Is it the most unpresidential and stupid outburst by any President ever?
There is no excuse for this. I guarantee the Trump Deranged on my Facebook feed will be wetting themselves over this. It’s proof that Trump is senile! It shows that he’s insane! It proves he’s Hitler! No, it only proves once again that Trump has a flat learning curve and no self-restraint, that he’s his own worst enemy, that he’s petty and foolish and can’t resist demonstrating just how petty and foolish when it suits his mood.
The nation doesn’t have time for his silly feuds. He doesn’t have political capital to throw away like this, either. That post isn’t just punching down, it’s punching WAY down: Rosie O’Donnell is nobody, a has-been, washed up, irrelevant. And she’s in Ireland! Trump gives her the publicity she craves by pretending that she’s significant: surely he understands the Streisand Effect by now.
Trump can’t take away anyone’s citizenship on a whim; he sounds like an idiot when he announces fantasies like this. Ann Althouse writes, “If it’s a joke, he shouldn’t be making that joke. He has too much power. If it’s not a joke, it’s terrible. I know he’s much more confident — to the point of overreaching as political theater — the second time around and after his 4 years in the wilderness, but he needs to channel himself toward true greatness, not get entangled in this kind of smallness.”
Yeah, that too.
Ethics Alarms 
Wondering? Is it a display of master pugilism for someone who has no self restraint, who is petty and foolish, who can’t resist his worst impulses, and so on, to ever punch down? Or, has he simply revealed that he already is beneath those he has aimed his jabs at?
1. No. 2. In some respects, absolutely.
Trump is just kidding. Everybody can see that, except humorless liberals. So Trump scores trolling points, as usual.
OK somebody on the board will call me out on rationalization 55. Sometimes behavior that needs such a rationalization actually works. And that is what counts in politics. Politics is bizarro world in ethics. For the same reason logical fallacies and lies often win debates in politics from good logic and fact; what matters is what the public wants to hear, and whether the speaker emotionally connects.
So is Trump unethical? Probably. But that observation is just as relevant as any fact finding by Snopes or PolitiFact. Sorry for being so cynical at this bright Sunday.
You can’t compare an elected President being an asshole with two fact-checking organizations being assholes. Not even in the same sorar system.
That is not the message I intended to convey. My message is that the observation that Trump’s utterance is just as irrelevant as any fact finding by Snopes or PolitiFact. It is the Julie principle at work. This is what we have come to expect from Trump.
Trump’s constituency loves his style of trolling. They know what he is up to, and that it is all said in jest. The progressives get mad, just as Trump intended.
Does the trolling work for Trump politically? It probably does, certainly the absolute master level trolling during SOTU, which was a smashing success, and called out as unethical here at Ethics Alarms. And as long as trolling works in Trump’s favor, he will continue to do so. For Trump’s base it definitely works better than the gentlemanly approach of George W Bush and Paul Ryan. Given this, calling out Trump style trolling as unethical is (almost?) an exercise in futility.
Oh, it is futile all right. But egregious example like this one must be exposed and condemned. Maybe someone is paying attention.
Per Ann Althouse: “he needs to channel himself toward true greatness” This was genuinely funny, thanks for that!!
Troll level — Galactic overlord.
Still unethical. Still stupid.
Eight words…and you summarized the entire post!
Indeed. I can’t understand why he would want to respond to anything she says. She has never been relevant and she is not particularly talented or insightful. If Ireland wants her, well, Ireland can have her.
jvb
That message from Trump was pure trolling. Trump can certainly be an asshole!