Why is Costa Rica the only functional country between Mexico and Panama
22
Please, PLEASE read "The 15 Warning Signs of Tyranny" published the week before the last inauguration by Secretary Robert Reich. Then try "Fascism" published this year by Secretary Madeleine Albright. My hope is that we can use the next ballot to change political direction peacefully before voting is managed for "we the people". Read, discuss, act, vote. Organize and get active now - take responsibility for your democracy.
98
This column appears on the day Melania wore her "I don't care" coat to visit pathetically parentless children in cages in Texas. (It is said that her "let them eat cake" coat was at the cleaners.). Her office says "it's just a coat." Nope it's definitely a statement, and it reflects the real view of Mr. and Ms. Monster, no matter how many cages they visit. Sure Trump had to sign an executive order keeping families together - he was forced to do it. But he sure didn't like it - his whole demeanor showed us that. And Melania's coat told us that, too, appearing on the same day Trump railed against these people begging for asylum at our borders. Charles Blow, you have hit the nail on the head again, and I admire your courage in calling this out.
124
C'mon - this is not Melania's policy and she deserves some credit for criticizing it - and although blaming both parties was wrong it was perhaps the only way to avoid a direct schism with her husband. Anyway it seems to have worked.
5
You have written it well, Mr. Blow, and the depth of sadness I carry for my country is there in every word.
83
I don't think for a minute that vile Trump has given up on this. When will these separated children be reunited with their parents?
What happens after 20 days of family incarnation? This is an evil policy and I am ashamed as an American.
46
“The King and Queen of Cruelty?” This is an exaggeration worthy of the President himself.
9
Folks, You are in your echo chamber again. All you hear are the indignant and disgusted rebuffs to Trump and his minions. But beyond the large network of outraged individuals lies Trump's base. This is still a winning issue for him. Check out his approval ratings. Right now they were as high as they've been. Listen to them instead and you will hear the voices of people who don't see Mexicans, Guatemalans, Hondurans, El Salvadorans as humans. They are not outraged. They are pleased.
86
Melania did indeed use the false narrative that this vile policy was someone other than her husband's alone. His executive action to reverse his own policy and Melania's visit to McAllen are not going to do anything for reunite these families. That's the problem now, the damage has been done. Thousands of babies and children have been ripped away from their families.
Trump, Session, Miller, Nielsen, Kelly, and the rest on their minions caused these human rights violations and the world knows it.
84
Things are bad. Melania is back in the public eye so we can talk about her, her programs and her jacket.
Much more acceptable than focusing on the crying children.
21
I'm reminded of Martin Sheen shielding himself from gunfire with a baby in Stephen King 's The Dead Zone. We're there now.
19
Melania wore a jacket to Texas that said in BIG letters;
"I really don't care. Do U?"
Nobody could be dumb enough to wear such a statement as First Lady. Dream on, Stephanie Grisham, that it's "just a jacket." That only works if you're not FLOTUS.
And to wear such a statement when your husband - the President - has shown how little HE care about human rights.
We should have green billboards put up across the country that say:
'THE TRUMPS REALLY DON'T CARE about separating families. DO U?"
84
Just check out the jacket Mrs. Trump wore today. It says all that needs to be said about this soulless administration.
59
Maybe the fear that's keeping everyone up at night is that, ultimately, none of us will prove to be white enough for Trump and his enablers. And Trumpville camps will follow.
31
I like Queen Melania's "I don't really care" jacket. Stylish and honest.
16
And, today she goes to one of the internment camps wearing a jacket that says, “I really don’t care, do you?”. Enough said.
17
American children are being murdered in school, with frightening frequency, and republicans refuse to protect them by enacting common sense gun laws. So, to expect them to rise against Trump's cruel policy against "Mexican" children is hopelessly naive. On the contrary, they're cheerfully supporting this cruel move, to teach those illegals a lesson!
43
At this point... What do you all think will shock the party of NO?
13
Wearing the jacket emblazoned with“I really don’t care, do u” is Melania’s version of Trump’s tweets: insensitive, inflammatory, and selfish. Laura Bush’s letter showed caring, a real study in contrasts. Melania might have a wall to separate her from her husband, but evidently his contagion spreads like the plague.
22
This will be remembered as Trump's Katrina moment. The guy has no heart and the devil has repossessed his soul.
29
Mr. Blow, you are naive. The "pro-life" or "pro-family" crowd is pro "unborn babies" and they are absolutely sincere and honest about that. You see, once an unborn baby is born, he or she is no longer an "unborn baby" so it becomes a fair game and is clearly unprotected.
What's wrong with that? So you think seeing those pictures or hearing those cries will move them? No, unborn babies will not cry out to be heard, you know.
12
In Germany Jewish folks were not storming the border to get in to enjoy camp life. This comparison disrespects the victims and those who tried to protect them risking their own lives.. motivated by what is right, not political gain.
1
She did visit one long established shelter, not the tent camps and cages on tv. She was so concerned that she wore a cheap jacket saying she didn't care...
26
Now the Queen of mean visiting caged children by her husband and wears a jacked saying “ I don’t care, do you ? “
The answer is, some of us care deeply.
What is her problem?
This is not a fashion show , these are the cofused children talent away from their parents.
23
She used Barron as an excuse to delay moving to DC to live with that thing she married.
45
No surprise that a low class grifter would have married someone just like him. President Obama was married to an intelligent, accomplished woman who devoted her time in the White House to make things better for Americans, especially American children. The current First Lady, a former 'model', has done little to nothing to earn her keep.
Michelle Obama didn't want to uproot her children and move to the White House. But she did it and the only concession she asked for was to have her mother move in with them to care for the children. For that she was vilified by the racist Republicans for 8 years, called everything from an ape to a man. The same people who had a huge problem with the First Grandmother staying in the White House have no problem with how much it costs to keep Queen Melania (and her immigration chain parents) in luxury in New York. I can understand wanting to keep your child as far away from the monster who is is father, but she can afford it.
I'm sure that Mrs. Trump thought that wearing that straight-from-the-mall jacket would be funny and endear her to the 'deplorables'. She has a lot in common with them since we know she lied about how well educated she is.
Melania Trump isn't the problem; her husband is. But she's complicit, insensitive and stupid and needs to be called out for it.
108
When I read Charles' article this morning, I thought, like many of the commenters here, that perhaps he was a litle out of line including Melania Trump in his picture.
But, seeing her board her plane for Texas this afternoon wearing a jacket with words splashed all across the back saying I REALLY DON'T CARE, DO U? made me change my mind.
Does anyone commenting think she didn't know this 'message' would be seen? As she walked up the steps to the plane? Really? Is this the only jacket in her wardrobe?
I think she gave her message loud and clear and then traveled to Texas to give her performance.
Charles, I withdraw my original thought this morning.
You were spot on.
68
Melania is not a victim. She CHOOSES daily to remain where she is. She has the ability to orchestrate a divorce where she would be a national hero. It could be very lucrative to her in many ways...and she chooses not to...every day.
44
"Let Trump be Trump."
"He's one of US."
So much WINNING!
MAGA MAGA MAGA
5
Ivanka and Jared get a REAL job. Unite the children with their parents !!!
10
Thank you Charles. I thought Nielsen was going to be your queen, but in the Imperial Presidency, you are correct: It is a First "Lady" who could walk out and say this is too much, just like Laura Bush has. If she, like too many Trumpets, will not condemn this, then she wears it like all her other fashion statements.
10
Trump is a thug and a lowlife and has been for decades. So up to very recently I've considered his behavior predictable. He obviously has no use for immigrants, especially people of color. But he's gone even further than I ever expected him to go by separating families and locking up children, some extremely young - who, because there was no real planning, may never be reunited with their families. As usual, he thought his actions would benefit him politically and was surprised when they didn't. Typical.
29
Mrs. Melania Trump impacting children positively?
By cooperating with her evil husband on the kidnapped-children- including-babies issue?
No, thank you!
10
Yesterday I tried to take solace in the knowledge that that evil thing in a suit sitting in the White House has signed the order to end the separation of children from their parents. That was a short lived respite after seeing the crowd in MN cheer when this man described human beings seeking shelter as infestations or criminals.
Cheer!
Cheer after a week of seeing babies traumatized from the actions of this thing called POTUS.
This is the beginning of sorrow for America. Every hate monger, racist, and white supremacist is rejoycing because they have a leader sitting in the highest office in the world. Well, the highest for now.
21
Up to today, I would have defended Melania.
But her choice of wardrobe this morning proves she is the Queen of Cruelty.
In 80 degree weather Melania boarded her plane to visit detained children wearing a $39 jacket that read, in white capital letters, “I really don’t care. Do U?”
There are no mistakes, folks!
33
Well, Melania, to paraphrase, "I don't care - about You!" And, I'm no member of the 'media', just a natural born American citizen. Where are your papers, please?
21
Worst "president" the US has ever had.
37
And Evangelicals support it. Their fake "religion" is exposed more and more every day for the evil ideology it really is.
29
Don’t boo. Vote.
NRA votes and they win.
America must Vote.
36
I have to wonder of Melania's "I really don't care. Do u?" jacket was meant for you, sarcastically. She might very well have been reading this opinion piece as she was getting ready to leave for Texas this morning.
5
She and her husband remind me of the Macbeth's in the Scottish play.
Her outfit today proved it. It read what she thinks. We get the message.
Melania, we don't care about you either. You are as scheming as you look. Once a model, always a model. Just stare in to the middle distance and see nothing.
27
I delight in Charles' purposeful tenacity and clarity in depicting the grabber-in-chief as the coarse, depraved and ignorant narcissist that he is! Charles gives me hope that civilization will not fall down without a fight! As always, thank you, bro.! Without you and Stephen Colbert this diseased political atmosphere would have been absolutely unbearable! But thanks to you guys, not only can we bear it, we can even smile! :)
12
"Is she or her husband going to visit the child internment camps he created..."
Breaking:
Melania dons jacket saying 'I REALLY DON'T CARE. DO U?' ahead of border visit.
Seriously.
10
Has anyone double checked to see if Melania Trump was actually born in Stepford?
27
“Not even the idea of ‘tender age’ internment camps for babies could move the party built on the protection of ‘unborn babies’” (pro-lifers). ---- “Oh, to you hypocrites, for you are like white washed tombs, which on the outside look beautiful but inside are full of bones of the dead and all kinds of filth.” --- Matthew 23:27
16
I wrote an email, commenting on this article last night and I'm compelled to write another. As Obama used to say, "We're in silly season now." Melania, one of the subjects of this article, wore a jacket on a plane to Texas that said, "I really don't care, do U?" Has she completely lost her mind? A distinct possibility. Is she sending a message to Charles Blow and her numerous other critics? Maybe. Can she not read English? Could be, I guess. Is this her middle finger message to her husband? Interesting idea. Is she creating a distraction just like her husband does, when really bad stuff has come out or is about to come out? Hmmmmm. As Charles is wont to say, "I just can't."
21
This opinion piece makes even more sense given Melania's wardrobe "wordrobe" jacket message today
16
Crimes against humanity. We need another Nuremberg for Trump and his cabinet of crooks, thugs and liars
24
Yes, I agree with "Kim" from Atlanta. I think it's a great thing that Melania flew to Texas to speak to those who are doing their best to right the situation. Unlike Mr. Blow, I do think that she will have influence this time. Ironically this president [& to a lesser degree those before him] have relegated their wives to issues of the "family," an unimportant area compared with traditional "male" issues. Now it turns out that this crisis is front & center & has been moved to the front of the line. Melania Trump is understated in her low key persona, preferring to remain in the shadows & visiting schools & reminding DJT that she has a presence in this administration too. Mr. Blow's piece should either not appeared today [it's already more than a day out of date] or if it had to go to press, not offering readers to comment on things that are obsolete.
1
This is all part of the Republican make America white again strategy. Republicans are well aware that their political power has been in decline for several decades as the proportion of non-white American's has been increasing. Some Republican states like Texas and Arizona have been gradually shifting towards Republican-Democratic parity as a result of this demographic change. Republicans will not openly admit it, but the objective of their immigration suppression policies as well as voter suppression and gerrymandering is to stop the shift of power towards non-whites.
11
We can't expect much from Melania, sad as that is. She is under Trump's thumb-her parents are immigrants and not yet citizens so she may fear what he could do to them. Even if she wants to divorce, she may have signed something that says she can't until he is out of office or something-we just don't know. Trump controls his family in a bad way and, I am sure, uses money and now, power, as leverage.
10
Thank you Charles Blow for once again having the courage to speak out and talk openly about the immoral and unethical behavior that is taking place in our country by the man in the White House. The horrors of separating children, as young as infants, from their families, should unite every single human being in this country.
But yes, as you stated, Trump is using children to push his political agenda Because they can be thought of as "less than" due to their poverty and the color of their skin, this was allowed to happen and was supported by Republican members of Congress.
Calling out Melania is also necessary in this situation. She is the First Lady of this country, whether she chose that role or not. She did choose to marry a man who is morally and ethically corrupt and she knew who he was when she married him. One cannot be married to someone, who they live with on a daily basis and have committed to support for a lifetime and yet have entirely different values. She married his values because she carries them as well.
I am amazed by all of the accolades that she was given just because she tweeted that both sides need to work together. She did not make any sort of strong statement indicating that taking children from their parents was wrong, plain and simple.
18
Trump's approval rating has risen throughout this whole debacle. Where's the "revolt"? Trump knows that as long as we keep talking about immigration, as opposed to health care or criminal justice reform, he wins. His plan is to make the midterms about immigration. The media and Democrats are playing right into his hands.
14
Today President Trump said that if the Dreamers are given legal status, they'll use it to bring their parents to America.
That's the dreaded "chain migration" the GOP rails against.
Trump knows all about this, personally.
Melania immigrated to the US, got her Green Card, and then citizenship. She then brought her parents here, where they got Green Cards and are awaiting their citizenship.
Of course Melania's case is entirely different than that of the Dreamers, though I can't remember Trump explaining why.
20
People that associate money with social class are the lowest social class of all.
High social class comes from much better things.
12
Apparently they are now a good cop bad cop couple. It was "her idea" to visit the border and sit at a table voicing concern. How hard she lobbied her husband to stop this we don't know nor do we know if he cares about her opinion let alone acts on it. Maybe she has finally found an issue she can get behind. To say she is against bullying when her husband is the bully-in-chief is a tricky sell. But if she can do anything to ease this horror, good for her.
Her looks allowed her special so-called "genius" status, where certain people move to the head of the line. And she could then bring her parents. So her immigration status is different from those desperate to flee violence and poverty. She was ambitious and her beauty allowed her to proceed.
She has a real platform now. Let's hope she can now muster enough compassion to make a real difference.
3
In response to the comment absolving Melania Trump of blame, doesn't the jacket she wore for the trip to visit the detention centers in Texas--the jacket that reads "I don't care. Do U?"--say it all? As I woman, as a teacher, and as a Texan, I am deeply offended by her careless wardrobe choice. Yes, we judge people by what they wear all of the time. This time, the judging for an entitled attitude and a careless wardrobe choices is the correct response.
19
I understand that Mrs. Trump did visit some locations where the children are. She does not make policy.
This is unfair. I abhor much of what trump does, calling them K&Q of cruelty is overstated matters.
2
Interesting to read these many comments in support of Melania, written before the story broke about her wearing a jacket today, in Texax, that said, "I really don't care, do you?" That gets a bit closer to the heart of things, no?
15
Come now, Charles. I'll bet that Melania has all the concern and anguish for "those" children that Maria Antoinette felt for the starving peasants. So, if the children are missing their parents, there is a simple solution. Let them eat cake. They'll be fine.
You would hope that everyone could use this event to see Trump as he really is. And maybe they do. But what about all the republicans that support Trump's zero tolerance policy? Lot's of Democrats and Independents are trying really hard not to think about Trump's base. They don't want to consider where we go from here when 40% of the electorate is all in on child torture. FYI to those people, sticking your head in the sand rarely works. Sorry...no, that's not current, what I meant to say to everyone on the left who doesn't want to hear that the Trump base is as bad as Trump:
You are in my thought and prayers.
4
This whole thing disgusts me beyond believe. No, we cannot make baby jails and why are we even thinking about it? Why have we allowed our country to dissolve into this horrible mess? Why hasn't Trump and his coonies been arrested on child abuse charges, as that is what this is! Separating babies, toddlers, small children and even teenagers from their parents is cruel and unusual punishment. It goes against the moral and ethical standards of our country. Yes, Melania (an immigrant herself with a serious problem with the English language) is/was/is an immigrant herself and yes, she was "allowed" to keep their precious child in NYC to finish the school year, so as not to upset him emotionally. And there lies the contradiction, one child versus how many at this point? Protect one child's emotional vulnerability while destroying that of thousands of others --- punishing the child because you want to punish the parents? This is insanity. We have disintegrated to a low that I never thought was possible and it is because of one man.
24
I don’t remember where I saw/heard this but is rings true to me. Trump had/has a plan for the separated children that he thought would make him the hero in the situation. Families are separated and no agency seems to know where parents/kids are to reunite them. Since the parents can’t be found, the children are now wards of the government. The parents – the undesirable criminals and bad people that they are – have been deported. The children are now eligible to be adopted which is far better than having them with the bad parents. The children can now grow up in the USA and have a better life. Trump would play the hero on how he actually helped the children. He is sick enough to have thought he could do this.
5
Those who "provide medical care" for child victims of ICE kidnapping at our southern border must be held to standards that govern all medical professionals in our country.
What do those children's medical records report? What were the indications, risks and benefits? What adults acted in locum parentis to give permission?
Is a regime that regularly and daily commit criminal acts a criminal regime?
Will our nation bring these perpetrators to justice, or will it require a Nurenberg-style tribunal as we have lost the ability and the will to police the regime?
