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Narcissus In The White House Press Room

The most powerful man in the world cannot stop thinking about his reflection in the media mirror
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Did you see the Trump press conference? If not, you can watch it here and read the transcript, or read the annotated transcript here.

If you do, you’ll find things like this:

QUESTION: Mr. President, on national…

TRUMP: Wait. Let’s see. Who’s — I want to find a friendly reporter.

QUESTION: Mr….

TRUMP: Are you a friendly reporter? Watch how friendly he is. Wait. Wait. Watch how friendly he is. Go ahead.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)…

TRUMP: Go ahead.

QUESTION: So first of all, my name is (Inaudible) from (Inaudible) Magazine. I (inaudible). I haven’t seen anybody in my community, including yourself or any of the — anyone on your staff of being (OFF-MIKE).

Because (OFF-MIKE). However, what we’ve already heard about and what we (OFF-MIKE) is (OFF-MIKE) so you’re general forecast (ph) like 48 (OFF-MIKE). There are people who are everything (ph) happens through their packs (ph) is one of the (OFF-MIKE)…

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP:…he said he was gonna ask a very simple, easy question. And it’s not, its not, not — not a simple question, not a fair question. OK sit down, I understand the rest of your question.

So here’s the story, folks. Number one, I am the least anti- Semitic person that you’ve ever seen in your entire life. Number two, racism, the least racist person. In fact, we did very well relative to other people running as a Republican — quiet, quiet, quiet.

See, he lied about — he was gonna get up and ask a very straight, simple question, so you know, welcome to the world of the media. But let me just tell you something, that I hate the charge, I find it repulsive.

I hate even the question because people that know me and you heard the prime minister, you heard Ben Netanyahu (ph) yesterday, did you hear him, Bibi? He said, I’ve known Donald Trump for a long time and then he said, forget it.

So you should take that instead of having to get up and ask a very insulting question like that.

And this:

QUESTION: Mr. Trump?

TRUMP: Yes, oh, this is going to be a bad question, but that’s OK.

QUESTION: It doesn’t(ph) have(ph) to be a bad question.

TRUMP: Good, because I enjoy watching you on television. Go ahead.

QUESTION: Well, thank you so much. Mr. President, I need to find out from you, you said something as it relates to inner cities. That was one of your platforms during your campaign. Now you’re —

TRUMP: Fix the inner cities.

QUESTION: — president. Fixing the inner cities.

TRUMP: Yep.

QUESTION: What will be that fix and your urban agenda as well as your HBCU Executive Order that’s coming out this afternoon? See, it wasn’t bad, was it?

TRUMP: That was very professional and very good.

QUESTION: I’m very professional.

I will never, ever get this about Trump: his obsession with the media and how it covers him. He is President of the United States, yet he stood on the stage for a long time, bitching about the media. It’s crazy, just crazy. Hey, I don’t much care for the media either, but this is just nuts.

No! Now we hear that Mattis ally Vice Admiral Robert Harward (Ret.) has turned down Trump’s offer of National Security Adviser. The FT, quoting someone close to the discussions, says “Harward is conflicted between the call of duty and the obvious dysfunctionality.”

You think? Would you want to work for that dumpster fire of a White House? Does seeing the president’s press conference today bolster your confidence in him and his executive leadership?

At some point, it is bound to occur to even strong pro-Trump partisans that there’s something really wrong with this guy. You cannot, you know, run a country if you spend so much time obsessing about the media. Richard Nixon was a thousand times smarter than Donald Trump, and his paranoia did him in. Ronald Reagan probably wasn’t nearly as intelligent as Trump, and he got bad press too, but he was a lot smarter about the media than Trump is.

UPDATE: The President of the United States is running an online survey about how the media are covering him. Really, he is. Meanwhile, today in Washington state, the Baronnelle Stutzman got pummeled by the state Supreme Court, which is destroying her business on behalf of a gay couple. But please, let’s not get upset over the strangling of religious liberty in this country, and the crushing of the livelihood of a gentle Washington grandmother by two vindictive gay men. Let’s worry about how mean CNN is to Donald Trump.

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