The Dumpster Fire We Know as the Trump Presidency Is Still Smoldering

  Those of us who saw Donald Trump for who he was must surely be amazed that his landslide defeat in the November election did not end his hold on the Republican Party that my parents, and maybe yours, loved and respected.

I certainly thought that I did not need to keep writing and paying to publish this column, but, as the headline states, the problem lingers on.

As Fareed Zakaria said on his Sunday program following Joe Biden’s European trip, “America is perceived once more as a constructive force in the world, with an astonishing rebound in its approval ratings across the globe…. But,” he continued, “the story is not entirely positive. One aspect of American power remains substantially diminished: its role as a beacon of democracy…. 57% of people said the U.S. is no longer the model for democracy it used to be…. The decay of American democracy is real.”

That decay can be laid at the feet of one person: Donald Trump. But the horde of his enablers cannot be overlooked, starting with Fox News and the Republican leadership in the U.S. Congress. Their collective grip on the thinking and actions of Trump loyalists is astounding and appalling. Is it not completely understandable that a president who never in his entire 4 years in office had an approval rating over 50% lost an election to a man who has yet to have an approval rating under 50%?

Yet, because Donald Trump refuses to accept that he lost the election which was certified by Republican-controlled states across the nation, the Big Lie lives on.

One has to wonder about the intelligence and patriotism of those who continue to stand behind this sad, egomaniacal man who drove into his followers’ minds from long before the election that the only way he could lose the election was if it was stolen from him.

I remember one pundit saying soon after Trump’s loss that the worst case scenario would be for Trump to run again in 2024 and lose, then maintaining that he was cheated again.

The next election, however, is not presidential. It is the mid-term election of 2022 when all Republican representatives and 20 Republican senators will face the voters. One can only hope, as I do, that the party’s blatant voter suppression will only further motivate the suppressed to turn out in record numbers and make those elected officials pay for their blind allegiance to a discredited president.

My father was a lifelong Republican and also a man of great integrity who would be appalled that any Republican would support a pathological liar like Donald Trump, much less repeat his lies as the truth — i.e., to lie him or herself. Yet that is what we see up and down the ranks of Republican elected officials who see support of Trump as key to something more important than country to them — their re-election.

Rupert Murdoch, the owner of Fox News, is a naturalized American citizen. I’ve found naturalized citizens to be some of the greatest patriots, harking back to a hero of mine, Danish immigrant Jacob Riis, the municipal reformer and journalist who wrote How the Other Half Lives in 1890. Yet, Rupert Murdoch allows his network to become a dishonest echo chamber for Donald Trump, further empowering and emboldening “Cult 45.”

I feel compassion for the Trump followers who stormed the Capitol on January 6th and had their lives and futures disrupted or destroyed out of their misplaced loyalty. They are the true victims of Donald Trump, more than you and I. They were willing to put their lives on the line, believing as they did that the election was stolen and that Communists were taking over the country. Who among us would put our lives on the line like that?

But they were misled and continue to be misled by one man, who could save our country from a continuing downward spiral if he would do what every losing presidential candidate has done in the past: concede.

 

What I'd Like Joe Biden to Say in His Inaugural Address

Clearly, job #1 for Joe Biden's inaugural address is to speak to the followers of Donald Trump -- 86% of whom, according to polls, don't trust the 2020 election.

I would like President Biden to acknowledge the patriotism of those followers. Who among us would put their lives on the line if they truly believed what Donald Trump told his followers -- that the election was stolen.  "I stand here today asking you patriots to challenge that belief. Even the leader of your party in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, will tell you that the election was honest and that you can believe Donald Trump lost the election. I don't want one more of you to lose your life or go to jail fighting for your country under false pretenses.  I respect your patriotism, and I share your patriotism."

That's the tone I would like to hear from Joe Biden tomorrow after he takes the oath of office. 

Bonus points if our new President says, "I'm not a communist and I'm not a socialist," and gives a definition to those terms which these people will recognize is not what he and his Vice President and cabinet stand for.  "Those lies, on top of the lies about the election, have been used to manipulate you, and that needs to come to an end here and now.  Watch me in the coming weeks and months and you'll see that I'm a president who not only puts America first, but puts it first before himself.  That's the kind of president this country deserves and who 80 million Americans voted for."

