Donald Trump has not missed a single opportunity during his presidency to make any event a vainglorious homage to himself. This is why nobody should be surprised that he’s turning America’s birthday celebration into a self-aggrandizing tribute – with all hailing how he has already made America great again.
Mind you, he has done little more in this respect than blow hot air. Therefore, it’s fitting that he’s defying yet another presidential norm to deliver a campaign-style speech at the Lincoln Memorial (from I have a dream to I have a nightmare…?). Except that he found the setting, as is, not grandiose enough. Therefore, this wannabe dictator ordered his military to station tanks – North-Korean style – to frame his stage.
Not only is President Trump trying to turn the perennial ‘People’s Fourth’ into an exercise in narcissism, but also he is seeking to militarize what has been a celebration of the strength of community and family. To make matters worse, he is destroying the unity and equality of the crowd by setting up a reserved section for his cronies and supporters. No decent American should accept a ticket to this travesty. After debasing the presidency, Mr. Trump is now desecrating the Fourth of July.
(The Washington Post, July 2, 2019)
Of course, the highlight for Trump will surely be his speech — notwithstanding the military displays and fireworks. But you’d think he would be loath to deliver another speech on the hallowed National Mall. After all, he’s still fuming over the ego-deflating criticisms he got for the last one, namely his January 2017 inauguration speech.
Yet here he goes again. And the only thing that explains this is his maniacal quest to measure up to the famous men who have delivered arousing speeches there. More to the point, his delusions of racial superiority are such that he’s determined to see his speech win favorable comparisons to those of MLK and Barack Obama, respectively.
The reality is that his is bound to come up short. And nothing will get under his thin skin quite like inevitable jibes about the crowd, highlighting that the size of his is far smaller than theirs. But, at long last, Trump might have just cause to complain that
It’s a black thing.
That said, Trump has shown time and again that he can get thirty percent of the American electorate (his base) to do and believe anything. This is why he has been filling stadiums all over the country for campaign rallies masquerading as presidential visits — complete with the same racist and mendacious rhetoric that appealed to his brain-dead supporters in the first place.
Therefore, nobody should be surprised if they flood in from all over to fill the Mall — like the Walking Dead of wannabe Saviors heeding the call of their leader, Negan.
After all, he only needs 100 thousand to pack the area surrounding the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Hell, high schools in Alabama routinely draw as many of these same folks to watch football games on Friday nights.
Meanwhile, anti-Trump protesters have secured permission to fly London’s famous baby-Trump blimp above Washington’s Independence Day parade. Perhaps you saw this rotund, crying, iPhone-carrying, orange, diapered monstrosity hovering over anti-Trump protests during his two visits to the UK.
Truth be told, the look and spirit of the thing remind one so much of the man himself, it’s uncanny (hee-hee).
But Trump is so humorless and insecure, I suspect he has already ordered the military to have a sniper pierce that blimp with a dart as soon as it gets airborne.
The only question is whether the military will ignore this order the way so many in his administration have ignored others; you know, like his Justice Department ignoring his order to fire Robert Mueller, or his Commerce Department ignoring his order to include a racist-citizenship question on the 2020 census.
[Note: Notwithstanding George W. Bush, Trump is more of an international laughingstock than anyone could’ve imagined any president of the United States ever becoming. But, as my title indicates, I am always constrained to point out that the joke’s really on us, not him.]
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