Trump: Unadorned

He is a dictator wanabe posing as a conservative republican. He is assertive, loud, and combative.  His critics have called him misogynistic, divisive, and racist. However his supporters view him as caring and charismatic. Though his supporters are in the minority in terms of their numbers, they carry a lot of critical political weight-and he knows it. He capitalizes on this. His supporters (along with possibly, Putin, Comey, and Wikileaks) catapulted him into office. He is Donald J. Trump, the one-of-a-kind president of the United States of America. He single-handedly changed the landscape of American politics in record time by commandeering the Republican Party from entrenched career politicians-but at what cost?

Upon taking office, Mr. Trump’s administration quickly became characterized by chaos and instability, largely brought on by his accompanying personal legal accusations and in-progress legal issues. Plus, Trump demonstrated that he had the tendency to create a bunch of avoidable problems for himself.

The most serious of the legal issues facing Mr. Trump has been the ongoing Mueller investigation into his possible collusion with Russia in the 2016 presidential election. The special counsel also has the power to look into any other infractions that may be uncovered during his investigation, so it is possible that several legal issues may be found. It has been said that Mr. Mueller might be looking into possible obstruction of justice issues, money laundering issues, and more.

The Mueller investigation has already indicted various members of the Trump campaign or administration; notably, his former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen. It is noteworthy that these key Trump associates, along with other staff people, like Rick Gates, co-campaign chair, George Papadopoulos, foreign policy advisor, and others, have had dealings with Russia.  Many citizens have commented that it is unusual for an administration to have so many associates with ties to our most prominent long-term enemy. In view of the allegations of Russian meddling in our 2016 election, as well as possible “collusion” or “conspiracy”, these several Russian associations are very suspicious at best.

To many American citizens, Trump doesn’t represent the best of what America has to offer. They feel that Trump never had our best interests at heart and they often comment that all he cares about and, “caters to”, is his base. In addition, they feel that he does not care about the ideals of truth or justice; all he cares about is “winning” and trying to get Mueller off of his back, no matter what institution, or who he has to throw “under the bus” in the process.

Lots of Americans think that Trump is never held “accountable” for the negative things he says and does. They feel that congressional republicans need to do their jobs and rein him in when necessary, and stop cringing in his presence. However, these republicans are afraid to confront Trump when necessary because they fear for their positions.  If they would dare challenge Trump (with his approval rating in the 90 percent range among republicans) they might pay for it at the polls.

Despite Trump’s high numbers among republicans, he faces a general “trust issue” among “all” voters, as he has a history of lying to the public and continually misrepresenting or exaggerating facts to boost his positions. Most of us can see that he is lying, but his so-called base doesn’t seem to care. Thus, Trump’s democratic opponents have to determine how to creatively combat a Republican Party that has lost its respect for truth (and honest justice too) due to their fear of Donald Trump. In the Trump world, truth and justice mean nothing unless they work in his favor. In the name of truth and in the name of justice, he was willing to misuse; I mean use, his power to muscle Kavanaugh through the confirmation process.

It is well-known that Mr. Trump has successfully compromised the Republican Party, and they have apparently conspired with him to prioritize party over principle and party over country. Under Trump, the majority republicans seem to have cast aside their traditional American values in hopes of maintaining their seats in Congress by kissing the hand of their beloved.

Trump continually longs for what he perceives as personal wins, no matter the cost. Damn principle, damn the intelligence community, damn country. Damn it all! He will throw any person or revered institution under the bus to achieve a personal win or save his hide. He sees many challenges as personal affronts against him; he never wants to lose, and he never wants to be termed a “loser”. Though he is the president of the greatest nation on earth, he constantly exhibits a juvenile “school-boy” loser mentality on many issues.

Trump has a long-term issue with the media. He often denigrates the press and calls the press an “enemy of the people” (a term used more by dictators and totalitarians, than heads of democratic governments) yet he daily exploits their mediums to get his oftentimes “untrue” messages out to the public. I fear that democrats are going to lose the media battle if they don’t refute Trump’s myriad of lies regularly. Mr. Trump employs a savvy media strategy. He routinely “uses” the press to his benefit. He also uses rallies and press conferences to get his tailored messages to the public. Why don’t the democrats do the same? Trump enhances his political position through his dominance of the media. You can see that in plain sight. The democrats should use similar tactics; they should never lose out on any opportunity to state their truth and challenge the untruths and misrepresentations of the Trump administration.

