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DONALD TRUMP SAYS that he will forgo his salary as US President.
In his first TV interview since last Tuesday’s shock victory, the Republican President-elect told CBS’s 60 Minutes that he wouldn’t take the $400,000 salary.
“I’m not going to take the salary. I’m not taking it. I think I have to by law take $1, so I’ll take $1 a year.”
Trump spoke about a range of issues in the interview and assured the public he will not seek to overturn the US Supreme Court’s ruling which legalised same-sex marriage.
It’s law. It was settled in the Supreme Court. I mean it’s done.
“And I’m – I’m fine with that.”
Protests
Trump moved to calm a wave of protests that have swept across the US in the wake of his election, telling them they had nothing to fear from his presidency.
Don’t be afraid. We are going to bring our country back.
Trump said he was “saddened” by reports that incidents of harassment and intimidation of minorities had spiked since his election — and called for it to end.
“I hate to hear that. I am so saddened to hear that,” Trump said when asked about the reports. “If it helps. I will say this, and I will say right to the cameras: Stop it.”
He reaffirmed plans to aggressively deport or jail as many as three million undocumented immigrants — those with criminal records, he said.
Trump also said he stood by his pledge to build a wall on the Mexican border — although he said it could include some fencing.
And on the key issue of the Supreme Court — where one of nine seats is currently vacant — he vowed his nominees would support abortion restrictions, and defend the constitutional right to bear arms.
“The judges will be pro-life,” Trump told CBS. “In terms of the whole gun situation,” he added, “they’re going to be very pro-Second Amendment.”
With © AFP 2016 reporting.
The only ever president that has to down grade his trump plane to air force one and to down grade his mansion to the white house.but fair play to him not to take the salary.at least that’s a good start
@dick dastardly: He’s deporting 3 million immigrants, it is not a good start. $400k is pittance to him too.
How worrying Karl, he will be the first president to do that since Barack Obama.
@dick dastardly: He might not take a salary but all his family are already on the horses back, big win there
If they are illegal immigrants then they should be deported.
@Crimson: I wish you were an illegal immigrant.
@Crimson: Should all the undocumented Irish in Boston, New York etc be deported too? Or just the folks of colour?
Did you even read the article? He’s deporting those with criminal records, what sort of naive person would have a problem with this.
Old Gabby. is undocumented a nice word for illegal.
In U.S. immigration law, an undocumented immigrant does mean the same thing as an illegal one.
@ray.farrelly: Yeah ray it is.. that’s my point. I’m sorry if its confusing for you.
Yes Gabby every illegal should be deported, there are genuine immigrants who go by the book and follow the immigration laws of the host country, are you suggesting different?? you open border clown.
@dick we all know how dastardly it acctualy is “ohh im the nice guy i wont take a salay please dont rebel and protest against me”
Parking tickets and road tax is recorded as a criminal record in ireland…..
@Karl Waters:
He’s planning to deport three million illegal immigrants Karl. I fail to see what the issue is. If you enter a country illegally and have no legal basis for being there then there is only one logical outcome.
@Old Gabby Johnson:
Yes, why should Irish people who are in the US illegally get a free pass?
You wish I was an illegal immigrant…what age are you Gabby, 10?
@Crimson ignore old loser Johnson, he told everyone Clinton would win it and all, Trump had no chance, his credibility is shot just like Dave O’Keefe, Larry Donnelly et al.
Aw, you couldn’t get your tongue far enough up my hole the other day there Eddie. Why the change of heart? You seem a tad obsessed
Roosevelt and Kennedy refused the salary too
Under Obama 2.5 million illegal immigrants who committed crimes where deported so Trump is just continuing this policy
@Crimson: So you want all the undocumented irish deported – so where do you want them to go then?
@Eddie Simon: I did no such thing – and well she did win the popular vote – in that more people voted for her. For as Trump himself said the electoral college system is a disaster.
Gabby. Did Clinton make the claim that the Electoral College is a disaster? Has any elected Democrat? The Democrat’s lost in an election that they knew the rules of and we’re happy to take part in. During the Clinton and Obama years they could have changed the system if they had so wished, they didn’t. So you I and everyone else just have to accept that under the Electoral College system Trump won fair and square and will be President for the next 4 years.
