As I stated earlier this week, it’s hard to wrap oneself around the tragedy of September 11 anymore, since the three thousand people who died that day in the World Trade Center attack is the equivalent of three day’s worth of Covid fatalities. In a quote attributed to Joseph Stalin, one death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.
So it’s somehow appropriate that this week we were presented with absolutely indefensible, indisputable, undeniable proof that Trump flat out lied to the American public during the first six months of the year. In what is the ultimate validation of the oft asked question “Is Trump insane?” this week we got the definitive answer of “Yes.” Because we learned that back in February he was nuts enough to speak on tape to Bob Woodward. That’s right, Bob Woodward, one of the two reporters in the world who has “Brought Down a President” on his CV. Trump wouldn’t speak to Robert Mueller, but sitting down with Woodword for a convo (one of eighteen, we’re told) has certainly got to be the PR equivalent.
In that conversation, sounding astoundingly honest and sincere, Trump sat there and said the exact opposite of what he then went out and told the American people. While informing reporters that it was no worse than the flu, he told Woodward that it most certainly was. That he was downplaying the severity because he wanted to avoid panicking the American people. It was easily the most laughable claim he’s ever made. He rules entirely by fear, and is incessantly trying to induce panic, whether he’s asserting that a caravan of criminal rapist refugees are heading toward the border or that Democrats want to allow people of color to move into your neighborhood (horrors!). Of all the literally unbelievable things he has ever said, this tops the list.
Of course, it could be argued that he was referring to a stock market panic. That is his greatest concern, after all. But no, on Wednesday he held a press conference (actually a mini-rally) in which he emphasized that he was worried about the state of mind of, well, you and me.
“When Hitler was bombing London, Churchill, a great leader, would oftentimes go to a roof in London and speak. And he always spoke with calmness. He said we have to show calmness. No, we did it the right way. We’ve done a job like nobody.” That was Trump’s defense, which of course totally missed the point: To behave as Trump did, Churchill would have had to say to the British people, “The bombing is going to go away. Don’t bother turning off your lights and huddling in the dark. Keep everything lit up, go about your business, and if you hear an air raid siren, just ignore it.” Trump, a sociopathic liar, openly admitted that he felt the best way to deal with the virus was to lie to the American people about it. To tell them to do the exact opposite of what was required in order to stem the tide of the disease. To him, this was a strategy. Deny, deny, deny, and wait for it to go away.
He can’t help himself. He literally can’t help it. Talk was finally starting to cool on the “Atlantic” article which detailed his disdain for people in military service, and on Monday he held a press conference where he brought the whole thing up again. Indeed, he made it worse. First, he claimed the rank and file soldiers love him (I’m betting they don’t) and then went on to say, “The top people in the Pentagon probably aren’t (fans) because they want to do nothing but fight wars so that all of those wonderful companies that make the bombs and make the plans and make everything else stay happy.” Yes, that’s right, in the world of Trump, the infantrymen who lay down their lives are suckers, unless they get caught—then they’re losers—and their bosses are all warmongers, dedicated to lining the pockets of the military industrial complex. I mean, I get that he only cares about appealing to his base, but what is it about his psychosis that requires him to try and make everyone who isn’t in his base revile him all the more? Doesn’t he understand that there are independents out there who might still be swayed to his side. Why actively try to turn them off? Does this man who was raised in an atmosphere of “win at all costs” actually want to lose?
Indeed, he’s hurting himself so badly that his campaign is running short on funds and he is ostensibly considering forking over up to $100 million of his own money. I can absolutely guarantee you that won’t happen. Never. Trump stiffs everyone. Doesn’t matter if it was contractors for his properties or city police forces that provided protection; Trump is a cheap bášŧárd who never pays his bills.
Meanwhile as all this was happening, the Justice Department has stepped into the defamation suit filed by E. Jean Carroll, the woman who stated that Trump raped her decades ago in a Manhattan department store. In a demented conflict of interest, the JD has declared that Trump’s denials of a crime he is accused of committing in the previous century somehow is relevant to his current status as president. What that boils down to is that you and I, as taxpayers, are now footing the bill for Trump’s defense. And if Carroll wins, whatever money she is paid winds up coming from tax dollars. So basically Bill “Lower the” Barr has taken his boss off the financial hook. Indeed, for all we know, Trump wasn’t paying his lawyers and they were ready to bow out, so Barr stepped in to save the day because that’s what a patsy does.
Just ask Michael Cohen.
I’ve read his book. I’ll write about it next week.
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