;)
The Commentariat -- October 1, 2017
Afternoon Update:
Trumpty-Dumpty Dumps on Diplomacy. Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Trump seemed to undercut his own secretary of state on Sunday as he belittled the prospect of a diplomatic resolution to the nuclear-edged crisis with North Korea even as the administration was seeking to open lines of communication. In the latest Twitter messages from his New Jersey golf club, where he was spending the weekend, Mr. Trump diminished Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson's outreach to Pyongyang and its autocratic leader, Kim Jong-un. On a visit to China, Mr. Tillerson acknowledged on Saturday that he was trying to open talks. 'I told Rex Tillerson, our wonderful Secretary of State, that he is wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man,' Mr. Trump wrote, using the derogatory nickname he has assigned to Mr. Kim. 'Save your energy Rex,' he added, 'we'll do what has to be done!'" Thanks to MAG for the lead. Mrs. McC: See my comment on Tillerson's efforts below & MAG's in today Comments thread.
We've spent the entire weekend, as we have last weekend, working on Puerto Rico, making sure we're out saving lives, sustaining lives. And making sure everyone in Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, is taken care of. The United States has gone through extraordinary efforts to delivery goods to the islands. -- Gary Cohn, White House economic advisor, on Fox "News" Sunday
Great! Apparently composing nasty tweets running down media coverage & local Puerto Rican efforts is "work." -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie ...
... David Jackson of USA Today: "President Trump defended his administration's response to the humanitarian disaster in Puerto Rico, dismissing any critics of his relief efforts as 'fake news' and 'politically motivated ingrates.' 'We have done a great job with the almost impossible situation in Puerto Rico,' Trump said. 'Outside of the Fake News or politically motivated ingrates ... people are now starting to recognize the amazing work that has been done by FEMA and our great Military.'... In a third tweet on Sunday morning, Trump had kind words for Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello, thanking him and 'all of those who are working so closely with our First Responders. Fantastic job!'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: John Kelly needs to hire a cold-hearted no-texting nanny to babysit Terribly Trumpy on the weekends. ...
... Mike Allen of Axios: "In contrast to dire reports from the island, White House homeland security adviser Tom Bossert sent West Wing colleagues an unusually upbeat update -- leaked to Axios -- that points to a rapid recovery no one on the ground is witnessing. Bossert, back from a trip to Puerto Rico earlier in the week, says it's 'still an urgent situation,' but that the administration has "a strong ground game in place on the island with military leadership[.]... The White House's sunny plan comes as TV reports 'increasingly echo those after Katrina a dozen years ago in sounding the alarm for a desperate population frustrated by the pace of relief efforts,' AP's David Bauder points out[.]" ...
The President is personally retweeting himself about PR instead of personally overseeing PR relief. He struggles with basics of being POTUS.... Part of being President is driving federal agencies to work together and get the job done. Another part is moral leadership. - Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), in tweets
... Matt Yglesias of Vox: "For the first nine months of his administration, observers have had occasion to wonder ... how exactly Donald Trump would manage to handle a real crisis imposed by external events rather than his own impulsiveness. The answer is now apparent in the blackened streets of San Juan and the villages of interior Puerto Rico that more than a week after Hurricane Maria struck remain without access to food or clean water. To an extent, the United States of America held up surprisingly well from Inauguration Day until September 20th or so. The ongoing degradation of American civic institutions, at a minimum, did not have an immediate negative impact on the typical person's life. But the world is beginning to draw a straight line from the devastation in Puerto Rico straight to the White House. Trump's instinct so far is to turn the island's devastation into another front in culture war politics, a strategy that could help his own political career survive."
Peter Baker & Robert Pear of the New York Times discuss the possible Trump nominees to replace Tom Jet-Setter Price as head of Health & Human Services. Also, see commentary in today's thread on making Mitt Rmoney HHS secretary. Funny -- and realistic.
