YOU’RE FIRED

If you follow this space you know that I have long held the view that Donald Trump is unfit to serve as President of the United States.

Many Trump supporters have categorized my concerns as sour grapes over losing the election.  Others see me as impatient; unwilling to give a novice politician the time to apply his business acumen to the complex duties of the Oval Office.  To be fair…there is probably some validity in both characterizations.

What is also true is that Donald Trump is the same man today as the one who kicked off his campaign by denigrating Mexicans while standing in front of a crowd of movie extras paid for by the his campaign.  A brief event that on its face demonstrated all that we know to be true about this president.  What began with lies, racial epithets, inflammatory rhetoric and a fake crowd of faux supporters has proven to be a microcosm of the Trump presidency.

I knew at that moment that he was unfit for the office.  He has given me no reason to question my views.  If anything his behavior since that day has validated my concerns.

I wasn’t the only one who immediately questioned Trump’s stability and fitness to serve.  Many others saw Trump as I did.  Millions of them took to the streets to voice their concerns.  Yet come election day over 60 million people were so angry with the status quo they decided to ignore his obvious lack of character and discipline and handed him the keys to the most powerful office in the world.

Now, a year into the Trump presidency we know that any hope that he would some how grow into the office is but a pipe dream.  Trump is today what he has always been: a huckster, a racist, a bigot, a misogynist and a compulsive liar.  A man so in need of attention and praise that he will do or say anything to keep the spotlight focused on him.

Over the past 48 hours Trump’s erratic behavior has intensified.  On the verge of a nuclear war with North Korea and within days of passing the first major piece of legislation of his presidency, Trump chose to:  support a pedophile running for the US Senate, tweet out a series of fascist videos, falsely incriminate a former congressman in the death of an intern, criticize our staunchest ally on their handling of a deadly terrorist attack, gleefully revel in a major news organization’s firing of a popular news anchor for sexual misconduct, call for the ouster of the executives of another media outlet for failing to praise his accomplishments, deny the authenticity of a damning conversation caught on tape for which he had previously apologized, resurrect the false controversy over former President Obama’s birth certificate, call the dangerously unhinged leader of North Korea a sophomoric name and lie to the American people about the provisions of his tax reform bill.

Perhaps the only thing more disconcerting than the president’s erratic and reckless behavior is the unwillingness of Republicans in congress to acknowledge that there is anything disconcerting about it.  They know this president is unhinged.  They admit as much off the record.  But they see a usefulness in having him in a position to sign whatever legislation they put on his desk.

Donald Trump is mentally unfit to serve.  His staff knows it.  His party knows it.  Our allies know it.  Our enemies know it.  Even many of Trump’s own supporters know it.

Yet those who could actually do something about it remain silent; putting the country at risk for the sake of maintaining partisan political advantage.

Trump supporters tell us that Trump was “hired” to run the country because voters wanted to drain the swamp of politicians and put a successful businessman in charge.  In my view the voters made a mistake.  The truth of the matter is, if the CEO of any Fortune 500 company behaved in the matter in which Trump has conducted himself, he would be fired on the spot.

It is time to tell Donald Trump:  “You’re Fired!”