Judge for yourself. Here’s a summary of his first two weeks in office. Too long to quote the whole thing and too comprehensive to edit.
“Yes, All This Happened. Trump’s First 2 Weeks As President”
He’s just getting warmed up. The more he gets away with, the bolder he and his cronies will be.
And on the fourteenth day, He rested.
I’ve already lived through this last two weeks once…and now you want me to relive it!?! (Yeah…I know…It’s my fault for clicking on that link!)
In all honesty, I couldn’t make myself read the whole thing all the way to the end either. The cumulative effect is mind-numbing.
It’s more for the benefit of people who are 1) wondering about or 2) seriously don’t know the answer to the question posed in the thread title.
And there ARE still some here… in fact, I think the number of *Trumpniks *(I think this is what we should call them-- a nod to DJT’s love affair with Russia) coming out of the closet here has increased in the last few days. I still never hear any good defenses from them-- just some version of “rubber-glue.”
Yeah, it’s like the whole world is trolling / trumping me.
e.g. I often hear “Well at least he’s honest…” and I can’t let that pass. So I list just some of the times he’s brazenly lied about some issue, or just made shit up whole cloth, and then they just change the subject on to muslims or something.
So I’ve shot down their one saving grace about trump, and somehow it just washes over.
Goddamn it! Now I have to subscribe to another fucking Trump thread. :mad:
It’s gonna be a long four years. Please, let this guy be impeached soon. And Pence. And Ryan, McConnell, most state governors, most state representatives… Ah, crap.
He even lies when there is no reason to lie. He is a bullshitter. I mean, he has NO regard for truth at all, as opposed to a liar, who has at least a passing acquaintance with truth. A bullshitter is worse than a liar.
My impression is when they say ‘at least he’s honest’ they mean he doesn’t focus group his opinions, he just says what comes to mind whether it is socially acceptable or not.
Trump is the most pathologically dishonest politician I’ve ever seen in my lifetime, and likely in modern history. But he is honest in his dishonesty (he doesn’t lie strategically like someone like Paul Ryan would for example. He also doesn’t gauge the polls and wait until an idea had a 51% approval rating before coming out in support of it like some other politicians would). I think that is what people mean.
I guess I’m getting ‘comfortable’ with a Trump presidency. I assume all the checks and balances will hold back the worst of him, and maybe democrats will be motivated enough to vote to start taking back state and federal positions in the future.
For me, it is starting to become funny. Having a president with a serious cluster B personality disorder is kind of entertaining. He is getting into all these stupid arguments about his crowd size because his NPD won’t let him accept that he isn’t liked and popular.
As long as he doesn’t start a nuclear war, the US has survived worse things.
I agree with you on one level, but it is the abject normalisation of bullshit that is the most worrisome to me. It’s not OK that ‘alternate facts’ are now a thing, because as more and more are trotted out, the hard line between reality and fantasy becomes blurred or even non-existent. What happens then?
Like really, what happens?
:dubious:
I see what you’re saying, but we can’t give him even that.
For example, the whole thing over the birther conspiracy: “Hillary started it, I finished it” (paraphrased).
That’s a strategic lie (or lies, depending how you count it).
He guessed enough people would have short enough memories, or wouldn’t particularly care about reality, that the issue would stop hurting him, and hurt her instead.
Whether he was right is difficult to measure against all the other factors at the time and is irrelevant to this thread.
But yeah it was a typical politician lie. The atypical thing about it was how brazen it was. It’s the guy caught cheating saying “Are you going to believe me, or your eyes?”
What we are watching is political neutering, or the attempt of such, of Donald J Trump. The reason is he is a undomesticated animal who is marking his territory even if it means the pooch is pissing on your couch, or you cat is peeing in the corner of the room. Spraying is just not acceptable, and off comes his balls.
Yep. Trump is pathological. Or is it sociopathological?
I don’t know about that… at least with a bullshitter, you KNOW everything is not quite so truthful and they’re just bullshitting.
It’s the ones who are truthful the vast majority of the time, but throw in a few judicious and carefully thought out lies who worry me.
What?
Possibly pathogenic.
He’s acting exactly as we imagined he would. The best you can say about him is that his behaviour and actions come as no surprise.
His personal and business dealings over the last decades showed us exactly what sort of a person he is. He is, and always has been, in it for Donald Trump. Winning, profiting and glorification, that’s all he wants. He will run the presidency in order to make himself richer. That is it.
The hollowest joke is that he intends to help the little guys, that he’ll turf out the Washington insiders and elite. Interesting words words from billionaire Donald Trump and his billionaire cronies. He’ll allow a degree of prosperity for the little guys right up until the point that it starts to pick his pocket or inconvenience him in any way.
Look at his disdain for an independent judiciary. A key safeguard against tyranny and he attacks it barely two weeks in. That tells you everything about his character and confirms that no, the role isn’t changing him and yes he is that bad. He is under a small amount of pressure now and is already reverting to type. And the pressure is only going to get greater as he has to deal with actual, real world events not of his own making.
Harold Macmillan is reputed to have replied when asked what politicians fear most “Events, dear boy, events” I suspect Trump has none of that self-awareness or humility
So, Trump remains a dreadful human being and the best anyone can hope for is that the constitutional and legal protections built into the system prevent him from doing too much damage.
Novelty Bobble: You nailed it. And that’s exactly why I think Trump will quit. When he does, he’s going to blame everyone else, though.
I agree. He is acting exactly as we who voted for Hillary knew he would (even if we weren’t wild about her). Those who voted for him either 1) were in denial about who he is, or 2) intentionally voted for chaos and destruction.
My questions re his quitting: what is his history of quitting projects? Does he ever quit? What is the nature of the tipping point that makes him quit?
It’s not like the USA is going to go broke like a company (although he might try…), or tank in the ratings like a TV show. What exactly makes him cave? Pressure? I’m not sure…
You forgot
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Many of his voters are just as bigoted, misinformed, clueless and prone to conspiracy theories as Trump is.
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They pay too little attention to understand how irrational, dishonest and dangerous Trump is.
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They understand he has serious character issues but held their nose and voted anyway for various reasons.
Sociologists will have a field day with the 2016 election.
Why would he quit? Maybe the constant criticism, stress and long work hours will be too much for him.