I am bewildered by our continued astonishment over Donald Trump’s self-serving and dare I say often abhorrent behavior.
Since the day he descended the Trump Tower elevator and announced his candidacy for the office of President of the United States, Donald Trump’s comportment has been more akin to that of a petulant 5 year old bully than the most powerful person on the planet. When confronted by untoward circumstances or events that threaten his personal image or business empire, Donald Trump has continuously looked the American people in the eye and denied, deflected, dissembled, obfuscated and out and out lied rather than admit to the truth of his failings. Even in cases where the evidence in fact is unequivocally corroborated by audio or video tape of his duplicity; Donald Trump will engage in a never ending false narrative until the media and the public are distracted by yet another Trump scandal.
So I found myself literally laughing out loud at the public reaction to the latest conflict between Donald Trump’s personal/business interests and those of the American people he was elected to serve.
I’m speaking of course of the alleged assassination of permanent US resident/Washington Post journalist; Jamal Khashoggi by order of the Saudi Crown Prince; Mohammed bin Salman.
This heinous and gruesome violation of human rights and free speech violates the very foundation on which our democracy was founded. Yet faced with ever growing evidence of the Saudi’s culpability, corroborated by Turkish audio and video of the torture and killing; Trump chose deflection and obfuscation over condemnation.
For you see Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner have a long standing lucrative business relationship with the Saudis that has benefitted their family business to the tune of tens of millions of dollars. Thus far Trump’s reaction to the murder has ranged from “Well, he’s (Khashoggi) not an American citizen.” to “We have a $110 billion arms deal with the Saudis…the biggest in history…and I can’t tear it up and let them by those arms from Russia or China.”
No outrage that a trusted ally has engaged in this cruel behavior. No empathy for the deceased family. Just obfuscation and the transactional dissection of the effects on a business deal.
When reports surfaced that our intelligence community believed with a high degree of certainty that the Saudis DID in fact murder and dismember Khashoggi, one talking head said: “Well, they have Trump in a box now. He can’t deny it happened and that the Saudis were responsible.”
Seriously!!!
The Billy Bush tape of Trump bragging about his sexual misconduct blared on a continuous loop right before the election. Trump lied/apologized for his crass misogyny before incredulously denying it was his voice on the tape. The public all but ignored the scandal and elected him president.
Faced with Robert Mueller’s federal criminal indictments of Trump’s National Security Advisor, Campaign Manager, Deputy Campaign Manager, foreign policy advisor, legal counsel and personal fixer along with over three dozen Russian operatives and companies; Trump continues to falsely claim that the investigation is a “witch hunt” and a “hoax”
Offered incontrovertible evidence in sworn testimony under oath by his long time friend and personal fixer, Michael Cohen, that he, Donald Trump is an unindicted co-conspirator in a criminal conspiracy to violate federal campaign laws and defraud the American people; Trump labels Cohen a liar. Even though Cohen’s testimony is corroborated by audio tapes of Trump’s participation in the conspiracy. This conspiracy transpires mere weeks before the election when Trump authorizes Cohen to pay hush money to his mistress/porn-star to prevent her from going public about their extra-marital affair. A scandal that could have ended Trump’s election bid. Trump denies the affair and payment even though there are audio tapes of him authorizing Cohen to make the hush money payment. The country is shocked and appalled. Trump’s approval ratings remain a rock steady 40%.
There are more Trump denials of facts…more obfuscations…more dissembling…more lies…thousands upon thousands of them. Thus far all uttered with little or no consequence.
So on what planet is Donald Trump “boxed in” for refusing to label his long time lucrative Saudi business partner a murderer?
In Trump’s world everything…everything…is about Trump and Trump’s business. Period!
Two years into the Trump presidency we continue in our endeavor to hold Donald Trump accountable to a set of societal norms. Trump continues to reject them out of hand. Yet we persist.
Given my bewilderment I have to ask…
Who is delusional…us or him?
Comments on this entry are closed.