Trump was asked by a reporter whether he had directed Bessent to intervene in the bond market and what other options were on the table.
  • PumpkinSkink@lemmy.world
    26·
    6 days ago

    This statement is really weird, even for Trump because in the question asked immediately prior he clearly understands the question about whether he directed Bessant to intervene in the bond market stating.

    “Not at all. No, he’s a very capable man. He wanted to do it. He’s very good at it. He is a good touch. Very good natural touch for the bonds and interest.”

    Right? He understands ehats beung spoken about, or his answer at least makes it sound like he does.

    Then the reporter mentions that yields came back up and asks if Trump was going to direct Bessant to do “some other type of intervention”. At this point Trump suggests military intervention.

    He goes from “Bond market intervention” -> “Interest rates” (reasonable) to “Intervention” -> “I might direct the military to attack the bond market” (deranged) in, like 10 seconds. Is he just playing word association? Is he fucking with the reporter?

    • VoodooMischief@lemmy.caEnglish
      17·
      6 days ago

      I disagree with your assessment that he understands the first question. His answer is just your typical responsibility deflection (“He wanted to do it”) combined with vague praise (“He is a good touch”). It’s akin to Maurice’s generic answers about football in IT Crowd (“Did you see that ludicrous display last night”). The only thing Trump DOES understand is using the military for his problems, which is why his answers ultimately land there.

      • monotremata@lemmy.caEnglish
        17·
        6 days ago

        This is my read on it too. He has no idea whether we want bond yields high or low or what. He actually feels a little bit attacked by the question because he doesn’t understand it. At first he tries to deflect it, because if the question will just go away, he doesn’t have to care about it anymore. But then there’s a follow-up. This is a challenge that isn’t immediately going away. That makes him angry. He still doesn’t know what’s going on, but now he has to care about that. So he’s gonna make a vague threat about being in control of the military. That should do the trick. That makes the reporters’ eyes get wide every time, and he can just walk away at that point and be guaranteed to get a lot of press attention. It’s a win-win.

        You have to understand that he doesn’t see these interviews as means of communication. He sees them as power struggles. Any communication that occurs is entirely incidental.

        • floofloof@lemmy.caOP
          7·
          6 days ago

          Someone else offered the darker explanation that he’s threatening to use the military against countries like Canada who decide to reduce their investment in US bonds. I don’t know whether that’s seeing meaning where there isn’t any, but here in Canada we haven’t forgotten that Trump keeps saying he wants to destroy our country one way or another. But overall I think it’s more likely he’s just failing to understand the question then forgetting what he’s supposed to be talking about.

          • monotremata@lemmy.caEnglish
            6·
            6 days ago

            Yeah, he definitely seems untethered enough that any kind of threat seems risky to entirely dismiss. I don’t think he’s gonna do anything with the actual military against Canada, though. That’s expensive, and his puppeteers don’t see a big profit in it. He’s kind of already acting as an occupying force within the US, and his hold on power here is tenuous; and war with Canada, who can actually hurt Americans on their home soil, would be even more unpopular than his various overseas entanglements.

    • grrgyle@slrpnk.net
      5·
      6 days ago

      “I might direct the military to attack the bond market” (deranged) in, like 10 seconds. Is he just playing word association?

      One hundred percent got stuck on the word “intervention” got lost in the brain fog, his alignment forbids STFUing or asking for clarification, so he just pattern matches over to “military” and his speak box handles the rest (no thoughts required for duckspeak)

  • kreskin@lemmy.world
    3·
    4 days ago

    so a “war” on our own bond markets then? Will they be firing missiles on buildings in the US?
    …What a time to be alive.

  • humanspiral@lemmy.ca
    10·
    6 days ago

    This is more an example of advanced senility dementia that spouts more and more absurd out of his mouth, rather than any imminent declaration that any bon seller is a commie traitor insurgent. Though central banks around the world might want to consider this out of control spiral, and sell before they are threatened not to be allowed to sell.

    Still this is just the dotard mixing up his talking points, although technically he could claim winning this war. The bond market no longer has an air force or navy, and its missile production facillities are down at least 90%.

  • teawrecks@sopuli.xyz
    27·
    7 days ago

    He’s a walking LLM, just making word associations based on what’s most probable to resonate with idiots.