Trump, May 2017: 100 days of [unintelligible]

.@NYDailyNews comes out swinging.

Tomorrow's front page: "LEAKER OF THE FREE WORLD" pic.twitter.com/VNvgkpDdOs

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) May 16, 2017

Kushner has an uncanny ability to get himself into stories he has no business being in https://t.co/JI4S8Kv9l8 pic.twitter.com/lf1uHZ3hzX

— Stefan Becket (@becket) May 16, 2017

I feel like we're going to need more than one thread for this month

― your cognitive privilege (El Tomboto), Tuesday, May 9, 2017 6:58 PM (six days ago)

New one each week?

This thread moves in Trump time, it feels like it's a year old, not a month old.

two per week, comes out to about one per fresh scandal

We might not all be dead when Trump is gone, but we'll all feel like we're 80. Or dead.

Putin, you sly quipster:

He is acting in accordance with his competence

How will the history books handle this sad chapter in American history?

There won't be books left when the missiles land.

lol these threads are the same thing every day with little variation and will be for the next 4-8 years. you people are gluttons for pain.

David Brooks channeling David Roberts (without the courtesy of a hat-tip link):

Third, by adulthood most people can perceive how others are thinking. For example, they learn subtle arts such as false modesty so they won’t be perceived as obnoxious.

But Trump seems to have not yet developed a theory of mind. Other people are black boxes that supply either affirmation or disapproval. As a result, he is weirdly transparent. He wants people to love him, so he is constantly telling interviewers that he is widely loved. In Trump’s telling, every meeting was scheduled for 15 minutes but his guests stayed two hours because they liked him so much.

that seems right

lol these threads are the same thing every day with little variation and will be for the next 4-8 years. you people are gluttons for pain.

I think you mean ILM

both

Dana Milbank on Sean Spicer is a classic example of Beltwayism.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-has-sucked-the-lifeblood-out-of-sean-spicer/2017/05/15/5f2812b4-39b7-11e7-a058-ddbb23c75d82_story.html

Heh

Right now at Trump's DC hotel! pic.twitter.com/95cwrUmbmF

— igorvolsky (@igorvolsky) May 16, 2017

Ahhhhhahahahaha

nice one

David Brooks channeling David Roberts (without the courtesy of a hat-tip link):

Someone possibly spotted that - there's a link there now.

I see someone thought "Hey, um...let's distract!"

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/05/15/trump-to-voluntarily-file-personal-financial-disclosure-for-2016/

@DougHenwood
How quick people are to take a vague leak from the CIA—details withheld by the WP on request—and turn it into charges of treason.

Remember the early Trump weeks when it seemed like a serious left opposition was emerging. Now everyone’s taking dictation from Langley.

Hey doug, did you ever hear that politics makes strange bedfellows? Well, it is true. Common interests can crop up in the strangest circumstances. Besides, Langley has a lot more experience undermining opposition politicians or governments than the American left does and way more money behind them, so they are likely to do a good professional job of it. No sense in rejecting good help when it is offered.

this "lol, everyone loves the cia now amirite" shit from certain ppl on the left is so inane

Hey, guys, been busy this evening, anything going...whaaaaaaaaaaaa?!?!?!?

That financial disclosure thing is HILARIOUS.

http://www.bfi.org.uk/sites/bfi.org.uk/files/styles/full/public/image/true-romance-1993-007-bronson-pinchot-white-paint-face.jpg
"Uh...crooked Hillary (cough). Sad!"

this "lol, everyone loves the cia now amirite" shit from certain ppl on the left is so inane

It goes so WELL with "lol, I thought liberals LIKED Russia" from the right. And, of course, "lol, liberals were calling for Comey's firing just last year, now he's their hero."

'lol, everyone loved Trump when he was firing Lou Ferrigno!'

'lol, everyone loves a glazed ham when it isn't sitting in the Oval Office and giving classified intel to Russians!'

Our president, ladies and gentlemen

Prior to the Wapo story, Trump spent day phoning outside advisers, saying he knows he has to make changes but isn't certain what to do.

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) May 16, 2017

word of the day: floundering

Is it becoming...self-aware?

Picturing him as Grover* now, which is a dreadful insult to Grover.

*I mean sesame st not norquist

Rosenstein playing it cool before the Senate appearance (tomorrow, I think?)

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/politics/bs-md-rod-rosenstein-20170516-story.html

Pets

Is it becoming...self-aware?

No because like any unrepentant fuckup as soon as he realizes that he's being criticized at the same time as seeking advice, he'll revert back to petulance. See: any episode of Intervention

i have no idea why that says 'pets', fyi. wasn't using a plural british term of insulting endearment.

