When I was a boy my family, friends, and guardians would get mad at me, not because I made mistakes but because I was unwilling to admit them. If you knock over a lamp, not letting others know exposes them to walking on broken glass, that leads to an infection, treatment…well, you get where I am going. The President of the United States not only knocks over lamps but throws them against a wall and grinds the broken glass into the carpet. For his devoted cultist this is a virtue, but for those of us looking to conduct our lives in normalcy, this is disconcerting.
Donald Trump bounces between his world of reality and fantasy so blithely, that America and the rest of the world need to be on guard. Remember in Helsinki while standing next to Vladimir Putin, and he said that he did not see why Putin “would” interfere in America’s elections? When the predicted and earned backlash came, he had his minions issue a statement that he meant to say “wouldn’t. Mr. Trump has called the press the “enemy of the people so often that he may be planning to build a wall around them, but when caught in his fanciful tale of Mexico paying for his border wall, he said, "When I say Mexico is going to pay for the wall, that's what I said. Mexico is going to pay. I didn't say they're going to write me a check for $20 billion or $10 billion."
Some of these excursions down the Yellow brick road are funny others are indicative of how dangerous Mr. Trump is. A few days ago, before the world and on video for millions to see President Trump addressed the CEO of Apple as, “Tim Apple.” Nothing earth-shattering about getting a name wrong, but his steadfast insistence that the world, not him, was wrong is scary.
There is no ambiguity in what he said, as a matter of fact, it made me smile. But Mr. Trump has been tweeting and sending his emissaries out to say you did not hear what you heard. He even reiterated I said Cook, the actual last name of the CEO head, so quickly you missed it. Trump did not say Cook or sous chef, he made a mistake that his over-inflated ego will not allow him to admit.
Going back to my childhood my family also told me that if you lie about little things you will lie about big things, a lesson I have learned with some painful consequences. What was in the destroyed translator's notes with Putin, was it something treasonous? Are his love letters from Kim Jong-un all that we know? Are the 16 or more patents, including voting machines his daughter Ivanka has gotten from China since his ascendancy to the Presidency a coincidence?
A man who cannot admit an error when speaking will never admit to a crime. Democratic Intel Committee Chair Adam Schiff is contemplating a subpoena for the President to haul him before Congress. Al Capone never admitted murder he went to jail on what Republicans are now calling “process crimes.” Trump might find orange is the perfect outfit for his complexion for the process crime of perjury.
Vote in 2020 for Change.