Woven through some of the commentary about the Signal Scandal are questions about what the hell Trump was up to during all this. This was a principals discussion about using military force. People were going to and did die. Maybe Trump should get off the golf course and social media and be present for this. Instead, we have Pee Wee German (Stephen Miller) saying that "As I heard it, the president was clear: green light."
When he's been asked about the whole thing, his responses are the usual meandering Trump bullshit word salad. It feels almost like this has been baked into coverage: Trump will say some stupid shit and the press will interpret it like Roman Augers looking at bird entrails. Meanwhile, four US soldiers on a training mission in Lithuania have gone missing, and Trump was apparently not even briefed on it.
Concerns about Joe Biden's age were not meritless. In particular, Biden's preexisting difficulty with a speech impediment was clearly worsening as he aged. Trump's preexisting difficulty with being a dumb stupid fucking donkey has also clearly worsened as he's aged.
Luckily, the hamfisted ways that these absolute bandbags have handled this scandal has allowed the press to keep the story alive. A fundamental hack that Trump has enjoyed over the media is that they are always hungry for new "content" and he could be relied upon for a new scandalous act every 24 hours. A tough thing to do for Trump's opponents have been to focus on just one thing and hammer that. Now, we have the original scandal, the lying about it before Congress and now legitimate questions about who is actually running things at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Right on cue, Trump has resurrect his tariff two-step and also decided to fire a a bunch of people at HHS and, oh, what the hell, let's gut FEMA. That's the Trump churn we knew was coming. However, the stupidity and obvious venality of the scandal and the cover-up has insured that it's staying at the worst "meme-worthy." (Oh, the memes. The glorious memes.)
A competent administration run by competent people and helmed by a competent president would've handled the original story this way: "This is obviously of great concern to the president, and we will get to the bottom of it." Then you fire a few people and convene a Blue Ribbon panel on communications security that largely confirms existing protocols (that Waltz and Hegseth violated).
Instead, the fact is that authoritarianism is brittle means that they cannot allow ANY weakness to be shown. If they were to throw Waltz overboard, that would just mean that Dear Leader made a mistake and that can't even be conceived of. So, we get the recurring Feats of Strength that dig deeper and deeper into obvious lying that even some people on Faux (some) can't stomach.
Meanwhile, Democrats need to amplify the aspect of this scandal that calls into question who is actually in charge at the White House. Trump is a doddering old fool, but he's also extremely prickly. I confess, I thought he would have a falling out with Musk already, because they are both show boating narcissists. It is in the national interest that Pete Hegseth not be Defense Secretary. Getting Trump to fire him should be a priority and suggesting that Hegseth is doing dumb shit behind his back could be the lever to get Trump to actually fire the guy.
Attack Trump's pride.
It does very much seem like Trump is completely checked out. He won and avoided prison, but he's never had any real appetite for doing the hard work of governing and, especially, understanding stuff that you need to understand to govern.
They basically prop him at a desk with a bunch of poorly crafted Executive Orders to sign in much the same way you give a toddler and iPad to play with so they will be quiet and let you finish your work destroying the American State.
"Trump is a senile old man who doesn't know that his Cabinet is off planning wars on private apps, because he's a senile old man who is old and senile." His reaction will, of course, to be to overreact.
Change the game. We aren't winning the current one.
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