I think we’re all used to TV pundits falling over themselves with praise for Donald Trump every time he manages to repeat the words on a teleprompter without slipping in an aside that will get us all nuked. Now alas, Trump’s nominal ability to read has seduced yet another impressionable victim: This time, it’s the Washington Post’s Philip Rucker.
Trump addressed the nation tonight in a mercifully uneventful speech that walked back a lot of big talk about pulling military forces out of Afghanistan, instead announcing that actually, we’re…not gonna do that right now. It’s not exactly clear what the strategy is, but Trump assures us that it’s “not nation-building,” but “killing terrorists.”
The last time Trump successfully read a speech written by someone else, he managed to implode it to spectacular effect just one day later. Still, this evening’s display was enough to impress Rucker, the Post’s White House bureau chief.
Less impressed is literally everyone else.
Trump will have ample opportunity to make Rucker regret that tweet, as he’ll be in Phoenix tomorrow holding one of his infamous, campaign-style rallies, most likely without a teleprompter in sight.
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