Tag Archives: Melania Trump

Melania takes cheap shot at Person of the Year

It’s understandable that someone would want to defend his or her spouse against criticism — even if the criticism is deserved.

However, for first lady Melania Trump to level a veiled shot against a teenager who was awarded Time magazine’s coveted “Person of the Year” seems to me to be in poor taste.

Donald Trump saw fit to fire off a Twitter message aimed at 16-year-old Greta Thunberg, a climate change activist. He told her to “chill,” that she needs to curb her anger. The president of the United States ought to commit to more constructive pursuits than to insult a girl who won an award that damn near everyone would love to win.

The pushback against Trump was understandable.

Then the first lady weighed in, saying that Greta is an “activist” who “makes speeches.” Therefore, she seems to imply, Greta is fair game.

Good grief, Melania. The point of her criticism of Greta was in response to critics of an impeachment witness who mentioned the Trumps’ 13-year-old son, Barron, during her testimony. Mrs. Trump said Barron “is not an activist who travels the globe” speaking out against climate change.

I suppose Greta Thunberg’s activism does expose her to criticism. But from the president of the United States? Really?

If only POTUS had kept his Twitter device under wraps.

Professor Karlan learns a tough lesson

“Pamela Karlan, you should be ashamed of your very angry and obviously biased public pandering, and using a child to do it.”

So said first lady Melania Trump via Twitter in response to a university professor’s unfortunate invoking of Mrs. Trump’s son, Barron, during testimony today before the House Judiciary Committee.

Professor Karlan said that while it is all right for the president to name his son “Barron,” he couldn’t “make him a baron.”

That drew the expected criticism.

Frankly, she deserved to take the hit for the remark, for which she apologized.

Now, this likely won’t quell the critics. It should, but they’ll continue to yammer at her. We have learned in this political climate that apologies often never go far enough to absolve someone from the transgression they commit.

In this instance, Pamela Karlan’s mistake was clearly defined. Politicians’ children should be off limits … always! She crossed a line that was equally defined.

I am heartened to have listened to her apology as she made it. I am guessing Karlan might have known of the consequence of that mistake the moment she uttered it.

The heated debate in Washington is only going to get even hotter as this impeachment matter progresses toward a full vote in the House of Representatives. The president and his key aides have provided all by themselves the world with plenty of grist for which they can be criticized.

The president’s young son is way off limits.

Professor makes mistake by invoking name of POTUS’s son

Pamela Karlan is one of four constitutional legal scholars who testified today before the House Judiciary Committee.

She was sailing along with her remarks … and then she made a mistake. Professor Karlan said that Donald Trump couldn’t make his son Barron “a baron.”

Bad call, professor.

She drew criticism from Republicans on the committee, who scolded her for invoking the name of the president’s minor son into the debate over whether his father should be impeached by the House.

Karlan deserved the criticism, which also came from first lady Melania Trump, who said the children of politicians are off limits.

Yes, they are.

But then Karlan took a moment at the hearing to apologize for her remarks and to express regret that she made them. I am willing to accept her apology. However, I am not holding out much hope that her critics — and the president’s allies — will do the same.

By all means, ban those ‘flavored’ vape devices

Get ready for it. I am about to say something positive about the president of the United States.

Donald J. Trump is absolutely correct to call for a ban on the sale of those “flavored” e-cigarette devices (I think that’s what you might call ’em) in an effort to stem the use of vaping among youngsters.

The president today spoke of his own vested interest in the banning of them, noting that he and first lady Melania Trump are the parents of a teenage son who is part of the generation that is drawn to those weird flavors.

Actually, the president referenced the first lady exclusively, saying “she has a son” and, thus, has skin in the game.

Whatever. He is correct to demand stricter prohibitions regarding vaping, which is producing serious illness and death among youngsters all over the country.

My wife and I are in Bellingham, Wash., tonight and local news reports referred extensively to the state’s first vape-related death.

It’s an epidemic. Its most vulnerable victims are gullible youngsters, boys and girls, who are lured to try this new fad. I always thought e-cigarettes and vaping were somehow safer than the old-fashioned cigarettes I used to smoke.

Now this vaping craze has produced flavors: cotton candy and other assorted scents that I guess young people find appealing.

Honestly, I don’t quite yet understand the vaping craze … other than I want no part of it. I quit smoking cigarettes cold turkey nearly 40 years ago. It is one of the things I’ve done in my life of which I am most proud.

If we can dissuade young people from vaping and exposing their lungs to the hazards of nicotine, then I’m all for that, too.

To that end, I applaud the president for using his high office for a noble cause.

