It’s not difficult to believe the assertion in Wednesday’s Washington Post that President-elect Donald Trump, both a former television host and a beauty pageant owner, “likes people who present themselves very well.”
Still, as much as the piece’s writers flesh out their thesis with quotes from both named and anonymous sources both within and outside the Trump camp, other journalists were giddy over one particular bit regarding John Bolton’s mustache.
What may have disqualified Bolton from getting Sec of State? His mustache. https://t.co/Cemdd2OKNS pic.twitter.com/MkLhUQkjrj
— Catherine Rampell (@crampell) December 21, 2016
Seriously. Read both of these things and weep for our Republic. pic.twitter.com/HS7ugZwmJW
— Jeffrey Lewis (@ArmsControlWonk) December 22, 2016
Trump is holding a government casting call for jobs, and Bolton's out because of his mustache. (Seriously.) https://t.co/KFiafc689A
— justinbachman (@justinbachman) December 22, 2016
Or maybe not, seriously.
Trump rejects John Bolton not because he's deranged but because he has a mustache. You can't make this up. https://t.co/nimhTU60U4 pic.twitter.com/hjQHsu0Q4m
— Jonathan Chait (@jonathanchait) December 22, 2016
You couldn’t make it up, except that you could.
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Again, while plenty of sources spoke on the record for the piece, the bit about Bolton’s mustache isn’t so clear-cut, so to speak. The claim is attributed to “several of Trump’s associates” who “said they thought” his mustache “was one of the factors” that handicapped his chances at the secretary of state post.
So, yes, saying Trump rejected Bolton because he has a mustache is making it up — not that the suggestion isn’t worrisome.
https://twitter.com/SethAMandel/status/811723727637454848
john bolton's mustache is precisely what makes him so great pic.twitter.com/UjfIobUWnh
— Shoshana Weissmann, Sloth Committee Chair ? (@senatorshoshana) December 22, 2016
Bolton will put that mustache to good use somehow.
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