The Crazy Train keeps a-rollin'

While enjoying time in England, we at The Daily Kibitz learned that President Trump had been called A Fucking Moron. While this assessment was no surprise on its face and is commonly shared, the source was a startle: his own Secretary of State! Apparently, The Orange One had decided that his Presidency should have the biggest and best nuclear arsenal ever! All the King's horses and all the King's men have tried to dissuade and educate him on this (and every other) subject, to no effect. He remains our Uninterested Chief Executive. Our top diplomat blew off some blue steam while leaving the meeting and was overheard by others.

Of course this all leaked, because - after all - it is the Trump Administration. President Towering Intellect "jokingly" suggested that he and Secretary Tillerson could have an IQ Battle (maybe it could be televised for The Best Ratings!) and no one would ever again doubt that small hands indicate superior brains.

Now think on this a moment. Ponder upon the smartest people you know. How many have bragged - even once - about how brilliant they are? None, right? Yet President Best Brains has made a career of making such claims:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/10/10/a-brief-history-of-trump-challenging-people-to-iq-tests/?utm_term=.c7a418571248#comments

It might be that it's the inner P.T. Barnum in him, the master showman/con artist, that propels this sort of behavior. But what Tillerson suggested has been perceived as a manifest fact for those who are paying attention. Our President may be many things, but an enquiring mind is not among them.

Upon our return from Not-So-Jolly England, we were struck by the apparent shift in perception that the President is not just a moron, but something of a small child that requires constant care. This became Loud and Clear when Senate Foreign Relations Chairperson Bob Corker (R - Tennessee) characterized the White House as an "Adult Day Care Center".

https://www.salon.com/2017/10/08/sen-bob-corker-the-white-house-is-an-adult-day-care-center/

Ouch. That is a devastating burn - "Someone obviously missed their shift this morning." Trump has tried to triple-down on this, to no effect. Corker's dart hit the bulls-eye. Trump's problem here is that these and similar assessments are not coming from Democrats - they issue forth from his own party... from his own White House staff! "One Trump confidant likened the president to a whistling teapot, saying that when he does not blow off steam, he can turn into a pressure cooker and explode. 'I think we are in pressure-cooker territory,' said this person..." Read the rest in this revealing write-up:

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/10/infantilization-of-a-president/542613/?utm_source=atltw#article-comments

Well, we all have bad days mixed with the good. But all that really sounds bad. It makes statements and stories like this make sense:

"I hate everyone in the White House!" - Trump

In that article, then-senior advisor Steve Bannon discussed with the President the chances of being removed from office by impeachment. Not likely. Instead, he told Trump, it was far more likely that the 25th Amendment will be invoked. "What's that?" the President asked. It is this constant attempt by his staff to educate Trump in basic Civics that is emblematic of this Administration.

What is also impressive is the staff's ability to keep the Chief Executive from sticking a fork into the closest electrical outlet. Pity his staff, pity his advisors, pity the whole country for what goes on every day. Check out this amazing compilation of incidents and statements that indicate how Trump is managed by so-called grown-ups:

"I'll believe Trump is growing into the Presidency when his staff stops talking about him like a child..."

Wow, that's good. In addition to all that, one of the best anecdotes that reveals our Infant-in-Chief's behavior was found in a piece about White House dining. Trump gets Diet Coke; everyone else gets water. He gets extra sauce, no one else does. He receives special salad dressing. And he slurps up two scoops of ice cream while everyone else settles for one:

Trump gets two scoops of ice cream!

Is there a food taster employed there?

Here are some more examples of the President's elementary-school level of thinking. In a recent interview, he suggested that the stock market was making such great advances that the national debt was becoming erased:

The market is erasing the national debt!

Never mind that that the market and the debt are not linked and are both increasing on their own. Then there was the story about how Trump was briefed on Global Forces Deployment by having a world map with Trump Organization properties indicated where US forces are. Keep him involved!

https://www.voanews.com/a/trump-advisers-globalism-session/4033541.html

Naturally, this and everything else doesn't generate positive news for his administration. And he does not like it one little bit. In response to the nuclear arsenal story, Trump went ballistic and suggested NBC, and all other television news sources that provide negative light on him, have their FCC licenses revoked:

President suggests that network news have licenses pulled

There may come a time when Trump tries to take his ball and go home. Until then, we are left with trying to figure out the dilemma of the age - what to do with the guy. For a chilling read, here is a piece that was published a year ago as a "what if Trump were to actually win" article. It ain't pretty:

Inside the mind of Donald Trump

Okay, this is all crazy and grim. But it's not always going to be this way. It may take several years, but the National Meltdown will pass and reason will return. As mentioned in previous posts, satire and pranks are often the best medicine. While the Daily Kibitz was in the United Kingdom, a prank on Prime Minister Theresa May was performed that would have gladdened the hearts of Abbie Hoffman and Dick Tuck. While May delivered a much-anticipated televised address to her peers, a guy approached her and served her job termination papers. It was brilliant:

The greatest living political prankster?

For some more comic relief... with all the North Korea nonsense and deepening freeze with Russia, it's easy to harken back to the bad old crazy Cold War days. Just for the fun of it, here's a little snippet from one of the Greatest Comedies Ever Made, "Dr. Strangelove" in which President Merkin Muffley has to phone Russian Premier Kissov with some very bad news. "One of our generals, well, he went a little funny, in the head, you know... funny. And he went and did a silly thing..."

Purity of Essence. It could be a good band name. The original ending of Dr. Strangelove featured an epic pie fight among the generals, politicians, advisors and diplomats. It was cut from the final version, but it could be added today and it would fit seamlessly into our current scenario. An epic pie fight at Trump's White House would be a normal event. Not a bad idea! We can all use an epic pie fight, right about... now!