Trump Interview

[Tahuyaman]

It appeared at times that Trump's responses caused the interviewer to get emotional and sidetracked by those emotions.

[John Galt]

My take away:

He is incapable of viewing any issue without inserting himself. He is like a child constantly cited one excuse after another to avoid taking any responsibility. When asked to explain or provide a list of the resources he broadly mentions he invokes the Palen method and is unable to cite "books or manuals", which is weird in itself since the subject had nothing to do with books or manuals. It's clear he doesn't know the history of this country so we shouldn't be surprised that he doesn't care whether the country succeeds or fails. He's ill informed about global matters and is incapable of understanding factual data.

He thinks the civil rights law isn't working out well and he couldn't get beyond John Lewis not attending his inauguration and state of the union speeches to say anything position about the man. Once again, he turned the subject inward to himself. I wonder how many people will show up for him when he's lying in State.........

Pretty accurate psych evaluation. He was groomed to believe that he's the best in the world. Even if he doesn't believe it, he wasn't allowed to act inferior at any level.

Speaking of being like a child...this was an embarrassment. Observe how proud he looks to be in the front of the line:

[DGUtley]

My take away:
He is incapable of viewing any issue without inserting himself. He is like a child constantly cited one excuse after another to avoid taking any responsibility. When asked to explain or provide a list of the resources he broadly mentions he invokes the Palen method and is unable to cite "books or manuals", which is weird in itself since the subject had nothing to do with books or manuals. It's clear he doesn't know the history of this country so we shouldn't be surprised that he doesn't care whether the country succeeds or fails. He's ill informed about global matters and is incapable of understanding factual data.

He thinks the civil rights law isn't working out well and he couldn't get beyond John Lewis not attending his inauguration and state of the union speeches to say anything position about the man. Once again, he turned the subject inward to himself. I wonder how many people will show up for him when he's lying in State.........

I don't like that it's always about him also. Personally, I think a little humility is good. We haven't had that since W.

[Tahuyaman]

That is what a POTUS ought to act like. Not trump. "I know more than the generals" was more idiotic than "Only I can fix it".

He's simply not capable of telling the truth about anything. Especially when it comes to issues that he believes will make him 'look' presidential.

I remember that was important to him during the campaign. (The '16 campaign...he's never stopped campaigning) He liked to claim that others don't look/sound presidential.

Ironic

None of that has anything to do with the substance of this particular interview.

This is the biggest problem caused by Trump's personality. He motivates people to be overcome with an emotional response and ignore all substance.

[Tahuyaman]

I don't like that it's always about him also. Personally, I think a little humility is good. We haven't had that since W.

I tend to agree with that. There are times when Trump is very flattering to those around him and willing to share the spotlight, but he should be far more humble.

[Adelaide]

Trump is not a polished public speaker. He has moments where he is magnanimous and substantive. He can be serious, snarky and also funny. However, he often repeats himself and swerves off into comments which are easily taken out of context. He's his own worst enemy in that sense.

Watching an unedited or unfiltered interview of Trump, one comes away with a far different view of that interview than they do from the clips shown on the nightly news.

I agree he's his own worst enemy in that sense. I have talked about that before, too. He has done some things that are good, but then he talks about it and ends up saying something that dominates the news cycle (so no one knows what he actually did).

A few sources this morning only had clips and it was a trainwreck so I looked up the full interview. I do not come away from that with a better opinion but I do come away with a better informed opinion. It would be nice if more news organizations tried to go back to informing voters rather than editorializing.

[Peter1469]

I agree he's his own worst enemy in that sense. I have talked about that before, too. He has done some things that are good, but then he talks about it and ends up saying something that dominants the news cycle (so no one knows what he actually did).

A few sources this morning only had clips and it was a trainwreck so I looked up the full interview. I do not come away from that with a better opinion but I do come away with a better informed opinion. It would be nice if more news organizations tried to go back to informing voters.

Are you kidding? They stopped that long ago.

[Chris]

Sometimes a positive attitude is not the most helpful approach.

With Covid, Trudeau took the opposite approach in many cases and it scared some people but it felt more genuine and honest, somehow? He admitted the government didn't know a lot of things, that they were unsure with a lot of decisions, that things would probably get worse, and then that Canadians should be cautious and hopeful because it's not going to last forever. I think this is a good example of doing almost the complete opposite and getting primarily positive reviews (up until recently, anyway).

I thnk Trump's positive attitude united people at least initially. Over time, especialy with the media constantly on attack, it was less effective.

[Tahuyaman]

I agree he's his own worst enemy in that sense. I have talked about that before, too. He has done some things that are good, but then he talks about it and ends up saying something that dominants the news cycle (so no one knows what he actually did).

A few sources this morning only had clips and it was a trainwreck so I looked up the full interview. I do not come away from that with a better opinion but I do come away with a better informed opinion. It would be nice if more news organizations tried to go back to informing voters rather than editorializing.

Objectivity in the media died a long time ago. It's out there, but one needs to actually hunt for objectivity in the media.

If Trump had the humility combined with self deprecating humor akin to Ronald Reagan, he'd be one of the most popular president's ever.

[John Galt]

I agree he doesn't express himself well.

All he had to say was hey let's look at what my science guys showed me: the case fatality rate. That measures the number of people who test positive and die from COVID. When you look at that rate, the US is doing pretty good compared to other nations. I agree the US doesn't look good per capital, but you're the reporter- ask around and find out why the US numbers are so bad per capita but so good per COVID fatality.

We're judging him by the standards that we judge all leaders by. The difference with trump, is that he only considers one thing before he makes any decisions...he re election. He hates being president, but he loves campaigning.

As such, he bumbles along worrying about the market (what he erroneously refers to as the economy) because that was his only strategy for re election. He doesn't realize that a stable society is what the market loves. As long as he puts the market above all, he's never going to succeed at anything.