Gail Collins used to be editorial page editor of the New York Times. Now she writes a column. What I never knew about her is that she has a wonderful sense of humor. Today she has a hilariouscolumn about the madness of King Donald (she didn’t call it that, but that’s what it is).
Whatever Donald Trump has, it’s spreading.
We’ve got a president who makes things up, and won’t retract when he’s cornered. This week press secretary Sean Spicer followed the leader. He picked up Trump’s wiretap story and added a new exciting detail: Not only had Barack Obama bugged Trump Tower, he might have used British intelligence spies to do the dirty work.
The British, of course, went nuts, and national security adviser H. R. McMaster tried to smooth things over. McMaster is new to the job, having succeeded Mike Flynn, who had to resign for lying about his phone conversations. Flynn was not even around long enough for us to find out that he was also a lobbyist for Turkish interests and took $68,000 from various Russian connections.
This is how insane the Trump administration is: On his first day, the new secretary of the interior rode to work on a horse named Tonto, and nobody really even noticed.
The part of the gang that isn’t involved in active fiction-writing is still saying things that are … peculiar. When budget director Mick Mulvaney rolled out the new Trump budget plan, the nation discovered he’s Sean Spicer with a calculator.
Mulvaney’s most memorable comment was an apparent dis of Meals on Wheels. (“We can’t spend money on programs just because they sound good.”) He also explained that tons of federal employees had to lose their jobs because “you can’t drain the swamp and leave all the people in it.”
Aid to public broadcasting had to go because Mulvaney couldn’t bear to tell “the coal mining family in West Virginia” that their taxes were going to the people who gave us “Sesame Street.”
Meanwhile, Tom Price, the health and human services secretary, was making the rounds attempting to explain the Republican health care bill. Including the part that lifts a $500,000 cap on health insurance company tax deductions for executive pay. (“That doesn’t sound like America to me.”)
Try to imagine, people, that you are the coal mining family in West Virginia. Which would you find more bothersome? Taxes going to help pay for West Virginia Public Broadcasting, or tax breaks for insurance companies that pay their C.E.O.s eight-figure salaries?
But budget and health care considerations faded in the glare of Donald Trump still insisting that Barack Obama had him wiretapped. The man is never going to admit he’s wrong about anything, is he?
All this began with twittering. You’d think at least he’d give that up, but no. “I think that maybe I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Twitter, because I get such a fake press, such a dishonest press,” Trump told Tucker Carlson in a Fox interview. He then launched into an attack on NBC’s ingratitude. (“I made a fortune for NBC with ‘The Apprentice.’ I had a top show where they were doing horribly, and I had one of the most successful reality shows of all time.”)
Have we had a day of the Trump presidency without a mention of “The Apprentice”?
“I made — and I was on for 14 seasons. And you see what happened when I’m not on. You saw what happened to the show. It was a disaster,” said the head of the most powerful nation in the world, who appears to think about Arnold Schwarzenegger more than he thinks about North Korea.
Pity his poor press secretary. This week, clearly at the president’s urging, Spicer read aloud an endless series of news stories that would have supported Trump’s claim to be a wiretap victim except for the part in which none of them did. Then he quoted a Fox commentator posing the theory about British spies.
The ensuing uproar pretty much ate up a visit by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who Trump seemed to relate to only as a potential fellow victim of Obama bugs. (“At least we have something in common perhaps.”) At first, when Merkel suggested they shake hands, Trump stared blankly ahead. But he did express a little sense of connection when the discussion turned to Germany’s programs for apprenticeships. (“That’s a name I like.”)
At a press conference, the president refused to even acknowledge that it was a bad idea for Spicer to bring up that British spy theory. “We said nothing,” he insisted, passing the buck. “You shouldn’t be talking to me. You should be talking to Fox.”
Meanwhile, over in Congress, powerful Republicans were beginning to move toward flat-out admissions that their chief executive was … untruthing.
“We see no evidence of that,” said Speaker Paul Ryan, when asked about the wiretap story. Living with President Trump has made Ryan so pathetic you almost have to feel sorry for him, although not quite.
