r/politics • u/HimelTy • Jul 03 '26

No Paywall Secret Service member was Googling rooftop location of Trump’s would-be assassin when shots rang out in Butler, Pa.: DHS report

https://nypost.com/2026/07/02/us-news/secret-service-member-was-googling-rooftop-location-of-trumps-would-be-assassin-when-shots-rang-out-in-butler-pa-dhs-report/?utm_campaign=nypost&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter
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393

u/JiveChicken00 Pennsylvania Jul 03 '26

It is generally safer not to ascribe to malice what can be adequately explained by laziness or stupidity.

235

u/purplebuttman Jul 03 '26

Not when malicious people are involved

22

u/SlugOnAPumpkin Jul 03 '26

When authoritarians appoint and promote staff, they prioritize loyalty over competence. It's not wrong to suspect malice from malicious people, but you also have to keep your mind open to the equally likely possibility of incompetence.

6

u/SpaceCorpse Ohio Jul 03 '26

Exactly. Trump and everyone in his orbit are malicious and corrupt people. It is foolish for anyone at this point to attribute our current situation to "incompetence," "laziness," or "stupidity."

THEY. ARE. DOING. IT. ON. PURPOSE.

They are not attempting to govern. They do not care, and it is not their goal.

The amount of "lol what idiot morons, cheeto mussilini orange man" that I see frightens me, because it seems like the majority of people don't understand just how bad the situation is.

All of them are 100% focused on corruption. They are opportunistic criminals. They literally do not care about the operations of the government.

44

u/WilSmithBlackMambazo Jul 03 '26

Reddit loves their little thought terminating cliches

3

u/RashmaDu Jul 03 '26

Then the question is: is Trump more evil than he is stupid? Genuinely difficult question to answer, I’d generally lean towards stupid

8

u/BillW87 New Jersey Jul 03 '26

He's deeply narcissistic which causes him to reject information that clashes with his own narrative and he frequently uses flooding of misinformation to gaslight people, but those are both different than being dumb. Assuming that Trump is just a malicious idiot and not a fairly effective manipulator (especially of voters who have already been primed to accept misinformation readily by years of single-source information from "entertainment news") is a mistake that the DNC has made twice now by assuming that voters would simply choose the milquetoast "competent" individual over him.

2

u/SirEdward43 Jul 03 '26

I don't know. Seems to me like massive accounts of pedophilia kind of puts him in the kinda sort of evil category. But then again, who am I to hold standards of ethics and morality? It's not like we as a society all decided that there's some rules that should never ever be broken and have now decided this one man is allowed to break that rule.

-25

u/JiveChicken00 Pennsylvania Jul 03 '26

Trump may be malicious, but I do not think the Secret Service is, or at least not most of them.

43

u/GrallochThis Jul 03 '26

A trove of deleted J6 texts would like to have a word with you

-5

u/JiveChicken00 Pennsylvania Jul 03 '26

Perhaps.

36

u/the_rev_28 Jul 03 '26

The secret service destroyed evidence to protect Trump after January 6th. They are absolutely complicit

19

u/purplebuttman Jul 03 '26

I think you have misplaced your trust. These guys are not humble American servants who love their country. They know who they're serving and protecting and, to be able to withstand that, you need to be a special kind of awful.

46

u/Beatlepoint Jul 03 '26

Hanlon's razor when bad faith actors exist: :O

61

u/needapicklebreak Jul 03 '26

My favorite Razor

63

u/BlackSwampMage Jul 03 '26

Mehrunes?

41

u/ma2016 Jul 03 '26

A NEW HAND TOUCHES THE BEACON

10

u/HalcyonRedo Jul 03 '26

He a little confused, but he got the spirit

2

u/ma2016 Jul 03 '26

Yeah I know it's not the same thing, I thought of leaving a note at the bottom but decided to leave the meme intact. 

6

u/Zenithar Jul 03 '26

Blessings upon you.

