I get it. It’s stunningly easy as a college-educated,
life-long democrat to wallow in schadenfreude over President Donald Trump and
the current state of his administration. The ineptitude, the lack of any
substantive legislative progress, the Russia investigation, the revolving door
of staffers, the Russia investigation, the historic unpopularity, the Russia
investigation, the incompetence of his family members, the Russia
investigation.
It’s almost too much to take. As much as most of the country
hates him and wants his failure to be truly unprecedented, we are actually
looking forward to a break where at least a week goes by without another
never-before-seen embarrassment.
I also get it. If you voted for Trump, you are currently
trying to double-down on your support, lest you admit your vote on November 8,
was one of the biggest mistakes of your life. Look, if the dems had run a werewolf
and I voted for him/her/it I too would feel a deep sense of regret and a
profound sense of needing a shower.
But forget all the big news items that have come out about
the president. Forget about Russia, forget about healthcare, forget about
Spicer/Flynn/Scaramucci et al. Forget
about leaving the Paris Climate Accord, forget about the lack of progress toward
the boarder wall.
Instead, let’s just focus on two statements the president
made this week. Just two. There have been many, but let’s just concentrate on
the following:
He told reporters that the president of Mexico called him
recently to praise his action on board security.
He told the Wall Street Journal that the head of the Boy
Scouts called him to praise his recent speech before that organization.
Just those two. Nothing else. These two pronouncements tell
anyone everything they would ever need to know about the most unqualified
president and perhaps most unqualified world leader in history.
Here are the facts.
1.
He said both of these things to reporters – on the
record.
2.
They were not true. Representatives from both
the president of Mexico and the Boy Scouts denied that any such calls were made
to the president.
3.
The alleged statements were 100 percent
verifiable. Any reporter could have called the pertinent organizations (as they
did) and received confirmation or denial.
4.
The president either doesn’t know or doesn’t
care that anything he says or does can be verified.
5.
The vast majority of sentient people in the US
and around the world, when faced with a choice of whom to believe – the president,
or any other party – will choose any other party.
6.
In just six months, we have reached such a low
point that it is now accepted as unassailable fact that the President of
the United States possesses the integrity and intellect of an infomercial
salesman.
I know it is a fool’s errand to make the pronouncement (when
faced with Trump’s behavior) that Republicans would lose their minds if Clinton
had been elected and acted the same way. For many R’s, Clinton is the bête
noire of politics that somehow can never be eclipsed.
So let’s just take the last five Republican presidents. Can
anyone imagine presidents Bush, Bush Sr., Reagan, Ford or Nixon acting this
way? As bad as George W. Bush was on so many fronts, can anyone really imagine
him making up an easily verifiable call from say, the Mayor of New Orleans
praising his handling of the federal response to Hurricane Katrina? Can anyone
imagine Reagan – in the early onset of dementia, even – making up a call from
the director of SF General Hospital praising his efforts to combat HIV? Can
anyone imagine Nixon making up a call from a group of anti-war activists supporting
his escalation in Vietnam?
No. You can’t. I can’t
either.
It is a fact. Donald Trump is a 70-year-old man, but also a
12-year-old boy. For that is what happened this week. A 12-year-old boy,
needing affirmation and approval, made up out of whole cloth a couple of stories
to try and make himself appear better than he really was.
That, at the end of the day, is the worst thing about Trump.
He wields incredible power, with none of the necessary intelligence, integrity
and simple maturity to handle it.
