How Trump got Hasan’s execution accepted

Cartoonist Scott Adams saw him as a wizard who got people to think through the sale. Trump did

Last week, the Associated Press reported:

President Donald Trump said Thursday that the Pentagon will no longer livestream the firing squad execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan, after the announcement faced bipartisan criticism and Vice President JD Vance said he wouldn’t watch it.

Trump said on social media that publicly airing the execution “might have been a strong deterrent for the World to witness how America deals with Terrorists and SCUM like Hasan.”

But, he continued, “many very good and well meaning people would rather not watch him die, through streaming, or through any other visual device.”

Trump succeeded in getting the thing he wanted—public acceptance of executing mass murderer Nidal Hasan for killing 12 soldiers and a civilian (as well as wounding 32 other people).

Depending on the way the question is worded, a plurality or a majority of Americans support executing criminals, particularly mass murders like Hasan. But the media hates it and politicians in 35 states succeeded in banning it. Indeed, while the law commands executing people, governors are reluctant to do so for fear of public reaction by the elitists.

As Governor William J. Le Petomane said, “Holy underwear! Sheriff murdered! Innocent women and children blown to bits! We have to protect our phony baloney jobs here, gentlemen! We must do something about this immediately! Immediately! Immediately! Harrumph! Harrumph! Harrumph!”

President Trump decided to avoid this debate by using his tactics in The Art of the Deal. He chose once again to decide what he wanted, demand double and settle for half.

In this case, he sought to just give Hasan the hot squat. The military uses firing squads instead of electric chairs but the result is the same.

Trump’s compromise allows liberals to say he caved but he’s willing to do so to get agreement on relieving Major Hasan from duty—permanently.

New Jersey’s lulu governor, Mikie Sherrill could not make a case against executing Hasan, tweeting, “There has been a lot of discussion about Hegseth’s plan to publicly execute Nidal Hasan, but not enough about what this means. Nidal Hasan killed 13 innocent soldiers and deserves to be brought to justice. But a televised public spectacle of an execution is contrary to the values that this nation stands for and that I took oaths to protect. It is hard to understand how Congress has not called an emergency session to block it.”

This tweet came before Trump reversed the TV broadcast. Trump took from her the ability to defend Hasan from being killed. So she made up a straw argument—what about the soldiers on the firing squad?

What about them? I am sure there will be no shortage of volunteers.

She tweeted, “One aspect of this in particular keeps me up at night: the horror of detailing soldiers to be in the firing squad. Most veterans like myself are unfamiliar with firing squads because our military hasn’t used one in over 80 years. From my understanding, they are usually made up of three to seven personnel, with some rifles being loaded with blanks to reduce psychological harm.”

In her long tweet, she said, “I think of the lasting impact that will have on them. I just wish the two men in charge of our military cared half as much about the men and women who serve as they do about themselves.”

Like this guy did.

 

What President Trump did was think past the sale. He made everyone agree to executing the bastard by turning the argument into whether we should televise it.

Dilbert creator Scott Adams noticed in 2015 how Trump frames issues.

Adams said:

I see a flamethrower. The flamethrower guy wins in a stick fight.

The idea of the Master Wizard Hypothesis says there are some people in the world, living people, masters of persuasion, they’ve got a linguistic gift for influencing people. And they are using actual techniques.

What I [see] in Trump is someone who was highly trained. A lot of the things that the media were reporting as sort of random insults and bluster and just Trump being Trump, looked to me like a lot of deep technique that I recognized from the fields of hypnosis and persuasion.

What makes Trump special is he is commanding the language, which is what liberals do best.

Adams said:

An engineered set of words that changes an argument or ends it so decisively, I call it a kill shot. One of the ones Donald Trump used was referring to Bush as a “low energy guy” or Carly Fiorina as a “robot” or Ben Carson as “nice.”

All of these have the same quality, they are words you haven’t heard in the political realm before, so they are sort of virginal words without any baggage, but they also perfectly fit. They weren’t random insults, once you hear it, you can never get it out of your mind, that is how powerful it is.

Trump defined Jeb! as the low energy guy, ending a rising political star’s career after two primaries and a caucus.

The president’s task was to make the execution of Hasan so acceptable that even Shrill Sherrill wouldn’t dare oppose it.

Me? I would have televised it, but I am not the president.

 

Meanwhile, riots in France continued this weekend. Le gendarmes zent de protestaires full of paix oui-oui all ze way maison.