Sitting in with host Ali Velshi on Sunday after Donald Trump completed a press conference in Scotland with Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, one of the president’s biographers called the Trump’s answers, “profound ignorance” and demeanor “disturbing on a number of levels.”
After host Velshi started the segment by blurting, “Wow. That was batcoop crazy,” biographer and Bloomberg Opinion Editor in Chief Tim L. O’Brien looked equally distressed.
“Tim, this was so full of nonsense. I truly am a bit of a loss for words, so please help,” Velshi prompted his guest.
“Well, so as you as you’ve noted, Ali, this this has happened before, this is classic Trump,” O’Brien began. “But this was a press conference that was unusually off the rails and it’s really disturbing on a number of levels.”
“First and foremost, it’s just an embarrassment to the United States to have the president on a global stage and not be able to string together coherent thoughts on a series of fundamental issues that are important to the world,” he observed. “They’re important to the United States, and they’re important to citizens everywhere.”
“First and foremost for me was how this press conference began which was questions about Gaza,” he continued. “There is a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, there is starvation in Gaza. He was asked about Israel’s disposition toward all of that and his answer was we don’t get thanked enough for the humanitarian aid we provide Gaza –– he completely dodged the question.”
“Now, people who attribute strategy to Trump will say, well, that was good for him, he avoided getting into the gnarly and troublesome details of the Gaza war,” he elaborated. “But then he continued on and on, and he proceeded to say at one point that Hamas was stealing humanitarian supplies. Trump’s own government, I think just 2 or 3 days ago, after a study, said there was no evidence that Hamas was stealing supplies.”
Noting that the president seemed unable to recall the name of Israel’s Ariel Sharon, he called it a “another feature of these press conferences.”
“It is not strategic rambling, it is profound ignorance on issues that are essential and important that he is ill-informed of, and that he doesn’t care to study up on,” he accused. “And it matters, it matters in how he presents himself.”
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