One thing we can be sure of in the 4 awful years since Trump announced his candidacy – the guy hates work.
It’s beyond obvious he’s delegated (through inaction) all responsibilities to the least qualified and most inept people to handle any given thing. That’s how you get so many failed ideas on things like the Southern Border and the infamous, repeated ‘INFRASTRUCTURE WEEK’ Meltdowns.
During the campaign he was able to show up for a lot of rallies and puff out a lot of anger and it sort of looked like he was able to work. But it turns out boasting in front of an all white crowd of angry, intolerant people is actually Trump’s preferred form of recreation. So let’s not call campaigning “Work”.
He came prepared with a host of methods to avoid doing his job. Essentially, he’s faking it. It’s not like he’s all that good at it, but Trump doesn’t really care how it plays. Laziness is at the core of his “Leadership Style”, if you can call it that.
Let’s look at a few of his “Go-To” ways to dodge things; like reading (CAN he read?) or working in any way.
A Major Announcement is Coming…
There’s a MAJOR policy announcement coming on whatever he’s been asked about; and really any and all topics. When? In about 2 weeks. It never ends up happening.
As the president has stonewalled off all transparency and minimized his exposure to the press there’s been no way to really follow this up.
Busy Looking Meetings
The president likes to look like a work-a-holic who also has the time to develop and keep a very deep tan. These two at odds traits make it hard to look all that busy, but he goes through the motions anyway.
The meetings traditionally have gone one of two ways. Either the president will sit back and drink in praise from whoever he’s invited to a meeting, and it could be anyone from Mitch McConnell to Kanye. It looks so Banana Republic because it is.
The other track these meetings and brief press availabilities go is that Trump will take exception to a question and have a tantrum.
Either way the meeting gets on TV and the Dear Leader looks busy
Create A Crisis
Instead of getting down to the brass tacks of Trade or Infrastructure the president will start tweeting something crazy and draconian that he may or may not do. Insulting a world leader, screaming about a perceived Trade Injustice or just attacking some random person are all possible when he goes this route.
‘Solving’ the Created Crisis
When a tweet goes sour or an idea goes viral in the wrong way the president will use the aforementioned “A Major Announcement is coming very soon” stall.
Then, a day or so later, an aide or cabinet member will say on the record the president wasn’t serious about the crisis he created or the horrible things he was ‘forced to say’.
Sometimes we find out that he’s simply bitching about something that was settled months ago. It’s just done for it to be on TV anyway. Again, he could care less how it plays. He considers it a win.
We just saw this in the Mexico Tariff Shell Game. At the last minute he pretended he had issues with Mexico and would impose tariffs. Then nothing happened and BLOTUS tweets he’s made a major deal. The Mexicans, for their part, were rightly confused and a little annoyed that an issue from a deal previously signed and settled is coming up again.
The media usually notes the deal is weeks or months old and there was never much chance Trump was going to do any of the things he threatened. It doesn’t matter, he looked busy. Mission Accomplished.
The Kremlin loves this too, by the way.
Wrong Time
The president will make threats and spitball policy ideas on Twitter at 4:56 am and then not show up anywhere until like 1 pm. When the rest of America wakes up hes passed back out but it looks like he was working.
This is part of a deeper theory I have. It’s that Trump doesn’t fall asleep and wake up like a normal person. In fact I think he’s like 2 days of sleep behind all the time. This would explain his constant confusion and brittle disposition. He can’t ‘sleep’, he only passes out from being awake too long for say 4 hours about every 20 to 30 hours. 12 Diet Cokes a day will do that to you.
So in a nutshell; my theory is he passes out from sheer exhaustion (and a caffeine crash) after 20 to 30 hours of ‘wakefulness.” Less than 5 hours later he wakes up in a cold sweat screaming the moment his body has been in stasis long enough for his mind to start to panic again. Then he ‘wakes up’ and starts the cycle again. He’s never anything but overtired, grumpy and scared.
Most of the time in he’s just in a torpor half out of it half watching Fox News Opinion shows that tell him he’s great. This is so his ego never has to stop grazing.
Wrong Place
This is maybe the Kremlin’s very favorite thing Trump reliably does.
The ‘president’ will just go somewhere and be completely inappropriate. Time and again we’ve seen him showing absolute contempt for his surroundings. He hates to work at all but has to make it look like he must be doing his job. Whether he looks like he’s doing it badly just doesn’t matter to him.
Be it standing in front of the CIA Wall of the Fallen while just lying about the size of the crowd and weather at his inauguration, saluting a murderous North Korean General, accepting Putin’s offer to investigate the 2016 Election, or sitting in front of the graves of 9,300 Americans who were killed storming the beach at Normandy; he says and does the wrong thing every time.
Remember when he shoved the Prime Minister of Montenegro out of the way? Or scared the shit out of thousands of Boy Scouts and angered their adult leaders with a crazy militaristic speech? That last disgraceful move has the president BANNED from any Boy Scout function. There’s a presidential first! The guy’s plain old inappropriate and he doesn’t care.
