From the start I wondered, when Trump would say things that were dumb and contrary to reality (like during the debates with Hillary when he claimed the US was “dumb” for openly retaking Iraqi cities, rather than, I dunno, using an invisible ninja army or something), whether it was because he was surrounded by people who never bothered to correct him, or if he was just incapable of learning. It became clear during his presidency that he was incapable of learning, and also that he was surrounded by sycophants, but now we know the extent of the answer to the first part of that question, too. Though I imagine that’s gotten worse as the term has worn on - everyone who ever tried to teach him something got fired. Only the most obsequious of arse-lickers remain on staff.
My satisfaction is slightly tempered by the damage he’s doing on the way out, but yeah…
Yeah, watching Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger whine about how he and his family supported and even donated to Trump, and now Trump was going after him for doing his job pisses me off. (Besides the schadenfreude.) I mean, either he’s implying he supported Trump without knowing anything about him, or that he supported him knowing exactly who he was, but somehow expected that he’d be the one exception to Trump’s consistent behavior (the common refrain of Trump supporters: “I wanted him to hurt people, I didn’t want him to hurt me, however”). Contemptible either way.
In a fair election. But Trump always made it clear he wasn’t angling for a fair election. Massive Republican efforts to throw people of color off election rolls in various states, Louis DeJoy sabotaging the postal service during a pandemic so that mail-in votes could be discarded en masse (with Trump discouraging his supporters from voting that way), etc. Trump very much had the expectation that he could cheat his way to another win. That it didn’t work is a big part of his accusation of cheating in the election - and more projection.
I’d love to know who was telling the people to tell Trump that he won, among his many other absurdist certainties. It’s easy to blame sychophancy, but there’s too many uninvestigated “advisors” whose activities beyond Trump’s presence are akin to an electron cloud.
We as Americans are on some level cursed with delusions of exceptionalism. Perhaps many of his appointed toadies actually thought that they were different than the others that previously held the position and would succeed where their predecessor had failed?
What of the people that turned down a Trump appointment? Have they suffered retaliation from him because they didn’t buy into his BS? Did some people accept appointments out of fear, rather than a thinking they were the right person for the job? Am I no longer capable of ending a sentence with anything other than a question mark?
This kind of thing is how the Star Wars prequels happened. A prominent figure surrounded by yes-men (and women) who are too frightened to say anything when that figure starts making terrible decisions. Not that Lucas or anything he did approaches Trump or his particular brand of craziness.
So Donald the clown is a sadist in addition to being a vain, self-centered pile of ignorant fecal material. Some of us knew that long before he decided to run for public office.
I don’t know about that. I think if the pandemic was even remotely handled properly at the beginning, he would have handily won the election. If he didn’t contradict the experts and seemed to give two shits about the deaths, and even if the death toll was half what it is he would not have lost as many middle of the road republicans.
I don’t know about “handily”, but your main point stands. The election was, shamefully, a near-run thing. We can’t forget that there are tens of millions of voters out there who, like Biff, are convinced that the election was stolen.
