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applegrove

(118,487 posts)
Fri May 22, 2020, 12:19 AM May 2020

"With Obama He's Going For the Jugular": As Trump Goes After Obama, Some in Trumpworld See a "Big

Risk”

GABRIEL SHERMAN at Vanity Fair

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/05/trump-goes-after-obama/amp

"SNIP......

On May 7, Donald Trump’s campaign manager, Brad Parscale, tweeted a GIF of the Death Star firing its planet-destroying laser to announce the start of the campaign’s war on Joe Biden. Parscale’s choice of pop-culture ephemera was widely mocked. But the meme’s biggest weakness was that it bore no resemblance to the campaign’s messaging, which so far has been all over the place. During a week when America’s COVID-19 death toll approached 90,000, Trump allies floated smears that Biden was a tool of China, an invalid eating from a spoon, and even a pedophile, none of which caused damage. Sources close to Trump said the president has vented to friends about the lack of focused firepower coming out of the campaign. “There is deep frustration that there is no overarching message,” an unofficial campaign adviser told me. (The White House and Trump campaign did not respond to requests for comment.)

According to sources, Trump believes the answer to the message weakness is to declare all-out war on Biden’s former boss: Barack Obama. “Trump knows Biden is only popular because he was Obama’s V.P.,” a prominent Republican told me. Which is why, a few days after Parscale’s Death Star tweet, Trump accused Obama of unnamed crimes under the umbrella of “Obamagate.” “Obama is going to be on the campaign trail in a big way. He’s the most popular Democrat of the past four decades. Trump knows you have to neutralize him, and he’s frustrated Brad didn’t think of that,” the campaign adviser said. “Trump feels he’s doing it all alone.”

But Trump’s targeting of Obama has been causing consternation among Republicans, who fear he is pursuing a base-incitement strategy when he needs to appeal to crucial suburban voters in must-win battleground states. “Going after Obama is a big risk,” a former West Wing official said. “Obama is seen as trustworthy and reasonable. If you attack him and people don’t buy it, then you have a huge swing and a miss in front of the entire country.” Another prominent Republican agreed: “Trump cannot draw Obama into this. Obama can’t be ‘softened’ up. American people know him and like him.”

Trump has been leaning on powerful Republicans to join his war on Obama, sources told me. Last Thursday, Trump tweeted at Senate Judiciary chair Lindsey Graham, saying that Graham needed to call Obama to testify at hearings on Michael Flynn’s unmasking and the origin of the Russia probe. Graham rejected the request. “Trump thinks Lindsey isn’t doing anything on Flynn,” a former White House official said. According to the former official, Trump recently asked prominent allies to tweet negative things about Graham, and he has been complaining that Graham is a hanger-on. “Trump has said, ‘Since [John] McCain died, Lindsey follows me around and shows up to play golf and I don’t even invite him,’” according to the source briefed on the conversation.

.......SNIP"

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applegrove

(118,487 posts)
4. We've always known Linsey was a ninny. I was one as a teen. Not a great
Fri May 22, 2020, 12:31 AM
May 2020

Last edited Fri May 22, 2020, 03:12 AM - Edit history (1)

place to be.

BComplex

(8,017 posts)
5. I just cannot for the life of me understand what anyone sees in trump. It's as if he has a spell
Fri May 22, 2020, 01:13 AM
May 2020

over some people. He's the most embarrassing thing in the whole world. He's a lazy, filthy, gross, pompous, stupid, ignorant, selfish & self-centered, whining, unattractive, inarticulate, empty-hearted, narcissistic, humorless, bumbling, lying fool. There is absolutely nothing to like about him.

Sorry for the extra long sentence. I just had to get it off my chest. I feel better now.

tulipsandroses

(5,122 posts)
8. No need for apologies, I get it. I feel the same way. At least Ted Bundy was good looking
Fri May 22, 2020, 02:09 AM
May 2020

and quite the charmer. Trump? I got nothing. I don't know why people are attracted to him. Especially, people that should know better and sell their souls and dignity to defend him.

Rhiannon12866

(204,727 posts)
9. Well said. I feel the very same way
Fri May 22, 2020, 02:44 AM
May 2020

I really don't get it, either - I cannot think of one positive speech/action or likable attribute!

 

DanieRains

(4,619 posts)
10. Trump Is The Channel / Vehicle For Their Hate
Fri May 22, 2020, 02:53 AM
May 2020

They Hate:

Liberals
Tree Huggers
The Nanny State
Big Guvvmint
Lazy People
Do Gooders
Abortion Supporters
Freeloaders

As long as "these" people are being attacked Trump will hold 40% of the hate filled deplorables.

We just gotta appeal to the 60% of voters who do not have a heart filled with hate of good people.

Rhiannon12866

(204,727 posts)
11. That sums it up - Trump is a hateful person
Fri May 22, 2020, 02:55 AM
May 2020

Are there really that many hate-filled people in this country? That's depressing as hell...

Celerity

(43,093 posts)
13. America has always had a vast undercurrent of rage simmering just underneath throughout its entire
Fri May 22, 2020, 03:21 AM
May 2020

history. Sometimes it is channelled into a positive force (American Revolution, War of 1812, WWI, WWII) sometimes into incredibly destructive manifestations (genocidal practices against the First Nations, the Civil War, Slavery/Jim Crow, the barbarous treatment of parts of the Caribbean, Central and South America, the Philippines, the murderous suppression of the early labour movements, most of the post WWII empric conflicts/coups d'état, Reaganism, etc). Now it is the rise of the MAGAt that those dark undercurrents are being tapped into yet again.

 

smirkymonkey

(63,221 posts)
6. Big mistake.
Fri May 22, 2020, 01:16 AM
May 2020

He doesn't know what he's getting himself into here. He will be taken down by his own arrogance and stupidity.

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