William Booth of the Washington Post: "Just minutes after the first boisterous voters entered the polling station at an elementary school here on Sunday, dozens of National Police officers in riot gear smashed through the front window and began searching for the ballot boxes.... As the police forced their way through shouting crowds into the polling station, the organizers spirited away the ballots and hid them in the classrooms amid coloring books and crayons. An hour later, after police had driven away in their big black vans, under a hail of insults, the ballot boxes reemerged and the voting recommenced. The pattern was repeated again and again across hundreds of polling stations Sunday in the Catalan region of northeast Spain, where a secessionist movement is pushing ahead with a disputed referendum on independence that the central government in Madrid, backed by the courts, has called illegitimate and illegal." ...
... The Guardian is running live updates.
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Looks a little like a preview of U.S. election day in "urban areas" November 3, 2020.
*****
Matthew Nussbaum & Marc Caputo of Politico: "... Donald Trump attacked the mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Saturday, writing on Twitter that she and other leaders on the storm-ravaged territory 'want everything to be done for them.' Trump's early morning broadsides came after San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz slammed the administration's response repeatedly on Friday amid growing media coverage of the devastation.... Her plea and others like it have led critics to liken Trump's response to that of George W. Bush in New Orleans after Katrina struck that city a decade ago. In his latest fight with an opponent few other politicians would engage -- waged from his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club -- Trump dismissed Cruz as a partisan. 'The Mayor of San Juan, who was very complimentary only a few days ago, has now been told by the Democrats that you must be nasty to Trump,' Trump wrote on Twitter. 'Such poor leadership ability by the Mayor of San Juan, and others in Puerto Rico, who are not able to get their workers to help.' Trump added that the Puerto Ricans 'want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort. 10,000 Federal workers now on Island doing a fantastic job.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: See commentary in yesterday's thread. I'm so pissed off, I'm in tears. Here's the presidunce, sitting around on his fat ass sending Twitterbombs as he gets ready to go golfing at his fucking club. Meanwhile, the mayor of San Juan tries frantically to save lives. And he's dissing her? Maybe she's supposed to follow Trump's lead & get out her clubs? Oh, wait, the golf courses in Puerto Rico are disaster zones. And as she herself said, "General Buchanan, a three star general has said as one of the first comments he's made about the Puerto Rico situation that he doesn't have enough troops and equipment of what he needs to get the situation under control." ...
... Lee Moran of the Huffington Post: "The mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Saturday defended her request for federal aid in the wake of Hurricane Maria, hours after ... Donald Trump lashed out at her for asking for assistance and accused her of unnecessarily criticizing him. During an appearance on MSNBC, Carmen Yulin Cruz reiterated that Puerto Rico needed more help and said her previous critiques of the administration's response had not been intended as a personal slight. 'Actually, I was asking for help,' she said. 'I wasn't saying anything nasty about the president.'" ...
... ** Arelis R. Hernández & others of the Washington Post profile San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz. after one of the worst "leaders" of the world criticized her for "poor leadership ability." ...
... Kristine Phillips of the Washington Post: "Rep. Luis V. Gutiérrez (D-Ill.), one of four members of Congress born in Puerto Rico, said the Trump administration has done a 'disgraceful job' of helping the 3.4 million Americans on the island devastated by Hurricane Maria. 'I think it isn't a good job; it's a disgraceful job. The United States of America is the most powerful, wealthiest country in the world, and this is not a response that's demonstrative of our power and our wealth,' Gutiérrez said, his voice breaking during an interview Friday night with CNN's Jim Scuitto.... Local officials on the island, including San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz, decried the failure to deliver basic necessities to communities across Puerto Rico and said the federal response had 'collapsed.' In response, Trumpfaulted the island's 'broken infrastructure & massive debt,' blamed the news media, and personally attacked Cruz. The president also praised his administration's relief efforts, saying in a tweet Saturday that the thousands of federal workers on the island are doing a 'fantastic job.'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: I don't doubt that the vast majority of federal workers in Puerto Rico are doing "a fantastic job." The problem seems to come from the top, where the leaders charged with coordinating efforts are sitting in an air-conditioned room & accomplishing too little. I do think the Katrina response was worse. In fact, the other day, MSNBC introduced an "expert" on disaster relief to discuss the situation in Puerto Rico. The "expert" turned out to be Michael Brown, a/k/a Helluva Job Brownie. When the host asked Brownie what the federal government could have done to prepare for the disaster before Maria hit Puerto Rico & the Virgin Islands, Brownie opined, "Well, there's not much they could have done." I turned off the teevee. ...
