# How has Former President Trump pissed you off today? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 20, 2017, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-has-former-president-trump-pissed-you-off-today/777640 "2017-01-20T17:21:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 240
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2018, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-has-former-president-trump-pissed-you-off-today/777640/4785 "2018-10-31T06:36:13Z")
And he’s had top lawyers, top men, the best. Or maybe he’s dipping into Liberty University’s finest. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2018, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-has-former-president-trump-pissed-you-off-today/777640/4786 "2018-10-31T07:23:30Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Maybe not, but when he says his lawyers told him he could do this, that is just impossible. Oh, I’m not doubting his lawyers told him that he could do it. I’m doubting he knows anything at all about the constitution itself. “You can do this.” “You cannot do this.” Those are simple and easy-to-understand statements. “The Miranda decision was based on certain provisions in the Bill of Rights; therefore, a defendant must be advised of his rights” is too complex, hell, it’s too long a statement for Trump to parse. > [@smithsb](#): > > And he’s had top lawyers, top men, the best. > > Or maybe he’s dipping into Liberty University’s finest. Now that would not surprise me at all. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2018, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-has-former-president-trump-pissed-you-off-today/777640/4787 "2018-10-31T12:59:19Z")
People are underestimating Trump’s political skills, owing to the fact that everything about him is ‘unpresidential’ in the conventionally-understood sense. Most presidents in the past have sought to build coalitions with moderates - that has been the conventional ‘smart’ strategy. Trump’s strategy is the total opposite. His strategy is to divide, antagonize, and break the electorate into factions that fight with each other. He hopes his faction becomes the dominant one. He’s trying to bait people into reacting and hitting back, trying to lend some credence to the idea that his critics are part of a ‘mob’. Authoritarians incite and bait, and then they wait for the overreaction as an excuse to break the political and legal norms and to grab more power. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2018, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-has-former-president-trump-pissed-you-off-today/777640/4788 "2018-10-31T14:41:58Z")
Ya think? ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2018, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-has-former-president-trump-pissed-you-off-today/777640/4789 "2018-10-31T14:45:49Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > People are underestimating Trump’s political skills, owing to the fact that everything about him is ‘unpresidential’ in the conventionally-understood sense. Most presidents in the past have sought to build coalitions with moderates - that has been the conventional ‘smart’ strategy. Trump’s strategy is the total opposite. His strategy is to divide, antagonize, and break the electorate into factions that fight with each other. He hopes his faction becomes the dominant one. He’s trying to bait people into reacting and hitting back, trying to lend some credence to the idea that his critics are part of a ‘mob’. Authoritarians incite and bait, and then they wait for the overreaction as an excuse to break the political and legal norms and to grab more power. Trump has a strategy? As in being forward thinking and planning things out? I don’t think so. He just says whatever stupid thing that pops into his head. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2018, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-has-former-president-trump-pissed-you-off-today/777640/4790 "2018-10-31T14:57:47Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > Trump has a strategy? As in being forward thinking and planning things out? > > I don’t think so. He just says whatever stupid thing that pops into his head. What he says isn’t always planned, true. But he planned a trip to Pittsburgh, understanding full well that his presence alone would elicit passions among supporters and critics alike. Any other president would have been cautious about not appearing to politicize the situation; Trump wants to politicize it. The political dynamics are completely inverted. I think Trump knows what he’s doing, more than people realize. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2018, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-has-former-president-trump-pissed-you-off-today/777640/4791 "2018-10-31T15:10:31Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > People are underestimating Trump’s political skills, owing to the fact that everything about him is ‘unpresidential’ in the conventionally-understood sense. Most presidents in the past have sought to build coalitions with moderates - that has been the conventional ‘smart’ strategy. Trump’s strategy is the total opposite. His strategy is to divide, antagonize, and break the electorate into factions that fight with each other. He hopes his faction becomes the dominant one. He’s trying to bait people into reacting and hitting back, trying to lend some credence to the idea that his critics are part of a ‘mob’. Authoritarians incite and bait, and then they wait for the overreaction as an excuse to break the political and legal norms and