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Original poster

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

456 replies

sadpapercourtesan · 13/04/2020 23:58

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 Shock

OP posts:
Thread gallery
6
weasellywecognised · 14/04/2020 08:36

I just hope Joe Biden is going to be up to the task of opposing this. Paula Reid showed how to do it maybe? Just keep questioning and attacking, keep at him. The usual rules of politeness in politics don't apply any longer. He hates being interrupted and he hates being wrong.

Roussette · 14/04/2020 08:37

When he banned those flights, there was an uproar that he was being racist... now you're saying he didn't do enough. It's laughable

When he continually bangs on about stopping the chinese entering the USA, there is nothing wrong with me coming on here and saying 'but hang on... he let in 80,000 Americans fly in from China'. That is just fact, something that him and his supporters are allergic to. As the reporter at the presser said... but yes, what about February when you knew and you were saying repeatedly it would disappear, it was just like the flu, it was nothing.

The stopped clock analogy... well yes... but you have to look at all the rest of the things he's done since being in power all day every day. Not pretty.

Makeitgoaway · 14/04/2020 08:42

I dont follow the detail of American politics but am vaguely aware of headlines, which I imagine puts me in the same category as most of the 48%!

I am vaguely aware that he has given the American people massive tax cuts, removed them from the climate accord (which Republican Americans love), started on the blessed wall (which seems to have been one of his most popular election pledges), taken numerous other steps to reduce immigration, done "great" things with tariffs to protect and increase US trade, single handedly solved "Israel", created jobs and increased average household income, removed a lot of red tape (which may well have been there to protect citizens, but was mighty inconvienient)

To us he seems like a madman but I can see why he remains popular in US, especially among poor Americans. Many of these achievements would also play well in our tabloid press.

Tunnocks34 · 14/04/2020 08:43

As above - trump owns shares in the company that produce that drug. That should be illegal in itself. Pushing a drug to cure a virus (which isn’t medically proven) to your entire country basically to line his own pockets.

Jillyhilly · 14/04/2020 08:43

Call him dumb all you want, and god knows he is, but one thing he's got right (again, by stopped clock theory) is that he called out his mistrust of the establishment, press and mainstream public, it resonated with a huge number of people.

It did indeed. The NYT, CBS, CNN etc etc still don’t understand how mistrusted and disliked they are among large swathes of Americans. The endless banging on about one Trump “gotcha” moment after another - Russia, Kavanagh, Russia, Stormy Daniels, Russia, the endless calls for impeachment, impeachment, impeachment... the endless criticism of anyone who voted from Trump and condemning them as racist fools - many of these people would have voted for Obama! These sectors of the media play to their audience, who lap it all up, but millions of others are completely alienated by the coverage and have ended up totally discounting everything these once respected news sources have to say because the bias
Is so all-encompassing.

Astoatora54 · 14/04/2020 08:47

Again, complete failure to acknowledge what he did was right and he was vilified for it.

There were plenty of people at the time who said he made a good decision. However, it is not even true that he banned all flights - thousands and thousands of people have travelled and continue to travel between China and the US after the so-called ban. Do you think the press should just pat him on the head and never criticize? You have a really strange idea of the role of the press. Believe me, all presidents get questioned and criticized - only Trump reacts in this bizarre and troubling way.

HelloToMyKitty · 14/04/2020 08:48

As above - trump owns shares in the company that produce that drug

Isn’t this drug out of patent? Anyone can make it

Jillyhilly · 14/04/2020 08:49

I just hope Joe Biden is going to be up to the task of opposing this.

I will be amazed if Biden even makes it to the election. He is so clearly in mental decline that it would not surprise me if he is replaced before November. I cannot believe the terrible job the Democrats have done in finding someone inspiring and electable who could play Trump at his own game.

Astoatora54 · 14/04/2020 08:52

I will be amazed if Biden even makes it to the election I agree but actually I think both candidates are likely to change before November.

Mrsmorton · 14/04/2020 08:54

It's fascinating to watch but terrifying at the same time.

Did anyone see his Good Friday tweet... showed he actually knows nothing about the Christian Faith.

HelloToMyKitty · 14/04/2020 08:55

As the reporter at the presser said... but yes, what about February when you knew and you were saying repeatedly it would disappear, it was just like the flu, it was nothing

We were all pretty much saying that though. Dr Fauci, who I do actually respect was telling us we could take cruises in early March if we were young and healthy! No one, not even the experts, had any idea how infectious it was at those early stages.

www.forbes.com/sites/douggollan/2020/03/09/fauci-says-cruising-is-ok-if-you-are-healthy

BowermansNose · 14/04/2020 08:55

Again, complete failure to acknowledge what he did was right and he was vilified for it

But it wasn't right - it's a bit like giving out football goal nets to be used as mosquito nets.

I looked into what was reported at the time and here is an article from the New York Times.

www.nytimes.com/2020/01/31/business/china-travel-coronavirus.html

The last few paragraphs are:

Some public health and policy experts said the restrictions announced Friday, weeks after the virus was discovered in China, might not do as much officials hoped in containing the contagion

At this point, sharply curtailing air travel to and from China is more of an emotional or political reaction, said Dr. Michael T. Osterholm, an epidemiologist and director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.