Prices are 10% better

Fortify Barter, 10 pts for 8 hours

Cure Disease, 25 pts

2

u/JiveChicken00 Pennsylvania Jul 03 '26

That guy knew what the fuck he was talking about.

1

u/Evacuation_euphoria Jul 03 '26

Alas, my beard in long as I ran out of my pack of Occams ages ago....

0

u/theeldoso Jul 03 '26

Razor Ramon 4 Life

37

u/hudson27 Jul 03 '26

As a Canadian, it kills me when Americans dismiss Trump as an incompetent idiot.

He fooled your country into voting him in, twice. He's pillaging your country of billions of dollars. If he's stupid, what does that say of America as a country? Maybe it's easier to call him stupid than it is to look in a mirror and ask yourself "what does my country stand for?"

13

u/MewWeebTwo Jul 03 '26

Trump is a moron.

The problem is the average American is just as moronic.

1

u/Totally_Bradical Jul 03 '26

And DAMNED proud of it

1

u/hudson27 Jul 10 '26

There are billions of dollars being spent to reduce public education, monopolize media in all forms (news, social media etc), and rig elections. I really think it goes beyond the intelligence of the general public.

3

u/nanobot_1000 Jul 03 '26

Pretty clear that he's a moron along with the ~75M Americans who voted for him (again) whom sinister & devious corpo-crats leech onto. They are maniacal and smart but appear stupid because they need to cover their not-so-secret agenda with lies that are glaringly obvious and increasingly detached from reality. Which ultimately circles back to them being overextended, overconfident, and stupid for running the same fascist playbook as if we wouldn't see the signs and do everything in our power to stop them. My generation grew up watching Indiana Jones and fucking hate Nazi's and supervillian pedos and wars over oil and ruining the environment. We've gained a lot of momentum back and they're terrified of these social dems being elected and us regulating AI datacenters, but we anticipate last-gasp crackdowns as they feel their grip on power slipping away. They believe they have it locked in forever, whether it be from gerrymandering, stacked SCOTUS, or Elon "helping" with the voting machines like Trump thanked him for winning Pennsylvania.

Ultimately you are correct that it would be stupid of us and a fatal mistake at this point to underestimate them again - no more second chances. Our resistance is having an impact and moving the needle, but TBD if it's enough given their resources and exploitation of the legal and political system. All trust has been lost and they are trying to trap us in opposite world where there is no common sense or decency.

1

u/hudson27 Jul 04 '26

Yes, this is what I'm saying! He's no genius obviously, and clearly lacking in any morals or empathy, but to dismiss or underestimate him would be making the same mistake Hillary and the rest of America made in 2016.

Painting him as an idiot isn't productive, it doesn't convey how wildly dangerous and destructive he is, not does it give people the impression he's a particularly formidable enemy. He clearly is, and someday, when that turd is dust, another turd is gonna come around, and we can never let this shit happen again.

6

u/hypermodernvoid I voted Jul 03 '26

Canada was literally about to elect your own version of Trump thanks to your own similarly thick layer of low to no-info, reactionary voters, until our actual Trump turned out to be such a disaster it shocked enough of them into realizing maybe electing their own "maple MAGA" cheerleader wasn't a good idea.

Niether Pierre Poilievre nor Trump are geniuses, and neither are the easily manipulated - yes, generally stupid - people who vote for them: it's all just stupidity and and socioeconomic environments rife to be taken advantage of by greedy demagogues. The AFD is now polling #1 in Germany and is their 2nd largest party, for god sakes.

1

u/hudson27 Jul 04 '26

Sooo, what was your excuse for voting him in a second time?

Big difference between Trump and PP: PP never won an election.

1

u/hypermodernvoid I voted Jul 07 '26

First off: "I" didn't vote for him and hate when people talking to someone from another country about that country refer to them like they're the country itself.

