Bezos’ “calmer, settled” Trump

Bezos deserved his inauguration humiliation after shamelessly flattering Trump

Image credit: CNN

Bezos’ cool kid take on Trump

Jeff Bezos at his December 4, 2024 New York Times Dealbook interview:

“I’m actually very optimistic. I’m very hopeful… What I’ve seen so far is he (Trump) is calmer than he was the first time — more confident, more settled”

Postscript February 5

I started last week asking whether President Trump’s response to the air crash fit Bezos’ description of the new, improved Trump. I don’t plan to update this every single day, but I thought it was worth adding the President’s remarks on Gaza’s future.

“we should go to other countries of interest with humanitarian hearts, and there are many of them that want to do this and build various domains that will ultimately be occupied by the 1.8 million Palestinians living in Gaza … This can be paid for by neighboring countries of great wealth… The US will take over the Gaza Strip … We'll own it …We're a respected nation again…We will restore calm and stability to the region … (Q… US send troops to help secure the security vacuum?) … If it's necessary, we'll do that… I do see a long-term ownership position and I see it bringing great stability … Everybody I've spoken to loves the idea of the United States owning that piece of land …I've studied this very closely … this is an idea that's … from the highest level of leadership, gotten tremendous praise…it's something that could change history…you have to learn from history…Gaza is a hellhole ... It was before the bombing started …I spoke to other leaders of countries in the Middle East and they love the idea…I don't want to be cute. I don't want to be a wise guy. But the Riviera of the Middle East … This could be so magnificent ... We'll make sure that it's done world class…It will be wonderful for the people. Palestinians …the king in Jordan and … the general in Egypt will open their hearts and will give us the kind of land that we need to get this done, and people can live in harmony and in peace.”

Would Bezos be pleased that Trump passes Meat Loaf’s test: “2 out of 3 ain’t bad”? Confident? Yes. Calm? I guess so. Settled back in his job? Read the full transcript.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and House Speaker MAGA Mike Johnson immediately backed President Trump’s plan.

“United States stands ready to lead and Make Gaza Beautiful Again” (Little Marco)

The initial announcement yesterday I think was … cheered by, I think, people all around the world. This is a bold, decisive move (MAGA Mike)

Rubio will get the job of telling the dictators of Egypt and Jordan that they will lose most, or even all, of their military and other aid from the US government if they don’t agree – more than $1 billion/year to each country.

More confident. More settled in bully pulpit. But, calmer?

President Donald J. Trump consoling the nation on January 30, 2025, the morning after a crash at Reagan National Airport killed 67 people:

“We do not know what led to this crash, but we have some very strong opinions … I put safety first. Obama, Biden and the democrats put … a big push to put diversity into the FAA's program … which is overseen by Secretary Pete Buttigieg … he's run it right into the ground with his diversity … Then it's a group within the FAA [Federal Aviation Administration] … determined that the workforce was too white … This was in the Obama administration … they actually came out with a directive. Too white…I have common sense …they didn't build the systems properly… meaning the computerized systems… They used companies that should not have been doing it… they like to do things and they like to take them too far and this is sometimes what ends up happening … I'm not blaming the controller … flying is very safe. We have the safest flying anywhere in the world and we'll keep it that way.”

I interpret “settled” according to the Oxford Dictionary definition:

steady or secure … especially in a permanent job and home … comfortable or established in a new situation. "he had settled into his new job"

Meat Loaf might score the President’s January 30 remarks as “2 out of 3 ain’t bad”. Confident? Definitely. Settled in his new job? OK. But, calm? Read the full text of Trump’s January 30 brain dump and judge for yourself.

Facts won’t matter

Professional investigators at the National Transportation Safety Board will report on the January 29 air crash. Anyone who’s been involved in a car accident knows that there’s often fault on both sides. E.g., I had the right of way when the car turned left into me, but I could have stopped if I had not been speeding.

The facts won’t matter to team Trump.

There were 7 people potentially responsible for the crash:

• 3 soldiers aboard the training helicopter

• pilot and co-pilot of the American Airlines flight

• air traffic controller directing the passenger flight

• supervisor in charge of the air traffic control team at the time of the crash

Team Trump will steer clear of the 3 dead soldiers. All were white. However, Trump may well blame any non-whites in the helicopter training chain of command.

If any of the plane pilots or traffic controllers are non-white, calm, confident, settled President Trump will highlight any culpability assigned to that person or persons and shout: “I told you so!”

Vice-President JD Vance, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy will serve as boss Trump’s chorus.

