Trump Brain Status: Treason Season
First, happy Father’s Day! Second, your president is dangerously unhinged.
Donald Trump actually remembered that today is Father’s Day, but in classic Trumpian fashion, his tweet about it centered on Donald Trump and his inherent dictatorial fantasies.
“Happy Father’s Day to all, including my worst and most vicious critics, of which there are fewer and fewer,” Trump tweeted on Sunday. “This is a FANTASTIC time to be an American! KEEP AMERICA GREAT!”
He should’ve just tweeted, “Happy Father’s Day to me! Aren’t I great! Fuck you!”
But that wasn’t his worst comment of the morning, as prior to that, he attacked the news media and hinted once again that he may not go gently into that good night should he be defeated in the 2020 election or when his term expires if he is re-elected.
What has Trump triggered this weekend are multiple reports in the past few days that internal polling by his re-election campaign shows him getting trounced in critical battleground states. In some states where Trump outmatched Hillary Clinton in 2016, such as Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Florida, and Michigan, Trump is trailing Democratic candidate Joe Biden by double digits.
According to NBC News, Trump also trails Biden in Iowa, North Carolina, Virginia, Minnesota, and even Ohio. In Texas, Trump leads by only 2 percentage points. As NBC pointed out, a Democratic presidential candidate hasn’t won there since 1976.
Trump and members of his re-election campaign deny all of this, of course, but according to NBC, the shit has hit the fan, and the campaign is “cutting ties” with its own pollsters following the leaking of these internal polls from March, which were first reported by The New York Times and ABC News.
All of this culminated Sunday morning with Trump attacking the news media again.
“A poll should be done on which is the more dishonest and deceitful newspaper, the Failing New York Times or the Amazon (lobbyist) Washington Post!” he tweeted.
“They are both a disgrace to our Country, the Enemy of the People, but I just can’t seem to figure out which is worse?”
Then he dropped another hint that he might not leave the White House when he’s supposed to, as his former fixer, Michael Cohen, warned Congress about last February.
“The good…news is that at the end of 6 years, after America has been made GREAT again and I leave the beautiful White House (do you think the people would demand that I stay longer? KEEP AMERICA GREAT), both of these horrible papers will quickly go out of business & be forever gone!” he tweeted.
Internal polling wasn’t the only issue that has Trump riled. A New York Times story Saturday noted that the U.S. has stepped up its digital incursions into Russia’s power grid in response to Russia’s capability of potentially sabotaging the U.S.’ power infrastructure.
Twenty-one paragraphs into that story, the Times noted that Trump hadn’t been briefed on the U.S.’ latest cyber strategies against Russia, because basically, he can’t be trusted with that information. I’ll repeat that: Trump can’t be trusted by his own intelligence community with tactical information on U.S. cyber strategy against Russia.
Per the Times:
Two administration officials said they believed Mr. Trump had not been briefed in any detail about the steps to place “implants” — software code that can be used for surveillance or attack — inside the Russian grid.
Pentagon and intelligence officials described broad hesitation to go into detail with Mr. Trump about operations against Russia for concern over his reaction — and the possibility that he might countermand it or discuss it with foreign officials, as he did in 2017 when he mentioned a sensitive operation in Syria to the Russian foreign minister.
Because the new law defines the actions in cyberspace as akin to traditional military activity on the ground, in the air or at sea, no such briefing would be necessary, they added.
Trump was furious about that report, calling it a “virtual act of Treason.” On Saturday night, he tweeted, “Do you believe that the Failing New York Times just did a story stating that the United States is substantially increasing Cyber Attacks on Russia. This is a virtual act of Treason by a once great paper so desperate for a story, any story, even if bad for our Country…”
In all-caps, he called the media “THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!”
“…ALSO, NOT TRUE! Anything goes with our Corrupt News Media today. They will do, or say, whatever it takes, with not even the slightest thought of consequence! These are true cowards and without doubt, THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!” he tweeted.
This is all very dangerous territory for a president of the United States, who once again is projecting his own fears, dictatorial whims, and glaring insecurities onto the national psyche and the media landscape. And it brings us back to the same pressing question everyone’s been asking for weeks: Can we impeach him yet?