We can all draw an important lesson from President-elect Trump’s comments after meeting with top U.S. intelligence officials Friday. It does not take a genius’ brain to conclude what most people were saying from the beginning of this completely avoidable
We can all draw an important lesson from President-elect Trump’s comments after meeting with top U.S. intelligence officials Friday. It does not take a genius’ brain to conclude what most people were saying from the beginning of this completely avoidable squabble. Trump was entirely wrong about the content of the matter and completely wrong about how he handled it. In the process, of course, he damaged his own image as well as U.S. credibility around the world.
He seems blissfully unaware of all of this.
Trying to find a trace of a silver lining here, it serves as an excellent example of how Trump typically handles a matter that displeases him. Whenever he sees something he does not like:
1. He immediately attacks personally anyone associated with the situation. For example, he eagerly points to at least one time in the past when the person was wrong (does he keep lists?) and implies that this shows they are always wrong or clearly unreliable.
2. When confronted by the blatantly obvious manner in which this position contradicts the known facts, he doubles down by repeating and intensifying the charge as well as saying that the known facts are wrong and everyone knows it.
3. He then “chews” the case over and over in the press, often finding a slogan to apply to it.
4. Often, this is enough to make the public commentators just accept that this is another one of the off-base positions he holds and they quit asking him about it.
5. If not, and he is literally forced to look at the facts of the matter, he moves to the stance that he was right all along except for the parts of the situation that are insignificant.
Here are two cases in point, one old and one new, both illustrative: birtherism and Russian hacking during Trump’s election.
Birtherism.
1. Trump announces that he thinks President Obama was not born in the U.S. and is hiding the fact. It is some kind of cover-up. Why is he so secretive?
2. He says the short form certificate is a fake and everyone can see that something is wrong here. He has sent experts to Honolulu and they are finding amazing things.
3. In interviews, he says he is now troubled that the matter has not been quickly resolved. Why doesn’t Obama just Show The real birth certificate?
4. For about five years, he continued to mouth the slogan until everyone just took it for granted that this could possibly be an actual issue.
5. When President Obama released the long form birth certificate, Trump took credit for forcing him to do so while at the same time questioning whether it was a fake, as well.
Years later, Trump announced that Obama was born in the U.S. and took credit again for settling what he called this vitally important matter which had so disturbed so many Americans.
Russian Hacking.
1. Trump says that reports of Russian hacking are untrue and that nobody knows who does hacking. He points out that US intelligence was wrong about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq so it is unreliable.
2. When told of bipartisan support of the hacking charges, he says U.S. intelligence is biased against the Russians and that there is no proof. He claims to know things that no one else knows. He says that everyone knows that hacking can be done by any number of persons and there is no reason to blame the Russians.
3. In interviews Trump says that the whole thing is just an excuse by Democrats for their loss of the election. The hacking, if any, could have been done by a 400-pound man lying in bed. He calls the issue a political witch hunt.
4. The press accepts that this is just another of Trump’s eccentric positions, but the intelligence community pushes its case forward with a Congressional hearing and a Trump briefing.
5. After the briefing, Trump announces that it is just possible that Russia might have hacked the election but it doesn’t matter because the outcome of the election was unaffected. And, anyway, there is lots of hacking going on everywhere.
So, to apologize in Trumspeak is to say you were right all along, except where it didn’t matter, and that America is fortunate to have such a smart, cunning, deal maker there protecting her from the error-ridden Establishment. Clearly, if people or organizations or countries were damaged along the way, that is just the price we pay for having such a fabulous President-elect.
It’s all part of making America great again!
Sucke is a resident of Kamuela.
