01-25-2017, 02:14 AM
(01-24-2017, 11:24 PM)X_4AD_84 Wrote:(01-24-2017, 11:09 PM)gabrielle Wrote: Trump Aides Keep Leaking Embarrassing Stories About How He Can’t Handle Embarrassment
Quote:On Sunday, one of the president’s confidantes told Politico that his staffers have to “control information that may infuriate him,” a task made difficult by the fact that the leader of the free world “gets bored and likes to watch TV."
...and then, on Monday night, Trump’s staffers whispered an even more vivid account of his rough weekend to the Washington Post.
Quote:President Trump had just returned to the White House on Saturday from his final inauguration event, a tranquil interfaith prayer service, when the flashes of anger began to build.
Trump turned on the television to see a jarring juxtaposition — massive demonstrations around the globe protesting his day-old presidency and footage of the sparser crowd at his inauguration, with large patches of white empty space on the Mall. As his press secretary, Sean Spicer, was still unpacking boxes in his spacious new West Wing office, Trump grew increasingly and visibly enraged…Over the objections of his aides and advisers — who urged him to focus on policy and the broader goals of his presidency — the new president issued a decree: He wanted a fiery public response, and he wanted it to come from his press secretary.
...after forcing Spicer to baldly lie to the White House press corps about the size of his inauguration crowd, the president fumed that his press secretary’s performance was “not forceful enough.” According to Axios, Trump was also incensed by Spicer’s poor taste in suits, and is already considering treating the former RNC staffer to his signature catchphrase.
A complete circus.
Let's get down and dirty with this. Here I reach out to those of you who consider yourselves Rightists. At one point does the circus element and the dis functional behavior become too much to bear? Or, do you believe that in fact Trump does not behave dis functionally, and that the circus element is some sort of construct of the MSM?
I am asking this in a bit of an amicus fashion - amicus to Rightists, not to Trump.
Do share.
With regard to this specific story, I'd say we can wait a few weeks and know the truth. If Spicer stays on, then this is just Politico stirring the pot. If Spicer resigns and gives a tell all interview, we'll know it was true.
The inauguration crowd size story has definitely been blown out of proportion. The pictures which seem to show a much smaller crowd for Trump than for Obama are taken from the Washington Monument end of the mall, and in addition the Trump picture is from an hour before swearing in, while the Obama picture is from half an hour before swearing in, after more people had a chance to gather. Pictures taken from the Capitol Building end of the mall with Obama speaking in 2009 and Trump speaking in 2017 do not show any visible difference in crowd size. The mall is long enough that pictures taken from either end don't really show the other end very well, though.
The accepted estimate for Obama's 2009 crowd was 1,800,000, so Trump's estimate of 1,000,000 to 1,500,000 for this year seem like they may be in the ballpark. The initial press estimates for Trump of 250,000 must be way off, or else the 2009 estimates were way off.
Essentially Trump caught the press in a lie, and responded with a lie of his own. The circus element is in my opinion the result of interaction between the two. Trump's press secretary ends up communicating Trump's lie, but that's no different from what Carney did for Obama.
I don't know whether it works in Trump's favor or against him. I do know it works against the media. When the media starts sprinkling the word "false" in front of "claim" in their headlines, as has started happening in the last couple of days, they completely discredit themselves as objective sources; an objective source would either ignore false claims, or present them objectively and allow the reader to decide whether they were false. Basically Trump has managed to drag the media down to the level of Twitter, which can't be good for them.
One could argue that it can't be good for a President to communicate primarily through Twitter in the first place, but it does seem to put him on the wavelength of the average American. It may turn out to be an effective way of bypassing the press as FDR's fireside chats did.