DEMS/MILITARY/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “He’s not a household name. He’s not running for president. Yet Richard Blumenthal keeps getting under President Donald Trump’s skin. Every few months, the president unleashes on the Connecticut Democrat by ridiculing his military service record, a surprising attack on a rank-and-file Democratic senator by the commander in chief. Blumenthal dutifully votes against many of the president’s nominees and is quick to raise questions about his administration and even the president’s family, yet is not exactly as well-known as Sens. Elizabeth Warren or Chuck Schumer, two of Trump’s other favorite targets. But Trump’s beef against Blumenthal is multifaceted, spanning from family drama to digs at the senator’s military service — though Trump has faced questions about his own deferments during the war. There’s also Blumenthal v. Trump. The former Connecticut attorney general took the high profile step of suing the president in 2017 for allegedly violating the Foreign Emoluments clause of the Constitution. So when the president attacks Blumenthal, he does so with the same intensity that he goes after someone like Warren or House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.).”
–Burgess Everett and Gabby Orr, “Why Trump is still beefing with ‘Da Nang Dick’,” Politico, January 29, 2019 10:45 pm