I wrote about Trump essentially being a salesman, and ticked off a few of the attributes of a lot of salesmen (#notallsalesmen, of course) a few days ago. I forgot one that is surfacing now — they have no patience, and can’t stick to anything:
President Trump appears to be growing tired of his own plan to combat the coronavirus.
We’re seven days into Trump’s 15-day social distancing plan and the President is reportedly not only having second thoughts about efforts to tamp down the spread of the virus, but also appears to be more concerned about the impact his initial plan will have on the economy. Trump announced his 15-day isolation proposal last Monday. Just three days later, he was reportedly already considering ways to phase out his plan, Bloomberg News reported.
This probably isn’t purely salesguy ADD — certainly the denial of facts and the need for constant positivity are also part of it. But I’ve never seen a salesguy in a leadership position who didn’t want to try something different a short while after signing off on a long term plan. They are successful because they just keep trying things until they either close the mark or walk away. A lot of leadership is about sticking things out, staying the course until things get better, and so forth. Two-bit grifters like Trump don’t have any patience because they’ve never needed it.
negative 1
And accordingly, his reelection. That’s his only focus, since it’s about him — the only thing he cares about.
hells littlest angel
You are too kind. Trump isn’t a salesman, he’s a flim-flam man. What he’s selling, he has no intention of delivering. In a better world, he’d be working out of a boiler room in Queens.
Fair Economist
Dementia doesn’t help consistency and determination either.
There is likely also a panic resulting from distancing being financially catastrophic to him personally.
Derelict
This most definitely ISN’T Trump’s ADHD. What it is is Trump knowing that his only chance for re-election is the economy doing well. That’s it.
And the Republicans also realize, however dimly, that presiding over a second Great Depression (and this after having set up both the first Great Depression AND the Great Recession) would pretty much doom the Party to rump status for another 20 years.
PenAndKey
@Fair Economist: and despite the fact that it’s absolutely devastating for those of us out jobs or looking at looking bills with no income, it’s always all sbout how he’s impacted. He’s incapable of actually caring about anyone else, so of course he’s freaking out now that he has to deal with it. I’m sure I could imagine a more inept and incapable president for this situation, but it’d take effort.
MattF
It’s also a quality of cults and cult leaders— ‘policy’ keeps changing, the leader keeps shifting the goalposts, so no one has the energy to stop and think, ‘Wait, WTF? ‘.
David Anderson
OMG, about salesmen — my wife is in charge of a decent size contract at her company and they have a vendor whose initial product demonstration looks good. She told them that her company can’t make a decision for another 10-15 days late last week. So far the sales guy came back to her 3 times, knocked 35% off the price and is talking his way out of an easy sale as part of the contract is service and support.
If the guy shuts up, he will make a nice commission but he can’t.
germy
@Derelict:
I admit I spent years repeating the “GOP will never recover from this!” line after Bush. But then I realized republicans always bounce back and find their way back into office. They’ve got enough disgruntled voters to forgive them for anything. I hope we win the White House and Senate and keep the House, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see a republican president in 2024. (If I live to see it)
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
If you played a drinking game based on Trump’s superfluous overuse of adjectives and adverbs, you’d wind up getting your stomach pumped and filled with charcoal after the first hour.
germy
@David Anderson: I’ve worked with salesmen like that. They can’t help themselves.
Matt McIrvin
@Derelict:
Eh, given what happened the last several times they screwed up, I doubt it’d even be 20 months. The moment Democrats get into power, the clock will start ticking toward the Republicans’ inevitable midterm landslide when everything isn’t magically fixed in a few weeks.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@hells littlest angel:
“This is the greatest project ever – it is coming in ahead of schedule and under budget, and will be a truly magnificent showplace when all our finishing plans happen, which we’ll unveil in a few months. We just need to advance the next few draws so that the capital keeps flowing….”
Major Major Major Major
Trump’s plan is to spike the curve so that we can all get back to work after 5% of the country dies in order to rescue the stock market for the election.
JaySinWA
I see this as more basic. The plan is one that makes people do things they don’t want to do. It is going to be increasingly unpopular. It won’t bring rally cheers. It won’t bring immediate success and that lack of success will not be covered up by bullshit for long.
This plan lacks the self gratification that Trump needs, so it has to change.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
Yeah, it’s pretty much a lefty fantasy along with “all those Republican-voting farmers are really socialists who feel betrayed by Democratic neoliberalism.”
