April 29 marks the first 100 days of Donald Trump’s presidency. And while he now says that this is an “artificial milestone,” it’s one he set for himself as promised in his Contract with the American Voter. His list of 28 promises is long; we can recite some by heart…repeal and replace Obamacare, build the beautiful wall to be paid for by Mexico, institute the Muslim ban, declare China a currency manipulator etc. The reality is there has been one major accomplishment and that’s the nomination and confirmation of a Supreme Court Justice. For some, it’s enough to assure the Court regained a 5-4 conservative majority. Objective achieved. But there is much more we’ve learned during the past 100 days having nothing to do with policies or legislative goals. It’s about the man; it’s about Donald Trump – who he is at his core.
The President of the United States has always served as the exemplar of who we are as a Nation. This person has been our avatar to the world, a representative of our country’s values, our moral authority. Whether we voted for that person or not, that is who he is to the world. He is us. Let that sink in. To the world, he is us.
He and his supporters vowed that Trump the President would be different from Trump the Candidate…that he would become “presidential.” What that conveys is really separate and apart from policy accomplishments. The term conveys someone people look to as a leader, whose behavior symbolizes the best of who we are, who expresses the ideals and values on which this country is based, someone who serves as a role model for our kids, someone we can aspire to in terms of character and point to with pride. This milestone of 100 days is as good a time as any to assess whether Trump has become ‘Presidential.’ And while open-eyed supporters acknowledge he has not, they add, ‘give him time; give him a chance.” He has had his chance. He is who he is…or to quote him, “I am what I am” (grammatically that’s incorrect even if Popeye said it first). He may be President, but he is not us.
Who is Donald Trump at his core? First, he’s a liar… about big things and little things (promising to divest to prevent conflicts of interest, releasing his tax returns if elected, stating that 3-5 million people voted illegally, tweeting that a former President wire tapped his phone, saying “I never heard of WikiLeaks” to “I love WikiLeaks,” to ordering the Justice Department to prepare criminal charges against WikiLeaks, lying about the size of his inauguration crowd and the rallies against his policies, his Electoral College votes, his promise to drain the swamp while adding Wall Street billionaires to his cabinet, his insistence that the millions of people protesting him are bought and paid for. And more. So much more). He will lie about anything. He will lie about what he has just said. He lies so much that we’ve come to expect it. He is a pathological liar – not someone who lies occasionally, or ‘spins,’ or stretches the truth but someone who lies as a matter of habit. We’re even told by his staff not to take what he says literally. How can anyone, friend or foe, believe anything he says? The answer is that his word is meaningless and he cannot be trusted. He may be President, but he is not us.
Second, he’s obsessed with himself. We’ve learned there is no one like Donald Trump. Just ask him. Leading up to the election and on Inauguration Day he professed that only he could repair the damage, only he could fix the country, only he could stop the carnage. Demagogues talk like that. He speaks in superlatives. He sees himself as infallible, as ‘the best’ and the rest of the world as something less. He never apologizes for anything. Like a child with poor self-esteem, he needs constant validation. He’s obsessed with numbers, the past election and the latest poll results. Since he sees himself as infallible, any information to the contrary must be incorrect – “fake news.” Nothing, absolutely nothing, is more important than being a winner or maybe more precisely, not being seen as a loser. Since he places so little value on truth, he is free to denigrate facts if they contradict his view of himself. The mainstream media and judiciary are all against him and not to be trusted. Instead he puts his trust in conspiracy theorists – as long as they support him, that’s all that matters. His life revolves around protecting his thin skin and affirming his fragile ego. He may be President, but he is not us.
Third, there is a cruelty about his actions that defies who we are as a country. He seemed genuinely affected by the gassing of children in Syria but refuses to allow any children, from Syria or elsewhere, to come here as refugees. The world is witnessing the largest refugee crisis since the Second World War and Trump has placed a ban on all of them ‘until we figure this thing out.’ And every immigrant without papers, regardless of their contributions to their communities, the length of time they’ve been here, or the fact that some know no other country, are now susceptible to deportation and separation from their families. He has fanned the flames of hatred, distrust and bigotry. He may be President, but he is not us.
And there is this. His knowledge base is as thin as his skin. His lack of preparation is as astounding as it is embarrassing. He is consistently inconsistent. One day NATO is obsolete, the next not. One day China is a currency manipulator, the next not. He said that Frederick Douglass is doing an “amazing job”and praised dictators Erdogan and El-Sisi. His tweets leave everyone off-balance and wondering if he’s thinking rationally when he goads North Korea. He thinks out loud, doesn’t apply a filter or think about the consequences of his statements, has difficulty staying on topic and is easily distracted. He lacks the finesse and communication skills that a wide vocabulary would provide. He repeats himself, not to reframe or rephrase, but because he seems to lack other language options. No one believes he actually writes his Executive Orders and he offered that he often doesn’t read them before signing. He has delegated governing to cabinet members and assigned family with no governing, public service or diplomatic experience to resolve problems in the most fragile of places. His conflicts of interest remain glaring. He may be President, but he is not us.
During this 100-day period, we are learning how fragile our Democratic Republic is and how a few words or actions can put it all at risk. When nothing is predictable, when the definition of truth is no longer relevant, then the only rational responses are anxiety, fear, anger and resistance. When we look at the person who is supposed to represent the best of us and we see the opposite, we have to say he is not us.
Some people have compared this administration to watching a train wreck. But the problem is we are not mere spectators – not when we’re on the train, traveling to unknown destinations at breakneck speed and the conductor is a 10 year old.
One hundred days have gone but 1,360 remain and not a single one of those days can be taken for granted.
Marsha Shearer is a resident of The Villages and frequent contributor to Villages-News.com
