Trump was concerned that showing 'empathy' in George Floyd would make him look like a weenie

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

After untold millions of people witnessed the murder of George Floyd on video last year, the calls for justice were immediate, especially among Black Americans.

When former President Donald Trump saw the Floyd video on Air Force One last year, he "contorted his face as he watched" and "looked repulsed," according to a forthcoming book by Wall Street Journal reporter Michael C. Bender.

-snip-

Trump's response to the sustained outcry over Floyd's death was detailed in an excerpt of the book, "Frankly We Did Win This Election': The Inside Story of How Donald Trump Lost," which was published in Politico Magazine on Friday.

-snip-

To some of the individuals who heard the comment, Trump's critique of the police was quite unusual and reflected a point of view that he never revealed in public.

However, Trump didn't feel it was his role to display "empathy" in the Floyd case and "he worried that such a display would signal weakness to his base," according to the book.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-was-concerned-that-publicly-showing-empathy-in-george-floyd-case-would-indicate-weakness-to-political-base-book/ar-AALf4rj

[The Wizard]

1. Look like a weenie?

He's been a weenie his whole life. A lying weenie at that.

[Buns_of_Fire]

2. A "Profile in Courage" he ain't.

And so far as looking like a weenie: that ship sailed a long time ago.

[GoCubsGo]

3. If only he was that worried about it when he was groveling to Putin.

[gratuitous]

4. Which means that any show of empathy was just that: A show

He may know the word, but he doesn't understand it.

[Solly Mack]

5. Sure. That happened.

Snort

[Caliman73]

7. I don't doubt that it happened.

I would however, imagine that the "look of disgust" on Trump's face was more about George allowing himself to get choked to death rather than on the police for doing it.

Remember Trump's own account about the man who fell and cracked his head open at Trump's resort? His response was disgust about the blood and how the floors were going to be ruined.

Trump probably thought the police were stupid for killing George in the open, in public, with such easily noted disregard. He doesn't have the ability to actually feel empathy for vulnerable people, so that was likely never the case, and was probably attributed to him by the reporters or author of the book who likely cannot really imagine that someone could not experience any empathy.

The thing about "empathy" signaling weakness is dead on however. In Trump's warped mind, anything which expresses regret, fear, remorse, or empathy, is weakness. It's for suckers. This is why Trump never seems quite human. There is a superficial charm that he might have for some people, but he can never really connect in any human way because he lacks the ability to express any of the emotions above, which make us all vulnerable, but also make us complete and loveable human beings.

[Solly Mack]

9. I don't think he can feel empathy. He can claim he does. Others can claim he does.

I do agree he thinks empathy is a weakness - in others. But he can't actually feel it himself. So any claim where he felt empathy but feared showing it for whatever reason is bullshit in my opinion. He can't feel empathy, so there was nothing to fear in showing what he never felt to begin with. I think that was Bender trying to make Trump appear human.

I also think he probably was repulsed by Floyd - not the cops or their actions - but Floyd, his dying...but in a "How dare he?" kind of way.

[LiberatedUSA]

12. Like that show, Dexter.

Couldn’t feel it, but could pick up enough on what was expected to fake it. Of course that character was intelligent, whereas he is too dumb to fake it.

I would love to play Trump in Texas Hold’em. He is too stupid to put on a poker face or bluff correctly.

[Solly Mack]

16. If Trump was a character on the show "Dexter", he'd see the room covered in plastic.

If Trump was a character in "Silence of the Lambs", he'd be the guest of honor, so to speak, at dinner.

Because even Dexter and Hannibal had something Trump lacks - standards.

I agree, Trump can't fake feelings, so others attempt to frame his reactions in a way to suggest he has normal ones.

When he is being his typical petty and vindictive self, they frame it as him "fighting back" against those who have "attacked?" him.

Never mind that disagreeing with someone is not an attack.

[Initech]

6. That's what presidents are supposed to do!

They're supposed to do the right thing regardless of how it makes them look. Trump has always been about doing the wrong thing, and that's how he lost.

[Hoyt]

8. Good example of why he was a cruddy Prez.

[gohuskies]

10. The S.O.B. hasn't a drop of humanity in his dried and evil being..

He is purely transactionally-driven and a truly malignant and sociopathic monster. And he has spawned and given permission to his lemmings to act out his hopes and desires every single day. For fuck's sake he even ruins Father's Day by making it about himself and politicall.. Hurry up and die tRump...

[Nexus2]

11. Frankly, I'm surprise (and dubious) that he displayed a negative reaction at all.

I expected nothing or even a gleeful look, maybe that ghoulish 'cat about to pounce on a mouse its toyed with to exhaustion' so called smile of his. The Joker's is more pleasant.

[peggysue2]

13. I'd be surprised if Trump felt any empathy at all

Disgust, revulsion perhaps. In the same way he described the incident involving an elderly man who fell at Mar-a-Lago cracking his head open on the marble floor and bleeding like a big. Trump said (as if it were a great joke) that he immediately yelled at the wait staff to get the guy out of there. 'He'd made a mess of the beautiful marble floor,' Trump said. 'It was disgusting, sickening. You can't imagine what a mess.'

A reaction like that I can easily believe.

Empathy?

Trump wouldn't know empathy if he tripped over it. Which he would, and then blame empathy for his cranky disposition.

[Peppertoo]

14. The irony is that the response he made him look like a weenie.

[Cha]

15. Psycho is a fucking Zombie..

Puppet

[Wounded Bear]

17. When your whole shtick is looking like a prick...

I guess that would be a deterrent.