Trump New Lows Tracker. Bulletin No. 7 (Nos. 23-33)

Since Bulletin No. 6 of the Trump New Lows Tracker was posted on February 12, there has been a tsunami of New Lows. Many of the New Lows arose in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. If Trump’s handling of the pandemic were were considered as one unit, it would be a New Low the size of a crater, with previous New Lows seen as mere gopher holes. But within the pandemic crater, there are some low points that should not be forgotten. The killing of George Floyd also produced its own New Lows and then, of course, there were several miscellaneous examples of Trump attempting to outdo himself with various outrages and embarrassments. The latter are a good place to start.

Miscellaneous New Lows

No. 23. Trump and the Roger Stone case. Roger Stone, it may be remembered, was Trump’s henchman who was very involved with the Wikileaks disclosure of emails that Russia hacked from the DNC. His conviction of witness tampering and lying to investigators roused Trump’s ire. Trump variously attacked the Department of Justice prosecutors, the federal judge and even, via a tweet from India on February 25, the foreperson of the jury. Trump had previously tweeted that the sentence recommendation from the government was too severe, and political appointees at DOJ had reduced the recommendation, causing the four career DOJ lawyers handling the prosecution to withdraw from the case. After some delay, Stone is now scheduled to report to prison on June 30, to begin a 40 month sentence, unless Trump intervenes again, this time with a pardon.

No. 24. Trump’s attacks on Supreme Court Justices. Trump has frequently attacked courts and judges, but an outburst on February 25 was notable. On that day, Trump appeared at a press conference with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and he took that singularly inappropriate occasion to attack two Supreme Court Justices, Sonia Sotomayor and Ruth Ginsburg, claiming that they should recuse themselves from any cases involving him. Trump’s comments were apparently provoked by a dissenting opinion by Justice Sotomayor that he didn’t like and a year-old comment by Justice Ginsburg.

No. 25. Trump’s War on Inspectors General. On April 3, Trump fired the Inspector General for the Intelligence Community, Michael Atkinson, a career civil servant whom Trump had appointed. Atkinson’s fatal error was to obey the law by advising the Senate and House Intelligence Committees of the whistleblower complaint concerning Trump’s conversation with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky—the conversation that would lead to Trump’s impeachment. In Trump’s eyes, however, Atkinson “took a fake report and gave it to Congress.” While the Atkinson firing was bad enough, more would follow.

• Glenn Fine. Within a week of Atkinson’s firing, Trump removed Fine as acting IG for the Defense Department. Trump’s decision meant that Fine would no longer chair the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee tasked with overseeing $2 trillion in emergency coronavirus funding. Fine’s removal was not explained, but he was apparently rendered suspect by reason of a reputation for integrity and independence.
• Christi Grimm. On May 2, Trump removed Grimm, who was acting IG for Health and Human Services. She had become the target of the President after she signed off on a March OIG report that described the dire situations of frontline doctors and medical staff.
• Mitch Behm. Mitch Behm was removed as acting IG for the Department of Transportation on May 15. No reason was given for his removal, but it was reported that he was conducting an investigation into whether Secretary of Transportation, Elaine Chao, gave preferential treatment to Kentucky to benefit her husband, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
• Steve Linick. Linick was removed as State Department IG on May 15. Trump said he removed Linick at Pompeo’s request. It was subsequently disclosed that Linick had in process two investigations of Pompeo. Pompeo denied knowledge of the investigations but offered no explanation for his request that Linick be fired.

Writing in the Washington Post, David C. Williams, who served as an Inspector General of various departments under four administrations, summed up Trump’s conduct:

President Trump’s spate of inspector general removals this spring is alarming, and every American should be concerned about the state of federal government oversight. But the problem with Trump’s actions is not simply removing the watchdogs — it’s also the chilling effect left on those who remain and the fact that the president is replacing some of the ousted officials with thinly credentialed political loyalists.

