“Parece que perdeu a cabeça”. As 24
horas de declarações “surreais” de Trump
Historiadores e assessores do Partido
Republicano estão “perplexos” com a maratona de entrevistas e tweets do
Presidente na segunda-feira – entre outras, disse que “seria uma honra”
conhecer Kim Jong-un e sugeriu que o Presidente Andrew Jackson ficou muito
zangado com a guerra civil e que podia ter evitado o conflito se estivesse no
poder (Jackson morrera 16 anos antes)
JOANA AZEVEDO VIANA
03.05.2017 às 11h40
Ainda faltavam nove horas para o dia desta segunda-feira, 1
de maio, acabar em Washington DC e já Donald Trump tinha espalhado o caos entre
os funcionários da Casa Branca e os membros do Partido Republicano, com uma
série de declarações "sem sentido" sobre a guerra civil que estalou
há 150 anos nos EUA, por causa da escravatura, e sobre líderes mundiais
controversos como o Presidente das Filipinas, Rodrigo Duterte, e o líder da
Coreia do Norte, Kim Jong-un.
O facto foi apontado pelo "Politico" num artigo
publicado esta terça-feira sobre o comportamento errático do Presidente
norte-americano no 1.º de Maio. Nesse dia, Trump começou por questionar porque
é que a guerra civil teve de acontecer, dizendo no Twitter que o Presidente
Andrew Jackson (1829-1837), seu declarado ídolo, ficou muito zangado quando
percebeu que o conflito ia estalar e que, se estivesse no poder, podia tê-lo
evitado. (Jackson morreu 16 anos antes de os estados do sul entrarem em
conflito com os restantes porque queriam continuar a escravizar os negros).
De seguida, disse que seria uma "honra" conhecer
pessoalmente Kim Jong-un, o ditador da Coreia do Norte cujo programa nuclear e
de mísseis está na base das crescentes tensões na região – desde que "nas
circunstâncias certas". Depois, sugeriu que podia criar um imposto extra
sobre a gasolina, para logo a seguir afastar essa ideia. Também disse que está
"a estudar" a possibilidade de dividir os grandes bancos, levando à
queda dos preços das ações em bolsa.
Virou depois as atenções para o Presidente das Filipinas
Rodrigo Duterte, elogiando o carrasco de toxicodependentes e alegados
traficantes de droga pela sua elevada taxa de popularidade. E concluiu a série
de entrevistas e tweets com a promessa de alterar o projeto-lei que os
republicanos apresentaram para "revogar e substituir" o Obamacare,
dando mostras de que não sabe o que é proposto nessa legislação de saúde.
REAÇÕES DE "PERPLEXIDADE"
"Parecem ter sido umas das mais bizarras 24 horas da
história dos Presidentes americanos", refere Douglas Brinkley, historiador
especializado nas sucessivas administrações dos EUA. "Foi tudo uma
desordem surreal, um estado mental confuso do Presidente."
As entrevistas – à Bloomberg, ao programa "Face the
Nation" da CBS News e à rádio SiriusXM – surgiram ao final dos primeiros
100 dias de Trump no poder, marcados no sábado, e pareceram ter sido agendadas
para coincidir com a efeméride. Mas, como admitiu uma fonte da Casa Branca ao
"Politico", "não nos ajudaram em nada. Não fez sentido [Trump]
dar todas essas entrevistas."
Sob anonimato, essa e outras fontes da administração
reconhecem que não foi delineada qualquer estratégia para orientar essas
conversas com os media. E pessoas ligadas ao Partido Republicano no Congresso
admitem que ficaram baralhadas e até "perplexas" com as coisas que o
Presidente disse. "Não faço ideia do que é que eles [governo] consideram
ser um sucesso com os media", diz uma das fontes, um consultor do partido
pelo qual Trump foi eleito que, segundo o "Politico", mantém relações
próximas com a administração. "Ele parece simplesmente ter perdido a
cabeça hoje [anteontem]", acrescenta um assessor republicano.
"Supremacistas brancos, defensores de causas perdidas,
ativistas dos direitos dos estados [secessionistas] podem agarrar-se a
isto", diz David Blight, professor de História na Universidade de Yale
dedicado a estudar a Guerra Civil, em relação às declarações do Presidente sobre
"porque é que" essa guerra teve de acontecer. "Não sei se Trump
sequer sabe o que está a fazer. É possível ser-se demasiado ignorante para se
ter noção de que se é ignorante."