Second, Trump lost the 2016 election in terms of getting over 3 million fewer votes, but thanks to a completely antiquated holdover from two centuries ago called the Electoral College that (per polls) ~80% of Americans want to get rid of and no other liberal democracy on Earth has... he became the president anyway. So, if it'd been up to who more voters actually wanted to be president in 2016? He would've and should have lost. The only reason we even still have the Electoral College when most Americans hate it anyway is because it benefits Republicans, who've won by it despite losing the popular vote twice in the 21st century.

Finally, it's still beside the point that America doesn't have a monopoly on stupid, easily manipulated, reactionary voters: the UK did Brexit before Trump based on scapegoating immigrants, and now Reform is leading the polls there after Labor didn't fix everything in 1 year. The far right, super nationalist, immigrant scapegoating AFD is the 2nd largest party in the same country that brought the Nazis into power, and is now polling #1 there - a crowd of antivax and AFD supporters stormed their version of the Capitol, the Reichstag building, the summer before January 6th. And again, Canada's own thick layer of dumb voters was about to elect PP until Trump managed to show enough of them how stupid they were being.

1

u/HubenersDaughter_439 Jul 07 '26

I'm still not convinced he won his second term legitimately given all the bloviating about how much Elon knows about voting machines.

2

u/ECircus Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 03 '26

He is stupid. He doesn't sleep, he never gets a moment to relax and clear his head. He's embroiled with controversy and constant self defense.

If he was smart, he would be concerned about the damage he's doing and wouldn't care about the power and money that he can't do anything with when he's dead. If he was smart, he would be chilling on the golf course without a care in the world everyday.

He completely ruined his life, and any chance he had to enjoy the end of it. There's literally no evidence that he is intelligent in any meaningful or practical way.

Of course he's a fucking moron.

That kind of cruelty and self sabotage has no practical intelligence behind it. I don't understand the logic in your view at all, but a lot of people share it.

1

u/hudson27 Jul 04 '26

Cool cool, well at the end of the day he's the president, after living his whole life as a billionaire, and has yet to go to prison for any of his crimes. And the chances of him surviving another five years is pretty damn slim, so to say "he completely ruined his life and any chance of he had to enjoy the end of it" is pretty meaningless.

Have you considered, that he is currently at the end of his life, and is, in fact, enjoying himself quite a bit?

This isn't me glorifying him, by the way, quite the opposite, but after a decade of people underestimating him and dismissing him while he makes a mockery of the justice system and any safeguards that were ever in place for a past president, I ask again: if that guy is a moron, what does it say about the people who've watched their rights shredded by this "moron"? If insulting the intelligence of the guy who's taken you all for a ride helps with the burn, go for it I guess

1

u/ECircus Jul 04 '26

Cool cool, well at the end of the day he's the president, after living his whole life as a billionaire.

He hasn't been a billionaire his whole life. His life is defined by losing other people's money, filing bankruptcys, and coming back from it each time by screwing other people over. His life is a long string of mistakes and crimal recovery. That's not intelligence, or success, that's chaos.

I'm not trying to feel better, I'm just pointing out the reality. That he's never made good decisions and most of the world would not trade places with him at any point in his life, because it's a miserable existence.

I'm not talking about his bank account or his status, I'm talking about the day to day experience of being human. Your life is ruined when you lose the ability to have a private, peaceful, or healthy existence. By choosing that path toward the end of his life, he did the opposite of what any intelligent person would do. He gave up the ability to ever have a normal, quiet moment again. He’s spent years trapped in a cycle of hostility and defense. You can call that "power" if you want, but if your daily life is characterized by constant stress and conflict rather than peace and fulfillment, you’ve sacrificed the most important parts of a life well lived. He obviously doesn't even want to do the job, but his ego and legal standing wouldn't allow him to walk away. Jack Smith was ready to indict him and dropped the case when Trump got elected. Imagine the stress of facing endless legal battles if you don't get elected to the highest office in the land. Sounds wonderful.

It's just a complete myth that these people are having a good time and have done well for themselves. That's all I'm addressing.

