I really think that some of the GOP senior senators who simply must detest Trump are overestimating Trump's power.
They are yellow-bellied cowards!!!
If a couple of them were willing to stand up and talk sense, more would follow. And, this might start an avalanche. They have to be tired of the incessant tweeting of this bloviating old fool. He is the boy who cried wolf to deflect the masses from his myriad defects.
Enemy of the people, Mr. Trump?
YOU are the enemy of the people, and Mitch McConnell is too, not the press, not Jay Powell, not anyone else, but you two power mongers, who put personal power over country. Patriots you are NOT!
Trump is the "in..." president. He is incompetent, insulting, incoherent, insufferable, insecure and infantile. And, he is an immoral man with no shame, no compass and no scruples. If he COULD get away with it, he would shoot someone on 5th Avenue if it served a purpose in his mind. As it is, what he gets away with is unfathomable. And, you're right, we're tired of your tired reality show presidency, Trump.
Republican senators stand up, and act like decent Americans. Stand up for what yo know to be right. Stand up for the Constitution and against this awful poseur who abuses the office of the presidency every single day. Any other president in American history would have been forced out long ago, and you know it! Get rid of this bum!!! He's got German blood, so send him back to Germany. Oh, I forgot, the Germans can't stand him either.
71
We will survive Trump.
12
You still have to wonder about the people who flock to him behind the stage and raise signs that proclaim him to be king of the earth. The earth is crumbling beneath their feet because of him, but they think that dissing Mexicans will solve their problems.
43
From all of us here in London, please vote this awful man out. Do the world a favour. We are sick of him and can't take anymore.
67
Frank, you are the best thing to hold us as we spiral. Please hang in... AFTER you spend plenty of time in the park with your dog! With thanks!
17
To those who complain about news being dominated by the Trump presidency I ask them to consider the alternative. Would it be better for us to be ignorant ? Wasn’t ignorance the excuse that the general population of Germany used to claim their innocence of the Nazi’s genocide? The fact is reporters can’t stop. News media must report on the President’s actions. And, the President’s actions really are that bad.
33
I am not worn out. I hate his guts more each day. He and the rest of them will pay dearly. None of these traitors are getting away with anything.
40
All I can say is "amen, brother!"
11
At this moment there are 11 items in the opinion section top right of the NYT digital front page. 6 of them are about Trump.
This is the only one with a sensible theme.
16
"It's the economy, stupid."
As long as employment numbers continue to rise and we are not at war, Trump will be reelected.
5
Trump derangement syndrome and hysteria has worn us out. Lies about Trump-Russia collusion have worn us out. Lies that Trump is a racist have worn us out. The MSM raining two minutes of Trump hatred 24/7 round the clock has worn us out. Etc., etc.
16
Ha ha ha. MAGA. Listening to soy boys and girls cry about Trump is the greatest feeling ever.
10
Anybody seen the emperor's chlothes?
9
You’re absolutely right Lars! The southern district of New York has not had their say about his taxes, and other business “irregularities”. Trump is a crook. I am comforted in believing most crooks get caught sooner or later. His day is coming. Just not soon enough. Denmark: tell him you’re not for sale in case he gets any ideas. Hahahaha.
12
"Elect a clown expect a circus." I think that a majority of people are totally sick of this circus clown and his sycophants. They are hurting our democracy, our country, and there's no reason that we have to put up with this disaster of a president any longer. He's begging to be impeached with every action he orders, with every lie he tells. There's enough hard evidence to legitimately remove Trump from office. Push his sycophant clowns out with him.
26
Trump is exhausting. Like a three year old who incessantly says why, why, why no, no, no, me, me, me. He is a narcissist, sociopath, and a pathological liar. His gaslighting, deflection and manipulation are just exhausting. There is no other way to say it. He never stops talking. Never in my 7 decades of life do I ever remember any president (makes me gag) occupying so much of my brain power. Or so much of the world. I'd like to say to the world, we're sorry.
32
Trump is merely the product of a profoundly dysfunctional, corrupt and archaic political system.
White men who have always run the country gave us Trump. They backed his nomination and were his electoral backbone.
Rather than bemoan the manifest lunacy of Trump, Bruni needs to look inward and all around him.
How is it even remotely possible that such a repugnant, ignorant, racist person stands a good chance of being re-elected.
The answer to that question would lead Bruni to some very dark and ugly place.
12
Funny how people thought it would be lunacy to elect Trump in the first place, and then, it turned out much, much worse than that.
21
Another cantankerous holier than thou NYTimes article on Trump. I honestly suggest everyone watch the closing session at G7 with Macron. Iran? He promised that at election. Tariffs /trade war? He promised that at election. Muslim ban? He promised that at election and it's a good thing for cultural assimilation. Russian proximity? He said that at election and there's absolutely nothing wrong with getting along with Russia who've been dumped on for 20 years. He's delivering on promises and he's actually brutally honest which is a breath of fresh air. Greenland was a silly but funny distraction. He commands the stage and you cannot ignore him.
Personally, the man has tonnes of energy for a 75 energy that most men can dream of. No second gear. Is he perfect? No. God works through imperfect vessels. He'll win again if they bring up tired Joe hands down.
9
In addition to the damage Trump has done by handing over the country to lobbyists and grifters, he has simply WASTED OUR TIME with his lies, his petty vindictiveness, and his complete incompetence. The country needs to stop wasting time on him and get serious about the real threats out there, especially climate change.
14
Trump is the mouth that never shuts and the fingers that never stop. Whether he posts his own tweets or has someone do it, his intent seems to be to pull all attention to himself any way he can do it. It's like the child who misbehaves for attention when he doesn't get it otherwise, except Trump is old enough to know better. Yet, we can't look away lest something important happens. Enough already! Vote blue in 2020!
17
What's depressing: 1. That we could lose our Democracy 2. That the news media treats this mentally unstable and unfit president as if he has sanity. 3. That there are so many white supremacists, racists, extremists, hate groups alive and well in our country. 4. That the leaders and former leaders of our country have not spoken out in a united voice against this chaotic leadership. 5. That Climate Change is not seen by most Americans as a world-wide disastrous threat. 6. That selfishness is paramount and runs our country ($$). 7. That we can't pass the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) which was lunched in 1972 and seen as a non partisan issue back then, not now. 8. Children in cages being damaged for life. 9. Immigrants being disparaged. 10. Americans still struggling to get affordable health care. 11. You fill in the rest. Sad. We can and should do better.
21
My brother often chides me as suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome. Is that a bad thing? I can't understand how his "cult of followers" aren't as sick and scared of him as I am.
15
Simply, yes. Yes, Yes.
4
Message for the NYT and other media, haven’t you learned your lesson from the 2016 election? Stop covering pOTUS’s every pronouncement via tweet, helicopter news Q&A, or rally. Focus on the impact this administration is having on all aspects of our country’s affairs. Report this news to inform us. Don’t focus on sensationalism. You could be falling into his trap to distract you/the public from what’s truly important. But, I have a feeling you already know this. If the reporting continues as such, I have a simple solution for the consumers of news: Cancel subscriptions, turn off the TV or radio.
13
Even an iron wears out, eventually. I pray we don't have to wait 4 more years. Tell everybody you know to get out to vote this 'fake' president out of office.
8
After just a a few seasons of repetitive, predictable story lines, The Apprentice lost its ratings, and the show was dropped. Donald Trump's act had worn thin. Frank, my question to you and your readers is..What took you so long?
9
There is an old saying, "If you give a man enough rope, he will hang himself." In a very real way, this seems to me to apply to Trump, who keeps "outdoing" himself.
7
No doubt you are exhausted, Mr. Bruni. Of course you are. Like millions upon millions of Americans, Left or Right, male or female. We are all fatigued beyond comprehension.
And more to blame than anyone for this exhaustion is the mainstream media itself. It is the incessant thumping of Trump Hysteria that newspapers like the New York Times have been drumming into our heads for lo these past nearly three years that was bound to leave us with---let's call it---Trump Derangement Syndrome, or TDS.
Were the Times and others merely neutral in their reportage all this time, one can only imagine the results.
7
Thanks, we needed that !
Now if we could get more people to read it !!
4
You might well be right Frank, but here's something that occurred to me: contrary to precedent (a la releasing tax returns) Trump won't be mostly silent once he is replaced in the White House. You and I and everyone will have the same quantity and quality of communication from Trump until he passes away. The next President will need stamina!
8
Don’t lose sight that Trump is a media dream come true. Remember what the CBS “Pres” said during the 2016 campaign? Look it up. This is about; Economic incentive, What we like and click on, Misinformation most likely, media junk food. Our attention is what they sell. They Manipulate the emotions of listeners and readers, Provoke the out outrage cycle in the audience. They make it Outrageous, shocking, unbelievable. And yes-Junk News and Red meat political fare. It’s about profit. And Trump serves it up 24/7. Media loves Trump.
6
I'm not exhausted. I cannot wait to vote for Trump again. He's helping people like me, a minority, like so many other minorities. He's helping Americans get back to work. People are happy.
6
We are all hostages, and Stockholm syndrome just hasn't caught on for the majority of us. I guess that's one good thing.
6
He may think he's worn us all out but I still have the energy to vote against him and that will be the end of him!
7
I am sick and tired of Donald Trump but excited and energized to work voter turnout for the blue wave. Join me!
9
I have a tic in my right eye that is waiting for November 2020 to go away.
3
As a woman, not far from Trump's age (but older than Melania), I have met many like him, arrogant, monied, self centered, who might sit next to you in a bar, or chat at an event. He may be dressed in a Italian suit or look nice in his jeans. But, Trump's the one where I would get up and move over a seat or two, or walk away because there's a oily, shark-ness that oozes of him.
Rude, yes! Yet I know even talking civilly to him would be fruitless waste of breath, and I would rather sit alone than with the likes of him.
For 944 days I have been reading all variety of news sources, hoping for the "smoking gun" of undeniable corruption to remove him from my everyday consciousness....still waiting.
But I am now getting up from that bar: I am wasting my time, I have better things to do.
Mr. Bruni, I hope you're right because 4 more years is unthinkable.
6
O.K., we may all be exhausted and fed up from the daily dosage of egocentric pathological lies coming from the mouth of a illiterate criminal autocrat, but that doesn't mean "give up." It means stay strong and committed to voting Trump out in 2020. Also, turn him off whenever you can - turn off the TV, video, phone, whatever so that his face and voice are no longer a constant presence. Don't feed his ravenous narcissism and ego. Stay informed but don't overdose on media news. Turn it off and know that more normal and hopefully civil times will return when we've gotten rid of the scourge and blight of Trump's moral, economic and intellectual bankruptcy. Our children and grandchildren's future depends upon our coming together and supporting the Democratic candidate for President in 2020.
8
I agree the carnival barker's act has gotten tired. Unfortunately, Trump and his cult will continue to find ways to turn the media and the country against each other.
The damage has been done, we can only hope it's repairable.
6
Funny, I stopped watching all TV programming related to politics and deleted my Twitter account this week, because I, too, decided I can't take it any longer. I'm worn out, just like Frank.
I have decided to operate according to my two principles: 1.) love is paramount and 2.) the rule of law must stand. I will do my part to live in accordance with these two principles, and nothing else much matters. We are all connected. Let's start acting like it.b
8
Of course, nobody got fatigued by trump when he (1) repeatedly sexually assaulted women and boast about it on tape, not to mention rape; (2) dehumanized immigrants in unbearable living conditions and traumatized their children in order to intimidate other potential immigrants; (3) deeply insulted U.S. allies and repeatedly praised dictators and openly encouraged them to interfere in American elections; (4) installed corrupt lackeys in the U.S. cabinet (who subsequently lost their jobs for said corruption) and engaged in corruption of his own by using his public office to promote his real estate properties; (5) mocked people with disabilities and war heroes and their families who were not white; (6) insert any number of egregious examples of amorality and disgraceful behavior. But in the end, people didn't get worn out on Trump until his nonsensical trade policies began hurting our economy. We should be ashamed that as a country it boils down to money in our pockets and not the moral character of our nation's leader.
11
A person that I thought I knew well told me he is going to vote for Trump even though he dislikes the man, because the Dems are too crazy and he's sick of identity politics and a press that suffers from Trump derangement syndrome. I was shocked, and now I'm scared, because think there are a lot more out there who think the same way. Prepare yourselves.
5
The cancellation of this Trump Anti-Intellectual Nativist and Republican White Evangelical farce comes down to an overwhelming Democratic voter turnout in 2020 in these eleven states: AZ, CO, FL, GA, ME, MI, NC, OH, PA, TX, and WI. All eyes will be wisely focused in their direction on election night.
4
"...what many of them want is release from the incessant drumbeat of that infernal syllable: Trump, Trump, Trump."
I get up, turn on my computer and there it is...the next disaster or hatred that Trump is spewing. I'm tired of reading something hurtful EVERY single day. I keep thinking, "When will it end?"
I'm getting worn out. I wish this country had the fortitude to protest. We could use some of the Hong Kongers' attitudes. They are standing up for their freedom. Why aren't we?
5
Reads like one, or more, of the stages of grief. Over Hillary not winning.
4
This is extreme wishful thinking. Unlike journalists and politicians, most Americans can just turn off the news. And as they do so more and more, they miss many of the horrors committed by this administration. Really, who can keep up? A formerly career-ending blunder is just another day at the White House now. Mass tuning-out helps the re-election campaign, not hurts it.
2
Trump is exhausting, yes. We're all tired of the man. The media's coverage has been exhausting as well, always highlighting the negative, never the positive. The Times treated Obama with kid gloves, the man could do no wrong apparently. Trump? He could say that he loves puppies and the Times would hint that he hates kittens. Yes, it's all exhausting.
71
@Midwest Josh - what exactly ARE the positives with this president, Josh? Every financial policy has ended up benefiting the extremely wealthy, despite his claims to the working class. His trade wars are hurting American businesses and farmers, but somehow those bailouts aren’t considered "socialism" like Democrat-backed public policies are. His denial of climate change will only help keep those Amazon fires burning and polar ice caps melting. And then there’s the endless list of needless and cruel actions, most of which have only been undertaken because of his obsessive need to negate Obama's every accomplishment — e.g. allowing big game trophy hunting, lifting protections on endangered species. I really would like to know of at least 5 genuinely positive things that he has accomplished.
330
@Midwest Josh
It would have been nice for you to list all of Trump’s positives. As hard as I try I can’t come up with very much. Wall built with pesos? Nope. A much better health plan than Obamacare? Nope. Tax cut that will make the middle class better off? Nope. Shrink the deficit? Nope. Improve the trade imbalance? Nope. Drain the swamp? No, we got Manafort, Flynn, Gates, Price, Zinke, Pruitt, Acosta and still counting. Perhaps you haven’t read much good as there is too little to report.
250
@Midwest Josh
You are missing the fact that Obama was a relatively quiet president: no one was arrested, no one was indicted, no major scandals of the traditional type. There were no sudden resignations, no constant turnover of White House staffers, no one appointed to an office and then kicked out a few weeks later. Trump's nominees often drop out in day after being nominated.
Obama was heavily vilified in the right wing media and some of this spilled over into the coverage by major outlets. Like any president, Obama was subjected to constant criticism but it is not the job of the media to generate criticism but to report on facts and the responses of others. The "controversy" around Obama was him wearing a tan suit (!), whether he was responsible for high gasoline prices and whether Obamacare was some socialist plot to make people wear microchips in their bodies.
Trump makes constant controversy everywhere he goes. He does it on purpose.
It is VERY important to distinguish between news coverage and columns/editorials. The media, meanwhile, need to do a better job of keeping them separate and labeling them. When a columnist gives an opinion, it it not the Times saying it, it is that individual columnist.
Trump is trying to run the country the way he ran his often messed up "business empire". He could stop the controversies instantly by staying off Twitter, stop blowing kisses to dictators like Putin and appointing people who are actually somewhat qualified for office.
227
Our exhaustion most probably mirrors the dynamics in the Fred and Mary Trump household that included five children. Fred and Mary were able to relieve themselves and their remaining children by sending Donald off to a military boarding school. This was a very common option for families who could afford to remove a disruptive child from their midst. It is astonishing to me that no investigative reporter has dug down deep into the reasons that prompted this action. Donald has three remaining siblings who were witness to the "exhaustion" that Donald wreaks everywhere he has been, including his marriages.
I understand that NDAs exist that may prohibit these first-hand witnesses from speaking out. But the world and history deserves to know the truth.
19
Once again, the emphasis is on Trump, the man, rather than on Trump's policies. This wilful focus on Trump, the man, allows the elite on both the right and the left to ignore policies non-elites think may be beneficial to the nation. It's a subtler way of calling non-elite moderates "deplorables."
6
Relief is just a ballot box away!
In the meantime, I've found that when confronted by the news of Mr. Trump's outrageous words and behavior, taking a long and deep breath while envisioning a calm pond scene in my mind works wonders!
3
I must give credit to JB Handelsman for his 1981 drawing in The New Yorker Magazine for the following which applies so well here " "Your tale is very sad, Ben. I'm almost sorry I took an anti-depressant." You can substitute the name Frank but I must quote the original line by the master.
3
"They’d like a new mini-series with a different cast, and Democrats aren’t giving them that if they keep putting Trump’s name above the title."
One Democrat is way ahead of you here. One of Mayor Pete's themes for the last several months has been "Change the channel," and he often adds, "As long as we're talking about him, we're not talking about you (the voter)." And he backs it up with action: Buttigieg has logged fewer tweets mentioning Trump than any of the other Democratic presidential candidates.
14
I also found myself in the park on Sunday. Left the paper on my kitchen table and went out to commune with nature. And nature was kind enough to offer me a glorious day of gentle breezes and moderate temperatures. Observing young families picnicking, biking, strolling together brought a sense of serenity to my soul which lasted a couple of days. But then that occupier of our White House started to insult Puerto Rico as that endangered island was preparing for the hurricane. All that peace and calm I had been experiencing came crashing down. When does this story end and how does it end? November 2020 cannot come soon enough!
20
Even the most popular sit-coma cease to be funny; even the most compelling
dramas wear thin their storylines; alas, even those who thrive on politics as entertainment, look for a new Fall line-up.
8
I find this very painfully true. It's like a bad dream and we can't figure out how to wake up!
14
I've hoped intermittently over Trump's term that the media would just not cover him, period. Given he and his followers claim Fake News, why continue to give them more coverage to distort? Further, Trump thrives when he has an adversary and a headline. Let's not give him either.
I remember the last presidential campaign when, indeed, every time Trump threw up a shiny object, media was diverted over and over...and it's happening again.
Imagine the bliss of an embargo on all things Trump!
16
"By the time Election Day rolls around, they may crave nothing more electric than stability and serenity. That wouldn’t be a bad Democratic bumper sticker. It’s essentially the message of Joe Biden’s campaign."
That's a losing message in 2020 for Democrats who have never come to terms with how Trump won. Thirty years of Democrats' lying to blue collar workers set them up nicely for Trump's big con. They never pushed to commit more than a tiny fraction of what other advanced nations do on retraining manufacturing workers even as white-collar workers got to invest in training and development for their entire careers. Democrats never got beyond offering tax breaks to employers and other ineffectual "market solutions" in the hopes that re-training would somehow occur and refused to address the structural issues behind plant closings and the flight of decent jobs. Bill Clinton enacted NAFTA, repealed Glass-Steagle, ended "welfare as we know it," and exacerbated rather than halted unions decline. Obama supported the TPP and spent his political capital pushing a health care plan originally conceived by the Heritage Foundation which, while better than nothing at all, didn't come close to bringing "health care for all." This is the message Bernie has been trying to get through the DNC's thick skulls and why they are so dead-set against him. No Democrat who offers only a return to this record will be able to connect with Rust Belt blue collar workers and win them back from Trump.
6
Considering the many blatant violations of law and precedent that Donald does in full public view, one can only imagine what is hidden in those things he hides: his tax returns.
It is entirely credible that -- as Lawrence O'Donnell reported -- Russian oligarchs cosigned the $320 million in loans Donald got from Deutsche Bank when no other lender would pick up the phone.
Donald may be up to his eyebrows in debt to Putin.
23
I'm loathed to say it, but the impending recession may just be the cure we need. If the economy tanks, he is finished. Full stop.
12
My brother and sister-in-law binge nightly on MSNBC, immersing themselves in the latest Trump outrage. I told them I'd rather be in the garden pulling weeds, doing something that's satisfying and productive. That said, when the time comes next summer to work phone banks, walk neighborhoods, and write checks to ensure that Trump and Cory Gardner are one-term-wonders, I'll be there. For now, there's a life to live.
20
Even though we're exhausted, we must summon up enough strength to vote him out, come election day.
23
But for a few tens of thousand of voters in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania (of the more than one hundred million who voted nationwide) there would never have been a President Trump.
I am comforted by what I believe to be a reasonable assumption. That there is a sizeable number of people who voted for him the first time but won't vote for him next time. Yet, it is difficult to imagine that there is even ONE person who DIDN'T vote for him in 2016 but WILL vote for him in 2020.
12
@TH
I agree with your basic reasoning/assumption concerning voting trends. 2016 —> 2020.
