Saturday, April 28, 2018

A Reveal


He's telling us again.

I'm not referring to comments made by the President during an event with Team USA Olympians and Paralympians on Friday when President Trump declared "what happened with the Palympics was so incredible and so inspiring to me. And I watched- it's a little tough to watch too much, but I watched as much as I could.

Donald Grump already made clear his opinion of handicapped individuals when in November 2015 he imprersonated Serge Kovaleski. As reported by NBC News, "Now, the poor guy- you ought to see the guy: 'Uh, I don't know what I said, I don't remember,' Trump said as he contorted his arms in an apprent imitation of Kovaleski, who suffers from arthogryposis."

Trump went on to gain the GOP nomination for President and win the general election, and, frankly, almost no one cares. This sort of thing has no more impact on the general public than the revelation that Trump committed adultery last year would have on Christian moralists. None.

I'm referring to something more astonishing- but whose import has gone completely unnoticed. Sitting yesterday in the Oval Office with the default leader of the free world, President Trump stated

We were honored. It was a great report, no collusion, which I knew anyway, no coordination, no nothing. It's a witch hunt, that's all it is. There was no collusion with Russia, you can believe this one. She (Merkel) probably can't believe it, who can? But the report was very powerful, very strong, there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian people. Cause I've said many times before, I've always said there was no collusion, but I've also said there has been nobody tougher on Russia than me. With that all being said, if we can get along with Russia, that's a good thing, not a bad thing, but there has been nobody tougher on Russia than me.







There was no collusion with Russia, you can believe this one. She (Merkel) probably can't believe it, who can?

Colloquiallisms change over time, and thus mean something different to individuals of one background than another. But being of the same race and age, from the same part of the country as Trump and only six years younger than he, I can tell you "She probably can't believe it, who can" means "This thing sounds so ridiculous, who would actually realize it's true." President Trump is telling us there was collusion, whether it involved himself or only his campaign. 

To make things even clearer, he combines "I've always said there was no collusion" with "I've also said there has been nobody tougher on Russia than me"- which nearly everyone (including Trump himself) knows is poppycock. He has equated the two: the denial of collusion with the boast which is transparently baseless, and is recognized as such.

Or perhaps he's telling us there was a conspiracy. Media reports focus on Trump repeatedly claiming there was "no collusion" but, as lawyers will point out, there is no "collusion" provision in the U.S. code. There is, however, a generic concept of "collusion," to which Trump probably was referring. He is conceding- almost boasting- that collusion did occur.

Trump's admissions often are hiding in plain sight. Just as he pushed the envelope with his cracks during the campaign about Christianity (and found Christians were unmoved by humiliation of their religion by a conservative Republican), "she probably can't believe it, who can" is Trump pushing the envelope. He's trying to determine how naive the American people can be.  So far, he deserves to chuckle to himself.




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