The Leaks are Coming From Inside the Trump: Another Trump Open Thread Because JFC

People might be interested in this article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2017/05/16/i-wrote-the-art-of-the-deal-with-trump-his-self-sabotage-is-rooted-in-his-past/?tid=hybrid_experimentrandom_3_na&utm_term=.97f5c277818b#comments

Schwartz’s analysis of Trump:

To survive, I concluded from our conversations, Trump felt compelled to go to war with the world. It was a binary, zero-sum choice for him: You either dominated or you submitted. You either created and exploited fear or you succumbed to it — as he thought his older brother had. This narrow, defensive worldview took hold at a very early age, and it never evolved. “When I look at myself today and I look at myself in the first grade,” he told a recent biographer, “I’m basically the same.” His development essentially ended in early childhood.
…
From the very first time I interviewed him in his office in Trump Tower in 1985, the image I had of Trump was that of a black hole. Whatever goes in quickly disappears without a trace. Nothing sustains. It’s forever uncertain when someone or something will throw Trump off his precarious perch — when his sense of equilibrium will be threatened and he’ll feel an overwhelming compulsion to restore it. Beneath his bluff exterior, I always sensed a hurt, incredibly vulnerable little boy who just wanted to be loved.

Trump’s older brother, Fred Jr., became an alcoholic and died at 42. Trump sees him as having not been able to stand up to their father, while he himself is still fighting back against the old man. In other words, we have a desperately insecure person in charge of the fate of the world, in contrast to Obama, who despite having come from a racist society still always seemed to feel comfortable in his own skin.

@Tessa, numerobis – Huh. Even if he wasn’t trying to bribe Comey or something, it’s still an obvious misuse of influence. Corrupt Washington elites, right, Trump?

Standard White House procedure these days seems to be to deny now, explain later.

@Kivutar

Trump isn’t smart enough for that. I call Occam’s Razor.

@Moggie

Josh Marshall calls this “Trump’s Razor”, and has used it a lot.

I’ve heard this one referred to as Hanlon’s Razor, but the idea goes waaaay back.

Pie, Trump’s Razor is like Hanlon’s Razor on steroids.

Hanlon’s Razor says “never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by stupidity”. But with Trump, stupidity is a given, and the question is always: just how stupid?

Josh Marshall’s first expression of his principle went something like: with Trump, the stupidest possible scenario which can be reconciled with the available facts is usually correct.

In other words:

With Bush, the frequent question was: malice, or stupidity?

With Trump, the question every day is: stupidity, or holy shit, can this guy even read?

Just in case anyone would like to stay up to date on the Trump coverage over at the Beaverton:

Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump

@zaunfink: Ah! Yes, of course. That makes perfect sense. Thanks for taking the time to explain. 🙂

After a couple of days of depression there – and yes, it is the “looks lazy, feels blank and empty” kind, I’m kind of pulling out of it, but this whole shitshow has a lot to do with it.

And what the actual FUCK?

I don’t know if I’m dreading Drumpf’s overseas trip or kind of morbidly looking forward to it. Rumors are that he himself is dreading it, which makes me happy. Whatever makes him uncomfortable.

@GrumpyOld SJM – I read that article and a similar one a while back and it does make perfect sense. Drumpf is a case study in arrested development (I hope that isn’t against the comments policy? If it is, I apologize profusely and will take it back). I do not feel sorry for him because by age 70 he should have figured out some ways to cope with some of this that don’t involve destroying people around him.

And now King Baby whines about how unfairly he’s treated at a graduation address. How self-centered can one person be?

Al Green is calling for impeachment in Congress.

PI: who’s Al Green?

dr ej: It’s official:

Robert Swan Mueller III (born August 7, 1944) is an American attorney who was the sixth Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation from September 4, 2001 to September 4, 2013. Mueller is the special counsel overseeing the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections.

Republican named by various GOP presidents. Has told a GOP president to get stuffed regarding wiretapping. Worked with Comey. Interesting…

@numerobis

Representative from Houston, TX.

Al Green is calling for impeachment in Congress.

Robert Mueller has been appointed as a special prosecutor for the Trump/Russia investigation!

http://i.imgur.com/HcgOift.gif

Drumpf wants to spend all of fifteen minutes at Yad Vashem. I hope the Israelis won’t let him in the building.

https://thinkprogress.org/donald-trumps-very-short-trip-to-yad-vashem-8f451da9090a

The revolution berns on! For fuck’s actual sake…

Yep.

@GrumpyOldSocialJusticeMangina

Schwartz’s analysis of Trump:

To survive, I concluded from our conversations, Trump felt compelled to go to war with the world. It was a binary, zero-sum choice for him: You either dominated or you submitted. . . .

Beneath his bluff exterior, I always sensed a hurt, incredibly vulnerable little boy who just wanted to be loved.

Yep. Hurt, vulnerable people who don’t do any work on themselves can be very, very dangerous.

From the responses at article about shortening the amount of time at the holocaust centre:

Remember, liberals are the ones who brag endlessly how they tolerate diversity. That is, until Donald Trump — or someone else who disagrees with them — comes along. What they really mean is, you are supposed to tolerate their diversity, but they don’t have to tolerate yours.

I’m interested if this person thinks that being an anti-semite is a way to be diverse? Like… Really? If people who sexually assault other people, like trump, are the real misunderstood people?

Some days you read ridiculous shit like this and can’t even.