Just nine hours
On Wednesday night, President Trump implored the nation’s political leadership to “stop the partisanship” and come together to confront the coronavirus pandemic. On Thursday morning, he woke up and immediately issued partisan attacks on Democratic congressional leaders.
You’re thinking that’s inconsistent, aren’t you. Nah. He told other people to stop the partisanship. He’s not other people.
Mr. Trump’s call for a suspension of partisanship lasted just nine hours, at least some of which he was presumably asleep. While some of Mr. Trump’s allies and advisers have urged him to stop fighting and assert more national leadership, the president made clear that it does not suit him.
He made clear that rules are for other people, not for him.
At 6:15 a.m., Mr. Trump went after Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, complaining about her resistance to his proposal to cut payroll taxes to juice the economy as it reels from fears of the coronavirus. Lawmakers on both sides have given the idea a cool reception.
In his prime-time address to the nation from the Oval Office on Wednesday night, Mr. Trump sounded a different note. “We are all in this together,” he said at the time. “We must put politics aside, stop the partisanship, and unify together as one nation and one family.”
That was an accident. He didn’t mean “we” – he meant “you” and “they.” The speechwriter fucked it up.
Mr. Trump has spent much of the past couple weeks fighting a partisan battle over his handling of the coronavirus. Democrats have sharply criticized him for making false or misleading statements about the outbreak, not taking it seriously enough, failing to act sooner and undercutting the government’s global health apparatus.
Other than that he’s doing a brilliant job.
Well, when he says to stop the partisanship, he means what most people mean about it – stop disagreeing with me. Most people see the other side as being partisan, while they are principled. So it is the Democrats he wants to stop being partisan. The rest are his people, and being a fierce loyalist to Trump isn’t partisanship, it’s just the right way to be.
Most people I talk to use partisanship in much the same way.
iknklast — Exactly. It’s the same reason why the only people who can fairly judge Trump (in his view) are Trump supporters. Democrats are obviously biased. Republicans who have ever criticized Trump are obviously “Never Trump Republicans” who cannot be objective.
iknklast +1, just so.
When he talks about doing what’s best for “The American People” too, which is just so much propaganda, like he’s able to put politics aside which he clearly isn’t. He has turned partisanship up to broil, now he wants to turn down the gas? I’m not buying it, I don’t think anyone is.