lol... USA is a fucking reality TV show at this point. This isn't even unsual... The police are just fucking inept.

i understand and agree that he is unamerican in the sense of the "american ideal" but outside looking in, he is a completely typical product of american culture. he's reality TV, fame for fame's sake, wealthy without working, a hustler, the ideal jerry springer guest, the ideal wrestling guest, the son of racist nepotism, performative altruism (and then defrauds his own charities), he pathologically cannot accept being wrong/defers all fault to anyone else ("whatever, i do what i want"), he's weaponized ignorance, he's "hilariously" rapey, he's illiterate, a proud philistine, he's vapid pageantry, he's a christian who know nothing of religion/spirituality, he's 4chan, he's 8chan, he's tacky style with complete lack of substance, he's the personification of "fake it 'till you make it". these are all lessons i've seen repeated ad nauseam from american TV, films, music, podcasts, youtube stars, etc. to the point where they're past cliché that they're now entrenched americana.

i know that isn't the typical american but that is the most typical american america has sold to itself and the rest of the world.

I have two boys, 9 and 14. If they treated people the way Trump, and most of the right, treats people, I'd be ashamed and reprimand them, especially if they did it publicly the way Trump has mocked a disabled reporter, Ford, the parents of fallen soldier... we could go on and on about how he mocks people on a regular basis. Every major religion has some variation of the Golden Rule, treat others as you'd have others treat you, especially Christianity, and yet the entire right ignores this rule, especially when it's somebody they oppose. Be it LGBTQIA+ people, political opponents, economic opponents, they ignore the Golden Rule. They in fact view it as a sign of strength to openly be hostile and rude to others, and yet, when one of theirs is mocked by late night TV, or when Sarah Sanders is kicked out of a restaurant (days after the fact that the entire right was celebrating the Supreme Court victory that they don't have to serve people they don't like), suddenly it is all "why can't people be civilized"? Plank in your own eye ass holes.

As Bob says politics is mean and ugly, but Republicans, Christians, made it that way and have been doubling down on it, ignoring the commandments to Love on another, the commandment to treat others as you'd have them treat you, not to judge least ye be judged and on and on. And somehow the right views that as a strength, as a good thing. They view McCain's efforts to reach across the isle and find a common center ground that everyone can agree on as a weakness. They don't want or will accept a 50/50 solution, they want a solution that is 80 or even better 90 percent on their side, and anything less than that is the other side being obstructionist.

Anyhow, if my kids acted the way Trump does, our President, whom we should hold to the highest standards, I'd make them apologize and be frank with them that I was appalled at their behavior, to mock a person with a disability or a woman or any other person the way Trump does on a regular basis. Yet the entire right is falling over themselves with pleasure at this rude behavior... I just don't get it. I don't get how that is acceptable behavior now from the President of the United States. It'd be one thing if he was still the piece of shit business man (who's business' constantly fail and need bankruptcy protection, even though he rarely pays contractors), 2nd rate reality TV show star, but this is the highest office in the land, where we should expect a person to act with dignity. I may have found Bush Jr to be an idiot and a horrible President, but at least he treated people with respect and the way one would expect of a President. Now we have a man-child and somehow this is a great thing. Fuck our lives when this is acceptable, when this is in fact praise worthy by far too many on the right (and I know, many Republicans said it was wrong of Trump to mock her the way he did, but they didn't really stand up to him, just a quick line to appease the few who might vote for them that would be appalled at that behavior).

EDIT TO ADD: What's upsetting about the Merrick Garland Supreme Court nomination is that they didn't even hold hearings. They had the votes to block him from confirmation, so hold hearings, say "no" and move on, but they wouldn't even do that. And he'd probably have been one of the most moderate justices in the modern era, which would have made explaining the "no" harder perhaps, but at least it would have been fair. But apparently fair is for the weak, one must play the ugly game now... and look at Bob's one reply, they got their eye on Ginsburg, they are hoping she dies so they can replace her with another theocrat like Kavanaugh, and because of that expectation and hope, you can guarantee that all the right will be out in force come November. We really need a miracle turnout to start to change things...

Jesus, Bob! I don't want the guy dead! WTF!

I WOULD like it if he was doing something more suited to his skills and temperament. He was great as a reality TV charicature of a sociopathic, incompetent CEO.

You can't possibly argue that the Pocahontas thing while at an event intending to honor Native Americans is acceptable behavior. If he thinks Warren is lying about her heritage, fine. Say she's lying about it some other time. Nobody put a gun to Trump's head and said he has to call her that. And on top of all that, at least have the courtesy to not do it at that event. Honoring World War II Native American veterans has jack shit nothing to do with Elizabeth Warren.

Even if you happen to think that there's nothing wrong with the Washington Redskins name, do you think it would be appropriate for the President of the United States to bust through the wall Kool Aid man style dressed head to toe in Redskins garb doing the Tomahawk Chop at an event intended to honor Native Americans? FFS!

What next? Meet with a Chinese delegation and walk in doing slant eyes and the ol' "Chinese, Japanese, dirty knees, *lift shirt* LOOK AT THESE!!!"

All he had to do was turn his "be a dick" switch off for a few hours to honor war veterans. Is that so hard? Apparently, it's impossible for him.

Watching this guy as President is just astounding to me. Every damn day seemingly he finds new ways to be a total dick when he completely doesn't have to be. Elizabeth Warren is going to be fine, I don't care he insulted her. But acting like an ass clown in a way that's very likely to offend actual war heroes in the process?! Zero justification, zero excuses.

