Things Donald Trump doesn’t understand
Mr. President, have someone read you this list for some really tremendous learning.
Get settled. It’s a long list.
How to shake hands
Travel budgeting
Trump 2016: “Taxpayers are paying a fortune for the use of Air Force One on the campaign trail by President Obama and Crooked Hillary. A total disgrace!”
And yet:
Wall budgeting
“I would build a great wall, and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me, and I’ll build them very inexpensively — I will build a great, great wall on our southern border. And I will have Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words.” — Donald Trump, during the 2016 presidential campaign
Feb. 10, 2017 headline in azcentral.com: “Border wall will cost $21.6 billion, Homeland Security report says”
This estimate is almost double the cost cited by President Donald Trump. And Mexico will not be paying for it. American consumers will.
Swedish immigration
“My statement as to what’s happening in Sweden was in reference to a story that was broadcast on @FoxNews concerning immigrants & Sweden,” he said.
“Give the public a break — The FAKE NEWS media is trying to say that large scale immigration in Sweden is working out just beautifully. NOT!” Trump tweeted on Monday, Feb. 20, 2017.
According to official statistics, Sweden’s crime rate has fallen since 2005, even as the country has accepted hundreds of thousands of immigrants from countries, including Syria and Iraq.
Political satire
Trump: .@NBCNews is bad but Saturday Night Live is the worst of NBC. Not funny, cast is terrible, always a complete hit job. Really bad television!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 15, 2017
I like that he mentioned The Hit Job.
Photographic evidence
On Trump’s orders, White House Spokesman Sean Spicer claimed that President Trump’s inauguration was the most watched in history.
Counting
Trump claimed he won 306 Electoral College votes, repeating a claim he made earlier on Twitter. He further claimed this was “the biggest Electoral College win since Ronald Reagan.”
Trump actually had 304 Electoral College votes, smaller than the wins of Barack Obama, who got 365 electoral votes in 2008 and 332 in 2012, and Bill Clinton, who got 370 electoral votes in 1992 and 379 in 1996.
He later claimed that he meant the most Republican votes since Reagan. Also wrong. President George H.W. Bush received 426 electoral votes in the 1988 election.
Hiring
Female anatomy
America’s greatest living actress
You don’t need to finish that “thought,” Don.
Judicial impartiality
Donald Trump claimed that the judge presiding over the Trump University lawsuit is treating him unfairly because of his “Mexican heritage.”
Ay caramba.
So-called judges
“The opinion of this so-called judge, which essentially takes law-enforcement away from our country, is ridiculous and will be overturned!” Trump tweeted on Feb. 4, 2017.
Trump attempted to belittle the action of U.S. District Judge James Robart, whom he referred to as a “so-called judge,” and his constitutional right to check the actions of the executive branch.
How courts work
Trump, to the judges ruling against him: “SEE YOU IN COURT, THE SECURITY OF OUR NATION IS AT STAKE!” Trump tweeted on Feb. 9, 2017.
Judges work in courts. Courts do not intimidate them.
Settling lawsuits
Trump: “I don’t settle cases. You know what happens? When you start settling lawsuits, everybody sues you. I don’t get sued too often, because I don’t settle cases, I win cases in court.” — Donald Trump to Joe Scarborough on “Morning Joe.”
He settled.
Counting
“I watched in Jersey City, N.J., where thousands and thousands of people were cheering” as the World Trade Center collapsed.— Donald Trump, November 21, 2015 in comments during a speech.
Nope.
Business decision-making
Trump: “My daughter Ivanka has been treated so unfairly by @Nordstrom. She is a great person — always pushing me to do the right thing! Terrible!” Trump tweeted on Feb. 8, 2017.
The remark came after Nordstrom said it would not buy the new season of Ivanka Trump’s brand. The department store said the decision was “based on the brand’s performance.”
That other people recognize familiar voices
Get John Barron on the phone! If he’s not available, get John Miller! We need the scoop on that impressive Donald Trump guy. He’s so elusive. And amazing. Unbelievable voice. Just tremendous.
Sports management
But there was at least one positive outcome from Trump’s disastrous sports management business:
Counting
Trump claimed that 3 million votes in the 2016 election were illegal in a tweet on Jan. 27, 2017. “Look forward to seeing final results of VoteStand. Gregg Phillips and crew say at least 3,000,000 votes were illegal. We must do better!”
No official voting data backs up this claim. State officials and top lawmakers have repeatedly said no evidence suggests there was voter fraud anywhere near the scale Trump claims.
Uranium
How Frederick Douglass can be dead already
Gone too soon! At the start of African-American History Month, Trump described famed 19th century abolitionist Frederick Douglass as “an example of somebody who’s done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more, I notice.”
Who’s going to tell Donald Trump that Mr. Douglass passed away in 1895? Sad.
Why “no, I’m not — you are” doesn’t work at age 70
“No puppet. No puppet. You’re the puppet.”
The media
Trump: “The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!”
Yikes. They must be pretty bad. Nobody tell him about toddlers with guns.
The media
Trump: “The failing New York Times.”
The media
Trump: “The press has become so dishonest that if we don’t talk about (it), we are doing a tremendous disservice to the American people,” Trump said. “Tremendous disservice. We have to talk to find out what’s going on, because the press honestly is out of control. The level of dishonesty is out of control.”
Trump, doubling down: The media has “a lower approval rate than Congress.”
They don’t. In this race to the bottom, Congress has a lower approval rating.
Immigration
Since they’re not paying for the wall on our southern border, do you think Trump can get Mexico to pay for the wall we need on our northern border?
A need for secrecy
Taking a leak
Trump, Feb. 14, 2017: “The real story here is why are there so many illegal leaks coming out of Washington? Will these leaks be happening as I deal on N.Korea etc?”
They’re your leaks, Mr. President. You’re in charge now. Maybe your work environment needs a culture change.
Arts funding
The Hill newspaper reported the Trump administration was considering eliminating federal arts and humanities agencies, and defunding the nonprofit public broadcasting corporation as part of a wider program of federal budget cuts.
Helping those in need that want to work for a living
The Trump administration announced in February that AmeriCorps was among the programs it was considering shutting down.
Sadness
That’s a lot of things Donald Trump doesn’t understand. This amount of misunderstanding … it’s … what’s the word for it? I can’t think of it. If only it would come to me. Sad.
