Frank Bruni - Trump's Biggest and Most Dangerous Lie

[malaise]

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/06/opinion/trump-el-paso-racism.html
When a president orders up a special script, summons the national media and sends a message to all Americans that the “sinister ideologies” of “racism, bigotry and white supremacy” have no place here, the normal response is to cheer.

But these aren’t normal times. Donald Trump isn’t a normal president. And those words, which he spoke on Monday, made me feel sick, because they were just cheap and hollow sops to convention.

He doesn’t believe them. Or rather, he doesn’t care. That’s indisputable from his actions to this point, and it will be demonstrated anew by his behavior going forward. I lost my fondness for forecasts after November 2016, but you can take this prediction to the bank: Trump will be back to his old tweets and tricks in no time. They have gotten him this far, and he’s not going to mess with a good thing just because the country is in crisis.

That speech of his was a pantomime of dignity to give cover to his Republican enablers, and it took a hell of a lot of nerve. Trump as a healer? A unifier? I have grown dangerously inured to his lies — how can you not, when there are so many of them? — but this one was so big it stopped me in my tracks. And it scared me, because when he pretends that what he has been doing isn’t bigoted and racist and that he’s not pushing a narrative of white people who belong here threatened by dark people who don’t, he encourages that same delusion in his followers. He’s not confronting them. He’s letting them off the hook.

[Iliyah]

1. t-rump did not mean it.

The GOP does not care. The whole party = white nationalist. Barr, and the 5 US SC are white nationalist, including Thomas. McTurtle is rushing in all white nationalist judges.

The safety of the USA is in peril. The GOP hates democracy.

[underpants]

4. Notice he didn't say HE condemned white nationalism and bigotry

He said WE had to condemn it.

The message to his people was clear.

[duforsure]

2. Most of the American people

Know this is just another act from a liar and a con man, stating something the complete opposite of the truth from red donnie, again, nothing more. His words can't be trusted on anything he says or claims, and like some have said, ignore what he says, and watch what he does. Its never the same, as many people and bankers , and contractors , and now cities are finding out with his stiffing them. The problem is putin has red donnie inciting Americans to kill other Americans now. The KGBOP have no place in OUR government.

[kentuck]

3. All people living in reality knew it was his biggest lie.

The words were not his and had no weight except to cover for his Republican enablers.

[usaf-vet]

21. Actually I thought it was a SNL skit with Alex Baldwin. I waited for the cold open......

...... at the end of the skit.

"Live From New York, It's Saturday Night!"

https://www.cinemablend.com/television/2476376/saturday-night-live-the-9-best-snl-cold-opens-ever

[kentuck]

26. Really!

It could very well have been a SNL skit.

[UpInArms]

5. I watched (via the internet) him read from the Teleprompter

And was disgusted...

He exhibited no understanding of the sounds that were forced from his nasty lips

He sniffed and misread the lines on the screen (Toledo?)

and shuffled away afterward

This barely upright single celled amoeba is a daily example of what not to be in any form

All those who support his existence should crawl back into the sewers from which they came

[Jeffersons Ghost]

6. K&R

[Augiedog]

7. I was actually startled at the phoniness of his speech. His sociopathy was on full display.

[58Sunliner]

19. Agreed.

[ginnyinWI]

20. Back in the Sixties, the worst thing you could be was a phony.

I see he did not get that memo!

[Wounded Bear]

8. Sincerity, once you can fake that you've got it made...

Groucho Marx said that about acting.

Trump is normally really, really bad at faking sincerity. That speech shows he's getting better at it, which is not a good thing. It's probably at least partly because-as the writer says-we're getting inured to Trump's schtick.

We really need to continue reminding ourselves that this is not normal and we can't let it become so.

[Roy Rolling]

9. A Hostage Video

He deliberately mimicked the style of a hostage video. It was deliberate, not his stupidity as usual.

He’s a hack actor, a D-list celebrity. But he thinks he’s living in a TV show where he’s always in the lead role.

On this case, he read from a TelePrompTer and made his true followers understand he doesn’t believe a word of what comes out of his mouth.

The way I feel about everyword that comes out of his mouth.

[Scarsdale]

10. He appeared to be

heavily medicated to me. No twisting his entire body to look in either direction the way he "normally" does. Just a monotone, reading words that make no sense to him. He is fake from head to toe, always has been always will be.

[malaise]

11. Tweety said he looked like a POW

That is the perfect description

[Rebl2]

17. Agreed

No emotion, no sincerity at all in his voice. He acted as if he was being forced to do this.

