Sunday, June 04, 2017

NOTICE THAT NO ONE EVER SAYS TRUMP HAS "NO FIXED IDEOLOGY" AT MOMENTS LIKE THIS? (updated)

The only president we've got responded to last night's London terror attack just the way a Fox News commentator would:
“We must stop being politically correct and get down to the business of security for our people,” he wrote on Twitter. “If we don’t get smart it will only get worse.”

Mr. Trump targeted Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, scorning him for trying to reassure his people. “At least 7 dead and 48 wounded in terror attack and Mayor of London says there is “no reason to be alarmed!””Mr. Trump wrote.
(That, of course was a misrepresentation of Khan's statement. The mayor had been referring to the deployment of more police officers in the city: “Londoners will see an increased police presence today and over the course of the next few days. There’s no reason to be alarmed. One of the things the police and all of us need to do is ensure that we’re as safe as we possibly can be.")

More tweets from Trump:





We're often told that Trump has "no fixed ideology," that he used to be a political centrist and that he might move to the center -- or even the left -- at any moment on any issue.

But no one's saying that right now. It isn't just that Trump seizes every opportunity to stir up trouble on Twitter, even when the moment calls for dignity and shared resolve -- it's that all of Trump's angry tweets consist exclusively of Fox-style talking points. The enemy is political correctness. Liberals and Muslims won't acknowledge the true nature of terrorism. Out-of-control judges are going to get us all killed. Guns don't kill people, people do.

What do we learn about Trump in a fraught, challenging moment? That the ideas and values he falls back on are exclusively Republican -- specifically, Fox News Republican.

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UPDATE: We now have evidence that some of Trump's tweets in response to the London terrorist attack were directly influenced by Fox -- specifically, by this morning's episode of Fox & Friends:
... President Donald Trump made it clear Sunday morning he was watching the broadcast.

Shortly after psychologist Dr. James Mitchell criticized political correctness in the fight against terrorism, Trump sent out a tweet echoing his words....

Later in the morning, [co-host Clayton] Morris noted that because the attackers were carrying knives instead of guns, there was no debate about gun control.

“Notice we’re not having a gun debate right now because they didn’t kill with guns, they killed with knives,” Morris said.

Minutes later, the president sent out a tweet that nearly matched Morris’ comment word for word.

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