Picture speaks volumes about POTUS’s unfitness

This picture well might provide one of the most glaring examples I can imagine of Donald Trump’s unfitness for the presidency of the United States.

There he is, standing alongside first lady Melania Trump. They were visiting El Paso, Texas, on what was billed as a mission to lend aid and comfort to those who experienced the horrific massacre at the Wal-Mart shopping center this past weekend.

The moment demanded solemnity. It required the president to embrace family members. To tell them he supports them.

So … what does the first couple do? They pose for pictures that included an infant who was made an orphan when his parents were killed by the lunatic who opened fire at the Wal-Mart complex.

Don’t they look happy? Aren’t they just so darn full of good cheer? Is that the image they should project while the nation mourns the deaths inflicted in El Paso and also in Dayton, Ohio? I’ll answer the final question: Hell … no!

When the president’s critics talk about his lack of empathy, his inability — or unwillingness — to express authentic sorrow, this is the image they might use to illustrate the point.

The baby has no idea what has happened. That is not even close to the point! My point is that president and the first lady ventured to the latest “ground zero” of gun violence in the United States. Twenty-two people died at the hands of a madman. There is mounting evidence that the shooter was inspired by the anti-immigrant rhetoric that has come from the president.

Has the president owned any of that? Has he suggested even the slightest hint of remorse or regret at the things he has said that could have spawned such insanity? No. He has not done anything of the sort.

The job of president compels the president at times of national grief and shock to speak from his heart. It’s an unwritten part of his job description, but it’s there. Did the president deliver on that responsibility? No. He went to El Paso and Dayton and sought to turn the tours of both cities into self-serving testimonials.

Then he grins like a doofus in the presence of an infant who is going to grow up never remembering the man and woman who brought him into the world, two victims of gun violence gunned down in the worst slaughter ever inflicted on the Latino community.

Absolutely sickening.

Wondering how FLOTUS deals with POTUS’s bullying

If only I could slip into first lady Melania Trump’s skull, even for just a moment, I think I could learn a thing or two about what she really thinks of life with the president of the United States.

The first lady announced her initiative some time ago to crack down on cyberbullying, which has a terrible effect on our nation’s younger generation. It’s a noble cause. It is worthy of the kind of thing that first ladies take on as issues they want to promote during their time in the White House.

However, Melania Trump has been pretty quiet about that initiative. Why do you suppose that’s the case? Oh, wait! It’s probably because her husband keeps up the Twitter tirades, the cyber rants, the outright “bullying” of his political opponents.

Which brings me to the point I made on this blog, along with others around the world, when Melania Trump first announced her initiative: You need to take care of business at home, Mrs. Trump!

Were I to eavesdrop on the Trumps, I am likely to hear the first lady castigate her husband for making her look like a fool. That, of course, presumes she is able to talk frankly and candidly with her husband, the self-proclaimed “stable genius” and the smartest man in human history.

Well, the more I think about it, the more I am inclined to think that she doesn’t have that capability within the residence of the White House. It’s likely a pretty good bet that Donald Trump rules the roost at home much as he tries to rule the West Wing.

The president’s incessant, relentless bullying of foes sets a terrible example for his wife to follow as she seeks to end the bullying scourge among our nation’s children.

Does any of that matter to the Bully in Chief? I’ll give you three guesses … and the first two don’t count.

UVA declines invitation to visit White House … what gives?

The list is now up to three.

The University of Virginia won the NCAA men’s basketball championship with a stunning victory over Texas Tech University. Then the White House invited the Cavaliers to be feted by Donald Trump.

The Cavs’ response? No can do, Mr. President.

They now join the University of North Carolina and Villanova University in declining to take part in what most of us thought was a part of D.C. normalcy. Teams win national championships, then travel to the nation’s capital to be honored by the president of the United States.

That was until Donald Trump became president of the United States. Now we find the president politicizing these events, criticizing pro football players for kneeling during the playing of the National Anthem. He infuriates players, who then balk at coming to the White House. The Golden State Warriors this past year won the NBA title, chafed at going to the White House and then the president disinvited them.

Now the third straight men’s college basketball team has said “no thanks” to the White House, citing what school officials called “scheduling conflicts.” Sure thing, man.

When you think about it, what we’re seeing is an ongoing trend involving this president.

Donald and Melania Trump haven’t attended a Kennedy Center Honors event that pays tribute to artists who contribute to the world’s culture. The president refuses to attend the White House Correspondents Dinner, I presume because of his antipathy toward the “enemy of the American people.”

