833 covfefe
Like many others, I was
puzzled by covfefe. So I went to the internet, as one does, and I ended up
with CNN ... it's clear now, covfefe is Trump's state of mind.
At 12:06
Trump tweets, “Despite the constant negative press covfeve”
At 06:11
Trump tweets, “Who can figure out the true meaning of “covfefe”??? Enjoy!"
(My spell checker turned covfefe into
coffee;
it probably was meant to be coverage)
CNN:
What we
have today - and, really, what we have had since the day Trump came into the
White House - is a deeply isolated President who spends lots of time,
particularly at night and in the early morning, watching TV and tweeting.
That lack
of discipline reveals that there is simply no one who can tell Trump
"no." Or at least no one whom he will listen to.
That's
important. Especially now as speculation runs rampant that Trump is on the
brink of a major staff overhaul and in the wake of communications director Mike
Dubke resigning on Tuesday.
The
animating idea behind many of these staff stories is how the people Trump
brings in will affect how he acts and governs on a daily basis. That is a false
premise. The simple fact is that no staffer exists on the planet who can tell
Trump something he doesn't want to hear and have him take it to heart.
"Donald
Trump doesn't want a Jim Baker," CNN's Gloria Borger noted Tuesday night,
speaking of the legendary chief of staff for both Ronald Reagan and George H.W.
Bush. "He's his own Jim Baker. And he's his own strategist."
That's
100% right. Trump doesn't think he needs advice. So changing the names of the
people giving it to him doesn't really matter.
Trump's
ongoing Twitter presence is a perfect example of all of this.
Time and
time again, Republican elected officials have politely suggested that Trump use
Twitter less and differently. Use it to rally his massive online support base
behind policy initiatives rather than as a tool to exact revenge on people
Trump thinks have wronged him. White House staffers have done the same,
occasionally floating the idea that, at one point or another, Trump finally
"got it" and was going to tweet differently from there on out.
Of late,
as part of a much-promised reboot, there had been talk of a "team of
lawyers" vetting Trump's tweets before he sent them out.
And then,
"covfefe."
What it
should prove is that Trump is neither willing nor able to change his stripes.
He is a 70-year-old man (he will be 71 on June 14) who has had much success in
his life. And he believes that the way in which he was elected president -
against all odds and doing everything traditional politics says not to - is an
affirmation that he is the only person who really understands his supporters
and the mood of the country.
That
assumption is what leads him to ignore advice from advisers about, maybe just
maybe, putting down his phone at, say, 10 p.m. - or never picking it up at all.
Trump believes in Trump - first, last and always.
Staff
will come and go. But to expect anyone to change Trump in any way is to ignore,
literally, his entire adult life.
Which
means more "covfefes." Maybe many more.