Category Archives: Donald Trump

Donald Trump

Those closest to Trump think so little of him?

One of the astonishing takeaways I am gleaning from Mary Trump’s book about Uncle Donald — the current president of the United States — has to do with how those closest to him think of his ability, his credibility, his qualifications.

They think very little of any of it, according to Mary Trump, author of “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man,”

She recounts, or so I understand, how his sister thought so little of him when he announced his presidential campaign in June 2015 that she thought he was joking. She presumed he was pulling off a publicity stunt to call attention to his “brand.”

Others in his family — sis, a brother and several other nieces and nephews — dismissed his boasting for what it was, empty rhetoric. He wasn’t self-made, as he claimed; he didn’t attend church, yet evangelicals flocked to his side; he is a man of zero principle.

Trump doesn’t apologize for anything. He never admits he is wrong. He tramples over everyone he meets. Trump is callous, callow and without any redeeming personal quality, or so Trump is reporting.

I happen to believe what she has written. What astounds me, though, is how those close to Donald Trump think so much less of him than those who have glommed onto his cult of personality.

Donald Trump

Yes, I believe Mary Trump

I am trying to decide if I want to purchase Mary Trump’s bombshell book about her uncle, the current president of the United States.

She doesn’t need my money to make the fortune she already has earned by early sales of “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man.” I hear she’s sold nearly a million copies of her book.

But there’s another reason why I might not read the book from cover to cover. From what she has said so far in TV interviews, there’s nothing she has revealed about Uncle Donald that I don’t already believe.

I believe he is the “virulent racist” Mary Trump says he is. I believe the assertions she has made about his use of the N-word and the anti-Semitic slurs he has uttered. I also actually believe that young Donald got someone else to take the Scholastic Aptitude Test he needed to enroll at the University of Pennsylvania.

I believe Donald Trump is as vile, venal and vengeful as Mary Trump reportedly portrays.

She won’t change my mind one little bit about this individual.

So, it falls on me to decide whether I want to spend money on a book that likely won’t tell me anything I don’t already believe.

Mary Trump is no interloper. Her father, Donald Trump’s brother, died of alcohol abuse. She has no relationship with Uncle Donald. Still, she is highly educated, earning multiple degrees and carving out a career as a clinical psychologist.

She seems credible to me.

I am left to wonder whether it also will ring true to those who keep giving Uncle Donald a pass on the conduct in which he engaged for his entire adult life.

Donald Trump

The rally? It didn’t go quite as planned

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What do we glean from Donald John Trump’s return to the campaign rally podium?

He stood in an arena in Tulsa, Okla., that he said he would pack with 19,000 screaming Trumpkins. All those empty seats were meant, I suppose, to disguise the fanatics.

The Trump re-election team had to cancel some outdoor events. Why? Low turnout.

Trump blathers on in his rally. He rambles incoherently. He spent about 20 to 30 minutes showing how he could lift a glass of water with a single hand.

Oh, and then we have the lack of social distancing among those who were in the arena, the lack of face masks, the lack of care being taken to avoid coming down with COVID-19. Sigh.

Donald Trump’s return to the 2020 presidential campaign trail, to my eyes, has encountered some serious trouble as the Carnival Barker in Chief seeks to win re-election to a second term.

I won’t lose a bit of sleep over any of this.

Donald Trump

Worst week of hideous saga coming to an end

I believe it’s fair to suggest that Donald John Trump is coming off the worst week of the presidency he inherited.

It has revealed to the world just how low this individual can go to debase the principles he took an oath to protect.

Let’s ponder a few things that occurred.

George Floyd was killed by police in Minneapolis; the cops who killed him were fired immediately; one of them was charged with murder and manslaughter, while three others have been charged as well. Trump’s response was to lash out at the protesters; to be fair, many “protests” turned to riots … which drew Trump’s public attention. He has been silent on the issue of how African-Americans are mistreated too often by police agencies.

Trump then vowed to unleash “thousands and thousands of heavily armed” active-duty military personnel to “dominate” the streets of American cities. He said he would use the most potent and lethal military machine in world history on American citizens exercising their rights to protest government policy.

He also used cops and some sort of “secret security force” to clear the streets between the White House and an Episcopal church of peaceful protesters. The cops used tear gas on the protesters. Trum then traipsed to the church, carrying a Bible. He stood before the holy place, held up the Bible … for a photo opportunity! Yes, this individual demonstrated for all the world to see how he is able to use a Holy Bible as a political prop.