“The cow’s already out of the barn,” he said, ”and we’re now talking about shutting the barn door.”

Greenpop21 · 14/04/2020 08:57

Even though it’s Trump, it’s still unbelievable!

SerenDippitty · 14/04/2020 08:59

And also how many Americans are totally fine with him giving powerful roles to his UNELECTED family members.

This is exactly how a tinpot dictator or a mafia boss would run things.....

mrbob · 14/04/2020 09:00

There were rumours that he has shares in one of the manufacturers of hydroxychloroquine. I don’t know if that was true but it would make sense

He has made SO many mistakes and wasted time when he had a small window to get this under control. The problem wasn’t Chinese people. It was people coming in from China. He was then convinced he had switched off the problem but by the time there were decent restrictions it was way too late and the US had corona running rampant (and in fact a large proportion of cases in Australia were exported from there)

MarshaBradyo · 14/04/2020 09:03

Bowerman yes it was too late and a political reaction rather than based on modelling infection

KrakowDawn · 14/04/2020 09:08

Jon Sopel's whole piece was very interesting. I have been listening to Sopel report on R4 since I was knee-high to a grasshopper.

Only 14 journalists were in the briefing due to distancing.
How are they selected? Is it a lottery for places? The president's office are clearly letting journalists that aren't sympathetic to him into briefings.
I suppose we should be grateful that's still happening...

It really does demonstrate that Americans really will choose anything over a woman, won't they?

Astoatora54 · 14/04/2020 09:14

How are they selected?

They are meant to be on a strict rotation so that it is fair. However, a reporter from OAN (strongly pro-Trump) refused to stick to this and was banned - the White House then allowed her back in as a special guest. Rules are for losers!

www.politico.com/news/2020/04/02/oan-white-house-coronavirus-briefings-162131

VettiyaIruken · 14/04/2020 09:16

He is seriously mentally unwell imo.
We will see the full extent of it if he doesn't get a second term - wild rants and legal challenge after legal challenge.
Or if he gets a second term, absolutely bonkers attempts to change the rules so he can get a third.
If he thought there was any chance of getting the military behind him to enforce a dictatorship he bloody would.

The only good thing is that despite all the attempts he will make, he won't get any more that 2 terms.

Notpanickingjustyet · 14/04/2020 09:18

Wow, thank you for sharing the links.
Some close family moved from the U.S last year and I'm glad they did.
Who would want to be led by this. Absolute train wreck.
I thought the U.K. was bad.

Jillyhilly · 14/04/2020 09:19

We were all pretty much saying that though. Dr Fauci, who I do actually respect was telling us we could take cruises in early March if we were young and healthy! No one, not even the experts, had any idea how infectious it was at those early stages.

Absolutely this. And the media followed along, as they always do. The New York Times was tweeting in January the CCP’s line that the infection wasn’t spread through human to human contact. The media was obsessed with impeachment in January, and with the Democratic primaries and Mike Bloomberg in February. It’s like they can only cope with one issue at a time. In the name of “why didn’t you do some thorn earlier, why weren’t they out doing bold investigative journalism about the virus rather than believing the word of the Chinese government?

All this “what were you doing earlier / in January / in February” stuff is partisan nonsense. I mean sure, they have the right to ask these questions, but these reporters know the truth of the matter - the absolute furore they would have created if Trump had attempted to close everything down during the impeachment process or had told Democrats not to go to the polls for Super Tuesday. Everyone would have been completely hysterical about “tin pot dictators” if he’d tried that! As it was, he closed the economy down in mid March, pretty much in step with everyone else. I really don’t like the guy but these days I despise the US main stream media just as much.

Rayagoldensun · 14/04/2020 09:20

The situation is so dangerous and Trump clearly a deranged psychopath with is without dementia, I can’t believe that there hasn’t been enough outrage and fear over the consequences if having him remain in post, that he hasn’t been hauled out the White House and off for a mental health assessment. I can only bear to watch the daily rallies in the form of ‘press briefings’ in manageable chunks as I can feel my blood pressure rise. Yesterday Fauci’s backtrack was just dreadful. I could imagine Trump releasing him from thumb screws when he finished. I was wondering why he didn’t just tell the truth and resign there and then. Maybe he has too much of a conscience and knows he has to assuage Agent Orange in order to try save lives who knows.

Camphillgirl · 14/04/2020 09:30

The more frightening thing is that a lot of voters still think he is wonderful and can do no wrong.

Astoatora54 · 14/04/2020 09:32

@Jillyhilly But it's not just what he did or didn't do, it's all the rest! Calling it a chinese virus, telling people he would take it down to zero cases, it would disappear one day without doing anything, saying he wouldn't take the advice that his advisors were giving, telling people to take untested drugs if they feel like it....it's this irresponsible behaviour (which costs lives) that have turned the press against him more than anything. Anyone else (Republican or Democrat) would just answer questions - Trump tells reporters they are nasty, refuses to answer and then tweets petulantly about the press. Can you imagine ANY other president behaving like that?