It is Sunday, the day devoted to hosting administration officials on the teevee so that they may lie repeatedly to you. Today the task was performed by Donald Trump himself.
Do you remember listening to other past presidents—Bill Clinton comes to mind here—and being impressed at how that person could hold forth on a given subject, giving details and statistics and policy options, for whatever amount of time was available or desired? Well hold that thought, because by any measure you can suppose the new version remains an idiot:
JOHN DICKERSON: Okay. So what I hear you saying is pre-existing is going to be in there for everybody, it's not going to be up to the states?
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Pre-existing is going to be in there and we're also--
JOHN DICKERSON: And it's not up to the states?
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: --going to create pools.
JOHN DICKERSON: Okay.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: And pools are going to take care of the pre-existing.
JOHN DICKERSON: But on that crucial question, it's not going to be left up to the states? Everybody gets pre-existing, no matter where they live?
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: No, but the states--
JOHN DICKERSON: Guaranteed?
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: --are also going to have a lot to do with it because we ultimately want to get it back down to the states.
JOHN DICKERSON: Okay. Is it a guarantee?
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Look, because if you hurt your knee, honestly, I'd rather have the federal government focused on North Korea, focused on other things, than your knee, okay?
That was only a small part of a stream-of-consciousness discussion that ended, after a very long while, with Trump assuring host John Dickerson that every single healthcare issue Dickerson asked about was going to be solved, no worries, either now or later or whatever. It followed on the heels of a declaration that China was too a "currency manipulator" but that they stopped as soon as Donald Trump took office, because Reasons, and a back-and-forth about North Korea so vapid and airy that it looked as if Trump was in danger of floating away at any moment.
The man is—remains, that is—an idiot. There's not the slightest indication he knows what is the newest Obamacare repeal, any more than the last version. His "policy" stances towards China consist of empty vapidities. It's not clear he could find North Korea on a map. His hiring of Flynn? He blames Barack Obama. Did Russia indeed tamper to help make him president? He professes indifference. Maybe, he says, it was China.
We are truly testing, on a live stage, whether Any Idiot will suffice as head of our country. If the test is successful, there is good news and there is bad. The bad news is that, indeed, our nation's mad and staggeringly expensive scrambles to install the most fit person in office each four years was all a pointless game to begin with. The good news is that we could just as easily install, as president, a puppy, or a potted ficus, or a single coin to be tossed as necessary—a move that would save us a bloody fortune. If the test is not successful? We’ll soon find out. So far, our national discourse doesn’t consider that a possibility worth considering.
