{"id":398082,"date":"2019-03-05T15:50:10","date_gmt":"2019-03-05T14:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/trumps-unhinged-cpac-speech-should-concern-us-all\/"},"modified":"2019-03-05T15:50:10","modified_gmt":"2019-03-05T14:50:10","slug":"trumps-unhinged-cpac-speech-should-concern-us-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/trumps-unhinged-cpac-speech-should-concern-us-all\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump’s Unhinged CPAC Speech Should Concern Us All"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/p>\n

The president of the United States gave a rambling and incoherent two-hour speech<\/a> in which he raved like a lunatic and told crazy, self-serving lies from start to finish. If that no longer qualifies as alarming, we\u2019re in serious trouble.<\/span><\/p>\n

I realize the speed-of-light news cycle has moved on. I realize anything that happened last week has all but faded into the mists of time. But President Trump\u2019s unhinged performance<\/a> Saturday at the Conservative Political Action Conference is surely worth more than a passing shrug. If you had an uncle or a grandpa who sounded so divorced from reality, you\u2019d be urgently concerned.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know I\u2019m totally off script right now,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd this is how I got elected, by being off-script. True. And if we don\u2019t go off-script, our country is in big trouble, folks. Because we have to get it back.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was nothing, anything, like a script.<\/p>\n

He tried to talk about the Democratic Party\u2019s proposed Green New Deal<\/a>: \u201cWhen the wind stops blowing, that\u2019s the end of your electric. Let\u2019s hurry up. \u2018Darling \u2014 Darling, is the wind blowing today? I\u2019d like to watch television, darling.\u2019 No, but it\u2019s true.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not even remotely true, but he was just getting started.<\/p>\n

He raged about the special counsel\u2019s investigation: \u201cNow, Robert Mueller never received a vote, and neither did the person that appointed him. And as you know, the attorney general says, \u2018I\u2019m going to recuse myself. I\u2019m going to recuse.\u2019 And I said, why the hell didn\u2019t he tell me that before I put him in? How do you recuse yourself?\u201d<\/p>\n

Um, by following the rules. Then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself because he was a potential witness<\/a> in the investigation, or even a potential subject. He had no choice.<\/p>\n

Trump imagined what the organizer of the CPAC conference<\/a>, Matt Schlapp, might be thinking right then: \u201c\u2009\u2018This is a lot more than we paid for.\u2019 You know, normally you read a few pages and you say, \u2018Bye, folks.\u2019 But you know what I like about this? Number one, I\u2019m in love, and you\u2019re in love. We\u2019re all in love together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Love is indeed a wonderful thing.<\/p>\n

Two full years into his term, the president talked obsessively about the crowds at his inauguration: \u201cAnd they showed \u2014 they showed from the White House all the way down. .\u2009.\u2009. There were people. Nobody has ever seen it. The Capitol down to the Washington Monument \u2014 people. But I saw pictures that there were no people. Those pictures were taken hours before.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s crowd was big. President Barack Obama\u2019s was bigger. Someday, perhaps, he will get over it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey had to walk with high heels, in many cases. They had to walk all the way down to the Washington Monument and then back. And I looked, and I made a speech, and I said, before I got on \u2014 I said to the people that were sitting next to me, \u2018I\u2019ve never seen anything like this.\u2019\u2009\u201d<\/p>\n

Not over it yet.<\/p>\n

Trump talked about an encounter with an old friend, New York developer Richard LeFrak: \u201cRichard came up [to Melania]; he said, \u2018I\u2019ve known your husband for 65 years.\u2019 I said, \u2018Don\u2019t say that.\u2019 I say, \u2018Say 25, 30. Don\u2019t say 65 years.\u2019 But I said, \u2018Richard \u2014 Richard, call me Donald, like you always do. Call me Don.\u2019 \u2018Okay. Okay, Don. Okay.\u2019 He gets his breath. Uh-huh. Two minutes later \u2014 \u2018Mr. President .\u2009.\u2009. \u2018That\u2019s called respect for the office, right? Maybe that\u2019s a good thing, right? Many \u2014 many of my friends. And that wasn\u2019t in the script either.\u201d<\/p>\n

One hopes not.<\/p>\n

He talked about the hardship of the government shutdown: \u201cI spent my New Year\u2019s all by myself. .\u2009.\u2009. It was me and about 500 men and women outside with machine guns. I never saw so many beautiful-looking machine guns. I\u2019d look at that equipment and I\u2019d say, \u2018Man\u2019 .\u2009.\u2009. They sit in the trees. They sit on the lawn.\u201d<\/p>\n

He talked about his quick trip to Iraq: \u201cGeneral one, general two, general three. I mean, these generals \u2014 there\u2019s no person in Hollywood that could play the role. These guys are like perfect people. I said, \u2018What\u2019s your name?\u2019 \u2018Sir, my name is Raisin.\u2019 What the hell kind of a name? I said, \u2018Raisin, like the fruit?\u2019 He goes, \u2018Yes, sir, Raisin.\u2019 \u2018What\u2019s your last name?\u2019 \u2018Caine.\u2019 Raisin Caine. I said, \u2018You got to be kidding me.\u2019\u2009\u201d<\/p>\n

That is what sticks with Trump from his visit to a war zone.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to regret this speech,\u201d he said. The rest of us certainly do.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Via Common Dreams<\/a>. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The president of the United States gave a rambling and incoherent two-hour speech in which he raved like a lunatic and told crazy, self-serving lies from start to finish. If that no longer qualifies as alarming, we\u2019re in serious trouble. I realize the speed-of-light news cycle has moved on. I realize anything that happened last […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":398083,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-398082","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=398082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398082\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}