Nobody likes me.
Truth or Consequences is the name of a town in New Mexico, and of a game show dating from the 1940s. But its also one of the primal laws of existence. Where an important truth is denied, consequences follow.
So none of us can be surprised at the state of the union after seven months of Donald Trumps lies, alibis and magical thinking in the face of one of the worst public health crises in history. Almost 160,000 of us are dead, the U.S. economy just endured its worst quarter on record and there is no sign the disaster is going to abate any time soon. To the contrary, the federal government is adding to the list of red zone states i.e., states where the COVID-19 infection rate continues to climb. Twenty-one states nearly half the country now make the list, including Florida, Tennessee, Texas and Mississippi.
And it should be lost on none of us that the red zone states are also mostly red states. Nineteen of the 21 California and Nevada are the outliers went for Trump in 2016. Red states, not to put too fine a point on it, are those wed expect to be most susceptible to his lies, alibis and magical thinking and most resistant to masks and social distancing.
Again, this is no surprise. As has been noted repeatedly in this space, truth doesnt care about your feelings. Unfortunately, Trump doesnt care about truth, so on behalf of 330 million of us, he chose consequences instead. And this country will be years in recovering, if it ever does.
All of which lends to a sense of astonishment at the morose monologue quoted above. It came during a news conference, called ostensibly to provide an update on the nations fight against the coronavirus pandemic. But the briefing also offered a squirm-inducing glimpse into Trumps fragile psyche as he ruminated over the fact that Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the face of his coronavirus task force, is more popular than he is.
It sort of is curious, Trump said. A man works for us and yet theyre highly thought of and nobody likes me. It can only be my personality. And Lord, what to say about that?
It was pathetic, the miserableness of an unloved boy poking through the braggadocio of a 74-year-old man.
It was amazing, this most reality-resistant of men publicly conceding this most humiliating of facts.
It was sickening, almost 160,000 people dead, the nation in chaos, and yet, he cant see beyond his own envy.
And it was revealing, testament to a failure of self-awareness more epic than Greek tragedy.
Consider that shortly before the briefing, Trump retweeted the crackpot theories of some woman who claims, despite expert consensus to the contrary, that hydroxychloroquine can cure COVID-19. Mind you, she also believes doctors use alien DNA to treat patients, and researchers are creating a vaccine to stop people from being religious.
Called on his decision to amplify this woman, Trump insisted she is very respected. And also that I know nothing about her. Yet he muses that nobody likes him and it must be his personality?
Well, yeah. That, his imbecility and his utter inability to feel or even fake compassion for other human beings.
Nobody likes me. Boo hoo.
He denied the truth, and thats one of the consequences. Here are some of the others: People are sick, people are dying, people are losing their homes, people are losing their businesses, the country is unraveling. So Trumps operatic self-pity is a bridge way too far.
If anyone has compassion to spend, there are 330 million people who deserve it more.
Excerpt from:
Here are 160000 reasons why nobody likes Donald Trump - Lewiston Morning Tribune
- North Korea Wants to Convince the World It Can Nuke Hawaii. Donald Trump Is Happy to Oblige. - The Intercept - May 3rd, 2017 [May 3rd, 2017]
- Does Donald Trump Have Dementia? - The Root - May 3rd, 2017 [May 3rd, 2017]
- Donald Trump's peculiar obsession with authoritarian leaders - Chicago Tribune - May 3rd, 2017 [May 3rd, 2017]
- 'South Park' Creators Skirt Donald Trump Next Season Because Monkey Running Into Wall Can't Be Made Funnier - Deadline - May 3rd, 2017 [May 3rd, 2017]
- Donald Trump Has Been Lying About The Size Of His Penthouse - Forbes - May 3rd, 2017 [May 3rd, 2017]
- This is the best news Donald Trump has had in a while - CNN - May 3rd, 2017 [May 3rd, 2017]