Being President isn't supposed to be a 24/7 reality TV show where everything revolves around petty partisan/personal vendettas, including disregarding basic tenets of acting like a mature adult.

No Mr Trump (RE: 0:52)... if you were a Liberal Democrat, nobody on the left would be calling you a smart man, or even a good man. You are the very picture of a fucking idiot. You could have been left of Bernie, and your narcissism would have made me sick. You are a near illiterate moron, and this wouldn't be a problem if you just kept to reality TV that appeals to other idiots, or the immorality of ripping off your contractors, but you ran, and run, to be the President of the United States, made us the laughing stock of the world. The media gives you a hard time, not because you are conservative, or because they lie, or because of some liberal agenda, they give you a hard time because of your banal idiocy, the fact YOU lie, that you constantly contradict yourself, that your people have to contradict you. that you can't seem to understand even basic concepts my 13 year old could grasp with far greater ease than you. Don't worry though, the minority part of the population who voted for you, will have faith in you no matter what, you could come out and say you did conspire with the Putin to win the election, and none of them would care, because you aren't Clinton, and they'd just see it as saving America in the end, such is the power of the brainwash on the far right... hell, I'd doubt the GOP itself would have enough balls to do anything about it other than say it was bad for you to do. Anyhow, you fucking moron, you massive failure of a human, you waste of star-stuff, nobody on the left would say you were smart, or appreciate you at all, we'd all see you for the looser you are, it isn't your politics that causes it, it's because of facts. Of course I realize that there are some big words here, and you can't read it, but I'm sure one of your actually smart, but greedy people, can help parse it for you, and stroke your ego about how it was an unfair attack and yada yada yada... and you and your followers would just say I'm brainwashed by the evil liberal media like NPR, but if you'd learn to vet things... which I know is well beyond your imbecile mind, one learns to see where the truth lies... Hell, you pompous buffoon, even when I was a far right, evangelical Christian, and pushing for strong Republican ties, I'd still have thought you to be the biggest idiots to ever hold the office.

1 minute in, and I can't get over how he's seemingly adopted the style of dress from the film "Her".

This was interesting, and I'm glad to see him get what seems like his own show, but the "reality TV" formula makes it almost unwatchable.

Cool test though.

Nothing is ever simple. I'm just not properly explaining what I was saying -- Jon Stewart went off and did his public speaking, crowd organizing thing with this belief in something that he couldn't quite define. He lost his mojo, in a way, saw that he was naked, bereft of his staff. Any talking/figure head with a staff of writers or information feeders can be comparable to other leaders of a similar make up. Trump and Stewart are reality tv stars of a similar make up.

Dag suggested that the writers of the Daily Show are what created Jon Stewart as we know hom, and so I ran with the idea that he, like the figurehead and reality star, Donald Trump, are products of other people's opinions -- this, when left to their own devices, while successful entertainers, they realize the emperor's clothes are transparent and now they have to rely on their own smaller slice of knowledge. Not that Stewart is dumb, but Stewart without writers and correspondents, is a similar archetype to Trump. Stewart's writers and correspondents, including the man whose show he is on in this clip, are akin to the media that Donald Trump treats like his writing staff. But instead of leaving the Daily Show, Trump is leaving *most* of the media, revealing he is not as knowledgeable without his sources.

Anyway, I was following the logic as laid down by dag's logic for why Jon isn't as funny or put together. I also know that good leaders put themselves in other people's shoes before giving advice to other leaders. Stewart MUST do this because he is a decent figurehead, but Trump doesn't -- that's why the media questions him on what biographies he is reading; leaders are supposed to put themselves into their rivals AND heros shoes as a matter of critical self analysis -- so, Stewart is speaking to the media almost as if he is also putting himself in Trump's shoes and speaking about how his own writing staff and correspondent's left him and succeeded.

Stewart has a 4 year contract with HBO. He will have the structure and writing teams he needs. Trump should utilize the media, including books and newspapers, and follow the subtext Jon laid out here.

Edited for spelling, grammatical errs and additional context. Done editing.

You elect a gameshow host its in a twisted sense very logical that your country should be run like a bad reality TV show.

I wouldn't trust Trump to host a show on QVC if he were producing it as well... his incompetence is really beyond question anymore.

America has just turned into a giant reality TV parody of itself.

Pop culture has become so ignorant because the populace has become ignorant.
Reality tv is not the totality of pop culture, it is the L.C.D. version. Reality tv stars are not representative of celebrities in general.

This was nothing more than angry stupidity.

Yes, he's done only right things so far, far right things, but all the wrong right things.
Legislating based on ignorance and fear "will have to study this dumb deal" is typical, deciding something is terrible but knowing absolutely nothing about it. Fine for a reality tv idiot, not ok for a president.
And for all your talk of his balls, he sure looks like a sniveling coward to most, afraid of refugee children enough to violate numerous treaties and international laws until he knows "what's going on" (to use his words)....which means permanently.

We all underestimated how stupid and gullible Americans are.

Yes, let's elect a reality TV show host, someone who lost a billion dollars (in the casino business no less!), someone who has no self-awareness, no intellectual curiosity, a 70-year-old child who fights with comedians on Twitter, to be the president of the most powerful nation on earth. Idiots.

I'm sure those manufacturing jobs will be back any minute now... Will check back in a year.

Trump was in a position to win because the media gave him airtime over his ridiculous birth certificate claims. If he had been relegated to merely a couple minutes a week on a reality tv show, I don't think he would have had the appeal to launch a campaign.

Can we abolish "reality TV" shows now?