Monday, August 6, 2018

The World According to Trump.


For a rating obsessed person it is not surprising that Donald J Trump spends more time on Twitter than he does in the Oval office. Between Twitter and his rally speeches there is a world that has been sliced out of the world of reality that is the world that our dear President of the United States lives in. It is a world in which, in the words of former President Bush; 'you are either with us or against us'. However, POTUS 45 has added another dimension to it; 'you may be with us but when I decide you are not with us then everything associated between us is erased from my memory.' Remember Paul Manafort, he was only a small runabout in his campaign, and Michael Flynn, he only knew he was a general and they spoke perhaps twice, once about the great election success and the second time about a good golf swing!

One of the important things in Trump's world to possess is 'selective amnesia'. People think he lies, no he does not lie, he just switches on the selective amnesia function in his brain and that allows him to spin out whatever tale he wants to on any particular day. This tale, in his world, is not connected to anything he may has said earlier and that is his final word. This ensures there is no cross reference to what he may have said a few hours, days, weeks, months or even years earlier. Like months back he said there were no contacts between his campaign and the Russians. Then Paul Manafort got entangled in the Russian web, and it was revealed that Donald Jr met with Russians in the Trump Tower. Mr Trump then said it was a meeting about adoptions. Now, using his selective amnesia function he says sure they met with the Russians but whats wrong with collecting dirt on your political opponent?

Liars usually lie in the spoken word only, because unless its recorded, its your word against theirs. Now either Mr Trump thinks that somehow Tweets just erase themselves or he truly believes if he tweets 100 times a day people will never find the tweets they want to check, one will never know. But Mr Trump lies through tweets and leaves a gigantic record of his lies for people to pick on and then calls them fake news.

In a collective fit of mass hypnosis his base of supporters buy into this selective amnesia story and perhaps I have just give them a justification to say 'no Trump does not lie, he just has selective amnesia'. Its like some new mental condition that is a perfect alibi for a person who lies. The avalanche of lies that this President has espoused since taking office is embarrassing for the purists who see the occupant of the Oval office as someone who may bend the truth once in a while, even stack up facts in a convenient ruse to justify a policy, but to outright lie, even with TV cameras recording the events is a shock to say the least.

According to President Trump when he visited the UK he did not keeping the Queen waiting rather he was there 15 minutes early and waiting for her. Amazing that he did not see the video of Her Majesty standing alone even glancing at her watch as the Donald lumbered up 12 minutes late. What is amazing that when President Trump said this lie (or moment of selective amnesia) he was at a political rally and once could see the faces of the people behind him nodding in hypnotic agreement with this amnesia ridden man.

Things have not been going well for Mr Trump, the Russian probe is getting too close for comfort and if reports are to be believed Donald Jr may get incriminated into a nasty situation where he may have to speak out about the private number he dialed and who he spoke to. If indeed it was his father than the consequences of this will be like a wrecking ball hitting the Trump Tower.

In the world according to Trump there are some interesting options for him to respond to that situation. He could simply deny it and say his son was lying; after all like father like son. A second course of action could be he could invoke selective amnesia and say he never remembers the call from his son, or even more drastic, though not improbable, he could say 'which son? Do I have a son name Donald Jr? Why would I have son and give him my name because there can be only one Donald and that is me!'

One interesting thing to note is when Trump appoints someone for a position around him the superlatives of praise are mind boggling. The person is 'a very fine person', or 'one cannot find anyone better' etc etc. As the person departs the ever caring Potus does not even acknowledge the persons departure, and often the person learns through Twitter he gone; Tillerson was a case in point. Is this was it just being ungrateful or another bout of amnesia; 'Tillerson, who Tillerson, don't know the man!'

Historians will one day struggle to understand the mind of this President. He has amnesia about who his allies are, a delusion that he is the best negotiator in the world forgetting that negotiating what bathroom fitting go into the Trump Tower is galaxies removed from negotiating with Putin or the European leaders. His negotiating skills are about the same level as a teenager trying to get into a night club on a busy night. But seriously historians will wonder why would he pay money to a porn star to keep shut and then have amnesia ala Bill Clinton style, and say he did not have anything to do with Stormy Daniels. Writers will struggle to understand why this man started a trade war where his own base, the farmers and workers who voted for him, will lose jobs and be driven to poverty? They will be lost for words as to why he would believe Putin and his cohorts more than his own intelligence agencies? This is a list so long that historians and political watchers will not have amnesia over, but sadly the man in the White House does have amnesia about it. Should we just drop this amnesia crap and simply call it what it is; plain simple lying!





No comments: