Donald Trump: de Gulliver a Liliputh

 

2016 TRUMP 2017 TRUMP 2018 TRUMP   2019 TRUMP  2020 TRUMP ………

 

HIS DRAMATIC VOYAGE FROM “LET’S MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN” AND “LET’S CLEAN THE SWAMP”, TO “THE DEMOCRATS STOLE THE ELECTIONS” AND “PFIZER DELAYED THE VACCINE TO MAKE ME LOOK BAD”

In terms of moral stature Donald Trump aimed to start his presidency as Gulliver but is ending it as the king of Lilliput.

His winning electoral slogan in 2016 was Put America First, an objective which sounded good to many and parochial to some in a world so full of global crises but, at least, it indicated primary concern for the national interest. However, Trump understood such an objective as progressive isolation, as distancing from U.S. traditional European allies such as Germany, France, Britain and NATO, while embracing corrupt friends such as Philippine’s Duterte, Turkey’s Erdogan and Saudi Arabia’s Mohammad Bin Salman, showing a servile attitude towards Putin and maintaining an unusually affectionate link with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. To his credit he maintained a strong attitude of rejection against Venezuelan dictator Maduro and the regime in Cuba.

His style of leadership rapidly became more autocratic. He governed by twitter and mistreated his collaborators, complimenting them profusely when they joined his government but berating and insulting them when they did not prove to be submissive to his wishes. The rotation at the high levels of government became abnormally high. At the same time, 14 of his intimate aides, advisers or donors during his campaign and, later, in his presidency, have been indicted or  landed in prison accused of criminal acts of diverse nature, see: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-associates-prison-faced-criminal-charges/story?id=68358219 .  

In parallel, his personal behavior and attitudes left much to be desired. He refused to make public his tax returns, something almost all presidents had done before him. He placed his daughter and son-in-law in high government positions, forcing the administration to provide them with high security clearances, he accepted government business in his hotels and resorts and mixed with prostitutes and paid them to keep their silence. He was recorded as advocating grabbing women by the “pussy” since the “you can get away with it if you are famous”.

    President Trump certainly did not lead by example. Along the lines of populist Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, Trump did have the political ability to promote antagonism and resentment among social, economic, political, religious and ethnic groups, pitting one against the other. Chavez never called his adversaries by their proper name but always used a pejorative term. Similarly Trump never refers to his main adversaries in a normal, respectful manner but as Sleepy Creepy Joe, Ke Mala Harris, the Idiot Fauci, Little Adam Schiff, Crazy Maxime Waters, Lying Ted Cruz (now Beautiful Ted), Wacky Omarosa, Pocahontas Warren, etc.

This is classless stuff in any person but much more so in the president of the United States.

Worse facets of his personality would appear with the pandemic. As the medical experts called for masks and social distancing he started appearing in public without a mask and in campaign meetings where social distancing was not followed.  He forced his family and collaborators to do the same. Eventually some of his collaborators would die, his family would become ill, he himself would be hospitalized but he would return defiant, refusing to heed the medical advice and calling his government experts idiots. He promoted large scale disobedience to sanitary measures and, as such, is indirectly responsible for the illness and deaths of many Americans. His political agenda started to overrule all common sense. He abandoned his role as leader of all Americans in favor of advancing his petty personal objectives of political power.  

At this moment not only he is accusing the opposite side of a gigantic electoral fraud, an accusation for which proof still has to be presented but is directing his frustration about what clearly appears to be his loss at all parties that he believes might have played a part in his defeat. His claims of electoral fraud are collapsing in every state. See this fact checking by BBC News:  https://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2020-55016029, the editorial by the Denver Post: Ver: https://www.denverpost.com/2020/11/21/donald-trump-voter-fraud-smartmatic-dominion-rudy-giuliani/ and the results of the Pennsylvania action attempted by Giuliani: Ver: https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-joe-biden-donald-trump-constitutions-pennsylvania-87eaf4df86d5f6ccc343c3385c9ba86c  

Diverting his attention to other potential enemies he is now blaming Pfizer for having delayed the completion of the corona virus vaccine on purpose, in order to harm his electoral chances. In parallel, he is also claiming the creation of the vaccine is a product of his efforts, while Pfizer points about they have worked in total independence from the government and have not received any financing from them.

President Trump’s poor grace at losing the election is doing great harm to the nation and creating a toxic social atmosphere that could even develop into civil war. His presidency has gone from History to Hysteria and his conspiracy theories, no matter how absurd, are finding many followers who also probably believe the earth is flat, climate change is a fraud, the new World Order will be run by pedophiles and Bill Gates is the anti – Christ.     

I am afraid that the Lilliput inhabited by Trump is undermining the vision of John Winthrop of a shiny city upon a hill, one that many presidents, republicans and democrats alike  helped to consolidate. The shining city seems to be sliding down Capitol hill, due to the abandonment of honest bipartisanship and to the shameless exercise of personal agendas. The U.S. under Trump’s leadership is threatening to become a banana republic, unless a vigorous bipartisan civic reaction takes place. 

  

A FINAL NOTE: I am not a communist, not even a socialist, strongly opposed to Castro’s Cuba and to Chavez/Maduro Venezuela.  I am about 65% republican, 35% democrat, and would like to see as little direct government participation in social affairs as possible, except in the areas of health and social security where I think the government has an important role to play. I reject abortion. I believe in climate change and in the urgency of measures to improve the environment. I favor international action in many areas that transcend narrow, national interests. I don’t believe in conspiracy theories.

In summary, a moderate conservative.