Wednesday, February 5, 2020

What did Donald Trump do today?

He had a pretty emotional day.

The good news for Trump was that the Senate voted not to expel him from office on the charges for which he had been impeached. But Trump is giving every impression of having a bad day all the same.

He began the day in the middle of an emotional Twitter rant about Nancy Pelosi, with whom he traded snubs at last night's State of the Union address. Trump refused to shake her hand as he stepped up to the podium, and she tore her copy of his speech in half after he'd finished speaking. Trump was retweeting anti-Pelosi tweets well past midnight, and had racked up nearly two dozen by the morning.

It's no secret that Trump uses Twitter as a form of emotional self-care, or that Nancy Pelosi—a woman in a position of power she doesn't owe to Trump—finds it easier than most to send Trump into a rage

In an effort to project a "business as usual" image, Trump had scheduled a press conference with Venezuelan opposition leaders during the hours leading up to the final Senate trial votes. But then Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), the 2012 Republican nominee for president, announced on the Senate floor that he would vote to convict Trump on the abuse of power charge.

Trump, who would have had to face reporters' questions if he'd gone through with the press conference, immediately canceled it and began tweeting again. He retweeted a message from former Sen. Bob Dole, the Republican Party's 1996 nominee, then announced he'd be addressing the nation on Thursday "to discuss our Country’s VICTORY on the Impeachment Hoax." He also pinned a tweet about a favorite "joke" of his, staying in office forever.

The White House offered no other explanation as to the change in Trump's schedule, and didn't comment on Trump's tweets.

Why does this matter?

  • Emotional stability is pretty high on the list of qualities a president needs to be able to do the job.
  • Free elections, the Constitution, and the rule of law are nothing to joke about.