Brian Karem’s new article in the Bulwark is creating gravity waves throughout the internet. We have all read reports about Trump watching TV, Trump not reading his daily intelligence briefings (which are no longer even daily), and Trump never – ever – reading material in preparation of anything. We know all this. But Karem sets it out with a clarity we haven’t heard. Trump just doesn’t go to work. He is not working. He plays the president in certain “roles” but doesn’t have a job.

Worse, on those few occasions when Trump simply cannot pull himself away and must perform an element of the presidency, he has no idea what he’s doing. But he seldom needs to pull himself away from the TV in the residence – and Karem has proof.

Due to tradition, there is one sure indication as to when Trump is in the office. A full-dressed Marine guard stands outside the West Wing whenever the president is working in the West Wing or Oval Office. Yet:

The Marine guard posted outside of Trump’s office when he is in it almost never appears before noon and is rarely seen in the afternoon. There have been days when Trump has held press briefings where the guard wasn’t outside of the door even as Trump entered the briefing room—indicating that Trump may have walked straight from the residence to the briefing room. No guard on duty outside of the West Wing after a Trump appearance would indicate he walked straight back to the residence.”

Of course, Trump’s staff pushes back on this constantly, always telling us that he’s a “hard-worker” and is always available. Except that doesn’t even feel right given what we know about Trump’s attention span.

We have a once in a century crisis in the country right now and Trump cannot be bothered to even pay attention:

His lack of engagement leads to him reading from notes and using visual aids in his briefings. It is often apparent—sometimes he even points it out himself—that he hasn’t read the prepared material he’s giving us. Thus he misquotes it and often doesn’t seem to understand what he’s saying.

That is putting it charitably. The man who says we have many COVID cases because we test so much doesn’t understand the dynamic at all.

Last Wednesday he was at it again. He used visual aids and misled us about their significance to try and explain away the fact that we lead the world in coronavirus deaths…

If Trump gets a second term and doesn’t have to face another election in his lifetime, does anyone honestly think he’ll spend more time at the office?”

No. Indeed, if Trump gets a second term this country will likely face the real Trump agenda. He will likely do all the things he desperately wanted to do during the first four years. He will pull us out of NATO, make more private deals with the world’s dictators, continue to enrich himself, ignore the courts and congress, and consolidate his power as a dictator.

He will do it all from the residence in front of the television, remote in hand. It will be great ratings.

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Peace, y’all
Jason
[email protected] and on Twitter @MiciakZoom