ThinkProgress Almost Makes Me Sympathetic Toward Trumpo

 facepalm:

At a Trump campaign rally in Rochester, New Hampshire a man in a “Trump” shirt took the microphone and said, “We have a problem in this country. It’s called Muslims.”

“We know our current President is one,” he added. “You know he’s not even an American.”

“We need this question,” Trump replied, smiling.

Then things turned even darker, as the man discussed his beliefs that Muslims were in training camps plotting to kill.

“That’s my question. When can we get rid of ‘em?” the man said.

Trump was unfazed at the casual suggestion of cultural genocide. “We are going to be looking at a lot of different things. A lot of people saying that,” Trump said.

   Right. That's not actually what happened. To be more precise: that's a lot of spin right here. The whole thing was so amazing that I insisted to JQ that it had to be a clever set-up by anti-Trump folks...buuuuut...apparently not. Apparently that dude was for real. So much for my powers of whatever.

   Anyway, take this bit:

“We need this question,” Trump replied, smiling.

Doesn't that make it sound like Trump thinks it's a great/important question, and it makes him happy? Yeah that's not what was going on. Rather, Trump was saying something like "Dammit. So I get this question first thing? I really don't need this shit." But he kinda got stuck between gears. He's a fundamentally unserious person, and an extreme asshole. This goes without saying. And yet I say it. Behold. He knew it was going to be trouble for him, but didn't have the minimal degree of intellectual honesty/seriousness, nor the integrity, nor the moral fortitude to admit--especially out loud and in a way that would alienate the lackwits that are attracted to him--that it was disgusting nonsense. Several people behind him were visibly shocked at the question. Not nearly enough...but several. Yes, he smiled. He smiles a lot. (See: fundamentally unserious person (above)). But he wasn't gleeful. Read the TP piece above and you'd think he'd spun around in a big chair, petting a white cat and cackling about his laser base on the Moon...

   And..."cultural genocide"? What the hell is "cultural genocide"? That sounds bad alright...but it doesn't sound like, y'know, genocide...  Also, it's bullshit. Trump was clearly talking about looking into the imaginary "Muslim training camps." (Which are...camps in which you train to be Muslim? Or what?) So really: looking into these local al Qaeda bases in...Delaware or something. I don't know. (Are they...like strip mall Tae Kwon Do academies? Or what?)

   Trump is a moron, and his failure to make it clear that the questioner was also a moron makes him even more of a moron. But TP is blatantly bullshitting in an effort to make this grotesque incident worse--much worse--than it actually was. The question "When can we get rid of 'em?" was ambiguous enough for Trump to interpret the referent of ''em' as being the strip mall terrorist camps rather than Muslims. TP is trying to pretend that Trump was saying something that he rather clearly wasn't saying.

   There's no need for that. Trumpo the Clown is repulsive enough without embellishment.