Has Anyone Found Trump’s Soul? Anyone?
Is Trump still a person? Who knows?
Do you remember President George W. Bush’s remarks at Ground Zero in Manhattan after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks? I can still hear him speaking of national grief and national pride. This was before all the awful judgment calls and fatal mistakes, and it doesn’t excuse them. But it mattered, because it reassured us that our country’s leader was navigating some of the same emotional currents that we were.
Remember after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, George W. Bush What is President W. Bush saying at the ruins of the World Trade Center in Manhattan? I can still vividly remember what he said when he referred to the sadness and national pride of the nation. Later he made all sorts of bad decisions and made all sorts of fatal mistakes, and this speech cannot be excused today. But this speech is important because it reassures us that our nation's leaders were experiencing the same emotional shock as we did.
Do you remember President Barack Obama’s news conference after the school shooting in Newtown, Conn., that left 28 people, including 20 children, dead? I do. Freshest in my memory is how he fought back tears. He was hurting. He cared. And while we couldn’t bank on new laws to prevent the next massacre, we could at least hold on to that.
Remember barack Auba President Ma's press conference after the shooting at the Newtown, Connecticut campus? I remember. That shooting killed 28 people, including 20 children. The clearest thing I remember is the way he held back tears. He was sad and caring. While we can't expect new laws to stop the next massacre, we can at least be convinced that Obama is a true outpourer.
One more question: Do you remember the moment when President Trump’s bearing and words made clear that he grasped not only the magnitude of this rapidly metastasizing pandemic but also our terror in the face of it?
One more question: Have there ever been a moment in memory where President Trump's words and deeds show that he understands not only how serious this rapidly spreading pandemic is, but also our fears in the face of the disease?
It passed me by, maybe because it never happened.
I wasn't impressed, maybe because it had never been at all.
In Trump’s predecessors, for all their imperfections, I could sense the beat of a heart and see the glimmer of a soul. In him I can’t, and that fills me with a sorrow and a rage that I quite frankly don’t know what to do with.
Despite all the imperfections of Trump's predecessors, I could feel the beating heart in them, and I could see the soul of a faint flash. I don't feel anything in Trump, which fills me with sadness and anger — and frankly I don't know how to deal with such emotions.
Americans are dying by the thousands, and he gloats about what a huge, rapt television audience he has. They’re confronting financial ruin and not sure how they’ll continue to pay for food and shelter, and he reprimands governors for not treating him with adequate adulation.
Thousands of Americans are dying, but he is bragging about how many people in front of the TV are fascinated by him. People are facing a financial collapse and don't know where the money to buy food and pay rent will come from next, but he scolds the governors for not flattering him.
He’s not rising to the challenge before him, not even a millimeter. He’s shriveling into nothingness.
He didn't stand up in front of the challenge, not at all. He is shrinking into nothing.
On Friday, when Trump relayed a new recommendation by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that all Americans wear face masks in public places, he went so far out of his way to stress that the coverings were voluntary and that he himself wouldn’t be going anywhere near one that he might as well have branded them Apparel for Skittish Losers. I’ve finally settled on his epitaph: “Donald J. Trump, too cool for the coronavirus.”
On Friday, relaying the CDC's new recommendation that all Americans wear masks in public places, Trump specifically emphasized that wearing masks is voluntary, that he himself would not wear them anyway, and that he did not want to have anything to do with "timid losers" — he probably labeled masks as "a must for cowardly losers." I finally thought of an epitaph for him: "Donald J. J. Trump, the coronavirus is cool in the face of death. ”
This is more than a failure of empathy, which is how many observers have described his deficiency. It’s more than a failure of decency, which has been my go-to lament. It’s a failure of basic humanity.
This is not just a lack of empathy, although many observers describe his shortcomings in this way. This is more of a lack of decency, which I have been lamenting all along. This is the absence of basic humanity.
In The Washington Post a few days ago, Michael Gerson, a conservative who worked in Bush’s White House, wrote that Trump’s spirit is “a vast, trackless wasteland.” Not exactly trackless. There are gaudy outposts of ego all along the horizon.
A few days ago in the Washington Post, Michael Gerson, a conservative who worked in the Bush administration, wrote that Trump's spiritual world was "an empty wasteland." Not without trace, to be precise. The horizon there is full of conceited bells and trivia.
When the direness of this global health crisis began to be apparent, I was braced for the falsehoods and misinformation that are Trump’s trademarks. I was girded for the incompetence that defines an administration with such contempt for proper procedure and for true expertise.
When the seriousness of this global health crisis begins to show, I am ready to confront the lies and disinformation that trump has been his name. I was also prepared for the incompetence that defines a government that so despises the right approach and true expertise.
But what has taken me by surprise and torn me up inside are the aloofness, arrogance, pettiness, meanness, narcissism and solipsism that persist in Trump — that flourish in him — even during a once-in-a-lifetime emergency that demands something nobler. Under normal circumstances, these traits are galling. Under the current ones, they’re gutting.