Job #1 (of many) Should Be Restoring Trust in Professional Journalism

  President-elect Joe Biden has a lot of Trump-generated damage to undo, but one of the most important is to help the nation recover from the “fake news” and “enemy of the people” tropes promoted by Donald Trump.

From the beginning, news was labeled “fake” by him, not because it wasn’t true but because it was all too true and perceived as anti-Trump. But members of “Cult-45” took the label to heart, believing that straight news organizations like CNN, the New York Times, and the Washington Post were anti-Trump and were fabricating stories that were negative to the President. Shamefully, the conservative talk radio shows and evening Fox News opinion programs — Carlson, Hannity and Ingraham — gave undeserved credence to the actual lies, which were coming from Trump.

Often, the lies were created by the TV hosts and then tweeted and otherwise echoed by the president.  It truly fit the definition of an echo chamber.

How can our incoming president neutralize and reverse this toxic situation? First and most importantly, Biden can do what he already did in his Nov. 7 victory speech and his Thanksgiving address to the nation: namely to be presidential. The contrast to President Trump will be as obvious as it will be refreshing.

 Second, Joe Biden’s press secretary can hold daily briefings, and he can hold frequent press conferences. He could learn from Pete Buttigieg’s example and make himself available for interviews and town halls on Fox News.  Mayor Pete (who will hopefully have a high position in the Biden administration) was well received by Fox News’ moderators and audience, and being on Fox News is the only way to reach that audience.

There are two easily debunked lies by Donald Trump — three, if you include that he won the election. The first lie is that we were “turning the corner” on Covid-19 in October.  The second, however, is that Joe Biden was senile, incoherent, living in a senior home and incapable of serving as president. Trump supporters need to be reminded of such statements to help in their deprogramming.

Remember, it’s called “Cult-45” for a reason. Deprogramming is the appropriate technology to employ in helping that portion of the electorate recover their senses.

Biden’s appointment of John Kerry as a cabinet-level “climate envoy” was a welcome move. Joel Simon, executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, has suggested the appointment of a “Special Presidential Envoy for Press Freedom,” whose job  would be “to represent the administration at a high level wherever journalists are under threat.” Although the focus of his proposal is on threats to journalists and press freedom in other countries where authoritarian leaders have been inspired by Donald Trump’s attack on the press, I’d like to see a White House counterpart to the Washington Post’s Fact-Checker team when appropriate. Lies will no doubt be forthcoming about White House initiatives, and they shouldn’t be allowed to fester unchallenged.

I like the motto of the Washington Post which appears on its front page: “Democracy Dies in Darkness.” It was popularized by Bob Woodward of Watergate fame in a 2007 piece criticizing government secrecy and was adopted as the Post’s motto a month after Trump’s inauguration.

Sonni Efron, a RAND Corporation analyst, coined the term “Truth Decay,” leading to a 2018 book by that name with the subtitle, “An Initial Exploration of the Diminishing Role of Facts and Analysis in American Public Life.”  It’s on my reading list.

Trump reportedly intends to stay in the public eye, announcing his candidacy for 2024 on Biden’s inauguration day. His ongoing spouting of lies calls for a diligent response.

 

It Couldn’t Be Clearer Now: It Was Always ‘Trump First,’ not ‘America First’

  Since this is Thanksgiving week, I have to say two things — first, that I am thankful that Joe Biden is our President-Elect; and second, that “Talking Turkey” is not related to the Butterball Turkey hotline. You’re on your own, friends!

On a personal note, I am thankful for those readers who pushed my GoFundMe campaign to $11,931. That is less than the $17,000+ I paid to print this column in the Denver Post each week starting in March, but I would have gladly spent the entire amount myself if I had to, and I’m happy if this column somehow contributed to Joe Biden’s landslide win in Colorado and gave some comfort to my fellow progressives that they were not outnumbered by members of Cult 45.

Now, as Joe Biden said in his Thanksgiving address, we need to turn our attention to healing the partisan divide. But how do we do that when the president himself is sowing disbelief in our American electoral system? How will his supporters, egged on as they are by Trump, the Fox News opinionistas, OAN, Newsmax and QAnon, ever accept President Biden and Vice President Harris as legitimately elected leaders?

   In 2009, the Republican leadership in Congress committed themselves to being the “Party of No” and making President Obama a one-term president. With only 2 years of Democratic control in both the House and Senate, it’s impressive that the 44th President accomplished as much as he did.

