Monday 15 January 2018

Is it true Trump is lazy?

One of the things that bothers me from all the stuff in Michael Wolff's book is the accusation that Donald Trump is incredibly lazy. I can't see how you can be president of the United States and just sit around not doing a lot. Is that really possible? So he spends quite a lot of time playing golf. But so did Obama and George W Bush before him. But according to Wolff and a vitriolic review of the book by Andrew Sullivan in the Sunday Times, Trump spends as little time as possible being the most powerful leader in the world. He spends hardly any time at meetings and, as everyone now knows, he doesn't read. Instead he watches endless news programmes and stuffs his mouth with fast food. Having kept up with the daily itineraries of past presidents over the last few decades, I find it beyond belief that Trump can get away with doing so little every day. How can the man who sits in the Oval Office actually not read? General JOhn Kelly, his chef of staff, must have a nightmare every day. Everything must have to be reduced to a few pars. What Kelly needs is a reputable tabloid sub-editor who knows how to turn a few thousand rambling paragraphs into a snappy 250 words. I can't imagine Kelly, with his military background, could compare with a really good sub-editor out of the Fleet Street mould. But if it's a really complicated issue, one that requires deep thought and a wise decision, can it really be true that Trump just isn't interested? He just gets the fundamentals and no nuances. I think this is dangerous, in fact very dangerous. The man in the Oval Office needs to be superbly briefed. Even without knowing all the detail, he still needs to be able to grasp the arguments and to come to a conclusion based on a fully active brain working at full stretch. It sounds like Trump has none of these qualities. He just relies on instinct and prejudice. At least that's the picture now embedded in most people's mind after the Fire and Fury book was published. It is truly alarming.

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