4
Mr. Trump won a substantial electoral college victory by a hair...less than a hair. 77,000 votes in three states in which a total of 13 million votes were cast represents the Trump victory. That's less than 6 votes per 1,000 votes cast...or 500 attendees out of a full stadium at a typical NFL football game.
In round numbers, Mr. Trump's 63 million votes are not just 2.8 million behind Mrs. Clinton but are only 46.3% of all votes cast...Only 27.3% of all eligible voters if we each had chosen to carry out our civic duty.
The election this November will not be ignored by true citizens. We act to begin to rein in the presidential poseur and return to something like sanity in our government. It won't be a straight line but it will be a firm start. Next step is to vote him out in 2020.
29
Melania sold her soul a long time ago.
I can't imagine there is any joy being her.
As the Eagles said, "Every form of refuge has it's price."
But she said she can handle everything and not to feel sorry for her, and I certainly don't.
33
Yes, the Republican Party has become a cult, the Trump Party. The only way for Republican leaders who are horrified, if there any left, to wrest control back is to reassert traditional "Republican" (see footnote below) core values even though it means losing support from their current base and elections for some years to come. They must lead and not follow the masses.
Footnote: There have been many incarnations of the Republican Party. My preference would be for it to become once again the party of Lincoln or Teddy Roosevelt. Reverting to the party of Reagan would just be a waste of time; it would ultimately devolve into what we have today and produce another Trump.
19
Absolutely right on target. I would not have thought to say it this well and so pointedly.
10
I do not think Trump's attack on toddlers and parents at the border can be blamed on any other factor except his strong
need to defame or arrest other people.
Where did he learn that reprehensible attitude against immigrants?
We would all like to know.
22
Right on, Mr. Blow. Let's vote the King and Queen of Cruelty back to New York. Lock 'em up in Trump Tower. Either a tent or a gilded living room can be a jail.
32
America has now joined the ranks of Nazi Germany in WWII in tearing families apart. No other country has that distinction in modern times. How we have fallen so far, so fast without people marching in the streets is a terrible sign for us all. Our country, our very ideals are at grave risk. Just a few more steps, and we will be at the precipice. Make no mistake, to be silent in the face of increasing hatred is to be complicit in the actions of those on high.
50
In complete agreement. If anybody saw the rally for evil in Duluth, Minnesota, it spoke to what you're saying. A reporter interviewed a few of the Trump supporters, and they're still as hateful, ignorant, ill informed, and inarticulately stupid as they were during the campaign. I guess there's no growth in zombies. One idiot woman was crying because people were being so down on Trump, "they just don't get him" I think we're closer to the precipice than you think.
13
It is obvious that many citizens of the United States will prefer what they see as the easy path to protecting their undeniably better economic position from the needy hordes. These are, however, people who cannot understand the fundamental sources of their own luxurious positions. Simply kicking out the underclass that has labored to support the American lifestyle may result in some wildly unintended consequences. The United States that WAS great was not afraid to work for a better world.
23
breaking news - yes she is the queen of cruelty. per CNN: 'As the first lady boarded her plane from Andrews Air Force Base, she wore an olive green jacket. The back of the jacket read: "I really don't care. Do U?" in white graffiti-style lettering.' per her spokesperson she isn't trying to make a statement, it's just a jacket, and she hopes the media would spend as much time on helping kids as they spend focusing on her wardrobe --?? she is the first lady of the United States, everything matters - her wardrobe, what she does, what she says... How completely insensitive and inappropriate!
78
Maybe she doesn’t know how to read and thought it said something about letting them eat cake?
8
Well - maybe she was making a statement to Trump (and not the immigrants).
I’m sure she hasn’t forgotten about his sessions with Stormy and the playboy playmate....
3
Sorry, Charles, you've been played. You write:
"This is an immoral act of an immoral man, one who saw absolutely no flaw in using the anguish of children and families — people he viewed as deficient and less-than, “not their best” — as pawns in a politcal fight to force Congress to fund his ridiculous hate symbol: a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico."
So far, I agree. Unfortunately, you continue:
"He clearly didn’t even think that this was a losing battle for him."
Clearly, you think the battle is over and he has lost. The problem is that his EO is crafted to be rejected as in violation of the Flores Settlement Agreement, which (among other things) forbids detaining children for more than 20 days, even with parents. He will insist that Congress amend the Agreement by passing a law, which he will refuse to sign unless it includes funding for his wall. Unless the law is passed by veto-proof majorities in both chambers of Congress, he'll veto it. Thus the battle goes on. The one Pyrrhic victory that seems likely is that the court may require Trump's hooligans to track the children ripped from their parents, so families can be reunited before their governments torture them.
For this, Trump will get his Nobel Peace Prize--but the medal will have to be bigger.
4
CB and the Democrats got played. Rush called this yesterday.
Trump said, "No, No, No. Congress must pass a law. Obama did this and the courts made him stop. I can't do it, I just can't." And, Schumer and Co., kept goading him. Finally, Trump tapped out(that's like crying uncle). He signed the Order. Now, we're waiting for somebody to challenge him in court. Then, he'll pull the Order.
But, he is going to have demands for that bill. Demands that will have to met, other wise, the Democrats forced the President to act, then pulled the rug out. The ball is back in their court. And, if they can't get a bill to save the children, that the President will sign, the Democrats will not look serious.
And, don't forget, the continuing resolution will be running out in September. Trump said he would not sign another extension(watch that video). A budget or nothing. The government will shut down. And if you don't think those kids are chips on the Poker Table, think again. Why would one American have to do with less, when we have thousands of illegals, with 3 hots and a cot, awaiting a government paid lawyer.
1
Can we now agree that the presidency is not an entry level job?
49
"Not even the sight of devastated families could move the party that once called itself the party of family values." Republicans called themselves the party of family values but it was always just a campaign slogan to motivate certain groups to vote for them. Once in office republicans never actually do anything to promote family values.
"Not even the idea of “tender age” internment camps for babies could move the party built on the protection of “unborn babies.” Another falsehood. Anti-abortion was just another vote getting slogan for republican candidates...until trump came along. He is successfully reducing women's rights to control their bodies.
14
"They deserve one another, we deserve better." Nailed it.
Too bad the king and queen of Spain didn't cancel the visit in light of the fact that the people Trump demonizes -- the Mexicans and Central Americans are also Hispanic -- just as are the king and queen of Spain.
Trump is a miserable excuse for a human as is his wife. If she had an iota of decency or care about what was happening, she'd have stated plainly that the policy was wrong and harmful and not attached the Trump lie about "both sides" being responsible for a policy of separation that is all his and his alone.
34
I agree with your general premise. But beware of falling into similarly simplistic traps.
Queen Letizia herself is hardly regarded as a moral beacon by many people in Spain. And though technically "hispanic," she would hardly compare herself to most of those we have come characterize as such in the Western hemisphere.
9
A thought ....
America will be celebrating its 242nd birthday this coming July 4th.
I always loved my county. I served in the Air Force from 1967 to 1971 during the Vietnam War, while (coward) Trump received numerous deferments.
As I write this comment,Trump has been "president" for 1 year, 152 days.
His wife, has been "first lady" for the same amount of time.
There has NEVER been a worse president AND first lady in our nations history.
History will judge how they both defaced the office of the president and made our once great country the laughingstock of the world. Sad!
59
Melania didn't write her "both sides of the aisle" comment. It was written for her.
In his driveway interview with fox re/the N. Korea summit, trump said if it failed he'd have to make up or think up "an excuse".
Melania is his excuse.
Poor fellow was the victim of wifely hen pecking - Melania made me do it.
And his adoring base will forgive him.
12
How do you tactfully ask Trump supporters what they think about toddler internment camps?
12
If their parents didn't send them by themselves or drag them 2000 mile through Mexico, we wouldn't need internment camp daycare centers.
1
Include a dictionary so they know what the big words mean.
2
They are mirror images of each other.
Selfish, shallow, presumptuous liars.
30
For some of the border refugees, their first taste of life in America is worse than the life the are running from. What a horrific state of being this country has become under Trump.
17
It only follows that a columnist that does "hate" as well as CB, he could only see cruelty. In case you missed it, a couple weeks ago Charles admitted all he could do was "hate", when it came to our President.
Speaking of our President, he had some words on how we got into the current human dilemma. “In 2014, in the Obama Administration they have pictures so bad they had a judge that said it was inhumane the way they were treating children. Take a look at some of the court rulings against the Obama Administration. They talked about the inhumane treatment,” Trump said, adding “all over the place. Inhumane treatment. They were treating them terribly.”
He was speaking of photos, that have once again resurfaced of the Obama administration’s detention facilities for unaccompanied minors during the central american migrant crisis of 2014. Tens of thousands of children from central America flooded the U.S.-Mexico border and were often kept in fenced off conditions wrapped in foil blankets.
Only love can beat hate. So, I've heard it said.
4
Trump lies in his tweets on a daily basis. His followers hang onto and believe every word. He hates Obama. His followers hate Obama. He expects his “flock” to love and revere him (trump) unequivocally. It is a cult. You should question everything he says. Resist the urge to drink the kool-aid.
9
Oh, Donald Trump said something about Obama? Well then it *must* be true. At least as true as claiming he wasn’t born in the US and that he wiretapped Trump Tower.
8
Melania flying down to Texas in appropriate attire. "Melania Trump flew to Texas to visit immigrant children wearing a jacket that says 'I really don't care, do u?'"
21
'I really don't care, do u?'
So who will be mass-marketing this little treasure? Melania or Ivanka?
17
KONGRESS could end this in a week. Take the weekend to read the 25th amendment, write up the articles of impeachment, send it to the senate where they can convict trump for numerous crimes against the state and the people and by friday we could be ready to celebrate our independence from the lesser of 2 evils George III.
10
Just when I couldn't be more disgusted with the USA after Iraq and Vietnam, for never punished war crimes, this comes along. What a miserable place, with horrible people, the USA has turned out to be. A people sans souls.
21
Go Charles!! How many poor children could have lunches and dinners with the money that Melania demanded to protect her (one) son????
22
Mrs. Trump is the weakest First Lady in modern history. Her husband who claims to value strength shows his essential weakness daily. They are both deaf to American values like compassion and community. Perhaps they lived in their (ivory?) tower too long. I have rarely seen such selfishness as they display.
29
Well said, Mr. Blow! The title captures the essence well -- so much deceit, ignorance, and downright torpor in just one family, including all its current members. We DO deserve better, but not those, who voted this abomination in.
15
There are a lot of “good Germans” around, “just obeying orders” and sending toddlers to KZ camps. I guess the Nuremberg trials were a long time ago, although Trump is old enough so he should at one point have at least heard of them.
We have become a deplorable country.
23
Bah! Humbug!
Or as Tennyson once wrote,
As the husband is the wife is; Thou art mated with a
clown,
And the grossness of his nature will have weight to drag
thee down.
He will hold thee, when his passion shall have spent its
novel force,
Something better than his dog, a little dearer than his
horse.
17
Trump, the Jim Jones President.
27
This was Obama's Plan before it was Trumps. These laws were on the books and Obama just did not enforce them. No one changed laws, they just realized that you can not open the doors and keep them open forever. Look at Obama's child internment camps. They made him close them down. Trump is just doing the same thing. Its better to send kids to camps with the parents?
3
Unless you can strain to make a false equivalency, you can’t make an argument at all. We are not talking about Obama’s failings, we are talking about the inhumane workings of trump, sessions and everybody else who sold their soul and what little reputation they had to serve the devil. To what end?
17
Obama has not been president for a couple of years. You need to get over him. Trump is the only idiot in that position, and he obviously does not have a clue, other than to blame Obama. If this were an Obama policy then Trump would have changed it.
7
MARK
You are spreading misinformation deliberately. This a trump policy not Obama. Get over him already and do your own research. Fox News lies
8
She married the guy and has stayed married to him. That tells a lot about who Melania really is.
37
Or how much money Trump has.
4
Keep telling it like it is Charles. Your voice needs to be heard, loud and clear....right on brother.
16
What is happening in our nation is "cult like." Reminiscent of a cult figure who rose to power in Austria and then sought to possess the world. A whole nation of people, whole nations of people, began to speak like him, think like him, believe in what he espoused...they whole-heartedly followed him. And along the way he murdered 6 million Jews and 5 to 10 million other "undesirables," otherwise known as...human beings.
What has been happening at the border is not the holocaust, but it possesses the same key ingredients...the dehumanization of our fellow human beings, the devaluing of people "not like us," the rhetoric and lies and excuses and blame.
Combine that with the appalling misinformation and lies coming out of the White House - and coming from the President himself - everyday now, and the blind advocacy and approval of his supporters...and you have an environment that may soon run out of control and bring consequences to this nation that have been heretofore unimaginable.
I served in political office as Supervisor (Mayor) of my suburban upstate New York community of 25,000 people. As a woman, and as the first full-term Democrat to serve my community in its 175+-year history at that time, it was pretty brutal.
I did it because I believed in the ideals that this nation was borne of. I never thought the time would come when I would be ashamed of my country...that time has come.
We must stand up, speak out, and take action before it is too late.
25
My thoughts exactly. Why people somehow think that Melania is a thinking, caring person who must be brainwashed, being held captive, or holds different views from the Orange Cheeto is sadly mistaken. She has always echoed his views and refuses to back down from them just like her slime ball husband. Did she ever apologize to Michelle Obama for cribbing her speech? How about that online bullying action she was supposed to start? Where's the "be best" campaign going?
26
Thank you Charles Blow for your articulate and insightful columns.
8
Melania, Divorce him, throw him under the bus, as they say, and give him what he deserves. Never mind about Hillary and Bill, do what you know is best for you. You could write the book, make millions and be free of the tyrant who is your husband. Your reputation, if not your soul, depends on it. I'll ghost write it! I wrote my own memoir, "Famous Enough: A Hollywood Memoir". It turned out well and I am proud of it. Read it and let me know! I would like to see you really happy for a change.
5
I wish it were raining men, good men but the reign of this dangerous duo, Donald and Melania, has unleashed a toxic monsoon of ignorance and greed with intent to drown out humanity. This falsely appointed "Louie and Marie" need to be charged with crimes of high treason and removed from their gold plated thrones.
11
I guess Blow is not aware that Obama did the exact same thing? Selective outrage?
2
And your source is... trump himself?
6
We are continuing down the road to fascism/Nazism. We may never get all the way there, but we should turn around now! Unlike Germany in the 1930s, we have a strong liberal democratic tradition. If Americans will only invest their time and energy in the system—pay attention and vote—we can stop this evil growing inside us.
14
Thank you Mr. Blow. Trump's proposed border wall is indeed a "ridiculous hate symbol," an ugly projection from the psyche of a small, petty, racist, ridiculous man.
14
Charles got their attention. Melania is going to visit the children. Too little, too late. Roll up your sleeves and get them back to their parents. I mean you and Ivanka. You are living on our dime and monstrously benefiting from our country. Do some real work.
18
Charles isn't it a low blow to blame Melania for the actions of her spouse? No pun intended! Can you not believe that her heart is in the right place? Is she responsible for everything the spouse does? So your solution is that she should leave him.
1
Trump is supported by the majority of Republicans. Even now. Even after all the vile, disgusting comments, policies and proposals targeting the disenfranchised---especially those who happen to have brown skin---Trump is still the Darling of the Right.
But can we please stop referring to their collective allegiance as cult-like, as if they were under the influence of some Svengali who weaponized his finely honed powers of mind control? Republicans just found the grotesque embodiment of what they've believed all along. Let's stop the pretense that they are all about fiscal conservatism and look instead at the decades of Republican policies that nurtured the current climate of racist nationalism and hatred that led to babies being viewed as Enemies of the State. We’ve seen at least 3 decades of Republicans championing anything that smacked of anti-voting rights, anti-women, anti-LGBTQ, anti-Muslim; anti-Black, anti-immigrant---and if any of it could be justified by a bible verse taken out of context, even better.
No, Trump's arrival to national prominence was that of a snake oil salesman who just studied his audience. The "cult" had already been in existence for years.
11
Melania read your column, Mr. Blow!
Now can you tell Donald Trump that the American people would love it if he resigned the presidency and moved to Russia permanently? Apparently you have magic powers!
6
What is Melania Trump but an "immigrant"? She wasn't born here but came for her "career", and found a "sugar daddy".... Now, her parents are here too, what a farce this illegal immigration talk!
20
If you understood what a Trump is, you would know that it is a single-cell mutant genus. The cell is all consuming which is why it is known as the "nisi in me" cell, "Nisi in me" is Latin for "only me". The rest of the GOP is "addosso".
4
We have a criminal traitor as President and the sooner we impeach and convict him the better.
11
I think it's really nasty to go after the wife like this, and as to the issue at hand there are real administrative difficulties (some highly tragic) associated with enforcing our borders, which every country does. Although a lot of people like to fancy themselves as being possessed of infinite compassion and willingness to alleviate suffering it's a delusion. Consider this thought experiment: what is the dollar value of all things you paid for in the past twelve months that were not essential for your survival, including essentials such as food and shelter that could have been procured more cheaply (luxury items); what is the dollar value of your charitable contributions in the last twelve months spent to alleviate suffering? The ratio of the former to the latter is a precise calculation of how much more you care about your own petty pleasures relative to alleviating the suffering of others. I make this point because ultimately the hardship being imposed on these immigrants is not mostly imposed by the US; they come to us in need, and the only real questions are, should we help them, how much, and at what cost? Clearly as a rich country we are in a position to eliminate a lot of world suffering, and maybe we should, but it would cost us something. We could also cancel all those dinners we had planned for the rest of our lives, return all the luxury items and never buy any again, and hand over every dime above our subsistence level to charity. How many of you have done that?
3
My major regret is that I should have seen it coming. I think Plato warned about the problems with democracy. We libprogs were seduced by our advocacy for human rights. We were right of course. Of course we were right. But it blinded us to the reality of the greed and bigotry that governs so much of the relationships of the species and underlies the human pursuit of security. God did not do us any favours by creating a world that depends on conflict and pain and suffering and demands survival at all costs. If christians depend on the idea of another better world, why are they compelled to dispense with ethics to stay in this one.
