He ain't right by @BloggersRUs

He ain't right

by Tom Sullivan

Soon enough, Donald Trump will be talking to people who aren't there in front of people who are:

During a Saturday appearance at the 2019 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), President Donald Trump called California Governor Gavin Newsom a "nice guy" and said that Newsom called him recently to tell him that he's a "great president."

"He called me up the other day, let's say four weeks ago or so," Trump told the CPAC crowd of Newsom. "[He said] 'I just want to tell you, you're a great president and you're one of the smartest people I've ever met.' That's what he said. "

Trump went on, "Will he admit it? No, I doubt it." Because it never happened, of that you may be sure.

The Toronto Star's Daniel Dale reminded Twitter followers, "Trump has a long history of inventing things people supposedly told him over the phone.

CPAC each year is menagerie of conspiracy theories and conservative weirdness. It is a yearly safe space especially for men raised to believe they are the apex predators of the social food chain even as the change visible all around them tells them they are no longer. That is as disorienting as being told the Earth is round and they are not the center of the universe.

Little of the other CPAC clownishness can hold a candle to a needy, mentally unbalanced president of the United States.

Besides California's Democratic governor calling to fawn over him, Trump regaled the crowd with a story of traveling to Iraq after Christmas. There he met a general named “Raisin Kane.” Watch.

Trump goes on a long and bizarre rant about his trip to Iraq pic.twitter.com/H9JRbmlYQL
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 2, 2019

That tale may not have been completely removed from reality. There is a Brig. Gen. John Daniel Caine listed as currently serving in Iraq. Perhaps the general was just being "central casting" for his commander-in-chief.

"Bring the cameras. I'm gonna make a movie," his generals look so perfect, Trump told the CPAC crowd before complaining Hollywood "discriminates against our people."

Eventually, of course, he reverted to scaremongering about Central American migrants. Including this gem:

TRUMP: "Mothers who love their daughters give them massive amounts of birth control pills, because they know their daughters are going to be raped on the way up to our southern border. Think of that. True story told to me by the Border Patrol. Think of how evil that is." pic.twitter.com/wVrBHpEbWc
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 2, 2019

So true and so sad, Trump added. Once processed through his fevered imagination, the seed of that story morphed into impoverished, desperate mothers possessing "massive amounts of birth control pills" consigning their daughters to "stone-cold killers" for maximum rape-age. He can no longer sit back and allow migrant infiltration and left-wing subversion to sap and impurify, etc., etc.

All this lunacy mixed in with the usual litany of oft-repeated falsehoods.

After a week in which Republicans on the House Oversight Committee refrained from defending Trump during Michael Cohen's testimony, his base is sticking with him. CPAC attendees deny the seas are rising and refuse to believe the SS Trump is sinking along with its addled captain. The CEO of MyPillow declared Trump “chosen by God.”

With few exceptions, Republicans on Capitol Hill remain steadfast:

“We’re not going to turn on our own and make the Democrats happy,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.), who is up for reelection in 2020. “We don’t see any benefit in fracturing, but we do see a lot to lose.”

They have already lost their immortal souls. What else is left?

Power.