Here’s a brief summary:
No, it was worse than that. The man is deranged. I keep trying to sum it up, but I can’t. Here’s Jake Tapper:
.@jaketapper reacts to Donald Trump's news conference: It was unhinged.. it was wild https://t.co/Ezi1b5j4VC https://t.co/ZDII92SgGm
— The Lead CNN (@TheLeadCNN) February 16, 2017
I just…wow. No way does this clown last four years. That’s the only positive thing I can say at this point.
dr. bloor
He certainly won’t last four years. But I’m not real optimistic about our chances of lasting that long either.
schrodingers_cat
Brief summary of what happened?
comrade scotts agenda of rage
And water is wet Jake.
Tracy
The scariest thing is the John Noltes of this world thinking that this was the greatest press conference ever because he insulted everybody. They have no interest in actually governing, they just want their perceived revenge.
NotMax
Unhinged?
Pish-tosh. Dolt 45 was using alternative hinges.
(Actually, deranged is a more concise and apt descriptor.)
Wallis Lane
Forget it, Jake, it’s Crazytown.
Mike J
@schrodingers_cat:
“I’m not ranting and raving!”
Actual quote.
LAO
Lit3Bolt
@schrodingers_cat:
Trump lied, whined, complained, called a black reporter to set up a meeting with the CBC, complemented his wife like a cut of meat, threatened to blow up the Russian ship off the East Coast for political gain, denied ever calling/thinking about Russia, said “The leaks are real, the news is fake.”, and demonstrated his inability to function in any government capacity whatsoever.
Villago Delenda Est
“I am not a crook” – Richard Nixon, 1974
“I am not a bad person” – Donald Trump, 2017
NorthLeft12
I don’t know what happened, but honestly I am pretty numb to Deadbeat Donald’s antics now. I am sure once I see it I’ll be outraged [again!] but I have a hard time believing it will be much worse than any of the insane and odious things he has said on the campaign trail and before he was inaugurated.
His base will just put it down as “telling it like it is” or that the biased media twisted his great words.
XTPD
$40 he doesn’t last till 1/1/2018.
Also taking odds on whether he leaves via window, handcuffs, a four-point restraint or a pine box.
chopper
the amazing thing is, in yet another example of white republican political privilege, all trump has to do is deliver one decent presser performance and half these pundit shmucks will bend over backwards arguing ‘pivots’ and ‘rough start but he’s okay now’ and “his past craziness doesn’t matter”. and yet that moment is never, ever going to happen.
Villago Delenda Est
@NorthLeft12: His base needs to die in the same fire he will.
rikyrah
@Mike J:
LOL
chopper
@XTPD:
how about wheeled out in a mask, hannibal lector style?
debbie
@schrodingers_cat:
I only heard the end, but hearing the whole thing would have killed me.
“I’m the least anti-Semitic person you’ll meet. I’m the least rascist person you’ll meet. Me. Me. Me.”
So it was the old, same old from Trump.
chopper
@Villago Delenda Est:
given that this guy has his finger on the nuclear button, they just might.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
I still think that at least part of this is an act. The Repubs in Congress need the barking carnival barker to divert everybody’s attention, especially their Villager Media Enablers, from whatever nasty thing they happen to be legislating at the moment.
For example, yesterday the Repubs held hearings as they begin to gut the Endangered Species Act:
http://theweek.com/speedreads/680557/republicans-begin-effort-gut-endangered-species-act
It’s all about “LOOK OVER THERE! A SHOOTING STAR” while your pocket is picked.
When this man finally leaves office, we as a country will at least know what it’s like to have the chief executive be a pathological narcissist.
donnah
I’m encouraged by the national news people actually speaking up about Trump and the Republican idiocies. Scott Pelley on CBS has been quietly but decisively criticizing Trump’s actions and those of his minions. Jake Tapper is also incredulous and is speaking up. The Press has to strike while the iron is hot and call out every lie and bullfeather action the Republicans and their idiot leader are trying to push on the American people.
Mike J
@XTPD: Ladbrokes has it at 10/11 for the full term.
Jeffro
He is so fucking nuts.
Can’t wait to hear the speech at the FL rally…not to mention seeing the likely under-sized crowds…
David Spikes
The man is insane’
When you lose a professional middle of the roader like Tapper you’re done.
No dignity, no class, no nothing really that it takes to be president.
On a more cheerful note-WH is apparently not talking to State about anything, while Tillerson is in Brussels having closed door meeting with Russian foreign minister, won’t say what they talked about. I’m guessing oil leases.
Catherine D.
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Yes, also the bill to abolish the EPA on Jan 1 2018.
debbie
@Villago Delenda Est:
Most of the presser was preempted for a show about the Trump/GOP tax plan, so let’s add them to your fire.
germy
The little defeated hand gesture Tapper makes when he quotes the electoral victory lie. “It’s an obvious lie, but there’s been so many lies we don’t even have time to sort them all out, so moving on from that…”
Paula
And the loon in the press conference has full GOP support!
GregB
Blah, dishonest media……blah….leaks…..least anti-Semitic person ever, ask my bagel chef Shlomo…..Blacks…..Hispanics…….Greatest victory ever……(Insert Scanners head exploding scene here.)
germy
“We spent the entire campaign season reporting about Her Emails, but we didn’t think you folks would take us seriously.”
Iowa Old Lady
CNN lists the most memorable lines from that presser.
I went to B&N to write for a couple of hours, and apparently, while I was gone, our government slipped ever farther into the crazy chasm.
Mister Forkbeard
@schrodingers_cat: He was… basically crazy. Unable to keep to the question at hand, going back repeatedly into how he was being treated unfairly or how popular he was. I think he spent a LONG time attacking CNN.
The best exchange is when a reporter asks if he’s going to meet with the CBC in regards to his plans to “solve urban areas and . I’m going to paraphrase here.
Trump:Inner cities of america are awful and I did amazing there. Black people are trapped in their homes during the day, we need to let them move. I have plans.
Reporter: Are you going to meet with the CBC on your urban agenda?
Trump: Who is the CBC?
Reporter: (Somewhat disbelievingly) The Congressional Black Caucus
Trump, to the black reporter: Are you their friends? Why don’t you set up something?
Because all Black people know each other.
Villago Delenda Est
@germy: Which is why Tapper, Toddler, Mrs. Greenspan, all need to hang from the same gallows as every last GOP Congressman.
