Tagged: Veterans and Trump

I believe that if you are a person of conscience, i.e., one who lives his or her life based on ethical or moral principles, it is hypocrisy for you to support Donald Trump. Let me lay it out for you.

I am 74 years old, only about four years younger than Trump. I have been hearing about him since he was about 40, so for about 38 years. The New York DA’s allegations against him regarding fraudulent business dealings are nothing new to a Trump observer; he has been accused of such things for the entire time I have known of him. He and his father were always famous for using their wealth and power to get around the legal fences that confine other people. Notable in my memory are the many allegations of his having stiffed people who worked for him, such as lawyers, contractors, and the little people who perform all kind of services for rich people. They would have to go to court to get their money; many could not afford to and so in effect gave their services unwillingly to Trump. He has gotten away with all of this for so many years that he thinks he is bulletproof and can, for example, attack judges actively presiding over cases involving him.

It is true that allegations are not proof. However, when accusations of fraud and cheating are numerous and new accusations surface again and again over a period of years, one has to assume that there is a lot of truth to them. Not everybody can be lying, after all. So I have come to the conclusion that as regards business, he is in fact a dirty dealer.

Regarding the January 6 event, Trump clearly wanted to overturn the results of the election and he seized on any and every method to do so. Al Gore appealed the results of his presidential election to the Supreme Court, but once the ballots were recounted and the verdict was in, he accepted defeat gracefully. He looks like a real class act next to Trump, who incited a mob to riot, with loss of life and a great deal of resultant damage; who bad-mouthed Mike Pence, his own man; and who watched TV and said nothing while said mob threatened and hunted for Mike Pence, Nancy Pelosi, and others.Trump’s closest advisors and his children urged him to speak out that day and tell his supporters to remain peaceful and depart the capital, but he refused to do so until late in the day, when the carnage was nearly over and it was clear that the mob was being contained. In addition, he clearly knew about the conspiracy to have some states produce fake electors to change the results in those states and he appears to have encouraged them to do so.

We have been known in the world as a nation that has peaceful and binding elections. Trump would have changed that, making the United States lose its reputation as a democratic exemplar. He would not care, of course; he admires Putin, Xi, Kim, and Orban. How can he be the front person for the citizens of the United States when interacting with other nations if he operates as a dictator? (Motto: What’s good for me is good for the country because I am the most important person in it.) He also wants to do what a CNN commentator says is common practice for dictators: he wants to turn his leadership of the country into a family business. He had his daughter, son-in-law, and son in his administration while he was president and now he wants to have his daughter-in-law take over as head of the Republican National Committee. Presumably one aim would be to have the RNC continue to pay some of his legal bills.

His many statements about our relationships with other countries are often outrageous. Case in point: his recent statement that if a NATO ally is attacked by Russia and that nation is in arrears in its NATO dues, Russia could have its way with the ally for all Trump cares. Trump’s apologists/enablers argue that he is being rhetorical, that in fact he wouldn’t abandon a NATO ally. But a person who used to work for him when he was president, Alyssa Farah Griffin, recently stated on CNN that in fact Trump often made such statements about NATO when speaking with his staff, where he wouldn’t be making a rhetorical point. However, even if the statements he makes about world politics were rhetorical, they might still be taken to be factual by a global bad actor such as Russia or North Korea or Iran. It is important to give clear signals to other countries about your intentions and aims, as every commentator tells us, but Trump disregards this advice just to make political points. Again, he puts aside the welfare of the country in order to satisfy his ego. Retired general Wesley Clark just stated on CNN that the recent NATO comment and other comments Trump has made about NATO are “treasonous”, something that is sobering since the general is not given to making rash statements.

Besides that, Trump’s mocking of Nikki Haley for not having her husband by her side while campaigning – when his absence was due to his being deployed overseas – was just appalling. We recall his mocking of John McCain and other older vets for various reasons. Trump may well be losing the votes of veterans and actively serving military people, insult by insult.

But finally, what inspires the most contempt in me for Trump’s behavior is his attitude toward women. The famous 2005 Access Hollywood bus interview in which he not only admitted but boasted of how when women were standing next to him, e.g., at a photo shoot, he would force his hand under their clothes and into their crotches. He said that when you are a “star” women “let you” do things like that. Supposedly he apologized years later for saying that. But he made it clear in 2023 that he regarded this sort of thing as the normal behavior of men since time immemorial and that when you were wealthy and famous and, again, a “star”, you could get away with it.

As a woman, I think yikes, what a boor. Not only that, his actions constitute criminal behavior. Women “let” him only because he took them by surprise and they were stunned and so they didn’t make any verbal protest, especially when others were around. Yes, they “let” him do it in the sense that they did not raise an outcry or call the cops, but it is as he says: he was so rich and famous that they undoubtedly thought that they would not be believed or, more likely, that he would just get away with it whatever they said. But I would be willing to bet that 99% of them really minded and resented his groping them, as if they were just objects to satisfy his lust. A jury certainly believed that in the E. Jean Carroll case.

Besides that, a friend of mine points out that two of his three wives were foreign-born, when his attitude toward immigrants is dismissive. Well, those wives were both beauties, after all, so clearly he makes exceptions for the physically favored. He obviously likes to have a younger woman on his arm, so he has divorced the old wife and married a new one twice. In Melania’s case the age difference is 24 years. Presumably he is done remarrying, but you never can tell with an ego like his.

So given what I said above, I find it completely hypocritical that some folks who profess to be people of conscience are supporting Trump, especially Christians. Trump is patently not “a godly man” as a religious supporter recently called him. Dealing fairly with others? Keeping your word? Giving to Caesar what is Caesar’s (e.g., fair elections) and to God what is God’s? Honoring warriors? Respecting women and other non-white-male people? Deferring to authority, expertise, and informed counsel? Trump checks none of these boxes.

Why would people overlook his many demonstrable faults and support him? In his 1987 book The Art of the Deal, Trump said this: “ “The final key to the way I promote is bravado. I play to people’s fantasies. People may not always think big themselves, but they can still get very excited by those who do. That’s why a little hyperbole never hurts. People want to believe that something is the biggest and the greatest and the most spectacular. I call it truthful hyperbole. It’s an innocent form of exaggeration, and a very effective form of promotion.” I think that the reason why some people of conscience support Trump is what Jonah Goldberg referred to (quoting someone else) as power worship: somebody who seems to bestride the earth like a Colossus inspires hero worhip in them. But this means that their ethical and moral principles are just skin deep – they don’t believe that they apply to the Big Men who seem to be nearly gods.

The ghost writer of The Art of the Deal, Tony Schwartz, came to regret his participation in writing the book. He spent months with Trump, gathering material for it by discussing Trump’s views with him, and got to know him well. Schwartz now says, “I put lipstick on a pig”. Many who have been in Trump’s close orbit – most of his advisors in government, for example – have come to see that Trump is arrogant, narcissistic, reckless – and feckless. Most of them obviously fear to denounce him publicly or testify against him, but they know very well what he is. I expect that after he dies some day, we will see truthtellers come out of the woodwork and tell us that what Trump is accused of today is just the tip of the iceberg (e.g., about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein). Until then, the stories told by the current truthtellers, such as Cassidy Hutchinson, will have to suffice.

We can hope that Trump will be soundly defeated in the upcoming election, since the highly hypocritical Republican Party seems bent on nominating him again. If so, it would be best for everybody if he would just slink off into the night and not even think of slouching toward Bethlehem to be “born” yet again.