As you know (those of you reading this probably wouldn’t be here unless you already knew), a week ago our King President gave his first solo press conference since being inaugurated. After many pauses for my own mental sanity (honestly, how does anyone listen to that whiny voice for longer than 20 minutes at a time??), I finally got through the entire thing. Honestly, I took like three pages of notes, but I just started to get frustrated with everything he was saying. And while there are many things that I learned about the way this man intends to run this country, there is one overarching concern that I can’t seem to shake: the fact that Donald J. Trump is in love with himself.
First, he gave a speech about the “fantastic” things he’s done as President in his less-than-one-month in office, where he bragged about his popularity in the (Rasmussen) polls[1], repeatedly gave passive aggressive swipes at the “dishonest press” and the Democratic Party, and spat out a few straight-up lies, before opening the floor to questions from the Press. It was his responses to these questions that gave me a true insight to who Donald Trump is.
1) He really has no idea what he’s doing/talking about. He knows it, and we know it. So he blames everyone but himself.
The craziest thing was that he seemed to be completely at ease with just flat out lying about things ranging from the “horrible inner cities” to the stipulation that he “inherited a mess” from the Obama administration[2]. And when confronted with the truths – like when Trump claimed that he had the biggest electoral win since Ronald Reagan and was immediately called out on it – he refuses to own his lies, preferring to blame others!
While this conference was initially convened in response to the sudden resignation of Michael Flynn about withholding information from the President and VP about conversations with Russia, he refused to stay on topic. With increasing fervor, he blamed everyone from the Obama administration (lol) to the “dishonest media” for the incidents with Russia (through his adamance that he had/has had no contact with Russia), accusing them of falsifying information because they’re all sore losers… even though there is evidence that he does/has had (indirect) ties to Russia for years.[3] This man would probably say that he believed all illegal immigrants were actually Russian spies, if it made him look good. Now this is a funny analogy (at least I thought was…), but it’s much much less funny when national security is potentially compromised, and people’s livelihoods are being made fun of by someone who thinks he can do their jobs better than they can (when I’m not entirely sure this man can read…).
Here was my favorite instance where he literally had no idea what he was talking about: Uranium. (10 seconds)
Donald Trump has had ample time to google “what does Uranium do?” since he first brought up Clinton’s dealings in uranium, but he seems to think that the only important part of the entire exchange is bashing Hillary Clinton to make himself look big. The point is that he doesn’t care what the truth is, as long as it makes him look good.
Meanwhile, Justin Trudeau up there in Canada can explain quantum computing to a think-tank full of quantum physicists…(worth the 1 min 14 seconds!)
Hey, Canada? Wanna make a trade? It’ll be a terrific trade – the best trade you’ve ever seen in your entire life.
2) He is a bully to those whom he perceives as weaker.
Trump spent the majority of the press conference reminding everyone about how the media is dishonest and doesn’t report on the truth. Not only is this a falsity, but it is just straight up rude: here is the President of the United States standing in front of a room full of reporters – for whom he is there in the first place – telling them that they are “fake” and “dishonest”… meanwhile, he’s standing there, painted orange, having spent every weekend of his presidency up to this point on vacation at his golf course, lying his head off about facts that are easily verifiable with a google search. It’s not only an insult to the Press Corps, but an insult to anyone who possesses a brain and access to the Internet….
I had started my notes on the conference with a list of things to look out for. Because I had read a few articles about the various things he had said at this conference, I wanted to be prepared to find those instances to talk about them in this post! Needless to say, I shouldn’t have been worried. By the third minute, had had already insulted the press and the Democratic Party, and claimed that there’s “never been a presidency that has done so much in such a short period of time.” (Yep. Minute 3, people.) He spends just about the entire conference teasing and goading the press, saying things like this (transcript screenshot below), when reporters try to ask serious questions:
As the questions kept coming, Trump was visibly getting more and more frustrated because the press wasn’t asking questions that were going to make him look good. When he felt threatened, he became a bully, often teasing the press about whether or not he was going to let them continue speaking, treating them like school children who were being unfair to him as he demanded that they ask “nice questions.” When they didn’t ask “nice questions,” (questions that he deemed as acceptable because they made him look powerful), he shut them down immediately.