However, my daily reading of the comments to this newspaper occasionally uncovers a registered voter whose comment includes the warning, “I didn’t vote for Trump last time, but I will in 2020.”
These folks always seem ticked off about something which they don’t fully explain, especially the part about what benefit they feel is to be gained by reelecting Donald Trump.
Long story short. The fact that we have citizens with plans like these, walking among us, is the reason I now sleep with the lights on.
6
@TH...this you can take to the bank
When people are alone in the voting booth and trying to decide who to vote for, in the end they almost always go with what would be best for them financially.
For minorities they are going to vote more for Trump then in 2016...I know that most liberals can't conceive that because of their skewed views but not one of the Dem candidates has any chance of beating Trump.
2
me too
4
Hey, Trump, go get yer shine box. Yer done here.
7
The problem is, his supporters aren't exhausted at Trump's unrelenting ignorance of governing a vast structure like the last remaining superpower in the world ... they are only exhausted about the reporting on it.
If they were exhausted at his incompetence, his "job performance" numbers wouldn't be so high.
His supporters blame the media for forcing them to look at the carnage, not the one actually creating it.
12
Strange. Each offensive thing he says and does makes me want to fight more. Quite the contrary to what you describe.
7
On my wish list are just two things - a look at his tax returns and an assessment of his mental stability from a panel of psychiatrists. DJT not only has a serious problem with expressing himself intelligently but to any well-educated person, it's obvious he should not be in a position to make major decisions for our country. When I turn on my computer in the morning my husband asks, "What's Goofy up to"?
19
The mental and emotional fatigue isn't just about trump. It's knowing the GOP is behind him 100% including those who are too scared to speak against him. Their silence is consent.
And it's the knowledge that 40% of the country is still for trump. It's the sickness of America, the hatred I didn't realize ran so deep and the new distrust of neighbors lest they be republicans who support his world view. It's the loss of the country I thought I knew.
26
What is exhausting you is a well-behaved Trump trying to get re-elected. If he wins and is no longer as constrained as he is now, prepare for unfettered insanity. He will destroy us.
12
We would be in far more peril if Trump were just a little less like- well- Trump. We would also be in far more peril if Trump had even a scintilla of real intelligence. As dangerous as this impostor of a human being truly is- he IS President, after all- he also contains the seeds of his own destruction. To Trump-haters, like me, he is the gift that keeps on giving, and he can't even help it. The real danger is in taking his country down with him. We cannot let that happen. I have said in here once before that I consider the period between November 4, 2020, and January 20, 2021, his lame-duck period, to be the most dangerous time of all. How will he react to what should be a substantial and humiliating defeat? One thing is for sure. We ALL will be watching.
13
He has worn us all out with all of his successes. So much winning is exhausting me
4
Donnie ruined Home Alone II for me. I never cared for him after that.
5
Clearly this strategy is beyond you folks. He's boosting the economy with big spending and interest cuts to withstand the trade war with China, and when he wins, sky-high growth will make reducing the deficit less painless in his second term.
3
@Robert L Smalser
You are certainly right about one thing, this strategy is beyond me. As for the rest, let's just wait and see. One other thing is for certain, we can't both be right.
14
@TRA...you haven't been right about Trump since day 1.
Frank, you're not the only one who must ignore Trump news. It's depressing. The last time I was this depressed over politics was when Newt Gingrich became House Speaker under Clinton, and a slew of abysmal legislation followed. And his years of terror don't hold a candle to Trump's.
The G7 this past week was a welcome respite from Trump. He was caught off-guard with a visit by Iran's Zarif. All he could say was "no comment". The G6 (the 7th, the U.S., doesn't participate much in these summits) took action on climate change, voted to send $22 million in aid to fight the Amazon's fires and made headway in the area of trade with both China and Iran, without Trump's permission. Can we say hooray?
I have written a lot to the NYT about not covering Trump's every pronouncements so much. It does fatigue readers. His changeability gives Americans whiplash and ulcers.
There are other actors in the U.S and the world who are proactive forces in fighting for human rights and environmental protection. Journalists need to cover these people, and dial way back on Trump. He'd hate being ignored. Americans could savor the peace, while learning that there are forces not bent on their destruction.
11
My sentiments exactly. Also, please can we end "breathless, breaking news" banners and panel consultants who seldom know anything new? If you subtract the credentials and book promotions spouted for each panelist by the anchors and eliminate meaningless polls and ad nauseum repeated clips of candidates, there's seldom anything left worth mentioning. Plus our representatives cannot stop fundraising / campaigning long enough to legislate.
9
But there is another effect of being worn down by all of this: not paying attention and allowing Trump and is ilk to run away with our government. It's pretty clear he is Oz and others are running the machinery. And if we are distracted by him alone we are unaware of what's behind that curtain--it hides malfeasance beyond our wildest nightmares.
11
Everyone needs to stop bugging out and go to bed.
2
People who sat out the last election have to be kicking themselves daily. 73000 votes gave us this nightmare we are living through. Trump’s base will support him no matter how low he goes because they share his racist views. Trump’s supporters dissecting the reason why they support Trump is so disingenuous. The only lie they keep telling themselves for supporting Trump is the economy. If the economy goes south what justification will they use to support a racist? People are tired of The Daily Perils of Trump realty show. My hope is people on Election Day will find the time to save our country from four more years of Trump.
16
@Steven McCain: I'm with you on your assessment of the Trump situation. May I just reply that I think we're going to see a historical event on Nov. 3, 2020: a 70% turn-out rate of eligible voters going to the polls, with a clear unprecedented 57% majority registering their extreme interest in ushering Mr. Trump out the White House door in Jan. 2021--and, both the Popular and Electoral College votes will be swayed so heavily against this president that the GOP will need to rethink itself completely.
3
We used to watch the local and national news on television every evening. In 2010, when all the negative, mud-slinging campaign ads began, we stopped watching and haven't been back since. We used to enjoy reading news magazines, but stopped subscribing in 2016. We still subscribe to the NYT and our local newspaper, but skip over most political articles. If broadcasters and publishers are worried about declining viewership and readership, they need only look at what they report. Yes, the events of the day must be covered, but not all the finger-pointing, gotcha, look-at-me hype we're exposed to now.
9
Totally agree Frank. Exhausted. From the lies, the cruelty, the nonsense, the drama, diminishing the US on the world stage, his obsession with trying to be better than Obama...I could go on, but I'm exhausted. My feelings remind me of the years I lived in an abusive relationship. Everyday it was a new event that set him off. Waiting for the other shoe to drop. Ranting. Raving. Lying. We are in an abusive relationship with dizzy don. I've had enough. Pack your bags and get out of my house!!
28
Wishful thinking. The drama is at least half caused by liberals (see, for example, the Mueller debacle that produced nothing, the Kavanaugh hearings and the "Spartacus moment" etc. etc.). I think Americans are at least as sick of liberal outrage over everything as they are with various offensive comments made by our duly elected president. We'll see...
5
I can imagine few predicaments more disasterous than to somehow be trapped in the Republican party at this time. How would it feel to KNOW you are on the wrong side of every argument? To KNOW there is no plausible excuse for existence and actions of the Trump presidency?
This knowledge that the president is unfit, unbalanced, and clueless must be awful for thoughtful Republicans to bear. So they are silent. They offer few arguments. They have no factual or rational ammunition with which to debate.
Their’s is a hellish political existence.
Their party is disintegrating, losing its validity. And an obnoxious ego-maniacal nitwit is at the controls.
Goodbye, GOP!
20
You're exactly WRONG, Frank!
The American electorate loves reality TV and Trump's the biggest, huuuuugest, most amazing reality TV show ever.
So, he gets re-elected and the voters get another 4 years of this wild and wacky show.
What happens after Trump? What's the electorate going to tune into then?
1
@jonathan I want the show canceled immediately. It gets on my nerves.
8
Anything. But. Trump!!!
5
Hillary Clinton ran against Trump by emphasizing how corrupt, incompetent, and ignorant he was---in essence a campaign that just showed how bad he was---but it didn't work. In general, politicians like used car salesmen were not held in high regard, so these serious flaws were ignored by the electorate.
Can we continue to ignore his flaws?
By now we should have become aware that this moron can hurt us seriously---exacerbating the dangers of climate change, hurting our pocketbooks by his tariff war (e.g., the growing list of bankruptcies among farmers, the gyrating value of retirement accounts), and his cruel , inhumane treatment of migrants who seek refuge from persecution, and his vindictive nature where he hits hard and unfairly at anyone his inflated ego feels has slighted him (e.g., the persecution of Andrew McGabe, whose long term pension was stolen because of McGabe's pushing the "Russian hoax"----). The imaginary hoax that Trump wants us to believe. Like all of Trump's "hoaxes" , a lie. To punish by pulling away a pension on the eve of retirement shows how vindictive and petty this man really is. And F. Bruni, adds to the list of the malfeasance of this horrible bad man we have put into power. Keeping him in power can not only ruin democracy here but also the environment of the entire globe, the economy of the world, and the health of all .
It would be a relief to have this nightmare end.
16
We have become a nation of sheep.Every day we read or watch on tv the idiotic behavior of the man in the White House.We moan and groan ,and ask,how long do we tolerate this man.
We are no longer a united country.
6
what he said.....
If I could, I'd comment on this article, but my head is bursting with political angst, anxiety, and fury, and I have carpel tunnel syndrome from filling so many com boxes with arguments for impeachment.
9
Columnists and the media wear out the public. They use our worst president as a constant topic. Easy stuff. Trump may exhaust the media, but he's a gift, too. They simply make their living exposing what this worst of all presidents keeps saying and doing---every day.
Until they get exhausted -- and nauseated. And so do we.
For columnists who avoid discussion of the crucial issues that affect all our lives, Trump is an easy way out. Just do a nasty Trump gossip column---we get plenty of them in the NYT op ed page.
Here's the antidote, Frank Bruni----get off Trump. Start thinking and writing about what the opposition party might do to restore our democracy. To start representing the needs and rights of WE The PEOPLE of the USA. This will offer CONTRAST.
For instance--- have you thought at all about how we can finance truly universal health care. Generations behind the rest of the modern world? Are you ever curious at all on how dozens of other democracies have done this?
You could write plenty of attention getting columns comparing HC systems and how they're supported by citizens and parties abroad.
Do same for education funding. Figure out why in other capitalist societies high profits are not prioritized over citizens rights. Would this not be entertaining enough? Would it label you too 'left wing, liberal' by FOX News?
Give it some thought, Frank, while you're resting up from the relentless onslaught of All Trump All the Time.
Now I'll take a pepto bismal.
11
@Meredith
To argue with an idiot invites the possibility of becoming an idiot. Debating a madman is putting your own sanity at risk.
Meredith, you ask why we Democrats don’t focus on the genuine issues our nation faces, problems in need of resolution, instead of watching Trump’s unpresidential antics?
The answer is dysfunction. The executive branch of the federal government is in the hands of an ignorant irrational fraud. The Republicans in control of the senate, have apparently abrogated all of their constitutional duties. The Republicans in the house are equally negligent. Everything the Republicans can “table” is being tabled.
The answer to the question of “why don’t we move forward?” is that the Democratic majority in the house cannot act as a complete federal government.
4
Trump deserves to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, if not there is no Justice.
18
Remember all the predictions when Donald Trump took office? The stock market was going to tumble and the economy would never recover. We would be at war around the world and North Korea's "rocket man" would unleash his weapons.
And what did happen? Peace and prosperity broke out instead of war and misery. Things are better than when Donald Trump took office, not worse. His presidency has been as productive as any president's in recent memory. Nothing to complain about in comparison.
So people focus on things like what he said to Denmark's prime minister. But is it so bad what he said in response to her comment that his plan was absurd?
Because his plan wasn't absurd. Greenland has strategic importance and Denmark is a tiny country in no position to help it with foreign policy and defense. China is making moves on it and it would be better in some respects for everyone if the United States stepped into Denmark's role.
In fact, if you look at what Donald Trump has done and ignore all the back and forth in the media, the man does know how to get things done. His accomplishments make people like Elizabeth Warren look foolish, with their plans and policies that are just as practical as castles in the air.
Donald Trump may have worn you out, but not me. I don't listen to media either. Instead I just watch what he does. And I like what I see.
7
@John Smithson
Tough to respond to when you like what you see but fail to share what it is that you like. But I think I can understand where you are coming from when I reflect on the emptiness of what you share.
24
August 28, 2019
All for one and one for all - ergo we have a problem: America.
In the true nature of community and collective sharing the historic narrative Trump has indeed taxed our emotional fiber.
Yet fear not! Americans - land of the brave and free. Now is the time of enjoy our freedom there he goes and lease but for the grace of almighty' light we will Star spangle banner - at last, at last freedom universal hope and joyful path we know where to go living U.S.A.
1
I'm not worn out yet---- that would be giving in to the dark side. Trump has brought together a not yet organized coalition of opposition of so many diverse people and groups. And as he (and the GOP) keeps bumbling along, there will be more pulling together of people concerned about racism, inequality, health, environment, climate change, national security and just plain doing the right thing. If the Democrats can figure out how to harness the energy of this coming together of the 'right stuff', they will have little to fear in 2020.
9
Take a look at all the op-ed and stories on the New York Times front page, you have to scroll down to the bottom to find another subject. The stories, not a one that is positive. So would the world blow up, if print, cable took a one day brake from trump. We'd probably be all bored. NOT
7
Blame Trump's rise on the Evangelicals! They will forever be linked to Trump and the death of our democracy.
15
@ari pinkus
Yes, they are fundamentally fearful, hateful, authoritarian closed off people who hide in and bastardize a cloak of religion. They are the quintessential put others down to make yourself feel better. That's why Trump is so appealing to them, in addition to the fact they only thing they are more loyal to than their evangelical moniker is the Republican party.
9
After watching the nutty Squad debacles and the boring Democratic debates I felt the same.
If progressives didn’t have bad luck then we wouldn’t have any luck at all.
2
I am a hobbyist beekeeper. One pleasant evening last week I was enjoying myself extracting honey from the hive while a few friends looked on and helped. One of them had their cell phone out and kept announcing all the awful things trump said and did that he found on the internet. I had to tell him several times that this was a Trump-free zone before he finally got the message and put his phone down. I can't seem to enjoy much of anything with friends or family these days without someone wrecking the mood by bringing up trump. We all need to learn to take a break and clear our heads at times. Yes, we must actively engage in fighting back against him, but at appropriate times. But we should not concede the enjoyment of life to him because we cannot stop thinking and talking about him.
26
Trump has been horrible, but that's something we all knew was likely to happen. The obstruction and enabling by the Republican Party wasn't expected, by me, however. That has been stunning.
It has made me wonder about precisely what circumstances would have to take place for Republicans to place the needs of America above their own?
22
Frank Bruni is not grasping how much the norms that he is clinging to have been shredded under the Trump/Pence fascist regime, and the questions he is asking are too narrow. What is at stake is not just the governing norms here or the lives of people here. It's the actual future of humanity and the planet. It's the lives of millions of people he's trying to ethnically cleanse from the country. This is a fascist regime that is advancing on a three-point program of white supremacy, misogyny, and xenophobia. If you don't have the right diagnosis, you will not get to the right solution. We need to drive out this regime with sustained, non-violent protests at the soonest possible time. The damage this regime is doing may become irreversible if we wait much longer. 2020 is too late. Fascists around the world rise to power through elections, but they can't be removed that way.
5
Well-said. Wearing us voters out to the extent of intolerance is well and good. But wearing any of us out so that we become passive and numb, or worse yet accepting of his abrasiveness and ineptitude, isn't good at all.
6
@Ron I agree. I wrote earlier that just seeing the headlines makes me weary. That is not to say that I am not resisting everyday, working to be sure we get him out of office, flip the Senate (to protect the judiciary especially), work to clear the house of braindead megaphones, and try to hang on to our democracy.
5
You've exhausted yourself like the small child who kicks and screams until they fall asleep. The media has screamed and yelled since President Trump won the election. Never a mention of the good work being done; just pounding that NeverTrump drum. Outlets like the NY times are responsible for our exhaustion. go take a nap.
5
@notu - oh please list the good work that's being done under trump?
22
@Julius Destruction of everything Trump touches!
6
It is no surprise that the NYT writers are worn out. So are the people who read them. From the last election until now, it has been: say the worst possible about the President all the time without stopping. Portray him as a Russian asset way beyond the time when you could do so and still hold your mind together and still make the NYT seem sane and balanced. Then switch to his racism. Then to White supremacy. Then to denying the Constitution as the founding of the Country and propagating the idea that it was 1619 instead.
I read the NYT and its deranged sense of the world from a distance now. I don't feed on Trump tweets, which is how the President has strung the NYT along in its trail to insanity. Believe it or not, and despite his character, and despite what he says, there is a coherence in his actual policies and in his actions. You might have to wait and look around after his comments on Greenland are ridiculed by the Times to start reading that the Chinese are taking Greenland very seriously. That Trump is not the mindless idiot he is portrayed to be. This happens often.
Trump throws a lot of bait around every day. Some of it is just to stay in the news and keep others out of it. Some of it is misdirection, diverting attention from what he is planning. Some of it is signaling. Some of it is just to watch the sharks rush to the bait. The Times always falls for it.
Frank, there are still a few days of August left. Get some rest--and get some perspective.
3
Must be super stressful to be a columnist or reporter these days. It's a constant negative stress now to be a consumer of news. I've cut down on reading some articles and on TV news viewing for the 1st time. I keep the remote in hand.
I have to use more control than in past years for my mental well being. Less TV is good actually--- more time for other things. Some people I know don't have a TV. Maybe they have the right idea.
The worst is to see these constant, big pictures of Trump on TV and reading news on line. Like the one with this column.
The editors pick photos that amplify what is most off putting--ominous pictures of a hostile, paranoid, aggressive authoritarian, acting out his ego on the natl and world stage.
It's repulsive. Do these photos attract readers or turn them off?
To read without irritation, I try to control what's shoved in my face by clicking CTRL A. This selects the entire page and turns it blue, dimming the photos. I then can read the articles easily.
Or sometimes I just copy the article into Word, using Paste Special, so I can see only the print, and no photos. And no ads and videos! Ads are now so large and unavoidable, in the middle of the articles, instead of off to the side. They and Trump are shoved in our faces.
1
I used to bracket my days with Morning Joe and Rachel Maddow. No longer. The wind went out of my sails when Barr managed to subvert and conceal the Mueller Report, which was supposed to be our saving grace moment. All those subpoenas and righteous indignation from our new Congress evaporated into thin gruel, then nothing.
The goons had won. Nothing left, all bereft, I folded my tent and battened the hatches waiting for 2020.
Please. Make it stop.
Stop the Crazy 2020
18
@Barbyr
2020 - Stop the crazy.
Excellent slogan. I hope you don't mind if I repeat it.
11
Trump has taken a toll on America and our Allies. It's time to vote him and his GOP minions out!! We need to recover our dignity and our peace. We have seen two years of corruption, vileness, bigotry, and self indulgence and we have reached our limits. Every day we see more of the same. It gets worse every day. Vote them out!!
11
The earlier he is out, the earlier he can be out on trial for corruption.
15
Brian, there has been no investigated more closely than Donald Trump and nothing criminal has been found. Yet many people, like you, think he is a criminal. Why? Can't you believe the evidence that the man is innocent?
1
I run out of the house screaming any time I hear his voice on TV. I am beyond fatigued with that childish tantrum of a human being.
8
@KCPhillips;
The mute button on my remote just might wear out...!
2
More - it’s time to regroup.
3
I'm sick of Trump. My anxiety levels have steadily increased over these last four years since he descended that escalator in Trump Tower to announce his candidacy. I am sick of seeing and hearing his name EVERY day on TV in literally every public place from my office building to the local pizza joint. It is exhausting beyond anything I've experienced in my 54 years. I want him gone from the public eye. I want a return to constructive dialogue as to how to solve our problems. I want the rabid partisanship in Washington to end. AND by the way, I'd like Mitch McConnell gone from public life as well. He is as rabid and unhelpful as Trump.
11
@Steven
I believe that, for both of us, there is a sunny day coming soon when we will be able to read a newspaper article or watch a television newscast without hearing or seeing "Trump" at all.
That will be a very fine day.
7
Like so many untalented celebrities, he is becoming a has-been. I too just see the headlines and am too weary to read the copy.
7
Living with the Trump debacle is akin to having root canal 24 hours a day, seven days a week nonstop since he descended the escalator at Trump Tower lo those many lies ago.
8
Frank, a most elegant and spot-on column, it says what my heart has been screaming silently for months. Every single word conveys the truth and literally paints the most awful, obvious picture - this mockery of a presidency is in the malignant phase and the rot is spreading. One of your most perfect columns yet - I'm going to copy and paste to keep with others that I've been keeping since the unbelievable night of the 2016 election - someday in the future I will steal myself and reread them all and just shake my head....
2
Let's hope we are right ("we" because by and large I agree with your analysis). The Republicans would be well-advised to drop Trump and find a better candidate for President, but they won't. I have a slogan - "Dump Trump!" Or "Trump the Chump!" Or combined to make "Dump the Chump!" (the latter perhaps too intellectual for an election slogan, as "Trump" doesn't appear in it). Arguments are pointless, because Trump supporters, like their hero, don't understand them, and his opponents are already going to vote against him.
