Gabriel Schoenfeld:
"Trump gave a number of extended interviews on foreign policy during the campaign, and they did not reveal the mind of a Talleyrand or a Metternich. One finds instead the crudest of formulations punctuated by gibberish.
A single sampling must stand in for the whole:
TRUMP: “certainly cyber has to be a, you know, certainly cyber has to be in our thought process, very strongly in our thought process. Inconceivable that, inconceivable the power of cyber.”
His most crippling weakness, however, is a gaping hole in his character that creates an insatiable craving for adulation. That in turn leads him to soak up flattery, especially from autocrats abroad.
A sumptuous banquet at the Saudi royal court and a massive five-story portrait of himself projected onto his hotel façade were enough to make Trump swoon with delight toward a country he had formerly faulted for 9/11 and ripping off the American economy.
When Trump traveled to the Philippines, strongman Rodrigo Duterte greeted him with gaudy baubles that led our president to gloat over his reception:
TRUMP: "It's a red carpet like nobody, I think, has probably ever seen.”
For every step Trump takes that has the appearance of purposefulness, there’s another step that reveals an infantile mind giving vent to impulses never successfully subjected to discipline 65 years ago in the sandbox:
TRUMP: “Why would Kim Jong-un insult me by calling me ‘old,’ when I would NEVER call him ‘short and fat?’”
is what Trump, while on a state visit to Vietnam, tweeted about North Korea’s nuclear-armed tyrant.
In light of Trump’s mode of discourse, it is farcical to speak seriously about his foreign policy “visions and aspirations.” To expand on the “philosophical underpinning” of Trumpian “concepts” is to descend into the absurd.
The man who has boasted about grabbing women by the genitals, who cannot distinguish truth from falsity, whose ignorance is only exceeded by his hatefulness, who disses allies and puffs up dictators, whose daily intelligence briefings have been dumbed down to approach the level of The Cat in the Hat, whose own secretary of State reportedly has called him a "moron," is more of a malevolent Forrest Gump than anything resembling a master statesman." --Gabriel Schoenfeld
19 comments:
It is an accurate description and critique of Trump.
Jerry, yes. I thought so too.
This description of him is spot on:
"...an infantile mind..."
It's beyond frightening to understand that someone as immature and stupid -- and I use that word in its true meaning -- "Having or showing a great lack of intelligence or common sense." is the leader of this once great country. What is even worse is the fact that so many more "infantile minds" -- his supporters continue to be willfully blind to what Trump is.
People around the world respect us so much more so much more now. I think we have the most respect we've ever had in a long time, probably history. We crush ISIS. Who could. I mean without me. I did that. I mean our military. Under my direction. Syria was bombed. That fat dictator, he knows us now. He better control himself. Putin. Putin. That cyber stuff. Really, He told me he didn't do it. I trust him. I do. Hillary no! Obama? Never. My intelligence people? Okay, a little. Except when they're wrong. Then no. Putin? Yes. Cause he's a strong leader. Like Duterte. These people like us and want us to be better. Stronger. With a wall. It's all about respect. Europe should think about that. Japan too. Get a nuke, get respect. Except North Korea. With them, we nuke first. Then they'll respect us. Always respect.
Dave, are those excerpts from different speeches?
Taken together, they illustrate Trump's broken mind. Had any of those phrases been spoken by a politician even 5 years ago, Americans would have been shocked. But now we've been subjected almost daily to this sort of imbecilic and depraved discourse by the POTUS that instead of marching in the streets, we've become inured to it.
Shaw... I thought about doing that but instead made it all up. And that shows how wildly incoherent Trump can be in that you'd think he actually said that stuff.
It's no wonder we hear many of the more conservative people calling progressives elitists for believing in education. Because anyone with a real education would have to admit that DJT is seriously challenged in his ability to communicate honestly and coherently.