I have donated to the Democratic Senatorial campaigns in Georgia in hopes that Joe Biden will have the same advantage for at least his first two years as president.

As Chris Christie put it on Sunday, Trump’s fight to overturn the election, led so appropriately by Rudy Giuliani, is a “national embarrassment,” but more to the point, it demonstrates even to his supporters who claim to love America and the constitution, that Donald Trump has never put our country first. As John Bolton expressed in his best-selling book, every decision and every action that this president took was predicated on what was best for Donald Trump, not for the country. Click here to read psychiatrist Vincent Greenwood’s treatise demonstrating how Donald Trump exceeds the criteria of a narcissist and meets the criteria of a psychopath. Read it and weep — but weep tears of joy that he will be put out of pasture in January, ready to face $400 million in debts and countless criminal charges, especially in the Southern District of New York.

As I predicted in the past, once the man reaches the end of his “I won” rope, I believe that he will resign for two reasons. First, he can then be pardoned by Pres. Mike Pence, protecting him from federal prosecution, and, second, his fragile ego will not permit him to attend the inauguration of President Biden. He’s such an insecure child — but we already knew that, didn’t we?

From the picture of Donald Trump painted by Mary Trump, John Bolton, Anonymous and so many others, it’s so in character for Donald Trump to be acting the way he is. His supporters haven’t grasped that picture yet, but maybe this current behavior, once it has run its course, will enlighten even them.

At a closed door meeting  on April 16, 2016, Trump told Republican leaders, in effect, that the “act” he was putting on during his campaign would change once he became president. The same day, at a Pennsylvania rally, he told the crowd, “I’m going to be so presidential that you people will be so bored.”

“Promises made, promises kept”? Not that one! And the reason is simple. Immediately after his inauguration, he announced his re-election campaign and continued his “act” at rallies throughout his time in office.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

unpresidential term. .

 

Joe Biden Is Wrong: Trump’s Refusal to Concede Befits His Legacy

   We all remember 2016, when Donald Trump said he would only accept the election results if he won. So it is no surprise that he won’t accept the election results now that he has lost.

Never mind that it defies the constitution and threatens national security. Trump has provided adequate evidence that he doesn’t care about either.  He only cares about himself and his fragile ego.

My July 2nd “Talking Turkey” reported on Dr. Vincent Greenwood’s psychiatric analysis of the president as meeting most of the 20 criteria of a psychopath. Refusal to accept loss is not one of them, but it is certainly consistent with them. Reviewing those 20 criteria now makes them ring truer than ever. Only two or three don’t apply:

1. Glibness/superficial charm

2. Egocentricity/grandiose sense of self-worth

3. Proneness to boredom/low frustration tolerance

4. Pathological lying and deception/gaslighting

5. Conning/lack of sincerity

6. Lack of remorse or guilt

7. Shallow affect

8. Callous/lack of empathy

9. Parasitic lifestyle

10. Poor behavioral controls

11. Promiscuous sexual behavior

12. Early behavioral problems

13. Lack of realistic long-term goals

14. Impulsivity

15. Irresponsibility

16. Failure to accept responsibility for own actions

17. Many short-term marital relationships

18. Juvenile delinquency

19. Revocation of conditional release

20. Criminal versatility

News Flash: Trump’s a Loser

Yes, Donald Trump is now a loser, whether he accepts it or not. He is even on record saying that he’s a bad loser.

A Nov. 7 Fast Company column by Joe Berkowitz has the simple headline, “Donald Trump is a Loser,” In it, he wrote that Trump has in fact been a loser in many ways (e.g. getting Mexico to pay for his wall) and lists 14 things we will lose with his departure:

1)  The “fascist cruelty of Stephen Miller.”

2)  Acceptance of white supremacy, “making racists feel happy, comfortable and validated.”

3)  Loss of international esteem.

4)  Denial of climate change.

5)  Conversations about building “the wall.”

6)  The “top-down politicization of the pandemic.”

7)  A Trump-dominated news cycle.

8)  Distrust of White House announcements, which typically focus on Trump’s inherent greatness.

9)  Spite “as the prevalent motivating force,” aimed at “making liberals cry again.”

10)  Loyalty to the president as the primary employment qualification.

11)  The concept of “alternative facts”

12)  The idea that the media is the opposition party and “enemy of the people.”