The man of the people indeed!
Mick, the electoral college is in the constitution so no, they couldn’t have changed it alone. In saying that I have no issues with it or the election and it even looks like the president elect is taking note of the fact that he didn’t win the popular vote by easing up in some of his policies
@Dave O Keeffe: Both Clinton and Obama had at one time Democratic control of bot the House and the Senate so it they had wished they could have amended the Constitution.
@Old Gabby Johnson:
What right do you think the Irish have to be there illegally?
Why should they get any preferential treatment? Their are legal ways to apply, but you need to be educated, and in demand. If people break the law, they should be caught and deported obviously.
Otherwise they just give Ireland a bad reputation, it is simply wrong, and what justification do you have for it?
He plans to deport immigrants who have criminal records. I don’t think that’s unreasonable. I don’t want more of our criminals back but I also don’t see why other countries should have to keep them. They are our problem.
That’s 3 million convicted criminal immigrants. 3 million convicted of crimes other than being here illegally. Tell me again where this is bad…
@Brian Hicks: That is exactly my point Brian.
Lotta people have a vested interest in Trump falling on his face cos they got it so wrong about him and about how people really feel rather than the way the media are trying to direct them to feel
@frash: yeah, the majority of Americans who didn’t vote for him for a start.
@Dave Bruen:
He won the electoral college which is specifically designed to prevent ten counties from dominating every election. Without it, traditionally Democrat-voting urban areas would control the elections of the entire country and it would arguably be a never ending cycle of Democrat presidents.
Most democracies have something similar in place (including Ireland) to prevent large urban areas from controlling all elections.
@Jason Culligan: Whatever it’s original intentions, the electoral college is now flawed. In what is essentially a two-horse race, Clinton will have about 2 million or 1.5 per cent more of the vote. It also means that the focus of the election is essentially limited to a handful of swing states.
And you’re spouting rubbish with your “never ending cycle of Democratic presidents”. Reagan, Nixon and the Bushes have all won the popular vote in the past forty years.
And even if the majority of the electorate did vote Democrat all the time, what version of democracy are you proposing? The undemocratic one?
@jason no wonder those urban dwellers are giving out about the rest of Ireland in particular one county. Seem to forget the record of some of their tds!
@Dave Bruen:
Let me guess, it’s only flawed now because Clinton lost?
What you fail to remember is that the US is not one single country. It is a federal state comprised of 50 nations. In such a state, it makes no sense that only ten counties (not even states) dictate the course of the election for the entire federal union. If the EU were to become a federal state tomorrow, such a college system would become almost mandatory to ensure that smaller states such as Ireland and Portugal aren’t completely consumed by the major population centres in Europe such as Berlin and Paris.
As I said already, such a system exists in almost every democracy.
@Jason Culligan: That’s right,in fact the British system often produces Prime Ministers and entire governments with less than 50% of the vote. In some European countries they have 2 elections, one to filter out the bulk and leave a small choice for the second poll. One thing I was amazed at though the internet was that voters in the US have to queue for up to an hour and a half in some places. They would not do it in Ireland. Any way, had the Democrats selected a good candidate with real politics, they might have won. In fact Bernie might have won. The elites could not have that because voters wanted jobs and jobs cannot be crated without burning fossil fuel.
@Jason Culligan: So in your world Jason, you can’t allow ten counties to dictate (which isn’t the case anyway if it’s one man, one vote across the country) but it is OK for a handful of swing states to determine the outcome every time? A vote in Mass. or Texas is essentially meaningless, while a Florida voter is a most prized asset? It’s rubbish, and it’s not because Clinton lost.
And if Europe had a similar two party system and elected a president, then that president should reflect the political view of a majority of Europeans, not pander to geography. There is a parliament/congress to remedy local affairs.
@Dave Bruen:
The US is a federation in which the candidate who is elected as President (and thus as both head of state and head of government – there is no Prime Minister in the UK) wins the popular vote in the majority of constituent states in accordance with the population of each state and thus wins all the Electoral College votes in that state (though it’s different in Maine and Nebraska, which distribute the electoral college votes based on the popular vote winner in each congressional district in the state and award two additional electoral college votes to the winner of the popular vote in the state) – just like a party that wins an overall majority of seats in the House of Commons forms the government of the UK.