The president will act badly, provably lie and say completely inappropriate things in places you would consider sacred or at High Stakes Summits.
He has no idea about protocol and disgracefully supplicates himself to Putin and other nefarious figures regularly. He just wants the Photo Op to make it seem like he’s working.
He then dominates the news cycle with whatever disgraceful move he made, every crazy lie he told and/or bizarre threat he made.
Since getting on TV and getting things accomplished are pretty much the same thing to Trump, he considers it a win. At least no one’s talking about his terrible poll numbers or the multiple failed dictator moves like the Travel Ban, right?
Some people seem to buy it.
Fighting With Dead People
Death isn’t the end of Trump having a nonstop problem with you. No one is dead enough to escape his perma-rage.
One thing this president has shown is a boiler-plate pattern of being highly inappropriate and crude, especially about things that scare him. For instance – Military Heroes and the whole concept of death.
Usually it’s a beloved or revered Military hero that he focuses on. It’s the sheer insecurity of a Draft Dodger who didn’t even have the courage to say he was against the War. He just invented a disability and when the war ended he was magically cured. I’m sure most of the people with Incurable Bone Spurs would love him to share how he made them go away. No such luck.
Since dead people cant really fight back and he could care less how his words affect their families, he does it all the time. Be it refusing to lower the White House flag when John McCain died or mocking the parents of a soldier whose made the ultimate sacrifice, Trump feels like this makes him look on task and in charge.
Again, some people buy it.
Showing Off His Toys
Informal and insane statements while walking to his helicopter, with engine roaring, are a great way to look busy. So this is how we usually see Trump. The fact he usually yells when he talks anyway is slightly less out of place, but he makes up for it by being extra caustic in these moments.
So what if he’s flying to his own club to play golf or to one of his “Show-Rallies”? Any guy getting into helicopters that much must be working. Same thing with Air Force 1. He makes a few scathing comments in front of the plane, engines warming up, and he’s off.
Way to go, he just looked like he was working!
WHY?
Why would anyone act so stupidly? The short answer is “Donald Trump is LAZY and BAD AT EVERYTHING.” This extends to, well, everything. Be it what he tweets or who he hires and even to what information he takes in. He’s not an able Chief Executive.
In fact, were Articles of Impeachment built around an inability to fulfill his Oath of Office as such it would be hard for anyone to argue it wasn’t valid and would probably pass the House of Representatives.
Ever since his unexpected win Trump’s shown he’s unable to fulfill the Oath of Office. Nonetheless, he’s the president. Could it be that the Russians were punking all of us AND Trump too ? Like maybe he never thought he was going to win? It’s pretty easy to make the case he wasn’t trying to win with insane ad hoc policies and actions we saw on the trail. He was on the Low Road the whole time.
He’s never spent 10 seconds considering the importance of his job or shown any reverence to the office he holds.
And those are some of the ways Trump avoids doing any work.
Well if today had started out quietly at the White House you can throw that right out the window. A tweet storm is brewing over the word that Special Counsel Robert Mueller will speak to the media from inside the Justice Department.
Gathering Storm of Unknown Nature
Rep Gerry Connolly of the House Foreign Affairs Committee was quick to suggest the location, from within the Barr Justice Department, casts a shadow all it’s own over what’s going to happen in just about 2 hours.
Will Mueller show himself as the “Man of Conscience” his reputation suggests, or will we get a Barr-like series of equivocations? Or is he just trying to get out what congress would ask him without having to actually appear? It’s unclear. The good news? We don’t have long to wait to find out. At 11 or so this morning, Mueller will either drop a major WMD of a Truth Bomb or throw in with Barr. There’s signs pointing to both possibilities.
The revelation the White House was given a ‘Heads Up’ on this is not a reassuring sign though. What the president thinks about what we’ll all hear will, almost surely, be revealed through a childish tweet storm no matter what Mueller says.
Russian Spy and NRA Activist Maria Butina is definitely lying about not being a Kremlin Asset. The Government’s story isn’t seamless yet, but give them time. Her ‘boyfriend’ is now under Indictment for fraud and surely aware, as we are, that shes been trying to cooperate against him from day one. It just keeps getting weirder.
Heres three very good, very brief reasons to Rightfully Believe she’s a Spy;
1– She’s Got Too Much Money
She had access to too much money to be just some Russian with a student visa. Why’s she running around with around 300 grand? Where’d the money she used to influence the NRA come from?
2- That Preposterous Fake Boyfriend
That 56 year old ‘boyfriend’ is plain old unbelievable. Fraudster Paul Allen Erickson owns only a 23-year-old non classic car. As far as political tricksters go he was even less successful than Roger Stone. He’s broke and always has been. He lied, cheated and stole for money and seems to have never worked. She started dating this con man troll when she was like 23? About the age of his car now? Sure. Why’d he give her 20 Grand? As I just noted, pimpin’ wasn’t easy for Erickson in the first place! I think that the Operation was always looking to self finance to advance its goals. Im sure she charged up her credit cards through the roof with fraudulent intent too. It’d be the least of her problems too, actually.
