Why Trump Is Peddling Extra-Strength Conspiracy Theories
The president is doubling his dose of outrageous claims
because he worries his audience isn’t responding like it used to.
By JACK SHAFER
05/12/2020 06:08 PM EDT
"Who knows these days precisely what reaction President Donald Trump expects from the world when he opens his mouth?
Always a prolific tweeter, over the past three days he’s gone off like a pack of Mentos dropped in a Diet Coke, tweeting up a foam about “Obamagate,” Joe Scarborough, Meet the Press’ mistake, the opening of his golf courses, his picks in congressional races and more. He’s even retweeted QAnon-related accounts. On Monday afternoon, Trump brought his magnifying mania to his press conference in the Rose Garden. Staged against a backdrop of four U.S. flags and a pair of posters, the event looked more like a campaign rally than a presser. “America Leads the World in Testing,” the twin posters stated, and each featured a printed U.S. flag for heraldic emphasis. It would not have been out of place had an official entered from the wings and placed a gold medal around Trump’s neck and a laurel wreath on his blondish mop.
Trump’s opening comments did not match the celebratory theatrics of the set design. Except for a single calculated line, “We have met the moment and we have prevailed,” the remarks were the usual barge-full of sloshing Trumpspeak. Not even a fireworks display could have given the moment the elevation Trump appeared to seek. When the time finally came for reporters to grill him, Trump did not field—and could not possibly have expected to have fielded—the “congratulations, great job“ queries he has said in the past that he deserves. Instead, reporters asked, as they frequently do and should do, direct questions about making testing available to all Americans on demand, not just White House staffers.
Trump could not have possibly been surprised, either, when CBS News correspondent Weijia Jiang asked a pointed question about why Trump was trying to frame the testing as some sort global competition. Instead of giving a coherent answer, the president told her twice she should direct her question to “China,” which many have interpreted as a shot at Jiang’s ethnicity. In the interchange that ensued, Trump labeled her question “nasty” twice—his typical putdown for a question he doesn’t like—and then, after calling on CNN’s Kaitlan Collins and then uncalling on her, he abruptly shut the presser down by saying, “Okay, ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much,” and marched away from the podium.
And this wasn’t even the weirdest part of the presser! When a reporter asked about his recent “Obamagate“ tweets and wanted to know exactly what crime he was accusing his predecessor of, Trump avoided answering, shooting back at the reporter, “You know what the crime is, the crime is very obvious to everybody.” And it’s not the only crime Trump is bird-dogging. Recent Trump’s tweets have reprised his old and completely baseless accusation that MSNBC’s Scarborough was culpable in the death, 19 years ago, of a staffer. (For what it’s worth, Senate Republicans seems to want no part of Trump’s Obamagate-mongering, according to POLITICO.)
Embracing mania…engaging in pageantry…fight-picking…conspiracy theorizing…throwing a public tizzy. While none of these batty Trump behaviors are new, their current intensity invites us to ask once more why he still goes on like this."
More at link:
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/05/12/donald-trumps-conspiracy-theories-for-junkies-252210