Amid a torrent of criticism from Democratic lawmakers and African American leaders, Donald Trump continues to double down on his criticism of Elijah Cummings and the city of Baltimore.
“Just reminded my staff that Morning Joe & Psycho were with me in my room, at their request, the night I won New Hampshire”, Trump said Tuesday, kicking off an overtly silly rant aimed at MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski.
“Don’t watch show, but heard Mika said I asked to preside over their marriage”, Trump continued, before pivoting to Cummings. “Does anyone really believe that?”, the president wondered aloud, on the way to explaining that “Joe and Psycho” were “married by Elijah, King of Baltimore!”
Read more: Baltimore Hits Back As Trump Triples Down On Cummings Attacks
At this point, it’s just indecipherable rambling – stream of consciousness-style tweeting by a man lost in a Fox-fueled racist delirium. But as The Hill explains, “Brzezinski and Scarborough told Vanity Fair in a 2017 profile that both Trump and White House adviser Jared Kushner had offered to perform their wedding shortly after the president’s inauguration”.
Whatever. That’s not the point. Rather, the point is that Trump is now obsessed with “Elijah, King of Baltimore!” and on Tuesday afternoon, upon returning to the White House, the president had a thing or five to say about the venerated congressman.
Asked to explain the “political strategy” for launching attack after bigoted attack on a prominent African American lawmaker despite loud (almost desperate) calls from many Americans for the president to cease and desist being insane, Trump admitted that unlike his feud with Ilhan Omar, “there is no strategy” to the Cummings fight.
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“What are you talking about by ‘political strategy’?”, Trump asked. “Are you talking about with respect to Elijah Cummings?” The president continued:
There’s no strategy. I have no strategy. There’s zero strategy. All it is I’m pointing out facts. The most unsafe city in our country is Baltimore. It’s received as much money – it receives top of the line – billions of dollars – somebody said $15 billion over a short period of time. All of this money goes there and – take a look at it. So there’s no strategy. It’s very simple. And Elijah Cummings is in charge of it.
In addition to there being “zero strategy”, there are also “zero” factual statements in that word salad, despite Trump insisting that he’s merely “pointing out facts”.
For instance, “the most unsafe city in our country” is an inherently subjective assessment. And “somebody said” doesn’t count when it comes to making claims about numbers. There are real facts and figures out there and what makes this so ridiculous is that if anyone has access to the data, it’s the president. He’s on the right track, but not only is he too lazy to do the homework, he’s apparently too lazy even to ask someone else to crunch the numbers for him. Better to just parrot Fox & Friends.
Pressed on the criticism emanating from Baltimore itself, Trump hilariously (or not, depending on your penchant for finding humor in tragedy) claimed that “People living in Baltimore are very happy that I’m bringing out the fact that it’s like living in hell”.
You really can’t make this stuff up.
Asked to reconcile the contention that his administration has “done more for African Americans than any other president” with poll numbers showing 80% of African Americans think he’s racist, Trump said “You know why? Because the fake news doesn’t report it properly”.
Earlier Tuesday, Trump claimed the White House has been inundated with phone calls from “the African American people”, who he says are ringing night and day to praise him for calling Baltimore a “rat infested” mess.
You think we’re kidding, but remember, satire is dead in Trump’s America…
The “African-American people.” Guessing someone (Ivanka?) told Trump to stop using his go-to locution “the blacks” as he gears up for a reelection run. By the end of the day, he’ll be tweeting that he’s the most “woke” person in America.
It’s hilarious to imagine that scenario. Like African Americans all over the country are picking up their phones “Siri, call the White House”.. and the White House is like “Sir, there are 40 African Americans holding for you, should we patch them all through on speaker phone?”
It is entirely possible there are millions of African Americans calling the White House to tell Trump black lives matter because Trump told them theirs don’t.
Arguing with Trump is like debating a tweet on the Onion, or a tweet from an alt-right site. It. Just. Can’t. Fucking. Be. Done. It’s impossible. He makes shit up on the fly and just says it.
The only way the Dems win in 2020 is to 1. Run a great candidate (So far, I’m not impressed), 2. Put forth a viable plan that clearly explains how they are going to make America a better place, what they are going to do to improve the lives of every day Americans. The first candidate that focuses on a few simple ideas that people can relate to wins.
If the Dems try to “out Trump”, Trump, They will lose because it will be like pushing on a rope. As I said, there are 42.9%, in composite polling, that APPROVE of what he’s doing. WTF is that all about! In addition, I never fail to take into account the stupidity and gullibility of the American voter, who repeatedly votes against their own self interests.
There should be NO undecideds here if there are, then please see my last point directly above. Now, I got to call Ja Rule to ‘splain all this to me, dawg.
Nope, as bad as it is it is not that bad https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/president_trump_job_approval-6179.html
Sorry, my bad, I misread your comment, damn where is the delete button.
The Dems must get the Senate no matter which way the presidential race falls!
Why? If you can show me a path to a Dem super majority (>2/3 rd’s) it won’t make a lot of difference. As has been pointed out, Trump has done the political calculus, and has figured out that “If I just say no to the House, Senate or the Courts, that’s an option that works for me”.
The Dems have not shown me that they have the spine or political savvy to take Trump on. So even if the House votes to Impeach, the votes aren’t there in the Senate to convict.
That’s why Pelosi doesn’t want to move toward impeachment. If he’s impeached and acquitted, the man will be more bonkers than he does now.
Sun-Tzu says, “Win, then fight.” She won’t fight that battle if she can’t win.
Trump can be beaten badly. The Democrats do need a fairly simple message. We will improve the health care system. We will focus on providing opportunities for employment for everyone. We will increase the minimum wage. We will cease torturing immigrants and separating families at the border. We will no longer fight with our allies for no reason and cause discord with them. We will no longer embrace murderous regimes like Saudi Arabia. We will appoint competent cabinet and high level managers in government and will not tolerate corruption. We will champion respect for all Americans.