Donald Trump – A Disgrace

The U.S. celebrated Thanksgiving on Thursday, and anyone who still doesn’t want to believe that this country is being led by a man who is out of control, by a man who is going crazy, just needs to take a look at what Donald Trump published on Twitter regarding the country’s most important holiday. He noted, for example, that it is cold in winter. That prompted him to question alleged global warming. He disputed that climate change is caused by humans, which experts, almost without exception, view as certain. He repeatedly justifies his knowing better by citing an uncle that was a scientist, therefore giving him [Trump] a “natural instinct” for this topic.

In addition, he took on the chief justice of the Supreme Court after the chief justice urged Trump to stop disparaging courts that did not decide in his favor. An independent judiciary is something to be thankful for, the chief justice commented. It is unusual enough for a Supreme Court justice to rebuke the president, and Trump could have let it go at that. But he didn’t need to be asked twice, and immediately attacked the chief justice. No matter what the chief justice said, he, Trump, was right.

Without any context, he also sent the messages “America First” and “Make America Great Again!” into the world, both written entirely in capital letters. It was alarming. These short texts seem like the messages of a man who, with all due respect, is no longer in control of his mental faculties.

But probably Trump’s most bizarre and impressive tweet thanked Saudi Arabia for falling oil prices. This was like a big tax cut for America; one must continue on this path. That may sound like the usual nonsense that the president spouts on his favorite medium, but this tweet had a unique quality.

Trump thanked a country whose leadership, according to everything that is known, recently sent a group of assassins to Istanbul to murder Jamal Khashoggi, a journalist working in Washington, D.C., in the most brutal manner, dismembering him and finally, spiriting away the body parts. In a further tweet, Trump praised himself for sinking oil prices, but, however, griped that he was naturally being criticized again because, now that more people were driving cars, there were traffic jams. It is so grotesque and so far-removed from any known norm that it is almost easy to overlook what an absurd play is being performed.

However, it is important not to accept this insanity as normal. It is important to always be reminded that sitting in the White House is a man without a moral compass, a man without scruples, a man without knowledge, who definitely does not belong there.

In the Khashoggi Matter, the President Engages in Selling Out American Values

On Thanksgiving, America comes together. Families and friends gather around opulently set tables to eat turkey, and, above all, to spend time with one another. It is the festival of giving thanks that reminds the country of its roots and its values. It is no exaggeration to say that America has never before experienced a Thanksgiving while being led by a president that has further distanced himself from the roots and values of the country, by a president that is so much more than an embarrassment in the history of this proud nation. Trump is – as harsh as it sounds – a disgrace to America.

It is one thing that he gets along so much better with autocrats than with democratically-elected heads of state and governments. It is something quite different that he does not recognize the reports of his own intelligence agencies that prove Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was behind the Khashoggi murder. In spite of the murder, Trump stands on the Saudis’ side because he is hoping for lower oil prices and investment and an ally in the Middle East. His refusal to take appropriate steps regarding the murder is nothing less than a selling out of American values.

With all that could be sharply criticized about U.S. foreign policy, in principle, the country at least always stood as a beacon for democracy in the world. America derived its strength from this position. On the one hand, Trump has failed to comprehend this; on the other, he is a man that picks fights on Twitter like a juvenile bully, but shies away from direct confrontation with autocrats such as Vladimir Putin or with the Saudi regime. That, in turn, is primarily due to the fact that the president of the United States is essentially one thing: a coward.