to grab more power. > [@asahi](#): > > What he says isn’t always planned, true. > > But he planned a trip to Pittsburgh, understanding full well that his presence alone would elicit passions among supporters and critics alike. Any other president would have been cautious about not appearing to politicize the situation; Trump wants to politicize it. The political dynamics are completely inverted. > > I think Trump knows what he’s doing, more than people realize. No, all the evidence says Trump’s an idiot. Politicians play to moderates because it’s a good idea. It wins elections. Trump is out there saying stupid things at rallies because he likes to hear people cheering for him. But he can’t see the numbers. The thousands of people who show up at his rallies aren’t going to re-elect him. He needs to win over the tens of millions of people who aren’t at his rallies. Talk to conservatives. They’ll eagerly tell you that Hillary Clinton is the incarnation of evil. But more people voted for her than voted for Trump. So what’s going to happen to Trump when he runs against somebody who isn’t Hillary Clinton? ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2018, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-has-former-president-trump-pissed-you-off-today/777640/4792 "2018-10-31T15:12:55Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > What he says isn’t always planned, true. > > But he planned a trip to Pittsburgh, understanding full well that his presence alone would elicit passions among supporters and critics alike. Any other president would have been cautious about not appearing to politicize the situation; Trump wants to politicize it. The political dynamics are completely inverted. > > I think Trump knows what he’s doing, more than people realize. He acts from the gut, not from the head. He reacts with whatever will get him a “win” for the day. There’s no long-term thinking, because, well, there’s no _thinking_. I also wouldn’t call it _instinctive_, because even that term implies a cohesion within the organism that is lacking in thump. He acts and reacts out of the gut-level learning he has acquired over his years of wheeling and dealing. I remind y’all of the Trump Rules: > [@](#): > > The Trump Rules > [https://www.axios.com/donald-trump-rules-commandments-business-presidency-ecca0771-d27c-4b2f-b19e-536f6ee2747d.html](https://www.axios.com/donald-trump-rules-commandments-business-presidency-ecca0771-d27c-4b2f-b19e-536f6ee2747d.html) > > Here are the Trump Rules, distilled from conversations we have had with countless people close to the president, some of whom have studied him for years: > > \*\*Your brand should piss someone off. \*\*The worst thing you can be is milquetoast, bland. He wants some people to have a viscerally negative response to him and what he’s doing, because he bets that’s going to harden support on the other side. > > **Crisis is a powerful weapon — fire it indiscriminately.** “Forget planning,” a source said. “Wake up every morning, survey the battlefield, let your gut instinct lead you to a crisis to exploit, bet that no one else can thrive in the chaos the way you can. Ratchet up the pressure until everyone else’s pipes burst.” > > **You can create your own truth.** Just keep repeating it. > > \*\*Accuse the accuser. \*\*A source who’s spent hundreds of hours working with Trump puts it this way: “He has a history of accusing people of whatever he’s being accused of. Collusion? Democrats colluded on the dossier! Blue wave? Red wave coming!” > > **Fear trumps friendship.** Trump wants his inferiors to fear him and hold him in awe. He likes watching them duke it out in front of him. > > \*\*Loyalty trumps talent. \*\*Case in point: Michael Cohen. No serious person would employ Michael Cohen as their personal attorney — a point Trump has belatedly acknowledged himself. But as Cohen used to say, he’d “take a bullet” for Donald Trump. Oops. > > **Never admit you are — or did — wrong.** Trump’s #MeToo advice, per Bob Woodward’s “Fear”: “You’ve got to deny, deny, deny and push back on these women. If you admit to anything and any culpability, then you’re dead.” ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2018, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-has-former-president-trump-pissed-you-off-today/777640/4793 "2018-10-31T16:45:50Z")
That’s a pretty good distillation of how he does things. And bravo, **kaylasdad99**. Appalling but clever and apt. ---
**Author:** ![JB99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/439d5e/32.png) [@JB99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JB99)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2018, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-has-former-president-trump-pissed-you-off-today/777640/4794 "2018-10-31T17:05:24Z")
Getting pretty sick of insipid election advertisements. Usually a campaign ad has an unambiguous good guy / bad guy argument. You know, “Bob kicks puppies, but Frank is against puppy-kicking.” This year, I can’t even tell what the ad’s agenda is. I see ads that say, “Bob is a Washington Democrat! Bob supports universal healthcare!” And I’m like, ‘Good! What’s the problem?’ There’s another ad that says, “Frank is a Trump Republican!” I genuinely don’t know whether they intended this to be a positive or a negative. I keep thinking, ‘Who are these people trying to convince?’ Of course they aren’t trying to convince anyone of anything. They’re just trying to motivate the people who already agree with them to turn out to vote. This morning I saw a YouTube ad that was nothing but Trump screaming at the camera. “Pelosi democrats are weak on the border, soft on crime, and want to take away your Second Amendment rights!” I didn’t watch the entire ad because I value my brain cells. It probably went on to say something about Chinese lizard people eating your babies. But it pissed me off primarily because I can’t ever recall a President literally screaming at people to ‘Be afraid! Be afraid! Be afraid!’ And I just despair that there are people out there who watch this and fall for it over and over and over. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2018, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-has-former-president-trump-pissed-you-off-today/777640/4795 "2018-10-31T18:12:05Z")
