What does a TRUMP presidency look like?

[crazy canuck]

That is not out of Trump's normal play book.  He usually tells people who are angry with him to fuck off.  This is getting close to pleading for understanding and sympathy.  I don't think it will work well.

The interesting thing is that this whole thing didn't necessarily have to be about Trump until he made it about Trump.

He has made a number of claims in the past that he is a good president for black people - par for the course.  Just incredibly stupid to make the claim right now.

[Tamas]

That is not out of Trump's normal play book.  He usually tells people who are angry with him to fuck off.  This is getting close to pleading for understanding and sympathy.  I don't think it will work well.

The interesting thing is that this whole thing didn't necessarily have to be about Trump until he made it about Trump.

He made a bloody global pandemic about Trump. I don't think his spoiled brat brain can understand that some things might not be about Trump.

[Syt]

That is not out of Trump's normal play book.  He usually tells people who are angry with him to fuck off.  This is getting close to pleading for understanding and sympathy.  I don't think it will work well.

I read it with a subtext of "You're so ungrateful!" After all, he craves praise.

[Sheilbh]

That is not out of Trump's normal play book.  He usually tells people who are angry with him to fuck off.  This is getting close to pleading for understanding and sympathy.  I don't think it will work well.

The interesting thing is that this whole thing didn't necessarily have to be about Trump until he made it about Trump.

He has apparently been fairly convinced he could win a lot of black voters this election - that may have changed. And yeah as people see he's the most needy man in the world.

Also yes, the whole thing didn't have to be about him until he made it about him. The scorpion didn't have to sting the frog until it did.

[Habbaku]

Mattis finally stirred himself to issue a denouncement:

https://www.axios.com/james-mattis-trump-protests-f325f239-17f1-4795-b6a4-0ab1587ad210.html

"I have watched this week's unfolding events, angry and appalled. The words "Equal Justice Under Law" are carved in the pediment of the United States Supreme Court. This is precisely what protesters are rightly demanding. It is a wholesome and unifying demand—one that all of us should be able to get behind. We must not be distracted by a small number of lawbreakers. The protests are defined by tens of thousands of people of conscience who are insisting that we live up to our values—our values as people and our values as a nation.

When I joined the military, some 50 years ago, I swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution. Never did I dream that troops taking that same oath would be ordered under any circumstance to violate the Constitutional rights of their fellow citizens—much less to provide a bizarre photo op for the elected commander-in-chief, with military leadership standing alongside.

We must reject any thinking of our cities as a "battlespace" that our uniformed military is called upon to "dominate." At home, we should use our military only when requested to do so, on very rare occasions, by state governors. Militarizing our response, as we witnessed in Washington, D.C., sets up a conflict—a false conflict—between the military and civilian society. It erodes the moral ground that ensures a trusted bond between men and women in uniform and the society they are sworn to protect, and of which they themselves are a part. Keeping public order rests with civilian state and local leaders who best understand their communities and are answerable to them.

James Madison wrote in Federalist 14 that "America united with a handful of troops, or without a single soldier, exhibits a more forbidding posture to foreign ambition than America disunited, with a hundred thousand veterans ready for combat." We do not need to militarize our response to protests. We need to unite around a common purpose. And it starts by guaranteeing that all of us are equal before the law.

Instructions given by the military departments to our troops before the Normandy invasion reminded soldiers that "The Nazi slogan for destroying us...was 'Divide and Conquer.' Our American answer is 'In Union there is Strength.'" We must summon that unity to surmount this crisis—confident that we are better than our politics.
Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people—does not even pretend to try. Instead he tries to divide us. We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership. We can unite without him, drawing on the strengths inherent in our civil society. This will not be easy, as the past few days have shown, but we owe it to our fellow citizens; to past generations that bled to defend our promise; and to our children.

We can come through this trying time stronger, and with a renewed sense of purpose and respect for one another. The pandemic has shown us that it is not only our troops who are willing to offer the ultimate sacrifice for the safety of the community. Americans in hospitals, grocery stores, post offices, and elsewhere have put their lives on the line in order to serve their fellow citizens and their country. We know that we are better than the abuse of executive authority that we witnessed in Lafayette Square. We must reject and hold accountable those in office who would make a mockery of our Constitution. At the same time, we must remember Lincoln's "better angels," and listen to them, as we work to unite.

Only by adopting a new path—which means, in truth, returning to the original path of our founding ideals—will we again be a country admired and respected at home and abroad."

[Sheilbh]

How long until Trump tweets about how he "fired him like a dog" etc etc?

[Tonitrus]

Mattis is still rather popular among rank and file military folks.

[FunkMonk]

I'm starting to feel like forcibly dispersing peaceful protestors at the White House so he could awkwardly hold a Bible the other day is seriously backfiring for Donald.

[PRC]

Donald Trump, from a playboy magazine interview in the early 90s:

https://www.businessinsider.com/trumpn-tiananmen-square-massacre-china-showed-power-of-strength-2019-6

"When the students poured into Tiananmen Square, the Chinese government almost blew it. Then they were vicious, they were horrible, but they put it down with strength.  That shows you the power of strength. Our country is right now perceived as weak...as being spit on by the rest of the world."

[mongers]

I'm starting to feel like forcibly dispersing peaceful protestors at the White House so he could awkwardly hold a Bible the other day is seriously backfiring for Donald.

I don't think he'll be happy until he gets his own Bloody Sunday.

[11B4V]

Mattis is still rather popular among rank and file military folks.

Rather? That's an understatement.

[Sheilbh]

How long until Trump tweets about how he "fired him like a dog" etc etc?

So a couple of hours:

Probably the only thing Barack Obama & I have in common is that we both had the honor of firing Jim Mattis, the world's most overrated General. I asked for his letter of resignation, & felt great about it. His nickname was "Chaos", which I didn't like, & changed to "Mad Dog"...
...His primary strength was not military, but rather personal public relations. I gave him a new life, things to do, and battles to win, but he seldom "brought home the bacon". I didn't like his "leadership" style or much else about him, and many others agree. Glad he is gone!

[Eddie Teach]

What a baby. 

[Admiral Yi]

My generals are the best generals, unless they disagree with me.

[Admiral Yi]

Got a  pop up on a youtube clipping giving me a chance to sign a birthday card for Donald.