Donald Trump is not a concepts guy. This has been a defining feature of his presidency. He’s not a discovered policy wonk, comprehending the complex subtleties of law and governance. He is, at his core, simply a former video game program host and a bilker.
Never ever is this more clear than when reporters ask him about public law issues he’s not prepared for. (Naturally, even on topics where Trump should be prepared, like healthcare, he struggles to put together a meaningful thought.)
This occurs even with friendly outlets. On Wednesday, Trump appeared with Fox News host Brian Kilmeade on his radio show. And in an exchange flagged by CNN’s Daniel Dale, Kilmeade asked a surprisingly decent and intriguing question.
Trump had no concept how to respond, so he just rattled on. His rambling was revealing. It deserves quoting the entire exchange in complete:
Kilmeade: But this is the one stat I’m going to bring you to, and I’m going to ask you if might attack this.
According to an Axios-Ipsos survey, 70% of white Americans state they rely on the local cops. Only 36% of African-
Americans do. How do you assault that issue? How do you change things?
Trump: Well I believe it’s a very unfortunate problem. As you understand, as a Republican I’m doing really well with African- Americans and with the vote, with the– in polls and everything– particularly, I imply I haven’t seen one very just recently because you had the afflict been available in from China, so that changed things up, but we had the finest economy ever, we had the very best numbers for African-American work and unemployment in history. Finest homeownership– finest everything. We had the best numbers in everything– not only African-American, however the African-American numbers were terrific.
K: However how do you handle the police part of this? How do you handle the law enforcement part of this?
T: Well I believe you need to get better than what they’ve been doing. I mean undoubtedly that was a horrible thing. And I’ve spoken about it many times in different speeches. And you know, it’s interesting: I spoke about it when we released a very effective rocket– a remarkable program that culminated on that day and clearly it goes on from there. I then made a speech and it was a speech about the rocket, and I devoted 25% of the speech probably to what occurred– or more– to what occurred with respect to George– George Floyd, and it was– and then you listen to news, ‘He doesn’t talk about George Floyd.’ The rocket went off, I then I made a speech, and I spoke about George Floyd, however they said he didn’t discuss George Floyd. Half– perhaps even nearly half of the speech, however a large part of the speech adhered precisely to that. Therefore, you understand, with– with the media you essentially– basically no matter what you do, it’s never ever going to suffice. The individuals understand it.
K: Right.
T: And that’s one of the charms to social media. I imply, I would like not to even trouble with social media.
I have the ability to get my word out wonderfully by social media. Fortunately. You use social media too.
K: Right, likewise–.
T: But we need to get the word out. Look, we have to– Brian, we have to get the police departments, everyone needs to do better, needs to do much better. This is a long-lasting issue. This didn’t occur today. This happened– I suggest, a man like Sleepy Joe Biden remained in there for 43 years, then he states, ‘I think we must do this’– I saw today, he took his mask off for the very first time in a while, I have not seen his face for a long time. And he stated, ‘I believe we should do this,’ or ‘I believe we ought to do that.’ And really then he began speaking through the mask again. He feels comfy with the mask on, I believe, and– even though there was nobody anywhere near him, which is intriguing. But he made a declaration about what he ought to do. I stated, he’s been there for 43 years, he was vice president for 8 years, he didn’t do a thing. His criminal offense costs was a disaster.When inquired about African-Americans, Trump did what he usually does and started speaking about the financial success the nation delighted in prior to the pandemic. His declaring credit for this success is extremely dubious and contestable, and it was totally unrelated to the concern asked. Kilmeade asked again.And still, Trump had absolutely nothing to state. So again,
he simply began talking about himself. He went back to a comfortable subject, claiming that the media was unjust since it supposedly ignored his remarks about George Floyd’s death when he appeared at NASA. But what he’s truly showing is that he has no concepts for how to actually attend to the problems the protesters are calling out. He seems to either be encouraged that what he has actually stated about Floyd ought to suffice to solve the problems, or he’s not able to comprehend that there are concerns about public law that have nothing to do with him in particular. He launched into a meandering rant about Biden, recommending that under the
Obama administration, nothing was done to fix policing in the United States. While the previous administration undoubtedly didn’t do enough, and Biden himself has actually contributed to the criminal justice issues in the country, Trump totally disregarded the fact that the Obama Justice Department actually did take considerable steps towards reform following the demonstrations in Ferguson. Under Trump, those efforts were rolled back. … then let us make a small demand. AlterNet’s journalists work tirelessly to counter the standard business media narrative. We’re here seven days a week, 365 days a year. And we’re happy to say that we’ve been bringing you the real, unfiltered news for twenty years– longer than any other progressive news website on the Internet.
