Trump of Arabia

What thoughts do we have for these two stories?

More Trump tweet hypocrisy or personal growth?

Will Trump win-over the Muslim world and lose his racist base at home?

:thinking:

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or personal growth

Interesting articles.
I think I’d need to see some other signs of personal growth before I could give that much credence. I’m thinking of the phrase ā€˜preponderance of evidence’ here, fur some reason.
(Another option: Maybe a token challenge to throw to his base?)

It may also, however signify Melania standing her ground.

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It likely won’t be reported in the racist outlets his racist base usually read.

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I’ve seen Muslims on Twitter saying Melania didn’t have to wear a scarf in the first place (although one pointed out a head covering is required when meeting the Pope).

I just don’t see any big pivot here. We already knew Trump wants to be cozy with super-rich people. And we already knew he’ll say just about anything to get knee-jerk approval. The Saudis, no doubt, were counting on it.

Racist Americans, on the other hand, will need a bit more pushing. If they don’t support Trump, it’s not like they’re going to stop being racist and vote Democrat.

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It’s a pivot because two years ago he tweeted a criticism of Michelle Obama when she did the same thing. Just another one of his glib, meaningless putdowns.

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Pivot or hypocrisy? Pivot implies a permanent change of approach based on the recognition (realization) of realpolitik conditions. Hypocrisy is when previously held positions are temporarily abandoned for the sake of appearance or convenience.

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Why not both?

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I’m not sure it was even a ā€œpreviously held positionā€ so much as, he is simply a racist douchebag. In his world, nothing the Obamas ever did was right, but if he does the exact same thing he’s a winner.

Also, Trump doesn’t really believe in anything except Trump, glorifying Trump, and making Trump wealthier. I don’t think he really has positions on anything else, he just extemporizes with no regard for consistency.

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A pivot assumes he even really held a position in the first place.

Trump, and Ford, and all the nominally conservative populists: they just say shit. It’s the sort of thing that belongs, at best, at a pep rally. It’s not a platform. It’s just hype. And when they say contradictory shit, it’s just more hype.

The actual platform is in what they do, and here Trump’s been perfectly constant.

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His purpose on this trip was to attempt to start an intra-Muslim war.

So far, it’s working:

They won’t count it as fully successful until the Saudis attack Iran, though.

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I don’t see what’s so uncharacteristic.

Having ran on Islamophobia, do they really want pictures of Melania in a headscarf?

…and black people to take the lead against street crime, and gay people to take the lead in reporting pedophiles…Growth would have been finding something to say to them other than ā€œGee, you got a lot of terrorism going on here.ā€

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