The blowback from these repeated demonstrations has been scathing condemnation general-grade officers, including a former defense secretary, two former chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a former White House chief of staff, the former special operations commander and an assortment of three- and four-star officers, all of whom have served their country with honor and heroism. 

Oh, and thousands more Americans died from COVID-19, the disease Trump dismissed as no worse than the flu.

I have said it many times and I will say it again and again. Donald Trump is morally, temperamentally and psychologically unfit for the office he holds.

I would suggest that we have witnessed the worst possible week of a presidency in mortal peril of disintegration … except that we have many more weeks ahead of us before we can usher this individual out of the Oval Office for the final time.

Donald Trump

Oh, the hypocrisy!

I just watched a video depicting a fellow named Frank Schaeffer, who describes himself as a formerly religious individual who has become a “progressive.”

He excoriates the militia who stormed the Michigan state capitol, demanding that Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer reopen the state she had closed to fight the coronavirus. He also blasts Donald Trump for demanding that Whitmer meet with the armed militia, who he describes as criminals and thugs, to discuss their demands.

Schaeffer asks a perfectly pertinent question. If it’s good for Gov. Whitmer to meet with armed militia, why not allow them to storm the White House and meet with the president?

Schaeffer also noted that the White House is guarded by Secret Service sharpshooters who would shoot to kill anyone who walked onto the White House grounds.

Indeed, this individual — Frank Schaeffer — has posed a perfectly legitimate question. The armed militia festooned with swastikas and Confederate flags have no business presenting themselves in such a threatening manner to state government officials. What’s more, the president of the United States shouldn’t be enabling them to continue this outrageous behavior by suggesting they meet with an elected official.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=675447429921871

Check it out. It’s worth your time.

Donald Trump

Hoping to be able to look with respect again at president

We are enmeshed in a global health crisis the likes of which very few of us ever have witnessed.

The last global pandemic to sweep the planet occurred while the nation was fighting World War I and, yes, there are a small number of centenarians who have a fleeting memory of the measles pandemic that killed millions of Americans.

Still, we also are facing a presidential election near the end of this year. I am trying the best I can to look ahead without taking my eye off the current crisis that has killed nearly 70,000 Americans.

I am longing for a return to a time when I can look with respect at the president of the United States. The current president never has won my trust, so it is difficult to say he “lost” my trust during this crisis, given that there was no trust for Donald Trump to lose in the first place.

I want to be crystal clear. When I refer to “respect for the president,” I refer only to the individual who holds the office. I continue to revere the presidency. The office commands all our respect. However, when I look at the individual sitting in the office — now that he has demonstrated beyond all manner of doubt his unfitness for that office — I am filled with horror and dread.

The juxtaposition of the coronavirus pandemic and the upcoming election only pulls the two events into sharp relief.

Trump had the opportunity to rise to the level of a leader. He could have executed his duties as comforter, consoler, unifier. He has failed miserably on all three and then some! He casts the health crisis almost solely in economic terms, hoping for all he’s worth that the economy will rebound in time for Trump to reap some political reward.

This con man/carnival barker/charlatan/fraud offers next to zero words of comfort to those who suffer. Listen to his comments about how “no one is more concerned about the death” than he is; listen to him follow that with the very next sentence that says “by the same token, we have to worry” about the economy.

This guy sickens me.

I want the next election to give us a leader who can behave with dignity and grace. It looks as though Joe Biden will be Trump’s foe this fall. Fine. I’m all in … now! I wasn’t in the beginning of this campaign, but given what we are witnessing from the Liar in Chief, I most certainly have become what you might call a Bidenista.

Those critics of this blog will laugh with scorn at what I will say next, but … whatever. I am truly weary of speaking so ill of the president. I want to be able to speak with high praise of the individual who serves as our head of state.

The current individual just can’t cut it. Nor will he ever cut it.

Donald Trump

Not happy criticizing Trump

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You may choose to either believe or disbelieve what I want to share in this brief blog post … it matters not one bit which way you go with it.

This blog’s fairly relentless criticism of Donald John Trump is not something I actually enjoy delivering. It’s just that I feel I must say these things about a man I consider to be the most fundamentally unfit human being ever elected to the presidency, at least in my lifetime.

