Trump’s temperamental tirades

Rash rhetoric requires repeated rollbacks

It’s déjà vu all over again. And again. By now the pattern is all too familiar.

President Trump or an administration spokesman will make a statement. That will be followed by a denial or a “clarification,” sometimes very much at odds with the original statement, at times contradicted by high-ranking officials in his own administration. Clearly documented events may be described as “fake news” coming from the media. We have had numerous examples of these practices in recent days, but, of course these techniques date back to the questioning of Barack Obama’s citizenry and beyond.

Let’s look at some of the recent cases, some with potentially major consequences.

We’ve been hearing a lot about leaks and the president has condemned leaks from within the government. Just to be clear, leaks are inside or confidential (possibly, but not necessarily, classified) political or government information passed to journalists, who do not name the source as part of the agreement to obtain the information. Columnist James Reston quipped years ago that “a government is the only vessel that leaks from the top.” Trump is not the only president to leak classified information, but probably the first to do so by tweets.

We saw a significant example last week that validated what Reston said. In a series of boastful tweets following his bellicose warnings to North Korea —“They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen” — Trump touted U.S. nuclear capability. He claimed the U.S. arsenal “is now far stronger and more powerful than ever before” and indicated that this was because of actions he has taken. However, there is no evidence to back that up, no indication the nuclear arsenal is stronger today than when he took office.

Trump ordered a review of nuclear strategy and capability, but that is an ongoing study and any steps “to renovate and modernize our nuclear arsenal” would take considerable time.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson tried to tone down some of the president’s more incendiary remarks, and said Americans should sleep well at night. It should be noted that Tillerson was lectured by White House aide Sebastian Gorka — apparently displaying ignorance of State’s key role in international security affairs — who said it was “nonsensical” for Tillerson to become involved in military matters. And it was Gorka who argued that all Americans should support Trump’s position on Korea, saying that it was analogous to the Cuban missile crisis.

At one point, Trump was responding to reports about North Korean movement of cruise missiles that U.S. intelligence had observed and which Trump referred to in one of his tweets.

However, U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, asked about those reports, said she couldn’t comment because this was classified information. She said, “I can’t talk about anything that’s classified. And if that’s in the newspaper that’s a shame.”

Trump also weighed in on the turmoil in Venezuela, again escalating rhetoric by talking of a “military option” as “certainly something we could pursue.” The statement seemed to contradict comments by H.R. McMaster, Trump’s top national security advisor, who said we shouldn’t give the Maduro government a chance to blame Venezuela’s problems on the United States.

While escalating rhetoric and rapid responses appear to be Trump trademarks, there are occasions when he draws criticism for what he doesn’t say — as was the case with the recent violent events in Charlottesville, Va. He was criticized for a laggardly response and for not being more direct in denouncing white supremacists while referring to “hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides.”

Trump’s silence was widely rebuked, with a number of leading Republicans among the critics. Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton issued a strong statement, though not referring to the controversy about Trump. Cotton said, “White supremacists who claim to ‘take America back’ only betray their own ignorance of what makes America so special: our country’s founding recognition of the natural rights of all mankind and commitment to the defense of the rights of all Americans. These contemptible little men do not speak for what is just, noble, and best about America.”

In the face of sweeping criticism that the president had failed to speak out strongly, on Monday, following remarks touting what he called the administration’s economic success, he did make a stronger, if scripted, statement on Charlottesville, and specifically called out some of the “hate groups” such as the Klan and neo-Nazis.

That same day, Trump quickly lashed out at Merck CEO Ken Frazier, an African-American who quit the president’s manufacturing business council, citing dissatisfaction with Trump’s response to Charlottesville over the weekend. The resignation prompted an angry tweet from Trump on Twitter: “Now that Ken Frazier of Merck Pharma has resigned from President’s Manufacturing Council, he will have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!”

All of this leads us to conclude that the pattern will continue: tweets, on subjects large and small; leaks, when they serve the president’s purposes; media bashing; escalating rhetoric and bellicosity; damage control to clean up or put a favorable spin on contradictions and misinformation; tirades against critics; and exaggeration of accomplishments.

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