to be watching with my jaw dropped as Trump goes into full meltdown at his press briefing?

[sadpapercourtesan]

Is anyone else watching this?! He is literally ranting like a man possessed, I've never seen anything like it. He's declared war on the media (I know we're used to him lashing out at journalists but this is on another level)

I'm watching it on CNN and they have breaking news straplines like "Trump uses task force briefing to rewrite history on coronavirus response", "Angry Trump turns briefing into propaganda session" and "Angry Trump uses propaganda video, produced by government employees at taxpayers' expense"

He has just said, verbatim: "When somebody is President of the United States, that authority is total"

I thought our daily briefings were bullshit

Wow

it doesn't seem to be on twitter - I watched al the latest ones there but this section isn't there, I wonder if they wre actually too embarassed?

God help America, what a disaster. He is insane and an embarrassment to all Americans. The world laughs at him.

At least Chelsea Clinton has a PHD in international relations and a further degree in public health. All Ivanka Trump has is a failed jewellery line.

The man is a raving lunatic.

He's absolutely crazy. He spouts non-stop drivel. He's a dangerous man.

Dishonest, ignorant, racist, sexist, egotistic bully that scapegoats others rather than take any responsibility for his failures yet peacocks other peoples successes as his own.

I find him extremely dislikeable. I can't see why Americans are blind to his many faults.

I know someone who claims that Trump “is giving people hope and that’s what is important in these times”

It's fascinating that he effectively went into total panic mode at the woman reporter's question and made no attempt to answer it. He was obviously very vulnerable on the issue she was asking about, but most politicians can usually bluster their way round awkward questions.

One of the reasons he was elected, I have read, is that America could not stand a woman president at this time. People don’t seem to care, even now, about true scientific facts and competent leadership. They like someone who spouts off. ‘Refreshing’ and ‘one of us’ I imagine people think. Someone who just ‘gets things done’ And doesn’t make other people feel inferior.

Of course he doesn’t get things done or helped America. But if people want to believe that stopping a couple of planes from China saved the pandemic from America, rather than PPE, testing, social distancing and good healthcare, then I don’t know what to say.

It's insane. I can't believe what I've just watched.

@Lollygaggles I haven't seen that before but it makes sense to me. The way he walks too, not just his inability to string a coherent sentence together.

@Coyoacan I couldn’t believe it either when he was saying about the ventilators being Federal property and it wasn’t the job of the Federal Government to provide supplies to the different States!

I was absolutely amazed when he started going on at several press briefings about people not being grateful to him for things and telling Mike Pence not to speak to the various Governors if they hadn’t expressed their gratitude for all that Trump has done or had dared to openly criticised the lack of assistance from the government. This made it clear that all he worries about is his ratings not about the fact that people are dying.

Also most of the time despite him reckoning he’s a genius I don’t think he knows what he is talking about - at one point he was going on about hospitals needing generators when he actually meant ventilators!! He kept repeating himself too so it wasn’t a slip of the tongue!! If you watch him trying to read anything - he can’t even read words that are written down in front of him correctly!!

@Lollygaggles. You mention dementia. I do agree with you and I think over the years he is definitely getting worse having said that I do sometimes think he is just a nasty spoilt man-child who has always got his own way and blames everyone else for things and will lie, cheat and bully people to get exactly what he wants.

@Coyoacan.....To be fair on that he is correct. The Federal stockpile belongs to the federal goverment. Not to the states. Just like he does not have authority over the states, the states don't have a say on how to use federal equipment

I voted YABU but only because he's such an unbridled idiot, with a temparment completely unsuited to the office, that you really should be shocked anymore (just appalled).

@PinaColadaintheRain.....There isn't a whole lot he can do for the actual people. What he could do he has done. He has gotten people money. He has gotten people food. Thats why he has a 48 percent approval rating. He is a fucking idiot but he has done what he is legally allowed to do. Its up to the states.

@leaanbb his approval rating is dropping again.

Basically every world leader had a massive spike in approval at the outset of the pandemic, save for Trump who only had a couple of points bump.

A lot of governors have had much bigger increases than he has.

His disinformation spreading at the start of this had probably contributed to various Republican governors refusing, or being sluggish, to implement lockdowns.

He's been pretty shit all around.

*Leaannb

I still don't understand. Surely the federal government consists of humans that live in the states? The federation refers to the collection of states and the taxpayers live in the states. Where is this federal government that uses ventilators and PPE outside of the states?

I feel so so sorry for the American people. Imagine being in their shitstorm with Trump leading you through 🤯

There is an important difference between the legal powers of Trump and, say, Johnson or Jacinda Ardern.

As long as Parliament doesn't say no, the latter can do what they like, and ultimately it's down to them.

In the US, a lot of governance isn't a matter for the president. For example, Johnson can put the UK into lockdown. Trump is prevented by the US constitution from doing the same. Same with stockpiles and various other things.

It probably also explains partly why the US elected the loon. People would have voted for him knowing that he wouldn't be able to affect their own state that much.

The man is insane. You couldn’t make it up

@Coyoacan Our very vast military network and our VA hospitals and Long term care homes. If I'm not mistaken those ventilators were paid out of the DOD to replace extremely old and ineffective vents that I was using that was 20 years old and are desperately needed for regular useage. Let alone for Covid

Im going to watch it in full if its avaliable online, watched a few of his recent ones thinking wtaf is hs on and thinking he would go full blown cuckoo well even more cuckoo than usual... soon enough and lo and behold it seems he has

Well the good news is he can yell and scream about having total power all he wants, but he doesnt. The Governors are in charge of the states. Trump did not order anything closed (the Governors did) so he cant order anything open. And the Governors are getting together into groups to work together. There is a West Coast Alliance and an East Coast Alliance. There are some states I worry about (mostly down south, but some in the Mid West) that will do what ever he says.

@Coyoacan FEMA would need access to portable vents also

@macaroniandpizza All the news agencies has it