Try as he might, Trump can't fix this - making his critics shut up

Trump's 'mute' button isn't working

Donald Trump loved to use nondisclosure agreements in business to make sure ex-subordinates who might have thought badly of him kept their lips zipped. He has tried NDAs in his campaigns and in the White House, too, but there are questions whether he can make them stick. Hush deals didn't last with the porn star and the ex-Playboy model who said they had sex with him, either. And Trump is finding that ex-officials and most other Americans are beyond the reach of such silencing tactics.

So Trump is lashing out this week in multiple directions — at turncoat ex-"Apprentice" and ex-White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman for writing a tell-all book and releasing surreptitiously made recordings; at the news media, as usual; and at the former national security brass whose security clearances are in his crosshairs for speaking out against him. To the president's evident frustration, no one is piping down.

Not former CIA Director John Brennan, who wrote an op-ed for The New York Times calling Trump's revocation of his clearance "an attempt to scare into silence others who might dare to challenge him." He further said Trump's "claims of no collusion" with Russia's election interference are "hogwash" and special counsel Robert Mueller must be allowed to complete his investigation into whether the collusion and efforts to hinder the probe add up to criminality, reports Newsday's Laura Figueroa Hernandez.

A striking show of solidarity with Brennan came from retired Adm. William H. McRaven, who as head of commander of U.S. Joint Special Operations Command, oversaw the 2011 Navy SEAL raid that killed Osama bin Laden. In an open letter to Trump in The Washington Post, McRaven praised Brennan as "a man of unparalleled integrity" and said, "I would consider it an honor if you would revoke my security clearance as well, so I can add my name to the list of men and women who have spoken up against your presidency.”

Trump has "embarrassed," "humiliated" and "divided" America, McRaven said, adding: "If you think for a moment that your McCarthy-era tactics will suppress the voices of criticism, you are sadly mistaken."

Omarosa is still talking (see story below) despite legal action by Trump's 2016 campaign to try to enforce an NDA. Besides calling her “crazed,” a “lowlife,” and a “dog," Trump told advisers he wanted Attorney General Jeff Sessions to have her arrested, though it wasn't clear on what grounds the president thought she could be charged, Vanity Fair reported, citing a Republican briefed on the conversations as its source.

About 350 newspapers ran editorials Thursday to push back at Trump's relentless attacks on the news media as "an enemy of the people." In a series of tweets, Trump mocked the effort as "collusion" and said, "THE FAKE NEWS MEDIA IS THE OPPOSITION PARTY." To see Newsday's editorial, click here.

Russia to his judgment

Just as he did in an NBC interview after he fired FBI Director James Comey, Trump cut through the fog of the official explanations to tell The Wall Street Journal what clinched his action  against Brennan and a review of security clearances for nine other former and present officials.

The Russia investigation.

“I call it the rigged witch hunt, [it] is a sham,” Trump told The Journal. “And these people led it!” He added: “So I think it’s something that had to be done.”

Janison: Brawl in the family

Trump has turned into more of a divider than a uniter for a growing list of families with presidential ties, notes Newsday's Dan Janison.

Just this week, an uncle of White House aide Stephen Miller denounced his work pushing for severely restrictive immigration policies as a betrayal of their family's heritage as refugees from persecution. The son of House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) condemned his father's role in hauling a now-fired FBI agent who wrote anti-Trump texts before his committee. "I’m deeply embarrassed that Peter Strzok’s career was ruined by my father’s political grandstanding." said Bobby Goodlatte, who is raising money for his dad's Democratic challenger.

And then there are the Conways — Kellyanne and George — whose discord was vividly captured in a story by The Washington Post. She says, "He’s not just my boss, he's our president." He says, "Yeah. We’ll see how long that lasts," and promptly leaves the room.

Betrayed by 'one of our own'

Lara Trump — wife of Eric Trump and a senior adviser for the president's re-election campaign — on Thursday bemoaned the "betrayal" by Omarosa.

"Omarosa was welcomed into our family as a trusted friend and confidant," said Lara. " . . . We never would have imagined that one of our own was secretly recording all of our private conversations."

Omarosa released more recorded excerpts to MSNBC Thursday — of Lara offering her a $15,000-a-month job for the 2020 campaign following the December 2017, firing and seemingly alluding to Omarosa's hints back then that she would have stories to tell. "We can't have — we got to — everything, everybody positive, right?" Lara is heard saying (click here to hear it). Omarosa says it was an attempt to buy her silence.

Meanwhile, the Republican National Committee recycled via Twitter old recordings of Omarosa speaking worshipfully of Trump. The president retweeted it with the comment "Thank you for the kind words Omarosa!"

Cohen's Stormy whether dilemma

Michael Cohen initially balked at an approach by Stormy Daniels' lawyer in September 2016 to buy her silence about her story of a sex fling with Trump, but that changed a month later after the infamous "Access Hollywood" tape surfaced and nearly sank the campaign, The Wall Street Journal reported.

That could buttress a case that Cohen's motive in paying Daniels $130,000 was to protect the campaign, making  the arrangement a potential campaign finance violation, said the Journal.

Cohen, Trump's former and no longer loyal fixer, is also under criminal investigation by the Manhattan U.S. attorney's office for possible tax fraud, bank fraud and illegal lobbying, the report said.

Diamonds on soles of those boots?

The estimated cost of the military parade Trump ordered to be held in Washington has skyrocketed to as much as $92 million, NBC News reported, citing a defense official as its source. The original price tag was $12 million, later upped to $10 million to $30 million.

The latest cost projection includes security, transportation of parade assets, aircraft, as well as temporary duty for troops, CNBC said. Plans also include tanks and other armored vehicles. Though scheduled for Nov. 10, the Pentagon announced Thursday it will be put off until at least next year. 

Among those not loving Trump’s parade: The American Legion. “Until such time as we can celebrate victory in the War on Terrorism and bring our military home, we think the parade money would be better spent fully funding the Department of Veterans Affairs and giving our troops and their families the best care possible," the veterans group said.  

Trump got the idea for the march while viewing the Bastille Day parade in Paris with French President Emmanuel Macron  in July 2017. "We're going to have to try to top it," he later told Macron.

What else is happening:

• Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer says he will meet Tuesday with President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and will urge him to approve the release of his White House records that are now being withheld, reports Newsday's Tom Brune.
• Senators of both parties accused the Trump administration of losing track of some migrant children taken into the government’s custody, Bloomberg News reported. “Your blanket statement that there are no lost children is simply inaccurate,” Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, a Republican, told a Department of Health and Human Services official.
• The jury in Mueller's tax and bank fraud case against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort ended its first day of deliberations after asking four questions of the judge, including the definition of "reasonable doubt.” They resume Friday.
•  First lady Melania Trump plans to address a cyberbullying summit in Maryland next week. Her topic is "the positive and negative effects of social media on youth." 
• Some major Trump donors are bothered by the revelations that the campaign may have been used as a slush fund to pay fired or troublesome employees, The New York Times reported.
• A 55% majority of Americans don't support Trump's plan to create a Space Force as a new branch of the military, while 37% like the idea, according to a CNN poll.