Trump has had a bad week for speaking to the public. After Tuesday, when he became a literal laughingstock in front of world leaders, the very next day, he held the press conference that may define this era of his presidency. It was bizarre, y’all. Like, it had so many twists and turns that I honestly didn’t know what to focus in on when coming up with ideas. To call Donald Trump an embarrassment of riches in terms of trying to find a bit of absurdity in the world would be an understatement, but this press conference was something else entirely. He downplays his own sexual assault allegations (He seems to remember only 4 or 5 out of the 19 that are actually known), lies about recantations, calls women liars, and democrats con artists. And that’s covers like 2 minutes of the event. He talked about George Washington and how the Democrats wouldn’t confirm him, talked about an imaginary war with North Korea that definitely would have happened if wasn’t elected, and his “very, very large brain.” It was…an event. I don’t know how anyone could watch him speak at this point and think he’s operating at full capacity.
Donald Trump has some pro level cognitive dissonance. He’s able to grasp on to two conflicting ideas with a vice like grip. I suspect part of that comes from a profound ignorance, and an unwillingness to get the facts before forming any kind of opinion, but really, having the willpower to push through hard rationality and logic to believe two diametrically opposing ideas takes a special kind of person. And Trump is definitely special. Take his stance on anonymous sources. He praised the unverified, unproven stories about China being responsible for the 2016 hacks on the Democrats, a story that relies exclusively on nameless sources, then within hours, he goes on an internet rant about how anonymous sources are always made up, and are the tools that “fake news” uses to sell the public the big lies. A rational person would either come to the conclusion that either the China story can’t be true, or that anonymous sources have their place in legitimate journalism. And a rational person with even a modicum of internet research ability would probably come to both of those conclusions.
So I’ve been reading articles about trade negotiations with China, and one of their big complaints is consistency. They’re frustrated because Donald Trump doesn’t seem to know what he wants out of a trade deal, and keeps moving the goal post, regardless of how willing they seem to be in dealing. And the more I think about that, the more I can put into context things like Trump declaring that illegal immigrants should be kicked out of the countries, no due process, despite that being unconstitutional to the extreme. Trump is basically a toddler. He has expectations that he’s going to be taken care of in every aspect of his life. If he wants something, like a toddler, he doesn’t take into consideration what it takes to get it, or even if it’s permissible. That doesn’t even cross his mind. He just knows that he wants something, and that the people around him, like a toddler’s understanding of his parents, are there to make that happen. But unlike actual parents, the people around Trump are ACTUALLY there to make his whims happen, which has meant skirting the law and the very foundations of what is allowed.
Trump’s slogans have always been about America being number one. Make it great again! America First! American’s and their jobs should be our first priority! So it came as a bit of a shock this week when Trump told us that he thought some jobs for a Chinese telecom corporation was pretty important to him too. A Chinese company. As in the country that, according to him is basically the economic devil he has sworn to defeat. Could it be that Trump, realizing his nationalistic approach to politics may have been ill-informed? Maybe, but I would bet money that the half a billion dollars that the Chinese government is investing to fund a project with the Trump brand on it Indonesia had a bit of sway on that decision. It’s important to remember that the company Trump has directed our government to help, was deemed a military and intelligence risk as it’s a company that could track service members because they are the biggest telecom company in China, and was fined $1.2 billion for violating sanctions against Iran and North Korea. Nothing shady there.
Even Trump has had to acknowledge that his ill advised Trade War with China is already worrying his base, namely the farmers, who supported him in wide numbers, and are being directly affected by this poor decision. The things he’s said are shifty at best and Tone Deaf at worst. He’s choosing to blame China for Tariffs even though China has more or less begged Trump not to move forward with actions that would force them to also take actions. Then he suggested that while it’s unfortunate for farmers, taking this hit, it will be ok, and that he’ll make sure that he “makes it up to them.” How? Because we can clearly see that he isn’t thinking steps ahead. He isn’t thinking about steps of now. He’s just…reacting…which is a scary place to be.
I don’t know exactly how appropriate it is for the President to commend a world leader on the consolidation of power, but I certainly know that it’s super messed up that he hopes he can do the same thing in this country. It’s a real shocking and scary thing for him to suggest that he should be aiming to copy Xi Jinping and the idea of a president for life. It’s rhetoric like that that makes me flabbergasted that people think he’s some grand national savior.
Mind the Exit 