Why I Continue to Write About Trump

Published: May 22, 2020

By Jim Lichtman
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He is an angry, arrogant, bigoted, unprincipled narcissist who was elected to the U.S. presidency by the slimmest of margins.

He is the most illiterate, contradictory, and inarticulate individual who has ever held the highest office in the land.

According to the watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), he has more than 3,000 conflicts of interest.

He called for a ban on Muslims, and questioned an American-born judge’s Mexican ancestry.

In the last six weeks, he vindictively removed five inspectors general whose jobs are to call attention and investigate whistleblower complaints and root out waste, fraud and abuse.

Anyone who challenges him; anyone he perceives as challenging him is subjected to name-calling and retaliatory action.

After Michigan was hit with a 500-year flood and was looking for federal aid, Trump said he would think about rescinding that aid because Michigan’s governor announced that the state would use absentee, mail-in ballots for all elections due to the risk to voters in contracting the coronavirus from standing in line at polling stations.

Without a shred of evidence, he opposes mail-in ballots because he falsely claims they lead to widespread voter fraud even as he hypocritically uses a mail-in ballot to vote in his home state of Florida as he has in past elections.

He has incompetently handled the greatest medical crisis since the 1918 Spanish flu by first calling it a “Democratic hoax.”

He fosters false conspiracy theories — everything from the belief that vaccines cause autism to windmills causing cancer. His latest misinformed theory: the coronavirus was released from a lab in Wuhan, China, the location of the first outbreak.

He won’t wear a recommended mask, but he will take an unproven drug. He contradicts facts given by medical experts standing alongside him at a press conference by later telling everyone that the virus “will disappear… like a miracle.”

He calls viable medical studies, “phony,” and “enemy statement(s).”

The conservative magazine National Review wrote, “The first 100 days of the Trump era recall that old western: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly.” (And there wasn’t much good.)

“In a March Quinnipiac University poll, six in 10 voters said Trump was not honest.”

According to The Washington Post fact checker, he has surpassed 18,000 false or misleading statements to date.

Despite calling media stories “fake news” and journalists, “the enemy of the people,” he continues to be the center of attention at scheduled press conferences and fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants Q&As as he leaves the White House.

He fulminates at journalists for asking “nasty” questions he either doesn’t like or can’t answer.

Despite the exorbitant expense and inconvenience to the military, he is planning to have a Fourth of July extravaganza on the National Mall this year even as the District of Columbia mayor has stay-at-home orders in place.

“CREW reported at the time that the Trump International Hotel, just a few blocks from the National Mall, raised room rates to an unusually high $1,166, and only allowed guests to book if they were booking at least three nights.”

CREW currently has a lawsuit pending against Trump concerning his violation of the Constitution’s emoluments clause.

Why does all this matter?

Because we expect a leader to demonstrate thoughtful, well-informed decision making.

Because we need a leader who respects all Americans, no matter their background.

Because the country needs to trust that a president is being honest and straight-forward in speech and actions the majority of the time.

Because we need a president who doesn’t bully people, but instead rally’s people from his bully pulpit about the issues that Americans care about most.

Because it’s vital to the health and welfare of Americans to have a president who works to safe-guard all its citizens.

Because we need a leader who is responsible and accountable to the people he serves.

Because we expect a president to be civil, courteous and decent.

Why do I continue to write about Trump?

Because I believe this president is an existential threat to everything this democratic republic stands for: a country that strives for “a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity…”

Comments

  1. What a splendid, articulate, eloquent, insightful and spot on commentary. I commend you for an exceptional piece of work. It couldn’t be more timely. Keep it coming. We need to hear from voices like yours

  2. Yes Jim, I agree and also believe this (powerful… “guy”) “…is an existential threat to everything this democratic republic stands for…”

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