Why did Trump do nothing when informed of a possible incoming missile ??

[kentuck]

Did someone choose not to tell him?

Is it true that he never left his golf game for even a brief moment?

If he knew, why didn't he say something?

It doesn't make the country feel safer to see such exhibits of incompetence.

[Kablooie]

1. He was waiting for the Fox and Friends report on it to tell him what to do.

And I'll bet this isn't much of an exaggeration.

[brush]

33. I think it was more akin to when W kept reading "My Pet Goat".

W froze and didn't know what to do, while trump didn't give a shit, just wanted to get back to get on to his golf game.

[dawg day]

36. "Hawaii? Why should I care?"

"It's not like it's part of the US or anything."
'But sir, it's the 50th state."
"Oh, right, the one with Obama's birth certificate. Well, let 'em be bombed. Watch this swing."

[brush]

37. Yep. He didn't even come off the course. What a craven, uncaring sociopath.

[Cha]

40. He sent out this tweet on it..

Link to tweet

He better not Ever show his ugly shithole in Hawaii.

[mahina]

43. The military showed no missile. There was nothing to alert him to. We had a dumb malfunction that

Shouldn’t have risen to the level it did but it was the military who stopped the ball here.

[Victor_c3]

2. I suspect they didnt tell him

Which is the way I want it. I’m not a fan of his staff, but most of them are probably more levelheaded than he is. Even General McMaster - a guy I had a run-in with and proved to be s major dick - I’d count on to make a more sound decision than trump.

[dewsgirl]

4. This is exactly what I was thinking.

[kentuck]

6. How so?

What kind of "run-in"?

[Victor_c3]

14. I was a junior officer in the Army

I might sound petty, but I take the whole saluting thing very seriously.

A salute is a mutual sign of respect between a subordinate and a superior. The lower ranking person raises their right hand (their fightin’ hand) and make themselves vulnerable. In turn, the higher ranking person does the same. To me, it shows that you respect and value the life and potential sacrifice of your underlings.

It was a brief interaction, but I passed General McMaster, saluted him, he made eye contact with me and kept walking without even acknowledging my salute.

Again, I’m sure it sounds petty, but an asshole like this who sits in an air conditioned office giving me orders to go out into sector and risk my life can’t acknowledge my salute or presence?!?! That experience tells me everything I need to know about him as a person. It’s no surprise to me that he ended up as part of the staff of an asshole republican...

As an officer who lost Soldiers under their command, such symbols of respect mean a lot to me. Perhaps he rose through the ranks and never had to deal firsthand with combat or loss. Either way, fuck him.

[spiderpig]

22. Mr. pig strongly agrees about the significance of the salute.

(He was in the Marine Corps, but don't hold that against him...)

[Victor_c3]

42. I have nothing against grunts, Marines or otherwise

Anyone who served as a “ground pounder” has my respect. Like the Army Infantry, they don’t send Marines to go hang out in nice places...

[spiderpig]

44. And to this day he shows nothing but respect to people in uniform.

When we're in an airport or some other public place he always goes over to shake their hand.

Just like our Commander in Chief...oh, wait a minute...I meant 44!

[Docreed2003]

39. Excellent post and I would feel the same way...

Only a prick would not acknowledge a salute...and I, fortunately never had that issue in my military career. I would have had the same gut reaction you did, I’m sure!

[Cha]

41. This is his all about him tweet on it..

Link to tweet

[SummerSnow]

3. Cause he loved it. He can warmonger and create fear through it.

He probably was told not to do that right now, but he will.

[OldHippieChick]

5. He is not sure Hawaii is part of the U.S. After all, we know who claims to have been born there.

Many people in that state are not white and therefore, not worth his time. And, he is w/out sympathy and empathy.

[world wide wally]

11. That is why e thinks Obama wasn't born in the US.

[Generic Brad]

21. But there is a Trump Hotel in Waikiki

At the very least, he would have expressed concern over something with his name on it due to his abnormally enlarged ego. His silence makes me think they didn't tell him.

