The Trump-Tucker cold war has begun

[DonViejo]

Analysis

By Philip Bump

March 17, 2021 at 10:04 a.m. EDT

One of the mysteries that lingers around Donald Trump’s final days in office is why he chose to downplay the deployment of the coronavirus vaccine.

Granted, his last days took place in the shadow of the insurrection on Jan. 6 that followed his constant insistences that the 2020 presidential election had been stolen. But at some point that month, Trump himself quietly got the vaccine and, despite having nearly nothing else on his schedule, he never undertook any substantial effort to promote vaccination. No events focused on it. There was little mention of the vaccine publicly, in part because he was so focused on injecting his election-fraud nonsense into his followers.

Part of the impulse may have been one central to Trump’s approach since he took office. Trump always likes to give himself wiggle room for people to interpret his position however they want. He’ll say things vaguely enough to send one message to his base while maintaining deniability when questioned by the media. He’ll add quick caveats that, as needed, can be built into primary defenses or new rationales for support. For all of the praise Trump gets from his base for his directness, he is always careful to leave some escape routes allowing people to take different paths.

On vaccines, he seems to be torn between two positions. On the one hand he wants credit — full, world-saving credit — for their existence. At the same time, he recognizes that many Republicans, particularly Republican men, are skeptical of the vaccine. Often, those skeptics frame their position as being a reflection of independence from the government, a position on the virus that Trump actively stoked last year as he sought both to encourage people to resume normal economic activity and to pin blame for containment measures on the states. Trump told his base to rebel against government recommendations in the pandemic and now is in the awkward position of seeing them reject the thing that he long promised would resolve the pandemic and the thing for which he wants credit.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/03/17/trump-tucker-cold-war-has-begun/

[CentralMass]

1. The battle of the lying weasels.

[Vogon_Glory]

2. A Cold War, eh?

Is it too much to ask for Mutually Assured Destruction?

[gratuitous]

3. When did the Post figure out Trump's "wiggle room" approach?

Because it was real obvious to practically everyone that Trump couched his pronouncements in a way that gave a very direct message to his demented fanboiz. Meanwhile the Post, the Times, and other "responsible" media outlets quibbled over whether Trump actually meant Y when he said X. Culminating in the failed attempt to violently overthrow the government on January 6, Trump's followers didn't suffer from any such ambiguity.

When did the Post figure this out? Just this week? Is this going to inform their coverage of Trump going forward now that they apparently know how Trump operates?

[kysrsoze]

4. This is not an issue for them. They'll kiss his ass and not take the vaccine. Cognitive dissonance

... abounds.

My idiotic right-wing sister thought my parents should get the vaccine and avoided visiting them to help out with their medical issues because they were supposedly afraid to infect them. However, she sent me a bunch of "wu" nonsensical crap about vitamin supplements preventing infection and proclaims she and her husband don't trust any scientists (don't get me started) and will not get the vaccine. So it's an easy stretch for them to add Dump into the equation and kiss his ass for it.

I don't think Republicans care in the slightest about these conflicting viewpoints. Nothing they believe in makes sense.

[Laelth]

5. +1 n/t

-Laelth