Renie
trump is deranged; hope he does these pressers all the time so he can keep shoveling himself deeper and deeper into the b.s.
what a freakshow
germy
@donnah: I think they’re consciously trying to portray Pence as being clean and innocent as possible (“he was lied to!”) to prep us for his eventual new role.
Brachiator
So, on the Caligula-Nero Derangement Scale (10 points, max), how many Neros was Trump’s performance?
Villago Delenda Est
@Mister Forkbeard: Well, heck, I’m a veteran, so I’m on a first name basis with every veteran in the country. Simple logic!
Villago Delenda Est
@Brachiator: Spinal Tap. 11. For sure.
LAO
@Brachiator:
32
Frankensteinbeck
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
He’s been like this for years, and although the House has come up with some pretty nasty stuff, almost nothing has passed through the Senate and gotten to Trump’s desk. This is really, actually him. There is no plot or strategy beyond toddler tantrums and ‘fuck you, liberals!’
germy
@Mister Forkbeard:
Wait… that won’t play too well with his base. Don’t they prefer Those People stay in their own neighborhoods?
debbie
@Mister Forkbeard:
Because his people have been trying to contact the CBC for a meeting, but have received no response. Of course.
Spanky
@Brachiator:
Seven point pi.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
My not-insider theory is that a lot of journalists, broadcast in particular, know that the media has been phoning it in for far too long and recognize a chance to redefine themselves, make a name, become the new Edward R. Murrow. About damn time!
schrodingers_cat
@Brachiator: Elebenty
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Villago Delenda Est:
Get your low tumbrel numbers right here folks!
I make variations of your statement all the time but now always feel a little uneasy about it because it makes me sound like a Twitler supporter.
Villago Delenda Est
@West of the Rockies (been a while): They’re going to have to conduct a blood purge of their own ranks if they want to have any credibility at all. Not one of these fuckwits have the stones to lick Dan Rather’s shoes, let alone Uncle Walter’s.
Turgidson
@chopper:
That won’t stop them from claiming it has happened a few dozen times only to have Hair Furor hit Twitter a few hours later to prove them wrong, again, with some fresh cut Grade A batshittery.
Frankensteinbeck
@germy:
No, because what his base hear is ‘Send in the police to shoot those gang members dead, and EVERY young black is a gang member.’ But you know, they’re doing it for black people’s own good.
JPL
At least he’s not going to blow up the Russian ship off the coast of CT, for political reasons. That’s a good thing, right.
Villago Delenda Est
@Frankensteinbeck: THIS
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Brachiator:
I’m so stealing this. Combined with the Claude Rains Memorial Gambling Awareness Award (1-4 Claudes), I think I’ve got the Repubs covered.
Spanky
@Villago Delenda Est: I’m pretty sure we’re going to have to destroy The Village in order to save it.
Ian G.
You know, he only played a CEO on TV. He never actually was one.
If he only wants to play Muammar Gaddafi on TV (only with worse hair and fashion sense) without actually governing, I’m fine with that. The 27% love the insanity the best anyway.
Pretty soon, Ryan will move to impeach just because there will be no other way to move forward with Republican legislation otherwise.
Brachiator
So, black people only come out at night? Is Trump confusing black neighborhoods with a vampire movie?
Sweet Boneless Jesus! What a moron (in-chief). There are no words sufficient to describe the sad ignorance on display here. Trump is presidenting while dumb.
SiubhanDuinne
@XTPD:
The Met should (preëmptively) get busy right now commissioning a new opera: The Defenestration of Donald Trump.
XTPD
@Brachiator: Nero was a massive douche, but it’s not especially clear that he was more a tyrant than a Ludwig II figure. (And I’ve heard historical discussions that Caligula wasn’t psychotic, he was just trolling the Senate for a power grab; in this school his infamous battle against Neptune was to humiliate his troops for not going through with his Britain campaign), It should be a Mobutu-Macias Nguema Derangement Scale, on which this press conference is a solid 8 Nguemas.
Attapooch
From my experience, that was an hour and change of watching dementia in action.
The man can’t keep a thought straight in his head long enough to give it voice without having his kids or other minders at his elbow whispering in his ear to keep on on task. Shame on his kids – but also on himself for making them feel that way toward him – for not caring enough about him to get him the help he so obviously requires.
That said, I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the last free-form press conference he gives.
Ryan
Both sides! You’re forgetting that time Obama came out and blamed Bush for All The Problems!
Major Major Major Major
We must’ve been talking about Russia or something on this blog because I’m getting ads for dashcams.
Kay
Just to make everyone feel worse- nothing has happened yet. This is what he’s like with just his own self-created mess.
Imagine a real crisis with this bunch of misfits and weirdos running around in there.
Kay
Maybe we’ll be really lucky and nothing requiring normal, competent people will happen. That’s a possibility.
Miss Bianca
@Ian G.: The newest epithet I’ve heard that I like is “Idiot Amin”.
@Brachiator: BLACULA!!
bemused
I wonder if Ivanka and Jared are sleeping well these days knowing Twittler is alone in the WH tweeting, flipping tv channels and gawd knows what else. They know him best. He’s about 2 minutes from implosion.
vtr
He sounds worse than Kellyanne looks.
Ryan
It’s just like Downfall! Except with more derp and less tragedy!
Spanky
@Kay: It’s only a short matter of time before we won’t have to imagine. Every bad hombre on the planet is chomping at the bit to start something.
germy
So the first question he took at the press conference was from Mara Liasson? Anyone else not surprised he has her in the “safe to take questions from” column?
bemused
@Kay:
That’s what I’ve been thinking. The speed at which he is melting down, he may be taken out of the WH in a strait jacket.
Spanky
Whose idea was it to have a presser, anyway? We should thank them and ask may we have another.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@germy:
Nope. Per above, she’s another that’s going into the tumbrel.
Also too, she’s reason #149 why I stopped giving money to NPR a dozen years ago and stopped listening to them 3 years ago.
germy
rikyrah
@vtr:
ouch
Brachiator
@Ian G.:
All Trump needs to be able to do is sign his name to passed legislation. He’ll be fine, as far as the GOP is concerned.
Iowa Old Lady
@germy: The Onion and SNL writers despair over competing with this.
JMG
@Spanky: According to one report, the press conference was Trump’s own idea, because of course it was.
trollhattan
@Villago Delenda Est:
Yeah, David Koresh without the guitar.
slag
Is anyone surprised that Trump is taking the job of president as seriously as voters and members of the political press took this election?
dmsilev
@Spanky: It was probably Trump’s idea. He’s feeling disrespected, and can’t allow that to stand.