These once-pro forma events have become news in and of themselves because of the president’s clumsy relationships with national institutions.

So the drama continues.

The UVA Cavaliers won’t break bread with the president. I fully expect Donald Trump to say something inappropriate — if not downright stupid — in response to the NCAA men’s champs’ decision to stay away.

Weird.

Get ready for a social media brawl like no other

I don’t make political predictions any longer.

Instead, I tend to qualify my observations by suggesting that “I won’t be surprised if . . . “ something happens.

So, here goes. I will not be surprised in the least if the next presidential campaign features a social media brawl the likes of which we’ve never seen.

I get that social media are a relatively new phenomenon in today’s political world. However, it stands to reason to conclude that the president of the United States, Donald John Trump, will unleash a social media torrent against all the foes who will be running against him. The irony of such a thing happening is ironic in the extreme.

Here’s why: First lady Melania Trump has declared her mission is to eliminate cyberbullying. I like the cause. It’s noble. It’s worth fighting.

She needs to start with her husband. Donald Trump is the “Cyber Bully in Chief.” He’s proud of his Twitter prowess, despite his mangled syntax and his overuse of capital letters. He uses Twitter as a weapon. Yes, he has “weaponized” social media to the extent that he can use Twitter to hurl insults and innuendo, to threaten and coerce his foes.

I know the first lady’s major beneficiaries are intended to be children who are victimized by bullies. Still, her husband’s (mis)use of Twitter needs attention, too.

I expect the president to use Twitter to disparage his opponents at every level possible. He will use it with cruelty. Trump will be savage. He won’t back down. Trump never will apologize. Why should he? His base will cheer him on!

That’s all he cares to know. Will it please the base?

Get ready for the bloodiest political fight we’ve ever seen.

If only Trump were ‘good’ at lying; he isn’t

Donald Trump is setting some sort of unofficial record for lying, prevarication, misstatements muttered, uttered and sputtered from the White House.

One of his more recent, um, lies takes the cake.

The commander in chief stood before troops in Iraq the day after Christmas. He went to the war zone with his wife, Melania, and told the men and women assembled before him that they had just gotten the first pay raise in 10 years. Lie!

Then he said he fought for a 10-percent pay increase, even though others wanted to grant them a considerably smaller pay raise. Lie!

Our fighting personnel have gotten raises every year for more than three decades. As for the 10-percent raise this year, it didn’t happen. Their raise is considerably smaller than what the president described to them.

Here is what troubles me greatly: Donald Trump’s incessant barrage of falsehoods seems pointless, needless, foundationless. It is gratuitous. He lies when he doesn’t need to lie.

The Washington Post has been keeping track of the president’s lying/prevarication/misspeaking. The newspaper’s total now is past 7,500 such statements — and this is before the end of the first half of the president’s term! His lying is accelerating as well!

I should be more circumspect in calling these statements outright “lies.” To lie is to say something knowing it is false. Some critics have suggested that Trump simply doesn’t know what he’s talking about; therefore, he doesn’t necessarily purposely lie to our faces.

However, Donald Trump has told us repeatedly that he possesses a level of intelligence that few men have ever had. He knows the “best words.” He went to the “best schools.” He got the “best education.” He surrounds himself with the “best people.” Doesn’t all of that suggest to you — as it does to me — that the president should know of which he speaks when he opens his mouth?

The president is a liar. Now he’s gone before the men and women he purports to “love” and revere — our warriors in harm’s way — and lied to their faces!

Amazing.

We’re acting as ‘suckers,’ Mr. President?

Let me see if I can connect these dots.

Donald and Melania Trump jetted off early Wednesday to Iraq to visit with some of our troops there. It was the first visit by the president to a war zone since he took office in January 2017. Good show, Mr. President; I’m glad you went.

But then . . .

He declared that the United States was done being played as “suckers.” The president said this country wouldn’t be “suckered” any longer into defending other nations’ self-interest.

That was a bit of a head-scratcher for me. I cannot help but wonder what the troops in Iraq thought when they heard the commander in chief describe their hazardous duty as acting on behalf of a nation that had been “suckered” into sending men and women into harm’s way. Doesn’t that sound as though he is cheapening their work, that he is demeaning the danger they face?

I couldn’t help but think of how I might have felt in 1969 if President Nixon had come to Da Nang, South Vietnam, and told us that we had been duped into fighting a useless war. I cannot transport myself back to that time, but my gut tells me I well might have taken serious offense at such comments.

As for the current president, my belief is that the real “suckers” are those who believed they were getting a serious commander in chief when they voted for this guy in the first place.