Borrowing a Cup of Hope #14 Trump Plays Dumb.

So Don’t Fall ForHis Rope-A-Dope.

Let’s start with The 3 Rules. Trump learned them from his mentor Roy Cohn, the McCarthyite Mob attorney who counseled young Donnie. The rules are: 1) Attack Attack Attack; 2) Always Declare Victory, and 3) Deny Deny Deny. And I’ve noticed that one way he Denies is he plays dumb. He denies he knows anything about it.

Examples keep popping up; He’s interviewed by a woman reporter who said “How do you responds tot he face that the port of Los Angeles is down to 35% of their normal traffic and will soon be at zero?” And Trump says “That’s a good thing. That means we’re losing less money.” Now, that’s just stupid on the face of it, and the reporter is left incredulous and speechless. She has no response, and I do not blame her, it was such a non-answer that makes no sense, that anyone would get brain freeze.

Now, I don’t think Trump is so dumb that he is telling her something that he really believes. It’s a deflection, he’s Bullshitting her. He’s giving her a non-answer that cannot be rebutted. It’s nonsens , so there is no way to challenge it.

Next one: the picture of Trump as Pope. He thinks it’s funny. He posts it on his X site. It gets some Catholics irritated- he’s mocking the faith, disrespecting the idea of Pope, the last one just died, Francis was rather beloved, etc. Trump says “I don’t know who did it, I had nothing to do with it.” I.E. Deny Deny Deny.

One more, and it’s the big one. His Crypto-currency launch amounts to a large bribe, delivered in plain daylight. USA Today Reports: “Last week, another of the Trump family's crypto ventures, World Liberty Financial, announced that one of its digital coins is being used by an Abu Dhabi investment firm for a $2 billion investment in cryptocurrency exchange..… Democratic lawmakers and crypto analysts said the deal was a conflict of interest that could earn World Liberty at least $27 million per year.” (5-7-25) When asked about it, Trump said “How much did it go up? I don’t know anything about it, except I launched it. Well, if I own some stock, and the stock market does well, then everybody does well.” In other words, I’m not addressing your question. I’m playing dumb as a post as a means of denying that I know what you are talking about. Deny Deny Deny.

This reminds me of the Rope-A Dope. Muhammed Ali was a heavyweight champ (and historical figure) who introduced this method in October 1974, for the Rumble in the Jungle match against world heavyweight champion George Foreman in Kinshasa, Zaire. In the early rounds, Ali leaned against the ropes and covered his face and abdomen with his gloves and forearms. Foreman punched and punched, with most of the impact being absorbed by the ropes, until Foreman was punched out, tired. Then Ali started boxing back.

Trump is doing Rope-A-Dope with stupid answers. And some news analysts, like the fine fellows at Pod Save America, are wondering aloud “How can Trump be so stupid?” Well, Trump isn’t that stupid, he just plays stupid on TV. And we are baffled, and underestimating him.

Ever the somnambulant Washington Post has reported on it.

“The many big things Trump ‘didn’t know’ about: "Repeatedly in his second term, Trump has pleaded ignorance about major events and suggested he’s not involved in major decisions.” (5-10-25) Trump claims not to know his Surgeon General nominee is not a doctor; that Sen. Tom Tillis was voting against Trump’s crackpot Election Denyer nominee Ed Martin for DC US Attorney; that he was “not aware” of a dozen layoffs of people tasked to care for 9/11 emergency workers; he had not heard that 4 servicemen died in Lithuania in a training mission; and regarding “Signalgate” where a reporter was added into a classified text briefing on the security app Signal, Trump said ““I don’t know anything about it.” Finally, “Reuters reported this week that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in late January ordered a halt to military aid shipments to Ukraine, despite Trump having issued no such order and reportedly being unaware of what Hegseth was doing.”

If I am hopeful, I think that Trump’s cognitive capacity is shrinking, which is more optimistic than it is comforting. if I am skeptical, I think Trump is not taking any responsibility for anything, and he is dissembling for the press, “maintaining Deniability” as Reaganites would say, denying anything coming at him, whether he knows about it or not. Reagan did the same: “I can’t recall….I don’t remember.”

Anne Applebaum, Pulitzer winner and astute analyst, just posted a video report describing “the Most Corrupt Presidency in American History.” It’s for The Atlantic, which is doing an excellent job of keeping up these days. Here’s the link:

Applebaum reminds us that all the autocrats in the world have this in common: "They all share an interest in stealing and hiding money,… and perpetuating their own wealth…. And when (the opposition) starts organizing against corruption, that’s when the autocrats start to crack down.”

It’s crucial that we see Trump turning aside questions about his grift, because he is so blasé about his corruption that it seems to be going by unnoticed by the public, unless there is something more tangible, like a luxury 747 gift being offered by Qatar. That offer is getting more attention that the meme coin is. Trump is planning to accept it, but Qatar is waffling now. We’ll see if it happens, but the point is, Trump is ready to accept a $400 million bribe from a middle eastern nation that is a player.

The “gateway drug” for this behavior is Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, who famously accepted a giant RV and dozens of expensive vacations from four billionaires who have business before the Court, gifts valued in the millions. Justice Alito also had a ritzy vacation to Alaska on a company tab, featuring King Crab and $1,000 bottles of wine (John Oliver did a good story on it last year- his HBO research staff has 80+ people on it, so all kidding aside, they do their fricken’ homework). Justice Scalia died on a junket to a hunting lodge sponsored by a guy who just got a case resolved in front of the court. Justice Gorsuch sold some land to a guy with a law firm that had 40 cases in front of the Court.

Link:

The Supreme Court is exempt from any code of ethics, and they have extended that lack of culpability to the President. They gave the President immunity on a level that King John did not have when the Barons forced him to sign the Magna Carta in 1215. So the level of graft that Anne Applebaum finds to be so appalling is being done out in the open, as it was when the Supreme Court was doing it. And who does this resemble? Vladimir Putin. The Week (4-4-25) interviewed Bill Browder, once the largest US investor in Russia:

“Browder testified in 2017 that Putin's wealth was amassed after the Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky was jailed in 2003 for fraud and tax evasion. After Khodorkovsky's conviction, the other oligarchs went to Putin and asked him what they needed to do to avoid sitting in the same cage as Khodorkovsky," Browder told the US Senate Judiciary Committee. "From what followed, it appeared that Putin's answer was, ’50%.’" Putin may be worth $250 billion.

We haven’t seen Trump go that far yet, but he clearly has something in mind that resembles the naked greed of Putin. His dissembling about his meme coin profits are just part of the corruption landscape where billionaires are buying off the principle actors, while looking for ways to loot the public treasury. And lying about it and playing dumb are part and parcel of Trump’s American Dream: Getting Away With It.

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