And as if on cue, Trump tweeted this just minutes ago, seemingly presaging an imminent escalation re: North Korea, some kind of retaliatory economic action against Beijing, or quite possibly, both.
Oh, and of course he had to figure out an excuse to take a shot at the “Fake News” and this time, he’s apparently just making up people to be angry at, as it’s not at all clear who “the geniuses” are…
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Via Bloomberg’s Editorial Board
For humanity’s sake, delete your account.
Like the rage of Achilles, Donald Trump’s tweets are sudden, explosive and freighted with tragedy. This week brought the most foreboding yet. “After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow……”
And then: nothing. For a full nine minutes, the world was left to ponder what those ominous six periods might portend. “At the Pentagon,” reports BuzzFeed, the tweet “raised fears that the president was getting ready to announce strikes on North Korea or some other military action.”
In the event, Trump was merely announcing an immoral and ill-considered ban on transgender troops, not gearing up for war. But it’s not too much to say that his tweeting has become a threat to world stability. For the sake of his presidency, and much else besides, he should stop.
Seemingly everyone who knows Trump — staffers, lawyers, friends, family — has urged him to do so. Members of Congress have practically begged him. Voters, too, have had their fill. About the only person who supports Trump’s use of Twitter, in fact, is Trump. And he’s doing plenty of damage to himself: contradicting his surrogates, starting rash fights, diminishing his authority and derailing his stated agenda. He may even be putting himself in legal jeopardy.
He is also undermining American politics. What’s official policy and what’s idle musing is known only to the president. At an already grim moment, his tweets are impeding legislation, worsening polarization and bewildering the general public. Day after day, the national conversation gets subsumed by the presidential Twitter feed and its endless grievances.
More worrisome still is the damage Trump is doing in world affairs. His tweets have recklessly upended American policy from Qatar to China to North Korea. They express disdain for the norms of diplomacy and the values of democracy. They have unnerved financial markets, antagonized allies, emboldened dictators, abetted foreign intelligence agencies — and all for what?
To “get the honest and unfiltered message out,” says Trump. And there is surely some benefit in the American people knowing what their president is thinking, even if in 140-character spurts. But that benefit needs to be balanced against the cost — to public discourse, to political culture, to global stability — of this president tweeting.
The founders of American democracy were rightly suspicious of populism and crass appeals to it. The qualities they valued in a president — political restraint, personal modesty, deference to the legislature — are still worth defending. Trump’s heedless tweeting, and the resulting chaos, show exactly what the founders were afraid of, and exactly how dangerous an unfiltered president can be.
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One more step towards Making America the Global Joke #MAGJ
Apparently the money i.e. Investors of this insanity don’t appear to be very worried i.e. Btd
Very, very good “the money investors” are just as indifferent, insane with $$$’s in a continual “wet dream” of privatization of the entire fu*king planet.
I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the “geniuses” comment is a response to a story that has yet to be published about the microtargeting of voters with propaganda and manipulation of social media with bots. He, or someone in his administration, may have been asked to comment on a story about the technical aspects of his campaign and he tweeted this in response.
Jared and Manafort were both pretty heavily involved with Cambridge Analytica who provided the expertise that allowed the campaign to target voters online. Jared was also involved with setting up a data center in Austin. Perhaps there’s some new connection between the Russian government and the Trump campaign in regards to their online efforts?
Or, perhaps he just doesn’t have a “good brain.”
America. For God’s sake – wake up! You won’t get a second shot at fixing this. You have to have a serious talk about getting rid of this person who is your President. I’m seeing this tragedy unfold from Australia and I can’t emphasize enough how you guys seemed to have lost the plot which is both scary and sad. If you value your history, your credibility and your future you have to dump Trump. Period.
Trump is running a reality TV presidency – which is what has made him a “star” at least in his on mind. The “President Trump” reality TV show all has the affected soap opera-ish drama and inane draw of shallow personality types – as all reality TV. Why would we expect better, or more than we have seen and continue to see from Trump RTV? It’s good for ratings – at least in the small, but cluttered toy (mostly broken) box – that is Trump’s mind.
Trump complains because China won’t do what he can’t do.
Does no one in the WH hear the whine in that complaint? He makes America look weak and foolish. Again.