Nesse mesmo dia, e já depois de ter falado sobre a
"honra" que teria em conhecer o líder norte-coreano, Trump recorreu
ao Twitter para avisar que "ninguém está seguro" enquanto Pyongyang
continuar a avançar com o programa nuclear e os testes de mísseis – numa altura
em que os dois líderes continuam a trocar ameaças.
Numa conferência de imprensa ao final do dia, o porta-voz da
Casa Branca, Sean Spicer, tentou defender o que Trump disse horas antes,
referindo que Kim "assumiu o poder quando era muito jovem e levou o país
para a frente". Apesar do tweet do Presidente, e do facto de outros
assessores da administração terem sublinhado que o potencial encontro entre
Trump e Kim só aconteceria se o líder norte-coreano mudasse a sua atitude, uma
cenário improvável, muitos consideraram os comentários de Spicer uma espécie de
elogio a Kim.
DEMÊNCIA?
Esta terça-feira, e depois de Trump ter saído a meio da
entrevista com a CBS por causa da insistência do jornalista John Dickerson em
questioná-lo sobre as alegadas escutas que ele diz terem sido ordenadas por
Barack Obama à sua sede de campanha, alguns jornalistas disseram estar
preocupados com a saúde mental do Presidente, que está prestes a completar 71
anos, sugerindo que ele pode sofrer de demência.
"[A entrevista com a CBS] foi realmente chocante",
declarou Joe Scarborough no seu programa "Morning Joe". "Ele
estava a balbuciar coisas, a divagar, incoerente, e de repente mesmo antes de
parar de falar, levantou-se e foi-se embora. A minha mãe sofre de demência há
dez anos", continuou o jornalista, para surpresa do co-apresentador do
programa, Mika Brzezinski. "Isto [o que Trump disse] soa ao tipo de coisas
que a minha mãe diria hoje... Vai para lá da realidade e com isto não estou a
tentar mais nada que não ser muito direto. Isto é algo que uma criança de cinco
anos poderia perguntar", referiu sobre a questão que Trump fez sobre os
motivos da guerra civil. "Nenhum adulto dos que eu já conheci em toda a
minha vida diria uma coisa daquelas."
Não há muito tempo, no final de abril, uma equipa de
psiquiatras da Universidade de Yale já tinha declarado ser seu
"dever" alertar para a falta de estabilidade mental do Presidente
Trump que o torna incapaz de governar.
Trump's dizzying day of interviews
Comments on Civil War, big banks and
Kim Jong Un perplex aides, historians.
By JOSH DAWSEY 05/01/17 09:24 PM EDT
President Donald Trump questioned why the Civil War— which
erupted 150 years ago over slavery — needed to happen. He said he would be
"honored" to meet with Kim Jong-Un, the violent North Korean dictator
who is developing nuclear missiles and oppresses his people, under the
"right circumstances."
The president floated, and backed away from, a tax on
gasoline. Trump said he was "looking at" breaking up the big banks,
sending the stock market sliding. He seemed to praise Philippines strongman
President Rodrigo Duterte for his high approval ratings. He promised changes to
the Republican health care bill, though he has seemed unsure what was in the
legislation, even as his advisers whipped votes for it.
And Monday still had nine hours to go.
"It seems to be among the most bizarre recent 24 hours
in American presidential history," said Douglas Brinkley, a presidential
historian. "It was all just surreal disarray and a confused mental state
from the president."
The interviews — published by Bloomberg, Face the Nation and
the SiriusXM radio network — seemed timed to the president's 100-day mark but
contained a dizzying amount of news, even for a president who often makes news
in stream-of-consciousness comments. Trump's advisers have at times tried to
curb his media appearances, worried he will step on his message. "They
were not helpful to us," one senior administration official said.
"There was no point to do all of them."
White House officials said privately there was no broader
strategy behind the interviews. GOP strategists and Capitol Hill aides were
puzzled by it all. "I have no idea what they view as a successful media
hit," said one senior GOP consultant with close ties to the administration.
"He just seemed to go crazy today," a senior GOP aide said.
Trump's comments questioning the need for the Civil War,
aired Monday afternoon, seemed to disregard history and downplay slavery,
several historians said.
"Why couldn't that one have been worked out?"
Trump told SiriusXM, praising Andrew Jackson, who he said would have stopped
the war had he still been alive.
