The President’s master-trolling display before Thanksgiving plunged us squarely into Bizarro World Ethics territory. I cannot imagine any previous President of the United States pulling a public stunt even close to as juvenile and silly as tweeting the photo above out to his followers and, inevitably, the world. I can’t imagine another President even considering it. The leader of the free world, the dignified occupant of the White House, the leader and role model of millions just doesn’t do something like that. He just…just..doesn’t, that’s all!
Yet there it was , just before 11:00 am on November 27. And like so many other seemingly vulgar and impetuous acts and statements that President Trump has authored, the deranged foes of the President managed to make it look like a brilliant stratagem. First the Washington Post—surely there must be some perceptive people working there, wouldn’t you think?—sent out this hurrumphing tweet:
Oh, it’s doctored! Good sleuthing, Post! Quick, add this to your recent list of Trump mendacities: he tried to make the public think that he’s built like Rocky under those blue suits, the liar!
And “unclear why”!!! Unclear why? How bone-headedly biased does someone have to be to not understand why Trump would tweet out a photo of himself as “Rocky” (in “Rocky 3”, to be accurate)? Has anyone on the Post staff seen “Rocky,” or is so stuffed with culturally ignorant naifs whose idea of an ancient inspirational movie is the ten-year-old “The Blind Side” that “Rocky” (1976) and its descendants are buried in their “Irrelevant films my grandparents watched” files?
For the pop-culture and film-icon obtuse, Rocky was a lightly-regarded outsider underdog who persevered when everyone mocked him, and ultimately defeated one brutal, arrogant adversary after another. Of course Trump feels like Rocky: the latest plot to overthrow him is doomed to fail, and increasingly looks like it is increasing his support while making the Democrats’ chances of losing big in 2020 more likely. Anyone who can’t figure that out is so deep in the anti-Trump bubble that they are incapable of competent analysis. Why would anyone trust these people?
Then “Team Trump,” the Trump-Pence Campaign, went trolling for more fools from the Alliance of Unethical Conduct (AUC), the Democratic Party/”resistance”/ mainstream media collective that has dedicated itself to bring down the elected President by any means necessary, denying on Twitter that the Rocky/Trump photo was “doctored,” and facetiously claiming there was “no evidence.” Now that’s funny, and since we are now in Bizarro World, I salute whoever came up with it. It’s a deliberate Jumbo (“Elephant? What elephant?”), and sure enough, the ridiculous hyper-progressive Trump-hating journalist Tommie Christopher, who frequently pollutes Mediaite with his extreme bias, fell for it:
Incredible. Just incredible.
Meanwhile, over at Newsweek, they sent out this:
Oops. The President was in Afghanistan, visiting the troops.
Never mind: CNN’s Jake Tapper, now apparently thoroughly corrupted by the CNN culture, found fault with that, too.
Imagine, it took Trump 18 years to visit the troops in Afghanistan, the lazy scum. And he was President all that time!
For the record, Barack Obama didn’t visit the troops there until 2014, his sixth year in office. Oddly, Jake had no complaints.
“Adrian! Adrian!”
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Pointers: Pajama Media, American Thinker
Ethics Alarms 
First, a belated Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family!
With that out of the way. I can’t believe these guys are so stupid. If they really want to defeat Trump they must know playing into his traps is doing just the opposite, by giving him more support and votes. Are they really getting that many more impressions from these idiotic stunts that it’s worth destroying their dignity? Because that’s the only valid reason I can think for what they’re doing.
I love how his “rocky photo” quickly got printed and distributed to protesters in Hong Kong. That was awesome.
So while everyone is talking about Trump playing 4d chess or that he’s too stupid to play 4d chess…can we toss out that argument and just accept that, quite annoyingly, at his base level, he’s acting like an American would do. Taunt his enemies even if he’s perceived as being “down”…project confidence ANYWAY.
One of the wisest men I knew growing up (after my father) was one of my closest friend’s dad…they were from Taiwan, and every other week we’d go watch a movie, and he’d make us boys sit and talk about the movie afterwards. Jack—you should appreciate that during one of these viewings was when I was introduced to the Caine Mutiny. One of the movies we watched was “Indiana Jones Raiders of the Lost Ark”.
During the scene when Indy had been tossed into the underground crypt surrounded by venomous snakes, the nazi asked him to the affect of how was he…Indy’s response was “why don’t you come down here and I’ll show you?”.
My friend’s dad remarked…”That’s such an American thing to say in that circumstance…”
(I should clarify, when I say “go watch a movie”, I meant we’d watch a movie at his house.)
And that’s why the Animal House election was very American too.
