SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
White House deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
There Trump Goes Again
What happens if there is an international crisis and Trump’s delicate ego is threatened?
Jun 30, 2017
If you want to look at the bright side of things, at least we've learned that the nation can survive for half a year without a sane, functioning presidency.
We've had nothing of the sort since Inauguration Day. The man who works in the Oval Office is a walking, talking, tweeting advertisement for Ritalin and perhaps some calming therapeutic activity such as yoga. We are fortunate, in a sense, that President Trump's lack of focus and his anger-management issues keep getting in the way of his policy agenda, given that the agenda is so wrongheaded. But that is an awfully thin silver lining in a very thick cloud.
As I've written before, I'm not qualified to assess Trump's mental health. But there are moments when it would be dishonest not to raise questions about his stability. If the commander in chief of the most powerful military force in history has a problem with impulse control, the whole world has a problem.
Thursday morning, Trump wrote the following tweets: "I heard poorly rated @Morning_Joe speaks badly of me (don't watch anymore). Then how come low I.Q. Crazy Mika, along with Psycho Joe, came to Mar-a-Lago 3 nights in a row around New Year's Eve, and insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no!"
The president was referring to Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough, co-hosts of MSNBC's "Morning Joe" (a show on which I appear regularly). The viciousness and sexism of Trump's very personal attack are obvious. That the president of the United States would say such things publicly is beyond disturbing. It's downright scary.
To their credit, three Republican senators used Twitter to react quickly and appropriately. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.) wrote: "Mr. President, your tweet was beneath the office and represents what is wrong with American politics, not the greatness of America." Susan Collins (Maine) tweeted: "This has to stop -- we all have a job -- 3 branches of gov't and media. We don't have to get along, but we must show respect and civility." Ben Sasse (Neb.) added: "Please just stop. This isn't normal and it's beneath the dignity of your office."
I take issue with one thing Sasse wrote: This sort of thing is normal for Trump. And the president demands that the whole White House follow suit.
Deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked on Fox News about Trump's "Morning Joe" screed and actually defended it. "Look, I don't think that the president's ever been someone who gets attacked and doesn't push back," she said. "There have been an outrageous number of personal attacks, not just to him but to frankly everyone around him. People on that show have personally attacked me many times. This is a president who fights fire with fire and certainly will not be allowed to be bullied by liberal media and the liberal elites within the media or Hollywood or anywhere else."
There is some political intention behind those words; Trump believes that attacking the "liberal media" and "elites" and "Hollywood" helps him with his base. But since he demands that his aides back him all the way, Sanders couldn't even allow that perhaps this time the president had gone too far.
One doesn't need a degree in psychology to wonder if the president suffers from some deep-seated insecurity. I can't help but think about that Cabinet meeting this month in which the top officials of our government, one by one, obsequiously told Trump what a "privilege" and a "blessing" it was to serve him. According to widespread news reports, Trump spends hours each day watching cable news and railing against his critics. He sees the various investigations into Russian meddling in the election as attacks on his legitimacy as president -- yet what really undermines his legitimacy is his propensity to go off the rails.
What's truly alarming is the self-defeating nature of Trump's spasms. At the moment, he is trying desperately to get GOP senators to agree on a health-care bill. Did a sexist attack against Brzezinski help him with Collins or Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) or Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.), who happened to be on "Morning Joe" on Thursday? Not on your life.
The obvious question: What happens if there is an international crisis and Trump's delicate ego is threatened? Can those around him contain his worst instincts?
They'd better be able to. Not since Richard Nixon's final days in the White House have I been so worried about a president's grip on reality.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
© 2023 Washington Post
If you want to look at the bright side of things, at least we've learned that the nation can survive for half a year without a sane, functioning presidency.
We've had nothing of the sort since Inauguration Day. The man who works in the Oval Office is a walking, talking, tweeting advertisement for Ritalin and perhaps some calming therapeutic activity such as yoga. We are fortunate, in a sense, that President Trump's lack of focus and his anger-management issues keep getting in the way of his policy agenda, given that the agenda is so wrongheaded. But that is an awfully thin silver lining in a very thick cloud.
As I've written before, I'm not qualified to assess Trump's mental health. But there are moments when it would be dishonest not to raise questions about his stability. If the commander in chief of the most powerful military force in history has a problem with impulse control, the whole world has a problem.
Thursday morning, Trump wrote the following tweets: "I heard poorly rated @Morning_Joe speaks badly of me (don't watch anymore). Then how come low I.Q. Crazy Mika, along with Psycho Joe, came to Mar-a-Lago 3 nights in a row around New Year's Eve, and insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no!"
The president was referring to Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough, co-hosts of MSNBC's "Morning Joe" (a show on which I appear regularly). The viciousness and sexism of Trump's very personal attack are obvious. That the president of the United States would say such things publicly is beyond disturbing. It's downright scary.
To their credit, three Republican senators used Twitter to react quickly and appropriately. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.) wrote: "Mr. President, your tweet was beneath the office and represents what is wrong with American politics, not the greatness of America." Susan Collins (Maine) tweeted: "This has to stop -- we all have a job -- 3 branches of gov't and media. We don't have to get along, but we must show respect and civility." Ben Sasse (Neb.) added: "Please just stop. This isn't normal and it's beneath the dignity of your office."