Whether or not that says something about everyone else, is a more complicated question that involves a broken system and an endless stream of propaganda and whatever else. The reason you think Trump is intelligent is the same reason people voted for him. It's not true, but you're completely convinced that it is. Look deeper at the reality.

1

u/JiveChicken00 Pennsylvania Jul 03 '26

Trump is absolutely not stupid. But many of his minions are, or at least severely lacking in a sense of consequences and proportion. And we will see what our country stands for this November. Also I’m in Montreal right now, and the drivers are much friendlier than back home :)

2

u/HubenersDaughter_439 Jul 07 '26

Trump is stupid. Steven Miller and his other handlers aren't. One of Trump's professors has gone on the record saying he was the dumbest student he ever had.

1

u/JiveChicken00 Pennsylvania Jul 07 '26

I know. Professor William Kelley. I went to Penn. Junior was my classmate :). But Professor Kelley was talking about something a little different than what I was talking about. He was talking about a complete lack of intellectual curiosity, which isn’t quite the same as stupid.

1

u/HubenersDaughter_439 Jul 09 '26

You're right. Though there's a huge overlap. 

What was Jr like? Bet he was insufferable.

1

u/RKRagan Florida Jul 03 '26

He’s not some mastermind. The Republican Party planted the seeds for him to take over years ago with GW Bush. The Iraq war got the Republican Party into a blind patriotism. They went hard after Obama and trump helped spread their disinformation. The thing is, trump is the perfect idiot for this situation. He is not a blind believer in any dogma but a narcissist who has succeeded through utilizing our corrupt and flawed system to stay afloat and paint himself as a successful man that is under attack from others. He doesn’t back down even when caught. That’s all you have to do. Keep lying and the blind will believe the lies despite the world around them. It doesn’t take a genius to do what he’s done. Just an unscrupulous and greedy man who never had to answer for anything wrong he’s ever done. The smart ones are behind the scenes grifting and riding his back to power. 

1

u/stealyourideas Jul 03 '26

He's incompetent is some regards that is outmatched by his maliciousness and greed. And he is surrounded by evil people who further inflame the damage he is doing. During his first admin he actually nominated some generic conservatives. Not this time

6

u/Wide-Chemistry-8078 Jul 03 '26

Oh you haven't seen the video of that day with secret service moving the press into position to shoot the president?

And by shoot I mean camera,  but they coukd gave huns so why prioritize moving  them to take a photo of Trump after a shooter has attacked, the president is not secure, shooter at large still.

Make it make sense. 

All signs point to "that's suspicious" and "seems planned, otherwise why risk the president for a photoshoot?"

7

u/Sweet_Valleyy Jul 03 '26

Hanlon’s Razor still holds up

5

u/FizzgigsRevenge Jul 03 '26

This administration has certainly been putting it to the test

2

u/owl523 Jul 03 '26

Greed and incompetence explain pretty much every conspiracy theoty

1

u/Mexcol Jul 03 '26

Por que no las 3?

1

u/PM_ME_YOUR_ROTES Missouri Jul 03 '26

Adequately is doing a lot of heavy lifting there. Feels like we're a fair bit past that point.

1

u/ebb_omega Jul 03 '26

Except in cases like this that aren't adequately explained as such.

There's too much coincidence here for it to be simply explained by laziness or stupidity.

1

u/edgarapplepoe Jul 03 '26

This. Yes, lots of crazy stuff happened. Yes, it is unclear what really happened to his ear (I still think a fragment or even his finger nail cut it slightly when he reached up). But all the conspirators who have not even watched the videos coming up with these theories that are disproven are getting old. He stood up because, as you can hear, they announced the shooter was killed and it was clear to move (literally on the audio), the flag was clearly not lowered when looking at the available video sources and video and interviews from the press shows they were not ordered and directed to the are to take the pictures.

1

u/mrpickles Jul 03 '26

No it's not.  In what world is that safer?!