 9, 2016, referring to Clinton's email scandal. When Clinton responded that it’s good that he wasn’t in charge of the law, he retorted, “Because you’d be in jail.”
On Clinton's tax plans during a presidential debate
“Such a nasty woman.”
In the last presidential debate on Oct. 19, 2016, Trump interrupted Clinton with this comment when she was speaking about her tax plans and his avoiding tax payments.
Missing British tourist is found dead in Ibiza after body is spotted in the sea near cliffs where he vanished
Police divers recovered the body of missing British tourist Johny Doherty, 28, this morning after a local spotted it in the sea off Cap Martinet, Ibiza.
On 'locker room' talk
“This was locker room banter, a private conversation that took place many years ago. Bill Clinton has said far worse to me on the golf course – not even close. I apologize if anyone was offended.”
Trump released a statement in response to a 2005 video released by The Washington Post in which he made objectionable comments about women during a conversation with talk show host Billy Bush.
(Pictured) In this 2005 video capture, Trump prepares for an appearance on the TV show "Days of Our Lives" with actress Arianne Zucker and "Access Hollywood" host Billy Bush.
On rigged elections
“The election is absolutely being rigged by the dishonest and distorted media pushing Crooked Hillary — but also at many polling places — SAD.”
His tweet on Oct. 16, 2016.
“Of course there is large scale voter fraud happening on and before election day. Why do Republican leaders deny what is going on? So naive!”
Another tweet on Oct. 17, accusing the Republicans of ignoring the “fraud.”
On Trump Tower during 9/11 attacks
"40 Wall Street actually was the second-tallest building in downtown Manhattan, and it was actually, before the World Trade Center, was the tallest—and then, when they built the World Trade Center, it became known as the second-tallest. And now it’s the tallest.”
In a radio interview with WWOR on the afternoon of the attacks, Trump responded when asked if he was worried about any potential damage to 40 Wall Street, his 71-story building, a few blocks away from the towers.
On rebutting sexual assault claims
“I didn't even apologize to my wife who is sitting right here because I didn't do anything. I didn't know any of these women. I didn't see these women ... It was all lies and it was fiction.”
His response at the Oct. 19, 2016, debate where he said the sexual assault allegation against him brought on by nine women had been started by the Clinton campaign and were false. He called the women fame-seekers.
On the infamous 'wall'
"I will build a great wall — and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me — and I’ll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words."
In his Presidential Campaign Announcement Speech on June 16, 2015, Trump proposed to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico.
On Hillary Clinton and ISIS
“See, you’re telling the enemy everything you want to do. No wonder you’ve been fighting – no wonder you’ve been fighting ISIS your entire adult life.”
Trump commented that Clinton told ISIS about her plans to fight them by mentioning it on her campaign website during the first presidential debate on Sept. 26, 2016.
On Putin's leadership
"If he says great things about me, I'm gonna say great things about him. I've already said he is really very much of a leader. I mean, the man has very strong control over a country. And that's a very different system and I don't happen to like the system. But certainly in that system he's been a leader, far more than our president has been a leader."
In the campaign season’s first showdown in NBC's "Commander in Chief Forum" on Sept. 7, 2016, Trump was asked how he felt on being complimented by Russian President and former KGB officer Vladimir Putin (pictured).
On DNC hack
“I don’t think anybody knows it was Russia that broke into the DNC. She’s (Clinton) saying Russia, Russia, Russia, but I don’t — maybe it was ... it could be Russia, but it could also be China … It also could be somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds, OK?”
The U.S. government and other Democrats had been accusing Russia of stealing more than 19,000 emails from the Democratic Party’s computers. Trump responded to a question about the hack and cyber security at the Sept. 26, 2016 debate.
On beating China
"Our country is in serious trouble. We don't have victories anymore. We used to have victories, but we don't have them. When was the last time anybody saw us beating, let's say China in a trade deal? I beat China all the time. All the time."
He made the emphatic statement during his campaign announcement speech on June 16.
On his popularity
"I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters."
