Trump is always making disturbing, undignified, self-serving statements, but this weekend, he took a decidedly crazy turn (even for him) when he launched a barrage of attacks at the UCLA basketball players who he helped to secure their release, the father of one of these players, and Republican Senator Jeff Flake.
Included in these tweets were the following:
- A bizarre reference to himself in the third person
- A even more bizarre reference to himself as “your favorite President” despite his historically low approval ratings, his loss of the popular vote by more than 3 million votes, and the commonly held understanding that normal human beings should never to refer to themselves as anyone’s favorite anything.
- A middle school-like reference to Republican Senator Jeff Flake as “Jeff Flake(y)”
- The implication that China’s shoplifting penalty of 5-10 years in prison is perfectly appropriate
- An expression of regret for helping to secure these American’s release from Chinese custody because one of their fathers failed to acknowledge Trump’s role in the process
California Congressman Ted Lieu responded to this last week well:
“As public servants, we help people because it is the right thing to do, not because we want to be praised for it. Also, the US President should never wish for Americans to be locked up in a foreign jail.”
Apparently Bob Mueller’s team directed the Justice Department to turn over a broad array of documents this weekend related to Trump’s firing of FBI director James Comey and Jeff Sessions decision to recuse himself from the inquiry. So perhaps this bizarre tweet storm was the result of the intense pressure being applied on Trump and his White House in relation to the investigation into the Trump campaign’s collusion with Russian operatives.
Or perhaps he’s even crazier than we thought.
