Lawrence: With Air Force One switch, Trump fails his self-imposed Hollywood Hero Test

[0:00] well no president of the united states has been more influenced by movies than donald trump other [0:06] presidents have appreciated movies but never used them as their frame of reference for the world [0:14] or for their work as president other presidents have befriended some of our greatest cinematic [0:20] artists like steven spielberg and spike lee but donald trump shows no capacity to admire anyone [0:26] other than himself donald trump is the only president in history who likes to talk about the [0:33] way people look when he announces appointments to government positions in his cabinet or elsewhere [0:40] in the government you are guaranteed to hear the phrase central casting from donald trump when [0:46] describing his very favorite choices for jobs in the 1950s when donald trump's juvenile brain was [0:54] being permanently captured by movie imagery central casting was often publicly referred to as the [1:01] place to call to get an actor who really looked like a cowboy or looked like a cop or really looked like [1:07] he could get through medical school and be a doctor but i haven't actually heard anyone use the phrase [1:13] central casting since i was a child when we hear donald trump tell us that his choice for a government [1:22] job looks like he came straight from central casting donald trump is indicating just how long ago his [1:30] intellectual development was arrested to donald trump heroism is something defined by movies not by real [1:39] life and so he thinks of heroism as nothing but movie tough guy heroism a purely fake kind of invented [1:49] heroism that is why donald trump posts fake images of himself like this no president has ever done more [1:59] than donald trump to reveal himself to be a deeply cowardly man and no president other than donald trump [2:05] would ever dream of trying to create a courageous image of himself by turning himself into a fake [2:12] movie character and publishing a deeply perverse photograph like that one that we just showed you [2:19] and so it is uniquely donald trump among american presidents who asks wants to be judged on his [2:29] personal bravery and all around tough guy toughness and that is what makes donald trump's secret flight [2:37] out of danger uniquely undermining to both his own self-image and what he wants his most fanatic supporters [2:44] to believe about him donald trump has asked the world to see him as a movie hero the physically [2:52] bravest president ever when he is clearly the laziest president ever who obviously spends more time in [3:00] golf carts than he does thinking about governing which obviously he never does donald trump is the only [3:07] president who has in effect asked to be compared to movie heroes and so peter baker of the new york times [3:14] wisely turned to andrew marlowe who wrote the screenplay for the 1997 giant box office hit air [3:21] force one starring harrison ford as the bravest president ever imagined by hollywood who has to [3:28] save everyone on air force one including himself after the plane has been hijacked spoiler alert [3:37] president harrison ford did the impossible and of course personally killed the hijackers up until last [3:45] night that's the way donald trump wanted his most fanatical followers to see him as the harrison ford [3:50] president who would personally kill anyone threatening air force one screenwriter andrew marlow sees a [3:57] problem for donald trump the movie hero in the way he chose to escape danger by boarding a secret flight [4:06] out of turkey while leaving air force one to take off as a decoy plane full of government officials and [4:14] reporters who would have been the targets of the threats against that plane from iran that the [4:20] secret service responded to by secretly moving donald trump from air force one to another plane using a [4:30] catering cart truck to do that andrew marlowe the screenwriter who gave us harrison ford as the [4:38] bravest president ever told the new york times now real life isn't a movie but given the circumstances i'm not [4:44] sure i could ever script a moment like that for heroic main character mr marlowe said if the threat were [4:53] that great it's hard to imagine an audience rooting for any character who would trade his own safety [5:01] by treating the remaining civilians on board as potential sacrificial lambs especially without their [5:11] informed consent and so donald trump sadly failed his own self-imposed test the hollywood hero test [5:21] the standard he pretends to achieve in his fake images of himself as a brave gun-toting tough guy [5:29] bill clinton's press secretary joe lockhart explained to the new york times the difference [5:34] from the time bill clinton switched planes during a dangerous trip in and out of pakistan the times reports [5:43] when mr clinton traveled to pakistan he too switched planes to avoid detection by possible attackers [5:50] he had been urged not to go to parts of the country where havens which were havens for terrorist groups [5:56] but since he was already going to india he felt compelled to stop in islamabad for a few hours