You’re making me look like an idiot!
To be outraged by Trump is to play into his hand. Better to laugh at him. And I have to say that in my 64 years on this planet, I’ve never enjoyed the political news as much as right now:
The Oval Office meeting this past March began, as so many had, with President Trump fuming about migrants. But this time he had a solution. As White House advisers listened astonished, he ordered them to shut down the entire 2,000-mile border with Mexico — by noon the next day.
The advisers feared the president’s edict would trap American tourists in Mexico, strand children at schools on both sides of the border and create an economic meltdown in two countries. Yet they also knew how much the president’s zeal to stop immigration had sent him lurching for solutions, one more extreme than the next.
Privately, the president had often talked about fortifying a border wall with a water-filled trench, stocked with snakes or alligators, prompting aides to seek a cost estimate. He wanted the wall electrified, with spikes on top that could pierce human flesh. After publicly suggesting that soldiers shoot migrants if they threw rocks, the president backed off when his staff told him that was illegal. But later in a meeting, aides recalled, he suggested that they shoot migrants in the legs to slow them down. That’s not allowed either, they told him.
Trump fans will insist he was just joking. But comedians don’t generally shout at their audience:
In the Oval Office that March afternoon, a 30-minute meeting extended to more than two hours as Mr. Trump’s team tried desperately to placate him.
“You are making me look like an idiot!” Mr. Trump shouted, adding in a profanity, as multiple officials in the room described it.
When I was young, there was a TV commercial where people argued over the best quality of a certain beer:
Tastes great!
No, less filling!
With Trump there’s such a plethora of bad attributes that one hardly knows where to start:
Idiot!
No, liar!
No, thug!
No, creep!
The debates will go on forever, to be rehashed in future history books.
But just as Miller Lite can be enjoyed on many levels, Trump’s “snakes and alligators” approach to border security (or his “nuke the hurricanes” approach to climate policy), can be appreciated on multiple levels.
There’s another wonderful thing about Trump; he shows it doesn’t matter who is president. He consistently undermines our intelligence services and insists the Russians are innocent. He’s constantly trying to cozy up to bloodthirsty dictators and undermine our allies. And none of it seems to matter.
He hasn’t been able to remove the sanctions on Russia. Trump shows that even in the worst case, even if Putin achieved all his devious foreign policy goals in one fell swoop, it would still be all for naught. US presidents just aren’t that influential. We have a Russian mole in the White House and things still go on as usual.
And you wonder why I don’t worry about Chinese spying. What do the Chinese hope to achieve? They are decades behind Russia in their ability to influence US policy. And Russia is gaining nothing from its efforts.
PS. A new poll suggests that 60% of Republicans believe that Trump is lying about the Ukraine conversation:
A new poll shows that only four in 10 Republicans believe President Donald Trump talked to the Ukrainian president about investigating political rival Joe Biden, even though Trump has acknowledged doing so.
PPS. Why didn’t Trump suggest that the spikes be tipped with poison?
PPPS. Doesn’t Trump know that crocodiles are more dangerous than alligators?
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2. October 2019 at 11:12
Tell that to the people of Iran, Cuba, and Venezuela, motherfucker. The more sensible conclusion is that, just as Trump does not, in fact, want healthcare for everybody, he is not a Russian mole, but very anti-Russian, anti-Cuban, anti-Venezuelan, anti-Iranian, and moderately anti-Chinese.
No; they are light-years ahead. Admittedly, no group of countries (not even the E.U.) is particularly good at influencing U.S. policies -with the sole exception of the Jewish state, because it’s full of Jews.
Anyway, please stop referring to (largely imaginary) “leaks”. They do not help your case. Instead, refer to public evidence that Trump, for whatever reason, does not want to attract smart people, like his posting a fake map as his pinned tweet.
2. October 2019 at 11:16
Anyway, of all the Earth’s dictatorships, Trump is a fan of only two: Egypt and Yemen.