MazeDancer
Trump wants to replace “impeachment”as the first line in his obituary. Seems to have settled on genocide, when he sends his supporters out there in the midst of a pandemic.
trollhattan
@David Anderson:
A
B
C
germy
@Baud: Well, those farmers love it when the government gives them money…
JaySinWA
@germy: The way forward is going to cause a lot of people pain, no matter what the choices or lack of choice is made. There will be losers who will blame the people making those choices and thus will be aligned with those that opposed them.
Assuming a competent government is formed, there still will be opposition, because it is human nature. It may not be branded Republican, but it will be there.
BBA
Maybe the reporters at the daily press conference can start chanting LOCK HER UP, to make him feel more at ease.
germy
@BBA: They did that during the 2016 race.
L85NJGT
Not a salesman.
He’s the face for bust outs and con jobs.
NotMax
Picture a box of Trumpies cereal.
“0% of the recommended daily allowance of ANYTHING!”
NotMax
Not a salesman, a carnival barker.
Mandalay
This short video explains why coronavirus is such a huge problem in a very simple way. Even Trump, Limbaugh and Hannity would be able to understand why their claims about it being a nothingburger were so disastrously wrong.
Whenever Trump is going to give a press conference the networks should play that video on an endless loop instead. It would save lives.
JPL
Does trump really think that people are going back into crowded restaurants just because he wants them to? What will happen is states on lock down will remain shut longer.
WereBear
In a sane world. Which isn’t the one we are in.
However, this is not a crisis that can possibly be handled by any modern Republican; it’s like expecting my cats to handle it. And they have good hearts!
Steeplejack (phone)
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Just his use of the word “beautiful” would get you there.
Brachiator
Gtifters, even two-bit grifters, can be very patient. Trump isn’t much of a salesman, or a much of a grifter either.
His impulses are childish. He is impatient because he is waiting for the applause, that he is the best president ever. And he is not getting it because dealing with this virus is difficult and complicated.
NotMax
@WereBear
“Let us now explain the detailed plan we’ve decided upon to confront this – (sound of electric can opener in the background) – LATERS!”
Matt McIrvin
@Mandalay: Able to understand doesn’t mean willing to understand.
Eunicecycle
@Mandalay: A really good video! That number was shocking, because like the reporter I can’t do the maths. Is the R0 really 3? I thought it was more like 2.
bemused
@JPL:
That was my first thought. At least people who get the science and math would not believe trump and go back to their usual routines or work unless they were quite desperate.
James E Powell
@germy:
They not only have the rich people, they have the rich people who are willing to spend a lot to prevent the government from doing anything good for the non-rich. Kochs, Adelson, Mercers, etc.
And they have the white supremacists and there are more of them than we thought. They vote their hatred of us more than their love of the Republicans so, as we’ve seen, they always turn out for just about any Republican candidate. In contrast, Democratic voters will refuse to turn out for Democratic candidates for what are, in the big picture, trivial reasons.
Betty Cracker
Did anyone see Biden’s rec room briefing today? Inexplicably, it ran at the same time as Cuomo’s, so probably not?
Peale
@JPL: Honestly, this would be a pretty good time to have the big military parade in his honor that he wanted. The roads and bridges will be destroyed, but no one is really using them right now anyway (Just make sure not to destroy all the bridges and roads so that medical professionals can still get to work). Let him stand on his balcony and wave to five people.
trollhattan
@Betty Cracker:
Fake news! Biden’s off somewhere on a ventilator.
–Berners/Republicans/Russia
Major Major Major Major
@Betty Cracker: I missed it but my excuse is that I was working… at any rate, he’s clearly alive. Our “allies” on Bernie Twitter need to DIAF
MazeDancer
@Betty Cracker:
Searched everywhere for Biden briefing. Couldn’t find it.
Even tweeted, yesterday, please coordinate your timing with Gov Cuomo. (Inexplicably, they paid no heed.)
Maybe they’ll work it out. Hope so.
Poe Larity
It’s a wonder where we’d be if Trump owned a Mortuary bizness.
The WHO wants to rebrand with physical distancing
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Didn’t watch it, but here’s a Hill report.
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/489014-biden-trumps-failure-of-planning-and-preparation-worsened-coronavirus
Major Major Major Major
@MazeDancer: It’s on Biden’s twitter feed
ETA writing post
James E Powell
@David Anderson:
My sister works for a large hotel chain. She reports they’ve had two meetings that are the equivalent of Alec Baldwin’s Glengarry Glen Ross scene. Something along the lines of “I don’t want to hear about cancellations, I want you out there getting new business.” She said it made her think of the HBO Chernobyl series.
John Revolta
@David Anderson: The salesman gets itchy because he assumes, often correctly, that the mark is looking into and considering other offers. The amount of his anxiety can be a tell that his offer maybe ain’t the best one out there and he knows it.
