Mr. Trump Speaks in Code

But does he really?

Trump’s back, which means his stupid code is back, which means we’ll divide ourselves into our old hermeneutical categories. 

There will be: 

• people who know the code

• people who pretend to know the code

• people who don’t know the code

•  people who pretend not to know the code.

Most of us know the code. We know that “I'm going to stop wars” means “I’m going to give Ukraine to Russia.” 

We know “I’m going to fire woke generals” means “I’m going to fire generals who follow the Constitution.” 

We know “I’m going to defund schools that push inappropriate racial, sexual or political content on our children” means “I’m going to burn books about Rosa Parks.”

I guess some people don’t pick it up, even after all these years. But the most august news outlets in the country will be in the very last category: They will pretend not to know the code. 

They will deliberately deafen themselves to the innuendo, ellipses, and extortionate leer that is Trump’s stock-in-trade.