Special Election - 6th Congressional District (Decatur: paint, expensive, jobs)

[Cameron H]

Originally Posted by bu2

His policies are mostly only unpopular with Democrats.

Well, again, he really hasn't actually accomplished anything yet, but what he's proposed is broadly unpopular. The travel ban, the wall, the deportation force, Trumpcare, his budget...all of these are unpopular. Other policies he's flip-flopping on too fast to really judge. People liked his decision to dust off a Syrian airfield with a few dozen Tomahawks well enough, I guess. But you don't get to 40% approval in the first three months of your presidency by accident, or by merely alienating the opposing party.

And the incompetence is pretty much a fiction of the DNC mainstream media. Other presidents have had the same sort of (and in personnel Obama and Clinton had even more) foul-ups. That's part of the "hysteria."

Rather than me trying to list all of his failures, scandals, flip-flops and f*ck-ups, maybe you'd be willing to list the accomplishments he's secured thus far that encourage you to judge his competence favorably?

(I will say this: What's most amazing to me is that we don't have to worry about the bias of the mainstream media, because Trump seems eager to talk about his own incompetence! "Who knew healthcare could be so complicated?" Coming out of his meeting with Xi Jinping, for which he apparently couldn't be bothered to read a one-page briefer, “After listening for 10 minutes, I realized it’s not so easy. I felt pretty strongly that they had a tremendous power over North Korea. But it’s not what you would think.”)

[whodean]

Listening to the perspective offered by a major trade partner and taking it to heart is the last thing Trump should be criticized for. He seems to be every so slightly settling in to the position.

[Cameron H]

I wouldn't criticize him for listening. I do think his failure to prepare even minimally for the meeting demonstrates incompetence. Even if he didn't have China experts to brief him, he could have just taken a few minutes to read through and think about an article such as this one. You don't even have to be POTUS to get access to this stuff.

China Is Doing What It Has to in North Korea | Foreign Policy

[whodean]

Why do you assume he refused briefing?

Could it be the intelligence Trump was briefed on was heavily from the US angle, while the Chinese President gave Trump the Chinese viewpoint?

[Cameron H]

I don't assume anything. That's just one possible reason for his ignorance. Maybe he was briefed but just couldn't understand what he was being told.

In any case, on Tuesday he said, "“I explained to the President of China that a trade deal with the U.S. will be far better for them if they solve the North Korean problem!” And now he says, “After listening for 10 minutes, I realized it’s not so easy. I felt pretty strongly that they had a tremendous power [over] North Korea. But it’s not what you would think.”

Well...it's exactly what you would think if you had even a basic understanding of the China-North Korea dynamic before going into the meeting. It's exactly what you'd think if you read an article like the one I linked from a CATO guy and former Reagan aide. So why was Trump so ignorant and unprepared going into the meeting? I don't know. But I know it's incompetent. And what I really don't get is why he's so eager to talk about his incompetence. He doesn't mind lying, and this is the kind of thing I just as soon he lied about...

[Hokiehaven]

All I can say is, whoever gets elected hopefully will be far better than stock wheeling Tom Price.

I personally prefer empathy and humility in a politician over arrogance and ignorance.

Price has arrogance in spades.

[whodean]

Originally Posted by Cameron H

I don't assume anything. That's just one possible reason

No offense, but yes you are.

We don't know what Trump was briefed on, or what the Chinese Prez told him, so yes , you are assuming, projecting your overall thoughts about Trump onto this particular issue.

[Cameron H]

No offense, but I'm really not. I don't know why he was so ignorant going into the meeting. No assumptions.

I do know that he was ignorant going into the meeting -- no assumption necessary -- because he told us. I know that he was less ignorant coming out of the meeting, having arrived at the same conclusions he could have gathered from the FP article I linked -- again, because he told us.

I don't assume, but I suppose it's an opinion, that this level of ignorance going into a meeting with a foreign head of state constitutes incompetence. I'll allow that others may have different standards of competence.

[whodean]

Originally Posted by Cameron H

I do know that he was ignorant going into the meeting -- no assumption necessary -- because he told Us

That is your (possibly biased) interpretation of the event

[JOinGA]

Originally Posted by whodean

That is your (possibly biased) interpretation of the event

Trump doesn't like to read and he wants his briefings short and kept to one page with bullet points. That has already been reported. His management style is not to get into "the little ****" as he called the details on healthcare. He did not have to as a business leader, he just hired expertise. When you are a boss and you lie or misrepresent, who is going to challenge you? Not your employees. It is different when you are president. Words matter. Credibility matters and he has none. He makes things up.

Some people want to cling to any minor shred of what appears to be normalcy and declare that Trump has now become "presidential." However, this man is a narcissist and that cannot be changed. He cannot be changed. He is a disaster.

The amount of golf he is playing might seem like a minor issue, but think about it. Does he not know how hypocritical it appears to spend all of that money going back and forth to Mar-A-Lago after all of his criticism of Obama's golf and after his calls for cuts to social programs? Does he not see it as spitting in the eye of the working class people who voted for him to squander tax dollars that way? He doesn't see, his doesn't care or he just can't stop himself. None of those options are good.