Trump's Careless Words

Parents know better than to say, offhand, to a child, "Sure, I'll buy you a pony."   

The father might have said it carelessly, to smooth over a situation, not meaning it in the least.   The child remembers it and starts thinking and planning and wondering if the pony will sleep in her bedroom.

At least three times in the past week Trump has been quoted saying the presidential equivalent of buying a pony.   In Puerto Rico, in a conversation with Geraldo Rivera, he was seen on camera saying, Puerto Rican debt would be "wiped out."   Here is a Fox News clip with a Geraldo Rivera and Trump both in fulsome praise of the federal response to the island's problems.  It is six minutes, but the pony-promises start at 3:25 with Rivera asking Trump what else he might do: 
     "We going to work something out.  We have to look at their whole debt structure, they owe a lot of money to your friends on Wall Street, and we going to have to wipe that out, that's going to be, you know you can say goodbye to that, uh, I don't know if its going to be Goldman Sachs but whoever it is, you can wave goodbye to that.  We have to do something about, because the debt was massive on the island, and"

Trump's offhand promise

At this point Geraldo Rivera jumped in and changed the subject, saying his Puerto Rican aunt wouldn't care about that.   His aunt wouldn't care to learn more about the island being forgiven its bonded debt?   Of course she would.  This was Rivera stepping in to protect Trump from digging himself in deeper, promising two ponies and a specific date, and it was gracefully handled.

The result was a chaos of false hopes, plunging prices, dark fears.   If 70 billion of debt is "wiped out" someone loses big.  Retired Americans who own bond funds?  Lawsuits against the original bond underwriters?  Will US taxpayers simply pay off the debt?   It is a big pony.

In the aftermath Treasury and Budget people stepped in.  It was just talk.  

Click here: 30 second clip.

Meanwhile, in the important realm of foreign affairs, involving the Middle East and North Korea, Trump's words went beyond the implication of a pony for Christmas.  He made implications of imminent or inevitable war with a nuclear armed enemy.

Following a photo shoot Trump begins making hints and warnings.  "You know what this [photo shoot] represents?   Maybe its the calm before the storm."    Something big will happen.  Watch this space.   You'll find out.

Trump fell into the role of a TV show host, doing the role of teasing an upcoming show. Coming up in the next hour, a big surprise.  Don't touch that remote.

Meanwhile, Trump was apparently frustrated with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.  There were rumors that Tillerson had privately called Trump a "moron."  Within the mainstream news that rumor was presumed to have been settled as accurate.  The remaining question was whether he was called a "f---ing moron."  Whether the rumor is accurate is irrelevant because what is relevant is that the rumor was widespread, reported on TV, and known to Trump.   Trump publicly undermined the Tillerson mission to the Far East where he was engaging in some direct communication with North Koreas, with two tweets.

“I told Rex Tillerson, our wonderful secretary of state, that he is wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man."    We, presumably the American military, but in any case not the top American diplomat, will "do what has to be done."



Trump's tweets undermined and insulted his Secretary of State--a personal and public humiliation.  More important, it signaled that the US sought a military, not diplomatic, solution.  It further narrowed North Korea's options.  It moved toward ultimatum.

Foolish in a bar fight.  This is bigger than that.

Click Here: Robert Sage. 15 seconds

My father, in his 92nd year, decided to stop taking his medications for heart and kidney failure.  He had had enough.  He left the hospital and went home and enjoyed a week of relative comfort before a week of sleep, then the death he was ready for.  In his last good day, he sat out on the deck on a beautiful August evening, and recalled poems he remembered from his childhood.  I videotaped it.  He was at the point of offering some final observations on the way of the world:  

 "Boys flying kites, call in their white winged birds.   You can't do that, when you're flying words."