Gary Baldi
Well-known member
- Joined
- 6 Dec 2017
- Messages
- 7,061
With Trump, I have had to step away from the news headlines because I often find the facts are a lot more mundane and not so exciting.Oh I think you're right. A lot of the protests against Trump are personal (people just don't like him) or because he shoots from the hip, which we're not used to. Personally, it's the latter that annoys me.
Whether he actually lies or not is a moot point. There is so much 'fake news' and other social media information around that it's difficult to say. For example, hard to believe that every woman who claims they've been assaulted by him is a liar, as Trump claims, but little hard evidence either.
At first I thought he was just an idiot, drunk on power and likely to lose popularity quickly. I now believe the whole world of Trump is carefully choreographed to make him look good. His protectors claim he's tripled the value of the US economy, made thinks better for ethnic minorities, rejuvenated US industry. Hard facts to back the bluster are difficult to find, particularly believable ones.
He's claiming to be behind peace in Korea (although little appears to have actually happened) and even insinuated he was instrumental in the Thai cave boys being rescued, although there was zero US involvement.
Easy to laugh at him (it really is) but while millions of Americans away from the west Coast and New England actually believe he's the Messiah, he'll do OK and will probably secure a second term. He won't worry about alienating the metropolitan liberals, the press, the CIA or the FBI. He won't worry about adverse reactions to telling Germany how to spend their money, or the British PM how to conduct Brexit.
His ego is boundless and he must feel untouchable and unimpeachable.
Mike Pompeo is the one who has done the hard graft with NK - but a recent Trump appointment that was pilloried. So many people still fail to understand how deceptively simple his tactics are - read Scott Adam's book Win Bigly as a perspective on what he does as it's quite fascinating. It's doing deals, leveraging his position of power and weakening other peoples. He plays by his own rules and is unafraid of being a radical bull in a liberal china shop. We've had years of smug power deals and back slapping and there is this man who cares little for it.
The irony with Germany is they are very happy to tell other people what they do, but not so great at taking it.