This series assembles significant quotes from prominent associates of Donald Trump or of former Republican presidents now openly dissing the Donald. This is part 25. Earlier episodes are linked here.
Our tally so far is 141. More to come. Today, for a change of pace, we present intriguing observations from just one particularly perceptive Republican operative.
Michael Gerson served President George W. Bush in communications, policy and strategic planning. He was chief speechwriter from 2001 until June 2006. He now writes for the Washington Post and other publications.
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“With the whir of a helicopter engine in the background, Donald Trump veered from topic to topic with utter confidence, alarming ignorance, minimal coherence and relentless duplicity.”
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“Seldom in presidential history has more nonsense been expressed with greater concision. Never would the interests of America have been better served by a louder helicopter.”
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“Trumpism is an easygoing belief system that indulges and excuses the stiffing of contractors, the conning of students, the bilking of investors, the exploitation of women and the practices of nepotism and self-dealing. A faith that makes losing a sin will make cheating a sacrament.”
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“The man who promised to drain the swamp imported alligators such as Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen. The president himself tried to pull off a nine-figure real-estate deal with proxies of Vladimir Putin while he was running for president.”
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“The man who claimed he would bring business skills to the White House has cultivated a cloud of squabbling chaos around him. His management style — rewarding toadies and punishing honest disagreement — would push the average lemonade stand into early bankruptcy.”
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“Trump's promotion of moral and political chaos puts other members of his party in a difficult position. Difficult, but not complicated. It is their public duty to say that foolish things are foolish, that insane things are insane, that bigoted things are bigoted. On growing evidence, their failure to do so is abetting the country's decline into farce.”
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“What to make of this? First, the Trump presidency is not just unfolding, it is unraveling. All narcissists believe they are at the center of the universe. But what happens when a narcissist is actually placed at the center of the universe? The chosen one happens. Trump is not just arguing for an alternative set of policies; he is asserting an alternative version of reality, in which resistance to his will is disloyalty to the country.”
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“On pursuing the trade war with China, Trump called himself the ‘chosen one’. This came within hours of retweeting the claim he is loved like ‘the second coming of God.’ At some point, arrogance is so extreme and delusional that it can only be expressed in blasphemy.”
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“Given what we know about the collusion — and there is no other word for it — between then-candidate Donald Trump’s most senior advisers and what they thought was a Kremlin-tied lawyer offering dirt on Hillary Clinton, the most shocking thing is that no one on the Trump side was shocked. The most offensive thing is that no one took offense. Trump’s son, son-in-law and campaign manager treated the offer of aid by a hostile foreign power to tilt an election as just another day at the office. ‘I think many people would have held that meeting,’ the president affirmed. It is the banality of this corruption that makes it so appalling. The president and his men are incapable of feeling shame about shameful things.”
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“Some political choices are not just stupid or crude. They represent the return of our country’s cruelest, most dangerous passion. Such racism indicts Trump. Treating racism as a typical or minor matter indicts us.”
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“Racism is the fire that left our country horribly disfigured. It is the beast we try to keep locked in the basement. When the president of the United States plays with that fire or takes that beast out for a walk, it is not just another political event, not just a normal day in campaign 2020. It is a cause for shame. It is the violation of martyrs’ graves. It is obscene graffiti on the Lincoln Memorial. And all of this is being done by an ignorant and arrogant narcissist reviving racist tropes for political gain, indifferent to the wreckage he is leaving, the wounds he is ripping open.”
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My personal recommendation [on how to attack Trump]: Relentlessly turning the president’s claim of authenticity against him, until his defining public attributes become national jokes. Every part of Trump’s appeal is fraudulent. His lies are not the filigree; they are the foundation.
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Sources are here, here, here, here and here.
To be continued ...
Readers’ suggestions in the comments are invited.