As I pointed out to @donlemon on CNN earlier tonight, not many people in the UK like @realdonaldtrump and many of those who say they do like him, for example @borisjohnson, who used to attack him in the past, are clearly now just pretending to like him: pic.twitter.com/xUtM2dvEnu
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) June 4, 2019
It's going to be awesome when Trump is out of office and Maggie never works again. https://t.co/MJfM7wu3Cg
— Molotov Frappuccino Thrower (@agraybee) June 4, 2019
The NYTimes withdrew the tweet, but Maggie Haberman’s two-faced encomium remains — “For Trump, London Visit Is a (Royal) Family Affair”:
… Whether they had official roles in the visit or not, the extended Trump family seemed to materialize in London overnight — all save the president’s youngest son, Barron, who stayed home. But Monday’s lavish audience with the British royals was the culmination of more than a month of planning by White House officials who have grown accustomed to accommodating President Trump’s children, whether that includes redrawing plans for a state visit or evicting guests from their seats at the State of the Union address.
As Mr. Trump presides over a White House with unprecedented turnover, he has relied on his children the same way he has for decades — asking them for advice or seeing them as surrogates in the fight against his real and perceived enemies.
On this visit, another family opportunity surfaced: The Kennedys have long occupied the American political culture as the unofficial royal family, but this week, the Trumps appeared to present themselves as the 2019 version…
Our British ‘cousins’ have an expansive acquaintance with that class of professional grifters which organize themselves as an Aristocracy, so they have rather higher standards for such gentries’ entertainment value than the gawping rubes of Trump’s loyal (very) Base. Per the Daily Beast, “William, Harry and Kate Deny Trump What He Wanted Most: a Photo Op”:
Prince Harry and his brother Prince William have successfully denied Donald Trump the opportunity of appearing in a photo with either of them or their glamorous and popular wives during his state visit to the U.K., which would have been invaluable PR for his 2020 re-election campaign, after the president used the word “nasty” while discussing Harry’s wife, Meghan Markle…
It was also noticeable that when Trump visited Westminster Abbey on Monday to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior, he was not accompanied by William, as might have been expected, but by Prince Andrew, the queen’s second son.
Andrew’s name-recognition in the wider U.S. is minimal, meaning the trip will have little PR value for the 2020 campaign…
[Perhaps the two men had met before: “Randy Andy” was notoriously another Friend of Jeffrey Epstein.]
And yet, President Trump has made it clear to those close to him that he actually does care about his reputation among the British royals. According to several former and current White House officials, Trump will grow visibly more animated or excited when the topic of meeting prominent members of royal families comes up, including the British royals. He makes a point of repeatedly asking aides about what he and others should wear during state visits and high-profile events with foreign countries’ royalty, the sources said, and enthusiastically asks advisers about what kind of pomp and pageantry he should expect…
…[A]Whitehall official told The Times that the queen’s meeting last year with President Trump was “kept to the bare minimum. The Queen will do her duty, but among the wider family, they were not as enthusiastic as they were when [President Barack] Obama came over.”
Pretty sure this is the royal family they'll be most identified with. pic.twitter.com/cLTeJoYJgZ
— Schooley (@Rschooley) June 4, 2019
Found the balloon. pic.twitter.com/eVtrLZZRHs
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) June 4, 2019
Cold Grey Pre-Dawn Open Thread: Nobody Loves A Charmless GrifterPost + Comments (26)