2016 August 12^th

Trump’s handlers are now trying to scrape the egg from his face resulting from the fallout from his claim that President Obama and Hillary Clinton “founded” ISIS. Just yesterday he was asked repeatedly if he meant that President Obama had created an environment favorable to the rise of ISIS. Every time he was asked he said no he meant that President Obama and Hillary Clinton had “founded” ISIS. Just to emphasize his position, he used the president’s middle name, calling him Barak Hussein Obama.

Hugh Hewitt, a right wing radio commentator, tried mightily to get a more rational comment from Trump, even to pointing out that American warplanes were killing ISIS soldiers by the dozens in Libya, but Trump kept insisting on his thesis that the President and the former Secretary of State had founded ISIS even if they were now killing them off.

It is now a good 24 hours later and Trump’s supervisors have finally persuaded him that he has walked well out on a very thin limb with his ISIS comments. Trump, of course, never retreats, apologizes or any of those things mortals do when they make mistakes so what’s open to fix this mess?

It’s all the fault of the dimwitted press and his dimwitted critics all of whom failed to understand that Mr. Trump was being sarcastic. He has been sarcastic before. You might remember when he suggested that Russia hack into Clinton’s emails. Suggesting that an unfriendly foreign country stick its intelligence gathering noses into our election produced some static and Trump tried to defuse that by claiming his suggestion about the email hacking was just sarcasm.

It is obvious that Donald Trump doesn’t know what sarcasm is. In neither the suggestion that Russians hack Clinton’s emails nor the President “founding” ISIS could these remarks be taken as examples of sarcasm.  Sarcasm isn’t complicated; you exaggerate the opposite trait of the trait you want to belittle in your adversary. Saying that Trump is modest, or that he is careful not to offend minorities or the handicapped, would be examples of sarcasm.

As I wrote previously, Trump may initially say things he doesn’t really believe but after he hears himself repeat them he comes to believe they are true. If you believe you are lying you’ll probably flunk a lie detector test; but if you are convinced that what your saying is true you’ll probably pass. Trump seems able to convince himself of almost anything.