Not that this will help much;.
SiubhanDuinne
@Brachiator:
AOTK
? Martin
I think we may start having the TV folks starting giving some civics backgrounder on Section 4 of the 25th Amendment.
Gelfling 545
@XTPD: Was just thinking about this earlier. He will never leave the WH under his own power.
Doug R
@Iowa Old Lady: I’m thinking SNL does a skit using the transcript, like they did with at least one debate.
germy
One of the reporters asked a question. Reporter’s last name is Acosta. Drump asked him if he is related to Alexander Acosta. Told him to check his family tree.
Iowa Old Lady
@? Martin: Did you see that John Oliver has cut educational ads to run in shows he thinks Trump watches? They’re hilarious.
MCA1
This is fantastic. The more he speaks, the more Republicans will start to wake up and peel off. He’s never made half a second’s effort to reach out to Democrats, he’s already lost independents (based on the 55/40 disapproval/approval ratings), and the only thing that hasn’t clicked against him yet is Republican support. But every time he opens his mouth like this more foolhardy hope for the best both sides do it soft Republicans have their G.O.B. moment. The hard core will stay forever, but no matter.
Someone younger could maybe .gif this, ’cause it’s happening in Republican living rooms every time Drumpf opens his mouth now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwQW3KW3DCc
Major Major Major Major
@Brachiator: They have robot pens for that. He can just go on vacation for the next four years.
@Iowa Old Lady: SNL can just do what they did with Palin in the VP debate sketch and quote him verbatim.
Miss Bianca
@Iowa Old Lady: “I’m not ranting and raving, I’m just telling you you’re dishonest people.”
It’s even better when you get the whole quote. Because nothing is going to stir up the Villagers to bring out their pitchforks and torches against the Trumpenstein Monster like this kind of stuff. The Very Serious People can be pandered to, lied to, but never, ever told they’re dishonest.
Timurid
@germy:
How are you enjoying your horse race now, you worthless fucking MSM knobs?
LAO
I’m sure Jared and Ivanka are ok with Trump’s response re: the rise of antisemitism.
? Martin
@Iowa Old Lady: Yeah, I showed that to Ms Martin last night. It’s really a brilliant idea.
hovercraft
Trump Claims He ‘Inherited A Mess’ From Obama
“Our administration inherited many problems across government, and across the economy. To be honest, I inherited a mess,” Trump said. “It’s a mess. At home, and abroad. A mess.”
liberal
@germy: The Festivus thing was hilarious.
debbie
@Kay:
Ah, then you haven’t heard about his tax plan, have you?
Hellbastard
I like that fact that he speaks his mind and tells it like it is!
? Martin
@Major Major Major Major: They’ve already done that. More than once, I think.
hilts
@schrodingers_cat:
Trump: “Wah Wah Wah Wah”!
? Martin
Summary of 40% of the country, from Twitter:
germy
@hovercraft:
Obama inherited a mess.
Drump inherited a fortune from his father.
SiubhanDuinne
@germy:
Jim Acosta of CNN? Just a few weeks ago (at the pre-inaug presser) 45 was screaming at Acosta, refusing again and again to take his questions.
trollhattan
@Iowa Old Lady:
Yup, the “cath cowboy” ads and wow am I conflicted to have an understanding of the reference. “It’s pronounced tiff-a-nee” had me crying.
Miss Bianca
@Hellbastard:
And that he can speak both of them at the same time!
On Flynn
“I don’t think he did anything wrong. If anything, he did something right.”
On why Flynn was fired
“The thing is he didn’t tell our Vice President properly and then he said he didn’t remember… that just wasn’t acceptable to me.”
rikyrah
@LAO:
Uh huh
Uh huh
liberal
@Mister Forkbeard: LOL! Are you shitting me?
liberal
@Frankensteinbeck: Agreed. If it were a planned diversion, they’d be getting more shit done.
Though, to be honest, the Congressional Republican shitstains don’t seem very organized. At all.
Peale
@hovercraft: I’m still laughing at that. Just because you don’t understand how the damn office works, doesn’t mean you inherited a mess. Its confusing because its complicated, not because it was a mess.
scav
eek! An unknown formerly sick person just appeared in the back alley out of thin air!
PEOPLE UNKNOWN TO ME ARE WANDERING THE ALLEYS OF THIS NATION!
sigaba
@Tracy: I know a lot of people are saying “ohhh there’s so many people that are going to love all of this.” But I’m not seeing it, just yet. Maybe some people will, I don’t know but we should wait and see.
Suffragete City elftx
He validated the reporting by specifically bringing up his conversations with Mexico and Australia, but the reporting is fake…whaaaaaa?
Trumpniks Cheer!!!
germy
@scav: I thought he meant filling up the alleys with protestors. Paid protestors, because they show up in “a very nice bus”
Emma
@Kay: My father, who called me at work to let me know: Jesus Christ, what if something really happens?
Iowa Old Lady
@scav: That quote hurts my brain.
Belafon
@chopper: But he won’t.
hilts
@Lit3Bolt:
In other words, just a typical day in the life of Trump. Hopefully, the resistance can keep it up and drive this ratfucking combover lowlife into a nervous breakdown and an early retirement from a job for which he’s proven to be totally unqualified.
joel hanes
@XTPD:
Also taking odds on whether he leaves via window, handcuffs, a four-point restraint or a pine box.
None of those. He’ll resign, probably “for health reasons”, a very short time after a delegation of senior members of the Replican Party have a little private chat with him. By 2020, the GOP will be pretending that he never happened, and that they never supported or endorsed him.
dr. bloor
@liberal:
Completely unprepared to actually govern. They were all set to piss and moan for another four years after HRC’s election, and now Drumpf done gone and took the Grievance Pole away from them.
Emma
@germy: Jesus. Acosta is one of the most common Hispanic last names.
scav
@germy: But we DON’T know where they came from, it might have been a very SCARY bus!
(Presser as Rorschach test)
liberal
@dr. bloor: Yep.
lgerard
It is pretty sad! to be reduced to
Help us Ivanka, you’re our only hope
Chris
@Miss Bianca:
I’d like to believe enough of them will finally wake the fuck up to start earning that “liberal media” label.
Alas, it seems at least as likely that they’ll simply label Trump an aberration and react by contrasting him to those good and honorable Republicans like Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney.
