He keeps reading if he’s mentioned
Trump has to go Abroad now. He’s not the most cosmopolitan head of state we’ve ever seen, so it may be difficult for him. His aides have been working hard to prepare him.
White House advisers insisted Trump was up to speed on the Middle East, having already hosted Arab, Israeli and Palestinian leaders at the White House.
“His way of doing diplomacy, which really contrasts with President Obama’s approach, is to … prioritize the personal relationship,” said Michael Singh, a foreign policy adviser to former Republican President George W. Bush.
In other words his way of doing diplomacy contrasts with the sane adult approach. The personal relationship is largely beside the point, even though a good one doubtless does make discussion and negotiation easier. But of course Trump is Trump. It’s not that prioritizing the personal relationship is a considered approach, it’s that it’s all he knows.
Conversations with some officials who have briefed Trump and others who are aware of how he absorbs information portray a president with a short attention span.
He likes single-page memos and visual aids like maps, charts, graphs and photos.
National Security Council officials have strategically included Trump’s name in “as many paragraphs as we can because he keeps reading if he’s mentioned,” according to one source, who relayed conversations he had with NSC officials.
Of course he does.
Which basically means, does he perceive they like him, admire him, or are impressed by him? Do they flatter him and make him feel smart? Or do they talk about things he is not interested in, doesn’t understand, and make him feel unprepared and ignorant?
It’s really not about personal relationship – it’s about personal vanity.
‘National Security Council officials have strategically included Trump’s name in “as many paragraphs as we can because he keeps reading if he’s mentioned,” ‘
Sounds like a cheap, “personalised” children’s book in which the child’s name, in boldface, is liberally sprinkled throughout the text, plunked into a standard template used for every book, with only CHILD’S NAME different between them. In some versions, if you sent in a snapshot, the child’s face would be plopped into blank spots left in the illustrations, looking very much like the cheesy, carnival/touristy photo set-ups where people stick there heads through holes in a painted scene to make a souvenir shot.
At this point I wonder how many of Trump’s staff are NOT leaking, as sources for what we’re hearing must be the people around him on a daily basis. At this point those working for him (apart from civil servants who are not his personal appointees) are liars, lackeys and enablers anyhow, in it for their own gain and not likely to be worthy of anyone’s trust, not even Trump’s. He’s just too thick to see this. Outward shows of loyalty, deference and flattery are all the cover they would need. Unfortunately, no number of juicy tell-all books inevitably to come is worth the risk and misery he’s putting the rest of us through right now. Pull the plug on this administration, already. Please.
Personally, I’m looking forward to Trump’s excellent adventure abroad. I hear first stop is Saudi Arabia, where Trump will be giving a speech on Islam. The speech is being written by Stephen Miller, you know, the young zealot who authored Trump’s first, highly successful Muslim Ban. It was so unfair that the courts struck it down and all that.
But I’ve been thinking that people on this blog have been very unfair about blasphemy laws recently. Sharpen those swords, boys, the Orange Imam’s on his way.
And only the first few words will be uttered by Trump. He’ll go off script quite quickly; he always does. Unless maybe they’ve got some plan, where there will be someone offstage with a giant hook to get rid of him the second he says that Muslims are bad hombres? Or maybe a giant gong?
I’d suggest a taser.
He’s doing a speech on Islam? Who the fuck came up with that brilliant idea? Is he going to be giving a speech on Judaism in Israel? Telling the Pope all about Catholicism? I can’t see how that’s going to go well.He doesn’t know shit about anything; why encourage him to prove it on the world stage?
Maybe the Israelis can “accidentally” blurt details of their security arrangements for his tour. I’m sure they have the absolute right to do that.
I… what? I don’t know why I’m even surprised anymore. How did we get here? How did we get to a world where the most powerful man in the world has to be treated like a dim toddler?
I mean, at least the Roman Empire had the excuse of an inherited position!