I miss the days when the words used by the President of the United States mattered to people.
They don’t anymore. Not really.
Donald Trump just says things — wild, outlandish, ridiculous, untrue, idiotic, childish, hurtful, cruel, “dictatorish” things – and a large chunk of America treats it as if it came spewing forth from the mouth of some brain-dead host of a 2 a.m. radio show on actual radio.
Over the weekend, the president – the actual president of the United States – posted on his social media account an AI generated photo of himself in military garb (spoofing a character from “Apocalypse Now”) and included a message basically declaring war on Chicago.
If you’re unfamiliar, Chicago is a major U.S. city.
It barely made a ripple in the news pond where most Americans swim.
This was the president of America. At least hinting at declaring war on – while promising to send the military into – a major American city. With an absurd photo. And a movie tagline.
In years past, such a public utterance by a sitting president (or one out of office) would be grounds for a welfare check and a lengthy stay in a mental health facility. Because no previous president could have survived the public shaming after such a childish and worrisome public comment without attributing it all to a psychotic break with reality.
The American public would have never allowed for such a display. And rightfully so.
This is the president of the United States we’re talking about here. The leader of the free world. The man our children are supposed to aspire to be. The office that carries more weight and more responsibility than any office in the world.
And it’s inhabited by an internet troll.
For the life of me, I do not understand it. First of all, we’re talking about Donald Trump here. Donald Trump. Honestly, sit for a moment and just take your mind back to 2010 or so. Try to remember your life back then. Remember what was happening. Remember watching “The Apprentice” on TV. Remember the late 90s, when Trump was making guest spots on pro wrestling. Remember those Howard Stern interviews.
Now, take that stuffy, arrogant, out-of-touch caricature of a 1920s-era rich guy and try to reconcile half the country being cool with that bozo shredding the gravitas of the Oval Office.
You can’t do it. It’s impossible.
And yet, here we are. Doomed by this cult of personality. Living in this bizarro world in which absolutely nothing the cult leader does negatively impacts his standing among most cult members.
Because if it did – wooo boy, if it did – y’all would be plenty hoppin’ mad.
Did you know that as we speak, pretty much everything that Trump promised would be better if you elected him a second time is worse? Oh, it’s true.
Prices are higher. And rising.
The war in Ukraine is still raging.
The Israelis are still bombing the hell out of Palestine, and we’re still pretending that all those dead children aren’t real.
The tariffs haven’t done anything positive for Americans.
The working class folks in America are paying about the same in taxes, except now that dollar is worth way less.
Housing is still unaffordable.
And even with the Trump people doctoring the jobs report, the most recent one was still the worst one in years.
Oh, and just one other small thing: We still can’t see the Epstein files and the Trump White House is working day and night to make sure we can’t see them.
It would be easier to understand people defending all of this if on the back side of it there were a president with some redeeming qualities. An Obama inspiring the masses. A Jimmy Carter building houses. Hell, even a Reagan giving a solid speech.
But no, on the back side of this mess is a president who called the nine sexual assault victims of Jeffrey Epstein a “democrat hoax.” Who said he moved Space Command to Alabama because Colorado has mail-in voting. Who said his uncle taught the Unabomber – a scenario that he conjured up out of thin air, complete with an imaginary conversation with his long-dead uncle.
For years, the people crucified Joe Biden for being delusional, a possible pedophile, a crook and enabling his son. All of it was overblown distortions of the truth meant to tarnish the name of a career public servant and decent human being while simultaneously propping up a guy who was and is genuinely guilty of all of it.
And not the wink-and-nod, we-know-what-really-happened way people talk about Biden. Trump’s in the Epstein files. Trump literally recounts conversations that are complete and utter fiction. Trump ran a fake university, was credibly accused of rape and is, in fact, a 34-time felon. And Trump and his kids are right now raking in hundreds of millions from various crypto schemes, some of which they’ve tied to White House events.
This is all on top of the stupidity. On top of the Epstein shenanigans. On top of the absolute dumpster fire that is the current U.S. economy for the 99 percent.
Is it the hate? Is that all that’s keeping you in the cult – the desire to believe that a Mexican immigrant installing internet cable is why your life has stalled? The desire to go back to some nonexistent time in American history where all white people were (allegedly) safe?
I’m not accusing. I’m seriously wondering.
Because at this point, the hate’s about the only thing left.
