Today's Trumpy Tantrum

Emp_Fab

I thought about making this a sticky, but I guess the Toddler-in-Chief will be providing the world with plenty to keep this thread on the first page for years.

Less than 24h into his presidency, he's out of the traps;  He's just called the press "among the most dishonest human beings on earth" because they dared to report that he didn't get as many people at his inauguration as Obama did.  His press secretary in his first ever conference to the Washington press corps also went on the attack, repeating Trump's accusations, and, ominously, warned the assembled journalists that they would "be held accountable", then refused to take any questions!  He actually said "This was the largest audience ever to witness an inauguration, period. Both in person and around the globe".!!!!

The fact that the photographs prove he didn't get anywhere near the numbers Obama had doesn't seem to register with him or his press secretary.  As Bill Maher said last night, so far he's "doing everything a third-world dictator would do, refusing to let go of his business interests, employing family members, wanting missile parades" - and now flatly denying the truth in the face of indisputable evidence.   "He's one step from wearing the uniform with the fruit salad bars".

Sambostar

No photographs of the actual crowd at the inauguration nor any official crowd counts as yet though eh.

But a few facts.

Obama was black which was a first.

Obama's supporters were either mostly on welfare or leftie feminist housewives or students and many were bussed in.

The folk who voted for Trump were working at the time or in far away disenfranchised areas of the US without the financial means to travel to see his inauguration.

And another small but important fact.  Trump is not one of the lizard people.

ThePrettyDamned

When we were watching the news with the inauguration I thought the crowds were a bit thin - there were massive stretches of fence that had no one behind them. 

TheBigDipper

It would be nice, for once, if we just allowed the facts to be reported without trying to use them to justify the views of one side or the other - usually at the same time. 

ThorpyFX

Forget the numbers, he has always denied facts in favour of his own distotorted and polarised view. That is not the scary part......

my concern here is the attitude towards the press and his threats. It's beyond scary. 

octatonic

Again, I'm not a Trump supporter or close to it but let's look at the photo critically.
We don't know when in the proceedings the photo on the left was taken- was it early on before everyone has turned up.
I'm not sure a photo of this type is important anyway.
I don't care if 100 people turned up for the inauguration- it doesn't matter he is the President regardless.

People on the left need to pay attention to what matters.
If we get bogged down in irrelevancies and become a screechy drone that becomes part of the background noise then all we are doing is enabling Trump.

Save the outrage for important matters.

DesVegas

The press are bastards though.

Babones

You can't exactly trust the press either though. Yes, those photos could be from the two different inauguration days, but at what times exactly? 

ThorpyFX

octatonic said:

Again, I'm not a Trump supporter or close to it but let's look at the photo critically.
We don't know when in the proceedings the photo on the left was taken- was it early on before everyone has turned up.
I'm not sure a photo of this type is important anyway.
I don't care if 100 people turned up for the inauguration- it doesn't matter he is the President regardless.

People on the left need to pay attention to what matters.
If we get bogged down in irrelevancies and become a screechy drone that becomes part of the background noise then all we are doing is enabling Trump.

Save the outrage for important matters.

The press quoted that the photos were taken at the same time, 45minutes before the start of the inauguration.

It is vital to:
"sweat the small stuff"

 saying this is an irrelevancy is not sweating the small stuff. This message he is putting out is part of an overall direction change of incremental changes that will signpost where he is planning to head.

in and of itself it's a minor tantrum..... but it could lead to worse things so the answer is, the Americans need to  hold him to account now and keep holding him to account over every lie, tantrum, threat and opression. Give him no room to set down roots. 

Emp_Fab

Jesus - I'm genuinely shocked at the responses here so far.  People actually suggesting that the photo on the left could be a deliberate attempt by the press to distort the truth ??  WTF is wrong with you ?  You think that the press need to engineer things to create a story to attack Trump with ???  FFS !!!

@Thorpyfx got it in one, it's not about the numbers, it's about his reaction.  It's about his press secretary clearly lying, as there is no fucking way on the planet that "This was the largest audience ever to witness an inauguration, period." and the thinly-veiled threat to the press.  As an opener, this does not bode well - at all.

Grunfeld

Emp_Fab said:

Jesus - I'm genuinely shocked at the responses here so far.  People actually suggesting that the photo on the left could be a deliberate attempt by the press to distort the truth ??  WTF is wrong with you ?

I think all people have said is that the photos do not conclusively prove anything.  And to be fair, they don't.  Because we don't know when they were taken on the day for example, and other variables.  Basically, are we comparing like with like?  It's got nothing do do with Trump or politics, it's about evaluating the quality of evidence.

