June 21, 2020: Trump Claims to Have Done Far More than Any President

 

6/21/20: President Trump had his first big 2020 campaign rally last night in Tulsa. If you’re a healthcare official or, especially, the Narcissist-in-Chief, it turned out to be a bummer.

 

____________________

“I have done FAR more than any President in first 3 1/2 years!” 

Donald J. Trump

____________________

Test less and you have less cases.

Duh!

  

First, there were a lot of empty seats, even though, watching the feed and offering fair and balanced commentary for Fox News, Trump-suck-up Jesse Watters reported that the BOK Arena was “packed.” 

Trump had spent the week bragging about how a million people requested tickets to the event. He and VP Mike “Stuffed Suit Jesus” were so excited they scheduled outdoor speeches to thrill the overflow crowd. The arena, which holds 19,000, turned out to be more than spacious enough for the 6,200 fans the Tulsa fire marshal reported showed up. Outside, that meant there was no overflow crowds to address and Trump and Stuffed Suit Jesus canceled talks. 

Trump blamed protesters outside, and the news media for scaring away fans. On the streets outside, Black Lives Matter protesters and Trump fans did argue. There were no significant incidents, although at least one Boogaloo boi showed up armed with an assault rifle. For the president, who cares about crowd size like insecure men care about small penises, it had to be a downer.

 

This is not to say that a future campaign rally won’t be clogged with fans in MAGA uniform. The president has a loyal following. But the problem of sparse attendance might not have to do so much with the “Fake News” people, as the president’s botched handling of the COVID-19 crisis. From a healthcare standpoint, the Tulsa rally was a colossal mess. For starters, six members of the advance team from the campaign tested positive for the coronavirus, meaning they brought not only the President of the United States to Tulsa, but also germs. 

If you were at the rally (which means you are the type who wouldn’t be reading this blog), or watched on television, you know almost none of the people attending wore masks. Social distancing was impossible, at least in sections close to the podium. Before the event kicked off, CNN did what I thought was a fair interview with several Trump supporters waiting to gain admission. One young woman, with pink-highlights in her hair, spoke eloquently about why she loved this country and all its freedoms. “They can’t make you wear a mask,” she noted, and it was “her choice” if she decided not to. She was a grown woman, she said, and knew what she was doing. Freedom of choice. 

She thought that was good.

 

The problem was more complex than that. If she was already infected, or if she gets infected at the rally, she is likely to infect others. People she might infect won’t have a “choice.” What she was really doing, on one level, was taking a chance – and now she could be coughing or sneezing around others. If she’s one of many Americans covered by the Affordable Care Act (plenty of Trump fans are), any medical bills she might rack up will cost taxpayers who do wear masks. 

Also, “choice” is a good word, when talking about abortion and gay marriage rights. But I digress. 

Beyond the friendly, if mostly-empty, confines of the BOK Arena, the bad news for Donald Trump continues to build. The economy is still being battered. The coronavirus isn’t “magically” going away as the weather warms, as he promised. Nor are the Black Lives Matter protests. John Bolton’s new book comes out on Tuesday and Trump’s poll numbers are tanking. 

Indeed, the polls are starting to get to Trump, even though he insists he’s the best president this country has ever had. Friday, the neediest man ever to sit in the Oval Office tweeted, “Why are the Democrats allowed to make fake and fraudulent ads. They should be called out. They did nothing when they had the chance. I have done FAR more than any President in first 3 1/2 years!”

 

Yes, FAR more. Like ten Obamas! Better than Lincoln, Washington, and those other two duds on Mt. Rushmore, whoever they were. 

Sadly, for the president, even a delusional leader can’t run from bad news forever. A poll in Iowa, a state Trump won by nine points in 2016, shows him leading Joe Biden by a single point, 44% to 43%. Currently, a majority of Iowans, 52%, disapprove of the job the best president in history is doing. 

Even more worrisome for Republicans, those polled favor Democratic candidates in three of the state’s four congressional districts. Challenger Theresa Greenfield also has a 46% to 43% lead in the race against incumbent U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst. Ernst was not thought to have to worry. Both women have farm roots, which is good in a state like Iowa. Since they’re politicians, don’t be surprised if they show up for campaign debates, dressed in bib overalls and brandishing pitchforks.