Imagine what would have happened if, at some point over the last two weeks, the president had just casually conceded that he had been misinformed about the wiretap thing. His health care plan wouldn’t look any better. His budget wouldn’t have been more defensible. But we’d feel slightly less terrified that the nation’s security is in the hands of a nut job.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I can think of 3 words that come to mind when #45 or any of the people he has on staff, POS.
I’ve always loved Gail’s work and sense of humor. What dog lover wouldn’t; don’t think she wrote a single column on Romney’s 2012 campaign without mentioning the unfortunate Seamus, the family dog strapped to the roof of the family car on a cross-country trip. And then, she has a wry appreciation for Texas!
This Collins editorial would be funnier if it weren’t so true. Trump misses the distinction between famous and being a spectacle–and a national embarrassment, as are all who voted for him . . .
. . . and I don’t care if they all WERE disgusted with Congress, Wall Street, and the “2 percent.” The only change that has occurred since the election is that it got much, much worse. Before, it was an overly-partisan, government-stopping bunch of stupid people, cutting their noses off to spite their faces; now it’s a circus with a bunch of really dark clowns who want to tear down the whole tent. Let’s let Russia have it, then see where these fools go. They don’t call them “base” for nothing.
One good thing: At least Rex gets some sleep, and has an air of integrity about him. Wow. But my guess is, don’t get your nose too close.
This column reminded me of what Trump said to Merkel yesterday.
In welcoming her, he went into an elaborate boast about how he was bringing jobs back to America, how you could already see how many jobs he was bringing back, how he was already a big success. I realized then that he couldn’t tell the difference between the leader of a sovereign state and an audience of Trump lovers. It was just another campaign rant. Wrong audience.
dianeravitch: I think he was intimidated by Merkel.
Somewhere in his heart of hearts, he knows how awful he is. His hands are not the only thing about him that is small–and besides the common reference to his private parts.
My dad, a psychiatrist, likes to say that down deep, people know what they are. I often think about that.
Merkel’s face spoke volumes, especially when Trump made his “we’ve got something in common” joke that fell flat like a lead balloon. She is a classy leader and was able to keep her repulsion under wraps.
Quite a contrast: Merkel, who has a doctorate in physical chemistry, served as Minister for the Environment, and is completing third term as her nation’s leader. Then there’s DJT.
The body language between the highly skilled and intelligent Merkel and our own DJT was revealing.
Trump is a thug
This reminds me that during the election someone posted the idea that if Trump was offered his old position back with THE APPRENTICE he would’ve stopped his political campaign and taken it: he appears to equate the two “jobs” as being of the exact same importance.
And yet there are still people who rant and rave about Hillary, who claim that she would have been much worse, blah, blah. Utter nonsense. I just shudder to think what will be Trump’s reaction when we have some terrible event such as a terrorist attack. Things are bad enough, dire enough NOW with no terrorist attack or huge school shooting.
True. And, I was just thinking, what crisis is lurking, ready to erupt, while the nation and our leadership is distracted dealing with Trump’s bizarre, babyish behavior?
If there’s no crisis, expect Trump to manufacture one a la a Reichtstag fire.
Joe
For what it is worth, I voted for Hillary . I did so with the realization that Chomsky was right . There are many people, including some on this blog who will be done irreparable harm by what Trump and the Republicans will do . Harm that many of us will not see reversed in our life times .
That said, let us understand that we have arrived at this point because Democrats were also doing harm . The party had become the party of Wall Street and welfare . Many selling out their constituents for Wall Street cash while providing an ever decreasing inadequate safety net for those that had been left behind.
Their failures have led to Trump . They as Sanders said “were content to go down with the Titanic as long as they had a first class cabin”
Today I confronted Democratic Congressman Tom Suozzi at a town hall for being one of only six Democrats who voted for three bills to gut regulation
Two about Wall Street and one the Scrub ACT that will affect health, safety , consumers ,labor , and the environment.
Do you think the 359,000 he received from Wall Street had some influence on him.
As Truman said “when Democrats act like Republicans the people choose the real thing every time. ”
The losers are us not the politicians. We are the losers.
