No, but this is classic Trump. Eight years ago:
Absurd military posturing by someone to whom every principle of military life would be an anathema, yup 100% Trump in any era.
Saluting Amazing Grace, a not remotely military or patriotic song, that seems like brain malfunction to me. Not that Trump has never done inappropriate and weird things (duh) but he seems to be getting more random and less on message. Regardless of the the fact his message has always been pack of flagrant lies and fascist talking points, doesn’t change the fact he has delivered what his faithful wanted to hear, this kind of stuff much less so.
He also saluted an airplane today.
I quoted rev.com. This is a commercial transcription service that offers a selection of political events and speeches as free samples of their work. I think the idea that they (or the New York Times, or the Washington Post, or the Associated Press, or Reuters) transcribes more generously for Trump than Biden to be an extraordinary claim requiring evidence.
One of the main reasons I prefer Biden to Trump is respect for our free press. Attacks using the phrase “mainstream media” are mild compared to DJT’s “enemy of the people” phrase. But I still do not think the evidence supports it, nor do I like it.
At least he didn’t do his little dance or play his invisible accordion to it.
I just compared their transcript of his Bronx speech to the actual video as seen in the tweets I shared upthread. Where Trump slurs his words and says “this is unacceptal, we, this is unacceptable”, their transcript shows “this is unacceptable. It’s unacceptable.” Where he says “hard working patriush tlig, and that’s something, you can say it and you can say that a million times”, they represent it as “hardworking patriots and this is something, you can say it and you can say it a million times”.
They’re either deliberately cleaning up his brain glitches or they’re working from the teleprompter copy instead of what he actually said.
Agreed, and pretty much what I was going to post.
Saluting to the song Amazing Grace looks to me like a good example of a Saving Appearances Response (SAR), where a dementia patient will pretend to know answers to keep up appearances.
Trump heard a song and could not remember what it was. His addled brain decided to salute, just in case this was the appropriate response for the song.
He may be thinking he’s at some kind of official military ceremony. The wiring in his head is starting to smoke.
Next stop: Tie-wrapped-around-his-forehead-lipstick-scrawled-across-his-face-dick-hanging-out-of-his-unzipped-fly Town, where he salutes pigeons at dusk
I wasn’t really claiming that (FWIW I don’t buy the media are actively biased for Trump, other than in a general “if it bleeds it leads” kind of way, and Trump is the equivalent of a serial killer with a flamethrower during prime time). I’m sure if you look at each correction it’s not much bigger than the kind of misspeak Biden or Obama or Romney or any other public speaker makes occasionally. And the media makes the call it’s better to record their intent rather than the dumb gaff that came out. But for Trump it’s not occasionally, it’s multiple times every speech.
It’s just one of the ways the media gives Trump the benefit of the doubt, with the assumption that he’s a regular politician with at least a basic sense of decency and some regard for democratic society. And Trump has none of those things so giving him the benefit of the doubt (while at the same time making sure he’s always on the front page, cos holy crap did you hear what he just said!?l) was how he got elected.
It’s also in no way American. The words are by two Englishmen, and the tune is the traditional tune called, “New Britain.” Sure, it’s a popular hymn in the United States, but so is it also in the English-speaking world. America has no claim upon it, especially not a military or patriotic one.
Though if Trump had at any point, expressed knowledge of those facts I would assume his heart had finally given out and he’d been replaced with a lookalike
I can see a point to it. It’s often played at funerals or memorial services. I don’t think a salute is an unreasonable response from someone who wishes to show respect to the fallen.
Of course, in Trump’s case it’s a phony and insincere display.
A civilian shouldn’t be saluting anyone or anything in the first place anyway. It’s a show of respect for a senior officer, not a handwave to your bro. And the way Trump does it doesn’t even look like a salute so much as if he were trying to keep the sun out of his eyes.
Every time Trump tells us that he will fight for 2nd Amendment rights, is he forgetting about his gun grab and proposal to eliminate due process prior to gun confiscation? Or does he think his sheep are just that stupid?
Trump opposes due process on gun grabs. User Clip: Donald Trump: "Take the guns first, go through due process second" | C-SPAN.org
Trump bump gun grab. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2018-12-26/pdf/2018-27763.pdf
Trump is completely immune from a gotcha where he said something before that contradicts what he is saying in the moment. His standard issue response to this is to just insult the person asking and say that it is fake news or they are trying to make him look bad. The only answer you can get to these kinds of questions is an insult followed by Trump changing the subject.
Having said that, you reminded me of something that happened with Trump that I have always wondered about that I think your post is related to. I remember Trump making public remarks after a mass shooting (might have been the 2017 Vegas shooting) where he said something along the lines of taking the guns away first and figuring things out later. And that is the one and only time he said it, in the emotional aftermath of a big shooting. Somebody in his circle immediately after this cornered him and laid down the law, somehow actually managing to impress upon Donald J. Trump that he should never open his stupid, filthy mouth to say an unkind word about guns ever, ever again. And somehow this worked! Normally with Trump, if you tell him not to say something he will immediately go ahead and say it because he doesn’t take orders from you. We have seen this many times with his various gag orders where he will run his mouth even if it is going to cost him thousands of dollars and/or potentially land him in jail. But when it comes to guns, he was told to shut up and he has.
I want to know more about this. I want to know who talked to him and what they said. Did they threaten him? Did they reason with him? Did they bribe him? What magic did they use to stop this raging narcissist from babbling and why did it work just the one time?
Short answer: yes
Long answer: yuuuuuup, ha ha ha ha, of course yes
Is this it?
N.R.A. Suggests Trump May Retreat From Gun Control
March 1, 2018
WASHINGTON — The top lobbyist for the National Rifle Association claimed late Thursday that President Trump had retreated from his surprising support a day earlier for gun control measures after a meeting with N.R.A. officials and Vice President Mike Pence in the Oval Office.
But the twin tweets suggest that it may have taken the gun rights group only a little over a day to persuade the president to back away from his apparent embrace of gun control during a remarkable, televised meeting on Wednesday with members of Congress.
In that meeting, Mr. Trump called for comprehensive legislation that would, among other things, expand background checks to firearms purchased at gun shows and on the internet — a measure favored by Democrats but anathema to the N.R.A.
He also stunned lawmakers from both parties by suggesting that he would support measures to allow the authorities to seize guns from mentally ill people or those who could pose a danger without first following due process, like appearing before a judge.
“I like taking the guns early,” he said, adding, “Take the guns first, go through due process second.”
I imagine the NRA just said they would donate to his campaign and PACs. Probably all it took.
After Johnny got through basic training he
Was a soldier through and through when he was done.
The effects were so well-rooted
That the next day he saluted
A Good Humor Man, an usher and a nun.
- Tom Lehrer