[Offwidth]

The Guardian live fact check was having fun during his bizzare outburst. The authority point was just bizarre... effectively denying the US is federal.

In the meantime there is more gerrymandering of oversight.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/12/trump-inspector-general-purge-watchdogs

[Ged]

It was striking how many networks cut away from his address before he finished speaking and took apart his statements.
Even Fox is looking at him sideways.

And the Wall Street Journal according to the BBC report. The way he speaks to journalists is horrible

Not only horrible, but, assuming we think a free and open media is a good thing, just plain wrong. To be saying to a journalist "enough", because you don't like their line of questioning. Shocking.

[ali k]

Absolutely crazy, even by his standards. Trump claims 'total authority' and attacks media in chaotic coronavirus briefing

Isn’t this just Trump now in full campaign mode?

It worked in the last election to whip up his base, trash the media and promise to ‘drain the swamp’.

He also must have paid attention to what happened in the UK at the last GE when the Tories used the same shock tactics from the Trump playbook to cut through to the voters (unlawful prororogation*, attacking the media and judiciary, made up numbers on nurses and hospitals, fake fact check twitter account, “Foreign collusion”, “Surrender Act”, etc etc). And then won a huge majority.
*I’m absolutely convinced Cummings/Johnson wanted the prorogation to end up in the courts.

Trump has been shocking us for the last 4 years but now the gloves are off and he’s just dialled it up to eleven for the election I suspect. Don’t get me wrong, I think (hope) it will backfire this time as he’s likely to go too far even for him, but then again maybe not...

The way he speaks to journalists is horrible

I heard Gove do some pretty awful interviews during the election failing to answer any questions and belittling the journalists at the same time (same principle, just in a more Gove-esque way).

I guess my point is that ‘normal’ politics has been slipping away bit by bit over the last 5 years and I struggle to be surprised any more.

[Ged]

I thought that was more than just belittling journalists though. He seemed to think he was above questioning, and he shouldn't have to put up with being held to account by others.

[ali k]

I thought that was more than just belittling journalists though. He seemed to think he was above questioning, and he shouldn't have to put up with being held to account by others.

Yeh that press conference was pretty special. But he has been doing this for a while with his ‘chopper talk’ taking select questions or just answering them however he wanted with a diatribe, often praising himself and trashing the media.

[TobyD]

I thought that was more than just belittling journalists though. He seemed to think he was above questioning, and he shouldn't have to put up with being held to account by others.

I totally agree Ged, I have no great love for Gove but no British politician comes close to Trump's behaviour. His maniacal obsession with his own viewing figures while tens of thousands of people are dying is obscene, bordering on psychosis.

[andy popp]

The pandemic has certainly given him a stage on which to reveal (if it wasn't obvious already) the full range and depth of his character faults - the narcissism, the egotism, the fragility, the belligerence - married to a far reaching incompetence. He's completely ill-equipped to deal with this situation. It's a recipe for disaster. The battle he's setting up between the federal government and the states - the claims of "total authority" - is particularly interesting/worrying.

I hope that more and more journalists will begin to press him like the two female reporters did on Monday. He had nothing in reply and so quickly descended into total ugliness.

[ali k]

I don’t disagree Toby, and the fact it’s a public health crisis makes his behaviour even more repulsive, as you say.

My only point being that in campaign mode (US or UK) there seems to be a reframing of what would be acceptable outside of the election period. And this has been ramping up over time - first the 2016 Trump campaign, then Vote Leave, then 2019 Tory campaign, and now 2020 Trump again. He’s fighting for survival and he’ll throw everything at it. Maybe the classic phrase should be updated - “All’s fair in love, war, and campaigning”.

[Ged]

We probably need to not bother anymore with the phrase "just when you thought he couldn't get any worse"...