Commenting on his enthusiastic supporters, Trump said the above in Sioux Center, Iowa, U.S., on Jan. 24, 2016.
On not topping Time magazine list
"I told you @TIME Magazine would never pick me as person of the year despite being the big favorite. They picked person who is ruining Germany."
Trump tweeted the above in reaction to German Chancellor Angela Merkel (pictured) being named as Time magazine's Person of the Year 2015. Trump finished third on the list.
On banning Muslims
"Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on."
The above statement was released on his campaign site on Dec. 7, 2015. It was later removed.
On Ronda Rousey's defeat
"Glad to see that @RondaRousey lost her championship fight last night. Was soundly beaten - not a nice person!" on Nov. 15, 2015.
Taking on MMA fighter Ronda Rousey (pictured) after her historic defeat by Holly Holm, Trump tweeted the above on Nov. 15, 2015. This might have been something to do with Rousey's suggestion that she'd vote for Democrat hopeful Bernie Sanders.
On shutting down mosques
"Well I would hate to do it but it's something you're going to have to strongly consider...some of the absolute hatred is coming from these areas...the hatred is incredible. It's embedded. The hatred is beyond belief. The hatred is greater than anybody understands."
Reacting to the terrorist attacks in Paris by the Islamic State on Nov. 13, 2015, Trump suggested during an interview that he would consider shutting down mosques in the U.S.
On refugee crisis
“They could be ISIS. They are all men and they are all strong...If I win, they’re going back.”
On Sept. 30, 2015, during his speech at a campaign rally in Keene, New Hampshire, he said that he would send home all Syrian refugees seeking asylum in the U.S.
On 'defending' the burqa
"You don't have to put on makeup. Look at how beautiful everyone looks. Wouldn't it be easier?" He waved his hand over his face as though it were a burqa and stated, "I’m ready darling, let’s go."
This was Trump trying to defend a burqa during a campaign event in Atkinson, New Hampshire, on Oct. 28, 2015.
On war heroes
"He's not a war hero. He's a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren't captured, okay? I hate to tell you."
Trump commented this on U.S. Senator John McCain (pictured) on July 18, 2015, at the Family Leadership Summit in Iowa.
On Ebola
"Stop the EBOLA patients from entering the U.S. Treat them, at the highest level, over there. THE UNITED STATES HAS ENOUGH PROBLEMS!"
In August 2014, a pair of U.S. health workers, physician Kent Brantly and nurse Nancy Writebol, got infected by the Ebola virus while helping at the affected areas in West Africa. They were brought back to U.S. for the treatment, when Trump reached out to twitteratti against it with the above post.
On Carly Fiorina's face
"Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president? I mean, she's a woman, and I'm not supposed to say bad things, but really, folks, come on. Are we serious?"
Trump said to a reporter of the Rolling Stone magazine in September 2015 as fellow Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina (pictured) appeared on TV during an interview.
On vaccination vs. Autism debate
"Healthy young child goes to doctor, gets pumped with massive shot of many vaccines, doesn't feel good and changes - AUTISM. Many such cases!"
He tweeted the above on March 28, 2014. On Sept. 3, 2014, he tweeted on the issue again, saying, "I am being proven right about massive vaccinations--the doctors lied. Save our children & their future. No more massive injections. Tiny children are not horses--one vaccine at a time, over time."
On climate change
"The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive."
This was his take on global warming, as he tweeted on Nov. 7, 2012. He continued in another tweet, "It’s freezing and snowing in New York—we need global warming!"
On being a genius
"Sorry losers and haters, but my IQ is one of the highest—and you all know it! Please don’t feel so stupid or insecure, it’s not your fault."
On May 8, 2013, Trump tweeted this to his followers.
On Robert Pattinson's break-up
"Robert Pattinson should not take back Kristen Stewart. She cheated on him like a dog & will do it again--just watch. He can do much better!"
When "Twilight" stars Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart separated, Trump flooded Twitter with seven back to back tweets on Oct. 18, 2012. One of his tweets read the above.
On Obama playing basketball
"Why is Obama playing basketball today? That is why our country is in trouble!"
