Orlando Sentinel

Be a positive nonbelieve­r, just like President Trump

- By Llewellyn King

I’d like to introduce you to the power of not believing. There is, as President Trump has pointed out, too much believing going on and it is time for a national re-evaluation.

Take, for example, all this erroneous believing about sealevel rise. Guru Trump doesn’t believe in that, so it’s not happening. Billions of dollars are being wasted in cities, from Boston to Miami, to harden against something that isn’t happening. All that’s needed is a little nonbelief.

Some admirals in the U.S. Navy have failed to get the message and are alarming their commands about sea-level rise on the East Coast of the United States, endangerin­g naval installati­ons. Particular­ly they’re suggesting that Naval Station Norfolk, the huge base in Virginia, is in trouble. These admirals and their adherents in the ranks should be reassigned and given shore duty on mountains so they can see the sea level is actually down.

In some quarters, the doctrine of not believing is losing ground and believing is seeping in. Wall Street stands out. Something should be done, maybe another tax cut.

While it was bastion of the power of nonbelief, Wall Street has been backslidin­g; heresy has shown its ugliness. Masters of the Universe, to use Tom Wolfe’s designatio­n, applauded the tax cut, ran wild, overdosed on Chateau Haut-Brion, went crazy rebuilding their summer compounds in the Hamptons, winter cabins in Vail and pieds-a-terre in Paris. President Trump smiled, his chief economic adviser of the day — a temporary job — beamed, and first lady Melania bought a new wardrobe. Everyone upgraded their private jets and joined a Trump golf club. Life was good for nonbelieve­rs and there were bigger apartments in the skies over Manhattan.

Now some of those same worthies, those who believed that their guru had pointed the way to eternal and growing wealth, are muttering about huge deficits, rising interest rates and unsupporta­ble debt service. Ingrates. They should be taken, along with the traitor former chief economic adviser Gary Cohn, to a place of re-education to learn again Trumpanomi­cs and how to con the Arabs into buying condo glitz.

Just turn on the television and see the happy faces, the fulfillmen­t, the sense of purpose, the smug certainty of the precious individual­s who are wholly invested in nonbelievi­ng. Take the happiest of all, Kellyanne Conway. What confidence, what assurance, what sense of inspired mission; how exquisitel­y she extinguish­es facts, lays waste to data and bullies the truth. Or her colleague, the redoubtabl­e Sarah Sanders, a devoted nonbelieve­r, who goes against an army of rude fact-pushers whenever she steps into the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room.

Nonbelief defends Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia. What a sweet, dear young man, famous in royal circles for his humanitari­anism and his interest in cadaver surgery.

Or raise a glass to that leader of men, sower of harmony, supporter of due process and virtuous murder squads, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. Nonbelieve­rs can see the good in this man, so warmly embraced by Trump himself.

Nonbelief gives you strength in all situations: defeat is victory, failure success and troubles melt away. Take North Korea: Nonbelief has wrought its masterpiec­e there. Where there was war and fear, now there is love, two great minds declaring their verisimili­tude. A little more nonbelievi­ng and the nuclear weapons will melt away like the trillion-dollar infrastruc­ture project or the Mexican payment for the wall, which will restore our national dignity and save us from a deadly invasion of those begging to work.

The U.S. Border Patrol, the army and militias are doing a great job. But in the interest of nonbelievi­ng, the president should dispatch his crack nonbelieve­rs to the border: Rudolph Giuliani, lawyer on television; Peter Navarro, trade fantasist; and Kellyanne and Sarah.

Facts wilt before them.

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