Senate GOP breaks with Trump's message on Covid-19 testing: 'We ought to step it up'
By Manu Raju, CNN Senior Congressional Correspondent
Updated 10:28 PM ET, Thu May 7, 2020
https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/07/politics/republican-reaction-trump-covid-testing/index.html
Donald! To intelligently reopen the economy we need multiple tests for employees you dummy! Why don't you scream for 1,000,000 test every day until every worker is tested, and we have kits for multiple tests!
I'll call it Trump "double-speak" where he says things in a way so he can take either side, right or wrong. He even says he was joking, testing the media, or using sarcasm when he says really dumb things.
It may be purposeful, or a lucky weakness, but I see Trump using his limited vocabulary to express opinions and observations two ways. He will say he heard something from someone, like summer weather will end covid-19, and if it turns out right, he's a genius to repeat it, wrong, then THEY got it wrong, not him.
He uses ignorance as a weapon too. He says the models got it wrong! No, the models got right what was put into the model. Trump doesn't understand what models do.
He uses phrases allowing plausible deniability such as "they" told him, or "I've heard" this, "you all know' it, or "I've been told" some fact.
Coronavirus deaths projected to hit 3,000 per day by June, internal Trump administration analysis says
Published Mon, May 4 2020 Kevin Breuninger and Dan Mangan
Before he decided to run for President, Trump created "truthful hyperbole" as a defense and justification for lies he tells. Plausible deniability is key to "truthful hyperbole."
What Are Trump Fans Really ‘Afraid’ to Say?
By Lindy West March 11, 2016
Plausible deniability: The thing President Trump can’t stop abusing
By Aaron Blake Senior political reporter, writing for The Fix July 4, 2017
The Two Psychological Tricks Trump Is Using to Get Away With Everything
His brazen attempts to redefine the norms of acceptable conduct work for a reason.
Peter Beinart Professor of journalism at the City University of New York
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/10/trumps-brazenness-is-his-greatest-asset/599527/
When Trump says he was being ‘sarcastic,’ it’s just part of his gaslighting
He wasn’t joking about disinfectant. Saying he was is his attempt to control reality.
By Jennifer Mercieca - associate professor of communication at Texas A&M University. She is the author of "Demagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump." April 25, 2020
