Cont: The Trump Presidency Part III

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He's addiction to bizarre pointless lying is surreal.

Years ago, while reporting a book about a real-estate developer and reality-TV star named Donald Trump, Tim O’Brien accompanied his subject on a private jet ride to Los Angeles. The plane, as you can imagine, was overly ornate; hanging on one wall, for instance, was a painting of two young girls—one in an orange hat, the other wearing a floral bonnet—in the impressionistic style of Renoir.

Curious, O’Brien asked Trump about the painting: was it an original Renoir? Trump replied in the affirmative. It was, he said. “No, it’s not Donald,” O’Brien responded. But, once again, Trump protested that it was.

“Donald, it’s not,” O’Brien said adamantly. “I grew up in Chicago, that Renoir is called Two Sisters on the Terrace, and it’s hanging on a wall at the Art Institute of Chicago.” He concluded emphatically: “That’s not an original.”

Trump, of course, did not agree, but O’Brien dropped the conversation topic and moved on with his interview. He thought that he had heard the last of the Renoir conversation. But the next day, when they boarded the plane to head back to New York City, Trump again pointed to the painting, and as if the conversation had never happened, he pointed to the fake and proclaimed, “You know, that’s an original Renoir.” O’Brien chose not to engage, and dropped the conversation.
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a_unique_person said:
Please explain.
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I think it may have been tongue-in-cheek......

Anything good we have is as a result of trickle-down economics. Apathia mentioned a friend who says the fact that every home has a refrigerator and air-conditioner is evidence that trickle-down works so presumably that same friend would use the ubiquity of cell phones as proof of the same. (Saint Ronnie) Reagan was the promoter of trickle-down and is the reason why it is GOP dogma to this day.
 
Stacko said:
He's addiction to bizarre pointless lying is surreal.
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That anecdote is a perfect example of why President Trump is the man he is today. A lie repeated until a reasonable person simply could not be bothered (or felt it was rude) to contradict means that:

  • Trump continues in his belief that it is genuine - depsite the evidence to the contrary
  • Trump believes that his smarts and eloquence persuaded someone else that it is genuine
  • Trump gets confirmation that his approach of lying until enough people agree or lose the will to contradict is valid
  • Trump remains ignorant

Which is fine when applied to a comparatively trivial example as this, less so when the future of the world is in the balance :(
 
The Don said:
That anecdote is a perfect example of why President Trump is the man he is today. A lie repeated until a reasonable person simply could not be bothered (or felt it was rude) to contradict means that:

  • Trump continues in his belief that it is genuine - depsite the evidence to the contrary
  • Trump believes that his smarts and eloquence persuaded someone else that it is genuine
  • Trump gets confirmation that his approach of lying until enough people agree or lose the will to contradict is valid
  • Trump remains ignorant

Which is fine when applied to a comparatively trivial example as this, less so when the future of the world is in the balance :(
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It's hard to tell which lies are lies that Trump deliberately tells us -- his con man lies -- and which are lies he tells himself to protect his bloated but fragile ego. And therein lies one of the more serious questions: Did the story become true in Trump's mind because it needed to be true?
 
WilliamSeger said:
It's hard to tell which lies are lies that Trump deliberately tells us -- his con man lies -- and which are lies he tells himself to protect his bloated but fragile ego. And therein lies one of the more serious questions: Did the story become true in Trump's mind because it needed to be true?
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For years, I saw people theorize that Trump would never actually run for President, because releasing his financial records would reveal that he's nowhere near as rich as he pretends to be, which would be a devastating blow to his ego and public image. Too bad he got around it by simply not releasing them...
 
Arcade22 said:
As always it's important to note that the problem isn't that Trump is a crazy lunatic. The problem is the fact that there are enough crazy lunatics in America willing to elect him.

Anyone that voted for Trump is just as insane as he is if not even more crazy.
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He's the most bare naked obvious con man in the history of con men. He may as well be wearing a large neon sign around his neck that says i'm a con man.
 
WilliamSeger said:
It's hard to tell which lies are lies that Trump deliberately tells us -- his con man lies -- and which are lies he tells himself to protect his bloated but fragile ego. And therein lies one of the more serious questions: Did the story become true in Trump's mind because it needed to be true?
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They're all lies of delusional self aggrandizement. That some may work as cons is tangential to the purpose of the lie.
 
varwoche said:
He's the most bare naked obvious con man in the history of con men. He may as well be wearing a large neon sign around his neck that says i'm a con man.
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Unfortunately, you can still fool some of the people all of the time.

I wonder if someone conned TheDonald out of several million dollars for that painting?
 
a_unique_person said:
Please explain.
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A fair number of idiots kept referring to the Lifeline program as "Obamaphones" as soon as a black woman was made the face of the program. Pretty clearly with racist undertones.

Anywho, the program started under Reagan and from what I understand was modified by every president since except for Obama.
 
Armitage72 said:
For years, I saw people theorize that Trump would never actually run for President, because releasing his financial records would reveal that he's nowhere near as rich as he pretends to be, which would be a devastating blow to his ego and public image. Too bad he got around it by simply not releasing them...
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I just saw that Forbes is releasing its list of the 400 richest Americans next week.

For 2016, he was #156 with $3.7 billion in assets.

Interesting to see which way he moves in 2017 and by how much.
 
Fast Eddie B said:
I just saw that Forbes is releasing its list of the 400 richest Americans next week.

For 2016, he was #156 with $3.7 billion in assets.

Interesting to see which way he moves in 2017 and by how much.
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I think his actual money issue is the liabilities he's taken on acquiring those assets.
 
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