The Times: Inside Trump's White House bedroom, his battle for self-preservation

Cartoonists Steve Sack of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, above, and Jimmy Margulies, below, commenting on how Congress is bought and paid for or in the pocket of the National Rifle Association, which bribes elected officials with millions of dollars in campaign contributions to make guns easier to buy and own.

Margulies is the former cartoonist at The Record of Woodland Park, my local daily newspaper, which has gotten much worse since Gannett Co. bought the publishing company that puts it out in July 2016, and laid off more than 350 employees.

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

Based on interviews with 60 advisers, associates, friends and members of Congress, The New York Times on Saturday took us inside President Trump's White House bedroom and bathrooms in an online report that carried this headline:

"INSIDE TRUMP'S HOUR-BY-HOUR

BATTLE FOR SELF-PRESERVATION"

But you won't find a word about Trump tweeting while seated on the toilet -- an image that was popular after he took office last Jan. 20.

"With Twitter as his Excalibur, the president takes on his doubters, powered by long spells of cable news and a dozen Diet Cokes," according to reporting by Maggie Haberman, Glenn Thrush and Peter Baker.

"But if Mr. Trump has yet to bend the presidency to his will, he is at least wrestling it to a draw."

News media

Trump likely will be undone by the investigation of Russian meddling into the 2016 election, but this kind of coverage in The Times, Washington Post and and other news outlets isn't really damaging him.

"Around 5:30 each morning, President Trump wakes and tunes into the television in the White House's master bedroom," The Times begins. "He flips to CNN for news, moves to 'Fox & Friends' for comfort and messaging ideas, and sometimes watches MSNBC's 'Morning Joe' because, friends suspect, it fires him up for the day.

"Energized, infuriated -- often a gumbo of both -- Mr. Trump grabs his iPhone. Sometimes he tweets while propped on his pillow, according to aides. Other times he tweets from the den next door, watching another television....

"...He sees the highest office in the land much as he did the night of his stunning victory over Hillary Clinton -- as a prize he must fight to protect every waking moment, and Twitter is his Excalibur.

"Despite all his bluster, he views himself less a titan dominating the world stage than a maligned outside engaged in a struggle to be taken seriously...."

See: Trump appears to be winning battle with media

Steak and ice cream

Referring to Trump as a "lifelong hotelier," The Times says the president's "principal mode of blowing off steam is his nightly dinner in the White House residence..." with invited guests. 

"Mr. Trump has always relished gossiping over plates of well-done steak, salad slathered with Roquefort dressing and bacon crumbles, tureens of gravy and massive slices of dessert with extra ice cream."

For more, see TRUMP'S WAY.

James Comey

In today's column on former FBI Director James Comey, Mike Kelly of The Record betrays his dislike of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton (Opinion front).

Most observers say Comey reopening the investigation into Clinton's handling of classified information on Oct. 28, 2016 (10 days before the election) hurt her campaign, and contributed to her defeat.

Kelly blames Clinton's defeat on "her own mistakes."

Today's Better Living section, which is filled with a couple of dozen photos of cookies, should have carried a warning label for the many older readers who are diabetic, and suffer from related heart problems. 

The author, Liz Johnson, is a "content strategist" at lohud.com and The Journal News, a Gannett paper that covers Westchester, Rockland and Putnam counties in New York.

"Lohud" is Gannett speak for "Lower Hudson Valley."

Al Franken

In the coverage of the resignation of Sen. Al Franken and other elected members of Congress accused of sexual misconduct, the news media are spending little time commenting on why Trump shouldn't also step down in view of his sexual harassment of women.

In an op-ed column on Friday, Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin swings wildly between the "powerful men who allegedly treated women, and in some cases, other men, as objects created for their enjoyment," and an ice cream store in Montclair.

I read the shop's name over and over before I got the play on words. Dairy Air Ice Cream Co. recalls derriere, the French word for buttocks.

But the problem is not the name, Alfred P. Doblin says; it's the logo, "a shapely bovine ... with her ample tush pushed out and tattooed with 'DA' in a heart."

Doblin calls the logo "obvious sexism," but Trump's "disrespecting women" is mentioned only in passing.