8
Once when Napoleon ordered the execution of a duke, it was said "It was worse than wrong, it was a mistake." Meaning there are some moral wrongs that you don't have to pay a political cost for in real time, but there are others for which you do.
So far among his many moral failings Trump has made two mistakes. The first was firing Comey which led to Mueller's appointment. The second was separating the immigrant children. He will no doubt make more, since he is mind blind to how the rest of the decent law-abiding world thinks.
6
It’s shocking and sad to think our President, or any human being could act as he is acting. This is beyond civility and policy. This is about the inner core of a man devoid of feeling, as in narcissism, or feeling about anyone/anything other than himself. It’s unconscionable and draconian what trauma he is creating in these children....for the rest of their lives...forever! And, not just him, but the so-called elected officials who are as devoid of souls as he is. That is why our government doesn’t work anymore, why the Congress and Senate is so beyond civility...and they stop at nothing for votes and money...even using children, families, parents...it’s beyond understanding what’s in their conscious being....if they are at all able to empathize or feel anything g. Trump continues to be a dangerous zealot and it is scary.
6
Very impressive trap laid by Trump.
Dems fell right into it.
Illegal immigration is illegal.
Trump will never stop talking about this because the majority don't want people bypassing the legal system of entering the US.
2
Mr. Blow Excellent Opinion piece. Melania seem hallow and devoid of any sentiments. Even if she is stewing with disgust she is unlikely to go against the dictator. There are likely prenuptial agreements that silence her as well. I Wonder if Barron the youngest Trump offspring will have a different perspective on humanity. As for the other Trump’s they are loss souls.
6
These children are probably getting the first medical checkups of their lives, and the most reliable nutritious food and drink they ever had. Can we try hard to view reality, not our sentimental vision of what the world should be? The UN said yesterday that there are 69 MILLION refugees on the move on this planet. Can we discuss what we're going to do about this kind of southern hemisphere to northern hemisphere migration? America has no need for unskilled labor any more; Europe has hit the limit of the emotional capacity of its population to watch their culture being destroyed. We need to be talking about giant refugee camps. And both Europeans and Americans, probably even Canadians, are not going to want these camps on their own territories. And forget the Marshall Plan; what makes anyone think we have that kind of money? Let's have the UN do something useful for a change. Only try to get the idea across to the UN agencies this time that encouraging the production of homemade rockets and soliciting sexual favors from the refugees is now frowned upon.
2
No need for unskilled labor? I guess you could pick your own strawberries.
9
Hypocritical Trumps.
Melania wouldn't be admitted under her husband's "merit based" point system. Additionally her parents are applying for citizenship via "chain migration".
13
I think one truth that is seldom uttered is that there are tens of millions of Americans for whom separating immigrant children from parents is just fine, as long as said immigrant is from south of the border. While a few prominent Republicans pretend to be outraged, the dominant party of our country at this time is okay with cruelty if it helps to seal off a certain border. All of the expressions of dismay expressed in the New York Times do not represent the people of the U.S. at large. And those are the folks who will re-elect Donald Trum in 2020.
3
Please go back and refresh your facts.
The majority of citizens are Not in favor of no tolerance.
The majority of just Repubs thinks cleaving infants from their parents breast if just A okay with them.
Cruel beyond belief.
5
It strikes me Mr. Blow that you may enjoy stirring up liberal waters, as it may support your theory that liberal policies like the Obamas are the best way for our nation. That is not plausible or fiscally reasonable, responsible, or doable. Please write in moderate, thoughtful tones that provide solutions not bias.
2
Mr. Blow, this comment appeared appended to your last column, but it bears repetition:
"I can't help thinking that this is more than an act of deterrence aimed at migrants. It's a warning to the American people. There is only one nightmare that would compel me to silence in the Trump era-- that's the thought of losing my children. Like crucifixion, this is spectacle as well as punishment. I hope, dear god, I'm wrong, and that a year and a half of Trump has affected my thinking. But I'm a parent, and the fear is already there."
NYT comments on Blow op ed, 6.18.18
Americans passed the test--for the time being.
5
It looks like Melania read your column Charles and did a swift photo -op at a child, excuse me, "tender age" internment camp. She will probably meet with some likely "happy" children in a pre-selected room where the horrors of abuse and neglect have been temporarily swept under the rug. God Bless those children and this country. Elections matter folks...
9
Well she's at a detention center but of course it all has to be careful orchestrated. Not sure how much she can really see/learn that someone doesn't script or perform for her. Since the Trumps are performative people, maybe someplace in her little brain she will get it. I dunno. VOTE in Nov., people. We're in trouble here.
7
She'll read Dr. Seuss's "Oh the places you'll go";
tell the children, BE BEST, but not in Spanish; and depart for Mar-a- Lago.
4
Blow forgot to mention some others in the royal family of cruelty... Princesses Ivanka (via her indifference) and Kirstjen (by her active enabling).
11
Melania Trump's visit to the children's internment camps is merely for show. She brings nothing. She does nothing. This is just PR.
Ivanka Trump is covering her own posterior with her tweets calling out the horror. If she really wanted to do something, she could resign and stand up for what's right. She is too enamored of money and power to really step up and defend the children which would require setting up ways to actually track the children and parents in order to reunite them. Parents are not even given a receipt for their children when they are ripped from the parents' arms. This violates international and American law. Kidnapping is illegal. The Geneva Conventions do not allow children to be separated from their parents. First we started torture after 911 (which the Trumps strongly support). Next we started ripping nursing babies from their mothers' breasts when the mother's sought to legally enter the United States as seekers of asylum. Sessions should be removed from office for treason.
19
Melania's purported causes are just window dressing for a perhaps reluctant politician's wife who must engage in a few token appearances and public declarations of FLOTUS origins. "That's what they do." I can hear the discourse now. I thought the anti bullying campaign was ironic being married to the most visible bully in the world, akin to Ava Braun instituting a campaign to end antisemitism had Hitler been married to her longer than a minute during the time of the camps. But this separation of children from their families on the heels of her announcement of the "Be Best" campaign just about beats everything. Thank you Charles. It appears that ex president's have a silent code not to speak against current ones, but their consciences have been so pricked that they sent their wives out hoping that Trump will honor the other code not to attack First Ladies. All except for the Clintons. And Trump has never stopped attacking that former rival and former FLOTUS, so he already threw all convention out the window with them, which I suppose allowed Mr. Clinton to come forward. Oh what a game.
3
It at least appears that Melania is headed for the border. Let's just focus on 45. He's the one who implements policy, not the bystanders.
1
This terrorizing of children should be a red line for all of us. VOTE IN NOVEMBER!
9
There will a special place somewhere no so nice for the prez and his entire family and all those who support him or remain silent when they meet their makers (if one believes in such). And, too, for those who got them into office. It probably will take several generations of prostrating to the world to undo the damage accomplished already by them.
7
Our 'Politicians' have made this mess and our politicians --the ones we put in office-- must fix it, because that is what we elected them to do.
They must answer to me and to you about this. How is that not political? No one is "making this political" it IS political!
3
SHAME!
11
Thank you for your excellent Truthful article!
7
The hypocrisy of Republicans, rooted in self-interest, is both blatant and abominable. Trump amplifies that hypocrisy with his self-interest and lies, the irony of it being those believing the lies are most hurt by what’s really out in the open, behind them.
Two significant takeaways from Trump’s reversal of his separation order are: it proves he and everyone speaking for him was knowingly, continually lying when they claimed he could do nothing, that Democrats were responsible;
and, that a majority of Republicans are pleased to stay out of it and let Trump keep the hammer on the immigrants and their kids, if not for election consequences.
Trump will lie to justify his policy change, but what excuse have Republicans, who have failed to check the abhorrent behavior of this man-child since day one?
Does a party sanctioning his unqualified selections for high offices,
that sanctions his behavior against allies and for adversaries,
sanctions his breaking of norms, violating the Constitution, challenging rule of law, free press, and democratic process,
that sanctions his crude character and contempt for truth,
and which sanctions his immoral, cruel administration of law against innocent children deserve to be the party in power when the only reason it voices opposition against his actions, harmful to people and nations, is fear of losing the next election?
Absolutely not!
Vote them out—they deserve no opportunity to serve, particularly since they only serve themselves.
8
Well, you know no one can speak their own mind unless trump gives them permission to speak his own mind. So I’m sure whatever Melania has to say was run by Everyone-Else’s-Thought -in-Chief. Why are there no cabinet members in the mix, other than Miss Homeland 2018?
Simple; they are unqualified to do the jobs they’ve been assigned, so how can anybody expect any intelligent discourse.
6
having grown up in nyc i am not a trump fan..but come on where was the outrage when ronald reagans son needed the secret service to protect him on trips to the unemployment department every week to sign for his check when the ballet laid him off..surely his vice president could have hooked him up with a job in major league baseball along with his own ne'er do well son
3
No, Donald Trump should not visit the detention centers (jails). This would further traumatize the children.
3
I do not understand this outpouring of concern for children removed from their parents,first the parents are attempting to enter USA illegally,are not children removed if their parents are arrested.Of cause the parents claim extreme danger for them and their children from where they are fleeing from who can blame them but is USA open to the whole world?If so, USA just wait for boatloads of new illegals, as Europe is now suffering from.Also where was this concern for thousands of Iraqi children killed by the American Military and in other countries too.
2
I have an idea. You can go visit those places they are running from. I’m sure it’s perfectly safe.
2
Yes, absolutely, they are the King and Queen of Cruelty, not a bone or ounce of mercy in either of them, just a hint of a taste, a slight whiff of political survival, and even that is nauseating.
11
Why is the Democratic Party not organizing counterprotests at each of these Trump rallies? Where is the resistance? Where is Bernie Sanders? Trump only listened to the political reality spoken to him by Congressional leaders-- if you continue down this path you will be impeached come November.
The real tragedy with Melania is that she stays with the person we have to call President. How she sleeps at night, I will never understand. Nor can I understand how she can abide living with such an abomination.
5
There were many protestors outside in Duluth, that Drumpf LIED about being alleged "fans" of his who could not get inside, in fact he mocked some of them. He has done this since the first days of his last campaign rallies, but now WE pay for the security etc for him to mock people exercising their rights to free speech and assembly. FOR SHAME!!!
3
Just my opinion, I think she is afraid of him. No one knows what is said or done to a spouse behind closed doors.
3
Why do you assume that Melania Trump stayed in New York after the election to help Barron Trump adjust? Isn't it just as likely that she stayed in New York to stay away from Trump? Or to give herself time to negotiate a revised prenuptial or postnuptial agreement to increase her financial reward for staying married to an adulterer who abuses women?
12
Let me understand this. The argument presented by Republicans against Mexicans entering our country illegally, often said to be in flight from tyranny and corrupt rule is that they are unprincipled people with low moral standards, many of whom cannot read and would cause harm to our country.
Hmmmm, sounds like trump’s base!
3
Once again, Mr. Blow provides fodder for a quick, easy and accurate rebuttal.
Illegal immigration is a crime for which the perpetrators are incarcerated and lose custody of children that accompany them. This has been the case for generations, and it has happened in every state and at all of our borders every day that President Obama was in office. That infamous photo of children in a cage was taken during President Obama's tenure. The children who are currently under the care of border authorities are not in cages... but in clean, accommodating facilities with competent supervision, organized activities, play-station and many other amenities that are appropriate for the circumstances.
On the other hand, Mr. Blow has never once protested the deaths of American children who were violently murdered or molested by illegal immigrants, American children who have died from illegal immigrant drug trade or babies who were killed by having been "ripped" from their mothers' wombs... but he purports to be our moral overseer as he frantically pushes yet another false narrative about child abuse to siphon votes from his political opposition.
This article is about duping under-informed constituents to get more votes and more power. Mr. Blow will need to work hard at diluting the positive economic data, the lawless conduct of the previous administration and the highest level of American optimism in many years.
4
Once again uncleferd provides fodder for a quick rebuttal
KIDNAPPING CHILDREN IS WRONG
10
There was never a poicy of separating children from their parents. There were unaccompanied children getting into the country, but families were not separated. That is a lie. You are either a liar or believe lies you have been told.
Crossing the border illegally is a misdemeanor, not a felony. Let’s not even argue about the asylum seekers, a person charged with a misdemeanor does NOT have their children taken away.
Small children don’t think “well I’m clean and have playstation so who cares where Mommy is”. Being separated from their parents with no explanation or any idea when they will see them again is TORTURING CHILDREN. Not to mention the torment their parents, who have committed misdemeanors NOT felonies, are being put through. BTW separating children from their parents with no plan for reuniting them, and then sending the children all over the country is KIDNAPPING.
Abortion is a separate issue. Anti-abortion people always think this trumps EVERYTHING morality wise...we disagree on abortion so WE are moral and you are not.
But if you think that you have a moral ground to stand on here you are wrong. There is NO reason to do this beyond cruelty. No arguments you make have any sway against this level of evil.
But hey..feel good about yourself. You probably believe in God, hopefully one day you will meet him and have to explain this.
13
@uncleferd. Oh for heaven’s sakes, you think Mr. Blow should do some research? It might behoove you to do some. Maybe you should read the Flores decision. You’d find in the decision (and its application in a later decision by the Ninth Circuit to migrants with children) that the Trump administration isn’t required to do what it was doing and that it lied about it every day. Is that what you like? A president who can’t tell the truth? And where’s that lawlessness you’re talking about? Lawlessness implies a pattern. What exactly is that pattern in the Obama administration? I read four or five different newspapers a day and I’ve never seen anything remotely believable about a pattern of lawlessness. As for a “false narrative“ about child abuse, do you have some psychiatrists in your neighborhood who treat children? Talk with them. You’ll learn that Trump’s cruelty has scarred many of these children for life, and raised, for example, the likelihood of their becoming drug addicts by 50%. Let’s mention, not incidentally, those children are brown not white. Nobody likes to say it, but Nate Silver has: the vast majority of those with knee-jerk hatred for Obama and knee-jerk love for Trump are racists. So don’t tell me about lawlessness. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone. Oh, and by the way, according to most economists Obama saved the economy, not the self-confessed abuser of women you admire. But don’t let facts bother you. Life’s easier that way.
14
I dunno, maybe Melania is posting these tone deaf tweets sneakily sabotage the Donald. For sure, she is no Florence Nightingale but I don't think she is on board with the Trump train to crazy town. Picking online bullying as her cause is such a clear passive aggressive move.
Maybe he would be worse without her!
2
Years ago Melania made a faustian pact. When asked, “Would you have married Donald Trump if he weren’t rich?” Melania replied, “Would Donald have married me if I weren’t beautiful?”
It is written, "For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world but lose his own soul?” But for a man who tears children from their mothers and fathers, Melania?
3
And the solution is????? What should actually be our policy? Just criticism? That's what you do best.
2
@greatnfi. Many policy solutions are available that our legislators might consider. In the meantime Mr. Blow need not offer a solution to the current situation because we already have one. A minimal amount of research will describe it for you. It’s called the Immigration Courts. It’s remarkably effective. More than 90% of immigrants stopped at the border and allowed into the country show up for their Immigration Court hearings. The system works well. It will work less well fairly soon if Trump succeeds in denying it the requisite number of judges. But until the racist Trump administration cripples it, it’s doing the job it was created for.
2
The emitter of all evil is Trump. His unfortunate wife is a dupe who might actually know better but probably doesn't. But she has no real power and I don't see any evidence that any efforts she is making in her role as first lady are taken seriously. It's obvious that she goes through the motions and nothing more. Too bad she is even quoted on any issue. Her opinion simply doesn't matter. Her husband, the vile one, is another kettle of fish. He is totally responsible for the misery his separation policy is causing. He is the one who must be held accountable. He is the one who is not deserving of any political support. He is the one who must not be allowed a second term in office. He must be relegated to the dustbin of history.
10
Mr. Blow writes;
Not even the sight of devastated families could move the party that once called itself the party of family values. Not even the idea of “tender age” internment camps for babies could move the party built on the protection of “unborn babies.”
The contradiction is abominable.
Right on! They’re all Abominable Showmen!
5
Melania Trump will not or cannot speak or act against her husband and has not shown herself to be an influence tempering his insanities. That's the reality of things. So she should just shut up. No weasly words implying she feels differently. No "initiatives" intending to show she personally cares about children. Why invite more mockery? It hardly matters how she "feels" about things. It's not her feelings but the images of poor children keeping us awake at night.
3
Trump learned and signed an executive order keeping children and parents together.
Charles M. Blow did not learn and keeps talking about the president's child.
I'm not sure how I can explain how much lower the press is compared to Donald Trump.
1
Only for 20 days
1
@Jo Jambalaya. I’m sorry, but that’s just inaccurate. It’s depressing to hear this repeated when it’s a complete falsehood and it makes one realize just how effective Fox News is, and just how quickly Tumps cultists believe anything he says. Trump didn’t “learn” anything. His signing of an executive order was a political stunt — which is obvious if you know the law behind what he did and he’s doing now. You probably won’t learn anything about this by watching Fox. They’ve been lying about this as regularly as the president has. There was no necessity for an executive order because the current crisis was created by a decision made by Trump and Sessions. The current meme that they were required to do what they did by law is simply a lie. There is no such law. Moreover the relevant court decisions gave them many options and they chose the ugliest and cruelest one. They created the crisis and they ended it by pretending they hadn’t caused it. How utterly dispiriting that Americans can’t take the time to learn anything about our immigration system and instead, whipped into a frenzy by Trump and his acolytes, lash out at a black columnist for the New York Times. Sad.
