r/politics • u/Quirkie The Netherlands • 1d ago

Soft Paywall Obama Breaks Silence on Trump’s ‘Unimaginable’ Presidency - “Imagine if I had done any of this,” the former two-term president said.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/obama-breaks-silence-on-trumps-unimaginable-presidency/
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u/jtsa5 1d ago

If anyone else other than Trump did anything wrong it was like the world was ending. When it's Trump everyone has kid gloves on.

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u/SadFeed63 1d ago

That's what I found very infuriating last year when you saw some very direct Trump impressions not get treated like Trump by mainstream media. DeSantis was doing a Trump impression at the start of 2024, and he even got a little bit or overly credulous, Trump-like coverage that talks about his insane bullshit in a totally normal tone, but this was when Trump was comparatively quiet from a news front. Then he called him Meatball Ron or whatever fucking thing and that was that, DeSantis was done and has more often been (accurately) covered like he's radioactive. When Vance got announced as the VP pick, he basically went on a tear doing a Trump impression and he didn't even get the grace period DeSantis did. He got covered pretty immediately like he was a radioactive shitstain, which he is.

Both these guys didn't seem to realize that just being a loud moron is not enough to do a Trump, you need the other half of the equation, which is Trump style coverage. And yeah, Trump gets bad coverage sometimes, of course, all he does is awful shit, but he generally benefits from intense both sides-ing, sanewashing, unearned credulity from the media, covering a lot of his insane shit just as uncritical "Trump says..." direct quotes, etc. They didn't get that cause they're not Trump, he's always treated special. It's absolutely infuriating

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u/bridwats 1d ago

It's the complete lack of shame that Trump has. He ALWAYS doubles down and never backs off. The other guys will push through the shame, but they aren't as deluded as Trump is. Ironically, this is his greatest strength. It's also why I think it will be near impossible for the GOP to keep all of the sheep in the same pen after he's gone. They just don't have anyone else who can harness the ability to make the masses feel connected in the same way. They are bad people, but they know what they are doing is wrong. Trump doesn't know and actually believes all of his own bullshit. That's why he throws a tantrum when it doesn't work.