Thursday, February 16, 2017

The Siberian President

Four weeks is not enough time to be certain about the next few years but treads are emerging.

Trump Spends More Time Watching TV Than Working
Trump channel surfs all the morning shows but insists his daily security briefings be limited to three subjects and not more than one page, total. His briefings are only 15 minutes long, this was demonstrated when he started his February 8 briefing at 10:30am and he was tweeting about Ivanka and Norstrom's at 10:51am.

At A Visceral Level Trump Realizes He Seems Goofy
At his press conference today, Trump declared he was "not ranting and raving." When someone feels compelled to announce that he is perfectly calm and not ranting you can be damn sure he has been ranting.

Trump Has A Fragile Ego
Have you ever met a smart person who feels compelled to repeatedly tell you how smart he is? Smart, self assured people don't need to toot their own horn. Trump, however, is always announcing to the world that he really is smart, like he thinks nobody is believing him.

Then there is his pretending that he had the biggest inaugural in history and, when evidence proved that false, insisting nonetheless beyond all levels of decorum. He continues to declare that his victory was the biggest landslide since Reagan.  When that lie is pointed out he squirms like a little boy caught stealing cookies.

His Inability to Move Past the Election Is Telling
"Having is not so pleasing a thing after all as wanting. It is not logical, but it is often true." So said Mr. Spock in Star Trek TOS. Trump loved wanting the presidency but now that he has it he is bored and depressed. This is why Trump can't move on from the election to the actual governing part of the presidency. Trump is sad the campaign ever ended.

Trump's Team of Backstabbers
Doris Kearns Goodwin titled her book on the Lincoln  cabinet "Team of Rivals." It takes a strong personality to corral a team of rivals into a functioning government. Trump has a weak personality in need of constant ego massage. And so the Trump administration leaks like a broken colander.

Whenever Kellyanne Conway says anything Reince Priebus or Sean Spicer leak something to embarrass her. Steve Bannon is circulating rumors that Priebus will be fired soon while Conway is hinting that Spicer is on thin ice. Admiral Robert Harward refused the job of National Security Advisor because Bannon insisted on picking Harward's team, meaning Harward would have had a staff specifically tasked with undercutting him.

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