3
Humanity. compassion, & benevolence have been replaced by virulent yelling. The harsh finger pointing & political mendacity must be counteracted by oases of imagination, faith & hope. Our prayers must be grenades. A new real "theater of cruelty" must be confronted with salvation through staging nightmares & spiritual solutions. In our zeitgeist of a new terrorism dramatists are gathering in camps such as The playwrights Sanctuary to implement theater arts as healing modalities. Protest participation is transcribed & layered with symbols by the Playwrights Sanctuary directed by Dr. Larry Myers (recent St John's professor retiree. Creative disaster is word of the days via works such as "Immigration Braille."
1
Problem is it's the religious zealots that are cheering on the dunce in chief. Their prayers are meaningless.
2
Wonderful picture of the First Couple. Do they look happy to be meeting the King and Queen of Spain? Do they look happy to be with each other? Not at all.
They look simply GRIM. I don't blame them. The military guards look positively ecstatic compared to the two zombies in between them.
And the man-child of the couple, with his puffy, very white skin around his eyes from the suntan goggles: Looking more and more like the monster and freak that he is every day.
We can only hope that he soon suffers a massive stroke from his junk food habit. If only! C'mon Zeus, throw a thunder bolt his way...
I miss my mother and immigrant father on a regular basis, but I'm glad they're not seeing this when they had so much faith and hope in America - a country that no longer exists as they knew it.
9
Ignorance, malice, power, and greed can easily meld into evil -- and when embodied in people bent on 'ruling the world,' virtually nothing is out of bounds. The Trumps have bargained away their souls at some point, and we in the audience watching this Faustian drama have all been dragged on stage as part of the final act -- along with the infants, toddlers, and their families. Unfortunately, despite the critics' reviews, no one is powerful enough to shut the whole thing down.
2
Once again, a man is holding a woman accountable for her husband sins. This bipartisan phenomenon should have been left in the 1950s.
The Executive Order does not address the children already separated from their parents. What is the plan for this? I am concerned that this administration will ultimately not be able to reunite all children with their parents; this administration does not seem to have the ability to develop a good plan and execute it.
I am so ashamed of America.
2
It’s simple. Any self-serving hypocrit, or coward in the Congress who are allowing a malignant narcissist to lay waste to our ideals and laws, should be voted out of office.
The beginnings of a totalitarian state is taking place right before our eyes. An example among many:
The government barring the press from seeing the conditions in the border detention centers.
Controlling the information that citizens receive is how Putin and the dictator in North Korea hold on to complete power. The guy in the White House admires those two greatly. He seems inspired to emulate them.
Right minded Americans can’t let this happen. Enough is enough. One prominent Republican has stated just that, and has committed to giving millions to support the election efforts of The Democratic Party.
In doing so, it seems that the billionaire and former New York City Mayor, Michael Bloomberg,does not have faith that any Republican candidate will not be cowed into submission like those betraying the interests of this country’s citizens by not condemning and countering the vile, amoral , and despotic actions coming from the White House.
4
The outrage is fully justified but note that on any given day there are 60 000 children imprisoned in the United States. The US incarcerates more children than any other country. (ACLU) What is happening to children at the border is not an aberration. It is the worst of this country's general onslaught on children. Who can forget the story of Kalief Browder? Or the 17-year old just shot and killed by police when he ran off after a traffic stop.
1
Two "wrong" notions to consider.
1. The explosion of the racist right in the US is similar to the rise of the racist right in Europe. Wrong. European racism has its origins in essentially homogeneous societies which have never learned to incorporate newcomers. American racism has its roots in slavery and genocide against Native Americans.
2. This is not who we are as Americans. Wrong. Racism goes to the core of America - its original sin. Trump has not increased racism so much as he has brought it out in the open. After all, the Republican Party decided to ride the back of this tiger more than half a century ago. Goldwater (states rights); Nixon (law and order, southern strategy); Reagan (welfare Queens; opening his campaign in Philadelphia Miss.), George Bush Sr. (Willie Horton); Romney (the "entitled" 47%). That the tiger has consumed them should be no surprise.
Let's wipe out the myths (and the Republican Party with them) and talk some truths about American racism. It isn't European "populism", but it is "who we are".
6
Well said, indeed.
Herodotus described Xerxes, the Persian King (circa 480 BC), whose misguided attempt to invade and conquer Greece failed due to his own fears and ineptitude as: "A man who does not distinguish between sacred and profane things, but burns and topples statues of the Gods;". Herodotus's description could be applied to President Trump since history repeats itself, and certainly Mr. Trump treats the sacred and profane as the same, and seems to want to burn down our institutions. Xerxes, however, did not have checks and balances in his government. President Trump does, but congress refuses to wield them against him. Obviously another special prosecutor should investigate how this Zero Toleration policy came to include child abuse and was kept secret for weeks while secret internment camps were set up by this profane administration. An investigation won't happen until the opposition can wrest at least one portion of Congress away from the party of Trump. As far as Melania; as an immigrant herself she should know that even if we stop expecting toddlers to defend themselves at immigration hearings, we still have families appearing at hearings where most likely the parents will be separated leaving children fatherless.
1
Whatever reasons Mrs. Trump had for her marriage in the first place, I am tired of women being blamed for what men do. Mrs. Trump was not elected; she was drafted, and, by all accounts, unwillingly. Apparently, her crimes are failing to get divorced and being unable to control her husband. The same could be said for Hillary Clinton. Look where this sort of thinking got us.
1
Thank you for stating so clearly what I haven’t been able to put into words. Many have called this child abuse. Shouldn’t the abuser be held accountable?
4
There thousands more children - actually in cages - in 2014 as a wave of unaccompanied children crossed the border. The government was overwhelmed, and conditions for the children were deplorable. No outrage from Mr. Blow then.
The minority Democrats will not even come to the table to try to fix this issue, exposing their cruel hypocrisy. They want this, as they always have, to use as a political weapon in the mid-terms. It is quite obvious to all thinking Americans.
The Republicans are offering fixes, the Democrats will agree to nothing that would give Trump a "win". This is on the Democrats.
2
I agree it's cruel. But why aren't people rising in protest over children taken by the state from criminal parents when the parents are arrested? I think this is the equation that many Republicans are making with illegal immigrants. If they're totally wrong, I'd sincerely appreciate an explanation why Mr. Blow. Is it enough to say we can't go there when in reality we have been for a long time?
1
Cruelty and indecency run like red threads through America from the genocide of indigenous peoples to slavery to the carving up of Mexico to Japanese internment to Jim Crow to chain gangs to the present-day incarceration of the largest proportion of citizens of any country in the world. Immigration and dealing with migrants from poor and war-torn parts of the world fit into a well-established pattern. So does the outrage of a minority and the endorsement by a majority. None of this is really about Donald and/or Melania Trump. Rather problems run very much deeper and are very much more intractable. It's a very American trope (and a sure-fire way to avoid reform) to portray bad outcomes in personal terms (that evil Nixon, those Trumps), when really the issues are systemic, historic and ubiquitous.
5
How does the pervasive cruelty and indecency running through America change the fact that Trump and Sessions (and the rest of the administration) are directly responsible for perhaps 2000 or more children being lost to their parents, perhaps forever? This is an immediate problem that the decent people in this country are railing against. To say that none of this is about the Trumps is untrue. Donald Trump made up to 2000 children orphans. Uncaring, inexperienced dope that he is, there was no plan to track children separated from their parents. How can anyone not hold Trump responsible? And, his wife knows the difference between care and neglect of children, as Mr. Blow clearly points out.
Your point does, however, explain the depraved indifference to suffering exhibited by ICE personnel handling these victims. What decent person in the world would take away the shoelaces from a 2 or 4 year old who is being snatched from her mother? The creep was just following orders??
2
There is a parallel in this story to one you have heard earlier namely PIZZAGATE. We now have the lurid tale of Trump actually imprisoning thousands of very small children as well as pre teen girls in undisclosed locations often being moved secretly at night and flown on private jets. How did we not realize that the pizzagate lie about Hillary Clinton imprisoning children was something that would become reality but with Trump himself as the real villain. Another interesting detail is that the imprisonment sites for teen and preteen boys are much easier to find while those for the older girls and very young kids are much harder to find. Even damnable lies can sometimes foretell the future.
3
Yes, Melania is complicit by her weak voice and seemingly lack of conviction in a country used to strong principled women who do care about and speak out for social justice. To quote Katy Waldman of the New Yorker, Melania Trump is the "avatar of blankness," a highly astute observation of this woman's Barbie-like character. There doesn't seem to be much there as she parrots her husband, plagiarizes others, and generally mouths platitudes without any real substance, like her "Be Best" campaign (what campaign)? We are definitely not getting the "best" of Melania Trump, if that's even possible. Although Mr. Blow made no mention of Ivanka Trump, she too, with her advocacy of family and child care also comes across as heartless, and her voice was noticeably silent this week. That Trump soon afterwards held a rally denigrating immigrants and refugees as dangerous criminals, speaks to the callousness, entitlement, and insensitivity of this First family. Yes, Mr. Blow, you are correct; they are selective in who deserves a voice. The measure of Melania Trump and this family is supreme superficiality at the expense of any real dialogue or reaching across the divide. In other words, there's really nothing there, and we are fools for expecting anything more from this heartless bunch.
1
Can Mrs. Trump document for us, her and her family's immigration history so we all can observe the "right way to go about immigrating to the US"? One would think Mrs. Trump and the President would only be so happy to share that story with all Americans, of course along with the President's tax returns as well. Or maybe we'll have to wait for Michael Cohen to sing.
13
I would love to give Mrs. Trump points for her trip to McAllen today and her skillfully written tweet earlier. I have trouble, though, putting aside her birther comments and the boys-will-be-boys excuses. IMO, she made a pact with the devil years ago and I do hope she some day meets a decent, loving man who encourages her to be her best.
I've been thinking today about the children of Trump's devoted followers. Will they grow up to be like their parents or will they be able to think for themselves and be decent and generous to others? I hate the thought that new generations of people like this are being indoctrinated with hatred and selfishness towards others not like them. There's nothing worse than seeing little bullies in the making, like little Donald 71 years ago.
4
Melania Trump, as FIRST LADY of the United States, and as an immigrant herself, should personally oversee the process of successfully reuniting these parents with each and every one of the more than 2,000 children her husband took hostage. That would Be HER Best.
4
I’m no fan of MT, but these men should clean up their own damn messes for a change. Republicans should stop making messes and leaving them for Democrat presidents to clean up. I hope female candidates put these man-babies and their wife-mommies on a time out till they’re back in diapers. Republican mean girls can go with with them to help babysit. Grown ups are tired of them picking on smaller children, breaking nice things, and doing their smelly business in the neighbor’s back yard.
2
I agree and were the genders reversed in this "royal" situation, all things being equal, I still would not expect anything less from the First Gentleman: To Be HIS Best.
I am still trying to understand why the parents who were deported didn't take their children with them. There would be no need to separate the children if the parents left the country, I would think. Aren't the children free to go with their parents? Just trying to understand some things within this madness.
2
No, the children are NOT free to go with their parents! The children are forcibly REMOVED from the parents, who knows if the parents are restrained or if weapons are used--- what would it take for YOU to let some stranger grab your kids??? Sometimes these "agents" tell fhe parenfs the child is going to have a "shower"--- shades of Auschwitz--- and the child is never seen again. Then the parents are jailed, or sent back to the country they fled from, without knowing WHERE their children are, they have NO documentaion FOR these children, as one Federal judge in one of these cases exclaimed--- "If we take a criminal to jail, and we remove their wallet, they get a receipt for the wallet, but if we take away their CHILD they get---- NOTHING". And there is NO PLAN to even try and reunite these children. None. So these people that Drumpf loathes--- the children of his bogey man "rapists and murderers and animals and drug dealers" are now here--- possibly forever displaced--- and they are now OUR problem, often with NO account of WHERE they are. Read up on it, it's beyond shocking and horrifying. Call YOUR SENATORS AND REPS.
3
Truly weird, that even if parents say okay, we will go back to our country, this asylum thing was a bad idea, they cannot take their kids with them!! That is indeed cruelty...
The children were taken from their parents.
Do you copy that.....
2
I'm sorry Mr. Blow, but spouses do not automatically share in the guilt of their partner. What Mr. Trump is doing is horrific, but it is his policy and he is to blame.
I'm sorry, but criticizing Ms. Trump's parenting decisions regarding her son is just as out-of-bounds as criticisms of where the Obama's sent their daughters to school or criticisms of the Bush daughters during their college years.
Protecting the family of the President is expensive. All Presidents take vacations. All Presidents go back home to visit. Trump staying at his own resorts is problematic and may violate the emoluments clause, but protecting his residence in New York is part of the cost of government.
2
At last! Finally, someone with a forum is taking Melania Trump to task for her hypocrisy and for burdening the taxpayers with the horrendous cost of what amounts to childcare.
Marie Antoinette's callous naiveté is perfectly analogous to Melania's indefensibly flawed decision not to move in to the White House right after the inauguration in 2017. Whether she likes it or not, Melania is or should be a role model for Americans.
Behind the low unemployment figures exists a horrendously precarious job market. Americans are famously nomadic, prone to pulling up stakes in order to move to a better job. Children the nation over are yanked out of school when their parents' career requires a relocation. Does Melania even know that other, less fortunate American families move involuntarily when the loss of a job leads to eviction or foreclosure?
We taxpayers paid big money for Melania's decision to keep her son in school, so big that it approaches the wealth lavished on royalty in centuries past.
In a better world, there would be Congressional hearings into the waste of taxpayers' money on the Trump's lavish lifestyles.
I say we send a bill to the current occupants 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to recoup all the public funds that have been spent for Melania's security and travel and for her husband's weekend getaways to his golf courses.
2
Please do not Trump gives credit for this so-called executive order. He and his administration alone implemented this cruel policy for snatching children from their parents and send them to prisons. Both his wife and his mute daughter are complicit to this tragedy.
1
We have to understand why we have such strong cultural taboos against racism, fascism and xenophobia. It is not just that they are abhorrent ideas imbued with hatred that are demeaning to us all. It is that the power of these ideas and their contagion make them immensely dangerous and catastrophically destructive. The rise of Trump's cult must be stopped soon. The tipping point gets closer every day.
5
Mr Blow, great piece as usual, but unfortunately I must take exception to your sentance "I just can't".
With all do respect, "I just can't" doesn't work.
As our last great POTUS once said: "Yes, we can".
Your pieces give inspiration to the rest of us who think mango faced tyrants like the Fake POTUS we have now can't be defeated.
"I just can't" won't work anymore.
4
Trump is a deeply flawed, probably mentally unstable, individual who is unquestionably unfit to hold the office of the Presidency. As for Melania, she will always be guilty by association simply because she has chosen to hitch her wagon to such a man as Trump. (makes my skin crawl - can't wait to read her book once her old fogey husband is dead and gone!)
Democrats must retake the House and Senate in November in order to limit the damage Trump can do, and then we must boot him out in 2020. (Unless of course he is indicted or impeached first - but that leaves Pence which is a whole other nightmare.)
But, all that aside, getting rid of Trump will not solve the deeper ills that plague our system of governance. There are much larger and more systemic problems that must be addressed if we are to reclaim our government to represent our values and principles. Namely, the corrupting influence of private money in our elections, gerrymandered voting districts, voting structures that disenfranchise people, and representatives who go to Washington (and our state houses) to make careers there dedicating themselves to their own preservation rather than to public service. Public funding of elections, neutrally drawn voting districts, expanded voting procedures, and term limits are the path to preserving a government by and for the people.
The only way to accomplish those objectives is if we the people demand them with unwavering commitment and
4
Thank you, Mr. Blow for such a truthful article because “silence is consent.” From the very beginning of his campaign for the presidency, Melania Trump and the Trump family has been his accomplice; partners in crime.
President Trump’s base is so racist, so full of rancor as if they were the one and only Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Americans to arrive in this country. Were the Italians and the Jewish people invisible? This country was created by welcoming people of all races and from all countries. Trump supporters claim that immigrants are lazy people but at the same time complain they are taking their jobs. I'm certain neither men nor women in support of Trump would dare wear the boots to replace immigrants that work 8 hours under the sun growing crops and raising livestock that we eat or willingly replace undocumented workers that are being exploited as domestic servants every day.
President Trump has never been trustful to the American people; a masterful liar who is trying to turn this country into an “oligarchy;” the wealthy in full control of our country; the government of the few and the people down below working for them. Come November we’ll know what America stands for.
3
Charles et al, you must keep writing. We must all keep writing and fighting to call out bigotry and injustice. There are problems in the world for sure - however, cruelty and injustice are never the answer.
2
Trump will try anything that appeals to the fears of the white nativists who have been solidly behind him. He realizes the deep, abiding fear that these folks have at the demographically-driven minority status in their future. Why this fear? The white nativists remember how they have treated for generations now minority populations--Native Americans, African-Americans, Chinese, Japanese, and Latinos. A guilty heart fears retaliation for past transgressions. So, we all face a future of continuing divisiveness and conflict as Trump and his supporters ramp up punitive policies to keep today's minority populations in their place and in check. Dismantling America's safety net of social security and health care programs serves this purpose well by rendering insecure minorities more vulnerable to intimidation in every sphere by the ruling white minority. That vulnerable poor white people also suffer as a consequence of the loss of safety net programs is deemed necessary collateral damage.
5
These are people who are severely psychologically flawed and who are surrounded by supporters similarly flawed as evidenced by the lack of empathy, sympathy, and compassion. They are people given to insults (womp, womp ), and the traumatizing if children, the most vulnerable among us. I can’t imagine what kind of parents they are from what have shown us of themselves. I do not forget that Donald
Trump did not get the vote of the majority of Americans. They recognized a very flawed man.
2
We do deserve better, and so do the children.
3
Mr. Blow,
This is exactly the kind of journalism we need. Thank you.
Your use of Melania Trump's own words and other facts about how Barron Trump has been protected and paid for are *facts* that make your point. No one has to read tea leaves, look into the Trumpsters' eyes and guess what their look means, guess what is meant when reading between the lines of a FLOTUS statement about separating children, etc. The disparities are there to see.