See a video of 16 women who accuse Trump of unwanted kissing and worse: 'He groped me'

In another Margulies cartoon, the lighting of the Christmas Tree in Manhattan's Rockefeller Center is compared to the restoration of electricity and lights in hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico. "Amazing! That's more lights than in all of Puerto Rico," someone in the crowd says.

More bizarro Trump: Cabinet meets to 'Hail, Caesar,' AG testifies, a new Big Lie

Cartoonist David Fitzsimmons of the Arizona Daily Star in Tuscon lampoons shocking testimony about Attorney General Jeff Sessions from fired FBI Director James Comey. Sessions is scheduled to testify today before the same Senate intelligence panel.

Comey testified President Trump asked Sessions, son-in-law Jared Kushner and others to leave them alone in the Oval Office. Here is a twist on that testimony from Lebanese-Swiss cartoonist Patrick Chappatte.

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

UPDATE: Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III vehemently denied colluding with the Russians on the election; President Trump says he has no plans to fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller; and Trump changed his tune on the GOP health care plan, calling it "mean" and "stingy."

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

It was a "Hail, Caesar" moment unlike any Cabinet meeting for any other president in the history of the United States.

But as President Trump completes his fifth, illegitimate month in office, his behavior is becoming more bizarre every day, as are his demands for loyalty and praise.

The Washington Post sent out a report on Trump's first full Cabinet meeting on Monday under this headline:

"Praise for the chief: Trump's Cabinet 

 tells him it is an 'honor'
and 'blessing' to serve" 

The Post quoted Trump as claiming he has surpassed most of the greatest U.S. presidents -- one of the biggest lies he's told so far:

“'Never has there been a president, with few exceptions – case of FDR, he had a major depression to handle – who has passed more legislation and who has done more things than what we’ve done,' Trump, referring to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, said during the meeting at the White House."

CNN called the Cabinet meeting "super weird." And MSNBC described the meeting as "surprisingly creepy."

The New York Times reported:

"With his agenda faltering, and public attention focused on accusations from former F.B.I. director and public testimony coming from his attorney general, Mr. Trump held what our reporter described as a 'highly unusual' cabinet meeting.

"He asserted that the U.S. was 'seeing amazing results' from his leadership and then basked in adulatory statements from each of the senior advisers at the table."

Trump acted like some Caesar at the Cabinet meeting, but in Manhattan, sponsors have pulled out of the Public Theater's production of Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar," which depicts the assassination of a Trump-like ruler, The Times said.

Local coverage

Today, I couldn't find a word about the bizarre nature of Monday's Cabinet meeting anywhere in my local daily newspaper, The Record of Woodland Park.

After Sunday's front page ignored the growing conflict between Trump and fired FBI Director James Comey, The Record was all over the story on Monday's front page.

Columnist Mike Kelly wrote a third column from Allendale, where Comey and his wife were visiting his father.

Kelly always makes sure to mention that Comey's 83-year-old father attends Mass, though I'm not sure what significance that has for the veracity of his son's testimony about Trump.

Last week, Comey testified the president asked for for his "loyalty," and directed him to drop the investigation of fired national security adviser Michael Flynn's contacts with Russian officials during the presidential campaign.

Comey also said he wrote memos after each interaction with the president before and after the Jan. 20 inauguration, because he feared Trump would lie about what took place.

The next day, Trump called Comey a liar, and offered to testify under oath.

On Sunday at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, protesters staged a "Summer of Resistance" in an attempt to disrupt a fund-raiser for Rep. Tom MacArthur, a New Jersey Republican who has been condemned for a draconian proposal to replace the Affordable Care Act.

But Trump ignored the protest to tweet more critical comments about Comey, Kelly reported (1A). 

Why not drive?

Today, a story on Page 3A in The Record reports Governor Christie canceled his keynote address on opioid drug abuse at Harvard Medical School on Monday afternoon, because of "delays and cancellations of flights to Boston."

The story doesn't explain why a state trooper couldn't have driven Christie to Boston in his state-owned SUV.

Christie was tapped by Trump this year to lead a national opioid addiction commission.

How hot was it?

None of the 10 reporters who worked on a story about broken heat records on Monday thought to interview cooks in restaurant kitchens or mail carriers and other people who had to work outside in 96-degree temperatures (today's Local front).

And that goes for the editors who sit on their asses in air-conditioned offices, and order those reporters around.