Typo!
* – there is no Prime Minister in the US.
@Jason Culligan:
It’s also worth mentioning that the electoral college system means voters are essentially passing the decision of which candidate to support to an elector, who can choose to cast his or her vote for a candidate other than the one chosen by the electorate. It doesn’t happen very regularly but it does happen. Not very democratic.
@Ciarán Masterson: Sorry Ciaran, not sure of your point?
UK is a poor example of democracy at play, as supporters of both UKIP and the Greens are massively under-represented in parliament (one seat each I think) while the SNP is over-presented.
Why is the electoral college system all of a sudden a major problem for democrats?
Obama’s been in power the last 8 years, has he ever once put forth a bill to change the system?
If not – it’s sour grapes, nothing more, nothing less
@Dave Bruen:
Again Dave, you appear to be missing the point.
Every state within the US is effectively a country in itself. The electoral college is decided by the popular vote within each state with points attributed to states depending on their population to balance the vote. The electoral college exists solely for the purpose of preventing larger and more populous states from simply dictating the will of their people on the smaller states of the union.
You’re thinking of it from a ‘one country, one person, one vote’ perspective however that does not account for the fact that each of the 50 states of the US is in itself it’s own nation.
@Jason Culligan:
I’m not missing any point Jason. And you still haven’t addressed the problem with swing states and the unfair emphasis they receive.
Also the electoral college votes are not distributed evenly to states based on population. e.g. Wyoming has an electoral vote for every 170K citizens, while nationally it’s an electoral vote for every 560K citizens approx.
@Thepopularpopulist It hasn’t suddenly become a problem. It was a problem in 2000 when Gore lost. It was also a problem for Trump when he mistakenly believed that Obama was going to win in 2012 but lose the popular vote. Here’s a link to Trumps rants at the time.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-calls-electoral-college-a-disaster-during-2012-tweetstorm/
The Trump victory is being heralded as some sort of triumph over the status quo. It’s not. It’s the ruling class again benefiting from a gerrymandered system. The Republicans have made a fine art of it.
@Jason Culligan:
Also Jason, the states are well represented in Congress, where as Obamas second term has shown, they can effectively shackle the POTUS. There now exists a government under the complete control of the Republican party, despite the fact that over half of the population voted for Clinton. Not a democracy.
@Jason Culligan: The electoral college was actually designed to prevent the north from outvoting the slave holding south. At the time the slaves obviously couldn’t vote and the slave owners knew they’d always lose an election which is why with the great compromise they gave the south disproportionate power which meant that one white man would have the vote of one white man plus the vote of three fifths of a man, i.e. a slave.
Read about it if you don’t believe me, it’s called the three fifths compromise.
@Jason Culligan: The US states are arbitrary lines on the map and they certainly aren’t nations like you seem to be suggesting.
I actually wouldn’t quite mind the electoral college system if the votes were allocated proportionally like they are in Maine and Nebraska. It’s still a broken system, as are ALL FPTP systems but it’s better than the travesty they have now.
You should also remember that the founders expected the electoral college to oppose the people if they elected an idiot in this case. Made even worse by the fact that Trump didn’t win the popular vote. The constitution and the federal papers made it very clear that in this case Hillary Clinton SHOULD be elected.
@frash: The media are now able to brainwash 99% of people, who are zombies anyway.
In Wikileaks it came out that Podesta and the media had conspired to ensure ordinary people were unaware and basically dumb.
Ireland is a prime example.
What similar constructs are in place here?
@Dave Bruen:
I was making a comparison between the election of the US President and the election of the UK Government.
The USA will NOT cede its destiny to the whims of NY and California. Also, check the latest reports from here in the US…it appears that more than 3 million ILLEGAL immigrants cast ballots in this election. The votes of non-citizens will not count. Hillary won the popular vote by 680,000 votes so, assuming the more than 3 million votes were for Hillary, Trump also now wins the popular vote…by a whopping 2 million plus.