Given Trump’s arrogant approach to inspectors general, perhaps we should not have been surprised at Attorney General Barr’s attempt on Friday to remove the U.S. Attorney, Geoffrey Berman. Berman’s office prosecuted Trump lawyer, Michael Cohen, and is currently investigating other Trump associates, notably Rudy Giuliani. Barr attempted Berman’s removal by means of a clumsy and false announcement that Berman was “stepping down.” Berman promptly responded with a public statement that he was doing no such thing. On Saturday, Barr wrote Berman claiming that now Trump had fired him, and also stating that Berman’s Deputy, Audrey Strauss, would run the office until a successor was confirmed (rather than the U.S. Attorney from New Jersey as Barr’s Friday night announcement had stated). With that, Berman issued a statement that he would leave office immediately. Audrey Strauss and I were partners many years ago and I have since followed her distinguished career. I have complete confidence that she will lead the office with high integrity and competence.

No. 26. Trump’s vile smear of Joe Scarborough. Trump has long used his Twitter account to insult and defame, and last month he reached a despicable low that will be difficult for even him to eclipse. The object of Trump’s attack: Joe Scarborough, an MSNBC host and former Republican Congressman who has been critical of Trump. On May 24, Trump posted two tweets insinuating that Scarborough was responsible for the death of an employee who died several years ago while working in one of Scarborough’s district offices. Trump tweeted, “A blow to her head? Body found under his desk? Left Congress suddenly? Big topic of discussion in Florida… and, he’s a Nut Job (with bad ratings). Keep digging, use forensic geniuses!” He then tweeted, “A lot of interest in this story about Psycho Joe Scarborough. So a young marathon runner just happened to faint in his office, hit her head on his desk, & die? I would think there is a lot more to this story than that? An affair?”

Trump’s allegations were quickly and dispositively refuted: The 2001 death of Scarborough’s assistant had occurred when Scarborough was hundreds of miles away. The medical examiner concluded that she had an undiagnosed heart condition that caused her to pass out, fall, and sustain a fatal head injury. Nor, for that matter, was there any evidence of an affair. As an article in Forbes observed:

Accusing or alluding that someone has committed a crime, without any evidence, is a common tactic of narcissists when they feel someone has been “disloyal” to them and they need to be “punished.”

Stephanie Sarkis, Forbes, May 24, 2020

Coronavirus New Lows

It would be beyond the energy of the writer and the patience of the reader to enumerate each and every one of Trump’s false and misleading statements concerning COVID-19, his errors and omissions of policy, and his repeated and groundless expressions of self-congratulation. Some of these have been chronicled in Blog No. 253. The Coronavirus and Adventures in Trump’s Parallel Universe, Blog No. 254b. The Coronavirus and Trump’s Parallel Universe, Part Two: Trump’s “Good Job,” and Blog No. 255. Reopening the Economy: The Uncertain Way Forward and Questions that Must Be Answered. In addition, however, there are some moments that demand to be memorialized as individual New Lows.

No. 27. Trump’s Address from the Oval Office. On March 12, Trump spoke to the nation from the Oval Office in order to reassure the nation. His speech did not meet that goal. Read listlessly from a teleprompter, it contained significant errors and omissions. The speech was crafted by Jared Kushner and Steven Miller without input from the administration’s health experts. As summed up by the New York Times:

Trump’s 10-minute Oval Office address Wednesday night reflected not only his handling of the coronavirus crisis but, in some ways, much of his presidency. It was riddled with errors, nationalist and xenophobic in tone, limited in its empathy, and boastful of both his own decisions and the supremacy of the nation he leads.

Annie Karni and Maggie Haberman, NYTimes, March 12, 2020

Trump did not attempt another speech to the nation but resorted to making extensive remarks at press conferences held with the Task Force headed by Vice President Pence. After a number of such events, they too became an embarrassment and were abandoned.

