Trump's flattery-filled cabinet meeting, later parodied by Chuck Schumer.


Since the news broke about that Cabinet meeting in which some of the most powerful people in the country took turns telling President Trump what a marvel of Creation he is, I've been wrestling with a question.

You heard about that, right? On video, it was an eerie North Korean-style Dear Leader ego massage. One Cabinet member after another professed gratitude, appreciation and fealty to the President, who had honored them by allowing them to help him Make America Great Again. Creepy to the max.

What I wondered, though, was how something like that starts, and what it must have been like to be part of it.

I know meetings. I'm a journalist -- going to meetings is what we do. I've sat against the wall at more meetings than I've stood at the head of, but I'm comfortable in either role. When I'm sitting, I suppress my sighs and direct my eyerolls away from the head of the table like everybody else. When I'm at the helm, I can wrap things up in five minutes, all problems solved (maybe not SOLVED solved, but off my back. Delegation, that's the ticket: "Look into that, will you, and get back to me. Who's up for lunch?").

So that's easy. Trump's awkward praise-a-thon, though.... How would you even start something like that?

I see two possibilities: Either he set it up ("Everybody say something nice about me, we'll leak the video and people will forget all about Russia"), or somebody went all giddy with suck-up and the rest were afraid not to follow.

Both seem plausible. Ordinarily I'd think a person who'd achieved Cabinet level wouldn't be a lickspittle. This is a special president, though, and he seems to require it. "Secretary of ..." looks good in a biography, so throw the boss a bone.

Trump's obvious need for approbation, though, makes it equally plausible that he commanded the expressions of awe. It's been a rough few weeks for 45; maybe he needed a boost.

I could have gone either way, until I began to speculate on the kind of person who'd sit through that.

Put yourself in Trump's place (please!). You're surrounded by minions. At a meeting, one of them says you're presidenting like nobody since Thomas Jefferson. Your move.

You say "Thanks" and move on, right? But another person waxes effusive, and then a third, with what appear to be scripted (but nonetheless stilted) spontaneous expressions of reverence.

Do you become skeptical? At some point, if only out of embarrassment, do you say, "Guys, I appreciate it, but we have a lot to do...?"

Or -- also a possibility -- do you sit silent, wearing a goofy Alfred E. Neuman grin and letting the praise bathe you like spring sunshine? Are you so beguiled that you don't give a thought to the moment's oddness, how unlikely it is, how it will look on television or the effect it may have on voters, 60 percent of whom already think your picture belongs in the dictionary under "oblivious?"

I don't know what to tell you. I don't know what to think. But here's a prediction: the weirdness is just beginning.

Cory Farley is a freelance writer who lives in Verdi.


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