On Sunday morning in “Sorry Donald, You Can’t Build An Autocracy Here,” I noted that Donald Trump doesn’t get it.
I meant that. I don’t think he’s being obstinate for the sake of being obstinate. I really don’t think he understands how the system works or, far more importantly, why it works.
It was clear from a tweet the President sent following the inauguration that Trump is largely (or maybe “bigly” is better) in the dark about how Western democracy functions. Consider the following tweet that references the women’s marches held across the country after Trump officially took office:
Peaceful protests are a hallmark of our democracy. Even if I don't always agree, I recognize the rights of people to express their views.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 22, 2017
Let’s put the first sentence there aside because frankly, he didn’t write it. The second sentence is disturbing. First, you don’t “agree” or “disagree” with a protest. Now you can read that as Trump saying he “disagrees” with the protesters’ point of view, but I don’t think that’s what he meant. I think he meant he disagrees with their right to protest but will begrudgingly put up with it. Indeed the second part of the sentence seems to support that assessment. In any case, the fact that the President of the United States had to confirm that he acknowledges the people’s right to express their views is exceedingly alarming.
But Trump took this to a whole new level when he used Twitter to delegitimize the judiciary. Calling a federal judge a “so-called judge” is entirely unacceptable for a whole host of reasons that should be obvious to anyone who understands separation of powers. Trump’s comments put VP Mike Pence in a rather awkward position and the scary thing is, Pence seems to be buckling under pressure:
here we go down the slippery slope… PENCE: DISTRICT JUDGES NOT APPOINTED TO CONDUCT FOREIGN POLICY
— Heisenberg Report (@heisenbergrpt) February 5, 2017
On Sunday, we got this from Trump:
Just cannot believe a judge would put our country in such peril. If something happens blame him and court system. People pouring in. Bad!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 5, 2017
On one hand, that’s hilarious. As I put it earlier, “Trump is incredulous,” and his incredulity is highly amusing to the extent it conveys his child-like frustration.
On the other hand, what Trump said there is absolutely unconscionable. And I told him as much:
do you have any idea how unconscionable what you just said is?
— Heisenberg Report (@heisenbergrpt) February 5, 2017
Take a minute to digest Trump’s outburst.
The President has now literally instructed us to blame the judiciary in the event a terrorist attack should happen on American soil.
He then enhances the fear factor by claiming that “people are pouring in.”
The most dangerous part of this is that millions upon millions of people in America would invariably do just as Trump says should a tragedy befall the US. That is, if we did see another terrorist attack on US soil, Trump’s acolytes will now blame our judicial system.
I don’t even want to think about what that could mean…
H-It means the Orange/julius and sidekicks are as dangerous as we think. This man in particular is playing with peoples lives just as he did in his business world, instead of losing a job or some $$ now you might lose your life. Plus the really scary part is he doesn’t even understand what he is doing, even why he’s doing it, is in question at this point. History will judge this moment unkindly if this goof buries US and the rest of the planet in nuke waste or some kind of trumped (pun intended) up war(s). They are going to impeach this fool so why not sooner rather than later. “Rubber stamp” Pence will probably only start one religious war if he gets his chance. Good luck everybody and hold on it’s going to get weird.