DONNIE JOHNSTON: When It Comes to Being Comforter-in-Chief ...
... Donald Trump should stick to the script.
By Donnie Johnston
COLUMNIST
Donald Trump can always find a way to do damage.
Take last week’s American Airlines/ Black Hawk helicopter crash over the Potomac River near Reagan National Airport.
On Thursday President Trump had a chance to bring America together to grieve over the national tragedy. What did he do? He used the crash to not just split the country but rather to fragment the people.
By the time he had finished speaking, Trump had blamed the Democrats, anyone who isn’t white, the air traffic control industry and the military for the crash. But he went even further, telling the American people, in effect, that only he knew how to hire controllers and run the country.
All this while the bodies of many of the victims lay submerged in the murky waters of the Potomac and before some of the victims’ families had been notified.
In other words, Trump took this moment of national grief and turned it into opportunity to boost his own agenda and further hate and divide in this country. It was unconscionable.
His speech started out well, and I could not help but speculate that the man really does have a conscience and feelings for others. Then he turned rogue.
If you review Trump’s speech, you will note that in the beginning he was reading from a prepared script, one that either he, or more likely a White House speech writer, had written.
That speech was evidently short and to the point, expressing grief for the tragedy that occurred the night before. But as almost always happens, Trump didn’t know when to shut up.
Looking up from his prepared remarks, the President began an extended diatribe that traced blame for this crash all the way back to President Barak Obama. His main focus was that Obama and Joe Biden, Trump’s predecessor, were so intent on focusing on the hiring of non-white controllers, who were of “low intellect,” that the two put airline travelers at risk.
In other words, Trump turned a moment of national grief into a political and racist rant, holding Republicans superior to Democrats and whites superior to non-whites.
What followed was a flood of well-deserved criticism on social media and the news media with Trump followers quickly defending the president against anyone who dared call his speech (which included foul language) inappropriate.
Trump does this all the time. He simply doesn’t know when to shut up. He just rambles on and on like a man possessed, taking every opportunity to make himself look superior to anyone else in the country.
I look back to his nomination acceptance speech. As long as he was reading the prepared remarks, he was fine. The same was true for an Inauguration Day speech. He begins well, but at some point he seems to say, “The devil with what somebody wrote. I’m just gonna say whatever comes into my mind.”
That’s when the man makes up his own “facts” and his own statistics, almost none of which are accurate. That’s when he promotes himself and uses any means at hand to split the parties and the nation.
Before the crash victims bodies were recovered, Trump had already laid blame for the crash at the doorstep to two Democratic presidents and anyone who would dare hire someone other than a white person, because such people were of “low intellect.”
And his ardent followers love him for it, as much as admitting that unless you are white you are of “low intellect.” Can anyone say, “white supremacist?”
Two weeks into office and Trump, who admitted on inauguration day that he had to be told that God was a more important word than tariff, has thrown the country into the center of a whirlwind, putting the fear of the Lord into anyone who doesn’t worship at his throne.
But all that was last week. This week we get to deal with Trump and on-again, off-again tariffs against Mexico, Canada and China, which is the President’s way of making sure that the prices of all commodities rise in accordance with the price of eggs.
It is going to be a long four years. I hope this country survives.
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Poor Mr. Johnston.
That's the problem with writing a weekly column. You fall so far behind the times. Denigrating airplane news conference that insults and tears apart the country due to its racism and ignorance?
Ahhh, the good old days.
Now we learn that we will be opening Gaza as the 51st state. Mr. Davis can rest easy knowing his son may be one of those sent to achieve such a worthy goal. Talk about your things that affect the 540.....
In seriousness, we need to quit giving Republicans at any or all levels a pass for these ongoing outrages. It's not good enough to say "Trump's just being Trump", or he "went off script".
I'm glad he says what he's thinking. It's one of the Lord's blessings. If he had the capability of maintain the lie that he cared for all, was looking out for everyone's best interest, etc. - rather than just saying what he's thinking - Republicans would be able to spin his outrages and acts as being anything other than what they are.
Attacks on Americanism, rule of law, Americans, and pretty much anything else he and they hate.
Because after nearly 10 years of watching him in action, there's is no way any of them can honestly say (though we know they will) that they didn't know what they are getting.
We don't need to just hold him to account. He is what he is. A snake's a snake no matter what name you give it.
We need to start demanding better from every Republican we know. This is due to them. They should be asked how they justify each and ever one of his outrages - from allowing unelected billionaires and their minions open access to our most private information, to attacking policemen for doing their jobs while pardoning those who attack them, attacking our neighbors, etc. etc.
Then document their answers, or lack thereof, and vote accordingly in the future.
Humor and laughter is all good and fine. I expect we'll need a lot more of it as time goes on. But we need accountability.
How does Meg Boehmke explain her support? Tara Durant? Miyares, Youngkin?
Why are we giving these abettors a pass?
Enough.
Donnie longs for the 4 years of not knowing who was really running the presidency, years of super high inflation leading to a 30% increase in the cost of living, and illegal invasion of the USA, and rampant crime. However, I will save Donnie's words to throw in his face, in three years.
My, how Donnie longs for the days unquestioned "journalism", when he could write anything and not be criticized for his propaganda. Perhaps we should dig up a few columns from years gone past and have a look at Donnie's political predilections for Democrats' open borders, higher cost of living, more government, and less freedom.