Opinion by Hal Brown
Does any of this matter?
Trump Didn’t Want Rain to Mess Up His Hair — November 14, 2018
Trump’s preening narcissism kept him from providing a photo op at Aisne-Marne American Cemetery to honor the Battle of Belleau Wood. Who would have ever predicted it would result in a series of really, really bad hair days two years later?
Vanity Fair: “Trump remained in a dark mood during his weekend trip to France to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I… On Saturday morning, Trump skipped attending a rain-soaked ceremony at the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery to honor the Battle of Belleau Wood. When his absence became a scandal, the White House said the decision had been made because Marine One reportedly could not fly in the rain, and Secret Service did not want Trump traveling by motorcade. One Republican briefed on the internal discussions said the real reason Trump did not want to go was because there would be no tent to stand under.”
Said the source: “He was worried his hair was going to get messed up in the rain. John Bolton and everyone was telling him this was a big mistake.”
I hate to say it but Trump has weaseled his way out of so many potential political disasters that I find myself feeling pessimistic that even the Category 5 media storm that hit following the revelations in The Atlantic article he will remain unscathed when the flood waters recede. I fear it will prove to have been just a brouhaha signifying everything but amounting to nothing.
Common sense should tell even the most ardent Trump supporters that his primary so-called defenses amount to a load of crap.
1) He’s trotted out people to say they never heard him say such things. All this means is that either they are liars or that he never said them in front of them knowing they’d be offended. For example Mike Pompeo said he was with Trump on the 2018 trip to Paris, and that he had “never heard the president use the language that assertedly is said in that article about him calling [members of the] military suckers and losers.” Reference Pompeo is a West Point graduate and rose to the rank of captain in the Army serving in an infantry division from1986 to 1991. Reference Trump might have been cognizant that he shouldn’t disparage military service in front of him.
2) He couldn’t have said or believed such things because of “look how much I’ve done for the military.” Yeah, he diverted their funds to build a wall...
3) Kayleigh McEnamy offers what are merely scripted performances. In her statement she mentioned a World War II vet who flew with the president on a helicopter in Normandy, 'visits the president had with our wounded warriors, special ops teams who came to the Oval Office, including the team that got [Abu bakr] Al-Baghdadi, and they brought along Conan the dog as well.' Yeah, so what does this prove? The guy was a reality show performer.
4) Blame it on The Atlantic. If you buy this then you have to believe that they orchestrated a major conspiracy that fooled not only The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Associated Press, and Jennifer Griffin, the Fox News national security correspondent.
I just don’t think the images support Trump’s characterization of John Kelly.
5) Blame it on Gen. John Kelly: According to Trump:
This man was totally exhausted. He wasn’t even able to function in the last number of months. He was not able to function. He was sort of a tough guy. By the time he got eaten up in this world, he was unable to function. I told him: John you’re going to have to go. And now he goes out and bad-mouths. Now, there are people that are jealous. There are people that are upset that they’re not here anymore. There are people – we’ve done an incredible job, the virus came in, and now w’ere doing an incredible job again... I don’t know that it was him. I haven’t seen that. I mean I see "anonymous." But it could have been a guy like a John Kelly – just so you understand.”
Will this amount to less than a hill of beans to members of the Trump cult like these?
I couldn’t resist adding the beans.
If one picture is worth 1000 words looking at how so many of his MAGA cult members think he is Jesus you can see why I am fatalistic in my sense that this will blow over like Hurricane Maria and Trump will get to throw out paper towels and not a damn thing will change for him.
Remember this?
President Donald Trump defended throwing paper towels into a crowd of Puerto Ricans at a relief center in the hurricane-ravaged territory earlier this week and lauded federal relief efforts.
“They had these beautiful, soft towels. Very good towels,” Trump told Mike Huckabee during an interview Saturday with Christian network Trinity Broadcasting.
Trump’s White House Press Secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, is Mike Huckabee’s daughter.
“And I came in and there was a crowd of a lot of people. And they were screaming and they were loving everything. I was having fun, they were having fun,” he added. “They said, 'Throw 'em to me! Throw 'em to me Mr. President!” NBC News
You see why I am not feeling particularly elated over the prospect that Trump has just fallen into a sucking cesspool of his own making where he will gag on his own accumulated excrement.