3
Thank you. Exactly. Rather watch British bake off show than nightly news. Or documentary about baby elephants. Anything but you know who---right, he is everywhere and maybe the news reporters need to inform us about what else is going on in the world. Starvation in Africa anyone? Real stuff, not lies.
5
Frank - It must be exhausting to get paid to wake up every morning and publish your "Dear Diary" entries, endlessly describing what a bad person Donald Trump is, how he is the source of every problem in the world. This seems to be more or less every op-ed in the Times these days.
@people power
You tell ‘em, peep!
Tell them about all of the good things Mr. Trump has accomplished for ALL of us.
Refute a few of the “lies” the fake media claims our honest president has told.
Explain away the hatred and racism and corruption.
C’mon! Tell the WHOLE story. People want to believe the nation has competent leadership.
No?
You can’t disprove a handful of the 12,000 lies they claim Trump told a since taking office? How about three?
7
@Tom W
People are working. They have better incomes than when Trump was elected. And horror of horrors; minority unemployment is the lowest ever recorded.
You talk about racism...hatred...corruption. These things are new to D.C.?
What are the left's plans for the nation? To battle racism, hatred & corruption at the expense of a sound economy and record employment. Sorry, pass.
In the same spirit as your column, Mr. Bruni, my wife and I have stopped watching any news on TV in the evening. We watch re-runs of good old movies on Netflix.
Last night, we watched “Monty Python and the search for the holy grail”. Hilariously ridiculous, but it may us laugh, and laugh, and laugh. We went to bed refreshed and happy.
And then, this morning, a dreadful thought came to my mind while reading your column. Could it be that the “Knights that say “NI” demanding “shrubbery” as the price of passage into their forest” actually make more sense that the nonsense spewing out of the mouth of our Wharton-uneducated simpleton in the White House? And I came to the conclusion that they do.”
When even Monty Python sounds more intelligent to me, I know it’s time to turn on the mute button.
13
According to legend, if no one looks at The Trump, it disappears.
7
Blink and make it happen! Puhleeze!
Never mind our individual psyches. The president is grinding the whole country down to a useless, protein-free powder ready to be carried away on the next stiff breeze.
Yet, to Trump's storm troopers of bile, he is the patriot, his opponents are traitors, and the rest of us are chopped liver. The experience must be lived to be believed.
10
Has anyone considered that 45 may resign before time (and says he's borred) and let his loyal lapdog follower pardon him of all crimes Nixon / Ford style.
Otherwise he's going to be prosecuted and jailed for the rest of his life.
7
Lars, no one has been investigated more than Donald Trump and no crimes have been found. Whatever you think of him, he's innocent.
2
@John Smithson NOT true. He just can’t be prosecuted as long as he’s president ;)
7
Lars, it is true that the Justice Department has internal rules that prohibit them from indicting the president for any federal crimes. But that doesn't stop prosecution by state prosecutors or impeachment by the House.
And even though no indictment was issued the Mueller team made public all the evidence they had gathered. If there was any evidence that Donald Trump had committed a crime you would bet that we would know about it by now.
1
This is what narcissists do. They push, they pull, they spin, they stab, they isolate, and they rip apart their prey. Think of that giant crocodile surging out of the watering hole to chomp down on the neck of an unsuspecting antelope. Eventually, the antelope is exhausted, missing limbs, and can't fight anymore. The narcissist (and the croc) engulfs its prey in never-ending, whipsawing trauma, until it sinks lifelessly into the mud.
No antelope would choose this fate. Why would any American???
8
Frank, I hope you're instincts are correct for I'm feeling politically flummoxed. Today, while working at a local hospital for a literacy program, I had an exchange with one of our volunteers. She talked about all the great policies Trump has instituted and how hard he's working for America. When I asked how she feels about all his golfing weekends and vacations, she said Obama took many more golfing trips but they were "hidden" and she knows this because she's read all about them. I understand one can be a racist with a graduate degree, but jeezzzz...how many more people are out there, believing the Trump fantasy?!
12
Galvanize your circle of acquaintance. Volunteer for your candidate. Help a new voter or senior get to the polling station. invest your time in our democracy. Learn from the soft coup boris Johnson undertook today before it ends here in tears.
3
I used to find meaning in reading and calling out all the absurdities unleashed by the ‘current occupant’ of the White House. Luckily we have many educated citizens who recognize that our Achille’s Heel can come from within and we are committed and engaged in a battle of wits to fight to the end, if necessary.
After watching a new series on Netflix titled “the Family” about a cult that wields power helps explain why tRump used the term he is “the chosen one.” It is all about how just by claiming allegiance to Jesus (the magic catalyst in all this), all those ‘bad things’ ya did are forgiven.
These ‘Family’ members are often people in office that travel across the country and across the world to meet with like minded leaders that will throw their support behind them, much like $45* has done.
Without any reconciliation with the past crimes or atrocities committed, you get a clean slate, a new identity, and a new lease on life.
They will help you dry clean your soul and scrub you clean on the outside.
Because you can be trusted now by invoking the Jesus Amendment, all is forgiven. Just throw it on like a new suit you got from the Paul Manafort estate sale.
2
I'm not worn out--I'm fired up to defeat this kleptocrat narcissist bigot and his enablers!
10
Liberals need to toughen up.
Long way to go yet.
4
Stop the madness, vote Biden
6
Tired of you too Frank. No offense but these predictable and not always honest columns of yours have grown old
1
I'm way ahead of you. I don't pay much, and in most cases any, attention to Donald Trump's "tweets" or the fuss they cause. Twitter is, obviously, for twits.
Nor do I pay much attention to what Donald Trump says otherwise, though I do find his answers to press questions refreshing. They are direct, pointed, and reasonable answers. To have a president do that is a first in my lifetime.
What I do pay attention to is what Donald Trump does. And I'm impressed. While the Democratic candidates blather on about their policies and plans, Donald Trump gets things done. How rare is that?
The chief executive of the United States needs to execute. Plans are a dime a dozen. Execution is the key to success. As former boxer Mike Tyson said, "Everybody's got a plan until they get punched in the face." Donald Trump gets punched in the face all the time and punches right back.
The late Steve Jobs criticized Barack Obama, saying he never got things done because he was too afraid to offend people and tick them off. Steve Jobs didn't have that problem and neither does Donald Trump.
As Trump told Jim Acosta at a Tokyo press conference, "I don't really care about offending people. I sort of thought you'd know that."
So sit back, enjoy life without listening to all the bluff and the bluster, and watch Donald Trump make America great again.
4
@John Smithson
But what he is accomplishing is destruction of our environment, our justice system, our education system, our ability to live with others in a “melting pot” and have free discussions. He has made racism cool. He has made America an embarrassment. He is a bully and a thug, demanding obsequious personal allegiance, and ....
I too am tired of this crude dictator!
But although tired and upset, I am no longer depressed, and I feel ready to fight to try to get my country back.
8
Mr Bruni, Please pay more attention to the Dem candidates. While it's perfectly valid for each of them to attack Trump on his policies and behavior, none of them dwell on that as a campaign strategy. The ones I have been listening to are presenting and talking about their own well-formed ideas and policies, not Trump.
Dems must call out Trump for his many failings as a President and also his failings as a human. But I for one am satisfied that Dems are talking much more about how they're going to help the American people, rather than focussing on this Neo-Caligula.
3
It's pretty obvious why the GOP is behind DT; he, and his enablers in the Senate, are putting into force their long-term agenda. Gutting regulations: the Clean Air Act, the EPA, the Paris Accord, packing the federal courts with conservative jurists, and so on - this is what these people believe in! So they hold their noses and support this administration! Hopefully in 2020 there will be more of us who cannot abide the stench!
9
If you allow this person to exhaust you into inaction or indifference.. then then he has won.
PLEASE DO NOT LET HIM WIN!
7
The world is made by and for families like the Trumps. Our politicians are owned by their money and do whatever contortionist moves necessary to stay on their good side. It's just that these people used to shun publicity — not anymore.
When Jared and Ivanka were democrats and relatively unknown nation wide they were no less shallow, vain or unethical — but we didn't have to follow their every shameful demand for attention then.
His voters actually believed that the entirely scripted character from the Apprentice was who Trump is. They had no ability to discriminate between entertainment and reality, and they still don't.
But for the two thirds of us who get what happened we need to ask: Do we want a society where incestuous connections and tone of inherited wealth determine every little thing in our lives and leave us with nothing but a front row seat at the train wreck which naturally follows celebrity mistaken for competence?
If we can't see that it's all unethical and must be reformed in a drastic way then we don't deserve anything better. The Democrats loved the Trumps when they were Democrats. That's what really horrifies me to realize. The rich must be thrown out of our politics now, or democracy will soon die.
5
I'm looking forward to the chants of "Lock him up" when he is finally pried out of the protective cocoon of the White House. Trump needs to be sent away so that he cannot continue to poison the national atmosphere with his nonsense. Shutting him away from twitter and all the rest is the only way we'll get relief.
12
Vern Castle, lock him up for what? The man was investigated by Robert Mueller's "Dream Team" of partisan lawyers and they could not find anything to charge him with. Nor can any other prosecutor. The man simply hasn't committed any crimes.
1
@John Smithson
Ten counts of obstruction of justice- are you just kidding John?
4
This is wishful thinking. It's just a variation on the "OMG look what he just said - how can you support that horrible man???" posture which was not a winning strategy for Hillary. Fact: Trump has the 33-35% "base" which will never forsake him no matter what he says or does. Call it orneriness or perversity or whatever you want. "If I agree that I don't approve of Trump, then the Dems/Libs/Socialist have won; not gonna let that happen." The Republicans won't do anything to jeopardize their majority in the Senate. That includes sticking with Trump. Combine that 35% with an additional 15.1% whom the Republicans convince to never vote for a Socialist/Woman/Obama VP/Pocahontas, and guess what.
2
I think whoever’s the democratic nominee; their tag line in ads should read “Had Enough?”
4
@Eric
Had enough what? Peace and prosperity?
I’ve been having “Trump-free days” for weeks now, at least regarding media. We know he’s an incompetent buffoon and grifter. Nothing surprises me anymore and even the shock value is wearing off. I listen nightly to a summation of what he’s done for the day. To fight him is significantly a lawyer’s battle, so donate to those causes. Protest where possible. Write letters to you legislators. Donate to your candidates. Vote.
5
Wordsworth's poem comes to mind--"The World Is Too Much with Us." I cherish my local classical music station.
3
At some point I guess everyone figures out the downside of going to a restaurant where the service is slow but the food's so bad you don't mind waiting for it.
2
Frank Bruni: Don't give up; don't ever give up. Your words articulate the exasperation so many of us feel over this worst of all Presidents. As exhausted as you feel and as much as you need fresh air and, probably, a shower after hearing about his latest twitter burst, you make it seem like the world has not gone mad. So don't ever give up speaking through your writing.
10
Frank. You have said a lot here. Now, I have a migraine, and it is bad. What do you recommend?
Why does not NYT, CNN, MSNBC shift the daily focus away from Trump? There is too much free publicity for Trump, a repeat from 2016. The media is not learning the lesson from mistakes of the past.
Subscribers would like to read subjects like Healthcare, Infrastructure, Immigration, the Opioid crisis, Climate Change. Education, R&D. There is a lot the media can provide and educate the people. A responsibility of government, and the political party in Office. A better way for people to figure out, who is doing what, and who is neglecting the issues.
5
America is unfortunately founded on selfishness and ignorance triumphing over knowledge.
Hence Trump.
We should have been so tired decades ago of such a prospect that his election would be impossible.
America will have to learn the hard way.
5
Yes, his primitive ways and clownish shenanigans are exhausting. But the news media — and any one else who profits in reporting this circus — is likewise exhausting and culpable.
1
For me, a major feature of the exhaustion I feel, to the point of having not renewed my many news outlet subscriptions, is that Trumpism has given world "voters" the power to elect or otherwise install right wing extremists like himself. The world has abandoned moderation, civility, even discussion, in favor of an Us-versus-Them approach to everything. Us is always good. Them is always bad, no matter what.
I have watched it tear long-time friendships asunder, destroy interpersonal relations, even make former colleagues silent to each other. These extremists, and they are everywhere, not just the USA, are destroying our Planet Earth at a rate never seen before in recorded history and thumbing their noses - not to mention hurling childish insults - at the scientists who use data to try to get their attention to the dangers.
One can only take this deluge of negativity for so long. My own point has been reached. I have even turned off reading certain columnists I used to read to get "the other side" of the viewpoint; I hope that does not happen here, though I am not sure it won't.
I do not look forward to the next 14 months. Not one bit.
7
Please cancel Trump TV & Media. This is a terrible series that just needs to come to an abrupt end.
5
I couldn't agree more with the theory put forward in this piece. Somewhere between proudly and shamefully, I give Trump much more of my brain space than most Americans do. (I'm proud to keep fighting! But also ashamed to be humoring him!)
I read the articles, listen to the pundits, wring my hands day and night. Most Americans don't have the privilege of spending so much time on all this noise. For Mr. Bruni's assertions to be correct - and I very much hope they are! - we have to hope that people didn't just tune out ages ago. I'm rather afraid that they have.
In either case, I looked at my hair yesterday and saw 10 years of silver where only 3 should have been. I need a rest.
3
We’re living in “the upside down”. We’ve never been here before and most of every day is so absurd, it’s difficult to process. Then, just when you believe it can’t get any more ridiculous, it does. The government is paralyzed because Republicans are afraid to react and democrats aren’t sure how to proceed. As for the courts? No visible indication of any sense of urgency. It’s a long, long way to get back home and will take a long, long time to get back there...if ever.
3
This is what the "malignant" part of malignant narcissism does to others - the chaos of the narcissist spreads uncontrollably out to overwhelm others.
trump is that guy in the nursing home whose constant neediness makes the staff want to medically restrain (sedate) or even physically restrain him. He's the guy in the nursing home who gets serially discharged to yet another nursing home, because no one can put up with the chaos he creates for everyone around him for very long, staff and other patients alike. And I use the nursing home analogy purposefully - trump is absolutely mentally deteriorating and seriously mentally ill. If he were a relative, he would have been evaluated long ago and found to be a danger to himself and others, long ago seen as a potential subject for institutionalization.
We need to wake up.
8
We just learned that Trump's loans at Deutsche bank were co-signed by Russian oligarchs close to Putin. This is the most corrupt administration in the history of the United States with scandals and abuse of power revealed on a regular basis. That alone should rouse everyone who wants to preserve our precious Democracy to get out the vote and urge anyone who is newly eligible to vote Trump out in 2020.
The daily lies and failure to enforce important environmental regulations by Trump's administration is equally egregious to his assault on truth and moral decency.
Now is the time to get our second wind to do the sprint towards the 2020 election to ensure we have a new POTUS who will right our ship of state.
8
Maybe you should ask yourself, yes yourself: why is it normal for Trump to answer media under the heavy and maddening noise of a helicopter?! always, as if the bully revels in depressing us by his voice even more.
3
"Haven't we all had enough" should be a Democratic slogan.
6
I joined ABT (anyone but trump) long ago. Hop on board and find the view much improved.
5
Frank, (another) sharp observation. I can't even watch or listen to the news anymore I'm so repulsed from seeing or hearing our buffoonish President weave through another justification for his sightless policies, brutal and cruel personal attacks, alienation of our allies, sick adoration of ruthless dictators, endless stream of self-serving lies, and morally devoid personality traits. Perhaps boredom or shear exhaustion will save the Nation from another 4 years of his destructive behavior.
3
Thank you for this, Frank Bruni. I needed to read this. I am too exhausted to write more. Just thanks.
2
Bravo Frank, my thoughts exactly. It's time for him to go buh-bye and perhaps a visit to prison wouldn't hurt. He needs a good dose of REALITY.
4
Even if he loses. He’s never going away. He will start his “trump network” and continue to poison the country. His sons will likely continue the dynasty long after he’s gone.
4
Tired of Trump. Tired of winning. Tired of erratic comments/tweets. Tired of the fluctuating market due to the last matter. Tired of the relentless news cycle that went from filling 24 hours even when there was nothing to say to filling 24 hours even when it’s all about Trump. Tired of the fantasy sports aura of the 2020 election so early in the season. Tired of every NYT column being about Trump and full of impending doom. Nuking storms. Now that would be something new.
1
You are our beacon of light and reason. Please take a vacation and have us write your columns for a spell.
We were warned by the business community that wearing down creditors was DJT’s pattern.
Let’s show that we are smarter and stronger. Send out assignments for some vacation, cut your devices for the time, and refresh! November 2020 needs you, so do we. It is 14 months away.
Thank you for your service.
3
But the haters never get worn out and they keep going and going. They are the ones who have made this their life. The rest of us have other places to put our attention. Trump will not go peacefully away. He will claim the election was rigged, even though when it was rigged last time, it suited him. We have alas not seen or heard the worst yet from this canker sore.
3
The Trump presidency is like riding in a car going down a crowded freeway at 75 mph with a 12 year old at the wheel, not a good time by any measure. Let's hope we soon get an adult in control of our nation.
2
Roy Cohen was asked many years ago what brought down Joseph McCarthy. He said McCarthy was like a TV show that you saw too many times. People just got tired of him. Maybe history is repeating itself.
389
@Deepbrook.
AMEN !
18
@Deepbrook.
From your mouth to God's ears...oh please, if only.
14
It's pretty exhausting, it's true. And yet I have seen such great theatre, because many of the people at the focus of Trump's hate refuse to be diminished and are setting their stories to the stage, bringing their pain into artistic expression. (Case in point, What The Constitution Means to Me, which just closed on Broadway and will be playing in DC.) Ironically, it's a great time to be an artist.
I asked my mom about this particular era we are in, and she too agreed that it's pretty bad, pretty disheartening. "But," she said, "it's not as bad as slavery. Or Jim Crow. Those were far worse times."
It's all in your perspective, I guess.
5
It is exhausting. But I do not know how to not fight back every day. Losing this country is not an option. How to make him irrelevant? Vote out McConnell and take majority in Senate.
3
Captures the sinking feeling for many of us. And the world has its other Trumps as well. I read history. I walk. Exercise helps some. There is always hope that "the dude must go." and that it will be soon. Ahh, the fresh breeze feeling.
1
The non-stop coverage you and other media outlets give Trump provide the exhaustion, Frank. The non-stop shock from Rachel, Lawrence, Anderson, et al. for each Trump eccentricity and misstep add to the overload.
Yet, where are the Democrats, especially our candidates, to counter Trump on a daily basis? Take the trade war with China -- what do THEY propose as a solution? The crisis at the border detention centers -- what do THEY propose as a solution? I shouldn't have to visit their campaign sites to find out - it should be blasted across the media so I know where each of them stand on just these two relevant and current issues.
7
Frank,
For all the exhaustion of the punditry in the media, a commentator may perhaps be forgiven if HE were to opine that you did, in part, bring this exhaustion upon yourselves along with the rest of us. Every time something Trump did or said in his campaign that was outrageous or crossed the boundaries of expected behavior for a Presidential candidate, it became fodder for selling newspapers, video clips and so on. The more outrageous, the more stories, the better for the corporate bottom line. It amounted to so much "free publicity" for his campaign that we were saturated with Trump almost from day one.
Trump played the media like a violin and got his campaign to steamroll over all the possible opposition, fueled in part by the wide publicity of his outrageousness. We've had enough. Really. Perhaps it would be better to simply ignore his outrageousness and just report objectively only on things that he does objectively. Sign a law, report it. Harass the members of the press at the news conference about the signing, maybe not. The less you feed the wolf of his outrage, the smaller it will become.
5
@Patrick
Reporting an outrage is not supporting an outrage.
The aberrant behavior of the nation's commander-in-chief should not be a secret.
3
@Jerry Engelbach
I suppose it depends on to what end the reporting of said aberrant behavior is being used for. In the campaign, as I asserted, it was used to garner essentially free publicity and get him into the White House. Since we all know, well enough by now that this is who Trump is and always will be, and that feeding his ego by such reporting only fuels the machine which makes him worse, I'm merely suggesting that not feeding the outrage driven ego, whilst it will never make for "normal" behavior from one who's incapable of it, may tamp it down a bit and with it the overwhelming mass exhaustion we're all feeling. If only just a bit.
@Patrick
I think the more exhausted people feel, the less comfort they have, the more they'll be willing to oust the source of their unease.
3
It's Trump fatigue amplified by enablers against which we have only 18th century political tools to treat.
1
Simply put, I would like a Trump free day. A day where I hear not rants, no hate, no hysteria. Where I don't have to see his face nor hear his voice, both of which I have come to detest. A day of quiet and peace for my soul.......and for us all.
8
I agree that the tenor of the Democratic campaign is crucial. It can’t be anti-Trump yet at the same time it must be about replacing what Trump is about.
The campaign should focus on the economic dislocation experienced by middle class Americans because of the conspicuous greed of Corporate America. When we have, as just one example, the Koch brothers using their vast wealth gleaned from oil and gas extraction to stifle public investment in mass transit and preserve their profits, that’s a kind of greed that American voters can, and will, vote against. Certainly, Trump is the poster child of conspicuous greed, so that’s an easy fit. Not all corporations, though, are like Trump. Plus, the medicine has to cure the beast, not kill it. What we need is reform that tamps down the worst excesses and discourages greedy overreach.
