Stream of Consciousness Truthing
Yet more gems from the Commander-in-Chief.
Boston College historian Heather Cox Richardson summarizes President Trump’s Monday evening:
Over the course of three hours last night, he posted on social media fifty-five times. Those posts accused a number of those Trump considers his personal enemies, including former president Barack Obama, of treason; claimed that investigations of the ties between his 2016 campaign and Russian operatives were an attempt to damage Trump; insisted the 2020 presidential election was stolen; reposted a fake quotation from Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) accusing Obama of making a personal fortune of $120 million from the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare; labeled Obama and others “traitors” and called for their arrest; and demanded to know why acting attorney general Todd Blanche hadn’t indicted any of those people yet.
This morning, he started in again with a long screed attacking the New York Times for its coverage of his alterations to the reflecting pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., and insisting that Democratic presidents Obama and Joe Biden had “botched” renovations that he was now fixing for “a ‘tiny’ fraction of the cost!” He posted an AI image of Obama, Biden, and former House speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) apparently swimming in a filthy version of the reflecting pool with the caption: “Dumacrats Love Sewage.” Then he posted an image of himself on the $100 bill. And then he was back to calling House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) “Low IQ.”
After posting a number of AI images showing the U.S. military destroying the Iranian military, Trump posted: “When the Fake News says that the Iranian enemy is doing well, Militarily, against us, it’s virtual TREASON in that it is such a false, and even preposterous, statement. They are aiding and abetting the enemy!”
Then he posted an image of a map with Venezuela overlaid with the U.S. flag. The caption read: “51st State.”
She uses this to confirm her lay evaluation of Trump’s mental health. While neither she nor are qualified to render such judgments professionally, it’s notable that recent polling by the Washington Post and The Economist shows that many Americans agree with Richardson’s assessment. The former showed that 59% of registered voters surveyed in late April believe he does not have “the mental sharpness it takes to effectively serve as president” whereas the latter found 48% saying he is in significant (35%) or modest (13%) cognitive decline, compared to only 32% who believe he is suffering none.
That map of Venezuela may come up if Trump mentions Taiwan to Xi. Of course, Trump doesn’t think that rules that apply to others also apply to him.
And there’s probably an almost perfect overlap between those 32% and those who approve of the job he’s doing as president, I would think.
Interestingly, I’ve seen a few news items today about Natalie Harp, the 30-something aide who apparently feeds the president a lot of the AI slop and conspiracy junk he posts. It seems to me that someone is tiring of her ready access to Trump, and has decided to feed her to the wolves while he’s out of town.
@Jen: wolves gotta eat.
But, given that shamelessness is rewarded on the right these days, I do kind of wonder if these articles are her trying to raise her own profile. “Racist tweets are a service I provide!”
I’ll admit, the smart money is on someone else trying to raise her profile to get rid of her*, but a lot of these people aren’t so smart — they’re huffing their own supply. A lot of the most insane RFKJr stories come from RFKJr, so she might think she can ride the wave of insanity too.
*: please be one of her staffers that is trying to get her job. I really want to see the tell-all books about the war of the off-brand tweeters.
@Gustopher: She seems to be very…off-kilter. She apparently is a bone cancer survivor, and credits Trump with saving her life, even though the timeline between her treatment protocol and the “right to try” initiative that he signed don’t line up. The whole thing is weird and so sure, maybe it’s her driving this, but I suspect someone (Susie Wiles?) is realizing that the late night tweet storms are decidedly unhinged and need to be reined in a wee bit if not stopped entirely.