3- We’ve Heard this Before (From Putin)
Her story is Putin’s story. Both have said that if she were a spy she’s ‘the worst spy ever.’ Okay. Granted. I believe you’re the worst spy ever. And you know what, that’s not a denial, either. It’s actually in the running for the name of this article. How is getting caught proof you’re innocent?
The Government didn’t have every single duck in a row and may have been wrong believing Butina was trading in sex, but in light of her relationship with Erickson? He’s in no way appealing to someone in their mid 20s. He looks terrible even among people his own age. He’s a con man and looks like one.
Butina works for or was spun off by the Kremlin. Shes got some kind of loyalty and connection to Putin. It makes more sense than ‘she’s the greatest sweet talker of all time and was a wheel in the NRA by 27.’
It would be nice if anyone on CNN had noted she was saying the same thing Putin says. They have reported Putin’s comments on this. I guess eventually they’ll put 2 and 2 together and say it, but you heard it here first.
Having a weird name and coming from Hawaii is not an obstacle to the presidency. Hatespeech, on the other hand? That might be enough. Today Tulsi Gabbard’s needless campaign for president rocked into day 2 by putting all Gabbards flaws on display. Rather than own, explain and apologize Gabbard simply showed how two-faced she is. She regrets what she said but retains the Intolerant beliefs.
Tulsi Gabbard is the kind of person you would call “Sketchy” if you had to work with her. She’s expressed a lot of bad-hearted opinions with one common thread – everything she’s saying she regrets saying (notice I’m not saying ‘regrets believing’) is outright Intolerant.
Be it who you should love or what to do with lady-parts, Tulsi Gabbard had ideas that are way out in the woods by Democratic standards. You could make a decent case she should probably be kicked out of the party.
She’s Weak on Genocidal Regimes
Who likes Assad and doesn’t have a weird tie to Putin? Just sayin’….
Don’t feel bad, she’s fooled a lot of people, but the lights getting brighter and people are catching on.
She’s In This For the Long Run, But Not to Win
Tulsi Gabbard is like a pro-wrestler. It’s in keeping with our president, who is in the Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame.
One day Tulsi Gabbard might just have trouble explaining just how a conservative republican claiming to be a Democrat generates enough campaign money to fly this Spruce Goose of a political career. Who wants to give money to a Democrat who doesn’t support fully a woman’s right to choose and is on the Outs with her states LGBT Community in a Big Way?
I think she’s in it with the Russians. It really makes more sense than “Anti-Abortion Anti-Gay Democrat keeps getting Elected”
It’s more likely people who see her will google something like “Whats up with sketchy Tulsi Gabbard” than will go to donate.
My Theory- She’s a Kremlin Pawn
Shes only in this to bring discourse down. One of the few people I try to actively ignore (and will return to doing so after I finish this post). She’s often in line with Putin. She might just not be on the side of Uncle Sam, the USA and what’s right. That’s right folks. That’s what I’m saying. If she’s so poorly spoken she has to excuse a bunch of intolerant down-punching hatespeech things aren’t going to get better….ever.
And she’s in no way a Democrat. Joe Manchin has more left wing integrity. I basically comes down to this- If you had the enthusiasm to go out making stupid statements about who makes wedding cakes for who and why only some people should get married you’re just not a Democrat. You weren’t 12 years ago and you’re not now. I wish I could say “nice try,” but that’s too generous. Just watch her unspool Kremlin propaganda like its true on Russia TV, the only media outlet that really covers her, and you’ll know she should never be president.
Her Kremlin mission is to hijack debates and keep the conversation as stupid and angry as possible.
Tulsi Gabbard’s Strange Take On Apologies
She regrets speaking Hatefully about Gays but makes sure to tell us that her personal views have not changed. That’s a Non Apology and an attempt to have it both ways. And as far as the topic of Abortion? Again her personal feelings remain unchanged, but she regrets speaking hatefully about it.
Todays news brings us news unlikable and hard to figure Tulsi Gabbard continues to strive for ‘Worst Candidate Since Christine O’Donnell” territory by having a presser that could be described as “Trumpian” in its hypocrisy.
Why did Tulsi Gabbard apologize to the LGBTQ (& whatever I missed) community? The answer is “to divide us”
Quite simply because Tulsi’s core beliefs are conservative republican. Born to a conservative GOP wheel shes hated on women and gays but couldn’t strike enough hateful notes to make it in the Republican Party.
An early fan of Trump who never slams him and almost joined the administration (I’m sure the party intervened) Gabbard’s record on how she feels about how you’re born remains somewhat Third Reich-ian.
While she understands you may need that abortion her personal has always been pretty close to ‘Its murder’.
