Along with many comrades in the liberal media, MSNBC’s Hardball host Chris Matthews was incensed that all of President Trump’s adult children joined him on his State Visit this week to the United Kingdom, belly-aching on Tuesday’s show about the “ridiculous” modern-day “Romanovs” going overseas projecting a sense of royalty.
Along the way, Matthews forgot to note the obvious double standard of his cult-like support for both the Kennedy and Obama families (and in particular the former with three glowing books on JFK and RFK). But Matthews had a narrative to push, so that admission was nowhere to be found.
Here was Matthews making the transition from the protests against Trump in the U.K. to this matter that was grinding his gears (click “expand”):
Really, it has bugged me since the day Trump arrived in Washington. He was elected in the Electoral College. We all accept that. He was elected in the Electoral College. He got the 270 he needed. He’s here. He’s our President, no doubt about it. We don’t call him current President. He’s President of the United States. But his family wasn’t elected. This Romanovs thing of his, it’s ridiculous. He hauled over all his kids, even Tiffany, for this occasion. He acts like somehow the family is royal. He’s confused. He also likes autocrats like Putin and he loves tough guys like Netanyahu and he likes tough guys like the worst kind, like Kim Jong-un and Xi. He also likes monarchs. This is the second week in a row he’s been visiting with emperors and now he’s meeting with the Queen of England. What does he think he is that he brings his family with him like a royal?
Not surprisingly, anti-Trump Republican Charlie Sykes responded in total agreement by warning that “this is the dangerous thing about these trips for Donald Trump” as he gets ideas for things to do back in the States with one being “this royal family thing.” Adding, with disdain for his former compatriots on the right, that “some of his supporters say, well, you know, he is American royalty.”
“Look, just because he likes golden toilets, it doesn’t make him Louie the 14th. But, clearly, he’s smitten by these trappings of authoritarian power and of royalty,” Sykes added.
The Associated Press’s Jill Colvin tacked on to this rhetorical conga line, dubbing it “highly, highly unusual” and “add[ing] more and more questions about all of the ethical issues.”
Matthews came back to assert more hyperbole about how terrible this trip had gone:
Well, who — the Republican Party is called the republican party, lower case. They believe in a republic, not a monarchy. When is somebody going to raise hand and say, I’m not going to kiss the butt again of one of your family members? I’m not going to do it, yet he insists that they do it.
“And when his children get to go with him, his children who run his businesses, this is not Sasha and Malia. These aren’t kids that are like, hey, you can see this is the first time. They can fly there on their own. They can make these kinds of trips on their own. This is the American people paying for vacations and business opportunities for his family,” opined Jason Johnson of the Root.
Taking things up another notch, Matthews wondered towards the back end of the discussion, “[s]o if you’re the king of Jordan or you’re from Saudi Arabia or you’re from the Emirates or you’re from Israel, you’ve got to deal with Jared Kushner, the son-in-law, as if he’s what, a viceroy?”
Back in August 2009, Matthews swooned after Ted Kennedy’s passing that Obama was “the last brother” of the Kennedy family with all the reverence for the aurora among both families that one had come to expect. Also in 2009, when the Obama’s went to Europe, Matthews's colleague Chuck Todd asserted the Obama family was “America’s unofficial royalty.”
And after Barack Obama received an award from the JFK Library on May 7, 2017, Matthews basked in the former 44th President’s “American eloquence.”
Readers can see other examples from the rest of the media by going here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
To see the relevant transcript from MSNBC’s Hardball on June 4, click “expand.”
MSNBC’s Hardball
June 4, 2019
7:10:32 p.m. EasternCHRIS MATTHEWS: Let me go to Charlie on this question. Really, it has bugged me since the day Trump arrived in Washington. He was elected in the Electoral College. We all accept that. He was elected in the Electoral College. He got the 270 he needed. He’s here. He’s our President, no doubt about it. We don’t call him current President. He’s President of the United States. But his family wasn’t elected. This Romanovs thing of his, it’s ridiculous. He hauled over all his kids, even Tiffany, for this occasion. He acts like somehow the family is royal. He’s confused. He also likes autocrats like Putin and he loves tough guys like Netanyahu and he likes tough guys like the worst kind, like Kim Jong-un and Xi. He also likes monarchs. This is the second week in a row he’s been visiting with emperors and now he’s meeting with the Queen of England. What does he think he is that he brings his family with him like a royal?