StringOnAStick
For the last 2 weeks we were in Costa Rica, and I had planned to leave all media alone and escape from our news for awhile, but my husband’s cousin and her husband are even bigger news junkies than I am so by the end of the trip we had better wifi access and were getting the news. I was reading Balloon Juice obsessively, and I can’t tell you how disorienting it felt to be there while reading just how crazy things have gotten; each day is worse. As soon as we had to go through customs on our stop in TX, our first encounter with CBP and TSA was them being bark-y and snotty to everyone no matter their color (so, fair I guess? – it still sucked).
Costa Ricans are super nice and very friendly people, and when we had a chance we told our various guides what a horrible person the Rethug Pod Person is; they were relieved to hear it and opened up to us every time. Our shuttle driver yesterday said he was scared about what the US is doing, and that he’d pray for our country. I told him I was scared too; he suggested we move to Costa Rica.
Emma
@scav: Really? Real actual quote? WTeverlovingF?
Betty Cracker
TPM published a collection of some of the most insane moments of the presser. It is by no means exhaustive.
Miss Bianca
@Doug R: I’d like to see William Shatner take a stab at Trump.
On SNL, I hasten to add, not literally.
The Moar You Know
How we gonna get him out? House and Senate are GOP. His GOP approval numbers are north of 85% and unchanged. Impeachment is not going to happen.
If he doesn’t last four it will be because he quits or dies, and given the attention he gets, he ain’t quitting. He’s a junkie who just found an unlimited supply of his favorite stash.
patroclus
Well, he didn’t go off on Fegelein or order the fictitious Steiner division to protect Berlin from the oncoming Russian army, or give orders to destroy the Russian sub off the East Coast, but otherwise, it was very much like Downfall. He started off by lying about how his electoral vote count was the highest since Reagan and it went downhill from there. It was highlighted by his argument with the CNN reporter, his nonsensical answer to the question about the rise of anti-semitism, his attempt to get a WH reporter to set up a meeting with the CBC (who he didn’t know what the acronym stands for), his attacks on Chicago, his whining about the media generally and his thoughts on what a “mess” he inherited. It was reality TV in the WH.
germy
@Chris:
I think that’s exactly what the MSM will do. And add good and honorable Pence to that list.
zhena gogolia
I was getting my teeth cleaned, and before I made the hygienist turn off the television I heard him talking about how people in Chicago are so scared they lock themselves in their closets.
Miss Bianca
@StringOnAStick:
I’m almost ready to take him up on it.
@patroclus: I think “surreality TV in the WH” is a little more accurate.
scav
@Emma: Mighty be a typo in the report I pulled it from first. C&L has rallies where the unknown people are appearing from unknown locations mysteriously. They seem to be the necessarily unrepresented ones that the representatives aren’t representing. But they’re still apparently apparating in, possibly from inappropriate busses
(ETA: CNN original source of my quote)
SiubhanDuinne
@liberal:
Video clip of the exchange with April Ryan at the link.
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/319951-trump-to-black-reporter-help-me-meet-black-caucus
(Sorry, can’t get link button to work properly at the moment.)
trollhattan
@joel hanes:
Luckily for them Charles Manson will be rested and ready, presuming he’s out of the big house hospital. They now know they can only be led by a sociopath.
trollhattan
@Miss Bianca: Didn’t he do a series of dramatic readings of Palin quotes?
Oatler.
great comment from Huffpo site:
I don’t think he’s scared. TRUMPUTlN is telling us to NOT believe our eyes and ears but to believe only him. He’s now on a tear to destroy the last vestiges of oversight of his fascistic enterprise and Republicans are complicit to a man.
? Martin
Everything is going great, really.http://www.wmbfnews.com/story/34521384/fbi-arrests-man-allegedly-planning-attack-in-the-spirit-of-dylann-roof?clienttype=generic&utm_content=buffer89ed9&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Yeah, those bomb threats against synagogues are just false flag operations, all right.
LAO
@Mister Forkbeard:
I stole this from a commentator at Daily Intelligencer because it’s brilliant:
Timurid
@Emma:
Gotta love that classic ‘all brown people know each other’ take. And its close friend ‘all brown people are part of the same conspiracy to Kill Whitey.’
Chris
@rikyrah:
It’s remarkable, because the money line is this: “What we are concerned about and what we haven’t really heard being addressed is an uptick in anti-Semitism and how the government is planning to take care of it.”
Nothing about the quote accused Trump of antisemitism, and the reporter went out of his way to make clear that he’s not accusing him of antisemitism. It’s asking him what he’s going to do about antisemitism. It’s a ridiculous softball – all Trump has to do is say “well, clearly, this is being done by radical Muslims, and that’s why we have to crack down hard on radical Muslims, and that’s what I’ve been trying to do, only the bad, biased courts won’t let me. What am I going to do about antisemitism? I’m absolutely going to crack down on it! I’ll come and save you, if only the courts will let me!”
But because his skin is as extraordinarily thin as it is, and because he lives in a universe where everything, everything, is all about him, Trump can’t even recognize the opportunity, and simply wails about how you shouldn’t call him a racist and you’re being unfair.
Boatboy_srq
@Brachiator: At least one Elagabalus.
rikyrah
The 8 Craziest Moments Of Trump’s Impromptu Press Conference
ByALLEGRA KIRKLAND
Published FEBRUARY 16, 2017, 3:15 PM EDT
In a hastily-called Thursday press conference carried live on national TV, President Donald Trump was completely off the map.
………………………………………………….
In short, it was a doozy.
TPM gathered the 8 most jaw-dropping moments below.
1. “Russia Is Fake News” Pressed by multiple reporters to address reports that members of his campaign staff repeatedly contacted Russian officials prior to the election, Trump said Russia is “fake news put out by the media.”
2. “This administration is running like a fine-tuned machine” Despite the botched execution of his immigration executive order, weeks of damaging leaks, the three-week long tenure of his national security adviser, and countless other damaging stories, the President repeatedly asserted that his White House was running smoothly.
3. “The leaks are absolutely real; the news is fake” Trump said that the leaks about his private phone calls with the leaders of Mexico and Australia were “illegal” and allowing people to find out “exactly what took place.” Yet he also repeatedly claimed that the news reports based on those leaks is “fake, because so much of the news is fake.”
4. “I’m not ranting and raving” The President predicted that the press would criticize his Thursday news conference and that the headlines would describe him “ranting and raving” even though he was actually “having a good time.”