“Pity his poor press secretary.” Nope. Spicer is CHOOSING to lose his integrity by fronting for a puerile, lying, malicious, vindictive, blathering, haughty, and weak (an appellation he likes to give to others) ignoramus. I don’t pity him one bit.
If I were him, I would invent a health crisis that necessitated my resignation.
I think it’s true, Trump doesn’t retract, but he does often deflect and let things drop. I think he keeps up this wire tap thing because he really believes that something must have been and still is going on which explains a lot of his troubles and “failures”, in his mind: Sessions, travel bans, media “attacks”, intel issues, etc.
Sorry ‘wiretap’
My guess is that he insists on the wiretap story because he is paranoid, and it feels good to him that people comfort him and tell him, it didn’t happen. For him, that he lied, doesn’t matter. What matters is that he is told, people are not spying on him. He needs the assurance, so he can go on for a bit more as president.
Of course, he is paranoid, because he hides stuff, like his tax maneuvers or his Russian connections.
He proposes all these budget cuts, increases the military budget, pushes school choice, etc to please his fans, so that they will forgive him when his secrets eventually come out. During sleepless nights, he is tweeting feverishly but he is wording his future excuses “Come on guys, I did all this good stuff which will make us great and rich again, what’s a little tax evasion or petting with Putin compared to that?!”
Orange Donnie is a desperate man with sweaty little hands. If I wanted to evaluate his state of mind, I wouldn’t try to analyze his words and body language but would try to take his pulse and measure his palm sweat remotely. They would be off the charts, and I have half my kingdom to bet on that we’ll soon hear about the drugs he’s been taking to counter those symptoms. But he cannot fool us, teachers, who can spot and smell an anxious teenager from a mile.
In his autobiography, “Memoirs of a Revolutionist,” Peter Kropotkin, the 19th-century Russian scientist, anarchist and prince, describes being arrested by the Czar’s secret police for conspiracy against the state. When he expressed surprise to his interrogator that the Okhrana/secret police had been able to infiltrate his small revolutionary cell, his interrogator laughed, told him that it was nothing at all, and that everyone was under surveillance.
In fact, he said, no one was under closer surveillance and scrutiny that the Czar himself.
While it’s possible that agent was just enjoying some empty boasting, I think it’s quite plausible, and I’m not inclined to think things have changed very much among spies. After all, spying is what they do.
I hardly think it’s implausible that Trump’s conversation were listened to; I assume Obama’s were, as well.
We know for sure that J. Edgar Hoover maintained his power in DC for decades by compiling dossiers on Presidents and members of Congress, which he’d threaten to use as blackmail in the event they became a threat to him or the Bureau. Given the technology available to the spy agencies, why should things be any different now?
Michael Fiorillo That’s a far cry, still, from claiming it’s the case. Such coherent references ARE, however, a part of the complex of reasons to raise questions in a formal setting, as Congress is doing presently.
Also, WE (you and me) can think so anyway (I do, anyway–but still it’s a good guess, and not net fact); however, to claim that it’s already the case without the direct evidence, especially in a VERY public setting (like tweets, for instance) is just what most commonly mean when we refer to “conspiracy theory.” The only worse thing is to just make stuff up out of whole cloth. That’s nothing new either–so the term “insane” comes into view.
Catherine Blanche-King, While I generally assume that whatever Trump says is an eruption from his Id and/or a self-serving fiction, given what we know about the National Security State, it’s not that much of stretch to think his phone conversations were listened to/recorded.
After all, we know for a fact that they maintain metadata records of everyone’s phone calls, and according to the Vault 7 releases from Wikileaks, they are capable of circumventing the encryption capabilities of smart phones.
I may well be wrong, but I assume they spy on all of us, all the time, so why not Trump? In fact, if they’re spying on all of us, all the time, then especially Trump.
metadata is different from wiretapping.
they know how many calls you make but they don’t record each one of them unless you call someone at the Russian Embassy or in Syria. Where Trump’s staff got picked up was phone calls to the Russian Embassy, which are wire tapped.
