People who know me, as well as my three regular readers, have asked me why I haven’t written about our fearless leader for a while. The answer is simple: Trump is a reality show train wreck who is as interesting to me as the Kardashians. Until, or unless something new happens with P.G. Trump, I have already written all I want to on the subject. Trump’s entanglement with Russia, check. His lack of understanding of how government works, check. Incompetence as a dealmaker and negotiator, check and check. Person I’d never want to hang out with, not just no, but HELL, NO!
Our fearless leader’s administration continues to be a total amateur hour with over half of admin jobs unfilled and a State Department that is losing foreign service experts faster than studios abandoning Hollywood perverts. It is an administration that can’t even manage to make a bereavement call without stepping on its own … dysfunction. Everything about the whole fiasco with Trump’s attempt to console Myeshia Johnson over the death of her husband, Sgt. La David Johnson, pulls back the curtain on what kind of human being the president really is. And it isn’t pretty. To paraphrase Bill Maher, I wasn’t there but I know the truth of what happened simply by listening to the facts that have been presented by both sides.
Exhibit A is that it started with Trump being criticized for his silence over four dead American soldiers in a country nobody knew we had soldiers in. So he asked General Kelly if Obama had called to console him on the death of his son. Trump, wanting to outshine his predecessors, particularly Obama, then decided he would make a personal call to Mrs. Johnson. Kelly tried to talk Trump out of it but when pressed, admitted that being told by an admiral that his son died with the people he wanted to be with, doing what he had signed up for had given him some comfort.
Armed with Kelly’s words and a cue card containing the info about Sgt. Johnson, Trump then called Mrs. Johnson without bothering to find out what a good time would be. As usual, Trump was only thinking of himself and made the call when it was convenient for him, not knowing that the family was in a car on their way to collect their loved one’s body. Trump, by his own admission, is not a reader and prefers to “wing it” when speaking rather than stick to a script. So, he stumbled trying to read the unusual name of “La David” and talked about “your guy” knowing what he signed up for, forgetting the important context that Kelly had provided about being with the people who he had trained with and doing what he wanted to do.
As a result, instead of consoling a grieving family, Trump made everything worse. Then, instead of doing what any decent human being would do, which is apologize for hurting someone’s feelings, Trump went into attack mode. First, he attacked Congresswoman Frederica Wilson who had criticized his insensitivity and then he attacked the widow who he essentially called a liar. I understand people who admire Trump’s bluntness. But there is a huge difference between being blunt and being an oblivious dickhead. Trump often fails to notice that difference.
It’s worth repeating that, for the sake of our country, I hope Trump, accidently or on purpose, does well for all of our sakes. And I hope that our democratic institutions can withstand his flaws and failures. But I’m not holding my breath waiting for it to happen. If I was a gambler, I’d bet on him being viewed by history as a spectacular failure. Trump has built his brand and his presidency, in his own words, by keeping his name in front of the public, through the “lying media.” But we do not have to play along. So, in the meantime, this space will be a Trump-free zone until he does something that I haven’t already covered.