RocknRollDave

The press ARE amongst the most dishonest people on the planet, IMO, although I totally expect Trump got significantly fewer people at his inauguration and totally agree that his response was unbecoming of a world leader and further evidence of his complete unsuitability for the role. He's a knob, in short.

octatonic

I haven't said that at all Emp.
I'm making the point that the goal now is to change the mind of the American people that voted for him.

How many of these people do you think will change their mind about him if, over the next 4 years, the press is entirely negative about him- over small things, over big things?
They already think he is right and that the media is set against him.

I believe that Trump will fail to achieve the things he has promised- because he has promised impossible things.

Trump was proof that it is possible to lose the individual battles but win the war.
I'm not talking about the media not reporting- I'm just saying that we should save our outrage for things that matter- climate change, abortion rights, free speech, his obvious conflicts of interest.
These things matter. 
Pick your battles- because if this becomes a 'broken record of lefty moaning' then the people who need to change their minds simply won't and then we run the risk of having a 2 term Trump presidency.

TimmyO

octatonic said:

People on the left need to pay attention to what matters.
If we get bogged down in irrelevancies 

This is being said a lot but I think it's really dangerous:

Conservative leaning folk (of all degrees) are, understandably, increasingly feeling ok with stuff that DT and his team say. Because he's the one who isn't a Democrat.

But neither is he a normal Republican. He's bonkers. He's the perfect example of what happens when a narcissist has a shit ton of money.

I completely agree that it has been ignoring a huge swathe of society that has got us here, but this is not the solution to that.

Everyone should get the nutjob gone and start again with a better debate.  

History will not look kindly on America for this period. 

PolarityMan

Tbh I think democracy isn't going to last the next 50 years.

Deadman

Any chance of a hidden Trump/politics area on here? All the Brexit shite can go in there too.

Emp_Fab

Actually @octatonic I wasn't referring to you tbh.  However, I disagree that people should let him get away with the small stuff in case the protests end up sounding like a "broken record of lefty moaning".  Again, I side with @ThorpyFX - in that it's vital to 'sweat the small stuff'.  Precisely because he cannot be allowed an inch.  Also, because he sweats the small stuff.  If people constantly pull him up on the smaller issues, he's going to constantly react - and highlight repeatedly how unpresidential he is and how unsuitable he is for the post.  It won't take much 'poking him with a stick' until he says something that seriously crosses the line and gets him on the defensive.  His ego won't allow that situation to remain for long, so, like all bullies, he'll retaliate with something stupid and so on.  Every iteration of this process knocks another brick out of his wall and his support.

There is a very real danger in ignoring the 'small stuff'.  Allowing him and his surrogates to blather minor untruths unchallenged is to abet his creation of a false reality - exactly as he did in his campaign - stating that America was some crime-ravaged destitute wasteland that only he could save when the facts simply didn't back up his claims.  If he and his team keep repeating the same mantra, then as the election proved, eventually, people accept it as the truth.  He needs that distorted perception of reality to exist in order to justify his bigger actions.  That alone is why we must challenge every discoloured pixel he tries to place on the picture.

MagicPigDetective

Watch this time lapse




The press are reporting the truth.

Trump's Ministry of Truth is denying the truth. Disturbing.

Emp_Fab

Deadman said:

Any chance of a hidden Trump/politics area on here? All the Brexit shite can go in there too.

I'd argue this is the most seismic world event in decades.  Hiding it away is ludicrous.  Unless of course you're one of these folk who actually believe that global politics don't affect you.

octatonic

Emp_Fab said:

Actually @octatonic I wasn't referring to you tbh.  However, I disagree that people should let him get away with the small stuff in case the protests end up sounding like a "broken record of lefty moaning".  Again, I side with @ThorpyFX - in that it's vital to 'sweat the small stuff'.  Precisely because he cannot be allowed an inch.  Also, because he sweats the small stuff.  If people constantly pull him up on the smaller issues, he's going to constantly react - and highlight repeatedly how unpresidential he is and how unsuitable he is for the post.  It won't take much 'poking him with a stick' until he says something that seriously crosses the line and gets him on the defensive.  His ego won't allow that situation to remain for long, so, like all bullies, he'll retaliate with something stupid and so on.  Every iteration of this process knocks another brick out of his wall and his support.

That didn't exactly work for the election though, did it?
What would he have to say that he hasn't already said for people to turn away from him?
He said the most ridiculous things and people still voted him in- they knew exactly what he was like and they still voted him in.

Why?
Because his supporters don't care what he says or even what he does in his private life.
What will work, I think, is for him to fail to deliver on his promises.
That might work- but the media needs to be able to report on it honestly and to be believed.

At the moment they can report on it all they like but his supporters won't believe the media and they will believe Trump.

RaymondLin

I love the "they were at work" excuse.

obama created those jobs by any chance? Lower unemployment figure than even Romney promised.