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

'Hospital testing hydroxychloroquine on coronavirus patients notes serious side effects'

The fact he might have a stake in it is nothing, it's irrelevant because it's a miniscule stak. However, what is relevant is him pushing it like a cult leader. I don't know if you have seen the presser with him whispering 'take it, take it, take it'. It is very bizarre and unsettling.

I didn't mean that Trump would benefit financially from touting the drug, but that he benefits hugely in another way - on a personal level (as in votes) if he can make claims that he knows of a cure. There are plenty of people naive enough to believe him

I do agree with this. He wants to be able to say he cured the world and get that Nobel prize.

I’ve only just watched it on BBC News this morning. Apart from Trump’s erratic and strange behaviour, the thing that stood out for me was how all the people around him were sitting/standing so close together! I was shouting at the tv...”why are you all sitting so close?”. The press journalists were spaced out (as in social distancing!).

What surprises me is that anyone is surprised by this. Trump has never hidden who and what he is (and isnt). It is a pity so many are now paying for it with their lives but huge numbers seem happy that he's doing a grand job, so

@Jillyhilly
The thing is that many of them also - for good reason - have doubts about the way these stories are covered and the entrenched bias of the media.

You don't need to cover stories about Trump any more for it to be clear how dangerously unhinged he is. People just need to watch him giving a briefing like this, which he tried to turn into a campaign ad at a time when US citizens are dying.

Macron gave a long speech yesterday in which he said, clearly and simply, that there had been delays in France's response, that there had been a lack of PPE, that he understood how hard it was for those on the frontline to hear that there is a global shortage of PPE and that lessons would be learnt from the weaknesses and errors that had been visible over the last few months.

It's really not that hard.

I'm not a Macron supporter, BTW.

And yes, little Matty Hancock should be saying exactly the same.

What's even more scary is that there are a lot of people on Facebook (not the fairest place of judgement I know) saying how rude the journalist was, how great it was that he 'slapped her down', how you don't interrupt the President, how he's proved his a worthy leader and should have complete control over the USA and how no-one should question his judgement!

As I said to DH, that journalist has a couple of minutes to pin Trump (or any other politician) down to 'facts'. Him constantly referring to what he did in January when she was asking about February is just a way of wasting time - one he uses a lot to defer questions.

He can't string a sentence together and some 'worshippers' in the States trust him with their health, economy, safety? Losing his temper when he's questioned? He wouldn't last a minute over here (thank goodness).

When I look at him I just feel sadness and grief for the damage done to the office of President.

He's in full panic mode, ranting that he is doing a great job, he is all powerful and in charge but yet nothing is his fault or responsibility. If he gets voted in a second term then the USA will be a country I no longer recognise at all and I lived there for nearly twenty years.

Particularly awful is his vengeful withholding of equipment from democratic voting states, he truly won't give a damn of millions of democrats die fromt this as long his voting base gets the ventilors and PPE. Now he has declared he has the power to end social distancing and stay at home orders to open up the country (he doesn't have that power). When reporters pushed back and pointed out he doesn't have that power he made ominous threats that all the states need the federal government (true since the feds are holding the equipment ransom) so states will do what he wants anway. He truly is a sociopath IMO.

I didn't mean that Trump would benefit financially from touting the drug, but that he benefits hugely in another way - on a personal level (as in votes)

You may not have, but the NYT definitely did. They need to be more careful about this kind of stuff.

I don't blame Trump.

I blame the people who voted for him, it was clear what he was like.
Also, lying has become very advantageous for politicians in the last five years and neither the voter or the press hold them to account on it, we just nod along. Trump will just lie and repaint the past.

Trump is not responsible for Covid 19, but he is incapable of being that President who has the ability to create a global action plan

This should never be the responsibility of the US president, as they should be doing this role
for the internal states.

Isn’t the WHO supposed to be leading this part? I mean, the president is (very obviously) not a health expert. I find it scary that the rest of the world wants to look to the US for this kind of global leadership. They are largely not fit for the job!!!

He's unhinged.

I do think he's got some sort of dementia. When you see interviews of him in the 80s and 90s he was eloquent and smart.

Not now.

