Wednesday, August 03, 2016

TRUMP HIRES THE BEST PEOPLE!

Donald Trump does so many frighteningly awful big things that it's easy to overlook how little confidence his handling of the small stuff inspires. So I'm savoring Betsy Woodruff's Daily Beast story about the material Trump's staff gave the the candidate for a speech in wealthy Loudoun County, Virginia -- America's richest county, a place "replete with defense contractors, engineers, and rocket scientists."
... Trump seems to think it’s part of the Rust Belt. Towards the end of his speech -- to an atypically preppy, professional, clean-cut audience -- the candidate bashed the county economy.

“You’re doing lousy over here, by the way, I hate to tell you,” he said.

That is empirically false.

He then listed a number of factory closures, including Ball Corp., which was five hours away in Bristol, as far from Loudoun as you can get without leaving the state. And he mentioned the closure of a Smithfield Foods Inc [plant.]

“Anybody used to work for Smithfield?” he asked the crowd.

It’s almost certain none of them did. The Smithfield plant that closed was in Hampton Roads, Va. -- three hours from Ashburn, in the southeast corner of Virginia....

“Stanley Furniture closed its plant,” he continued.

Stanley Furniture did indeed recently close a plant, in 2014. That plant was in North Carolina.

He also mentioned the closure of a plant owned by Invista, a Koch Industries company that produces fabric and carpeting. That plant was two hours from Ashburn, and it closed eight years ago.
It's easy to imagine that Trump as president would pay no attention to the nuts and bolts of the job -- he'd leave the boring stuff to Republicans in Congress (which would be bad enough), or turn much of the tedium over to the vice president, as a recent New York Times story suggested:
... according to [a John] Kasich adviser (who spoke only under the condition that he not be named), Donald Jr. wanted to make him an offer ...: Did he have any interest in being the most powerful vice president in history?

When Kasich’s adviser asked how this would be the case, Donald Jr. explained that his father’s vice president would be in charge of domestic and foreign policy.

Then what, the adviser asked, would Trump be in charge of?

“Making America great again” was the casual reply.
But if Trump were to involve himself in mundane matters at all, he'd screw those up -- or, rather, they'd be screwed up by the incompetent, unqualified staffers he'd employ as much as by Trump himself. (Y'know, he's the guy who says he'll hire "the best people.") Think about this speech. Trump isn't winging it. Some underling prepared this list of supposedly locally relevant plant closings for him. Someone thought the job was competently done.

A Trump presidency wouldn't just be awful in apocalyptic ways. It would be awful in small ways, too. It would be a symphony of awful.

12 comments:

Lit3Bolt said...

The campaign fatigue is setting in on Trump.

Campaigning is work. It's not fun. It's basically a tour of the USA, with multiple shows every day. Trump is probably calling Actor's Equity right now, wanting to talk to his union chief.

Victor said...

It may start off as a 'symphony of awful, but it may end tragically as an opera - only, not many arias at the end, as w all die.

What tRUMP knows, would fit on the back of a postage stamp.

What he doesn't know, would fill the central NY Library - and then some!

Mr. Driscoll said...

He would be President Lepetomane Pence is his Hedley Lamarr

Unknown said...

He has Dementia is a question that should seriously be considered?

Feud Turgidson said...

Mr. D - If you're right, that could add significantly to the Trump Coalition:

"rustlers, cut throats, murderers, bounty hunters, desperados, mugs, pugs, thugs, nitwits, halfwits, dimwits, vipers, snipers, con men, Indian agents, Mexican bandits, muggers, buggerers, bushwhackers, hornswogglers, horse thieves, bull dykes, train robbers, bank robbers, ass-kickers, shit-kickers and Methodists"

Ten Bears said...

Deacon Blues, @ Left Coaster, if possible a more hardcore Clinton enthusiast now than in 08: "With each passing day after the conclusion of the conventions, it appears that Donald Trump is determined to hand the election to Hillary Clinton."

Yawl been trolled. I don't know to laugh at harder, the lefties, or the Retards. If it were a laughing matter.

Whatever happens, it's on you.

Stellours said...

Not to mention that this particular speech was horribly tone deaf for this particular audience. They were probably hoping and expecting to hear how and where Trump would take the country as far as engineering, defense contracting, and rocket science.

I can't believe I had the opportunity to put Trump and rocket science in the same sentence!

Professor Chaos said...

The fact that he has Katrina Pierson out there speaking for him shows that he has no clue who "the best people" are.

Gerald Parks said...

This "hiring the best people" line is part of a pattern.
One of the indictments in the TU scandal is that he " hand picked" the instructors.
Well...how did that work out?
Willful ignorance is not BLISSful...just plain stupid!
Not to connect these dots ...would be ...stupid!

jsrtheta said...

This goes to the heart of the Trump magic: The belief that, even though he may not be totally prepared, he'll appoint incredibly knowledgeable and gifted staff to wisely advise him.

But Trump always believes he can do things on the cheap. Either pay very little for "qualified" staff, or simply refuse to pay them when they have performed their assigned tasks.

This is of a piece with his wife's plagiarized speech. Hire unskilled labor, because you can always lujack the blame if things go wrong. It should be no surprise that someone with little aptitude for Google generated so many obsolete and incorrect "facts." After all, he was able to write a smaller check. Assuming he wrote a check at all.

KenRight said...

He didn't get the number of states wrong or call ISIS an innocuous junior varsity though.

trnc said...

"He didn't get the number of states wrong or call ISIS an innocuous junior varsity though."

Who called ISIS innocuous? Quote with a link, please.