From Arse To Outhouse: Spinning Trump’s Shit-Hole Comment

On Thursday January 11th, President Trump met with a small, bipartisan group of lawmakers to discuss immigration. In that meeting, during a discussion of the merits of the country-quota based system currently in place, POTUS reportedly asked why the US allows immigration “from shit-hole countries’ like Haiti and those in Africa.

And the blowback began. Celebrities, activists, senators, congresspeople, heads of state, as well as unions of countries have condemned the statement, calling it racist in one way or another. Many have gone further and demanded an apology, as well. 

Worse yet for Donald Trump, the story won’t go away. It’s been on top of the news for 8 days. For contrast, within the past five years, former President Obama called Libya a “shit-show”, and Senator Lindsay Graham called Mexico a “hell-hole”. Both were in the news for a day (and most people don’t remember either comment at this point).

The waxing of this conflict, and his paper-thin skin, have unsurprisingly prompted Mr. Trump to respond, albeit in an unusually coordinated fashion. Four days after the remarks, the White House AND the two Trump supporters at the meeting (Senators David Purdue and Tom Cotton) simultaneously began suggesting that the other attendees misheard the President, who actually called the countries “shit-houses”. [This is an old slang word for out-houses.]

But, what was the calculation behind switching from holes to houses? Why make this distinction? Here’s my fantasy about what the Trump team considered as it mulled over potential responses to the blowback from his shitty commentary.

Option A: Deny the original comment.

Option B: Respond generally to the topic but don’t actively deny the comment. (Sarah Sanders would be an excellent point person for this approach.)

Option C: Act as if the words shithole and shithouse are synonyms. This would accomplish two things. First, changing the initial readout would create a distraction from the original comment. There would be a good deal of media attention paid to the seemingly baseless switch, but not necessarily to the comment itself. Second, and at the same time, it would dial down the intensity of the comment and, therefore, the reaction to it. Simply put, likening a country to an anus is a more highly charged declaration than making the same comparison to an out-house.

There is evidence that this strategy is working. The redefinition was endorsed by none other than former President Obama's National Security Council Spokesperson, Tommy Vietor, who is by no account Trump friendly. And this is but one of many examples.

We’re watching to see what happens, and what else POTUS has to say about Shit-Hole Gate, on Twitter...

Making Sense of POTUS: Part III--Traits 3 and 4

Having taken a close look at the first two of the nine traits that Donald Trump publicly and consistently portrays, let's now turn our attention to Traits 3 and 4. 

As a reminder, they are: 

3. POTUS will not take responsibility for any ill-conceived action   
    or comment, however intense the blowback is. 

4. When he is forced to confront his bad behavior, he ignores it, 
    denies it, or rationalizes it as the result of being victimized.

The best example of Mr. Trump's patent refusal, and probable inability, to genuinely own up to bad behavior is his response to the blowback from none other than the only mistake for which he has apologized!



Here are the facts. On October 7, 2016, the Washington Post released a video revealing a 2005 conversation between Donald Trump and radio personality Billy Bush (both of whom were almost certainly unaware that their mics were still hot). In it, Trump admits to trying to bed Bush's married co-host and says, 

I'm automatically attracted to beautiful women. I just start kissing them. Its like a magnet. I don't even wait. And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything--grab them by the pussy--you can do anything.

This is a direct admission of sexual assault (without a specific victim), and the political blowback was fierce. It included stinging responses--in various forms and forums--from the following twenty prominent, vocal Republicans: RNC Chair Reince Preibis, Mitt Romney, John Kasich, Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan,

Bill Hassan, Robert Bentley, Bradley Byrne, Jason Chaffetz, Joe Heck, Kelly Ayotte, Mike Crapo, John McCain, John Huntsman, Dan Sullivan, Corey Gardner, Deb Fisher, Rodney Davis, Anne Wagner, and--importantly--Mike Pence. 

Unprecedentedly, and perhaps owing to the election being a month hence, Donald Trump apologized. Or so it seemed. Here's the entire transcript.