I just got a robocall from Trump; probably a playback of one of his inspiring speeches. It claimed that if the Democrats got elected next Tuesday, I would lose all my guns and my kids would be deported. Boy, did he get a wrong number, in so many ways. Now I know why robocalls will never be banned by the politicians. They love them too much. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2018, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-has-former-president-trump-pissed-you-off-today/777640/4796 "2018-10-31T18:47:36Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > He acts from the gut, not from the head. He reacts with whatever will get him a “win” for the day. There’s no long-term thinking, because, well, there’s no _thinking_. I also wouldn’t call it _instinctive_, because even that term implies a cohesion within the organism that is lacking in thump. > > He acts and reacts out of the gut-level learning he has acquired over his years of wheeling and dealing. > > I remind y’all of the Trump Rules: You know, those remind me incredibly of the rules that good ol’ L. Ron Hubbard enunciated. I don’t recall which book of mine it’s in, but it’s copied from one of Hubbard’s own directives It definitely includes “accusing the accuser”, “creating your own truth” and “Never admit you’re wrong”. They amplify the Accuse the Accuser into Always be on the Offensive. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2018, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-has-former-president-trump-pissed-you-off-today/777640/4797 "2018-10-31T18:49:11Z")
Trump went to Pittsburgh to talk to victims and all he can talk about is how nicely HE was treated [![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dq1yGz3VsAE4KFH.jpg:large) ](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dq1yGz3VsAE4KFH.jpg:large) ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2018, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-has-former-president-trump-pissed-you-off-today/777640/4798 "2018-10-31T19:38:39Z")
> [@JB99](#): > > … It probably went on to say something about Chinese lizard people eating your babies. > … B-b-b-but, the dingo ate me baby! :eek: > [@CalMeacham](#): > > You know, those remind me incredibly of the rules that good ol’ L. Ron Hubbard enunciated. I don’t recall which book of mine it’s in, but it’s copied from one of Hubbard’s own directives It definitely includes “accusing the accuser”, “creating your own truth” and “Never admit you’re wrong”. They amplify the Accuse the Accuser into Always be on the Offensive. That is REALLY interesting. Is there Scientology in thump’s background? A little googling turned up: [Donald Trump and Scientology: Yes, There’s a Weird Connection](https://hornet.com/stories/donald-trump-scientology/) > [@](#): > > …(March 2017) Today, though, I learned something new regarding Donald Trump and 9/11 — a weird connection between the current president and, of all things, the Church of Scientology. > > In advance of Louis Theroux’s new film My Scientology Movie, in theaters this Friday, The Daily Beast has run a story entitled “Confessions of a Former Scientologist: David Miscavige and Donald Trump Are Eerily Similar.” Not only does the story examine similarities between the two leaders (Miscavige is the oft-accused-of-violence leader of the church), but it also raises an interesting connection between the two we’d never before encountered. > … [Donald Trump Is the L. Ron Hubbard of Politics The pair’s mutual mantra: “Don’t ever defend. Always attack.”](https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-is-the-l-ron-hubbard-of-politics) > [@](#): > > …Trump resembles L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the pyramid-scheme-masquerading-as-religion known as Scientology. > > Consider: both men are (or, in Hubbard’s case, were) narcissistic, autocratic, money-obsessed, pathological liars and would-be sexual conquerors who built business empires for the primary purpose of self-enrichment under glitz-drenched brands maintained by fraud and advanced by uncompromising litigiousness and occasional physical aggression against critics. > > Hubbard died in 1986, though perhaps only corporeally. He claimed he was Cecil Rhodes in a previous life and today may be inhabiting the soul of Donald Trump for all we know; at the least the two men bear some resemblance. > > Both are defined by compulsive acquisitiveness. “MAKE MONEY. MAKE MONEY. MAKE MORE MONEY,” Hubbard wrote to underlings in an early Scientology “Governing Policy” document. “MAKE OTHER PEOPLE PRODUCE SO AS TO MAKE MONEY.” > … ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2018, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-has-former-president-trump-pissed-you-off-today/777640/4799 "2018-10-31T23:12:41Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > … His strategy is to divide, antagonize, and break the electorate into factions that fight with each