The explanation that I have developed of late is that the media (as with the House) understands that Trump has exposed the rotting infrastructure of our nation. To place a spotlight on this reality would be to jeopardize their actual vs intended roles in society. For those in positions of privilege or power, there is little incentive to behave in ways that endanger these positions. I watched in amazement as Twitter exploded with praise over an NPR reporter who asked 2 questions that were never answered...this is the bare minimum for the WH press corps, and yet it's treated as an act of heroism because the president was 'mean' to her. The truth is that we no longer need a WH press corps in the time of Trump where he reveals his every thought and blatant indifference to human suffering via Tweet or Fox News appearance. Nothing at all is gained from their questions and their rote recitation of Trump's lies is clearly spreading propaganda that endangers life.
With some notable exceptions, where is the WH Press Corps? Though I was never a Sam Donaldson fan, I can't imagine either he or Helen Thomas letting Trump get away with his persistent lying. The press corps' explosion of lying euphemisms confirms complicity in a more sinister explanation.
Because that's not what Democrats are "supposed to do", whereas establishment media has become acculturated over decades to Republicans being increasingly authoritarian and openly hostile to anyone not on board with the party line. "We will be greeted as liberators", "you're either with us, or you're with the terrorists", any of that bring back memories? This didn't just begin with Trump. Goldwater was considered a far-right nut in '64, but he'd be a libby-lib RINO in today's Republican Party. (And he was indeed considered such by some Republicans near the end of his life, saying things like gays should be allowed in the military and the Christian right is dangerous.)
I remember comparing bush and his “with me or you’re not a real American/patriot” to hitler and being very afraid that so many people believed in that mentality. Then came trump....
Thank you! Finally someone is saying the emperor has no clothes! I worked for 36 years in the mental health field, but anyone can see Trump has a malignant narcissistic personality disorder, which is different from simple narcissism. It includes sadistic and sociopathic features. Nearly 60,000 mental health professionals signed a petition in 2017 arguing he is unfit to hold office. He is a real and present danger to the nation. The mainstream press has trouble even pointing out that he lies constantly. They prefer innocuous terms like "facts seem to indicate otherwise." Where is our Joseph N. Welch who publicly called out Joseph McCarthy? Trump is literally allowing people to die who may have been saved by a competent president and administration.
talk about the third rail of American politics — reporting on Trump's mental state simply is not allowed, despite the fact as you note hundreds of mental health experts have weighed in.
Great article. And yes the incompetence argument does not work here. Any seventh grader could have provided a better response to this crisis. tRUMP-45's slow-walking of any possible Federal response is criminal mass homicide. He is a sociopath folks!
Incompetence doesn't explain separating children and families, putting them in cages. It doesn't explain pretending to be a Christian, or a even conservative. It doesn't explain encouraging violence at rallies against liberals, or the press. It doesn't explain attacking our intelligence services, or making money off of the office.
It's not fear of the base, which the GOP has led around by the nose for decades. He started out with Bannon and the Mercers. The GOP leadership universally disliked him.
Then, one by one, they spent time alone with him. And they left bowing to him.
It's something something deeply ugly and illegal that is going on and it involves the entire GOP leadership. It is probably kompromat of criminal behavior, involving the most powerful people in the party. It was probably hacked by the Russians, and given to Trump. And he was given a choice to leverage it or be exposed for treason, under penalty of death, along with his kids.
Not really, the party leaders disliked him because they feared he couldn't win because of his "political incorrectness" and they thought he might actually try to do "liberal" things like universal healthcare or tax increases. (He used to be a registered Democrat who donated to Clinton!) Once they became reassured that the party base didn't mind his "un-Christian" behavior and his stump promises were just bullshit, they warmed up to him. I'm not saying that there isn't plenty of criminality in the Republican Party (there is), but the whole party being blackmailed isn't the dynamic here. And do you seriously think someone rich and powerful like Trump would ever be convicted of treason?
Also, the stuff he's done has "harmed America" only if you think of the U.S. as a shared nation made up of all its inhabitants. If you see "America" as white, Christian, and patriarchal, as most Republicans do, you'll view his actions differently.
Great newsletter, Eric. I just subscribed. I’ve followed you on Twitter for years.
