We’re already reaching peak Trump Derangement Syndrome, and the man has been President for less than a month. Trump supporters routinely claim Trump’s penchant for being an impetuous stooge, tweeting nonsense at the mere hint of criticism is Trump being a master troll, with the ability to play the mainstream media like fools.
I argue this relies on two weak assumptions: A. The Trump is bright enough to pull it off and B. The mainstream media does their job with the professionalism expected but get snookered by Trump.
The fact is, it’s not impossible for Trump to be a knee-jerk blowhard who can’t control his impulses and the for the media to be so absurd they trip over themselves to take everything to DEFCON 1. As we see, in this Washington Post piece by Chris Cillizza where he argues the entire flap with Judge Neil Gorsuch criticizing Trump’s comments about the judiciary was an orchestrated event, echoing the same goofball conspiracy theory out forward by the Democratic National Committee, It’s titled, “It’s not impossible that Trump orchestrated the whole Gorsuch leak episode.”
Oh, really?
Which brings me to the news of the moment: that Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch, criticized the chief executive’s attacks on the federal judge who put his travel ban on hold late last week. Gorsuch reportedly called those attacks “disheartening” and “demoralizing.”
On its face, this is a remarkable story. The man whom Trump picked to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court is turning on the president just a week after he was nominated. Given how much Trump hates being criticized by alleged allies, it was a stunning comment — and one that lit the political world on fire Wednesday night. How would Trump react? Would he pull the nomination? Attack Gorsuch? Both? Neither? As always with Trump, all options were on the table.
But dig a little deeper and the conspiracy theories begin to seem, well, not so conspiratorial. The whole story originated with Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) after a meeting with Gorsuch. Blumenthal said that during the meeting Gorsuch had used the words “disheartening” and “demoralizing” to describe Trump’s comment. He said that he then asked Gorsuch if he could publicize those comments and Gorsuch said he could.
He then outlines how it all comes together:
1. Trump’s Supreme Court nominee ran down Trump in a meeting with a Democratic senator.
2. He told that same senator that it was okay to tell the whole world about his comments.
3. Gorsuch’s two lead handlers largely confirmed the events.
4. Conway used the leak to make the case that Trump is magnanimous when it comes to the people he chooses for important posts.
You can see why people might raise an eyebrow. After all, what better way for Gorsuch to overcome Democratic senators’ skepticism about him than to show some independence from Trump?
Right. I am sure at some point, Trump and Gorsuch got together, and Trump said, “Hey Neil….check it out. When you go to meet with these Senators, if any of them ask about my criticism of that so-called judge, go ahead and pretend to criticize me. We can then sit back and laugh!”
Cillizza then writes:
The Democratic National Committee, for one, was not fooled. “While Donald Trump’s morning tweets show [White House strategist] Steve Bannon may not have clued him in on the ruse, this is clearly a meaningless White House-orchestrated attempt to help Judge Gorsuch pretend he won’t be a rubber stamp for the Trump administration,” said a DNC spokesman.
Emphasis mine. Gee, Chris. I am so glad to see the DNC was not fooled by this clever ruse the White House cooked up!
He finishes:
No matter whether Trump intentionally engineered this whole thing, the potential outcomes are all to the good for him.
And why not? You guys make Trump look like the evil genius because the mainstream media being absurd and awful at the same time is very common, Chris.
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