By now you know that Trump said he believed Putin’s claim that Russia wasn’t interfering in Venezuela despite claims to the contrary coming from John Bolton and Mike Pompeo.
You heard that Trump said he didn’t confront Putin about interfering in the 2020 election.
Trump claimed that Putin “sort of smiled when he said the Mueller investigation started off being a mountain and ended up being a mouse.”
Sort of smiled?
I’ll bet if he actually did smile it was more of a self-satisfied smirk, perhaps with a wink and a nod if Trump was in on the lie.
This idiom is of course is nonsensical. It shows that either Putin if he literally said it, or Trump if he didn’t doesn’t know the actual idiom about the mountain and the molehill. My hunch is that Putin speaks better English so maybe it is Trump who thinks that mice and mountains only differ in terms of size.
Update: Commenter chresmologue noted:
- The misunderstanding here is not Putin’s, but Trump’s, and the author’s: neither of them seems to have heard of Horace’s famous line “Parturiunt montes; nascetur ridiculus mus,” (“The mountains are in labour; a ridiculous mouse will be born.”). Not that I think Trump ever heard of Horace, but Putin evidently has. (Read more about the fable here)
I don’t know if Putin actually said the words in my title, but I am sure in the photo below from TASS he is thinking something along these lines:
From TASS:
Putin, Trump discuss nuclear disarmament, Venezuela, Mueller report during phone call
Related (with video clips) “Chuck Schumer Rips Trump Over Putin Call: Gossiped About Fox News Conspiracy Theories?”
There seems to be a binary choice about what Trump believes that Putin claims, either he doesn’t but says he does, or he believes him. If the later there can be only one reason, at least one I can think of: he’s Non compos mentis. Or as I put it, a stupid gullible idiot — or to be sympathetic, has pre-dementia.
If he knows Putin is lying I can think of only to reasons he passes on these lies. One is that Putin has compromising information on him so damagining that to release it would end his presidency. The other stems from the primary lie, that Russia never interfrerred with the election, lead to admitting that his election wasn’t legitimate. Saying he believes all the other lies, like Venezuela, could stem from the theory that if you challenge Putin on one lie you throw into question every other lie he’s made.