Donald Trump was all too happy to take full credit for this month's rosy jobs report, a product of Barack Obama's presidency. But after ordering a military operation in Yemen that left one Navy SEAL dead, killed more than two dozen Yemeni civilians, and now reportedly produced no significant intelligence, Donald Trump knows who the real problem is—and it's definitely not him.
“Well, this was a mission that was started before I got here. This was something that was, you know, just, they wanted to do. They came to see me, they explained what they wanted to do, the generals—who are very respected," he told Fox News Tuesday morning, "and they lost Ryan.”
Let’s review: The mission was "started before I got here" (translation: it was the brainchild of Barack Obama), it was something the generals just "wanted to do" (translation: how was I to know it could be so complicated?), they're "very respected" (translation: they're the real authorities here), and "they lost Ryan" (translation: not it!).
This was the best response Trump could muster after days of reporting in which the father of fallen Navy SEAL William "Ryan" Owens, 36, questioned the motivation for the operation and called for an investigation into it. “I want an investigation,” Owens' father Bill told the Miami Herald. “The government owes my son an investigation.”
Really, this is just sheer cowardice. Administration officials of popular vote loser Donald Trump have been claiming for weeks that the failed operation was a "huge success" and Press Secretary Sean Spicer even added, "I think anyone who undermines the success of that raid owes an apology and a disservice to the life of Chief Owens." Clearly it never occurred to Spicer that nothing desecrates the memory of Chief Petty Officer Owens more than covering up the truth about the manner in which he died.
In Tuesday’s Fox interview, Trump continued to claim "it was a very successful mission," though he also pinned that assessment on Defense Secretary James Mattis, just in case it turns out to be yet another “alternative fact.” This all came on the heels of a speech Monday in which Trump essentially called U.S. military forces today a bunch of losers.
When I was young in high school and college, everybody used to say we never lost a war, we never lost a war. You remember. [...] America never lost. And now we never win a war. We never win.
Can you imagine going into to battle to potentially make the ultimate sacrifice for that guy? The guy who's calling you a loser and won't assume any level of accountability for an operation he green lit as your commander in chief. In essence, he'll shame you before you die and, guess what, he'll desecrate your memory after the fact. Nothing—absolutely nothing—could be more disrespectful of the women and men who are risking their lives for this country.