Shooting Himself in the Foot While Gaslighting, Simultaneously
Yes, we all heard it yesterday after Trump declared a fake emergency over a fake issue – “I don’t need to do this, but I want to do it much faster.” Once again, he showed his stupidity on national television. So, while declaring a national emergency over a non-emergency to appease his mouth breathing base, he almost surely scuttled his efforts by simultaneously (and inadvertently) admitting that his declaration was false. The Congress is already using his words against him as the House announces the opening of an investigation into his declaration. The courts will also use those words to stop him. He is the walking, talking example of the old saying, “Never in doubt, seldom correct.”
But even more glaring was his textbook use of radical gaslighting, loudly talking over a reporter asking where he’s getting his border crisis data. Here is the exchange, verbatim:
QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President. Just to follow up on that, you — unifying crime reporting statistics, numbers from your own Border Patrol, numbers from this government, show that the amount of illegal immigrants are down, there is not violence on the border and that most…
TRUMP: There’s not violence on the border (ph)?
QUESTION: There’s not as much violence as — wait a minute — wait a minute — let me finish the question…
TRUMP: Oh really? You had 26 people killed?
QUESTION: Please, let me finish the question, please.
TRUMP: Two weeks ago, 26 people were killed in a gunfight on the border.
QUESTION: I understand what the — I understand what you’re saying.
TRUMP: A mile away from where I went.
QUESTION: I — I was there, I understand. That’s not the question. The question is…
TRUMP: Do we forget about that?
QUESTION: No, I’m not forgetting about it, I’m asking you to clarify where you get your numbers, because most of the DEA crime reporting statistics that we see show that drugs are coming across at the ports of entry, that illegal immigration is down and that the violence is down.
So what do you base your facts on?
TRUMP: OK. Let me — come on, let’s go.
QUESTION: And secondly…
TRUMP: No, no, you get one, you get one.
Wait, sit down, sit down.
QUESTION: Could you — could you please answer it.
TRUMP: Sit down! You get one question.
QUESTION: Please?
TRUMP: I get my numbers from a lot of sources, like Homeland Security primarily, and the numbers that I have from Homeland Security are a disaster.
And you know what else is a disaster? The numbers that come out of Homeland Security, Kirstjen, for the cost that we spend and the money that we lose because of illegal immigration, billions and billions of dollars a month. Billions and billions of dollars, and it’s unnecessary.
QUESTION: So your own government’s stats are wrong, are you saying?
TRUMP: No, no, I use many stats. I use many stats.
QUESTION: Could you share those stats with us?
TRUMP: Let me tell you, you have stats that are far worse than the ones that I use, but I use many stats, but I also use Homeland Security. All right, next question.
QUESTION: And do you — wait a minute — just a quick follow-up…
TRUMP: No, go, please.
“I use many stats.” Translation: “Everything you see and hear from others is a lie. Only I have the truth.” This is classic gaslighting and it’s destroying the very fabric of our system of government. One thing is clear after two years of this cretin infesting the White House, and that is, after we finally get him out of office, we’re going to have to revamp the entire structure of the Presidency, codifying what used to be custom honored by virtually every president in our history with few exceptions (like Nixon).
Yes, the courts will say to the president, “Um, oh no you don’t!”
But don’t celebrate too quickly. Between them, McTurtle and this president have stacked the SCOTUS so successfully that previous presidents, living and dead, are turning emerald with envy.
He could yet get the money for his wall and the only remedy is likely to be our GOTV effort next year after which the NEXT president may be able to halt the build.
And that will be AFTER [how many?] people’s lands will have been stolen by their government?
Maybe, just maybe, there might be a silver lining to all this: Texas move from Red right through Purple and into Blue could change from a trickle to a flash flood. But at what price — financially and to our souls?
1I read an article the other day that called him
2“The Jabba The Hutt of privlege.”
We’re working with another rescue cat. Sweet innocent face and chest markings of a tabby. But behind the ears and down onto the tail, she has the markings of her more Bengal attitude and ancestry. Born without 2 incisors her destiny is as an indoor cat which will be a real challenge providing all the exercise and energy releases her nature requires. She’s worth the effort.
