In a Saturday, May 25 Washington Post column, Max Boot observed:
I refrain from saying that Trump has hit a “new low” because the phrase is meaningless; next week he is practically guaranteed to bore even deeper into substrata of immorality and vileness that no previous president has ever penetrated.
Boot was prescient. He cited Trump’s nasty tweet of a video of Nancy Pelosi doctored to make it appear that Pelosi had difficulty speaking; he could not, however, have known that later that day, in the course of his Japan trip, Trump would descend further. Taking time from the festivities, Trump tweeted:
North Korea fired off some small weapons, which disturbed some of my people, and others, but not me. I have confidence that Chairman Kim will keep his promise to me, & also smiled when he called Swampman Joe Bidan (sic) a low IQ individual, & worse. Perhaps that’s sending me a signal? [Some relatively high IQ aide apparently drew to Trump’s attention that he had misspelled Biden’s name and a corrected tweet was posted.]
Trump’s indifference to North Korea’s missile firing–in clear violation of UN resolutions–put him at uncomfortable odds with his host, Japanese Prime Minister Abe, and Trump’s own national security adviser, John Bolton. Beyond that, however, quoting a murderous foreign dictator to insult a distinguished American political figure—and doing so from a foreign land—can only be described as contemptible. Nevertheless, Trump doubled down at a press conference on Monday. He not only continued to downplay the North Korea missile test, but reiterated his childish insult to Joe Biden, “Well, Kim Jong Un made a statement that Joe Biden is a ‘low-IQ individual.’ He probably is, based on his record. I think I agree with him on that.”
Boot may be correct that identifying “new lows” for Trump is fruitless; it is only Tuesday and who knows what the rest of the week will bring? Still, fresh outrages should not be allowed to pass unremarked upon. I pray that we have not collectively grown so totally benumbed by Trump’s mendacity and crude vulgarity that we must accept each new example as just “Trump being Trump.” Surely a time must come when the public—even including the Trump base—will awaken and finally say “ENOUGH.”
Hear, hear! But you have to wonder when a soybean farmer losing a lot of money due to Trump’s idiotic tariff war with China, says he “he gets what he’s [Trump’s] doing,” and continues to support him.
Nothing new about country people voting against their self-iterest. But used to be because of clinging to some core belief, like bibles and guns. Now it seems Trump supporters are completely duped by his phony populism.
Might it be because of the dumbing down of the American people? And, if so, what does that portend for our nation’s future?
Scary thoughts.
Did I miss Trump’s recognition of veterans on Memorial Day? Did he give any kind of nod to lives lost in service of our country? Certainly being in Japan would be an awkward place to do so … but he certainly didn’t do much to cement them as allies, either. Instead, Trump made his visit an opportunity to exhibit his careless attitude towards NATO and Japan’s concerns about North Korea, while making sure he broadcast his “we’re still bros” feelings on Kim Jong Un. He is beyond tone deaf, and his narcissism was on full display. Trump’s behavior, whether it’s compulsive or intentional, make him unfit for the position of President of the United States. One doesn’t need to include Russian involvement in making this assessment. After all, who can work with a man who lies on a daily basis? This one character flaw alone should disqualify him as a person able to do the important work necessary as President.
WH Auden called the 1930’s a “low and dishonest decade”. What will the Audens of the future call the time of Trump?
Well…Peter King (R-NY) weighed-in to express his disapproval of Trump’s invoking the words of the murderous “dear leader” of North Korea to insult former VP Biden, while on foreign soil…as did another GOP Member of Congress (forgotten his name). So, that’s 2. Is that all we can hope for?
Meanwhile, maybe I wasn’t paying close-enough attention (perhaps I am becoming among the “benumbed”), but I found the entire joint press conference with the Japanese PM embarrassing but unsurprisingly so. Leaving aside Biden, Trump not only dismissed the Japanese PM’s concern @ having NK missiles “practice-fired” in Japan’s direction, he also went on a rambling rant @ American farmers vs China. (I was genuinely wondering how the Japanese-English translators were handling that bit, because I couldn’t even figure out how to translate it from Trump-English into actual-English.)
OK, so now I’m rambling-ranting.
Right now, watching MSNBC with a panel including a former GOP Member of Congress, all castigating Trump, and the younger panelists lamenting @ their babies/toddlers growing up with Trump as the president of their country.
Hey, no kidding!
But I wish to offer solace: my 6-3/4 year-old grandson calls the President “Donald Duck,” (and then laughs hilariously at his own joke), but sometimes quite solemnly asserts that Trump is “a cheater” (possibly the worst insult one can hurl in first-grade culture).
If the grown-ups won’t stand-up, maybe we should give 7-year-olds the vote?
Long Island resident here: Peter King quite infrequently announces he’s upset with something Trump has said, but more frequently insults or blocks constituents on his facebook page who dare to disagree with him or his President. In many of his interactions he’s a mini Trump, claiming that’s “just how we New Yorkers talk.”
He did nothing but lip service when the SALT deductions were taken away. Long Island homeowners were among the hardest hit by that. He had a serious challenge for the first time last election, and I believe he’s scared. This time, the Dem challenger is former military, so he can’t rely on his pro-military and pro-police rhetoric to help him sail to victory. He must try to appear for a moment to be more reasonable. She is also a black woman. It will be interesting to see if he reprimands anyone when the inevitable racial comments against her start appearing… (a la John McCain and the “Obama is an Arab” comments) I suspect he’ll find a slippery way to let those comments stand, all the while insisting they don’t represent him.
The sad thing is, his Long Island supporters will now be attacking him for daring to speak out against Trump’s action in Japan. He has created this nightmare himself, setting the example of angry rebukes against any Long Islander who dares question him, and now he pays for it any time he tries to speak up himself. There are some people who suspect he’s the mystery congressman who, sometime last year, claimed that he supports Trump publicly but knows he’s a moron. That’s who Peter King is, so he doesn’t deserve too much credit for speaking out this time.
As we get closer and closer to the edge of the abyss unless reasonable leaders on both sides of the aisle must come to find a way to stop the erosion of our democracy all may be lost. Both the extreme left and right do nothing more than fan the fires of Trumps rage and it drives him on and on. What might help if the press and others to ignore him as the one thing bullies such as he cannot live with is not having someone or thing to prey upon. He cannot be embarrassed so more is needed. We are moving to a point where impeachment may be the only way to wake previously responsible leaders.
Really, only a very stable genius could get away with these things.
“No comment,” says the entire GOP in response, unless they are retiring from office. They are weak and spineless.
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