On the day of the 2012 U.S. Presidential elections, Trump flooded Twitter with a trail of posts, including the above.
On the 'birther' conspiracy
"An 'extremely credible source has called my office and told me that @BarackObama's birth certificate is a fraud."
In August 2012, he published a tweet questioning the then-President Barack Obama's birth certificate. For a very long time he was one of the leading proponent of the 'birther movement' that promoted the false notion that Obama was born outside of the U.S.
On Obama's birth certificate
"He may have one but there's something on that, maybe religion, maybe it says he is a Muslim. I don't know. Maybe he doesn't want that. Or he may not have one. I will tell you this: if he wasn't born in this country, it's one of the great scams of all time."
Continuing with his stance on the 'birther' issue, he said the above during an interview on March 30, 2011. However, he took a U-turn at an event organized for veterans in Washington D.C. on Sept. 16, 2016, and said, "President Barack Obama was born in the United States. Period."
On his sexual dynamic with women
"All the women on 'The Apprentice' flirted with me -- consciously or unconsciously. That’s to be expected. A sexual dynamic is always present between people, unless you are asexual."
He wrote the above in his 2004-book, "Trump: How to Get Rich."
On being rich
"Part of the beauty of me is that I am very rich."
During an interview with ABC’s "Good Morning America" in March 17, 2011, Trump said he may run as an independent in the general election if he fails to win the nomination and that he was prepared to toss in $600 million of his own cash to fund a campaign.
Don’t blame the authors—or rather, don’t blame them for this. Plenty of these tell-alls are sloppy, or self-serving, or sycophantic, and their authors can answer for that. But it’s not the writers’ fault that they aren’t reconfiguring the image of the president or his administration. Not only has Trump been exhaustively covered by the press, but he often goes through his business, including his petty feuds, his tantrums, and his changes of view on policy questions, in plain sight. That was, in fact, a core element of his preemptive defense against accusations of obstruction of justice: So many of his actions were out in the open. How could they constitute a conspiracy when they happened on Twitter? (This cuts both ways: Transparency should not confer absolution.)
Fire and Fury came under intense scrutiny even before it hit shelves, as journalists and political insiders questioned many of the specifics of Wolff’s account and critiqued his methods. These critics picked apart specific anecdotes or moments, but there was general agreement that the book’s broad-strokes portrait of Trump felt right. Axios’s Mike Allen perfectly summed up this conventional wisdom:
There are definitely parts of Michael Wolff’s “Fire and Fury” that are wrong, sloppy, or betray off-the-record confidence. But there are two things he gets absolutely right, even in the eyes of White House officials who think some of the book’s scenes are fiction: his spot-on portrait of Trump as an emotionally erratic president, and the low opinion of him among some of those serving him.
Yet anyone who was paying even casual attention to Trump’s presidency knew by January 2018 that Trump was emotionally erratic and that many of his aides held him in disdain.
Gallery: Politicians before they came to power (Photos)
Donald Trump | 1976 | U.S. President
Winston Churchill | 1895 | Former Prime Minister of UK
Barack Obama | 1990 | Former U.S. President
John F. Kennedy | 1940s | Former U.S. President
Justin Trudeau | 2005 | Prime Minister of Canada
Margaret Thatcher | 1949 | Former Prime Minister of UK
Hillary Clinton | 1969 | Former U.S. Secretary of State
Franklin D. Roosevelt | 1913 | Former U.S. President
Vladimir Putin | 1985 | President of Russia
With wife Lyudmila and daughter Maria.
Ronald Reagan | 1956 | Former U.S. President
James Callaghan | 1962 | Former Prime Minister of UK
Bill Clinton | 1978 | Former U.S. President
Theresa May | 1999 | Prime Minister of UK
George W. Bush | 1968 | Former U.S. President
Angela Merkel | 1970 | Chancellor of Germany
Joe Biden | 1972 | Former U.S. Vice President
Tony Blair | 1975 | Former Prime Minister of UK
Xi Jinping | 1980 | President of China
François Hollande | 1981 | President of France
Malcolm Turnbull | 1988 | Prime Minister of Australia
Aung San Suu Kyi | 1989 | State Counsellor of Myanmar
George H.W. Bush | 1946 | Former U.S. President
David Cameron | 1990 | Former Prime Minister of UK
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan | 1994 | President of Turkey
Narendra Modi | 1998 | Prime Minister of India
Mariano Rajoy | 2000 | Prime Minister of Spain
Park Geun-hye | 2002 | Former President of South Korea
With former North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il.