Shes Woefully Short on Qualifications
Because the idea of spending more than a few sentences explaining just how unqualified Tulsi Gabbard is to be president I’m just going to say she’s a mere member of the House of Representatives, not a state governor or US Senator. It would be unheard of to put her in the Oval Office.
How unqualified is Tulsi Gabbard for the presidency? Despite 6 years in office in the House of Reps she’s absolutely less qualified than even the right wings favorite person to hate- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, to sit in the Oval Office. Ocasio-Cortez for her part has more policy nd better ides as well nothing to apologize for. And she’s not trying to do anything but represent her district well. Tulsi Gabbard should do the same.
Tulsi Gabbard is a fake Democrat and bad politician who should 1- cease running for president 2- stay off Russia TV 3- should strongly consider resigning
UPDATE- Tulsi Gabbard is now endorsed by David Duke, former KKK Grand Wizard.
Well looks like Ivanka Trump pays about as much attention as her Dad to legalities.
In a cardinal sin against Trumpism she used her private email account for government business. A bunch of times. we’ve heard the term ‘hundreds” to describe the amount of them.
At least we now know for sure she just didn’t listen or care about what her dad’s campaign bread and butter were – that people who use the wrong email accounts deserve jail time. It makes as much sense as when he said we need picture ID to buy cereal. He did the Crooked Hillary’s Evil Emails rant a whole lot though, so Ivanka’s either dumb, incompetent, actively ignoring her father or a combination of all these things.
Can we really blame her for tuning him out? Probably not but if we go with Trump-Logic we CAN lock her up!
Seems Ivanka “No Job Title” White House staffer sent thousands of unsecured emails from apparently a commercial cellphone or some semi-secured or unsecured servers! People who said that her father never should have bought neophytes Ivank or her husband Sketchy Jared Kushner into the West Wing have yet another disastrous result to point to when they rightly observe – ‘this could land his children in jail’
Details are still breaking all over CNN right now, but it seems important to at least call this Feckless. Another thing you could call it is “Rank Hypocrisy” but “Hopelessly Incompetent” or “Unbelievably Out Of Touch fit too!
You would think after Trump’s campaign of hate “Don’t send private emails for government business” everyone in Trumpworld would be aware of this, so maybe Ivanka’s a special kind of stupid (which would make her a chip off the old block actually)
UPDATE – As we stagger into day two of this self inflicted wound there’s one thing we can be sure of is a lot of emails got deleted. How can we be so sure of this? Well just based on the presidents unbreakable pattern of plain lying. The fact he’s harped on the fact nothing was deleted sounds like every other catchphrase type lie this president gravitates to.
UPDATE – Now about 5 days in the defenses we have been increasingly desperate and silly. Could it be the incoming Democratic House of Representitives has promised to investigate the whole affair? Imagine Trump’s rage should Ivanks be subpoeaned? “There was no private server” says Trump. While no one ended up liking the whole idea, what Hillary did seemed to be a lot more security minded (and she still got hacked). So what did Ivanka use to send these emails? Was it was just an unsecured phone like everyone in this administration from the president on down uses for business as usual?
This White House loves to do stupid reckless things and their phone security protocol shows it. Despite repeated FBI warnings and the discovery of remote cell phone hacking and monitoring equipment near the White House (initially attributed to China but really could be anyone) unsecured cell phone use continues to dog this White House. Most likely its EVERYONE hacking the administrations calls and communications. The Russians, the Chinese, the Saudis and some worried allies and perhaps law enforcement at this point.
Here’s Trump sharing his thoughts on what should be done to people who use the wrong email accounts –
I guess we have to start calling her “Crooked Ivanka”? LOCK HER UP!
WASHINGTON, DC – JULY 23: Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump attend the Trump International Hotel Washington, D.C Groundbreaking Ceremony at Old Post Office on July 23, 2014 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kris Connor/Getty Images)
We’ve all seen enough by now to know that President Trump has an unhealthy fixation on the movie “Patton”. There’s plenty of articles by right wing people comparing Trump to Patton favorably and some of the more religious among them are buying in to Patton’s own belief in re-incarnation and, of course, imagining that it’s Trump. Trump himself seems to embrace Patton. He certainly mentions him regularly.
All I can say about the re-incarnation thing is- Patton saw himself only re-incarnated as a soldier and would have stayed in Vietnam every moment he could. He didn’t have to serve in the military, he was dyslexic, but he overcame it just so he could fight. So lets just forget about Trump being Patton reincarnated. Its preposterous.
The thing is Trump has a dangerous infatuation that will shape our futures. He is , in fact, president.
In Trump’s personal style dealing with the media and at his rallies we’ve seen him channel the angry, eccentric World War II generals profane and detailed threats, put downs and boasting as some of the main aspects of his public persona.
The big problems with this are that Donald Trump is not like George Patton at all and that the movie glosses over certain flaws while making others appear as virtues.
