Are Trump's dumb-ass tweets a conscious diversionary strategy?

I think Trump has more in common with Palin than anyone. As she was, he is gifted at communicating effectively with wingnuts. He knows how to manipulate and control the worst of the press cycle and its audience. He also has proven he is a skilled con artist / businessman if you want to call him that. However outside of that I think he is an utter moron that probably would struggle through a rigorous IQ test.

I'm sure most of his tweets eye manipulation of the headlines but he's also an impulsive attack dog so the primary purpose of each tweet probably bounces back and forth. You also can't forget he likes to rally his base with his trailer park slogans.

Trump is a sales person

He has also been around Pro wrestling and has seen first hand how a "heel" can become extremely popular. But to remain a heel he has to continue to say the extreme things. His base eats it up, both on what he says and the reaction from people opposed.

As for secondary issues, like being a distraction, sure it can serve as that as well

Cardinal said:

Ultimately, trying to guess at the motivations of one who...

a)delights in chaos (this is not my theory -- it's a favorite tactic of his substantiated by many people who've worked with him), and
b)may have legitimate mental decline

...is an academic exercise at best and a futile effort at worst. All I can say is that when the story gets a little too heated for him, the dialogue does change, and it changes fast. It's too consistent to me to be a coincidence. So whatever his state of mental decline, his experience in tabloid style entertainment and therefore his ability to direct people's attention is something he's still very, very much in control of.

To your other point, we can't really ignore his tweets because he's the President, any more than a child can believe he can ignore the ravings of his alcoholic, bipolar father. Theoretically, we could control the conversation (for example, we could still debate the horrific health care bill the Senate is making instead of the latest woman Trump said he saw bleeding). But ignoring the tweets altogether of the man who's gutting our alliances and pushing the United States slowly to war in the Pacific doesn't seem like much of an option to me.

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The child/adult dynamic analogy in itself is accurate, but not apple/apples here. This is more an adult/adult scenario. The dynamics are different.

You're probably correct that we shouldn't ignore them completely, but we should do our best to not let it distract us from the real issues.

On a side note: Just heard on the news that North Korea fired another missile, and Trump tweeted asking why Kim Jong-Un didn't have something better to do. :neutral: The blinding irony almost made my head explode.

Jesse Booth said:

Do you honestly believe that a lifelong conman who has been met with success in reality tv, wrestling, and even politics is bad at creating diversions and manipulating his public perception? I don't like the man any more than you do, but let's not pretend he's incompetent. It takes talent to be as immune to scandal as Hillary Clinton.

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He's reactive, not a thinker.

radcen said:

Are Trump's dumb-ass tweets a conscious diversionary strategy?

By that, I mean something he/they are purposely doing to keep people distracted away from the other things they are doing and would prefer less scrutiny.

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If he's doing it just to make the haters go nuts...it's working.

apdst said:

If he's doing it just to make the haters go nuts...it's working.

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You're probably correct. And on the other hand, if he's doing it to keep the Suckers fired up... in a "ZOMG!!! You are sooooooooo wonderful, Mr President!" <cue up sparkly hearts floating up in the air> kind of way... that's working, too.

Regardless, either way, neither is what a President should be doing.

TheGoverness said:

Yep. His Tweets are hurting his agenda. His constant ****posting has everyone talking about those Tweets, rather than on policy. And what's stupid, is he blames the MSM for diverting from talking about policy , when he's the one that causes these deviations in the first place with his stupid Tweets.

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You say everyone is talking about those tweets rather than policy. Tell me who cares what the leftist media talks about. Trump and congress are passing legislation and has wiped out Obama's legacy. Trumps foreign policy is night and day over Obama's do nothing policy. Huge changes are being made but the leftist media don't want you to know that. Hell if their not talking about Russia or now his tweets or his behavior, or Trumps is a racist, or he hates woman or whatever. No matter the leftist media will never talk about Trump accomplishments. And of course you'll say what accomplishments, there you go, stop watching CNN and MSNBC and you'll find out. The leftist media has only one agenda, destroy Trump.