# I don't even know what Trump is talking about any more **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 7, 2018, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-even-know-what-trump-is-talking-about-any-more/825755 "2018-12-07T17:47:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![TSBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@TSBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TSBG)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-even-know-what-trump-is-talking-about-any-more/825755/1 "2018-12-07T17:47:05Z")
I follow the news and the President’s tweets moderately closely, with some time off here and there for mental relief. They used to make some sense. “Witch hunt”–okay, I disagree, but I understand what he’s talking about. “Lyin’ James Comey”–okay, I know what he means. But now he’s blathering about 17 Angry Democrats and some lawyer whose trial win was reversed by the Supreme Court. Is this all Fox News stuff I don’t get because I don’t watch the channel? Or does this all originate with Trump (and then, I assume, get repeated on Fox)? ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-even-know-what-trump-is-talking-about-any-more/825755/2 "2018-12-07T17:52:40Z")
Fox, and Hannity in particular, directs his narrative. He has likely never had an original thought. ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-even-know-what-trump-is-talking-about-any-more/825755/3 "2018-12-07T19:59:50Z")
In fairness, he’s never really made any sense. ---
**Author:** ![Arrendajo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Arrendajo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arrendajo)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-even-know-what-trump-is-talking-about-any-more/825755/4 "2018-12-07T20:15:00Z")
Did you hear Trump talking about climate change? It was incoherent. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-even-know-what-trump-is-talking-about-any-more/825755/5 "2018-12-07T20:19:04Z")
I am never surprised anymore. Any thing may come out of his mouth at any time. He’s an imbecile. Right now he’s being backed into a corner. I am afraid of what he will do when he starts lashing out. It ain’t gonna be pretty, folks. ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-even-know-what-trump-is-talking-about-any-more/825755/6 "2018-12-07T20:42:27Z")
The 9-0 court case was for the Arthur Anderson [case](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Andersen_LLP_v._United_States) connected to the fall of Enron. The case was tried under “18 U.S. Code § 1512 - Tampering with a witness, victim, or an informant”. Perhaps Trump is concerned about that… ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-even-know-what-trump-is-talking-about-any-more/825755/7 "2018-12-07T21:03:54Z")
The US Attorney in the Enron case, Andrew Weissmann, was the head of the Fraud Section of the DOJ Criminal Division until he joined Mueller’s team. ---
**Author:** ![senoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dbc845/32.png) [@senoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/senoy)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-even-know-what-trump-is-talking-about-any-more/825755/8 "2018-12-07T21:43:13Z")
> **[A Close Reading of Trump’s Friday Tweetstorm](https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/12/trump-tweets-mueller-comey/577594/)** > > The president unleashed a series of charges, complaints, and conspiracy theories aimed at undercutting a forthcoming report from Special Counsel Robert Mueller. ---
**Author:** ![DinoR](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dinor/32/2821_2.png) [@DinoR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DinoR)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2018, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-even-know-what-trump-is-talking-about-any-more/825755/9 "2018-12-08T00:12:23Z")
> [@Sunny\_Daze](#): > > In fairness, he’s never really made any sense. This. His word salad can seemingly contradict previous statements or the sentence fragment immediately prior. I tend to think of his words like a Rorschach test. Everyone sees what they want to see in the amorphous blob that spills out. ---
**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:** [December 8, 2018, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-even-know-what-trump-is-talking-about-any-more/825755/10 "2018-12-08T00:16:51Z")
It’s generally safe to bet that Trump is talking about Trump. He’s a noted Trump supporter, after all. ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2018, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-even-know-what-trump-is-talking-about-any-more/825755/11 "2018-12-08T00:31:55Z")
> [@jasg](#): > > The US Attorney in the Enron case, Andrew Weissmann, was the head of the Fraud Section of the DOJ Criminal Division until he joined Mueller’s team. The Atlantic article points out that Weismann is a “new face” in Trump’s Tweets. Interestingly, he was the one who signed today’s public filing about Manafort. Coincidence? ---
**Author:** ![TSBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@TSBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TSBG)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2018, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-even-know-what-trump-is-talking-about-any-more/825755/12 "2018-12-08T01:07:07Z")
> [@senoy](#): > > [What Was Trump Tweeting About? - The Atlantic](https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/12/trump-tweets-mueller-comey/577594/) Thanks for that. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2018, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-even-know-what-trump-is-talking-about-any-more/825755/13 "2018-12-08T08:01:31Z")
