A few days ago, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo unloaded on an NPR reporter for having the gall to ask him—the Secretary of State—about Ukraine. The reporter then made Pompeo’s temper tantrum public, and Pompeo retaliated by telling a slew of obvious lies about their interview.
But in Trumpland that’s not enough. Pompeo has now banned NPR from his upcoming trip to Europe. It’s not even the same reporter! Nobody from NPR is allowed to come along.
This is not surprising: Trump’s world is consumed with revenge. Trump himself, of course, has been methodically taking revenge on Barack Obama for three years now, all over a single joke Obama told about Trump at a White House Correspondents Dinner. And fear of revenge is what keeps Republican members of Congress in line. They all know that anything more than the mildest disagreement with the great man will unleash a relentless program of vengeance designed to toss them out of office.
Pompeo has obviously caught on to this. Stay loyal to Trump and take highly public revenge on all your enemies. It’s all you need to know to succeed in Trumpland.
