Trump and the troops: a black comedy
by digby
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| Note the hideous gold throne in the background |
All presidents have their own way of celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday. President Obama and his family would celebrate at the White House after spending the Wednesday before passing out food and good wishes to the needy in the Washington area. George W. Bush and his family usually spent it at their Texas ranch although he very famously made a surprise trip to Iraq in 2003 to serve a turkey dinner to the troops in the war zone. Bill Clinton and family often served Thanksgiving dinner to the homeless before going to Camp David for the day. The Reagans always spent the holiday at their Santa Barbara home.
All of them would issue a Thanksgiving proclamation and they very often called troops around the world to thank them for their service. It’s what presidents do. And President Trump did it too, although I think most of the country wishes that he’d just dropped that tradition as he has so many others. It was an epic disaster of a call.
First, lets set the stage. Unlike the previous presidents who either spent the holiday at a personal home or a White House residence, Trump goes to his gilt-laden commercial property in Florida where people pay him for the privilege of sharing the meal with him. And unlike most “winter white house” situations, they apparently have no permanent set for the president to perform his duties so they put a little desk in the middle of a lobby making him look like he was sitting at the check-in table for a life insurance seminar.
Trump’s teleconference is on speakerphone, yet Trump holds a phone to his ear.You can’t parody this stuff. https://t.co/eYBGyAsemH
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 22, 2018
Trump gave a standard written speech about the troops and then proceeded to speak with various members of the armed services around the world on speaker phone. He asked Generals for public combat assessments (not cool) and bizarrely quizzed some poor befuddled Coast Guard Lieutenant stationed in Bahrain about trade:
What’s going on in the region? How are they feeling about things? How are they feeling about trade? Because, you know, trade for me is a very big subject all over. We’ve been taken advantage of for many, many years by bad trade deals. We don’t have any good trade deals. How are you finding things in the region, Nick?
The Lieutenant replied that from his perspective on a boat out in the water there was a lot of trade going on and he didn’t see any issues. Trump told him to “keep it that way” and reiterated that we have had bad trade deals but now we’re going to have good ones because other countries won’t be taking advantage of us. The military personnel listening must have wondered just what kind of mission he thought they were on.
When he spoke with a Captain stationed on the aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan he implied that he disapproved of an upgrade from steam to electro-magnetic catapaults suggesting that it was a waste of money and said the new technology required operators to be “Albert Einstein” to run them. The Captain tartly replied, “you sort of have to be Albert Einstein to run the nuclear power plants that we have here as well, but we’re doing that very well.” Trump didn’t seem upset by that answer because he really didn’t get it.
Mostly, however, he talked about the border. The US border with Mexico, of course. None of the troops he was speaking to were stationed there. They were all stationed in the middle east or on ships at sea. Nonetheless, he used the occasion to rant and rave about the “caravan” and immigrants invading our shore even connecting the war in Afghanistan, saying “you’re doing it over there, we’re doing it over here.”
Nursing a grudge with the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court over a spat concerning a judge who blocked his latest draconian immigration executive order, he ragged on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on the call telling the troops that ” it’s a terrible thing when judges take over your protective services; when they tell you how to protect your border, it’s a disgrace.”
What a monumentally inappropriate comment to make to military personnel people who are in a war zone overseas. It’s mind-boggling. Of course, this is the president who addressed the Boy Scout Jamboree by telling licentious stories about rich men on their yachts saying, “you’re Boy Scouts, but you know life, you know life.” We should count ourselves lucky he didn’t ask the troops if they were getting any over there — or lead them in a chant of “lock her up!”
He simply can’t think of anything else to talk about beyond his short list of personal obsessions. When the assembled reporters asked him some questions after the call, he got right back on that feedback loop, going on and on about the alleged border crisis, the courts, trade etc. only digressing to double down on his apologia for Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, even going so far as to say that he hates what happened to Jemal Khashoggi but he knows the Prince hates it even more. A reporter asked him who should be held accountable and he said “maybe the world should be held accountable because the world is a vicious place.”
On Thanksgiving Day 2018, the President of the United States ranted to overseas troops about how terrible the American judicial system is and equated their various professional missions with his “war” at the US border. He fought with the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and dismissed the findings of the US intelligence community (again) in favor of a murderous tyrant, blaming “the world” for being vicious. He petulantly listed one grievance after another, every government institution the subject of his wrath.
But never let it be said that it was all dark and depressing. When asked, “what are you thankful for” he brightened immediately and without missing a beat he said:
For having a great family and for having made a tremendous difference in this country. I’ve made a tremendous difference in the country. This country is so much stronger now than it was when I took office, that you wouldn’t believe it.
He’s right about that. Nobody believes it.