President Trump's ominous and vague reference to the possibility of this being "the calm before a storm" while gesturing to the military leaders and their spouses for which an unexpected photo op was arranged by the White House has confused and slightly frightened many. The following day he reaffirmed this odd statement and continued to state that "you’ll see," when asked what specifically he was referencing.
But what was he talking about, North Korea, Iran, or ISIS? There is yet to be any confirmed response to this and we have yet to see any action that could possibly reflect what this statement was talking about. The next day, Press Secretary Huckabee ensured that the president was not simply antagonizing his many enemies:
“I wouldn’t say that he’s messing with the press. I think we have some serious world issues here. I think that North Korea, Iran both continue to be bad actors, and the president is somebody who’s going to always look for ways to protect Americans, and he’s not going to dictate what those actions may look like. He certainly doesn’t want to lay out his game plan for our enemies.”
From this statement and Huckabee’s reference to both Iran and North Korea, it would not be crazy to infer that even she doesn’t have a clue what the comment was in reference to either, and neither does anyone else in the administration. This is a familiar feeling, a vague reference to something that could be nothing, and Trump's staff insisting on finding meaning in things that are often meaningless. There have been many examples of this kind of titillation in the past, such as the president's tweet claiming he had tapes of Comey:
"James Comey better hope that there are no 'tapes' of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!"
With that instance, Trump's staff also insisted on creating meaning in an otherwise meaningless comment of which Trump himself later admitted:
“With all of the recently reported electronic surveillance, intercepts, unmasking and illegal leaking of information, I have no idea whether there are ‘tapes’ or recordings of my conversations with James Comey, but I did not make, and do not have, any such recordings.”
Being left in suspense by a vague and ominous comment, whether on Twitter or from his mouth, should at this point be a common understating. Just because his staff insists there is meaning does not mean any exists. After all, how could anyone forget the ‘covfefe’ incident when the president tweeted:
"Despite the constant negative press covfefe”
Then, followed by:
“Who can figure out the true meaning of ‘covfefe’??? Enjoy!"
Afterward, his press secretary insisted that the people the tweet was intended for would understand what it meant. No one bought it, but that didn’t stop his staff from applying meaning to utterly meaningless comments.
There’s no way to know what the president was referencing, or if he was referencing anything at all. At this point, it's just a waiting game, which isn’t always fun even when there’s the slightest possibility of nuclear war. But this is where we are, so 'Enjoy!'