“we want the best people at air traffic control … who are actually competent to do the job…hundreds of people … would like to be air traffic controllers, but they were turned away because of the color of their skin. That policy ends under Donald Trump's leadership” (Vance)

“we need the best and brightest, whether it's in our air traffic control or whether it's in our generals or whether it's throughout government. So, thank you for your leadership and courage on that, sir [President Trump]” (Hegseth)

“the president's leadership has been remarkable during this crisis… we can only accept the best and the brightest in positions of safety … when Americans take off in airplanes, they should expect to land at their destination. That didn't happen yesterday. That's unacceptable. And so, we will not accept excuses. We will not accept passing the buck. We are going to take responsibility at the Department of Transportation and the FAA to make sure we have the reforms that have been dictated by President Trump in place to make sure that these mistakes do not happen again.” (Duffy)

Perhaps Trump, Vance, Hegseth and Duffy were so certain with their charges because they had inside information that at least one of the pilots, air traffic controller and/or supervisor were not white. However, I doubt anyone in Trump’s posse is calm enough to ask questions first and shoot his mouth off later.

Preliminary reports suggest that the control tower radar may have read the helicopter’s altitude incorrectly. I would be surprised if the radar manufacturer received the contract because it was owned by or employed non-whites. But, if the radar gets the blame, team Trump will seize on any non-white workers at the radar maker, even if they are in administrative positions.

Profiles in non-cowardice at least this one time

I was shocked to see a few Republicans brave enough to question Trump on this.

• Rep. Sam Graves, Chair of the House Transportation Committee (for now)

• Representative Tim Burchett

• Senator Ted Cruz

• Senator Lindsay Graham

Why pick on Bezos’ “calmer Trump” take?

Jeff Bezos is one of many uber-rich bros behind President Trump. Why am I picking on Bezos, instead of another even more enthusiastic Trumpist tycoon?

I admit to bullying a fellow nerd. The forced tone of Bezos’ December NYTimes interview reminded me of myself as a spectacle-wearing little boy hoping to avoid a wedgie by telling the schoolyard bad-ass: “U da man!”

Plus, everyone picks on Bezos – e.g., Dictator MBS of Saudi Arabia. And, in one of the most bad-ass things I’ve ever seen in my life, Mark Zuckerberg treated Bezos like the invisible boyfriend while they sat together at Trump’s inauguration.

Photo source: twitter.com; From left: Zuckerberg, unidentified man, Bezos’ fiancee

Dissing Bezos is my only chance to join a club with billionaires MBS and Zuck.

Trump acts crazy sometimes. So what?

Jeff Bezos wants to grow his fortune valued at $250 billion and thinks that he will be better off with Trump’s anti-regulation, low-tax policies. All the better for Bezos and his fellow broligarchs, if we are at the dawn of a MAGA era that will make “America strong for centuries, forever” (Elon Musk).

But, the same unhinged Trump who presided over the January 30 crapshow is deciding American economic policy. Is amazon.com’s monopoly so strong that Bezos will prosper as President Trump turns the economic clock back to the 19th century?

We’ll see. Republicans should worry about the impact of Trumponomics on American families. If team Trump is still basing economic policy in 2028 on the President’s wacky concepts AND the election is free and fair, the Republican nominee will not be elected President. Elon and Jeff will find that forever is not such a long time.

Postscript: NY Times, Feb. 6 – Bret Stephens is correct!

Healy: “after the midair collision between the American Airlines jet and the Black Hawk helicopter, Trump held a news conference and blamed … Biden and Barack Obama for the accident. Biden and Obama didn’t engage… Why don’t Democrats fight fire with fire?

Stephens: “Sometimes, the smartest way to oppose Trump is to just let him talk.”

In the rest of this NYT columnists’ confab, Stephens spouts his usual nonsense. As I’ve said before, “Bret Stephens isn’t stupid, except about politics”

But, in this instance, Stephens and I agree. There’s an old rule in politics that you shouldn’t react when your adversary accuses you of kicking a dog. He wants you to respond with a denial so that the media focuses even more on whether you’re a dog-beater. Biden and Obama don’t have to say anything when even cowardly Cruz isn’t willing to go along with Trump’s ravings.

(There is evidence that John Kerry’s slow response to Bush the younger’s “swift boat” attack ad may have cost Kerry the 2004 election. My own view is that Kerry did well to lose by only 2.4 percentage points in the national popular vote against an incumbent president when voters were happy with the economy.)

Trump Administration = Number 1 bros’ detective agency

• President Donald Trump, Air Crash Investigator

• Vice President JD Vance, Pet Detective

• Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Labor Data Detective

• Future Governor of Ohio Vivek Ramaswamy, Super Bowl Integrity Detective

If Kamala Harris’ running mate Tim Walz is remembered for nothing else, at least he captured the Trump zeitgeist: “these guys are weird!”

I apologize if I wasted your time

Life is finite. I question the time that I spent in this latest Trump rabbit-hole. But, he was so despicable (to quote Buttigieg) on the air crash that I couldn’t help myself.