... Justin Baragona of Mediaite: "During an appearance on CNN this morning, the general who was put in charge of the Hurricane Katrina response was asked to give his reaction to Trump's tweets.... After noting that the citizens of Puerto Rico were indeed doing everything they could to help themselves, Lt. Gen. Russel Honore (Ret.) was then pressed by host Christi Paul to respond to Trump taking aim at the mayor. 'I have no reaction,' Honore said from the streets of San Juan. 'The mayor is living on a cot. I hope the president has a good day at golf.'" ...
... James Fallows of The Atlantic: "[H]is Twitter outburst [about San Juan's mayor] ... is a significant step downward for him, and perhaps the first thing he has done in office that, in its coarseness, has actually surprised me.... Temperamentally, intellectually, and in terms of civic and moral imagination, he is not fit for the duties he is now supposed to bear.... During the campaign, I argued that the greatest responsibility for Trump's rise lay not with the man himself -- he is who he is, he can't help it -- but with those Republicans who know what he is, and continue to look the other way. Their responsibility for the carnage of this era increases by the day, and has grown by quite a lot this weekend." --safari ...
... Joy-Ann Reid in the Daily Beast: "Trump lacks impulse control on a good day, but can hardly contain himself when dressed down by a woman.... Fresh off his war with black professional athletes, in which he tried to impugn their patriotism and wrapped his repugnant self in the flag (five Vietnam deferments not withstanding) he tried to twist the San Juan mayor's urgent pleas into an attack on the military and first responders. He then threw in a typically Trumpian attack on the media, implying that CNN and NBC too are attacking first responders and soldiers by criticizing Donald Trump.... Not surprisingly, Trump's attacks on Yulin Cruz echoed those of his most vile supporters from the white nationalist fever swamps, including Pizzagate's Mike Cernovich, who the night before took to Twitter to denounce Yulín Cruz as 'garbage' and a 'murderer.' Trump's attacks, dredging up trite racial stereotypes about supposed government dependency, echoed theirs, because at the end of the day, Donald Trump is them. Clearly, he so readily channels their rage and bigotry because he identifies with it." ...
... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "In three tweets, Trump has moved a simmering, somewhat-negative story for his administration to the front burner. He decided to attack a sympathetic character and turn this into a partisan political debate. Cruz is pleading for help by saying, 'We are dying.' Trump essentially told her to stop complaining. He's also arguing that somebody who is in charge of saving lives is somehow more interested in politics. That's a stunning charge. And it all shows just how much Trump still doesn't quite grasp what a crisis Puerto Rico is -- both for its people and for him.... This humanitarian crisis for Puerto Rico may not wind up being a political crisis for Trump, but Trump should be doing everything in his power to prevent that. Instead, he's making excuses and paying more attention to how unfairly he's being treated." ...
... Democracy Now! explains the vulture capitalism descending on Puerto Rico, and how American companies have been price-gouging the island for private profits. --safari ...
Fake News Fails Dear Leader Again. Max Greenwood of the Hill: "President Trump on Saturday accused the so-called 'fake news' media of failing to recognize that Sen. Luther Strange (R-Ala.), who was vanquished in a runoff election against GOP candidate Roy Moore this week, gained in the polls earlier this year after Trump endorsed him. 'In analyzing the Alabama Primary race, FAKE NEWS always fails to mention that the candidate I endorsed went up MANY points after endorsement!' Trump tweeted.... Despite Trump's claim, a poll released Monday -- a day before the runoff election -- showed that the president's endorsement had little effect on the race between Strange and Moore."
