President tries to school U.K. government on how to “market” Brexit delay by completely shifting blame from those responsible
We’re not saying the Tweet above is one of Trump’s most important or significant. It isn’t. Not even of the last couple of days, when he seems to be accusing almost anyone who opposes him on anything of “TREASON”!
But it does give us unusually good insight into the way the President operates, and believes people in power should behave.
The failure of the U.K. to meet deadlines it set itself on leaving the European Union, is almost inarguably Britain’s alone. (And as we’ve argued before, the result of putting something forth that seemed like a good idea to a bunch of people, but not bothering to put much thought about how to put it into action if it was approved).
The E.U. did not ask Britain to leave, and made it pretty clear through the whole process it did not want Britain to leave (which of course helped buoy the anti-E.U. sentiment in parts of the U.K. at the time, because that must’ve meant the E.U. was taking advantage of the U.K., otherwise they wouldn’t have cared so much).
The E.U. has already shown incredible patience with the incredible dysfunction of the U.K. government and it’s inability to come to terms internally, domestically. It has indicated it will continue to show patience at least for another year, even though it really doesn’t have to because it could just as easily hold Britain to its self-imposed deadlines, without violating any agreements at all.
And while its patience can be attributed in large part to an attempt to stave off uncertainty and even chaos that could prove disastrous for all of Europe should a “no deal” Brexit go through, the impact on Britain would almost certainly be a lot worse. If not economically, politically, with the U.K. potentially having to establish a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland (which is part of the U.K.)
So if anyone has the right to be annoyed, irritated, upset right now it’s the E.U., because they are being forced to contend with and go into contortions over an immediate crisis that is not of their own making. Did the E.U. have a hand in creating conditions that made Britain ripe for a “leave” vote? Perhaps. But that’s not the issue at all right now. The current crisis is not theirs to own. Not at all.
Trump’s solution? Blame them anyway. Make the folks least responsible for the current situation fully responsible. Take no responsibility for causing any problems yourself. Only take responsibility when you are able to avert a crisis in one way or another, even if that crisis is entirely of your own making.
You screwed up big time? No problem! Just put it in the other guy’s lap!
Trump’s doing that right now with his backfiring border policy, blaming “treaonous” Democratsa for his own failed border policies. Or even if you think Trump’s on the right track at the border, in no way is it Democrats who are alone to blame. As we keep pointing out, it was Trump’s now-closest allies in the House who killed comprehensive immigration reform 5 years ago that had already passed in the Senate by a wide margin, and absolutely would’ve made the current situation far less dire.
Trump in his Tweet draws parallels between the U.K.’s relationship with the E.U., and the U.S.’ Which is ridiculous. Yes the E.U. very strictly protects its own markets, and is likely to be the target of the next Trump trade war. No, Trump’s plight in dealing with the E.U. is not like Britain’s at all. If for no other reason than the fact that the U.S. is not part of the E.U. and Britain is. (Where the U.S. does align pretty straight up with the E.U. is with the military, in NATO, which Trump has also indicated he’s willing to tinker with to achieve his economic objectives. But that’s a column for another day.)
And thing is, Trump’s been somewhat successful with his strategy of always blaming somebody else. And doing it especially forcefully when you are most at fault and the person or people you are blaming are the most blameless. Is this attributable to Trump’s skills as a politician? A marketer? A reality TV star? His natural charisma? His uncanny unbroken string of good luck? Or is it just that people are easily fooled?
That last question is where most analysis we read often lands. Yet we don’t believe that’s true. People—Even Trump supporters—aren’t as easily misled as mainstream media would have you believe. Most other politicians, other public figures do not have that power. Because it’s not about getting people to believe in an untruth here and there. It’s getting them to believe in you. And once that happens, they’ll believe anything.