Trump Suggested A $880 Billion Cut From Medicaid, And 14 Other Facts You Need To Know Immediately

From pretending he reads, to tweeting at North Korea, here’s everything Trump did this week.

March 17, 2017
Trump Suggested A $880 Billion Cut From Medicaid, And 14 Other Facts You Need To Know Immediately Trump at a joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in the East Room of the White House, March 17, 2017.   Justin Sullivan / Getty
1. Lied about cutting Medicaid.
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2. Pledged to donate his presidential salary ($400,000 a year) at the end of the year to the charity of the White House Press Corps's choice.

But declined to provide proof of his intentions.

3. Referred to the healthcare debate as a "big, fat, beautiful negotiation."
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4. Called the two leaked pages of his tax returns from 2005 "fake news," after the White House confirmed they were real.
5. Criticized Snoop Dogg for his "Lavender" video, to much outrage.

Seriously, how dare he?

6. Shouted out probable worst U.S. president of all time, Andrew Jackson.

One of Jackson's many nicknames was "Indian-Killer." Michael Brendan wrote for The Week, "Part of Jackson's personal wealth came through land that he acquired even though it had been promised to Indians in a treaty. It's completely justified to say that Jacksonian democracy reflected this same grasping ambition of the newly expanded white voting classes at the expense of slaves and Indians."

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7. Unveiled a truly horrific budget.

Which was apparently culled from quotes from Trump's campaign speeches. "If he said it in the campaign, it's in the budget," budget adviser Rick Mulvaney said on Morning Joe. "We wanted to know what his policies were. And we turned those policies into numbers."

His first budget plan “raises military spending $54 billion, boosts funding for homeland security, slashing state department funding, massively reduces EPA,” according to CNN.

"The budget goes after the frequent targets of the party's staunchest conservatives, eliminating the National Endowment for the Arts, legal aid for the poor, low-income heating assistance and the AmeriCorps national service program established by former President Bill Clinton," AP reported.

The Recording Academy called the plan to cut funding for the arts, "shortsighted and alarming." The plan also cuts funding for anti-poverty programs like Meals On Wheels. As Charles Pierce wrote for Esquire, "Jesus Christ, these really are the fcking mole people."

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8. Criticized the Hawaii judge who blocked his new travel ban, and said that it's actually just a "watered-down version of the last one."

NPR wrote: "It's not clear what kind of advice the president is getting from his White House counsel, Don McGahn, or the Justice Department — or whether Trump is taking it. Longtime defense lawyer William Taylor III said he's concluded Trump wants to talk to his political supporters and "just doesn't care" about legal advice to the contrary."

Trump supporters responded to the ruling with #BoycottHawaii, much to Hawaiians's delight.

9. Dropped some doozies in his interview with Tucker Carlson.

“['Wiretapping'] really covers surveillance and many other things. Nobody ever talks about the fact that it was in quotes,” he said. “I think you’re going to find some very interesting items coming to the forefront in the next two weeks. I’ve been reading about things. I read I think it was a January 20 article in The New York Times — they were talking about wiretapping.”

He also said: "Well, you know, I love to read. Actually, I'm looking at a book, I'm reading a book, I'm trying to get started. Every time I do about a half a page, I get a phone call that there's some emergency, this or that. But we're going to see the home of Andrew Jackson today in Tennessee and I'm reading a book on Andrew Jackson."

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10. Communicated to North Korea about their missile tests like this:

*Face palm*

11. Met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel (aka Leader Of The Free World™), and didn't shake her hand.
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12. And made a supremely un-funny wiretapping joke that Merkel did not laugh at.
13. Even though his wiretap claim was rejected by all four congressmen who oversee intelligence and surveillance, and Paul Ryan.

He also tried to blame Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters, London’s NSA equivalent. GCHQ responded: "Recent allegations made by media commentator judge Andrew Napolitano about GCHQ being asked to conduct ‘wiretapping’ against the then president-elect are nonsense. They are utterly ridiculous and should be ignored."

14. For St. Patrick's Day, quoted a "proverb" that was actually by a Muslim Nigerian bank manager.

"The proverb that Trump cited does indeed appear on a few websites that list 'St. Patrick's Day Blessings' and in a few memes dotting Pinterest and Instagram profiles," NBC News reported. "But as viewers were quick to point out after Trump's meeting with Kenny aired on MSNBC, a Google search for the proverb quickly leads to a longer poem posted online in January 2013 by a Nigerian Muslim bank manager named Albasheer Adam Alhassan."

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15. And now, the Trumps are off to Mar-A-Lago for the weekend. Again.

Just a reminder: those trips cost roughly $3 million each.

Bonus: White House Correspondent Kellyanne Conway thinks microwaves can spy on you.
Trump Suggested A $880 Billion Cut From Medicaid, And 14 Other Facts You Need To Know Immediately