The most despicable instance was when he shut down Jewish reporter, Jake Turx, mid-question, firstly accusing him of lying, and then claiming that his question was not “easy” or “nice.” Turx was trying to address the rising incidents of anti-Semitism and anti-Semitic violence that has been occurring throughout our nation, but before he even got to his question, Trump interrupted him and claimed he already knew the reporter was going to ask him if he was anti-Semitic (hint: that’s not what the reporter was asking). He then proceeded to pronounce himself “the least anti-Semitic person you’ve ever seen in your entire life.” Yeah. I’m not making that up. Now not only is this rude, but it is a demonstration that he does not stand for anyone who does not fit his white, Christian view of acceptability. By shutting down this Jewish reporter (who’s New York based magazine catered toward the Orthodox community – a conservative community that has previously supported Trump!) he demonstrates to the nation that he does not believe that Jewish voices deserve to be heard. He shows the people that Jewish voices (and subsequently, other minority voices) are just “complaining” and that they don’t understand him; but most of all, that they are predictably misinformed. In 30 seconds he demonstrates that actions are more powerful than words – he may say he’s not an anti-Semite, but the way he treats the Jewish reporter begs to differ.
3) He is a narcissist – everything is about him, and if it is not he’ll make it so.
I’ve heard a bunch of people talk about how Donald Trump is a misogynist… and while I do believe that to be true, it’s pretty clear to me that he’s a misogynist by default – it’s not just women he hates… he dislikes everyone who’s presence does not benefit him. And you can only be a benefit to him if you are A) successful, and B) respected. Every person he mentioned in that conference, including his daughter and his wife, were accompanied by Trump saying they were “well-respected,” “fantastic,” and/or “successful.” (Also, weird weird weird, that he would call his wife successful, but his daughter “fantastic.” This guy is seriously creepy.)
There were two moments that particularly stuck out in my mind: the instance I mentioned above about the Jewish reporter, and when he asked a black reporter if the Congressional Black Caucus members are “friends of yours,” then asking her if she can set up a meeting. Seriously, you can’t make this shit up! Also, bear in mind, that just 10 minutes earlier, he also said he said that he’s “the least racist person… you’ve ever seen in your entire life.” Again, in this instance, Trump demonstrates – just as he did with the Jewish reporter – that his actions say more about his character than his words. He may say he’s not racist, but he acts upon a racist assumption that this woman of color knows all other people of the same color. How is this racist? Well, this is an assumption about someone purely based on the color of their skin, rather than the quality of their character. Racism at it’s finest.
Moral of the Story:
Trump’s bullying tactics were all based around making himself seem more powerful- bigger. When his masculinity and personhood feels threatened, he blows himself to look bigger than he is, primarily by bringing others down. Someone who bolsters his own self-esteem by belittling others is not someone I want in my life. Someone who puts himself before others, is NOT someone I want as the President of my country.
Notes and Sources
[1] He seems to love the Rasmussen polls because they show him as ahead. However, Rasmussen is not considered to be reliable by most people in the polling industry because of the way that they obtain their information – ie, randomly automated phone calls in 4-hour time periods (seriously, how many 20-somethings actually listen to those random automated calls for more than 3 seconds before hanging up?! Then compare that to your little grandmother who picks up the phone each and every time…) – which gives a bias toward conservative Republican responses. (Description of Rasmussen Polling Here!) No credible news agency uses these polls anymore – they’ve become a kind of joke in the polling and political industry. Super embarrassing that a PRESIDENT would use them.
[2] Ok, this just pisses me off, because it’s arguable that Obama’s greatest gift to Trump was the rising economy (link here!). Unemployment has been halved since Obama took office, and there have been 75 consecutive months of job growth (link here for report) – that’s 6.25 years. Furthermore, he goes onto complain that “ISIS is spreading like cancer – another mess I inherited…” but this is false, because ISIS was beginning to lose hold in Iraq, Syria, and Libya (fact checking story CNBC).
[3] For the Politifact article on the claims of political and business connections between Russia and Donald Trump, check out this article here! (Note: although Politifact plays it safe and says that these are unverifiable claims, it IS verifiable that Russia aided the Republican Party in the election season through hacking and selective release of information – aka, only releasing the Hillary Clinton emails, and not any of the “dirt” on the Republicans they hacked).
⇒ For the transcript I consulted for this article, check out this NY Times article with the video, by clicking here!
Persist 2 Resist: Protesting the Trump Administration, One True Fact at a Time 