I was born during the Harry Truman years. I lived through Dwight Eisenhower’s two terms, John F. Kennedy’s brief tenure, Lyndon Johnson’s tumultuous tenure, Richard Nixon’s scandal-ridden time, Gerald Ford’s healing of the nation, Jimmy Carter’s single term, Ronald Reagan’s two-term “Morning in America,” George H.W. Bush’s history-making single term, Bill Clinton’s successful two terms, George W. Bush’s call to war against terror and Barack Obama’s time that brought economic recovery.

They all had public service in their background. They all brought something of value to this exalted office. I didn’t vote for all of these men, dating back to Richard Nixon’s 1972 re-election, the first time I was eligible to vote. They all understood government and were able to talk intelligently and coherently about how it works.

Then we got Donald Trump. His presidency will go down in flames, either at this year’s election or later if — heaven forbid — he wins re-election. There is not a single thing this guy is likely to do that would change the equation.

He lies incessantly. Trump talks to us with language that sounds as if it comes from the mouth of a seventh-grade playground bully. He is incoherent, inarticulate, totally devoid of compassion and understanding. Trump has no gauge that allows him to relate to human beings’ suffering.

I take no pleasure in leveling this criticism at Trump. Really, I  do not.

I love this country. I went to war for this country. I want the best for it. I want the United States to prosper and to thrive. Yes, we’re heading for a crippling recession brought by circumstances of no one’s making … but worsened by Donald Trump’s indecision, his ineptness and his incompetence in responding to the coronavirus pandemic.

So help me, though, I will continue to write critically of this individual. I will get angry on occasion. You can bet on it.

I just want you to understand that I do so with no joy. As Trump would say: Believe me.

Donald Trump

One of Trump’s ‘best people’?

I want you to ponder the image you see with this blog post.

The fellow on the right is Vince McMahon, the head of World Wrestling Entertainment. He is a friend of Donald John Trump, the current president of the United States.

McMahon has just been named to a task force charged with trying to find solutions to how the nation can reopen for business in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

Yes, the guy who is mooning someone in the middle of a wrestling ring is going to be among the so-called “best people” that Donald Trump promised to associate with as he governed the greatest country on Earth.

Just something to consider.

Donald Trump

Trump wants his name to appear on stimulus checks? Huh?

This just in: That rotten SOB who masquerades as our president wants to ensure his name appears on the paper stimulus checks that will be mailed out to millions of Americans.

It turns out that Donald Trump is not authorized to sign the checks, which means that they will be delayed in getting to Americans. Why? Because the president insists on putting his name on them.

What is this guy trying to do?

Good grief! This petty bit of self-aggrandizement only inflicts more hardship in this health crisis/pandemic on those who need the money sooner rather than later to help them through job loss, pending mortgage payments, car payments, student loan payments.

And for what purpose? Because the president wants his name on a document he isn’t authorized to sign.

What an astonishing piece of sh**!

Donald Trump, national news

Rethinking how to refer to POTUS

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I am giving thought to changing the manner in which I should refer to the president of the United States.

For many years prior to entering politics, Donald John Trump was known simply as The Donald. He cultivated that moniker. He thought it was cool, I reckon.

I cannot for the ever-lovin’ life of me attach the word “President” in front of his last name. Yes, he was elected under the rules of the U.S. Constitution. I do not dispute the Electoral College victory he scored over Hillary Rodham Clinton, despite his losing the actual vote by nearly 3 million ballots.

It’s been his conduct as president that makes me shudder. It has been the hideous extemporaneous riffs into which he launches when he stands before his adoring fans. I happened to attend a Donald Trump rally in downtown Dallas this past summer. It was at the same time both fascinating and disgusting. I met some truly nice people wearing MAGA hats and t-shirts bearing “Trump 2020” lettering.

I sat through the rally for as long as I could inside the American Airlines Center. Then I left. I drove home. I can now say I attended a Donald Trump rally

However, he hasn’t earned the title of “President” before his name … at least on this blog.

I might revert to referring to him as The Donald. Hey, it worked for him when he was making all that money and living with that glitzy glam, while he was walking into beauty pageant contestants’ dressing rooms and while he was boasting how he could grab women by their pu*** because his celebrity status enabled him to act like a total boor.

Has this guy elevated his public profile while serving as president of the United States? Has he risen to the standards his high office demands? Hardly. He’s just The Donald.