@Brian Hicks: As the days will be getting a lot lot colder,there is some excellent headgear that you might be interested in purchasing :)
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shieldapparel/shield-the-world-s-first-signal-proof-headwear
Ooooh the Washington post .
@Dave Bruen:
There is enough evidence to show the vote and polls were rigged, so much so that while they thought they had the election, the globalists were beaten by the fact that Trump was supported by a massive landslide that the rigging could not stop it.
@Seán J. Troy:
Jason Culligan did not say the states were countries he said they were effectively countries. Not the same thing at all.
@StefanCarroll:
*did not say they were “nations” rather, but countries.
That’s cute Rosie! Apparently you have no argument against my facts so you ridicule. That’s OK, It’s what we’ve come to expect from liberals. It’s also why the middle class in my country has voted liberals and the liberal agenda and hatred out. Liberals are not inclusive unless you’re part of the Liberal group speak. Should you dare to disagree at any level you’re labeled as racist, bigoted, uneducated. We’ve had enough and demanded change. We’ve taken the House, the Senate and now the Presidency…and we didn’t demonstrate, no violence, no threats, none of that. We took our dissent to your liberal agenda to the ballot box and won decisively and without cheating.
Pro life and refusing a salary sounds well intentioned. A fence/wall between the US and Mexico seems like commonsense when one sees the horrific atrocities committed by the Zeta and Sinaloa cartels.
The funny thing is, there is already a fence along the border, it was upgraded to 12ft high at most points topped with barbed wire and infa red cameras all along it to track immigrants and drug cartels, all this done by Obama in his time as president.
Obama also deported 2.5 million illegal immigrants in his reign but because Trump wants to upgrade the fence and deport the same amount of people (with criminal records) and due to the fact that he is white, he’s being classed as a racist bigot etc etc….its madness
It’s not about the act itself, it’s about how Trump used it as one of the main pillars of his campaign. He may or may not be a racist himself but he certainly legitimised the ideology and beliefs of many racists groups.
The irish government should at least forgo their salary increase. He for goes his salary.
@Brendan Mason: You know Brendan, the Irish government are incapable of forgoing their salary increases
They make millions after from speeches. Trump no doubt will use it for his business ends. But I’d right protests should end. He won fair and square with little help from fbi but what’s done is done. Get on with it and play the game
But he is right protests should end ****
@Eye_c_u: Why should the protests end? The protesters have every right to voice their concerns, and every right to demonstrate against Trump, as long as they’re doing so without violence
Larissa Trump loves trans people says they can pee in any of his toilets.
@Larissa Caroline Nikolaus: when the new furher says STOP IT (to the Camera as well Folks) the ant-fascists are unlikely to obey.
@Larissa Caroline Nikolaus:
Many of the protesters lost their right when they turned political protests into all-out riots. These protests have not been without violence and looting.
@Jason Culligan: Rioters have been threatened by Trump, they will have to work for a living. If that caught on no one would be able to bum around in their parents basement (as Hillary said)
Val, extend that quote. Hilary said they were over qualified people doing low paying jobs and having to live in their parents basements. But keep tilting at windmills buddy, you lunatic
@Dave O Keeffe: Its the windmills that has them poor, why is this generation poorer then their parents. Lefftie/socialist/green/ Commie liberalism, Ha?
There goes a woman’s right to seek appropriate medical care when she needs it.
@Lesley Barclay:
So many people, especially on my fb feed are so upset about how Trump is anti-abortion, but the majority of them seem to be just fine with the fact that in Ireland our women need to travel to another country to get access to vital healthcare.
I just don’t get why everyone all of a sudden cares about womens’ right to healthcare and sexism and all that when it’s related to a country that isn’t us, but are fine with it when it’s happening at home. Dives me crazy. Not saying that any of that is about you in specific because I don’t know, but I wanted to point it out.
Because that other country is seeking to take people’s rights away. At this point in Ireland we are denying a right that was never there but should be. A pay cut causes a louder cry that not getting a raise
But that’s like saying that even though we all work at Superquinn, and we really really need to get a raise because we’re all paid so badly, we’re louder in our outrage over the fact that workers at Tesco are taking a pay cut. It doesn’t really make sense.
