Remember the '80s hit by The Nails, 88 Lines About 44 Women? (There was a Kamala in the song. She "couldn't sing but she kept the beat and kept it strong." Kamala Harris was still a teenager when it was first recorded. When it became a hit, that was the first time I ever heard the name.) That whole parenthesis doesn't matter. I'm bringing up the song because Chris Cillizza should try a rendition based on his 27 most dubious lines from Trump's CNBC phone interview. A stretch, I know.The topic of Trump's sudden decision to call in and kvetch to CNBC's Squawk Box was how the media is exposing his bullshit on the Mexican tariffs. It drives him crazy. He followed Myron Brilliant, the head of international affairs at the Chamber of Commerce, who had mildly criticized Señor Trumpanzee's "weaponized tariffs." Trump thought this was witty:
• "Well, I guess he's not so brilliant. Look, without tariffs, we would be captive to every country, and we have been for many years."• "I'm a member of the US Chamber-- maybe I'll have to rethink that, because when you look at it, the chamber is probably more for the companies and the people that are members than they are for our country."• "Because without tariffs, we would be absolutely, outside of something that I won't even mention, we would be absolutely in a competitive disadvantage, the likes of which you've never seen."• "Now, people haven't used tariffs, but tariffs are a beautiful thing when you're the piggy bank, when you have all the money."• "And China will, in my opinion, based on a lot of facts and a lot of knowledge, China's going to make a deal because they're going to have to make a deal."• "I'm going to tell you that most people understand that the people having to do with borders and illegal immigration and immigration of any kind, they understand exactly what that is."• "But this is something the US has been trying to get for over 20 years with Mexico. They've never been able to do it. As soon as I put tariffs on the table, it was done. It took two days."• "You know, we've picked up trillions of dollars in worth since I've been elected."[CNN did a little fact check here: "It's true the nation's net worth has grown by about that amount, according to the Federal Reserve. It rose to $101 trillion in the first quarter, up from $94 trillion in the same period a year earlier, when Trump took office. (The gain shrinks to just under $5 trillion if you adjust the figures for inflation.) However, the country was getting wealthier long before Trump's presidency. After taking a beating during the Great Recession, net worth rocketed back. It rose by nearly $40 trillion during the eight years of Barack Obama's presidency, or $31 trillion when adjusted for inflation."]• "Had a Democrat gotten in, namely, the one we're talking about, China would have caught us by the end of her term."• "They'll never catch us. Not with what I'm doing. They'll never catch us."• "He [Kudlow] put some of it on, but they didn't put it on the way that they should have. So, you know, that was a little bit of the media." • "We have a Fed that raises interest rates the day before a bond issue goes out, so we have to pay more money. You tell me about that thinking, OK."• "We should be entitled to have a fair playing field, but even without a fair playing field-- because our Fed is very, very destructive to us."• "I'm winning, but I'm not winning on a level table. If I had a table -- don't forget, the head of the Fed in China is President Xi."• "We're doing-- but I just want to say to the United States Chamber of Commerce, if we didn't have tariffs, we wouldn't have made a deal with Mexico."[The NY Times report that is driving Trump up the wall: "The deal to avert tariffs that President Trump announced with great fanfare on Friday night consists largely of actions that Mexico had already promised to take in prior discussions with the United States over the past several months, according to officials from both countries who are familiar with the negotiations."]• "Nobody's going to be able to get through. And then they're also going to protect our southern border."• "It's a very simple-- it is a simple stat. [President Xi is] for China, I am for the US, so we are going to have our differences."• "I can tell you they [Big Tech] discriminate against me."• "You know, people talk about collusion. The real conclusion is between the Democrats and these companies."• "We are not fools anymore. We are not the foolish country that does so badly."• "I'm a budget cutter and I have cut the budget."• "I am very much of a cost cutter. I want to have a great budget."• "I got the plane cost down a lot."• "Well, there's something going on."[regarding anti-trust problems with Google and Facebook]• "This country is allowing this French wine which is great, we have great wine, too, allowing it to come in for nothing. It is not fair. And you know what, it's not fair. We'll do something about it."• "We are leading in everything."• "We are-- if you look at China, China, as great as they are and they are great, they are near the capability of our geniuses in Silicon Valley that walk around in undershirts and they were not $2 billion a piece."
PolitiFact hasn't done this bunch yet but the fact check they did May 20th should be helpful in a meta kind of way.
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