Tax reform and regulation are key strategies, but the focus has to remain on reasonable change that corporate entities can support. This means that moderation, not extremism, will need to prevail. The Trump era has been one of division rather than cooperation. Democrats should promise to change that, and we can’t do it by pushing extreme measures. One virtue of moderation is that it is generally more comforting than the clash of ideologies at the extreme ends of the spectrum, and we crave that healing comfort, now more than ever. The American middle class needs to feel the sense of opportunity that used to be its strength. Which candidate offers that?
1
@Marshall Doris
Corporate entities never support change until they are forced to.
Working people don't need to compromise with those who exploit them.
Trump did not run as a moderate, but as an advocate of "extreme" change.
2
Trump is Dr. Evil incarnate, not to insult Dr. Evil. His voters are largely Fox News Watchers and, mostly, do not read the newspaper (certainly). These sadly ignorant people number in the tens of millions. No surprise. The United States, like many countries, is filled with a large percentage of dullards, some of whom are very rich. Money and intellectual curiosity do not, by any means, go hand in hand.
Trump's significant financial backers are the very very rich, who want nothing other than to become richer. They are mostly Christian, and white, both the "base" and the financial enablers.
Trump is following the fascist playbook to the "T". His base is brainwashed no less than the Germans were so long ago.
We are in grave danger internationally from Climate Change and from the far right xenophobia defined by Trump. Power has amplified a horrid personality.
I believe, like Mr. Bruni, that we are a resilient country that can survive the disaster in the White House. But we are in graver danger from the zombie nation than we have ever been. In this case, climate catastrophe appears to moving in parallel with the nightmare.
16
It's almost impossible to avoid seeing or hearing some lie this demagogue has perpetrated...yet...it's so sad and horrifying to understand that there are Americans who believe that he is a true man........
This President needs to be impeached......
9
Yes. Yes. Some days I'm so exhausted/angry/sad by the craziness that I cry and cry. We have a lunatic "president" and it's way past time for him to go.
7
Way back in mid-2016 I suggested, with a short letter to the Editor, that the NYT take just one day off from reporting on Trump (this was BEFORE he was elected). Just one day. See what happens, what the competition says (if anything), what the readers say. Just one day. I am making the same suggestion again, now, in the midst of this insanity - take just one day off from reporting anything with the word Trump included, and see what happens. Then maybe one more day..........one at at time. Maybe Times readers will absolutely love it, and pay double rates. Who knows. Give it a try.
4
I think a better framing would be that we are bored of him. Yes, Donald J Trump, you are boring. Vast numbers of us don't care to listen to or hear about your antics anymore. Yes, you are disgusting, but you are the same disgusting day in and day out. We are bored.
But we can't be exhausted. We still have work to do to get rid of this boring guy.
9
We can't all give up. What about the kids and babies in wretched shelters who are living in cages? Torn from their brown skin, Spanish speaking families. I was turning to books and nature and still am, but at night, there they are. What to do? Maybe we should all storm those places. A second wind, so to speak.
7
I hope you spent both days in the park with your beautiful dog.
2
I am ready to vote for any breathing human in 2020 that is not Trump. I might even consider a non-human primate, if that were allowed.
8
Frank, from your prayers to G-d’s (and all rational and fatigued American’s) ears.
3
C’mon...Trump constantly utters comments or thoughts that are utterly nutty - and reporters/journalists cannot stop until they have analyzed every syllable of those absurd statements. Rinse and repeat. Every. Single. Day.
Stop helping this guy!
7
I like to bike, hike or kayak into nature these days to escape the news cycles of Trump and Trump. But then I think...his cabinet minister for Interior wants to sell off public lands. Gotta admit, it's hard to get rid of this buffoon. He seems to be everywhere.
Disappointed by the Republicans and their lack of integrity to the country to remove Trump. Disappointed by the Democrats who lack the resolve to do what's necessary to close down the country and impeach Trump. We need full investigations of Trump and McConnell. The only place they deserve is federal jail.
10
Worn us out?? Are you kidding?? He is keeping campaign promises! That is refreshing.
Trump 2020
1
@NYC Dweller: What promises is he keeping? To "own the libs"? Is that all you guys want - to make your fellow citizens angry? No wonder the country is divided! I'm still waiting for that "beautiful" healthcare plan that is going to "cover more people" and be "cheaper." Where's the money Mexico was going to pay for his "big, beautiful wall"? And don't get me started on his gutting the federal government by refusing to hire enough staff, and allowing departments to go without permanent managment! I sent a request to the IRS in early June, and have not received even a form letter in reply. That has never happened before in all my years of dealing with the IRS - but it is now severely understaffed, as are all of the departments that are supposed to be protecting us, such as the EPA, the FDA, and the State Department. Our public lands are being sold off, and even food inspections are not being done on a regular basis. An American citizen was recently detained in Texas for 28 days on suspicion of having illegally crossed the border - even though he was a teenager traveling in state, and had a state-issued ID and his birth certificate with him! None of this makes me feel safe or leads me to trust this rotten-to-the-core administration. Trump and his "best people" are clearly incompetent, divisive, and selfish. They have done nothing but make life difficult and miserable for ordinary Americans. I am nearly sixty, and have never seen the country in such bad shape as it is now.
5
Imagine if Trump walked across the White House lawn to get on his helicopter, and no reporters were there to listen to his lies. Why does anyone bother to ask him anything? Every word that crosses his lips is a lie.
9
Frank, don't take it for granted Trump will be defeated. We already know the popular vote is irrelevant, and a federal court ruled an "elector" can vote for anyone they want. If the Supreme Court agrees, the Electoral College also becomes irrelevant. Welcome to the Plutocracy.
I want to share this op-ed by conservative columnist Jonah Goldberg from the Los Angeles Times, who Frank probably knows:
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2019-08-26/president-donald-trump-behavior-mueller-powell
2
I hope a film maker can put together a five minute summary of all of his outrages. There have been so, so many that it is difficult to recount. All the lies, the incompetent mistakes, the insults, the corruption, the idiotic people. I am numb.
2
I’m just waiting for the headline— “you’re fired, President Trump”.
2
Trump has become boring; he is last year's reruns.
(Unfortunately, it's real life instead of a reality show, and the consequences are sickening.)
1
Trump is like a broken toaster that can’t be turned off, can’t be unplugged, can’t make toast. It can only shock and burn you. Eventually you learn to ignore the toaster, buy a dependable new toaster, and get on with life...and toast.
3
Memo to Frank Bruni: The readers of the New York Times's pages (and not just the editorial/op-ed) are exhausted by the one-track minds of NYT writers: you and the rest of the staff cannot seem to write about anyone or anything else than Donald Trump.
And the writing! So over-wrought that there is nowhere left to go in terms of invective; the condemnation-meter is about to blow! Yes, we're enervated, Frank; but more with writers who should, maybe, just for once, write about real issues out there in the badlands beyond the Hudson. Try it. You'll like it. So will we.
3
All horrible reality-tv shows are cancelled by ratings debacles. White House Reality TV will, too, because it is effectively 24/7, corrupt, ignorant, contradictory, criminal and bad for the economy writ large. Just a few more horrible months to go.
4
There is a solution.... VOTE HIM OUT!!! And make the margin so large NO ONE can dispute it.
7
In short, to know him is to hate him. Now let's get rid of him.
6
Exactly how I feel. I call it Suicide by trump.
2
It is becoming increasingly clear to me that even the anti-Trump news media (NYT included), or maybe ESPECIALLY the anti-Trump media, rely on his disgusting antics as click bait, which translates into more profit and more subscribers for them.
Cynic that tRump is, he, of course, understands this perfectly and manipulates us all to get the incessant coverage he craves. It makes one wonder if all the powers that be ( the 1% and the corporate elite?) are behind this guy BECAUSE he is an effective instrument for public mind control and the protection of the status quo, i.e., their supremacy. I will never believe for a second that he is president because the electorate chose him.
Now that it is clear that the charlatan-in-chief is never going to change for the better, honorable journalists should ignore his tweets, flip-flops, and puerile verbal assaults, and focus on educating the public about the real issues and the honorable people who are seriously trying to address them. Oh, sorry, I forgot. Americans are too addicted to instant gratification and entertainment to actually read anything that requires thought. Media has to protect its bottom line.
2
Bruni speaks for many of us.
Personally, I would be pleased to see the reality tv potus show get cancelled on November 3, 2020.
It certainly has reached the point where it is just tiring - long past being surprised at his utter incompetence and lies, long past being upset by his tweets, long past laughing at the bumbling maladministration that a self-proclaimed great businessman has put together.
Then we will have a very appreciable job fixing all the damage that Trump has caused.
6
We unplugged the cable in January. No more 24/7 news which isn’t really news but commentary to the point of being unhealthy. I watch a little news during the week to see if this numb nut for a president has not done something that all of us need to be forewarned about. I read the news instead. I don’t feel as drained of energy anymore. Trump thrives on stealing everyone’s energy to fill himself up. Just don’t let him do it, turn him off. The only time anyone should pay attention to this dimwit is in a time of crisis and only for our own good and protection. To make sure we don’t have to make a run for the hills or border..
I consider the cable news networks mostly responsible for the reason we have this president. From 7/15/15 till Election Day, they gave him free air time. They played his rambling, bragging, raciest talk full length. They interrupted real news to show his rallies on tv. I don’t know if it was because the networks were so shocked by what he was saying, that they wanted we Americans to see it and not support him. If so, it did not work. Those of us who were turned off by him just shut the tv off, we just knew there was no way we would vote for him. The cable news networks need to ignore him.
3
And now Trump thinks FOX isn't working for him anymore.
That's good news for sane people.
3
Dear Frank Bruni: Thank you. I wanna hold your hand! As an avid reader of the NYT, as well as a political news junkie, I too feel the fatigue. I have even been known to ignore the news media lately. We cancelled our cable channels. Good! (But I still feel a CNN craving - ). I repeatedly chant "This too shall pass..." I'm not even an American. Still, I feel your pain. And we are affected by it all - not least living next door to Putin. So: hope. We need some here up north too.
1
I would love to see a day when not a single word is written or report aired by the news media with his name/photo/voice in it. It would give us all relief while driving him even more crazy.
The notion that President Trump can destroy our democracy is truly deluded. Anyone who thinks that has a profound thinking problem and should seek professional help.
They, his supporters, are tired of Trump because he is basically a whiner, a complainer, and when all is said and done, a whimp. Much as they garner joy and a perverse kind of satisfaction by Trump's "thumb-in-the-eye" of the press, the coastals, and the incessant Obama-bashing, they also know that while they are working hard on their "Make America Great" labor-intensive jobs, Trump is dogging it with moaning and crying rants and tweets.
Much as the enemy of their enemy (Trump vs. the press/Dems) is their friend, they have a hard time being honest with themselves and admiring the actions of a "Complainer-in-Chief."
2
I'm a news junkie. Lately, I tend to be watching Animal Planet and crime shows. Even an autopsy is better than Trump and his sycophants. I had cut the cable for about 2 years before the election, but reconnected after Trump won. I wanted to be prepared to watch impeachment hearings. I give up.
6
I'm sorry it took you so long to reach this point. We've known what Trump is for a long time - New Yorkers especially. I gave up some time ago following the inevitable daily TrumpIan horrors. The mass media can't seem to get enough of it. CNN is exhibit A of many. First they helped make him president and now they want seemingly to undo that with almost full-time Trump coverage. Of course they ignore a lot of the actual damage his bureaucracy has done. Today's business is get the eyeballs; contentioness seems to be the plan. Take a break from this.
2
His wackiness “transcends partisanship”.
Name one Republican member of Congress who has publicly criticized or rebuked the man.
Yes, many of us, most of us, would prefer to watch midget wrestling than progressive cable news to hear or see him, but that’s far different from watching ANY Republican office holder publicly speak out against his unethical, irrational, treasonous and possibly criminal behavior. His defense of Putin is systemic and reported frequently. What journalists too infrequently talk to is why. While the Mueller report leaves open the question of a conspiracy, nothing presents opinion journalist from inferring the obvious: Putin has something on the guy. Hillary saw it two plus years ago when she called him Putin’s puppet. Any Republican come forward to call trump on that?
1
To the billionares, I say, why not move to Russia, where you will be welcomed with open arms (Trump will make sure you are treated well - he thinks he has many friends there, lol). For the non-college grads who got a little bit rich, many of whom did well by creating the lying economy, I suggest you move to Honduras - we, intelligent, fair-minded people, are going to defeat the Republicans in 2020, and those of you who have chosen to succeed by lying, cheating and stealing, will suffer the consequences of your actions. Why not leave, and take your corruption someplace you think it is welcome. By the way, Mr Bruni, we cannot afford to wait until 2020 - rapid impeachment and removal from office is needed now - every month is a disaster for those of us trying to salvage the ecosystem, and Trump would start a war in a desperate ploy to get re-elected, as he saw the polls
not go the way he wants in the la-la land of his mind. I am sick of the jerk too, but I will fight him until I am dead, or he is gone.
2
Mr. Bruni:
And you have access to a media megaphone.
Imagine how voiceless the rest of us feel.
1
Hi Mike in NYC: But you’re not voiceless! You can vote....local, state and nation. You can call Congressmen. You can write letters. You can tell us what you think ‘cause I think the NYT platform carries some weight. At least I hope so. Hang in there man!
Never again.
1
While my daughter and I were detained for several years in Italy, Frank Bruni's articles about Italy, on both positive and negative topics, would give me hope for Italy and for my family's future. Remembering those uncertain times, it is incredibly unsettling to find myself now finding solace in Mr. Bruni's articles about my own country. After fighting so long and hard to return with my daughter to my beloved country, it is even more saddening, infuriating and devastating to see what our country has become since we returned. Thank you, Frank, for your opinions. They are very much appreciated!
2
Frank, you've captured what it is with so many of us loyal, engaged Americans that we've stopped reading, watching, listening to the daily reality show. It's not reality, it's Trumpworld sucking up all the oxygen, ranting and raving. And I am so sapped and weary of it I've stopped reading daily newspapers, watching TV news (even the PBS Newshour), canceled subscriptions to papers and magazines. I just can't abide the idiotic "chopper talk", tweets, haranguing of public officials and private citizens. While all this happens government is grinding to a halt. There's no one at the head of agencies, cabinet post are filled by "actings"; worst is that this person at the top is only "acting" - and it's not like a President. I'll get back to following news when the grownups take over the asylum and JUST SAY NO to DJT. Til then I'm less anxious, angry, frustrated, and I can have a real life - sans all the manufactured drama. Just put him in the asylum where he will stop degrading America and all of us who want this to stop.
1
The wife and I have been saying to each other for years now that Trump is exhausting, politics is exhausting, the news in general is exhausting. We're both beyond sick of Trump, his buffoonery, the incessant lying, the self-aggrandizement, the insults and name calling, the taking of credit for anything positive and the casting of blame otherwise. His capacity for corruption and cruelty seems bottomless. He outrages and frustrates our allies while he sucks up to and goes to bat for enemies and craven dictators. Abuse of power, obstruction of justice, cronyism, nepotism, and on and on... it's endless and all of it is infuriating and exhausting.
He has no class and no dignity, and he's dragged the Office of the President of the United States down to his level. This is so sad. When I was growing up, the President was someone you could admire and respect, and you could be reasonably assured that most of the time, he wasn't lying to your face. If this President is breathing, he's lying. I do not trust or believe a single word he utters (if he can manage to utter them in a way that's cogent).
As long as his GOP enablers in the Senate continue to aid and abet, we're stuck with it. I don't much like liberals or Democrats in general, but I'll happily take one now if that's what it comes to, as long as they're a decent and honorable person. This one cannot go soon enough for me.
4
Everyday assault on decency and integrity doesn't end well.
faivel1
faivel1
NY | Pending Approval
Not only his administration taking FEMA disaster relief money for his medieval border wall, but now we're detaining the best and the brightest...
Palestinian Harvard Freshman Sent Back to Lebanon After Border Officials Searched His Computer and Phone
The incoming freshman was detained for eight hours at Boston's Logan Airport before being returned to Lebanon.
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/mbmvgy/palestinian-harvard-freshman-deported-after-border-officials-searched-his-computer-and-phone
Hmm...I thought we've been hemorrhaging brain cells at the cosmic speed under this ignoramus-in-chief...apparently it's not over yet.
Just consider all the news swirling around Deutsche Bank and their loans to trump, when no other bank would touch it.
The volume of reporting coming out of this "small" thing, right!
Everyone is crushed by myriads of investigations and links of obvious corruptions, that is business as usual with this bunch of professional CONS!
Allegedly his co-signers on the loans might be... you guessed it, Russian oligarchs Putin's friends.
Here's a headline...
Deutsche Bank has Trump’s taxes — and loan applications cosigned by Russian oligarchs: report
Is anyone surprise...
What a cesspool the Deutsche Bank is, what a pile of reeking garbage.
My question is:
Why Deutsche Bank is still in business???
3
Frank, Thank you for keeping ME sane and giving me some hope.
2
yes, a large portion of us are worn out. but at least 50% of people still support him. that, and the fact that the electoral college put him in the seat in the first place, is why we have trump. he is just a reflection of what is in the hearts and minds of a large part (if not a majority) of Americans.
Your deeds, your leaders.
2
Bruni and all of us "politically in-the-know" people should not assume that most Americans are worn out by Trump simply because we are worn out by him. People who don't pay attention to politics helped get him elected and they are not worn out by him at all because they still are not paying attention.
3
Many people are totally fed up with disgusting male Republican BEHAVIOR UGLINESS. Go away!
Individuals still willing to claim that they stand by Trump are as unlikeable and disliking as he is---to the point that they don’t even like Trump. When push comes to shove over the cliff, they will easily profess that they never like Trump in the first place.
1
Trump is the worst American who has ever lived. There's no one in second place. (Yes, McConnell and Murdoch are evil, but not on anything like the scale of The Donald).
One prays a large enough majority of Americans understands this to overcome the certain voter suppression, filthy lies, Russian interference and anti-democratic electoral college which all favor Trump.
4
Why is the NYT still calling a lie "untrue"?
2
I am not worn out I am ready to throw this criminal out. I am ready to revolt if our congress does not do its duty and remove this idiot who wants to and is:
Make your own list.
Agree100%
1
Trump is a media-born disease (MBD). He gains strength by sucking in attention. Ignore him and he might dry up and blow away. But it's almost impossible to ignore him with so much at stake. Still, turning him off is the best treatment.
So now we know what it was like to live in pre WWII Italy or Germany. We're always looking to bring history alive and to try to teach and learn from it ... well here we are.
The real question of course - will we allow it to be repeated. All of us know the outcome.
As Edsall's article today implicitly makes the argument, will the uneducated heartland voters carry us to self-destruction?
The forces of tyranny rely on the exhaustion of their opponents. I am a life-long democrat and have followed with great interest the development and identification of the party's candidate for the last 35 years. In this election, I am firmly behind the "ABT" candidate. However, we democrats should not be fooled - the candidate matters. No one should assume "R"s will cross-over. And we MUST capture the hearts and minds of the "I"s out there!
This Man is insane, he acts like one, talks like one and his performance is a summary of tragic incompetence.
He must leave the White House, before more damage is done.
The media created this monster. Physician examine thyself.
Hey there in Poughkeepsie! The media did NOT invent crazy Trump. The media reports the news because that’s what the media does. Don’t shoot the messenger!
Frank is whistling in the dark
1
Trump has worn us out but the NYT has worn out the wealthiest Americans.
Ushering in a socialist agenda is causing the well-heeled to close their pocketbooks. A recession is looking more certain the closer Warren and Sanders get to the WH.
1
I’m too worn out by Trump to even read this article.
4
Let's drop Trump into the eye of the next hurricane...well before it gets to Puerto Rico.
1
Just wait for another fourteen months and he will be gone on Nov 3, 2020. What will be written in his epitaph only God knows
I am not tired of winning yet . Trump 2020 MAGA. Love this dude.
1
You just aren’t familiar with normal Americans. Amongst the folks that I associate and fellowship with there’s a clear consensus:
We adore our great and beloved president—Donald John Trump!
Frank, I will never forget that beautiful November Morning, almost three years ago. Besides the birth of my dear son, and most of all, the salvation that my Lord, Jesus Christ Almighty blessed me with, it was the best day of my life!
Those in the Fake News Media will never understand this, and do not care to. And, if they did, they wouldn’t be the enemies of the American people, and labeled so, most appropriately, by the sitting President of the United States of America!
Think about it, you truly have nothing to lose...
1
"Serenity now."
Frank Constanza
5
The biggest thing throughout trump's "reign" has been the TOTAL lack of real world response from ANY of the rest of the GOP. These are all grown people that have spent their lives as "professional" politicians but NONE of them seem to care at all about the toddlers in chiefs actions and tantrums. I expected that there'd be some adult behavior but if fact it was the opposite. Shining examples of this are Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz. These two voiced rational responses about Trump before the election and then TOTALLY lost anything resembling respect by 'drinking' the kool-aid and accepting ANYTHING this idiot does now without a whimper of decent and even CHEERING for the man! How did this happen? How do professional men that have worked their WHOLE lives to get where they are simply turn it over to the new IDIOT on the block with ZERO real experience? It doesn't make any sense.
