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In preperation for tomorrow's post, I would you all to read this story, most of which is a tweet storm [is that the right term?] from someone self-identified as a White House mid-level staffer. I will have a good deal to say about it tomorrow.
I think that is almost certain to be a hoax account. If it was real and he was genuinely afraid of attention, why would he tag Donald Trump directly in his tweets?
ReplyDeleteNo way to know for sure, but it lines up with the Maggie Haberman tweets at the bottom of that story. Also, stories in Wall Street Journal and Washington Post paint a similar picture. Even if its a false account, it is totally believable, and the sentiment is true enough. He seems to let perceived slights drive a lot (or all!) of his actions. Well, Paul Ryan threw him under the bus many times during the campaign, there is no way he has forgotten about this. Its possible that his main strategic thinking in dealing with Congress is "how can he best humiliate the Speaker of the House." Republicans that realize what is going on have to be terrified about their political future at this point.
ReplyDeleteBut Hillary's emails!!!!1!!!
ReplyDeleteI do suspect that's a hoax account, if only because the part about Omarosa being considered for press secretary is just too laughably outrageous to be true. Then again...
ReplyDeleteBut in any case, the spirit of the tweet storm seems accurate, based on other recent reports, and based on what should be have been obvious to everyone for the past year or more. The minority-president is a mutilated psyche, entirely unprepared for any job that even approaches this level of responsibility and scrutiny.
Remember his feud with Rosie O'Donnell? His phone calls with a reporter in which he pretended to be his own publicist and bragged about his sexual conquests? He is still that person, and he is 70 years old. He's not changing.
Maybe those Greenpeace activists should have hung a banner that said "ILLEGITIMATE" instead of "RESIST". That seems clearly to get under his skin like nothing else.
Come to think of it, since we're talking about ways to destroy T***p, would it be such a bad idea to go to the White House carrying an enormous banner, as big as can be made, reading I-L-L-E-G-I-T-M-A-T-E? He was reportedly incensed seeing the crowds of Women's March. So who knows? Maybe some simple pokes with a stick will do more good than we might anticipate. T***p doesn't overthink, and neither should we.
"T***p doesn't overthink, and neither should we." You might be right. A prof emeritus friend said as much about Tyler Cowen's analysis [that Cowen was over thinking T***p, and that the technical DSM-5 diagnosis of T***p's disorder is "batshit crazy"], and made exactly the same recommendation: get under Trump's skin.
ReplyDeleteBillionaires, especially those born to wealth and privilege, are accustomed to living in a cocoon of deference. It’s ‘Yes Mr Trump, No Mr Trump, Three bags full Mr Trump’ with the very occasional ‘Up to a point, Mr Trump’. (Vide Evelyn Waugh.) Even if he did not have (as I suspect he does) a narcissistic personality disorder, Trump would find it hard to cope when the cocoon of deference is stripped away. The idea that many people consider him not only nasty and dangerous (which feeds his ego in a certain sort of way) but contemptible and ridiculous is one he cannot cope with. So Americans (who can’t be bombed) should pile on the pressure by ridiculing his ignorance and stupidity and exposing his lies. The rest of us had better be a bit more circumspect, though I cannot help admiring the President of Mexico for cancelling his meeting with the pussy-grabber in chief.
ReplyDeleteI would remind Charles PIgden and Anwar al-Awlaki and Abdulrahman al-Awlaki were American citizens and each was obliterated with a Hellfire missile, although neither of them had been charged with any crime. President Obama--much as I love and admire him--left a dreadful precedent on the table. Trump may yet find it convenient to make sure that some inconvenient journalists don't get to file their findings.
ReplyDeleteBarry H. Levine
Barry Levine is of corse correct about Obama's horrible precedent, but I don't suppose that Trump is likely to launch hellfire missiles against targets within the territory of the US.
ReplyDelete