Donald Trump reveals he’s a coward, paralyzed by fear, as his scandals close in on him
On Wednesday, Donald Trump announced on Twitter that he was firing VA Secretary David Shulkin. This was instantly controversial, because Trump’s replacement is his personal physical, Dr. Ronny Jackson, who famously and falsely claimed that Trump was much thinner and taller than he really is. But now Shulkin is revealing how the firing really went down, and it paints Trump as a coward who’s more frozen in fear than ever.
David Shulkin appeared on the Chris Hayes show on MSNBC on Thursday evening and revealed that a phone call was set up between him and Donald Trump on Wednesday. Trump spent the call acting as if Shulkin was going to remain on the job. Then, almost immediately after the call ended, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly informed Shulkin that he’d been fired. Our interpretation, and one that was shared by Hayes’ panelists, is this: Trump wanted to fire Shulkin, so Kelly set up the call, but Trump couldn’t bring himself to tell Shulkin he was being fired, so Kelly fired him right after the call.
This means that the guy who became famous for yelling “You’re fired” at reality show contestants is such a coward, he can’t even bring himself to fire people for real. That’s not surprising, as bullies like Trump are always revealed as cowards in the end. What does stand out here is that Trump seemed to want to fire Shulkin himself, but lost his nerve once he had him on the phone. It’s one thing to change your mind about firing someone. It’s another thing to go through with the firing, but cower while making someone else deliver the news.
We’re increasingly seeing that Donald Trump is a man of fierce words but mere tepid action. He wants to pardon his co-conspirators but he’s afraid to, so he pardons some random guy on Fox News instead. He wants to start a war but he’s afraid to, so he starts a trade war instead. He wants to fire Robert Mueller, but he’s afraid to, so he settles for firing members of his cabinet instead. Now we know that he’s even cowering when it comes to those cabinet firings.