Rationalizing Trump. Nate Silver: "Whenever President Trump lashes out against someone or something in a way that defies traditional expectations for presidential behavior -- for instance, his decision to criticize the mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Saturday morning after her town was just devastated by Hurricane Maria -- it yields a debate about what was behind it. After Trump's series of attacks on the NFL and its players earlier this month, for example, there were two major theories about what motivated his conduct.... But the theories are in conflict because they'e about the intent and motivation for Trump's behavior and not necessarily its effects.... Many ... times, journalists come up with overly convoluted explanations for Trump's behavior ('this seemingly self-destructive emotional outburst is actually a clever political strategy!') when simpler ones will suffice ('this is a self-destructive emotional outburst.'). In doing so, they violate both Ockham's razor and Hanlon's razor -- the latter of which can be stated as 'never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.' One can understand why journalists who rely on having close access to Trump avoid explanations that portray Trump as being irrational, incompetent or bigoted. But sometimes they're the only explanations that make sense."
David Sanger of the New York Times: "The Trump administration acknowledged on Saturday for the first time that it was in direct communication with the government of North Korea over its missile and nuclear tests, seeking a possible way forward beyond the escalating threats of a military confrontation from both sides.... 'We can talk to them,' Mr. Tillerson said at the end of a long day of engaging China's leadership. 'We do talk to them.' When asked whether those channels ran through China, he shook his head. 'Directly,' he said. 'We have our own channels.'... So far, the North Koreans have shown no interest in a serious negotiation." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: I know many of you don't like Rex, & he certainly would not be my choice for Secretary of State, but this is not the first time I've thought Rexxon was one guy standing between some stupid or catastrophic war & (relative) peace. Early on, he said he didn't want the job, but his wife insisted he had a duty to take it. At the time, I kinda thought she meant, "You've got to save us from Trump!" Maybe I was right. ...
... Karen DeYoung, et al., of the Washington Post: "Early in his administration, President Trump signed a directive outlining a strategy of pressure against North Korea that involved actions across a broad spectrum of government agencies and led to the use of military cyber-capabilities, according to U.S. officials. As part of the campaign, U.S. Cyber Command targeted hackers in North Korea's military spy agency, the Reconnaissance General Bureau, by barraging their computer servers with traffic that choked off Internet access. Trump's directive, a senior administration official said, also included instructions to diplomats and officials to bring up North Korea in virtually every conversation with foreign interlocutors and urge them to sever all ties with Pyongyang. Those conversations have had significant success, particularly in recent weeks as North Korea has tested another nuclear weapon and ballistic missiles, officials said."
Swamp Creatures. Andy Kroll of Mother Jones: "The Trump administration on Friday rolled back key regulations on one of the Wall Street firms responsible for the 2008 economic collapse -- a move that could result in a huge windfall for a billionaire former White House adviser. In a 6-to-3 vote, the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC), which is chaired by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, declared that insurance giant American International Group (AIG) should no longer be considered a 'too-big-to-fail' institution that could trigger a wider economic catastrophe if it went under...That's a big win for Carl Icahn, the irascible billionaire, who is reportedly AIG's fourth largest shareholder and one of America's wealthiest investors.... Icahn lobbied Trump to choose Mnuchin to run the Treasury Department, which Trump ultimately did. Now it is Mnuchin who is returning the favor for Icahn." --safari
John Bowden of the Hill: "The former head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) under President Obama blamed President Trump on Friday for rising health-care premiums around the country. Andy Slavitt, who was acting CMS administrator from 2015 to 2017, accused Trump on Twitter of 'purposely raising' health-care premiums as part of his plan to let ObamaCare 'implode.'... Slavitt was reacting to news reports that Oklahoma's health commissioner was blaming the Trump administration for missing a key deadline to approve a waiver for the state, which Oklahoma officials say will mean& higher premiums for thousands of residents.... 'The lack of timely waiver approval will prevent thousands of Oklahomans from realizing the benefits of significantly lower insurance premiums in 2018..., Oklahoma's health commissioner Terry Cline wrote to administration officials earlier Friday...., saying approving the waiver would have helped more than 130,000 Oklahomans and reduced premiums by 30 percent." ...
... Noor Al-Sibai of RawStory: "Less than a day before ... Tom Price resigned from his cabinet position amid a week of controversy about his expensive travel habits, his department quietly moved to delay an Obamacare rule that would punish drug companies for knowingly price-gouging.... [T]he rule was supposed to go into effect on Sunday, but on Thursday, the HHS department logged a delay into the federal register -- the fourth time they've done so this year." --safari ...
