August 26, 2019--That Was the Week That Was

With the economy faltering and threatening to slide into recession, with his poll numbers declining, with the Chinese decidedly not rolling over in the face of Trump's tariffs, with our allies South Korea and Japan ratcheting back their cooperative relationship, and his new best friends the North Koreans resuming the testing of ballistic missiles, and his old best friend, Anthony Scaramucci, calling him a psycho unable to continue to serve as president (he recommends a family intervention), rather than dealing directly with any of the real issues, lacking the cognitive capacity and political smarts to do so, Trump is slipping into his familiar mode--bluster, threaten, and blame anyone but himself--Fed Chair Jerome Powell for the economy for example--in the hope that he can bully his way through this tangled knot of self-inflicted crises and somehow figure out how to get reelected.

Here is a sample of diversions and crackpot ideas he came up with just this past week--

He tweeted an order to America's corporations to leave China, to stop doing business with them, to pull up stakes and come back to the U.S. 

He wrote:

“Our great American companies are hereby ordered to immediately start looking for an alternative to China, including bringing our companies HOME and making your products in the USA,We don’t need China and, frankly, would be far better off without them.”

He also announced that he is looking for a way to end birthright citizenship, claiming that the rule that protects it, enshrined in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution for more than 150 years and rooted in common law before, was “frankly ridiculous,” and that he was “looking very, very seriously” at ending a policy that in the past he has called “a magnet for illegal immigration.”

Further, fueling religious division, he questioned Jews loyalty to the United States if they consider voting for Democrats because a few congresswomen have had the temerity to raise critical questions about the Israeli government. He said--

"I can't believe we're even having this conversion. Where has the Democratic Party gone? Where have they gone where they're defending these two [congresswomen] over the state of Israel? I think any Jewish people that vote for a Democrat --it shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty." 

Accusing Jews of divided allegiance to America and Israel is one of the oldest of anti-semitic tropes.

Also last week, at a veterans' ceremony at the White House, draft-avoider Trump, when musing about the nation's highest honor, the Medal of Honor, said--"Nothing like the Medal of Honor. I wanted one, but they told me I don't qualify. I say, 'Can I give it to myself anyway?' [His staff] said, 'I don't think that's a good idea.'"

Finally, toward the end of the week, Trump engaged in some off-the-cuff eschatology. Once again musing, in the midst of answering a question about the ongoing trade war with China, Trump turned from reporters, looked to the heavens and proclaimed, "I am the chosen one."

Later in the day his staff tried to walk the comment back, saying he was not claiming to be the Second-Coming but only that he was the president chosen to deal with China. That he was just making a little joke.

What is it that Freud says about jokes?