Fun on Friday: Trump Grounds Nancy Pelosi

Did you hear what President Trump did to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi? He grounded her airplane — 40 minutes before she was supposed to take off on a big excursion.

Whether you love Trump or hate him, you have to admit he’s the greatest troll to ever occupy the Oval Office.

Now, a lot of people will say, “Mike, it’s not funny. It’s beneath the dignity of the office! You shouldn’t laugh at such things.”

Actually, I should laugh. Because daggonit, it’s funny!

As far as the dignity of the office goes – meh.

The truth is Trump is just like every other SOB to ever rise to the presidency. Heck, Harry Truman was known to pull out his schlong. Trump just happens to lack any kind of public filter so we get to see the reality of politics firsthand. Trump personifies politics. This is what it is in all of its bare-naked ugliness. I guarantee you that when the doors were closed, Barack Obama was every bit as childish, vindictive and bratty as Trump. He just knew how to cover it over with flowery speech and an aura of gravitas.

Politicians want one thing – power. And they want to lord it over others. That’s the name of the game folks. I love the fact that Trump brings it out of the shadows. A president with a Twitter account is the best thing to ever happen to American politics as far as I’m concerned. He tears the mask off the political process and strips aways this silly veneer of respectability and reverence.

Anyway, back to Pelosi. She was getting ready to take a nice little international trip. Right before she was supposed to take off, The Donald pulled the plug on her airplane. The condescending letter he sent to the speaker was pretty epic.

Due to the Shutdown, I am sorry to inform you that your trip to Brussels, Egypt, and Afghanistan has been postponed. We will reschedule this seven-day excursion when the Shutdown is over. In light of the 800,000 great American workers not receiving pay, I am sure you would agree that postponing this public relations event is totally appropriate.”

Then there was this jewel.

Obviously, if you would like to make your journey by flying commercial, that would certainly be your prerogative.”

Bahaha!

Make that coach, Nancy.

You can read the whole letter HERE.

The wording is magnificent. People bust on Trump all the time for his butchery of the English language. It’s true that a lot of his speeches are nothing but word salad. Of course, Obama’s speeches were word salad too. They were just packaged better. Anyway, Trump takes a lot of crap about his lack of speaking skills. But he does know how to use language for his own ends. Look at the words he used in just one short paragraph: excursion, great American workers, public relations event. It’s masterful. Sure, somebody probably proofed it for him and fixed the spelling mistakes. But still, it’s a great letter.

It’s also politically masterful. He made Nancy look like the fool she is, put her on the defensive and took the attention off himself. If nothing else, Trump knows how to control the media narrative. The press gets all indignant and critical, but that’s exactly what he wants. They think their attacks are hurting him, but he’s really using them. I really think that’s why a lot of people like Trump. His policies are pretty much standard politically centrist garbage in my opinion. But the man’s fun to watch.

This was funny too. The press immediately fired back, noting that just hours later, First Lady Melania Trump reportedly used another military aircraft to fly to Florida for a weekend vacation at the Trump family’s private Mar-a-Lago resort.

This is supposed to be a big “gotchya.” It proves Trump is a hypocrite.

Oh, wait. We all knew that, right?

Fact checkers also quickly jumped on some factual errors in Trump’s letter to Nancy, specifically that there was no planned stop in Egypt.

I’ll let you in on a little secret: Trump doesn’t care. He really doesn’t. He’s not trying to be consistent or honest or principled or accurate. This isn’t about policy or standing up for government workers. It’s about poking his finger in Pelosi’s eye. He did it. His supporters love it. His detractors rage – as expected. It’s all according to plan.

I know a lot of people get all worked up about this stuff. I really don’t. I figure no matter what any of these politicians do, at the end of the day they will still be running up the national debt, devaluing my money and taxing me to death. I might as well have a little fun along the way, right?

So, pop up a batch of popcorn and join me. The show’s not over. I’m sure of that!

Fun on Friday is a weekly SchiffGold feature. We dig up some of the off-the-wall and off-beat stories relating to precious metals and share them with you – with tongue firmly planted in cheek. Click here to read other posts in this series.

Photo by DonkeyHotey via Flickr

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