other. He hopes his faction becomes the dominant one. He’s trying to bait people into reacting and hitting back, trying to lend some credence to the idea that his critics are part of a ‘mob’. Authoritarians incite and bait, and then they wait for the overreaction as an excuse to break the political and legal norms and to grab more power. > [@enipla](#): > > Trump has a strategy? As in being forward thinking and planning things out? > I don’t think so. He just says whatever stupid thing that pops into his head. Trump is a floor wax AND a dessert topping. No, he’s not a strategist. But he can remember a few basic precepts–and act on them. In the early days of his presidency, when faced with a federal appeals court that rejected his first attempt at a travel ban for Muslims\*, I think it likely that Trump was stomping and fuming around the Oval Office, and grumbling along these lines: **FEBRUARY 2017-TRUMP:** Why can’t I just declare martial law? I don’t see why courts are allowed to stop me from doing what I want to do. **STILL-EMPLOYED-AT-WH STEVE BANNON:** Well, Mr. President, declaring martial law is tricky unless the masses accept that it’s necessary. And for that you need a lot of violent disruptions in various places around the country. Some mass shootings, some crimes that can be pinned on immigrants, maybe some bombs being mailed to create a sense of terror in the population at large. Once you’ve had a certain amount of that in the news, then you can declare martial law, suspend elections, shut down CNN and the _Washington Post_, and all of that good stuff. **FEBRUARY 2017-TRUMP:** Okay. Thanks, Steve. … and Trump remembers that sage advice to this very day. \*[https://www.cnn.com/2017/02/09/politics/travel-ban-9th-circuit-ruling-immigration/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/2017/02/09/politics/travel-ban-9th-circuit-ruling-immigration/index.html) > [@](#): > > …The unanimous ruling from a three-judge panel means that citizens of seven majority-Muslim countries will continue to be able to travel to the US, despite Trump’s executive order last month. > It is a significant political setback to Trump’s new administration… ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2018, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-has-former-president-trump-pissed-you-off-today/777640/4800 "2018-10-31T23:34:17Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Trump went to Pittsburgh to talk to victims and all he can talk about is how nicely HE was treated > [https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dq1yGz3VsAE4KFH.jpg:large](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dq1yGz3VsAE4KFH.jpg:large) That’s his way of complimenting people; stating his approval of their relationship with him. He’s a narcissist. It’s what they do. He’s not narcissistic, he’s a narcissist. It’s a condition, not a character trait. ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2018, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-has-former-president-trump-pissed-you-off-today/777640/4801 "2018-11-01T01:08:43Z")
Trump takes a break from fear mongering to point out that he’s actually taking time out from fear mongering to throw Paul Ryan under the bus for mentioning that he, Trump, is ignorant on fancy shit like the US Constitution and losing the Republican house majority. AND AND blame Don McGahn (former WH lawyer) for all his legal troubles and with fathering\* Robert Mueller. See. SEE. Fake news. [Ryan to blame for house debacle (soon) and pointing out some constitutional foibles](https://www.vox.com/2018/10/31/18048690/trump-paul-ryan-birthright-citizenship-tweet-midterms) [Not fear mongering](https://www.npr.org/2018/10/31/662560162/in-campaign-sprint-trump-focus-on-immigration-not-a-winner-for-all-gop-candidate) [Don McGahn is a lousy lawyer - waah!](https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/10/trump-blames-don-mcgahn-last-day-mueller-investigation.html) Agent Orange is on a remarkable tear considering his penchant for all day TV watching. - fathering may not be factually correct. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2018, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-has-former-president-trump-pissed-you-off-today/777640/4802 "2018-11-01T01:30:52Z")
> [@smithsb](#): > > … > Agent Orange is on a remarkable tear considering his penchant for all day TV watching. > … He sets a standard for “working man” that Republicans really respect and envy. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2018, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-has-former-president-trump-pissed-you-off-today/777640/4803 "2018-11-01T04:28:02Z")
> [@smithsb](#): > > …\* fathering may not be factually correct. _“May”?!?_ ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2018, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-has-former-president-trump-pissed-you-off-today/777640/4804 "2018-11-01T05:44:53Z")
I should have directly quoted Kyl’s staff back in 2011. 😃 Just apply it to everything Donald/Sarah say. Sen. Jon Kyl’s staff previously explained away his false claim that 90 percent of Planned Parenthood’s services are abortions by saying it was “not intended to be a factual statement.” [Sen. Kyl’s claim](https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/04/kyls-not-intended-be-factual-statement-now-also-not-intended-be-statement/349925/) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-has-former-president-trump-pissed-you-off-today/777640.md?page=239) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-has-former-president-trump-pissed-you-off-today/777640.md?page=241)