If the judges are pro-life then they will likely be against gay marriage as well so it doesn’t matter what the donald thinks of it as anyone can bring a DOMA case before the supreme court and the first one that comes before them they will just use repeal the previous ruling on gay marriage. Its a meaningless sound bite to try placate his opponents as he has no control over this
Isn’t the only open seat Scalia’s? If so, how will replacing him with another bigot change anything?
You make a good point. How is a judge impartial if they have set agendas before being picked. I think bigot was perfect word.
@Eye_c_u:
Bigot might be tossed around a bit but it’s perfect here…
@Titus Groan: True but all the pundits have been predicting, and yes im aware of how wrong everyone was about the election but this includes republican pundits, that this president will get to appoint at least 2 which will shift the balance back to more conservative judgements. Now again they could be completely wrong but nobody saw scalias death coming
@Ian McNally:
Nah man… Presidents always say “I’ll revoke this thing” and then they never do. They haven’t got the power. AND, I’m fairly sure there would need to be “new evidence” so to speak that the initial ruling was unjust. Whatever about immigration etc., I’m fairly confident SSM will be fine. It would be a mammoth undertaking to try and revoke it.
@Titus Groan: This is Trump on ‘Same -sex -marriage -> “It was already settled. It’s law,”
“These cases have gone to the Supreme Court. They’ve been settled. … I’m fine with that.”
On Roe-Versus-Wade : “Donald Trump said he would appoint “pro-life” judges to the Supreme Court — and that if Roe v. Wade were overturned, women would “have to go to another state” if they want an abortion.”
Roe-Versus-Wade has a precedent for the best part of 43 years..
The man is something else..
@Francis Mc Carthy:
It seems to me that Americans care FAR more about abortion than SSM. I suppose that’s kind of the case here too. Nevertheless, I will be utterly surprised if Roe Vs Wade is overturned. As I said, only A. Scalia’s seat is currently free and they haven’t got the numbers OR the “new” information.
Anti-discrimination/religious-freedom policy is different though. That concerns me. Mike Pence literally made it illegal for Same-sex couples to even apply to be married and fully supports electro therapy for gay people. I don’t particularly mind Trump but Pence is something else.
@Titus Groan: I’ve said it on here plenty of times that Pence is a different kettle of fish..Roe v Wade will never be overturned,they will just try to bring in different laws to try & make abortion harder to get-late term abortions would be their first target,which is something that Pence has targeted ..
@Francis Mc Carthy:
Completely agree. I saw some idiots hoping something would happen to Trump (the ones crying in to their 3 times roasted, Eritrean blue coffee, or whatever it is now) and it’s like, you have no fcking clue what you’re doing in life. Pence is a bad guy. Donald Trump is sooo reasonable in comparison. Be careful what you wish for children. Despite what Twitter has you believe, this isn’t yet the worst week of your life.
@Ian McNally: Where gay marriage is established and settled, it will be left alone
@Titus Groan: I read up on Pence, where is that? His grandparents are Irish, he is religious.
@Boeing Lover – Good point. Trump basically reinforces some of Obama’s better policies and gets slated for it. A classic demonstration of the ‘halo effect’ in action.
@€uromancer: It was pointed out here on numerous occasions that Obama was deporting a record number of illegal immigrants,this was well known .Trump is a spoofer.
@€uromancer: They hardly expect him to repeal every law on the US statute books going back 200 years, do they?
Irish politicians should learn from this (not taking a salary). Oops, I forgot, our politicians aren’t successful at all outside politics and will screw the state for all its got while they’re in their privileged position.
@Adrian:
>Irish politicians should learn from this (not taking a salary)
Uh, you realise our politicians aren’t billionaires yeah?
Not saying they shouldn’t take a salary, saying they should take a more appropriate salary in line with their performance, which most people would agree is fairly abysmal. Unfortunately, our guys put themselves first in the queue for pay rises.
Traditional Kings and Queens ruled by consent, terror or a combination of both. They all had their “face book page”, “the printed word”, except there was no independent comment allowed. Various types of democracies evolved leading to universal suffrage which was finally last achieved in Northern Ireland in 1971. Central to democratic freedom is the rule of law, and written or unwritten constitutions containing bills of rights are central to the basic law.
