You won’t hear me defend him often, but President Trump is being unjustly ridiculed for a Tweet he sent out while the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris was ablaze. He wrote “Perhaps flying water tankers could be used to put it out. Must act quickly!” It wasn’t good advice. As an article in the Agence-France Presse explains, dropping that volume of water on the roof would have been reckless and dangerous, and would quite possibly have collapsed the entire edifice.
Releasing even one load from a Canadair water bomber used to fight forest fires on Notre-Dame would be “the equivalent of dropping three tonnes of concrete at 250 kilometres per hour (155mph)” on the ancient monument.
“It would have been like bowling with the cathedral… the two towers might have fallen.
“It was technically impossible, undoable and most of all would have been utterly useless” to douse the flames from the air, Bernier added.
In fact, dropping a 6,300-litre (1,664-gallon) load from a Canadair water bomber would have put the lives of firefighters and anyone in the area at risk, he added.
“Neighbouring buildings would have been hit by flying blocks of hot stone, and the whole area would have had to be evacuated.”
The reason I’m willing to offer a limited defense of the president is that I had the same thought as I watched the magnificent 941 year-old masterpiece burn. It seemed clear that the firefighters were losing the battle as the flames spread and the roof and spire collapsed. I naturally sought some solution– something they had not yet tried– that might turn the tide in their favor and help them salvage something for posterity. How could they get more water to the top?
Once it was explained to me that the weight of the water would have acted like a giant bomb, I thought, “Of course, that was such a dumb idea.” I was glad that I hadn’t verbalized my plan, and I definitely was grateful that I hadn’t memorialized it for all-time in a Tweet.
Yet, I really wouldn’t have been that embarrassed. After all, I just willingly admitted this to you, so I obviously don’t think you’ll conclude that I’m a bad person. I came up with a truly terrible idea because I wanted to solve a problem that had no obvious solution. My impulse came from a good place. I wanted to be helpful. I definitely didn’t want to crush the firefighters and turn Notre-Dame into a giant grenade of exploding hot stone.
Of course, if I had been in a position of responsibility, I would have listened to the scientists and firefighting experts who told me my solution was idiotic. I would not have ordered them to drop the water.
I’m not sure that Donald Trump would have listened to them. Most of the available evidence and precedent suggests that Trump would not have cared enough about their “expert” explanations to realize his mistake and change his original opinion.
The reason I’m willing to defend him in this case is that for once his impulsiveness and willingness to share his stream of consciousness without careful reflection was coming from a generous and well-meaning place. He was wrong, but for the right reasons. He wanted to help.
It’s such a rarity to see Trump behave this way that I am more inclined to praise than ridicule him. Yet, it’s also a good example of why his dismissal of expertise and his inclination to make decisions from “his gut” are extraordinarily dangerous tendencies in someone with so much power at his fingertips, and who has so much responsibility for keeping people safe.
The episode makes me simultaneously wonder if he’s not quite as thoroughly rotten as he seems while concluding more firmly than ever that he cannot continue to be entrusted with the presidency.
“Wanted to help,” or wanted to make the event about himself and show that he knew more than the experts on the ground?
Its kind of like the covfefe thing. Its clearly a mistake anyone could make.
I’ll just tell you this…..
Anybody who has had a front row seat on planes dropping water (or fire retardant, water is mainly used because you can easily replenish it) knows that this is idiotic. Three times for me, twice with the damn planes right over my damn head.
They come in incredibly low…I mean REALLY low. It’s very dangerous, for both pilots and the public. This is because you have to hit the target with materials that will become dust or rain drops and miss at heights.
They have to be available….and ready to go. That does not work with buildings. In the four hours to gas it up, fill it with fire suppression material, then maybe two hours to get there..the building has burned down.
.
I had almost the same sequence of thoughts. Watching the fires grow and grow and everyone apparently just waiting and watching how bad it might get. I thought of helicopters carrying tanks on a cable. Then I thought about the impact of those masses of water falling from the sky, maybe not such a good idea. Then came Trump’s tweet and the immediate pushback. OK, even worse idea. Who could see that coming?
Credit for the impulse, but even a stopped clock is right twice a day. And of course, he wasn’t right at all. but that didn’t stop him from tweeting his brilliant idea to his 60 million followers, which was then broadcast around the world by international media. Only to demonstrate to the world that our president is as ignorant on this as he is on nearly every other topic. So it all worked out …
I’m sorry but this article is just nonsense. He didn’t want to “help.” He is utterly lacking in compassion, so he NEVER “just wants to help.”
Had his idea been remotely viable, he would be crowing about it, attacking others for not saying it first and taking credit. “Helping” never entered his head. He just had to sound off in order to insert himself in a news cycle, because no matter what is happening in the world he just HAS to dominate the news and get people talking about him. Because narcissism.
He is utterly lacking in compassion, so he NEVER “just wants to help.”
