The myth about George Washington chopping down the cherry tree — “Father, I cannot tell a lie” — was invented after his death by a biographer known as Parson Weems. It catered to what virtually all Americans felt for the president who had set towering examples of integrity and dignity for his successors. Not all lived up to them, but most have tried.
To compare the 45th president with the first is to appreciate what was so deeply unsatisfactory and even alarming about Donald Trump’s 80-minute rant in Orlando Tuesday night.
If the rest of the president’s re-election campaign follows suit, it will be historically nasty, at least on his part, and continue to debase the high office for which he shows none of the respect he expects for himself.
The entire tone was grossly inappropriate, not to mention the litany of his familiar lies and exaggerations, such as a claim to “the biggest tax cut in history.”
Presidents who respect their office do not continue to rail against their last opponent or imply, as Trump did, that his attorney general will try to throw “Crooked Hillary” in jail over her e-mails.
Presidents who claim to sincerely want cooperation from the other party do not slander it, as Trump did, by calling his opponents “un-American” and accusing them of “shredding the Constitution.”
Presidents who swear to protect us from adversaries do not denounce as a “witch-hunt” the investigation that proved, despite his interference, how a hostile foreign government helped elect him.
Presidents who seek to reflect America’s highest ideals do not pander to bigotry, as Trump did, by accusing would-be immigrants of harboring gangs and committing crimes when in fact they are more law abiding than native-born citizens.
Presidents who seek to level with people don’t make promises, such as curing cancer — all cancers? — that they should know they can’t keep.
In its arrogance, demagoguery and disrespect for the truth, the president’s 2020 campaign kickoff was indistinguishable from his conduct on the stump in 2016. It’s as if he has learned nothing and cared less about how a president is supposed to behave. It was more appropriate to a soccer stadium in 1930s Germany or 1960s Cuba, than to the proud democracy that George Washington did so much to create. Since Washington’s day, Americans have become accustomed to politicians stretching or shading the truth on occasion, but not to their departing from it so far and so often as Trump did Tuesday night.
Fact-checkers from the Washington Post and New York Times found:
• Trump lied when he said President Obama did “nothing” about possible Russian interference in the election because he thought “crooked Hillary” was going to win. In fact, Obama warned Russia, confronted Vladimir Putin in person, allowed the intelligence agencies to issue a joint statement in October 2016, and would have done even more had Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, not blocked the way.
• Trump exaggerated in claiming “over 400 miles of wall” will be built by the end of 2020. There is funding for only 258, including money under emergency powers that are being challenged in court.
• He told a familiar and long discredited lie about the tax cut. Ronald Reagan’s in 1981 was larger as a share of the economy and Barack Obama’s in 2012 was larger in inflation-adjusted dollars.
• He exaggerated again when he said he had created six million new jobs. That includes those from nearly three months before his inauguration. And far from being “impossible,” 6.1 million jobs were gained in the 28 months before he took office. Job gains and the economy are riding a wave that Obama helped to create after the 2008 recession.
• He lied when he said our country had “never taken in 10 cents from China” in tariffs. In fact, the U.S. collected more than $10 billion in duties on Chinese goods during the Obama administration.
• He lied when he said “you’re not paying very much if you’re paying anything at all” in the tariffs that are his trade-war weapons. A study quoted in the Washington Post put the cost to Americans at $1.4 billion a month last year, including corresponding price increases on domestic products.
• He lied when he claimed that “many, many” auto plants are being built in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida.” All but South Carolina are swing states, but no plants have been announced in North Carolina, Florida or Pennsylvania. Suppliers in Florida are expanding, but no cars are about to be built here.
• He lied about the Russian investigation having been conducted by “18 very angry Democrats.” Robert Mueller, the special counsel, is a lifelong Republican who was appointed by a Trump appointee and who presented substantial evidence of obstruction of justice on Trump’s part.
Trump’s choice of Florida for a campaign kickoff reflected how badly he needs to win the state, but he said almost nothing that Florida particularly cares about.
To the contrary, he boasted about slashing regulations, such as those that help defend us against swamping seas. On Wednesday, he completed the dismantling of the Obama rule on coal plant emissions. His move will promote global warming and rising seas. He and his devoted fans might not care, but everyone else should.
He also continued to mislead the nation about his record, and his party’s, on health care. None of the persistent attempts to repeal Obamacare would have continued to protect people with pre-existing conditions. In boasting that people no longer have to pay a tax in lieu of buying health insurance, he overlooked how many still can’t afford health care, which costs more than in other developed countries where people are healthier and live longer.
That’s just a sampling of where the truth went off the tracks Tuesday night.
Many presidents have had it rough politically, often worse than Trump. But none, not even Richard Nixon, ever bore it as poorly as Trump does.
How he copes with the challenges of his office and how he performs on the campaign trail are open windows into his character. America’s future requires far better than what her people saw through those windows Tuesday night.
— Sun Sentinel
