At this point, it looks like President Trump’s reelection strategy is to be almost everything the media say about him — a barely literate dingbat sociopath.
And I only say “almost” because I still don’t think he’s additionally a racist, just a gratuitous jerk.
During an interview Wednesday with the Wall Street Journal, he actually said, “I did something good: I made Juneteenth very famous. It’s actually an important event, an important time. But nobody had ever heard of it.”
After that flash of brilliance, the Wall Street Journal noted that Trump then asked a nearby aide whether she had previously heard of Juneteenth, recognized as the day that slavery ended. When she told him that the White House had put out a statement last year regarding Juneteenth, Trump replied, “Oh really? We put out a statement? The Trump White House put out a statement? OK, OK. Good.”
Moronic.
I hate the pressure put on presidents and (gag!) celebrities to say something “comforting” in moments of tragedy or great importance. But if Trump has to talk, I’d at least expect him to do better than a verbal bowel movement.
The pace of inexcusably stupid things has been steady lately, and it’s starting to worry me. Is the president OK? Or is he really just as stupid as he’s starting to look?
After the Supreme Court issued its ruling Tuesday, on workplace discrimination as it pertains to gay and transgender people, a reporter asked Trump to respond. “They’ve ruled,” he droned. “I’ve read the decision, and some people were surprised, but they’ve ruled, and we live with the decision. That’s what it’s all about. We live with the decision of the Supreme Court. Very powerful, very powerful decision, actually. But they have so ruled.”
He clearly had no idea what he was talking about. That was even more obvious when you compare it to the way he reacted to the ruling issued Thursday against the administration’s attempt to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which he likened to a shotgun blast “to the face.”
The blow-up over the now-famous church photo-op was, naturally, too much. But also, what the hell was that?
“You have people screaming all over the place, and I didn’t think it was exactly the right time to pray — I’m on the sidewalk,” Trump told the Wall Street Journal as he recalled the episode. “And the church itself, I didn’t want to go in because they had a lot of insurance reasons. You know, the church was boarded up. The entire church was boarded up, and I knew that. So, I went there, stood there, held up the Bible, talked to a few people, and then, we left. I came back, and I got bad publicity.”
The “bad publicity” wasn’t because he looked foolish holding up a Bible, but because the short path from the White House to the church was aggressively cleared of protesters by police and National Guardsmen using weapons and gas.
What was it meant to even symbolize or signal? The church hadn’t been singled out amid the looting, burning, and rioting from the nights before. It was just one of dozens of other buildings, structures, restaurants, and stores that had been trashed. Was it supposed to look like Trump was standing up for religious freedom, which had precisely nothing to do with the chaos? It was dumb, and most of his supporters would probably admit it after a few drinks.
Trump’s approval among Republicans has already taken an 8-point hit since April, according to Gallup. Whereas Trump has tended to enjoy a healthy 93% approval from his party, it has slid to 85% in recent days. The same goes for independent voters whose approval of Trump sank from 47% to 39% in the same time period. I wonder why.
Fortunately for the president, his opponents (Joe Biden, Democrats, and the media) find their own ways not to look any better. But it’s becoming a very, very close call.
Trump has less than five months to fix that very, very big problem.
