WASHINGTON, D.C. Oct. 10 (DPI) – The petty and cringe-worthy tweets by the 45th President of The United States continue unabated, and Americans are now close-to-universally embarrassed and ashamed for the man elected to the highest office in the land. It would all be entertaining if it were not so, well, frightening – frightening that the man remains as impetuous, cavalier and unfocused as when he took office nine months ago.
The latest twitter dust-up involves a petty exchange with outgoing Republican Sen. Robert Corker, who in a tweet called the White House an “adult day care center.” It set off multiple tweets from Trump, one of them mocking Corker for being 5-feet seven-inches tall. From The New York Times:
In labeling Mr. Corker “liddle,” the president was evidently returning to a theme. He considered Mr. Corker for secretary of state during the transition after last year’s election but was reported to have told associates that Mr. Corker, at 5-foot-7, was too short to be the nation’s top diplomat. Instead, Mr. Trump picked Rex W. Tillerson, who is several inches taller but whose own relationship with the president has deteriorated to the point that he was said to have called Mr. Trump a “moron.”
Mr. Tillerson initially did not deny it, but later had a spokeswoman insist he did not say it. The president, in a new interview with Forbes magazine, said he considered it “fake news” but added that if it were true, he would beat Mr. Tillerson in an I.Q. contest.
The comment boards are full of one-liners today: “This is beyond childish,” wrote on poster on NYTimes.com. “Trump needs a time-out. A looooong time out.” And the most popular comment:
Only one Senator has the guts to tell the truth about Trump, and only after he has chosen not to run for office again. We have a government full of men and women who will always protect their own interests rather than those of the citizens they are sworn to serve.
The American Right and Republicans generally have largely pulled away from Trump after his most recent potshots, and recent op-eds in conservative The Wall Street Journal focus on issues while keeping Trump out of their narratives. The Left, meanwhile, seems to be suffering some “outrage fatigue,” while the mainstream media makes maximum use of Trump’s cheap content. Trump in his tweets calls the NYT the “failing NY Times” when in fact it appears that Trump’s noise has bolstered it and other mainstream news sites. The NYT reports thousands of new paying digital subscribers – thanks to the noise of a reckless president and the emergence of online “fake news” the news sites appear to have have turned the business corner away from print once and for all.