I am not a fan of the soon to be President of the United States of America. I thought I had heard it all from politicians in the art of obfuscation, but Trump speak is a new and wearying experience for me. The thought there could be eight years of this kind of talk is frightening, more frightening than the clever sound bite merchants who peddle their odious wares since it gets more difficult to understand what exactly the man is on about.
Trump speak (from his news conference 11 January 2017 as President elect):
1. The overuse of the word "very" or even "very, very" and one "very, very, very":
"We’re going to have a very, very elegant day. The 20th is going to be something that will be very, very special; very beautiful. And I think we’re going to have massive crowds because we have a movement."
"Ike Perlmutter has been very, very involved, one of the great men of business. And we’re gonna straighten out the V.A. for our veterans. I’ve been promising that for a long time and it’s something I feel very, very strongly."
"And I will give Reince Priebus credit, because when Reince saw what was happening in the world and with this country, he went out and went to various firms and ordered a very, very strong hacking defence."
"I was in Russia years ago, with the Miss Universe contest, which did very well — Moscow, the Moscow area did very, very well."
"As a real estate developer, I have very, very little debt. I have assets that are — and now people have found out how big the company is, I have very little debt — I have very low debt. But I have no loans with Russia at all."
"Now, I have to say one other thing. Over the weekend, I was offered $2 billion to do a deal in Dubai with a very, very, very amazing man, a great, great developer from the Middle East, Hussein Damack, a friend of mine, great guy. And I was offered $2 billion to do a deal in Dubai — a number of deals and I turned it down."
2. Repeated comment (e.g. not gonna happen):
"One of the commitments I made is that we’re gonna straighten out the whole situation for our veterans. Our veterans have been treated horribly. They’re waiting in line for 15, 16, 17 days, cases where they go in and they have a minor early-stage form of cancer and they can’t see a doctor. By the time they get to the doctor, they’re terminal. Not gonna happen, it’s not gonna happen."
3. Bring up your opponent's past weaknesses thereby absolving your own (i.e. by implication we don't have any at all and make assertions as though they are fact):
"And I have to say this also, the Democratic National Committee was totally open to be hacked. They did a very poor job. They could’ve had hacking defense, which we had."
4. Remind people how wonderful you are:
"I was in Russia years ago, with the Miss Universe contest, which did very well — Moscow, the Moscow area did very, very well."
"And actually, people have learned a lot about my company and now they realize, my company is much bigger, much more powerful than they ever thought. We’re in many, many countries, and I’m very proud of it."
5a. Keep going until you hope everybody loses the thread because you already have from about the third word (I've omitted the Russia peroration to this):
"Now, I have to say one other thing. Over the weekend, I was offered $2 billion to do a deal in Dubai with a very, very, very amazing man, a great, great developer from the Middle East, Hussein Damack, a friend of mine, great guy. And I was offered $2 billion to do a deal in Dubai — a number of deals and I turned it down.
I didn’t have to turn it down, because as you know, I have a no-conflict situation because I’m president, which is — I didn’t know about that until about three months ago, but it’s a nice thing to have. But I don’t want to take advantage of something. I have something that others don’t have, Vice President Pence also has it. I don’t think he’ll need it, I have a feeling he’s not going to need it.
But I have a no conflict of interest provision as president. It was many, many years old, this is for presidents. Because they don’t want presidents getting — I understand they don’t want presidents getting tangled up in minutia; they want a president to run the country. So I could actually run my business, I could actually run my business and run government at the same time.
I don’t like the way that looks, but I would be able to do that if I wanted to. I would be the only one to be able to do that. You can’t do that in any other capacity. But as president, I could run the Trump organization, great, great company, and I could run the company — the country. I’d do a very good job, but I don’t want to do that."
5b. Veer off course as soon as possible:
"First of all, you learn very little to a tax return. What you should go down to federal elections and take a look at the numbers. And actually, people have learned a lot about my company and now they realize, my company is much bigger, much more powerful than they ever thought. We’re in many, many countries, and I’m very proud of it."
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At this point I gave up the ghost as it was all much of the same. I expect many of you will not even get this far. If you have, you deserve to be very,very proud of yourself, because you have read my extremely wonderful blog entry which was very, very good, and while we're on the topic of ghosts, wasn't that a great film? That Ibsen guy knew how to right a good story and is was great to see Patrick Swayze, a lovely, lovely man, take on a role by such a very, very great writer.
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