Trump questioned perception of Portland before approving military plan: 'Am I watching things on television that are different from what's happening?'
Trump questioned perception of Portland before approving military plan: 'Am I watching things on television that are different from what's happening?'
Trump referenced a weekend conversation with Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, and he alluded to being told by Kotek that the reality in Portland is different from what's being portrayed to him.
"I spoke to the governor, she was very nice," Trump said. "But I said, 'Well wait a minute, am I watching things on television that are different from what's happening? My people tell me different.' They are literally attacking and there are fires all over the place...it looks like terrible."
I've long believed that Trump himself is not a fascist, mostly because his brain just doesn't work that way. He's an ego-driven, sociopathic petty tyrant who just wants his own way, exactly as a four-year-old throwing a tantrum in a grocery store wants his own way. It's not so much that he's not a fascist as that the organized thinking and ongoing attention necessary to hold to any sort of ideology is simply beyond him.
And that in turn would mean that the actual problem is that he's surrounded by sincere fascists (and other assorted opportunists) who are whispering in his ear and directing his limited attention to whatever will serve their interests. And since he's psychologically and intellectually stunted, it generally works.
It's easy to see what happened here too - a woman was nice to him, so he wanted to believe her. It's really just that simple. Like most manbabies, there's nothing that will turn him into mush faster than a woman being nice to him.
Which probably means it's about time for Laura Loomer to pay another visit to the White House.
A distinction without a difference IMO. Whatever the psychological reasons for the behavior and no matter who he surrounds himself with, the results are the same.
I do agree that just like any malignant narcissist he can be easily manipulated in many situations by people who know how. Putin's a master at it.
If it's true that Trump is being lied to by his advisors in order to get him to act the way they want, that means there is a huge weakness in the scheme. If someone could show him definitively that his advisors are lying, it could cause him to turn on some of them.
Maybe he's being fed false information. Given how critical this all is, I could see them commissioning entire fake newscasts to show him. Hell, they could probably just show him AI newscasts given how good he is at identifying fake images.
I think Steven Miller is pulling a lot of the strings.
Early on in the presidency he was reported as the guy basically first and last to be with trump each day.
The name Peter Thiel bears mentioning as much as possible. Only relatively recently have I learned that he tried that shit during Trump1.0 already but it was too extreme for them back then.
Thiel is also just fully unable to escaoe the AntiChrist accusations at this point, and is now strenuously arguing that actually, going all in on Ai is how you stop the real AntiChrist.
I wish I was making this up.
https://sfstandard.com/2025/09/16/peter-thiel-antichrist-san-francisco/
Current state of American politics:
You're the AntiChrist!
Nuh'uh! You're the AntiChrist!
... anyway, the literal next paragraph:
Oh.
So, literally precisely and exactly what Thiel is doing, but whoah, from opposite thing, actually!
... I would ask if he thinks people are all fucking morons but the answer is obviously yes, and sadly most Americans also just are fucking morons.
Uh, hail Satan I guess, I dunno man.
Fascism, by design, is just what a child thinks is the best governement: give power to strong adult.
People who pursue that politically, are mentally still that child. Usually though an upbringing completely insulated in money. But also from a complete lack of education too.
So that's to say, Trump isnt uniquely stupid as a fascist. The stupid is very much part of Fascism. Trumps just the stupid one doing it this time.
He is a particularly incompetent, doddering and dimwitted, fascist, but a fascist nonetheless.
'Sociopathic petty tyrant' with a cult of personality... based on fascist rhetoric and policies.
Fascism just is the political philosophy of dumb idiot bullies from a childhood playground.
Yes, his primary attribute is that is a a megalomanical egomaniac narcissist... but there are plenty of those in American politics (maybe not to the same degree as him) ... but he choose and is sticking with fascist rhetoric and policies.
I remember checking this list off as he said increasingly more and more insane shit, back in his first admin, before Jan 6th.
Back then people were calling me a paranoid lunatic for pointing out he'd hit at least half of them, by around the time Covid hit ... and that Q Anon was actually more than just 'a conspiracy theory', it was acting like a religious cult based around Trump.
So uh, welp, then we got Jan 6th, and this all got kicked into hyperfascistoverdrive mode.
He was not always as pudding brained as he is now.
But he has for a long time been an overt fascist, from just an objective, political science analysis.
There's... a reason why nearly all of the US's top experts and scholars on fascism fled the country months ago.
Somehow I don't think that you could whisper different things in his ear and magically have a liberal four-year-old, ego-driven, sociopathic tyrant.
A person is a fascist if the things they do are fascist. Has nothing to do with what he believes himself to be.