Yesterday, Treason Trump was trending on Twitter. Today, Trump gaslighting is trending. The worst part about it? Trump isn’t even trying to be sly about his gaslighting.
On Monday, the Trump-Putin summit took place, and after Trump’s comments, the world entered a frenzy. 24 hours later, the United States president came forward to say that he meant to say exactly the opposite of what he said at yesterday’s news conference.
Just thinking about that seems ludicrous. But, maybe someone will buy it and forgive the president – or perhaps, Americans won’t, and will fight even harder for his impeachment.
Trump Backtracks on Trump-Putin Summit
Yesterday in Finland, after speaking one-on-one for two hours, Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke to a crowd of reporters. There, the two world leaders talked about the accusations of Russia meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
To make a long story short, Donald Trump said that, even though U.S. intelligence agencies say Russia did meddle, he believes Putin when he says his country did not interfere.
Trump said that he doesn’t “see any reason why it would be” Russia who meddled. This, of course, shocked Americans as well as every other nationality.
Here’s where things take a weird turn:
On Tuesday, reading off a prepared statement, Donald Trump claimed that he meant to say “wouldn’t,” instead of “would.” Let’s ponder that for a moment: the president of the United States is now taking back what he said, claiming to believe the opposite, and blaming it on a word fumble.
Speaking to reporters, Trump said that he “said the word would instead of wouldn’t,” adding that “the sentence should have been I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t be Russia.”
Where the Frustration Begins and the Trump Gaslighting Comments Start
Things get difficult here. Even if it’s true that Trump misspoke at the Trump-Putin summit (highly unlikely), I wonder: should someone who can make a mistake such as this be in charge of a country? Especially one as powerful as the United States?
Russia is an extremely authoritarian country and remains hostile to the U.S., said Paul Ryan, U.S. House Speaker, and the fact that Trump “accidentally” sided with Russia when he “meant” to do the opposite is not only a far-fetched statement but a worrying one too.
What happens when he does something like this again? What if, one day, he says “press the button,” instead of “don’t press the button?” Sounds unlikely, but so does unintentionally siding with Vladimir Putin, and then blaming it on word jumble.
In Trump’s mind, he probably thought he could get away with the statement. However, it’s surprising that the White House went with it. Why? Well, for obvious reasons: it’s not a believable situation, and the White House, out of everyone, should know that.
Perhaps this is solely a case of a Freudian slip. Trump very well could have been instructed to say wouldn’t, but, knowing the person that he is, the president probably would have wanted to have sided with Russia if he had the choice—hence the Freudian slip.
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The Takeaway
Is Trump telling the truth? Or are the comments of Trump gaslighting fair?
It seems like we have a political version of Yanny or Laurel on our hands. So I ask you, do you think Trump meant to say would or wouldn’t?
Featured Image: Vox