I take issue with one thing Sasse wrote: This sort of thing is normal for Trump. And the president demands that the whole White House follow suit.
Deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked on Fox News about Trump's "Morning Joe" screed and actually defended it. "Look, I don't think that the president's ever been someone who gets attacked and doesn't push back," she said. "There have been an outrageous number of personal attacks, not just to him but to frankly everyone around him. People on that show have personally attacked me many times. This is a president who fights fire with fire and certainly will not be allowed to be bullied by liberal media and the liberal elites within the media or Hollywood or anywhere else."
There is some political intention behind those words; Trump believes that attacking the "liberal media" and "elites" and "Hollywood" helps him with his base. But since he demands that his aides back him all the way, Sanders couldn't even allow that perhaps this time the president had gone too far.
One doesn't need a degree in psychology to wonder if the president suffers from some deep-seated insecurity. I can't help but think about that Cabinet meeting this month in which the top officials of our government, one by one, obsequiously told Trump what a "privilege" and a "blessing" it was to serve him. According to widespread news reports, Trump spends hours each day watching cable news and railing against his critics. He sees the various investigations into Russian meddling in the election as attacks on his legitimacy as president -- yet what really undermines his legitimacy is his propensity to go off the rails.
What's truly alarming is the self-defeating nature of Trump's spasms. At the moment, he is trying desperately to get GOP senators to agree on a health-care bill. Did a sexist attack against Brzezinski help him with Collins or Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) or Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.), who happened to be on "Morning Joe" on Thursday? Not on your life.
The obvious question: What happens if there is an international crisis and Trump's delicate ego is threatened? Can those around him contain his worst instincts?
They'd better be able to. Not since Richard Nixon's final days in the White House have I been so worried about a president's grip on reality.
If you want to look at the bright side of things, at least we've learned that the nation can survive for half a year without a sane, functioning presidency.
We've had nothing of the sort since Inauguration Day. The man who works in the Oval Office is a walking, talking, tweeting advertisement for Ritalin and perhaps some calming therapeutic activity such as yoga. We are fortunate, in a sense, that President Trump's lack of focus and his anger-management issues keep getting in the way of his policy agenda, given that the agenda is so wrongheaded. But that is an awfully thin silver lining in a very thick cloud.
As I've written before, I'm not qualified to assess Trump's mental health. But there are moments when it would be dishonest not to raise questions about his stability. If the commander in chief of the most powerful military force in history has a problem with impulse control, the whole world has a problem.
Thursday morning, Trump wrote the following tweets: "I heard poorly rated @Morning_Joe speaks badly of me (don't watch anymore). Then how come low I.Q. Crazy Mika, along with Psycho Joe, came to Mar-a-Lago 3 nights in a row around New Year's Eve, and insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no!"
The president was referring to Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough, co-hosts of MSNBC's "Morning Joe" (a show on which I appear regularly). The viciousness and sexism of Trump's very personal attack are obvious. That the president of the United States would say such things publicly is beyond disturbing. It's downright scary.
To their credit, three Republican senators used Twitter to react quickly and appropriately. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.) wrote: "Mr. President, your tweet was beneath the office and represents what is wrong with American politics, not the greatness of America." Susan Collins (Maine) tweeted: "This has to stop -- we all have a job -- 3 branches of gov't and media. We don't have to get along, but we must show respect and civility." Ben Sasse (Neb.) added: "Please just stop. This isn't normal and it's beneath the dignity of your office."
I take issue with one thing Sasse wrote: This sort of thing is normal for Trump. And the president demands that the whole White House follow suit.
Deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked on Fox News about Trump's "Morning Joe" screed and actually defended it. "Look, I don't think that the president's ever been someone who gets attacked and doesn't push back," she said. "There have been an outrageous number of personal attacks, not just to him but to frankly everyone around him. People on that show have personally attacked me many times. This is a president who fights fire with fire and certainly will not be allowed to be bullied by liberal media and the liberal elites within the media or Hollywood or anywhere else."
There is some political intention behind those words; Trump believes that attacking the "liberal media" and "elites" and "Hollywood" helps him with his base. But since he demands that his aides back him all the way, Sanders couldn't even allow that perhaps this time the president had gone too far.
One doesn't need a degree in psychology to wonder if the president suffers from some deep-seated insecurity. I can't help but think about that Cabinet meeting this month in which the top officials of our government, one by one, obsequiously told Trump what a "privilege" and a "blessing" it was to serve him. According to widespread news reports, Trump spends hours each day watching cable news and railing against his critics. He sees the various investigations into Russian meddling in the election as attacks on his legitimacy as president -- yet what really undermines his legitimacy is his propensity to go off the rails.
What's truly alarming is the self-defeating nature of Trump's spasms. At the moment, he is trying desperately to get GOP senators to agree on a health-care bill. Did a sexist attack against Brzezinski help him with Collins or Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) or Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.), who happened to be on "Morning Joe" on Thursday? Not on your life.
The obvious question: What happens if there is an international crisis and Trump's delicate ego is threatened? Can those around him contain his worst instincts?
They'd better be able to. Not since Richard Nixon's final days in the White House have I been so worried about a president's grip on reality.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.