Donald Trump’s extraordinary act of weakness
Donald Trump does not like answering questions from the press, especially those that put him on the spot. The White House has banned Associated Press, and recently, they kicked out HuffPost correspondent S.V. Date. He asked a simple question: “After three and a half years, do you regret, at all, all the lying you’ve done to the American people?” The Wrap wrote that Trump was “speechless.” Trump tried skirting around the question, but Date wanted a response. When Date pointed out that he was specifically talking about Trump’s lies and dishonesty. Trump moved on to the next question. Afterwards, Date posted on his page: “For five years I’ve been wanting to ask him that.” According to the Washington Post’s fact-check database, Trump has lied or given misrepresentations 20,055 times since the start of his presidency. Geez. What’s it been? A month?
The thing is none of us should be surprised by these numbers. It would be more surprising-indeed, startling-if they counted his truths. HuffPost called Trump’s behavior an “extraordinary act of weakness.” Trump is weak. That’s why he acts like a bully and tries to intimidate everyone, but most people aren’t intimidated by him. He’s what you call a “wolf ticket,” someone who “makes empty threats or boastful statements without any intention of following through.” It’s like the phrase “all bark and no bite.” That’s Trump in a proverbial nutshell.
The White House brags that Trump takes every question and gives answers, but “he’s evidently too scared to take any from HuffPost.” That’s not the issue; the issue is that Trump is a prolific liar, and he certainly feels no regret about it, or he wouldn’t continue to do it. He’s certainly not going to answer any questions about his lies and misrepresentations. He knows what he’s doing, and he has no intention of justifying it. Honestly, the entire Republican party loves to lie and will say just about anything to get votes, even if they have to lie.
Case in point: the GOP has shut down their town halls. The moves they, Trump, and Elon Musk have taken appear to be pushing their voters to ask questions they don’t want to answer. John Heilemann, a writer for Puck, said this about Republicans: “They’re walking into a political buzzsaw here where they think that the pushback they’ve seen so far at these town halls has been problematic … When they try to cut $300 billion out of Medicaid, … I think it’s going to be politically impossible for them to be able to make that level of cuts.” They barely got their most recent budget deal passed because, again, Democrats are not helping them. You can guarantee Democrats won’t help them take that kind of money from a program that is a lifeline for many people. Folks can say what they like about Democrats, but they do care about the people. Once Republicans turn this country inside out, the majority will likely turn to the Democrats to fix the mess. They always do.
Shirley is a former entertainment writer and has worked in the legal field for over 25 years