No. 28. Trump’s Romance with Hydroxychloriquine. On March 19, Trump first mentioned hydroxychloroquine, a drug that had been plugged on Trump’s favorite source of information, Fox News. Two days later, Trump tweeted that the drug had “a real chance to be one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine.” During the ensuing weeks he continued to promote the drug, unfazed by a conspicuous lack of enthusiasm from Dr. Anthony Fauci and other health experts inside and outside the administration. Finally, he doubled down by taking the drug himself as a preventive, a use which had even less support from the medical community.

Trump’s bubble burst on June 15, when the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) revoked its emergency use authorization for chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine as treatments for COVID-19. “It is no longer reasonable” the FDA stated, “to believe that the known and potential benefits” of the drugs “outweigh the known and potential risks” of using the drugs to treat COVID-19. In the meantime, however, sales of the drug had soared and it had been widely used by the Veterans Administration. Moreover, the federal government had distributed 31 million doses from the Strategic National Stockpile and the stockpile still had 63 million now largely useless doses on its hands.

One of the casualties of Trump’s misguided medical venture was Dr. Rick Bright, Director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority. After objecting to the use of hydroxychloroquine, Dr. Bright was removed from his position. His whistleblower complaint is pending.

No. 29. Trump’s Support of Armed Anti-Lockdown Protesters. Trump’s eager push for reopening the economy has been in continuing conflict with the more cautious approach of his own Task Force and many state governors, both Republican and Democratic. The conflict came into sharp relief on April 17. The day before, Trump had said that reopening decisions would be left to state governors, following the course of languid leadership he had displayed throughout the pandemic. But on the 17^th he explicitly undermined the governors of two states by tweeting LIBERATE MICHIGAN and LIBERATE MINNESOTA.

Following Trump’s lead, Republican political leaders in several states, such as Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and North Carolina, encouraged their social media followers to join the protests, often organized by conservative activists and pro-gun-rights groups, and attended the events themselves. Then, on May 1, Trump tweeted his support for protesters armed with military style rifles who had stormed the Michigan Capitol, demanding the state lift coronavirus restrictions, even as researchers estimated that the coronavirus pandemic could stretch on for two more years. Trump tweeted that “these are very good people, but they are angry. They want their lives back again, safely!” And on May 15, he tweeted a video of anti-lockdown protesters harassing a journalist and commented “People can’t get enough of this. Great people!”

In short, Trump chose to cast himself not so much as a unifying president, but as the leader of an insurrection.

No. 30. Trump’s Romance with Lysol. If Trump’s offer of medical advice in recommending hydroxychloroquine was reckless and ill-advised, his next sally into medicine bordered on loony. At a press briefing on April 23, Trump commented:

I see the disinfectant that knocks it out in a minute, one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside, or almost a cleaning? Because you see it gets inside the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it would be interesting to check that.

Trump’s question immediately spurred doctors, lawmakers and the makers of Lysol and Clorox to respond with incredulity and warnings against injecting or otherwise ingesting disinfectants, which are highly toxic. For example, Craig Spencer, the director of global health in emergency medicine at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center said “My concern is that people will die. People will think this is a good idea. This is not willy-nilly, off-the-cuff, maybe-this-will-work advice. This is dangerous.” While it has not been reported that anyone has died as a result of Trump’s comment, Governors of at least two states reported a surge in calls to emergency hotlines concerning ingestion of disinfectants. Responding to a furious backlash, Trump lamely suggested that he had been speaking sarcastically, a dodge he had attempted on previous occasions. In this case, however, no one who watched the press conference could believe that any sarcasm was involved.

No. 31. Trump’s Reckless Rally in Tulsa. When Trump’s Tulsa rally was scheduled for June 19, it was regarded as an outrage in the black community. That date, known as Juneteenth, has long been an important anniversary commemorating the final implementation of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation in Texas. Under withering criticism, Trump agreed to move the rally by one day to June 20. Nevertheless Trump continued to ignore the advice of federal and Tulsa health officials that in light of the pandemic, such an event at this time was ill advised at best.

