I think in the long run it is best that he run his mouth regularly and at length.
It would be nice if the president were less of a clown. I think he’s going to be so awful that the 50 year slide towards increased executive power may well come to a close. Seems the judicial branch has flexed its muscle to defend the constitution more than usual lately.
Yup. Basically any bad news for Trump he will define as “fake news”, and I imagine a good portion of the populace will buy that, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time. Trump claiming bad polling is “fake” doesn’t actually make those disappointed or disgusted with him change their minds, it only digs the hole deeper.
If only all he wanted was a Grape Nehi.
“Fooling all of the people” was never a serious risk; he didn’t even fool a majority of the voters. The risk is that he fools just enough of the people enough of the time that it becomes dangerous to call him out on it.
That’s willful ignorance, then; and IMO, it’s even worse than actually being illiterate.
I did see something suggesting that this weekend was a particular problem because he was pretty much on his own away from aides, and Ivanka and Kushner can’t operate technology on Saturdays.
He’s still going:
This is exactly the reason I finally got a paid subscription to the NYT this year even though I don’t really need one.
This is how Trump is making America great again. He’s been great for funding for the ACLU, massively increased book sales, revitalized journalism, enormously increased political involvement…
I’m imagining die-hard Trumpnicks getting called out by fellow conservatives, and feeling alienated and isolated. It’s one thing for some bleeding heart liberal to bitch at you about how Trump is incompetent, but when someone you typically agree with is calling out obvious Trumpian bullshit they will (hopefully) start to crumble instead of doubling down. During the election they had Hillary to focus on, which would blur Trump’s obvious failings, now it’s just him.
I guess what I’m hoping for is “bullshit exhaustion.”
I don’t know if he’s smart enough to realize, but it can’t hurt us to point out at all opportunity how many hands are up Trump’s ass at any given time, either.
Actually this does open up a strategy of setting the disparate pockets of support for tzchrump against eachother.
As every dictatorship will be. Any system revolving entirely around a single man, will tend to fail at producing processes that can resolve disagreements in a cooperative manner - because for every conflict, there will be a quick way to settle it with a single word from The Leader. To avoid that sort of outcome you need a very different sort of personality.
That in itself would suggest he has reading issues. For most adults, reading is almost as reflexive as breathing. Not all of us are going to sit down with Piketty for fun, but for someone who supposedly has spent decades dealing with business contracts, the fact that he doesn’t even seem to be able to glance at a page and get a summary sense of what is being said is telling.
“See the ducky? Sign the paper and I’ll give you the ducky!”
I don’t really get how not bothering to read the details means Trump is somehow marginally literate. Plus, he’s the goddamn president. If he wanted to censure Bannon or fire him for being a deceptive little shit, or excoriate him in public to teach him a lesson, he could have done so.
My bet is this is more of the plan to distract and confuse people so we won’t know what to believe. Whispers that Trump is illiterate? LYING LIB MEDIA! It just makes it easier and easier for this group to erode confidence in journalists. And it gets the media focused on whether Bannon is really the one calling the shots, which frankly still comes off as a bit conspiracy theory-ish to most people.
Honestly that tweet is terrifying to me. Essential it’s saying “I’m not going to believe anything that suggest a majority of the people disagree with me on a topic”.
I do still think he’s not a big reader, but I agree that he doesn’t care about this particular issue.
So, Bannon is the Grand Vizier, then?
For sure. Actual illiteracy in someone with Trump’s resources and education would probably point to a reading/learning disability that just wasn’t recognized at the time he was growing up. If you were born dyslexic in 1946 your prognosis for literacy wouldn’t be great. I’d be kind of sympathetic if he couldn’t read.
I have a lot more trouble being sympathetic with a person who is 70 years old and still hasn’t figured out that you sometimes have to do things that you don’t want to do. It’s basically impossible to be sympathetic with a person who both hasn’t realized they have to do things they don’t want to do, and actively seeks positions of authority. What a miserable combination.
