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"Trump's dizzying day of interviews" (with no mention of Russia in the article)
Comments on Civil War, big banks and Kim Jong Un perplex aides, historians.
The president floated, and backed away from, a tax on gasoline. Trump said he was "looking at" breaking up the big banks, sending the stock market sliding. He seemed to praise Philippines strongman President Rodrigo Duterte for his high approval ratings. He promised changes to the Republican health care bill, though he has seemed unsure what was in the legislation, even as his advisers whipped votes for it.
...
"It seems to be among the most bizarre recent 24 hours in American presidential history," said Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian. "It was all just surreal disarray and a confused mental state from the president."
The interviews — published by Bloomberg, Face the Nation and the SiriusXM radio network — seemed timed to the president's 100-day mark but contained a dizzying amount of news, even for a president who often makes news in stream-of-consciousness comments. Trump's advisers have at times tried to curb his media appearances, worried he will step on his message. "They were not helpful to us," one senior administration official said. "There was no point to do all of them."
White House officials said privately there was no broader strategy behind the interviews. GOP strategists and Capitol Hill aides were puzzled by it all. "I have no idea what they view as a successful media hit," said one senior GOP consultant with close ties to the administration. "He just seemed to go crazy today," a senior GOP aide said.
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/01/trump-civil-war-banks-korea-237859
The president floated, and backed away from, a tax on gasoline. Trump said he was "looking at" breaking up the big banks, sending the stock market sliding. He seemed to praise Philippines strongman President Rodrigo Duterte for his high approval ratings. He promised changes to the Republican health care bill, though he has seemed unsure what was in the legislation, even as his advisers whipped votes for it.
...
"It seems to be among the most bizarre recent 24 hours in American presidential history," said Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian. "It was all just surreal disarray and a confused mental state from the president."
The interviews — published by Bloomberg, Face the Nation and the SiriusXM radio network — seemed timed to the president's 100-day mark but contained a dizzying amount of news, even for a president who often makes news in stream-of-consciousness comments. Trump's advisers have at times tried to curb his media appearances, worried he will step on his message. "They were not helpful to us," one senior administration official said. "There was no point to do all of them."
White House officials said privately there was no broader strategy behind the interviews. GOP strategists and Capitol Hill aides were puzzled by it all. "I have no idea what they view as a successful media hit," said one senior GOP consultant with close ties to the administration. "He just seemed to go crazy today," a senior GOP aide said.
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/01/trump-civil-war-banks-korea-237859
The aides claim this wasn't helpful to them, and there's no broader strategy. But I notice that among the blizzard of bullshit, there are no questions being asked about Russian connections (when Trump accused Obama of wiretapping him, that is of course related to Trump's Russian connections, but it's just turned into a "why did Trump make an evidence-free accusation?" question).
That certainly is useful to the aides. Whether they scheduled a lot of interviews, just so he'd say something stupid that would dominate headlines, I don't know. But Trump's presidency has reached the point where they can deploy him to distract from whatever they're doing, because he's a highly visible idiot. He now trolls his own administration, to their advantage. As long as they can live with the image of a idiot in nominal charge.
