Is Trump unraveling?

[_MeDotOrg]

We all know that the President has a hard time admitting a mistake. But his inability to admit a mistake had dangerous and possibly illegal implication today.

This all started when Trump tweeted a message including Alabama in the areas that could be effected by hurricane Dorian. The Weather Service tweeted that Alabama was NOT in the path of the hurricane. The White House had released a picture of the President with a map showing Alabama was NOT in the projected path.

So Trump has a new conference today to show people that he as right all along, and that Alabama was in the original path of the hurricane. The GIF below shows the map the President was shown originally, and the map he held up today:



On the new map someone has added a black semi-circle on the outside of the original projection, as a clumsy attempt to add Alabama in the path of the storm:



It is a crime to alter an official Weather Service map to give a false forecast.

If we had a White House that had daily press briefings, I'm sure there would be some spirited questioning as to where the mysterious black semi-circle originated. I ask you this: Do you think that anyone would purposefully alter the map without the President's permission? So if you don't hear of a White House aide being fired in the next 24 hours, it's time to bet dollars to donuts that black semi-circle was drawn with the President's omnipresent black sharpie. And that is where his narcissism flowers into willful delusion. It reminds me a bit of the story told about Don McGahn, where Trump wanted him to post-date a memo to revise what had actually happened.

What is the most troubling to me is the idea that Trump could not imagine that this ruse would not be uncovered. It is Trump living in 'the transactional now', but the transactional now is becoming smaller and smaller.

Imagine yourself as President. Imagine thinking that you could draw a line on a map to 'make it so', that you had the power to bend reality. Donald Trump is truly a prisoner of his narcissism.

There are plenty of narcissists whose delusions do not threaten us, but they are not the President of the United States. I don't think we are there yet, but the 25th Amendment is becoming an increasingly real possibility.

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

I believe him.

- Doc

[_Jersey Girl]

Does anyone think the man is totally losing it right now? As in slipping? As in either he's losing it or he desperately wants out of the 2020 race?

mormondiscussions.com/phpBB3/posting.php?mode=quote&f=5&p=1194591

Thus spake the Jersey Girl.

[_canpakes]

What is the most troubling to me is the idea that Trump could not imagine that this ruse would not be uncovered.

This is not a concern for Trump. He's so delicate a snowflake that he will do everything in his power to alter reality as a cover for his earlier lies or outright stupid statements, and he knows that his Base is similarly too fragile - and their sense of self too intertwined with his own dysfunction - to ever call him out on it.

These are the same folks who used to descend into paroxysms of faux rage whenever the last President wore a tan suit, or used dijon mustard. Now they willingly ditch their integrity in order to defend a narcissistic blowhard who will literally call a news conference specifically to lie to the nation while showing doctored official forecasts and clumsily sharpie-modified graphics in attempting to cover lying to the nation earlier.

This is the stuff of 80's SNL sketches, brought to modern-day life by folks who've eagerly bought into the idea that whoring themselves out to vain dishonesty will somehow result in 'owning the libs'. Future historians will chuckle and come to a very different conclusion over just who was getting owned.

[_Jersey Girl]

I still want him to draw the clock face. I'm just sayin'.

[_Dr. Shades]

So, what's his motive for this? How does the hurricane hitting Alabama somehow make him better off than it not hitting Alabama?

[Guest]

The motive? Nothing more than he mistakenly interpreted the original map to mean that Alabama could possibly be in the eventual path of the storm, which the National Weather Service never predicted. I doubt he had any reason to believe that the storm hitting Alabama would somehow be better for him that it not hitting Alabama. He just expressed an innocuous, mistaken opinion based on his inexpert interpretation of the map. The problem is that he is so narcissistic and insecure, he is incapable of admitting to having been mistaken about anything whatsoever, no matter how trivial or innocuous.

[_Jersey Girl]

So, what's his motive for this? How does the hurricane hitting Alabama somehow make him better off than it not hitting Alabama?

Shades. Take my hand...

He (pick one or more options from the list below):

[ ] Doesn't know where Alabama is.
[ ] When he heard that Dorian had the wind speed equivalent of an EF-4 tornado, he assumed it was headed for tornado alley.
[ ] He doesn't know what equivalent means.
[ ] He's dumber than dirt.

So...when he was met with criticism and mockery for his mistake, Stephen Miller quickly got EF 4 equivalent wind of it, whipped out a Sharpie, revised a storm path trajectory map and essentially faked news'd it to make him look good.

In his mind (and I use the term lightly) he naïvely thinks that this makes everything right when the fact is that he couldn't finesse his way out of a paper bag if the bag were split open from end to end, laid out completely flat, and there were teeny tiny little runway arrow lights pointing the way out with a voice command system talking him through it step by step, teeny tiny little arrow by teeny tiny little arrow.

In other words, he's completely lost the ability to BS which was the one and only skill he brought to the job.

[_Jersey Girl]

The motive? Noting more than he mistakenly interpreted the original map to mean that Alabama could possibly be in the eventual path of the storm, which the National Weather Service never predicted. I doubt he had any reason to believe that the storm hitting Alabama would somehow be better for him that it not hitting Alabama. He just expressed an innocuous, mistaken opinion based on his inexpert interpretation of the map. The problem is that he is so narcissistic and insecure, he is incapable of admitting to having been mistaken about anything whatsoever, no matter how trivial or innocuous.

He can't even pull off smoke and mirrors any more. The mirrors cracked.

[_canpakes]

... whipped out a Sharpie, revised a storm path trajectory map and essentially faked news'd it ...

There’s something seriously wrong with a man who is incapable of admitting even the smallest of gaffes or mistakes.

As bad enough as that already is, Trump is so afflicted by his own dysfunction that he will literally call a press conference with created fake props to cover for his earlier statement.

Nothing about this is normal or acceptable behavior for a grown man. This is not a person who should be occupying the Presidency.