Trump Acts Tough, Looks Weak

One repeated theme of my blog posts is that cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump has suffered such significant cognitive decline that he is not fit to hold the office of the presidency. If you had any doubt about this, all you need to do is witness Trump's response to Bloomberg News' Catherine Lucey when she asked him about Jeffrey Epstein. "Quiet, piggy," Trump responded. Trump has a history of demeaning women, particularly female reporters. Therefore, this behavior was not particularly unusual, at least for him. For anyone else, it might be career-ending. However, yesterday Trump displayed a lack of mental stability that has crossed the line to become dangerous. Trump repeatedly suggested that a group of U.S. Senators and Members of Congress should be put to death.

What caused Trump to go full mad king with regard to several Democratic elected officials was a commercial that a number of legislators with either military or intelligence experience filmed reminding members of the U.S. military and intelligence service that they can refuse to follow unlawful orders. These Democrats were entirely correct in their message. Service members are required to follow lawful orders, and the penalty for failing to do so can be quite steep. However, when it comes to unlawful orders, service members do not only have the right to refuse to carry out such commands but often a duty. "I was just following orders" is not an adequate defense for performing illegal acts.

I have observed previously that what sells in the MAGA universe is outrage. However, just as human bodies can build tolerances to drugs, making them less effective over time, the human mind can build tolerance for outrage. Therefore, the crazy needle must be repeatedly turned up in order to be effective. Trump has been suffering from criticism over affordability, the damage that his tariffs are doing, aid to Argentina, and, most recently, his battle to prevent Congress from passing a bill to force the release of the Epstein files (a battle that he lost). Trump clearly wanted to change the narrative, and his best means for doing so was to generate outrage and react in a particularly crazy manner. That is exactly what he did.

In the commercial, the legislators emphasized three times that they were discussing "illegal orders". Not only was this clearly spoken, but it was highlighted in large text overlaying the video. The context of this video is Trump's threats, and in some cases actual actions, to deploy the military against U.S. citizens. The Democrats stressed that they would have the backs of anyone who refused to follow unlawful orders.

As is basically normal in MAGAland, the truth was simply cast aside. Many Republicans, including Trump, acted as if the Democrats had told service members to disobey legal orders. That is obviously not what happened. But the goal of the Republicans was to generate outrage, and the truth would not suffice for that goal. Trump, for instance, linked to a Washington Examiner "truth" that was posted on Truth Social saying, "Democratic veterans in Congress urge service members to refuse unspecified unlawful orders." This was basically accurate. Trump's response was:

It’s called SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL. Each one of these traitors to our Country should be ARRESTED AND PUT ON TRIAL. Their words cannot be allowed to stand - We won’t have a Country anymore!!! An example MUST BE SET. President DJT

The Democrats had stated a completely legal and accurate message and simply asked service members to follow the law. For this, Trump wants them to be arrested and made an example. In a second "truth," Trump again linked to the Washington Times and repeated:

This is really bad, and Dangerous to our Country. Their words cannot be allowed to stand. SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR FROM TRAITORS!!! LOCK THEM UP??? President DJT

But then Trump raised the stakes by "truthing," "SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!" Trump had accused the legislators of "seditious behavior" and was now saying that the punishment should be death. In addition, Trump "retruthed" a post saying "HANG THEM GEORGE WASHINGTON WOULD !!"

The Democratic reaction to Trump's suggestion that several party members should be put to death was telling. The party is learning not to be afraid of Trump. They appeared to relish the opportunity to fight back. Trump's threats gave the Democratic veterans the opportunity to highlight their military or intelligence experience, in contrast to "Cadet Bone Spures'" evasion of military service. Moreover, this is a fight that Trump is sure to lose. The Democrats will not be arrested, let alone put to death. Trump has become a paper tiger. He is all bark and no bite. Increasingly, his opponents not only realize this, they attempt to highlight it.

Trump operates through bullying and dominance. He uses threats to achieve his goals. But instances such as this show that Trump himself is actually not such a threat. Not only can Democrats stand up to him, they can win the fights. Trump is weak.

However, while repercussions are unlikely to come from Trump, his suggestions that members of Congress should be put to death are still dangerous. Just about everyone who has come under Trump's fire has faced a range of threats from his cult member followers. Just recently, for example, three Indiana state representatives had their homes "swatted" after Trump criticized them for not gerrymandering their Congressional districts. In reaction to Trumps "truths," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer requested that the Capitol Police provide additional security for the Senators who had been threatened. 

Even the media is starting to show some backbone. During her daily press conference, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked whether Trump wanted to execute members of Congress. Leavitt replied first by simply saying "no," showing already how hollow Trump's threats were, but then went on to focus on the alleged transgressions by the Democrats. Leavitt stated, contrary to the truth, that the members of Congress had encouraged service members to disobey the "President's lawful orders." As I said above, this was clearly not the case as anyone who watched the video would know. Leavitt was challenged on this point as she left the briefing room, but refused to respond.

Who has not found his backbone, however, is Speaker of the House Mike Johnson. Johnson is little more than a puppet of Trump's, meekly serving Trump's interests. When asked about Trump's suggestion that members of Congress should be executed, Johnson said "What I read is that he was defining the crime of sedition and that is a factual statement, but obviously, attorneys have to parse the language and determine all that" and then he went on to condemn the video as "wildly inappropriate". I guess it is a step forward that Johnson even admitted knowing about Trump's statements. Normally, Johnson claims to be completely ignorant of any recent news. However, his inability to understand Trump's meaning, as well as his suggestion that the words needed to be parsed by lawyers, shows that Johnson is not finished with his feigned lack of knowledge. After all, Johnson himself is a lawyer.

When Trump called Catherine Lucey "piggy," Leavitt told reporters that "I think everyone in this room should appreciate the frankness and the openness that you get from President Trump". From that we can infer that Trump was speaking honestly and that he truly views Lucey as a pig. If so, we should also assume that he truly believes that members of Congress should be put to death. If these are the true sentiments of the President, he is simply not fit for office. The problem for Trump is that, if those are not his actual feelings but things that he just spouted off, he is still not fit for office. Such statements show that he is unfit regardless of whether he meant them.