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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTrump Ramps Up the Narcissism in an Appalling Speech
Trump Ramps Up the Narcissism in an Appalling SpeechIf you believe President Donald Trumps rampant narcissism might have hit its peak, take a look at the speech he gave Saturday afternoon before the memorial wall at CIA headquarters in Virginia. He made the visit to Langley the first nonceremonial event of his presidency, presumably to assure the intelligence community thatdespite the insulting tweets hes hurled their way, most recently likening them to Nazishe supports the work that theyre doing and will listen to what they have to say.
Thats how the speech began, but before long, he turned to what remain his favorite topics: himself and the dishonest media. He complained that while, as far as he could tell, 1 million to 1.5 million people filled the National Mall to watch his inaugural address, the media reported that just 200,000 turned out for the event. The media, of course, was reporting the estimates from the National Park Service, which does this sort of thing professionally. The media also later reported that the NPS was ordered to stop tweeting after it retweeted comments about the size of the inaugural crowd. Its not hard to wonder what CIA analysts in the audience made of this rantand whether they feared that their own disagreeable estimates might meet the same censure.
Trump then rambledas if this were a campaign rally instead of a morale-boosting speech in front of the agencys most sacred spotabout how smart he is (citing as proof the fact that a brilliant uncle taught at MIT) and about how hes been on the cover of Time magazine more often than anybody. (In fact, the title is held by Richard Nixon, which says something about what gets a president on a lot Time magazine covers.)
He also said things that must have baffled many of the 300 CIA employees who gathered for the visit, came in on a day off to see their new boss. He repeated the line, which hed uttered many times during the campaign, that we should have taken the oil in Iraq (a notion that is politically daft, economically unnecessary, and militarily all-but-impossible) and that maybe well have the opportunity to do so now. He also said that he suspected most of the people in the room voted for him in the electiona comment that, whether true or not, is appallingly inappropriate to make to intelligence analysts, who pride themselves on their independence and fear political encroachment above all else.
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Trump Ramps Up the Narcissism in an Appalling Speech (Original Post)
Rollo
Jan 2017
OP
... That was one of the more disconcerting speeches Ive seen, said a senior U.S. intelligence
struggle4progress
Jan 2017
#2
There will be no peak. His narcissism is on an exponential growth curve. nt
eppur_se_muova
Jan 2017
#3
Interesting comments at the link
Thanks much!
struggle4progress
(118,282 posts)2. ... That was one of the more disconcerting speeches Ive seen, said a senior U.S. intelligence
official who .. watched .. by video. He could have kept it very simple and said, Im here to build some bridges. But he spent 10 seconds on that and the rest was on the crowd size, the official said, referring to Trumps repeated complaints that the media had undercounted the turnout for his inauguration ...
Trump, in CIA visit, attacks media for coverage of his inaugural crowds
By Philip Rucker, John Wagner and Greg Miller January 21 at 4:38 PM
Rollo
(2,559 posts)4. Donald Trump is the ultimate Drama Queen...
eppur_se_muova
(36,261 posts)3. There will be no peak. His narcissism is on an exponential growth curve. nt