Quote Originally Posted by Kathianne View Post
Trump does say things like that, whether or not he did that time I've no clue. He often talks in absolutisms, then will say something after another sentence or phrase, coming back to the first statement and quantify it, though it's easy to get lost. I think he's too smart not to know what he's doing with that.

Remember when he said that he could shoot someone on 5th ave or something and deny it and many would agree with him? I think that was a moment when he realized just how literally many took him. I think with his remarks earlier in the week, he realized again just this. The acolytes are pretty dang committed to following both what he says and what they think he really believes. It has to be sort of nerve-wracking to be him.
Perhaps you're making a very valid point about how Trump leaps in with his 'absolutisms'. But he needs to understand that this is perfect fuel for those wanting to press ahead with a 'fake news' agenda. It's a pure gift to propagandists. Trump makes a bald statement. It gets quoted, perhaps in proper context, perhaps not. It doesn't matter, because those wanting to make propagandist capital out of it simply refuse, or 'somehow conveniently forget' to ever report anything that offers a corrective reconsideration.

This is what the BBC did with the lunchtime news broadcast. If in fact Trump said what it was reported he'd said, two things were done with that. Firstly, grim statistics were reported. Immediately after that, Trump's totally - apparently - contradictory statement, one seemingly totally ignoring the reality just described, was repeated.

This could only leave one impression, that of a President whose reality was entirely at odds with the real facts. Possibly this leaves in the mind of the viewer an impression of total incompetence. Or, an impression of a ruthless President who'll get America back to work REGARDLESS of any health considerations ... in other words, Trump may be painted as having a 'business first, human life a very poor second' outlook.

In other words, as a human being, he's painted as being a total and utter bastard.

Trrump's ad-hoc 'absolutisms', as you call them, really need to stop, if the fake news industry (of which, apparently, the BBC is a fully paid-up member !) isn't going to be given gifts it then runs with for damaging propagandist effect.