Another historical moment in Washington. In keeping with the decorum and probity regularly displayed by this mis-administration, the Speaker of the House called the sitting president of the United States, a member of his own party, a troll. Roll Call:
In a rare political moment, the speaker of the House on Tuesday accused the president of the United States of trolling people. But his description is a bit off for the issue he was addressing.
Speaker Paul D. Ryan was asked during a news conference whether he thinks threats by President Donald Trump to revoke security clearances of former Obama administration officials is dangerous.
“I think he’s trolling people, honestly,” Ryan said.
So we shouldn’t listen to anything Trump says, because he’s just trolling people, right?
Ryan is probably not wrong about Trump’s intentions. He frequently uses his Twitter account to troll his critics and even sometimes congressional Republicans.
But there’s a clear distinction in this case. Trump has not on Twitter or in any other forum directly commented about the security clearance matter. His consideration of revoking the clearances former Obama officials who’ve criticized him has only been communicated through his spokeswoman, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
Alright, Trump wasn’t technically trolling, but he was using Sarah Huckabee Sanders as a troll, and she’s already a troll in the classical sense of a strange being that is rarely helpful to human beings. Now that makes sense. And by that definition, the Trump administration is rife with trolls. Ryan also said, regarding the second Russian summit with Vladimir Putin, that he’s all for it as long as Trump conveys the right message.
“If the message is stop meddling in our country, stop violating our sovereignty, then I support that,” he said.
“We will certainly not be giving him an invitation to do a joint session,” he said. “That’s something we reserve for allies.”
Well, that’s something I suppose, although it begs the question, “whose” allies, and Putin is certainly tighter with Trump than any other world leader that can be named. Let’s hope that America’s allies is what Ryan meant, and that he keeps his word.