- AFT President: Betsy DeVos and Donald Trump Are Dismantling Public Education - TIME - May 3rd, 2017 [May 3rd, 2017]
- The Donald Trump Zone of Uncertainty shows up in the health-care debate - Washington Post - May 3rd, 2017 [May 3rd, 2017]
- Donald Trump Predicts Mideast Peace Is 'Not As Difficult As People Have Thought' - Huffington Post - May 3rd, 2017 [May 3rd, 2017]
- Make America Great Again! | Donald J Trump for President - May 3rd, 2017 [May 3rd, 2017]
- Donald Trump Rage Tweets Against Media For Taking Seriously His Tweets - Deadline - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- Roger Stone: I Hooked Up Nigel Farage With Donald Trump - Mother Jones - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- Accused leaker Reality Winner called Trump an 'orange fascist' on Twitter - CNN International - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- Donald Trump's Approval Rating Is Better Than Bill Clinton's at This Point in His First Term - Newsweek - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- London, Qatar, Donald Trump: Your Tuesday Briefing - New York Times - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- Donald Trump Escalates Qatar Crisis - HuffPost - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- How Donald Trump Shifted Kids-Cancer Charity Money Into His Business - Forbes - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- No, Donald Trump doesn't have 110 million people following him on social media - Washington Post - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- Donald Trump is the best 2020 recruiter Democrats could hope for - CNN - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- It's Time to Demand Donald Trump's Resignation - RollingStone.com - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- A brief history of Donald Trump's feud with Sadiq Khan, London's first Muslim mayor - Washington Post - June 7th, 2017 [June 7th, 2017]
- Donald Trump has a lot of feelings about fame - CNN - June 7th, 2017 [June 7th, 2017]
- Donald Trump Is Never to Blame - New York Times - June 7th, 2017 [June 7th, 2017]
- Donald Trump will do whatever it takes to distract you from the Comey hearing - CNN - June 7th, 2017 [June 7th, 2017]
- President Trump's Approval Rating Hit Another New Low - TIME - June 7th, 2017 [June 7th, 2017]
- The Potemkin Policies of Donald Trump - The Atlantic - June 7th, 2017 [June 7th, 2017]
- Jeff Sessions committed the one sin Donald Trump can't forgive - CNN - June 7th, 2017 [June 7th, 2017]
- James Comey just went nuclear on Donald Trump - CNN International - June 7th, 2017 [June 7th, 2017]
- Vladimir Putin, Hillary Clinton and the true cause of Donald Trump's legitimacy crisis his own actions - Salon - June 9th, 2017 [June 9th, 2017]
- Donald Trump Proposes Covering Mexican Border Wall With Solar Panels - Futurism - June 9th, 2017 [June 9th, 2017]
- Tell Your Senators: Don't Let Donald Trump Take Our Cuba Policy Backwards - The Nation. - June 9th, 2017 [June 9th, 2017]
- Donald Trump Wrote a Cookbook - New York Times - June 9th, 2017 [June 9th, 2017]
- Donald Trump is destroying America's standing in the world and may end up destroying the world - Salon - June 9th, 2017 [June 9th, 2017]
- Donald Trump hasn't tweeted in a very long time - CNN - June 9th, 2017 [June 9th, 2017]
- Experts: Trump's Comey Firing 'Possibly Lawful, But Awful' - NBCNews.com - June 9th, 2017 [June 9th, 2017]
- Karl Rove, Erick Erickson slam Donald Trump - Salon - June 9th, 2017 [June 9th, 2017]
- The Real Scandal Is Still Russia - Slate Magazine - June 9th, 2017 [June 9th, 2017]
- 5 times UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn slammed Donald Trump - Politico - June 9th, 2017 [June 9th, 2017]
- 9 questions Donald Trump needs to answer at today's news conference - CNN - June 9th, 2017 [June 9th, 2017]
- So is Donald Trump secretly recording conversations or not? - CNN - June 9th, 2017 [June 9th, 2017]
- Watch Donald Trump Throw Binders Full of Highway Environmental Reviews on the Floor - Slate Magazine (blog) - June 10th, 2017 [June 10th, 2017]
- This week in Donald Trump's conflicts of interest: Kushner may have problems, but Trump's hotel raises lots of questions - Salon - June 10th, 2017 [June 10th, 2017]
- Historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat: Donald Trump looks like Mussolini but can be overcome - Salon - June 10th, 2017 [June 10th, 2017]
- This One Tweet May Lead to Donald Trump's Impeachment - National Review - June 10th, 2017 [June 10th, 2017]
- Fact Check: Donald Trump's Claims About Infrastructure - New York Times - June 10th, 2017 [June 10th, 2017]
- The Worst of Donald Trump's Toxic Agenda Is Lying in Wait A Major US Crisis Will Unleash It - The Intercept - June 10th, 2017 [June 10th, 2017]
- Boy Scout James Comey is no match for Donald Trump - Washington Post - June 10th, 2017 [June 10th, 2017]
- Justice Department: Trump Can Take Payments From Foreign Governments - TIME - June 11th, 2017 [June 11th, 2017]
- Marc Kasowitz, Donald Trump's lawyer, has clients with Kremlin ties - The Denver Post - June 11th, 2017 [June 11th, 2017]
- Yes, Donald Trump is an incompetent buffoon but he's still a major threat to democracy - Salon - June 11th, 2017 [June 11th, 2017]
- Democrats bet on Trump in Virginia governor's race - Politico - June 11th, 2017 [June 11th, 2017]
- Will Donald Trump's anti-Muslim words on travel ban hurt his case? - USA TODAY - June 11th, 2017 [June 11th, 2017]
- Donald Trump's State Visit To The UK Now In Doubt - HuffPost - June 11th, 2017 [June 11th, 2017]
- Donald Trump Jr.: There's 'no ambiguity' in my father's orders - CNN - June 11th, 2017 [June 11th, 2017]
- Ivanka condemns Donald Trump's 'vicious critics' - BBC News - June 13th, 2017 [June 13th, 2017]
- Donald Trump Surrogate Lays Out POTUS Case For Sacking Special Counsel Robert Mueller - Deadline - June 13th, 2017 [June 13th, 2017]
- Russia, Theresa May, Donald Trump: Your Tuesday Briefing - New York Times - June 13th, 2017 [June 13th, 2017]
- Donald Trump in Wonderland: Literally everything our president says and does reflects the opposite of reality - Salon - June 13th, 2017 [June 13th, 2017]
- Donald Trump Is Turning Young Voters Off the GOPand Maybe Forever - Daily Beast - June 13th, 2017 [June 13th, 2017]
- Trump's Own Tweets Help Kill His Government's Travel Ban, Again - Fortune - June 13th, 2017 [June 13th, 2017]
- Donald Trump's Approval Rating Sinks Further As Disapproval Hits Record High - Newsweek - June 13th, 2017 [June 13th, 2017]
- When Jeff Sessions met Donald Trump: The origins of an alliance now strained - Washington Post - June 13th, 2017 [June 13th, 2017]
- Donald Trump just held the weirdest Cabinet meeting ever - CNN - June 13th, 2017 [June 13th, 2017]
- Donald Trump to mayor of island sinking due to climate change: Don't worry about it! - Salon - June 14th, 2017 [June 14th, 2017]
- Trump son tweet connects shooting to NYC 'Julius Caesar' play - CNN - June 14th, 2017 [June 14th, 2017]
- Newt Gingrich, Donald Trump Jr. rush to blame Kathy Griffin and the left for baseball shooting - Salon - June 14th, 2017 [June 14th, 2017]
- Donald Trump's Biggest Mistake Might Have Been Getting Elected - Vanity Fair - June 14th, 2017 [June 14th, 2017]
- Congress Shooter Is Dead - TMZ.com - June 14th, 2017 [June 14th, 2017]
- Trump faces first big domestic moment - Politico - June 14th, 2017 [June 14th, 2017]
- Tiny mark on Melania Trump's birthday card to Donald Trump sparks wild theories - AOL - June 16th, 2017 [June 16th, 2017]
- Donald Trump Is Now Facing Three Emoluments Lawsuits - Slate Magazine - June 16th, 2017 [June 16th, 2017]
- Play Video - TIME - June 16th, 2017 [June 16th, 2017]
- Donald Trump Blocked Me on Twitter for Telling Him He's Not as Cool as Witches - Newsweek - June 16th, 2017 [June 16th, 2017]
- Senate passes Russia sanctions bill, pushing back against Trump - CNN - June 16th, 2017 [June 16th, 2017]
- Australian leader is on the hot seat for making fun of Donald Trump - Washington Post - June 16th, 2017 [June 16th, 2017]
- Flattery is Donald Trump's cocaine he's addicted to it - USA TODAY - June 16th, 2017 [June 16th, 2017]
- Moving to Scuttle Obama Legacy, Donald Trump to Crack Down on Cuba - New York Times - June 16th, 2017 [June 16th, 2017]
- Donald Trump doesn't get the special counsel investigation. And he's never going to. - CNN - June 16th, 2017 [June 16th, 2017]
- Memo to Donald Trump: The election ended 219 days ago. You won. - CNN - June 16th, 2017 [June 16th, 2017]
- Who in the White House Will Turn Against Donald Trump? - The New Yorker - June 17th, 2017 [June 17th, 2017]