homersapien 11,373 Posted April 28, 2020 Share Posted April 28, 2020 It is time to ask once again, in all seriousness, whether the president of the United States is of sound mind. Even by his own standards, President Trump’s weekend ranting and raving on Twitter was bizarre and disturbing. I know there are commentators who see his eruptions as some kind of genius-level communications strategy, a way of bonding himself to his loyal base by sending messages at dog-whistle frequencies others cannot hear. Others justify these tantrums as a way for an embattled president to blow off steam. But there is a simpler and more disturbing interpretation: What you see is what you get. And what we got Sunday was a whole lot of crazy. It’s not good for the country, and it doesn’t seem very good for the president, either. The president opened the floodgates holding back a reservoir of grievance on Sunday afternoon with the claim that “people that know me and know the history of our Country say that I am the hardest working President in history.” Over the course of three tweets, it emerged that he was angry about an article in the New York Times — a paper he claims not to read — questioning his work ethic during the pandemic. Then things got really weird. In his next barrage of tweets, Trump demanded to know: “When will all of the ‘reporters’ who have received Noble Prizes for their work on Russia, Russia, Russia, only to have been proven totally wrong (and, in fact, it was the other side who committed the crimes), be turning back their cherished ‘Nobles’ so that they can be given to the REAL REPORTERS AND JOURNALISTS who got it right? . . . When will the Noble Committee Act?” Where to begin? Could the president really have intended to refer to “Nobel” prizes and simply misspelled the name? And since there is no Nobel awarded for journalism, could he have been thinking of the Pulitzer Prize won by journalists, including those at The Post, for their work covering Russian interference in the 2016 election? Those who see Trump as a brilliant communicator might think the garble was deliberate, an invitation to snooty know-it-alls to jump all over him so he could portray himself to his aggrieved base as a victim of fake-news “elites.” But this view is inconsistent with what happened later in the day. Trump tweeted a purported explanation: “Does anybody get the meaning of what a so-called Noble (not Nobel) Prize is, especially as it pertains to Reporters and Journalists? Noble is defined as, ‘having or showing fine personal qualities or high moral principles and ideals.’ Does sarcasm ever work?” “Sarcasm” is becoming a familiar claim from the president. After speculating nonsensically last week at a coronavirus briefing that disinfectants or powerful light could be used “inside the body” to combat covid-19, and being widely ridiculed for the suggestion, Trump claimed he was just being sarcastic. But it’s not much of a defense when Trump invokes it while also trying to make the comments he is justifying disappear. At some point overnight, the earlier “Noble Prize” tweets vanished from Trump’s feed (though not before journalists had archived them). If these episodes aren’t strategy, what are they? If tweeting and retweeting attacks on The Post, CNN, MSNBC and even Fox News calmed Trump, his apologists might argue that they’re a form of recreation. But the pressure doesn’t seem to be going down. It seems to be mounting. I’m not making a diagnosis, but rather just stating the obvious. If a loved one were raging in such a manner, you’d worry about his or her well-being. You’d hope it was just a bad spell. You might attempt to investigate, if only with a text reading: “R u ok?” We can only hope someone in Trump’s life is doing the same for him. I can understand why Trump would be frustrated, seeing his plan to run for reelection on the strength of the economy ruined. I understand why he might be impatient for things to get back to normal. I’m impatient, too. But it is objectively worrisome how much time the president spends venting his frustration and impatience. It is worrisome that he seems to engage in magical thinking about a miracle cure that will suddenly make everything better. It is alarming that a man with so little apparent self-control has so much power. And there’s nothing we can do about it until November. Eugene Robinson Columnist April 27, 2020 at 4:36 p.m. EDT https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trumps-bizarre-ranting-isnt-good-for-the-country--or-for-him/2020/04/27/64597260-88b9-11ea-8ac1-bfb250876b7a_story.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grumps 3,704 Posted April 28, 2020 Share Posted April 28, 2020 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homersapien 11,373 Posted April 29, 2020 Author Share Posted April 29, 2020 Did you read it Grumps? Anything in it you would like to dispute or otherwise discuss? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aubiefifty 16,791 Posted April 29, 2020 Share Posted April 29, 2020 18 hours ago, Grumps said: your boy trump is the biggest drama queen around and the fact you would smear a truth seeker is sad. you love him. you voted for him and will do so again. these moments of "clarity" concerning his behavior never last long and you always reveal your true feelings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aubiefifty 16,791 Posted April 29, 2020 Share Posted April 29, 2020 he has nothing of substance to add so he results to insults. and i continue to laugh at most of these bozo's that hate me because i get nasty like trump does. i am not near as mouthy offline and normally a lot of fun to be with. and the fact these guys still take up for the nasty and stupidity known as trump and yet get mad and butthurt when the shoe is on the other foot. but they will continue to support him regardless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikey 16,603 Posted April 29, 2020 Share Posted April 29, 2020 If Biden had a chance in hell of getting elected I'd be more worried about his dementia. However, that's not going to be a problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.