Trump’s Talk of “Coup” Makes Wise Founding Leaders Sound like Wise Guys

Journalists such as Rachel Maddow have made an art of practicing a highly disciplined reporting that focuses like a laser on what Trump does, as opposed to obsessively following his sensational and inflammatory tweets down a media rabbit hole, or exhausting oneself correcting his seemingly endless stream of lies.

Overall, the media might be more effective and responsible in disarming Trump’s nonsense if it, in fact, ignored more of what Trump says. As any parent knows, giving attention of any kind, even of a punitive nature, to children’s bad behavior tends to encourage that behavior. And we should all know by now the White House is currently serving as a crib for one of the biggest babies in the nation, meaning we all need to be on our best behaviors as parents.

Of course, we should also recognize language is also a kind of action in itself, such that at times we have to comment on Trump’s speech because his words can do some dangerous and damaging work.

Just last Wednesday, for example, Trump lit into the Mueller probe, lambasting the Special Counsel’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and the Trump campaign’s possible participation as “an attempted coup” and “an attempted takedown of a president.”

The word “coup” conjures images of a military assault on the presidency, a wresting of power through brute force in violation of democratic process. The language of “takedown” suggests…