Trump claimed he read James Mattis' resignation letter -- but didn't know it was critical of him unti

[Julian Englis]

Source: The Raw Story

A bombshell report in the New York Times that details the split between President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary James Mattis, who was once one of his closest advisers.

“One aide said that although Mr. Trump had already seen the resignation letter when he praised Mr. Mattis, the president did not understand just how forceful a rejection of his strategy Mr. Mattis had issued,” the Times reported.

When Trump received the resignation letter he tweeted out his overwhelming support for Mattis for his service and the work he’d done. He called the resignation a “retirement” that Mattis deserved.

Link to tweet

(SNIP)
Two days after the president allegedly read the resignation letter and tweeted his positive support, Trump took a 180-degree turn to attack the general.

Link to tweet

Read more: https://www.rawstory.com/2018/12/trump-claimed-read-james-mattis-resignation-letter-didnt-know-critical-saw-tv-report/

[Maeve]

1. Because he doesn't really read

And he doesn't understand what he DOES read.

[no_hypocrisy]

9. And another person has to connect the dots for him.

[Gothmog]

26. Trump Was Too Dumb To Understand Mattis's Resignation Letter

Link to tweet

[forgotmylogin]

29. I bet he didn't make it past the second paragraph...

Thrump thought it was full of plaudits for him and tossed it aside like a greeting card.

[Sneederbunk]

2. Dotard is a little slow on the uptake.

[3Hotdogs]

3. Comment withdrawn in light of corrections.

[Sneederbunk]

6. Obama fired Mattis too.

[Nasruddin]

8. Mattis also

JM must be somewhat difficult!
[link:https://foreignpolicy.com/2013/01/18/the-obama-administrations-inexplicable-mishandling-of-marine-gen-james-mattis-2/|]
Looks like the Obama national security team (not sure extent of involvement of Mr Obama himself)
That also looks like a bigtime screwup by people who should've known better. However, Mattis can't
be an easy guy - surprisingly poor political skills in someone who achieved this rank.

[DeminPennswoods]

14. Meh, you can go a long way on competence or with the

right sponsors or with documented battlefied successes.

[LakeSuperiorView]

4. "Trump claimed he read" is enough.

One doesn't need much more than that to know the score.

[rpannier]

31. faux spews sent him a comic book with what Mattis meant

After looking at the pictures and reading the explanation (written at a 1st grade level) trump mostly understood the first caption. The rest was explained to him by sean hannity (ala You Only Move Once by the Simpsons)

[MiniMe]

7. The difference between "read" and "comprehended"

[paleotn]

10. Shitler can't or is too lazy to read. He's told.

Maybe no one was willing to tell him. He probably saw a snippit about the letters content on TV and had a fit.

[hibbing]

11. Did the Rhodes Scholar Hannity point this out to him? n/t

[tblue37]

12. I teach college. Often when I ask one of my students whether he or she has read

something that was assigned, the student will say, "I looked at it."

Then when I say, "But did you read it?," the student will say "I skimmed through it," or " I looked it over."

In other words, maybe the student glanced at it for one second and read the title. Nothing beyond that, though.

[B Stieg]

13. This guy wouldn't even read the Cliff's Notes!

And there are none for dealing with international relations or bad actors like Putin.

[SergeStorms]

15. And this is the guy...

who's smarter than his Generals, smarter than scientists, smarter than post-PhD economists.....smarter than anyone in the world! Just ask him.

[BigmanPigman]

16. He has to rely on Fux Ruse and Rush to read it and translate it

with their spin on it.

[DallasNE]

17. Someone Had To Rewrite It

Using 6th grade level words so he could understand it. Only then did he get furious.

[karynnj]

18. It shows how he is living in denial in an alternative reality

Here is a mind exercise in the irrational mind set that is Trump's:

Start with the belief that Trump has been - as he says - the best President with unprecedented accomplishments. Add in that Trump has been a strong leader - and HE made the decisions that led to the decimation of ISIS -- unlike Obama. Now read the letter.

1st Paragraph - Mattis speaks of his pride in his service.
2nd Paragraph - List of good things Mattis did as Secretary of Defense
3rd Paragraph - Wordy Paragraph that has too many words in a senetence for Trump - it would not register as 4th grade level and it has a sentence "like you, I have said (that we should not be the world's policeman.)
4th paragraph - Hey, It talks about American power
5th Paragraph - Respect for allies. Here, Trump may be like Melania and simply see that others are not respectful to him
6th paragraph - Rest of the letter - I'm resigning!!

Experiment over -- The third, fouth and fifth paragraphs comply call out Trump - he disrespects all our valuable alliances (3), he fawns over countries that are not our friends (4), and he absolutely has angered almost all our usual best allies. Note that for all of these, you need to bring your own knowledge of Trump's actions to see them as negative. However, many people have pointed out that a resignation letter of a cabinet official almost always thanks the President for the honor of serving in the administartion and usually has at least some praise.

What is interesting is that some of his base - at least some on Fox News - are not as blind to his faults as he himself seems to be. What is amazing is that as the Democrats had very good gains in the midterms, the government is shutting down, He has 2 more cabinet members leave this week - one under clouds, and the markets have lost 10% this quarter -- he tweets of his unprecedented accomplishments.

[procon]

19. Trump always focuses on money and material things.

He does not grasp the concept of alliances. He sees no value in our allies, friends, partners and trusted nations. He has no ethics, no moral character, and he is a moron. His word is not reliablAable.

Of course Trump did not understand the slap in the face that was so apparent to everyone else who read Mattis resignation letter. He had to get someone to explain the insults, the jabs, the criticisms and the scathing rebut to his presidency. He's so far out of his league we might as well have an orangutan loose in the White House.

[muriel_volestrangler]

20. His eyesight's crap. Maybe it's the staring at the sun that did it.

He's bad at signing documents, too. Trouble is, if it were someone's job to read things out aloud to him, he'd be blaming them the whole time when it's bad news for him. So no-one wants that job.

[Cold War Spook]

21. Why is is every time I read that Trump doesn't read but watches TV,

I think of the movie "Being There"? Although I think that Chauncey would make a much better president.

[Hestia]

30. Excellent analogy! n/t

[NJCher]

22. I thought he was being uncommonly gracious

in his first Tweet on 12/20. Really, this is what he should have said and he should have let it stand. Being gracious, even if the other person is not, makes one look magnanimous.

But noooooohhh, couldn't do that. Had to get spiteful, mean-spirited, and insulting. Petty.

[UpInArms]

23. You mean ... he just had to be himself?

spiteful, mean-spirited, and insulting. Petty.

[Nitram]

24. Just more evidence that Trump can't actually read.

I suspect he's got a learning disability such as dyslexia.

[Gothmog]

25. 'He. Can't. Read': Internet joyfully piles on Trump for 'not being smart enough' to understand Matti

Link to tweet

[truthisfreedom]

27. Trumpers will simply never grasp the obvious truth:

Trump claimed he read James Mattis' resignation letter -- but didn't know it was critical of him until someone said “Sir, this says that you deserve a total yes-man suck-up instead of someone who knows his shit.”

[Basement Beat]

28. I'm only shocked about him saying "President Obama"