Asks Michael Barbaro, quite hilariously, at the beginning of today's episode of the NYT podcast, "The Daily," "Trump 2.0: Musk in the Oval..." (audio and transcript at Podscribe).
I say hilariously, because there has been all this effort to portray Trump as a huge narcissist who must be losing his mind over the ascension of Musk into a "co-President." That Time Magazine cover has been talked about as if it's an enraging taunt that is utterly at odds with the idea of Trump as a maniacal egoist. And now here's Trump, calmly sitting, and Musk, standing, gleefully gabbing to the press about all the cool stuff he's doing and horsing around with his short little tiny kid, and Barbaro's idea is that we must all still think the same thing about Trump. I'd love to credit Barbaro with having a super-dry sense of humor, but the next speakers didn't take a cue to say, wow, we've got a whole new Trump here and let's try to understand him.
It was hard to tell who was speaking but whatever the guests say totally sinks the issue that Barbaro had framed! It's a big mush. There's a suggestion that Musk gave Trump "credibility" and then a long bit about how the people who take USAID money are some of the very best people. I felt as though I was supposed to forget the question asked and just absorb a negative opinion of Musk's project, which is completely nonresponsive!
Why can't they talk observe and analyze the change in Trump? He's been through so much!
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५७ टिप्पण्या:
If you're a Black guy, you can string a few sentences together somewhat sensibly, and your name is Zolan Cano Youngs you're pretty much a lock for a job at the Times.
Are these the same group that insisted Biden was sharp as a tack, the best version of Biden ever, the adult in the room. If they are, or even if they are not, they should just shut up.
The New York Times guy apparently slept through Power 101: The one who sits is in charge; the one who stands is performing for him.
"how the people who take USAID money are some of the very best people."
The NYT is clearly not getting their 40 million USAID dollar's worth.
I watched the video. It seemed to me that Trump was, in fact, very deliberately allowing Musk to run the show. As if to indicate -- to demonstrate -- that Musk has his full confidence.
there has been all this effort to portray Trump as a huge narcissist
Where would you get that idea? Certainly not from his behavior in just the last week, blaming every other country in the world for America's problems; wanting to annex Canada, Greenland, Panama, and Gaza, just to start; asserting that he is greater than Washington and Lincoln combined, and more knowledgeable on every topic than anyone else.
"... the people who take USAID money are some of the very best people." Oh, yeah. Top men!
Mark, we get it. You're not happy. Look, it's 2/14/25. Just wrap a couple rolls of duct tape around your head, and sit tight. In a few short years, he'll be gone.
Althouse said...
And now here's Trump, calmly sitting, and Musk, standing, gleefully gabbing to the press about all the cool stuff he's doing and horsing around with his short little tiny kid, and Barbaro's idea is that we must all still think the same thing about Trump.
Trump does seem well aware of the brevity of his remaining time in office and on this planet. He seems to be prepared to leave the place to the next generation better than he found it.
From the prior post about Korea and failed assassination.
“Now, the time I have left feels like a bonus. It made me a freer person, less worried about the preciousness of my life.”
I think those who are pushing the "Hey, who's the president here?" meme are hoping that Trump catches on and then dumps Elon because it's more than his ego can take. But I'm pretty sure they're wrong.
The Left - including the NYT - have been totally defeated. They have two options. Either sign the surrender documents on the deck of the Missouri or continue to be dead-enders on tiny Pacific Islands. Memo to the Left: You lost and are now irrelevant. Surrender!
One of the things I’ve learned over my almost 80 years on this Earth is you can show your strength by letting someone else take the lead. It’s the ones who have to be out front all of the time that I worry about.
Successful entrepreneurs delegate. They hire the most qualified personal they can find and turn those individuals loose to do what they do best.
I'm so old, I can remember when the NYT saw no problem with Monica Lewinsky spending 30 minutes with Bill Clinton in the Oval Office. Good times.
but the next speakers didn't take a cue to say, wow, we've got a whole new Trump here and let's try to understand him
It's the same Trump he just blowhards less. If you bought in to the media's portrayal that's not his problem...
Yes to lots of the above. At no time has Musk ever pretended to be in charge regarding who is directing the effort, and he certainly was not in charge in the room. He was answering the questions and Trump liked the vibe. Trump was in charge, and you have to be dim not to understand that.
...the people who take USAID money are some of the very best people.
The very best people occupying the niche vacated by Meyer Lansky, Joe "the Boss" Masseria, Charles "Lucky" Luciano. Receiving stolen money is still thievery.
