Never one to let any oxygen go by unused by himself, Donald Trump held court today in an Oval Office press availability in which he went through a complete mishmash of issues with almost total incomprehensibility, veering from topic to topic with no real set issue or theme other than his own self-perceived greatness. Seemingly, the only current topics left unaddressed were the Epstein files and the lack of a peace plan for Ukraine.
To Mediaite go for transcripts. First up, on sending troops into cities, we pull just a few quotes of an unbelievably long monologue:
You know, I hate to barge in on a city and then be treated horribly by corrupt politicians and bad politicians, like a guy like Pritzker. He had to spend more time in the gym, actually. Guy is a disaster. Gavin Newsom is a disaster. When we went, we saved Los Angeles. You wouldn’t have been able to have the Olympics in Los Angeles; you’re barely able to have it now. They did lose 25,000 houses to a fire that should have never occurred because they didn’t let the water come down from the Pacific Northwest, which you guys don’t want to write about…
… But I don’t like going to a town, a city, a place, a state, and then be criticized by some corrupt or incompetent governor where crime is rampant. Like, take a look at D.C., crime was rampant, it was at the all-time worst. It got really bad during the Biden four years. And then I have a mayor stand up and say how crime has reached a 30-year low. Thirty-year low? People are being killed left and right. And it’s not a 30-year low. Think of it. So for 11 days, there have been no murders. The record goes back years where that’s happened. They haven’t seen that happen in years.
Washington DC went through many periods just this year without a murder, and it is hardly a victory when the streets are entirely empty and business suffers anyway. It gets so old hearing solely about his greatness, how everything everyone else has ever done is a disaster, how wonderful and perfect a situation is so long as he’s in control, and how anyone who opposes him is a criminal “disaster” or needs to hit the gym (the irony). It is beyond tedious. Additionally, his grasp of reality seems to be teetering, his incoherence rising.
Next up, his views on how the media is always just so unfair to him – unless they print something positive, and then it is good and correct:
The newspapers are so dishonest and the press is totally dishonest. That’s all right, we’ve gotten used to this. And we won in a landslide so they obviously lost their power. It is impossible to imagine that when you get 97% negative stories purposely negative stories even though you have done 97% positive things that they could — that you could win an election in a landslide winning all seven — think of it — All seven swing states winning by the popular vote by millions of votes. We had a fantastic. The best is your districts. Out of 3,000 districts I guess we won — 3,500 — we won 2,750 and they won 500. And that’s to me the best of all. And we had tremendous in every way the election. Hard to believe you can do that when you have a corrupt media. But you are, many of you are corrupt and it’s nothing we can do about it but we keep winning and we’ll keep winning.
He has never seemed quite so out of it. He mentions 3,000 districts and in the same sentence then claims to have won 3,500 of them, only to then come up with a total number of 3,250 or so “districts,” never getting around to mentioning the state itself. If Biden had meandered in such a way, with completely incomprehensible math, it would truly have garnered a national discussion. But this is Trump and he believes he is “winning.”
He cannot “win” the polling race, and his polls seem stuck between 38-45% approval depending on the poll. It is the same dynamic as ever. Trump wondering why he isn’t universally loved, spending all his time plotting retribution for those who don’t support his every move. He went on to flag burning, pure unadulterated red meat for the MAGA:
This is very important. Flag burning, all over the country, they’re burning flags. All over the world, they burn the American flag. And as you know, through a very sad court, I guess it was a 5-to-4 decision — they called it freedom of speech.
But there’s another reason, which is perhaps much more important. It’s called death. Because what happens when you burn a flag is the area goes crazy. If you have hundreds of people, they go crazy. You can do other things. You can burn this piece of paper. You can — and it’s — but when you burn the American flag, it incites riots, at levels that we’ve never seen before. People go crazy, in a way, both ways. There are some that are going crazy for doing it. There are others that are angry, angry about them doing it.
Some of us have a hard time getting too moved either way by the flag-burning issue. It should be protected free speech, but if it is not, there are plenty of more effective ways to voice one’s opinion. And yet the man who has done more to burn down freedoms and what that flag stands for – the Constitution and those who fought to preserve it, finds this to be a burning issue. We all know that it is yet another means by which he will criminalize all opposition to him. He mentions riots at levels no one has ever seen before – there are no riots this summer, almost nothing. Yet the “truth” plays an increasingly inconsequential role. Again, we see complete batshit insanity, but it goes largely uncontested. Do not reflexively blame the White House press because if they do contest him, they get sent out of the room and replaced by another MAGA blogger.
He also continued to threaten former Republican governor and former debate preparation mate, Chris Christie:
“And so when I listen to Chris speak his hate, I say, ‘Oh, what about the George Washington Bridge?’ You know? ‘Tell me about the George Washington Bridge.’ He blamed other people, but he knew all about it. So, no, I don’t know. If they want to look at it — not for me. — if they want look at it, they can. You could ask Pam [Bondi]. I think we have other things to do, but I always thought he got away with murder.”
Right. It is entirely possible that Chris Christie deserved to be charged and thrown in jail for the closing of the George Washington Bridge. It was certainly right on the edge. But the investigation and decision not to prosecute have been made and shouldn’t be resurrected in response to criticism of Trump. Any investigation and charges now would be due solely as retribution on Trump’s behalf, and everyone understands the stakes. Also, Trump called Chris Christie a “slob,” which is awfully daring, especially of late.
But this is what we get, incoherent rambling off the top of his increasingly suspect head. It is all vitriol and petty bullsh*t, always the whiner in chief. Never sufficiently praised, never having had a bad moment, never an apology, never any introspection, but all increasingly normalized and, to many, spot on and wonderful. And the above represents only about one-quarter of what he said.
No. No one is “triggered” by any of this. Simply noting the bizarre behavior and continuing devolution is entirely appropriate. But have no doubt that there is evidence that he is slipping, and it isn’t confined to his hands and cankles. This press avail was as incoherent and meandering as any, and that much more dangerous.
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If we still had an actual free press, papers like the Washington Post and NY Times would print Trump’s incoherent rambles verbatim and allow their readers to see just what the president is: a demented and bitter old fat man, far removed from reality and spouting lies as though they were gospel. Instead, we have an unfree press which sanitizes whatever of Trump’s rants it prints, so that the readers are led to believe that the golf cheat is no worse than any other Republican politician.