Trump’s demands reveal insecurity
As shutdown continues, President Donald Trump’s insecurities pose more of a problem than our national security.
President Donald Trump nodded his head in front of the television cameras.
“I can relate,” he said.
Trump was referring to the hundreds of thousands of government workers who won’t receive paychecks due to the partial government shutdown. Nearly three weeks into one of the longest government shutdowns in U.S. history, our president has threatened to drag it out for “a very long period of time — months or even years.”
No, Mr. Trump, you can’t relate. You’ve never stopped receiving paychecks earmarked for basic living essentials such as rent, food and medical care. You’ve never lived paycheck to paycheck like most Americans, including me. You simply can’t relate.
You’ve never had to frantically check your bank account to make sure your meager paycheck was directly deposited before your mortgage was automatically withdrawn. You’ve never had to play “beat the bank” to make sure your paltry paycheck got into your checking account to cover the smallest of monthly bills.
Let me be clear. You. Can’t. Relate. Our president has been pretending he can “relate” to most Americans’ daily lives since he took office two years ago. Wait, check that. Actually, he’s been pretending since he began campaigning for the Oval Office, back when he began promising Americans he would build the tallest, grandest, mightiest border wall that Mexico would pay for.
Remember that popular lie? It helped get him elected into office, among other lies that Americans badly wanted to believe. And still do. (By the way, during my recent vacation trip to Mexico, I couldn’t find any Mexicans willing to pay for this border wall. They merely laughed at the idiocy of the idea, just as we should do.)
The phrase, “Wait, check that,” has become our nation’s daily mantra for anything Trump says publicly, privately or via Twitter. Trump lies as often as he tweets. Sure, it’s become a national punchline, but it’s a sad reality when you seriously think about it.
And yet we’re expected to address him as “Mr. President.” The person who’s supposed to be our nation’s utmost role model has become its utmost fool.
Ironically, Trump can’t relate to this fact either. He’s in chronic denial about his wrongdoing, just like a stubborn child.
This reminds me of something that my fiancee’s 19-year-old son told us after his first semester at college. “No one tells me ‘no’ here,” he said with a shrug, trying to explain his struggles to juggle his time, his classes and his workload.
No one has told Trump “no” enough times in his life, not only since he’s been president. Now, though, he’s hearing the word “no” again and again from congressional Democrats who oppose his childish demand for $5.7 billion for a border wall.
What did he do when he was told “no” earlier this week by Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer? He stormed out of the brief meeting, later posting on Twitter, “Bye-bye.”
Once again, Trump’s political father figure, Vice President Mike Pence, was left with damage control in the wake of the shameful situation that took place in the White House Situation Room. Once again, Pence looked like the embarrassed parent of a spoiled child who made a scene in public.
Let’s face it, our government has felt like it’s been on shutdown since Trump took office. The word “bipartisan” has been a running joke since day one of his administration. And it’s been just one of endless jokes that involve our country’s commanderin-chief.
“By the time of this broadcast, we’re either in a brand new state of emergency or the same one we’ve been in since November of 2016,” quipped Stephen Colbert, host of “The Late Show,” Tuesday night after Trump’s first televised address from the Oval Office.
“It was historic,” joked late-night host Jimmy Kimmel about Trump’s fact-challenged national speech. “Rarely does the president of the United States interrupt prime-time television to warn us about a completely made-up thing.”
National security certainly isn’t a completely made-up thing. But creating national paranoia or hysteria through political fearmongering appears made-up to me. Trump’s border wall demand is more about his personal insecurity as a man than it is about our nation’s insecurity as a people.
The only wall we should be concerned with at this point is the one against the backs of all those government workers who may not be receiving paychecks due to this political pissing match of a shutdown.
In that televised address, our grim-faced president read from a teleprompter, warning Americans about a “growing humanitarian crisis” along our southern border. Once again, facts — those pesky things that Trump avoids like the truth — show a different story.
The disturbing truth is that our president is a “growing humanitarian crisis.” He doesn’t know what it’s like to be truly human or humane, because he has never had to experience it, let alone exemplify it. He simply can’t relate.
Because of this, I don’t blame him as much as I blame those redblooded, blue-hating Americans who should know better. You know who you are. Or maybe you don’t. Maybe nothing that Trump says or does will ever bother you because you believe he has your back.
He doesn’t have your back. Nor does he have your best interests at heart.
He doesn’t care about those halted paychecks of government workers. Or about your paychecks. Why? Because he hasn’t had to care throughout his pampered, privileged life.
This is a matter of fact, not opinion.
Can you relate to this? I hope so. I’m sure that Trump will never relate to this truth. Or to any truth he hasn’t created in his mind.