It has occurred to me quite a few times, that this is a brilliant tactic for Trump to take. The frontal attack against Trump has always been against the façade of his celebrity. Trump, as the flashy billionaire, trash-talking celebrity, the camera hog, the gauche narcissist. How well does that attack work when you're putting someone else in the spotlight? The entire attack collapses, deflated. Trump has been very shrewd about picking a squad of talented, strong-personality achievers and turning them loose in a classy, supportive way. The Legacy Media has found itself mostly out of ammunition, left only with squibs.
"Memo to the Left: You lost and are now irrelevant. Surrender!"
Hot soup, clean sheets, and mild interrogation await you.
"The Legacy Media has found itself mostly out of ammunition, left only with squibs."
Damp ones.
Anyone defending the operations of USAID at this point, even by cherry-picking a few good grants to highlight out of the morass of corruption, is either a beneficiary of that corruption or a conspirator in providing those benefits. Sorta like saying you're eating a yummy apple after the first bite reveals half a worm.
Earnest Prole said...
The New York Times guy apparently slept through Power 101: The one who sits is in charge; the one who stands is performing for him.
You and I have disagreed a lot. But in this you are entirely correct
A people hire A people. B people hire C people.
In Trump's 1st term, he hired a lot of C people.
This term he's hiring A people.
It's nice to see he's learned
Narcissism is the common ground for people who go into politics and people who rise to the top in politics. A politician without narcissism doesn't get very far. A politician who's truly a "malignant narcissist" usually cracks up at some point. The others are all somewhere on the narcissism spectrum. So far as insight goes, calling someone a narcissist gets you nowhere. The question is what kind of narcissist a politician is, how far the narcissism goes, what it affects and what it doesn't.
Politicians create personas, and Trump had plenty of opportunity to do so in real estate and in show business. That persona is already something of a caricature. It's not likely to be the whole of what Trump is. I think our idea of the narcissist as narcissistic in everything is also a caricature. People, even those with big egos, do learn that they can't be the center of attention all the time.
The press was invited in to observe Musk "deliver an update on DOGE" to Trump and were allowed to ask questions as well. Since when is such awesome transparency and openness a bad thing?
I think Trump is forcing a reset as you have to do on a computer sometimes when it gets jammed up. So, every new agency head who gets through the Senate vote immediately acts and sets a tone for their agency. Meanwhile Trump is making new foreign policy proposals everywhere. (I include imposing tariffs as a "proposal.") As if to say:" If you don't like my proposal, make one of your own. I'm thinking of you - Canada, Greenland, Panama, Middle East, Korea, Ukraine. Russia, China, EU, NATO, Iran, and assorted terrorist or censorship regimes " I don't think he's saying: "Make my day" but maybe there's a little bit of "Are you feelig lucky? addressed to some of them. "Like Iran would be thinking: "Why is Netanyahu smiling like that?" But mostly it's "The times they are achangin'." Yes, I think the Sixties are here again and we're all going to learn again why Bob Dylan wrote these word:
Come gather 'round, people, wherever you roam
And admit that the waters around you have grown
And accept it that soon you'll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you is worth saving
Then you better start swimmin' or you'll sink like a stone
For the times, they are a-changin'
Come writers and critics who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide, the chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon, for the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who that it's namin'
For the loser now will be later to win
For the times, they are a-changin'
Come senators, congressmen, please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway, don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt will be he who has stalled
The battle outside ragin'
Will soon shake your windows and rattle your walls
For the times, they are a-changin'
The line, it is drawn, the curse, it is cast
The slow one now will later be fast
As the present now will later be past
The order is rapidly fadin'
And the first one now will later be last
For the times, they are a-changin'
Mark, you need not lie about Trump to make your point. He didn't blame "other countries for all of America's problems" at all. He blamed the Obama-Biden-Harris regime for allowing the worst things in the world to be imported here like Fentanyl and poisoned Chinese pharmaceutical components. He blamed Biden for having an open borders policy, which was quickly corrected. He blamed Biden's weakness for Putin invading Ukraine, which was spot-on. He pointed out other nations have been allowed to impose tariffs on America while we pretended we had a "free trade" policy but again, he's addressing that and foreign investment is stepping up. Military recruitment is setting records. Criminal aliens are being deported.
You know Trump hasn't blamed other countries for our problems. Find something real to complain about.
wildswan said...
“I think Trump is forcing a reset as you have to do on a computer sometimes when it gets jammed up.”
The Blue Screen of Death suddenly has an additional meaning.
😆 @ dumb lefty Mark's comment at 1:11. It isn't even a coherent straw man. More like what little X was saying Trump, gibberish of a frustrated toddler repeating what he's heard others say.