(Ms. Trump told _Us Weekly_ in January 2016 about talking to the couple’s son about potentially moving to Washington:)
5
Charles Blow is either illustrating his ignorance of the issues or is deliberately misleading his readers. The 1997 Flores v Reno Settlement prohibits the United States from prosecuting migrant children or holding them in custody. It must release all migrant children it apprehends at the border to Office of Refugee Resettlement centers, including those who crossed the border with their parents. This is not a Donald or Melania Trump policy; it’s the law. The centers are not prisons. The vast major of children in the centers are unaccompanied children who crossed the border alone. They spend on average a month or two at the centers until they can be released to parents, relatives or other guardians. There were no objection to the centers when they were being run by Democratic administrations.
What Blow and other advocates really object to is stopping illegal immigration. It true that prosecuting adults for crossing the border illegally sometimes separates them from their children, but prosecuting American adults who commit crimes also separate them form their children. The policy of not prosecuting adult migrants who crossed the border illegally with their children encouraged rather than deterred illegal border crossers. When the policy of not prosecuting then went into effect, the number of migrants crossing illegally with children rose from about 14,000 a year to 75,000 a year.
4
Just because something is "legal" doesn't make it RIGHT. It was illegal to help Jews in Hitlers Germany, surely such a moral upstanding and law abiding citizen such as your self would have been turning in Jews and their helpers left and right. Nazis in America is what we have come to. We enacted and reversed many laws--- slavery, prohibition, Jim Crow--- that were legal and WRONG. Take a good long look in the mirror, you might see who you really are. For shame.
2
How is it possible that anyone can support this policy? The crime of illegal immigration is a misdemeanor and to remove children from their parents is not a legitimate punishment for this crime. It is the right wing media machine that has made this acceptable to those that support Trump and again there is little spoken of this.
I heard on NPR this morning that Fox and their ilk say that Democrats don't care about these children and it is just hatred of Trump that has spurred this response. How have we come to this point where one party has so demonized another that people believe this is true? It should be a natural, human response to find forcibly dividing families abhorrent, but for some reason it is seen as just and righteous and to disagree political. I do tend to demonize the purveyors of this perverted thought but not the people who follow them because they have been fed a sick, twisted reality that they have been conditioned to defend with all their heart and soul.
You would think that pictures of young children crying as they are removed from their parents would bring light to their eyes but it is not the case. At this point will anything convince them of a truth beyond Fox, Trump, and Right Wing Media?
6
The rich folk are not like you and me, Fitzgerald wrote in The Great Gatsby. Queen Melania's campaign against bullying is as tone deaf as her statement following tea with the queen of Spain. She enjoys her husband's wealth more than she cares about morality.
3
Sen. Corker may believe the Republican party has been taken over by Trump, but the President is just giving the party what they've always liked. Only now the racism, misogyny and xenophobia isn't as hidden as Mr. Corker likes. They needed the base to help get their tax cuts, but now the proles have gotten loose and it's making them look bad. Maybe you should have thought of that earlier Senator.
9
I think it is sufficient to refuse to applaud her "both sides" excuse for uncorrected unilateral savagery, without going one step further. People don't like moral oppression of women, haven't you noticed? This column was harmful.
1
Trump and Session's zero tolerance and child separation policy is the best shot of adrenaline to date for Democrats this upcoming mid-term election. The next shoe to drop will be China calling Trump's bluff on trade. The implications of the trade war should just be hitting at full strength this fall as voters go back to the polls.
Outrage is no barrier to curbing Trump's behavior because he knows that the Republican party is broken, weak, dysfunctional, and too craven to stop him. In fact, outrage is exactly what Trump was elected to do as payback for what many saw as the outrage of the US electing a black president, twice.
6
Melania and Ivanka worry to trump that the photos look bad. So trump, with his two sycophantic bobbleheads (Nielsen and Pence), bumbled their way through nonsensical statements that mean nothing while trump scrawls his signature on a slapped-together Executive Order. Meanwhile, no one in the relevant federal agencies has any idea of what to do because neither the policy creating this despicable action nor the EO rescinding it came with any thought or direction about implementation. So separating the children from their parents has been a fiasco and reuniting the families will be a debacle. The blame for this mess starts with trump and family but extends throughout his Administration.
4
Spot on. Add Ivanka to the mix.
5
thank you for writing this. It needed to be said.
3
Great Points. Sadly a significant percentage of Americans thinks this cruelty, this evil, is just fine. The Hate Machine is running full speed ahead and history suggests a really, really bad ending.
6
I don’t know or understand the nature of such cruelty from the leaders of a true democracy, so I’m assuming our current executive, his wife, and legislative leadership are spawned from a source we long ago thought was extinct, like the prehistoric bacteria in melting attic icebergs.
Our executive and his wife have extended their Management style as monarchs of a corporate kingdom to an entire nation mimicking authoritarian Oligarchs of desperately oppressive nations who treat their people like serfs and their national (and other nation’s) natural resources through strong arm tactics. And our nation’s legislative branch have become the traitorous minions seeking to be part of a royal court.
240+ years since liberation from one insane king, now too many of us seek to restore an authoritarian monarchy (supposedly blessed by a evangelical god) with another insane megalomaniac that suits their hatred and soothes their fears of lost status based on the whiteness of their skin. What a cruel joke on the rest of us. How could we have imagined the most storied democracy in the world would long for days of old when monarchs claimed to be gods doing what Old Testament gods will.
2
The only way I can think of to explain the support for Trump's ridiculously cruel policy among republicans is that people seek comfort and assurance, and immersing yourself in the Trumpian mind-set provides that. If you drift into conservative, authoritarian follower status, you have decided not to worry, or even think about, a lot of uncomfortable issues. You let a supposed larger organized mind-set support or replace a lot of the difficult thinking that you would otherwise have to do. Trump comforts the comfortable, and they love him for it.
These people don't see cruelty because they don't see past the warm fuzzy delusion they have settled into. It's the root of passive evil.
7
In column after column Charles Blow expresses his deep indignation at the actions of Donald Trump. If there was an annual press award for the most intense expression of indignation, Mr Blow would surely win it, hands down.
And there is great exaggeration in his columns, equaling that of the great exaggerator, Trump himself.
There are no “prisons for babies”. Children are not “ripped” from their parents. The parents have entered the country illegally. They could have relocated in their own country or gone to another country but they chose to travel the US and enter illegally based on an unsupportable asylum claim. The children may suffer some separation anxiety: that is regrettable, but thousands of children in the US are separated from their parents every year because of criminal convictions, drug and alcohol addictions, mental health issues. Some of them end up in homes or in foster care: there are solutions for this kind of problem Many Americans support the zero tolerance position, albeit also wanting a better temporary solution for the children.
And who says the wall is a symbol of hate? It is a symbol of law and order, it is a symbol that entry to the Us must be through a proper border crossing and in accordance with US immigration laws. It is a symbol the Country is not dysfunctional.
I am not a fan of Donald Trump (although I do not disagree with everything he does), but I am even less a fan of Charles Blow.
2
Thank you for being the first major editorial (that I have seen) that challenges the charade. The first lady has been PURPOSEFULLY used to soften, hand-waive, and 'normalize' the acceptance of Donald's abhorrent policies. Most of the country, including way too many liberals, are buying this notion that somehow Melania really isn't 'like him'.
Look, I am not in favor of bashing the spouse and kids of a monster, but we need to stop this false hope that Melania is some sort of counterbalance here. Quite the opposite, she is a real part of the gas-lighting.
5
With every monstrosity and sad truth that pops up about this administration, I am reminded again and again that Trump's base, GOP, and the Faux News audience are loving every bit of it. For them, it's #PromisesKept! At this point, there's no alternative but for the sane part of the nation to come out and vote against these evil forces and their enablers. Let the message be loud and clear - we are a democracy! Do we have problems that need to be fixed? Yes. Does Trump have the capacity or the wish to do it like a leader, and not a toddler who throws a fit to get people to cater to his every whimsical need? No.
Save the Nation's Soul - Vote Democrat on November 16
2
Melania just showed up at a shelter in McAllen with her frosted-tipped hair, false eyelashes, lip gloss (but, to her credit, in sneakers rather than her usual stilettos) and smilingly engaged in banalities with shelter personnel. She asked how often a child can have a phone conversation with a relative (twice a week) and made the astute observation that the children "really love to study." WHAT A NAUSEATING FARCE. Perhaps this is part of her "Be Best" campaign. Undoubtedly she is trying to help out Donnie by demonstrating that the Trumps care about children. But no matter how hard she tries to project a face of caring and concern (without disturbing her carefully applied makeup), no matter how many photo ops this visit produces, nothing can reduce the horror of children being forcibly separated from their parents and detained--often in cages--while Trump exploits them for political gain. Rather than coming to McAllen to confront horror, Melania should stay in the White House and confront the horror her husband daily inflicts with his lies, his moral depravity, and his racism and sexism. The first child she should be protecting is Barron.
7
Ask any Native American Indian, and they'll tell you that we all were once immigrants who "infested" their land, including Trump's family. Trump has no sense of history and no intellectual compass to absorb this fact, nor the emotional intelligence that one needs to feel empathy. Living only in the here and now of Trumpworld, he rules over his land and does no wrong. Our naton's highest leader is a dangerous man and must be stopped.
4
https://www.facebook.com/donate/490507544717085/
Be on the right side of history and tell your friends and family you did something.
1
In response to those comments about long-standing friends ignoring his policies. Many, many tales abound of how Trump politics have divided Americans. For myself, it is not the politics which divide us, but how they reveal us. Maya Angelou once said, “When someone shows you who they are believe them; the first time.” In voicing support of the Trump policies and values (the true values he shows to us everyday, not the fake version of Christian values he claims to have), our friends and families have revealed who they really are and for what they really stand. Trump has given them permission to throw off the veneer of civility to show who they are. Personally, I have chosen to walk away from them.
3
It is inconceivable that it is not be possible for these innocent children to be reunited with their parents in a nation like the US with its massive data-gathering bureaucracy, its numerous security agencies like the FBI and all its state-based operations. Harness the resources of the CIA, even if it is responsible for hunting people overseas; surely if it helps right this awful wrong which has been done in America's name, it will be a worthy use of its expertise. Hopefully Americans of good will who have been so distressed by these callous events will use all your social media networks and contacts to identify these lost children and return them to their parents. The job will not be done however. There needs to be a monumental effort, not only in the United States, but also in Europe, Africa, Asia, and here in Australia, for those of us who value decency and who have compassion, to develop a workable humane solution to this blight of global mass movement of refugees who are seeking better lives than the ones they have in their home countries.
We all must do much better.
5
Congress should pass legislation on DACA and Immigration disregarding Mr. Trump's goals. When Trump overrides bills, congress should prevail with votes from each party to overcome Trump's efforts. I hope congress does not provide funding for Trump's Wall. A wall would be ineffective. Congress should vote to protect DACA children and allow family integration. Children, parents, and grandparents should be welcome to live in the United States. They provide support to each other and they provide unity and strength to communities.
2
Charles Blow, Your intellect sizzles. Will you marry me?
10
I saw him first. ;)
2
Darn, I've wanted to write that for years.
2
Mr. Blow, I read you first.
2
The Trump's have always believed that there are certain rules for the Trumps and different rules for everybody else. Trump supporters will opine that the criticism leveled at the "first family" is politically motivated only, sour grapes as it were. But I became familiar with Trump years ago, when he constructed a golf course in Scotland, bulldozing ancient sand dunes and evicting and harassing locals in that country. These were not wealthy people who could really fight him financially - they were just Scots with cottages. He treated those people the way he is treating the American people and many "others" right now - like lesser beings. It disturbs me that there is a faction of Americans that would and will support such a man and his greedy, yet morally bankrupt family. And yes, Melania too. Her meek and not entirely truthful rebuke of the atrocities committed at the Mexican border were nothing to laud, and certainly very telling by what she DIDN'T say. Now she rushes to that same border to "comfort" the victims of her husband's own policy. All is theater now at the White House and the border, and none of them are ever truly sorry. Don't forget, the unnecessarily cruel pain he caused at the border was entirely of his making by Executive Order. No matter how he pulls back now from his OWN policy, he still thought it was a good idea!!
17
On the national scale a majority of Republicans (who Mr Blow claims support this type of policy) are only a majority of the minority (of people)
1
But still this repugnant man has a 40% approval rating with Americans - 40%!!!!!!!!!!!
1
We know that trump is a narcissist, needing constant praise. Narcissists have difficulty with empathy, some have no ability to feel empathy, which I believe is the case with trump. So he only responds when it’s about approval or disapproval. He is clearly also a racist, hence the insistence on the so called “border wall” which is holding up any meaningful progress toward reasonable immigration reform.
2
Do unto others as you would have others do unto you. Repeat 100 times a day.
6
Stephen Miller is the architect of this. As a descendent of European Jews, he knows full well the damage of separating families. He should be ashamed of himself. I hope his family is.
16
One has to speculate on the character and motivation of Miller because he is often at the centre of Trump's most inhumane policies. Could he subconsciously seek a world where he is in control, hurting the weak and vulnerable. Where he is the bully and others the victim? A twisted kind of protection.
3
'The Queen" is a part of the lie. I don't judge her but here are known facts. She was not a legal citizen nor was she a working model in this country until Trump created a public relations persona for her that would compliment his own. Trump attacked Obama's heritage with all the vile of a rattlesnake yet the christian evangelist felt it was okay he was married to an emigrant who was raised as a devout communist.
7
GOP cruelty has been on a trajectory for at least the last 50 years. Let's start with the obvious, Nixon, who in addition to using government agencies as enforcement arms against his enemies, also gave us attack dog VP Agnew who revved up crowds against the press; then the voters fell for Newt Gingrich's "contract for America," a series of legislative pieces which eventually would set the table for the 2008 economic collapse (Gingrich would make a point of calling for "morality in government" as the excuse for impeaching Bill Clinton for lying in a deposition; [where's his moral outage now?]); then of course there was the sending of thousands of Americans to their deaths for the never-found "weapons of mass destruction," not to mention the 100 of thousands of deaths in Iraq and the beginning of the ballooning of our national debt. The GOP legacy is so abysmal it's a wonder it's still in business. But since its business is criminality, irresponsibility and cruelty, rather than good government, I suppose there will always be a large enough Sucker Class--working in concert with voter suppression, the electoral college, and Fake -er-Fox News--to keep it in the game, to America's detriment and shame.
11
And let's not forget Reagan, whose 1980 campaign embraced "states' rights" in Nashoba County Mississippi within spitting distance of the site of Chaney, Schwerner and Goodman's martyrdom, who inveighed against a fictitious Cadillac driving Chicago welfare queen and "strapping young bucks" buying T-bone steaks with food stamps, whose Justice Dept supported federal aid to "seg academies" and who was rewarded with the KKK's endorsement when he ran for reelection.
4
Ah Melania plays good cop and her husband plays bad cop. The cruel and mean separation and imprisonment of children who have committed no crime themselves hearkens to the Middle Ages and the feudal system where serfs were chattel and not considered human much like slavery in America. Maybe that is the idea and bad King Trump and good Queen Melania will dissolve the Republic by decree and declare a monarchy. No matter what Melania says she cannot erase her husband's brutish and hard hearted exterior because the bottom line loving and attention demanding interior spirit of Donald J. Trump is even more brutish and hard hearted.
The cold soul of a businessman who cares not for humanity or compassion but only results and the bottom line. Trump has no soul and is an empty husk full of ambition, self pride and hatred.
4
Thank you for telling the truth, Charles Blow. I wonder, did Melania Trump issue a statement when she did because she was given advance notice of Laura Bush's op-ed, which was published shortly after Melania's statement? Mrs. Bush's team might have informed Melania's office in advance as a courtesy. Someone should look into this. I don't buy that Melania spoke out of conviction. Remember, she also defended her husband's birtherism.
5
The only item on the"trumpster* agenda I agree with is illegal persons flooding our Republic.
If and when he will show us his Tax Returns I will believe anything he tells the American people.
I agree with the author completely. Her comment about the children was probably written by her PR person. Either that or she somehow stole it from Michelle Obama.
I am fairly certain that this woman is not losing any sleep over these children or really anyone or anything -- with the exception of a new wrinkle forming on her brow.
6
Charles, you expect too much. The fundamental issue is that both Trump and his wife are opportunists and therefore completely self-absorbed and deeply flawed. Ultimately their focus is inwards and respect for anyone or anything comes a distant second, if at all. They have no respect for the law, institutions, people, culture, tradition or standards of decency. They also don't have the metacognition necessary to recognize their limitations or empathy with the consequences of what they say or do, good or bad. It would not occur to Trump that separating families is a human travesty, not a political move, or to his wife that an idiotic tweet followed by an insensitive one is problematic. Similarly, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree and it would not occur to his daughter that at some point, one has to take a stand even if it will cost in terms of her relationship with a pathological father.
2
"I want to hate these murderers and I always will. I am not looking to psychoanalyze or understand them, I am looking to punish them.”
Donald Trump commenting on the Central Park Five, who were all falsely convicted due to coerced confessions as young teenagers. Their convictions were overturned & all five were released from prison after decades served. The city of New York paid $40 million to the five false convicted & innocent men in a court settlement.
Despite the victim of the horrific attack miraculously lived. Despite tat fact, Trump paid for a full page ad in the NYT demanding the death penalty for these teens, who were eventually exonerated by another man's confession & matching DNA.
Trump is the evil monster he presents himself to be. He wants "to hate." And, Melania Antoinette stands by him. That must be some NDA the SHE signed.
7
I completely agree with everything Mr. Blow has said, except that I don't think Donald Trump is immoral. I think he is AMORAL, as in not knowing the difference between right and wrong. Frightening.