1
Only 31 months in and Liberals are worn out?
Amazing.
1
@Dr.John, It took 31 SECONDS after Obama had been elected for Republicans to plan to obstruct anything and everything, regardless if they had previously agreed to it; in an effort to make him a one term president. At least Trump was given 31 months into his term before tiring of his nonsensical antics...
3
Trump jumps the shark?
2
NEVER say his name AGAIN...!!!
3
Dear Frank:
I am not a medical professional but I suggest that you take two seasons of The West Wing from the Netflix pharmacy and write us in the morning.
3
I'm done. I'm sick and exhausted, but not finished fighting to get our values and our country back.
Last spring and the one before I "gave up" the internet until 1 pm during the Lenten period. It served to help clear
my head - and my heart - of the twisted hate and barrage of insanity these cronies have wrought. I got myself back,
life itself before this insanity. Oh, so this is what it was like???
Some days I can't listen to the news (but then I do...FOMO) and I keep repeating: This Too Shall Pass. It's utterly heartening to see I'm not alone.
5
There is no grand wizard playing 3D chess here, only a disturbed man who is getting progressively worse the more he is wounded by every criticism.
The country is reeling from exposure to the pathological maelstrom inside Trump's head. This is what happens when you have a relationship with someone with a severe personality disorder. The sick individual doesn't see the dysfunction (they are intertwined with it) and they keep steamrolling forward leaving those around them flattened and stunned. It is too bad the victims here are real people and the nation's institutions.
5
I hope you're right. You haven't addressed the lack of cohesiveness or leadership (and messaging) within the Democratic party. Americans hate lack of clarity and I fear the Dem's disorganization will only benefit DT and the zombie GOP in 2020.
1
I resorted to “headlines only” over a year ago because I couldn’t stand the insanity any longer. I finally realized that no matter how many letters I wrote, phone calls I made or protests I attended, nobody was going to do anything to stop it. So here I am - avoiding the news as much as possible and looking forward to voting for The Democrat - any Democrat - on election day. It can’t get here fast enough and I fervently hope that will finally put an end to it.
4
Maybe a few of these exhausted Trump voters will stay home in 2020, which will help. However, most of them simply hate the "left" more than they will ever hate Trump and that is all that matters to them. As my Trump supporting mother says "I know he is crude and should stop Tweeting, but at least he keeps those lefties at bay." I have very little hope here.
3
I've had to move my laptop out of reach. His appearances have caused me to ruin too many keyboards. My stomach can only take so much.
1
Bruni writes: "[Trump is] so enterprising and assiduous at pointing the finger elsewhere that many voters have lost their bearings. Defeat is victory. Oppressors are liberators. Corruption is caring. Mar-a-Loco is Shangri-La."
Yes. It remains only to point out that this is Soviet-style doublethink of the kind Orwell exposed, viciously satirized, and warned against in 1984: the practice of spouting contradictory statements and insisting that both are true so as to destroy the public's ability to distinguish truth from falsehood and thereby make totalitarianism possible--yet another way in which Trump is more Russian--actually, more Soviet--than American.
3
When you keep going back to the same foul fountain finding that the water continues to be brackish, what's to stop you from going to the fountain? Trump needs, demands attention. Ignore him. Attend, rather, to the millions of good people in this country who continue to get up, get dressed, go out to their daily lives, making it all work. America has faced bad times in the past, will in the future, and are now. Kicking back, putting our feet up in a life of ease has never been what this country is about. We are made of sterner stuff. Currently, we must rid ourselves of the wickedness of this president and administration. But our work will not be done then. We the people have this moment, once again, to show the world that we will not stand for totalitarianism, that we are here to overthrow oppression and to live free. It is ordinary people, unfazed by tiredness, who will do this.
1
It's true. Ratings for Trump's "White House Apprentice" reality-tv show are tanking.
1
Let’s see if I understand you. Trump’s coarseness and lies have exhausted his opponents. Meanwhile his supporters love him more than ever. And this will “end” his presidency?
tears trickling unbidden, onto my cheeks, from sheer relief. Frank Bruni without fail, saves my day. all that he writes speaks to my tangled emotions regarding the disgrace donald trump brings to us. i too, cannot any longer turn to cable news and twitter. we've been trumped out of circulation for now. best we read the books we left on our shelves, unopened. thank you.
1
As an Emergency Physician I have often found myself, along with the Emergency Department staff, completely exhausted, exasperated and drained while trying to deal with a mentally ill, manic, manipulative, controlling and slightly irrational patient.
There are striking similarities in watching how Trump bambosals, intimidates, threatens, obfuscates and lies to confuse and exhaust his opponents until they give up mumbling to themselves.
The unfortunate difference is that in the ER, when it is clear that these patients are an imminent danger to themselves or others, we can have them committed to a place where they will do no harm.
4
Still totally dumbfounding to me that anyone can support this buffoon.
I still hear people saying that if their A-1 candidate is not the Democratic nominee, then they are sitting out the election.
Unfathomable and disgusting.
This election is about the very future of this nation. Get over the pettiness folks and realize that if you sit it out and not vote you are helping this Madman Trump.
7
Frank, from your mouth to God's ears.
1
The Trump feast of hate and fear is rotting in the voter's guts. Really? I see these polls look like stomach discomfort is setting in- but somehow I still think Trump will scrape up enough haters to attend his next rally-Orwellian hate fest cult meeting.
4
I know several well educated people who are just in love with the way he makes liberals nuts and I don’ see any fatigue. They would be more than happy for four more years and if the Democrats don’t get it together they are going to get it.
1
Time to give him the hook!
1
All the comments sounds like there were written by the same person.
To put this in terms Trump understands: the show has gotten stale. It's not as funny or fresh as it was in the beginning, now it's just the same format with the same ol' cray cray. Sure, they've tried to swap about supporting cast members, but that's not doing it. The numbers are down, advertisers are impatient, and viewers are changing the channel in search of something new.
4
He hasn't worn me out. I'm ready to fight. The stakes are really high. He doesn't get to do this stuff without a fight. And I will NEVER give up.
What DOES exhaust me is the media that still refuses to call him out. The media that STILL finds a need to coddle him. The Times does it. You do it too, Mr. Bruni, to some extent. But mostly the press corps at the White House. They should unite and join forces. "'Mr. "president", you lied about X'...'shut up, sit down, you over there'... 'Mr. "president" you lied about X'... 'you sit down too, you over there'...'Mr. "president" you lied about X'". THAT'S what they should be doing.
3
Keep pounding.
"And maybe our exhaustion spells his end."
From your mouth to G-d's ears, Mr Bruni!
1
If G-d forbid Trump is re-elected, I'm making my home under a rock.
Well, if you're an anarchist like Stephen Miller and Bannon, and you want to see the country destroyed, you cheer Trump on.
I think Bruni's problem is he's too sane and intelligent and doesn't appreciate how far people will go to cut their nose off to spite their face
3
Well, if you're an anarchist like Stephen Miller and Bannon, and you want to see the country destroyed, you cheer Trump on.
I think Bruni's problem is he's too sane and intelligent and doesn't appreciate how far people will go to cut their nose off to spite their face
1
Well, if you're an anarchist like Stephen Miller and Bannon, and you want to see the country destroyed, you cheer Trump on.
I think Bruni's problem is he's too sane and intelligent and doesn't appreciate how far people will go to cut their nose off to spite their face
1
We can blame Trump voters and the equally guilty Democratic nonvoters for this debacle. The Trump voter will double down and vote for him again, joined by the racists who sat it out in 2016. It’s up to you, pouty Progressives and dystopic Democrats, to buck up and vote.
3
You will remember, Mr. Bruni, Victor Hugo's take on Napoleon and his fall from power.
"He bored God."
Shades of Assyrian king Sennacherib in the Old Testament! "And because the noise of your threats and clamors has entered My ears--
"--I will put My bit in your mouth and My hook in your nose--
"--and lead you back the way you came."
Well sir! I"m not comparing Mr. Trump (bad as he is) to wicked King Sennacherib.
BUT--
--my stars! aren't there millions of us who agree with you one thousand percent.
Is there not something else at work as well?
Pain. Deep down--a never flagging sense of pain.
Intensified, of course, when I see photos of Mr. Obama. Ah yes, I murmur. Not quite three years ago. Seems like three centuries.
When a U.S. President had CLASS. When--gifted and articulate as he was--he spoke wisely. Moderately. Truthfully. And to the point.
When some chance remark of his--made at the podium of the General Assembly in New York--was NOT greeted with subdued laughter.
I still remember a photo (taken from behind) of Mr. Obama and Frau Merkel sitting together outdoors somewhere. Talking quietly, rationally. Two world leaders CAPABLE of quiet, rational chat.
When. . . ..
. . and you know, Mr. Bruni, it only hurts the more I talk about it. My heart tells me you TOO are feeling the pain.
God grant that pain--felt by millions of American voters--
--translates into abiding, immitigable pain for Mr. Donald Trump in 2020.
1
You're right Frank, it's gotten to the point where I can't stand to listen to this moron anymore. When he's giving one of his useless speeches on tv I instantly switch the channel to watch anything but him. I'm more than tired of his lies, I'm EXHAUSTED !! Vote him and his minions OUT in the next election so the world can start to return to normalcy.
3
Wanna' know what's exhausting? The front page of the New York Times forever carping and sniping and criticizing everything and the wailing of the snowflakes and whining of every twenty-sumtin' bemoaning the lack of a safe space and lawmakers not even beginning, or bothering, to understand the difference between a clip and a magazine and drug addicts sleeping on the sidewalks of SF and Ilhan Omar saying somebody did something and Kamala Harris scolding everybody in sight and the beat goes on and on and on and on and on and on. These things bring exhaustion. It is exhausting, That is all exhausing.
I have been feeling the same way. Completely worn out and disgusted with lies, blustering idiocy and craziness.
We need a leader, a calm presence that helps the nation feel secure. Not a clown.
2
@Jennifer You want someone to make you "feel secure" when you are not secure? You want someone to lie to you? We are far from secure, and Trump isn't going to lie about that fact. A traitor would lie about it. Is that what you want? Someone who ignores the threats that face us? Think about it.
Humans are trying to live their lives and do their best each day in oppressive cultures -- while they hear nearby, just outside their homes, loud and obviously pained screams. For, in addition to all the personal and institutional crimes and cruelties inflicted by Trump and cronies (and other greed-and-power-based administrations around the globe) which are mourned and protested, the planet is itself now protesting -- emitting sorrowful yowling howling sounds that slip into our consciousness 24/7.
Widespread soul-weakening sickness -- our species is self-loathing, cutting, in denial. Let's wake up to love for ourselves! Let's treat ourselves by living charity, by supporting the causes of peace and green.
2
Be careful, Frank. Talking this way about the chosen one and king of Israel is blasphemy.
4
I suggest copious reruns of The Gong Show. Lord knows this bozo would have been gonged within 15 seconds. The Gene, Gene the dancing machine encore a certain crowd pleaser.
2
Hmm--"detritus," "disruption," "flotsam," and "jetsam" in the same sentence.
Must be pretty bad.
"...furious mien and curious mane..." is priceless.
G*d bless you Mr Bruni!
2
Please stop capitalizing his name. He has ruined our country and deserves to be de-humanized. Many say he is just a symptom of what’s wrong with America. I say that without hitler, Germany would never have led the world into hell; without trump, America would have continued to pick up speed on the way toward justice. The deplorables who follow him today would have diminished and faded away into the trash heap of history.
4
There’s still time left in the summer for some R&R, Mr. Bruni. Take a break from all media. Give it a try.
Amen!
2
I echo your observations Frank - sick of his lies;his petulant taunts; racist, bigoted, calculated appeals to a fawning and ill-informed base; sick of his pandering to the evangelical whack jobs; sick of his bullying and rigidity; sick of his erratic and unpredictable leadership. Sick, sick, sick and yes, very sad that this moron occupies the office of men who cared, fought and were deeply committed to visions, dreams and compassion, who saw and nurtured the hopes and goals of all Americans. Integrity, civility, intelligence and respect for the Golden Rule - maybe, just maybe most of us still care about such things and that will be the impetus to rid the Country of this imposter once and for all.
5
Reap what ye have sown...
Beto needs to read this.
I am often confused at the columnists who lament Trump's Presidency on the pages of the NYT.
The man is literally the only reason that the bills get paid for this paper and the Post.
What else would Charles Blow, Roger Cohen, Gail Collins, Michelle Goldberg, and Paul Krugman be writing about every week?
1
Amen.
So...Frank if your soooooo tired have you tried to go to sleep? DJT would appreciate it, I would appreciate it and I'm sure all the racists, bigots and homophobes who still read your column would appreciate it.
Otherwise march on young man. 2020 is just around the corner and you CAN muster the energy to get there!
1
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
It’s ridiculous that you declared war against Trump and now you are saying he is too annoying. Don’t fool yourself. You hate him from the beginning and you are attacking him incessantly. Hatred itself makes you sick and tired. You blame everything on Trump and now you do on your lack of stamina. Look at yourself. Pathetic, isn’t it?
2
Just some of this week's trump baloney: hold the next G7 at his estate in Florida. Nuke hurricane's before they reach landfall. Claim he's 6' 3" tall yet in pics from the G7 summit he's clearly shorter than the 6' 2" Justin Trudeau. Blah, blah, blah. Let's all hope that the majority of Americans see the light and send this intellectual midget packing in 2020.
6
According to the book, "The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump", 37 mental health professionals say that at least half the U.S. population is suffering from what they call "Trump Anxiety Disorder" - widespread anxiety of the majority of Americans after the 2016 election.
And although this isn't an actual disorder recognized by the American Psychological Association, the feelings of despair, anxiety and grief are real.
The psychiatrists also compare Trump's behavior to an abusive partner, with the American public as his victim.
Frank, it's no wonder we're all worn out.
7
No Trump supporter I know is tired of the man. In fact, they will gleefully tell you Trump is just getting started. The lamentations of a few conservative intellectuals don't add up to a hill of beans. Those of us who oppose Trump may be worn out, but his base continues to be energized and excited (also, don't believe poll numbers, just ask Hillary). This column is nothing but wishful thinking, which Democrats are passing off as strategy.
2
What a insightful piece.
Trump reminds me of our children, who wear us out, our elderly and needy parents, who wear us out, emotionally, physically and daily. (If we are truthful).
The only difference is; you know both of those situations will end, and in both cases, they can’t help it. Their behavior is a right of passage.
Trump and Company’s behaviors are untenable. He’s the insecure schoolyard bully no one will stop.
What does it take to finally stop this man? He is not more powerful than an entire country?
As Americans, we need to do something to stop this litany of insanity that has become our accepted way of life.
4
Oh god help me. I have had a succession of Donald Trump dreams in the last two weeks. All pretty much the same: I am somehow in a crowded room with him and manage to lean in and say “You are an idiot and we are all tired of you”. He doesn’t not seem to understand what I have said and smiles back with a blank face. As a 70 year old person I have the had at least one dream about every American President who held office in my lifetime but none of them woke me from a dead sleep like the Don. Enough is enough already!
2
Did it ever occur to you that you might be tired of fighting his success? You work for a paper that no longer prints the facts but takes a “ Progressive “ talking point and runs with it. Russia, Racism all in the name of defeating an elected leader. Deplorable ;)
3
Every villain has a foil! Who will emerge with a thunderous SOCK! POW! BAM! WHAM! WHACK!? How about you?
1
I have given up watching TV news altogether and am reaching that point with "pixelated" media, as well. It's all about Trump and that is all he wants. Why cater to the disgusting jerk?
3
All the “gods” of man have died.
And, so shall this self proclaimed deity, who has drained the world with his narcissistic vileness.
His passing from the world stage into a life of quietude cannot come soon enough.
The Amazon burns and climatic apocalypse is on the horizon.
We must choose a leader who will represent us, instead of representing only himself.
“... All [gods] were omnipotent, omniscient and immortal.”
And all are dead.
~H.L. Mencken
1
Out here, far far away West of the Mississippi, many of us are far from worn out. We're no more worn out than the French Resistance; Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Weill, Helen Weigel in the face of Adolf Hitler. As Spike Lee wrote and yelled in School Daze, "WAKE UP!"
1
45 The Wasted Years
5
Wishful thinking, Frank. There is an inexhaustible reservoir of dimwits in our fair land, indeed in the world.
3
Trump exhaustion is driven by the media’s obsession with him! Journalists cover nothing else (see NYT every day) and readers with nothing else to do create crazy conspiracies (see NYT reader comments).
As a Trump supporter and avid NYT reader, I encourage all fellow conservatives to read the NYT and reader comments if only for comic relief. You guys exhaust yourselves with your perpetual soap opera!
3
Trump reminds me of Gong Show rejects who refused to get off the stage...XXX GONG!!!
4
I'm soooooo proud of what Trump is doing that I could kiss him. And I am an old white man. AKA a deplorable. Just owning my stuff.
3
Here is a tiny bit of empathy for the narcissist, Donald J Trump. (Boohoo) He must be exhausted after years of playing the half-witted jerk. One can only imagine that Sisyphus would be impressed with Trump's effort to convince others of his adequacy and fitness for this difficult of being President.
Remember November 2020! Sign up for your Trumpectomy now!
5
Yes.
2
Maybe the progressives, leftist MSM reporters, and never Trump RINOs, who reside in the Washington DC/NYC/West Coast bubble of utter American naivete, are worn out.
Not so for tens of millions of American citizens across the country, including an increasing number of Hispanics and people of color.
Our President, Donald J. Trump, has laid to waste the leftists and RINO elites, and they are none too happy about it. Maybe even worn out.
The left's extremely divisive, hateful and racist identity politics may hopefully be coming to an end. Then life for ALL Americans, regardless of which identity box the left wants to stuff them in, will begin to rapidly improve.
It is is a big country out there Mr. Bruni. The time has come to remove your blinders and take a look around.
3
I gather our "President" considers himself to be "The Chosen One." My personal interpretation of Trump and of the forces he represents would instead be The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Forces unleashed that will be very difficult to contain. Damage done that is at this point incomprehensible. For me, weariness, fear and exhaustion just about begin to express how I'm feeling.
1
That’s exactly what a narcissist does.
Wear you down to the tipping point of exhaustion and then, and only then, you become intolerant and change your course.
1
Worn out , No !
Just Lock Him Up !
2
This is Good.
Feels as if he is a parasite or brain eating amoeba that has crawled into my ear and then set up house in my brain. It would be interesting to do an MRI nerve mapping to determine if indeed there has been some neuronal remapping that has occurred because of him.
It is the never-ending barrage of nonsense and outrage, the voice he uses when he lectures reporters in the White House lawn, the ferocious outer worldly look of that automaton woman that stands next to him as a totemic prop.
Nothing escapes his grasp. No dinner or other social event is the same, his name always dominates. We have become powerless.
The is a collection of home movies in pre-war Germany that are eerily similar. If you were Aryan, life was good but Hitler‘s presence can be seen as the dominant theme of every aspect of everyday life - even people walking down the street.
Eerily similar. For Germans it was an opioid which eventually lead to a leveling of not only the social and physical but also spiritual, psychological, and moral landscape.
This is the other opioid crisis occurring now to all of us. Think how different we are today than 4 years ago.
When that point of no return Happens, which it will, we will be or have already been too numbed to notice it. (Think of the tepid responses to next year‘s G8 at the Doral or Barr‘s Christmas party).
We should be very scared..........
1
And when the Dems are utterly crushed next year? What will your excuses be then? I guess America really isn't what you thought it was. Feel free to move somewhere else.
1
Hey Mr Trump, forget Greenland; you should buy El Salvador and Guatemala.
1
Well? What took you so long?
“Donald Trump Has Worn Us All Out”
No joke. Charles Blow has already gone through his entire thesaurus several times. Sure, they were mostly malapropisms, but it gives a sense of his focus on Trump: like a moth to an inflammatory illumination.
1
Meditate.
1
There is no rest for wicked, Trump is determined to keep this country at defcon 4. It is exhausting but you can’t ignore the bull in the china shop that is determined to destroy the china (the USA). Ignore it at your peril because the resulting dystopia that is headed our way is going to be more than people can take which will lead to the pitchforks and torches in the streets, then come the water cannons, the dogs, the national guard. We have seen this before in the 60’s. All’s that is needed is the match to light this up and be assured Trump is holding the matchbox in his little hands. Who knew electing such a malevolent person would lead to this? Anyone with brains that knows how to use them.
1
Ditto.
Teflon Don... can you imagine if Obama had been hanging around Epstein?
5
If politics is a circus, Trump is the angry clown. Get the hook!
1
Too many years of "comfortably numb" empty-suit Obama?
1
Does that mean MSNBC's and CNN's rating will drop even more, along with the NY Times' subscription renewal rate with Trump having jumped the shark? Where are we going to get our daily dopamine fixes from if Trump is spent? Mike Pence? Netanyahu?
1
Never underestimate the level of stupidity in humans.
