Trump talked. And talked. And talked more. He was classic Trump, boasting about himself as “many people say.” Facts didn’t concern him. Humility was nowhere to be found. There was a hint of graciousness when he talked about the letter he received from Volodymyr Zelensky, though it might have more to do with being positioned to better serve Putin with Zelensky back in his pocket.
There was no sign of cognitive dissonance when his claims contradicted reality. He loves cops, but pardoned the January 6 cop beaters? He wants to balance the budget as he adds trillions for the national debt? His tariffs will devastate American farmers, not to mention most of America, but he loves farmers and pretends they love him?
Violating my primary rule of going to bed at 9 pm, I watched Trump’s “message.” As for my take, I think Maureen Dowd captured the talk quite well.
He sprayed the air with exaggerations and untruths at his rallies, and he didn’t feel the need to add any fact-checking as president. “A manifesto of mistruths,” proclaimed Nancy Pelosi after the speech.
He blithely ignores blatant contradictions in what he’s saying and doing. He praised police officers, saying they would get the respect “they so dearly deserve” and calling for the death penalty for anyone who murders a police officer. This, even though he sided with the insurrectionists, pardoning nearly 1,600 “patriots,” as he calls them, in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, where police officers got hurt trying to fight off the violent Trump mob.
He declared in the House chamber that “the days of rule by unelected bureaucrats are over,” ignoring the irony of Musk — the most powerful chainsaw-wielding unelected government official in history — basking in the first lady’s box. (At long last, wearing a suit.)
But your mileage may very. Does it concern you that Trump claimed the United States has given Ukraine $350 billion when this is demonstrably false by a couple billion? What about this:
The first month of his presidency, he said, was “the most successful in the history of the nation. And what makes it even more impressive is, do you know who No. 2 is? George Washington. How about that?”
My better judgment notwithstanding, have at it.* Did Trump’s very long, very self-aggrandizing and very false speech make you swell with patriotic pride or shrink in narcissistic disgrace? Is Trump the biggest, best, smartest, handsomest, tallest, coolest, nicest, smartest (yes, twice) president ever? Is George Washington number 2?
*Try to keep your comments substantive and please try not to regurgitate lies (or what Dowd calls “untruths” in order to avoid a defamation suit, Executive Order of K$sh Patel and Ed Martin investigation and prosecution for disloyalty).
When i hear Trump, i definitely think number two.
His MAGA fans believe whatever he says, so no lie is a lie to them. They twist themselves into knots making excuses for him, no matter how many times he proves them wrong. But what I still can’t understand is why they can’t see what a braggart he is. Is the compulsive need to boast no longer considered a character flaw?
I’ve met a lot more MAGA who were convinced Trump is the only politician who doesn’t hate them than those who are true believers.
Don’t get me wrong, I have met true believers, they’re just relatively rare, at least among the MAGA I’m adjacent to.
Also, what true believers will say without thinking, and what true believers will say when you aren’t hostile but say, “Really?” are 2 entirely different things. 🙂
No, he’s just better than the alternative, the commenters say. Can you imagine what the Dems would be up to right about now? Probably keeping up our international standing and resisting irredentist Putin like the cowards they are. They’d be easier to ignore at least.
His supporters do not all drink the kool-aid, as Grant noted. The refrain of “Yes, he said/did X, but meant Y” is popular for a reason.
Allow me to show my appreciation to this blog for introducing me to Mencken and:
“…the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.”
I usually watch State of the Union speeches, be they by Dem or Rep.
But watch someone whose main objective is to troll and antagonize?
Didn’t want to do that.
Perhaps these things might help in a comparison of Trump and Washington.
By Washington, though not all in his first month:
1. He appointed Jefferson, Hamilton, and Randolph to cabinet posts.
2. He appointed John Jay as the first Chief Justice.
3. He relied heavily on James Madison as his key advisor.
4. He was there for the passage of the Bill of Rights.
5. The Tariff Act of 1789 imposed tariffs of 50 cents a ton, 30 cents a ton, or 6 cents a ton, depending on who owned/operated the ship carrying the imports.
6. He still did not suffer from bone spurs.
7. As we all know, he could not tell a lie.
My Mexican immigrant wife (legal immigrant, BTW), who is a fanatical Trump fan, dragged me into the TV room to watch the second half of the speech. I can’t say that it filled me with either pride or disgrace; it seemed like a fairly ordinary political speech.