The Biden presidency was run by his wife, crackhead son, and some staff, so pretending that Musk doing exactly what Trump asked him to do somehow means Musk is the true president is a damn joke.
The Increasingly Stupid VA Lawyer Mark now in Direct Competition with Dumb Lefty Mark for Dumbest Mark Posting At Althouse Blog: "Where would you get that idea? Certainly not from his behavior in just the last week, blaming every other country in the world for America's problems; ..."
Precisely the opposite of what is true.
180 degrees from truth.
Trump has spent the last 45 years (yes, go and look at his interviews from the 1980's!) where he repeatedly, ad infinitum, directly states that it is US leadership that is at fault for causing America's problems...which is why it would only take America First leadership in the US to course correct.
I am a little surprised to tell the truth. I might have expected VA Lawyer Mark to be a more effective liar...but he is not. Just your run of the mill Freder/gadfly level prevaricator.
Trump 2025 is a product of Biden. Many people with TDS in 2020 convinced themselves that Trump was the issue and the "grown up, responsible Biden" would save the day. Then they watched the four-year-farce of management by DEI...VP, Supreme Court, press secretary, Sam Brinton, etc. Biden himself was a disability DEI hire.
Musk and Trump's new power crew recognized that government by corrupt and unqualified people is a rapid path to national destruction. Impulsive, knee-jerk Trump is made better by having a strong team around him.
Still, everything about the next four years hinges on how the Republicans handle the debt ceiling and budget on March 15.
Michael Fitzgerald: "😆 @ dumb lefty Mark's comment at 1:11. It isn't even a coherent straw man. More like what little X was saying Trump, gibberish of a frustrated toddler repeating what he's heard others say."
I am afraid that is VA Lawyr Mark, not Dumb Lefty Mark.
But in your defense, they are now indistinguishable in tone, quality, "truthiness", etc.
"Why can't they talk observe and analyze the change in Trump?" Funny. But we deplorables like progs not knowing the Other, i.e., Trump and us. Of course, Trump can change again tomorrow, so there's that. But what does it mean to live in a prog bubble when all the action is now outside?
I don't see any change in Trump.
The corrupt democrat party is narcissist.
They assume they own power - no matter what.
The important thing to women is does he seem to mean well. Women changed their opinion. Men see Trump the same.
The people around Trump have changed. He hasn't. Trump 45, was naive and surrounded himself with supposedly talented "pragmatic" businessmen, General, and establishment GOP types. Esper, Milley, Kelly, Mad Dog Mattis, Wray, Coats, Pence, Tillerson, Sessions, Barr, Rinse Penis, etc.
All these people were either sabotaged Trump, were dumb, or were more interested in supporting the Status Quo then in pushing his agenda.
Musk is light years ahead of Kushner or Ross or Tillerson in terms of IQ and EQ. Or compare Vance to a dunce like Pence.
Trump seems primarily focused on doing what he can for a few foreign policy crises, but aside from that, setting up a new, genuinely diverse crew of policy leaders within the administration who are very focused on their particular responsibilities. In other words, who will change things.
I think Trump is attempting to demonstrate to the American electorate that it doesn't have to be like it has been. That problems may be addressed. That decisions can be made and implemented. That government doesn't have to be this huge, sprawling unaccountable hydra. My guess is that he's also trying to demonstrate that to Congress. The House faces elections in two years. He's trying to light fire under their butts.
Most of all, he's trying to rebut the victim mentality. In every way. You don't win by whining, you win by trying. You don't get an advantage from being dysfunctional. It's not wrong to be successful. It's not bad.
The press conference was Trump trying to generate an energized electorate that simply won't accept this strange shadowy out-of-control leviathan of a dysfunctional government. No one who has ever read a GAO report can believe that that government is efficient, accountable, or at this point, even controllable by Congress. That's the problem. Trump's trying to change the voters so that they will not accept this any more.
And that's why Vance is over there in Europe talking the way that he is speaking. The culture/confidence crisis of the West is a huge problem.
Just quibbling, I would say that "the very definition of American Presidential power" is the nuclear football.
This was obviously planned out at Mar a Lago and has cemented Trump as a leader on the order of Napoleon in managing a campaign, and I am not just talking about the campaign for President, I am talking about the campaign to actually gain control of the behemoth, who's giant maw's bottomless appetite for money is on course to bring on economic collapse to the US.
Rubio has said now that if countries continue to de-dollarize at the rate that they have done in response to Biden's reckless sanctions, in five years the US will no longer have the power to impose sanctions, and the US might lose its status as a reserve currency, then it's Katie, bar the door!
