The Arsonist-in-Chief
He poured gasoline on the Obama birther conspiracy. Then America sent him to the White House
by Michael Luciano
Donald Trump has always been an arsonist. Before becoming president, he set money ablaze with his failed business ventures. He burned contractors who worked on his properties, and banks that lent him money. He had (and still has) a litigious streak tantamount to a scorched earth policy. He poured gasoline on the Obama birther conspiracy.
Then America sent him to the White House.
In Washington, Trump burned the bridges that connected us with longtime allies. He inflamed tensions with North Korea by threatening war, and with Iran by cremating the nuclear deal and one of its generals. He incinerated presidential accountability by removing those who were supposed to hold him accountable. He blowtorched norms of presidential behavior and just plain human decency. He is supremely deviant and stunningly malignant. Ego and self-gratification are his primary motivators. And he runs the country accordingly, even if it means setting it alight.
Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic has been abysmal if not criminally negligent. He didn’t start the fire, but his shocking incompetence has made it worse. As a result, more than 115,000 Americans and counting have gone up in smoke. The country needed a firefighter. Instead it got someone content to watch it burn.
On Saturday in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Trump will hold his first rally since March 2nd. It just might burn down the city, or at least some of his supporters. The indoor gathering will be attended by thousands and it could not come at a worse time. Tusla’s seven-day rolling average of new COVID-19 cases more than doubled between June 7th and June 12th. Tulsa’s health director, Dr. Bruce Dart, said the jump isn’t due to increased testing because the number of tests administered has remained steady. He blamed the rise on people not taking the necessary precautions, and sounded an alarm on the rally.
“I’m concerned about our ability to protect anyone who attends a large, indoor event,” said Dart. “And I’m also concerned about our ability to ensure the president stays safe as well.”
Even though his rally could turn Tulsa into a COVID conflagration, the president will stay safe. Arsonists are seldom singed by their handiwork. Whatever their motives, they indulge themselves while endangering others.
We saw this exactly two weeks ago when Trump ignited another blaze in the nation's capital. He ordered his obsequious Attorney General, Bill Barr – who for his part has set fire to the Justice Department – to expel peaceful protesters from Lafayette Square. Like so many others across the country, they were protesting police brutality against black Americans. And police brutality is what they got.
Trump had been angered by news reports noting he spent time in a bunker under the White House while protests raged around it. To counter this image, he wanted to be seen walking outside the White House gates to St. John’s Episcopal Church so he could awkwardly pose with a Bible. But the protesters were in the way; so police hit them with batons, pepper spray, and of course, smoke bombs. For good measure, an Australian news crew was knocked to the ground. In Lafayette Square that day, four of the five rights granted by the First Amendment – speech, assembly, press, and petitioning the government for a redress of grievances – went up in flames.
And though there should be little sympathy for the police cogs who perpetrated this unconstitutional act, they too could have been injured in the clash. Trump knew this, but he put his own law enforcement agents in harm’s way regardless. He wanted to assuage his ego, which is the same reason he’s putting his own voters in harm’s way in Tulsa.
Trump is the vainest, pettiest arsonist there has ever been. He must be stopped in November.
That's assuming he hasn’t burned the nation to the ground by then.
(image: Shutterstock | Gage Skidmore)
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