2. October 2019 at 11:32
I totally understand why some people hate the guy (i’ve diskliked a few presidents myself), but the Russia thing i can’t get my head around.
Energy policy is by far the most consequential decision relative to Russia. A President who wants to expand domestic supply (and protect Saudi supply) is a nightmare for them (have you seen the oil price?). A President pushing aggressive environmental restrictions on carbon-based energy output would be a dream for Russia. If i’m Russia i’m praying for a Green New Deal.
2. October 2019 at 12:50
Love the blog. Share many of your views. But can I just mildly suggest you go camping one weekend. Get out under the stars…somewhere where there is no internet. I feel your frustration and getting away can help.
2. October 2019 at 13:19
Wow. E.Harding got a little mad there. I think motherfucker is a harsh term, Scott is a very pleasant and nice guy!
Scott: I still think you need some time to cool off, your TDS has gotten worse, even while Trump’s ability to do change the nation has crumbled. People like Trump aren’t going away for a long time. Contra to what you may think, transforming Western European demographics into Third World demographics will cause some heartache and pain, although like in the case of California and Texas, things may level off.
A good example is the Grooming Gang scandals in the United Kingdom, which has chosen to Brexit and has Boris Johnson for Prime Minister. There are now over a hundred estimated Grooming Gangs(caused by Muslim immigrants and their children) around the UK, and each with dozens to hundreds of victims. The UK went from a country with no grooming gangs to one with grooming gangs, and they followed a policy of immigration championed by people such as yourself.
Anger and populist leaders are going to result- even if they are as ridiculous as Boris Johnson- and he is a ridiculous man!
Instead of taking a detached, whimsical view, I think you need to ask how this happened in the first place- because it can happen again. Perhaps a trip outside your ideological bubble would help, maybe read some Steve Sailer, just as I read your blog!
2. October 2019 at 13:40
John, as you know, I think politics should revolve around the lives of not a couple dozen politicians, but the millions of people around the globe, and I thoroughly despise anyone who belittles the suffering of the Iranian people.
Who knows? Trump is pretty sui generis. Unlike the Democrats, Republicans are not a cult. Once the president is gone from office, noone will care what he thinks, and there will be lively debate within the Republican party about its future.
2. October 2019 at 13:42
Just two more strong examples of your massive TDS.
Trump is not loyal to Russia. His personality disorder doesn’t allow this. For 4-5 years you have been trying to prove that the opposite is true, but there is still no evidence to prove it, on the contrary the anti-Russian course of the government is super-strong, nevertheless you stick to your theory. More TDS is not possible. How could anyone have more TDS than that?????
The other example is Trump’s admiration for other statesmen (again, his PD plays an important role). You make this TDS propaganda again by pretending he only admires dictators like Putin. But that’s only partly true; you leave out the other important part: He does that with almost all statesmen, even with Merkel, and also with Xi. There’s almost no negative statement of Trump about Xi, again the contrary is true, but you hide that completely, because it doesn’t fit into your TDS framing at all. As I said: Lies, hypocrisy, massive TDS.
Maybe you should run against Trump. You can bend reality almost as skillfully as the master himself. Oh well, you’re not as much of a TV personality as he is, but maybe with a few years of practice? I recommend orange skin and a new hairstyle.
2. October 2019 at 14:14
I love how Sumner trolls his commenters, and they always take the bait. If he has TDS, they have SDS (Sumner Derangement Syndrome)
Or in Harding’s case, JDS. Just like Hitler! NO GODWIN though, both men really were/are deranged by Jews.
2. October 2019 at 14:18
E.Harding: True, Trump’s slavish nature to please Mainstream outlets and Neocon policies have him continuing bad politics like accelerating hostility with Iran. One of the reasons I consider Obama a great president was due to his willingness to engage with countries that prior US polic had shut out(Cuba, Iran, further diplomacy with China). In this respect, Trump is a massive failure, and a horrible president:
Christian: Scott has severe TDS(no different to the crazyness of the commentators here), but not if you consider his TDS in relative terms. Others have it much worse, at least Scott tries to explain his TDS.