Dave, Sarah Sanders would have said "It doesn't matter whether or not the words attributed to Trump are actually Trump's. Those words represents statements Trump could have made, and that's what makes them real quotes by him!"
--Sarah Huckabee Sanders
A malevolent Forest Gump indeed.
There can be no doubt about the partisan bias in the article. Undestandably so I must say as it rings unmistakably true.
“Because anyone with a real education would have to admit that DJT is seriously challenged in his ability to communicate honestly and coherently.“
Actually, anyone with a real education (and at least half a brain) knows that DJT is seriously challenged in his ability to communicate honestly and coherently.
How can an article be bias if it is “unmistakably true”?
Dave, great job capturing his inability to form coherent complex sentences.
He is correct in ont matter,however. The rest of the world, primarily our allies, are afraid of his irrational unpredictability.
Biased toward Truth Jerry. See many, like Trump, are biased toward falsehood, aka fake :)
“Biased toward Truth Jerry.“
OK, I understand what you mean. I guess the problem I have, and maybe it’s my problem, but when something is called bias, I understand that to be a criticism and a statement that it is not true. Somehow, calling something that is true, “bias”, is implying that it is not true.
Am I wrong?
Ducky, please correct me if I'm wrong, but I recall Trump saying in the campaign that he fully intended to govern unpredictably, since that keeps all others off balance, and therefore gives him more power.
Unfortunately, his kind of irrational unpredictability has everyone else terrified rather than simply off balance...
It's going to be a great 2018 thanks to a president
who is capable of adding 2+2 to get to 4.
The people have spoken that they were tired of politics
as usual.
No Jerry, you're not wrong. I'm simply having fun playing word games. I'm thinking if I argued my statement strongly enough from enough angles over and over again soon there would be folks nodding their heads in
agreement :)
Regarding the "gaping hole in his character that creates an insatiable craving for adulation"... it isn't just autocrats from whom he's soaking up flattery from. The GOP has figured out how to manipulate him. How else do you explain what followed the signing of the "tax cuts and jobs" bill? (an event I describe as a "gang bang of praise" in a recent post to my blog).
Re "his supporters continue to be willfully blind to what Trump is"... as per one ardent trumper "The more THEY hate Trump, the better I like him. It's as simple as that".
"Anonymous said...
It's going to be a great 2018 thanks to a president
who is capable of adding 2+2 to get to 4.
The people have spoken that they were tired of politics
as usual."
Reality: DONALD TRUMP'S APPROVAL RATING AT CHRISTMAS MAKES HIM THE LEAST POPULAR PRESIDENT EVER
Heading into the Christmas holiday, the former reality TV star had the worst approval rating in the history of modern polling for any president at this point in their first term. In fact, no other president in recent memory was even particularly close to Trump's levels of popularity.
The tracker from data-centric website FiveThirtyEight pegged Trump's average approval rating Saturday at just 37.1 percent. Dating all the way back to President Harry Truman in 1945, at Day 337 of their first term every president had an approval rating at least ten percentage points better than where Trump stands now at the same point in his first term, according to FiveThirtyEight. Trump is defying a grace period of sorts in which presidents are typically handed decent popularity from Americans at the start of their term.
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While FiveThirtyEight aggregates public polls, individual surveys have found similarly bad results for Trump. Gallup's most recent poll Thursday pegged his support at just 36 percent, for instance, while finding 58 percent disapproved of the president's performance. A CNN survey this week similarly had him at just 35 percent. A poll from Lucid this week found Trump's approval had sunk even further, all the way to 32 percent. To put that in perspective, at this point in his first term President Barack Obama had an approval rating of about 50 percent, which wasn't stellar but still at least a dozen percentage points better than where Trump stands.
It's really cute how the escapees from WYD come running here to comment on the worst president in modern American history. They think that doing so will somehow make The Worst President in Modern American History more popular. Isn't that adorable?
LEAST POPULAR PRESIDENT EVER supported by least intelligent trolls. Makes sense.
YEAH-REALLY!
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