YoBuckStopsHere"Incandescently stupid": Former DHS official says he had to "dumb" down classified memos for Trump
HappycamperNZI can’t be the only one surprised by this
FuglyDuckI’d be surprised if it doesn’t come out that he had to have people read documents to him. because he can’t read.
My first thought
I think we both know…that THERE’S NO FILM IN THAT CAMERA!
The ghostwriter for “Art of the Deal” said “I seriously doubt that Trump has ever read a book straight through in his adult life.”
I am. I was surprised he actually gave him words. I figured it’d be pictures
SpaceBarNothing new here. We heard things like this a few months into his presidency.
and even before it began. “Official close to the matter says that transition team briefings have to be written in crayon using words with fewer than three syllables. …”
And they have to make sure they don’t use any of the good tasting colours just in case Trump gets hungry while ‘drafting documents’.
Wait I thought he wasn’t in the military.
Is it stolen honor to pretend to be a marine by eating crayons?
Trump can’t draft anything… bone spurs
We started hearing things like this in the 1980s.
deep state n. 1. People in government who don’t stop doing their jobs just because there was an election; e.g. police and prosecutors who continue to pursue murderers without asking the new mayor whether to let that one go. 2. (Federal) People in government capable of reading at an 8th-grade level or higher.
6th*
Ok a 50 page memo? That’s pretty friggin long. Depends how many of those you get a day.
But:
I summed up this highly classified memo into Trump’s sort of bombastic language because it was the only way he was gonna understand," Taylor added. “I mean, I literally said in there, ‘You know, if we leave Afghanistan too fast, the terrorists will call us losers. But if we wanna be seen as winners, we need to make sure the Afghan forces have the strength to push back against these criminals.’ I mean, it was that dumb and that’s how you had to talk to him.”
Oliver LoweGreat point. It takes a lot of skill to succinctly summarise some dense material for someone who juggles lots of things.
Frankly I think we need more of that in the modern world - there is so much information out there!
But the killer is that “bombastic language” and false dichotomy. Making things easier to understand - clarity - is important. This good versus evil bullshit is just wrong; unfortunately stuff isn’t that easy.
No. The President of the United States of America needs to br able to internalize and contextualize the details of thr current geopolitical climate over corn flakes. This “only human” bullshit has got to go.
Absolutely agree with you. The point I wanted to make is that there are different ways to summarise, say, in this example, a 50-page memo. The sad thing here is how the official needed to resort to the good versus evil false dichotomy. This oversimplification to have been required because, unfortunately, Trump is stupid.
I guess I’m saying that it’s a shame that there are probably a lot of smart people trying to make sense of all the geopolitics, picking things apart, critical thinking… but in the end it was all for nought; they had to appeal to someone - Trump - who never really wanted to, nor was able to, internalise or contextualise it.
For someone espousing that succinctly and simply communicating complex information is important you sure are shit at it.
Hey. Be nice. Feel free to go back to reddit with that shit attitude.
Hey. No. If you want to defend nonsensical rants go over to Truth or X.
SoleInvictusThere’s nothing nonsensical about their comment. Long winded? Absolutely. But there’s no excuse for personal attacks. That’s just being shitty.
“We’re not reddit” repeating the lemmings on the reddit clone.
Drop the pretentious bullshit. This is reddit without the corporate ownership which was the whole point.
Man, you’ve got a lot of anger. That’s sad.
Nice pivot to passive aggressive personal attacks because I’m spot on that this is a reddit clone, most of you were on reddit and now you’re being pretentious little douche bags about it.
Die without having an original thought. You’re well on your way sunshine.
Your whinging about personal attacks is a laugh on its own but then you start rubbing your nub over yourself. “You’re just insulting me because I’m right!” Clearly. Except no one insulted you, they just nicely observed that you’re a thin-skinned, hypocritical, crusty little wank stain. It’s not an insult when it’s the truth.
You’re not wanted here and not just because anythingyou have to say is dim, trite, and entirely forgettable. You’re also unpleasant and provide nothing redeeming enough to make seeing a presumably grown man throwing a wobbly time and again worthwhile.
I’m still right and you’re a dumb fuck.
Get over it.
XeknosWhy does it seem like you’re big mad they called Trump stupid?
Haha yes I think you’re right! I find it difficult. And I’m interested in getting better at it. That’s part of the reason why I like discussing stuff on Lemmy. Do you have any tips?
I think my original comment was taken as if I was excusing Trump. That sucks. I wanted to convey the opposite :(
Comment less and think more.
Thanks :) I think I’ll follow that advice, especially on political forums!
My clumsy wording aiming to criticise Trump was taken the wrong way and generated negativity. Thanks for your time.
