Posted on 01/05/2018 2:17:10 PM PST by Kaslin
RUSH: On the Today show today, Savannah Guthrie, who, by the way Heres another thing: When they announced that Matt Lauer has been fired for sexual harassment, all these people on the Today show said (sobbing), Oh, my God! Oh ho! Oh, I feel so bad! Oh, I didnt know! They all knew. They probably all knew that Bannon was the leaker. They all knew about Matt Lauer. They are acting like, Oh my God, its such a shock! We didnt know. He had a button in his office that locked the door from the inside from the desk!
Anyway, Savannah Guthrie was interviewing the author of the book, Michael Wolff the book Fire and Fury and we have some sound bites here. And this is where it kicks into gear that Trump is moronic, illiterate, incurious, insane, unfit, and that virtually 100% of the people that work with him know this. Thats where all this got started today. So Savannah Guthrie says, Lets talk about the book itself. One of the overarching themes in your book is that everybody around the president senior advisers, family members, every single one of them questions his intelligence and his fitness for office.
WOLFF: (halting) Let me put a a marker in the sand here One-hundred percent of the people around him the one description that everyone gave, everyone has in common they all say he is like a child. And what they mean by that is he has a need for immediate gratification. Its all about him. I mean, this letter for, um The cease-and-desist letter. I mean, still have sources in the White House, and I know everybody was going, We should not be doing this, this is not smart, and he just insists.
RUSH: Well, about that, let me once again pose a question. What if they had not reacted? Forget the cease and desist. I mean, thats just the way they chose to do it. What if they chose not to react to it? What if 36 hours later nobody in the White House or Trump had said a thing about the book? I guarantee you that everybody in the Drive-By Media would be saying, Hey, it must be true. Hes not denying it! Hey, hey, Wolff may have stumbled into something. Theyre not denying it. Trump usually reacts. Hes not reacting.
You know, folks, how many times over the course of the many, many broadcast years here have I explained to you the dilemma that public figures face when theyre slandered, when theyre libeled? There is no one set rule of thumb on what to do. There are as many different theories as there are advisers. Should you respond or not? In some cases, the answer is, No. Dont respond, because all youre gonna do is elevate it, and people that otherwise would never know about it are gonna hear about it.
Well, thats not operative in this case because everybody in the Drive-By Media is talking about it. So Trump reacting to it is not gonna elevate it; its already elevated. So the other rule of thumb is, You cant let them get away with saying that about you. You cant let that stick. You have got to fight back on this. Well, the reaction to that is, Okay. Fine. But when I fight back, you know what theyre gonna say? Theyre gonna go, Oh, wow! We must have hit pay dirt! We got him upset! Hes reacting to us!'
And so when you boil it all down, on balance it doesnt seem like there is a good way to react to this kind of thing, because there are downsides no matter how you choose to react. So you plug Trump into this, and what do you get? I dont think you get somebody who analyzes it like I just did. We had Trump on this program during the campaign. And at the time, everybody was up in arms about Trump tweeting and Trump not letting criticism roll off his back, that no matter what somebody said, he had to respond. You know, some people thought it was childish.
And I asked him about it. I said, Why do you respond to every little bit of criticism? He said, When they attack me or my family, Im going to hit back. You hit me; I hit back. Im not gonna let what they say stand unchallenged. Okay. So the Wolff book hits, and I dont think Trump assembles a bunch of people and they start strategizing in philosophical ways. I think Trumps got a plan, he has a belief, he has a policy: he gets hit; he hits back. Trump is also very litigious. Over the course of his life, Trump has sued a lot of people.
Its a technique. Its not uncommon. So for Trump to he will it his lawyers, Send a cease-and-desist letter, these people are assuming that Trumps an idiot cause he should know that that isnt gonna work. No judge is gonna stop the book. Well, why do people assume Trump is so stupid he doesnt know that? Maybe hes doing this for an entirely different reason. He knows hes not gonna stop the publication of the book. But yet he wants to have it on record that he thinks its crazy, BS, and not true.
And look whats happened. The author of the book has now said, Well, yeah, some of it may not be true. The author of the book is saying, I said whatever I had to to get my story. The author of the book has admitted that he tricked people in the White House! They thought they werent on the record. You think the author of the book would have admitted, Well, you know, I cant guarantee all of its true if Trump hadnt said anything? Now, this business of being childlike?
I maintain to you that this is nothing more than people in Washington who are more alike than you would ever believe. And one of the ways in which theyre alike, they think they are super adults. They think they are the epitome of morality and maturity. They think that they define refinement and sophistication and propriety and all these things. As such, I dont think theyre capable of understanding somebody like Donald Trump. This allegation that hes childlike and demands affection, demands praise, demands to be ?
