Don’t bother trying to appeal to Trump's humanity, Mayor.
I asked myself who would think it a good idea to go golfing at a N.J. Country Club after a hurricane completely leveled Puerto Rico. Trump’s ill-conceived vacation was a large reason the federal response has been so deadly slow. 10 days later, Trump still hasn’t submitted a request for Congressional aid, still hasn’t visited the island, and refuses to call for an all-out relief effort—but he did return to the golf course this weekend.
The mayor of San Juan, after repeatedly being blown off, was literally begging Trump to save the lives of her dying citizens and tried to appeal to his compassion:
I will do what I never thought I was going to do: I am begging. I am begging anyone that can hear us to save us from dying. If anybody out there is listening to us, we are dying.
...
So I’m asking members of the press to send a mayday call all over the world. We are dying here. And if we don’t stop and if we don’t get the food and the water into people’s hands, what we we are going to see is something close to a genocide.
So, Mr Trump, I am begging you to take charge and save lives.
Imploring Trump to feel something for his fellow man is a complete waste of time.
While at the golf course, Trump didn’t bother to hold any conferences or say word one about the worst crisis in Puerto Rico’s history—although he would send out several angry tweets later over his awful handling of the situation.
Lost in the chaos was what Trump did manage to do:
John McCain, who is dying from an aggressive form of brain cancer, cannot raise his arms because of torture by the Viet Cong. Trump thought it funny, and mocked him at the golf course. (BTW, McCain’s daughter was none too pleased when she found out.)
This isn’t just abnormal. This is sociopathic behavior.
I am not calling Trump a sociopath as an insult--I am stating clearly what is wrong with him and why appealing to his humanity is pointless.
This isn’t even the first time Trump has mocked a dying man.
Howard Stern recently released this shocking audio clip where Trump, in his own words, describes in detail what happened when an 80-year old man, whom Trump admits he didn’t like, slipped and fell right in front of him and split his head open.
Take it away, Donald:
(Right-click to unmute)
If you are having trouble playing the video, here’s the same audio clip:
I was at Mar-a-Lago and we had this incredible ball, the Red Cross Ball, in Palm Beach, Florida. And we had the Marines. And the Marines were there, and it was terrible because all these rich people, they’re there to support the Marines, but they’re really there to get their picture in the Palm Beach Post… so you have all these really rich people, and a man, about 80 years old—very wealthy man, a lot of people didn’t like him—he fell off the stage.
Trump explained that this was a $100K-per-table fundraiser at his Mar-a-Lago estate and the Marines, he admitted, were given "the worst table in the whole place" at the very back of the room in the corner.
When the old man fell in front of Trump, there were two completely different responses---one from the Marines, and one from Trump:
- The Marines ran up front, picked up the man, covered in blood, and formed a human stretcher to carry him out.
- Then there was Donald Trump:
And you know what I did? I said, ‘Oh my God, that’s disgusting,’ and I turned away,” said Trump. “I couldn’t, you know, he was right in front of me and I turned away. I didn’t want to touch him… he’s bleeding all over the place.
I felt terrible, you know, beautiful marble floor, didn’t look like it. It changed color. Became very red....His wife is screaming—she’s sitting right next to him, and she’s screaming.
I was saying “Get that blood cleaned up! It’s disgusting!”
Trump only felt terrible over the mess made on his floor. He didn't do anything to help and wouldn't even try to console the poor woman. He does somewhat try to justify himself a little bit by saying he simply hates blood, which is completely negated by the very last part of the clip that is too disgusting for me to put in print.
And lest you think Trump thought better of it the next day, when he had time to reflect on what happened and how awful he acted---NOPE. The next day, he said this:
I forgot to call [the man] to say he’s OK.
It’s just not my thing.
This is the leader of the GOP.
Depraved. Petty. Evil.
Sociopath.
This is why Trump said he’d sign any bill that hurts Obamacare no matter how awful because, as Krugman points out, he has no clear goal to help people, just to prevent damage to his own self-esteem.
This is also why Trump doesn’t give a f*** about a bunch of distressed brown people with no homes and no electricity. He doesn’t care that hospitals have no potable water and everyone in intensive care is dying because of lack of supplies. It's all because he’s mad that Puerto Rican officials are calling him out on his incompetence.
When you or I see small children screaming in pain on TV because of the heat and thirst, we get upset. That’s because we are normal.
Trump sees the exact same thing on TV after playing several rounds of golf and also gets upset—but not because American children are dying, but rather because the cable networks are making him look bad. This is NOT normal.
Unfortunately, irony can be cruel. Although Trump is the one who clearly isn't well, it's everyone else who has to suffer for it. And this is only the beginning.