So, given that there’s definitely something creepy and disingenuous about the press’s refusal to go hard after corrupt Republicans like I assume they’d be going after a much-less-corrupt Democrat, doesn’t it have to be more than just a case of outmoded journalistic conventions that have been hacked and exploited by the GOP? There always seems to be an element of it in which the press is definitely in on the bad faith, don’t you think? Doesn’t it have to be more than just careerism, herd instinct or whatever on the part of many of these journalists? So what do you think it is really?
i think it's a combination of things, including careerism, which ties into fear of losing access and fear of 'liberal media allegations.' Beltway journalists understand that becoming a right-wing target can have serious career implications. i also think the love of Both Sides, drives a lot of bad journalism
Trump is a transnational organized criminal. Anyone who has read Craig Under's House of Trump/Putin or seen Active Measures doc knows this, yet media fails to go anywhere near the subject. Framing the following behavior through an organized crime lens makes its obvious that this was coordinated. Trump:
1. Gave 17.8 tons of med supplies we desperately need right now to China in early feb.
2. Then outbids states for med supplies.
3. Then allocates supplies based upon treatment by said states.
Combine this with the fact that, per below, areas containing swab and mask manufacturers were hit hardest by virus....
Trump couldn’t “belong” to a Mafia Family, you had to be Sicilian to be a “made man “. But, I am sure both he and his father before him were willing accomplices and participants in many activities with the Genovese and other of the 5 families. You weren’t involved in any kind of construction or development in the boroughs with out being involved with them.
Appreciate this article so much. Don't know if you can edit, but typo in 7th paragraph. "Trump be do" should be "Trump to do". Thanks for continuing to address this issue.
Trump's psycopathic response to the estimate of dead resulting from the coronavirus, while no surprise, is a sick example of the complacency of the media. Facing 100,000 deaths would mean he had "done a good job" is pathological. The alternative to not doing things "perfectly" as Dr. Birx described it, could result in 2.2 million dead from this admininistration's incompetent response to the crisis. Where is the outrage?
In a normal world, Trump would have been removed by now. But the ideological Republicans inaction in the U.S. Senate, and the cabinet's refusal to vote Amendment 25, will result in untold thousands of deaths of innocent Americans. Where is the drum beat?
History will not be kind to this president and his enablers. Assuming anyone is left to read history.
American exceptionalism is a hell of a drug. As you suggest, establishment media simply cannot comprehend the idea of the U.S. President being a narcissistic sociopath, or of the U.S. not being "the greatest country in the world". It's as insane to them as someone suggesting the Earth is a flat disk made of cheese. So they engage in motivated reasoning to provide an acceptable (to them) explanation of Trump's actions (or lack thereof). It's not that he's fine with the idea of millions of Americans dying! He's just lazy and short-sighted! Remember that the WSJ in particular is a Murdoch rag and basically the house organ of the U.S. plutocrat class. What they publish is a reflection of what the plutocrats are thinking. When they make suggestions about the administration, the intention is to get it out to people like Mnuchin who read the WSJ, so they can influence Trump.
Following on, nothing personal, but it's not true that "no other country" has leaders who are behaving similarly. Authoritarian states such as Turkmenistan, Russia, and North Korea have been not taking public health measures and trying to silence talk about the disease. Those leaders are the ones Trump admires and sees as models. Hungary's ruling party just used COVID as the pretext for formally ratifying their dictatorship. This is the direction the U.S. is headed in.
Mr. Boehlert, you are so dead on, I have been saying this for 3 years now, and getting blank stares in return. Journalists have not done their job. Most of them anyway and the ones that have really tried can't get enough traction to make a real difference. Thank you, thank you thank you for your astute observation, it's about time somebody just came out and said it.
Trump as well as the #CorruptComplicitGOP Legislators & Administrators that support & enable should be charged with: #Treason #CriminalNegligence & #CrimesAgainstHumanity. Republicans know Trump is a #RacistMegalomanicSociopath yet they REFUSE to hold #TraitorTrump accountable because they’re ALL PROFITING FINANCIALLY from Trump’s Criminal Acts.
Taboo for you to say too, you fearless intrepid reporter you.
You go step by step through your piece alleging there's more to Trump's response than gross incompetence and negligence, pointing out reporters are unable to say out loud the 'unthinkable'... and then you end your piece without ever laying out what that unthinkable thing is.
You failed. You've left off the most important part. You've done exactly what you accuse other reporters of doing.
Shut up and away until you can find the stones to say straight up what needs to be said. Until you do you are an accessory to the problem.