The Civil War was largely fought over slavery and its
expansion, with Southern states saying they had a right to have slaves and
secede from the union. Trump has been compared to Jackson, most prominently by
Stephen Bannon, his chief strategist. Trump again praised Jackson on Twitter
Monday night saying he saw the war coming. Jackson died years earlier.
"White supremacists, lost causers, states-rights
activists could latch onto this,” said David Blight, a Civil War historian at
Yale University. “I don’t know if Trump even knows he’s doing it. You can be
too ignorant to know you’re ignorant.”
Trump broke with longstanding precedent by telling Bloomberg
he would consider a meeting with the North Korean president. The United States
has no ties with North Korea and the country has repeatedly tried to fire
missiles and build up a stockpile to harm the United States. Recently, the
country posted video of the country sending a missile into the White House,
blowing it up.
Later in the day, Trump said "none of us are
safe," mentioning North Korea. Spicer defended the president's words,
crediting the dictator for "assuming power at an early age, and he led his
country forward." Other advisers said the meeting would only happen if the
president changed his ways, an unlikely scenario, and noted that Trump has
criticized the North Korean leader. But Spicer's comments struck many as almost
praising the North Korean president.
"I would not say Kim III has moved the country
forward," Jay Nordlinger, an editor at the conservative National Review
wrote on Twitter. "Why is the presidential spokesman talking like this?
Are we America?"
Trump's comments on the big banks to Bloomberg would be
favored by Democrats and seemed to take Wall Street officials by surprise.
Stock markets immediately slid. Several people close to Trump noted he often
uses the phrase “looking at" when asked about a position where he's
unfamiliar or doesn't have a definitive answer he wants to give. Spicer later
declined to say Trump would do it.
Trump also told Bloomberg he would consider a gas tax — a
policy proposal often favored by Democrats — that drew fire from conservative
groups more aligned with his agenda, like Club for Growth. The idea even seemed
to even take Democrats by surprise, with Sen. Charles Schumer, the Minority
Leader, declining to comment. A senior administration official said the idea of
a gas tax "had not been seriously proposed by anyone in the White
House."
"He did not express support," Spicer said later,
adding he was only considering the idea because industry executives asked him to
do so.
Trump surprised senior Hill Republicans later Monday by also
telling Bloomberg that his proposed health law was likely to change, even as
his advisers furiously tried to get votes for the current bill. Some wondered
if he was just referring to the bill changing in the Senate, which is widely
expected, if it passes the House. Two senior administration officials said
there were no big changes coming to the House of Representatives text and that
they weren't exactly sure what he was saying. Republican legislators were still
seeking guidance from the White House Monday night, officials said.
He also lauded Duterte, the leader in the Philippines, who
is notorious for ruling with an iron fist, for being popular. Trump has often
praised other rulers who are strong and have high approval ratings, using
"famous" and "strong" as high compliments.
"You know he's very popular in the Philippines," Trump
said of Duterte, who he praised for getting rid of drugs.
Duterte’s methods for cracking down on drugs, which have
included condoning of extrajudicial killings, have drawn scorn from human
rights groups and other observers of his record.
The comments took politicians of both parties — and some of
his aides — by surprise. They came after Trump had earlier surprised foreign
policy experts with a "very friendly" conversation with Duterte on
Saturday night, and an invitation to visit the White House. Duterte has not
accepted and said he might be too busy to come.
“This is a man who has boasted publicly about killing his
own citizens,” Sen. Ben Cardin, a Democrat, said. “The United States is unique
in the world because our values — respect for human rights, respect for the
rule of law — are our interests. Ignoring human rights will not advance U.S.
interests in the Philippines or any place else. Just the opposite.”
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Spicer was asked if Trump was "briefed" on
Duterte's human rights record. "The president gets fully briefed," he
said, not elaborating.
Finally, Trump's mantra of "never retreat-never
surrender" was revived by John Dickerson of "Face the Nation,"
who asked if the president stood by his claims that Obama was a "bad (or
sick) guy!" for allegedly tapping his phones in Trump Tower. That claim is
unsubstantiated.
"I don't stand by anything," Trump said,before
adding: "I think our side's been proven very strongly."
Later, Spicer said Trump fully stood by his comments on
Obama.
Pushed by Dickerson, Trump walked away, ending the interview
and going back to his desk.
"OK it's enough," he said. "Thank you. Thank
you very much."
Matthew Nussbaum contributed to this report.
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