Is there no limit whatever to Trump's desire for adoration?
The adoration has a purpose. It is part of a simple story Trump is selling:
I place Trump's need for fawning flattery into his pattern of autocracy, crony corruption, and kleptocracy. But it is also consistent with the big Trump message that America desperately needed transformation by a single, strong leader. Take this week's three-hour Cabinet meeting for example. Trump drops hints: “A lot of people are saying, ‘Maybe we like a dictator.’ I am not a dictator."
Things were terrible a year ago. Now they are wonderful. Trump, the all-powerful genius, saved America.
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| Politico art: Trump muses that he is God |
I place Trump's need for fawning flattery into his pattern of autocracy, crony corruption, and kleptocracy. But it is also consistent with the big Trump message that America desperately needed transformation by a single, strong leader. Take this week's three-hour Cabinet meeting for example. Trump drops hints: “A lot of people are saying, ‘Maybe we like a dictator.’ I am not a dictator."
He later described his power over deportations. "I have the right to do anything I want to do. I'm the president of the United States.” He isn't a "dictator," not exactly, he says. Just an all-powerful president. Because we need him. And see how people love and respect him.
Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, a former U.S. representative from Oregon:
I am looking for signs of restraint, some indication that he recognizes limits, or that he will get it from his key appointees. I don't see it. He is surrounded by sycophants. They aren't a Greek chorus warning caution for a leader with hubris. Quite the opposite. They are cheerleaders.
In that televised Cabinet meeting, senior Trump officials took turns lavishing praise on Trump. Trump beamed. Fellow Cabinet members applauded.
I quote these senior administration officials verbatim.
Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, a former U.S. representative from Oregon:
Mr. President, I invite you to see your big, beautiful face on a banner in front of the Department of Labor, because you are really the transformational president of the American worker, I was so honored to unveil that yesterday.
Big, beautiful face.
Tulsi Gabbard, Director of National Intelligence:
This is just such a great opportunity, really, to recognize your leadership as a true champion for working people.… I know we’ll hear, as we go around the table here, how your focus singularly on putting the well-being and interests of the American people first is that common thread that we’re seeing your policies being implemented across your administration.
True champion.
There is only one thing I wish for: that the Nobel Committee finally gets its act together and realizes you are the single finest candidate since this Nobel award was ever talked about to receive that award. Beyond your success, is game changing out in the world today, and I hope one day everyone wakes up and realizes that.
Most deserving Nobel prizewinner ever.
Kristi Noem: Secretary of Homeland Security:
“First of all, thank you for the opportunity to work for you. You made this country safe. You opened up the economy. You enforce the law. Now people can get up and provide for their families and go to work every day and be confident in that.
At last people are safe enough to go to work again.
Scott Bessent: Secretary of the Treasury:
As we’ve said very often, economic security is national security, and our country has never been so secure, thanks to you. You have brought us back from the edge. You have the overwhelming mandate from the American people. You are restoring confidence in government.
Never so secure as now.
Marco Rubio: Secretary of State:
[Steve Wycoff and I] both work for the "Peacemaker in Chief." Think of it, how fortunate we are, that the president had made peace a priority. . . . [In Cambodia] there's no other leader in the world who could have done it.
Irreplaceable.
A full transcript of the three hour meeting is available here. There was a common theme: Carnage replaced by genius. That is the story Trump is selling, and conservative media is retelling: Trump is the towering hero. Why put checks and balances on such greatness?
It isn't enough that Trump is great. His opponents must be slobs and scum. Tomorrow's post will be Trump's own words describing opponents at this cabinet meeting.
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13 comments:
I didn’t read what the cabinet members said in your blog just like I don’t listen to anything Trump says on tv. Thank you for doing it for me so I don’t have to.
High quality people don't work for him. I don't know much about sports, but his people come from the minor league, at best.
There are people who blame the Trump phenomenon on all kinds of stupid nonsense: elites, wokeness, DEI, CRT, etc. What a crock. The Trump phenomenon is due to his supporters, of whom these are prime examples. If it weren’t for them, he’d just be another common criminal.