But to my surprise and heartbreaking, Trump's continued and even growing indifference, arrogance, stinginess, meanness, narcissism, and solipsism, even in this emergency situation, which requires more noble and may only be once in a lifetime. Under normal circumstances, these characteristics are irritating; at the moment, they are completely disappointing.
“I don’t take responsibility at all.” “Did you know I was number one on Facebook?” To bother with just one of those sentences while a nation trembles is disgusting. To bother with both, as Trump did, is perverse.
"I don't take responsibility at all." "Did you know I'm number one on Facebook?" — In times of national turmoil, it is disgusting to have the heart to say one of these two sentences. To say two sentences like Trump is simply incomprehensible.
He continues to bash the media, as if the virus were cooked up in the bowels of CNN. He continues to play blame games and to lord his station over those of a lesser political caste, turning governors into grovelers and suggesting that they’re whiny piggies at the federal trough.
He constantly slammed the media as if the coronavirus had been concocted internally by CNN. He constantly plays the trick of shirking responsibility, putting himself above those at a lower political rank than him, and he wants the governors to bow down to him and imply that they are piglets screaming for food in front of the federal feed trough.
He continues his one-man orgy of self-congratulation, so that in the same breath recently he speculated about a toll of 100,000 deaths in America from Covid-19 and crowed about what a great job he’s doing.
He's constantly playing the complacent one-man revelry, which is why he has recently speculated that 100,000 people in the United States will die of COVID-19 and boasted about what a great job he is doing.
And he continues to taunt and smear his perceived political adversaries. Last week, on Fox News, he called Nancy Pelosi “a sick puppy.” This is how he chooses to spend his time and energy?
He also constantly ridiculed and slandered what he saw as political opponents. Last week, on Fox News' show, he called Nancy Pelosi "a sick puppy." Is that how he chooses to spend his time and energy?
At those beloved daily briefings of his, where he talks and talks and talks, he sometimes seems to regard what’s happening less as a devastating scourge than as a star-studded event. Just look at the nifty degree of prominence it’s conferring on everyone and everything involved! He has mused aloud about how well known Anthony Fauci has become. He has marveled at the disease’s celebrity profile.
He spoke endlessly at his beloved daily briefings, sometimes seeming not to see what was happening as a devastating disaster, but as a celebrity event. See what a great opportunity the briefing has brought to everyone involved and everything involved! He once said aloud to himself that Anthony Fauci is now famous. He marveled at the famous covid-19 pneumonia.
“Become a very famous term — C-O-V-I-D,” he said on Thursday. Was that envy in his voice?
"It has become a very famous word - new - crown - disease - poison - lung - inflammation." He said Thursday. Do you hear jealousy in his tone?
He leaps from tone deafness to some realm of complete sensory and moral deprivation.
He went from deafness to total sensory and moral loss.
“I want to come way under the models,” he said on Friday, referring to casualty projections. “The professionals did the models. I was never involved in a model.”
"I think it's a lot lower than the model." Referring to the prediction of the number of patients, he said Friday, "The model is made by professionals." I've never mixed any models. ”
“At least this kind of model,” he added. No context like a pandemic for X-rated humor.
"At least it's never been mixed." He added. There's no better background of restrictive humor than a pandemic.
It’s an extraordinary thing: to fill the air with so many words and have none of them carry any genuine sadness or stirring resolve.
It's not easy to do this: such a big word without a single word carrying any real sadness or touching belief.
I can hear his admirers grumble that he doesn’t do camera-perfect emotions, that Obama was just a better actor, that Trump is the more authentic man.
I can hear Trump admirers grumble that he's not going to do the perfect emotional show in front of a camera, that Obama is just a better actor, and that Trump is a more real person.
To which I answer: What’s the point of having a showman for a president if he can’t put on the right kind of show? Performances count, even if they’re just performances. And Trump clearly isn’t averse to artifice. Just look at his hair.
My answer to this is: What's the point of having someone who likes to act be president, but he can't act well? Acting is important, even if it's just acting. Trump is clearly not opposed to the use of props, just look at his hair.
A cheap shot? I’m feeling cheap. A loss of life and livelihoods on this scale will do that to you.
Is this attack inferior? I feel inferior. Such a massive loss of life and livelihood would have led to such an attack.
As of this writing, at least 9,600 people with the coronavirus have died in the United States. That’s more than three times the number killed in the Sept. 11 attacks. New York State alone reported 630 new deaths on Saturday. No school shooting has taken even a small fraction of as many lives.
At the time I write this, at least 9,600 people in the United States have died from the coronavirus — more than three times the number of deaths from the 9/11 attacks. On Saturday, New York State alone reported 630 deaths. By contrast, the lives taken by the school shootings are probably only a fraction of the time.
And while I’m not looking to Trump for any panacea, is it too much to ask for some sign that the dying has made an impression on him, that the crying has penetrated his carapace and that he’s thinking about something other than his ratings? I watch. I wait. I suspect I’ll be doing that forever.
While I don't expect Trump to provide any panacea, I want to see signs that the constant illness and death have touched him, that the constant cries have penetrated his protective shell, and that he can think of something other than his own ratings— isn't that too much? I watched and waited. I suspect that my observation and waiting will continue indefinitely.