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{"id":11941,"date":"2020-04-07T09:27:57","date_gmt":"2020-04-07T16:27:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/kermitzarleyblog\/?p=11941"},"modified":"2020-04-07T09:27:57","modified_gmt":"2020-04-07T16:27:57","slug":"trump-doesnt-get-it-no-trump-is-trying-to-change-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/kermitzarleyblog\/2020\/04\/trump-doesnt-get-it-no-trump-is-trying-to-change-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Doesn’t Get It? NO! Trump Is Trying to Change It"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ <\/a>U.S. President Donald Trump holds press briefings for what he calls FAKE NEWS. When he does, he often chastises one or more journalists for the type of questions they ask. Then, journalists often write articles complaining about this ill-treatment of their profession by the president.<\/p>\n

For example, CNN\u2019s Editor-in-large Chris Cillizza just wrote an op-ed entitled, \u201cHere\u2019s the biggest thing Donald Trump doesn\u2019t get about the media.\u201d Chris then relates the incident that occurred at yesterday\u2019s briefing in which Fox News reporter Kristen Fisher asked President Trump concerning the HORRID covid-19 pandemic, \u201cWhen can hospitals expect to receive a quick turnaround on these text results\u201d for covid-19?<\/p>\n

Mind you, this was a Fox News reporter, and Fox News is President Trump\u2019s favorite news channel that he supposedly watches a lot and gives interviews to a lot and thus not much to other networks. And just about everybody thinks that was a very legitimate question.<\/p>\n

But President Trump replied with disdain by saying to Kris Fisher, \u201cYou should say congratulation, great job, instead of being so HORRID [my emphasis] in the way you ask a question.\u201d The reason it was a perfectly legitimate question is that hospitals are having to wait extraordinarily lengthy times, even several days, in order to get back test results performed on patients from laboratories. In the meantime, if those patients have the coronavirus, that may compromise their health leading to death. The labs are taking so long to analyze the tests because this pandemic has overwhelmed them.<\/p>\n

So, editor Chris Cillizza asks of Trump, \u201cwhy did he react the way he did? He\u2019s demonstrated this repeatedly\u2013on some of the biggest stages in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cillizza then relates an incident in which President Trump was with China\u2019s President Jinping Xi in 2018. Trump said of Xi, \u201cHe speaks, and his people sit up at attention. I want my people to do the same.\u201d The American press then criticized Trump for saying this, and he replied by saying he was only joking. Yeah, sure! A biblical proverb reads, \u201cLike a maniac who shoots deadly firebrand arrows, so is one who deceives a neighbor and says, \u2018I am only joking!'\u201d (Proverbs 26.18-19 NRSV).<\/p>\n

Cillizza again relates that when President Trump attended the G20 meetings in Japan last year, he did a photo-op with Russia\u2019s President Vladimir Putin and the press was asking Trump questions. Trump then said to Putin, \u201cGet rid of them. Fake news is a great term, isn\u2019t it? You don\u2019t have this problem in Russia.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cillizza also reports that when Trump was with Turkey\u2019s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last November, Trump said to the press, \u201ca friendly reporter from Turkey, please Only friendly reporters we like to see. There aren\u2019t too many of them around.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cillizza therefore concludes, \u201cTrump doesn\u2019t seem to grasp\u2013or, more worryingly, doesn\u2019t care\u2013about the difference between how the press should function in an authoritarian state. He likes how authoritarian rulers are \u2018covered\u2019 by their media because it is so favorable.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s putting it too kindly. (But he has to do that due to his job.) NO! Trump doesn\u2019t believe in our form of government. (See \u201c Does President Trump Believe in Our Democracy?<\/a>\u201c) So, it\u2019s not that he doesn\u2019t get it\u2013doesn\u2019t understand our democracy and thus our freedom of the press. No, he DOES GET IT. The truth is that he is TRYING TO CHANGE IT. Thus, he needs to be stopped. It\u2019s not that the media is FAKE NEWS as he calls it. It\u2019s that he is a FAKE PRESIDENT<\/a>, and his miserable mishandling of this ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is proving it!<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"