The enemy of the American people
While Donald Trump vilified Mexico and blamed them for drugs that were actually smuggled in by Americans and promised to shut the US-Mexican border, Mexico sent brave firefighters to help with the disaster in Los Angeles. While Trump said he’s going to punish Canada with tariffs and make Canada the “51st state,” Canada sent brave firefighters to help with the disaster in Los Angeles. While Trump threatened to cut off economic aid to Ukraine, a country he blackmailed the last time he infested the office of president of the United States, Ukraine sent brave firefighters to help with the disaster in Los Angeles.
While a significant portion of America’s most populous state is literally on fire, Donald Trump leads from the front with lies and conspiracy theories cynically contrived to turn Americans against the victims. Instead of rallying support for Los Angeles, Trump uses his considerable platform to bully, defame and blame the men and women trying to put out the fires. Nearly a thousand felons from California prisons volunteered to help fight the fire. Trump is the only felon who worked against those efforts. This is the man who will be president of the United States in just five days.
If you are surprised that Trump is doing this then I don’t know what to say to you, other than to wonder aloud if you’ve been in a coma or lived in a cave for the last nine years, or if you’re just plain stupid. This is who and what Donald Trump is. Trump admires Vladimir Putin, and he wants his presidency to resemble Putin’s. Trump is not what a president is supposed to be, he’s not what most of the fools who elected him think he is. Donald Trump isn’t our friend, he’s the enemy of the American people.
Trump promised to end the war in Ukraine the day after he was elected. He failed. He promised to bring grocery and gas prices down after taking office. He now says that’s too hard. What’s he talking about now that he’s won the election? He’s talking about tariffs, land grabs and more tax cuts for the new American oligarchy, and those oligarchs are queuing up at Musk-a-Largo to kiss his ring, if not his ass.
I would like to say there’s a lesson to be learned here, but I know that the people who need to learn that lesson are either unteachable or complicit in the con. Most of the Republicans in both houses, except for the congenitally stupid ones like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Tommy Tuberville, are fully aware of what’s going on. They see the Way of Trump as the road to power. It doesn’t bother them that Trump is a conman, liar and hypocrite because they are corrupt themselves. They know the playbook and they are damn well going to play it.
Most of the morons who voted for Trump will never, ever understand that he betrayed them, that he planned to betray them from the very start. Their excuses for Trump will come courtesy of Fox News or OAN or Newsmax, or whatever fascism-promoting propaganda shit-mill they routinely go to.
In five days Donald Trump is going to recite once again the same oath of office 44 presidents before him recited, the one where he will “solemnly swear” to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” The difference is Trump’s oath might as well end with the words “LOL!” The oath is just words to Trump.
This monster who is Constitutionally forbidden from being president will have absolutely no more intention of following that oath than he did the three times he recited his marriage vows. Absolutely nothing is sacred to Trump, not the flag, not the country, not honour, not truth — certainly not the American people. I’ll say it again, Donald Trump is the enemy of the American people.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.