Friday, April 28, 2017

Most People Don't Know This, But There's Also A South America

While it isn't on display here, one of Trump's many beautifully charming characteristics is that he can't believe anyone knows something important that he doesn't know, and if that is revealed to him he assumes it's some arcane piece of trivia that only someone REALLY REALLY smart knows.

As news of the president’s plan reached Ottawa and Mexico City in the middle of the week and rattled the markets and Congress, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and others huddled in meetings with Trump, urging him not to sign a document triggering a U.S. withdrawal from NAFTA.

Perdue even brought along a prop to the Oval Office: A map of the United States that illustrated the areas that would be hardest hit, particularly from agriculture and manufacturing losses, and highlighting that many of those states and counties were “Trump country” communities that had voted for the president in November.

Since he knows nothing, this must be an hourly occurrence for him now. That's how you get statements like, "Most people don’t even know he [Lincoln] was a Republican." I mean that might even be technically true for all I know, but only true in the sense that "most people don't know X" where X is almost anything. While Lincoln's reputation is more controversial than we like to acknowledge, anyone who has a passing familiarity with history (and Civil War era history is something people are more likely to have a passing familiarity with).

The more disturbing (is it? it's all so disturbing) thing is that Trump really believes in rewarding the states that supported him, and destroying the ones that didn't.