On September 11, 2013, when most of us were mourning the anniversary of a terrorist attack that took the lives of 3,000 fellow Americans, Donald Trump sent out this tweet:
“I would like to extend my best wishes to all, even the haters and losers, on this special date, September 11th.”
Today, after winning a Presidential victory despite losing the popular vote by nearly three million ballots, our new Chief Executive had this message for the 74 million Americans who cast votes for candidates other than him:
“Happy New Year to all, including to my enemies and those who have fought me and lost so badly they just don’t know what to do. Love!”
James Buchanan looked aside as the Civil War began. Warren Harding screwed his mistress in the White House while his Cabinet looted the country. Herbert Hoover didn’t understand that the Great Depression required bold measures. John Kennedy was a reckless philanderer who lied to the nation about his health problems. LBJ engineered the nightmarish quagmire in Vietnam. Richard Nixon’s penchant for petty criminality led to disgrace. George Bush invaded and conquered a foreign country on false pretenses and ruined the economy on the way out of office.
We had dishonest Presidents. We've had bad Presidents. We’ve had failed Presidents. We’ve had criminal Presidents.
But we’ve never had a President like Donald Trump.
He never laughs. He never jokes. He’s never poked fun at himself. He’s never displayed even a whiff of graciousness. He knows no history, and he has no interest in keeping up to date on what is happening today. He doesn’t read. He seemingly has no close friends. He has no attention span. His first and only instinct, in moments of both triumph and reversal, is to lash out. He’s demeaned every sector of this country, including his own family. His is the thinnest skin ever draped over a politician’s frame. His only hero is an international murderer and thug. His insularity and total self-absorption are even more deep seated than his overt racism and misogyny. He has no class.
So, even before taking office, Trump has made it clear that he thinks of me and many millions of his fellow Americans as the enemy. Personally, I don’t see Donald Trump as a personified enemy because I haven’t seen enough humanity in him to warrant that status. (“I alone understand the problem and I alone can fix it” are surely the most terrifying words to pass from a President’s lips.) Our next Chief Executive is too egocentric to grasp that, as much as most Americans are appalled by his temperament, it’s not him personally that they will turn on. It’s Trumpism that they will reject, and the depth of that rejection will start to become apparent--to everyone except Donald Trump--on Inauguration Day. It’s all too true that we underestimated Donald Trump. If he thinks that we’re paralyzed and don’t know what to do, he’s making a similarly profound mistake.