And of course you must know that every single one of them would run over him in a heartbeat, and he gets his kicks knowing they have to bow down. Pretty sick.
Even so, the people who continue to support this are worse, the bigots and racists who revel in the suffering they are causing. MEANWHILE THE MEDIA IS DISTRACTED BY THE DAILY OUTRAGE AND NOT CALLING OUT THE DOJ FOR THE CONTINUING COVER UP. IT'S REPORTED THE FBI REDACTED NAMES OF THE PERPS. WHY?
We've traveled some distance from Lincoln with his Team of Rivals....
The projection here is quite interesting. I wish you all a better life.
I have seen inquiries as to whether I censor Trump-supporting comments. I do when they are obscene, and many are. Unfortunately, well known local vote-getting Republican Curt Ankerberg sends messages for publication which cannot be published. So might other people writing in the distnctive Ankerberg style. Mr. Ankerherg is not exactly a typical local Republican. He criticizes local crony capitalism in the form of a close-knit relationship between elected officials and local contracting firms. Most local Republicans seem comfortable with the round-robin of big campaign conributions to the people who then negotiate multimillion dollar contracts with those same funders. But Ankerberg does not condemn publicly the grifting and crony capitalism of Trump. Ankerberg's writing style is very identifiable, so I am confident this comment is from Ankerberg, although I cannot absolutely prove it since it was sent anonymously. If he writes me from his own email address and avers that an imposter mimicking his style wrote the comment below, I will publish that correction. He wrote:
"----Joe Biden is the Champion of homosexuals and pedophiles like Peter Sage.----"
Republicans who complain that I don't publish their comments should avoid sounding like Mr. Ankerberg. The subject of gay sex and pedophilia is very top of mind for Ankerberg -- which is weird and creepy -- and the subject is certainly top of mind for MAGA people suspicious of the Trump Epstein coverup. I consider Ankerberg a useful canary in the coal mine early-tipoff of the suspicions of MAGA people. But comment s like the one above by Ankerberg and other MAGA readers cannot generally be published. Nor can cut and paste plagiarism, which is also common from Republican readers.
My rules are simple. Try not to be disgusting and obscene. Try to say something substantive and not just insulting. Try not to project your own sexual fixations onto others. Don't plagiarize.
Question: How do you know if something is plagiarized? Your gut feeling?
This comment does not make sense. Why do you think his supporters "adore" him? Because he is against DEI, CRT, gender crazy (gender identity ideology), most non-white immigrants (rich ones are ok), etc.
So, what are you implying? That the cabinet members didn't really say all those things they said, or that Trump isn't really as disgusting as he is?
I know something is plagiarized if I copy and paste it into Google and it immediately links to a Breitbart or NY Post article that is verbatim what the comment is. I suppose, theoretically, that the commenter independently had the same 200-500 word thought and wrote it using the same punctuation, but I will go with the greater probability that the quadrillion to one likelihood is plagiarism. The Trump supporting plagiarists are lazy.
His supporters adore him because they like his style. They're as FUBAR as he is.
The nonstop focus on Trump despite the problems facing Oregon.
Like any politician Trump does things that many like, and many dislike. It's almost as if there aren't any other more important issues in Oregon.
There's plenty wrong with Trump, and plenty things right. You get the bad along with the good.
Meanwhile, Oregonians have so many problems needing fixing that have nothing to do with Trump.
Complaining about Trump will do absolutely nothing except to make one feel better. Nothing said or written here will do anything to change Trump.
I know there's nothing I can do. I focus on things that help to address fixing nearby problems that affect me, my friends, and the rest of the community.
For example, Oregon SoS recently wrote about Trump's dislike and efforts to stop vote mail.
So I wrote a letter to him asking about the few vote by mail problems that exist, and what our SoS is doing to clean the voter rolls and audit the DMV to make sure only eligible residents are voting in Oregon. There have been problems in the past, and I'm sure little has been done to address current methods, and to prevent future problems.
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