‘Meet the Vapid Press’

A Bit of Humor from a Colleague

The new prestigious moderator of “Meet the Press” debuts this morning with a complicitous, “softball” interview with Donald Trump.  Upon my seeing an interview of her and making a singular comment to a colleague, “How vapid,” he immediately responded in jest with what follows far below.  It is published here with permission, as I feel it illustrates something notable about our time.

Of note, the author tells me that Kristen Welker has been with NBC for a long time, always making sure never to go outside established corporate media norms.  My colleague has long said “Meet the Press” would have been a good forum for us to have been on, but neither she nor any of her predecessors at the network asked to interview me or my colleagues, who together wrote our bestselling public-service book about the dangers of Donald Trump.

Gee, Bandy, this Sunday’s “Meet the Press” program has a new milk-toast moderator.  Kristen Welker never rocks the boat, which is of course why she got the job.  And apparently she personally chose to make her debut with none other than Donald Trump himself.  Maybe if you watch the whole interview on Sunday, you can give us your psychological assessment of Trump at this point, and about how this all fits in with “Trump Contagion.”  I wrote the following as a thought experiment, imagining if Welker would have asked a few more questions about you.  Enjoy!

KRISTEN WELKER: A final question Mr. President, looking back.  Let’s clear the air about this.  Soon after you became president, Dr. Bandy Lee and a group of eminent psychiatrists published an instantly best-selling book titled THE DANGEROUS CASE OF DONALD TRUMP, warning that you had characteristics of a pathological narcissist and sociopath.  Then in another major book just last year, it was revealed for the first time that your Chief of Staff General Kelly had secretly bought the psychiatrists’ book and used as a kind of “Owner’s Manual” to control and contain you.  I wonder, what did you think of the psychiatrists’ book?

DONALD TRUMP: I never heard of this book or this person.  She must be a wacko, really crazy.  Kelly had all kinds of stupid ideas and gave me all kinds of terrible advice, that’s why I had to fire him.  I told him, “You’re fired!”  So now he’s making up witch-hunt fantasy stories.  I never did anything wrong!

KRISTEN WELKER: Well, Mr. President, Dr. Lee is now writing a follow-up book titled THE MORE DANGEROUS CASE OF DONALD TRUMP.  She says you should have been and still should be compelled to undergo a mandatory psychiatric evaluation, that in fact she and her expert colleagues who often examine psychologically dangerous persons for the Courts would be willing to give their testimony to a judge to compel you to undergo proper mental health testing and evaluation to determine if you are a danger to the public or if you needed treatment.  Now Dr. Lee is very highly regarded, taught at Yale School of Medicine and Yale Law School for seventeen years, has consulted with state governments on prison reform and helped governments around the world reduce violence.  Would you be willing to be interviewed by Dr. Lee and/or her colleagues to answer their questions, just as I am interviewing you and asking you questions right now?  Or maybe will you come back on our program together with Dr. Lee?

DONALD TRUMP: I already told you this so-called Dr. Lee must be a horrible nutty crazy wacko person!  Sounds like she needs to be locked up and tested in a mental institution herself!  Or … come to think of it, I do recall….  I think my good friend Alan Dershowitz told me about her when I was president.  I told Alan to figure out how to get rid of her, however he does it, and he got his friends at the American Psychological or Psychiatric Association to push her under and get her fired from Yale.  Make sure that happens, I told Alan, and let the APA and Yale know we’ll take care of them if they take care of her….  She’s a dangerous person, very dangerous and wacky.  We have to protect our great country from nut jobs like her.

KRISTEN WELKER: Thank you, Mr. President.

Then after the cameras and mics are off they keep talking:

KRISTEN WELKER: Mr. President, you mentioned Alan Dershowitz.  Are you still in touch with him?  You know, I would like to interview him sometime soon, if you approve.

DONALD TRUMP: Yes of course he’s a very special guy, great guy.  He took very good care of that wacko Bandy Lee.  I remembered that when that friend of mine, Jeffrey Epstein, was accused by all those women and prosecutors, like they are accusing me now, he turned to Alan and told him to take good care of everyone who was attacking him.  And then Alan arranged a really great deal for Epstein so he could never again be charged for anything.  If only Epstein hadn’t made the mistakes he did, going to the wrong places, he’d be here in Florida visiting me all the time here at Mar-a-Lago!

KRISTEN WELKER: I thought you weren’t such close friends with Epstein.  I thought you had broken with him long ago?

DONALD TRUMP: Hey, you know the deal.  I had to say what I had to say after all the nutty media attacks on him.  But enough now!  You keep up the good work, Kristen.  And we’ll keep our little secrets private between us of course, you know, including about Dershowitz.  And when I’m back in the White House I’ll give you my first interview!  Meanwhile why don’t you interview Rudy as well as Dershowitz sometime soon.  Make sure you are good and fair, like you are with me, and we’ll all be very nice to you, okay?

My colleague’s scenario is, of course, only tongue-in-cheek.  But it is illustrative of the reality that “Trump Contagion” is not only infecting those who watch Fox, Newsmax, and many online sources, but has influenced programs such as “Meet the Press.”  It is done far more subtly, by not asking the right questions and not inviting the right people (or inviting the wrong people), through what is now known as our corporate “mainstream” news media.  And so Welker and “Meet the Press” actually spread “Trump Contagion” as well, however unknowingly or unconsciously they may be doing so.  We will all know more in just a few hours, when Welker debuts with Trump.  As my colleague said at the beginning, get ready to “Meet the Vapid Press”!

For more “humor”, we may note a few other comments by the former and would-be president again on social media:

“Biden Prosecutor, Deranged Jack Smith, has asked the Court to limit 45th President, and leading Republican Nominee (by more than 50 points, & beating Dems!) DONALD J. TRUMP’S, PUBLIC STATEMENTS.  So, I’m campaigning for President against an incompetent person who has WEAPONIZED the DOJ & FBI to go after his Political Opponent, & I am not allowed to COMMENT?  They Leak, Lie, & Sue, & they won’t allow me to SPEAK?  How else would I explain that Jack Smith is DERANGED, or Crooked Joe is INCOMPETENT?”

Admitting their error is more painful for his followers than choosing to believe that this is the Word of God, and therefore any “gesture” in this direction—especially from “mainstream” media—helps!