Tag: Trump narcissism

Staring down impeachment, Trump sees himself as a victim of historic proportions

Washington Post logoDonald Trump is not the first American president staring down impeachment to nurse a deep sense of persecution and self-pity. But he is the first to broadcast that mentality to the world.

In the five days since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) opened an impeachment inquiry following revelations about President Trump’s conduct with his Ukrainian counterpart, Trump has been determined to cast himself as a singular victim in a warped reality — a portrayal that seems part political survival strategy, part virtual therapy session.

As Trump tells it, he is a hard-working and honorable president whose conduct has been “perfect” but who is being harassed and tormented by “Do Nothing Democrat Savages” and a corrupt intelligence community resolved to perpetuate a hoax, defraud the public and, ultimately, undo the 2016 election.

View the complete September 28 article by Philip Rucker on The Washington Post website here.

Americans recoil in disgust as Trump rages about Hillary on the 18th anniversary of 9/11

AlterNet logoOn Wednesday, as the nation remembered the 18th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, President Donald Trump followed up his tweet marking the occasion with a disjointed, angry rant about “Crooked Hillary,” “Sleepy Joe,” “Pocahontas,” and the “fake news” media cooking up “suppression polls” to sabotage him:

Donald J. Trump

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In a hypothetical poll, done by one of the worst pollsters of them all, the Amazon Washington Post/ABC, which predicted I would lose to Crooked Hillary by 15 points (how did that work out?), Sleepy Joe, Pocahontas and virtually all others would beat me in the General Election….

Donald J. Trump

✔@realDonaldTrump

….This is a phony suppression poll, meant to build up their Democrat partners. I haven’t even started campaigning yet, and am constantly fighting Fake News like Russia, Russia, Russia. Look at North Carolina last night. Dan Bishop, down big in the Polls, WINS. Easier than 2016!

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Commenters on social media were not impressed with how the president of the United States chose to kick off a solemn day of remembrance:

View the complete September 11 article by Matthew Chapman from Raw Story on the AlterNet website here.

Trump takes credit for GOP’s North Carolina win, tweets photo suggesting a third term for himself

Washington Post logoAfter hosting a rally in North Carolina with Vice President Pence earlier this week and then blasting out endorsements for two GOP candidates running in special elections there, President Trump closely tracked the returns on Tuesday night. When it became clear that both men vying for open House seats had won, the president took to Twitter in triumph.

In a flurry of tweets sent well into early Wednesday morning, Trump celebrated the “TWO BIG VICTORIES” and boasted about his influence on the results — while also taking time to bash the “Fake News” and share a photo suggesting a third term for himself.

“BIG NIGHT FOR THE REPUBLICAN PARTY,” he tweeted in all-caps. “CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL!”

The wins came as Trump has faced downturns in national polling and amid new White House turmoil as he ousted national security adviser John Bolton. A Washington Post-ABC News poll released Tuesday found that 56 percent of voting-age Americans say they disapprove of Trump’s performance in office, and his approval rating among that demographic stands at 38 percent.

View the complete September 11 article by Allyson Chiu on The Washington Post website here.

Trump reignites Puerto Rico feud amid Hurricane Dorian

The Hill logoPresident Trump on Wednesday rekindled his spat with Puerto Rican leaders as Hurricane Dorian approached the island.

The president blasted San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz as “incompetent,” demeaned the island as “one of the most corrupt places on earth” and diverted Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funds toward the southern border even as his administration is expected to provide assistance to the U.S. territory in the wake of yet another large-scale storm.

The moves mark a fresh chapter in the long-simmering feud between Trump and island officials stemming from criticism over his handling of the fallout from Hurricane Maria.

View the complete August 28 article by Brett Samuels and Rafael Bernal on The Hill website here.

Trump lashed out at his aides even as they tried to protect him from the ‘debacle’ he created: reports

AlterNet logoEven when it comes to the solemn duties of the office, President Donald Trump can’t help but make everything about himself and obsess about the media coverage.

So it went for Trump’s trips to Dayton and El Paso this week, which featured the president pointlessly lashing out with lies at Democratic critics and  — and as a new video released Thursday revealed — bragging about his crowd sizes at the hospital where mass shooting victims were being treated.

