By Philip Yeung
Trump, born with a silver spoon in his mouth, now wields an iron bar in his hand.
Trump is suffering from chronic sympathy insufficiency
He is recently diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency. That disease is, literally, skin-deep. What he really suffers from, bone-deep, is chronic sympathy insufficiency. It is hard to process that fully 70 million Americans cast their ballots for a habitual liar, serial sex offender, convicted tax cheat and a morally bankrupt conspiracy theorist. Elected president twice, his first win was a serendipity, the second the Democrat's folly. His electoral victories are an indictment against American democracy.
The Cambridge Dictionary defines democracy as "The belief in freedom and equality between people, or a system of government based on that belief." Trump believes in neither. Democracy, American style, now needs a new definition.
Comedians fleeing America
Trump charged into his second term by brutally curtailing free speech---arresting, jailing and deporting foreign students who are only guilty of participating in pro-Palestinian protests or expressing an anti-genocidal opinion. His reign of terror is driving comedians out of America---a country in deep trouble. He now threatens to cancel the citizenship of comedic talk-show host American-born Rosie O'donnel; she is now safe in the sanity of her native Ireland. Next, Ellen DeGeneres, another fierce Trump critic, is also high tailing out to the UK. Stephen Colbert, the dean of late-night talk shows, a thorn at Trump's side, has lost his job at CBS. You joke about Trump at your own peril.
America's greatness belittled
Trump is systematically dismantling things essential to America's greatness: science and technology, higher education, and cherished American values such as freedom of speech and racial equality:
Semi-literate at best, Trump is arrogantly anti-science. His scientific illiteracy is as embarrassing as it is harmful. To him climate change is a hoax. Doctors are stunned to hear this president suggest injecting disinfectant to ward off coronavirus. Too dumb to follow simple weather forecasts, he warned the people of Alabama about an oncoming category-5 hurricane when the storm was headed in a different direction. What's more, he says that he has never heard of such a thing as a category-5 hurricane.
Trump a category-5 hurricane
Perhaps that is because to the US system, Trump himself is a category-5 storm--the Trumpification of American politics, with a firestorm of fake news and disinformation. He threatens to fire all 1500 NASA employees and has abruptly cancelled federal funding for California's high-speed rail linking LA and the Bay Area. To California's governor Gavin Newsom, Trump is ceding American tech leadership to China.
Trump never reads books. Indifferent to knowledge, he is brutally anti-education. He doesn't care two hoots that America's greatness is inseparable from its superior higher education system, a mecca for global talents. Trump forbids Harvard from accepting foreign students and punishes elite universities by defunding them. To get a Harvard degree, foreign students must now complete their studies at the University of Toronto as Harvard's partner in distress. Sheer insanity!
Trump and truth are strange bedfellows
Inconvenient truths are simply dismissed as hoaxes. He has the bad memory of a good liar, often contradicting himself. He cheapens the US presidency by greedily selling his mem coins, Trump-brand cell phones and other paraphernalia for personal profit. A private dinner with the president is yours for $5 million a pop. He has never heard of conflict of interest either.
As a one-man band fronted by a colossal ego, he has no use for alliances, slapping punitive tariffs on allies and adversaries alike.
America's plummeting popularity vs. China's rising ratings
He falsely promises to "drain the swamp" when he himself is the swamp. America's global favorability ratings have fizzled, while China's have begun to dazzle. Trump's tantrums have caused China's image to undergo a sea change as a sedate nation of reason and progress. America has lost its luster. Fear now stalks the halls of academia, media C-suites and immigrant neighborhoods. America has gone rogue.
People get the system they deserve
The entire Republican Party now lives in his pocket. Sadly, the directionless Democratic Party is in disarray, ineffective in opposition and hopeless as an political option. In this wounded democracy, non-wealthy America only gets crumbs from Trump's table. In the end, people get the system they deserve. Who told you to vote a rule-breaking, self-seeking scoundrel into office, twice?
Trump's unpredictability and wrecking-ball approach have unnerved US allies. Power now lies at the barrel of a gun or a volley of tariffs. No laws, no rules, no limits. China, the only major power to have kept its nose clean, is the voice of reason in a roller-coaster world helmed by America's deranged leader.
The Oval Office or The Evil Office?
To this day, I cannot bring myself to call Trump President, for the simple reason that he has done nothing remotely presidential. Trump shrinks America and soils its presidency. He loves renaming places. The Gulf of Mexico, for one, is now the Gulf of America. In that vein, why not rechristen the Oval Office the Evil Office? It stinks to high heaven.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.
Read more articles by Philip Yeung:
Opinion | China's blindfolded critics
Opinion | Trump's ultimate triumph—being nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by a war criminal
Opinion | A tale of two systems—madness versus method—a lament for a lost America
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