[OldHippieChick]

24. He didn't know where Waikiki is.

Thought it was in Scotland.

[bdamomma]

46. Could very well

be he is fucking ignorant, he didn't know that Puerto Ricans are US citizens............sigh.

[PoliticAverse]

7. There was no information that there was an incoming missile.

The military didn't have any information about an incoming missile (because there wasn't one), someone in Hawaii
just triggered an erroneous announcement to the population.

[kentuck]

8. Isn't that the military??

that would be responsible for making such an announcement??

Who's in charge??

[PoliticAverse]

9. The State of Hawaii Emergency Management Agency...

No one told them there was an incoming missile.

You can find their statement on what happened here:
http://dod.hawaii.gov/hiema/hawaii-emergency-management-agency-statement-on-missile-launch-false-alarm-january-13-2018/

Approx. 8:05 a.m. – A routine internal test during a shift change was initiated. This was a test that
involved the Emergency Alert System, the Wireless Emergency Alert, but no warning sirens.
8:07 a.m. – A warning test was triggered statewide by the State Warning Point, HI-EMA.
8:10 a.m. – State Adjutant Maj. Gen. Joe Logan, validated with the U.S. Pacific Command that there was no missile launch.
Honolulu Police Department notified of the false alarm by HI-EMA.

[Ccarmona]

16. Someone didnt decide(d) to send out the announcements

It was an erroneous extension of internal warning tests they run three times a day during shift changes.
Let’s keep to the facts just as we scold the Repugs to do.

As far as Trump’s attitude towards Hawaii, it’s all in the ethnic makeup of the population:

Single Race Asian 41.6%
Single Race Caucasian 24.3%
Multi-Race 21.4%
Hawaiian & other
Pacific Islander 9.4%
Latino 7.2%

[Chemisse]

25. Ahhh, of course. Thank-you.

It makes sense that only those who received the announcement would have known about it. Nobody in Hawaii would have alerted the military because it was assumed it came from them.

[Irish_Dem]

10. My guesses:

Did someone choose not to tell him?

50/50 chance that he was not told.
His staff knows he can become enraged when interrupted while he is at leisure.
Classic narcissistic response to see serious events about other people as an unnecessary
interruption.

Is it true that he never left his golf game for even a brief moment?

Don't know, but quite possible

If he knew, why didn't he say something?

If something does not impact him directly he doesn't care about it.
Has no empathy.
Incompetent leader.
Has poor social skills, wouldn't know what to say to help someone else.

It doesn't make the country feel safe to see such exhibits of incompetence.

Bush did the same kind of thing with anthrax and katrina crises.
The GOP does not care if we feel safe or not.

[Motley13]

12. he wanted to wait & call the president of Hawaii

[Doodley]

13. He was furious and asked to press his button that he knew was bigger than Kim Jong-un's.

To flush his sh##hole.

[DetroitLegalBeagle]

15. Because there was no missile

A state alert going off isn't going to trigger a federal response. That's not how the system works. Legitimate alerts flow downward, not up. No state has the ability to detect an incoming missile. No state is going to warn the feds about something that the feds don't already know about in this case. By the time the states would know anything, the President would have already been informed and on AF1 or on his way to AF1 and, if retaliation was chosen, our missiles would already be in the air before our own sirens ever go off.

[VOX]

34. True. But a *human* president would have made a statement re security and safeguards, etc.

In so-called “normal” times (when our top leadership isn’t a pack of miscreants and social outcasts), it would be no surprise to have a president do the job of reassuring American citizens about how systems work, the safeguards in place, etc.

But of course, our fake-human “president” lacks spine, character and concern for others, so why should he say anything?

