Donald Trump on Friday downplayed the toll on American sailors enduring nearly nine months at sea on the USS Abraham Lincoln as concerns escalated about mental health and supply issues aboard the aircraft carrier supporting U.S. operations against Iran.
In a brief exchange with reporters before flying to New York for an event to highlight falling violent crime rates across the U.S., Trump refuted that family members have raised concerns about the deployment’s length and even said that the deployment — which includes a record-setting uninterrupted time at sea of more than 240 days — is “not nearly long enough.”
It’s a weird benefit of populist, anti-establishment candidates.
They’re just not held to the same standards and their supporters are very dismissive of any wrong doing.
It’s the same with Farage in the UK. We have a populist Pauline Hanson here in Australia who’s the same.
I don’t really have any plausible explanation.
Authoritarian followers do not introspect, and they compartmentalise their beliefs to sustain contradiction. They are quick to forget the insults and failures of the dear leader, who tends to be deep into dark triad territory and is knowingly exploiting their collective frailty.
Far too many people want simple (and therefore simplistic) answers to complex problems.
And that’s exactly what populists offer them.
Of course, in the real world, complex problems never have simple solutions that actually work.
And, usually, those simple solutions cause more problems than they solve.
Yes, but that doesn’t explain why populists get a free pass on their bullshit. For example, Trump’s obvious connection with a paedophile ring.
Because nobody calls their bluff.
Well, I’m not sure that’s the correct use of the term but even if it were, my question is: why does nobody do that?
That’s the part I don’t get too.
It seems like nobody has ever tried to stop the guy. The more he gets away with, the more shit he tries.
I think that part is just the authoritarian power structure. Everyone depends on him for their own slice, so keeping him in control is in their own interests.
Some of the people supporting Trump own most of the US media outlets. Media consolidation in the UK is just as bad, maybe worse.
Thats a salient point. It’s the same everywhere. Nutty conservatives control the media.
That said, some of these stories kind of carry themselves. Like does the Trump / Epstein stuff really need to be on Fox news? His base is aware of the story they just don’t care.