President Donald Trump speaks at FII PRIORITY Miami 2025 Summit in Miami Beach, Florida, on Wednesday. (Roberto Schmidt – AFP / Getty Images)
By Michael Schwarz February 20, 2025 at 12:51pm
At this point, President Donald Trump’s legions of detractors consist of only two groups: lying psychopaths and propagandized fools.
The president, however, has mastered the subtle art of playing those detractors like a fiddle.
During a speech Wednesday evening at the Future Investment Initiative Institute Priority Summit Miami 2025 — an annual Saudi Arabian investment conference in South Florida, per the Miami Herald — Trump told a story of a harrowing nighttime landing in Air Force One and then tweaked his detractors by joking that he ought to have awarded himself the Congressional Medal of Honor for his bravery.
“I got out of the plane and actually asked my people, you know, I said, ‘Excuse me, I was very brave sitting in that cockpit. Am I allowed to give myself the Congressional Medal of Honor?’” Trump said in a video posted to YouTube, thereby drawing laughter from the audience.
Keep that in mind: The audience members laughed. They knew a master storyteller’s self-deprecating joke when they heard one.
“And they said, ‘I don’t think so, sir,’” the president added. “I said ‘Well, I felt I was extremely brave.’”
Then, he predicted the precise response from his Trump Derangment Syndrome-afflicted enemies in the media.
“Now, here’s the problem with saying a story like that,” the president continued.
Are you surprised that the Trump-haters fell right into the trap Trump set for them?
“When you kid, the press will say, ‘President Donald Trump wanted to give himself the Congressional Medal of Honor.’ Headlines, you know, headlines all over the fake news. We call it the fake news. But we’re all wise to them.”
Readers may view the president’s comments in the YouTube video below. The speech ran nearly 80 minutes in length, but the relevant segment began around the 33:51 mark.
Wise to the fake news indeed.
In fact, Trump knows his enemies so well that he practically orchestrates their unhinged responses to him.
Let us start, for instance, with the lying psychopaths.
Wednesday on the social media platform X, the pathologically dishonest “Republicans Against Trump” account shared a clip of the president’s self-deprecating remarks on the social media platform X, complete with commentary that described those remarks “so F wierd.”
Note, however, the careful editing of the “Republicans Against Trump” clip. At the precise moment in the speech when Trump began mocking the press for taking him seriously, the clip ended.
This is so F weird.
Trump says he deserves to award himself the Congressional Medal of Honor because he was “brave” enough to fly on an airplane.
“I actually asked my people, excuse me, I was very brave sitting in that cockpit. Am I allowed to give myself the Congressional… pic.twitter.com/KEE3pkesVM
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) February 20, 2025
Meanwhile, the propagandized fools — one suspects willful blindness induced by unhinged hatred — reared their heads in the comments section.
He sounds like some of my patients with beginning stages of dementia. The problem with these illnesses and they can cause behavior and coping issues. Sometimes being overly aggressive. Not good for a president of a nuclear power.
— Jenny 🇨🇦🇺🇸 (@shindig101) February 20, 2025
It’s weirder that Trump is allowed to speak utter nonsense to a room full of supposedly educated, intelligent people without being firmly led off the stage.
— hmilne 🇨🇦 (@HMilne57) February 20, 2025
This is his projection of inferiority. This is why he hates the military men and women of America. He knows he’s a draft dodger and it haunts him. This is why he always disrespects our veterans.
— Ganker (@GSDWarden) February 20, 2025
Old fool finally starting lose his marbles.
— Men In Black (@MenInBlackNZ) February 20, 2025
Thankfully, at least one Trump detractor proved that he or she had a functioning brain.
Ok, I’m not a Trump fan, but he was saying that in jest for comical effect. Let’s not blow that out of proportion.
— Helotian (@darter666) February 20, 2025
One X user, however, went a step further and nailed the truth completely. Trump knows exactly how his enemies will react. He owns them.
“Watched it live. Immediately follows with how his haters will edit the clip and make it sound like he wasn’t completely joking,” the user wrote.
Watched it live. Immediately follows with how his haters will edit the clip and make it sound like he wasn’t completely joking. 🙃
— Ryan Morse CMT CFP® (@RyanMorse33) February 20, 2025
In short, Trump’s unhinged and moronic detractors would seem more dangerous if the president did not anticipate and practically orchestrate their insanity.
Michael Schwarz holds a Ph.D. in History and has taught at multiple colleges and universities. He has published one book and numerous essays on Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and the Early U.S. Republic. He loves dogs, baseball, and freedom. After meandering spiritually through most of early adulthood, he has rediscovered his faith in midlife and is eager to continue learning about it from the great Christian thinkers.
Michael Schwarz holds a Ph.D. in History and has taught at multiple colleges and universities. He has published one book and numerous essays on Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and the Early U.S. Republic. He loves dogs, baseball, and freedom. After meandering spiritually through most of early adulthood, he has rediscovered his faith in midlife and is eager to continue learning about it from the great Christian thinkers.
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