3
About 60 million voters are exhausted. They're exhausted with two years of being called stupid, deplorable, sexist, racist, rapists, white supremist, ists ists ists. They are exhausted seeing everything twisted and shaped into those agendas. They are exhausted by the self righteousness, the hypocrisy, and shaming that comes out of that constant talk. Yes they know Trump is bombastic and a blowhard, but they are terrified of the hatred and the blatant racism shown these 60 million voters by the same people calling everybody a racist. It's exhausting.
3
Long ago I stopped reading anything that could have come under the heading "Trump is a jerk." We all know that.
Pay attention to his policies. Starve him of the attention he really wants.
1
I identify with Mr. Bruni's feelings. My worry is that the Trump exhaustion may result not in an invigorated electorate rising to defeat him, but in an increased number of voters staying home from the polls in November 2020. I hope my worry will prove to have been in vain. I'll do what I can to encourage everyone I know to vote.
1
How can anyone plan politically or economically with a leadership that is entirely directed by whim and lies? It is similar to libertarianism. No one can be trusted to do the right thing at the right time. Mostly, nothing has been accomplished after 2.5 years of this current administration. Congress is on a permanent recess. Trump is golfing; on twitter; or screwing up our international relationships.
3
The infiltration of my brain started with curiosity about what was occurring as the beginning of Trump's infiltration of my mind started. Curiosity became somewhat of an obsession and kept getting into my gray matter. About two months of his attack got me thinking why am I always finding my mind saying his name? That's when I began to disengage from the news media which was exposing me to the murky attack. I decided that when his name came up on my internal screen like a pop up on a real computer one, that I would say out loud the name of My Redeemer, both syllables, This action turns Trump's name off effectively and is effective and helps me able to focus away from his next attempt to infiltration of my mind. I need to keep track lest the need to reacquaint myself with my Galland m1 rifle from the days of my ROTC training. I could still shoot one I guess and it would be the end for me since I'm 83 and can't march anymore. Give me a fixed position and I could still be of use in holding a position, I guess. Its a trying time for me as I watch and see trump destroying our core values in all the ways he or Miller can think up in their sordid minds. Latest: send dying kids back to where there isn't medical care available. There are thousands of these sad cases in our country so it is a new form of terrorizing families and a death sentence for their child.
2
"By the time Election Day rolls around, they may crave nothing more electric than stability and serenity. That wouldn’t be a bad Democratic bumper sticker. It’s essentially the message of Joe Biden’s campaign."
Is Bruni suggesting that republican and right-leaning independents may abandon Trump and vote for a democrat (Biden) who promises a peaceful retreat to the pre-Trump status quo? I think such voters are likely just to not vote at all rather than vote blue. Democrats need a candidate who will inspire voters to actually vote.
3
Tired of seeing the recent growth in my retirement fund, wiped out, because Trump opened his great big fat mouth and tanked the stock market, again and again and again and again.....
10
You and other press perpetuate the endless commentary about the current White House occupant. Why don't you stop giving him all this free press, ignore his twittering tweets and write about everything else that is going on in our country and in the world? There is no shortage of news if you stop polluting with trump news.
7
It is true; he WILL wear you down. He sleeps little. He is quick-witted and an excellent, public speaker. He outwitted a skillful dynasty and over a dozen seasoned Republicans in getting elected as a 1st time candidate for any public office. In theory the entire media should have worn him down, particularly at his age. You are a wonderful writer Mr, Bruni, but Trump CAN and WILL wear you out. It seems like every NYT journalist is compelled to turn each of their essays into anti-Trump tomes. That seems politically correct at your paper. You have collected a host of " Comments" in your support as well. I noticed you and the supportive "Commentators" failed to mention a few ACTIONS he has and is taking. The President saved numerous Muslim children from nerve gas with a remarkable precision Syrian missile strike. He dearly loves his Jewish grandchildren. The only Republican opponent in his Presidential race on his cabinet is a brilliant African American, Ben Carson. We have had the greatest boom economy in 50 years following his multitude of changes. Financially, as a result, the military is being rebuilt, something the Red Chinese and Russians cannot help but notice. All that was accomplished against the "RESISTANCE." You must have noticed that all the one- sided efforts at the NYT bore little fruit in the 2016 Presidential election. Have another cup of coffee, if that helps.
2
Frank: I really feel for yourself and especially for the Washington, DC press corps. To have to listen to and deal with such lies, such idiocy, day after day-- I don;' know how any of you people stick it. You either get to be a great political satirist, like Gail Collins or Dana Milbank, or you go insane. I'd give all of you combat medals. But you have to realize also that you're dealing with an inherent evil now a suppurating wound in our country, whose origin is in that failed child's berserk psyche. My sincere condolences-- to you, and to us all!
1
You are so right.
1
The media should begin to cover Trump in a different way.
Instead of letting him hijack the headlines with his ridiculous and embarrassing tweets, start covering what his administration is actually doing.
Have a rating system- is this important news or just the latest gaslight?
Trump's words and actions are like tomato plants. If we stop watering them they'll most likely wither and die.
7
@L "Instead of letting him hijack the headlines with his ridiculous and embarrassing tweets, start covering what his administration is actually doing." Yes, Bruni would be less exhausted if he didn't feel obligated to read and react to all the tweets, but maybe it's a professional obligation. I try to ignore the tweets, it's enough to deal with his actual policy changes.
I am writing this comment ‘In Praise if Slowness’ (an actual book title originally penned by Carl Honore circa 2004–look it up). His thesis encapsulates what he referred to as a ‘worldwide movement’ to explore life at an intentionally retarded pace, distinct from the rapidity of the world as it exists in our moment. To him and the ‘movement’ he purported to represent, life lived at preternaturally slowed pace takes on a character that is at least as seductively interesting as the rocket-fueled existence of our time.
Speed and irrationally overheated excess need not be the only way of life on earth. After all each of us is the product of coalesced energy that has become atomic matter (E = mc2). Each atom in our bodies was produced in the ultimate chaos of an exploding supernova somewhere in our proximate universe—no more and no less. In fact, any single atom in one arm very probably was produced in an exploding star light years distant from a corresponding atom in the other arm. Over a distance of so many light years, Time itself is meaningless in a present sense. If I am meaningless in this Buddhist sense of nothingness, then Donald J. Trump is similarly meaningless. It is only by striving for and experiencing ‘nothingness’ in this way that we can truly perceive the ‘somethingness’ of our place in any present version of life in the cosmos.
Mr. Bruni, is this what you mean in your conception of Trump Exhaustion? If so, I heartily agree with your profound perspective.
1
I agree; Trump's personality is exhausting... and his economic policies are bankrupting us, his foreign policy is decreasing our power in the world, his environmental policies are an existential threat to the planet, and his immigration policies are immoral.
So I'm going with a bumper sticker I recently saw:
"Any competent adult: 2020."
Everyone-despite the exhaustion, please engage and vote for the non-Trump candidate in 2020 and work to get your community to do the same.
2
Frank, while most of us may be weary of so much Trump, his supporters are energized by it. Voter turnout in 2020 will tell us how this plays out.
3
Mr. Bruni, you and the NYTs have worn yourself out by indulging Trump's constant blathering. Ignoring has enormous power. Just saying...
2
Good piece that reflects how so many folks are thinking and feeling. He who shall not be named loves this! As a narcissist he loves any and all mention of himself. It’s his oxygen and we are all supplying plenty. He is the president so we have to have reports of his doings but the news media vomits his name and behavior constantly because he is good for business.
The media won’t change unless we do. Stop watching. Stop reading. Let those news stations and newspapers know why you have unsubscribed. We need to know the facts not the drama. If it were not for the crossword puzzle I would cancel my NYT subscription.
When he is finally gone we need to purge his name from our history and psyche. Let him shrink to the nothing burger he really is.
2
First thing in the morning, I ask my smart speaker to give me the headline news. It USED to jump start my day. Now, I just want to hide under the covers and wait for it all to go away.
2
@Gary Misch...
Perhaps a small consolation of this ugly time is that Obama is much more popular and beloved by this country and our world than Trump ever will be.
1
Two words: Joe McCarthy.
1
When Trump was just some blowhard B-list TV celebrity, it was easy to ignore him. When he was a candidate, it sort of was amusing, but in a way that you thought any incompetent person would be in a work environment until HR got involved and showed them the door.
It's exhausting now, because of the impact he has is so close. Anyone that has spent a lifetime building up a business, career, family, etc., would be.
Trump is like the alcoholic dad you can't help, save, or run away from. Half the family is co-dependent in complete denial (and/or too afraid to push back), while the rest is just trying to minimize the permanent damage while trying to exist and perhaps set the stage to eject dear old drunk dad from the house in some capacity.
I can't wait to take my house back.
5
"And maybe our exhaustion spells his end." Hopefully, our exhaustion doesn't spell our own end as we try to ignore the ignoramus.
2
OK, Bruni, other than spend your 2000 words on yet another anti-Trump screed, what are you doing about getting this monster out of office?
1
Trump has pulled the greatest grifter con of his life. The United States Presidency. As the man/child crashes through his presidency possibly people have learned a lesson. Probely not.
2
To respond to Chris: Trump is obviously a product of his upbringing with his hard edged domineering father; being shunted off to a private military school and then to top it off, he is a Roy Cohn acolyte. He is a twisted individual who somehow has his finger on the Nuclear trigger. Vote for anyone but Trump at this point. I want some normalcy don't all of you?
4
For the first time in recorded history, a nation was created on the basis of empathy for individual Human Rights, Freedoms, and Liberties. Granted, it took about two-hundred years for this empathy to come to mean all people.
Americans respect, Americans cooperate, Americans show tolerance for the rights and freedoms they and others have. Respect, cooperation, and tolerance are all parts of empathetic expression required in addressing the problems of human society and to ensure functioning self-rule.
Rejection of American and democratic values and ideas is a rejection of empathy, rejection of addressing or solving human problems, rejection of functioning self-rule. For several years, GOP-controlled Congresses have demonstrated they are not interested in addressing problems. They simply deny problems exist. They reject the words written claiming Rights, Freedoms, and Liberties are for all with no strings attached, and they will decide who is deemed worthy. Rejection encourages corruption and invites tyranny.
Our current President rejects everything this country stands for. He rejects empathy; he has no respect or tolerance for individual human rights, freedoms, or liberties; he refuses to cooperate to address problems or to ensure functioning government. Our current President has demonstrated corruption, and has acted tyrannically, thumbing his nose at the rule of law. He is everything anti-American and anti-democratic.
Trump is exhausting on purpose.
No, mainstream media like Buzzfeed, Vox, Slate, CNN, MSNBC, and NYT desperately attempting to pervade every moment of our lives with such epic journalism as "Trump Eats His Steak Well-done and with Ketchup (and Somehow It's Racist)" is what has worn us all out. We're tired of Trump, yes. But only indirectly, and by way of far-left media outlets who use him in an attempt to squeeze every last penny of ad revenue out of their dying industry .
The Times' laziness is intolerable when it shows between the lines. When it's what you call content, it's utterly irresponsible. I'm fed up with this page being used as the personal diary of columnists who view this national tragedy through the lens of how they feel this morning. If you're "flattened", Frank, hand it over to someone who's still standing.
4
You said it! I’m exhausted and I’m SICK TO DEATH of him. Honestly, how do people tolerate him and his nonsense for even one minute? How on earth did the good people of the G7-minus-one not queue up to shake and slap him like the passengers did that hysterical woman in that scene from Airplane?
I have long thought that this was a possibility: exhaustion and boredom with this idiotic reality show. What Bruni underestimates, I think, is the degree to which his base revels in his outrageousness as a way to claim revenge for their inferiority complexes, their feeling left out and scorned. They WILL vote, the worn out may not.
1
I am bored - I am bored - I am bored... repeats the whiney voice that lets the speakers at the ignoble prize celebration know that their time is up.
Mr. Trump - your time is up - sit down and shut up. Actually, just shut up and go away.
2
As the absolute worst human to occupy the White House, the exhaustion Donald Trump has inflicted on America with all his horrid actions and racist speech has been and is devastating. It is disappointing that Democrats have essentially done nothing to stop him!
1
Lies are righteous. There is no truth. There are no facts.
Consistency is of no concern to me. So what I might have said yesterday, last week or this morning, is unimportant.
Even as the constitution is elastic, I am elastic. Our meanings vary with time. And with context.
I know no shame. Recognize no honor. Observe no dictionary definitions.
This is all game, a distraction of no more consequence than the torment of a sibling in the back seat of Daddy’s station wagon.
No love. No allegience. I care for nothing but my mutable, indestructable, hopelessly fragile self-image.
I will wear you down.
Thousands of lies? No. Millions!
While you chase yourself in circles. Round and round. I BELIEVE every word as it comes from my mouth, and am great at forgetting. I can forget very, very quickly.
Everything angers me, but nothing bothers me. I hate with impunity. I care nothing for anyone’s malice but my own.
You play this game by rules. You believe in rules. They are your weakness. I care nothing for rules, or for you, or your stupid beliefs. They count for nothing.
I am winning. I am always winning. I am Trump.
1
You ain’t seen nothing yet...wait till he gets re-elected. !!
1
I too, as well as my family, am utterly exhausted from trying to deal with what pours forth from the vile, amoral liar and disgraceful excuse for a human being known as Donald Trump on a daily basis.. until my brother reminds me that my naivete would not allow me to believe that my fellow American voters would ever elect this carnival barker. As he puts it "Just like Obama, just like Democrats, you had no idea what you were up against.. It wasn't just nice regular voters, it was voters who literally hated your guts for making them have a brown President. And no matter the lies the former New York Democrat told them, what those voters chose to believe was that the bankruptcy king who settled a huge fraud suit right before he lined his own pockets at his inauguration hated you as much as they did." I fought the notion that I, a poor older woman living on a fixed income, was deserving of actual hatred from some (including the evangelicals who have been telling me what is acceptable for decades now.. irony alert) simply because of my political party and where I live. But I have come to realize that for some of my fellow American voters, the single most important vote-guiding principle is not the Constitution, nor the public good, nor any belief in law and order, nor any guidance from the Lord (WWJD?)... but simply... Will it make Democraps heads explode? These are most likely the attendees at Trump rallies as well. The heartbreaking thing is that I don't see the hatred easing.
1
"Trump made his billionth threat and hurled his trillionth insult." Methinks Mr. Bruni doth protest a bit too much, especially when he says in the headline "Donald Trump has worn s all out". ALL? REALLY. Clearly Trump Derangement Syndrome is rife in the editorial offices of the New York Times, and a rude awakening awaits come 2020 when Mr. Bruni's "ALL" shrinks to its true urban coastal size, and a majority of America finally will be heard after four years during which the Times and its media cohorts monopolized the public megaphone.
Nonsense. None of this is about Trump. He is but the result of abject American ignorance stemming from a failed, archaic, 19th century education system that hinders freethinking in favor of rote, religious based dogma, which has nothing to offer the current world. The proof? Farmers still supporting Trump simply because he calls himself a Republican. The political parties have reversed course and none of these people have even noticed. Only blind, ignorant dogma, or insanity, explains someone supporting an inveterate bigoted liar who does nothing but break stuff with no solutions, ever, of how to improve anything. Trump isn't the problem. Americans are.
1
Mr. Bruni,
You do realize Donald Trump has a pretty good chance of being re-elected, don’t you? Mr. Bruni..Mr. Bruni...
Chaos not only is the goal of hybrid warfare (Divide, Discredit, Disrupt, Destroy) but the means of the Narcissist to control and dominate.
https://blogs.psychcentral.com/narcissism-decoded/2017/09/14-thought-control-tactics-narcissists-use-to-confuse-and-dominate-you/
@Fran Cisco Thanks for the link! Seems like Narcissism runs like a river through all political discourse and strategy these days! Narcissism is actually a trait that would really help someone dealing in today's political/media complex. If the media stopped covering Trump's Tweets, life would be better for all concerned.
I hit that exhaustion point over two years ago. I am still an election registrar, and I still teach. hopeful Constitution in my GED class, but I no longer listen radio or news. but have discovered some amazing podcast read more books gotten outside more that's what I need to protect my mental health. We need to get rid of this moron. Staying home and not voting is the worst decision anyone will make in 2020. What's happening behind the scenes of all this media coverage is the most frightening thing for me. Environmental protections being dismantled, Banking and tax systems being completely reconfigured to only benefit the rich, judges being placed in lifetime appointments who will negatively impact the freedoms and rights that we have been granted over 247 years. Democrats need to completely ignore him & stick to policy points. HOW are they going to help the farmers, water systems, infrastructure, healthcare & education systems that will make our country strong & thriving again? Answer that & we just might not have low voter turnout that will hand the GOP another 4 years.
1
Trump exhaustion. No kidding. Hey, you want to hear the latest?
As reported just now in WAPO, Trump wants to illegally seize the land needed to build his stupid wall and he states it's OK because he will pardon anyone involved in the illegal activity.
How many ways to crazy is this? Trump just keeps getting nuttier by the hour - it used to be day - and I think Bruni's ray of sunshine in all this has merit.
1
Nah. Trump doesn’t exhaust me. He does what most RAD’s, narcissist and psychopaths do - they don’t stop. Because they HAVE to win or least destroy those who obstruct them. Don’t look to far past the fundamentals here: Trump is mentally ill. Yes, I’m tired of his ill behavior, but I’ll never tire of fighting against his obviously dysfunctional roll.
2
You have articulated trump's CON>. He has done it his whole life. A professional criminal, he throws horror into the air to distract. Some stick by him and big up bucks. Some run and spill secrets elsewhere to pick up bucks. He and his family think about and pick up bucks night and day. But now he is stealing the 'peoples'' bucks by putting farms out of business, destroying the environment for kickbacks and threatening all who question. The president is a reality show actor and that was the height of his abilities, a job that takes little talent. But under him lies the true terror machine, McConnell, McCarthy, Mnuchin, Huckabee and the rest. They simply found someone to do their filthy work in public. Bannon should be picked up and investigated as he, along with the new Cambridge Analytica and Facebook are at this moment eating your data and deciding how to sell you out. WAKE UP AMERICA. Vote for Warren, brilliant and with a plan, it may be our only hope. And pay close attention as Ivanka got a trademark for voting machines.
1
I'm not worn out. Not even close. I can imagine Dems are worn out though after three years of feet stomping, crying, and constantly moving the goal posts. I know you'll laugh and mock but here's what you fail to realize. Your party, the Dem party, is a party of liars, thieves and cheats. You deserve to be angry and worn out and that's why you are. The universe protects Trump. He may be rough around the edges but he's on the side of truth and you aren't. You've tried to destroy anyone and anything connected to him. You've broken laws, changed laws, all in an attempt to stop him. Truth always prevails and this is truth prevailing. The more you lie, the more you cheat, the more powerful he becomes. Those who try to destroy him end up destroying themselves. Ask Stormy, Avenatti, Comey, McCabe, Strzok, Page, Hillary Clinton, etc. The list goes on and on. All gone. All disgraced. Some facing prison eventually. Dems got hoodwinked by fake Russian info designed to throw a cloud of suspicion over Trump and to keep him from being elected. Dems used that phony info to defraud the FISA courts and spy on their political opponents. All of you are too short-sided to see it but Trump will go down in history as one of the greatest presidents America has ever had. You have thrown everything at him, including the kitchen sink, yet he remains. I dare you to try impeaching him. It will fail. You've already handed him 2020. Just move on. I know that's impossible. You haven't even gotten over 2016.
@Nat: Hi There Nat: I am glad you are not tired because Nat, when the Democratic Party retakes the Senate and Wins the presidency Nat, the long nightmare will be over. Hey Nat, I'm thinking that a reboot will be in order to the day before this con mans inauguration. By the way Nat, your below quote describes the Republican Party and Trumpians perfectly:
"I'm not worn out. Not even close. I can imagine Dems are worn out though after three years of feet stomping, crying, and constantly moving the goal posts. I know you'll laugh and mock but here's what you fail to realize. Your party, the Dem party, is a party of liars, thieves and cheats."
As Stan Lee (RIP) said "Excelsior!"
What was that old line from Fiddler on the Roof? Something like, "From Your Mouth to God's Ear." The only way to get rid of the drama loving clown in the White House is to run a respected Democrat who appeals to the middle. I haven't seen that in the line-up yet.
Yes, as a rational person who believes in values and is also a Democrat I am exhausted by the 24x7 coverage of this idiot -- but based on the polls and Facebook postings his base loves him -- and there you have it. This man's one truth is that he could walk down 5th Ave in NY and shoot someone and his base would say he was standing his ground. The same people who voted for him in 2016 will vote for him again.
Trump has worn out the world. He has spent the last three years shouting from the roof tops stuff to make him feel good and to keep his name in the headlines and on the lips of the talking heads. Its all about keeping power and being re-elected by playing to his base. I wonder if he realizes how he wasted a chance to have a great legacy. During his first two years he could of fixed immigration, health care, gun safety because the GOP had control of government and the DEMs, unlike the GOP, are willing to work across the aisle. Instead he gave his pals a tax cut and just stocked his base, what a fool!!!
1
Heck, I was tired of him many years ago, as one who paid attention, from his Playboy interview and shady business practices, going back decades.
