think about that line for a moment.
It is the title of this Wall Street Journal column this morning, which has as its subtitle
“Half his tweets show utter weakness. They are plaintive, shrill little cries, usually just after dawn.”
And with those words, Noonan has barely gotten started. By the way, that subtitle is extracted word for word from Noonan’s writing, picked out for that purpose I guess by the editors.
Consider is you will the first paragraph of the column:
The president’s primary problem as a leader is not that he is impetuous, brash or naive. It’s not that he is inexperienced, crude, an outsider. It is that he is weak and sniveling. It is that he undermines himself almost daily by ignoring traditional norms and forms of American masculinity.
Now, I will say right up front that even though the column is written by a woman, some are going to find Noonan’s characterizations of Trump sexist. I would not disagree.
But that is part of the point — Trump is actually very insecure, including probably about his own masculinity, which might be why he was so open — and gross — about his sexual behavior in earlier days, including his phone calls to the Howard Stern show. Clearly we saw that in his visceral reaction when Marco Rubio in a Republican debate called attention to Trump’s small hands.
The link I have provided will enable you to read the article, which is otherwise behind a pay/subscription wall at the paper in which it appears.
Allow me to share a few additional snips:
Actually his wife, Melania, is tougher than he is with her stoicism and grace, her self-discipline and desire to show the world respect by presenting herself with dignity.
Noonan offers an observation made by someone else in light of Trump’s mistreatment of Jeff Sessions:
In Politico, John J. Pitney Jr. of Claremont McKenna College writes: “Loyalty is about strength. It is about sticking with a person, a cause, an idea or a country even when it is costly, difficult or unpopular.” A strong man does that. A weak one would unleash his resentments and derive sadistic pleasure from their unleashing.
Noonan also offers the following words after remarking about Trump’s performance at the Boyscout Jamboree:
His inability—not his refusal, but his inability—to embrace the public and rhetorical role of the presidency consistently and constructively is weak.
“It’s so easy to act presidential but that’s not gonna get it done,” Mr. Trump said the other night at a rally in Youngstown, Ohio. That is the opposite of the truth. The truth, six months in, is that he is not presidential and is not getting it done. His mad, blubbery petulance isn’t working for him but against him. If he were presidential he’d be getting it done—building momentum, gaining support. He’d be over 50%, not under 40%. He’d have health care, and more.
Noonan goes on to set up discussing the bloviations of Scaramucci with these words:
We close with the observation that it’s all nonstop drama and queen-for-a-day inside this hothouse of a White House. Staffers speak in their common yet somehow colorful language of their wants, their complaints.We close with the observation that it’s all nonstop drama and queen-for-a-day inside this hothouse of a White House. Staffers speak in their common yet somehow colorful language of their wants, their complaints.
And I will end with the final section of Noonan’s column, which comes immediately after discussion the Mooch, and continues with comments upon him before her conclusion:
He seemed to think this diarrheic diatribe was professional, the kind of thing the big boys do with their media bros. But he came across as just another drama queen for this warring, riven, incontinent White House. As Scaramucci spoke, the historian Joshua Zeitz observed wonderingly, on Twitter: “It’s Team of Rivals but for morons.”
It is. And it stinks from the top.
Meanwhile the whole world is watching, a world that contains predators. How could they not be seeing this weakness, confusion and chaos and thinking it’s a good time to cause some trouble?