Even worse, certain coincidences I believe Trump regards as similarities between himself and Patton as portrayed in the movie are now re-enforcing his delusional belief that he is very much like George Patton. Both are meltdown prone and scream at staff and abuse subordinates, both talk their way into huge avoidable problems. But thats as far as the real similarities really go. These men, and the staff’s they yelled at, couldn’t be more different.
Trump’s surrounded by Yes Men and traitors who can’t event get a security clearance. Patton’s guys were crack combat officers. So Trump’s never getting back competent answers or a person with enough integrity to stand up against a bad idea. Patton was rooted in reality far more than Trump and if his fuel guy told him there was no fuel he’d scream a little, but he didn’t crucify the guy. Or scapegoat them. He understood there was simply no fuel. That’s a major difference.
This is a hard break with Trump’s uncontested bile and anger when he is actually told things he doesnt want to hear. Trump lives in his own reality, Patton was merely a romantic. There’s also the fact Trump would simply try to steal or blackmail someone into giving him what he wants. This wasn’t an option for Patton, who was more honorable than that anyway.
Of necessity, Patton’s guys were colonels and West Point grads who could absorb a military tantrum. Patton wasn’t spared bad news. SO there’s another major difference.
Another thing we all know about the president is he is a grandiose liar. He’s racked up many thousands outright falsehoods in just about 2 years in office and the tally keeps growing. In fact if you look at the numbers he’s lying more often than ever now. As far as Patton goes, Trump’s lying to himself. We already know Trump fancies himself smarter than a general, he told us so himself. It needs to be noted that Patton was not known to be a liar.
Here’s how a man mistakes a dramatic movie for reality; Trump is very simply ignorant of History and has very little actual knowledge about the actual Patton. In fact the only piece of information I’m absolutely sure Trump is aware of would be the Conspiracy Theories regarding Patton’s death (not in the movie). So to him this movie is 100% accurate and real. We know he never bothered reading up on it, come on!
Fantastic scenes where the salty general jumps out a window and cuts loose with his personal pistols against a couple of german bombers wrecking up his base are pure Hollywood but I’m sure this hasn’t occurred to Trump. He probably thinks Patton was an action hero AND a commanding officer.
The biggest thing my hypothesis has going for it is if you momentarily embrace it, it explains pretty much everything and holds up to scrutiny from numerous angles. Of course its not perfect, but indulge me and then draw your own conclusion— BECAUSE COMMENTS ARE ENABLED!! Please weigh in if you feel so inclined!
Patton- The Embellished Bio-Pic
Patton was pure Oscar Gold seldom paralleled. Winner of Academy Awards for Best Actor (George C Scott) Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay (Francis Ford Coppola) and Best Original Score (Jerry Goldsmith of Star Trek fame!).
The movie ‘Patton’ is a masterpiece of film making that starts with a very strong Francis Ford Coppola screenplay advised by none other than Patton contemporary and equal- General Omar Bradley himself. An inspired George C Scott gave a brilliant, authentic and career defining performance then blew off accepting his Best Actor Oscar to go to a hockey game, how cool is that? Throw in one of the best movie scores outside Star Wars to move it along from the great Jerry Goldsmith of Star Trek fame. The director was Franklin J Shaffner , fresh off “Planet of the Apes” success.
Why This Movie Is A Dangerous Influence on Trump
Trump’s fascination with Patton is a problem for a bunch of reasons. For one thing George Patton, despite his success, is a TERRIBLE role model for a politician or president. Brash and outspoken, his role in the war was minimized because of his personal antics.
While the movie makes much of this, the scenes where Patton goes on tirades around his staff and peers over the consequences of so many ill considered actions (sound familiar?) are captivating. George C Scott plays him as a figure who NEEDS to create obstacles for himself by self sabotaging because fate always turns the tables and suddenly the sabotage ends up benefiting him. Were Patton to have never stirred the pot he wouldn’t have had such great luck. Trump, as we have seen, loves to self sabotage. This could be part of why.
The obvious problem is Francis Ford Coppola is NOT writing reality and we may all be let down when fate DOESN’T turn the tables and everyone ends up screwed because of one of Trump’s crazy actions or tweets,etc. The poorly considered Korea Summit would be an example of self sabotage and then waiting for miracle. In reality the South Koreans don’t really want some kind of peace deal but the idea keeps lurching forward while Trump ignores reality. Patton was stubborn but nowhere near ignorant, he could reverse course if needed.
The real Patton was apparently had no political ambitions, which makes sense since despite a rough charm he had no diplomatic skill or real personal charisma. He needed the shock and awe of non stop profanity to drive home a point to fighting men in time of war though. The moment he spoke to anyone else he was always and only ever inappropriate. While this was (barely) forgivable for a mid 20th century war time general, it’s just awful for a 21st century president! Yet we have only seen Trump speak for longer and longer making one dangerous uninformed statement after the next while salting in hardcore racism with the boasting, threats and pure bullshit.
