Megalomania and Me
Here's a great article by CNN's Chris Cillizza which gives an insight into the ups and downs of political reporting when America's president and 'leader of the free world' is an unstable megalomaniac.
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/09/26/politics/donald-trump-press-conference-analysis/index.html
Donald Trump's me, me, me, me press conference
Washington (CNN) On the eve of a potentially make or break moment for his Supreme Court nominee, President Donald Trump held a press conference to talk about his favorite subject: Himself.
Asked about whether he believed the women who had made accusations of sexual assault or inappropriate conduct against Brett Kavanaugh were liars, Trump responded by noting that he also had been the target of allegations like this.
"I've been accused ... by four or five women, who got paid a lot of money to make up stories about me who made a lot of money," Trump said.
(Fact check: More than a dozen women have accused Trump of a variety of charges relating to sexual behavior. He has denied all the charges and threatened to sue those women after the conclusion of the 2016 campaign. He hasn't filed any of those lawsuits.)
(Fact check 2: Trump's one-time personal attorney, Michael Cohen, has testified under oath that Trump directed and coordinated payments to two women -- porn star Stormy Daniels and ex-Playmate Karen McDougal -- aimed at buying their silence in the lead-up to the 2016 vote. Both women alleged they had extramarital affairs with Trump in the mid 2000s.)
That answer -- comparing his own accusers to those of Kavanaugh -- surely made Senate Republicans who are desperately trying to confirm the judge groan. It was far from the only time that Trump turned a question (OK, any question) at the press conference into a soliloquy about his greatness.
When asked about Kim Jong Un, Trump said that if he had not been elected president, the United States and North Korea would be at war now.
When asked about his planned meeting with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein tomorrow, Trump said that Rosenstein had been "very nice" to him.
Why the next 24 hours may be the most important of Trump's presidency so far
When asked what sort of message he was sending by raising questions about Kavanaugh's accusers, Trump noted that he had won 52% of the female vote in 2016.
(Fact check 3: He actually won 41% of the women's vote. He won 52% of white women. He received 4% among black women and 25% among Hispanic women. Here's the exit poll to prove it.)
When asked about the impact of his tariffs on farmers, he noted that farmers love him.
When he called on a reporter for The New York Times, he said the reporter -- Mark Landler -- should thank him for the profits the company was making.
Again and again and again, Trump turned the conversation to himself. It was an 81-minute running riff on a) all the things HE has done and b) all the things HE doesn't get credit for.
