He is not just joking. He is not just trolling.
He is not owning the libs. He is not simply toying with the mainstream media.
He is not playing 3-D chess.
He is not a master of the art of the deal. He is not a business genius. He is not a political savant.
He is not a peacemaker. He does not believe in “America first” or even know what it means. And he has no intention of making America “great again.”
No matter who you are, no matter how close you are to him, he does not represent you or even care about your interests.
No. He’s none of the good or great things the slavering fluffers in his Cabinet or on his White House staff make him out to be. And none of the defenses his enablers on Capitol Hill and in the press and across the country have used in the past work any longer.
He is just a dangerous lunatic moron who has become the most powerful man in the world.
And if you do not recognize that, you are part of the problem.
That was never clearer than during the past couple of days.
Take the note Trump reportedly sent to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store. In it, Trump asserted that because Norway did not give him the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped “8 Wars PLUS,” he no longer felt “an obligation to think purely of Peace.”
He went on to imply that, because Denmark could not protect Greenland from Russia or China, because he questioned their “right of ownership,” and because he has done “more for NATO than any other person since its founding” that “the World is not secure unless we have complete and Total Control of Greenland.” It was not simply one of the strangest diplomatic messages ever sent; it was the kind of symptom of mental illness that typically gets people sent away to a quiet place where they can receive much-needed psychiatric care for a long, long time.
It was so full of errors and lies that it is hard to tell which are testimony to his ignorance, which to his delusions and which to his malevolence. The Nobel Peace Prize is, for example, awarded by a committee appointed by the Norwegian Parliament. The Prime Minister does not choose who is selected—a reality that Trump’s authoritarian world view has a hard time comprehending, apparently.
Also, for the umpteenth time, Trump has not stopped eight wars. It is unclear whether he has stopped any. Most of the “peace deals” for which he claims credit remain festering wounds (Gaza, Cambodia-Thailand, Rwanda-DRC) while others were not wars during his term of office (Egypt-Ethiopia, Serbia-Kosovo). One was a conflict he initiated (the U.S. attack on Iran), one has not produced a final deal (Armenia-Azerbaijan) and in a couple Trump had no meaningful impact (India-Pakistan and, again, Egypt-Ethiopia).
Annexing Greenland is, of course, not in the interest of the United States for several reasons. One is that, by treaty, we have all the access to it that we would ever need. Another is that, since it is under the sovereign control of Denmark, it is part of NATO and is defended by what was, until now, the world’s most powerful alliance.
There is also not the slightest hint that Russia or China is even threatening Greenland. Rather, by seizing it, we would actually be blowing up the NATO compact and thus delivering the single most damaging blow to U.S. national security since the attack on Pearl Harbor, one that would in fact make both Russia and China immeasurably stronger.
Trump’s desire to attack Greenland has led to NATO troops deploying to the island and serious talk within Europe about means of retaliating against the U.S.
Germany’s foreign minister has gone so far as to say that Trump has reached “a red line” in relations with our most valued and dependable allies. Threats of a military takeover are also wildly unpopular with U.S. voters, with a recent, reliable poll showing nearly nine in ten Americans oppose the demented move.
As if that were not proof enough of Trump’s dangerous mental state and unfitness for office, it was also reported Monday that he had offered Russian President Vladimir Putin a place on a “Peace Board” being brought together to seek a lasting resolution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
Offering such a position to the world’s most notorious war criminal, a man who is currently overseeing the illegal invasion of a European neighbor, undermines the whole idea of the peace process and, again, raises serious questions about Trump’s loyalties. After all, rewarding Putin while threatening NATO certainly does seem like more work on behalf of the Kremlin.
But for those of you who feel Trump does such work for Putin because the Russians hold compromising information about him, it is time you realize that with behavior like we are currently seeing, we have passed the point by which anything in Kremlin archives could be more embarrassing or damaging to Trump than his own record.
Meanwhile, Trump continues to threaten, for no reason, America’s neighbors in this hemisphere. It is fair to say that he is conducting America’s international affairs much like a teenage boy approaches sex. He has zero impulse control. He has no thought of long-term consequences. He will say anything to get what he wants. And while he may be talking a big game about his “conquests,” his actual approach is very hit-and-run. He puts the tip of our military in for a little and tries to pull out before he gets in trouble.
He is unleashing Gestapo-like masked federal agents on American cities, threatening to further deploy whatever U.S. troops he is not using to attack our friends and allies and is waging a concerted war against many of the most fundamental freedoms promised us by the U.S. Constitution. Americans are being shot, killed and detained in the streets for no reason.
Further, he is threatening not to hold elections later this year. He and his government are employing openly Nazi rhetoric; the head of his thug squad has actually taken to dressing in public exactly like an SS officer.
Meanwhile, in public ceremony after public ceremony, he is demonstrating an inability to speak coherently, an obsession with naming public facilities after himself and a desire to cover everything in the White House with gold. He is also falling apart physically.
He is a mess. But he is getting worse with each passing day.
Humoring him and making excuses for him do not help. Indeed, this enabling behavior makes it worse. It does not help that at this week’s World Economic Forum in Davos, the organizers and attendees are scrambling to fit their messages to Trump’s pinhead fever-dream worldview.
It does not help when international officials or U.S. leaders try to play along with him, as NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte did on Monday. It does not help when the Democratic consultant class suggests that the opposition party shy away from calling for Trump’s thug army to be broken up.
This has all gone too far. A megalomaniacal imbecile, drunk with power, has seized the controls of the most powerful nation on earth and he is demonstrating daily that his sole intent is to abuse that power at the expense of the American people and the planet.
The opposition party needs to hit the brakes hard. No more money for ICE or for Trump’s other dangerous projects. No more approvals for Trump judges or appointees.
Investigate. Impeach. Block. Demonstrate that there will be consequences for those who are enabling this insanity. Not just words—actions. Patriotic Americans, our friends worldwide and anyone with a sense of decency or of the dangers currently afoot need to work together right now to create the legislative, diplomatic and legal straitjacket that is the only way to contain this madman until he is no longer a threat.
The post Opinion: Now Is the Time to Admit It, America: Trump Is a Dangerous, Lunatic Moron appeared first on The Daily Beast.