Patton was so awful a human being technical adviser General Omar Bradley quit the movie when he saw the script portrayed him and Patton as close friends. Bradley, its should be noted, was famously a nice guy. This means Patton was probably despicable, so he has that in common with Trump. Bradley seems to have regarded him as exactly the re-incarnated Dark Ages Warlord Patton fancied himself to be in his poetry. Being a horrible dick may be the only thing Trump and Patton truly have in common, but Patton of course had certain redeeming traits.
In his own time Patton was seen as an eccentric throwback. Basically he was little too crazy and liked war a little too much. He was the kind of soldier who needed to be sealed in case marked “Only Open in Case of War”. He chaffed at his bosses and generally was a pain in their asses.
Despite fighting the nazis like a boss, he seemed to go soft on them after the war. Unlike Trump he hated the Russians, but he probably would have conspired with them just to get World War 3, which he gets sacked for advocating for (along with the soft on ex-nazi’s thing). When Patton dies he was in a heap of trouble and had no command again.
The root of Trump’s many misconceptions is due to viewing the movie in a very simple manner. Its unlikely Trump ever took a single film class. The fact is Film Appreciation 101 might save the planet were Trump forced to take the course. If he had he would have realized the Ironic Duality of the plot.
Simply put the movie is all about introducing the open question of “Is Patton all that is Great and Gallant in the Military? Or is he all that is Wrong and Perverse about War and War Making?” The movie seems to suggest he is both at the same time.
The characters from the movie line up in Trump World roughly like this- Trump of course is Patton. Egotistical British General Montgomery , equally delusional and insane to only a slightly lesser degree, is ‘Crooked Hillary’. Patton’s very first aide in the movie who dies is BOTH original campaign managers AND Chris Christie (aside from the actual sorrow Patton felt,Trump we know is a stranger to empathy). Cod, his final aide is Kellyanne Conway and racist Steve Bannon. Omar Bradley and the US military are Paul Ryan and the Republicans. The German Military is Mueller and the FBI.
The movie opens with a ‘Patton Rally’. With a huge flag behind him he lays down tough, gruff and profanity laced violent rhetoric in clear terms. Everything is black and white, which is just fine because they’re preparing for war. It’s really freaky when you see the scene superimposed on a 21st century political rally.
The movie provides a composite of Patton’s actual speeches delivered brilliantly, using George Scott’s incredible speaking voice to draw us in as he gives it to his troops in a loud and dirty fashion. It’s very much a political looking arena and the first of many Academy Award Moments defying the viewer to look away.
When Patton begins to speak he’s commanding and profane. He tells his men their better than anyone their opponents, who are subhuman creeps. He boasts about their training and weapons and says they’re destined to win. He speaks of violence and glory. Again, perfect for a wartime general, TERRIBLE for a president, but of course its not very different from what Trump says at his rallys.
Trump holds out immigrants and muslims as an enemy and dehumanizes them almost s much as Patton dehumanized the Nazis extolling his troops to kill. Unlike Patton, there’s no hope. Patton is sure their going to win and win big. Maybe it wont be easy or fun, but it’s going to happen. Trump follows one false gloomy statement with another.
There are some traits both the Man in the Movie and Trump share. Then there’s a lot of fluke-ish coincidences where they seem to resemble each other but dont hold up.
One similarity between Trump and Movie Patton would be the portrayal of Patton as very much Bipolar, which is one of the dominant parts of Trump’s Borderline Personality Disorder. So what I’m saying is both were crazy. Patton, and Trump, also had certain traits of sociopaths and worse.
Patton was probably ‘Manic Depressive’ in terms of that time. Both were spotty students at prestigious schools (though Patton was afflicted with dyslexia, an actual learning disability he overcame, showing some discipline and personal character). Both are only functional when attacking. Both are insulated from their mistakes by great personal wealth. The bottom line is; “Both were crazy and self destructive”
Anti-Patton Cartoon from “Patton” (1970)
Both loved media coverage of and yet bristled at the scrutiny that invites. Both earned the distinction of “Suspected Huge Fan of the Nazis” from the media in their time.
Neither one feels that it’s fair to have their own words used against them, no matter how hypocritical.
Near the end of the movie Patton’s being questioned by the press as to why he won’t remove former Nazi’s from key positions. He answers with his own “Very Fine People” gaff- analogizing the nazis to the Republican and Democratic Parties in the United States. It was such a stupid thing to say you don’t actually feel that bad he let himself get set up. In fact it seemed like he knew they were setting him up and went with a defiant response out of pure bile. It destroys his post War career.
Neither guy can simply shut up for any length of time. While Trump uses tweets Patton would simply act in an outrageous manner (sound familiar?) til the press couldn’t look away.
Both seem to flirt with the idea of War for War’s sake (the Patton character admits this repeatedly). The recent whimsical attitude in meeting with North Korea in different capacities without any preparation fits well with the Patton in the movie, but it sure isn’t reflective of the real life guy.
