There’s a classic Latin quote they used to teach in school many years ago. I’m referring to Julius Caesar’s statement about how he went through Gaul:
“Veni, vidi, vici.” “
I came, I saw, I conquered.”
I first saw that as a joke line in an Archie comic book, of all places.
Now we have a new one we can teach the kids, about Donald Trump in Mexico:
“Veni, vidi, wussi.”
“I came, I saw, I wussed out.”
Many people are wondering about Trump. He makes grand promises about how he is going to deal with the rest of the world, and those promises sound mighty good to a lot of people. But anybody can make promises. All it takes is knowing how to open your mouth and force air out between your lips. The money question is what are you going to do when it is time to keep those promises. What happens on game day when you finally step out on the field? Do you run, pass or punt?
In Donald’s case we don't have to wait till January 20 to see how he'll deal with foreign leaders. He showed the whole world during his trip to Mexico.
Let me just remind everybody, this is the same Mexico Trump says is destroying our beloved nation. First they stole all our best jobs with the NAFTA trade agreement that Bush signed. Not satisfied with that, they sent millions of people across the border to take all the jobs that stayed behind in the U.S. As if that wasn’t enough, they capped it all off by flooding the country with murderers, rapists, and drug-pushers.
He started his presidential campaign bragging about what he was going to do. Say it, everybody!
What are we going to do?
BUILD A WALL!!!
And who’s going to pay for it?
MEXICO!!!
How many times has he repeated that, a hundred times? It has become a staple of his speeches and rallies. Here are just two examples:
Published on Jan 7, 2016
Published on Apr 13, 2016
Then out of the blue comes his big chance, five months ahead of schedule. The President of Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto, actually invites him into the country to make a speech. A gift from heaven for the Donald! There he was, face to face with the enemy. Now he could show all the voters in America what he is really made of.
Give it to them Donald! Read them the riot act. Give them a piece of your mind for all of us. Let them know what they can expect when you take the reigns.
The ref blew the starting whistle and you have the ball. So what are you going to say to them?
https://youtu.be/r5jI0q9nbLM
Watch that speech, the whole thing, if you have the time. Watch the hard-hitting, tough talking 'man of action' politely reading a carefully-prepared statement of friendship, half sort-of-tough and half appeasing, to his future opponent, the president of Mexico. That would be the man he is supposed to be forcing a new trade agreement on, the man he is supposed to be forcing to pay billions of dollars for a wall erected against his own people.
If you are in a hurry here are a few excerpts:
It is a great honor to be invited by you, Mr. President. . .
And I happen to have a tremendous feeling for Mexican Americans not only in terms of friendships, but in terms of the tremendous numbers that I employ in the United States and they are amazing people, amazing people. . .
And the United States first, second and third generation Mexicans are just beyond reproach. Spectacular, spectacular hard-working people. I have such great respect for them and their strong values of family, faith and community. . .
There are many improvements that could be made that would make both Mexico and the United States stronger and keep industry in our hemisphere.
You hear that, Trump supporters? They’re not rapists and murderers. They are great people, great as anyone born in the United States. Their children are not biased judges who are planning to rule against your leader in a lawsuit. They are ‘spectacular hard-working people’ with ‘strong values of family, faith and community.’ And as for jobs –
The man who promised to keep jobs in America is now promising to keep jobs in the hemisphere. When you say hemisphere that includes Mexico, by the way. I know there are more than a few Trumpies who don’t get that. You’re hero is promising to protect Mexico’s jobs, too. Make Mexico Great Again is his second motto now. You can silkscreen that on the back of your Make America Great Again t-shirts.
His supporters will try and tell you he was being statesman-like.
Wrong!
He was being a wussy.
If you are having trouble sorting it out here’s a video that should help:
How many different times and how many different places has he made his Great Man's promises? The world is beating us, he says. We don’t win anymore. I’m going to make us winners again, he says. Speech after speech full of strong talk, tough talk.
Then the one time it really counted, the one place it really mattered, he turned into Mort Meek eating his Chips Ahoy cookies.
Should we call him Backwards Man, talking tough in front of his friends and weak in front of his enemies? How about Bizarro Superman.
For those who didn't grow up on DC comics, the Bizarros did everything the opposite of how they were supposed to. They would cheer Lex Luthor, the villain, and throw rocks at Superman, the hero.
Bizarro Superman Trump struts around in his cape when he's at a rally in front of his picked supporters. Then when he has to go out into the real world and actually face up to a challenge, he slips into a phone booth and changes into mild-mannered Clark Kent.
And of course changes back to Superman again when he's safely back home. Our hero.
If you need any more convincing just take a look at what he said after he came back.
We will build a great wall along the southern border.
And Mexico will pay for the wall.
One hundred percent. They don't know it yet, but they're going to pay for it. And they're great people and great leaders but they're going to pay for the wall. On day one, we will begin working on intangible, physical, tall, power, beautiful southern border wall.
Compare that to what he had just finished saying in Mexico:
TRUMP: We didn’t discuss that. We didn’t discuss who pays for the wall, we didn’t discuss.
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) for Mexico to take back (OFF-MIKE) very harsh words directed toward. Would you like to take back some of those and the wall is it a non-starter? Is there any chance Mexico paying (ph) the wall?
TRUMP: Well, I’ll start. I mean nothing like an easy question like that. We did discuss the wall. We didn’t discuss payment of the wall. That’ll be for a later date. This was a very preliminary meeting.
You all know people like that, people who tell everybody who tough they are, what they are going to do when trouble comes, right up to the moment trouble actually comes. Then all of a sudden they quiet down. They talk politely and respectfully to everybody. At least till the trouble passes and they are no longer in any danger. Then they go right back to bragging and blowing, just like nothing ever happened.
You all know people like that, and you all know what they are called.
They’re called wussies.