 

* 

Berman has been investigating Rudy Giuliani and his pals. 

ANYTHING ELSE we should be focused on this Father’s Day? Yes, indeed. In the dark of night, so to speak, Attorney General Bill Barr announced Friday that the top federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York was “resigning.” That prosecutor, Geoffrey S. Berman, a Trump choice for the job, a donor to the Trump 2016 campaign, and a solid Republican, announced soon after that he was not resigning. Mr. Barr explained next that the president was planning to fill the empty seat, which wasn’t empty – so maybe the new guy would sit on Berman’s lap – with Jay Clayton, current chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission. 

Clayton, you will be happy to know, if you are a Trump fan, has never served as a prosecutor. 

Now, let’s see if we can guess why Barr and his boss might want Berman sent to the showers. First, Berman’s office has been investigating two pals of Rudy Giuliani, and Rudy himself. Second, the move to oust Berman comes just days after allegations lodged by former National Security Advisor John Bolton. Bolton says in his new book, which Team Trump tried to ban and burn and have tossed into the deepest part of the Grand Canyon, that President Trump promised to do the president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a favor. In 2018, Bolton writes, Trump told Erdogan he would interfere in an investigation into a Turkish company that may have violated trade sanctions against Iran. 

Okay, guess which U.S. Attorney’s Office was investigating that Turkish company. Yes! The Southern District of New York.

 

Third, it was Berman’s office that brought the case against former Trump personal lawyer, Michael Cohen. You remember Cohen. Sent to jail for three years, based on several felony convictions. If you recall, a certain person was named as a “co-conspirator” involved in those felonies, identified only as “Individual 1.” 

That was Trump. 

Last, but not least, Berman’s office moved to bring sex-trafficking charges against Jeffrey Epstein, as reprehensible an individual as ever managed to avoid a lengthy term in prison, such as life + 499 years. Even after Epstein’s suicide in jail, while awaiting trial, Berman insisted that the case be pursued, out of respect for the “brave young women” who had testified against him during grand jury proceedings. 

Again, you couldn’t make this up if you were writing a script for a low budget horror movie. Epstein had avoided serious jail time in 2008, when a federal prosecutor named Alex Acosta cut him a sweetheart deal. I doubt you remember, but Acosta was named Secretary of Labor in President Trump’s first cabinet. 

Eventually, a federal judge accused Acosta of violating the rights of Epstein’s young victims by cutting the defendant the deal. And Acosta had to resign.

 

* 

THIS HARD-WORKING BLOGGER is reluctant to use dehumanizing terminology. He taught history for decades and knows how language has been used to the detriment of humanity. See, for example, General Chivington, who justified the massacre of Native American children at Sand Creek in 1864, saying simply, “Nits make lice.” Or the governor of Idaho, in 1942, defending the decision to lock up 110,000 Japanese Americans, seven of every ten of them U.S. citizens, in relocation camps. He explained why he didn’t want any of the camps in his state. “The Japs live like rats,” he sneered, “breed like rats and act like rats.” 

 

“These animals taking over our cities…” 

So, it was sad to see, during the Tulsa rally, that Eric Trump has turned out to be just a less-jowly version of his dehumanizing dad. With his lovely wife, Lara, standing by his side, Eric promised the crowd (sparse as it was) that his family would “keep the moral fabric of this country” from being torn to shreds. 

What did Eric think about the Black Lives Matters protesters? He did not mince words. “When you watch the nonsense on TV, when you see these animals literally taking over our cities, burning down churches, this isn’t America. That’s not what Americans do,” he said. 

“Our” cities? Interesting choice of wording. Protecting what is “ours” from animals? We know Eric likes to go hunting. 

At least three racist cops in North Carolina, would be happy to go along on any expedition with Eric. (See: 6/11/20.)

 

Another low moment from the rally comes when the president tells his adoring followers that he has asked officials to slow down testing for COVID-19. More testing just means we find out the diseases is spreading farther. 

And who wants to know that! 

White House aide Peter Navarro assures reporters it was a “tongue-in-cheek” comment, and Trump would never be so stupid. Navarro seemed unaware that just days earlier, the same Tangerine Fool had called testing “over-rated” and said finding out how many cases we have makes the United States “look bad.” Actually, it makes Trump look bad; and he and Navarro both know it. (See: 4/7/20.)