Tweeter in chief sharpens blades of chopping block
President Trump has brought the TV reality show “The Apprentice” to the West Wing, along with its signature phrase, “You’re fired.”
The latest to be ejected is Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. He’s the guy who called Trump a moron last summer, so the biggest surprise is that it took this long for him to get the heave-ho via Trump’s Twitter feed.
My bet is that Tillerson is already at work on a book detailing his year in the Trump administration. It will be a guaranteed best-seller and maybe even good enough for a movie — “12 Months a Slave.”
National security adviser H.R. McMaster is rumored to be next. My friend Dr. Ben Carson, secretary of housing and urban development, is on the
bubble as well, in part for his expensive taste in furniture.
However, canning Carson will not be as easy as terminating Tillerson. Carson may be a gifted neurosurgeon, but he’s lousy at picking up on anything but the most obvious message. So a simple tweet announcing his execution may not get through to him.
I’m not saying Carson is thick, but the joke going around D.C is that he bought that $31,000 dining room set because he read the price as $3,100.
New shade of blue: What does the Democratic upset in last week’s special congressional election in Pennsylvania mean for us in California? Not much.
Conor Lamb’s slim win over Republican Rick Saccone, in a district that Donald Trump carried by 20 points in 2016, shows that a lot of voters have changed their minds about the president. That speaks well for Democrats’ chances of winning back the House in November, but repeating the Lamb strategy will be a challenge.
For all the talk of the rising “blue wave,” Lamb is a bit of a lone surfer. Unless you think Democrats trying to peel off Republican seats, including several in California, are about to adopt pro-gun, pro-tariff, antiNancy Pelosi positions.
On target: The children’s brigade on antigun advocacy is really picking up steam. The 17-minute walkout Wednesday in memory of the Florida massacre victims and in support of gun control was truly a forceful display.
The best part: There was hardly a politician in sight. These kids truly are the face of a new movement.
I’m looking forward to Saturday’s march on Washington and simultaneous demonstrations in cities across the country. There are moments when such mass turnouts really make a difference — think the 1963 civil rights march on Washington, the protest outside the Pentagon in 1967, the Women’s Marches of January 2017. I believe this will be one of those.
On the horizon: Former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick is being urged to consider a run for the presidency in 2020. He’s a Democrat who helped write President Barack Obama’s speeches, and he ran a smart governor’s office in his state for two terms. Worth checking out.
Political refugees: The political consulting firm Barnes, Mosher, Whitehurst, Lauter and Partners has abandoned its Mission Street digs for Mayor Libby Schaaf ’s sanctuary city of Oakland.
When skyrocketing rents force high-priced political consultants out of town, you know things are getting grim.
Toll talk: State Sen. Scott Wiener has introduced legislation that could help ease our everincreasing traffic congestion problem by allowing San Francisco to charge for driving through downtown.
My recommendation for City Hall is to start charging ride-hailing companies now. They are a huge part of the problem.
Movie time: “Gringo.” David Oyelowo stars in this comedy about an ordinary guy caught up in a deadly mix of drug cartels and unscrupulous businessmen and women. It’s a clever, twisted plot that justifies your $14 admission.
It won’t win any awards, but it will make you laugh and it will make money.
Speaking of money: The $130,000 that porn star Stormy Daniels received to keep quiet about her roll in the hay a few years back with Donald Trump is starting to look like chump change. With all the interest she’s getting, she could charge admission for a talk about her own personal night of the living dead and fill Yankee Stadium.
I have no idea how this chapter in our nation’s history will play out, but I did love the CNN headline on the story the other day: Storm Warning.