Presidents ask the darndest things.
Like our current President, who likes to identify pesky reporters who dare to ruffle his orange feathers at any Coronavirus/reelection campaign press briefings.
“Who are you with?” he asked a female reporter just this weekend.
When she continued with her questioning instead of responding to him instantaneously, he persisted.
“Who-who are you with?”
Doggedly, she tried to finish her question, but Big Bad Trump is not one to give up when a little lady defies him.
“Who are you with?” he asked again, until she finally told him “CBS.”
Satisfied, Trump allowed her to continue, but he didn’t like the direction her inquiry took, so he looked at her straight on and cautioned, “Nice and easy,” following that with another short but chilling directive: “Just relax.”
Now, to all you big strong fellas out there, that might sound like no big deal – hey, you’ve been told a lot worse, am I right, guys? – but to women, that’s like advising us to gather up our petticoats and run along now, let the menfolk take care of big, bad government details.
It’s the kind of phrase men say to women when they want to control them. And Trump definitely wants to control every reporter in the room, especially the women.
But he can throw a pouty-lipped hissy fit no matter who is involved.
When he didn’t like a male CNN reporter’s line of questioning on Sunday, he responded: “…you people are so pathetic at CNN… That’s why your ratings are so bad, because you’re pathetic…Your ratings are terrible…You got to get back to real news.”
Wait, he’s discussing television ratings? How unpresidential can you get?
The low point (so many choices, so little time) of Sunday’s press conference was when he compared himself with one of our greatest presidents.
“I got here with the worst, most unfair treatment, they say, in the history of the United States for a President. They did say Abraham Lincoln had very bad treatment, too.”
While this statement may seem like an exaggeration, there’s a White House website that publishes of all the Corona Task Force Press briefing transcripts, so take a look if you can bear it: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-vice-president-pence-members-coronavirus-task-force-press-briefing-28/
And if you are under the impression that Donald Trump is a swell leader, full of vim and vigor, then read it line-by-line to see exactly how he treats people. I’m not talking about how many false statements he makes (remember the mantra Roger Stone taught him: admit nothing and deny everything), but simply how he relates to other human beings.
You know that blustery, rich brat in every teen movie who bullies all the smart, quiet kids and then finally gets his comeuppance at the film’s end?
That’s what I envision when I see Trump trying to mortify reporters - someday, we will no longer have to witness his venom and pettiness.
Until then, say a prayer for the poor soul who transcribes his unintelligible ramblings and hope that he or she is sheltering in place/working peacefully from home and not – God Forbid – anywhere near you-know-who in the Oval Office.