Early on Tuesday the Boston Globe's Annie Linskey revealed that the President's
staff has become so adept at replicating Trump’s tone that
people who follow his feed closely say it is getting harder to discern which
tweets were actually crafted by Trump sitting in his bathrobe and watching “Fox
& Friends” and which were concocted by his communications team.
Those familiar with the process wouldn’t fess up to which
tweets were staff-written. But an algorithm crafted by a writer at The Atlantic
to determine real versus staff-written tweets suggested several were not
written by the president, despite the unusual use of the language....
While staff members do consciously use poor grammar, they do
not intentionally misspell words or names, one person familiar with the process
explained.
“Tweets that are proposed are in his voice,” said one of the
people. “You want to do it in a way that fits his style.”
In response, Charlie Pierce on Tuesday afternoon wrote
Here’s the thing, Embattled White Working Class Voters. By
and large, the people you’re taught to hate have your interests somewhat at
heart when they get into government. Forget what kind of coffee they drink,
movies they watch, or leafy greens they gobble down with their tofuburgers.
Forget all you’ve been told about coastal elites and their condescension. Stop
falling for this hooey.
The president* and the people around him think you’re all
sub-literate morons to whom broken gorilla English will appeal. They think you
love him for his misplaced commas, dangling modifiers, and weird CapiTalization
FeTish. They think you will identify with a high-end Manhattan con-man because
he talks like you do, and they think you talk like you took an ESL class on
Neptune. They think your very real economic anxiety is best expressed in
language one small step above grunts, groans, and banging on rocks with heavy sticks.
Was Pierce prescient? Psychic? Or was he simply eloquently
observing the obvious? It must have been one, because later that afternoon we
learned (at 21:09 of video below)
CBS News’ Lesley Stahl shared a revealing conversation she
had with Trump shortly before his first
post-election interview on “60 Minutes” back in November 2016.
Stahl, who was speaking at the Deadline Club Awards in
Manhattan, told the audience that she and a colleague had met with
the then-President-elect at Trump Tower in order to prepare for the
interview. At one point Trump started ranting against the press, and
Stahl said she took the opportunity to ask him what the point of his
attacks were.
“Why do you keep hammering at this?” she recounted to PBS’
Judy Woodruff.
According to Stahl, who was paraphrasing, Trump replied,
“You know why I do it? I do it to discredit you all and demean you all, so when
you write negative stories about me no one will believe you.”
According to Stahl, who was paraphrasing, Trump replied,
“You know why I do it? I do it to discredit you all and demean you all, so when
you write negative stories about me no one will believe you.”
Suckers. That's what Pierce calls the President's followers, who fall for his every utterance, oblivious to the reality that Trump's every grunt and groan derives from faith- the faith that his supporters are easy marks.
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