And according to reports from CNN and the New York Times, the Trump grew angry with his aides during the trip even as White House staff tried to prevent the visits from becoming the disaster they inevitably devolved into.

View the complete August 8 article by Cody Fenwick on the AlterNet website here.

Video emerges of Trump ranting about ‘crazy’ Beto O’Rourke’s crowd size during El Paso hospital visit

AlterNet logoFollowing mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton over the weekend, President Donald Trump visited both of those cities on Wednesday — and a video posted on Twitter shows that even when he was visiting a hospital, Trump couldn’t resist insulting Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke.

In the video (which was filmed at University Medical Center of El Paso), Trump can be seen exchanging pleasantries with hospital staff with First Lady Melania Trump at his side. And when he discusses visiting El Paso in February to speak at a rally, Trump brags about attracting a larger crowd than O’Rourke (who also had a February event in that city).

“That was some crowd,” Trump says of his February rally in El Paso. “We had twice the number outside. And then you had this crazy Beto. Beto had like 400 people in a parking lot, and they said his crowd was wonderful.”

View the complete August 8 article by Alex Henderson on the AlterNet website here.

Trump claims he has presidential power ‘that nobody has ever seen before’

AlterNet logoPresident Donald Trump has many verbal ticks that often act as tells about what he is really thinking or doing. For example, CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale has argued that when the president tells a story in which someone calls him “sir,” he’s usually lying. Another tell is that when Trump refers to a true fact that “no one ever knew” or that “people have no idea about,” it almost certainly means that the president himself just learned about this fact, even though it’s widely known.

Trump indulged in this tick during a gaggle with the press Friday morning when discussing the House of Representative’s ongoing efforts to get witnesses and officials involved in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation to testify.

Yet again, the president tried to argue that all the questions raised by the Mueller report about Trump’s ties to Russia and his potential obstruction of the investigation were moot.

View the complete July 12 article by Cody Fenwick on the AlterNet website here.

How Trump’s big Fourth was a fizzle

AlterNet logoOne of the more insignificant myths of the Donald Trump presidency is the one that claims he was inspired to order a magnificent military parade in Washington after viewing the Bastille Day celebration in France in 2017. It’s true that Trump was excited by that parade was very excited by it and started making plans for a D.C. version on his way to the airport in Paris. But Trump had wanted the big tanks and marching soldiers and flyovers well before that.

According to the Huffington Post, he had requested a full-dress military parade for his inauguration and was told it couldn’t be done because of the infrastructure in D.C. He explained to the Washington Post around the same time that he had big plans for the future:

“Being a great president has to do with a lot of things, but one of them is being a great cheerleader for the country. And we’re going to show the people as we build up our military, we’re going to display our military. That military may come marching down Pennsylvania Avenue. That military may be flying over New York City and Washington, D.C., for parades. I mean, we’re going to be showing our military.”

View the complete July 5 article by Heather Digby Parton from Salon on the AlterNet website here.

How much each flyover cost during Trump’s Fourth of July event

Washington Post logoThe combined hourly rate was at least $560,000 per hour.

This post has been updated.

President Trump largely stayed away from politics during his hour-long “Salute to America” event on Thursday.

Aside from passing references to the Space Force, $750,000 worth of donated fireworks, defeating the Islamic State in Syria (“100 percent gone”) and saying the United States is stronger than ever, the most noteworthy part of the event is also something we still know little about: the seven flyovers and how much the celebration cost the Pentagon.

The Washington Post reported earlier this week that the flyovers could cost more than $2 million, and a Pentagon official told the New York Times the event “would cost the military well over $1 million.”

 View the complete July 4 article by JM Rieger on The Washington Post website here.

Trump’s Independence Day salute: Five things to watch

The Hill logoPresident Trump is putting his imprint on Independence Day with the “Salute to America,” a spectacle that will include a speech, fireworks and a display of military hardware.

The president is promising “the show of a lifetime,” but the event is facing criticism from Democrats and advocates for national parks who say the celebration will focus more on Trump than the holiday at an exorbitant cost for taxpayers.

Here are five things to watch during Thursday’s festivities on the National Mall.

View the complete July 4 article by Brett Samuels on The Hill website here.