A Little Self-Immolation
Trump at the NABJ.
![[Former President Trump at the NABJ Conference]](https://otb.cachefly.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/trump-nabj-edited.webp)
So this is less weird and more a combo of haughty self-regard and pure racism.
First, the haughty self-regard.
Clip two is the pure racism.
His reaction to the initial question is the behavior of someone who thinks he is better than the questioner. His utter self-importance is off the charts. (And it really stood out to me because I witnessed something like this within my own professional space quite recently).
His questioning of Harris’ racial self-identification (not to mention the ongoing deliberate mispronunciation of her first name) is quite something.
Bonus clip:
I know this won’t affect his base, but this is no way to appeal to swing voters (and is a great way to increase Black turnout).
It’s hard to imagine how Trump would have a net gain from this. It’s also hard to imagine that his senior advisors wanted him to attend the conference and face questions. Maybe he just overruled them all.
By the way, can the media do a few stories about how the assassination attempt changed Trump? He’s obviously the unity candidate, the one who can bring the country together. Today was just another demonstration.
He certainly cemented his racist bona fides with his MAGATs but probably that’s all he wanted to do; flat out act without respect to Black professionals.
If he had any idea what he was doing (and he may well), he was clearly playing to a different audience than the one sitting in front of him.
I applaud the questioner who wasn’t getting rolled like the one in the town hall earlier this year? Last year? A thousand years ago?
I think he went into it actually expecting to attract Black voters. He’s that delusional, that un self-aware. But his rage against Kamala was a boiling volcano in his tiny brain and he could not hold it in. He had to lash out. He cannot control himself when questioned by a Black woman. Rage and seething resentment and a god complex and racism.
So sweet. So very sweet.
He comes across like a guy who knows he has 44% of the voters locked down regardless of whatever racist, offensive, outrageous nonsense he spews.
I only saw this once and can’t find it now but supposedly the delay was when he objected to being fact checked in real time he refused to go on. When he did he blamed it on them.
Does anyone see a 2 cm hole in his ear? Ronnie Jackson described it as a 2 cm hole.
Anyway, I think he was surprised to face journalists who were practicing journalism. Let alone Black journalists practicing journalism.
Folks are saying he went all racist because it gets the spotlight temporarily back on him, it really must be getting under his skin that all the attention is not on the man who survived an assassination attempt.
Remember when it seemed like it was just yesterday when folks said the attempt on his life was going to pretty much guarantee he would be our next President? Trump was certainly being told he had it in the bag.
Interesting how that has actually turned out given the events of the past week. Kamala is the shiny new object to focus on and Trump is coming off as a bitter old man who is yesterday’s news.
duck seasonrabbit seasonTrump season
I think about how many times since 2016 have I witnessed some unhinged behavior or heinous comment by Trump and thought, “Surely this must be the thing that undoes this contemptible man.” Yet, Trump emerges unbent. It’s just Trump being Trump as the apologists say.
All my life, I have held to the idea that was well expressed by Anne Frank when she said, “In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart.” She was talking about the Nazis, of course, but it is the persistence of Trump and Trumpism in 2024 that has shattered this core belief for me.
I think I’ve come to hate Trump more for how his continued political survival has butchered my faith in my fellow man than for any animus I hold for the man’s politics.
@Scott F.:
Bingo.
One of my friends is moving abroad soon, with part of the reasoning being that Trump could be President again. When another of my friends opined that this was “kinda drastic,” I disagreed. And it wasn’t that my friend or I are particularly worried for ourselves under a Trump administration (although many people have quite valid reasons to be), it was that we are simply concerned about living in a country where half the people think he’s an acceptable candidate. That they’re so hateful that they want a “strong” leader to crush dissent. That they’ll easily shrug off their previously held standards and morals to bow down to their highly flawed king. We live amongst those people, and it’s frankly embarrassing.
One thing not getting much mention, is that the Felon’s handlers ended the event early.
So, yes, his camp knew what a dumpster fire it was.
Imagine for a moment that it was Joe Biden who was petulant, ignorant and utterly disrespectful at the NABJ meeting. Would the media dismiss it as “Joe being Joe” or would there be front page demands that an unfit, undoubtedly senile candidate step down? (Still waiting for just one political reporter to remind us that Trump is out on bail.)
I figured that he would speak gibberish but i didn’t expect.. well, what happened. Granted, i only heard/saw clips, cos i certainly can’t bring myself to listen to him for any length of time. Was he asked in more detail whether he thinks ‘black jobs’ are essentially custodial and construction (possibly some fruit picking)?
@Scott F.: I just saw a headline that donations spiked to ActBlue immediately following his NABJ appearance.
@Assad K:
That makes you a great deal more tolerant than I am. I can’t stand a second of his speech.
I did read through reports of the event. I found it interesting when he was asked whether Vance is qualified (or ready?) to be president, El Felón answered that the choice of VP makes absolutely no difference in the general election.
So, he didn’t answer the question, and threw his VP under the bus. He also went on to show how little regard he has for the country. If he’s gone, what does he care what happens?
So much for only those with children caring about the future.
@Charley in Cleveland: It’s a problem, and one I don’t know how to deal with. People, reporters, act like Republican awfulness is just normal, part of the universe. Can’t do anything about it. It’s the Democrats who need to do better. And there are parallels to Hamas/Israel, where supporters of Israel complain that no one is saying Hamas needs to change. And they’re right, but then again, I don’t expect Hamas to listen to me. Hamas isn’t pretending that they’re the good guys. Hamas is a messianic death cult. The real problem is that we have to live in a world with Hamas and the Republican Party in it.
It should be said there have been some good editorials calling on Trump to step down, but it hasn’t been the complete wall to wall coverage the way that Biden’s age was.
@Scott F.: I can appreciate this. The thing I try to remember is that so many of the Trumpers need Trump for … something. Many of them know that he is terrible, but he is a warrior that seems to be holding back whatever it is that they otherwise don’t feel they have control of.
For instance, the number of people identifying as white Christian in this country dropped below 50 percent in about 2015. This is not a small thing. The role of masculinity in the culture has shifted in a way that many don’t understand and are having trouble coping with. (I note that I am not one of those, and I have actively sought to be a guide to other boys and men.) If you are into resisting these sorts of changes, you need Trump because he seems like he might be able to fight things off.
I mean, he promises that “everything will be fixed” after his next turn. He said he was going to bring back coal. These are things people wish for and want, and he’s telling them what they want to hear, what they desperately want to hear. Things aren’t going back, he’s conning them. But they need it to be true, so they ignore all that stuff.
I lay this out because I am aware of having some similar vulnerabilities – not over the same things, my needs are different – and I would rather not be taken for a ride by a con man.
This is why I get suspicious when I hear or read stuff that is exactly what I wanted to hear. It’s an odd response. Most would probably celebrate it.