They all contain a provision guaranteeing the right of free personal expression, peaceful assembly and a free press. A free press is not a luxury of democratic freedom, its is an essential delegation of the investigative and analytical function of society to an industry charged with discovering and reporting the actions of government and the great and the good. This function can be done by any individual, but they don’t have time to investigate or the means to get their findings published.
In recent years, the free world has been hit by an undemocratic, liberal, socialist (sometimes communist) green upopic movement. Some is progressive and harmless but some is based on deluded, unscientific wishful thinking bordering on extreme hysteria about non existing problems and deluded remedies to solve these.
It was for the media to identify, investigate and report on this movement and if it had done so, it might have curtailed the excesses of this unwelcome movement. When it failed to do so, it effectively forced people like me to do their job for them. Taking on someone else’s job is hard work for little pay, but when the people realize the media neglected their duty, they will turn to other media outlets. A gulf develops between the mass sentiment and mass media and as the masses have votes, there can be only two categories of winners. 1) Social media and 2) Farage, Trump and LePenn. Television sets are being dumped out and thousands of newspapers remain unsold. As one old fella in Kingscourt said to me recently, “I quit buying the Sunday Independent” “Its too political”.
@Val Martin:
Serious Val? Are you specifically demonising the green movement? Or some broad alliance of liberal, left wing politics?
The spread of neo-liberial policies (founded in deregulation, privatisation and austerity) is why we are, where we are. And that’s very much a conservative movement. It’s why bankers can’t fail, no matter what they bet on. It’s why governments no longer invest in social housing. It’s why people are now becoming slaves to debt. It’s why so many private pensions are worthless.
And the biggest con perpetrated however by the neo-liberial class, is that somehow they have persuaded much of the electorate that it’s the left who is to blame.
The refugee crisis is probably the best case example – where neo-liberial war mongering policies interfering across the Middle East, compounded by the climate change which is devastating traditional agriculture, create a mass migration. And now the hate-mongers in control of the media, spread fear and get us to support the closing of borders and the building of walls.
I agree with you on who the winners are likely to be.
@Dave Bruen: OK Dave. You give me one example of where the climate changed due to man’s activity and if you can show me one example of where it caused any hardship. Bear in mind that co2 id an essential gas for life and plant growth. I can only deal with one of your weird points at a time. Don’t confuse climate with pollution.
Would trump like to run a tiny country on the edge of Europe where the local politians need to be fired
What about our politicians giving themselves a huge pay rise
He’s get another great tax deal as he has to put his wealth into a special trust for the term of his presidency.
@alphanautica:
It makes perfect sense for him to not take a salary while POTUS. He’s already a multi-billionaire and all of his costs will be covered while in office anyway.
@alphanautica: As his children are working in the Trump Travel Policy of the Executive Branch- they will make sure that he gets the guests/dignitaries to stay at all of his Trump hotels-where they will get to have all of their meals/drinks paid for & be reimbursed by the government ..It’s a win win.
I wonder how many times Trump will say “I don’t even get paid for this” during his term?
@Ian Walsh: Alot of people don’t realise this. He is a billionaire already. Being president, he will be making sure that his businesses grow alot more. His children will be working with him on that.
@Francis Mc Carthy – I doubt that either candidate has a less than tenuous hold on the truth.
Alllmost 1 week since the US presidential election and now it dawns on me what was missing. Celebs such as boyance Katy Perry jayze and Bruce all going out of thier way to endorse Clinton for the big job. Something was missing and now the penny has dropped. Where was our own political assume kisser Bono.
Trump aint got a problem with anyone who has signed or represented in signature The Declaration of Independence. Alot of other groups have arrived since then and have no idea what independence is and/or dont agree with it anyway. They want the wealth and status an independent nation achieves but still want their old gods and fuedal overseaers. Trump will make them sign it our insist they leave.
You get what you pay for I guess…
Picking a closetted gay, pro gun, pro life, anti immigration judge would be best way of getting a judge confirmed through GOP Senate who might keep gay marriage.
@jasonculligan What similar constructs are in place here?
have your say