@GuyFawkesDay - I agree. He was even slightly charming and had a touch of humility. He also looks totally different now, where has that colour hair come from for a start? He looks like a different person.

People who support Trump care only that he delivers on 1 or more of the issue they care about,
usually:

. Legally making abortions more difficult to get
. Lower taxes for the better off
. Guns - unrestricted rights to buy as many powerful guns as they want
. Keeping most African Americans poor and away from power

No other issues matter to his supporters

So they ignore the fact that he is a raving psycho narcissist
who uses his authority in the USA like a Mafia boss, for his own enrichment and dynasty

When you see interviews of him in the 80s and 90s he was eloquent and smart.

Maybe he's smarter than we think and he's actually talking to his voters. Somebody said up thread voters don't like politicians who make them feel inferior, maybe they were on to something with that. The Trump show worked last time and won him an election.

BigChocFrenzy
I think you're right.

Can anyone link to the full briefing? I can only getting snippets.

Isn’t the WHO supposed to be leading this part? I mean, the president is (very obviously) not a health expert. I find it scary that the rest of the world wants to look to the US for this kind of global leadership. They are largely not fit for the job!!!

While I agree the US President is not fit for the job, the budget of the WHO is really small in global terms. It's around $4.5 billion. All it can really do is to provide technical guidance, particularly to less developed nations.

It sounds a lot, but when you consider the US's Department of Health of Human Services has a budget of $1.4 trillion, you see why the World (rightly or wrongly) looks to the US.

Trump was totally indulged all his life, never criticised, brought up by a notorious racist father in great wealth and privilege

He's still turned out worse than he could have done

The Democrats have produced only flawed candidates to face him,
but
none remotely approach his dangerous incompetence, ignorance, narcissism, abuse of power and mental instability^

Anyone who can't see clear water between them in terms of suitability to be POTUS is fixated only on the policies they want:
anti-abortion judges, low taxes, no gun restrictions, keeping African Americans away from power

and screw the country

BigChoc

What are you basing this on? My family is very pro-Trump (I don’t live in the US so don’t bother voting anymore) but I can tell you this is just a bunch of stereotypes.

They voted Trump because they thought he’d be better on jobs. Full stop. I think what really sold them was supporting traditional blue-collar industries (largely now in China). They also believe in low taxes in general as a cultural thing. A lot of them voted for Obama so your last point there is way off:

Legally making abortions more difficult to get
. Lower taxes for the better off
. Guns - unrestricted rights to buy as many powerful guns as they want
. Keeping most African Americans poor and away from power

I've read that he has had his whole team tested and won't meet anyone who's not been tested. Also that he's a "germphobe".

Regarding the hydroxychloroquine, did anyone read about the dr in Texas (?) who trialled it in over 60 patients without their consent or a control and published in the NEJM?

What really irritates me is his very limited vocabulary which seems to consist of twelve words, 'beautiful' , 'nasty' etc. He seems to be emotionally stuck at about age 7. I do think he has some form of dementia. No one ever mentions Melania or Barron these days are they even at the WH?
Every single time I hear him speak, he's blaming someone. Anyone, other than himself. He's grossly immature and completely inadequate for the job.

I blame the GOP who are enabling him. More and more he can't fill posts, there are 2,000 unfilled posts in this Administration, of which over 700 are key positions. His cabinet is emptying rapidly, no wonder it's all going so wrong with COVID when you have top positions empty that could've co-ordinated the efforts.

And we only see Birx the woman with the scarves, rapidly appointed, because he eliminated a whole office dedicated to managing pandemics in 2018.

This explains it..
time.com/5792015/trump-coronavirus-vacancies/

Watching a narcissist fall apart is funny.

Not funny he is in charge of America, but what can you do. They voted for him.

He lies, he blames, he ignores. Anything he disagrees with is fake news. Oh, and he makes an awful lot of stuff up. And thinks he is God.

female President would have been too much change to soon.
I don't know about this, a friend of mine who follows everything US related nearly as a hobby said out of everyone they could have put forward Hilary was a weak candidate, it wasn't that she was a female, it was simply that they felt she represented more of the same, and the average voter didn't see her as having anything to give them