Donnie likes to separate himself from the crowd by Trump-eting that he’s better than anybody at ___, knows more than anybody about ___, the one and only who can ___, best, most, yadda, yadda, yadda. In fact I previously posted here a mind-explodingly long list of these fanciful boasts {credit: “Trumplish”}.
But when it comes to his dealings with the press he truly can claim mission accomplished. He is the one and only president in my history, perhaps all U.S. history, to create this kind of war-like relationship with our country’s journalists, especially when there is an Unwelcome Question.
It’s pretty safe to say the reporters who cover the White House would never have wanted to be players in the way Trump has uniquely changed the Q&A game. But post 01.20.17 they unfortunately are left with no choice in taking part - but as we see, plenty of choice in the way they take part — and further, how their participation could have been his cavalry.
Flub #1 — Treating Questions as Attacks — Other presidents have faced questions that merited no response and maybe even a mild reprimand. The inquiries may have, for example, been too personal, or involved national security issues, or sought a comment critical of someone else.
But in TrumpWorld, we’re not talking about those kinds of questions. No, we’re talking about legitimate inquiries.
Now, out of bounds are such offerings as the one from Peter Alexander asking the prez what he could say to the masses out there who are so afraid of what’s to come. Or Yamiche Alcindor about why he would make or return phone calls only to governors who had “showed appreciation.”
{Big surprise, even here a lie checked in when he said he asked Pence to make those calls. He in fact had previously stated he told Pence not to call, e.g., the governors of Washington State and Michigan.}
When he views such questions as attacks, his resulting demeanor shows lack of self control and a telling evasiveness. The first one reveals that a nervous nerve was touched, but the latter is the most damning because it trains a spotlight on the fact that what the journalist asked was exactly, spot on, the right thing.
Flub #2 — Punching Instead of Responding — When previous presidents fielded questions that in one way or another crossed a line, they may not have answered the question but the response they did give was generally civil. For the most part there was also an explanation for not providing the requested information.
In this new culture, when the prez is asked something he falsely regards as an attack, what do we see. Scarlet face, hands playing an invisible concertina, stuttery sputtering, and hurled grammar school adjectives.
He makes a big mistake here. It’s sort of the Shakespearian line on steroids: Methinks thou dost protest too much. In other words, the journalist’s question elicited a response that confirmed the reality T wanted to conceal.
There’s another misstep on his part too, but it’s more of a consequent effect than an immediate outcome. As we see next.
Flub #3 — Oblivious to the Outcome — We’ve already noted how the Trump firestorms make him look. Remember all his early declarations that he’d “act so presidential you won't believe it” — now we know we were right not to believe it.
But the other phenomenon that is completely eluding him is that the more he resists, the more journalists persist. And that is a triple threat.
First, increasingly members of the press are backing up each other, defending against poison arrows aimed at their peers and posing follow ups to dismissed inquiries. This only serves to relight the spotlight on a subject he wanted to get off the table as quickly as possible.
Second, each eruption erodes respect for the president and the Office of the President, and that means the gloves are off, sharper edged questions will prevail. And in fact we’re already seeing that.
The third one may well be his ultimate undoing. To borrow a phrase from the 60s, The Whole World is Watching.
Ratings are in the ionosphere for the task force press briefings. And that means as the press does its job, vast numbers of the American voting public are witness to his misunderstanding of the pandemic, the way he’s effed this up from the gitgo, and how that’s now massively affecting all of us.
And now
It may not yet be reflected in the polls but the unfortunate and growing statistics will eventually pull back the curtain. And whether or not he himself ever acknowledges it, one and all will see that the scale of cases, deaths, job losses, closed businesses, market tumble, and $2 trillion {more to come?} rescue bill that will come out of taxpayers’ hides —is to a great extent on him.
Had he paid attention to the reporters, had he grasped the reality behind their questions, had his response been not contentious fact-free denials but rather opened eyes that led him to take smart measures early on, who knows in what better place we might now find ourselves. The sad irony here is that the journalists and their persistence could have been his best friends, his saving grace.
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