Bad Day at Black Rock
Updated: Jul 25
It was a tough day for Trump at NATO yesterday as he continually struggled to…well, make sense.
There he was, misidentifying Iran, the country he attacked and is literally at war with. As he put it --
“We had 111 missiles shot by the Islamic Republic of Japan.”
And there he was confusing a country with…well, something else entirely. As he praised Turkey’s dictator Recep Erdogan of the host nation, Trump noted –
“And that’s why he runs such a successful and good company.”
To his great credit, Trump did immediately recognize his mistake, that Turkey was not, in fact, a business enterprise, and quickly added, “country.” Something he failed to recognize, though, with the Islamic Republic of Japan.
And there he was, sitting next to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, when Trump nodded towards the Ukrainian leader and asked the press --
"Do you have a question for President Putin?”
On the good side, he can identify a giraffe.
So he says. We haven’t actually seen the proof, mind you.
There was more, throughout the day, including saying he wanted to cut off all trade with our NATO ally Spain, and also refuse entry to any of the country’s officials. Whether he has the authority to do that is another matter, especially since we have trade agreements. With an ally. And the moment when Trump hesitated what to call the JCPOA, President Obama's nuclear treaty with Iran, and finally settled on "JCPOC".
Person, woman, man, camera, TV.
There was an interesting segment yesterday on Nicolle Wallace’s show that dealt with Trump’s muddled day. Her guests Tom Nichols, John Heileman and Michael McFaul (which is quite the Murderer’s Row of guests), and they were all excellent, but Nichols in particular stood out. Sharp, detailed and so world-weary dismissive of Trump. At one point, they played a clip of Trump saying something convoluted, and host Wallace, confused, asked Nichols what he thought Trump was trying to say. Nichols thought for about three seconds and then recognized that the only honest answer he could give was a bored, dismissive shrug, immediately followed by, “I don’t know.” Nicolle Wallace then jumped in to say how she’s actually a bit better at figuring these things out because she has a three-year-old child. So, Nichols asked her, “Well, what do you think he was saying??” And she started in on her analysis…but got SO twisted in trying to explain what she thought that…she just stopped cold and said, “Oh, I don’t know.”
But for me, the Trump moment that stood out the most was not him having one of his dementia moments of forgetfulness – and let’s be clear, if President Biden had referred to Iran as “the Islamic Republic of Japan.” Or identified the nation of Turkey as a “company.” Or called someone sitting next to him who was not Vladimir Putin “Putin.” Or done all of that on the same day, the media would have a field day and that would have been the headline story. As perhaps in this case, it should have been, but this is seen as just “Trump being Trump,” which is true – but Trump being Trump is an 80-year-old man with dementia – but rather was Trump putting his mania on full display.
Wrapping his conference up, Trump, of course, made it all about himself.
“They respect us as a country," Trump said. "They didn't respect us two years ago. They laughed at us. NATO laughed at us, everybody laughed at us. They don't laugh anymore.”
“And they're, you know, just again, if you could have seen the respect and the love in the room and it's love really for the country, for our country. I don't want to say ‘me’ because you'll say, oh, he's so conceited. He's such a conceited person. But they do.”
“I mean, you know, they, like the job I'm doing,” Trump continued. “They said, ‘We love, sir, we love you.’ These are grown people saying that. Isn't that nice?”
“Maybe, I don't know, maybe they're trying to get to me. And, in a way they did, because there was tremendous unity in that room."
To start with, no, people don't say Trump is "conceited." They say he's a "malignant narcissist," which is actually a medical term for a sickness. Someone who will even burn down his own house if he doesn't get his way. Someone who takes pleasure in the suffering of others.
Not "conceited."
We could only wish for “conceited.”
And furthermore, yes, they do actually laugh at Trump. We've seen "caught-on-tape" video of that. The ridicule is hard to miss. And, no, there was not “tremendous unity” in that room. Unless you mean among all the leaders who were not Trump. Unity?? This after Trump blasted NATO, insisted yet again that he wants to own Greenland, and said he wanted to stop all trade with NATO partner Spain.
But no, to Trump, all he heard – all he ever hears – in a mythical voice rumbling around his head telling him, “Sir, we love you.” Something I wouldn’t be surprised to learn, is something he hears even when he’s in a room alone.
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