the [6:03] original security plan called for fooling the accompanying journalists into thinking that mr clinton [6:10] had boarded the same c-17 military jet that they were on while he would secretly get onto a separate [6:17] air force version of a gulf stream known as a c-20 my vehement protest was you can't use the media as [6:28] decoys joe lockhart said and they came back with a plan that satisfied me they had mr clinton walk around [6:37] the nose of the c-17 to the other side where three smaller unmarked planes were waiting the journalists [6:46] were not able to see which of the three he boarded but they saw he had not gotten on the c-17 unlike [6:55] the trump team in ankara the clinton team informed at least one of the pool journalists in advance susan [7:02] page of usa today who recounted the episode on tuesday and the white house then publicly [7:08] disclosed the details more broadly once mr clinton was safely out of harm's way mr trump's team by [7:17] contrast never disclosed what happened in ankara until the washington post broke the story as donald [7:27] trump's presidency continues to collapse into chaos every imaginary asset that donald trump was supposed [7:33] to be bringing to the presidency in the minds of trump voters is collapsing too his tough guy image was [7:39] already weakened by the people of greenland standing up to donald trump's madman threats on greenland [7:45] canadian prime minister mark carney who is normally as mild-mannered as canadian prime ministers usually [7:52] are has stood up boldly to the incoherent bullying from donald trump and shown the world what real [7:58] governing toughness looks like and sounds like including the fact that real toughness is not [8:04] incompatible with consistent dignity and politeness donald trump's phony image as the great negotiator has [8:13] collapsed completely even with trump supporters during donald trump's war with iran now in its 165th day [8:21] in a right-wing media interview today when asked if he was changing his strategy in iran donald trump began his [8:27] answer by saying quote i don't talk about strategy end quote and then of course you know what happened [8:36] of course he talked about strategy we have been powerful powerful study we can just keep it alone [8:44] and they're going to fail we can just keep you know doing sort of just like nice and easy relax uh like i [8:52] said i'm sort of negotiating do what what i'm doing there just bop along and look how bad they're doing so [8:58] economically they are a mess they can't borrow money we control their money what they had which [9:07] is a lot they had a lot and we have total control of it i'm their banker i am their banker i'm their [9:18] banker imagine joe biden saying that imagine barack obama saying that imagine any other president saying [9:27] i'm their banker i am their banker says the most lost man ever to live in the white house in that same [9:36] interview the same president who last week insisted that the united states military was not running low [9:42] on munitions today said the american military is running low on munitions and it's joe biden's fault [9:50] the reason is low is because he gave 300 billion dollars worth to ukraine he gave them all he gave [9:59] you know right they never mentioned that they never liked to mention that last week donald trump said the [10:06] leakers who told the news media about his fight with pete hegseth about the reduction in american [10:12] weapons of war should be sent to prison he said the leakers of these treasonous statements are being [10:18] hunted down long-term jail sentences will be sought exclamation point and then today donald trump confirms [10:26] some of those so-called treasonous statements about the munitions being depleted american munitions [10:34] everything donald trump has touched has turned to chaos the reflecting pool in washington dc is now [10:40] a poison puddle thanks to donald trump he literally demolished one third of the white house and now a [10:47] federal court has said that was a completely illegal act of the most extreme vandalism in the history of [10:54] american government and that court has blocked donald trump from building his ballroom where the white [11:00] house east wing used to be donald trump has visited chaos on the world with his war in iran pushing up [11:08] the price of oil worldwide pushing up the price of gas and diesel fuel here in the united states which [11:13] along with his illegal tariffs that now have to be refunded have pushed up inflation in the united [11:18] states donald trump the magical inflation fighter who promised to end inflation on his first day in [11:26] the presidency just end it has increased inflation donald trump the great deal maker who promised to [11:32] negotiate an end to vladimir putin's war in ukraine on the first day of this presidency has negotiated [11:40] nothing with vladimir putin nothing and so now donald trump engages in chaotic public negotiations with [11:48] iran on social media in which he issues threats which he then forgets he forgets his own threats along with [11:55] public lies like the strait of hormus is open and the united states is in control of it