1. Trump's Words and Actions
Trump says the most extraordinary things. Nothing about what Trump does is ordinary, least of all what he says. For better and for worse, he uses words differently from the way any of his modern predecessors would.
Trump says the most extraordinary things. Nothing about what Trump does is ordinary, least of all what he says. For better and for worse, he uses words differently from the way any of his modern predecessors would.
2. For Trump the words are mere tools rather than finished products. Depending on what project he is working on, he reaches for a hammer, or a screw-driver, or a hacksaw, or a drill, or a paint-brush, or whatever.
3. His opponents get hung up on his words so very often they either miss or deliberately refuse to acknowledge the purpose for which a tool is being used. They debate and malign the tools. I understand their predicament. It is an unprecedented situation they/we are dealing with.
4. There is a key difference between Trump and every other politician, and certainly all his recent predecessors as well as Hillary. And this difference, for understandable reasons, will never be acknowledged by the opponents, but more supporters could perhaps make a note of it.
5. Take the press for example. The kind of things Trump says about the press will indeed be far more alarming coming from any other politician, because they would simply be a precursor to ominous action. They would be means to a pernicious end of curbing the freedom of the press.
6. For Trump, however, his bluster about the press is an end in itself, with nothing more to follow. It's simply a shield against relentless attacks from the media on anything he does. While he excoriates press for being fake news, the press continues to enjoy the utmost freedom.
7. If you look closely at any other issue that many find alarming, you will notice the same pattern. Take NK, where Trump started by trading insults with Kim Jong-Un (quite alarming understandably) and ended up with a historic peace meeting (culmination of the initiative TBD).
8. If you look at NATO, where Trump challenged EU allies to pony up their due share or else. The "or else" generated all the alarm, but the follow-through has only been fixated on EU meeting their funding obligations in a more timely manner. No way Trump would pull out of NATO.
9. Trump's initial forays into anything are often alarming, and it's a good thing we get alarmed. Complacency would be worse. But enough of a trend has emerged, that we now have good reason to mix alarm with cautious optimism, knowing that it is quite likely a negotiating gambit.
10. For all his bluster, I maintain that Trump never colors outside the constitutional lines. He just appears to do so sometimes, possibly partly with a mischievous intent to troll his opponents, who never quite seem to catch on to it.
The END
The END
P.S. I have been making the above point for about a year now. This thread from October last year by way of more insight into how Trump operates, and why he says what he does.
P.P.S. Ever since it became clear to me that Trump was going to be our next president, I have been observing him keenly. I wrote this thread on My Hopes and Fears about the Trump presidency 18 months ago, one week BEFORE his inauguration.