Trump habitually declines to pay his bills. When one contractor demanded to be paid the agreed price, Trump complained that the work was substandard, and then tried to recruit the contractor for new jobs while continuing to not pay for the previous work.
Donald Trump is reputed to be a pretty good golfer, but cheats anyway.
Trump is said to routinely ignore the advice of lawyers.
Except I don't think he ignores it.
There was a character in a novel I once read, who bragged about deliberately marching the soldiers under his command in the wrong direction.
It has been a very long time since Donald Trump has had to do anything himself, even for himself, if indeed he ever has.
Probably his entire life, every material need has been fulfilled before deprivation is even notional. Any need or want that isn't already anticipated is satisfied effortlessly by stating it.
Can you imagine how boring that world is?
How do you affirm your agency when every action encounters zero resistance? How do you tell you are pushing, in a universe that always yields?
If you cannot fix a bicycle or write an essay or tune an engine, or do any of infinite number of things humans do to make their mark on the universe and affirm their status as creative beings through agency, there is another path.
Transgression for its own sake has the virtue of not requiring skill or disciple, while achieving the desired end, agency.
So, your lawyer tells you;
"When we get in front of the judge, no matter what, don't say; 'this'."
If you are Donald Trump, when you get in front of that judge, you say; "THIS THIS THIS!!!"
You do it to teach that lawyer who is the object and who is the subject, and to push against the universe, because finally, you have something to push against.
And when your advisors tell you that you, "have" to do A, B, and C to get the country through a pandemic, you stand up and do z, y, x.
The purpose of those advisors is not to guide his actions, it is to provide a new constraint to break.
Trump does it to affirm that he can. It is a deep validation for him. I think that if he could get the contractor above to do more work for him, and then not pay, again, it would be one of the great pleasures Donald Trump is capable of experiencing.
Trumps actions are simply a conscious expression of will to power.
Perhaps like he said were at war. He IS a war president. He is fighting FOR the country who supported his election. Who wants us on our knees also helped him where he is at. “Our” means not-America. Did we forget that his first meeting as president was with two foreign assets known in tge community, where no one was allowed. And when he met with Putin he refused to allow anyone in the meeting and the translator destroyed the transcripts. I mean is it that hard to figure out?
Eric, you raise three questions/subjects (which may not be all we can ask); investment strategies, foreign influence, and election interference. Certainly the 500 billion allocated in the most recent stimulus bill provides leverage for targeted investment outcomes, but I tend to weight election interference as the leading candidate. This election is an exceptionally high stakes one for both parties as well as DJT, so I definitely see an incentive for blowing that process up. It appears that there are really no limits or inhibitions for the current Republican actors, so I find that a credible notion.
Having addressed that, I would still believe that there are multiple factors in play here. I'd be interested in an over/under from other commenters as well regarding probabilities.
Media behavior is indeed influenced by journalistic habits, but I see the realistic fear of intense bullying as well as corporate ownership (Republican, of course) as the two major controllers of content. In the end everything leads to *money* as the driver of Trump's behavior as well as media content and style. As I have noted elsewhere, if Wall Street was united in wanting Trump gone, he'd be gone and a media and PR campaign would effectively cover for the event. I'd definitely blame the Democrats for the outcome in any case.
"It’s time for journalists to stop expressing shock regarding his erratic and heartless behavior..." This. Reacting shocked to every single time Trump does something incompetent/sociopathic/just plain weird also creates, like, weirdness fatigue so that at this point everybody's used to this type of behavior from a president and it's setting a precedent so that it becomes normal. Which is kind of terrifying.
For Trump to so cavalierly say that 100,000 people will die - and if that is all, people will say he did a good job. My God, what if one of those people is in my family? This man is truly evil. If the press Corp is going to risk their lives to ask him questions- why don’t they ask why his son-in-law, who has absolutely zero experience or qualification is deciding when, where or if certain states will get ventilators. I would love to hear Biden say- “you’re going after my son- when your family is making money off people dying!” Sorry to ramble - but things that are happening now are as insane as Trump is!
The explanation that I have developed of late is that the media (as with the House) understands that Trump has exposed the rotting infrastructure of our nation. To place a spotlight on this reality would be to jeopardize their actual vs intended roles in society. For those in positions of privilege or power, there is little incentive to behave in ways that endanger these positions. I watched in amazement as Twitter exploded with praise over an NPR reporter who asked 2 questions that were never answered...this is the bare minimum for the WH press corps, and yet it's treated as an act of heroism because the president was 'mean' to her. The truth is that we no longer need a WH press corps in the time of Trump where he reveals his every thought and blatant indifference to human suffering via Tweet or Fox News appearance. Nothing at all is gained from their questions and their rote recitation of Trump's lies is clearly spreading propaganda that endangers life.
