“I used to say, ‘Go out and get the best people, and trust them.’ Over the years I have seen too many shenanigans, and now I say, ‘Get the best people and don’t trust them.'”
Donald Trump (2000)
As the country prepares to celebrate its 241st birthday, President Trump continues to be obsessed, not with our country or its people, but with those who oppose or challenge him, his policies or statements.
Trump’s scapegoating; which has included political opponents, Mexicans, immigrants, women, Muslims, journalists, the media, judges, and Democrats (to name a few); was most recently on display with his nasty tweets attacking Joe Scarborough’s co-host Mika Brzezinski and his infantile video clip depicting his smack-down of an individual personifying CNN.
When he should be preparing for his meeting with G-20 leaders and Vladimir Putin in particular, finding a solution to Kim Jong-Un’s goal of nuclear weapons capable of reaching the United States, easing tensions in the South China Sea, the imploding GOP health care bill, tax reform, and the debt ceiling, he seems fixated on ridiculing and demeaning critics while fostering a macho persona which arouses public fears and promises to fix real and imagined problems if we just “trust him”.
His interpretation of history is, rudimentary and frequently not supported by reality. He liberally fabricates “facts”, reinvents history, disregards the truth and apparently lacks any deep appreciation for Constitutional liberties or our system of checks-and-balances while discounting compromise or rational persuasion to advance his agenda.
From clearly overstated estimates of his inauguration crowd, to his “huge” electoral victory (of 58 presidential elections, only 13 winners had a smaller percentage of the electoral vote), claims about Obama bugging his Trump Tower offices, massive illegal voting (a claim rejected by nearly every state), disavowal of any Russian interference in the 2016 elections (despite the entire US intelligence community’s, as well as European counterparts’, conclusive proof the Russians tried to influence the 2016 elections and continue to attempt to undermine public the confidence in western democratic institutions), truth often seems irrelevant to him.
When questioned about the health care or other legislation as they work their way through Congress, Trump seems almost clueless about any details while providing such meaningless statements as, “It’s going to be a great bill.”
As “commander in chief”, Trump assumes no need for Congressional approval to unilaterally go to war (firing 59 Tomahawk missiles into Syria with no threat to our national security is nothing short of an act of war) or expand US involvement in existing (Afghanistan) wars.
He fawns over such authoritarian tyrants as Egypt’s al-Sisi, Philippine thuggish President Duterte, Turkey’s repressive President Erdoğan whose attack on his media pales Trump’s efforts, and the royal family of Saudi Arabia (a majority Muslim country from which 19 of the 9/11 hijackers came and which denies basic human and religious rights to women and non-Muslims). Meanwhile, Trump finds himself eroding relationships and trust with many of the country’s most valuable post World War II allies.
As for the leaders of China and Russia, they seem to be playing him while uninterruptedly pursuing their own national objectives.
The President surrounds himself with people who admire and applaud him while engaging in angry tirades against journalists who enrage him by daring to question or suggest anything negative about him. Clearly, he believes in his “own facts” and people that praise him; anything else is ‘fake news’ in his eyes.
Trump’s grandiose sense of self-importance; preoccupation with fantasies of unlimited success, power and brilliance; need for excessive admiration; sense of entitlement, willingness to take advantage of others to achieve his own ends; lack of empathy; belief that others are envious of him; and arrogant attitudes are scary … characteristics even his most ardent supporters might struggle to deny.
Donald J. Trump is a reactive and undisciplined egotist with only passive regard for our country, its people or its Constitution (which he swore to “support and defend”) and is the nation’s No. 1 architect of FAKE NEWS .
Finally, ever notice how when President Trump is introduced, he frequently approaches the podium clapping. Just one other world leader has a similar style … Kim Jong-Un!
