Trump Has Bragged At A Lot Of The Wrong Places

As far as inappropriate brags go, this one is almost appropriate. However, Trump opening his address at the GOP annual retreat with a brag about the size of his election win is some pretty solid evidence of an oft-repeated concept: Trump doesn't care about the party, the policies, or even the country that he claims to be working for. He only cares about himself.

At his first official meeting with congressional leaders of both parties, Trump left the electoral victory alone and instead went with the popular vote. Again, instead of turning to policy, Trump repeated one of his favorite unfounded claims — that he lost the popular vote because millions of undocumented immigrants voted illegally. I'm tempted to say there's a time and a place for everything, but there's really no time and no place for damaging lies — and they're especially out of place when there are more important matters at hand.

Before hanging up on the Australian Prime Minister 35 minutes before the call was supposed to end, Trump did take the opportunity to brag about his electoral victory. The Washington Post reports that according to an unnamed White House official, the call was particularly "hostile and charged" because of a previous deal that President Obama had made to accept some refugees from Australia — great time to sneak in a boast, right?

Trump couldn't even pass up the opportunity to brag about a victory that wasn't his. When talking to sheriffs in Minnesota, Trump went off about how unexpected his win was, and how he would have won Minnesota if he had made one more trip there. Nothing, apparently, is water under the bridge.

Trump's press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe didn't feature the same amount of lying on this subject that some of his other appearances have, but he couldn't pass up on the chance to boast about the fact that he had been elected. Really, Donald, do you think there's anyone who still needs reminding of that?

To kick off African American history month, Trump attended a listening session and opened it by talking about how well the election came out. That was literally the first thing he said after hello and welcome. Literally. They even have it recorded on an official WhiteHouse.gov page.

This was the infamous case of Trump answering a question about anti-Semitism by repeating the number of electoral votes that he thought he received (he said 306, whereas he actually got 304). And no, reading the transcript will not give you a better idea of where that seeming non-sequitur came from. It is still a non-sequitur, and one that can hardly have come at a less appropriate time.

Still waiting for your opportunity to go to the new Smithsonian National Museum of African-American History and Culture? Well Trump's not, and he already used his trip there to brag about the states where he "won by double, double, double digits." Was it relevant? Again, no. Did he have any reason to bring that up? Also no.

Unsurprisingly, Trump also brought up his "very, very large electoral college vote" total at his press conference with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Perhaps the president was feeling a bit insecure when faced with a politician who is basically everything that Trump has ever wanted to be — well-loved, highly respected, and extremely attractive — or it could just be his pattern. Either way, it definitely happened.

Many people have actually lost their lives while serving the country in the CIA, and when Trump went to give a speech at the memorial honoring them, he hit one of his low points. He somehow avoided mentioning the number of electoral votes that he supposedly received, possibly because he was still obsessing over the size of his inauguration crowd at that point. He did, however, brag that "probably almost everybody in this room voted for [him]" — a strange thing to brag about, given that the CIA community was invited to the event on a voluntary basis and it was therefore a self-selected crowd.

He used that same event to say that he was "like, a smart person," and surprisingly enough, there is no evidence to suggest that he was impersonating a teenager while saying that. If it's true, though, he has yet to prove it — and the above list is proof that social skills and the ability to read a situation are also abilities that he is sorely lacking. This list is not exhaustive, and it's sure to grow longer — especially since it's looking like the election win might end up being one of his only political victories.