13)  The president as a negative role model for children.

14)  The president’s sense of infallibility, that he can do no wrong.

But this is such a limited list, isn’t it? I can think of several more things I look forward to losing.

1)  “Shooting from the hip” without thinking and without consultation with advisors. Example: Middle-of-the-night tweeting in general, but specifically announcing troop withdrawal from Syria, abandoning our Kurdish allies.

2)  The president thinking he knows it all — more than the generals, more than epidemiologists, more than climate scientists or scientists in general.

3)  The president making policy decisions based solely on the desire to reverse the policy of his predecessor, regardless of whether the policy was a good one.

4)  A president who is a psychopath, unable to express compassion, such as upon the death of Sen. John McCain, calling him a “loser.”

 

It’s Time to Sum Up the Dumpster Fire We Know as the Trump Presidency

   I have done exactly what Donald Trump has asked of every American since he came down that gold escalator in June 2015 — to think only about him day and night.

The books I read before going to bed each night? They are all about Trump. The email newsletters I read between my real estate newsletters? All about Trump. The news programs and specials I watch every evening and on Sunday? Mostly about Trump.

This is how he likes it, and it has been exhausting for me and I suspect also for you. I look forward to ignoring him starting in 2021.  It will drive him nuts.

As I sit down to write this 28th and final “Talking Turkey,” it’s a challenge to do more than breathe a hopeful sigh of relief that our long national nightmare is coming to an end — and peacefully so. Here are my closing thoughts.

First, it’s apparent to me that Donald Trump’s two “winning arguments” are that he is against abortion and that Joe Biden is a Trojan horse for a radical left “Democrat party” that will destroy America through socialism and communism/Marxism. A third argument, that he inherited a bad economy from Obama and made it great, is hardly worth discussing. His shameful tax cuts for the wealthy, which gave crumbs to the middle class, merely supercharged the already healthy economy he inherited and massively ballooned our national debt, benefiting only Wall Street.

The argument about socialism also deserves dismissal. The programs that are identified as “radical left” and “socialistic” — Medicare for All and the Green New Deal — are essentially ones that have been in place for years or even decades in Canada, the United Kingdom and most European countries. We are laggards in adopting them.

Regarding abortion, I have pointed out that being pro-life is something Trump only adopted to court evangelicals and is not a core belief.  He was a pro-choice Democrat in New York.

I have gotten the impression that people cite opposition to abortion as their reason for supporting Trump, using it as a cover for their unspoken support of white supremacy and anti-black and brown immigration. This is particularly true for the evangelicals, because there are so many non-Christian aspects of the man they are required to overlook.

After all, why would someone opposed to abortion support a President who separated babies from their mothers as a method of discouraging refugees and immigrants, encouraged rally-goers to beat up anti-Trump demonstrators, and said that the white supremacists included "many fine people," not to mention supports the killing of adults (i.e., the death penalty)?

As we all know by now, there are countless lies and conspiracy theories, many of them by QAnon, charging various Democrats (especially Trump’s guilty pleasure, Hillary Clinton) with crimes. Here’s the question I keep asking those who believe the charges of crimes by Democrats: If these stories were true, it is totally within the power of the Republican-controlled Senate to hold hearings on them. Why don’t they hold those hearings? Obviously it’s because public testimony would prove them to be false. It’s more useful politically for McConnell and Trump's other enablers to keep those lies circulating on social media instead of providing an opportunity to disprove them.

    Most Trump supporters agree he’s a terrible human being, but there are some who think he’s “a good man,” citing an urban legend about him paying off the mortgage of a black man who changed a flat tire on his limo. It was totally disproved on snopes.com in 1998, but when I informed a Trumper of this, his response was predictable: “Snopes is owned by George Soros” (another urban legend). Trump supporters simply can’t handle the truth.

Assuming (again, hopefully) that Donald Trump is defeated next week and his sycophantic majority in the Senate evaporates, Trump will cease to hold the sway that he has held over Republicans, and “the truth will out.” It may take time for his hard core alt-right white supremacists to withdraw into the shadows where they resided before Trump emboldened them to “unite the right” as they did in Charlottesville. The majority of Trump supporters will, I believe, follow the path of Germans after Hitler’s downfall and come to realize how badly they were duped and misled by the worst president in American history. It will take a while, but it will happen. America is too strong to fall. We will recover.

