Trump is a genius at touting nonexistent achievements

[DonViejo]

By Max Boot
June 14 at 1:33 PM

When it comes to economics, history, foreign policy, health care, tax policy or any other field that it is important for a president to master, Donald Trump is an invincible ignoramus. But when it comes to salesmanship, Trump is an unparalleled genius — he is Dale Carnegie, P.T. Barnum and David Ogilvy rolled into one. His central insight is that in the post-truth, social media age, it is no longer necessary to achieve anything in order to claim a policy victory. You can just say over and over that you’ve accomplished your goals — and a lot of people will believe you even if it’s just not so.

This is why Trump says he is already building his border wall with Mexico even though Congress has not appropriated money for it and Mexico hasn’t volunteered to pay for it, as he once said it would. The president even tweeted photos of a wall being built. On closer examination, however, this turned out to be a section of fencing that was in the works before his election. But Trump no doubt assumes that his followers will never notice the fact checks from the “fake news media,” and, even if they do, will never believe them.

Trump applied the same method to the Iran nuclear deal. On June 7, he said that, as a result of his withdrawal from the accord, “Iran is acting a lot differently. They’re no longer looking so much to the Mediterranean. They’re no longer looking so much to what’s going on in Syria, what’s going on in Yemen and lots of other places. They’re a much different country over the last three months.” There is, in fact, zero evidence of any change in Iranian behavior. Tehran is threatening to ramp up nuclear production and carrying out war crimes in Syria, backing the Houthis in Yemen and engineering a political deal in Iraq to place its proxies in power. It is exactly the same country it was when Trump left the nuclear deal; if anything, it is now more dangerous.

All this was merely a prelude for Trump’s most audacious faux achievement yet. On Wednesday, he tweeted that “There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea.” In fact, North Korea’s nuclear capabilities are unaffected by Trump’s Singapore summit with Kim Jong Un. It hasn’t dismantled a single warhead or missile.

Kim’s only commitment was to “work towards the complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula” — the same empty promise his country has made since 1992. Kim offered no nuclear inventory, no timetable and no verification procedures. All of the concessions were on Trump’s part: He agreed to end U.S.-South Korean military exercises (“war games”), and he elevated North Korea to equal status on the world stage (he even saluted a North Korean general!) while effectively neutering the sanctions regime. Why would any country enforce sanctions, after all, when the president has certified that North Korea no longer poses a threat?

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2018/06/14/trump-is-a-genius-at-touting-nonexistent-achievements/

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

1. One of the huge problems with the internet

is that far too many people will accept whatever they see or read there, especially if it feeds into their biases.

I am constantly having to post corrections to crap that shows up on my FB page because too many people just assume if they read it on the internet it must be true, and never ever bother to fact check.

It's even been known to happen here. Posting something without checking to see if it's accurate.

And that's why Trump's followers are so convinced he's so great. He tells them so, therefore it must be true.

[Gothmog]

2. Has trump accomplished anything yet?

[anarch]

3. he has destroyed U.S credibility, made significant progress toward disrupting the NATO alliance

and the world order in general, and has consistently advanced Russian interests wherever he's been able. So yes, he's actually managed to do quite a lot of damage, just like his boss Vlad wanted.