I think the biggest problem is that Scott has not lived in areas where Trump’s ideas hold most power. Affulent, White Boston and low crime, Hispanic and Asian Orange County aren’t areas where Trump’s ideas hold attention. That’s more in the suburbs surrounding dysfunctional black cities like Detroit and St.Louis, where Black crime is 800% higher than White crime.
Scott’s criticisms are still correct, but I don’t think he groks why some people blindly support Trump, or what their rational is for doing so.
2. October 2019 at 14:19
Msgkings: I think we just want attention from Scott 🙂
2. October 2019 at 14:25
Effem, You said:
“A President pushing aggressive environmental restrictions on carbon-based energy output would be a dream for Russia. If i’m Russia i’m praying for a Green New Deal.”
Exactly the opposite. It would be restrictions on energy use, which would hurt Russian oil exports.
Eric and John, I’m enjoying this too much. If I went away I might miss some of the action.
Christian, You said:
“There’s almost no negative statement of Trump about Xi, again the contrary is true, but you hide that completely, because it doesn’t fit into your TDS framing at all. As I said: Lies, hypocrisy, massive TDS.”
Take a deep breath. Just 2 hours and 26 minutes before you wrote this I pointed out that Trump praises Xi for being authoritarian. Will you now admit you were wrong about me?
I said:
“Obviously I support the protestors. It was Trump that congratulated China on the 70th anniversary of the communist revolution. What a disgusting person. He frequently speaks in support of Xi’s get tough approach to things.”
https://www.themoneyillusion.com/easterly-on-neoliberalism/#comment-5192648
2. October 2019 at 14:29
John, You said:
“I think the biggest problem is that Scott has not lived in areas where Trump’s ideas hold most power. Affulent, White Boston and low crime, Hispanic and Asian Orange County aren’t areas where Trump’s ideas hold attention. That’s more in the suburbs surrounding dysfunctional black cities like Detroit and St.Louis, where Black crime is 800% higher than White crime.
I lived in a high crime area of Chicago, right on the line between a white and black neighborhood. Does that count?
But indirectly you are right about one thing. Trump wrongly blames America’s high crime rate on immigrants. Actually the high crime areas have very few immigrants.
2. October 2019 at 14:31
@John Arthur: no question about that! 🙂
2. October 2019 at 14:40
Jumping over snakes and alligators? That was the premise of Pitfall.
2. October 2019 at 14:45
Scott: No indirectness here, I have been blunt that Trump’s silly approach to Hispanic immigration is really, really, stupid. The problem though is that he is right that future immigration does not portend good things for the US. East Asia and Latin America are at replacement fertility, while the Middle East and Africa(where our worst performing groups come from) are booming in population. Our future immigration will reorient themselves toward those people, and the mean quality of those regions as well.
Yes, I know that Black immigrants do well, but their children do much worse, and they will regress to the mean over the generations. It is unlikely that a socioeconomic divergence between Decent of Slaves and Black immigrants will continue for some time.
It was been my long held suspicion that the push for immigration was to keep the relative Black population down, but since Whites didn’t have many kids, it also radically lowered their share of the population.
So, it is in our best idea to either racially discriminate in immigration, or to lower the total numbers
Yes, I will concede the point of Chicago, but you did so when you were young, and did not have a family yet. Trump’s biggest support comes from married people with children, who have a lot to lose if the US goes under. High crime is not an abstraction when your daughter goes to school in those neighborhoods, you respond to it differently.
2. October 2019 at 15:02
Indeed, Rotherham UK, where the biggest grooming gang occured(around 10% of the Muslim Male population was involved!), the political views turned from Labour to Tory, and the small city voted to Leave in 2016. Things happen for a reason…
In the short run, the fast growth of the Hispanic and Asian population will doom Trump, but in the long run, the even faster growth of the Black and Muslim population will turn countries into permanent nationalist states.
