Whitman Letson
February 21, 2017

Trumps aides don't want to Admit the President is Golfing

      This just baffles me that Professional golfers have played with President Trump in the last weeks, told the media that they played 18 holes this week. They also even shared photos taken together, yet the Trump administration won’t admit he played golf. My guess to why they won’t admit it because in his campaign he was very critical of President Obama when he played golf saying “He too busy playing golf and not working to fix our Countries problems.” He also said “He would be too busy to play,” but I guess that’s not the case since he’s played at least two rounds in his first month of presidency, compared to Obama who played his first round of his presidency in April of 2009.

     I’m not knocking Trump for playing golf, I think golf is a great sport, and even the president should be able to play when he wants. Since he owns the course it makes it easier to play and could possibly carry of business deals on the course, as so many business leader do, and this could benefit the country. What I am knocking him for is how in his campaigns the said repeatedly you can’t trust the media, but I’ve learned I can't even trust the President, because he can’t even come forward and say the obvious. Trump isn't starting his presidency off on the right foot when it comes to the media and needs to fix this, but he does leaves a lot of room to improve.

      This is another mistrust in the government when America needs it the most. In this election Trump was despised by a half of America, and if I was Trump I would try to prove that I am fit for office and sway their opinions. I would want to become the president that democrats thought I couldn't he could be and prove them wrong. Sadly though, he hasn't done anything to put trust back in the Democratic party and if anything proving even more that he isn't fit for office. I've always been told the little things matter and I know what Trump is doing by not being honest to the media doesn't matter to a lot people but when being judged by some people the little things count the most.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/20/politics/donald-trump-golfing-presidency/index.html

Whitman Letson
AP Gov
February 15, 2017

Michael Flynn

1. Michael Flynn, Donald Trump’s National Security Advisory, resigns after 23 days in office. He resigned after making communication with Russia before Trump took office, and he mislead the Trump administration by giving them false information. In a statement released by Flynn he said, "He gave the administration incomplete information." Flynn hasn't had the cleanest track record consisting of past issues of mishandling of information, and he was fired in 2014 by the Obama administration. On November 18, 2016 he was appointed National Security Advisor, and on December 29 the Obama administration released new sanctions on Russia after the allegedly meddling with the 2016 presidential election. After this occur Flynn was apparently was in contact with Russia and told Mike Pence, the Vice President, that they were in contact but didn't talk sanctions. On February it was found out that Flynn lied and on February 13 he resigned from the job.

2. This relates to our AP Gov class, because in our first unit we talked about mistrust in the government after the Watergate and Vietnam War. I think this a prime example of why the people loose trust and don’t always believe the government, because in this case Mike pence didn’t even know who to trust in this own government. Mistrust in the government isn’t the best way to start off a new presidential term, considering that Trump is in the news weekly for a controversial bill, or other political speakers not giving the entire story. Trump better start be honest so the people don’t lose trust in the government. 

3. I personally find this very suspicious and makes me wonder what is going on in the Trump organization. Every week the Trump Organization is in the news for something that occurred, and that isn’t something to be proud of. This time it’s with Russia and as a U.S. citizen I’d like to keep contact with them limited and wait for your office term to begin, or at least not help them. I honestly don’t know what they talked about but I tend to think it wasn’t going to benefit the U.S. since he lied to Mike Pence about it and later resigned from his National Security Advisor duty. I do not agree with what Flynn did and I think he deserved to be fired instead of just “resigning.”

http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/14/politics/michael-flynn-resigns-timeline/index.html

Bowling Green Massacre?

Whitman Letson
February 8, 2017
1st Current Event

On January 29 Kellyanne Conway is in the news once again for reporting questionable or incorrect information. In this news conference she referenced the Bowling Green Massacre to defend the ban on Muslims entering the country. She also referenced Obama doing a similar ban to stop refugees from entering the county, except there's one problem these instances didn't occur at all. Yes, she was right about Bowling Green there were two men in Bowling Green attempting to sell weapons to terrorist organizations, but nobody was hurt or injured and absolutely no massacre. This did cause President Obama to revet 58,000 refugees but not ban them. Kellyanne released a statement saying she misspoke at the news conference, but as it turn out she has said this on multiple occasions.

When reading this article it really makes me question the legitimacy of the Trump Presidency if the counselors are lying about issues like this. First off if your going to compare what Trump is doing to what Obama did get your facts straight, and stop lying to the media. She has also been in the news for talking about alternative facts. Is this another alternative fact trying to make the ban on Muslims seem like an ordinary deed of the president? Weather it is or not I don't know what I can trust from the Trump administration now after talking about alternative facts mentioned in George Orwell famous book named 1984, which was trying to get the people to believe what the government wants them to believe. This is a very serious issue that the government is blatantly lying to the people and I hope this will stop.

This is relates to our AP GOV class when we were talking about the political culture of the United States and how it's different and better than other nations. This reporting goes against everything the American people have worked for about not being controlled and manipulated by the government. It's the political culture of America that makes America great, but if this keeps up we are basically just giving up and letting the government win. I think the political culture is great and needs to only make changes to benefit America.


http://money.cnn.com/2017/02/06/media/kellyanne-conway-bowling-green-massacre-cosmopolitan/index.html

http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/07/politics/kellyanne-conway-jake-tapper-interview-cnntv/index.html