Trump Sunday tweet roundup: Ratings and Royals dominate as Trump takes eye off virus crisis
National emergencies require a singular focus from those tasked with the enormous responsibilities of responding to and solving the avalanche of problems associated with them.
In the days before national leaders transcribed their every brain fart into social media posts for the whole world to see what was weighing heavily in their consciousnesses, the American people were blissfully unaware of what was occupying a president’s mind as crisis and disaster unfolded around us all.
We could simply assume that the leader of the free world was locked in deep discussions with expert advisors in a desperate struggle to find solutions to the problems at hand as quickly and effectively as possible given the circumstances.
Donald Trump destroyed that paradigm — along with so much else Americans took for granted about their government — when it quickly became apparent early in his term that his days as president would be filled with “executive time,” golf, public relations appearances, and tweets, lots of tweets.
Now at the height of the largest crisis faced by any president since, well, the last Republican president held office, Donald Trump is demonstrating his true priorities are far from the sort of unceasing crisis management that our nation both expects and needs in this difficult time.
Much more important for the former reality TV host than preventing the spread of coronavirus and its concomitant death rates — and even reviving the plunging economy — are Trump’s own TV ratings.
His thread on Twitter today made that distorted sense of priority painfully clear.
Because the “Ratings” of my News Conferences etc. are so high, “Bachelor finale, Monday Night Football type numbers” according to the @nytimes, the Lamestream Media is going CRAZY. “Trump is reaching too many people, we must stop him.” said one lunatic. See you at 5:00 P.M.!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 29, 2020
The only lunatic visible in this tweet is its author whose public delusions and paranoid narcissism begs for the invocation of the 25th Amendment as soon as possible.
One tweet like this would have been bad enough, but too much is never enough for Donald Trump.
…On Monday, nearly 12.2 million people watched Mr. Trump’s briefing on CNN, Fox News and MSNBC, according to Nielsen — ‘Monday Night Football’ numbers. Millions more are watching on ABC, CBS, NBC and online streaming sites, and the audience is expanding. On Monday, Fox News…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 29, 2020
…The CBS News poll said 13 percent of Republicans trusted the news media for information about the virus.” Michael M. Grynbaum @NYTimes
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 29, 2020
Unfortunately, as Trump crows about his ratings success, his available audience is dwindling at a frighteningly rapid pace as the death toll from the coronavirus — a number that his inaction, lost opportunities, and the misinformation he peddled in his portion of the daily pandemic briefings has caused to rise exponentially — disproportionately removes the older voters who favored Trump in the last election from the rolls permanently.
This does not bode well for the man who lost the popular vote in the last election and only won because of a few thousand votes in key counties in a handful of swing states — particularly at a time when the death rate from the COVID-19 virus is expected to soon reach thousands of Americans per day.
Trump’s inability to stop boasting about his ratings may be a sign of his extreme narcissism, but he continued to show that his attention was on anything but the issue that the rest of the nation was focusing on with 100% of their beings.
The president’s tabloid sensibilities rose to the forefront as one of his next tweets emerged from out of left-field to address a question that no one had asked him about or cared about— in other words, a topic likely inspired by a segment he saw on one his favorite right-wing TV broadcasters.
I am a great friend and admirer of the Queen & the United Kingdom. It was reported that Harry and Meghan, who left the Kingdom, would reside permanently in Canada. Now they have left Canada for the U.S. however, the U.S. will not pay for their security protection. They must pay!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 29, 2020
Always the benevolent and generous diplomat that Trump!
Given the millions that taxpayers are footing to fund security for Trump’s frequent golf trips and the travels of his wealthy offspring who could easily afford to fund their own protective details — and the fact that he has stiffed many cities where he’s held his political rallies for security costs — Trump’s reaction to the news of the newly self-exiled royals’ move to Los Angeles would be considered outrageous more for its hypocrisy than anything else at any other time.
Now it just shows that America is led by a president too consumed by his own vanity and privilege to function effectively as a leader at a time when the nation needs it the most.
At this point, even if Trump were to stop proving that he is focused everywhere except on the one issue that his attention should now be exclusively dedicated to, the public knows where his mind will be wandering to.
Trump can’t be trusted to manage this crisis and should be removed from office immediately as a matter of national security. Right now America needs a Commander-in-Chief, not a Jester-in-Chief.
Follow Vinnie Longobardo on Twitter.
