FIGHTING F*** WITH F***

My initial reaction to this was that it was adolescent and counterproductive:

Robert De Niro had a few choice words for President Donald Trump while the legendary actor was on stage at Sunday’s Tony Awards to introduce Bruce Springsteen’s musical performance.

“I’m going to say one thing, F— Trump,” De Niro said while pumping his fists in the air. “It’s no longer down with Trump. It’s f— Trump.”

The political sentiment earned De Niro a standing ovation from the crowd at Radio City Music Hall, while CBS scrambled to bleep the audio on the live telecast.

This sounded about right to me:

“I used to think it was good for people to call Trump out,” Kenneth Lonergan — the liberal playwright behind the best revival of a play nominee “Lobby Hero” and Oscar-winning screenwriter of “Manchester By The Sea” — told The Washington Post at one gathering. “I’m just self-defeatist about it. I guess a lot of people like Robert De Niro,” he said. “But is he really going to change anyone’s mind? It just becomes more fodder for the right.”

The scolds and wingnut gloaters are already out in force:

Hollywood here’s your problem. Deniro says “Fuck Trump.” Bee says Ivanka is “a cunt.” Maher “hopes for a recession to get rid of Trump.” That’s all you got? Do you have any clue as to how this plays right into Trump’s playbook? Keep it up and you’ll help ensure four more years.

— Mark McKinnon (@mmckinnon) June 11, 2018

Thank You, De Niro: Your ‘F**k Trump’ Outburst Is Another In-Kind Contribution To POTUS https://t.co/79LzFLUya4

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) June 11, 2018

But here's Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic with some insight into this administration, which we're being asked to treat with respect:

Over the past couple of months, I’ve asked a number of people close to the president to provide me with short descriptions of what might constitute the Trump Doctrine. I’ve been trying, as part of a larger project, to understand the revolutionary nature of Trump’s approach to world affairs....

The best distillation of the Trump Doctrine I heard ... came from a senior White House official with direct access to the president and his thinking. I was talking to this person several weeks ago, and I said, by way of introduction, that I thought it might perhaps be too early to discern a definitive Trump Doctrine.

“No,” the official said. “There’s definitely a Trump Doctrine.”

“What is it?” I asked. Here is the answer I received:

“The Trump Doctrine is ‘We’re America, Bitch.’ That’s the Trump Doctrine.”

... I asked this official to explain the idea. “Obama apologized to everyone for everything. He felt bad about everything.” President Trump, this official said, “doesn’t feel like he has to apologize for anything America does.”

... another senior official ... rendered the doctrine not as “We’re America, Bitch” but as “We’re America, Bitches” ...

“The president believes that we’re America, and people can take it or leave it.”

So you ask these people to distill Trump's foreign policy doctrine and that's what you get.

But wait -- these Trump insiders merely used the word "bitch." "Bitch" isn't as bad as the really, really terrible word De Niro used, right?

Goldberg continues:

“People criticize [Trump] for being opposed to everything Obama did, but we’re justified in canceling out his policies,” one friend of Trump’s told me. This friend described the Trump Doctrine in the simplest way possible. “There’s the Obama Doctrine, and the ‘Fuck Obama’ Doctrine,” he said. “We’re the ‘Fuck Obama’ Doctrine.”

If this is how the Trumpers talk and think, then fuck them.