Trump has become an easy mark -- and so has America

[marmar]

Trump has become an easy mark — and so has America
The president's erratic behavior has left him — and us — open to manipulation from allies and enemies alike

By Heather Digby Parton
Columnist
Published June 18, 2025 9:20AM (EDT)


(Salon) To say that Donald Trump's second term is more chaotic and volatile than his chaotic and volatile first term is, at this point, a cliché. There are no guardrails to stop him from making destructive decisions. By "guardrails," most people generally mean serious, experienced hands who can advise him of a more sensible and judicious course in his decision-making, and who are perceptive enough about his psychology to understand how to handle him with misdirection and diversions to focus his attention on a safer path than he would otherwise choose on his own.

....(snip)....

In every important issue area marking these first few months of his second term, Trump's impulsive, labile character has been exposed in one way or another. As much as people learned to manage him — to save the country from his worst impulses — during his first term, everyone now knows they can manipulate him for their own ends in the second. That includes foreign adversaries, and even certain allies with their own axes to grind.

Take, for example, Trump's big "Liberation Day" tariffs announcement on April 2, which was received with a mix of shock and bemusement by the entire world and caused an epic stock market crash. From the moment he showed his amateurish chart unveiling tariffs for individual countries, it was obvious there was no discernible formula — which should have been predicted by the fact that Trump has always erroneously based his obsession with tariffs on the idea that a trade deficit means America is "losing."

....(snip)....

His immigration policies have also been scattershot. One week, his enforcer Stephen Miller is yelling at ICE supervisors that they have to start rounding up undocumented workers at Home Depot, sparking a massive protest, and giving him and Trump the excuse they have been looking for to bring troops into America's big blue cities. The next week, he's announcing that farmers and hotel owners don't like to see their long-term undocumented employees being deported and instructs ICE to stop their efforts in those sectors. A few days later, the administration quietly rescinds that order and Trump announces he is sending tactical units to Chicago and New York to bring the hammer down on immigrants and officials in these "Democrat Power Centers" who are "sick" and "hate America." ......................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2025/06/18/has-become-an-easy-mark--and-so-has-america/

[Lovie777]

1. Well that 80 foot flag pole is like here I am.....................

come get me.

[Jarqui]

2. These clowns as so busy screwing around with ICE,

no one is minding the store.

America's enemies have to be discussing whether any time now would be a great time to hit the country with some sort of an attack while the buffoons are in charge.

Can you imagine Hegseth putting together a plan to defend the nation while looking in his bible for military truths ...?

The whole administration is insane.