1
As usual, Mr. Bruni's column is the opposite of the Trump qualities he deplores. While Trump is enervating, Bruni is exhilarating. His use of language is a joy to an elderly former English major. Reading him is like listening to Beethoven or Bach. The Times is so lucky to have him as an opinion writer. Thank you.
3
On the page where I clicked to Frank's article, 19 total articles with an accompanying picture were featured.
Trump's head appeared prominently on 7 of those 19 articles; his name appeared on 17 of the 19 blurbs promoting each article.
NYT is not suffering from Trump exhaustion at all, Frank. Incidentally, while the piece on quarterback Andrew Luck departed from the Trump-drenched trend, your article did not.
Me, too, Frank. I absolutely hit the wall with the weekend news. For the first time in my life - largely built on decades in news reporting and editing - I had to look away. Had to.
And Trump hasn’t yet confronted a crisis not of his own making. If the economy tanks because Xi can easily handle 15 months of pain and never needs to run a re-election campaign, if Iran gets impatient, if Israel gets into a hot head war - or if any of the other potential world disasters happen - all Trump knows how to do is Tweet. And create chaos. Then every American will feel great pain, which is what Putin really wants.
1
@Alanna - Putin wants pain and chaos. He gets both with Donald Trump.
Uh, oh. What Bruni's feeling, exhaustion from the daily extravaganza of one more episode of Trump Apprentice President, may reflect a mass collective inertia that could well give Trump another term in 2020. His toxicity is overwhelming us like a contagious disease that could cause us to take to our beds and stay away from the polls when America's life depends on getting out there and voting for any candidate the Democrats offer up. Our country is in a crisis without historical precedence. Never, ever has each American's vote counted for so much in laying out this country's future, for directing it's national destiny as it will in 2020.
1
I've become numb. They've won. But Bruni is right: serenity and stability would be a good platform.
1
Trump supporters may indeed be weary of him. But they'll still vote for him, regardless.
1
@kaylee - True. Even the majority of farmers now suffering under Trump's catastrophic trade war with China will likely vote tor Trump again, even while acknowledging that his policies have hurt them personally. These farmers are loyal consumers of Fox "News" and similar outlets, so they see the choice as being between Trump and the "Socialist Democrat."
Frank Bruni is on to something. Yes, indeed, we are overly sated by the endless repetition of the "infernal Trump, Trump, Trump." Time to change the channel. Maybe even just turn off the TV and other digital invaders for quiet time in the park and a breath of fresh air so that we can clear our heads of so much junk.
As Bruni writes so poetically, the ubiquitous "furious mien and curious mane" along with the jarring "volume and vitriol" of practically everything that comes out of DT's mouth has worn us - along with the leaders of our allied nations - out. We have had enough of the incessant lying and unending narcissism.
Joe Biden does look rather appealing by contrast, doesn't he? Why should we care about his gaffs? Then, of course, there is the intrepid, even-keeled Pete Buttigieg as a most welcome alternative to the current occupant of the White House. Pete lacks the big-government experience, but he is clearly intelligent and so other-directed to realize that he would need to surround himself with genuinely competent advisors and secretaries. The shrill candidates (which I need not name) would remind us too much of what we desire to put behind us.
Thank you Frank Bruni for pointing out the ray of hope.
Dear Readers,
I think a certain amount of blame for exhaustion belongs to the media too. The endless raving, shock and frankly poorly thought out narrative of coverage and blatant partisanship encourages his supporters to be “all too ready with rationalizations and fluent in trade-offs.” Perhaps we’d all do it differently but we can’t. Time to move on and do better. Lead the way NYT. Teach don’t lecture. The topics involved are complex - trust that we can learn. Inform but don’t propagandize - we know the difference. Admit not all progressive ideas are good - be willing to call those out. Come on NYT, we need and you can do better.
Mr. Bruni, you write so beautifully and are so on point with your commentary. You echo my daily thoughts but you are considerably more eloquent in how you verbalize them. Thank you for that.
1
An emphatic AGREE, Frank. However, it think it would help if Twitter would cancel his account (could they be so brave?), which might send him straight to the loony bin and straitjacket--an appropriate place for him; and if NPR would stop broadcasting him speaking and instead just tell us what he said (since they have to, it being 'news'). That would reduce the sense of electric shock that goes through our bodies every time we hear his voice.
Are you kidding? Speak for yourself! I love him! FINALLY someone who is honest about how he feels.
@Danny Honest? No one has ever used that word to describe Trump or his sycophants.
@Dan But that's just it. You all give him waaay too much credit. He actually believes all that stuff, and is honest with his feelings about it. It may be heinous, but the difference is, he's being heinous and honest about it. Now which one is worse? And just to be clear, it was Clinton, Clinton, Gore, Kerry, Obama, and Obama. Trump was the only possible choice this time around...
A friend told me that he no longer reads any article that has the word "Trump" in its headline. Anger and exhaustion, frustration and depression, anyone?
I now do the same, even though I did read this one, since Bruni writes so well, and pointed out once more the nation's wounds, inflicted by Trump, that sorely need binding.
After 9/11 I realized there was too much coverage on the media. I HAD to shut it off; it was driving me crazy, producing incredible stress. That is what Trump has done. I can’t bear to watch or listen to it. And I blame the media for giving him unlimited free publicity and putting him in office. It’s still happening, and it should stop.
Time to replace the Trump Reality show with a real President. Four seasons is enough.
1
For those of us who have had to deal with people who are mentally ill or severely psychologically damaged the one trait that stands out above all others is, how mentally exhausting it all becomes. It is the type of fatigue that is enveloping, over-whelming, and ultimately emotionally debilitating. Donald Trump is the embodiment of this. The kicker is the cumulative effect is not arithmetic in its impact, but exponential. If not for a million other valid reasons, that indeed will be Donald Trump's downfall.
1
The whole fiasco is exhausting and demoralizing. He is holding our democracy hostage with his astonishing instability. Our checks and balances are perilously compromised. l beg of everyone, please vote him out in 2020. Trump supporters, you've been sold down the river. He has not helped you in any way. Everyone, use your voice and vote him out.
I spend a lot of time studying neuroscience. Starting during the 2016 election, I made sure to avoid ever hearing trump speak or seeing him move. I can't avoid that completely, but I make many efforts to not hear his voice or watch his facial expressions. Simply put, trump is bad for your brain. It's easier to deal with the effects of him if they're filtered a bit.
As for social media... just stay away. There's nothing biologically positive about being tossed into negative emotions on a daily basis.
Yesterday, driving sedately along one of my town streets with a posted speed limit of 25, a car tailgated me, angry that I was only doing about 30. The fast lane does 40 and he soon got in there, but was stopped short by a waiting left turn. Zoomed behind me again, another left turn and he honked in frustration. I kept going sedately along at 30. We ended up side by side at the same red light. I didn't look over but heard someone yelling; he had rolled down his window, and was gesticulating and brandishing his TRUMP hat at me. Do you think it's because my car bears a bumper sticker reading Any Functioning Adult 2020? And he knows that's not his guy?
2
Trump is everywhere. He's like Big Brother. You can't get away from him. As Frank Bruni expresses it, "the incessant drumbeat of that infernal syllable: Trump, Trump, Trump" has exhausted us. But that does not mean he will lose.
Right now the media are doing what they did in 2016 - providing saturated coverage of Trump and ignoring the Democratic candidates and their positive agendas. Critical issues like climate change, inequality, health care, education and the economic decline of the middle class are all being pushed aside in favor of Trump's daily assaults on human decency and responsible governance.
In my household we've gotten so sick of Trump's snarling face that we switch channels on TV or avert our eyes when reading the news in print or on the internet.
How are we going to defeat him if half the people, who don't normally pay a lot of attention to politics, don't know who is running against him?
1
Not so worn out that his lawlessness is ignored. That it is no longer merely a hint but outright illegality - instructing subordinates to violate the law by stealing property, promising to pardon anyone charged with theft, committing obstruction of justice, committing fraud - is more than enough to re-invigorate all of those who prefer the President of the United States not be a felon.
1
Thank you, Mr. Bruni for giving me the courage to try [again] to ignore trump's tweets, crazy pronouncements and ongoing vitriol and insults. I am disconnecting when I finish this comment.
As someone prepping my lectures for my senior seminar in leadership next week at a local college, I am struck by the fact that our current president seems to fit what Erich Fromm in "The Art of Being" calls the perfect narcissistic leader. "The narcissistic person has built an invisible wall around himself. He is everything, the world is nothing. Or rather: He is the world." Bruni's fatigue (and my own) stems from the fact that Mr. Trump has no empathy for any of us. Even if you agree with many of his policy positions, to the extent you can follow what they are from hour to hour, this indifference is indeed exhausting!
Just as Mr. Bruni did on the weekend, I often turn off the bad show and hide myself. One can take just so much. But it is vitally important to come back to the fray, to continue to monitor the absurdity and corruption of Trump, to keep writing and talking about it. Trump wants his opposition to get worn down. That's his goal. But the believers in open government and the norms of dignity cannot afford to let that happen. As painful as it is, all must keep writing and reading and talking to one another. Little by little more will realize the absurdity of Trump and join those who are working to end his attempt at terror.
Two things to keep in mind:
1) there are still tens of millions of voters -- his base and likely some independents -- who absolutely love the Trump Show and see themselves as in on the joke, straight-men to Trump's Rodney Dangerfield. He can insult them, he can lie to them, and they just find it hilarious, it's the mouth-agape libs who just don't get it;
2) you, Frank, myself, the commenters here, and many of our co-workers and friends, are somewhere on the political-junkie scale. I know people who listen to NPR throughout the day, then watch multiple "news" shows while scrolling through the NYT. It's no wonder we're exhausted! Meanwhile, a large swathe of America couldn't name one cabinet member and don't see how any of this applies to their daily lives. If they do bother to register and vote, they may make their choice the same way they choose chicken or ribs at their favorite barbeque joint, whatever appeals at that moment.
So well said Frank. I feel your pain. Trump’s mind put ours into contortions. The way his mind works is so alien to normal processes that he flattens us. It’s not unlike being with someone who’s in full blown mania. I think it’s a combination of purposeful machinations and mental illness. Too many of my friends say they don’t read or listen to the news anymore. While that’s understandable, it’s a huge mistake. We must fight this Trump Fatigue Syndrome because otherwise he wins and we must see this through to his demise.
3
Thank you Frank Bruno. I suffer from the same malady...Trump has exhausted me to the point that I have stopped following the news, for the most part. And, like you I hope that other voters feel the same way. Yet, I am afraid that the triad of hate Trump is running on (fear, racism and resentment) is too appealing to Americans....recall that deeply entrenched racist beliefs that Americans are wedded to and things look pretty hopeless. Indeed, the worst aspect of Trumpism is that Americans feel validated by it. Trump was just the conduit, these people aren’t going away.
Woozy and wiped out? POTUS 45 is not. Putin, Bolsonaro, and other autocrats and demagogues around the world are not. We need to remember that and outlast them. With a climate crisis upon us, the future of humanity and many other species depends upon our ability to do so.
Good job, Mr. Bruni. The last paragraph is the most important.
It's been my hope that "he" will finally implode. I was discouraged to see the leaders of other countries at the G7 being so careful not to make him angry. I say, after having all safeguards in place, let's jab at that ego and insecurity until even his most diehard supporters can see him deflate.
Better get that fresh air while you can, Frank. With all of The Donald’s environmental rollbacks, we won’t have it long.
1
" The worst are full of passionate intensity " . As true now as in 1919.
As long as a contingent of people actually enjoy making their "enemies" upset, frustrated and exhausted, Trump will have an unshakable base of support.
Trump sees himself as a victim because he has never been respected by those whose approval he craves, especially the media. And so he is constantly on the attack, trying to fill the void where his soul should be with whatever temporary satisfaction he derives from bullying, demeaning, blaming and wreaking revenge on his opponents. Tops on that list is his predecessor, and he and his voters are thrilled to lay all of our country's problems at Obama's feet.
The rational among us are sick of the negativity and never ending chaos. But Trump has convinced his supporters that they, like him, are victims, and lashing out has become their raison d'etre.
Unfortunately, even if the exhaustion factor spells Trump's defeat, his cult will still be a disruptive, and in some cases hateful, presence in the country. That is the danger of elevating a demagogue to the presidency. Trump has given them permission to act on their bigotry and fears, and it's going to be very difficult to put that genie back in the bottle.
Consumer confidence index has hardly budged and is hardly on as precipitous decline as approval ratings in some swing states. So if that keeps up, then I'm skeptical pocket book issues will be outdone by trump fatigue.
More to the point, the campaign promises to be very ugly and very nauseating. This will turn off many potential voters who may feel it's just too too sick, and they have no interest or will to participate any longer.
That form of trump fatigue is
surely part of the point behind this daily barrage of absolute cretinous empty drivel. He hopes his opponents are driven to listless abandonment of any hope for getting out of the
prison he's put them in.
They're surely hoping fatigue from all that spills over into fatigue/indifference about voting. The type of
psychological paralysis of kidnapping victims is implicit here.
They're just hoping it is generalized.
People, we all need to be a lot more resolute than that! Wars are not won by the decadent moaners that things are oh so bad. And be under no illusion, we are in a war.
Moaning over exhaustion is a contemptible sign of decadence if it means we're just too tired to go vote, or pay attention to who's running against trump enablers in the senate. That is not going to lead to anything better and will surely lead to even worse disasters to come.
1
There are only a few good things Don has brought to the table and as the article states, thousands of exhausting and continually degrading issues.
I like his energy and in your face defense of the country but the infantile behavior jut does not fit.
We are in dire need of some globally uplifting events. Some unifying events in country. Some positive news.
I have worked, as a therapist, with several men and their families who presented with a malignant form of narcissistic personality disorder. After years of erratic outbursts of emotion, bullying and threats, inflexible demands for attention and admiration, wives and children were emotionally exhausted and beaten down and were in a constant mode of alertness to try to avoid being targeted. They became despondent and hopeless and just stopped trying. Their only alternative was to escape, which many spouses and children did.The country is now in the position of those families. We cannot change Mr. Trump; we cannot hope that somehow he will change. We can do what many of these families have done.....divorce him, in the only way possible ; vote him out of office.
2
Good column and I share Frank’s reaction to Trump. This is the thing. Trump said recently, in response to a question about his flip-flop, hot-cold approach to governing that “this is the way I negotiate and it’s worked well for me for a long time.” So the reality is that he doesn’t “govern” but “negotiates”. And he does it by wearing people down until they give him what he wants just to be rid of him. We have all seen obnoxious unruly children in “Give Me-Give Me-Give me” meltdown mode. Trump makes himself that obnoxious unruly child on purpose, and lives that way 24/365. So we can either spank him, ignore him or just live with four more years of a 2 year old in meltdown mode.
1
Harry Truman often said that history tends to repeat itself since human nature doesn't change, which leads to the solid truth of Lincoln's observation that you can fool some of the people all of the time, all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all the time. Trump knows he's now only capable of fooling some of the people and as he sees his long con running out, he's running scared.
1
Frank Bruni is a superb writer whose columns I enjoy reading from beginning to end.
But I am so sick to death of reading about, hearing about, even looking at He Who Shall Not Be Named, that I cannot read beyond the lead of this column.
Sorry, Frank, next time.
Although there will be suffering - many by those who voted for him - may his trade war (can't believe THAT will be it!!) imperil the economy enough to end his horrific tirade and our immediate misery.
I have never in my life prayed for a recession, until now.
1
I just put the phrase “furious mien and curious mane” In my iPhone notes so that I never ever can forget this period of history...
what are the odds of the Republican party dumping trump at the convention? primary challengers could make this possible. maybe they will try to redeem their party and do what the Democrats were unwilling to and dump this scourge. probably won't help much this election, but be better for them in the long run. How much more damage will another year of this bring? impeach now!
The author takes his own mood and extends it to include the entire country? Instead of saying "I", he says "we" or "they". He is sapped of the strength to tweet, to Google, and to surf the cable channels? Then, er, maybe stop? Get out more? Maybe even visit a few of the flyover states?
There is this twitter universe where AOC is the hugest thing in Congress, McConnell is a demon and Trump the devil incarnate. Where Fox News and Drudge are not just bad, but if it were only possible, should be outlawed. Where everything Trump says (mostly just to get people like the author stirred up) is seized upon, and furiously re-tweeted with outraged gasps. The nation is in the middle of the hugest crisis in its history! He's right - it really must be exhausting to live in that universe.
Then again, there's another universe where people don't have political OCD. Where their lives revolve mostly around getting their kids to school, going to work, coming home and having dinner, going out with friends, indulging in hobbies, watching movies and listening to music, and in general mostly just enjoying life in what - relatively speaking - is a pretty enjoyable country to live in.
Are they unaware of politics? No, but it also isn't the center of their lives. They may have CNN or Fox on, but its often in the background while they're cooking dinner. They are living normal human lives.
The twitterverse is an anomaly. Makes people tired, nasty and bitter. But no one is required to live there.
We all know rational people who will go in the voting booth and select Trump. It overwhelms the senses.
I'd like to believe in this but I don't. Too many people are too numb to reality to face it. My depressing prognosis is that greed for money and power, and social media and people being distracted from distraction by distraction will enable the Orange Menace to be the White House Occupant for another four years.
My husband, a naturalized citizen, calls the American news, "Trump", as in do you want to see "Trump" or the news (from a different country's perspective)? Trump does have a deep understanding of politics as entertainment, and how to keep himself ever in the headlines. Even the NYT headline today is about if Macron position himself the "star" of the G7. Tomorrow will be about Trump's shameful belittling tweet about Macron or France or an offer to buy the Eiffel Tower for Mar a Lago or some such. This stuff is not news. How about not reporting on his pathetic tweets unless they're about policy? If you must just report Trump tweeted a lie at five p.m., or Trump insulted someone for no earthly reason at 4 a.m. I honestly hope our new president in 2020 will not "tweet". That's PR. Hire someone to do that, and get on with the boring job of preserving our safety, economy, and standing in the world.
Sadly true. For years I’ve enjoyed the cable news commentary shows at night, but it has become enervating and depressing. The unending, sorry excuses of the Trump apologists are simply the final push into the abyss.
The exhaustion comes from feeling we are living in some twisted, parallel universe. Every single day this man inflicts madness on not just on your country, but the world, yet everyone tip-toes around him while looking the other way. It's one thing for the press to try and hold Trump to account, but it's McConnell and the party that need to reign him in and all him out. Instead, they continue to drive us in to this place of profound loss. Lost is any sense of order, normalcy, civility, truth, and morality, but worst of all is the looming fear of losing democracy.
665
@Holly
Well said. If there is a silver lining to the madness, it is this: it crystalizes my values and I become stronger in my beliefs.
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@Holly
McConnell is clearly getting something he wants. Over 200 House-passed bills sit on his desk while he twiddles his thumbs and refuses to bring them up for a vote. No one man should have that much power.
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@Holly
Trump's "reign" is the problem. "Reining" him in would be a solution, but it's impossible. This horse has never been broken to useful, productive work. The only solution is turning him out to pasture.
15
"And maybe our exhaustion spells his end". Too exhausted to say anything except - From your pen to God's ears.
2
Trump’s version of “punching back ten times harder” consists of wearing us down with mega tons of: insults, name calling and lies. There is no other strategy available for an individual with no; intelligence, integrity, dignity, character or leadership ability who insists on leading from behind on everything.
1
Trump is like a black hole: non bottom and it drags all our energy. The unrelenting drama is such that you don't remember what happened last week because something else happened since. So yes we are worn out and there is more to come.
2
From your lips to gods ears Mr. Bruni. I will add one more important thing, to vote for any Republican anywhere will hinder the cleanse, the power wash the U.S. so desperately needs.
1
But we were promised that Mueller would take him down. Now we have to count on exhaustion?
Not fair!
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Turning off the "show" is a good strategy. Just wish the "news" outlets, even the esteemed NY Times and Washington Post, would turn off the coverage of the absurdity and go cover the news that its readers care about and are talking about. Let us remember that there were nearly 10 million voters who voted "no to Trump" in the last election, 3 million more for Hillary alone. Not likely any of them have been drawn to him this time. The key is that he does not wear us down to the point of apathy and staying home on electionn day. Mark your calendar and turn off the Trump show and be sure to vote.
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Yes, to 'G' from Ca.
We, too, have realized obsessing about this goof is both exhausting and pointless and ultimately, only hurting us in real and dangerous ways.
And -- If he kills us early, it's not like he's coming to our funerals ... so why give him the power to take up that head or emotional space or create all that physical stress?
So, I keep up. A lot. But less than I used to. Even more selective now (and I was picky before about my sources; but have even whittled that down) and generally (not every topic; have to be a bit choosier.)
But because I KNOW who he is and what he's about, and it suffices.
And come 2020, let's hope he's on his way out ... which isn't too far away ... since he's already 'way, way out there' already :)
1
I like Frank Bruni but he is still making the classical mistake of many highly educated, rational people who because they believe in honesty, kindness, open-mindedness, integrity, and justice, erroneously believe that other people also believe in these things. Trump's supporters are neither naive nor deluded - they know why they support Trump and it is NOT about economics. It is about fear, hatred, ignorance, and bigotry and they do NOT care about facts, logic, or statements that "all men are created equal." Contrary to Bruni, I do not believe Trump's supporters are tired of any of the nonsense, indeed, they are just getting warmed up.