3
The entire Trump family deserves rebuke. It is all about them, and they could care less about "the little people." Melania spends millions on clothes and both of them are constantly taking vacations. Heck Trump doesn't even come into the Office until 11 a.m. He refers to migrants "infesting" the country as if they were animals or insects rather than human beings. He violates Human Rights first by separating kids from parents under his newly announced "Zero Tolerance Policy" and then he issues an Executive Order to place the children in Immigrant Detention Centers with their parents. Let us face it, neither cares about Human Rights. They only care about themselves and making money for themselves.
7
Melania and Ivanka are just as guilty as Donald, simply for keeping their mouths shut and allowing this horrific child abuse to happen. They have very easy access to speak out to the media and express their view points, loud and clear, but instead, chose to remain silent, and just let it happen. Melania's little one-paragraph statement, which did not directly and truthfully accuse her husband of this crime just looked like a feeble attempt to save her own face. No, these cowardly and disgracefully silent women are just as guilty of child abuse, just like Donald and the rest of his band of thugs are.
10
A lot of us are missing the point. Supporters of separation don't care about the suffering. They think "those people" deserve it and it makes them feel good to see families torn apart. We are wasting our breath pointing out the inhumanity of it. Trump has given these ignorant haters an America where their evil ways can come out into the daylight.
20
Not even the idea of “tender age” internment camps for babies could move the party built on the protection of “unborn babies.”
The epitome of hypocrisy. Proof positive that the party never really cared about the unborn babies, it's just about controlling women's actions and sex lives, that's the goal. Melania is obviously checked out, and it's likely she wishes she didn't have to do any of this job alongside a man she can't love.
6
" ... [Mr. Trump's] false “both sides of the aisle” talking point. That was a lie." How can anybody who works for this flagrant and habitual liar have any self-respect?
6
Who says they do? Theirs is a mix of ambition and maybe the idea that they can keep him in check. It feels to me that those who work for him share his ideas, bask in his glory, are along for the ride.
I saw Pence standing beside Trump as he signed the EO, with Neilsen on the other side. I saw in Pence a man whose soul had already left his body. Check out the body language on him. It's both creepy and scary.
3
amazes me when folks do not blame Melania.
she's married to this disaster. she enables this disaster.
she is more complicit than anyone.
7
What about the border agents who carry out these immoral orders; aren't they culpable as well? I hate to break Godwin's law, but copping out to the "Nuremberg defense" of "just following orders" cannot be tolerated. It is well past time that each and every one of us do everything in our power to stop this vile, disgusting evil-doer in his tracks. To quote Edmund Burke, "The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing"
7
The visceral hatred of Blow toward America's first lady is deeply troubling. Hey Blow....stop picking on the America's first lady...you bully.
4
Mr Blow -Have you no shame.Why did you neglect to call out President Obama who used the same shelters.On the Internet you can find similar pictures of young immigrant
children living in these shelters.Some of the children are even wrapped in foil.You owe a little bit of honesty to your readers at least once in awhile.
5
This horrible incident might have a very important silver lining, because I believe it is the first thing where Trump was forced to retreat, by however little. It shows both him and us that he is not an unstoppable juggernaut, though we remain in very grave danger. That is very important. It also is beginning to force the former Presidents and their families to engage more directly. It's awkward for them. They each have their vulnerabilities. But we really need them now. At least the First Ladies are kind of clear of those vulnerabilities and can speak up. I hope they continue to do so. We need also to hear from form former Cabinet officers from both parties: Colin Powell, from Condoleeza Rice, from Leon Panetta, etc. Also from former generals. An open assault of decent well-known people against Trump and his ilk would help a lot. Michael Hayden and James Clapper are helping. I don't know why we aren't seeing more of it. We really need it.
5
Trumpie was right on one thing, "Winning" feels good, this being the first of many to come for the people who recognize a grifter when we see him.
And now he's screaming, " The Democrats made me do it." It's all their fault because they are nothing but "obstructionists."
The policy simply raises the cost for attempting to walk across the border illegally. Either you want an immigration policy or you don't. To just have people walk across the border as if it doesnt exist is not an immigration policy. i have no problem with enforcing immigration policy or inconviencing people who try to enter the country illegally.
It took only a few days to amass 2000 children coming across the border. its too many. Let those who seek to enter illegally incur some risk. i support the policy
3
And the children? Collateral damage I guess. Not ok!
1
Melania made it to Texas!! Congrats!
2
CNN just reported that Melania Trump has traveled to the border to see for herself how the children are being treated. Sorry madame, the damage your husband created has been done. Your lack of action, your daughter-in-laws failure to act make both of you complicit in this horrific chapter in American history. Unless you are going to plead for forgiveness from the American public... you are too little, too late. Frankly, this whole new chapter REEKS of your husband's manipulative behavior. 2020 can't come soon enough.
10
Neither Melania nor Ivanka has any power to influence a megalomaniac like Trump. They are just decorative items in his life, the old time chattels or property he owns. Why should he take advise from them when he believes he is the wisest, smartest guy on earth. He was born with a silverspoon in his mouth, never worked to build something from scratch, bullied everyone around him and companies/ people who had the misfortune to work with him, took loads of money from the Russians and only admires dictators. Crying children and the pain of separated families mean nothing to him. We have as our head of state an utterly cruel, uncaring moron!
6
The New York Times should bring back the public editor. It was my understanding from the publisher that reader comments were aimed at trying to address any potential criticisms readers may have of staff articles That notwithstanding I have on multiple occasions respectively critiqued Charles blow for what appears to be underlying hatred in each of these columns. None of these criticisms have ever been published. Instead all of the postings are limited to those praising his recurrent attacks on Individuals he disagrees with including now the first lady of this country.I wish the times would make clear that weed or comments are not aimed at hearing different viewpoints but rather merely rubberstamping the thoughts whether right or wrong of it to commentators
5
It is past time to impeach this evil monster!
6
Amen
4
The president proudly held up his executive order that ended his cruel policy of ripping children away from their parents. It was similar to his announcement during a 2016 debate with Hillary Clinton when he declared to a national television audience about the birther movement he created, saying piously, “I ended it”.
The president has and will continue to attack President Obama and the Democratic Party for the mess at the borders. And yes, Mr. Blow, his hateful border wall is as offensive to Latinos as is the ugly swastika symbol or white sheets and burning crosses. This president has succeeded in making America hate again.
5
I wall that denotes a border is not a symbol of hatred. The swastika and the burning cross are putrid symbols of hatred. The wall across the border is not a symbol. Its functional and it serves a purpose. You do not hear the Canadians complaining about the border..
Well said, Mr. Blow!
4
First sentence alludes to a lie.
So that pretty much means the rest of his screed is a lie also.
5
It was started under Obama. Now, go tell it on the mounTimes.
2
No, simply wrong. Please check your facts.
Imagine if all these nytimes voices were against convenience abortions....millions of preborns would be saved per year worldwide as news of it spread. Out of sight...out of mind.
2
Wow, tell it like it is!! Good job, Charles.
2
Mr Trump is doing his best to decrease the number of illegal aliens. They are stealing entry level jobs from young African Americans. One would think this would be important to Mr Blow.
2
"It’s just that they value different children in differing degrees"
It's just that they despise Latinos.
The Trumpublican Party is indisputably the party of hate.
15
Clearly, DHS needs to be able to charge, sentence and deport the criminal illegal aliens instantaneously in order to keep the families together. Any drivel otherwise is merely proof of trying to use their suffering as an excuse for open borders.
2
If I take your point with a mood of sympathy, I would then ask you why it is then that our president refused the notion of hiring 6000 more judges based on an unfounded suspicion of graft? What is his alternative solution to expediting this influx humanely if he refuses to add Human Resources to deal with the administrative duties of enforcing the borders? I could agree with you on the point that if we are going to enforce our borders, then let’s hire and put in place the proper infrastructure to process all the people who wish to migrate here, legally or illegally.
3
There was Amnesty in the 1980's with the promise of securing the border. Fast forward to the mess of today, I have zero interest or sympathy for providing any increase in citizenship without a Wall. Temporary border guards can be moved by 40 miles with a new President, just as Obama did. Deportees could be increased just as Obama did, by simply changing what counted as "deported," then actually letting millions more to stay. Sorry, but after being fooled once before, nothing short of a permanently far more secure border will suffice.
Amen!
I don't know how much influence Melania has on The Donald. I suspect it is somewhere in the ballpark of his previous wives. As First Lady, she seems quite uncomfortable in the roll. During the run-up to the 2016 election, it is not beyond the realm of possibility that she was rooting for Hillary. I don't believe she wanted to mess up the rich life style she had before the election.
Keep your eye on the ball Charles. Trump and his crew own this debacle. I can't picture Melania saying, "You know Donald you should separate babies from mothers at the border." Then Donald responds, "Good idea. I put put my gang on it."
Donald Trump and his legion of enablers is where this cruelty emanates from. Keep them front and center in your mind when you write.
Melania isn't getting a free pass. Hold your hands up if you want to be First Lady to a President Trump. Up to your neck in cheeseburger wrappings and empty chicken buckets. RAW
6
It's mind boggling how Charles and so many readers suddenly care about these kids. Obama had the same policy and not a word. Disingenuous outrage is pathetic and only helps conservatives. Keep trying your best to confuse the liberal sheep that follow you Charles.
4
Trump caging children is Obama’s fault?
3
That is absolutely untrue. Obama deported but did not split up families. Do your research.
1
Word is Miller (AKA Baby Gobbles) is set to go after naturalized citizens and to end family-tied immigration- let him start with Melania first, who filed a misleading application when she first applied to come to the US, then furthered the lie to get her own parents in. Hypocrite.
All during the women's marches women kept pleading to "Free Melania"- free her from what, being complicit? She's nothing but a plastic barbie who came to America looking for a rich man and a quick come up. Spare me.
12
Go Charles! Get them.
2
Blow, and the rest of the left wing cabal at the Times, have knowingly misrepresented the facts of this situation.
Specifically, the Flores v Reno settlement agreement of 1997 dictates the terms of confinement for minors.
The parents of these minors are unajudicated delinquent offenders who have not yet been processed through the legal system and, as such, are not eligible to receive minors who are released.
The pertinent text:
"The INS will
segregate unaccompanied minors from unrelated adults. Where such segregation is not immediately
possible, an unaccompanied minor will not be detained
with an unrelated adult for more than 24 hours. If
there is no one to whom the INS may release the minor pursuant to Paragraph 14, and no appropriate
licensed program is immediately available for pl
acement pursuant to Paragraph 19, the minor may be
placed in an INS detention facility, or other INS-contracted facility, having separ
ate accommodations for
minors, or a State or county juvenile detention fa
cility. However, minors shall be separated from
delinquent offenders."
3
Did you not see the "unrelated" adult bit?
1
it says unaccompanied minors from unrelated family not children accompanied by their parents.
1
Trump is a very clever guy. He energized his base with his zero tolerance policy. The Democrats, of course, have come unglued, as they should. However, Trump's base will take this as further evidence that the Democrats (and anyone else opposing his policies, including "moderate" Republicans) are pro-open borders and pro-illegal immigrant. In fact, it will be next to impossible for Democrats to convincingly straddle this line and argue that they oppose separation but are otherwise anti-illegal immigration. He has put Democrats in a no-win situation. Illegal immigration is a hot button for many, many voters of all persuasions. Democrats should not assume they are going to retake Congress in the mid-term elections.
3
Thank you so much. The truth is that the Trumps view most of us as animals, even white people who aren't rich. Now we will see if they actually made any effort to immediately put families together again.
By the way a big thank you to a real first lady, Laura Bush. You spoke for us all.
4
Spot on, Charles. Every word.
2
And don't clutch your pearls and profess your Christian values, anti-abortion stance and family first ideals, and say any of this is justified.
3
The Majority of Republicans SUPPORT and have no problem with our government putting children and their parents in Gulag Interment prisons for the sin of wanting to escape gangs and disfunctional governments.
The Majority of Republicans SUPPORT Trump and ALL his policys no matter how many Lies he tells or how many of his policys hurt everyday Americans or ruin allances with allies which has kept the world safe.
Yes Trump is an Immoral man but any American who still supports the Republican party and Trump are as immoral as Trump and should be fought against and called out for daily for their support of racist fascist policies.
2
"...As president, Donald Trump has indicated he is opposed to so-called chain migration, which gives U.S. citizens the right to sponsor relatives, because of recent terror attacks. And as a candidate, he called for an end to birthright citizenship, declaring it in one of his first policy papers the "biggest magnet for illegal immigration."
Trump: "You have to get rid of it," he said on "Meet the Press" on NBC. "They're having a baby and all of a sudden — nobody knows — the baby is here. You have no choice."
"In a twist, as the Daily Beast first reported, condo buildings that bear the Trump name are the most popular for the out-of-town obstetric patients, although the units are subleased from the individual owners and it's not clear if building management is aware... for a growing number of Russian women, the draw isn't sunny beaches or pulsing nightclubs. It's U.S. citizenship for their newborn children."
"In Moscow, it's a status symbol to have a Miami-born baby, and social media is full of Russian women boasting of their little americantsy."
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/birth-tourism-brings-russian-baby-b...
2
Absolutely nailed it Charles.
Melania is as low a person as the degenerate she freely opted to shackle herself to.
3
Of course the "tea" shared by Melania Trump and the Queen of Spain, and the references to it in the media, are ludicrous. More: they are in the strictest sense meaningless. Their only antecedent is the confabulation of farcical public-relations people on the public dime; their only result will be "news releases" as ephemeral as a gust of wind. Pity the "First Lady", but not too much. She made her bed.
1
Wow!
The First Lady having tea with the King and Queen of Spain?
Certainly better than changing diapers and holding sniveling babies who were forcibly taken from their parents.
Anyway, bring on the designer clothes so a choice can be made as to what to wear!
3
Charles, Does it feel good to criticize?
Does it Make you feel like a better person?
Everybody knows the system is broken ..and we don't need another mega mouth to tell us that.
Why not use your genius ability to help the parentless children, born in NYCity everyday?
They are out there,, not far from your tower window..and you know it.
Start something new and help instead of piling on.
And those here reading this,,help Charles we have enough complainers .
4
Mad Charles continues his rants. Yes, let's not separate children from their parents. Even the great Democrat FDR didn't separate children from their parents. When he sent Japanese-Americans to Internment camp he kept them all together. He locked up the kids with their parents and even tossed in the grand-parents for additional family bonding. What a humanitarian!
But let's not stop here. What about children separated from their parents in prison? Let's reunite them. We can start with the women's prisons. Mommy's in the slammer, let's reunite them, toss the kids in the slammer! Is she in solitary? Now she can have the companionship of her offspring in solitary. And is daddy locked up? No problem. Take the kids away from the grand-parents and lock them up with daddy. Or FDR style you could toss the grand-parents in too. Family reunification should be our goal.
Can you imagine life in the prison yard? Over in one corner are a few guys planning a prison break, and across the yard are some kids playing jump-rope. Why there's a guy changing a diaper! Is this a great system or what?
In fact maybe we should close down the day-care centers; lets get those kids and parents bonding.
Family reunification, what a great thing. It could reunite left and right. Trump haters and normal people. Is this great or what?
2
It is all about him!
Be best.
4
To paraphrase General Sherman, "Trump is cruelty and you can not refine him."
This may be "Trump's Katrina" but should be his Waterloo.
3
You might think he got his immigration ideas from “ Sophie’s Choice”
4
Spot on. Trump is both feckless and cruel.
3
Where's Comey ,when you need him ,and find out there never was a Clinton investigation? Ms. Clinton however is on video wanting to send them back ,a few years ago .and Ivanka? Stormy Daniels full time 24/7 ,oh how quickly we do forget!When Mr. Obama has child camps and swore he would stop them at the border ,ah ,but that was then and that was yesterday and as in the song ,yesterdays gone.
1
Trump jusr says out loud and puts into practice the kind of thing bigoted, racist, homophobic, mysognist, xenophobic Republican neo facist say and advocate behind closed doors, at the club, over a scotch or two when the help is out of earshot. Trump is no anomaly, he is the apotheosis of 40 years of Republican deceit and sedition. Only by the entire removal of the Republican cancer on this country - at every level of the government they so hate - can we have any chance of restoring the democracy Reoublicans work ceaselessly to destroy.
4
Thank you, Mr. Blow.
Trump is an abomination, a man-child, a disgrace. You need to keep calling him and his family members out. Anyone who does not oppose this toddler-in-chief is a collaborator. I sincerely hope to see him in prison for his crimes.
Melania Trump knew what she was getting. The King and Queen of Cruelty both look unhappy -- they probably are. They have every reason to be glum.
3
Most toddlers have more empathy than Donald Trump has.
1
Well said.
Where are the Fundamentalist preachers who are rebuking Trump the sinner and abuser of women and children?
Where is Billy Graham now that we need him?
When are Melania and Ivanka going to speak out publicly and honestly about child abuse?
When is Fox News going to call for an FBI investigation into his conduct and his impeachment?
When are Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton going to begin saying
“We told you he was a creep.”
When is President Dennison going to make good on his promise to sue the dozens of women who he claims falsely accused him of grabbing them?
When is Hollywood going to make the X-rated movie?
When are the Girl Scouts going to announce that they will no longer sell cookies at the White House?
When is Mueller going to grab him under the Mann Act?
There’s a great deal of work to be done here, and it’s time we got started.
3
Leave Melania alone.
But IVANKA is Trump's senior advisor and the administration's Chief Advocate for Families and Children.
Instead of just shopping around the world for "business patents", Ivanka should be made
Chief Administrator of the President's new "FAMILY REUNIFICATION" Project!
So get kickin' Ivanka!
America wants YOU to get all these children back into the arms of their mothers, now!
America has never had a worse First Family than this one.
"Be Best" sound hollow on her lips.
10
There have been several movies about the children of murdered leftist in Argentina who were giving to friends of the Junta to raise discovering their true origins. Are we going to have thousands of kids who have been kidnapped by the US government searching for their true parents in the future? What explanation can we give them.
4
Cohen flipping = max 4 on a scale of 10 potential political damage to Trump.