Will Trump’s Biggest Legacy Be Ending the Peaceful Transition of Power?

   I fear for the future of our country, regardless of who wins the presidential election next month. I agree with the president's longest-serving National Security Advisor, John Bolton that we can survive four years of Donald Trump but not a second term.

But I also fear the future if Joe Biden wins the election, even if by such a margin as to overcome phony charges of the election being “stolen.” In this regard, our decentralized election system will serve us well, because Trump will have to allege cheating in enough individual states and counties to add up to a change in the electoral college totals. At least in Colorado, the statewide vote is the sum of the vote counts in 64 individual counties, many of them run by Republicans. It would be a steep climb to say the totals reported at the state level were wrong by a statistically useful amount.

However, I’m talking about something deeper and more intractable than public confidence in the electoral process. I’m talking about the willingness of Trump’s base, not Trump himself, to accept defeat.

If one is to believe what his base believes — that a Biden victory will lead to a communist takeover — wouldn’t a true patriot with an arsenal of military grade weapons and ammo take up arms against the new regime? Trump has invoked their support in the past and would not hesitate, I suspect, to do so again. Trump knows that there is no danger for him — the Secret Service will keep him safe as Americans spill each other’s blood in his name. It might even warm his narcissistic heart to know that supporters are willing to die in defiance to his defeat at the polls.

What I find so disheartening is, to quote a Forbes.com headline on Sept. 2, 2020, that a “Majority of Republicans Believe The QAnon Conspiracy Theory Is Partly Or Mostly True.”  The breakdown is that 33% of Republicans believe QAnon’s theory is “mostly true” and 23% say it is “partly true.” On the other hand, only 4% of Democrats think QAnon’s conspiracy theories are even partly true, and 72% of Dems say they’re “not true at all.”  I’m proud to be a Democrat. Unfortunately, QAnon supporters are proud to be Republicans and Trump supporters.

To quote the article by Forbes staff writer Tommy Beer, “QAnon supporters claim President Trump is defending the planet from a cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles (consisting mostly of Hollywood celebrities, liberal politicians and 'deep-state' government officials) who are running a secret child sex-trafficking ring.”

If fear of a communist takeover doesn’t scare you into taking up arms, would believing that bullshit do the trick for you?

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bi-partisan resolution condemning QAnon by a 371-18 vote. That may have no effect, since Donald Trump won’t disavow QAnon. “I’ve heard these are people that love our country,” he said during a White House news conference. “So I don’t know really anything about it other than they do supposedly like me.”

The enthusiasm of Trump supporters will certainly get them to the polls. The question I have is whether it will also get them to the barricades when and if Joe Biden takes office. With the current President of the United States emboldening them to do just that, we have a serious problem on our hands.

The headline of my May 14 column was, “Dems Need to Realize That People in Trump’s Base Are Simply Unreachable.” That statement has been reinforced for me by the emails I receive each week from Trump supporters who, God bless them, keep reading this column. I engaged in email conversations with several of them, but recently have started blocking their email addresses and cell/text numbers because they are so totally lost in their adoration of Trumpism, and not worth the distraction.

So sad, so true, and now so scary as the president lays the emotional basis for his supporters to take up arms if the election is “stolen” from their man. Even if bullets don’t fly, as I fear they might, they will never accept defeat.

 

Let’s Be on the Lookout for Dirty Tricks in This Campaign

 “Dirty tricks” have always had their place in politics, and I suspect we’re going to see a lot of them in this presidential campaign. Indeed, I think we have already seen some and don’t realize it.

The Russians employ a dirty trick in their ongoing use of social media. As I wrote in my page 3 column on Nov. 15, 2018 (link), their strategy in social media is to create division in America. They knew that in Trump they would have an unwitting co-conspirator in that strategy. Click here to view a 3-part video by The New York Times called "Operation Infektion: Meet the KGB Spies Who Invented Fake News." (link)  Undoubtedly they have used social media to mobilize antifa-type violence simultaneously with using social media to mobilize the right wingers against them. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that some of the looters were actually plants to turn public opinion against the otherwise peaceful protestors. The truth will out — it always does, just not soon enough!

No doubt, you have heard of “deep fakes,” highly believable videos that show a politician saying something they did not say. You can no longer believe what you see and hear. Scary. 

