The story about Ivanka Trump prevailing upon her father to bomb Syria because she was distressed about coverage of the recent chemical weapons attack in Syria has been bubbling up in comments all day, thanks in part to the efforts of valued commenter rikyrah, but it deserves its own post. I have two default assumptions about this and every other story involving quotes from anyone named Trump: 1) The Trumps are lying, and 2) They’re bad at their jobs.
The Trump people have run a ham-handed (though revoltingly successful) media strategy trying to position Ivanka and Jared as a moderating and humanizing influences on the shitgibbon since Day One. My guess is this story is of a piece with that effort, and maybe specifically to push back on the alarm from the Bannonite faction that Trump might distinguish between good and bad Muslims.
According the Eric “Qusay” Trump (the one with the most acute case of “resting sociopath face”), the shitgibbon decided to bomb Syria at the behest of knockoff handbag-and-shoe peddler Ivanka — note that in the article from which the story orginates, that appears to be pure speculation on the part of Qusay. Moreover, Qusay says the bombing totally proves Trump isn’t Putin’s poodle:
Choice excerpts of Qusay’s comments via The Telegraph:
“…Trump pledged to improve relations with Mr Putin during his campaign for the White House but his new administration has been plagued with allegations of close entanglements with Russian officials.
Eric Trump said his father was merely arguing that the US should try to be “best friends with other superpowers” if that was possible and described allegations of links with the Russian regime as “ridiculous”.
He said: “If there was anything that Syria did, it was to validate the fact that there is no Russia tie…”
He added: “Ivanka is a mother of three kids and she has influence. I’m sure she said ‘listen, this is horrible stuff.’ My father will act in times like that.
“And by the way, he was anti doing anything with Syria two years ago. Then a leader gasses their own people, women and children, at some point America is the global leader and the world’s superpower has to come forward and act and they did with a lot of support of our allies and I think that’s a great thing.”
Mr Trump rejected claims his father had acted impulsively after seeing the images, saying the President was “a great thinker, practical not impulsive.” He added: “I’m proud he took that action and believe me he thinks things through.”
It’s a load of incoherent horseshit, sprinkled with unconvincing personal qualifiers, proving that Qusay is a chip off the old block. But if you believe, as I do, that it’s very likely a badly crafted raft of lies, an interesting set of possible objectives emerges. First, they’re trying to have it both ways by framing the shitgibbon-ordered bombing as a tough guy move and also a humanitarian action.
And second, they’re trying to act like the shitgibbon is standing up to Russia, which he isn’t and never will. As many folks speculated shortly after the bombing, the most likely outcome is that Trump will “negotiate” a deal that lifts the sanctions on Russia in exchange for reduced patronage for Assad. That “Shart of the Deal” outcome would be a huge win for Putin, Exxon and Trump. And that was always the aim.