Trump has more important issues
Furor over snub of Eagles is deserved, but save outrage for real world problems
It’s so tempting to mock President Trump’s desperate attempt to save face after being snubbed by the NFL again. To laugh at his bid for validation from Eagles “fans,” some of whom couldn’t even name the Super Bowl quarterback, and at least one attendee who took a knee on the White House lawn.
But there are too many other things Trump is doing in the name of our country that deserve our attention. So let’s not fall for another Trump distraction and instead focus on the latest developments that are truly important.
❚ A study last week by the New England Journal of Medicine estimated that the death toll in Puerto Rico from Hurricane Maria could exceed 4,000. While the number probably won’t go that high — other studies have put fatalities from the storm at about 1,000 — both are shockingly high for an American territory.
Most of the deaths are attributed to a delay in medical care or inability to obtain it, and residents have complained about how long it’s taken to restore basic services. Eight months after Maria, hundreds of Puerto Ricans remain without power.
❚ The United Nations Human Rights Office sharply criticized the U.S. on Tuesday for its “zero tolerance” policy that requires children, some of whom are toddlers, to be taken from their parents at the border.
Separating children from their parents and sending them to detention centers “runs counter to human rights standards and principles,” the Human Rights Office said, and is a “serious violation” of children’s rights.
❚ Several states held primaries Tuesday, a reminder that a foreign country has previously interfered in our electoral process and, by all accounts, will try to do so again. Meanwhile, Trump and the House of Representatives continue to thwart and discredit investigations into the hacking.
❚ Education Secretary Betsy DeVos told a Senate committee Tuesday that a federal commission on school safety will not examine the role guns play in school violence. In the first five months of the year, at least 30 people were killed in shootings at U.S. high schools.
❚ It was disclosed Tuesday that Environmental Protection Agency administrator Scott Pruitt asked an aide for help in getting his wife a job at Chick-fil-A, according to emails released to the Sierra Club under a Freedom of Information request. This is not to be confused with Monday’s report, based on a letter to the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, about another aide being asked to find Pruitt a used mattress from the Trump International Hotel.
Pruitt is also the subject of multiple investigations related to his travel expenses, security and possible ethics violations.
❚ Trump insisted Monday that he has the right to pardon himself, which would seem to be at odds with the “magnificent Constitution” he praised during Tuesday’s garden party.
❚ Mexico announced Tuesday that it would slap tariffs on cheese, whiskey and pork, escalating a trade war that Trump began last week. No word on whether the proceeds from the tariff will be used to pay for Trump’s wall.
❚ We’re still a week away from a summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, the world’s most unpredictable leader. The meeting has been scrapped once already, and some congressional leaders are setting requirements for a deal out of fear Trump will get played.
The furor over Trump’s snub of the Eagles and the disingenuous reasons behind it is understandable. It’s one more instance of Trump using his position as president to bully rather than lead, to represent his base rather than the nation.
But it is only one of so many outrages, and we can’t lose sight of any of them.