It is clear that while many of the press once again proclaimed Trump as presidential immediately following his speech to the Joint Session of Congress, it is evident his juvenile behavior is still his modus operandi.
Tom Friedman slams Trump’s juvenile behavior
New York Times panelist Tom Friedman appeared on Meet The Press with Chuck Todd and excoriated Trump for his immature behavior. He said the following.
“Waking up at six AM in the morning,” Tom Friedman said. “Tweeting out one of the most damning accusations one president could make after another. And then as Danny said, then talking about Arnold Schwarzenegger. That is not …”
“And he did eighteen holes,” Chuck Todd interjected.
“That is not presidential behavior,” Friedman continued. “That is juvenile behavior. And the fact that we have a president who engages in that is to me deeply disturbing. Because then think about this. He is going to have to go to Europe and interact with other European leaders other world leaders. What would you think if you are a world leader going into a meeting? What do I say to this guy? What might he say about this meeting? He is everywhere we looked. And we talked about this before. I quoted my friend Dov Seidman who makes the point; there is a big difference between formal authority and moral authority. This president has formal authority. But every day you see him eroding his moral authority. And in the end that is really going to hurt us.”
Friedman is right that we have a president who exhibits juvenile behavior. But I think in the case of the particular tweet causing the current media hyperventilation, his actions are much more sinister. All the Sunday morning news programs spent an inordinate amount of time discussing it, time that would be much better spent on policies more consequential the well-being of most Americans.