These progressives just can’t keep their story straight, can they.
One amusing thing that’s been happening is this singing competition that has been one of the results of the federal employees telling their CEO that they won’t take being let go silently or with any dignity… they’ll sing a chorus or three before their long overdue departures.
I'm constantly amazed at how disloyal, egotistical, and just plain stupid most of Trump's cabinet was in 2017-2021. Coates lived in fear Trump would tweet about him. Sessions just recused himself and tried to resign. He was more interested in whether Feinstein liked him than Trump.
Kelly and Mad Dog matthis saw their job as "managing" Trump and making him support the standard USA Foreign Policy and Defense stands. Pence, Esper, Barr, and Wray were traitors just waiting to stab Trump in the back.
After reading about these characters, including their own books, its amazing Trump made it through his first term alive or without being impeached!
" more knowledgeable on every topic than anyone else." Hmm. That sounds familiar.
“I think that I’m a better speechwriter than my speechwriters,” Mr. Obama told Patrick Gaspard, his political director, at the start of the 2008 campaign, according to The New Yorker. “I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors. And I’ll tell you right now that I’m going to think I’m a better political director than my political director.”
So, Trump has changed in this way. He finally understood that the "Pragmatic Businessman" approach was a pipe dream. The idea that he could get together with the Republicans and Democrats in Congress and "make america great again" by having a sensible foreign policy, secure borders, a sane immigration deal, and rebuilding America's infrastructure and industry, was impossible.
The uniparty wasn't going to give a Goddamn inch on their love of open borders and Globalist wars. And Democrats weren't going to make deals on anything, just destroy him, and attack him 24/7/365. Their way or the highway, baby. No compromise!
Now, he realizes the uniparty are his enemies, so he's surrounded himself with tough sharp guys (and gals) who will help him push through his agenda. And he's appointed people like Gabbard and Kennedy to be agents of change.
“ Rubio has said now that if countries continue to de-dollarize at the rate that they have done in response to Biden's reckless sanctions, in five years the US will no longer have the power to impose sanctions, and the US might lose its status as a reserve currency,”
Yes, the use of finance as a substitute for effective policy has crossed the line. When finance becomes a weapon the enemy will apply countermeasures that contain the seeds to destroy a system that depends on the strictest neutrality and blind fairness. But it lets the state dept preen that they solved the problem of war.
This would apply to tariffs also, except that every nation in the world abuses that, so there is no comparative advantage.
“Or compare Vance to a dunce like Pence.”
The fly that landed on Pence’s noggin during the 2020 VP debate should’ve been our clue to the pezzo di dookie he turned out to be.
I am NOT, and never have been a Trump-fan. But who ELSE are you going to route for?
These journalists only have influence with their rabid readers/listeners. A small group of Cuckoo Nesters
I thought Trump set up that press conference to outright mock the Time magazine cover.
and more knowledgeable on every topic than anyone else.
Apparently you slept through the Obama Administration.
"A" leaders hire people as smart or smarter then them and let them do their job. Trump would never have been in position to consider a run for POTUS were he not that kind of leader. B leaders will hire people as smart or competent as their they are, but no one smarter or more competent. C leaders only hire those who they will good if you compare them to themselves. Vance appears to be as mart or smarter- time tell. On the other side we have Obama of the Choom Gang selecting Harris selecting Walz. Straight downhill. Obama was never his own man, he was created by committee.
Enigma’s comment that the real test of leadership will come when the debt limit is reached. I’ve read several articles around the interwebs (and some of you have probably read the same articles) about the debt limit should Congress take no action to increase. If Congress fails to raise the debt limit then the President may have even greater authority to prioritize spending. The President must pay interest and principal before paying any other government program. Therefore the President can refuse to pay wasteful programs in order to pay interest and principal. And if the courts try to intervene and restore spending, the President’s argument is he has discretion to make payments and paying interest and principal is in the nation’s interest. The President argues that it’s a political question. DOGE is identifying wasteful programs that the President can refuse to pay and he’ll have the support to do so.
Trump doesn't micromanage. Stupid people do that.
Why? Because Leftist minds are totally divorced from reality.
The daily lectionary (Scripture readings for each day) has been taking me through the Joseph Narrative in Genesis 37, 39-50.
One is reminded of Joseph's position as grand vizier and second only to Pharaoh. He wasn't pharaoh. But he was given position and power to accomplish a vital task for the survival of the people.
What's funny is that the owner of TIME magazine thought it was ok for him to fire 7000 employees. With no notice. By conference call.
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