THE TRUMP EFFECT

From Mike the pillow man, to Barr the jowl man, to the collection of unknowns and lesser knowns spaced out, literally and figuratively, in the White House Press Room it was just a matter of time before Trump would have them stoned on Trumpspeak.

We’re talking about playing Three Card Monte in a room with funhouse mirrors against the President Emeritus of Trump University. Your card is never there. Just like life, its not fair.

By most standards, Trump had a couple of disastrous days. On March 31 he announced that we could lose “as many as 240,000 people” from the Coronavirus. (Our Viet Nam losses times four.)

In a bizarre attempt to soften the blow, Trump went on to say “if it wasn’t for what we’re doing people would be dying all over the place.” BOING! That was one of those “aside from that Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play” moments. Completely disorienting. That’s Trump. It’s like trying to nail jello to the wall. The little boy in the man’s body got us again.

Remind me again how Joe Biden is going to beat this guy.

On April 1, the country suffered 1049 deaths from the virus, on THAT day. More, by 1045, than we lost in Benghazi. Trump appeared for his regular briefing with none of the medical personnel that are customarily with him. In their place, were assorted uniformed military officers and the Secretary of Defense. A complete bait and switch. They went on about interdicting drugs and Trump spoke about his Wall, John Kerry and how “Trump was Number One on Facebook.” To their credit, CNN and MSNBC cut away from coverage of the diversionary show.

By the time the Military people had left and the Health people were ushered in, the drama of the moment was gone. Like a pitcher throwing 98 MPH fastballs followed by a 77 MPH change of pace. Or vice versa. The hitter (the press) is off balance and makes poor contact. Trump evades serious damage another day. His base loves it. Hannity, on FOX cleans up any loose ends at 9 PM. He’s up against Rachel Maddow at MSNBC, who reads press releases. If it was a boxing match they’d have to stop it.

With the exception of always tough Jim Acosta of CNN, the Press hasn’t had a live TV “moment” against Trump since this thing started even though its generally accepted that Trump’s response to the challenge he faced was, and is, a lot closer to a 2 than a 10.

Not good, on any number of levels.

Comments are welcome at tomc[at]wednesdayswars[dot]com. Comments will be addressed in subsequent posts.