Thread: Donald Trump just held the weirdest Cabinet meeting ever

Donald Trump just held the weirdest Cabinet meeting ever

By Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large
Updated 3:04 PM ET, Mon June 12, 2017

(CNN)Leave it to Donald Trump to reinvent the Cabinet meeting.

The public portion of these gatherings of all of the president's top advisers are usually staid affairs. Photographers are let in to take pictures. The president makes a very brief statement. A reporter shouts a question, unanswered. The end.
Donald Trump did something very different in his Cabinet meeting Monday.

First, he reviewed the various alleged successes of his first 143 days and made this remarkable claim: "Never has there been a president....with few exceptions...who's passed more legislation, who's done more things than I have."

Um, ok. While Trump has signed a number of executive orders and actions -- the most high profile of which, the so-called "travel ban" was, again, blocked by a court on Monday -- what he hasn't really done is pass actual legislation through Congress. The health care bill is tied up in Senate machinations. Tax reform hasn't moved an inch. Funding for the border wall hasn't happened. And so on.

(Nota bene: You can't say "never has" something happened and then say "with few exceptions." Either it's never happened or it, well, has.)

But, that wasn't even close to the weirdest part of the Cabinet meeting!

Once Trump finished touting his administration's accomplishments, he turned to several of his newly-minted Cabinet secretaries like Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue. Each of those Cabinet secretaries lavished praise on Trump, which he accepted without comment but with a broad smile.

At first, I thought Trump was just going to have the new members of the Cabinet spend a few minutes praising him. NOPE! It soon became clear that Trump planned to have every Cabinet member speak. And when I say "speak" what I really mean is "praise Trump for his accomplishments, his foresight, his just being awesome."

You think I am exaggerating. I am not. Here's what White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus said about Trump: "We thank you for the opportunity and blessing to serve your agenda."

I mean, WHAT?!?

The whole thing reminded me of a scene directly from the boardroom of "The Apprentice." A group of supplicants all desperately trying to hold on to their spots on the show by effusively praising Trump -- each one trying to take it a step further than the last. And Trump in the middle of it all, totally and completely pleased with himself. (Reminder: Around that Cabinet table are hugely accomplished generals, billionaires and political people with long track records of success.)

What those contestants knew is the same thing Trump's Cabinet has now realized: Flattery will get you everywhere. Donald Trump's favorite topic of conversation is Donald Trump. The best way to talk about Donald Trump, if you want to keep working for Donald Trump, is to praise Donald Trump. The more over-the-top, the better.

Chuck Schumer was quick off the line to mock Trump with this re-creation of the Cabinet meeting:

There's a tendency in Trump's presidency to overlook or dismiss these smaller sorts of things. "Keep focused on the stuff that really matters," people tweet at me every day, all day. (For liberals sending those tweets, it's about Russia and Trump's finances. For conservatives, it's Trump's many accomplishments that are being allegedly ignored.)

My contention is that things like this Cabinet meeting -- while totally inconsequential in terms of actual policy -- is deeply revealing about who Trump is and how he views himself, the people who work for him and the world. And how he views all of those things is this: With Trump at the center and everyone a spoke emanating from his hub.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/12/politi...ing/index.html

What a weird article! This was their first full Cabinet Meeting. Each Cabinet Member spoke about their priorities and agendas for their specific department, some said more than others, but all made nice statements. I found it very informative and a nice event. Once they'd finished going around the table, the press was made to leave and they went into their first private full Cabinet meeting. The press did a terrible job covering the Cabinet members, they didn't have cameras on half of them as they spoke, very unprepared unprofessional media coverage, but the President and Cabinet did their jobs!!

Get used to it, Chris Cillizza. This isn't about you and your DC Pinheads any more, it's about fixing our country for the American People.

It is no secret that President Trump is a open narccissist. However, I was hopeful that wouldn't interfere with ability to push the agenda he ran his campaign on.

Trump isn't a narcissist, MW. He's the complete opposite. A narcissist doesn't do things that make people hate them. They do the opposite. They support free trade, they support open borders, they support climate change agreements with foreign countries, they let NATO countries cheat on their agreements, they kiss ass with the courts, they lick butt with Congress, they run up the debt with deficits, they offer free health care and education, because that makes them popular in our "democracy". Trump does the opposite of all that. He is killing free trade, he is securing the borders, he withdrew from the climate change agreement, he demands that NATO countries comply with their defense agreements or we might not be there to help them, he challenges the courts, he calls Congress ugly names, he's got a budget that will balance the deficit in 10 years, he's cutting spending including on health care and remaking education ... which makes him hated and unpopular. Narcissists don't do that. It's why we're not a "democracy" to begin with, we're a Republic.

I'm catching the news on CNN and got to tell you these crazy DemoQuacks on CNN includng that goofball Chris Cillizza, they're losing it, they really are. They know the sizzle has fizzled and the story is over. Their big story now is Sessions, trying to frame it that Sessions was force by the Committee to testify publicly, when it was in fact a condition by Sessions.

Oh, let's make no mistake about it, Trump is a narcissist.

According to a number of top U.S. psychologists, like Harvard professor and researcher Howard Gardner, Donald Trump is a “textbook” narcissist.

Of course I didn't need to read about Trump's narcissist traits to know he was a narcissist. Anyone that has followed him over the last year or so could see that.

Don't get me wrong. Being a narcissist doesn't mean he can't serve us well as President.

From your link, MW:

“He’s very easy to diagnose,” said psychotherapist Charlotte Prozan. “In the first debate, he talked over people and was domineering. He’ll do anything to demean others, like tell Carly Fiorina he doesn’t like her looks. ‘You’re fired!’ would certainly come under lack of empathy. And he wants to deport immigrants, but [two of] his wives have been immigrants.” Michaelis took a slightly different twist on Trump’s desire to deport immigrants: “This man is known for his golf courses, but, with due respect, who does he think works on these golf courses?”

LOL!! You screw up and get fired, your boss is a narcissist. You don't think people are going to vote for "that face", while true, you're a narcissist. You like golf but want to deport illegal aliens, you're a narcissist.

Giggles. Really, MW.

Originally Posted by Judy

From your link, MW:



LOL!! You screw up and get fired, your boss is a narcissist. You don't think people are going to vote for "that face", while true, you're a narcissist. You like golf but want to deport illegal aliens, you're a narcissist.

Giggles. Really, MW.

Another meaningless tangent. Most of us know what a narcissist is.

You should have found a different article that didn't call people who want to deport illegal aliens "text book narcissists".

You need watch out for that Quicksand.

Glub! Glub!