Tag: Trump narcissism

Trump Complains D.C. Virus Outbreak May Ruin His Election Night Party

Donald Trump on Friday said he is mulling moving an election night party planned to be held at his Washington, D.C., hotel to the White House in order to avoid city coronavirus-related restrictions that ban large gatherings.

“So we have a hotel. I don’t know if it’s shut down, if you’re allowed to use it or not,” Trump toldreporters Friday morning. “But I know the mayor has shut down Washington, D.C. And if that’s the case, we’ll probably stay here or pick another location. I think it’s crazy. Washington, D.C., is shut down. Can you imagine?”

The New York Times reported the same day that Trump would not make an appearance at his campaign’s party at the Trump International Hotel. The campaign raised money from donors by promising he would appear at the event. Continue reading.

Hundreds of Trump supporters stuck in the cold for hours when buses can’t reach Omaha rally

Washington Post logo

By the time President Trump finished speaking to thousands of supporters at Omaha’s Eppley Airfield on Tuesday night and jetted away on Air Force One, the temperature had plunged to nearly freezing.

But as long lines of MAGA-clad attendees queued up for buses to take them to distant parking lots, it quickly became clear something was wrong.

The buses, the huge crowd soon learned, couldn’t navigate the jammed airport roads. For hours, attendees — including many elderly Trump supporters — stood in the cold as police scrambled to help those most at risk get to warmth, and some were taken to hospitals. Continue reading.

New Study Shows Spread Of Virus Infection Following Trump Rallies

An investigation into the latest accelerated spread of coronavirus in multiple states appears to be linked to President Donald Trump’s string of campaign rallies over the last several weeks.

As coronavirus plagues states all across America, Trump continues to blatantly disregard how dangerous his campaign rallies are for his campaign staff, White House advisors and aides, and everyone who attends his political events. Now, USA Today has explained the extent of the spreads in several counties following the president’s rallies.

According to the analysis released by USA Today, case rates in at least five counties—Blue Earth, Minnesota; Lackawanna, Pennsylvania; Marathon, Wisconsin; Dauphin, Pennsylvania; and Beltrami, Minnesota—increased at a faster pace after Trump’s rallies. Collectively, these counties reported 1,500 additional new cases in the two weeks after Trump’s campaign rallies. The previous number of 8,069 jumped to 9,647 cases. Continue reading.

Donald Trump Wants Judges to Throw the Election to Him. Buckle Up.

Trump is supercharging a vote-suppression strategy pioneered by Roger Stone decades ago. His legal stunts won’t work if Joe Biden resoundingly defeats him. But if the election is close, expect litigation until the bitter end.

Long before Roger Stone was convicted, sentenced, and spared from prison for his many lies to Congress on behalf of Donald Trump, he built a name helping Republicans suppress the votes of their opponents by claiming, without evidence, that they were cheaters. In 1981, Stone led an effort in New Jersey to have armed vigilantesmonitor polling locations in Black and Latino communities, all in the name of so-called ballot security and voter-fraud prevention. What was prevented instead was actual voting: The operation was so egregious, the Republican National Committee ended up getting sued in federal court and slapped with a consent decree that, for nearly 40 years, prohibited similar dirty tricks to intimidate voters.

The old is new again. No longer bound by judicial orders after a judge lifted the consent decree in 2018, Republicans are now free to resume poll-watching and much more, this time led by a ringmaster with a megaphone far louder than Stone’s: a president who’s loudly claiming that the election will be rigged against him, and that the only way to unrig it is if he wins—or refuses to lose—no matter the cost to the nation. One advocate with Fair Fight, the voting-rights group formed by former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacy Abrams, has called this the “burn-it-down strategy.”

In Trump’s mind, burning it all down means many things. It means delegitimizing mail-in voting, which many states have expanded out of necessity during the COVID-19 pandemic. It means making baseless claims of widespread fraud, which undermines confidence in the process and may lead to people staying home. And it means signaling to goon squads that support Trump to watch the polls “very carefully” on November 3, as Trump suggested during his first debate with Joe Biden. Independent of the election results, the president has also raised doubts about the peaceful transfer of power and telegraphed that he’d declare himself the winner prematurely, which election officials are warning against but Trump allies are encouraging. Continue reading.