Click here to read "Deepfakes threaten the 2020 election" on thehill.com (link). 

Here's what talk radio is saying about Joe Biden - and people believe it!

 

Rush Limbaugh, Aug. 5: “The contrast in knowledge of events and issues, mental acuity, the contract between Trump and Biden is striking. It’s why they’re keeping Biden in the basement.”

Mark Levin, Aug. 5: “I actually don’t believe Joe Biden is working out of his house. I believe he’s working out of a nursing home or an assisted living home. Because that’s what he needs…. Oy, yoy, yoy, at least get new dentures for God’s sakes.”

Ben Shapiro, Aug. 6: “The big problem for Joe Biden is that he is falling apart. He’s just falling apart.”

Michael Savage, Aug. 5: “He’s not really running for the office. It’s the communist that he picks as his number two who will be running America within 3 months after he is sent to the long, long rest he has worked for all his life. You know, a blanket over his hips, around the clock sweets, around the clock care, the man needs the care right now. I pity the man.”

Thanks to my favorite Sunday morning show, "Reliable Sources" on CNN.  Set your DVR for this show at 9 a.m. every Sunday.  And subscribe to their nightly email newsletter at http://cnn.it/reliable.  It's amazing how thoroughly this show's staff monitors the world's media.  This is must-see TV, all about how the media works.  I never miss it. 

Trump Supporters Overlook His ‘Flaws,’ But Here Are Some They Ignore

   As I have mentioned before, I’ve been blessed with an abundance of calls and emails from Trump supporters, resulting in a better understanding of what drives his base.

I have noted a consistent theme: “Yes, he’s a terribly flawed person, but we like his policies — and, by the way, his opponent is a senile puppet of the communists in the Democrat Party.”

   I covered the communist riff in last week’s column, so let’s delve into his personality flaws. One of the emails I was blessed with contained a link to “A Letter to an Anti-Trump Christian Friend" (link) by Wayne Grudem, a professor of theology and the author of Politics—According to the Bible (link). His 5,500-word letter inspired this week’s column. Opponents of the president will want to read and share that letter as much as his supporters are doing, so click on that link above. It perfectly summarizes the forgiving attitude toward a president whose actions beg forgiveness daily. And who better to forgive our president than a Christian professor of theology?

The main point of Prof. Grudem’s  letter is that Trump’s great policies outweigh the man’s flaws, which he details as follows: “He is egotistical, bombastic, and brash. He often lacks nuance in his statements. Sometimes he blurts out mistaken ideas…  that he later must abandon. He insults people. He can be vindictive when people attack him…. He has been married three times and claims to have been unfaithful in his marriages.” The professor then writes, “These are certainly flaws, but I don’t think they are disqualifying flaws in this election.”

Almost every page of Professor Grudem’s letter to his friend contains acknowledgement of flaws of the president, but I suggest that there are other flaws he isn’t acknowledging that suggest our president has indeed fallen below what he describes as “a minimal standard of behavior which, if a candidate falls below it, would disqualify [him] from governmental office.”

Here are some other flaws that anyone, supporter or not, would have to acknowledge seeing in Donald Trump:

1.  He’s lazy, coming down from the residence between 11 and noon because of his addiction to watching TV and tweeting. Remember that list of judges he will choose from if given the opportunity to appoint one more Supreme Court Justice? He didn’t do the vetting. He got the list from the Federalist Society. His interviews with appointees to the highest positions, including cabinet secretaries, are very short, limited to whether the person is loyal to him. (Remember, that’s what he asked James Comey to tell him.)  If you Google the phrase "Is Trump lazy," you find articles from Vanity Fair, The Atlantic and numerous other publications on the subject, including one from Rolling Stone (link) with the title "Trump Could Be Our Laziest President Ever, According to Leaked Schedules."

2.  He has a short attention span, not willing to read anything longer than a page or two, including the Daily Presidential Briefing, causing him to miss the intelligence report of Russia paying the Taliban to kill our soldiers.  Tony Schwartz, who spent 18 months with Trump as the ghostwriter of The Art of the Deal, said that Trump “has the attention span of a 9-year-old with ADHD.”  Find that and other quotes, including by Trump himself, about his short attention span in a September 8, 2016, article in Politico (link) with the catchy title, "Donald Trump's Shortest Attribute Isn't His Fingers: People who know him well are starting to ask: Can he focus enough to run the Oval Office?"