[CCExile]

12. I hope I'm waatching when he has his "Ceaușescu" moment.

[malaise]

13. I'm not going there but I know what you mean n/t

[sir pball]

31. I shouldn't say this, but

I'd gladly star in that broadcast.

[smirkymonkey]

34. I won't say exactly what I am thinking, but I would be lying if that

thought hasn't crossed my mind before.

[Ilsa]

41. Along with a few family members. nt

[DeminPennswoods]

14. It is night and day between "scripted Trump" and

"unscripted Trump". It's so easy to tell he doesn't believe a word he reads off a teleprompter of a speech someone has written for him and the way he talks (even when he's reading off a teleprompter or from notes) when he's around his minions at campaign rallies. He is animated and enjoys what he says and how the crowd reacts with applause and cheers.

[colsohlibgal]

15. He Is A National Emergency

We now have a ruthless crooked crazed man, who may be in mental decline when he doesn’t have a lot up there to decline from.....who has our nuclear codes.

This is a full on crisis. We need to crush him in November 2020 so we can get a sober, sane person in the White House. I like some candidates better than others but whoever gets the nod will be infinitely better than this walking disaster. Then Crazy Donnie can either go to jail or a psychiatric facility.

[world wide wally]

16. Just ask David Duke if he has changed his mind about Trump.

We all know he hasn't...and neither should anyone else.

[58Sunliner]

18. I don't know if he was on drugs, but he looked like he was enjoying his performance.

It made me physically ill. A gloating sociopath. The presidency means nothing right now. Tear him down.

[murielm99]

22. I actually heard some news reader

call it "insincere." I wish I could remember who said that.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

23. If he gave a damn he wouldn't have said Toledo. His address was most important thing he did that day

... and he couldn't even get the fundamentals right.

It's both dementia and sociopathic carelessness.

[malaise]

24. +1,000

No one and especially the head of state should get away with that unbelievable lack of awareness.

[SayItLoud]

25. Chris Cuomo

Still buys into "pivot" when long ago tRUMP only hears divot.

[pazzyanne]

27. I can't any more, I just can't!

I am totally exhausted emotionally and physically. I can't listen to the Orange Shitgibbon nor any of his cult. I am done!

[Nitram]

28. Right on the money. And everybody knows it. Everybody sees right through Dump's charades.

When asked why steps Trump could take to turn this around, caller after caller on NPR said that he can't. Because we all know he is always lying. You can't believe a single word he says.

[oasis]

29. Bruni coming on strong. nt

[stuffmatters]

30. Trump's speeches ag everything he espouses are sadistic gloats,turning the knife in our nat'l back

As has been mentioned so many times, cruelty is always the point.

[BigmanPigman]

32. The RacistRapist "Doesn't Really Care".

He is a sociopath...it isn't in his make-up. He can't care or feel at this point.

https://www.mcafee.cc/Bin/sb.html
Read this...
Traits of a Sociopath

[dlk]

33. When Someone Has No Conscience, They Can Say or Do Anything

Trump is a living embodiment of the old cliche - How can you tell if Trump is lying? His lips are moving.

[Ohioboy]

35. It was obviously a script he was reading from a teleprompter

What else was he going to say? The El Paso shooter used his very language to justify killing. Trump was stuck and had to say what he did, kind of like how he changed what he "meant" to say to Putin in Helsinki.

[sir pball]

36. One of the best critics of our time.

Speaking as a chef, he's probably only second to Ruth Reichl as a food writer; he's taken his discernment and sensibility to politics and it just got better.

[YOHABLO]

37. His handlers probably told him to go to El Paso and Dayton. I mean, he had to as President.

I don't think he has an empathetic bone in his body. What a farce.

[Blue_Tires]

40. He was always going to El Paso and Dayton

but not because he ever gave a shit about the victims, he went because that is where the nation's attention is and Trump knew if he went he could make the whole thing about *HIM* and his glorious, perfect administration...

[radius777]

38. all about white moderates just like

when Romney spoke at the NAACP, etc.

Trump is just an amplified version of the game the GOP has always played: red meat to the racist base, classy teleprompter speeches to appease the conscience of the 'respectable' Repub voter, so they can tell their friends they aren't a racist.

[Blue_Tires]

39. But Trump lives in his own detached reality

Remember that old Seinfeld joke of "It isn't a lie if you truly believe it?" That's what's in play here...