by Mish
In general use: “a mentality or approach characterized by inconsistent or contradictory elements.”
Contradictions vs. Broken Promises
During the campaign, Trump said: “If I win I am going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation.”
At rallies Trump described Hillary as “guilty as hell” and said she “has to go to jail”.
Now, in a dramatic reversal of campaign pledges, an aide stated Trump Will Not Go After Hillary.
Treasury Secretary Field Narrowed
Trump attacked Hillary on numerous occasions for pandering to Wall Street. On November 21, CNN proclaimed Trump Down to Two Choices for Treasury Secretary.
President-elect Donald Trump has narrowed the field of candidates for Treasury secretary to Steven Mnuchin and Jonathan Gray, multiple sources tell CNN.
Mnuchin, who worked at Goldman Sachs for 17 years, joined the Trump campaign as finance chairman in May.
These days Mnuchin is a Hollywood producer, putting out films including this past summer’s “Suicide Squad,” as well as “American Sniper” and “The Lego Movie.” His latest film, due in theaters this month, is called “Rules Don’t Apply.”
Mnuchin also worked with George Soros, the billionaire financier who has bankrolled liberal candidates and causes — and who was depicted as a villain in Trump’s last campaign ad.
Gray has worked his entire career at Blackstone, which manages more than $300 billion in assets and owns part of the Hilton hotel chain. He is on the board of directors and is considered heir apparent to Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman.
Gray built Blackstone’s real estate business from next to nothing into a behemoth — $102 billion in assets, with investments from China to Latin America. He is worth $1.66 billion, according to Forbes.
Rules Don’t Apply
“Rules don’t apply” appropriately sums things up, not only for Trump’s campaign, but what we have seen following the election.
Trump now praises Hillary for her service to the country. Amazing.
Let’s write off all of that simply as campaign lies. Other things?
UK Ambassador
Yesterday, Trump interjected himself into UK politics, outright requesting Nigel Farage as the UK ambassador to the US.
Many people would like to see @Nigel_Farage represent Great Britain as their Ambassador to the United States. He would do a great job!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 22, 2016
OK, let’s label that as peculiar or arrogant. How about peculiarly arrogant?
New York Times
During the campaign Trump said the New York Times was “failing”
This morning Trump cancelled a scheduled press meeting with the New York Times. And instead of talking with the media, he addressed the nation on You-Tube.
Trump blamed the New York Times for changing the meeting conditions.
I cancelled today’s meeting with the failing @nytimes when the terms and conditions of the meeting were changed at the last moment. Not nice
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 22, 2016
The New York Times denied changing the conditions.
Trump also made this Tweet:
Perhaps a new meeting will be set up with the @nytimes. In the meantime they continue to cover me inaccurately and with a nasty tone!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 22, 2016
Trump the Chameleon
Eight hours later, the meeting was back on. Coming out of the meeting he called the New York Times as a “great, great American jewel.”
“The Times is a great, great American jewel,” Mr. Trump declared as he prepared to leave the gathering in the newspaper’s 16th-floor boardroom, where portraits of former presidents adorn the walls.
“A world jewel,” added Mr. Trump, who was seated next to Arthur Sulzberger Jr., the paper’s publisher. “And I hope we can all get along.”
In an extraordinary 75-minute meeting — parrying, debating and, at times, joking with the leaders of a publication that has long been an object of Mr. Trump’s fascination and frustration — the president-elect’s chameleon-like approach to the news media was on full display.
Mr. Trump is inclined to label himself aggrieved and betrayed by a “dishonest” news media, barring some reporters from his rallies and claiming that news outlets were trying to rig the election. Only a day earlier, Mr. Trump assailed the nation’s most prominent television news anchors and producers in a tense meeting at Trump Tower.
He dismissed his earlier talk of strengthening libel laws, telling the assembled journalists, “I think you’ll be O.K.” He expressed interest in improving his relationship with the paper, saying, “I think it would make the job I am doing much easier.”
Mr. Trump has cultivated a talent for both courting and condemning the press — sometimes in the same breath. The gossip columnist Liz Smithrecalled Mr. Trump once threatening to buy her newspaper — “in order to have the pleasure of firing me” — before warmly inviting her to his wedding.
It was clear on Tuesday, however, that any new conciliatory approach toward the news media would have its limits.
“I think I’ve been treated very rough,” Mr. Trump said, as he spent the first several minutes of the session criticizing The Times’s coverage. “I’ve been treated extremely unfairly, in a sense, in a true sense.”
By Tuesday evening, Mr. Trump had not yet posted on Twitter his opinion of how things went at The Times. But during the lunch, he made a confession: He remains a regular reader.
“I do read it — unfortunately,” the president-elect said. “I’d live about 20 years longer if I didn’t.”
The New Yorker
Yesterday, Trump called a meeting with the press only to blast them. The New Yorker did not mince words in its report: Donald Trump Personally Blasts the Press.
The fantasy of the normalization of Donald Trump—the idea that a demagogic candidate would somehow be transformed into a statesman of poise and deliberation after his Election Day victory—should now be a distant memory, an illusion shattered.
In the presence of television executives and anchors, Trump whined about everything from NBC News reporter Katy Tur’s coverage of him to a photograph the news network has used that shows him with a double chin. Why didn’t they use “nicer” pictures?
For more than twenty minutes, Trump railed about “outrageous” and “dishonest” coverage. When he was asked about the sort of “fake news” that now clogs social media, Trump replied that it was the networks that were guilty of spreading fake news. The “worst,” he said, were CNN (“liars!”) and NBC.
The over-all impression of the meeting from the attendees I spoke with was that Trump showed no signs of having been sobered or changed by his elevation to the country’s highest office. Rather, said one, “He is the same kind of blustering, bluffing blowhard as he was during the campaign.”
Another participant at the meeting said that Trump’s behavior was “totally inappropriate” and “f***ing outrageous.” The television people thought that they were being summoned to ask questions; Trump has not held a press conference since late July. Instead, they were subjected to a stream of insults and complaints—and not everyone absorbed it with pleasure.
Kellyanne Conway, who managed Trump’s campaign and who is now his senior adviser, said that the meeting had been “very cordial, candid, and honest.”
Build Me Up Trumpercup
Trump has clear habit of building people up to trample over them, or trampling over them first, then making an effort to build them back up.
I offer this musical tribute
In case anyone is wondering, I do not regret my vote. I would rather have unpredictable results than a preordained bad outcome.
Build Me Up Trumpercup! Question to Doctors: Is Trump Schizophrenic? https://t.co/wBmV0e4aI1
— Mike “Mish” Shedlock (@MishGEA) November 23, 2016
Question to doctors tuning in: What do you make of Trump’s sudden, dramatic, mood and position reversals?
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