Melania divorcing and airing the laundry = the only thing that actually might bring this horror to an end.
What she knows makes Mueller ‘s stuff look like child’s play. More importantly, loss of his trophy wife while on stage is the only thing his frail, insecure, cruel and soulless being couldn’t handle because in his world, publicly losing the hot chick would be the Paramount humiliation.
Please Melania!
1
I always wondered about recent immigrants to our country who want to slam the door behind them. How do they sleep at night? Melania is as tone-deaf as it is possible to be, and now I know why she hitched her wagon to this malingering, disgusting, cruel, dirty old man.
The love of money is the root of all evil.
7
I am a Canadian Jew not an American. Eighty per cent of my countrymen now regard America with fear and distrust. I now look first at the Toronto Star and Haaretz before looking at the NYT a newspaper I have known for 65 years.
When your smirking Attorney General quoted Romans 13 I was taken aback and Haaretz suddenly became my first read in the morning. Haaretz became my first read in the morning because only Haaretz had the names of the priests, ministers, the churches and the time when Chancellor Hitler had his church leaders cite Romans 13 in their sermons.
https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium-the-real-story-behind-the-nazi-...
I cannot know for sure why your Attorney General could not keep a straight face as he read Romans 13 but I have my suspicions. Just as I cannot know the impact of racism on black people in America the many articles in Haaretz on the trauma of familial separation the host of articles in Haaretz are reminders of who I am.
This week may finally spell the end of an Israel seeking moral guidance from a nation that has lost all sense of ethics and moral behaviour. The reading of Romans 13 from the pulpits of Germany is a pivotal moment in the history of my people and Haaretz has risen to the task. Haaretz forces us to look in the mirror with numerous article this week.
https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium-jews-clash-as-shoah-comparisons...
I cannot forget!
6
Too bad he didn't ask the Kina and Queen of Spain to address the children in their native language.
3
I so enjoy your op-ed pieces. After reading the tripe offered up from the lips of Ralph Reed in today’s New York Times article “Why hasn’t Trump lost the Evangelical vote? Ralph Reed Explains” your refreshing article brought tears of laughter to my eyes.
1
Thank you for saying this. I feel Melania is a con artist with a fancy wardrobe. She an immigrant was a birther proponent . Money talks nobody walks. What a stress these two have put on our nation
4
Folks on the left especially in the previous administration encouraged this illegal immigration gambit,Hillary talked of open borders. Not stated anywhere on these pages is the involvement of cartels and gangs 'assisting' these migrants for profit. Many of these kids are not even related to the adults who present themselves at the border. Before Trumps policy these people were simply turn loose,disappear, one knows where they are...many are exploited
Those encouraging the current chaos do so for political purposes...envisioning a borderless utopia,the ultimate goal. Keep up the hysterical nazi allusions, many voters see this for the scam it is.
4
“Allusions”? No one needs to make “allusions” when actual neo-Nazis are Donald Trump’s biggest supporters. In fact, they just announced another rally, in August in D.C. across from the White House. That way, Trump won’t have to walk far to shake hands with them and say thanks.
1
A large number of republicans—probably white moms who actually had empathy for these terrified young people, who have already been through so much upheaval , and who instead of finding the promised land and a better life, were separated from their only family and sent off to god knows where—protested in huge numbers to their republican representatives. There can be no other explanation for the president's backing down on this issue. Well maybe there is a shred of decency and humanity left in this ravaged country. Because god only knows, there is 0 humanity in this White House and in this monster man and his enablers.
1
We need a Conservative Party that splits off real Republicans from the cancerous Trumpist cult. People like Steve Schmidt, Rick Wilson, Bret Stephens, George Will, Jeff Flake, and many others really need to lead a walkout from the Trumpist Party and start fielding candidates. If they do so, Trumpism will collapse like a torn blimp.
2
She is as culpable as him. She can't or won't stand up to him for whatever reason she chooses, but she can't remain silent because remaining silent is acceptance. These are horrible, evil people.
3
Good point! Trump Republicans, who are so pro-life in the womb, show nothing but disdain for children after birth---unless (perhaps) they are white.
1
If we're going to separate families when parents commit a misdemeanor offense, maybe we should consider taking children away their from parents when they're pulled over for speeding. You could make the case that the parents are putting their children at risk, and certainly they're breaking the law. I'm sure Trump would love this if it only applied to minority families.
2
The press tiptoes around it, but most of us must assume the First Lady has had some kind of breakdown - her odd, extended absence coming as it did on the heels of the now-forgotten Stormy Daniels/Karen McDougal double-feature, with its lurid details and disturbing timelines. It would surprise no one that public humiliation had gotten the best of Melania and her invisible son.
Acquaintances say she was required to sign a contract before the election, binding her to not leaving Trump during the presidency if he won. If so, honoring that contract looks to be taking its toll; she clearly can’t stand the man. I’d feel the same pity for her I do for their son, but sadly she knew what she was getting into.
5
Grew up poor in the Bronx, mom a part-time school aide, dad a low-level salary straphanger who woke up at his D stop for 37 years. Bronx Science '76.
Let's stipulate that there's an inequitable system and this proposal might fix it. Let's go with it.
So what happens when kids who haven't been screened by a test do poorly at the specialized school? Surely we then offer the best coaching we can, which will help some (likely small) percentage. But because a student won't lose her or his seat at the school even with a barely-passing GPA, many will remain at the school and flail on the SATs or ACTs (basically performing at the same levels as all HS students). The vast majority will not get admitted to top universities (whereas today graduates of the specialized schools are).
If instead demands are made for the schools to dilute the curriculum, all students will suffer (contradicting the entire point of this effort), as colleges and universities will select far fewer of our graduates across the board.
Can someone please calmly and respectfully address these issues? I've stuck to the issues and been respectful; please do the same in response.
2
I’m inclined to leave Melanie out of this. The tweet was clearly one cog in an attempted press initiative. I doubt she wrote one syllable.
Re the potential difficulties she expressed in moving her son mid school year: let that go too. We don’t know anything about her son’s emotions.
3
Would this administration have had the chutzpah to implement this disastrous inhumane policy had whites instead of browns been pouring illegally through the border?
6
I wonder if in his private life he does similar cruel things to Barron to punish, say, Melania when she gets out of line or to get deals from her. Lock the child up in a (golden) cage in his room or in a floor of his Manhattan tower or in a private wing of the White House if mommy crosses father or breaks a rule in his house.
1
Where were all the concerns when Obama separated kids from families and placed them in cages? I
4
Sorry, Charles. Your belittling of Melania is misplaced. She has spoken bravely.
4
Was Melania ”brave” to support her husband’s toxic Birtherism campaign against President Obama? She is a complicit trophy wife, nothing more.
8
Let's not forget Melania is an immigrant. I bet she thanks God every night that she was not subject to "merit based " proposed rule her husband wants and that her parents can benefit from current "chain migration " rules. Hypocrisy?
1
@ Sharon Salzberg
Yes, she made her bed. Now let her lie in it.
When someone shows you who they are, believe them. DT showed us who he was during the election, a racist who called us rapists and murderers, he was elected anyway. He and his immigrant wife are the King and Queen of cruelty. His lack of compassion is pathological, the people of Puerto Rico can attest to that. The Republicans own this now. The removing of children and infants (infants!) from their parents will go down in history as a shameful episode in U.S. history. Decent people of the United States, I call on you to not sit idle while our country devolves into this fascist state.
14
Mussolini has risen from the dead. He is alive and well, and living in the White House.
America is going Fascist. Leading the charge are Republicans and Evangelicals, their family-values facades removed and discarded.
9
MELANIA is just as insensitive as DONALD. Has she actually done anything about "the Children" she talks about protecting and helping? A big fat NO!!!! She and DT deserve each other. The entire family despicable with no humanity. And again where are the Republicans in Congress? Most are Nodding their heads in agreement so they don't become the brunt of DT's rath. Just unbelievable!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
10
Just follow the money...Private companies (read: Trump's newest donors) are already making millions managing Trump’s child prisons.
The contracts were awarded in September 2017, so that tells me the Trump administration already had its plan in place to forcibly separate children from their parents and put them in cages. This was a planned long-term policy of this administration to separate and jail children.
By reviewing publicly available contracts data, Yahoo News identified five companies that are participating in the operation of the shelters, including two companies that have not previously been tied to the program.
The data reviewed by Yahoo News posted on the site GovTribe.com, which provides “real-time federal contract marketing data.” Contract vehicles are one of the mechanisms the U.S. government uses to award contracts to vendors.
The data reviewed by Yahoo News was for a contract vehicle called “Shelter Care for Unaccompanied Children 2022.” This included 10 different contracts for up to ~$92 million awarded to 5 different vendors a/o Sept2017. The contracts include plans to operate the shelters through September 2022!!!!! Trump and Steven Miller know by 'agitating' their base they will blindly folllow. Contact your Congressperson. Demand they stop funding for these contracts. NOW.
This is vile. The worst adults in the world are those in positions of power who would endanger children to take advantage of a situation for their own gain.
9
America is in a sad, tragic place under this evil man. God help us.
10
To DC: I didn't vote for him. I can't stand seeing what Trump and the Republicans have done each day. It makes me sick. We need prays and votes to overturn this government.
Charles, you are getting to be as bad as Trump in your altered state reality and incivility. Step back. Take a breath. Regain your equilibrium and write something true. Don't be the Democratic Fox news.
4
Mr. Blow, if you are addressing your column to Donald Trump, you are wasting your time, he obviously is lacking the compassion gene.
2
I don't think they are going to the internment camps to see what has been wrought. I bet he has a golf game scheduled.
7
Love you, Charles
5
Melania the immigrant.
I ask you what skills and expertise did she bring to America to make er worthy of entry?
8
Donald Trump. Terrorist. The shoe fits.
7
Oh goodness me Mr. Blow, down here in affluent western NC, the dogs and cats in the shelter get more sympathy, tham all those "not white" aliensuh. And all these "good people are god fearing christians too. Maybe it woul be mre accurate tor replacethe present active voice "do" with the present admonitive voice "should".
Why are you so sure that "all the people" you invoke or on the side of the angels? They are, after all, how we got here
1
Those, who are not our best, have infested our White House.
17
Trump, Melania, and every member of his family are useless.
5
Well, it did not take long to establish the Trump legacy.
And now there is nothing our sick president can do to reverse world opinion.
10
Perhaps Melania will visit the detention centers and read to the children from Dr. Seuss’s “The Places You’ll Go!” It may seem inappropriate under the circumstances. but after all, she likes to read it in hospitals to kids with serious illnesses.
5
Mr. Blow says, "You can’t do any of that and assume that decent people won’t rise up in revolt." Well Charles you are dead wrong. The GOP still supports this man. They are him and he is them and he remains their standard-bearer. A few cowardly words of criticism towards him, but the GOP and Trump are one and the same and they shame the nation with every action they take. They have achieved much...They are now the greatest disgrace this country has had since slavery.
3
I believe that when Mr. Blow wrote "decent people" he was not thinking about the republicans. Who would?
1
Another great column, Mr. Blow. A picture, in this case, is worth a thousand words. Look at the two of them and read their expressions - they hate themselves, they hate each other and they hate most of us. There is no love in their hearts. They are co-conspirators in sadism, psycopaths in the truest sense of the word. An immigrant herself, strangely she is loved by Trump's rabid, xenophobic, hateful supporters. Why despite her thick accent and little assimilation of things American? Because she is white and she is the king's chosen queen. It sickens me to know that my tax dollars are paying for the guards to their left and right and I am paying to keep them on their perches where they look down upon us and wreak so much havoc. This escalating daily national nightmare needs to end very, very soon.
10
Her statement was actually a response to press inquiries. She did not proactively or preemptively make one. It was coerced out of her staff.
Her PR people have been in overdrive trying to fluff her up - Gaslighting and artifice taken to a whole new level!
When will this ridiculous charade end?
Designer outfits and PR teams can’t remake a devious poseur of poor character & checkered history;
This woman bold-faced lied about having a college degree she didn’t have (among other brazen lies), and publicly defended her Alt-Right fans anti-Semitic attacks & death threats on a female journalist!
A Birther co-conspirator who in her broken English demanded to see the birth certificate of the former president; helping to instigate even more racist hate and death threats against the historic President & First Lady, and their 2 then still minor daughters. Daughters who were even younger at the time, than the son Mrs Trump now uses to play victim and shield herself from criticism.
A heartless immigrant who obtained a green card/naturalized under dubious circumstances, but who had no qualms publicly asserting that undocumented (DACA) kids brought to the U.S by their parents, be deported back to the home countries they were not familiar with.
She’s well-matched to her horrid husband; both are corrupting to our kids. They must never be normalized. Recent repackaging of her as victim of her husband and faux-good cop to her husband’s bad cop, is laughable to say the very least.
13
The Republican Party has become royalist.
3
This is probably the most obscene thing that Trump has done and he has done many, many despicable things since taking the election. Charles Blow, as usual, is right on target. We can't get rid of this administration soon enough.
6
"I just can't" summarises how I feel every day reading about the horrors of the Trump regime.
5
Haven't liked her since I found out that helped her husband promulgate the birther theory.
7
Remember the 236 schoolgirls that Boko Haram kidnapped a few years ago? Remember how horrified you felt? That seems like chump change compared to the 2300 children that Trump, Sessions and that creep Miller have taken from their parents. And still the majority of Republicans don’t care. 236 vs 2300. I don’t get it.
7
Remember, Melania has no power, no voice, no nothing. She signed a prenup basically giving up all rights as a human being, woman, wife, mother.
Ok folks, let's put sanctimony and moral obfuscation aside and vote straight up ... open borders; yes or no?
2
Is there no middle ground in the absolutist mind set of trump supporters? No. Everything is black and white. Nuance and a depth of understanding of the actual immigration policy of Democrats is too complicated for their brains.
Ms Salzberg ... and the nuance and depth of understandiing of the Democtats' policy is ...?
what is the middle ground?
Kidnapping. The President, Attorney General and Homeland Security have kidnapped children. Hopefully, most (tragic to think some children may never see their parents again...how insane a policy), if not all, will eventually be reunited with their families. But regardless of if or when children and parents are united the children were kidnapped. Kidnapping is a federal offense. Jail Trump and his fellow kidnappers! Forget Hillary....it’s Jail DT!
5
One of the more pernicious and perverse aspects of the evolution of the Republican party into the cult of Trump is the learned response of the cult to deflect and assign blame to others.
The sight of the president of the U.S. blaming Democrats for his cruel, inept policy decision was pathetic and expected. His supporters now fall mindlessly in line, repeating the same drivel. No need for critical thinking among this crowd. Enter into the Cult of Trump. Check your mind at the door.
13
Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome will be with these parents and children for their lifetime. And just think! Mental Health Services are being slashed by this administration. We have met the enemy and he is in the White House.
8
I guess if they were impoverished Slovenian refugee families trying to flee to America, the Trumps might have shown some sliver of genuine empathy and sincere concern. When will the US realize that your Emperor has no Soul?
5
On Melania, Its amazing she has any voice at all, considering how her husband regards descent. I'll take what I can get. She tries but is often attacked on all sides, probability from her husbands side as well. I would like to fantasize that she has a core of decency and that she is raising her son to be a good person. There has to be a bright spot somewhere in this god forsaken administration.
2
Her statement was actually a response to press inquiries. She did not proactively or preemptively make one. It was coerced out of her staff.
Her PR people have been in overdrive trying to fluff her up - Gaslighting and artifice taken to a whole new level!
When will this ridiculous charade end?
Designer outfits and PR teams can’t remake a devious poseur of poor character & checkered history;
This woman bold-faced lied about having a college degree she didn’t have (among other brazen lies), and publicly defended her Alt-Right fans anti-Semitic attacks & death threats on a female journalist!
A Birther co-conspirator who in her broken English demanded to see the birth certificate of the former president; helping to instigate even more racist hate and death threats against the historic President & First Lady, and their 2 then still minor daughters. Daughters who were even younger at the time, than the son Mrs Trump now uses to play victim and shield herself from criticism.
A heartless immigrant who obtained a green card/naturalized under dubious circumstances, but who had no qualms publicly asserting that undocumented (DACA) kids brought to the U.S by their parents, be deported back to the home countries they were not familiar with.
She’s well-matched to her horrid husband; both are corrupting to our kids. They must never be normalized. Recent repackaging of her as victim of her husband, and the faux-good cop to her husband’s bad cop, is laughable to say the very least.
5
Thank you Charles. I am tired of the way the media portrays Melania as a victim. This is misplaced sympathy. She knew exactly who she was marrying.
9
Once upon a time, the United States had a real leader named Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who was strong enough to lead the country out of a depression and worked with other nations to help us defeat the Nazis. In his words:
"Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough."
10
They are indeed having an ''impact'' on children.
9
THANK YOU! I was thinking the same thing - Melania insited they stay in NYC at the cost of millions of tax-payer dollars. Just so her son wouldn't be traumatized. She comes to this country falsely under an Einstein exception (immigrating to the US with a special skill reserved for Oscar winners and nuclear physicists), then she allegedly works without the proper visas. And in spite of her husband's fear and loathing of "chain" immigration, she brings her parents here. Melania has done nothing since becoming First Lady. Except plagiarize, free-load, and make ridiculous declarations about fighting cyber-bullying. If Michelle Obama was still First Lady she would have been in Texas cradling those poor children and demanding this cruelty end immediately. Neither Melania nor Donald are one tenth the parents these poor immigrants are. These people make one of the most treacherous journeys on Earth to give their children better lives. You only have to look at Ivanka, Eric, and Don JR, and what's the other one's name, to know what values Trump instilled in his kids. Does anyone remember the eclipse last summer? Baron was fumbling with his special eclipse glasses and neither parent helped him?? Melania made sure her glasses were on first and our illustrious President was staring right into the sun. Well. he stared into the sun again this week and and people everywhere burned him for his racist policies.
