Editor’s note: Walt Amses is a writer and former educator who lives in North Calais.
[W]ith Sen. John McCain’s passing, Donald J. Trump had an opportunity for grace; a chance to transcend the political quagmire he’s created and make a simple, bipartisan declaration of the nation’s mourning and respect for a man who — agree with him or not — was decidedly everything the president isn’t. White House staffers even simplified it for him, drafting a statement acknowledging the late senator’s accomplishments and national service. Trump rejected it out of hand, opting instead for a soulless tweet of condolences to the McCain family including a photograph — of himself.
And if blocking an official statement of recognition weren’t enough, the president again took to Twitter, speaking power to truth, massaging his own ego with repeated attacks on both the news media and the Mueller investigation while touting his popularity — transposing his DIS-approval ratings with his approval rating, vaulting himself to the status of America’s “all time favorite.” Seldom has Trump’s narcissism been on such jolting display as it was last weekend.
In a presidency that has become an interchangeable series of rough spots and “bad weeks,” the last two have arguably been catastrophic, with fixer Michael Cohen pleading guilty and implicating Trump in several felonies while a jury convicted former campaign chairman Paul Manafort on charges that could see him incarcerated for years. POTUS quickly praised Manafort as a “good guy” who “didn’t break” (unlike the “rat” Cohen) suggesting the trial was a “disgrace,” hinting at a pardon down the road in exchange for continued silence.
Even worse for the president has been what appears to be Fox News’ departure from blanket approval of everything he thinks, says or does. News analyst Brit Hume and anchors Neil Cavuto, Shep Smith and Bret Baier have all seemingly abandoned the network’s usual doublespeak, citing the president’s aversion to honesty with Baier saying that he was “clearly lying” in an interview with Fox & Friends and Cavuto responding to Trump’s declaration that the stock market would crash if he were impeached with “The problem is you.”
The more evident it becomes to Trump that he can no longer control the narrative of his presidency through the simple force of his personality, the more he is unable to control himself — promiscuously tweeting series after series of middle-school level insults that only serve to illustrate his myriad incompetencies, the worst of which — as we’ve seen — may be his childish belief that the universe and everything in it revolves around him.
Years on the grift have left the president bereft of the simple courtesies necessary to conduct himself as the respectable leader of a free country. In a world where laundering ill-gotten Russian money goes miles toward financial solvency, multiple bankruptcies can be swept under the rug with the niceties of political correctness left to rubes and suckers. With the illiterate swagger of a Mafia goon, Trump has turned the presidency into a running soap opera with the White House staff pirouetting through a daily minefield of incoherent tantrums that have left the country reeling.
As we watch the president and his minions pinging in unison from one self-created ridiculous situation to another, each exacerbated by his involvement, we might be nervously pondering what else our government could be doing … shouldn’t there be something requiring the focus of what must be thousands of people? Is our status in the world no longer important? With Trump’s foreign policy nonexistent, apart from insulting our allies, the rest of the world moves on without us: addressing climate change; maintaining the nuclear treaty with Iran; and ratifying numerous trade agreements that conspicuously exclude us.
“America First” is mired in weaving delusions of a reinvigorated coal industry and playing Buck Rogers with the directive to form The Space Force — an entirely new branch of our already bloated military while huge portions of the country are either burning or under water with barely an acknowledgement from the White House.
Excepting the fabulously wealthy, Trump’s policies hurt ordinary Americans. Obamacare has been consistently sabotaged with no “great” replacement anywhere in sight, Tariffs raise prices while keeping wages stagnant, and the traditional institutions of democracy have been consistently undermined: a free press is “Fake news,” the electoral process is “rigged,” and environmental regulations are “bad for business.” It’s anybody’s guess where this will end.
While Donald Trump fulminates over perceived slights and attention paid to anyone other than him, John McCain had the last laugh, posthumous though it was, delivering a final stinging blow: only former presidents would be welcomed at his funeral. Both George Bush and Barack Obama will deliver eulogies, using words like courage, honor and sacrifice. They’ll talk about commitment and service to an ideal larger than one’s self.
And whatever our political affiliation, each in his own way will make us momentarily forget the current resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and reflect back on their respective presidencies and realize how much we miss something approaching normal.
