January 10, 2020

Apparently the Malignant Mango is shocked and stunned that the country did not fall in line behind him after he assassinated Iranian General Soleimani -- which is what was supposed to happen in the blockbuster movie he produced in his head.

"Maggie, the president, we hear, is angry. Was he surprised that the House took that (war powers) vote?" Alysin Camerota said to Maggie Haberman.

"He actually was surprised this was not more of a unifying event for the country, which is what he expected it was going to be. Something like what you saw around the Iraq war lead-up. However, that lead-up came after a massive attack on U.S. soil. It's not remotely the same," Haberman said.

"It's not as if General Soleimani's name rolls off tongues easily. This has been impeachment politics. He realizes this is all related. He's aware there's questions about how legally binding this is. But he does not want it highlighted that he is taking an act that could be seen as continuing these forever wars.

"That speech from Matt Gaetz, the Republican who supports the president, on the floor yesterday was very, very important. This is a president who ran against the Iraq war, ran as somebody who was going to get us out of the Middle East, who opposed George W. Bush's use of intelligence. and those are some of the same questions being raised about his administration right now."

Camerota said advisers are saying that Trump doesn't understand that his actions have long-term consequences.

"He's been very focused on the current time frame," said the access reporter.

"Which is, the other night they were in the situation room, first in the afternoon for a few hours and then in the evening as there were these missile attacks. He was relieved to see there were no casualties. They all were relieved there were no casualties. He saw it, according to to multiple people, as a chance for a reset. I can go in, I'm going to have this off ramp where I'm not having heightened escalated tensions and I will be tough if need be. He was not speaking, according to multiple people, in the long-term of what this might mean as Iran starts to sort itself out post-Soleimani. Whether there will be sanctions. It's going to take a long time to know whether this event is over and there was a desire to just see this as sort of a 'mission accomplished.' And it's not clear to people close to him whether he recognizes that there's a long arc to go here."

That's Maggie's way of saying he didn't know what the hell he was doing, advisers are terrified by the long-term consequences, but it's more important for the New York Times to impose some sort of thoughtful and coherent narrative on his actions than it is for the nation's top newspaper to tell the American people there's a madman at the wheel.

Thanks for normalizing the chaos, Maggie!

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