What did he say here? Need for immediate gratification. You know, I could just as easily say that about Barack Obama. If there was somebody who needed adulation, needed people thinking hes the smartest guy in the room, needed people fawning all over him at press conferences, it was Barack Obama. You telling me that Trump expects to be loved and liked when hes out there calling these people fake media, fake news?
Is that how you go about being immediately gratified? Normally you suck up to people when you want immediate gratification. Normally you want flattery when you want immediate gratification, when you want praise. Trump is not seeking praise from these people. Hes declared war on them! They have a personality type they dont understand and cant understand.
You know whats obvious, folks? Every day I become aware of a lifetime of naivete that Ive carried around. Im not afraid to admit it. Every day. Im gonna 67 years old pretty soon, and I am still naive in ways that I didnt think I would ever be. I thought by this time I would understand it all, I would know the ways of the world. But I have lived under an obvious misconception and misunderstanding my whole life about Washington, D.C., and the people there.
I understand theres liberals and conservatives there, but I have believed that the Constitution rules and that the American people are respected. I know people joke about various aspects we call em low-information voters. But Im talking about in terms of structure and respect. I wasnt aware until a couple years ago just how much Washington, D.C., resents the people of this country. I wasnt aware of how strident the dislike for average, ordinary Americans, your average Washington establishment person carries around.
I have always believed and this is big time naivete Ive always believed that succeeding in something garnered respect for the person that succeeded. Nothing could be further from the truth. I can make it personal in illustrating this if I wanted to. But this is just the way I always felt the world worked. I thought somebody comes along, whatever they do, lay bricks or tell the news on TV or doctors or what have you, I thought when you succeeded, when you reached the pinnacle in your profession, that there was respect for it.
So I always assumed that power brokers in Washington would be dazzled by somebody from outside who figured out a way to win. I thought thered be some modicum of respect for it. I thought thered be some modicum, some level of appreciation for the achievement. I guess thats what it is. There isnt any. There is resentment at the achievement. If you are not in the group and you achieve something that the group does, you become a threat. Well, youre not respected. Lets put it that way.
And Trump epitomizes this. Trump has come in and in less than a year done things that the official people in Washington have led us to believe cant be done anymore. Trump has survived every effort that literally thousands of people in Washington have engaged in to destroy him. Donald Trump has survived an array of power projected against him unlike anything we have of seen. These people guarding their little fiefdom have literally launched everything theyve got, including lies and subterfuge and fake, phony, lying media. They have done it all. And he has run rings around them simply by surviving. Then you add triumphing and succeeding.
And they say he is childlike? Who is it that is behaving here like immature, spoiled brats? People who are witnessing their lifes work being implemented as policy, who are acting like babies in a crib (crying): He doesnt have the right to believe what I believe. Theyre crying and theyre panicking. I always thought these people really meant in their hearts, when Im young and Im reading about all these great conservatives and what they believe in and Im learning from, I thought they really believed it.
Now here it is being implemented, and they hate it! And theyre trying to stop it. Theyre trying to stop the very implementation of the things they believe in. Why? Because the guy doing it is not one of them offends them? Who is it thats childlike and immature? Who is it that were learning cant extend the hand of friendship and cross the aisle? Who is it that cannot act grown-up and mature and deal with a reality that they cannot deny? And yet its Trump whos childlike, and its Trump who is in need of immediate gratification? Its Trump making it all about him? I mean, its the exact opposite.
I think with these people in the establishment, its all personal. Theyre personally affronted. Theyre personally offended. And so they lash out at Trump, and theyre hopelessly incapable of understanding who he is and how he operates because they have no connection with real people in this country anymore. They have isolated themselves, and theyve built a moat around that town, essentially. They control admittance. And they have not only lost touch with the people I maintain make this country work, they have an open disdain for them now, for us. All on the basis of class. Ruling class, working class
Yeah, yeah. I know. Angelo Codevilla wrote all about that. Ruling Class. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But each and every day I find out just how wrong I was when I was assuming certain positive things about people who live and work in Washington. Its a tough thing to admit that Ive been this naive, but at least the learning never stops. Look, and thats just one sound bite from Wolff. We got a couple more here, all on the theme that Trump is an idiot, that he cant read, that hes not curious, hes not interested in reading, hes not interested in learning, hes childish. Now hes unfit. Now hes demented, hes insane. Now we need to have some psychiatrists examine him from afar, hopefully be able to get rid of him via the 25th Amendment.