... Faint Praise. Mark Stern of Slate: "The inglorious resignation of Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price on Friday leaves vacant an extremely powerful position in ... Donald Trump's cabinet. The early frontrunner for the job is Seema Verma, a former healthcare consultant who currently heads the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Despite this administration's crusade against Medicaid, Verma actually worked to expand Medicaid in Indiana while she worked as former governor Mike Pence's protégé in that state. Verma is no friend of the Affordable Care Act, and she has long wished to impose extra burdens on Americans who receive subsidized health care. She is, however, almost certainly the most qualified and least dogmatic official who could possibly lead HHS under the Trump administration. In fact, Verma replacing Price would be a significant improvement.... Make no mistake -- Verma wants Congress to kill the ACA. But until it does, she does not seem opposed to letting the law run smoothly." ...
... Washington Post Editors: "Bipartisan negotiators in the Senate are talking once again about a compromise that would stabilize health insurance markets while giving states some additional flexibility. They could have a bill ready as soon as this week. But it will go nowhere if Republican leaders refuse to consider it. Mr. Price would have been an obstacle. Mr. Trump suddenly has a new opportunity for a win on health care. He should take full advantage."
Joshua Eaton & Alejandro Alvarez of ThinkProgress: "Thousands of people rallied for racial justice in the nation's capital on Saturday as part of the March for Racial Justice and the March for Black Women. The two rallies, which were organized separately but in close coordination, took place in different nearby parks before meeting up to march past the Department of Justice's headquarters and onto the National Mall, where marchers heard from feminist activist Gloria Steinem, Muslim rights activist Linda Sarsour, and Philando Castile's mother Valerie Castile."
Gorsuch's Bad Calls. Jeff Toobin of the New Yorker: "Earlier this week, [Supreme Court Justice Neil] Gorsuch gave a speech before the Fund for American Studies, a conservative educational and advocacy group.... What made Gorsuch's appearance especially notable was that it took place at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, which is the focus of several pending cases that may well wind up before the Supreme Court. These lawsuits allege that the Trump family's ownership of the hotel.... Gorsuch's Trump Hotel speech followed one he gave at the University of Louisville, where he was introduced by Mitch McConnell ... who was, more than anyone, responsible for blocking Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland to the seat that Gorsuch now occupies.... Gorsuch's tiptoeing up to the line of advocacy for and gratitude to conservatives might earn some advice from the Chief Justice to mind the unwritten rules. Gorsuch's speeches might appear less distasteful to his colleagues if he had made an otherwise more graceful début on the Court. As Linda Greenhouse observed in the Times the end of Gorsuch's first term, he managed to violate the Court's traditions as soon as he arrived."
Beyond the Beltway
Ken Ritter of the AP: "... O.J. Simpson became a free man Sunday after serving nine years for a botched hotel room heist in Las Vegas that brought the conviction and prison time he avoided in the killings of his ex-wife and her friend after his 1995 acquittal in the 'trial of the century' in Los Angeles."
News Lede
New York Times: "S.I. Newhouse Jr., who as the owner of The New Yorker, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Architectural Digest and other magazines wielded vast influence over American culture, fashion and social taste, died on Sunday at his home in New York. He was 89."
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Reader Comments (10)
Heckuva Job Brownie
Like a bad penny covered in dog shit and all the best pathogens, certain winger creeps keep turning up when you need them most to find a deep dark well, jump in and shut their noise.
Michael Brown is one. A while back I did a little recon on how Ol' Heckuva Job has fared since his incompetence helped The Decider demonstrate just which Americans don't really matter: black people in largely Democratic cities, for starters.
Rather than sweeping tumbleweeds off the streets of some ghost town, Heckuva Job is passing himself off as an expert on disaster recovery and national security. Isn't that a bit like Ted Bundy running a national neighborhood watch operation?
But it's no wonder he believes nothing could possibly have been done prior to the onset of one the most massive hurricanes in recorded history. He loves the little king. Oh, and guess which president who acted swiftly and responsibly to help Americans impacted by Hurricane Sandy? I'll give you a hint: he's not a Republicsn and he's nor white.