Michael Fiorillo: Yes–I think you are right. The “however” there however, is in the weeds, so to speak; and in the most important context of the rule of law and the rules of evidence. I’m sure you know the Latin translation of the latter.
Very serious, we must have higher standards than this, actively and preemptively enforced. We have to amend the constitution.
Not just amend… It has a fundamental problem: it’s not specific enough, it’s too permissive. It allows, for example, a Trump-like figure to dominate a population of 300 million people, trying to turn the wheels backwards to outdated values and programs. In the 21st century, that’s nonsense.
It’s an over century old, logical/mathematical observation that overly permissive set of rules lead no nonsense, and, as a living testimony to the principle, we have our own nonsense parasiting away in the White House.
It’s time to tidy up the Constitution. It has served its purpose, but now it’s been a huge obstacle of progress by allowing individuals to oppress others. It has allowed the creation of billionaires, it has allowed wide spread corruption in politics and elsewhere for too long.
Let the Constitution retire where it belongs: a museum. Let it retire in dignity. Don’t let it fossilize to a Bible-like text which allows thousand and one interpretations and is amended by priests every Sunday, all over the world.
Mate Wiedrl: No disrespect intended, but I think you are wrong in the whole note here. We’ve talked about this here before, so I won’t go into it closely; but basically, and regardless of what Constitution you are talking about, there is a direct relationship between the generality of a constitution and the freedoms afforded to the people. The basic structure of a democracy puts responsibility on the people. What you suggest is first anarchy and, second, severe authoritarianism.
Also, libertarianism is basically an idealized abstraction–it assumes a high level of development in EVERYONE CONCERNED. (Good luck with that.) Whereas a general constitution leaves the field open for the culturing part of what
“culture” means. We won’t get that by over-ruling people.
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/525/417/429/request-that-president-obama-sue-donald-trump/
WS, Are people signing a petition that asks BO to “sue for liable” (sic)?
Thumbs up!
Anti-trump billboard. Dollar sign swastikas and clown mushroom clouds.
Outrageously accurate.
https://www.google.com/amp/amp.abc15.com/2116976806/provocative-billboard-of-president-trump-goes-up-on-grand-avenue.html
love it
One of the talking heads on CNN was saying that Comey will probably be asked if there is any evidence of collusion with the Russians when asked about this wiretapping garbage. And he will say, “no”. Even if he follows that with, “…not at this time”, the “no” will be what Breitbart and others will headline.
And Trump gets something he wants.
I’m beginning to seriously consider that this “president”s’ tweets really ARE a diversion, meant to distance himself from what really should be intense scrutiny regarding the Russian influencing of our election. Even if there was no collusion, there are serious issues that need to be confronted here and, instead of spearheading them, he’s making public allegations against our previous president of two terms.
It defies logic that he’s getting away with this.
All the changes and Executive Orders and undoings by this Administration will come right back to bite those who voted for the Republican nominee, and the rest of us, unfortunately. Witness, already, the forecast for the Affordable Care Act, which is being dismantled. The “plan” the Republicans have come up with shortchanges just about all who are insured by the ACA. (By the way, I’ve never heard of any insurance premium to be lowered, so insurance ALWAYS goes up…including Allstate.) In the field of public Education, the basis for 90-95% of the American education, both Democrats and Republicans dislike Common Core, but for very different reasons; the Republicans for Federal governmental overreach, which Democrats heartily agree, but Demos don’t particularly care for the government to set curriculum, because that’s what it is. (Trust me, I know. I’m a teacher and, unfortunately my district, after years of being hailed in the national spotlight, has sold out and bought into the Pearson/Common Core (no matter what California tries to call it) conglomerate of making good little worker bees, drones, if you will. (I could go on, but I promise I won’t.) The rollback of environmental protections (see the latest story on gas mileage regs) and striping of funding of the arts will be the death of us yet. Yes! Let a “businessman” run the country. He’ll run it, all right. Right into the ground. (P.S. We will save the country in 4 years…until then RESIST!.)
New description of our president: toddler psychopath.
Watch for the real description of how the Trump budget came about.
Another view of our childish president: