It wasn't what he said, but the way he said it. He lapsed into a sing-song cadence that was half-middle-school-taunt and half-serial-killer. No president in my lifetime ever did voice acting, let alone a voice that made you want to make sure he was kept away from the White House cutlery. The man is not all there. Everybody knows it. If your uncle behaved like the president* behaved on Friday, you'd hide his car-keys, lock up the booze, and drive him to the neurologist.

The only person who said it out loud was Bill Weld, and he said it at a breakfast in New Hampshire , a couple of hours before the president* emerged into the Rose Garden and had his episode.

The answer to all these questions, and I say this with a heavy heart, is that we have a President whose priorities are skewed toward promotion of himself rather than toward the good of the country. He may have great energy and considerable raw talent, but he does not use them in ways that promote democracy, truth, justice and equal opportunity for all. To compound matters, our President is simply too unstable to carry out the duties of the highest executive office – which include the specific duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed – in a competent and professional manner. He is simply in the wrong place.

we have a President whose priorities are skewed toward promotion of himself

Indeed. Never could I have imagined we'd have a President who is so self absorbed and unable to accept any criticism as to have literally said “The buck stops with everybody,”. That's right, it's everybody else's fault in Trumplandia.

"It wasn't what he said, but the way he said it. He lapsed into a sing-song cadence that was half-middle-school-taunt and half-serial-killer."

Actually, it was both what he said and how he said it that once again proved that man is truly deranged. He's an ignoramus masquerading as a learned mind, like some bad 'B' movie with Larry the Cable guy having to pretend to be his twin brother who's a NASA scientist. All the wacky hi-jinks would ensue as Larry bumbles his way through a rocket launch and ends up getting himself on the rocket and accidentally foiling some plot by evil Russians. Sadly, the 'B' movie we're stuck watching has the bumbling idiot falling over his own feet and continually disrupting our justice department from foiling the Russians plot. And every time he does something inane he acts oblivious with a sort of "Did I do that?" attitude. Firing Jim Comey and saying it was because of the "Russia thing", "Oh, did I do that?"... Lying about everything from his crowd sizes to his claims the wall is built, "Did I do that?"... Taking credit for things Obama accomplished, "Did I do that?... Making ignorant unenforceable deals with North Korea getting nothing in return for dropping military exercises and giving little rocket man a world stage and global recognition, exactly what he always wanted, "Did I do that?"... And now, claiming an emergency on the southern border but at the same time saying he didn't really need to do it, "Did I do that?"...

The issue is not Trump but those who support him.  That is where the true madness lies.  We've all looked the other way or remained silent when someone we normally think highly of does something that shocks us.  But in this case with this faction of people and their ability time after time to ignore what is in front of them and offer excuse after excuse tells us more about them then about the person who is committing the acts.

PJ, there is only one issue in the country.  Are you against president* Trump, or are you an enabler of him?

The right and independents who do not vocally oppose Trump have a lot to answer for in this society.

Agreed

Every cloud has a silver lining.  If executive action and national emergency are the right’s new attempt to turn a POTUS into a king, then that precedent will be used when Republicans lose the WH in 2020 to combat issues in the favor of progressives.  They will reap what they sow tenfold.

I agree.  I can't wait to address gun control, healthcare and the environment.

It truly boggles my mind how any sane, intelligent thinking American can still support this train wreck of a president.  He is a blithering idiot who has NOT once acted like a president.  He acts like a toddler having a temper tantrum.  I know I have posted this on other seeds, but this is spot on:

Best description of the moron in the White House yet, and from a Brit!

“Stolen from a friend. The best description of Trump I have ever read, from a Brit.

Someone on Quora asked "Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?" Nate White, an articulate and witty writer from England wrote this magnificent response.

A few things spring to mind.

Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem.

For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace - all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed.

So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief.

Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing - not once, ever.

I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility - for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman.

But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is - his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty.

Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers.

And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults - he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness.

There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface.

Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront.

Well, we don’t. We see it as having no inner world, no soul.

And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist.

Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that.

He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat.

He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege.

And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully.

That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling sidekick instead.

There are unspoken rules to this stuff - the Queensberry rules of basic decency - and he breaks them all. He punches downwards - which a gentleman should, would, could never do - and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless - and he kicks them when they are down.

So the fact that a significant minority - perhaps a third - of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think 'Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy’ is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that:
* Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and mostly are.
* You don't need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man.

This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss.

After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum.

God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid.

He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart.

In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws - he would make a Trump.

And a remorseful Doctor Frankenstein would clutch out big clumpfuls of hair and scream in anguish:

'My God… what… have… I… created?

If being a twat was a TV show, Trump would be the boxed set.

Excellent find.

I think they don't have this in Britain because they dont have the irresponsible media in Britain that we have here. Do they have a comparable to Fox News? Or Infowars and some of these other nutjob right wing "news" sources?

What is painful about watching America right now is that it is ENTIRELY obvious that Trump is not fit, intellectually, morally, psychologically, ethically, or in any other way to be president of the United States. It is obvious. But a sizable part of the country engages in the pretense that this is acceptable. We are in a deep crisis and will be until this idiot leaves the office of president.

I never thought America would fall so far.

Sad that some Americans can't see the forest through the trees because trump had an R next to his name and that he's not Hillary.  I don't have a crystal ball but I would bet my life that the kind of bs that trump is pulling would not be happening if Hillary or anyone else had become president.

Do you have a crystal ball, no so just stop spewing bullshit

Difference being trump is a total ignoramus and people still thinks he's the greatest thing since sliced bread when he in reality is the worst president ever.

Your loss since you can't see what a truly horrendous president trump really is.