He can't help himself, not at his age. Donald Trump is a sociopath. He has an uncontrollable impulse to screw everybody. Facts, truth have no relevance to his modus operandi. His impulses are fueled by dishonesty, outright lies and an incredible talent for getting people to accept them.
His supporters, the Gullibillies? He might throw them a bone now and then but he'll tell them it's a Porterhouse steak with all the fixings and he knows they'll believe it. It's astonishing.
One way to help keep his con game running is chaos. He's a master of it. Chaos is Trump's default operating system. When the machine starts to sputter, scapegoat somebody and then fire their sorry ass out the door.
CBS News reports this morning of a major purge said to be looming. Targeted are Trump's chief of staff, his national security advisor and up to three cabinet secretaries. That would really spin up the revolving door at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
A shake-up that some at the White House are preemptively calling a purge is coming. It could take down a chief of staff, a national security adviser, and up to three Cabinet secretaries, reports CBS News correspondent Major Garrett. It all depends on President Trump's volatile mood and available, willing replacements.
"We're coming back and doing it more so than we've ever done before. We're setting records," Mr. Trump said Wednesday in St. Louis, touting what he called record-setting economic progress.
But the turnover of top aides at his White House has also made history. So far, in the 14 months of his presidency, more than 20 senior administration staffers have either been fired, resigned or reassigned.
The next to go could be National Security Adviser H. R. McMaster, expected to be replaced by former Bush administration official and frequent Fox News analyst John Bolton. Bolton is a hawk on Iran and North Korea, like new Secretary of State nominee and current CIA chief Mike Pompeo.
The man brought in last summer to impose order in the White House, Chief of Staff John Kelly, may also be on the way out, according to congressional and administration sources.
With Pompeo taking over at the State Department and Bolton expected to take over the NSA, the hawks - the real claw and fang crew - are moving in. Absent Kelly and McMaster that will only leave Def Sec Mattis to restrain Trump's puerile urges. Lots of people are likely to be screwed, some of them screwed out of their lives.
Trump seems to revel in his role as ScrewMeister. At a major fundraiser in Missouri yesterday Trump boasted to the crowd how he screwed with Justin Trudeau when they met to discuss trade. Trudeau assured Trump that the US actually has a balance of trade surplus with Canada. Trump told the crowd he had no idea but simply insisted that America was in a trade deficit. Facts don't matter when your goal is merely to screw everyone.
And then there's the small matter of this year's White House "Economic Report of the President" that Trump had the cameras gathered to record him signing with his customary, puerile flourish. Trump's own report, validated by his signature, confirmed that the US does indeed run a modest balance of trade surplus with Canada.
With Trump there are no "win-win" deals which makes facts inconsequential. He's not out for fairness. What he's after is to ensure that everyone else loses.
So... he's the same as every other politician on the planet.
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ReplyDeleteNo, Anon, I think he's quite exceptional. Can you name another political leader who went through his key aides anywhere near as rapidly as Trump? Even the Kim clan of North Korea can't hold a candle to the Mango Mussolini.
The gambit is making you think he is exceptional. (It seems to be working, hint hint.)
ReplyDeleteI'd describe him more as the apotheosis of current political culture.
"the highest point in the development of something; culmination or climax."
ReplyDeleteA curious take, NPoV.
What is good is that some people, even on the right and in his government, are now standing up to Trump. Tillerson, to his credit, stood up to him: others will now be encouraged to follow suit, I hope. It's pretty obvious that it is Trump that is losing: he can't convince his cabinet of the soundness of his arguments, so he fires his cabinet rather than modify his arguments. Kelly is considered by many to be the last realist in his inner circle: I sure hope Trump comes to his senses so he doesn't leave too.
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ReplyDeleteChris, I don't know if you read the piece about the ramifications of using the "national security" option to justify levying tariffs but the thinking at Foreign Policy is that Trump not only pulled the pin on the grenade but that he forgot that he's supposed to throw the grenade, not the pin.
If you caught Tillerson's press briefing yesterday you saw a man plainly shaken at the humiliation of being sacked by Twitter. You don't do that to the former CEO of ExxonMobil. Tillerson had trouble keeping his voice from shaking. He wasn't his normal, assured self.
I would be surprised if Tillerson doesn't find some way to repay Trump for the inexcusable indignity. That probably goes for Gary Cohn also. And if, as rumoured, Trump will soon ditch Kelly and McMaster, he's making more enemies than any president needs.
Hey, look, it's the Ides of March. Oh well, there's always next year.
Aside from his "leave it to the Generals" campaigns which has resulted in a msiive increase in civillian casualties in the West's ongoing Wars of Choice,
ReplyDeleteThe only people getting screwed over by the Orange Hued Shitgibbon, are 'Murkins and US Immigrants.
Canada, Britain and Australia, were not excluded from the tariffs because of NAFTA or Trump changing his mind, but because a little known Cold War USNS Law prevents tariffs from being imposed by a President, absent an Act of Congress. Early on, during the first Cold War Conventional Arms Race, the US discovered that it did not have the domestic ability to meet Consumer demand and an Arms Race at the same time.
Hair Twittler is a bullying bullshitter and the only people who are being fooled by that, are 'Murkins.