I also think the real questions/answers abt Trump’s behavior are deemed out of bounds by press—they expose too much as you suggest
With some notable exceptions, where is the WH Press Corps? Though I was never a Sam Donaldson fan, I can't imagine either he or Helen Thomas letting Trump get away with his persistent lying. The press corps' explosion of lying euphemisms confirms complicity in a more sinister explanation.
trust me, the WH press corps would be treating a Dem POTUS much differently if he/she tried to lie their way through pandemic briefings
Because that's not what Democrats are "supposed to do", whereas establishment media has become acculturated over decades to Republicans being increasingly authoritarian and openly hostile to anyone not on board with the party line. "We will be greeted as liberators", "you're either with us, or you're with the terrorists", any of that bring back memories? This didn't just begin with Trump. Goldwater was considered a far-right nut in '64, but he'd be a libby-lib RINO in today's Republican Party. (And he was indeed considered such by some Republicans near the end of his life, saying things like gays should be allowed in the military and the Christian right is dangerous.)
I remember comparing bush and his “with me or you’re not a real American/patriot” to hitler and being very afraid that so many people believed in that mentality. Then came trump....
Thank you! Finally someone is saying the emperor has no clothes! I worked for 36 years in the mental health field, but anyone can see Trump has a malignant narcissistic personality disorder, which is different from simple narcissism. It includes sadistic and sociopathic features. Nearly 60,000 mental health professionals signed a petition in 2017 arguing he is unfit to hold office. He is a real and present danger to the nation. The mainstream press has trouble even pointing out that he lies constantly. They prefer innocuous terms like "facts seem to indicate otherwise." Where is our Joseph N. Welch who publicly called out Joseph McCarthy? Trump is literally allowing people to die who may have been saved by a competent president and administration.
talk about the third rail of American politics — reporting on Trump's mental state simply is not allowed, despite the fact as you note hundreds of mental health experts have weighed in.
Great article. And yes the incompetence argument does not work here. Any seventh grader could have provided a better response to this crisis. tRUMP-45's slow-walking of any possible Federal response is criminal mass homicide. He is a sociopath folks!
agreed. It’s not physically possible to do worse job than Trump. impossible to think every bad decision has been coincidence
Incompetence doesn't explain separating children and families, putting them in cages. It doesn't explain pretending to be a Christian, or a even conservative. It doesn't explain encouraging violence at rallies against liberals, or the press. It doesn't explain attacking our intelligence services, or making money off of the office.
It's not fear of the base, which the GOP has led around by the nose for decades. He started out with Bannon and the Mercers. The GOP leadership universally disliked him.
Then, one by one, they spent time alone with him. And they left bowing to him.
It's something something deeply ugly and illegal that is going on and it involves the entire GOP leadership. It is probably kompromat of criminal behavior, involving the most powerful people in the party. It was probably hacked by the Russians, and given to Trump. And he was given a choice to leverage it or be exposed for treason, under penalty of death, along with his kids.
Everything he has done has harmed America.
Every. thing. Cui bono?
Not really, the party leaders disliked him because they feared he couldn't win because of his "political incorrectness" and they thought he might actually try to do "liberal" things like universal healthcare or tax increases. (He used to be a registered Democrat who donated to Clinton!) Once they became reassured that the party base didn't mind his "un-Christian" behavior and his stump promises were just bullshit, they warmed up to him. I'm not saying that there isn't plenty of criminality in the Republican Party (there is), but the whole party being blackmailed isn't the dynamic here. And do you seriously think someone rich and powerful like Trump would ever be convicted of treason?
Also, the stuff he's done has "harmed America" only if you think of the U.S. as a shared nation made up of all its inhabitants. If you see "America" as white, Christian, and patriarchal, as most Republicans do, you'll view his actions differently.
Great newsletter, Eric. I just subscribed. I’ve followed you on Twitter for years.
