There are just so many civic functions or rituals that Trump has ruined, one cannot even begin to count. I used to love watching the Kennedy Center Honors (always around holiday time) with fantastic Americans honored by the best in their fields. The president is always there. Trump doesn’t go, and wasn’t invited – as far as I know.
Everyone looked forward to the White House Correspondent’s Dinner because the president was usually pretty funny, even Bush wasn’t “bad.” Trump said he wouldn’t go before they didn’t invite him.
Once a year or so, each living president would gather in the Oval Office for some function, and there was a palpable shared bond among them, like only they could know what it was like to have the pressure of that office.
It has all been shattered by Trump.
The Daily Mail reports [1] that, just like all the above, Trump has ruined the unity of that club and it will not operate again until Trump is dead, according to a new book by Andersen Brower entitled “Team of Five: The President’s Club in the Age of Trump”:
Their unofficial rules included: honor a shared history, don’t under any circumstances criticize the incumbent; respect the office and one another; don’t be too proud to ask for help; come together for celebrations; unite in tragedy and respect the White House. Trump threw all of that out the window. That includes Barack Obama, whom Trump is currently attacking for ‘Obamagate’, an unspecified crime that he claims his predecessor is guilty of.
He did it proudly, quite purposefully.
The book notes it is ‘extraordinary’ that Trump has not leaned on his predecessors for advice and ‘even the worst, most strained’ relationship of previous presidents was not like this’.
Mature men and women see “seeking advice” as a sign of strength. Trump is immature and thus sees it as a sign of weakness. Plus, he believes he knows everything.
His ‘scorched earth path he’s chosen has made it impossible to maintain friendships or even civility with the men who once occupied the Oval Office’.
Trump doesn’t know any other way.
‘There has always been intense partisanship in politics but before Donald Trump, there was also a chance for real connection and empathy,’ the book states.
Because they were real people, even if some were terrible presidents. Trump is a terrible president but long before that, he ceased to be a real person.
Trump claimed Barack Obama wasn’t born in America, he furthered divisions during a tragedy – most notably his comments about Charlottesville – and called the White House a “dump”.
Trump doesn’t know how to be among “equals” – he sees the world in black and white and knows only how to divide. There are all too many other civil institutions that are the lesser because Trump isn’t a real leader and only knows how to punch down, one being the CDC.
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Peace, y’all
Jason