Perfectly normal
There it is – there’s that giveaway. He tells Kaitlan Collins to go ahead then interrupts himself to shout insults at her.
“You are the worst reporter – no wonder CN – CNN has no ratings because of people like you – [looks to his left] you know she’s a young woman – [looks to his right] I don’t think I’ve ever seen you smile, I’ve known you for [grimaces] ten years, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a smile on your face.” [Collins tries to speak, he shouts over her.] You know why yerr not smiling? Coz ya know yer not tellin the trueth.”
He can launch the nukes.
We will never wash the stain from the White House, will we? The USA for all its faults and failure, at least had lofty aspirations for our leadership. We could accept that when they closed the doors and talked among themselves they could be nasty as shit, as long as they treated us with dignity and respect when the cameras were rolling.
I blame “reality TV” for elevating this sort of jackassery to the public discourse as acceptable. So, it won’t go away when he does.
And it had a lot of help from the internet. Reality TV made it acceptable; the internet made it mainstream and everyday.
The thing is, the jackassery preceded Trump; all he did is bring it starkly into focus in the public eye. He brought it to the White House. Now he’s trying to take it global, and with an unfortunate level of success (which could just mean people in other countries aren’t any nicer than we are, which is scary to contemplate).
I grew up with this kind of jackassery; I used to think my family was abnormal. Now I realize they are much more ‘normal’ (whatever the hell that means) than I am.
“Insult comedy” instead of government. We’re doomed.