It will go down in history as the “Bah! Humbug!” address.
But this was not an address by a self-confident man dishing out Christmas presents to the nation. It smacked of desperation from one who can feel the December windchill of opinion polls – a Reuters/ Ipsos poll on Tuesday showed just 33% of US adults approve of how Trump has handled the economy – dissent in his own Republican ranks and the Jeffrey Epstein files looming on Friday.
The speech also revealed Trump’s need for a reliable foil. Over the years Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have been useful nemeses for a man and movement defined less by what they are for than what they are against.
“Eleven months ago, I inherited a mess, and I’m fixing it,” Trump said, starting as he meant to go on by telling a lie: he claimed that inflation was the worst in 48 years when he took office, when in fact it had come back down to 3%.
He went on to place blame at the feet of Biden, previous trade deals, immigrants and what he described as a corrupt system.
Fascists can’t actually solve problems, even though they will tell you they’re the only ones who can. They don’t have problem solving skills, that’s why they’re fascists. They blame, deflect and scapegoat, and do it very aggressively and forcefully. Unfortunately, many people mistake that for strength. But fascists are not strong, they’re weak, and they try to compensate for their weakness by acting very strong, in very superficial ways. That’s why they are so focused on hyper masculine performance.
REAL strength is not an over inflated ego, it’s not threats and cruelty, it’s not being ignorant and proud of it, it’s not unnecessary aggression and violence. Real strength is accountability. Weak people think it shows strength to never admit when you’re wrong, but that’s completely false. Real strength is owning up to your mistakes, but not so you can crumble into self loathing, it’s so you can learn from them and become better. Real strength is learning, it’s knowledge and understanding.
You can’t fix a problem that you don’t understand, and you can’t understand a problem if you are unwilling to look at it honestly and critically, without bias. But that takes humility and weak people think humility is weakness, and they think arrogance is strength. The opposite is true. Humility is STRENGTH. That’s why fascists can never lead, because leadership takes real strength and they don’t have it.
He doesn’t know the difference between a strongman and a strong man.
You just described the problem with rampant toxic masculinity and poor expectation setting. A country of angry young self imagined cuks projecting fear and anxiety.
Freaking bingo! Well said!!
Pettysburg address
This made me LOL IRL so I made you a picture.
Come on massive stroke…
There isn’t one Claus von Stauffenberg in the whole secret service?
It would be something seeing the republicans having to remove him. I’m sure they’d make it into a giant show about how great he’s been.
It would be hilarious to see the GOP and his family constantly saying he is in perfect healthy condition while he is drooling and unable to form full words while shitting this pants in a wheelchair on life support.
They’d hide him. “He’s still in the bathroom.”
Maybe a wizard of oz moment?…
That was some strange deranged rant. WTF even was that?
Tantrum. This is called a tantrum.
apparently this was a sugar high: just before the remarks started, according to a White House pool report, an usher brought in three Diet Cokes and ice.
But… that’s the sugar free one… he must have been on something else.
I mean, 3 diet cokes is a lot of caffeine.
Edit: I’ve been corrected that 3 diet cokes is, in fact, not a lot of caffeine. Guess he’s micro-dosing amphetamines. My bad, y’all.
They must have meant diet cocaine. As in not cut with sugar.
There’s no such thing as a “sugar high”. This is just Trump being Trump. He’s been an idiot for ever.
Remember his speech to the boy scouts in his first term?
I don’t remember the speech, but I’m guessing he was complimenting how hot their younger sisters were.
He deviated into a story about a rich guy he knows with a boat, and what sort of parties happened on that boat… I think hookers were mentioned. To children…!
So… he was trying to recruit their sisters, then.
Hint: He was sniffing a lot during that drooling speech…
Trump desperately hoping the mindset in the military is like “I would never follow illegal orders for only $1,775 dollars! Show me the money!”. Trump mistakenly believing he can buy and sell honour because he does not have any and cannot recognize it. He doesn’t understand how standing up for a principle doesn’t make you an automatic sucker or loser.
He’s not feeling shit. He’s just successfully distracting idiots with short attention spans.
As usual. Left and right alike are completely wrapped up in his tone and his “eyebrow raising” performances, bickering with each other about what he “means” about this and that.
Meanwhile, they’re extorting other countries for oil at gunpoint, completely gutting all of our social programs for every last penny, deploying more grifts and cons, taking over the fed, and withdrawing healthcare protections for marginalized people.
They are literally just robbing the whole country. We will never see a fat fucking DIME of what they’re pouring directly into the pockets of investors and donors, and that’s what they don’t want us unified and focused on. Because then we might all start comparing notes and realizing we want the same thing and like… go fix shit.
No one has forgotten any of those things just because they’re briefly talking about this.
Venezuela, health care and Epstein are all more prominent in the media.
Oh if only he’d feel the chill of the grave.
So, 33% of Americans are terminally stupid.
The sad thing is I’m fine with the 33% who are slack-jawed morons. It’s inevitable that any segment of a population is going to fall somewhere on the bell-curve.
We can fix stupid. That’s where the term comes from “I rather be lucky than smart.” You can actually correct stupidity in yourself or in your population with effort and management. Or at least keep them directed at the right targets.
Our real ire here, the people we need to be making their lives absolute hell night and day are the grifters, the pundits, the streamers and youtube influencers and right-wing radio hosts, the science-deniers and “just asking questions” nazis and of course, the tens of thousands of paid propaganda-spreaders on twitter, people who live in other countries and have no stake in our future and just work every day at getting their talking points shared and clipped for a few dollars. Enough to live on in places like India.
If it wasn’t for those people, that 33% would still be stupid, but they would be less afraid, less reactionary, less focused on new, invented targets.
We’ll never fix it entirely, we’re a primitive and unevolved species broadly, but we could do a LOT better at managing our own living space if we unified and targeted the right problems.
I mean it’s his 2nd term, he’s almost dead, and it’s not like the treasonous Republican party is going to oust him.
So all we’re going to get out of this is maybe some raised blood pressure because he’s a narcissist and narcissists don’t like knowing how many people don’t like them. Doesn’t really help us though.
Little more concerned about the damage he can cause in the next three years. Yeah. It’s his last term. But if the last year is any indication, we’ve got a loooong way to go.
Maybe that raised blood pressure is the thing that kills him? If so then that’s quite helpful, so everyone wins.
More like “Why don’t you like me?” rant. What an absolute baby
Jeez, the school were worried?
The “pick me” girl of presidents.
Any discomfort he’s feeling, I’m good with.
It’s just too bad the discomfort isn’t paired with head electrodes and amperage
33% approval rating is more than the amount of votes he received. It looks like a win to me.
All these “news” about him going down, any moment now, are super annoying. All just for the clicks and people, even here on Lemmy, gobble it up.
That’s not really what the article says
There have been so many such articles in the past few weeks, who cares? Nobody knows what he is feeling or how well he is really doing, this is all make pretend to feel good on the consumer(!) side and money making headlines for the media.
There have been so many such articles in the past few weeks, who cares?
Stop assuming what articles say and read them.
Oh yeah, media organizations need money to exist, what a conspiracy.
The author of the piece would have been better served leaving out the attempts to portray drinking Diet Coke as bad or weird behaviour. Lots of people drink Diet Coke without forming fascist governments. Mentioning it multiple times in one article makes it sound like you’re desperately reaching, which isn’t necessary.
“Cut off their Medicare. That’ll show the disloyal bastards…”