“Fire and fury,” is a total Patton line. It’s not from the movie, but it would fit. Threatening people is one of Trump’s favorite things. Patton boasted all the time too. The difference of course is it’s APPROPRIATE for general to be boastful and threatening.
And Appropriateness is an area where Trump is really in need of improvement. Whacked out tweets, not putting his hand on his heart during the National Anthem, disparaging numerous Gold Star Families and worse are all in a days work for the offender in chief. Bolstered by his delusion he’s Patton or Patton-like at least, Trump is likely to continue and increase the boasts and threats.
A particularly dangerous sequence in the movie revolves around the German Siege of Bastogne. Loaded up with fuel and ammo and ready to kick the Nazi’s asses the weather intercedes and slows sops his relief attempt.
Angry and scream-y, Patton decides its time for some help from God and a little theater to motivate the troops. He summons the Division Chaplain and makes and demands a prayer good enough for god to intercede and stop the storm. The chaplain points out hes asking him to pray for a battle and therefore death on massive scale and it’s sort of messed up. Patton has no problem with the hypocrisy. Then he goes on a rant worthy of a Spartan king or a particularly extreme Roman general about how they’re going to be sustaining the attack no matter what. Patton admits to his aide he’s sort of acting. Its another Academy Award moment in the film.
A truly inspirational prayer, for those who care about such things, was written. The weather cleared fairly quickly thereafter and the Patton’s army set off on a historic campaign.
Of course what we all know today about Patton’s Weather Prayer is that a warm front moved in and the snow simply stopped. That doesn’t blunt the forceful nature of the scene where Patton excoriates a regimental chaplain, telling him to write a prayer “good enough” for God to bother listening. Its very much like Trump’s contempt for the Pope and religion in general. The “Two Corinthians” Fiasco shows Trump has no religious knowledge or convictions but has no problem with rank hypocrisy and is therefore a bit less moral than Patton.
This sequence of the movie is meant to show Patton’s Hubris and psychopathy in pursuit of battle and it’s a very dangerous thing to take it literally as surely Trump does. We can blame the Evangelical communities blind loyalty and excuse make-ing for Trump for this delusion gaining strength.
Another thing Trump and ‘Movie Patton’ have in common would be a total lack of understanding of whats called “Psychological Warfare”. In the film Patton is apparently baffled as to the importance of his mission leading up to D-Day- to be a weapon of mass distraction . Patton’s use as a decoy convinced Hitler to disregard an Actual Invasion and hold off forces that may well have turned the tide of the War itself , to await a Fictional Invasion that was never going to happen. It was key to pulling of the Allied Invasion of France.
Now consider Trump calling the Generals and the former president stupid repeatedly for broadcasting some details of their plan to destroy ISIS. He simply doesn’t understand the idea that you can cloud your opponents judgement to the point you can predict or even control his actions.
It’s too subtle for the movie character or Trump to grasp.
Both Trump and Patton have a deep disdain of giving out any government healthcare. Patton orders his hospital units not to admit Combat Fatigue (PTSD), which he considers cowardice.
This was so insane even to 1940’s medical personnel they simply ignore him. That of course boomerangs on Patton in his version of a “Hot Mic on the Bus” moment. Of course I am talking of the scene where Patton slaps a ‘cowardly’ soldier in a Field Hospital, disgusting everyone and showing his troops how little he cares about them despite the bravado.
In the heat of battle Patton visits a field hospital. At first he’s compassionate and deeply moved. Then he tirns hateful and insane. The General loses control of himself publicly and betrays his own bi-polar nature and complete lack of empathy during a brutal, sort of violent, screaming meltdown culminating with him repeatedly slapping a ‘cowardly’ soldier.
Lack of sleep and stress are surely in the mix when the real Patton freaked out like a true bi-polar. The sequence shows the dark side of Patton’s insanity. I dont think Trump will see it that way. His cruel approach to medicare and the Obamacare reforms shows he has no compassion, something the cinematic Patton develops. Trump surely wont (because Francis Ford Coppola is not writing reality).
Real life Patton slapped more than one soldier more than one time til they actually had to discipline him and remove him from command. It was just like the self inflicted wound we see Trump give himself all the time. Unlike Patton, he just never gets a humbling comeuppance where he returns slightly improved from time to time. Trump just keep making the same mistakes over and over.
Patton is benched and used as a decoy until after the D-Day Invasion, the battle he had waited all his life to fight in. He faces it like a pitcher caught doctoring a baseball and forced to miss a playoff start. In other words, with only a minimal thought of anyone else. Again Patton shows his view of war and command to be from the Dark Ages or perhaps early Renaissance at its most compassionate.
In his finest moments of triumph after receiving a new army to command, when prosecuting the war Patton is shown as petty and dismissive of his soldiers well-being and simply thinks of his Army as a whole. To Patton, when people get killed it’s like the Army itself is just trimming it’s fingernails. In other words; it’s a natural ongoing function of war. With Trump we can see the chaos in his personal staff and cabinet, burning people like Michael Cohen as needed.