The consequences of cramming 19,000 people into an indoor arena (where even wearing masks would not be required) will not be immediately apparent, but they are certain to be unpleasant. If the attendees at the rally were the only ones at risk, that would be one thing, yet as of this writing, six Trump staffers for the rally have tested positive today. So be it, one might say. But the fact is that attendees and staffers will also endanger any number of innocent Tulsa residents whom they encounter in restaurants, bars, shops and elsewhere outside the arena. If holding the rally on Juneteenth was a slap in the face to the black community, holding it at all is a slap in the face to tens of millions of Americans who have had to give up attending theaters, concerts, sporting events, reunions, graduations, and even church. And the only discernible purpose of this event is to feed the needy ego of the Narcissist in Chief. 

Protests After the Killing of George Floyd

Trump’s response to the killing of George Floyd was lamentable but predictable. He paid lip-service to Floyd and the Floyd family, but it was clear that, from an emotional standpoint, he was far less engaged by the killing, and the racism it exposed, than by the disorder that accompanied some of the ensuing protests. His initial response to violence in the protests was to look for a scapegoat. Then, as the protests continued, and Trump was determined to be seen as a “Law and Order President,” he berated Governors for being “weak” and threatened to deploy active duty military forces to control the protests. Neither strategy was effective.

No. 32. Trump and Antifa. Early on, Trump and his supporters attempted to blame protest violence, if not the protests themselves, on leftist agitators, most notably antifa. On May 31, Trump tweeted that “The United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization.” There were two fundamental problems with that bold pronouncement. First, antifa, which stands for antifascist, is not an organization at all, but a movement. Second, even if antifa were an organization, there is no legal authority for designating a domestic organization as terrorist. Accordingly, no designation of antifa was forthcoming. Moreover, persons arrested for looting and other violent act in the following weeks appeared to have various associations, but the antifa movement was not among them. Nevertheless, Trump was not discouraged from looking for an opportunity to blame antifa.

That opportunity came, in Trump’s eyes, when Buffalo police shoved an elderly man who fell and suffered a serious head injury. Video tape of the incident caused shock waves and disgust across the country, but Trump saw it differently. On June 12, he tweeted:

Buffalo protester shoved by Police could be an ANTIFA provocateur. 75 year old Martin Gugino was pushed away after appearing to scan police communications in order to black out the equipment. @OANN I watched, he fell harder than was pushed. Was aiming scanner. Could be a set up?

This absurd conspiracy notion was inspired by OANN, a far-right a cable network that is even wilder than Fox News in supporting Trump with fact-free reports and theories. In this case, the Washington Post Fact Checker pointed out that Mr Gugino merely had a cell phone and there was no basis for calling it a scanner. Further, investigative journalism after the incident established that, while Mr Gugino had been active in progressive causes, he had no connection or association of any sort with antifa. The Fact Checker awarded Trump Four Pinocchios and commented, “Once again, the president makes us regret we are limited to Four Pinocchios.”

No. 33. Trump’s March on St. John’s Church. Trump’s most spectacular New Low in the course of the Floyd protests came on June 1. After Lafayette Square had been cleared by the rather violent dispersal of peaceful protesters, Trump took an entourage of compliant aides to march across the Square for a photo-op while he held aloft a Bible. (This incident is more fully described in Blog No 261. The Pandemic and the Riots: America’s Low Point and Then….) Trump’s impulsive jaunt was yet another mark against his judgment, but it had the highly beneficial effect of catalyzing the opinions of senior military officers against the deployment of active duty troops against American citizens.

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This Blog was necessarily selective. If readers have some favorite New Lows from the period since the last Bulletin that were not included, they are invited to submit them for possible inclusion in the next Bulletin.

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I note with sadness the passing of Dame Vera Lynn, whose songs during World War II were a source of inspiration in America as well as Britain. A clip of Dame Vera singing “White Cliffs of Dover” and “We’ll Meet Again” at a 1984 commemoration of D-Day is here.