2. October 2019 at 15:05
Scott,
I read that. It’s the first time you’ve written it this way. I flatter myself and assume this as my positive influence on you. But you never mention this part of the story in your Russia-China-Saudi-Arabia-framing. Why not? Because it doesn’t fit at all. That’s why.
So you now admit that he talks very positively about Xi. That’s great. Trump talks as positively about “his friend” Xi as he does about “his friend” Putin. I’m applying your impartial, brilliant Trump-Putin logic on Trump-Xi: “We have a Chinese mole in the White House and Scott figured it out.” Omg!
What we must expect from you now, because of your fairness and your undeniable impartiality, are thorough “investigations”. What are China and their lackey Trump up to?
Some stupid critics without TDS might ask: “The sanctions and the trade war with China????” But Scott learned from his impartial Russia observations: This is all just a really clever cover-up!
Scott, I’m sure you will get to the bottom of this!
2. October 2019 at 15:24
@Christian: Your SDS is really strong today
2. October 2019 at 15:47
Sumner’s main problem is that he relies heavily on various tabloids such as the ones linked above. If he relied on a reputable paper like WSJ he would be a mere Trump skeptic instead of a separate chapter in the DSM.
2. October 2019 at 17:01
It is true, Trump is often laughable.
George Bush Jr., on the other hand, entered the US into not one but two fantastically expensive yet counterproductive wars, with the added bonus of oceans of human carnage, dislocation and misery. Oh, and also the financial system collapsed on the Bush Jr. watch.
It is interesting to ponder Reagan and Clinton. In some regards, their biggest achievement was not getting into a major war. Evidently, not so easy a task—just ask LBJ, Nixon, or Bush Jr.
If Trump can avoid a major war, then we will easily survive the Trump Presidency, and get a lot of entertainment to boot. And the Trump Presidency will do about 1% of the damage the Bush Presidency did.
And oddly…Trump has been right on monetary policy, and the Federal Reserve, with its august offices and 750 Phd economists…has been wrong. That would be entertaining, except for the consequences.
2. October 2019 at 17:44
Alligators are American, Crocodiles aren’t. Are you suggesting we should bring in more foreigners … traitor!
2. October 2019 at 20:58
“Exactly the opposite. It would be restrictions on energy use, which would hurt Russian oil exports.”
Sumner, Liz Warren and Crazy Bernie (supposedly) want to ban fracking by executive order. So you’re wrong again; the drop in supply vastly exceeds rhe drop in demand. Quit being a moron.
2. October 2019 at 21:01
“Actually the high crime areas have very few immigrants.”
Not true (again); they have a similar immigrant share to the general population; e.g., Mexicantown in Detroit and similar areas in Chicago.
2. October 2019 at 21:05
Also, Sumner, is Barry O a disgusting person? I think he is (though not for congratulating China on the PRC’s 67th anniversary -the PRC has done a lot for civilization). Do you? You have a brain. Use it.
https://2009-2017.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2016/09/262637.htm
2. October 2019 at 21:07
@Christian fantastic comment. I don’t know why Sumner is an idiot on political matters. It’s striking to me.
2. October 2019 at 22:21
@E Harding: But Christian List….is JEWISH!
Did I just blow your mind?!
2. October 2019 at 22:52
> There’s another wonderful thing about Trump; he shows it doesn’t matter who is president.
My conclusion is less sweeping: Trump shows that the skills and personality you need to get your way as a president of the US differ from what you need for campaigning. And that you need a lot of the former skills to get anything done.
Ie someone more competent than Trump at presidenting could probably get stuff done. We don’t know just from looking at Trump. (Of course, more competent people mask their differences with the rest of the system better, so they don’t antagonise more than they have to. But that masking makes it harder to tell when they are getting their way, and when it’s just the establishment getting its way.)