Jesus fucking Christ will you both stop? Near as I can tell were all in agreement
gornarApparently not in total agreement, as one was saying something to warrant being removed by mods!
Dark_BladeYou should follow your own advice. Just the first half will do.
Yep, it’s literally the job (or what it should be).
tryptaminev 🇵🇸 🇺🇦 🇪🇺A 50 Page memo is too long. It is relevant for the discussion of the details between the specialised people, so they reach a highly qualified opinion, but the cause and effects of different decision options need to be summarised on a few pages. Of course the president needs to be able to understand what the bullet points entail, but it is literally impossible for a president of a country the size of the US to read up on the details of every decision.
I mean, other Presidents and high level defense officials seem to be handling it just fine. I’d also bet that there are pictures, charts, and supporting information in that 50 pages, and that the actual meat of the document is going to be smaller. I’ve read plenty of 50 page documents like that. It doesn’t take that long.
i’m sure that Trump had things dumbed down for him. But what is the point of giving someone 50 pages to just read a few off? And “taking that long” is relative. For these kind of reports or so at work, reading them properly takes at least 2 hours. So if the president gets 5 if these on his desk he calls it a day and gets back to governing the next day, when he is finished reading?
Crossreading is also terrible, as it easily overlooks maybe critical information. Have someone write a comprehensive summary and give the president time to actually think about which decision is best.
We’re getting off on a little bit of a tangent about proper memo reading but usually the point of supporting information is that you don’t know if the reader is going to need it. You don’t have a full picture of what the president knows already and you have no way of knowing how the president’s thought process is going to go. They might need more information about something that happened or a decision being made to help inform their decisions or they might not, because it’s not really relevant to the direction they want to go. Sure, 50% of it might go unread but you never know what info will fall into that 50%, exclude it and the document is incomplete.
Ultimately, though, the point remains that the memo sizes haven’t really been a problem for others. Typically you don’t make it that high up without being an extremely effective reader. It’s just that this time we wound up with someone unfit and in way over his head.
I’m sure the professionals across the different departments of the government that report directly to the most important person in the country are have no idea how to write memos. You should go over to DC and educate them with your wisdom.
gowanIf you are running for POTUS you should be able to effectively skim things like this. If 50 pages is “too long” for you then you lack the skills needed to do the job properly. Trump lacked those skills
What is the point of a 50 Page Memo that you just skim through, easily overlooking stuff, instead of having a 5 page comprehensive summary?
Any good leader needs to delegate things. If he cant trust people with making summarys and understand these, instead relying on his quick-read-hopefully-not-overlook-something skills, then that is terrible for the country.
Also again, giving your boss something to read expecting he only reads a quarter of, is both a failure of your boss and you, as you are wasting each others time this way.
Ibdon’t doubt that stuff had tobbe dumped down forbTrump, but amount of pages is not a good metric and the more pages a memo has, the more it gets questionable if it is an appropriate mean of communication
If they give memos like that to any other president, I would assume it has merit.
BlackmistI suspect most world leaders would have people who have the necessary expertise to condense that down and just give them the high level overview. Dense and technical. Sit down with those advisors and talk through the pros and cons. Probably pull out the original 50 page document in places to “zoom in” on details.
But following the Trump administration, he got rid of anyone around him who wasn’t a sycophant, so that limits his choice of staff somewhat, leaving the guy who’d normally submit a 50 page memo and assume the president read it all (along with dozens of other similar size memos from other departments), to break it down himself, like feeding a toddler by pretending the spoon is an aeroplane.
If the memo was made 100% for the President’s eye, then he should read it in detail. If not, there should be a summary containing only the important bits, because Presidents shouldn’t be skimming through long memos and potentially missing stuff.
Not giving Trump a pass here btw, man’s as stupid as he is evil.
Yeah I’m a normal human and I have no trouble reading at a highschool level why can’t the president do it?
I mean, I know that you are making fun of me, and I would like to point out that I’m speaking about the former president, but yes.
Flying SquidThere is a succinct summary and then there is saying things like “If we don’t do this, the bad guys win,” which is the level of dumbing down that had to be done.
#ExplainlikeImTrump
Please no…
girlfreddyI could take about 30 seconds of it, but nothing more.
When /Explainlikeimfive is too complicated.
#ExplainLikeImOrange
Jesus fucking Christ man, what the actual fuck?
We had an insentient lump of lard in the oval office.
Give the guy a break; he’s all mushroom and yeti pubes. Smarts are not on the menu.
jballsJust threw up a little. Thanks
KalloFox34Maybe if they have it to him in the form of a picture book…