5. “Nuclear holocaust would be like no other” In one particularly off-the-wall aside, Trump noted that both Russia and the U.S. are “very powerful” nuclear countries and that friendly relations between the two nations are a positive because his security briefings have taught him that “nuclear holocaust would be like no other.”
6. “I am the least anti-Semitic person that you have seen in your entire life” Trump accused a Jewish reporter who asked how his administration planned to address anti-Semitic threats of being unfriendly, told him to be “quiet,” and said he found his question “repulsive.”
7. “The greatest thing I could do is shoot that ship” Trump claimed that the American people would think it was “so great” if he ordered an attack on the Russian spy ship reportedly loitering off the coast of Connecticut but that he wouldn’t because he wanted to try to preserve U.S.-Russian relations.
8. “Are they friends of yours?” Questioned by April Ryan, a veteran reporter for American Urban Radio Networks, on whether he would include the Congressional Black Caucus in his plans to revitalize black urban neighborhoods, Trump replied, “Are they friends of yours? Set up the meeting.”
liberal
@SiubhanDuinne: Thanks. I read it in the WashPost transcript. Jeezus, what a fucking maroon.
Miss Bianca
@trollhattan: yeah, a beat-poet approach complete with jazzy bass and bongo drums! Had me weeping with laughter before he was done. Ah, good times….back when it looked like Sarah Palin was the worst clown show the GOP had to offer.
ETA: comme ca: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpbSwSlP4Yc
? Martin
@rikyrah: BTW, let April Ryan know that we stand with her. She’s a friend of yours, right?
Chris
@germy:
And that’s why I continue to have little to no sympathy for most of the media.
Mike J
Chris
@rikyrah:
How can Russia be fake news? Sarah Palin can see it from her house.
liberal
@StringOnAStick:
First question has to be whether global air circulation patterns will transport nuclear fallout there.
Mike in NC
Trump is going to follow up this bit of performance art with an early departure for Florida tomorrow, where he’ll bask in the glory of an adoring crowd of 300,000 people in an airport hanger, followed by nine holes at Mar-a-Lago and a nice dinner where he’ll share classified data with any club members within earshot. By Monday afternoon he’ll be rested and ready to sign several more edicts and proclamations to cement his legacy.
liberal
Interesting question to me is how Fucks News will deal with things like this. I assume, if nothing else, they can just not cover it.
debbie
@Mike J:
Not feeling as slick as you were, are you, Donny?
liberal
@Chris: You gotta go with the coalition of forces you have, in order to fight the fascists, not the ones you wish you had. :-(
bemused
I heard Rep Chris Collins say on msnbc that it was so impressive what Twittler has accomplished in just 4 weeks.
Boatboy_srq
@Kay: Dead Osama Bin Laden is wishing he’d waited sixteen years.
Peale
@liberal: Its a spanish speaking country that is doing relatively well. It probably doesn’t want to publicize that fact too much at the moment, since spanish speaking places that aren’t completely destitute are obviously cheating and stealing and need to be punished.
trollhattan
@? Martin: Feel free to shift your gaze closer to home.
Emphasis mine.
PPCLI
@rikyrah: As bad as those moments are, they don’t capture the sheer incoherence of extended blocks of word-salad. Like:
We’ve begun preparing to repeal and replace Obamacare. Obamacare is a disaster, folks. It’s a disaster. You can say, oh, Obamacare. They fill up our rallies with people that you wonder how they get there but they’re not the Republican people that are representatives are so we’ve begun preparing to representing.”
liberal
@slag:
His shitstain base took it very seriously. They crawled out of the woodwork like the fascist cockroaches they are, thrilled to vote against HRC. They could watch this news conference and think it was fine. As long as babies aren’t murdered and the capital gains rate is cut to zero, it doesn’t matter, even if Trump starts a nuclear war by taking out a Russian ship off our coast.
? Martin
@liberal: It would, actually. Your best bet is probably New Zealand. Atmospheric circulations largely stay contained in the northern and southern hemispheres and land bridges provide some way for that to cross over, so a south american island disconnected from land with relatively high elevation (because global warming will really go nuts after this) should cover you about as well as you can hope.
schrodingers_cat
@bemused: Is he related whiny Suzy from Maine?
sukabi
@XTPD: it would be sweet karma if he was hauled out of the office on May 5th, 2017.
Can’t imagine that his kids and aids can keep the increasing levels of incompetent crazy at bay for much longer.
Mike J
@trollhattan:
http://www.local10.com/news/bomb-threat-reported-at-israeli-consulate-in-miami
Iowa Old Lady
@liberal: I took a glance at Fox’s site and they’re headlining the crazy hour as a “press beatdown.”
Boatboy_srq
@Mike J:
On a dining table at Mar-a-Lago, no doubt, illuminated by unsecured smartphones….
bystander
@XTPD:
You sweet talker! I’m going to consider each, while savoring every aspect of public humiliation and retribution.
liberal
@? Martin:
Yeah, I figure as much, because of the different belts of winds that circle the globe latitudinally.
Though the rest of your comment reminds me too much of On the Beach. :-(
liberal
@Peale:
Not surprising given its history of relatively very very good government.
trollhattan
@Miss Bianca:
Thanks for the linky, like revisiting an old friend.
liberal
@Iowa Old Lady: You actually live in IA? I grew up there.
? Martin
@trollhattan: Oh, yeah. We’re aware.
rikyrah
Why Trump Makes Me Want to Throw Up
by Martin Longman
February 16, 2017 3:26 PM
As I watched President Trump’s news conference today (transcript here), I discovered that I was becoming more and more sick to my stomach. At a certain point, I had to repress the impulse to actually go loiter around my toilet just in case I actually needed to vomit. And I started to think about why it is that the man makes me physically ill.
It really gets to a core value I have about truthfulness. That can seem trite, and it’s hard to explain. I certainly don’t have the expectation that politicians or anyone else will always tell me the truth. Perhaps I can get closer to the feeling Trump gives me by using an analogy.
If you’ve ever witnessed some one, say a child, make a bad mistake that you know will cause them difficulties and you’ve felt a pang of empathetic regret on their behalf, that’s the closest thing I can find to the nauseous feeling I get when listening to Trump lie.
The difference is that we normally get that feeling when we feel like the person has made an innocent error or that we sense that consequences will be far out of proportion to the actual sin. We may feel like wrapping that person in a protective blanket even if we recognize that they are largely responsible for making the bed they will now lie in.