> [@DinoR](#): > > This. > > His word salad can seemingly contradict previous statements or the sentence fragment immediately prior. I tend to think of his words like a Rorschach test. Everyone sees what they want to see in the amorphous blob that spills out. [Here’s a run-on (sentence? paragraph?) more bizarre than Palin’s worst drunken rant](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WotiVvyS1yk): > [@](#): > > “You know what irks me, look, having nuclear, my uncle was a great professor and scientist and engineer, doctor John Trump, at MIT, good, good genes, very good genes, OK, very smart, the Wharton school of finance, very good, very smart, you know IF YOU’RE a conservative republican, IF I WERE A LIBERAL, if like, OK, if I ran as a liberal democrat they would say I’m one of the smartest people anywhere in the world, IT’S TRUE, but when you’re a conservative republican they try, oh, do they do a number, that’s why I always start off, went to Wharton, was a good student, went there, went there, did this, built a fort, you know I have to give like my credentials all the time, cause we’re at a little disadvantaged, but, you look at the nuclear, the thing that REALLY BOTHERS me, it would have been so easy, and it’s not as as important as these lives are, NUCLEAR IS SO POWERFUL, my uncle explained that to me many, many years ago, the power, and that was 35 years ago, he would explain, the power of what’s going to happen AND HE WAS RIGHT, who would have THOUGHT, but, when you look at what’s going on with the, eh, four prisoners, now, it used to be THREE, now it’s FOUR, but when it was three, AND EVEN NOW, I would have said ‘it’s all in the messenger, FELLAS’, and it is fellas because you know, they don’t, they haven’t figured out that the women are smarter right now than the men so, you know, it’s gonna take em about another 150 years, BUT the PERSIANS are great negotiators, the IRANIANS are great negosh, so, and they they just killed, they just killed us, this is horrible, but I would have said at the beginning: ‘FELLAS, you gotta let our prisoners go’, ‘it’s good for,’ 'look, you don’t need 'em, you don’t want ‘em’, it would send a great signal to the United States and it would make the rest of it easier, NOTHING.” Or is this some advanced form of poetry? It certainly is an Ode to Self — Good genes, very good genes, went to Wharton, built a fort, if he were a liberal he’d be one of the smartest people in the world. Does he work nights as a songwriter? Doesn’t “Four used to be three, now it’s four and when it was three and even now” remind you of [Donovan’s “First there is a mountain then there is no mountain then there is”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcMM5-zBCEc)? ---
**Author:** ![Dereknocue67](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6de8d8/32.png) [@Dereknocue67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dereknocue67)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2018, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-even-know-what-trump-is-talking-about-any-more/825755/14 "2018-12-08T09:06:44Z")
The one thing I have in common with Trump is that when he speaks, neither of us can articulately explain what he’s saying. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2018, 9:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-even-know-what-trump-is-talking-about-any-more/825755/15 "2018-12-08T09:08:09Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > [Here’s a run-on (sentence? paragraph?) more bizarre than Palin’s worst drunken rant](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WotiVvyS1yk): To be fair, a run-on sentence only exists in print, and Trump was speaking there, not writing. The person who transcribed it is the one who made a run-on sentence. That said, Trump speaks a lot in fragmented clauses–but then, everyone does. He just does it to an extreme degree, so that his speech is barely coherent, (and that’s probably why it was transcribed like that). The only way he gets away with it is that he employs intonation so that he appears to have some kind of meaning. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2018, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-even-know-what-trump-is-talking-about-any-more/825755/16 "2018-12-08T10:27:08Z")
Yes, verbal speech is very different from carefully edited text. However that rant sounds like a schizophrenic. He hears himself say the word “nuclear”; that reminds him of his uncle … and the next thing you know we’re back at Wharton (building a fort?). Mention of “nuclear” reminds Trump of how smart he is. Then, instead of coming to the point of “nuclear” he needs to denigrate liberal Democrats for a while. Finally, we learn what “nuclear” means to Trump: > [@](#): > > “… you look at the nuclear, the thing that REALLY BOTHERS me, it would have been so easy, and it’s not as as important as these lives are, NUCLEAR IS SO POWERFUL, my uncle explained that to me many, many years ago, the power, and that was 35 years ago, he would explain, the power of what’s going to happen AND HE WAS RIGHT, who would have THOUGHT, but, when you look at what’s going on with the, eh, four prisoners, now, it used to be THREE …” Calling the above a “run-on” sentence is an understatement. Punctuate it however you want and explain what it means. Please. “35 years ago who would have thought powerful nuclear would change 3 prisoners into 4?” Is that it? “Four prisoners, now, it used to be three, now it’s four, but when it was three, and even now.” Is there something special about the alleged fourth prisoner? 😕 As a layman I shouldn’t call this gibberish “schizophrenic;” so does the DSM-5 have a billing code for it? ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2018, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-even-know-what-trump-is-talking-about-any-more/825755/17 "2018-12-08T11:08:46Z")
“it used to be THREE, now it’s FOUR” was a sitcom from the 80s, I think. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2018, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-even-know-what-trump-is-talking-about-any-more/825755/18 "2018-12-08T14:05:54Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > Yes, verbal speech is very different from carefully edited text. > > However that rant sounds like a schizophrenic. He hears himself say the word “nuclear”; that reminds him of his uncle … and the next thing you know we’re back at Wharton (building a fort?). Mention of “nuclear” reminds Trump of how smart he is. Then, instead of coming to the point of “nuclear” he needs to denigrate liberal Democrats for a while.\ Sounds to me like he just had a mini stroke. I wonder if that’s what we’re really dealing with. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2018, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-even-know-what-trump-is-talking-about-any-more/825755/19 "2018-12-08T17:35:11Z")
He’s ranting and raving because for the first time the feds have directly accused him of participating in a federal felony. ---
**Author:** ![Wallet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e99b99/32.png) [@Wallet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallet)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2018, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-even-know-what-trump-is-talking-about-any-more/825755/20 "2018-12-08T17:58:04Z")
> [@suranyi](#): > > He’s ranting and raving because for the first time the feds have directly accused him of participating in a federal felony. Except that it was a campaign speech from before he was elected - 7/21/16 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-even-know-what-trump-is-talking-about-any-more/825755.md?page=2)