Trump insists on putting his name on emergency relief chequers to families, thus delaying their delivery by a few days.  People spend longer relying on food banks,but at least the presidents ego is massaged.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/coming-to-your-1200-relief-check-donald-j-trumps-name/2020/04/14/071016c2-7e82-11ea-8013-1b6da0e4a2b7_story.html

[mrjonathanr]

Trumps suspends US WHO funding  pending an investigation into their ‘cover up’ and ‘mismanagement’
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/15/against-humanity-trump-condemned-for-who-funding-freeze

[TobyD]

We probably need to not bother anymore with the phrase "just when you thought he couldn't get any worse"...

Given that at the moment he'll probably be re-elected, I'm sure he can get much, much worse. In 4 years time he'd then either be trying to change the rules so he can get a third term, or install Ivana as an heir. He clearly wants to be king of the US.

[andy popp]

Given that at the moment he'll probably be re-elected

I'm not saying he won't be, but this is looking much less certain than it did on January 1st, when I would virtually have bet on it. Things are now much more fluid and unpredictable. As Harold Macmillan may have said, "Events, dear boy, events."

[TobyD]

https://www.newstatesman.com/world/north-america/2020/04/donald-trump-world-health-organisation-funding-US

Andy, I think Trump knows that if he lashes out constantly and blames China, the WHO, the media and anyone else he can think of for his own total mishandling of the crisis just enough people will buy it for him to continue trying to screw the US for every cent he can get out of it, and massage his fragile ego for another four years.

[SA Chris]

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/15/politics/gretchen-whitmer-operation-gridlock/index.html

Your move Donald..

can I hear Axl Rose whistling a sad refrain somewhere?

[andy popp]

Don't get me wrong Toby, I still think it's entirely possible. I just think it's less certain than before the pandemic (when I felt it was all but certain).

[TobyD]

Jaysus, you'd like to think this might piss off a few potential Trump supporters:
Ivanka Trump defies social distancing to celebrate Passover at golf club

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/16/ivanka-trump-defies-social-distancing-to-celebrate-passover-at-golf-club?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard

What absolute cnuts.

[Oldmanmatt]

So, is this not incitement to civil disobedience at the least  or even outright insurrection/violence at worst?

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.businessinsider.com/trump-tweets-to-liberate-michigan-minnesota-as-protesters-violate-orders-2020-4%3famp

[petejh]

If it's mostly Trump-supporters who want to go about their daily business interacting with each other in the middle of a pandemic then maybe they should be encouraged...

[Oldmanmatt]

If it's mostly Trump-supporters who want to go about their daily business interacting with each other in the middle of a pandemic then maybe they should be encouraged...

I second the motion.

Can we vote Mr Chairman?

[teestub]

https://www.nonprophet.media/stand-up

Read this from Mark Twight with interest and no little incredulity. It’s interesting in the states how similar arguments can be trotted out by disparate groups, and that it would seem even intelligent people are not immune to conspiracy theories.

[petejh]

Sounds about right for Mark Twight. Have you listened to any interviews with him? In the ones I’ve listened to he comes across as a self-absorbed bellend who takes himself far too seriously.
His climbing career seemed to be a vehicle for self-publicising his worldview of climbing and life being a noble struggle by elites against mediocrity. Tit.

[seankenny]

https://www.nonprophet.media/stand-up

Read this from Mark Twight with interest and no little incredulity. It’s interesting in the states how similar arguments can be trotted out by disparate groups, and that it would seem even intelligent people are not immune to conspiracy theories.

Mark Twight may be intelligent but he always had a massive streak of twat running right down the middle, didn’t he?

[andy popp]

Yes, he's always struck me as an insufferable "I'm an untouchable übermensch" dick.

[andy popp]

"That said consistent behavior throughout my life may confer a robust physical immunity, and I am willing to make the mortal bet on that immunity."

Right ...

[seankenny]

"That said consistent behavior throughout my life may confer a robust physical immunity, and I am willing to make the mortal bet on that immunity."

Right ...

If there is one thing to take away from this crisis, it’s that climbers’ much vaunted risk assessment ability is incredibly domain specific.