Experts query ‘mix-up of priorities’ as president plays golf, posts old pictures and repeats details of Bill Maher feud

More than two weeks into the US-Israel war on Iran, and the conflict appears at risk of spiraling out of control.

Back home, Donald Trump’s behavior also appears chaotic. A foreign conflict typically brings somber reflection from leaders: in Trump’s case, it has brought a stream of behavior that has defied norms and raised eyebrows over his state of mind.

Take last Sunday, for example: the Pentagon solemnly announced that a seventh US service member had been killed in the Iran conflict. Trump spent the day playing golf in Florida, where he appeared to be wearing the same baseball cap he wore during a dignified transfer ritual of dead military members on Saturday.

That same day, Trump spoke at a “Shield of the Americas” summit, alongside a group of Latin American leaders. He told heads of countries, including El Salvador and Honduras, that Marco Rubio, his secretary of state, has “a language advantage over me”, because Rubio speaks Spanish.

  • Gork@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    181·
    2 months ago

    Riley said: “This is a representational dilemma of: how do we expect a person who is a billionaire to actually be concerned about the wellbeing of people who are not of wealth, who are not of that particular economic class? And I think Trump’s behavior shows either he’s a narcissist, or he just simply doesn’t care.”

    I’m waiting for more MAGA folk for leopards to eat their faces over this.

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
      61·
      2 months ago

      It’s not just wealth.

      Any isolated social circle will start to exclude everyone else as “them”.

      It’s our brains working as designed.

      Even the founders understood this. It’s why Representatives were originally so powerful and meant to spend most of their time back in their home districts.

      Sending the same people to DC for decades just guarantees the people they represent start to become “them” and other politicians regardless of party become “us”.

      With insider trading and donor/lobbying system, the politicians are getting rolled up with wealthy as “us”.

      I’ve been saying for a while now that we have the tech, reps should be required to spend like 90% of their time in their districts. Have an office, occasionally state level meetups in the capitals, and super rare DC events.

      But the bulk of the work can be done via telework.

      It doesn’t sound like that big of a deal, but it would limit grifter candidates, make reps face their constituents daily, actually understand their issues, and go a long way to making politicians feel like their actually accountable.

      There’d be no hiding in a crowd of politicians.