Trump unhinged
Even for Donald Trump, his August 14 tweet about former top aide Omarosa Manigault Newman was a new low: “Good work by General Kelly for quickly firing that dog.” Which is why I couldn’t wait for that day’s press briefing. As I walked into the White House, I kept asking myself: Could Sarah Huckabee Sanders really defend Trump’s calling Omarosa a “dog”? Yes, she could. And yes, she did.
Up first, ABC’s Jonathan Karl went straight to the point: “Is this any way for a president to talk about any American, let alone somebody that he hired and made the highest-ranking African-American woman that served in the White House?” Sanders fired back: “I think the president is certainly voicing his frustration with the fact that this person has shown a complete lack of integrity.” Later, insisting Trump’s tweet had nothing to do with race — he attacks everybody, not just African Americans — she lamely expanded her defense of Trump by adding: “He always fights fire with fire.”
In the last 18 months, I’ve sat through a lot of outrageous briefings at the Trump White House, but this was clearly the worst yet. Donald Trump has hit rock bottom. And so has Sarah Sanders.
Yet nothing about Trump’s vile language about Omarosa should surprise us. That’s who he is, as we learned in the first GOP debate of the 2016 primary, when Megyn Kelly threw Trump what turned out to be a very prescient first question: “Mr. Trump, one of the things people love about you is you speak your mind and you don’t use a politician’s filter. However, that is not without its downsides — in particular, when it comes to women. You’ve called women you don’t like ‘fat pigs, ‘dogs,’ ‘slobs’ and ‘disgusting animals’ ... Does that sound to you like the temperament of a man we should elect as president?”
Answer: No, it doesn’t. But, at least for now, that’s who we’re stuck with: a narcissistic, insecure, thin-skinned, hate-filled bigot who can’t take any criticism and, instead, lashes out at his critics with gutter language unworthy of a pizza delivery man, let alone the president of the United States. And, of course, he aims his most vile language at women and African Americans. According to The Root, he’s called Barack Obama “dumb,” “weak” or “stupid” 61 times. Don Lemon’s “the dumbest man on television.” Maxine Waters has a “very low IQ.” And, of course, Omarosa’s not only a “dog,” but she’s also “not very smart.”
Disgusting? Yes. But here’s what’s equally disgusting: that out of 287 Republican members of Congress, only one, Arizona Senator Jeff Flake, dared step up and criticize Trump for calling Omarosa a dog. “This kind of language is unbecoming of a president of the United States,” Flake tweeted. “There is no excuse for it, and Republicans should not be okay with it.”
Oh, but they are okay with it. Neither Mitch McConnell nor Paul Ryan uttered a peep. They’re Trump’s enablers. Historians will not treat them kindly for standing on the sidelines, looking the other way and zipping their lips while Donald Trump debased the presidency and destroyed the Republican Party.
Don’t get me wrong. Omarosa Manigault Newman’s no innocent victim. True, in her book “Unhinged,” she doesn’t hold back. She calls Trump a racist, a misogynist and a bigot and says he’s barely literate, in mental decline and unfit to be president. But Omarosa knew that when she joined up with Trump for the first season of “The Apprentice” in 2004, and she stuck with him — through several TV shows, the campaign, the transition and the White House — until 2017. It’s too late for her to complain now that Donald Trump is disgracing the Oval Office. She helped put him there.