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Donald Trump is a master of revisionist history.
He can argue that TikTok is a national security threat and then that it’s crucially important to society.
Reminds me of when he famously said I could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose support and I thought he’s probably right – now, at least, among the MAGA diehards.
And he does it through the sheer power of repetition.
TRUMP PULLS BACK CURTAIN ON WHITE HOUSE BALLROOM’S FORTRESS-LIKE DEFENSES ABOVE AND DEEP BELOW
How many times have you heard that the Jan. 6 rioters, who he summoned to the Capitol, are great patriots? Despite the fact that they attacked and injured police officers, invaded members’ offices and were calling for Mike Pence’s hanging?
When that happened, even many Republicans thought Trump was finished. Big-name members of the GOP, along with the Democrats, denounced him in harsh terms.
‘SHARK TANK’ STAR BACKS TRUMP’S WHITE HOUSE BALLROOM PLAN AMID SECURITY CONCERNS: ‘IT’S BIPARTISAN’
But Trump gave the same answer again and again. Flipping his usual law-and-order stance, he argued it wasn’t really a riot. It wasn’t that big a deal. After hearing him say that hundreds of times, some people thought, well, there must be something to it. He wouldn’t just be making it up. For all his unscripted digressions, Trump has an uncanny ability to stay on message.
He’s like the boisterous guy in the Home Depot parking lot, using a megaphone to shout at anyone within earshot.
But hey, this is a guy who’s still arguing about the 2016 election – which he won. Trump still says the 2020 election was stolen from him – though that’s never been substantiated in court, and he was the one making calls to try to flip votes.
The latest uproar is about Trump settling his IRS lawsuit by creating a $1.7 billion fund that would be used for the benefit of the Jan. 6 protestors, even those convicted of serious crimes.
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During his out-of-office years, Trump battled four criminal investigations, which everyone now agrees actually helped him by looking like political persecution. And that obviously fed his unquenchable desire for retribution.
During the first impeachment, the president, according to a transcript, asked Volodymyr Zelenskyy to announce an investigation of Joe Biden and his son Hunter. This was after Trump personally ordered a freeze on nearly $400 million in congressionally approved aid to Ukraine.
“I heard you had a prosecutor who was very good and he was shut down and that’s really unfair,” a transcript has Trump saying. “A lot of people are talking about that, the way they shut your very good prosecutor down and you had some very bad people involved…
“There’s a lot of talk about Biden’s son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that, so whatever you can do with the attorney general would be great. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution, so if you can look into it… It sounds horrible to me.”
TRUMP WARNS IRAN’S ‘CLOCK IS TICKING’: MOVE ‘FAST’ OR ‘THERE WON’T BE ANYTHING LEFT’
Problem? Nah. The president kept calling it a “perfect phone call.” Got that?
The Senate did not convict on the House impeachment charges.
Which brings us to the war in Iran.
The president has gone back and forth in his rhetoric so many times it’s downright dizzying. Trump said “a whole civilization will die tonight.” Then he kept extending the deadline. He said Tehran’s response was “garbage” and didn’t bother to read it.
The resumed bombing campaign was set for yesterday – but Trump agreed to a brief pause at the urging of the heads of three Middle East countries.
In terms of message discipline, Trump has said perhaps hundreds of times that the war is over, that he can get out anytime, that our military crushed Iran’s defenses, wiping out its navy and air force, and that’s all true.
Bursting with sarcasm, the president said on Truth Social that the “entire Military walks out of Tehran, weapons dropped and hands held high, each shouting ‘I surrender, I surrender’ while wildly waving the representative White Flag, and if their entire remaining Leadership signs all necessary ‘Documents of Surrender,’ and admit their defeat to the great power and force of the magnificent U.S.A.” that the press would still write Iran achieved a ‘Masterful and Brilliant Victory.’”
I don’t doubt that some of the negative coverage is driven by anti-Trump hostility in the media, but I have to defend the press to some degree here. No journalist or commentator would dispute the breadth of America’s military victory, though it could be mentioned more frequently. But with dueling blockades and the Strait of Hormuz still unopened, that is the story right now. There’s no way to avoid focusing on that, since the ceasefire hangs in the balance, with no apparent progress on getting the mullahs to give up on developing nuclear weapons.
Trump was so determined to hammer that home that he got into this exchange before leaving for China.
A reporter asked whether the president was motivated to make a deal with Iran because of “Americans’ financial situations.”
“Not even a little bit,” Trump said — and then it happened.
TRUMP MEETS NETANYAHU, SAYS HE WANTS IRAN DEAL BUT REMINDS TEHRAN OF ‘MIDNIGHT HAMMER’ OPERATION
“The only thing that matters when I’m talking about Iran — they can’t have a nuclear weapon. I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation. I don’t think about anybody. I think about one thing — we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. That’s all.”
That was such a rare linguistic blunder by Trump – he repeated the offending sound bite rather than framing the question in more favorable terms, as he usually does.
Democrats, the press and other detractors denounced the comments, with television and online sites replaying his words again and again.
“That’s a perfect statement. I’d make it again,” Trump told Fox’s Bret Baier.
Perfect. There’s that word again. None of this “I regret that my words were misinterpreted” or any loser talk like that. It was sheer perfection.
Despite his involvement with two foreign wars and sinking polls at home, Trump doesn’t let go of past obsessions.
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As the New York Times reports, Trump’s aides have been holding secret talks with Greenland and demanding a much larger U.S. role on the island. Greenland’s leaders are worried about the tactics.
Greenland again? Really?
Donald Trump makes news about everything. We have all been living in Trumpworld for a decade. He’ll generate a dozen controversies between now and Memorial Day. And that’s a perfect prediction.