there's a lot to like in this long, and extraordinarily accurate post. but i'm gonna pull this quote, because it drives me the most insane.
if you get into an argument with your friend or your wife or your sibling or parent, you can absolutely use the "well i didn't know about it either", to varying levels of success, even if it's not true. it's a handy and effective excuse, and i've used it a number of times. i would expect it a little less from local government. almost never from state government, and zero times from the president.
for a guy who acts like a king or a dictator, and proclaims he has total authority, he can't even pretend to be all-knowing, even when he actually claims to be "all-knowing". anybody in his position should have the harry truman "the buck stops here" as a motivational poster behind the resolute desk, even if it's just decoration. even when your intel fails, and your soldiers miss important information, you still lie and take responsibility. that's the job. being the boss means when it's your fault, you take responsibility, and when it's not your fault, you take responsibility. yes, i'm quite certain that i've read that somewhere once.
gun to my head, i think he didn't really know or realize the seriousness of the threat, and here's why. first off, yes, i realize to a certain extent, i'm "letting him off the hook" but it's not that simple. i think he didn't know about it because (a) he doesn't read important daily briefings, (b) he replaced the people in charge of bringing that shit to his attention, and (c) he replaced the people that grab him, shake him, and say "hey dude, we need to move on this".
he's the president. he's only one man. watching a couple west wing reruns tells me that even working an 18-20 hour day doesn't give you enough time to be properly briefed and educated on everything you need to know about. so you hire good people, and you pay attention. he has failed spectacularly with both tasks. instead he spends his day learning as much as possible about his favorite subject - himself. he watches tv and he tweets. i do believe he never sleeps. i do believe he's always "working". but "working" to him is tuning in to all the cable news shows and bitching about them to his advisers, his cabinet, and his twitter followers.
so in short (too late), i don't believe he's acted this way out of some sort of bond-villain mustache-twirling menacing laughter need to be evil. i don't think he knew, and then decided not to act, in order to save the economy or send people to their death. i think he did what he does best - he ignored all warning signs and intel, and hoped for the best, because for citizens like donald trump, "things usually just work out".
unfortunately for us, for presidents like donald trump, sometimes they have to actually be the president. and he fucking sucks at doing that, because he never bothered to learn how.