In fact, Heckuva Job was highly critical of President Obama's reaction to Sandy. According to the guy whose response to Katrina was as efficient and timely as a dead person's, Obama acted too quickly!!! Heckuva Job, in true Confederate Tenth Amendment fashion, sniffed that the president should have let the locals handle everything before bothering with the hated guv'mint. Gee, that's pretty much King Trumpy's plan too!
Also, the BP oil spill. That was a plot by Obama to hurt Big Oil.
Someone please point this asshole to the nearest well.
"motivation for Trump’s behavior" TRUMP!!!
PR has nothing to do with Trump. No voting for POTUS, therefore no different than a storm in the Indian ocean.
PR is responsible for a 33 million bankruptcy loss. I mean it can't be Trump.
The mayor of San Juan failed to do her job, kissing Trump's ass.
Again, proof that Trump is not the POTUS. He is the POTrump.
I hope no one tells the president* that October is Hispanic Heritage
Month. If so, he's gonna find a way to piss off millions of people
of Hispanic descent, including some of my in-laws in Texas. I think
they were here long before the trumps arrived to our shores.
Waiting for the first tweet telling us about his close Hispanic friends,
you know, those who clean up after him.
I'm curious as to what MSNBC program would have Michael Brown on as "an expert" unless that label was slapped on him as an oxymoron.
The hosts on those shows would all have little regard for Brownie.
@PD Pepe: As I recall, it was Craig Melvin, who hosts a daytime hour. And he definitely called Brownie an expert, as far as I could tell, without intended irony.
Has anyone else thought of Mitt Romney for HHS Secretary? He's a man and he looks the part. He was able to promote RomneyCare in Massachusetts using Republican verbiage. Is it possible he could rebrand ObamaCare and save it under different talking points and a new name?
He showed during his campaign that he can be mendacious (so I'm not fond of him) and RWNJs reject him, but the nut jobs aren't making much progress with their current strategy.
NiskyGuy: great idea on the Rmoney for HHS. He and DiJiT could discuss the concept over dinner.
http://i2.cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/161129212927-trump-romney-exlarge-169.jpg
Well, shame on Craig Melvin who surely knows better–––I would think.
Yesterday Paul Krugman wrote about Trump's deadly narcissism and ended his column with this:
"... A.C.A. sabotage is best seen not as a strategy, but as a tantrum. We can’t repeal Obamacare? Well, then, we’ll screw it up. It’s not about achieving any clear goal, but about salving the president’s damaged self-esteem.
In short, Trump truly is unfit for this or any high office. And the damage caused by his unfitness will just keep growing."
and I'm wondering whether his odious response to P.R. will change any hearts and minds that cling to the idea that "their president" is making "their" America (and it's P.R. citizens) great again. Shooting someone on fifth avenue wouldn't apparently move a muscle, but maybe the deaths of many Americans will do the trick.
Dear Bea McCrabbie: you wrote " but this is not the first time I've thought Rexxon was one guy standing between some stupid or catastrophic war..."
Headline over at HuffPost...and likely elsewhere: Trump Tells Tillerson: Don’t Waste Time Talking To North Korea (See also, latest Twitter outbursts).
Agree with your thinking. However, I'm particularly concerned with the potential for some stupid or catastrophic war — initiated mostly likely on-or-before Mueller's findings become public. What better distraction as the "War presidunce*" takes the front page lead away from any breaking collusion story.
Mittens as HHS sec'y might be a consideration if he gave a shit about those 46% moochers, but it should be a natural for a Confederate president. Even a Confederate president*.
However, if Trumpy chose The Rat, it would only be to call him in to the Oval Office when company is over to have him do dog tricks. "Watch this guys. Mittens. Sit! Good dog. Roll over. Very good. Now say 'We hate blacks'. Good boy!"
But he might enjoy the spectacle of forcing Mittens to lead the next charge to kill a healthcare program based on the single decent thing he did as an elected official. Narcissism might be job one for the little king, but sadism runs a close second. Two of the most desired qualities for a president of the United States.