1
You have eloquently and accurately captured my feelings and I suspect the feelings of many Americans.
Trump is like the screaming child in the store... and many of us have evolved from investigating the source of the noise to ignoring it and going about our business- and now we just tune it out- tweets, sound bites, and all.
1
One needs to define 'us all.' Trumpy's fan base is as steadfast as ever. His detractors are busy fighting each other. While he has practiced 'identity politics' with extreme effect, his detractors are practicing a different version of 'identity politics' in the clumsiest way possible. They are ageist, sexist, and focused on minutiae. Rather than a grand plan that encompasses the entire nation, the detractors focus on giveaways to specific groups. Trumpy comes across as having a grand plan, however ridiculous it may be. It's easy to understand for his simpleton followers. It's frightening for the rest of us. In the meantime, the Democrats are fighting about a policy from the 1970's that may or may not have made it difficult for a kid to take a bus to school.
2
The President has no qualms about what he says. Trained by his father at an early age to be a flimflam man, lying and cheating people, setting inflated property values, on New York properties, then depreciating them etc. There isn't a truthful bone in his body.
2
There will come a day when Trump is not president. The question is whether the media will be able to stop talking about him as much as they'll nerf to be talking about who comes next. Can they ween themselves off his tweets? We'll see. Everyone is worn out, but the media has a special addiction this time around, and we KNOW that Trump will never shut up unless he's in prison. One can only hope.
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Trump is the first autocrat to be elected president in the US so to Americans this is all new. I think autocrats rule by fear and fatigue. This article focuses on fatigue. Trump never really seemed to be cut out for real estate and had to financially saved by his father on a number of occasions and by the Russians who may control him, and clearly can never be a president of a democracy but he has what it takes to be an autocrat. He is the autocratic leader of Republican America, an undemocratic racist slice of the United States of America, a country with high ideals and with people struggling to achieve these ideals. For those fighting to retain democracy in the US fatigue is not an option. Since I don't watch cable news or tweet maybe I am not as worn out following Trump as those who indulge but I suppose people in the news business have no choice. But to fight against autocracy we all need to find a way to avoid Trump fatigue. We cannot let up fighting back no matter how many crazy tweets Trump is able to generate.
2
Frank Bruni has found the words to describe the exhaustion I've been feeling. However, unlike Mr. Bruni, I can't turn off MSNBC. I wish I could avert my eyes, but I'm afraid that something terrible will happen and I would need to know about it.
The worst part is that I feel totally unable to fight the most terrible acts Trump's enablers are performing on innocent and helpless people. Just take a few days off, Mr. Bruni, and then get back on your soapbox and call out the evil for what it is: a madman running our country into the ground.
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I quote Nesrine Malik, in a recent Slate article by Dahlia Lithwick: "The real jeopardy of authoritarianism starts with fatigue." Love that.
Lithwick goes on to say "We are all doing too much. And we are also all not doing enough. And there is nothing wrong with you beyond being a human begin in categorically insane times."
Amen.
We will re-emerge, I believe, in 2020. Donate. Canvass. Vote.
1
Trump exhaustion isn't just a function of Trump alone, but it also requires a compliant media that apes his style even as it goes on to criticize him relentlessly. Nor is it clear that Trump exhaustion hurts him more than it helps him. His supporters don't seem at all exhausted, and it might turn out to be his critics who give up first.
My opinion on Bruni's piece is summed up in a single word--brilliant. He has arrived at the place I chose to live a few months ago. Laughing at Trumps's various outbursts, otherwise ignoring him completely.
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He creates such a powerful maelstrom of hatred bile slander sprinkled with glowing delusions of his magnificent abilities that no one can keep up. The media despite his claims mussels itself to avoid the expected backlash. The gop is terrified of him and goes along whatever he says. He needs to be accused clearly of all the nefarious schemes, wether proven or not. He takes great care to cover his tracks. The gop has made great use for decades of stating what is no doubt true. Fox and drudge love the “ some people say......” routine and it works quite well and with them it’s generally made up. He is always on offense and everybody else is stuck on defense, time to switch it up.
I record the news shows and watch later so the instance Trump's face appears I can fast forward past it. Since he repeats the random thoughts that cross his "mind" several times I only have to listen to the pundits paraphase them.
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Yeah, I have been experiencing fantasies of living off the grid myself. So, I do take breaks from following events as closely as I usually do. Getting outside and into nature is a great idea and I am lucky to have a wonderful local park in which to go walking. I can't watch Colbert as often--Trump has simply captured Late Night attention. The elections are coming in America, as they always do. We will vote, and we will get past this. America great just for this reason.
Having Trump as president is like having to listen to 24 hours of blaring commercials from the power company about how great they are and how lucky I am to have electricity every time I turn on a light switch.
Just give me the light and keep your never-ending commercials out of my face.
3
Frank, it's called rope-a-dope. Trump HAS worn us all out, and done it deliberately. Now whatever we scream about or hashtag about or outrage about has zero impact. That's why his approval ratings haven't dipped. Why is it that the media tells people what they want to hear? That Trump's demise is forthcoming when the polls say differently? If it isn't Biden, Trump wins again. EVEN NOW. After everything he's done and said. That is because he has exhausted US to the point where our voice is just noise.
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I hope to God you are right, Frank Bruni. I would like to think that most Americans want this disaster of a presidency and its administration to end but I can't stop the panic I feel in my gut and heart that the small percentage of citizens who love this mad man will , like the hapless herd of sheep in Thomas Hardy's novel "Far From The Madding Crowd", will fall of a cliff for this man. Reasoning and responsibility are rare virtues among the impenetrable"base", though there has to be some cracks occurring in that fetid clump of humanity.
Four more years of insanity and ugliness could be the nail that shuts the coffin tight, that could forever seal any possibility of this country getting back on its feet again.
Wouldn’t that be nice if Brunei knew something that is contradicted by almost all the evidence. Trump exhaustion does not cross party lines to any meaningful degree. Republicans will vote for him en masse, just as elected Republicans will embrace him for the distraction he provides as they rape and pillage the middle class, the environment, and our Grand Experiment. Trump falls only if the other party animates voters to come out on Election Day in such overwhelming numbers as to overwhelm the suppression and vote hacking on which Trump and his GOP enablers feast.
New Yorkers have always known Trump to be a con man and huckster. That reality is dawning in rural America now,too.
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First of all, Trump is crazy but is very forceful in his craziness. The Democrats are an effete crowd who have a far better message than do the Republicans but are lousy at conveying their message. The Republicans are masters at the art of propaganda but the Democrats haven't caught on yet. Maybe they will, eventually. It is imperative that they do.
I too am exhausted. I limit my news time every day to my morning NYT and local newspapers. I usually don't turn on cable until around 3 or 4 p.m.--preferring TCM or a good book for the better part of the day. In the evening I usually watch MSNBC if I can stand it. If not, I read or watch crime shows on HLN--more soothing than cable news these days. This has to end.
2
And yet the Dems still do not get it. When the alternative that is being offered up is heavy socialism or bust then you are going to get bust. The Dems think that it is the fault of the Republican party that Trump is in office when the reality is that the Dems failed to put up a platform and a candidate that is acceptable those who occupy the middle. Seeing the choice of a person who is rude, obnoxious, and lying but is providing a platform that is still capitalistic at its heart and knowing that there will not be a major shift in our country's policies versus the truly radical platform coming from the leading candidates on the Dem side the choice will be to stay the current course. Those swing votes cannot be won with this platform. But the Dems cannot get out of their own way. So stop blaming the Republicans when the fault actually lies with the Dems.
Our brains are fried. We're dog tired. We're not worn down but we are worn out. So. We stop tweeting? Cease commenting here and elsewhere? Watch something other than CNN at the gym? We retreat in the face of friends and relatives telling us we are addicted to Trump, addicted to outrage. In essence, we go radio silent. Now. To scads of Americans how will that look? Will it look to them just like the silent acquiescence of the Congressional Republicans, which has been one of the largest sources of normalization of all things Trump for his white supremacist, personality cult? It would be a great shame were we to vote Trump out merely because he has exhausted us. Confronted as we are by the mountain of impeachable offenses, the high number of likely indictments, the vast and perhaps irreparable damage he and his party have done to our democracy.
2
Well stated Mr. Bruni. Trump’s stamina for reckless profiteering is impressive; but the impression rankles. It’s nasty and smells really bad. Joe Biden would be a refreshing, if dull, replacement. I could get really excited about a Warren/Abrams ticket!
Someone should tell Donald Trump that he is mortal. That even he has a limited time on this earth. Someone should teach him the concept of legacy. In my mind, he has left a real trail of destruction. He has taught us how not to be president. And I can’t wait for this atrocity to be over.
For over two years the daily overdose of everything Trump has been overwhelming. Trump runs the country like a reality show that needs a new shiny object daily to keep going. The picture of the empathy seat at the G7 climate meeting is burned into my mind.That picture could have been of the empathy seat we have in the Oval Office.Trump shilling on the world stage for the next conference at his property willing chilling. How far down do we have to go before we cry Uncle?
Here's an example of how bad it is. Trump, not two weeks ago, implied/accused former President Clinton of being involved in the death of Epstein--essentially accusing him of being an accomplice to murder. And it hardly caused a blip. Just try to imagine Obama accusing Bush of being an accomplice in the death of a federal prisoner. Simply unthinkable.
"Donald Trump has worn us all out and maybe our exhaustion spells his end."
Let us hope so. But I am really not sure. I am shocked that this great country elected the crass, snake oil salesman in the first place. He has been a well known con man for about twenty years so no one can claim that they did not know who they were voting for.
Needless to say I am terribly disappointed in my fellow citizens.
I also thought that this country would eventually get a belly full of the NRA. But as we know that has not happened.
So I am not too good in the prediction business.
If all of the people who say that they don't support The Donald would vote looks like he could be beaten. What happens to the Never Trumpers and people who leave the republican party? It seems that they just disappear.
1
Over exposure is the Achilles heel of marketing campaigns. Trump has no brake on himself, and as a result, he has become what is fatal to the business of self-promotion. He is boring.
1
The man is totally depleting.
My husband and I truly feel that these past several years are among the worst in our 70+.
But PLEASE don't give up the fight. We must be smart and stay the course. We must rid ourselves of this cancer.
1
Trump lied about the Chinese "calling over the weekend to get trade negotiations re-started". We cannot have a President who lies to us.
Sure, Trump is sexist and racist; His trade war was pivotal to the current global economic stagnation, and his national policies aren't much better than his foreign policies. But he is also the only US president to make so much progress on peace with North Korea and meet a leader of the hermit kingdom in person.
I don't deny that Trump's interest in the country has more to do with his election campaigns than with global denuclearization. But historical figures are remembered for their achievements rather than for their motives.
Maybe, just maybe, in the distant future, Trump will be commemorated as a herald of peace in the Korean Peninsula, serving as another reminder that no historical event is single-faced.
The sentiments you describe are only experienced by rational Americans who are not driven, beyond any other concerns, by race. Racism placed Trump in office and will keep him in office, particularly when the Democrats nominate a minority candidate for President or Vice President. You fail to understand the racial divide in America. Anti-Black and anti-Muslim attitudes prevail.
I tell myself every morning when I drink my coffee - do today all the things Trump can't. Put in a good day's work. Be kind. Help someone. Read something. Learn something. Love something or someone. Keep your mind open. Have faith. I try to do what he isn't capable of. My dream for when this is over is that there will be an explosion of art - of beauty and expression. Maybe we have fallen so far in order to find ourselves again? I don't know. I enjoy dance and art and read and listen more since he took office. I look for beauty in all this filth. And I wait for all of this to be over.
The true slogan of Trump should be:
Inspired by Hatred.
HIS people are not worn out but rather think they are just getting started.
This must be stopped.
A stain on American politics and the American ideals that so many non Americans like me have admired. I would be a real shame if Trump was able to keep fooling the American people after nov-2020
I don't know about everyone else's communities but I have definitely noticed that people are more rude and inconsiderate, actually angry at each other. There seems to be a constant tension that's wearing everyone down. Trump is destroying this country and its spirit; his mean spirited-ness is contagious. Let's hope more people will decide that they rather live in a peaceful and kind country and vote him and his entire bully cabinet out.
I am not sure that Mr. Trump's character is "manifestly rotten". I would not be surprised if at some point he were diagnosed as being autistic; that type of being highly functional, but unable to relate emotionally. Certain other behaviors, the friend - foe patterns, the belief he is never at fault, the contradictions and thinking that he can convince his audience of a reality that he fabricates, might point to that direction. Having once lived with someone with the exact same behavioral traits, I can see how he might be driven by a disorder rather than ill will
Would that Bruni were right that Trump supporters are worn out, but I doubt it. They are not just rationalizing his hatreds; they share them and cheer him on. In fact, it may well be that Trump is a reflection of their anger, resentment and bigotry -- the One They'd Been Waiting For.
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I don't think “vote Democratic so that you can stop paying attention to Trump's twitter account is a very good pitch”.
It would be a huge mistake to assume that trump fatigue is universal or that voters crave a return normalcy.
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I know I have a severe case of trump fatigue. He has made America wearyagain.
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The NYT is what wears me out, with content like this ... hammer, hammer, hammer the same dang nail. Good thing the price I pay to read it is not at the serious-journalism level. Not a fan of Trump. Like most of his serious directions; ignore the rest. Am one of legions.
1
I had a similar weekend. My dog died Friday, and it suddenly hit me that every day's headline is: "Trump's a Sociopath: Here's Today's Proof."
How much more of that do I really need?
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I'm worn out too.
But this former Republican is not too worn out to vote 100% Blue in 2020.
I don't care if the Dems nominate a ham sandwich for president.........ANYTHING would be an improvement over the current ignoramus.
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TRUMP = ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE. The world.
4
Exactly so, Mr. Bruni!
Extreme weariness from the rotten, depraved, loud, stupid Current Occupant & Company (the Cabinet, advisers, children), is the reason I am so impressed with Pete Buttigieg - the exact opposite of everything this administration represents.
2
Here’s apotential campaign slogan for the Democrats in 2020: ENOUGH ALREADY!
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Yet another laughable "the devil made us do it" excuse for non-stop, hair-afire hysteria. It's always someone else, isn't it?
So will five GOP justices on SCOTUS block the DB production of Trump Crime syndicate tax returns?. What about loan documents with purported Russian co-signers?
Now we know why SD attorney Preet Bharara removed by Trump while investigating DB.
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Frank, why are you telling him?
1
BRAVO! Love your columns
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Loco, loco, loco, I see signs of derangement, never forget what Chávez did to Venezuela.....pretty fast...
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The Republican Party of today = the Know Nothings of yesterday.
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I didn’t vote for Trump in ‘16...won’t in ‘20 but am not obsessed with his every tweet. I accept the fact that he is President...sorry, but he is.
Its up to the Democrats to come up with a candidate who can beat him &(big “and”) move this country forward without causing more angst. Biden...Warren...Sanders...ain’t going to do that. Micheal Bloomberg, where are you!!!
2
Bloomberg? Are you kidding me? We don’t need another tone-deaf billionaire.
Warren has a plan!
This is what happens when Clarabell gets elected president.
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Hasn’t worn me out.
1
Oh, Frank. Why are you conservatives always so slow on the up-take? We liberals were telling you this long before the election. From women’s lib, to civil rights, to climate change, to Trump- you conservatives always been on the wrong side of history, dragging the rest of us down with you.
One can only hope. While praising the intelligence of the American electorate, he secretly knows that they can be led around like bulls with nose rings - only instead of bull rings, he uses their beliefs and prejudices to lead them wherever he wants. If DJT doesn't destroy our fragile democracy, he has published the blueprint and playbook for some other demagogue to do it later. If a democracy like America's is going to exist, there will have to be a paradigm shift in human thought throughout the world. In the near future, we will program the human mind in the computer based on a "survival" algorithm, which will provide irrefutable proof as to how we trick the mind with our ridiculous beliefs about what is important and what is supposed to survive - producing minds programmed de facto for dirty tricks and destruction. These minds see the survival of a particular belief as more important than the survival of us all. When we understand this, we will begin the long trek back to reason and sanity.
See RevolutionOfReason.com
1
I'm exhausted by his constant stream of hatred and idiocy. I'm not sure his moronic "base" will lose their enthusiasm. You have to have a purpose in life and venting your anger in a mob situation at a monochromatic Trump rally is a much easier outlet than, say, pursuing higher education.
5
I can't breathe
1
Nailed it mr. Bruni! It's exhausting this black hole of attention demand of the egomaniac we have for president. Look forward to the days when he's behind bars and we forget about him and go on with our lives.
1
Another great column. It expresses exactly how I feel. Remove him from office, whatever that takes.
2
Trump does not behave like a clown. He is one. He is empty headed and the only emotion he has is rage and hate. But the Republican Senators who enable him, McConnell and Barr who protect him and the supporters who believe his lies are the serious threat to our country. Trump is just a buffoon who tries to be what he will never be ....important. If the 2020 election fails to rid us of him and his gang once and for all, we are indeed in trouble. We cannot afford to tire of this situation for fear of letting our guard down. We should continue to hit him with everything we have. His thin skin and starved ego is showing ware. He has no defense for total lack of respect and he is finding out that he cannot command it, he has to earn it and that he cannot do.
6
Like the writer I too am exhausted by the endless pounding of Trump's lies, boasts, insults and overwhelming stupidity. Sometimes I turn off the news and don't read the papers, just to get some rest. But even then I fear that if I turn Trump off it will be like responsible Germans who turned off Hitler and were destroyed because they didn't want to heard any more of his tirades. The most distressing thing to me is that we can do nothing but wait for the next election. Our hands are tied as we watch Trump's procession of daily destruction. Must we wait 15 months to rid our country of this evil? I'm sure the Founding Fathers never imagined this great country would fall to such a disgusting low. Is there no one who will rid us of this evil?
3
The Toddler in Chief remains very popular among Fox News Republicans who live in an alternate universe, a universe devoid of critical thinking or information. Those of us with half a brain ignore this fact at our on peril.
4
Indeed.
Stop writing about Trump.
3
"Trump has us all worn out"
Who are these "us"
And are you sure about the "all"
Some people just enjoy soap operas and will follow the characters in a kind of psychodrama in which they will become quasi co actors;
They will share the despair, the love, the treason, the brutality as if they were real and they participated in them.
The villain character may be to them the most attractive.
If the producer ever tries to" kill" him, there will be an uproar, all the more that his "followers" are in a way "addictded" to this stupidity.
So beware, and let us not talk about "all of us"...
Trump's antics are cloying. They are so ripe with hypocrisy, deceit, racism, anti-democracy that it's like eating a too sweet desert and then regretting eating it for days. Not that I, personally, ever ordered that desert. I knew he was a fraud from the beginning; he is and always will be.
2
The whole point has been to numb everyone into
submission. he says so many things that are inconstant
idiotic and are flatly not true, that it is hard to keep
count.
the key is his act has worn thin. Even the press
has stopped playing along
hmmm
2
After Mr. Trump's musings about nuking hurricanes and a tweet ordering American business to leave China, it seems that we are failing to recognize the obvious. The president of the United States is a lunatic.
2
For likely the first time, NYT has hit something that resembles a home run.
Trump IS ridiculous. So is Socialism.
Still. That’s another discussion.
Trump really IS ridiculous.
And I am a Trump Supporter.
Or, maybe I was. Now.
I just don’t care. I’m tired of defending somebody who IS ridiculous.
2
Sadly the counter to this ridiculousness is matched by narratives such as rich people are evil, businesses are evil, those who borrow recklessly are victims, those who study hard are privileged, all white men are evil. There lies the risk of reflecting Trump. When that happens there is no world beyond WWIII. Sad.
We are all tired of trump.
I would think the media would know how to deal with trump by know, but they still teat him like he is any other president.
The media (and Democratic opponents) should treat trump like the person he is instead of treating him like the ignorant, self serving liar that he is. They should ignore him, and focus on people who are intelligent, hard working and with with ideas that will move our country forward.
Enough of trump - who cares. Time to move past this boring dotard.
2
Amen. I hit this point months ago, to the point where I scan rather than read NYT Trump stories. I’m looking forward to better days.
3
Trump is like a balloon you blow up, hold by the neck and then let go.. It zigs, zags, up,down, left ,right, until it runs out of air. This is how Trump's brain functions. Random firing of neurons, no distinct pathways, no thought or cognition. Fatigue? More like repulsion.
2
I so empathise
1
Trump has been successful in pushing people away from engaging in sensible political discussions. I am, like most Americans, politically fatigued, tired and also allergic to cable news. I am tried of hearing the same thing over and over again that he is stupid, he is a narcissist and panel of Pundits discussing about his tweets and retweets. November 2020 is still a long way and his behavior will only get worse after the primaries.
1
I hate editorials that tell "us" how "we" feel.
Buck up, Bruni. Whatever you may be feeling, Donald Trump ain't nuthin, and I'm not in the least bit worn out by his con game.