3. October 2019 at 02:42
So I’m reading this in the context of your TDS post a couple days ago fresh on my mind I guess the part that jumps out at me, outside a banally trolling commentators or amusing yourself, what is your specific complaint here especially in the context of recently equally reasserting you consider yourself a libertarian.
For example if your assertion is Trump isn’t allowed to prevent illegal immigration via physical methods unlike everything other president before him, well I’m not sure what to say outside the claims of TDS seem pretty valid here. Whether it’s a border checkpoint, alligators, shooting them in the knee, ICE, etc it’s all variants of the same thing. To the guy that got murdered, it really doesn’t matter if you used a gun, knife, or pillow. So really is your specific complaint here “OMG Trump is putting a shade of lipstick on a big that I disagree with?” because that is pretty petty for such a brilliant intellectual (self described OFC). And one might think the libertarian discussion would be around “what right does the government have to put lipstick on a pig” as opposed to celebrating statism as long as we don’t like owner of the hand applying the lipstick or it’s shade. Trump is breaking zero new ground here, so what once again, what is your issue outside “Trump orange man bad!!”?
> He consistently undermines our intelligence services
Not really but keep telling yourself that. It would be nice if Trump actually did undermine our intelligence services because it needs to be done in the same way the FBI under Hoover needed to go but he won’t.
> and insists the Russians are innocent.
In fairness they are innocent along the lines of “didn’t deviate from acceptable international norms” or the “sure if a butterfly flaps its wings in a China it influences me but not in a practical meaningful negative sense”. If your claim is “OMFG Trump won’t admit he was influenced by a foreigner” well God speed he better divorce his current wife and disown his in-laws!!! You will say “Russian meddling in US election” and I will counter “Radio Free Europe”, USAID, etc. Every country meddles in another countries politics to include their elected officials hence yeah Russian is innocent of any claim of particular uniqueness of wrongdoing. But yeah I get it Scott, it’s been fashionable since Truman to be an anti-Russian bigot outside a short window between late second term Reagan and the start of Clinton. We have already established you think blacks are unintelligent because of their use of ebonics as well as any other mongrel that happens to come from outside your colloquial dialect, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that you feel Russians untermensch / evil as well after all it’s a pretty common Western belief going back to the Great Schism so you are a good company.
3. October 2019 at 04:13
It is easy to laugh at Trump, especially when he seems to be trying to imitate a Bond villain from the Oval Office. But what about all those folks working for him in his administration, or all those Republicans in Congress carrying water for him and trying to defend him? That part doesn’t seem as funny. Maybe pathetic? Surely some of them have got to feel humiliated at times that they have to bow down to Trump in order to keep their seats?
3. October 2019 at 05:14
Matthias: I find that Trump won because of the underlying issues, and not because of his campaigning. I.E: His blundering with Latinos cost him a lot of Hispanic and White votes that would agree with his anti-immigration anti-crime stance.
I find that as time goes on, Trump falls in status but his ideas remain as strong as ever, with the exception of Trade, but I’m not sure how to deal with things such as cyber hacking so maybe he is right on this isdue.
3. October 2019 at 05:31
“Doesn’t Trump know that crocodiles are more dangerous than alligators?”
Don’t embarrass yourself, Scott.
Trump only buys American!
3. October 2019 at 06:55
Clearly we need sharks with lasers on their heads. Someone throw the guy a bone here.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Bh7bYNAHXxw
3. October 2019 at 08:06
Scott said:
“Exactly the opposite. It would be restrictions on energy use, which would hurt Russian oil exports.”
There is no way government-types would get that right. They simply cannot clamp down on energy use since it would hurt the economy. So the first move would certainly be to clamp down on energy production since they can probably make that happen. Energy prices would surge.
3. October 2019 at 10:26
@John Arthur: Scott should read this article on race and crime in America
http://www.unz.com/runz/race-and-crime-in-america/
It proves him right on Hispanic and Asian immigration, but proves him sorely wrong on Black immigration