We don't need a bunch of new supermarkets

Protecting the New Jersey shore

Trump presidency has reached crossroads, but no hint on front page of The Record

In this cartoon, freelancer Trevor Irvin quotes President Trump saying, "I have No Problem Testi-Lying Under Oath" about his conversations with James Comey before he fired the FBI director.

Cartoonist Randall Enos pits Comey against "Over Comby."

 -- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

Last week's top story is what the national news media are calling President Trump's pushing back against the damning testimony of fired FBI Director James Comey.

But on the front page of The Record of Woodland Park today, there's no mention that Comey's account of his interactions with Trump "could present a prosecutable case of obstruction of justice," as The New York Times puts it.

Record Editor Richard A. Green, the Gannett Co. hatchet man who has dispatched 350 employees so far, had only three main elements to play with on the front of the Sunday edition.

Selling out

So, many readers question the Page 1 play for a multi-million dollar makeover of a mall that is one of the paper's biggest advertisers (1A).

Staff Writer Joan Verdon, who has covered the retailing beat for more than a decade, notes that construction doesn't begin until the mall closes at 9 p.m.

Of course, Verdon can't describe The Shops at Riverside in Hackensack -- with Tiffany, Louis Vuitton and other ultra-high end retailers -- as the ghost town it is during the week.

Instead, she notes, "the floors are polished to a shine, the storefront windows are gleaming, and the mood is quiet and serene" (1A).

Jeff Sessions

But back on Page 4A today, an Associated Press story reports Attorney General Jeff Sessions has agreed to appear before the same Senate intelligence panel that heard Comey on Thursday -- as tens of millions of Americans watched on TV.

Sessions was forced to recuse himself in March from the Justice Department probe of Russian meddling in the election after lying about his contacts with Russian officials during the campaign.

Comey raised additional questions at Thursday's Capitol Hill hearing, "saying that the FBI expected Sessions to recuse himself weeks before he actually did," the AP reports, adding Comey declined to elaborate in open session. 

Hole in one

Below that story, USA Today reports Ed Russo, Bedminster's Planning Board chairman, "lectured Trump about the thickets of regulations designed to make it almost impossible to build a golf course" on the 500-acre estate once owned by automaker John DeLorean (4A).

"I'm worth 6 billion dollars and no little town ... is going to tell me what to do," Russo remembers Trump roaring back at the meeting nearly 20 years ago.

The president is playing golf at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster this weekend -- the equivalent of fiddling while Washington, D.C., burns.

Opinion columns

Today's Record does carry two opinion columns about Comey (Opinion section).

Columnist Mike Kelly says Comey wasn't "Captain Courageous" in his conversations with Trump.

Comey testified the president directed him to drop the probe of National Security Adviser Michael Flynn's contact with Russian officials, and sought assurances he wasn't personally under investigation.

"He was Willy Loman -- the ordinary guy who just tried to plod ahead in the face of problems," Kelly says of Comey (1O).

I'm sure readers overwhelmed Google with "who is Captain Courageous and Willy Loman?"

However, editorial writer Bruce Lowry said in his column, "Comey came across as decent, intelligent, and most of all, credible" (2O).

"Indeed, the more I watched, the more I listened, the more I wished it was Comey occupying the White House, and Trump the one on the outside looking in."

Expanded obituaries

Fully half of Page 3A today is devoted to Adam West, who played Batman on TV in the 1960s.

In addition to running his obituary from USA Today, the editors asked Staff Writer Rodrigo Torrejon, normally assigned to cover Hackensack, to contact fans and comic book lovers for reaction to West's death at 88.

The deaths of prominent North Jersey residents were once accorded this kind of attention, but only a couple of those expanded obituaries have appeared since Staff Writer Jay Levin was laid off in March.

He wrote those expanded local obituaries for more than a decade.  In the months before he was laid off, Levin also began writing tributes to residents who have remained active into their 90s.

Local news?

The front of the Local news section today is dominated by a story on "wonder dogs" and "all things canine" at the Meadowlands Expo Center in Secaucus (1L).

Although there are nearly 90 towns in the circulation area, only eight are mentioned in other stories.

Five of those stories are from Bergen County, which has 70 towns and the vast majority of the paper's readers.