I read "isn't certain what to do" more as "isn't certain who he should fire next" and less that he thinks he himself needs to change at all.

yup. naturally trump does not think he must change himself in any meaningful way. he is the biggest winner in the country. why just look at that gory red electoral map, will you! it's all the proof anyone should need that he is The Man.

no, obviously, he just needs a better team around him. their constant failures have been galling at him and dragging down his administration. seems like they mess things up every goddamn day and he gets blamed. but who should he replace them with? and what hot new message should he tweet to improve his ratings?

i don't buy that though. that trump sits around and thinks he's just top dog, fuck everyone it's their fault. the man is deeply, deeply insecure. you yell at your subordinates because your narcissism doesn't permit self-reflection, sure. but truly confident people don't try to impress the russians in their office. trump feels illegitimate to the core. it's why he fired comey. it's why he has rallies. it's the map.

there's a big difference between arrogance and gnawing insecurity mixed with narcissism. in my life, people in the 70s on park ave aren't unfamiliar to me. two things i always see in that world: 1) gossip, because if you know and your pal didn't, you won; and 2) crab/bucket climbing: his obsession with tv ratings is his version of who was at what party and who wasn't. it's a loop. when they weren't there, you gotta gossip about why. when you were there, you gotta share what you heard to those that weren't. that's how you show dominance. why multimillionaires give a shit is beyond me.

as much as garrison keillor is a sideshow, his long-ago reading of trump as simply trying to gain the respect that his park ave born peers inherited reads true to me. it fits with all the other theories: him viewing people as vessels of approval/disapproval, explains his uptown new york diction (fabulous! terrific!) and, more than anything else, suggests why all those statesmen assumed details (classified materials, consistency in diplomacy) don't mean a damn thing to him. his world is new york real estate. someone's gonna by steven a. schrawzmann's apartment when he's finally indicted (and hopefully take his name off the fucking library): my guess is trump would prefer that to the presidency. or rather, they're the same: you name, forever on a building.

but i have to reiterate: the root is always, always feeling like you could climb higher. fucking kochs on lincoln center. fucking vanderbilts all over town.

trump's press obsession isn't only narcissism, it's insecurity. remember the anecdotes of him sending out highlighted donald cutsheets to literally everyone?

years ago, i visited a family at the dakota. the apartment's owner proudly showed me a picture of him an bill clinton golfing. he then pointed at 17 rooms of furniture and mumbled things like 'that piece is japanesque.' he didn't give a fuck about anything other than that picture.

it's all high school. trump is trying desperately to impress everyone (and is so far out of his depth). he should have stayed a manhattan rube. he could have a picture of him and the next repub president golfing on his desk. everyone would have been happier. hell, maybe they could have given him a useless position somewhere: he'd have golfing anecdotes for days.

How does one get him to fire Sessions, Tillerson, anybody else that ought to go immediately? Obviously public perception must be their fault.
He can't fire McDonnell can he? Or Ryan?
Good to get some useful firings done before he implodes innit?

the president can't fire elected officials

Shame, something positive could have come out of this.
Wonder if there's any chance any legislation will be passed to prevent this repeating. Like you can't be President if you're barking mad and ignorant or something. Would be useful, innit?

This is reddit /u/bbctol and /u/tinkletwit from today, as I think they capture Trump better than I've seen elsewhere:

He's literally using being the President of the United States to look powerful. Because that's who he is, and who he's always been: obsessed with looking rich, with not just being successful but being seen as successful, and then, after going bankrupt, with being seen as the greatest businessman ever in the make-believe world of reality TV.

He has no concept of using power for good, or even using power for anything other than making sure other people know he has power. That's the actual, real President of the United States; a guy who leaks secrets because they're worthless to him. Because even when he has something as valuable as classified information, it doesn't matter to him unless other people know he has it.

I've been saying this ever since he turned Mar-a-Lago's dining room into an impromptu situation room. It was important that he be seen playing president in a "super serious" circumstance.

He's literally playing at being President, for approval from his audience.

actually i think lion in winter captured it better! with more/better details! did you read those two posts up there, Sanpaku? it agrees with what you just quoted but gets into the nitty gritty of nyc, and his milieu.

the only thing i could really add is that once you're president, there is nothing higher. nowhere else to go. you've done it. which jives precisely with all the weird flak donald gives people who criticize him. "don't these people get it? i won! i'm president and they're not! there is nowhere else to go! so why does this seem so hard?"

tfw when you wake up groggy from a night of cocodamol dreams, find the president of the united states has accidentally made himself a traitor, and spend the rest of the day wondering if you're still asleep

Yes Tracer -- I liked Lion in Winter's gritty NYC uptown portrait also !! :D

(ps / it makes me wonder what kind of life Lion in Winter has to move in those circles)

lion in winter is anna wintour iirc

(sorry for blowing up yr spot anna)

FTR, I wasn't honestly asserting that it might actually be acquiring self-awareness. As much as I might like to think the POTUS might one day turn into a real boy, I sadly acknowledge that he'll always be just a shitty russian android.

As President I wanted to share with Russia (at an openly scheduled W.H. meeting) which I have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining....

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 16, 2017

...to terrorism and airline flight safety. Humanitarian reasons, plus I want Russia to greatly step up their fight against ISIS & terrorism.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 16, 2017