Bearing Witness to Trump Month 43 Aug 2-8

Hold the presses – or social media feeds. The President shows a rare bit of introspection this week while complaining about Dr. Fauci when he says: “It’s sort of if curious. A man works for us and yet they’re highly thought of and nobody likes me. It can only be my personality.” I have to say after reading Mary Trump’s book about the Trump family and the President’s father Fred, you start to have some empathy for the man.

The State Department disclosed this week that Russian operatives are busy interfering in the upcoming election by planting disinformation including that which denigrates Joe Biden. They don’t really need to do that as the Trump administration is doing just fine with lying to and dividing up the American people. Like Trump saying that children are “almost immune” to Covid-19. This is just one of over 20,000 falsehoods that news media like the Washington Post have been tracking since Trump took office. Other intelligence officials have also reported that China is also meddling in our election. Insider reports allege that Russia wants Trump to win and China wants Trump to lose. Who is surprised?

More reports surface of local and federal law enforcement agencies using tear gas on largely peaceful protesters in the past weeks. Tear gas is banned in warfare as a chemical weapon in a treaty signed by almost every country in the world including the US. But I guess it’s ok to use against our own citizens that we are increasingly at war with.

The President ups his attacks on Joe Biden this week with more lies to rev up his base that only watches Fox News and can’t tell the the truth from fantasy. He says Biden wants to “…hurt the Bible, hurt God. He’s against God.”  Yes, indeed, right out of the mouth of such a fine Christian example himself.

The Trump administration continues to circumvent the legislative branch as well as international arms control agreements. This time it is one limiting the sale of military drones to nation states that are not a close ally of the US. Trump wants to expand drone sales around the world. But just who can we say is an ally after Trump has antagonized so many? Ok, maybe Russia, Turkey, North Korea and of course the beacon of democracy and freedom overs of all religions, Saudi Arabia.

Trump’s cabinet members are showing the same disdain of the constitution and are acting as if they are above the law. This week Secretary of State Mike Pompeo rejected congressional subpoenas for the State Department related to the firing of Inspector General Stephen Linick.

Trump picks on Canada this week to keep his trade wars going. This time reinstating a 10% import tax on aluminum. Canada immediately responds with tariffs on goods from the US. These tits-for-tats will only hurt the businesses and citizens of both countries. How long can this trade madness go on? Can you imagine if a Democrat President had been doing this to American businesses, or threatening to force the sale of others?

The President announced new sanctions against pro-China Hong Kong officials, and Chinese businesses like TikTok, who have cracked down on antigovernment protesters in the streets of Hong Kong fighting for their freedom. The irony of all ironies that he does this all the while dispatching more federal agents into American cities to crack down on our own BLM protestors.

The above news items have been taken from a number of international, national, regional, and local news media sources including print, digital, and broadcast. Additional editorial opinions and comments about these news items are those of this author.