Shinzo Abe | 2003 | Prime Minister of Japan
Dilma Rousseff | 2003 | Former President of Brazil
Mark Rutte | 2006 | Prime Minister of the Netherlands
Nelson Mandela | 1961 | Former President of South Africa
Hugo Chávez | 1995 | Former President of Venezuela
Robert Mugabe | 1976 | President of Zimbabwe
The book, and many like it, largely served to flatter the preconceptions of Trump’s critics. These readers might understand that the details aren’t 100 percent accurate, but they don’t really care. For the slight majority of registered voters who already say they definitely won’t vote for Trump in 2020, it’s close enough. (There’s a different kind of book that flatters the preconceptions of Trump’s fans, but it tends to be more polemic or commentary than memoir or reportage.)
If these books tell a Trump-skeptical audience that Trump is not a conventional president, they offer the same message to a more receptive Trump-supporting audience. The president himself has embraced the idea. Responding to complaints about his tweeting in 2017, he remarked (on Twitter, of course), “My use of social media is not Presidential—it’s MODERN DAY PRESIDENTIAL.”
The notion was ridiculed, rightly, at the time. But voters seem to be coming around. A Gallup poll released Tuesday found that 40 percent of voters believe Trump “has the personality and leadership qualities a president should have,” up from just 33 percent two years ago. That still lags far behind Bush and Obama, but the size of the increase suggests that Trump has convinced some voters that what he’s doing is presidential, simply by virtue of the fact that he is the president and he is doing it.
Yet that uptick comes even as Trump’s approval/disapproval numbers remain essentially stable. Just as there are voters who disapprove of Trump and are willing to believe, or at least accept, “truthy” accounts of him, there’s another set who don’t care whether the accounts are true and continue to support him.
The balance of Siege remains to be revealed, but the first two juicy claims in The Guardian’s report help show why the tell-all genre is becoming a snooze. The paper reports that Wolff claims Trump reacted to witness-cooperation deals taken by his former fixer Michael Cohen, the Trump Organization executive Allen Weisselberg, and the tabloid publisher David Pecker by saying, “The Jews always flip.” Perhaps Trump said this and perhaps he didn’t, but it’s already well established that he has resorted to stereotypes about Jews on various occasions, and has a long history of bigoted views and comments. Whether the quote is real or not, it doesn’t convey anything new about Trump.
The Guardian also reports that Siege says Special Counsel Robert Mueller drew up an indictment against Trump for obstruction of justice but never filed it. Mueller’s spokesman says that no such document exists, and his team has proved almost entirely leak-proof, with the exception of one score-settling leak against the attorney general. Unless and until other reports corroborate this claim, it’s probably best to treat it cautiously.
It’s Mueller who may lay claim to the title of the ultimate tell-all writer of the Trump administration. When his 448-page report was released to the public, critics strained to find literary meaning and significance in it. But the value was not in the composition, but in the content. Aided—unlike any of the other authors—by subpoena power, Mueller was able to draw a more nuanced and revealing portrait of Trump and the first two years of his presidency than any other author.
Mueller’s report offered new detail, such as Trump’s meltdown over Mueller’s appointment (“This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. I’m fucked.”) and his refusal to return a resignation letter to his attorney general, instead carrying it with him overseas. The report also offered a big-picture charge, revealing the extent and length of Trump’s attempts to obstruct justice, though Mueller stopped just short of calling it that.
Yet even the Mueller report has had little immediate effect. Trump’s approval rating has stayed stable (suggesting neither the exoneration he claimed nor the KO his critics dreamed of). Mueller did change Representative Justin Amash’s mind, though, and if House Democrats ultimately move to impeach the president, it will only cement the Mueller report’s status as the pinnacle of Trump tell-alls.