I’m sure all those Stalinesque posters of Obama gazing heavenward with the words hope and change were a big inspiration to those Iranian protesters.
To be fair to Ms. Kwong, the White House deliberately mislead the media on where the President would be, for security purpose. Still, she should have corrected herself the moment the truth was disclosed.
If she, like most reporters, were not so determined to mock and insult Trump, the fact the trip was secret wouldn’t have embarrassed her. That
s the key point.
No. The writer is not a reporter if she writes a story beforehand and the actual activities of the President are far different than that presented. Reporters write about what actually happened. Bloggers, activists, propagandists write about what they want you to believe.
WHAT???
Jack, Political advocacy bloggers. I see a huge difference between those like yourself write about issues in which they are expert and can convey a better understanding of multiple perspectives and those who are pushing a political ideology by ommission or other polemical techniques.
I know. I was just teasing.
Whew!
Actually, I believe you made a similar comment about prewritten stories by people claiming to be journalists.
I think Trump tolled the left with that doctored photo so they’d freak out and he could get to Afghanistan without anyone knowing about it.
The root of this is that he talked at one of his rallies about his “gorgeous chest” after he went to Walter Reed for a physical and DC started chilling champagne in anticipation of his demise.
I think it was Dave Barry who said that if you whisper something to a reporter he or she will assume that it’s either the absolute truth or a big, black lie. but it will never, ever occur to them that you might just be screwing with them.
I don’t know why everyone has to make Trump out to be either a genius or a fool. He’s neither — he’s a street fighter (politically speaking, of course) who enjoys picking a fight with anybody willing, and take on all comers. From the perspective of Trump’s willingness to engage in brutal public fights with all comers, it’s totally apt.
Rocky wasn’t just an underdog, he was a street-wise but otherwise dumb-as-a-brick guy who enjoyed beating up his opponent’s knuckles with his face, and when they inevitably got tired of hitting him in the head, beating them into submission with body-blows.
Nothing could more clearly describe Trump’s fight with the media than this episode and the Rocky story. Trump spends his nights thinking of ways to make the media show America that they are exactly what he says they are, and has long since discovered it is like shooting fish in a barrel. Apparently, he can’t get enough of it, and we all have long since known that he cares not one whit for the dignity of the office. Mohammed Ali memorialized this technique as the “rope-a-dope,” and boy, are the media (not to mention their Democrat masters) collectively dopes.
Trump is the classic, almost archetypal example of the old saw, “Never wrestle a pig. You just get dirty and the pig likes it.” Seems the media have never heard this, or if they have, were incapable of comprehending its meaning.
Funny, I don’t recall all the press in a tizzy when Putin puts out photos of him in “strong manly” images such as his topless horseback ride or him submerging himself in an ice covered river.
When a characature of Trump is portrayed in a ballon as a baby in a diaper and other ignominious portrayals, this photo is mild. Sure, most would say a president of the US should show more decorum but this type of stunt is designed to make him relatable to more voters. How many voters can even name more than a half dozen past presidents. Democrats vilify the wealthy for the same reason. This past week all the candidates tried to be the poorest of the lot.
The goal is to get elected. Trump for all intents and purposes is the first candidate to have the power of social media at his fingertips. We can only imagine what other past presidents may have done with social media.
The Democrats use social media to demean conservatives and make promises of freebies. They struggle with the choice of saying they were born in a log cabin or a manger. Trump promises only to make America great and uses boasts and hyperbole like a coach at half time to get your attention.
Which is more troublesome as a lie, a doctored image of Trump as Rocky or a dozen candidates promising money and gifts to you by taking them from someone you do not know or cannot relate to?
The photo was funny and we must keep in mind it was conjured up by another and he simply retweeted it. Result: all those responsible for its creation and retweets felt like the President was hearing them. That reinforces their support for him. It is no different than when a social media manager responds to a customer or when Jack responds directly to a comment in a positive manner; you feel a connection as if you were friends..
I am not sure if I am too cynical or not cynical enough, but Tapper’s comment seems factual. Any critical framing of facts is subtle. I suppose he could have framed it positively:
“Trump greets Troops during unannounced visit to Afghanistan on Thanksgiving Day, first visit to nation where US has been at war with Taliban for 18 years.”
It wasn’t the first visit by a President, and the phrasing falsely suggested that the 18 years are Trump’s doing, or that he had somehow ignored the troops for 18 years. It’s classic deceit, which by definition is factual, but designed to deceive.
I wonder if the response to those questioning the photo might have also been a sly dig at prince Andrew’s comments on his Epstein picture in the news recently:
“Nobody can prove whether or not that photograph has been doctored,”