This is cringe central, my friends.

Take the most awkward meeting you’ve ever had with your boss, and then imagine there were cameras beaming what you had to say to the world.

Donald Trump’s Cabinet meeting yesterday was weird, in so many senses of the word.

One way it wasn’t weird was that he started with his usual mix of self-appraising lies, with this from CNN:

First, he reviewed the various alleged successes of his first 143 days and made this remarkable claim: “Never has there been a president….with few exceptions…who’s passed more legislation, who’s done more things than I have.”

Um, ok. While Trump has signed a number of executive orders and actions — the most high profile of which, the so-called “travel ban” was, again, blocked by a court on Monday — what he hasn’t really done is pass actual legislation through Congress. The health care bill is tied up in Senate machinations. Tax reform hasn’t moved an inch. Funding for the border wall hasn’t happened. And so on.

Lies are pretty much par for the course, but it’s what happened next that is truly odd:

Once Trump finished touting his administration’s accomplishments, he turned to several of his newly-minted Cabinet secretaries like Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue. Each of those Cabinet secretaries lavished praise on Trump, which he accepted without comment but with a broad smile…

It soon became clear that Trump planned to have every Cabinet member speak. And when I say “speak” what I really mean is “praise Trump for his accomplishments, his foresight, his just being awesome.”

…The whole thing reminded me of a scene directly from the boardroom of “The Apprentice.” A group of supplicants all desperately trying to hold on to their spots on the show by effusively praising Trump — each one trying to take it a step further than the last. And Trump in the middle of it all, totally and completely pleased with himself.

One by one, all in a circle – and go:

Newsweek offered this take:

Trump’s love of loyalty is widely known, but that loyalty manifested by so many cabinet members, at the same time, and in the presence of the press, was truly ludicrous to behold, like something out of an anti-Stalinist comedy the Soviet censors were too dim to miss.

Except this wasn’t a comedy. This was the political leadership of the United States.

Those two are becoming increasingly difficult to tell apart.

Taking singing for his supper to the next level was Chief of Staff Reince R. Priebus, who must have panicked in the wake of recent reports saying his head is on the chopping block:

“On behalf of the entire senior staff around you, Mr. President, we thank you for the opportunity and the blessing you’ve given us to serve your agenda and the American people,” Priebus said.

How fragile must Trump’s 70-year-old ‘adult’ man’s ego be? Also, how do those men (and the odd woman) feel when they walk out of a meeting like that, having behaved like such sycophants?

Democratic Party member and Senator Chuck Schumer couldn’t help but take the piss on Twitter:

GREAT meeting today with the best staff in the history of the world!!! pic.twitter.com/ocE1xhEAac

— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) June 12, 2017

All you can do is laugh.

The full video of that Cabinet meeting, if you feel like punishing yourself:

[sources:cnn&newsweek]