3 ms·

Where do you people get briefed? The guy was fucking President

Centigonal 4y ago
As president, the guy said a lot of things that were outright untrue [1]. By 2020, he had lost any expectation of credulity just on the virtue of his being president in my eyes, and in those of many other Americans. Now, if he had claimed the virus originated as a Chinese lab leak, and the intelligence community came out supporting that contribution, then that would have been a different story. Information from these sources didn't start becoming public until 2021, and was still mixed at that point[2]. [1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/01/24/trumps-false-or-misleading-claims-total-30573-over-four-years/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/01/24/trumps-fa... [2] https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/27/us/politics/covid-origin-lab-leak.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/27/us/politics/covid-origin-...
- corbulo 4y ago
  Not everything a politician said was true, therefore if you read NYT and WaPo you're more well informed than the President. Amazing.
  - vore 4y ago
    [flagged]
Zetice 4y ago
I love this reaction, because Trump, of all people, was getting some of the least useful briefings of any modern US president, due to his inability to pay attention.[0][1][2] So it's entirely possible that just watching the news casually would leave you better informed than the US president during the years of 2017 to 2021. [0] https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/29/politics/trump-intelligence-briefings/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/29/politics/trump-intelligence-b... [1] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/nov/29/donald-trump-fact-free-presidential-briefings-cia-report https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/nov/29/donald-trump... [2] https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-fact-free-cia-report-1263777/ https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-fa...
- 7speter 4y ago
  Or someone at the briefings said there was a possibility that the origin of the virus was a lab leak and that was the only thing he actually heard and just said that the origin of the virus was a lab leak.
- philippejara 4y ago
  No, it isn't entirely possible(any more than anything else is technically possible). In the rolling stone article: > "Clapper agreed with Gistaro, telling Helgerson, “Trump doesn’t read much; he likes bullets.” Instead, during the Trump administration, the briefer would summarize aloud key points since the last briefing and provide three documents (none more than a page) about new developments abroad. This was all part of an effort to make the PDB “shorter and tighter, with declarative sentences and no feature-length pieces.” > “Trump had his own way of receiving intelligence information—and a uniquely rough way of dealing publicly with the IC,” Helgerson wrote, “but it was a system in which he digested the key points offered by the briefers, asked questions, engaged in discussion, made his own priority interests known, and used the information as a basis for discussions with his policy advisers.”" > "These and other difficulties agencies encountered under Trump led Helgerson to conclude that, “The system worked, but it struggled.”" He clearly had access to more information than any civilian, and was engaging with it.
- corbulo 4y ago
  I'm always fascinated by the dichotomy of the evil hitler hyper-competent sub 100IQ billionaire who became president illustrated in every one of these types of comments. You could literally just read his executive orders to figure out what you said is false.
  - Zetice 4y ago
    Having read a number of Trump administration Executive Orders and not understanding what you mean, could you elaborate?

As president, the guy said a lot of things that were outright untrue [1]. By 2020, he had lost any expectation of credulity just on the virtue of his being president in my eyes, and in those of many other Americans. Now, if he had claimed the virus originated as a Chinese lab leak, and the intelligence community came out supporting that contribution, then that would have been a different story. Information from these sources didn't start becoming public until 2021, and was still mixed at that point[2]. [1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/01/24/trumps-false-or-misleading-claims-total-30573-over-four-years/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/01/24/trumps-fa... [2] https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/27/us/politics/covid-origin-lab-leak.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/27/us/politics/covid-origin-...

corbulo 4y ago
Not everything a politician said was true, therefore if you read NYT and WaPo you're more well informed than the President. Amazing.
- vore 4y ago
  [flagged]

Zetice 4y ago

I love this reaction, because Trump, of all people, was getting some of the least useful briefings of any modern US president, due to his inability to pay attention.[0][1][2] So it's entirely possible that just watching the news casually would leave you better informed than the US president during the years of 2017 to 2021. [0] https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/29/politics/trump-intelligence-briefings/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/29/politics/trump-intelligence-b... [1] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/nov/29/donald-trump-fact-free-presidential-briefings-cia-report https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/nov/29/donald-trump... [2] https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-fact-free-cia-report-1263777/ https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-fa...

7speter 4y ago
Or someone at the briefings said there was a possibility that the origin of the virus was a lab leak and that was the only thing he actually heard and just said that the origin of the virus was a lab leak.
philippejara 4y ago
No, it isn't entirely possible(any more than anything else is technically possible). In the rolling stone article: > "Clapper agreed with Gistaro, telling Helgerson, “Trump doesn’t read much; he likes bullets.” Instead, during the Trump administration, the briefer would summarize aloud key points since the last briefing and provide three documents (none more than a page) about new developments abroad. This was all part of an effort to make the PDB “shorter and tighter, with declarative sentences and no feature-length pieces.” > “Trump had his own way of receiving intelligence information—and a uniquely rough way of dealing publicly with the IC,” Helgerson wrote, “but it was a system in which he digested the key points offered by the briefers, asked questions, engaged in discussion, made his own priority interests known, and used the information as a basis for discussions with his policy advisers.”" > "These and other difficulties agencies encountered under Trump led Helgerson to conclude that, “The system worked, but it struggled.”" He clearly had access to more information than any civilian, and was engaging with it.
corbulo 4y ago
I'm always fascinated by the dichotomy of the evil hitler hyper-competent sub 100IQ billionaire who became president illustrated in every one of these types of comments. You could literally just read his executive orders to figure out what you said is false.
- Zetice 4y ago
  Having read a number of Trump administration Executive Orders and not understanding what you mean, could you elaborate?