CHARLIE SYKES: Well, this is the dangerous thing about these trips for Donald Trump. When he went to France, remember, he came back with the idea for the big military parade and you wonder whether he’s going to come back from London and thinking, you know, this royal family thing, you know, there’s a lot to be said for that. I mean, you know, the Trump family is a Trump family business, sort of like the Windsors, right? Why not? In fact, you’re already starting to see some of his supporters say, well, you know, he is American royalty.
MATTHEWS: Oh come on.
SYKES: Look, just because he likes golden toilets, it doesn’t make him Louie the 14th. But, clearly, he’s smitten by these trappings of authoritarian power and of royalty. So I — I think it was — it was Donald Trump basically saying, look, you know, this is my family. I am going to show the — the British Royal Family what the American royal family looks like. It didn’t quite come off.
MATTHEWS: Let me go Jill on this. Your thoughts, as a straight reporter again, the President of the United States is — he is head of state. A woman will be head of state too. This is the way it works. You’re elected to have — you’re not elected king.
JILL COLVIN: It is highly, highly unusual. This is a display that we have not seen this from other Presidents. The fact that not only the children who are advisers who travel, the son-in-law who work in the White House as Senior Adviser —
MATTHEWS: He’s doing world politics.
COLVIN: — he’s not — he’s also bringing along his sons, Eric and Don Jr. Don Jr. has his own political aspirations, but these are people who run the President’s business who are profiting from the Trump name and to bring them along, to let them use the social media images of it, I mean, just adds more and more questions about all of the ethical issues.
MATTHEWS: Well, who — the Republican Party is called the republican party, lower case.
JASON: JOHNSON: Yes.
MATTHEWS: They believe in a republic, not a monarchy.
JOHNSON: Yes.
MATTHEWS: When is somebody going to raise hand and say, I’m not going to kiss the butt again of one of your family members? I’m not going to do it, yet he insists that they do it.
JASON JOHNSON: Amash might be the only person who, you know, who’s talking about impeachment. But most of these guys — look, I mean, he is a walking emoluments clause violation. The amount of money that we spend —
MATTHEWS: By the way, I went by the hotel the other day
JOHNSON. Yeah.
MATTHEWS: — thinking about that. I’m sure it’s on his mind all the time.
JOHNSON: Exactly.
MATTHEWS: How much cash is coming through the door on that hotel?
JOHNSON: And when his children get to go with him, his children who run his businesses, this is not Sasha and Malia. These aren’t kids that are like, hey, you can see this is the first time. They can fly there on their own. They can make these kinds of trips on their own. This is the American people paying for vacations and business opportunities for his family. This is being seen all over the world by other people that Trump’s children want to do business negotiations with. That’s the problem.
SYKES: Very swampy.
MATTHEWS: So if you’re the king of Jordan or you’re from Saudi Arabia or you’re from the Emirates or you’re from Israel, you’ve got to deal with Jared Kushner, the son-in-law, as if he’s what, a viceroy?
JOHNSON: Basically or the hand of the king. I mean, that’s pretty much how the President likes to play this and by giving this kind of high profile position and these kinds of opportunities to his kids, he is setting himself up to have power beyond this point.
MATTHEWS: Now, I have a theory about Trump, and I think he’s playing all the cards of the President, seeing one card he’s playing, incumbency is this. I can be with heads of state, not like prime ministers or people like that. No. I can meet with the Emperor of Japan. I can meet with the Queen of England. I can prance around as if I’m one of those royals and maybe that will intimidate people into voting for me again next year because I’m so big.