Just because the potency of tell-alls has weakened doesn’t mean the stream of books will diminish. The Associated Press revealed Tuesday that former Defense Secretary James Mattis will publish a memoir this summer. Mattis might actually have something new to say about Trump: Not only did he have significant policy differences with the president—according to Woodward, he simply discarded directives he found foolish—but he managed to last for two years in the administration by saying little to the press. But Mattis warns that he’s writing a different kind of book: “I’m old-fashioned: I don’t write about sitting Presidents, so those looking for a tell-all will be disappointed.”
No wonder Mattis has a reputation for wisdom.
Missing British tourist is found dead in Ibiza after body is spotted in the sea near cliffs where he vanished.
Police divers recovered the body of missing British tourist Johny Doherty, 28, this morning after a local spotted it in the sea off Cap Martinet, Ibiza.
An extra €50m will have to be found next year to plug a black hole in the Government's new childcare scheme, Children's Minister Katherine Zappone has warned. 
An Irish mother of two has died in a ‘tragic accident’ in California, friends have said. Geraldine Barry, 55, who’s originally from Cashel, Co Tipperary had been living in the Californian city of San Jose, died on May 15. Mrs Barry is thought to have recently returned to work after a hiatus period by working with an organisation that helps people deal with the grief of losing someone. Gallery: President Michael D. 
The hotel where Maria Bailey fell off a swing wanted to pay for her medical treatment, but the TD declined the offer. In court papers, lawyers for the Fine Gael politician revealed she returned a cheque for €600 given to her by the Dean Hotel in Dublin following the incident in 2015. Despite rejecting the offer, a claim for hospital and dental costs has been included in the Dún Laoghaire TD's personal injuries action against the hotel. 
Murray Gell-Mann, a physicist who theorized the existence of the quark and won a Nobel Prize for his method of classifying particles, has died at age 89, the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) said. Considered among the most important physicists of the 20th century, the American scientist theorized in the 1960s that subatomic particles -- protons and neutrons -- were composed of paired subunits he called quarks. 
Enough water to fill Sydney Harbour seven times over has flowed into Lake Eyre between February and May and has left the lake almost filled for the first time since 1974. Adam Voiland of the NASA Earth Observatory told The Advertiser Lake Eyre, also named Kati Thanda, is on track to be 75 per cent full by the end of this week. 'Water will likely cover about three-quarters of the lake's surface area toward the end of the month, putting the lake on track to reach its fullest state in more than 40 years,' he told the publication. 
The destroyer was covered with a tarp on request from White House officials who did not want the president to be upset during the Memorial Day stop. 
A clean-up expedition on Mount Everest has removed 24,200lb of rubbish and four dead bodies from the world’s highest mountain, according to Nepalese officials. The clean-up initiative was launched in April and a team of 12 Sherpa climbers spent a month collecting food wrappings, cans, bottles and empty oxygen cylinders. Some of the waste from the mountain, which rises 8,848 metres above sea level, was flown to Kathmandu and handed to recyclers in a ceremony to officially conclude the cleaning campaign. © Provided by Oath Inc. Nepali workers pile up sacks of waste collected from Mount Everest for recycling, in Kathmandu on June 5, 2019. 
Police divers recovered the body of missing British tourist Johny Doherty, 28, this morning after a local spotted it in the sea off Cap Martinet, Ibiza. 
Childcare crisis: €50m black hole in State... 
Family devastated after Irish mother of two dies in ‘tragic accident’ in... 
Bailey rejected €600 from hotel to pay her medical bill after... 
Nobel Prize-winning physicist Murray Gell-Mann dead at... 
Australia's Dead Sea comes to life: Spectacular images shot from space show... 
White House wanted USS John S. McCain obscured during Trump’s Japan... 
Clean-up on Mount Everest removes 24,000lbs of rubbish and four dead... 
Missing British tourist is found dead in Ibiza after body is spotted in the sea 