[Eyeball_Kid]

17. I can answer that:

Trumpy has no intention of acting as a president in serious situations. If you take a look at his "body of work" in office, you'll discover that, when Trumpy gets involved in serious issues, he always fucks up. Hurricane in Puerto Rico? He fucks it up. Foreign relations with foreign leaders? Trumpy fucks up. Showing support for the commoner? Trumpy fucks up. Trying to get rid of the ACA? Trumpy fucks up. The list goes on. Maybe it's a good thing that Trumpy stayed away from the mishap. Maybe his close staff decided to soft-shoe the issue so Trumpy wouldn't fly off the handle and bomb North Korea. That's good, because Trumpy is a wastrel. Jeez. He can't handle his own sex scandals blossoming around him like mushrooms in a rain forest. With all of the disgusting and evil things he's done in his life, he should remind us again of Adolph Hitler, who unarguably spread far more evil than Trumpy, and who never really was held personally accountable for any of it. In his, and in Trumpy's cases, that old karma bug never flew up their noses. Trumpy, at 71 and heading straight toward dementia, will never atone for the suffering he spread. He, too, will escape, in this lifetime, a proper "pushback."

[ProudLib72]

18. I'm glad he did nothing

Nothing is better than the something he would have done if given the chance.

[MustLoveBeagles]

20. This

[orangecrush]

32. +2

[PoorMonger]

19. The way it seemed.

At least from what I read, was that since the original error was known to be a mistake from the moment it happened - it sounded like user error at the controls. So I’m guessing that either they didn’t see the need to tell him, or that they said right out that it was a mistake / false alarm. As Echinwald ( sp) said yesterday , even in this failed as he could have let people know it was a false alarm rather than let a whole state think doom was imminent for a whole half hour. But knowing Trump he probably got a thrill out of knowing a Blue State was so fearful

[kentuck]

29. Why did the people panic ??

And it did appear that some did panic. Is it just the general political atmosphere?

[PoorMonger]

31. Because

Regular people got alerts via their cell phones. They didn’t know it was a false alarm because for some reason the way the system works they could issue an immediate retraction or correction for some time. The operator knew they messed up though , so I imagine that they at least told their immediate superior who probably would have been in touch with the White House or someone further up the chain. I saw somewhere they eventually blamed part of that delay on a supposed shift change dunno if that’s bullshit or not.

[Laffy Kat]

23. He wanted to consult with Hawaii's president first.

[former9thward]

26. There was no missile and everyone knew it almost immediately.

Hawaii's Governor admitted they knew it was false within 3 minutes. Why they waited 38 minutes to tell the people was monumental incompetence.

[Downtown Hound]

27. He had to finish his Big Mac first. n/t

[cwydro]

28. Because he is a moron?

A pathetic excuse for a president?

That’s all I got.

[Hoyt]

30. Hopefully a state warning is not intelligence our military or prez uses to make such decisions.

I'm glad he did nothing -- whether by choice or, more likely, stupidity -- because if he had it would have killed hundreds of thousands by mistake.

[MustLoveBeagles]

48. I agree

We dodged a bullet this time.

[oberliner]

35. Probably for the best

Imagine what he might have done.

[snort]

38. He wasn't golfing in Hawaii.

[anneboleyn]

45. I think it is SERIOUSLY WEIRD. Honestly I hope its investigated.

people in HI, journalists, etc were panicking (I happened to be watching news live when this happened) as it was unclear for nearly an hour whether or not the warning was real and that a “mistake” had occurred. How did this alert get sent out “accidentally” — “someone pressed the wrong button” doesn’t seem very likely to me.

I think the situation is absolutely bizarre, and I am not a conspiracy type in general. Trump didn’t react. He didn’t even manage a look of concern. I’m sorry but that is very odd even if he knew already this was a false alarm — he should still have been meeting/talking with cabinet members and military leadership and of course HI officials to doublecheck and then release a statement (better yet get his mug on the teevee to inform people that there was no inbound missile). This took a ridiculous amount of time for him to do, and I think it’s weird and incompetent at best. Worse? The HI system was hacked (I think this is very likely), and we the public don’t know who is responsible yet. That should alarm everyone.

[Demit]

47. People were texting goodbyes & I love yous to family on the mainland.

I agree with you, this incident needs explanation. If only for the anguish it caused some people. That's what I would expect from a normal person who is president, reassurance. But we have been indoctrinated over the past year to not expect anything normal from him.