Trump Lays Down Unequivocal and ‘Disgusting’ Threat to New York Times

Donald Trump believes that the power of the presidency is nearly unlimited. It represents one of the most dangerous elements moving toward a possible term. It is hard to tell whether he just doesn’t understand the Constitution or worse – he does understand but doesn’t care. What we do know is that he sees the Oval Office as a king’s court – rule by fiat. He then manifests all this in a fevered desire to lay down dictatorial punishment, especially that bestowed on his “enemies” and the media. On Tuesday night, Trump laid down another breathtaking threat, this time to The New York Times. 

The entire interview is found at Joe My God and it is a mash up of Trump grievances. I’ve set out the vile threat first and then we’ll transition into his increasing incoherence.  But the threat to The Times first:

“The New York Times is one of the most dishonest of all. I watched this, New York Times, and it’s a classic. Wait until you see what I’m going to do with them, you’re going to have so much fun.

Slow yourself down and breathe it in. Trump knows he wants to use the power of the presidency to do “something” to the Times. As bad as that threat may be, he anticipates that his supporters will have so much fun watching the punishment. He has a dangerous and vindictive mind – one that his supporters love. He and they have already ruminated on using the office to exact vicious revenge. And it really cannot be said enough – his supporters will “enjoy” seeing it delivered.

Onward to the rest of the quote and this is where Trump goes from frighteningly direct to terrifyingly out of it. Try to find something coherent, some sort of linear thought in the quote below. Remember, The Times recently published a story highlighting Trump’s cognitive decline and then herein he shows that decline in his complaint.

“In 3, 4, 5 days, this is the most dishonest newspaper. They are disgusting. But the radical left, I mean, the radical left, the way they protect — now you could say, ‘Wow. That’s pretty good the way they do it.’

Granted, this site has already done dozens of columns discussing Trump’s incoherence. I write all too many – but the above paragraph really stands out as maybe the worst. What does 3, 4, 5 days relate to? The most logical explanation is that it he’s addressing the article on his mental decline just three days ago. But what does the radical Left have to do with anything? How do we protect the NYT? Or does the Times protect us? Both?  And we absolutely could and should just say “Wow.” It’s all a shuffled deck of word cards.

Moving on:

“But it’s, it’s so dishonest. It’s — you know, we don’t have a free press. We have a very, very corrupt and, you know, hence the name fake news.

Hang on. “The Press” is a broad stroke. He does tend to lump together all media outside the MAGA ecosphere – NYT, CNN, MSNBC, Politico... On and on. They are all corrupt. Does he even know how hard it would be to form such a conspiracy? Last, the complaint about the “free press,” the accusation that they are all “corrupt,” and then the “fake news” reference all address separate issues, ones that do not necessarily accompany each other, nor apply with equal force. He doesn’t care.

But now I’m acting as though this is supposed to make sense… Last bit:

“The problem with fake news is it’s not strong enough. I get great credit for a wonderful name at the time, but it’s worse than fake. It’s corrupt. The press is corrupt. It’s really bad in this country. It’s really bad.”

I am sorry. I couldn’t resist commenting on congratulating himself for inventing the “fake news” meme. If you recall, fake news first arose out of fake websites with fake news coming from what looked like real stuff. These fake sites would include stories like “Hillary slept with three aliens to extract 50 billion dollars… ” Many of these sites were formed or funded in Russia. Only after the moniker “fake news” on fake sites took hold did Trump hilariously start calling all negative coverage in The New York Times, or legacy media as “fake news.”

Oh, and now – Trump stands as the only person who continues to even use the term “fake news.”

Oops. Did it again. Once more, I was treating the above as if it could be worthy of an actual breakdown. He doesn’t have a message beyond the threat. If you read the above quote as a linear whole it screams two things. One – a frightening decline in mental capacity compared to even just two years ago. Second – the tiny bit of coherence Trump possesses is now laser focused on grievance retribution.

The lesson is clear. Trump doesn’t really have any “plans” or a platform, only problems he says he can fix. He never explains. His campaign’s life force – the only constant – is his need for revenge. As incoherent as Trump can be he clearly knows he wants to punish enemies – a shocking threat from a possible president.

That’s a bad combination – a vicious and vague man, one too impaired to clearly lay his plans but retaining just enough to fiercely unleash the threat… those remain clear.

God Bless: I can be reached at [email protected] and @JasonMiciak

Support the site with a subscription today and see no more ads!

Go Ad-free Now!