And if we sense that we’re helpless to shield them from the consequences of their actions, we make get the sinking feeling in the pit of the stomach that I’m trying to describe.
Kenneth Kohl
@PPCLI: PPCLI @ 156: trying to diagram that “sentence” would be quite a challenge…
Betty Cracker
@The Moar You Know: Maybe he’ll drop dead from stress. Maybe he’ll quit in a huff. It’s true he loves attention, but only if it’s positive, and he’s finding the presidency doesn’t work that way, which seems to be driving him ’round the bend less than a month into his term. I also still think it’s possible that a smoking gun will turn up about his campaign’s collusion with Russian spies. He was asked some pointed questions on that and gave a very lawyerly reply for a deranged nutball.
rikyrah
House Dems blocked from entering meeting with ICE director over recent immigration raids pic.twitter.com/V8KjWukYoj
— Heather Caygle (@heatherscope) February 16, 2017
Blueskies
@joel hanes:
Forgotten, just like Shrub…just like Nixon… Because even the Republicans couldn’t get enough lipstick on those pigs.
Forgotten, just like TR…just like Lincoln… Because those two actually did some good things, including for POC and poor immigrants, and we just can’t have that, can we?
Iowa Old Lady
@liberal: I do . We moved here from Detroit about 20 years ago. I’m still in culture shock.
scav
This one’s revealing
The evidence for not being a bad person is the ratings? It’s really a go-to metric for him, right up there with the 306. The morning show in the next paragraph. Arnold S in the prayer breakfast. President clickbait.
bemused
@schrodingers_cat:
I think he’s the Repug from NY who said republicans were silent about Flynn resigning because it was Valentine’s Day and they were out to dinner with their spouses.
Spanky
What I’d like to see now is for Obama to hold a press conference. On nothing in particular, just whatever the press wants to ask him. It’d be a stark (oh so stark!) reminder of the difference a mere 4 weeks makes. And the presser and the coverage would drive Trump insane. Oh, wait ….
?BillinGlendaleCA
@hovercraft: I think we just had a preview of his SOTU*.
*His first address to Congress is not the SOTU, but everyone calls it that, so…
enplaned
It’s great to say this, but someone needs to demonstrate a mechanism by which Trump is no longer president before the four years are up. The GOP is not going to remove him, not unless there he clearly does damage incredibly profound to the US. There is at least 30-40% of the GOP electorate that is profoundly pro-Trump. Most GOPers sit in either heavily gerrymandered districts, or are senators from heavily GOP states. None of them want to poke their head out and oppose Trump and thereby bring down the wrath of that 30-40% of the GOP electorate in the next GOP primary.
Unless Trump is seen to heavily damage the country, expecting a GOP-lead house to impeach Trump is fantasy. I see so many people saying “GOP is going to dump Trump by the end of the year, they *have* to.” Nope, absent profound damage to the US, not going to happen.
*Might* happen if the Democrats retake the house in 2018.
Atrios is closer to the mark in thinking that Trump might resign because the job isn’t fun, but that’s not terribly consistent with the psychology of an egomaniac/megalomaniac like Trump.
The danger is folks think that a Trump ejection is a foregone conclusion and file it under “completed business.” It’s not.
And I’m not sure that President Pence would be better. It’s easy to see a scenario where even if the Democrats retake the house in 2018, it’s better to leave Trump floundering in office for the next two years than allow the GOP to regroup under a President Pence.
Chris
@Blueskies:
Oh, they haven’t forgotten Lincoln. They bring him up all the time. Well, “Lincoln,” at least. Admittedly, not so much Lincoln.
StringOnAStick
@liberal: @liberal: Global climate change is already fairly obvious according to every Costa Rican nature guide we talked to, from 22 months of no rain in the usually just seasonally dry NW provinces to it even being dry(ish) in the northern Caribbean region as well. Costa Ricans love their wildlife and all are comfortable with 70% of their economy being related to tourism, so big changes in the natural world are very scary to them. The rest of their economy depends on growing coffee, pineapples and bananas so big changes in weather patterns are a threat; the big chip fab plant that Intel put in San Jose is on it’s way to the cheaper labor pastures of Nicaragua and El Salvador according to a US-born river guide we met there. Looked at Nicaragua from the air, it looked like drought was happening there as well.
I have to say, it was nice to be in an LDC where we saw very little poverty or scrabbling just to survive, unlike any other western hemisphere LDC we’ve been to. As one guide (a former Dutch citizen) said, the “the US could learn from us; since we don’t pay for an army we have free education through high school for everyone and everyone gets healthcare”. It’s not a paradise without problems though, but certainly better than any place else in the region.
bupalos
@SiubhanDuinne: It’s more like how many Trumps was Caligula.
Iowa Old Lady
@Spanky: I saw Bill Clinton on a talk show shortly before the 2008 election. In contrast to what we’d had since 2000, he was so articulate that I put down my Sudoku and said, “Now I remember why I used to vote for this guy.”
Peale
@enplaned: Yep. Just remember when you meet your “good republican” friends who aren’t like this. They aren’t really good people. They actually like what is happening and not just for partisan reasons. This is what they wanted. As long as he limits the true damage to blacks, mexicans and femisist women, and whomever in the middle east we’ll be bombing next, they will support him. There isn’t the big pool of nice republicans that will be turned off by this.
p.a.
The Tribe That Rubs Shit in Their Hair has certainly found their chief in DT.
(apologies to actual tribes, tribalists, and chieftains)
D58826
THe GOP used to count the number of times that Obama usedthe word ‘I’ are they going to do the same thing for Trump? Even though it sounded like he used the royal ‘we’ quite a bit. What a self-pity party.
Question for the experts. He kept repeating that Flynn in talking to the Russians was just doing his job. Prior to noon on 1/20 he wasn’t national security adviser. It wasn’t his job to talk policy changes or make commitments to foreign government. Sure set up met and greet and procedural stuff but not policy. Or am I missing something?
Mike J
When you need to describe Trump, go to a professional writer:
Corner Stone
TV Chyron: Trump Airs Grievances In Meandering News Conference
joel hanes
@liberal:
Bunch of Iowegians and Iowa-expatriates in the commentariat here, and at Kevin Drum’s.
But before we let you in the clubhouse,
you must perform The Tall Corn Song with the appropriate Secret Hand Motions.
