Donald Trump is spiraling out of control
Of all the repulsive scraps that were hastily thrown into the fetid stew that cooked up Donald John Trump nearly 74 years ago, the most disturbing one has to be cruelty. Many politicians get called cruel when their policies adversely affect or overlook certain people. However, Trump’s cruelty is the real deal — an intentional, powerful, vindictive, and depraved force—and it has no business residing in the mind, body, and soul of an American leader.
Many people know that Trump avoids alcohol because it claimed the life of his older brother, Freddy, who died at age 42 in 1981. When Fred Sr. (their father) died in 1999, Freddy’s family discovered that they were excluded from his will, which Trump helped his father rewrite as he suffered from dementia. When the family claimed undue influence, Trump fought back by cutting off health insurance for his nephew’s baby with cerebral palsy, even admitting to the New York Times in 2016 without regret: “I was angry because they sued.”
Trump’s cruelty was never confined to his personal life, and it did not end after Russia installed Trump in the White House. While Trump’s mental derangement has been grabbing most of the headlines lately, it remains a fact that Trump is an enthusiastic practitioner of evil.
Even as the coronavirus pandemic claims lives and threatens the economy, Trump is renewing demands that his border wall be painted black so that people who try to cross the border can get burned. Not only would this cruelty cost taxpayers an additional $500 million, but it won’t even accomplish what Trump hopes, according to reporting by the Washington Post.
As another recent example, Trump is adding unnecessary disrespect and grief to thousands of National Guard members who have dutifully provided desperately needed help to Americans during the pandemic. As Rep. Max Rose, a National Guard captain leading a Congressional attempt to pressure the Trump administration to extend deployments, told Politico this week, Trump is treating Guard members like “dogshit” by ending deployments on June 24, after 89 days of service. Not coincidentally, this is just one frustrating day short of the 90 days needed for federal retirement and education benefits.
In The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoyevsky wrote, “People talk sometimes of ‘bestial’ cruelty, but that’s a great injustice and insult to the beasts; a beast can never be so cruel as man, so artistically cruel.” Donald Trump is, indeed, a disgrace to humankind and an insult to beasts.
If Trump does not resign, then he must be voted out in meaningfully high numbers this November. In 2020, just as in 2016, there is an intensely wicked man on the ballot, yet fortunately there is only one. America cannot endure four more years of Trump’s cruelty, and we must use the ballot box to send a resounding message that such a vile representation of humanity must never be allowed to command and corrupt our government again.
Ron Leshnower is a lawyer and the author of several books, including President Trump’s Month