So, given that there’s definitely something creepy and disingenuous about the press’s refusal to go hard after corrupt Republicans like I assume they’d be going after a much-less-corrupt Democrat, doesn’t it have to be more than just a case of outmoded journalistic conventions that have been hacked and exploited by the GOP? There always seems to be an element of it in which the press is definitely in on the bad faith, don’t you think? Doesn’t it have to be more than just careerism, herd instinct or whatever on the part of many of these journalists? So what do you think it is really?
i think it's a combination of things, including careerism, which ties into fear of losing access and fear of 'liberal media allegations.' Beltway journalists understand that becoming a right-wing target can have serious career implications. i also think the love of Both Sides, drives a lot of bad journalism
Trump is a transnational organized criminal. Anyone who has read Craig Under's House of Trump/Putin or seen Active Measures doc knows this, yet media fails to go anywhere near the subject. Framing the following behavior through an organized crime lens makes its obvious that this was coordinated. Trump:
1. Gave 17.8 tons of med supplies we desperately need right now to China in early feb.
2. Then outbids states for med supplies.
3. Then allocates supplies based upon treatment by said states.
Combine this with the fact that, per below, areas containing swab and mask manufacturers were hit hardest by virus....
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/03/how-will-coronavirus-end/608719/
interesting. thanks for posting the link.
Trump belonged to Genovese Crime Family before Russian mob. Not a secret in NYC or old news pubs. NBC sat on Weinstein for same reason.
Trump couldn’t “belong” to a Mafia Family, you had to be Sicilian to be a “made man “. But, I am sure both he and his father before him were willing accomplices and participants in many activities with the Genovese and other of the 5 families. You weren’t involved in any kind of construction or development in the boroughs with out being involved with them.
Appreciate this article so much. Don't know if you can edit, but typo in 7th paragraph. "Trump be do" should be "Trump to do". Thanks for continuing to address this issue.
thanks, fixed for folks reading on website via Twitter etc.
Trump's psycopathic response to the estimate of dead resulting from the coronavirus, while no surprise, is a sick example of the complacency of the media. Facing 100,000 deaths would mean he had "done a good job" is pathological. The alternative to not doing things "perfectly" as Dr. Birx described it, could result in 2.2 million dead from this admininistration's incompetent response to the crisis. Where is the outrage?
In a normal world, Trump would have been removed by now. But the ideological Republicans inaction in the U.S. Senate, and the cabinet's refusal to vote Amendment 25, will result in untold thousands of deaths of innocent Americans. Where is the drum beat?
History will not be kind to this president and his enablers. Assuming anyone is left to read history.
American exceptionalism is a hell of a drug. As you suggest, establishment media simply cannot comprehend the idea of the U.S. President being a narcissistic sociopath, or of the U.S. not being "the greatest country in the world". It's as insane to them as someone suggesting the Earth is a flat disk made of cheese. So they engage in motivated reasoning to provide an acceptable (to them) explanation of Trump's actions (or lack thereof). It's not that he's fine with the idea of millions of Americans dying! He's just lazy and short-sighted! Remember that the WSJ in particular is a Murdoch rag and basically the house organ of the U.S. plutocrat class. What they publish is a reflection of what the plutocrats are thinking. When they make suggestions about the administration, the intention is to get it out to people like Mnuchin who read the WSJ, so they can influence Trump.
Following on, nothing personal, but it's not true that "no other country" has leaders who are behaving similarly. Authoritarian states such as Turkmenistan, Russia, and North Korea have been not taking public health measures and trying to silence talk about the disease. Those leaders are the ones Trump admires and sees as models. Hungary's ruling party just used COVID as the pretext for formally ratifying their dictatorship. This is the direction the U.S. is headed in.
Mr. Boehlert, you are so dead on, I have been saying this for 3 years now, and getting blank stares in return. Journalists have not done their job. Most of them anyway and the ones that have really tried can't get enough traction to make a real difference. Thank you, thank you thank you for your astute observation, it's about time somebody just came out and said it.
Trump as well as the #CorruptComplicitGOP Legislators & Administrators that support & enable should be charged with: #Treason #CriminalNegligence & #CrimesAgainstHumanity. Republicans know Trump is a #RacistMegalomanicSociopath yet they REFUSE to hold #TraitorTrump accountable because they’re ALL PROFITING FINANCIALLY from Trump’s Criminal Acts.
Taboo for you to say too, you fearless intrepid reporter you.
You go step by step through your piece alleging there's more to Trump's response than gross incompetence and negligence, pointing out reporters are unable to say out loud the 'unthinkable'... and then you end your piece without ever laying out what that unthinkable thing is.