Corner Stone
If I were Obama I wouldn’t even bother. I’d be like, “Luther, you got this, right?”
bupalos
@enplaned: I think your last point there is the most salient. The bottom line is that the Trumpublicans aren’t going to help impeach Trump unless it helps Trumpublicans. I can see where it might happen, and in relatively short order given how political tipping points work. But if it does we probably didn’t really want it to.
liberal
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Thing is, can he actually read? People make fun of politicians for reading from TelePrompters, but…
I wouldn’t be surprised if he were severely dyslexic. So how will he deliver an address?
jl
This world historical and epic goof is going to spin out of control until the GOP Congress starts pissing its elderly male pants enough about the midterms to notice something wrong.
Go to protests, write your Congresscritter, support mass turnouts to local town halls (or phone calls, emails and letters if your local crud nut is too chickenshit to have a real one). Show up to the local office and be very very firm but polite to the wage slaves working there. Send money to whoever promises to give some GOP Congresscritter a nervous breakdown for the midterms.
We still have to make it through the next 20 odd months, but that is the closest effective remedy to these toxic nut cases running the executive branch.
Shell
Well, at least he doesn’t believe he’s become a god. Oh, wait…..
But least he hasn’t appointed a horse to the Senate. Oh, wait….
SiubhanDuinne
@liberal:
That was my immediate first thought too.
D58826
Haven’t watch a press conf. in a while but didn’t they arrange the room and the mic’s in such a way that you could hear the question? This way das Fuhrer could give any answer he wanted to. Which hew would have even if you could hear the question but it would have been nice to wear what he wan’t answering
MazeDancer
Even Shep Smith was riled. Gotta give him big props for this rant on Fox.
jl
@Shell:
” But least he hasn’t appointed a horse to the Senate. Oh, wait…. ”
Right now, the toxic nutcase bigot and congenital swindler and liar Trump has a couple of hundred odd jackasses that he totally owns in Congress. He is good on that front.
Chris
@Shell:
I’d rather have a horse in the Senate than just about any of the 52 horses’ asses that’re sitting in it right now with an R after their name.
StringOnAStick
@bupalos: The only tipping point I see with republicans is when the shitgibbon’s level of crazy starts hitting corporate profits/causes at least an economic recession, and corporations start yanking hard on their collective leashes. I know that saying that corporations want to cause disaster capitalism opportunities is in fashion, but at least someplace in the world needs to have a growing economy for most profits to be made. Why is the US stock market still looking so solid? Because no one else’s of any size looks all that great in comparison. When the shitgibbon’s crazy starts threatening the status of the US dollar as the world reserve currency, eyes will suddenly open. I’m hoping the IC takes him out before that point, just to avoid another event likely much worse than 2008 was.
LAC
@Villago Delenda Est: the fucks given about his base continues to be zero for me. But apparently some people are still fretting about them.
jl
@StringOnAStick:
” I’m hoping the IC takes him out before that point, just to avoid another event likely much worse than 2008 was. ”
Or Dub’s excellent adventure in 2003.
But I don’t want to depend on anyone or community doing the job but the ordinary voter (and the ordinary voter did NOT put Trump in office, HRC won the national popular vote by a wide margin). It is everyone’s duty to make the life of the average GOP Congresscritter living hell, until they have to wear depends 24/7 because they are scared shitless over losing their seats in the midterms.
jl
@LAC: Trumps base is not the majority and can be easily crushed politically if the majority of the population is mobilized. No reason to waste time worrying about them or hating on them. They need to be rendered politically irrelevant.
Mnemosyne
The MSM wanted a president who was dumber than them, and they got their wish. Thanks a lot, Tapper and colleagues!
SiubhanDuinne
@Corner Stone:
Oh, cool! I didn’t know Obama was allowed to keep him.
Mnemosyne
@jl:
Co-signed.
SiubhanDuinne
@liberal:
A noun, a verb, and 306.
Peale
@jl: Yep. Now if we could only make sure the majority of the population turns out and is mobilized in two years. But Since we can’t, I don’t know. I can only hope that it is, but with our voters? Who knows? A lot of our voters like being kicked in the teeth.
debbie
@MazeDancer:
That was nice to see. What will Rupert say?
Mister Forkbeard
@LAO: Is it bad that I love that joke? That’s bad, right?
randy khan
@chopper:
The odds on that happening seem pretty low. He just can’t help himself.
Amaranthine RBG
Yeah, I doubt he’ll even win the primary.
jl
@Peale: It will be difficult. But need to explain the outrages, failures and incompetence to family friends and neighbors. Need to start mobilizing now and keep it up until the midterms.
Having the truth staring us in the face and ready to devour people who think hey are safe helps. Keep reminding them that the GOPers are coming for their Social Security, Medicare and their EMPLOYMENT BASED GROUP HEALTH INSURANCE (GOP toddlers in Congress, perhaps through random fluctuation of events, stopped squabbling and throwing tantrums at each other long enough to get the proposal to gut employer based health care going again).
chopper
@Peale:
it’s like you don’t know how to drive and crash into a tree and complain that the car must be a piece of junk.
cain
Our friend, Chuck Todd had this to say His whole deal about “This not a laughing matter. I’m sorry, delegitimizing the press is unAmerican”. I couldn’t help myself and blasted him as an enabler due to his false equivalence in his program.
rikyrah
While Trump keeps demonizing refugees, FBI quietly arrests another white supremacist. https://t.co/fBYG0kt7c3
— Mark Elliott (@markmobility) February 16, 2017
rikyrah
If you need a translation for this dog whistle, watch @13THFilm. Resist this veiled attack on communities of color. We’ve seen it before. https://t.co/A6rMFqEMqS
— Ava DuVernay (@ava) February 16, 2017
Loneoak
That bonkers line about Hillary giving away all our uranium sounded exactly like my handful of Stein-voting friends.
zhena gogolia
@Amaranthine RBG:
Идите к чёрту
trollhattan
@jl: I figured the only reason he cosied up to Romney was to get Rafalca for the Senate, not seeing the Donald as much of a pet owner, himself.
Chris
@rikyrah:
In light of the rumors that the GOP wants to close down antiterrorism groups that focus on anyone but Muslims, it’s reassuring to know that someone in the government is still on the case, for now.
slag
@liberal: First of all, let’s get real: they don’t give a damn about babies. They care, first and foremost, about putting all women and minorities in their place. As re tax cuts: that’s just another way to enshrine and preserve white male power and privilege. Any time Trump goes to his gold-plated “Winter White House” and rails against “The Establishment”, a Trump-et gets his tingles.
