[Patterico is not feeling well today, and in his place will be a guest post by Olapmurt Dibareno.]

Hi, I’m Olapmurt Dibareno, and you’re gonna like me because I’m not one of those Never Trumpers. I’m here today to talk about the fake news in Politico saying that President Trump isn’t getting along with H.R. McMaster:

For a few weeks in late November, as speculation over whether President Donald Trump would fire his secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, reached a fever pitch, Trump and his chief of staff, John Kelly, also considered pushing out another top national security official: H.R. McMaster.

McMaster, the national security adviser who succeeded Michael Flynn — Trump’s first choice for the job, who resigned amid controversy within a month of taking office — has never quite clicked with the president, according to six senior White House officials. He is disciplined and focused, and has frequently clashed with Trump, who loves small talk and meanders from one subject to another.

Their strained relationship was on rare public display over the weekend when the president chastised his national security adviser for telling a crowd at the Munich Security Conference that evidence of Russian meddling in the 2016 election was “incontrovertible.”

“General McMaster forgot to say that the results of the 2016 election were not impacted or changed by the Russians and that the only Collusion was between Russia and Crooked H, the DNC and the Dems,” Trump tweeted. “Remember the Dirty Dossier, Uranium, Speeches, Emails and the Podesta Company!”

Fake News! Do these look like people who “don’t get along”?

Boom! Anyway, exactly how is it supposed to show a “strained” relationship when Trump just said McMaster “forgot” to say those things? My guess is that they were part of a prepared speech McMaster had, but he started daydreaming or whatever, and just forgot that part. So Trump just points out that McMaster had a memory lapse, and the Lamestream Media acts like they’re having World War III up there. (Although it is pretty hard to see how McMaster could forget the most important part. He should probably pay more attention to his TelePrompTer. Not everybody can just stand up and talk and be as focused and hit all the important points as Donald Trump.)

This whole fake news thing goes back to that book by that scumbag Michael Wolff, who said that President Trump often gets annoyed and bored with McMaster’s PowerPoint presentations. If Michael Wolff said it, you can pretty much bet that the opposite is true. For cripes’ sake, the guy even said that Trump is bald and had scalp reduction surgery, but there’s no evidence of that at all!)

Anyway, this Politico article seems like it was cribbed directly from Wolff’s fake news book:

Trump has continuously chafed at McMaster’s “rat-a-tat” briefing style, according to a senior White House aide, who likened it to machine-gun fire. The president at one point gestured toward the general in the midst of a lengthy briefing and said to others in the room, “Look at this guy, he’s so serious!”

“McMaster is very much, ‘OK sir, here’s the point, here’s the takeaway, here’s my point of view, and here are the things you need to decide by the end of today,’ ” said Tom Ricks, a columnist for the veterans’ news site Task & Purpose and the author of six books on military affairs. . . . At least one official urged [McMaster] to simplify and condense his briefings and to present the president with fewer options when it comes to decision-making.

Again: saying McMaster is serious is hardly a giant slam. President Trump just likes to lighten it up from time to time. And oh yeah, like a guy who turned a small loan into a successful multi-billion dollar real estate empire really needs “fewer options when it comes to decision-making.” That’s a laugh. Have you read any of his books? President Trump is the master of multiple options. You don’t get to be an alpha male who bangs beautiful porn stars (which he doesn’t do anyway, but who cares if he did?) and have a beautiful Eastern European woman at your side at all times without knowing all the options.

What is really so stupid about this Politico article is the way they make President Trump seem like a guy who isn’t reflective and doesn’t like to read. Well then how do you explain these tweets?

Have a great, but very reflective, President’s Day!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 19, 2018

“The Faith of Donald Trump,” a book just out by David Brody and Scott Lamb, is a very interesting read. Enjoy!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 20, 2018

How’s he going to know if a book was good if he didn’t, um, read it? I’ll be buying the book myself. People try to say that President Trump doesn’t have faith because he never asked God for forgiveness. As a deeply committed Christian, I think it’s great that we finally have a President who doesn’t do all these things he has to ask to be forgiven for. Don’t you? It would have been nice if Obummer hadn’t done so many bad things that he always had to ask for forgiveness, wouldn’t it?

Sorry, I know I’m rambling here, but when it comes to President Trump and how great he is, it’s hard to stop me once I get going. Anyway, the message is: McMaster is great, Trump loves him, and anyone who says different is Fake News.

Thanks, guys. This has been fun.

— Olapmurt Dibareno

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