Trumps chaotic signing of grandiose orders has the air of a deluded despots last day-not his first

[kpete]

THE IRISH TIMES
Fintan O’Toole: Welcome to Trumperica
......

He mistakes his own impulses for facts. He does not know the difference between self-aggrandising symbolic gestures and lived human realities, and this tiny-minded literalism has very serious consequences for millions of people.

The most important thing to understand about the executive order keeping immigrants and refugees from seven Muslim countries out of the US is that it has no relationship whatsoever to its stated purpose. That purpose is, supposedly, to keep America safe from terrorism. The order is actually called “Protecting the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into the United States”.

.............

Campaign rhetoric

The problem the executive order is really meant to address is not terrorism, but Trump’s own campaign rhetoric. The order relates, not to actual, living, breathing events or conditions, but only to language.

It is pure postmodern politics: The order is a text that refers only to another text, which is Trump’s stump speech on the campaign trail and its dark promise of a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States, until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.” (If the lifting of the ban really has to wait for Trump to figure out what is going on, it will last indefinitely.)

........

American carnage

However, taking himself literally is also Trump’s weakness – because what he is being literal about is a dystopian fiction.

The “American carnage” he evoked in his inaugural address, the graveyard landscape and ruined republic, the communities stalked by immigrant rapists and jihadi terrorists, does have some distant correlatives in an actual America. But it is so wildly distorted that it has no practical use as a map of the country Trump is supposed to rule. And Trump doesn’t know the difference between his crazy map, with “here be monsters” scrawled all over it, and the real territory it is supposed to chart.


Oh yes, there is lots more:
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/us/fintan-o-toole-welcome-to-trumperica-1.2960823

[livetohike]

1. He thinks he is a King. In business he is used to barking orders

and not hearing anyone say "No". He doesn't know how to govern.

[democrank]

2. O'Toole couldn't have been more spot-on.

"here be monsters"

[Vinca]

3. I think it's more ego driven. He wants his orange puss on TV 24/7. The orders are props.

[madokie]

4. I think you might be on to something

I really don't see him lasting 6 months. Albeit that being a long ass 6 months

[Squinch]

5. And all of his stuff is being either overturned or backtracked.

[safeinOhio]

6. Next Order......

As Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces he will order a fancy uniform, loaded with medals, for himself.

[dalton99a]

7. His orders are such a joke: