Here’s a good question for Trump—if only someone would ask it!
Poor Trumpy. He’s so upset about the Witch Hunt, I could almost feel sorry for him. Except that I don’t, because he’s brought this upon himself.
Here’s a question I’ve never heard the press ask him (much less a question he’s ever asked himself): “Mr. President, why do you think so many Americans hate you?”
Trump would no doubt answer with his usual lies. “That’s Fake News. Americans don’t hate me. They love me. My polls are higher than any other president. Everywhere I go, I get the biggest crowds in history. I could easily win re-election right now. The only people who don’t like me are the elite, terrorist-loving, atheistic socialists in un-American places like San Francisco—places that are reviled by the vast majority of patriotic Americans.”
Well, that’s what he does with all uncomfortable questions: he dodges and lies and shifts the blame. But really, I wish the press would ask him that question, over and over: “Why do so many people hate you?” Hallie Jackson, Jim Acosta, Major Garrett, Cecilia Vega, Maggie Haberman, Philip Rucker, Jonathan Lemire—do your job!
Trump can never admit it, because he’s a sociopath, but he’s alienated tens, maybe hundreds of millions of Americans, and he has no one to blame but himself. Not Hillary Clinton. Not the elite media. Not socialists or liberals or Democrats, not Muslims, not Mexicans, not Planned Parenthood, not AOC or Elizabeth Warren. He’s the most divisive president in American history, by far, and he doesn’t even pretend otherwise. In fact, the more cornered he gets, the more hateful he becomes. That Fidel Castro-style rant he gave the other day at CPAC showed how unhinged he is. The epithet-laced screed, complete with flag-hugging, should go down in history as one of the weirdest, scariest presidential moments ever, but it probably will be eclipsed by even weirder, scarier ones to come. We’re well into the second season of the Donald Trump T.V. show, and Trump needs to jump bigger sharks in order to keep viewers entertained and the ratings high.
The scuttlebutt on Mueller now is that it will be an ambiguous report, in which both sides will claim vindication. We’ll see. My opinion, which has been consistent, is that we have no idea what Mueller knows or is about to do. But we’ve all known for at least a year that Trump’s real problem may be, not Mueller, but the Southern District of New York, where, to judge from what I’m hearing, they’re building up a racketeering case, the same sort that Giuliani used to prosecute Mafia figures when he ran the SDNY. Talk about irony!
Even though he can’t admit to himself or anyone else that the reason he’s loathed is because he’s a pig, Trump’s feelings get hurt. He experiences pain. He doesn’t know why so many of us think he’s disgusting, but he knows we do, and it makes him feel bad, as it would make any of us feel bad. His solution? It’s not to have a heart-to-heart with the American people and candidly admit his misdeeds. It’s not to apologize to all the people he’s hurt. No, it’s to make us feel sorry for him! The remarks that Lindsay Graham leaked to the media yesterday were designed to play on the public’s sympathy. “He believes they [Democrats] are taking a wrecking ball to his life,” Graham said of Trump’s remarks to him.
Well, boo hoo. This will work with the Hannitys and Tucker Carlsons of the world. Poor Donald Trump! He never hurt anybody, never did anything wrong, has led an exemplary life, great family man, plays by the rules, pays his taxes, and what does he get for it? A wrecking ball from Democrats. This is the Republicans’ next line of defense. It won’t work, of course, just as none of their previous stunts have worked. Trump has been the ultimate wrecking ball in American culture and politics. He has trashed, insulted, smeared, and violently wrecked countless people who got in his way. Apparently he thought the wrecking ball went only in one direction. Now he is learning, to his distress, that the inexorable laws of physics swing the wrecking ball back towards his face. Let it hit, let it hit, let it hit and inflict maximum pain.
