Friday, June 05, 2020

Trump: Friday Afternoon At The Improv


Donald Trump was asked this morning how he will address systemic racism:
What's happened to our country, and what you now see that's been happening, is the greatest thing that can happen for race relations, for the African-American community ... Nobody's ever done for the black community what president Trump has done.
Trump bragged about the economy when 40+ million people are out of work. That's one out of every four workers. Someone asked: "How would a better economy have protected George Floyd?" Trump did not answer.

It was quite a day.

Trump gave three speeches, without notes. In the morning, he boasted about "all the work we've been doing, really for three and a half years. This isn't just over the last few months. This is for three and a half years. And it's a great thing." He was incoherently riffing, pinballing with no warning from one thing to the next, including ignorant conspiracy rambling about the travel path of the SARS-CoV2 virus.

One snip, on the "lockdown":
Look at what's going on in Florida. It's incredible. The job the governor of Florida has done. It's incredible. The numbers they're doing, you've got to open it up.
Speaking of the "numbers" Florida is "doing":
Although Trump has been 100% wrong with every prediction he has made during his time in office, he still keeps saying what's going to happen:
I think we're going to have a very good upcoming few months. I think you're going to have a very good August, very good July, but a spectacular… Maybe spectacular September. But a spectacular October, November, December, and next year is going to be one of the best years we've ever had economically. And if you look at the numbers, they bear it out.
The entire thing is pure insanity. It's Exhibit A for implementing the 25th Amendment. ... Trump mused about buying an RV and driving around the US with Melanie. Trump had no idea what an RV was called, of course. He had to stop his story to ask someone.
We had the greatest economy in the world. We went in for an operation. We closed our country down. We closed it down. ...

Europe became very infected from China. A gift from China. Not good. They should have stopped it. They should've stopped it at the source. But it's a gift from China and a very bad gift. I will tell you that. ...

But we built a tremendous thing, a tremendous power platform. So when it got ill, when we had a problem, we were able to cut it off, stop it, just like this. Stop it. Keep everyone inside, keep them away, keep them together, away, uninfected. And we saved millions of lives. And now we're opening and we're opening with a bang. And we've been talking about the V. This is better than a V. This is a rocket ship. This is far better than a V. A V is wonderful. A V is this. They were talking about, will it be a V, a U, an L? They had no idea. ...

I give it this analogy. Somebody told me yesterday, it was Larry Kudlow. He said, "Sir, this is like a hurricane." And we were worried. We didn't know, is this going to be a hurricane or a major, major recession? A major recession that's not artificially caused, because this was artificially closed. We just said, "Boom. Closed." And everything just stopped. And also, you know what else stopped? Big numbers on death, by doing it. And that's why I had to do it. We've made every decision correctly. But, it was like we stopped. So it was an artificial- Correctly. But it was like we stopped. So it was an artificial closing. And then what happened very incredibly is the numbers go. And Larry was saying that with a hurricane, you have a horrible hurricane in Florida or Texas, and it's devastating. And then the hurricane goes away and within two hours, everyone's rebuilding and fixing and cleaning and cutting their grass. I've seen it in Texas. I've seen it everywhere. I've seen it everywhere. Texas had a massive one, Louisiana, hurricanes, Florida hurricanes. But what happens is right after the hurricane, boom, and this is what this is, this isn't a terrible recession. I don't even mention the D word. I don't talk about the D word, I don't want to talk about it, because every time somebody even mentions it, I don't like the D word. But if you had a really, really big, bad recession, it could take 10, 12. How long did it take in 1929? It took many years to recover from that. How long? [10 years.] 10? I heard 10, I think, longer than 10, but that's okay. I heard 14, 15 years. Larry says 10, so let's go with 10. But it takes a long time to recover, but a hurricane you're back in business in one day, two days, three days, and it's devastating and it's hard. And this was a hurricane. And it's going to get better fast because a lot of the numbers that you see, they're early numbers. They're not even from this last month. ...

We have a fantastic military. We have fantastic national guard. ... [T]hese people have done an unbelievable job. ... Secret service by the way, are unbelievable. The job they did at the white house is unbelievable. There was never any form of like, "Oh gee, this sounds dangerous." ... [T]he secret service was incredible ... [W]e were helped by the national guard was unbelievable. They came in and they… This was like a piece of cake. ...

When I would say that to you, two, three months ago, I could see what's happened. I have a good feeling, I've always done well with numbers, but I had a feel for it. I said it even the other day, I was saying, "I think we're going to have a tremendous next year. I think it's going to be a phenomenal next year." I didn't know it would start this quickly. I thought we'd start in August, September, but it started very early. It's an amazing thing, but it means that they're likely to return and all of these jobs that we're talking about to return. ... [N]obody expected this. I don't think there's anybody sitting here that can say, I want to see it on tape, as opposed to just saying, "Oh, I did that." But some were predicting pretty good numbers, like people I mentioned. But we took a tremendous step and a tremendous risk, and we've gone up at a level. And this level is going to be nothing compared to what you see in coming months, and especially next year.
Trump Describes Virus As "Horrible, Horrible, Terrible, Disgusting, Angry"
Plus: The Tremendous, Never-Existing Wall

One month ago, Donald Trump said he wanted his never-gonna-get-built southern-border wall to be painted black, which would cost by an estimated additional $500 million. Trump thinks a black wall will look more forbidding and the steel would get hotter to the touch in summer.

The Washington Post stated that Trump has blathered about this a few times over the years, but "military commanders and border officials believed as recently as last fall that they had finally talked him out of it".

1 comment:

johngoldfine said...

DJT toured the factory here without a mask and so, presumably, contaminated all the swabs and stuff being made, since the actual workers are seen wearing what look like hazmat suits.