While I generally agree, I think one important point here is that he is utterly lacking in compassion towards people. He cares a great deal about buildings, especially big, beautiful ones. So it’s possible that he was actually coming at this from a position of wanting to help.
I think you just explained it!
I’m afraid I’m not persuaded by this argument. Everything I’ve seen indicates that he genuinely cares only about buildings that have his name on them, and is interested in others only to the extent that they compare somehow with his.
We recall his response to the destruction of two world-famous landmark buildings not far from one of his properties about twenty years ago.
Before the other day, as others have suggested, I’m sure he thought Notre Dame was a football team.
Ultimately, it doesn’t matter where in the cesspool of his psychology his impulse came from. It has long been clear that he is an utterly irredeemable homunculus whose chief purpose is making the world more awful for everyone else so that he can see himself aggrandized in comparison. And we have to admit that he’s doing a great job of making the world more awful, every fµ¢king day. Even if he does somehow come to produce a genuinely generous public gesture once or twice, whatever that would be–I can’t imagine it–we can be excused for being skeptical; and the bottom line is, the world will still be a much better place when it is finally, finally, rid of him.
Right. What he wanted was to prove that he’s smarter than the Parisian firefighters. Why weren’t they as smart as he is, and couldn’t think of his brilliant idea?
He didn’t want to help. I’m quite sure he doesn’t give a flying fuck about the Cathedral.
And there’s another thing…
Trump seemed to really get animated when there’s a big fire. Has to have an opinion, wants to get involved. Wants to tell people how to put it out.
Armchair Psychiatrists: Please weigh in on this.
Yes, he does get awfully excited about fires (and other disasters), and always assesses them to be the biggest ever, because he has decreed it so.
Too charitable. Donald Trump knows his racist supporters are trying to analogize the burning of Notre Dame with the fall of Western Civilization, and secondarily implicating Muslim immigration as the reason this happened in a literal sense (conspiracy mongering) or metaphorical (letting our Christian civilization fall to Muslims). All of which is really about connecting to his supporters and rallying the troops, or as the right wing trolls and Nazis like to call “Virtue Signaling”.
Adding further, Donald Trump couldn’t pick out Notre Dame Cathedral in a line-up of churches consisting of Notre Dame Cathedral and St. Peter’s Basilica.
You are being way too kind to this asshole. He’s the expert at everything who’s too stupid to know what he doesn’t know.
And, he did it for the attention.
Yep. Booman you are being way to kind. The donald’s gut response to something may get people killed.
The fact you’re willing — at this point in time — to even consider that maybe Trump wanted to help says something about you. Both good and bad. Let’s go with the good here. 🙂 It’s a sign of generous spirit.
Anyway, as others have noted, he didn’t want to HELP. He wanted the CREDIT. It’s become quite clear that Trump does nothing outside of his immediate family (and not always them) that isn’t about aggrandizing Trump.
I’m sorry. It’s humanity 101 to understand and accept when you don’t have anything useful to contribute, to just be quiet, to allow those who have expertise and training the space they need to do their job. Sure. We were all hoping for a big plane to come and put out the fire, but it’s just so fundamentally basic that having the thought isn’t the same thing as having had some valuable genius insight to contribute.
I was reading today that Paris firefighters have maintained a planning process for over a century to respond to a Notre Dame fire. They saved the people and the artwork first, then the altar, then the structure. I read how there are oak trees at Versailles planted nearly two hundred years ago as replacements for the timbers. What kind of person even thinks the first thing out of their ass is going to be helpful to the professionals who have dedicated training to preparing for just this event? If you can’t shut up, just commend the brave firefighters and wish them success. That’s how a reasonable individual with healthy personality traits behaves here.
Wasn’t he really saying “I alone can fix it?” Or “Those French people think they’re so smart (and so superior to ME), and they never thought of flying tankers! Or moving quickly!” That’s what I heard in the subtext of the tweet. So yes, I think you are being way too kind and generous.
Personally, I see Trump as less evil than sad and tragic. The man is obviously ill. His family was totally messed up and so he’s messed up. The sins of the father . . .
In this case, the tragedy goes far beyond the son. This sins of this father are visited upon the entire world. But I don’t hold Donald personally responsible. That’s a conversation for him to have with God when the time comes.
I’m far more inclined to hate people like Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell with a vengeance because they know full well what they do. Not just those two. Many others as well. They’re just obvious poster children. We could mix in so many traitorous souls willing to sell out for a few bucks they don’t need or a tiny modicum of power or fame. Lindsey Graham is another, though in his case he’s such an obvious clown. None of these guys cares about his reputation among ordinary people. Perhaps being held in high esteem by the Koch brothers makes it all seem worthwhile.
The reputational calculus goes the other way. Trump’s voters voted for him because they identify with him. This is the problem.
After decades of evidence that he acts publicly only out of places that are as far from generous or well-meaning as can be imagined, on what basis could one possibly assume that this public gesture, ill-advised as usual, is the single exception?
Before the California wildfires, he knew nothing about dropping water from planes. Now he’s the expert.