Dear America,
It appears that Donald Trump suffers from performance anxiety in at least one area of his life. Apparently, Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal was interviewed on CNN this morning and he commented on the investigation of possible links between the Trump campaign and the Russians. The comments as I read them were relatively tame and far from out of the mainstream of the news coverage that occurs on the networks every day regarding the Mueller investigation , but Donald Trump took umbrage, or I think likely became more apprehensive about all this "Russia-gate" stuff. The President sent out a tweet raising Blumenthal's campaign contra tempt regarding his military service during the Vietnam era, though not in Vietnam per se despite the good senator's claims to the contrary: a less than savory "mistatement." To be frank, as a voter in Connecticut I cast my vote for Blumenthal, but I did so because the Republicans ran such a dubious candidate against him--Linda McMahon, whose sole claim to fame was her work within the administration of her husband Vince's "professional wrestling" empire--and still only after due deliberation. In the end, when I compared Blumenthal's service as Connecticut attorney general for many years to McMahon's experience with making money out of an enterprise that has been accused of jeopardizing the health of its employees, Blumenthal won in not just my opinion, but in the opinions of a majority of Connecticut voters. But this morning, Blumenthal's comments about the grand jury, and the suspicions it is directed toward, elicited a blistering reprise of previous Trump twitter enfilades on the topic of Blumenthal's military service, which raised this question in my mind. Given Trump's own dubious escape from military service in Vietnam because he purportedly had a bone spur of some kind, why would he risk bringing it up and thus reminding everyone of his own peccadilloes in that regard? His medical deferment after a long series of student deferments raises certain questions, some involving his father's influence, so why invite his critics to consider a fresh inquiry into them...unless...
Trump's approval among voters is at lows never seen by new presidents before. True, his loyal following remains loyal, but their number has fallen from 45% on inauguration day to only about 37% of the electorate now. And with more than 60% of the electorate somewhere from unimpressed by his performance to outright enraged by it, there isn't likely to be a groundswell of support for him if push comes to shove, if you know what I mean. I suspect that that explains Trump's Twitter imprudence...or recklessness...or desperation. He is afraid of getting caught the way that Richard Nixon did. If you recall, Nixon didn't really do anything wrong himself until the Watergate burglars did. Then, fearing that the link of the burglars to his reelection campaign would besmirch him, he began interfering with the investigation into the burglars' activities. Now, we have at least one account of Trump, Sr. counseling Trump, Jr. to fudge his answer to an official inquiry about his motivations for going to a meeting with a lawyer who turned out to be a former Russian spy. And if Sr. did that, who knows what else he has been doing. Given his conduct in business--remember that he declared bankruptcy for one of his casinos at least once after floating some corporate bonds so as to pay another one of his companies for services rendered and make himself whole while leaving those who bought the bonds to suffer the bankruptcy loss--suspicion seems eminently justifiable.
The President has no real "bully pulpit" to rage from given his lack of favor among voters and credence from them, not to mention the moral high ground, so he bullies on Twitter because bullying of some kind is the only way he knows to get what he wants, which he usually hasn't earned. He has millions of followers on Twitter, but Richard Blumenthal probably has only a fraction of Trump's number. Thus, Trump can make his indictments of others, in this case the Connecticut senator, without fear that the objects of his screeds will be able to effectively respond...safety in numbers, to misuse an old saw. But the risk in this case is that his response to one investigation could precipitate another...regarding draft evasion, perhaps the scandal equivalent of White Water. It all smacks of growing anxiety in the White House, and in the Oval Office in particular...performance anxiety. As the Australians say, good on him.
I won't try to deny my disdain for Trump, his kith and his kin. Trump is only two months older than I am, so I have been seeing "The Donald's" face on the news--emerging from limousines, dating super-models and holding press conferences about exploits that he extols as "fantastic" but that in reality are nothing but self-flagellation--for over forty years...ever since he took over his father's money and business in 1974. If you think about the effect on others of that kind of narcissism and egomania, I'm sure you can understand how those of us who have been exposed to it relentlessly, millions of us, are getting pretty sick of him.
Your friend,
Mike
Leave a comment