A remarkably dim view of Trump’s intellect
Aaron Blake at the Post points out the undeniable fact that people who work for Trump know full well how thick he is.
Lost in the debate over whether President Trump should talk to Robert Mueller is this: The arguments against him doing it often betray a remarkably dim view of Trump’s intellect.
They do, of course. How could they not? Trump makes it blindingly obvious every time he opens his mouth or punches the buttons on his phone that he has no filter, aka is too stupid and heedless to discipline himself even in a situation of legal peril. That’s a remarkable fact, for sure, and with any luck it will soon cause him to perjure himself in his chat with Mueller.
Chris Christie on the TV News made it a matter of marketing skills versus talking to prosecutors skills.
He should never walk into that room with Robert Mueller. Because in the end, one of the things that makes the president who he is, is that he’s a salesman. And salesmen, at times, tend to be hyperbolic. Right, and this president certainly has tended to do that.
That’s okay when you’re on the campaign hustle. That’s okay when you’re working on Congress. It is not okay when you’re sitting talking to federal agents because, you know, 18 USC 1001 is false statements to federal agents. That’s a crime. That can send you to jail.
What’s left implicit is that Trump is too stupid to code-switch from real estate hack to president being questioned about illegal actions.
Christie on Sunday basically came out and said what everyone is saying behind closed doors. In the debate over whether Trump is a habitual fabulist or just a strategic one, Christie seems to be coming down on the side of the former. He seems to confirm that Trump doesn’t really know what the truth is.
Which is odd when you remember how readily and often he accuses other people of lying.
I don’t think I can agree with this. I think being a constant liar is a trait that does not belong on the campaign trail (his lies about Hillary led a lot of people to choose not to vote for her, to either stay home or leave president blank). Lying to Congress is also a bad thing – for point of reference, see G. W. Bush re: Iraq war. That was a hustle, as utter and steep a lie curve as anything could be, and it led to disastrous consequences.
So, no, C. Christie, lying is not okay on the campaign “hustle”. Lying is not okay when you’re working on Congress. And, I’m sorry, lying is not okay on the sales beat…
So let’s call it what it is. Let’s cut out the word “hyperbole” and state boldly and bluntly what that word means in Trump’s case. We’re not talking about purple prose, or slippery slope, or exaggerated grandiose versions of the truth. We are talking about sheer, open, blatant, bald-faced lies. And lies that continue even when faced with incontrovertible evidence that it is, in fact, a lie.
Agreed. It’s not ok to be a real estate sales-fabulist when you are running for president. Or for anything. His lies are vicious and dangerous and racist and sexist. Not OK, ever.
I hate him so much. More every day when I give myself permission to pay attention. . .
We may actually be talking about bullshit, which is not quite the same thing, and may in some ways be worse.
I’ve thought of Harry Frankfurt’s brilliant essay many times over the last year and a half.
May be read here. Strongly recommended.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://www5.csudh.edu/ccauthen/576f12/frankfurt__harry_-_on_bullshit.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwik8brjn5zaAhXpjVQKHVxzAZgQFjAAegQICRAB&usg=AOvVaw0NfRloYuMniMVPctNZWx02
I think when Christie says “that’s okay”, we should not consider it to be a moral pronouncement, but rather a pragmatic statement on what does or does not work. There are an awful lot of people in sales and government who do think that lying to customers and/or electorate is just fine, as long as it achieves the desired end goal, and that’s what seems to has worked for Trump in both cases. But perhaps Christie is just now realizing that, unlike the salespersons and politicians who know how just much bullshit (in Frankfurt’s sense) is appropriate to the situation, Trump has managed to get to the highest office in the land apparently without knowing if and/or when and/or how to switch it off.
“Which is odd when you remember how readily and often he accuses other people of lying.”
It comes down to your analysis of Trump’s theory of mind, or rather his lack thereof. It’s the same thing about ‘everybody knows’ or ‘everyone’s talking about’ or what have you—on some level, he knows what a bone-deep horrible person he is, and he knows that he can frame his opponents with his worst traits (and amplify their own) in order to overwhelm any actually fair-minded or grounded person.
The entire Republican Party (or ‘conservative’ movement) has fallen prey to this to a certain extent, and it is not a coincidence that Trump has come to embody it so strongly and so quickly. No self-reflection except for transactional purposes, no empathy except a lust for power, and no vision except for their own hypocritical comfort. That they’ve managed to get so many to vote for them is a testament to how screwed America has been for such a long time.
TheoBromine, you’re much nicer to them than I am. But I can’t read it that way, because Christie is comparing it to being a criminal act. In fact, if you are lying in sales or real estate, that is often a criminal act too, but people get away with it until someone can show enough evidence that they lied, and enough people got hurt, to be able to bring suit. Even then, people like Trump get away with a lot because they are corrupt and willing to pay crooked lawyers to make crooked settlements or buy crooked advertisements to smear their accusers.
Because of the overall discussion, I don’t think Christie was talking so much about what works as what you can get away with. And he’s right – it is pretty easy to get away with it in real estate or other sales. For him, that probably is somewhat of a moral judgement, or at least a pragmatic one. Too many business people (not all of them, by far) think it’s okay to do something in a moral sense if you can get away with it in a legal sense. Given Christie’s history, I suspect he was meaning it more in that manner than in the strictly functional matter of “it works” vs “it doesn’t work”.
iknklast, I didn’t think I was exactly being “nice” to Christie, since the import of what I was saying (or at least what I was trying to say) is that he is utterly cynical and amoral and only cares about what works to get what he wants, without any regard to actual ethical behaviour.
Yeah, I know. I think he’s an unethical greed head, too.
“…that people who work for Trump know full well how thick he is.”
Combine this with the ever-present opportunity for belittlement and humiliation and I wonder why anyone would ever want to work for him at all. It can’t be because he’s a nice guy. Perhaps it’s the thrill of proximity to power, being at the center of it all. Or maybe it’s something more mundane. Is there a great benefits package? A nice work-out room? Free refills on coffee?