Trump to hold first White House event after coronavirus diagnosis

The Hill logo

President Trump plans to hold an in-person event at the White House on Saturday, two officials confirmed to The Hill, his first public engagement since being diagnosed with the coronavirus last week.

One White House official said that Trump will deliver remarks from the Blue Room Balcony to guests on the South Lawn, suggesting he will not be in close proximity to any of those in attendance.

The event is being coordinated with one organized by conservative activist Candace Owens and Trump’s remarks are expected to focus on “law and order,” according to ABC News, which first reported the plans. It is expected to attract hundreds of attendees, despite the pandemic.  Continue reading.

Trump says he will not participate in virtual presidential debate

The Hill logo

President Trump said Thursday that he would not participate in a virtual debate, minutes after the organizing commission announced that next week’s event would be virtual to protect the health of those involved.

“I’m not going to do a virtual debate,” Trump, who was diagnosed last week with the coronavirus, said in an interview on Fox Business, claiming the Commission on Presidential Debates is “trying to protect” Democratic nominee Joe Biden.

“I’m not going to waste my time with a virtual debate. That’s not what debating is all about. You sit behind a computer and do a debate, that is ridiculous,” Trump continued. Continue reading.

Trump says he won’t take part in virtual debate

Axios logo

President Trump, who continues to battle a coronavirus infection, told Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo on Thursday that he will not take part in a virtual second presidential debate, with his campaign later saying he would do two in person debates later on this month. 

What he’s saying: “I’m not going to waste my time on a virtual debate. It’s not what debating is all about. … It’s ridiculous,” the president said.

  • Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien, who also tested positive for coronavirus, said in a statement that the campaign will “pass on this sad excuse to bail out Joe Biden and do a rally instead.”
  • Stepien also claimed without evidence that Trump “will have posted multiple negative tests prior to the debate,” which has never been publicly confirmed by the president’s doctors.
  • Later in the day, Stepien again called the decision to move to a virtual format “extremely suspect,” but said Trump would be willing to push each debate by a week to Oct. 22 and Oct. 29.  Continue reading.

Trump’s determination to attend next week’s debate seen as part of pattern of recklessness

Washington Post logo

President Trump’s tweet Tuesday that he looks forward to next week’s presidential debate alarmed some medical and public health experts, who warned that his coronavirus infection might still be contagious then and could endanger others.

A day after the president was discharged from a three-night hospital stay, during which he was put on an aggressive mix of treatments usually reserved for the most severe cases of covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, he continued to project an image of being fully in charge and able to conduct all of his regular activities.

Some outside health experts, however, said Trump’s determination to attend the Oct. 15 debate is part of a pattern of recklessness that has defined his response to the pandemic, with the president and his aides not wearing masks or observing social distancing. At least 19 people on his staff or his campaign, or who attended recent White House events, have tested positive for the virus in the past week. Continue reading.

Trump’s narcissism has never been more glaringly apparent

When someone tells you who they are, believe them. It’s one of those mom-approved aphorisms that belies the wisdom beneath it. If someone makes clear over several decades in public life that they are image-obsessed, that they are capable of violence against others, what conclusion may we draw about them? Is it that they are a generally compassionate person capable of empathy, or that they are terminally narcissistic, if not borderline cruel?

Donald Trump told us who he was, over and over again. He told us when he painted all Mexicans as rapists in 2015, when he made misogyny a staple of his campaign in 2016, when he tried to ban Muslims from entering the U.S. in 2017, when he disparaged several African nations as “shithole countries” in 2018, when he proclaimed himself the “chosen one” in 2019, and when he let nearly 210,000 Americans (and counting) die in 2020. His ascent has never been about protecting all Americans, or even most Americans. It’s been about protecting Donald Trump, and keeping him and those like him in power.

So when the U.S. was beset by a deadly once-in-a-generation pandemic, it should’ve come as no surprise that President Trump’s first instinct was to downplay it in public, so as not to panic his voters or the precious markets. It makes sense that he turned basic public health guidelines into a partisan issue— that under his watch, care for your fellow humans became sinister virtue-signaling. And it was absolutely inevitable that just when it seemed like the narrative had run its course, that the virus was receding in America after months of agony, the president himself would contract it — and in fact be the host of one of the infamous superspreader events that give illnesses like coronavirus new life. Continue reading.