I have (reluctantly) voted for the guy three times now — not because I particularly like him, but because the alternative in each case was so absolutely horrible.
What do y’all expect when America’s ruling class (Democrats and RINO Republicans) don’t even try to conceal their contempt for ordinary working-class Americans AKA: ” … deplorable garbage, bitterly clinging to their guns and their religion.” Why is it surprising that a substantial percentage respond to that contempt with hatred of the elites?
We should be grateful that, at least for now, the hatred coalesced around a relatively harmless old blowhard instead of some shrewd, ambitious young Colonel from Buenos Aires, Morocco, Corsica, or wherever.
I’m personally too old to care: I’ll probably be dead & gone before the $#!* hits the fan, but I’m worried sick on behalf of my children & grandchildren. There’s a famous quote where some reporter asked an aging Spaniard to explain the Spanish Civil War, and his reply was: (I’m paraphrasing) “We just started hating each other so deeply that there was no turning back.”
Franco’s brother in law. Usually translated as “We just hated each other”.
Understand that I am very late to the party.
As political theater/ propaganda the speech worked. As an accurate assessment of the circumstances/ conditions that confront the nation or an accounting of his administration’s actions/ achievements… somewhat less so. For Trump, I found the speech remarkably coherent. I was able to follow/ understand what he was talking about throughout most of the speech. Granted, it was hyperbolic, hateful and hurtful at times, unlikely to win over anyone who wasn’t already a supporter, but not the disaster that his 1/7 press conference was or the Oval Office debacle of last week.
I can’t help thinking of Nikole Hannah-Jones “1619 Project”. A few outright lies and many misrepresentations/ half truths, but carefully crafted using language designed to appeal to the prejudices/ sensibilities of the target audience who will insist on its “truthiness”.
OTOH, La Slotkin’s response was masterful.
To be honest, I was more shocked by the juvenile and boorish behavior of the Democrats with the stupid hand signs, and the Rep. who was taken out by the Sergeant-at-Arms. You don’t have to applaud for the narcissistic clap-trap, and you can challenge the extravagant factual assertions (I’m being polite) afterwards, but you can and should certainly stand up and clap for the young man beating cancer. They looked like the bigger idiots last night. Its this kind of moronic behavior that led to 47 getting elected in the first place.
It was painful to see President Trump giving a shout-out to Secretary Kennedy regarding a putative rise in autism. Many people are aware that Andrew Wakefield’s study claiming to link autism with the MMR vaccine was fraudulent. Fewer may know that a study that was suggestive of such a connection was eviscerated for its lack of quality, by Stephen Austin, among the world’s foremost experts in identifying and quantitating nucleic acids (DNA and RNA). Secretary Kennedy did not disavow a link between the two in his confirmation hearings; moreover, his highly questionable pronouncements on the recent outbreak of measles indicates that he is anti-qualified to judge the matter.
Watch what Trump and appointees do. Ignore what Trump says. What Trump says and especially how he says it can be part of a canny negotiating strategy, and he is an experienced negotiator. He does scare people into submission, which is generally a poor leadership technique. “If I do what he says, maybe he’ll leave me alone afterwards.”
In short, I have mixed feelings about the professionalism of Trump’s tactics. I’m focused on watching for concrete results which are beginning to appear.
We’re it not that, since 2016, we have been subjected to Trump’s continual lies, exaggerations and mis-representations of “alternative facts” as the whole truth his comparison to Geo. Washington would be laughable. Now it’s just pathetic.
Chainsaw Al Dunlap got a reputation for ruthless cost cutting, but what he really did was to cook the books. That is what DOGE and Mr. Musk are doing, in matters large and small. What is more is that they are sullying the reputations of good people like Samantha Power, a former USAID administrator. It was a sorry spectacle.
I like the post but I must admit the opening sentences reminded me of a semi-obscure b-side by a band I love, but do not blindly adore like so many of their alt-goth fans.
I also know you love to post music videos offered up by commenters. [Ed. Note: Not exactly.]
So, without more fucking around, here’s the lyrics your opening sentences conjured:
“I couldn’t hear a word you said
I couldn’t hear at all
You talked until your tongue fell out
And then you talked some more”
And here’s the song: The Cure – The Exploding Boy
[Deleted per rules.]