3.  He’s a narcissist. This is super obvious.  Staffers have advised that documents must include a reference to the president to have him keep reading. See my July 2nd column (link) about Trump's diagnosis as a psychopath.  Narcissism is included in the diagnosis of psychopathy. 

4.  He’s self-serving. Having refused to put his business interests in a blind trust, he looks for personal gain in his actions, such as hosting the G7 at his Florida resort and asking our ambassador to the UK to lobby for the British Open to be held at his Scottish golf course. The month he took office, he doubled the $100,000 initiation fee at Mar-a-Lago, and he has golfed at his own clubs just under 300 times so far (link), costing the government tens of millions of dollars. That includes $500,000 in additional golf cart rentals and $500,000 in room rentals at Trump properties by the Secret Service (same link).  

5.  He can’t be counted on to tell the truth, because he is, by anyone’s definition, a habitual liar. The Washington Post Fact Checker staff counted 20,000 false or misleading claims by Trump as of July 9, 2020.  Earlier this year the newspaper published a 381-page book (link) detailing Trump's mistruths. 

6.  He shoots from the hip, without consulting his own advisors, because he doesn’t value advisors or generals or medical experts, or… anyone, because he thinks he’s the expert. Good examples of this are when he decided one night to withdraw troops from Syria and when he said kids are “virtually immune” to the Covid-19 virus. In January of this year, Politico published an article (link)  on how Trump's "shoot from the hip diplomacy" is "kneecapping the Pentagon" and "putting the military's reputation at risk."  

   These flaws strike at the heart of what we expect from a president, and are surely worth weighing… except, of course, for the communist threat posed by Biden!

 

Dems Need to Realize That People in Trump’s Base Are Simply Unreachable

Perhaps you’ve harbored the thought that if only you could show Trump supporters this or that story or this or that flaw in the president that they might vote against him or just stay home in November.  Forget it.  They’re unreachable.

If we’ve learned anything about them, it’s that there is nothing Trump can do or say that will change their minds. If what is already known and recognized about the man isn’t enough to sway his supporters, there is nothing Trump — or Biden — can say or do that will make any difference.

This became clear to me from the many pro-Trump emails, letters, phone calls and texts that I received as a result of my previous “Talking Turkey” columns. I want you to see this for yourself, so I have compiled 36 pro-Trump emails into a 13-page PDF that you can download and read.

A reader alerted me to the term “Cult 45” to refer to his supporters. (Trump is the 45th president.)  Googling the term, I found this in an Eric Zorn column in the Chicago Tribune on Nov. 11, 2019, which suggested the term go mainstream: "A Monmouth University survey asked 401 respondents who approve of the president's job performance, "Can you think of anything that Trump could do, or fail to do, in his term as president that would make you disapprove of the job he is doing?" Sixty-two percent answered no, nothing their dear leader could do or not do would shake their faith in him."

It’s common to speak of people on both sides of the political divide as being in a “bubble,” where they simply are unaware of the facts or pseudo facts fueling the other side of the political divide.  I’ve concluded that it’s more like an “iron dome,” a term coined to describe the anti-missile defense system protecting Israel from its neighbors.

Trump supporters have provided many videos to convince me that I’m wrong about Trump, and they’re worth watching. They reveal the strategy for expanding his base.

Central to their strategy is painting mainstream media as the enemy of the people. One video says simply, “DON’T WATCH THE NEWS!”  The argument is that anything negative about Trump must be a politically motivated lie, no matter how rooted it is in facts. The key is for people get all their news from Fox News, One America Network and Trump’s own tweets. (He has 79 million Twitter followers. FYI, Barack Obama has the most, 117 million, and Michelle has 15 million)

Turn-out in November will be huge for Trump, driven by fear mongering about socialism, gun confiscation and killing of newborn babies if Democrats win. A big political attack will be “Spygate,” re-banded as “Obamagate,” and it will be built up to a frenzy inside the iron dome he has created by isolating his base from fact-checked journalism.

Trump, however, will motivate turnout by Democrats too, and turnout will determine the winner. A huge concern for Trump is mail-in voting like we have here in Colorado, which makes voting easier.  Easier voting means bigger turnout, which historically has favored Democrats. It probably contributed to Colorado "going blue."