Whereas IQ45 has to reach that redline where Old Scratch McConnell decides he is no longer worth a few tax cuts and religious whack-a-doodle court appointments. (we hope) It’s Mitch’s time in the barrel. He could lose his Senate seat, ergo power and if there is any justice in all covfefe land, the Eastern District of Kentucky is investigating him. Still worth babysitting Donnie, Mitch?
3Thank god Trump is an avid golfer, where the players can simply lose every game to him, as the gentlemen keep their own stats.
Can you imagine if Trump like Cheney was an “avid sportsman?” Shooting people not in the face, but the heart or jugular? The bodies would pile up on weekend outings like 2×4’s in the lumber aisle at Home Depot. Nothing but stats.
4Don’t be too quick to display confirmation bias.
5https://arcdigital.media/trumps-emergency-declaration-is-both-legal-and-an-abuse-of-power-35456a93a35d?sk=4ae4bb7147ea7bcb28c90c5dc40161dc
Which stats do you use, Mr President?
6All of them Katie.
After this president, we are definitely going to have to codify what up till now have been tradition and gentlemen’s agreements on what a president can and cannot do. We have discovered, the hard way, how long those survive when the president is not a gentleman. Our Founding Fathers never anticipated this.
7Last year, when a brave reporter confronted him with his lies about his unequaled Electoral College vote, he just muttered, “I was given the wrong information.” Now it’s “I use many stats,” i.e., the ones he pulls out of his trump. Advancing Alzheimer’s or getting better at lying?
8@ Jane & PKM, best of luck to your rescue cat and her rescuers. Thank you for a brief note of sanity and kindness.
If the candidate with the most votes had become President, I don’t know what issues we’d be talking about, but the President’s sanity and emotional adulthood or lack thereof would not be among them.
9Rhea, Jane and I have the space and we both hate seeing a dog or cat in a cage. Plus the rescues are great examples for KJ and Jack. Lack of the love of a loving pet results in developmental disasters like Dotard45.
We’d be happy to provide a space for Donnie’s cage. What fun it would be to feed him his hamberders with a slingshot. Golf? He wants to play golf? Would be happy to trade shots with him at 175 paces.
10Ever try to communicate with a paranoid schizophrenic who is in full bloom? Well, you just got a load of one in the Rose Garden standing behind the podium!
11Adderall. Ask Lindsey Lohan, it’s a hell of a drug. 25 45 immediately.
12Buttermilk Sky :
I have the best lies! Nobody has better lies then me!!!!! I am the best liar!!!!
I think the problem with reporters is that the are asking intelligent questions. Too many words. KISS it ( keep it simple, stupid)
Trump is not intelligent. Neither are his followers.
Example. So you do not believe your own government statistics.
13Please tell us who statistics you are using, Hannity, Miller, Limbaugh or Coulter????
Or Putin’s?
14@ John Oliphant, this needs to be a slogan plastered everywhere: 25 45.
15What a rational person would consider a national emergency.
In 2018 there were 39,773 deaths caused by guns in the United States. Thirty-nine thousand, seven hundred and seventy-three deaths.
The worst number in 20 years. A number the NRA, Trump, and the Republicant’s must be proud of. The US is far and away the leader in gun deaths in the world.
It must be so reassuring to know that when you send your child off to school he or she has a better chance of being shot than were they deployed!
The United States ranks 38th out of 50 countries considered the best for children under 14. The United States ranks 125th with an abysmal literacy rate of only 86.0%.
People are dying because of a lack of healthcare. There are people forced into bankruptcy in order to take care of their health or the health issues of family members. People are being denied healthcare and cannot afford medications. These people live in one of the most affluent countries in the world and yet are denied what in many countries is provided without charge or at an affordable cost.
Those are national emergencies. Bullying the American public in order to pass funding for an unnecessary wall to stem the wave of immigrants, crime, and drugs that statistically are lower than in past years is a national emergency. Trump and the republicant’s and their protectionist and isolationist policies are a national emergency.
And then there is Trump and his spineless Republican’t bootlickers who support and condone the separation of parents and children who are seeking asylum and a better life. Who turn a blind eye to children being imprisoned. Who callously disregard the death of even one of those children. Yes, Trump is truly making America great again.
If that fecocephalic idiot that has unfortunately infested the White House truly cared about *national emergencies* and the welfare of the American people, he and the rest of the republicant’s would stop toadying to the NRA and the one-percenters and pass legislation and approve funding that would benefit all residents of the United States. ALL of them.
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