I’ve never said I’m a perfect person, nor pretended to be someone that I’m not. I’ve said and done things I regret, and the wordsreleased today on this more than a decade-old video are one of them.

Anyone who knows me knows these words don’t reflect who I am. I said it, I was wrong, and I apologize. I’ve traveled the country talking about change for America, but my travels have also changed me. I’ve spent time with grieving mothers who’ve lost their children, laid-off workers whose jobs have gone to other countries, and people from all walks of life who just want a better future. I have gotten to know the great people of our country, and I’ve been humbled by the faith they’ve placed in me. I pledge to be a better man tomorrow and will never, ever let you down.

Let’s be honest — we’re living in the real world. This is nothing more than a distraction from the important issues we’re facing today. We are losing our jobs, we’re less safe than we were eight years ago, and Washington is totally broken. Hillary Clinton and her kind have run our country into the ground.

I’ve said some foolish things, but there’s a big difference between the words and actions of other people. 

Bill Clinton has actually abused women, and Hillary has bullied, attacked, shamed and intimidated his victims. We will discuss this more in the coming days. See you at the debate on Sunday.

Ignoring the meaningless first paragraph (and its poor grammar), paragraphs 2 - 5 clearly show the insincerity and manipulativeness of POTUS' apology; an apology tucked between buffoonish excuses and brand burnishing. Here's the analysis. 

"Anyone who knows me knows these words don’t reflect who I am." In this, his very first substantive comment, he literally disowns what he is about to apologize for. A nine word apology follows, after which he asserts that he has changed. How? As a result of the humility that he acquired by traveling to console bereaved mothers and the unemployed. This is interesting rhetoric for several reasons. 

• Most importantly, Mr. Trump apologized for what he said, not for the behavior that he was describing
• POTUS seems to be implying that he was assaulting women into his sixties, given that his political travels started then. Remember, these travels availed him of the widows and paupers from whom he allegedly learned the humility that caused him to change.
• He talks about helping women to provide a counterweight to the assault charge. Further, his description of himself as emotionally supportive is an attempt to induce identification.
• Mentioning the unemployed allows a pivot into campaign mode which, needless to say, has no place in the midst of an "apology".

"This is nothing more than a distraction from the important issues we’re facing today." Simply said, this completely nullifies Donald Trump's apology. It also allows him, thematically speaking, to keep stumping.

"I’ve said some foolish things, but there’s a big difference between the words and actions of other people." Here, the President is employing that argument so often heard in middle school, 'Yea, but what they did was worse'. This is rationalization and minimization in service of exculpation.

In other words he's not really sorry, which incontrovertibly proves the accuracy of Attributes 3 and 4. 

TRUMP-NOCCIO

Making Sense of POTUS: Part I--Nine Consistent Things About Donald Trump

Here are nine consistent things about Donald Trump, gleaned from his public persona. In upcoming posts, I'll talk about each one in detail.

1-There is nothing more important to the

   President-Elect than being successful and   

   admired.

2-Morality in general, and honesty in particular, 

   are instruments (among others) used to achieve 

   success and admiration ; neither carries an    

   imperative.

3-The Donald will not take responsibility for any   

   ill-conceived action or comment, however 
   intense the blowback is.

4-When Trump is forced to confront his bad 
   behavior, he ignores it, denies it, or rationalizes 
   it as the result of being victimized.     
    
5-The POTUS-Elect feels entitled to special 
   treatment and thus also feels victimized by 
   others' criticism of him.

6-When Donald feels victimized, he becomes 
   angry and publicly shames the object(s) of his 

   ire.

7-Mr. Trump is   neither insightful nor prone to guilt, partially

accounting for his ability to tolerate his own contradictions and hypocrisy.

8-In his worldview, people are tools and not 

   intrinsically valuable.

9-In his worldview, history, precedent and 

   protocol are irrelevant.

Overall, not a pretty picture.

Stay tuned for more on each of these.

[There is a problem with the mobile reformatting of this post. My apologies.]