This morning I watched about 10 minutes of the Donald Trump press conference before I, fortunately, had to go by my office. I wished I hadn’t watched that much of what was a sorry spectacle.
I am both a semi-retired journalist and a military veteran. Trump had called the press conference, saying that he would release the name of the veterans groups and how much he had laid out in donations. Those donation stemmed from an “event” that he held during the Republican primaries after Trump ran scared from a candidate debate. He ran from Megyn Kelly of Fox News who was a moderator in a debate after a past Kelly-moderated debate in which The Donald said Kelly treated him unfairly.
Trump launched into an attack on the media before releasing details of donations he had supposedly released to veterans organizations. All along during that event and for months after he talked about how he raised $6 million for veterans who he professes to “love.” News organizations digging into what had been given vets found the amounts were much less that the $6 million. Trump’s campaign manager said last week that they only raised about $3.5 million. Trump said today it was $5.6 million but the boastful businessman said the task was something no one else could do.
He also, as I found out later, continued his press-conference invective against reporters as well, the federal judge whom Trump said was “Mexican” and he claimed he was unfair in the lawsuits against Trump University.
Trump has usually insulted reporters at his campaign events, calling them “dishonest” among other names. He once made fun of a disabled reporter from The New York Times by mimicking the arm jerks of the journalist. What he did differently today was that he insulted individual reporters, calling one a “sleazy guy.”
The presumptive GOP nominee was livid over the press scrutinizing his event and the financial details. He said that he just wanted to a little praise for his good works. That is also in contradiction to his saying he didn’t want any credit.
The problem with his thinking is that the media isn’t about laudatory remarks, at least not many political reporters.
I have never been around any U.S. presidents with the exception of George W. Bush. As I have said here before, I interviewed him when he was a private citizen campaigning for his father. I covered a number of press conferences when Bush was Texas governor. Likewise, I attended probably a handful of his visits to Crawford and Fort Hood. This included going to an Easter Sunday church service inside a military chapel where I was only one of five reporters allowed to attend.Over time, it seemed like the guy I used to jokingly call him G.W. had become more thin-skinned. Perhaps, though, he had always been repelled by criticism. I don’t know anyone who likes to be criticized. I know I don’t like it.
But Trump has brought his thin skin to an art form. It is beyond thin skin. He is a class-A whiner. Every little slight sets him off. His press flacks say it is just his counter-puncher. If he gets attacked, he will attack back.
Besides, being incredibly childish Trump is showing the voting public a glimpse of what he might look like as a president. I think that is good. I sure as hell won’t vote for him and if elected, I don’t know. I probably won’t leave the country since my only health care option at the moment is the Department of Veterans Affairs. Trump wants to dismantle that department and make veterans have health care vouchers. I definitely have my problems with the VA. But if there was a president and Congress that would act like real leaders I think most of the problems could be fixed.
Trump is scary. He thinks that is good. He likes having others off kilter. But that isn’t how you lead the most powerful country in the world. I don’t want the press being restricted. Trump would do that. I don’t want my health care being screwed with. Most of all, I don’t want a con man as president.
To put it in Trump’s terms, I’m talking about con man Trump.
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