I'm sure he's not as sharp as he was when he was 35, but I doubt he's as far gone as Biden. I think his persona is tied to how he wants the listener to perceive him. Kind, bombastic, reasonable, etc. Who's asking, and what do I want them to think? Or put more bluntly: like all politicians he's a bullshitter.
I think a bigger issue is lack of experience, which in turns leads him to take advice from the wrong people. Navarro convinced Trump of his tariff ideas even though economists said it was crazy. When the damage started accumulating, he had to walk it back. Elon was going to cut a trillion dollars of fat out of the budget. The exact amount actually cut is disputed, but nowhere near a trillion, and meanwhile we're set to increase the 2025 budget to 7.3 trillion compared to 2024's 6.7 trillion. Where'd the savings go? My belief is Elon and Navarro both fed Trump a good story and he didn't know enough to disbelieve them. He also has the same problem a lot of people have, wherein they think social media is a source of fact. You know, like "eating the cats" or "that guy has MS-13 tattooed on his knuckles". It's one thing when it's your cousin sharing something absurd, but I find it alarming when it's the President of the USA. I'll add that the left is not immune to believing dumb things. The president is always under a microscope, and this president just happens to be different enough from normal to give us a lot of things to discuss. -Adam ________________________________ From: AF <[email protected]> on behalf of Chuck <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, June 29, 2025 4:37 PM To: [email protected] <[email protected]> Cc: [email protected] <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [AFMUG] OT Political Odd how differently we see the same thing. I see him being less bombastic, tad bit more kind than before. Sent from my iPhone On Jun 29, 2025, at 12:33 PM, Bill Prince <[email protected]> wrote: I disagree. His vocabulary has been getting noticably smaller with each passing year. His verbal gaffs are legend and getting worse. bp <part15sbs{at}gmail{dot}com> On 6/29/2025 11:21 AM, Chuck McCown wrote: For me, the difference is that you could just watch Biden’s decline in real time. Culminated in his debate performance. Trump has always been a bit daffy. I don’t see much of a downward a trend. From: AF [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Bill Prince Sent: Sunday, June 29, 2025 12:11 PM To: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> Subject: Re: [AFMUG] OT Political It's been pretty obvious to me that the current president is a few sandwiches short of a picnic for about the last 10 years. Bet no one in his current circle will point that out, but a lot of people that used to be in his circle have. bp <part15sbs{at}gmail{dot}com> On 6/29/2025 10:42 AM, Chuck McCown wrote: Just finished Jake Tapper’s “Original Sin” book. First half was interesting, second half gets pretty tedious. Main takeaway for me: Nobody around Biden had the guts to tell him how the rest of the world was perceiving his cognitive state. His wife was the main mechanic of the situation. No cognitive tests. I loved the part where George Clooney got really pissed at an event when Biden didn’t know him. (Apparently they had been buds for a long time.) In any event he really crapped the bed by running. It appears things could have been massively different if there was a real primary for the Dems. The book was sad and depressing IMHO. They did identify the group by name that internally was called “The Politburo” that essentially “handled” the president and had a large influence on everything. But the book left the impression that they stopped short of just locking him away and being in control. They tried to at least have the appearance of keeping him in the loop. I would not recommend the book only because it is pretty boring and not really too much new info in there. No bombshells. Nothing scandalous other than a sad picture into a scene that was a bit worse than I suspected. -- AF mailing list [email protected] http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com
-- AF mailing list [email protected] http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com