But I’m pretty sure those people are in the minority in a big way. They’re only a small fraction of the problem.
jl
@rikyrah: And gosh golly gee, it’s a white supremacist planning a terrorist mass shooting. Who wulda thunk. Drumpf assured me that there is no problem and we could stop worrying about them. Finely tuned machine, indeed.
trollhattan
@debbie:
Rupert [bellowing]: “Get me the ratings!”
Aide: “Here they are sir, looking good.”
Rupert: “Alright then.”
jhtrotter
When my dad started to act like what we witnessed today, we took his car keys away and got him a prescription for lorazepam. But I suppose don doesn’t drive much these days.
I couldn’t help wondering if this is what it was like at Jonestown, or Waco, or on the Hale-Bopp trailing spaceship. And if we shouldn’t be investing in Nike, and purple cloth making companies, for the day when do trump summons the 60 some million of the heaven’s great again away team for the trip home.
jl
@Chris: Good case to bring up at a GOPer Congresscritter’s town hall. Drumpf wants to shut down investigations of white reactionary terrorism. And here’s yet another guy running around planning a terror attack. What is your local GOPer Congresscritter going to do to watch what the Drumpf nutcase does when his incompetent Wall St. billionaire buddy does a ‘broad review’ of the federal IC? Is it going to be limited to rating our hot babe spies, as promised? Or not?
mrmike
So… How many lone wolves does it take to make a pack?
Steeplejack (tablet)
@Kay:
Ha! Bless you, you’ve given me my only laugh of the day. Maybe the whole week.
scav
@jl: It’s all good. Like Mike Flynn, so long as the white supremacist didn’t lie to the Vice President, it’s all good. Trump is the one to determine if what the supremecists was doing was wrong. Not any so-called courts or laws. Not the fake and failing media or any people in allies that shouldn’t be represented. Trump decides and his edicts reflect his decision. Those sort of mass shootings are a fake problem: not have the ratings.
SiubhanDuinne
@jhtrotter:
Mr. Charles P. Pierce, over t’ Esquire, has begun referring to him as “Toonces the Driving Cat.”
Betty Cracker
@jl: Trump babbled something telling about the push-back congresscritters are getting, which was alluded to above:
Emphasis mine. Trump doesn’t seem to understand that he’s supposed to serve all of the American people, not just the MAGAts, or that GOP congresscritters have constituents who are Democrats or otherwise non-Republicans. It explains a lot, actually.
Mister Forkbeard
@enplaned: The problem here is that Fox News and conservative outlets are so set on pumping up Trump that they’ll even show this tire fire of a press conference and call it a “Liberal beat down”.
Anyone watching Fox is going to think that maybe he was a little uneven, but he did a really good job. So his numbers are just going to stay about where they are for Republicans. At least back in W’s days, Fox was awful but not as clearly “anti-reality”.
chopper
@cain:
but her emails, chuck, amirite?
Just one more canuck
@Brachiator: XI
jl
@Betty Cracker: Several GOPer Congress people have admitted that, even if they can get an Obamacare replacement cobbled together, they have to keep it on the down low because, whatever it is, it will be very unpopular.
The Congress people understand that that they have to worry about the people who show up to vote in the next general election sooner or later. Need to spread the word on what is going down. Remind nice blue haired little old ladies that the GOPers are going to try to suppress the elderly vote if the oldsters make a stink about destroying Social Security and Medicare. Keep your family friends and neighbors informed. I wouldn’t even waste time arguing with the hard core Drumpf knuckleheads and racists. They can be swamped at the midterms. Even without help from the nice ‘republican people’, but many of them will show up to help vote the current crop of craven jackasses out of office, no matter what Drumpf says.
In fact Drumpf should say it more, by the time the midterms comes, that will be an intolerable provocation and insult to a lot of GOP voters.
StringOnAStick
@jl: EXACTLY! My vacation is over, which means congresscritters are getting calls from me today.
jhtrotter
@SiubhanDuinne: I’m old enough to remember toonces. They always die in the end. That’s a terrifyingly appropriate name.
Turgidson
@enplaned:
And since the GOP lives in an “alternate facts” version of reality and their idea of “profound damage” to the country was having a black president who reformed health care to provide insurance to 20 million who didn’t have it before, passed stricter Wall Street regulations, cares about climate change, and did not reflexively send the military into every dicey situation in the world, it’s not at all clear that they would recognize the kind of damage Trump is likely to do as “damage” at all.
And they’ve already shown they’re willing to ignore or applaud just about anything Hair Furor does, so long as they have a shot to cut taxes on the rich and shred as much of the safety net as they can get their demented, amoral paws on. They’ll consider impeaching him just as soon as they lose the majority in at least one house of Congress. Not before.
The Fat Kate Middleton
@Iowa Old Lady: Native Iowan here as well, as I’ve mentioned before. My family and I made the trek to Des Moines last Sunday to carry posters at the Capitol telling our Repub legislators what we thought of their idea to gut collective bargaining for public employees. I presume you saw the outcome of our efforts and those of many thousands of Iowans this afternoon. I am so saddened and sickened by this. Our children-all public employees-have already decided to find education jobs in Minnesota.
D58826
@chopper: Comey is in the tank for Trump – CNN is reporting that the FBI won’t pursue their investigation of Flynn because it was an honest mistake when he didn’t remember the phone calls.
And Harward has turned Das Fuhrer down to be the next NSC. Not because of principle or integrity but over staffing issues.
All it takes for evil to flourish is good people remaining silent.
amk
that dumbass look from whiny wolfy blitzer.
J R in WV
@liberal:
No, no one is shitting you. It was worse than that, really.
jc
Trump knows he’s lying, he’s just hoping to get away with it — hence the oversize confidence he projects even when spouting garbage. He’s hoping that since he’s a Big Man everyone will just swallow his bullshit. He’s counting on people being too meek or too polite to call him out — and should someone actually challenge him, he’s ready for that too, he’ll either blame someone else, e.g. the media, or play the victim, or he’ll say: hey I was given that information, I don’t know.
He habitually does what’s to his advantage, he figures he’s entitled to spin any damn thing, it’s just business. He really believes that not paying his taxes makes him ‘smart.’ You screwed up (America), you trusted him.
msb
Nice to see that the media have finally woken up to what we were screaming all through the campaign. We told you so, we told you so, we told you so, but you kept swallowing Russian leaks and bleating: “But her emails!”