Trump Slammed Paris at CPAC—He Knows Nothing About It
The president quoted a “friend” in saying that “Paris is no longer Paris”—but the unsourced anecdote reveals more about his ignorance than about the city of lights.
Christopher Dickey
02.24.17 5:25 PM ET
Donald Trump presides as he once campaigned: by anecdote. Hard facts, which are hard to digest, do not work well for him. “I’ve seen that information around,” is his typical refrain. Or he saw “something” on TV or heard it from “somebody,” like, you know that thing that didn’t happen in Sweden last night. And every time he draws on these spectral anecdotes—which is almost daily—he looks like the weak-minded tool of these nameless sources and their tweets. Or, to be more precise, like a witless rich guy in thrall to a smart, unprincipled intellectual con man like, say, Steve Bannon.
But surely we are used to that by now. So, when Trump talked at CPAC on Friday and made this statement in the midst of his usual onanistic oratory, one might have been inclined to shrug:
“I have a friend, he’s a very, very substantial guy. He loves the city of lights, he loves Paris. For years, every year during the summer, he would go to Paris, was automatic with his wife and his family. Hadn’t seen him in a while. And I said, Jim, let me ask you a question, ‘How’s Paris doing? ‘Paris? I don’t go there anymore, Paris is no longer Paris.’ That was four years—four or five years hasn’t gone there. He wouldn’t miss it for anything. Now he doesn’t even think in terms of going there.
“Take a look at what’s happening to our world, folks. And we have to be smart. We have to be smart. We can’t let it happen to us.”
Was Trump thinking about the terrorist attacks of 2015? Guess not. Those were long after Jim Whatshisname supposedly quit going to Paris. Was it taxes? One can imagine that would be the case if Jim were not just a visitor but a resident, but, no, that’s not what it sounds like. Was it a heat wave in the summer? Air conditioning’s not great in France, and the world is getting warmer. But, no, probably that wasn’t it either.
So what was it? We won’t get an answer because there probably isn’t one. Anecdotes are like that. As the ironic old adage of the news business goes, they’re “too good to check.” And Trump, who has the attention span of a restless eight year old, but without as much curiosity, wouldn’t see a need to verify the information in any case.
There’s something more at play here, however. Because Trump, who knows fuck all about France, is pushing an agenda and promoting politicians there, thanks to Bannon, who will be hugely destructive to France and to the future of the European Union as a peaceful, cooperative enterprise. Bannon’s favored “Le Pen women,” one of whom may be the country’s next president, are quite clear about that.
more:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/02/24/trump-slammed-paris-at-cpac-he-knows-nothing-about-it.html?via=newsletter&source=DDAfternoon
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