Where He Needs to Be

“The President is where he needs to be” pic.twitter.com/CjzjdO76ef

— Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) September 3, 2019

The historic commemoration, of September 1st, 1939, the invasion of Poland, is one which the president explicitly demonstrated he does not understand, having congratulated Poland on this particular anniversary. The idea that Trump is "where he needs to be" is probably right, as he doesn't need to be in Europe, because he somehow doesn't reassure our allies in any way. Because of Trump's recent G-7 performance, Russian state news can joke that Trump doesn't want to be in Poland because his friend Putin won't be there, either. It's hard to disagree with the analysis, because what else is he doing but golfing?

There's reasons to question whether Trump really gets what is told to him in intelligence briefings. A report like this:

Voice of America correspondent Bricio Segovia confused Trump when he asked for a reaction about the call to rearm the demobilized guerrilla group by the FARC‘s former political chief, “Ivan Marquez.”

Colombia you say? You’re talking about the country of Colombia?

US President Donald Trump

Apparently unaware of the situation in Colombia, whose government is his staunchest ally in Latin America, Trump blabbered about a great relationship and the border with Venezuela.

Bricio Segovia: About Colombia. How do you feel about former FARC guerrillas calling to rearm [inaudible]

Donald Trump: Colombia, you say?

BS: Yeah, former guerrillas of the FARC…

DT: You’re talking about the country of Colombia?

BS: Yeah, the country of Colombia…

DT: Yeah, we have a great relationship and they’re not doing badly. They have a problem because of Venezuela, a lot of people are pouring in, but Colombia, we’ve had a great relationship with Colombia.

The response baffled the reporter who on Twitter asked: “Did anyone inform him? Does he know of the FARC?”

could seem like it is overstating Trump's disengagement with the news. But this isn't dressed-up--it's what he said.

There was a declaration of war by rebels in a Latin American country maintaining that a three year old truce was no longer valid. Trump might actually be right that Venezuela has a responsibility for hosting FARC rebels and keeping that conflict alive, but his answer is vague. He's "pulling a Reagan"--the thing with answering questions with chopper noise in the background. He doesn't have to answer a question well because neither he nor the reporters can be assumed to hear the exchanges very well. Reagan pretended he couldn't actually hear. With Trump, we can safely assume that even if Trump hears, the reporters won't actually call him out for the brevity of his exchange. We know, now, that one of those presidents might have already been suffering the beginnings of cognitive impairment. We don't even know why Trump is both accessible, and extremely contained. But his uncontained, unrestricted times, tell us a lot.



There is still a lot I don't think we know about last weekend-- the G-7, where Trump variously lied about why Russia was not part of the conference, why he did not attend the climate portion of the talks, said that Melania Trump has come to know NK's Kim Jong Un very well when she has never met him, and lied about high-level talks regarding a future trade deal with China. That is an epic quantity of lying, which has been followed by debates by Trump proxies  (McEnany,  Stu Varney, etc.)

But of course he does. It's very well documented that he lies. What isn't as well documented is how well he actually knows what the truth is, and that should be actually concerning. Is he lying because he knows very well what's going on, but thinks we need to hear a better story, such as the tale that a Chinese trade agreement is coming, so stop tanking the damn stock market already?

Or does he have no clue at all, and we're just trying to read the tea leaves in a cup of plain tap water?

The real story seems to be frighteningly a bit of both. I mean, we all know the adage that "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing", right? And he has that. He gets raw intelligence (and then might decide to post it on Twitter to troll Iran, giving up who knows what kind of data). He might tell Russian assets about Israeli intel regarding ISIS or whatever, and his stans will mindlessly notify us he has that right as the final arbiter of how intelligence is used. But he has no strategy beyond his mentions on social media and seems to have no impulse control regarding the information he gives up and what downstream effects it will have.

This should infuriate people who give a damn about national security. But it is like there is a bubble of lowered expectations where Trump is concerned. I have said that he is not learning. Who are the people who think, after all this time, that he is still even partially educable? That some degree of responsibility can be instilled in him with regards to how any knowledge is to be utilized, and how to overcome his already-existing prejudices regarding other nations if they are just wrong? (Such as Russian involvement in our and other Western countries' elections.)

If the genius of Trump was supposed to be that he is fiercely independent and too rich to be bought and savvy enough to learn quickly, why are actually none of these things proven at all? He still seems to be a Putin puppet, won't release a shred of financial data about himself (and fights any opportunity to), and shows no sign that he ever learns anything at all.

Clearly, home is where Trump needs to be. As a retired gentleman of means. Not as a public figure, let alone a world leader. Pence says Trump is where he needs to be--on the ticket that makes a Mike Pence VP possible. He knows only a Trump would tolerate him. And he would not fare well himself as a ticket leader.

Trump is allowed to golf and Tweet and watch his Fox news friends and it has impacted his presidency in an incredibly wrong way--he needs to be present, in the Oval Office, speaking to people who know what they are talking about and absorbing the actual knowledge necessary to accomplish meaningful changes. We all know he isn't doing that.

Let's elect someone who will do those things in 2020.