Trump's tangents prove critics of his priorities are right

Producer and columnist Steve Benen claims that President Donald Trump seems eager to prove his critics right.

Writing in MS Now, Benen cites a laundry list of Trump failures in economics, the Iran War, his battles with perceived enemies, and his tariffs loss at the Supreme Court. He adds that Trump is “historically unpopular, at least in part because two-thirds of Americans are convinced that Trump simply has the wrong priorities.”

“By any fair measure, 14 months into his second term, Donald Trump’s presidency is failing,” Benen writes.

What’s even worse is that Trump seems eager to prove to his critics that he indeed has the wrong priorities. At a recent press conference, he fielded questions on what Benen terms “a wide variety of subjects - not because reporters asked questions about them, but because the president wouldn’t stop bringing them up.”

Speaking at a Trump-Kennedy Center luncheon, Trump “went on and on about, of all things, paint,” Benen writes. This while a war rages.

“There’s actually never been a paint that’s made that will look like gold. … Either gold leaf it or use real gold bullion, or you use a different color,” Trump said. “Nobody’s ever been able to make a gold paint that looks real. A little minor thing for the media. I’m sure you’re thrilled with hearing that. But there’s never been a paint. I said, ‘Someday I’m going to discover a paint where you don’t have to actually use gold leaf.’ Gold leaf is a very, very big and expensive process, but it’s a beautiful thing, but not when you use paint.”

He also waxed rhapsodic on his marble preferences, his White House ballroom projects, curtains, and the Kennedy Center’s “bones.”

Trump then talked about Disney going “woke” and an upcoming Ultimate Fighting Championship bout at the White House.

“Did I mention that the president also blurted out private medical information about a member of Congress?” Benen asked. Trump did that, too.

While it was a “jarring display,” Benen said, “it was not unusual.”

In recent weeks, Trump has been heard in public pontificating about the Super Bowl halftime show, finding things to put his name on, and handicapping the Grammy Awards. He also called out comedians who made fun of him, and found time to play a lot of golf at his various properties.

Benen noted the irony in Trump’s appeal of the E. Jean Carroll case. His attorneys claimed that he was “simply too busy” to deal with the civil litigation, which Benen says was “odd for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that Trump doesn’t seem focused on his weighty responsibilities at all.”

Benen cited recent polling that found 68% of Americans believe the president has the wrong priorities. He concluded, “it’s amazing to watch him try to push that number higher.”