What Research?! Lawrence O’Donnell Rants on Trump’s ‘Fake’ High School Picture, Gets Unraveled by Facts

 
Brad Slager
Opinion

When it comes to the recognized Trump Derangement Syndrome in the press, Lawrence O’Donnell may have delivered a preeminent example on his show.

Larry delivered an angry rant concerning a photograph that President Donald Trump recently shared from his high school days. The host delivered a bile-soaked tirade and came off looking patently incompetent in the process.

Taking 15 seconds to conduct even the barest of research would have spared O’Donnell the ridicule.

It all begins with the president posting a photo on social media of himself with his parents. In the picture, he wears a military-style uniform, which sent O’Donnell spiraling. The questions that must be asked before we start quoting the host here is: Where is his staff? How did no one step in and stop him before he took to the camera in unhinged fashion?

But unhinged he was, with Lawrence referring to the photo as “demented.” From there, he just went off.

Donald Trump posted this picture of himself today using the lying phrase “military academy.” ‘Donald Trump in military academy’ is a lie. He was in a rich kids boarding school, a high school in suburban New York.

Already, there’s a problem, but he was not done. Larry then makes another odd comment, one where — again — we ask where anyone else was to step in and correct the host? These are some rather basic factual errors that he delivered on camera.

The United States of America has military academies at West Point, at Annapolis, and in Colorado Springs, where the Air Force Academy is located. Donald Trump could not possibly have gained admission to any one of those military academies, and instead he went to a high school where they engaged in cosplaying every day as imaginary members of an imaginary military.

Yes, Larry, we have those academies. Those are higher-education, university-level institutions to prepare for service in the armed forces: the Army, Navy, and Air Force, respectively. They are not high schools, in other words, so bringing them up in this context makes zero sense. But he continued ranting, undeterred.

The uniform he’s wearing in this stupid picture that any sane person would know is an embarrassing picture, is an invented costume. It’s like a Halloween costume – has no meaning whatsoever. And you see Donald Trump posting this clownish picture of himself in high school as his claim of authority to be your commander-in-chief.

Seriously, how? How is it that O’Donnell managed to do this? How did he go to this length, get worked up to such a boiling point, all over a photograph about which his claims were 100% incorrect?! It is an amazing display.

For high school, President Trump attended the New York Military Academy. He graduated from the school in 1964. The institution lists him among its Distinguished Alumni.

“Demented,” “lying,” “cosplaying,” “imaginary,” “stupid,” embarrassing,” “has no meaning,” “clownish.”

These were all the terms O’Donnell used to describe what is a completely accurate photograph. He arrived there because he was completely inept at employing the most basic tools for a journalist or a pundit: Research.

As a result, every single one of the adjectives listed above that O’Donnell hurled at the president can be applied to his own segment.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.

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