With the help of Chairman Devin Nunes, Trump literally hijacked the House Intelligence Committee; effectively silencing the Committee’s democrats by not acknowledging their positive input or granting their wishes for certain witnesses to be interviewed. This resulted in the majority republican’s finding of “no evidence” of Russian collusion with reference to Mr. Trump. It appears that now Trump has also gained formidable control over the Republican Congress and the Supreme Court by forcing through Bret Kavanaugh’s nomination. Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court by the republicans, despite his politically biased, untruthful, and unhinged performance before the Senate Judiciary Committee, purged our country into a new Trump-inspired low, and again proved that Trump doesn’t care about truth or justice; all he cares about is “winning”. As said before, he just never wants to be seen as a “loser”.

A segment of the American population seems to be mesmerized by Trump. They like him. But, as mentioned before, Trump needs to be reined in by his party every now and then. However, Trumpian history tells us that this is not going to happen; plus, there appear to be “hints” that many in the country may be more pro-Trump than we originally thought. We know that Trump’s rallies are regularly jam-packed with his supporters who are willing to support him come “hell or high water”. He knows this. Therefore, he constantly plays to their sentiments. Without the help of Comey, WikiLeaks, and Putin, no one knows how many votes the republicans will generate at the polls come November, 2018, and beyond. Therefore, in order to increase their chances of winning, the democrats must show up in record numbers!

With reference to Trump’s truth deficit-for several months, many citizens, the news media, and pundits have shied away from definitively stating that Donald Trump was an outright liar, but, over time, they started to blatantly call him a liar. Neither the public nor the media have adequately emphasized the racial bias undertones of Trump’s administration. Yet this is the very underpinning of the Trump platform. This is sad, but true! I have said in prior essays that Trump is the Dean of racial and cultural division in America. Several months ago I first tweeted that “Trump encouraged violence on the campaign trail, used negative ‘code words’ and ‘dog whistles’ to cater to the worst interests of many. Several Republicans are running now using same ‘playbook’. Not good!”

In my article entitled “Donald J. Trump: Dean of Division”, I said:  “Some of the most blatant attempts of division along racial lines became apparent at many of Trump’s campaign rallies where he encouraged supporters to literally assault dissenters, and promised that he’ll pay their legal bills!. He said it wasn’t like this in ‘the old days’-a semi veiled attempt to have supporters recall the abominable ‘brighter days’ of long ago when white privilege reigned supreme. Again, this constant rhetoric of division must stop”.

Conservative writer and historian, Max Boot, recently said: “As I look back with the clarity of hindsight, I am convinced that coded racial appeals had at least as much, if not more, to do with the electoral process of the modern GOP than all of the policy proposals crafted by well-intentioned analysts like me”. After the election of Donald Trump, Max Boot left the Republican Party because he was “viscerally and instantly opposed to Donald Trump”.

Early in his presidential campaign, Trump started his racist rants against Hispanics, calling them rapists, among other negative things. We all recall when he disrespected a goal star Muslim family, NFL players protesting peacefully, a Hispanic Judge, and President Obama-saying that Mr. Obama had committed terrible acts against people just like Vladimir Putin has. We can well remember when he pledged support for DACA-then reneged, and when he equated the deeds of peaceful protestors for social justice, to violent neo-Nazi types shouting “Jews will not replace us!” In the Access Hollywood Billy Bush tapes, he talked about his abuse of women and laughed and joked about it. There are currently numerous accusations and pending lawsuits against Trump involving his alleged sexual indiscretions. These are just a few of the issues many Americans have cited with reference to Mr. Trump. This is Trump-unadorned!

Mr. Trump’s presidency comes at a great cost to Americans. The cost involves a lack of respect and trust in our government. In times of crisis, will our allies trust President Trump who is known to lie and misrepresent facts routinely? Will they feel secure in sharing their important national secrets and concerns with him? Will they conclude that he is too close to Putin? Who knows? However, the one thing we do know is that the 2018 midterm elections and the presidential election of 2020 are the most important elections in decades. We need to vote wisely and purposefully in order to turn the tide and reclaim our country and its traditional values that have made us who we are.  I’ll see you at the polls.