This is the reaction of people not in charge. These are people that have lost touch. Theyve lost their grip. Because Trump is threatening the little fiefdom theyve created. Theyve set it up so that theyre the experts and nobody else can possibly understand what theyre doing or do it. And in less than a year, Trump has come in and run rings around them, and that poses such a big threat, hes got to go. Everybodys learning that these people dont wear underwear. Once you lift the dress, theyre all naked and nude under there.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: They say that Trump doesnt read and Trumps stupid, Trumps dumb, Trump doesnt read. Do you all remember George W. Bush and Karl Rove had a reading contest every year to see who could read the more books between the two? I think it was in 2005. Rove won. He read 110 books. Bush read 95. Okay.
Whatd they say about George W. Bush? Stupid, idiot, dumb, cowboy, chimpanzee, what have you. They insulted Bush. He was an idiot, right? He lied, he was dumb and stupid. And he read 95 books in 2005. And now they say Donald Trump doesnt read at all. What is he? Stupid and dumb. Who is it thats stupid and dumb that cant come up with something new as a criticism of somebody?
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Now, a couple of more sound bites from Wolff, the author of this book, which is called Fire and Fury. Were up here to audio sound bite number nine. Savannah Guthrie on the Today show today said, You said that these senior people insult Trumps intelligence, meaning they say hes an idiot and hes stupid. What are the kind of things these people are saying, Mr. Wolff?
WOLFF: They see hes, um a moron, a (sic) idiot. Whats wrong This man does not read, does not listen. So hes like, um a pinball just shooting off the side that used to be that in the beginning it was, like, every 25 or 30 minutes you would get the same three stories repeated. Now its the same three stories in every 10 minutes.
GUTHRIE: And whats the suggestion there? Because that goes beyond saying, Okay, the presidents not an intellectual. What are you arguing there? You saying, for example, that he was at Mar-a-Lago and didnt recognize lifelong friends?
WOLFF: Uhhh, I I I will quote Steve Bannon: Hes lost it.
RUSH: Well! Well! There we go. Well quote Steve Bannon. Hes lost it. Hey, lets take this: Hes a moron, an idiot, the man does not read and does not listen. I want to remind you 2005 we were informed by Karl Rove that he and George W. Bush had a reading contest to see who could read the most books. Rove won it. In a year, Rove read 115, Bush read 95. Whatd they say about Bush? Stupid, dumb, moron, cowboy. Bush was reading rings around the Drive-By Media.
Bush was more educated, more informed than anybody in the press corps covering him. Whatd they say? They insulted his intelligence all the time. They told us, This is a cowboy, made fun of the way he spoke. I give you Will Ferrells impersonation of Bush. The portrayed him as the biggest idiot, which is what the media and Democrats do with every Republican president. Ronald Reagan? Dunce, stupid, idiot, sleeping all the time, didnt know whats going on his administration. Trump, same thing. George W. Bush, too.
Fire And Fury Author Michael Wolff: I Absolutely Spoke To President Donald Trump
It never changes, folks. They have the same litany of criticism. Does not listen. I have been with Donald Trump quite a bit. Im not in any way part of Donald Trumps inner circle, in anything, and I dont want to be misunderstood as saying that I am. But Ive been with him a lot. I have played a couple rounds of golf with Donald Trump. Ive been with Donald Trump at the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation.
I spent four hours with Donald Trump in March at the White House, including dinner. And I can tell you that hes none of these things that theyre saying. What he is, is domineering. What he is, is sure of himself. Ill give you one anecdote here. Maybe I can think of more. Were on the golf course. Its at his course here at Trump International. Its the second or third hole. This is seven, eight years ago, sometime in Barack Obamas first term.
He looks at me, were in the golf cart. Tell me about Obama. Is he really a bad guy? Do you think hes a bad guy?
Okay, now, Im asking myself, Should I answer this or am I being set up? Whats going on here? This has come out of the blue. He was genuinely curious what I thought. I said, Yeah. I think in a policy sense, bad guy. I dont know him, Mr. Trump. I dont know if hes a bad, bad guy, but Im saying politically, yeah, bad guy.
Ive heard that. Ive heard that. Heard hes a bad guy. And then he started talking about something entirely different. Now, did he not listen to me? Did he not hear what I said? Did he just ask me this for some reason that I dont know? He was fully engaged. He never told me what he thought of Obama. He said, Whyd you leave New York?
I said, Taxes. I told him how much it was costing me every year in taxes. He said, You know, a lot of my friends are leaving, a lot of my friends are leaving. I dont think that that was true. I think that was Trump just being nice and affirmative with my decision. But it doesnt matter.
