What we have in the White House is an immature personality who will spend the next four years spinning fables of his strength and his massive popularity, neither one of which exist. A few days ago Trump issued made up statistics which had his Inauguration viewing crowd at something like 80 million viewers, which he proclaimed, naturally, as the “largest viewing crowd in history.” This was on Truth Social. I’ll go with the stats from Variety which had the ratings below either 2020 or 2016. I mention this because it is key to understanding how Trump is wired and what’s to come.
He has to convince everybody (most of all himself) that he is the center of the universe and all eyes are trained on him at all times. And that everything he does, he does bigger and better than anybody else has ever done before him. And that is what you need to bear in mind as Trump declares his “victory” over Colombia.
President Gustavo Petro declined to immediately impose massive tariffs on both coffee and flowers (roses are coming for Valentines Day) because he’s not an impulsive child and deportation flights will continue to take place. the United States is Colombia’s top trading partner, accounting for 26 percent of its trade in 2023. So Petro acted as any sane person would.
But the point is that the reality of the situation is what is being buried by Trump. The point is that deportation flights were happening in Colombia, sometimes twice a day, for years. What got everybody’s feathers ruffled is that Trump was using military planes and had deportees in chains and shackles like criminals — that is what got this kerfuffle going. But while there’s a bandaid on this situation, there could be grave long term effects to which Trump is oblivious.
Earlier in the day, Sergio Guzmán, director of the political consultancy Colombia Risk Analysis, said that the standoff could push Colombia closer to China. He noted that Colombia has expressed interest in joining BRICS — the economic partnership of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — and China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Amid the diplomatic crisis between Petro and Trump on Sunday, China’s ambassador to Colombia posted on X saying Colombia and China are in the “best moment of our diplomatic relations.”
Petro’s initial refusal to accept the deportation flights could still complicate Trump’s promises of mass deportations in the early days of his administration. Other Latin American leaders have also raised questions over the United States’ treatment of deported migrants.
Brazil’s Foreign Ministry is requesting an explanation from the U.S. government over what it said was “degrading treatment” that deportees were subject to on a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement repatriation flight Friday.
Degradation is the point. Cruelty is the point. Gloating that President Petro “backed down” “knuckled under” is the point. And playing into Russia and China’s agenda is not coincidental. Trump is reposting one comment that he made Petro “lose his mind.”
The decision [to not impose masssive tariffs immediately] was treated as a victory by Trump’s camp, with his spokesperson Karoline Leavitt saying, “President Trump will continue to fiercely protect our nation’s sovereignty, and he expects all other nations of the world to fully cooperate in accepting the deportation of their citizens illegally present in the United States.”
And then Trump took to Truth Social.
The president shared an X post praising how he handles world leaders in his perceived fights.
“I think Trump’s greatest superpower might be his absolutely insane ability to make everyone he has a fight with lose their mind,” the post claimed.
“The Colombian president was just the latest person to fall victim to that, but he wasn’t the first and won’t be the last.”
This is the ugly twist. The facts are that Colombia was accepting deportation flights without incident, including as recently as the Biden administration. But Trump had to make a theatrical international incident out of the situation, so that he could appear to rub the Colombian president’s nose in the dirt and assume a superior posture. This is what America is now becoming known for.
Trump is the ultimate ugly American and the ugliness is only starting. The issue here was not the deportation, it was the method of deportation.
Under the agreement, the United States sends Colombia a manifest 48 hours in advance of the flights with the names of the deportees, and Colombia provides authorization before the planes take off. That happened in this case, according to a Colombian official who spoke on the condition of anonymity about the sensitive issue, and Bogotá agreed to accept the flight.
It was unclear whether or when Petro was made aware that, for the first time, the planes being used were U.S. military C-17s, although video of shackled deportees being marched onto military aircraft was widely televised and posted on social media.
Mark this occasion well. Because this is the template for what Trump is going to do. This is all reality TV to him. So look for him to take the ordinary and the mundane and warp it into a scenario where he looks good and he looks the hero.
A lot of America is buying Trump’s bullshit. And why? Because the left doesn’t have a significant push back mechanism to counter the lies. There are plenty of leftist outlets but what is needed is for some high profile network to start issuing simple statements in rebuttal to Trump’s lies right when they happen. What is needed is the Fairness Doctrine. No wonder Trump lauds Ronald Reagan. Reagan gave him the ability to twist the media landscape and put us here. But we’re not going to get back the Fairness Doctrine, so we best come up with something similar and fast.
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“What is needed is the Fairness Doctrine.”
Sorry, Ursula, but we’ve got a media that isn’t willing to fight Trump on the “little” things (like when a certain network caved instead of standing by its reporter’s ACCURATE, FACT-BASED statement), so a renewed “Fairness Doctrine” won’t be worth a damn.
It’s simple…the love of money is the root of all evil. You are entirely correct. The law put us here, and there’s NO reason to expect the law or the media to change anything. Addicts die everyday. The ones who choose to change usually have to suffer so badly, with DEATH staring them in the face, they, like George Bailey become desperate to live. We are no where near facing reality. Some never do. They die.
Americans must be the most gullible people on earth. Our culture is ADDICTED to myths on every level. We, in our history, have never come clean about anything. We’re paying the high price now, and the price WILL go up. Trump, as the ignorant entitled ahole he is, understands shallow selfish bullying using bullshit like a squid that inks up the water to avoid danger. Now that the LAW has abandoned all the ideals we have been manipulated into believing…reality is going to kick our ass time and again. For example: PLANET DON’T LIE. So sit back maga and wait for the next disaster…it’s only a matter of time. FACT.
Ya know, Scott, when Mel Gibson speaks for the entire MAGA dysfunctional family by saying “Daddy’s home and he’s getting out the belt,” I shudder. This provides the proof that this country allowed too many horrific domestic violence situations to exist for too many years! I refuse to believe that MAGAs had happy childhoods. Cults and radicalization are the results of desperate searches for validation…from somebody; anybody! Even Sphincter Face was an unhappy, lonely, not-Daddy’s-favorite, rich kid! These folks don’t hear the Planet screaming for help. They only know their own tears and need to hit back!! I’m afraid that we will have to depend on the Trumpites who are not MAGA at heart…they are feeling that pain as “wait, how come MY Trump-supporting wife, who was about to start that Federal job, just get told to F-off because expenditures are frozen?” That’s a story from Houston, but is happening everywhere. Humans are dumb and they have to go through these historical cycles again because the truth and history are homeWORK and they didn’t wanna do it!!
Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt.
I just had to drop the facts about the Colombia flights in line at the grocery store, to people who said, “well, I nevet heard anything about shackles”.