367
Don't let Trump distract you
(lemm.ee)
Of course we should take Trump's threats seriously. For example one reason for Russia's invasion into Ukraine may have been to distract Russians from domestic issues like repression of their rights and a bad economy. So distractions can have real consequences but we must not forget about the things Trump wants us to forget like his crazy cabinet picks and the fact that he retracted his promise to lower grocery prices and the fact that he's going to possibly create a huge humanitarian crisis if he does a mass deportation.
A tyrant trying to annex or invade another country isn't exactly a distraction. It's a serious issue. Him belittling Trudeau is part of that process. It's how fascists get shit done.
This is Trump's MO since 2016, though. The media still hasn't caught up, and insists on treating him like a normal politician, which makes it super easy for him to manipulate. Many of the press also love Trump since it's super easy to get a headline out of him.
Take for example the "Trump refused to rule out military force to take Greenland" articles that the press are breathlessly pumping out. Reporters, at this point, understand full well that Trump will never rule out military action in any situation (ruling out military action is for pussies). So any reporter can walk up to him and as "are you ruling out military force in order to ___". The answer will always be no, and they have a headline that will generate clicks. Everybody wins - Trump gets to continue pretending to be tough, and the reporter got their headline.
The counterpoint to all this of course is that the president refusing the rule out military action to annex an ally is actually news. But in this case it's easily manufactured news.
It's just a matter of time until a reporter asks Trump whether he'll rule out military action to punish Democrats. The answer will again be no. Another week of headlines.
Meanwhile once he actually takes power, all this noise will provide great cover for the GOP to do what they usually do - make rich people richer.
Of course! I totally agree, In the "body" of the post I was trying to make that point that yes we have to take that seriously but we cannot forget the other bad things Trump is doing. We have to resist him on multiple fronts.