Hummus Where The Heart Is
What he does not have is any class. He is a worthless piece of shit.
Can’t buy class. Oh, he’s tried. He needs validation from everyone, not just his minions, but most tell him to go fuck a stump. He gets told by these people he has no class and he gets pissed (none more so than when Obama oratorically knifed him the night he got OBL).
Aziz, light!
After Obama’s big win in 2008, we were crowing here that the Republican Party was dead.
germy
trollhattan
@Hummus Where The Heart Is:
I “love” that Trump and Limbaugh both are all in with the French whorehouse look and conflate it with wealth, power and importantly, sophistication.
germy
gene108
@David Anderson:
This is why well run companies have managers in charge of salesman, because salesman are terrified of not closing a deal and make dumb concessions in the process.
Salesman left to their own devices would close a ton of sales, but bankrupt a company in the process, because all the sales would be at a loss.
James E Powell
@Major Major Major Major:
Right now is the perfect time for Sanders to end his campaign with quiet grace and dignity. He could regain a lot of good will that he lost by helping to put Trump in the White House. A simple speech: thank supporters, voters have shown a strong preference, we cannot allow our differences, trivial in the big picture, to divide us. This crisis shows more clearly than ever that we must defeat Trump. “I know Joe and I believe he is the person we need right now” Thank you! Get somebody to write it better. Keep it under three minutes.
What are the chances of something like that happening?
Barbara
@germy: Lots of elderly voters in Maine.
germy
glc
Now Jim Justice has issued the stay-at-home order for WV effective 8PM tomorrow. I think he saw this coming fairly clearly on Saturday, and is doing it this way to sell it to the state – particularly his own constituency within the state.
For somebody who still doesn’t think climate change is caused by human activity, that looks to me like a rapid adjustment to reality.
Video
Major Major Major Major
@James E Powell: Last wednesday was the perfect time, but I’d also accept right now.
Betty Cracker
@Major Major Major Major: Good. Felt like it should be addressed, and honestly, I didn’t have much positive to say about it, so STFU seemed the best policy.
Nicole
@Betty Cracker:
I did. It was okay. He was good at reminding America we’ve been through bad times before; I was aggravated that when he got to praising governors, he listed 3 Republican ones first, which indicates to me A) he hasn’t learned jackshit from 8 years of Obama and 4 years of Trump that the GOP have no interest in bipartisanship other than, “Give us what we want” and B) he doesn’t really take women’s reproductive needs seriously since DeWine was one of the ones he listed (since Ohio is claiming abortions fall under unnecessary medical treatment for the pandemic).
His tongue got wrapped ’round his eyetooth a few times, as my dad would say, but less than it being a sign of aging, I think his brain works faster than his mouth sometimes. I have that problem a lot in my own life, so I recognized the tangents that you realize are a tangent as they are coming out of your mouth verbal tic.
Archon
@Derelict:
This will obviously be bad for the Republican party on the margins but the truth is the majority of white America isn’t looking for a reason to vote Republican, there is no “reason” to vote Republican. They are looking for an excuse.
It’s easy to find excuses.
PenAndKey
@Aziz, light!: The GOP isn’t dead as a major political power and threat until FOX News is ground to dust. They have too much of an information stranglehold on too large a segment of the rural population in this country for anything else. It’s a fundamental weakness of our federal government design that those same low-information voters have disproportionate power. Combine that disproportionate power with a propaganda apparatus powerful enough to give make Goebbels look like a starry-eyed fanboy and you’ve an entrenched party that’s not going anywhere, even after this.
Sloane Ranger
Perhaps he’s realised that the bulk of cases so far are in blue States (or at least States with Democratic Governors). It’s possible he’s convinced himself that the virus won’t affect the red States and, even if it does, it will mainly affect the cities, where Those people live.
Fewer Democratic voters and an improving stock market going into the election = win, win.
laura
Trump has declared himself a war president because he’s always been desperate to be seen as a bad ass. That he’s acting the exact same way as he did during the war he could have participated in- lied, ran, kept lying and blaming others for his obvious failure and denial of what he knows to be true – he is stunningly unfit to serve.
Major Major Major Major
@Betty Cracker: It was fine, and it’s important for him to put himself out there. Hopefully these become regular. Biden’s never going to deliver a heart-melting barnburner.
BroD
@germy: Well that’s right. I’m only about 2/3 on board with the “No way he’ll get re-elected now!” narrative. The guy is straight up an all-pro shit salesman and thrives on disruption.
God I hope I can’t say “I told you so.” next year.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Serious lag on the SBA disaster loan site (which doesn’t seem to work well on Chrome).
