Thread by @KagroX

The best description of what happened yesterday that comes closest to being true is merely that Trump purported to have signed what purported to be an executive order that purported to make a change in the family separation policy.

You don’t know what he signed. You know what he told you he signed. But you also know that he’s lied to you every step of the way that has led to yesterday’s signing.

You don’t know that the paper he flashed at you after signing it was the same text that the White House released.

You know that in previous administrations it would have been considered an outrage to release something different, of course. But that was then and this is now.

And of course, you actually do know that the text currently purported to represent the item signed yesterday HAS actually changed, but “only because” of a typo that we all caught.

But change it did.

It should also be noted that these typos are a frequent problem with this White House. And that’s actually an issue, because it indicates how little importance this administration puts on getting even basic things right.

But tomorrow you’ll be subjected to an op-ed that says that the “elitist” insistence that things be done correctly is “how we got Trump."

Would the world stop spinning if it got out that Trump signed an order that his team thought better of literally minutes later, and so therefore was “revised” before being released to the press?

What if the order was followed up with phone calls to ICE & CBP officials instructing them to keep on keeping on, and not to worry about what some dumb piece of paper said?

Would THAT be materially different from everything else that’s happened? Would it be a tipping point?

What if all or any of that turned out to be the case, but when asked about it, Sarah Huckabee Sanders simply said it wasn’t true? That none of it had happened?

It’s not like she hasn’t done it before. On this very issue, even. Within a week of this date.

OK, you don’t buy it. You prefer the construction in which the legal interpretation of the order is that all the administration has to do to render it moot is declare that ending family separation is, in their view, “not consistent with the law.”

Fine. Same result.

Now you have a fancy pants way of saying that Trump just scribbled on some paper and declared the issue solved, but really nothing happened. But we wrote headlines that said something did, anyway.

Is this different from what happened on North Korea? Not materially, no.

Did we know it when we watched it happen on North Korea? Yes.

Did we change anything when we saw it happen again on immigration? No.

It’s still the case that if you do a thing, and you do it in the White House, while wearing a suit, we presume that thing has happened, because it would be an UTTER OUTRAGE if it turned out to be a lie from start to finish.

SO OUTRAGEOUS, in fact, as to be beyond comprehension.

And so, the only option is… not to comprehend it.

So we don’t. So here we are.

Sure. An “executive order” was “signed.” And it “means something different will happen.” Yes. Terrific. You bet.

It won’t even change your mind if I pelt you with Starburst candies afterward.

But could it really be that this is all just Trump & his team winging it & doing whatever the hell they want, then just decorating it with the trappings of office that we were conditioned, under normal circumstances, to believe meant that a real and official thing was happening?

Well, that’s pretty crazy sounding! But do you have a better explanation for, well… actually for how they’ve handled pretty much EVERY SINGLE ONE of the “executive orders” purportedly memorializing one or another of the parts of his culture war agenda?

But why would they do things this way now that they really do have all the levers of power in their hands (thanks to the electoral college and our continued fealty to it)?

Why not?

Why learn the “proper” way of doing things? What difference has not learning it made?

Besides, so long as there are people willing to write Deeply Earnest and Very Serious op-eds explaining that the “right and proper and legal” way of doing things is for eggheads and nerds anyway, and that insisting on that process is “How We Got Trump”… then aren’t they right?

Isn’t that all the cover they need?

Well, maybe not. Maybe there’s still the “rule of law.” Maybe the courts can stop them. Unless, say, Kris Kobach is any indication of how seriously they take the power of the courts.

Or, leave Kris Kobach aside for a minute and look at how the Trump team has reacted to the courts’ opinions on their “executive orders” to date.

HAVEN’T courts been able to stop them? They haven’t just simply defied the courts, right? They’ve “revised” their orders, right?

Of course, there was that thing with the Muslim ban.

How many times did they “revise” that thing? And how many times was the result the same, but then they just tried it again, anyway?

How many families detained at the border today are going to see their on-the-ground outcomes change if they point to yesterday’s televised signing ceremony?

Versus how many who’ll be laughed at, locked up and separated, just the same?

But that would be an OUTRAGE! Because signed paper!

Oh. Right. Say, we’re sorry about that. Mistakes were made. It won’t happen again.

Sarah! Sarah! It just happened again! Do you have a comment?

Well, where are your tears for abortion? Thank you everybody. Good bye.

Like this thread, this can just go on forever.

Because we don’t know what to do with it.

Hell, if Trump went to the podium and said it’s all true, and he deserved any punishment we wanted to give him for it, we STILL wouldn’t really know what to do.

There is no answer at the end of this thread.

It just is what it is.

Though if they can “create their own reality,” we can do it, too.

But then we tell ourselves, “now we’re no better than they are.” So we don’t.

Oh, "This Tweet is unavailable”?

Who cares? It was just a record of what the president “signed."

They would do anything to anyone.

But NOT say they were doing one thing by “executive order,” then really do something else, perhaps the exact opposite.

NO. Never THAT.

Look at how super seriously Trump himself is taking the new reality created by his totally real policy change!

These things are not true, but "the president" says them. So Trump fans repeat them. So bad!

Was there "an executive order addressing the border issue" yesterday? Nobody knows. But "the president" said there was. So...

You don't say!

See? We all love the pup, but look at how we still give deference!

Tell me more about the things you think "they wouldn't DARE."