But he still engaged me. And the whole round, you know, hed see the CEO of Macys on the next fairway and hed drive over there and introduce me to the next CEO of Macys, saying, Look, this guy, if you ever need, if you run into trouble, need a couple million in advertising, just call him, hell have it for you. You ever hit hard times, call him. Im just sitting there soaking this stuff in.
Another guy, See that guy over there? Richest man in Italy. And whose club does he want to join? Mine. Richest man in Italy. You just laugh. The guy has boundless energy. He likes himself very much. Hes very proud of the things that hes built. But to all of me, these things are very likable. None of it was off-putting.
At the dinner at the White House, there were really pretty in-depth discussions about the repeal and replace Obamacare bill that was happening. I watched him change 15, 16 no votes to yes votes, members of the House in a room off the White House. It was not staged. I mean, the timing there was coincidental.
I dont know whether he reads or not, but the guy is not uninformed. Hes not uneducated. I just dont think people who are not like him and dont inhabit his world can ever understand him. I dont think they can get past the resentment they have that he has dared to enter their world.
I ran across something today. Theres a website called Intellectual Takeout, and its run by a guy named Devin Foley, who is, interestingly, a graduate at Hillsdale College. And his blog or website post today, Trump vs. Bannon: Have You Ever Met a Billionaire? And he makes the point that billionaires are and Trump is one that billionaires are an entirely different kind of person.
He makes this analogy. A guy who has five million or $10 million will think that the governments gonna come take it away, that somethings gonna happen, hes gonna lose it. He says the guy who has $500 million thinks the same thing. More often than not, somebody with $250 million, 30 million, whatever, five million, 10 million, they have this thing in common that somehow a government policy or change is going to come and take it all away from.
He said theres not a billionaire in the world hes met that thinks this. Theres not a single billionaire he has met who has any fear whatsoever of losing it. But thats not the total argument or point that he makes. He says: The vast majority of people, especially those in politics and media, are never gonna understand Donald Trump. Far too often they project their own thinking, their fears, and their desires onto him. Their egos are such that they think he thinks like they do, or should. And when he doesnt, they think hes the one that screwed up. Not right.
You see, They operate in a world where there are rules, there is always someone higher on the food chain, there is always something to worry about. But Donald Trump does not have that mind-set. In his world, theres nobody higher on the food chain. He is at the top of it. As long as his courtiers are loyal to him, he will charge ahead.
If you were to ask President Trump what he believes and where were going, he would respond in a way that would have millions of Americans nodding, Yes! Right on! in middle America. But people in media and politics and academia, when Trump would answer that question, Wheres America going? would simply shake their heads and say, What an idiot.
Donald Trump operates at a gut level. He has a sense of what he believes, but its unlikely he will take the time to sit anybody down and articulate it in an academic way. He doesnt have time for that. He is who he is and he does what he does, and he doesnt think about it. And he doesnt self-analyze. He doesnt navel gaze. He doesnt ask what are other people gonna think about it.
Theres nobody higher on the food chain. Theres nobody he has to please in order to keep what he has. As such, nobody can relate to that because to the rest of us theres always somebody higher on the food chain. Donald Trump is a builder. He sees what he wants in his mind. He may not be able to articulate it in a way theoreticians articulate policy, but hes able to build it, hes able to make it all happen, as long as his staff or the people he trusts and who know him at the gut level thats why family is so important to him.
Great post....
Little men who call Wolff are not believed when they tell the truth.
You mean when Trump asks that something be done he expects it to be done? He doesn't accept the federal bureaucrat shuffle, "in the context of our international diplomatic treaty structures that might not be the right way to go about this" or "let's do an analysis of alternatives before we rush into this," or the real killer, "let's commission a bipartisan blue ribbon panel to look at the issue and recommend possible courses of action."
That is why Trump is unfit to be President. He expects stuff to get done, not just let federal process run its course to stall any action except action that furthers the interests of the entrenched bureaucrats in the bureaucracy who have been promoted to where they are because their interests serve the interests of their deep state overlords.
Thank God he does expect things to get done.
Thanks
Yes, thank you. And please a round of thanks and gratitude to President Trump. He operates like a rancher of a large spread and thousands of cattle, horses, helicopters, etc. Once he collects that data, he analysis and makes the decisions...he very probably doesn’t articulate it, either. He also operates very much like a fine surgeon or specialist, once he understands what is needed, he does it, exactly and very, very well.
I love that style of leadership. I cannot stand it when a decision is wishy-washy and unsure and many more opinions are needed.
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