Just as important as winning were the laurels and press adulation that came with it. When holding the spotlight Patton is grandiose in his actions while his words are always petty. Demonizing and denigrating his personal rivals, boasting of his the strength of his army. Its much like Trump with the exception of the part it’s actually appropriate for a general to have that attitude in time of war. Trump appropriating the George C Scott version of Patton in a political mode ISN’T appropriate at all, it worked well enough to get him ‘elected’ (we think). A crass and abusive screed of insults and violent rhetoric are the hallmark of every Trump Rally ever
Patton and Trump have contempt for the abilities (and probably even the racial abstraction) of the Russians, despite Trump’s open admiration for Putin. Patton moves himself firmly onto the hot seat in the early postwar moments by repeatedly insulting people, specifically members of the Russian military, the US President and that which would become NATO. Sound familiar ?
The movie closes with the disgraced Patton reflecting in how the Romans would celebrate a victory with a triumphant parade through Rome itself and a warning that all Glory is Fleeting. Cadet Bone Spurs insistence on a Bigly Military Parade is right in line with this.
Disturbing Conclusions and Thoughts-
We already have had our national policy shaped by this movie. As the documentary “All The President’s Movies” tells us, Nixon ordered major bombing offenses against Vietnam twice after watching the movie. And we all know that Trump loves Nixon so if he finds out that watch out!
It’s my theory that Trump see’s the story of Patton as that of an American who couldn’t lose cause he was an American and that he was an exceptional person who prospered BECAUSE he broke all rules and civility rather than IN SPITE OF THIS. I believe he sees his kooky Cabinet of Billionaire Ass kissers as equivalent to Patton’s highly trained and battle proven staff officers. This dangerous delusion was how Trump found a way to cast crazy ex-General Flynn in the role of Omar Bradley. Comparing Flynn to Bradley is so far from the truth it would be laughable of it weren’t absolute reality.
Based on his overtly displayed misunderstanding of the movie Trump shows he is dangerously militarily primitive and most comfortable with methods and ideas more commonly associated with the Nazi Germans than 20th century Americans.
Military deaths are way up under Trump I truly think he’s relaxed rules of engagement and demanded more missions in general. If you doubt it just consider the Green Berets lost in Niger. We still can’t get a reason that makes sense about why they were even on that doomed mission.
Patton is a terrible role model for even most soldiers as he was always succeeding at he expense of higher all around casualties. He declined peaceful solutions whenever possible. He was always one mistake from disaster but circumstance connived him a series of unlikely wins. As a role model for a president Patton is a disaster.
Like Trump, Patton’s glory should never eclipse the incompetence of his enemies. It requires some historical perspective to understand. Patton was set loose in western Europe with a veteran army and ample supplies. Even more decisive the Germans are mandated by Hitler ONLY to plan against Patton in an area where they expect the Invasion that never comes in Calais. Rather than ever accepting that they must fight Patton they become intimidated and willfully ignorant of the reality due to Hitler’s rapid mental decline from seriously insane to non functional maniac between about 1942 and early 1944. Patton directly benefits. Nothing analogous this is in play for Trump, His current foe, Mueller, is self-created but much more competent than Trump and no amount of freaking out is going to save Trump from that
Looking back at the 2016 campaign think of this as being roughly the same as Hillary not going to states she considered ‘safe’, like the vaunted Democratic “Blue Wall” of reliably Democratic states , each of which she then lost by less than an under-attended baseball game worth of people. We know Trump appreciates this misstep because its one of his favorite riffs to go on from the now “Trump 2020” rallies that are a veritable torchlight parade for the guy. “Kill Them All! Build That Wall!” however, is a lot less civilized than the behavior we see from people about to go to an actual war. Its belicose shit talking that serves just to help these cultists pay homage top their hero and are probably damaging the fabric of America.
Unlike Trump, Patton didn’t have a staff of soothsayers and guru’s off Fox News, Patton’s guys were highly competent top notch merit promoted staff officers with great expertise. Trumps rag tag group of advisers is anything BUT top notch or Highly Competent. They also have more turnover than Patton, which is amazing.
Another unavoidable conclusion from the movie is that current 21st century Americans are actually LESS civilized than Americans of the mid 20th century, 75 years ago, or at the very least the Americans of 1970 when the film is made. Being at war since 9-11 surely is somewhat to blame for this. This suggests that assertions about a cult of ignorance and a desire to literally turn back the clock to early post world war 2, before the integration of the military, by the Trumpists are very much real and accurate.
The movie ends before the freakish and controversial death of Patton in a car accident. The truth is the driver probably just messed up and plain old crashed. Patton lingered for a few days and was buried with his troops. Its long been imagined and even said that the General was killed by the CIA’s predecessor the OSS. This is sonething I’m sure Trump believes Patton was assassinated. I mean, there’s the whole issue where he’s afraid someone is going to poison him to back it up.
