Trump, May 2017: 100 days of [unintelligible]

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

Oh.

SO I GUESS IT'S ALL GOOD

so, just like last week, his staff covered for him and lied to the media, and then the next day he admits what he did

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.

Perfectly sensible and trad bedfellows, the bloodstained spies and the liberals. I'll be over here.

heh, i was just coming here to post that exact same thing xp

why do i feel like trump just learned the word 'humanitarian' this morning

looking forward to the panicked trump-surrogate backpedalling

The daily OMG This Will Finally Bring Us President Pence is wearying.

hey guys i think today might be the day we finally get president pence

Is it becoming...self-aware?

It's the Singularity!

a pile of horse shit implies there's a pony in here somewhere

Also given that he's so stupid, I find it gently ironic that what he's accused of giving away is called "intelligence."

Well, it was "code-word" intelligence. Maybe Trump thought it was a guessing game?

Was wondering earlier if being fired by 45 now was a bonus on your resumé.

His base who get news filtered through Drudge won't know this is much of a big deal.

let's round up some former apprentice contestants and find out xp

funnily enough the top story on drudge right now is the explosive 'DEAD DNC STAFFER 'HAD CONTACT' WITH WIKILEAKS'

Why does it take him 10 minutes to post a two part tweet?

That's fast for him

It took him 10 minutes to type the first one.

it's because he spends the intervening period artisanally hand-crafting each word with input from master strategist steve bannon iirc

He's probably dictating it as he craps to some staffer standing outside the White House bathroom.

I can totally imagine Trump making everyone rotate through bathroom tweet duty. "Bannon, take your position, I feel a tweet coming!"

based on what we know about his diet i don't think trump's bowels have moved since 1997

the shit just comes out of his mouth amiritezzzzzzzz

and yet here you are every morning ready to human centipede it

what am i going to do instead, the work i'm being paid for?

We all must play our essential role in passing the shit down the line. It takes a village (of people whose lips are sewn to other people's assholes).

why are you guys talking about Trump and russia when the real story is john podesta literally murdering some guy ?

Lol wtf Adam

Ok, he's now left 40+ minutes without finishing his current tweet.