PenAndKey
@Betty Cracker: Just a warning though, if you do a blanket search for Biden on Twitter to do the “find his feed the lazy way” route, you’ll be bombarded with anti-Biden memes. Useful for seeing what the Bros and influence campaigns are saying these days. And, funny enough, it always seems to be the same messages.
gene108
@PenAndKey:
House of Representatives could help address this issue by doing a proper reapportionment after the 2020 census and increase its size.
Just go up to 535 members would help mitigate this. Go up a bit more, and eventually Republicans will be forced to win liberal urban areas, in order to have any chance to control the House at all.
trollhattan
@BroD:
That a majority poll as thinking he’s doing a good job with COVID-19 tells a lot about how jittery people will clutch at whatever straw is available at the moment. We can’t guess nor control where sentiments might be come November, just go after his lard ass hammer and tongs for his myriad failures and lies.
John Revolta
@gene108: Benchley wrote a funny story about this. He had a guy from a silver-polish concern chasing Paul Revere all over Massachusetts during his Midnight Ride trying to make a sale.
catclub
yeah… no. maybe 4 years rather than the two after 2008.
The Democrats barely had 2 years to fix the world in 2009.
They were kicked out by republican voters, who if not terrified, vote for republicans.
Soprano2
I’ve found this guy on Twitter that goes by Hoarse Whisperer an invaluable source for how Trump is being driven by his extreme narcissism. https://twitter.com/HoarseWisperer/status/1242119385801789444
As for salespeople, I was always an advocate of the idea that the don’t get their commission until the job they sold is paid for. Why should they get an advance on potential future work that may not ever materialize? They also care a lot more about getting that bill paid when their commission depends on it.
Betty Cracker
@Major Major Major Major: These things are so subjective. I hope your and Nicole’s reaction is closer to the mean than mine.
Major Major Major Major
@Betty Cracker: Looks like he’ll be on The View tomorrow.
Nicole
@Betty Cracker:
@Major Major Major Major: is right, Biden’s not a barn stormer kind of speaker, but – and keep in mind, he was not my 1st, 2nd, or 3rd choice for the nominee – what I have to give him his due for, is that he’s very good at conveying caring and empathy for people who are struggling and that will be pretty comforting for a lot of people. The View is a great spot for him to show up.
Raven Onthill
It seems that Trump and the Republicans intend to do as little as possible about the epidemic and its economic impacts. If this goes as badly as seems likely, the Republican Party is going to go down in history beside the Nazis.
Nazi nazi nazi.
lol chikinburd
@trollhattan: Seen through the prism of the observation that mortal fear has always furthered Republican and authoritarian goals, the administration’s recent and likely future actions come into terrifying focus.
“Failure” is relative to goals. They may not be “failing” at all.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Soprano2:
Wife works in the high end zone of travel, pure commission. She doesn’t get paid hers until after each phase of the travel happens, which is why we are now so completely fucked financially for the foreseeable future.
Miss Bianca
@germy: i may not be an AOC stan, but damn, I appreciate the way she brings the wood when she has to!
Mowgli
@gene108: although there are many dim bulb salespeople that simply don’t “get it,” much of the fault lies with their compensation plans, that are heavily skewed toward new business and not toward building long term “win-win” client relationships. All of this stems directly from the relentless corporate focus on short-term profits at the expense of all else. Salespeople are told to do anything necessary to close this quarter, regardless if you could make more money just waiting out the client’s natural buying process. It’s stupid, but it’s a systemic problem at the organization, not just salespeople being fools.
(Edited to credit that Soprano2 touched on this above as well)
J R in WV
@germy:
That’s a flat lie. Reporters did no such thing. Trumpian MAGAts in red hats did that. Most any reputable reporter who did that would have been fired when they got back to an office.
Grow up!
germy
@J R in WV: Do you not understand metaphors?
David Anderson
@gene108: OMG — When I was at UPMC Health Plan, some of the biggest battles the ops teams, which is where I was, fought was against Sales as Sales would promise the moon and back to a small employer group that if we could implement without breaking laws would require a 6 month system enhancement cycle. We lost more than a few sales because the promises being made would have made the group incapable of being profitable at any point in the next decade.
Those were fun meetings.
J R in WV
@germy:
Never mind — pie. A waste of finger movement to address this.
germy
@J R in WV: Bye
germy
@J R in WV: And F.U.
Shana
@Steeplejack (phone): Hubby and I were listening to his press conference yesterday, groaning at all the lies as well as the mangled language and it hit me: he speaks like a stupid person’s idea of what a smart person sounds like.
Not profound or anything, just a realization.
Shana
@Peale: He can stand on his balcony and wave to five people like Mr. Hilter in that Monty Python sketch.