You failed. You've left off the most important part. You've done exactly what you accuse other reporters of doing.
Shut up and away until you can find the stones to say straight up what needs to be said. Until you do you are an accessory to the problem.
I have a theory;
Some anecdotes might be useful.
Trump habitually declines to pay his bills. When one contractor demanded to be paid the agreed price, Trump complained that the work was substandard, and then tried to recruit the contractor for new jobs while continuing to not pay for the previous work.
Donald Trump is reputed to be a pretty good golfer, but cheats anyway.
Trump is said to routinely ignore the advice of lawyers.
Except I don't think he ignores it.
There was a character in a novel I once read, who bragged about deliberately marching the soldiers under his command in the wrong direction.
It has been a very long time since Donald Trump has had to do anything himself, even for himself, if indeed he ever has.
Probably his entire life, every material need has been fulfilled before deprivation is even notional. Any need or want that isn't already anticipated is satisfied effortlessly by stating it.
Can you imagine how boring that world is?
How do you affirm your agency when every action encounters zero resistance? How do you tell you are pushing, in a universe that always yields?
If you cannot fix a bicycle or write an essay or tune an engine, or do any of infinite number of things humans do to make their mark on the universe and affirm their status as creative beings through agency, there is another path.
Transgression for its own sake has the virtue of not requiring skill or disciple, while achieving the desired end, agency.
So, your lawyer tells you;
"When we get in front of the judge, no matter what, don't say; 'this'."
If you are Donald Trump, when you get in front of that judge, you say; "THIS THIS THIS!!!"
You do it to teach that lawyer who is the object and who is the subject, and to push against the universe, because finally, you have something to push against.
And when your advisors tell you that you, "have" to do A, B, and C to get the country through a pandemic, you stand up and do z, y, x.
The purpose of those advisors is not to guide his actions, it is to provide a new constraint to break.
Trump does it to affirm that he can. It is a deep validation for him. I think that if he could get the contractor above to do more work for him, and then not pay, again, it would be one of the great pleasures Donald Trump is capable of experiencing.
Trumps actions are simply a conscious expression of will to power.
That is what Trump does, and why he does it.
Perhaps like he said were at war. He IS a war president. He is fighting FOR the country who supported his election. Who wants us on our knees also helped him where he is at. “Our” means not-America. Did we forget that his first meeting as president was with two foreign assets known in tge community, where no one was allowed. And when he met with Putin he refused to allow anyone in the meeting and the translator destroyed the transcripts. I mean is it that hard to figure out?
Eric, you raise three questions/subjects (which may not be all we can ask); investment strategies, foreign influence, and election interference. Certainly the 500 billion allocated in the most recent stimulus bill provides leverage for targeted investment outcomes, but I tend to weight election interference as the leading candidate. This election is an exceptionally high stakes one for both parties as well as DJT, so I definitely see an incentive for blowing that process up. It appears that there are really no limits or inhibitions for the current Republican actors, so I find that a credible notion.
Having addressed that, I would still believe that there are multiple factors in play here. I'd be interested in an over/under from other commenters as well regarding probabilities.
Media behavior is indeed influenced by journalistic habits, but I see the realistic fear of intense bullying as well as corporate ownership (Republican, of course) as the two major controllers of content. In the end everything leads to *money* as the driver of Trump's behavior as well as media content and style. As I have noted elsewhere, if Wall Street was united in wanting Trump gone, he'd be gone and a media and PR campaign would effectively cover for the event. I'd definitely blame the Democrats for the outcome in any case.
I think the fear of bullying absolutely plays a role. and yr def right re: if Wall St wanted Trump home
"It’s time for journalists to stop expressing shock regarding his erratic and heartless behavior..." This. Reacting shocked to every single time Trump does something incompetent/sociopathic/just plain weird also creates, like, weirdness fatigue so that at this point everybody's used to this type of behavior from a president and it's setting a precedent so that it becomes normal. Which is kind of terrifying.
https://melanietheconstantreader.substack.com/
For Trump to so cavalierly say that 100,000 people will die - and if that is all, people will say he did a good job. My God, what if one of those people is in my family? This man is truly evil. If the press Corp is going to risk their lives to ask him questions- why don’t they ask why his son-in-law, who has absolutely zero experience or qualification is deciding when, where or if certain states will get ventilators. I would love to hear Biden say- “you’re going after my son- when your family is making money off people dying!” Sorry to ramble - but things that are happening now are as insane as Trump is!