Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado told reporters she presented the medal for her Nobel Peace Prize to President Donald Trump at a private White House meeting on Thursday, but did not say if he accepted it.
“I think today is a historic day for us Venezuelans,” she said after the meeting with Trump, the first time the two have met in-person.
This is just naked manipulation. I would be ashamed if someone tried it on me, but what do you know, Trump completely laps it up. She’s a sly and calculating operator, I will give her that.
We truly do live in a clown world.
Glazing Trump is about as easy as it gets.
Certainly true, but being willing to debase yourself like this can’t be easy. Or maybe she’s just trash and it’s super easy for her, I don’t know.
So I heard an interview with one of her associates and they seemed pretty pragmatic about whatever sucking up they need to do to make Trump change things the way they think needs to be changed. And it didn’t sound like they were disappointed or shocked or anything, just that’s the way things go.
Reminds me of speaking with a colleague that was an immigrant from a country with a well known corrupt government. He just couldn’t get as shocked as the rest of us over Trump’s behavior. He recognized it as bad, but as far as he was concerned, that was just life and he was used to it. Disappointed for things to start feeling a bit too much like his home country to be sure, but overt corruption was just the way things were. I could imagine being in the thick of such a government and just being boringly normal about this level of petty corruption.