Charlie McHenryTrump and his team exuberantly violate just about every precept of character that I was ever taught, and so it goes with moderation and humility. They’ve normalized bragging. Scratch that: They’ve fetishized it. It’s a naughtiness they allow themselves, a perk they accord themselves, a rite by which they identify themselves to one another as birds of a feather — peacocks, in this case. It’s a competition: My superlatives are bigger than yours. —Frank Bruni, NYTimes #Bragging #character #braggart #boasting #Trump #TrumpRegime #USPol
2/🧵When Kash Patel, the F.B.I. director, gave a status report on his agency’s work in mid-October in the Oval Office, he effused: “These are the best numbers for fighting crime in U.S. history.” He used “historic” less than a minute later, and another “historic” less than a minute after that. As Shakespeare might have written, methinks he doth “historic” too much.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, giving a status report of his own at a cabinet meeting two weeks ago, pronounced: “It has been a historic year at the Department of War.” He added that “the spirit in our ranks” was “unprecedented” and that recruitment and retention were “at the most historic levels our country has ever seen.” Not just historic — most historic. —Frank Bruni, NYTimes #Trump #TrumpRegime #Republicans #bragging #boasting #character #USPol