Trump Calls Electoral College “Genius” & “Disaster For Democracy”

Donald Trump took a break from elevating American Nazi and KKK-approved Steve Bannon to tweet about the Electoral College and eat a steakhouse hamburger. Trump won the presidency thanks to the Electoral College despite losing to Hillary Clinton by more than a million votes countrywide. His victory caused petitions to circulate calling on electors to break rank and vote Clinton into the White House instead. Trump seems to agree, calling the system "a disaster for democracy."

That was four years ago. Now, he hails the system as "actually genius."

Trump has made a habit of contradicting himself, saying whatever the moment called for, throughout his campaign and after his election. NBC published a list of Trump's contradictory policy positions and a creative firm produced this website which plays his contradictory statements simultaneously. Historians often cite frequent self-contradictions as a reoccurring hallmark of authoritarian regimes, which use them as a tactic to devalue truth and introduce multiple narratives of reality to delegitimise critics. Some examples of Trump's self-contradiction can be seen in this video.

Trump also tweeted numerous times about the alleged inaccuracy of a recent New York Times report headlined "Firings and Discord Put Trump Transition Team in a State of Disarray." For months, Trump maintained a blacklist of media outlets denied access to his campaign. Tuesday, press chief Hope Hicks misled the White House protective press pool, telling them that Trump had retired for the night. He then made an unannounced visit to 21 Club, a pricey steakhouse, where he promised to cut taxes for the rich. Reporters were denied access, but a group from Bloomberg News happened to be sitting at the next table.

The White House protective press pool is an organisation, instituted during John F. Kennedy's tenure, intended to track the movements of the President should anything historic happen while he's in public. Usually, they record things like takeoff times of Air Force One. In this case, with Trump making promises to an assembled crowd, their presence would have traditionally been expected. Ditching the protective pool isn't a crime, but is a break with standard operating procedure. The move seems to jibe with Trump's disregard for outlets that don't cover him as he would like to be covered.