16
I am a HUGE fan of Charles Blow but, it has been my belief, since her petulent man-child declared his run for the office of POTUS, that Melania is wearing the "golden handcuffs" of a prenuptial agreement, not to mention that fact that she enjoys the benefits of living with lots of money at hand. I also believe she is not a happy wife.
Yet there is no doubt that wannabe King Donny has no empathy or compassion for anyone, anywhere. He is so transactional, he sees the binary win-lose-at-any-cost, scorched-earth "philosophy" as the only way to play his game.
Since he blamed the Dems for a law that did not exist, he will surely take credit for what he sees as rubbing their noses in his latest "victory."
In the meantime, Homeland Security Secretary Nielson will have to come up with a new slogan or speech to save her sorry face. The AG (and retired Keebler elf) Jeff Sessions will have to look for another Biblical passage to qualify this change in policy. These three stooges (with apologies to the original cast) have mud on their faces as their claims that their [mythical] law could not be changed with an Executive Order.
Yet, with the tsunami of rage flowing over the administration, DJT suddenly discovers the EO as the seawall of defense against his critics here and abroad. He will try to turn the tsunami waters into wine with endless self-praise, while his fan base drools like Komodo dragons over a dead water buffalo. How did America get this way? Answer: the RNC donors.
3
Immoral? No.
That would imply the presence of morality in Trump's soul. Have he ever shown any? I read about New York, I don't live there, so I expect you'd more than me, but I've yet to read a word about him--going back to the 80's--that indicates he's ever transcended his discipleship to Roy Cohn.
Except when he threw Cohn under the bus, which I guess was the moment when the pupil became the master.
5
What a wonderful column!
4
No one who supports separating immigrant parents and children will ever be re-elected, right America?
5
Trump's white male subjective view of humanity is cousin to the desire of a white aryan race, the white male being the superior. This battle of superiority has been fought since the beginning of time. Well, a soulless warrior has raced it's vile head once again, Donald John Trump and his entourage of soulless followers.
We have fought a similar war before, Our Civil War and the fight is back on. This war holds no sides, Democratic, Republican nor Independent. It holds no label, Liberal nor Conservative.
This is a war against Humanity. We the People, All peoples must gather together, unified and shout from the corners of Our land; this heinous act of the imprisonment of children, of separating a parent from child, a child from their parent is not who we are and will end. How dare you justify this using the execution of a rule of law implement by a man who truly believes himself a king.
Remember these words he uttered, claiming them to be a joke during the NK summit: " He (Kim) speaks and his people sit up at attention. I want my people to do the same."
6
The entire world can see Donald Trump has neither a soul or a conscience, My question is why nearly 60% of Republicans still support this tyrant? My prayer is that come November (or sooner if Mueller ever reveals the Truth) is that Trump will finally be consigned to the garbage dump of history where he belongs; and the G.O.P. will finally be held to account for their cruelty and arrogance. America`s reputation around the world depends on a cleansing of this insanity by the out of control ALT-RIGHT once and for all!
6
Y'all are missing the point. This is not a blackmail policy trying to leverage concessions in Congress. This is a terror policy stating to anyone with brown skin "If you seek asylum in the United States, or cross it's borders illegally with your children, we will take them from you." So, don't come to the land of the white, and the home of the xenophobe.
14
Some reports say Ivanka and Melania helped convince The Donald to “change heart” (there is none to begin with) and write the executive order to stop separating families.
What kind of man, let alone country leader, needs to be convinced to stop a mandate to such cruelty by favorite daughter and third (immigrant) wife? Or any daughter and wife?
Makes us wonder what else Ivanka and Melania plead for. I hate to think of the vibes of insanity that run rampant at the White House. I can remember taking our kids on a tour there when they were small. We felt a certain honor. You know? I wouldn’t go on a tour in that sour, toxic, creepy place now that this guy has turned it into if I got paid to do so.
Now, out of the White House comes plan after plan of the demise of America’s morality and prior respected stance in the world, with or without Melania.
11
Today's Republicans are "corrupt, indecent and immoral...filled with feckless cowards" who justify "the same evil that separated families during slavery and dislocated tribes and broke up Native American families," a party that "has become a danger to our democracy and values." The words of an angry liberal? A Democratic politician exercising their duty to protect and defend? The words of Steve Schmidt, who served in the Bush II administration and John McCain's presidential campaign, withdrawing this week from his life-long affiliation with the GOP.
I'm not surprised by the moral rot that this family has brought to the White House, nor any policy that the traitor can conceive to serve his personal gain, nor any crime or disgrace that his "administration" can commit. But I'm disgusted that Democratic politicians and too many liberals still think they can make a difference in this fight with "civil" language and the benefit of the doubt. We need more men and women like Schmidt and Blow who will not tip-toe around this existential threat to our country. We need more actions like those of the states and corporations who refuse to be part of this degeneracy, and more public response like the legal fund set up by two parents on FB.
Democratic Party: STEP UP! You're not going to lose votes by calling this filth by its name!
5
Come on. Mrs. Trump isn't the president. That's like blaming Hillary for Bill's philandering.
3
Ripping children out of the arms of parents? No problem. Releasing tax returns? Problem. How corrupt and immoral our country has become. This is what happens to a Democracy when people stop participating and allow themselves to be brainwashed by Fox News. They are all traitors to their own country.
8
Bravo -- great column Mr. Blow. You speak the truth so eloquently -- you will never know the comfort your honest writing and reporting has to many, many people. These are the most terrible people I have ever seen in this country -- and, I agree, we deserve so much better. I believe this man was not elected -- he has cheated to get everything he has in life and this is no different. He's a loser who would like to take everyone down with him. Shameful!
6
Thank you for this.
2
ear! Hear!
1
The fact that Trump appears to have given in on family separation at the border only makes him more dangerous. By issuing an executive order to end the practice, Trump is tacitly admitting that he has been lying for weeks about Democrats being responsible for the mess. He is clearly a sociopath, and this humiliation must be driving him crazy. He is surely plotting his revenge. It's way too soon for Trump's opponents to do a victory lap. Benedict Donald's worst is yet to come. Buckle up.
7
Trump is doing to asylum seekers what he did to Ivana when they were getting divorced. He sent his bodyguard to Don Jr.'s school and removed him. Then he tried to hold the child hostage to wring concessions from Ivana. She told him she had two other children, of course, one of those was his favorite. Yes, he abducted his son in an attempt to force his wife to his bidding. Children really are just bargaining chips to him, hardly human at all.
This is the most disgusting person ever to walk in the Oval Office. We must continue to protest this atrocity committed in our name until every single child is returned to every waiting, worrying parent. Never forget this. Never let it rest! He is a monster.
12
Keep his feet to the fire! This man is seriously disturbed and is damaging, and it is all about his disdain for people if color.
6
The king and queen of cruelty are without doubt Barack and Michele Obama. Barack put into action the famous children's' cages that are now going viral though made in 2014. Michele self-righteously was the senior officer at the University of Chicago hospital that closed that emergency room to the local poor.
2
Mr Blow and most of the media and people commenting here are long on hate and short on any solutions. Cant separate families; then you would have to hold them together until their case is resolved. That would not satisfy the above; so the only thing you can do is let them in to the general population so that they can do the work that we don't want to do. Great, problem solved but what happens when the rest of the world finds out that all you have to do is arrive at our border with one or more kids and you are in. When is enough, enough. How about turning back illegal immigrants before they reach our border.
1
I can't handle this anymore. I can't.
6
Thank you Charles for your column.
I think the Republican Party have gravely hurt themselves. They will be remembered forever not as Republicans but as the Party that put kids in cages. Disgraceful and shameful.
2
Outrage is too mild a reaction. This nightmare must end!!!!!!
8
Melania may not be cruel, but she appears to be as indifferent to the reality of the immigration policy her husband creates and enforces and then un-creates and enforces. She sits down w/the Queen of Spain and has tea to talk about impacting children. #BeBest? Useless hogwash. Very regalish and above the fray while children are ripped from their parents arms and warehoused like boxes of tiaras. She has married the most callous man in the world, ever, of all time, ever in world history. Media reports she influenced trump to stop the separation policy. Whoopdy Do. When you sit in the throne next to the wannabe king and schedule tea with monarchs, you may end up as royalty has in many countries. Even Russia. From down here where people live and sweat to earn a living, it looks pretty evil to see the rulers maintain their separation from the realities inflicted for their gain.
8
Once again, thank you Mr. Blow, for an honest and realistic comment. To those who have commented to absolve or excuse Melania, she had a choice. She chose getting paid VERY WELL to provide sex to a demon, under the guise of being it's wife, over being a decent human being. There is no excuse for being vile, evil, hateful, and selfish.
3
Melania, Melania, what a pathetic creature. She has no understanding of the country she has taken advantage of. A model, so to speak. She married for luxury. She got her US visa under false pretenses. Got her parents in on chain-immigration the Trumpster criticized. She took the taxpayers for many millions to provide security for her and her son who has a whole floor in the Trump Tower. Now she imagines we care what she thinks.
4
Well, we can certainly contrast Melania’s words and behavior from those our four living former First Ladies, women who are now private citizens with no official responsibility to speak out. Laura Bush was brave and forthright and unequivocal in her condemnation of the slave era/nazi era practice of separating children from their parents by force.
Call it was it is, a form of terror visited upon the oppressed to affirm the wicked government’s complete control over their lives.
6
Maybe there's hope for what appears to be the unhappy and angry Melania. Rather than putting up with her monstrous and wayward husband, yes, she stayed in New York. Can't really blame her. And who knows what kinds of papers she signed agreed to stay married through her husband's campaign and presidency. I'm sure Mr. Dennison insisted. It could be that the real Melania showed up at Barbara Bush's funeral. The photo of her warm smile, face and eyes lit up in the company of the class act that is Barack Obama is where my hope lies. Like Nancy Reagan eventually did, who knows how the lady will transition to something of a more empathetic and bigger hearted person.
1
Sorry, I can't hold my breathe that long.
2
Interesting that Peter Fonda's rather vulgar comment regarding family separations had to be retracted and that Fonda felt it necessary to apologize to the Trumps. Since it involved potential harm to the first family the Secret Service got involved.
Peter clearly got carried away emotionally, but the essence of his comment, which is "how would the Trumps feel if they were on the side of the immigrants and their kid were being taken away from them" is still a valid point.
Where the heck is Barbara Bush when you need her?
6
Charles, you are always crying about immorality but never offer solutions. What is your solution? I just saw David Gergen reflexively voicing moral outrage on CNN, but when asked what his solution would be he was as quiet as a mouse just like you have been Charles on any real solutions. I am guessing that Progressives do not have solutions - just hyperventilation and outrage.
3
Solution: Remove this unqualified maniac from office with 25th Amendment.!!!
1
Charles is rallying not just progressives to take a moral stance against this Nazi action. Many of us have, and will, take action in calling our congress representatives to take action to make the government undo this mess. Many of us will make constributions to organizations that support moral issues. And, equally important, we will make sure we turn the congress blue.
2
Remember your three Rs
Repeal and Replace ALL Republicans
Dave
4
We knew sooner or later Trump & his minions would do something so reprehensible that even some of his base would have to stand against him, even if only a little. We also know The Dear Leader has no shame nor conscience so let's not just sit there or we are de facto complicit in these horrific acts. Call our legislators, demonstrate, register & vote. As Frederick Douglass once said "agitate, agitate, agitate!"
9
Charles, don’t leave this issue - and don’t give Ivanka/Cruella de Ville a pass, either. Melania and Ivanka are just as evil as the monster husband/father and those horrid brothers.
17
Another reason I have no sympathy for Melania: she has double standards.
4
When Mr. Blow writes that the Trumps "value different children in differing degrees", he reminds me of his own hypercritical valuing of children in differing degrees. When a 12 year old is murdered by a cop in Cleveland, Mr. Blow ceremonious comforts the child's parents at their kitchen table while the Democratic National Convention coronates the most qualified person to ever run for President. Optics at its grandest. But, when a 9 year old boy is murdered in a Chicago alley by a gang reeking revenge, Mr. Blow chooses to waltz around Michigan Avenue protesting police brutality. No kitchen table condolences. No outrage. Optics at its basest...And so it is with child-parent separation. Some separations are valued differently than other by Mr. Blow. Not a whimper about any of the children being separated from their parents today - right now - in New York City. Moral outrage at the Border. It's always all about politics with Mr. Blow and his highly selective moral indignation...R.I.P. Tayshawn Lee [ACM]
1
Donald Trump is a bully. He uses bully tactics to achieve political objectives. This is the first time the American people have stood up to the bully and he backed down, just like all bullies everywhere.
3
What have we become as a nation---We are now represented at the highest level of our government by a common street thug---and more disturbing, he has a following who cannot get enough of his vile language, sub-par intellect, and racism. Watching old WW II clips, especially of Mussolini's balcony speeches, you see that same image of Trump ranting at his weekly rally's.
3
The fact that Melania would choose to marry an obviously disturbed person, a narcissistic sociopath, tells you all you need to know about her.
10
The “family values, pro-life party” meant WHITE babies, silly.
10
A la Conciergerie, both of them!
2
Thanks for pointing out the hypocrisy of the Queen.
3
Con Don is a cruel morally bankrupt person with zero conviction on anything. He survives by faking advantage of red hot issues to bolster his fear and division mongering startegy. Don is a master con and use it very effectively to create phoney impression. As he was driving the nation against immigrants, his family tried to garner investment in China by selling immigration visa. Con man did cut a deal with China to protect a Chinese electronics company convicted of selling secret US technologies to other countries. Of course, the intent was to cut a deal with China by hook or crook, even at the cost of national security. The man with zero governance skills is doing the same thing with the North Korean tyrrant so that he can look good and satisfy his lust for a Nobel prize since Obama got one. People wake up- look at the true color of this phoney con man. He and his cronies are looting and destroying our nation.
3
Thank you, Mr. Blow.
2
I saw Charles Blow on the Communist News Network CNN the other day. His anti-Trump bias is so strong he is incapable of thinking straight. All he ever writes is anti-Trump columns. The NY Times should pull his column from its paper.
2
I commend Mr. Blow for his patriotism, he's tirelessly shining a light on the horrors of this administration.
4
Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye, Rosalita,
Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria;
You won't have your names when you ride the big airplane,
All they will call you will be "deportees
Deportee
(aka. "Plane Wreck at Los Gatos")
Words by Woody Guthrie, Music by Martin Hoffman
9
Arlo Guthrie sings this song in his shows now. Deeply touching. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Thanks for this.
8
Trump is a sociopath. Along with his many other faults.
5
Only a NYT opinion writer could turn a responsible and caring parental act (ex., staying in NYC with Baron) into one worthy of ideologically-driven derision. Mr. Blow seems to care only about certain children. Cry me a river, Mr. Blow.
3
Did the release of a photo--with no caption or story--of trump daughter Ivanka lovingly holding her son, soon after the story of the imprisonment of children crossing into the US, give you as much heartburn?
3
Thank you Mr. Blow!!
1
The GOP, in spite of its former First Ladies, had been paving Trump's way for decades—their infrastructure project, if you will—and like all developers destroy the existing structure and build your own. The GOP may have buyer's remorse, but it was what they shopped for.
"Trump’s grip on the throat of the Republican Party is so strong that it no longer has breath or voice for objection."
No, it doesn't, but it reflects what they consider a good White National Christian marriage.
2
The media glommed on to her tepid statement calling for "both sides" to solve the problem in hopes that it reflected some degree of humanitarianism from someone in the WH. Yesterday, she also got media credit for talking her husband into modifying his hellish policies, without any evidence in the way of a public WH acknowledgment she did so. But unless we see her out in the field observing conditions first hand, it is impossible to give her credit for having done much if anything to help these children. If she does at some point go, I for one would like to see her having spent less obvious effort looking like she just stepped off Park Avenue and more effort appearing like she really cares for these kids. To Mr. Blow's point, however, maybe that's not something she's willing/able to do.
5
Charles observes: “Indeed, a CNN poll conducted by SSRS and released Monday found although two-thirds of Americans overall opposed the policy, a majority of Republicans supported it.”
This result is more disturbing than Trump, who can be written off entirely as an unfeeling non-human. This poll, if accurate, indicates the herd instinct among Republicans overpowers their common sense, their imagination, and worst, their humanity.
A more polarizing report would be hard to find. Most unfortunate.
7
Once again Trump is using another issue, in this case the tragedy of these separated families, a Trump-created situation, to distract from the Mueller investigation.
Forget Melania - the Republicans in Congress, who should be representing the American people, have lost their voices, or their sense of right and wrong, or both.
The man who reserves his highest praise for tyrants is getting a good start at imitating their cruelty too. But of course some of us could see this coming in his behavior on the campaign trail. Funny his supporters can't figure out that something is wrong with the man.
6
The nicest thing I can think about the Trumps as they are the perfect real life version of "Boris and Natasha" of Bullwinkle fame. But this is not a funny parallel and their damage to our country is continuing to be
GREAT!
1
Excellent column, as always! But, what about the children of Americans who are arrested and jailed in this country? They suffer also. Why don't we allow women to have their babies and toddlers with them when they are incarcerated?
1
Prejudice and discrimination against immigrants are not new. My grandparents suffered from them when they first arrived in this country from Italy. The Irish suffered from them, the Chinese, the Mexican, etc.
Over time, we learned that immigrants are good for our country. They work hard, they pay taxes, they fight in our wars, they add to the rich diversity of life in America.
What this poor excuse for a human being doing is taking the country back in time. By stigmatizing the new immigrants, by inflicting cruelties on their families, he has brought back the 'bad old days' of outright discrimination. I expect to see 'Hispanics need not apply' in want ads any day now.
3
Will Americans ever decide it is time to wake up from this nightmare? Have we not fallen to our lowest point yet? I am sickened by what is happening to our country. I am afraid we have changed as a people forever.
Thank you, Mr. Blow, for reminding us of Mrs. Trump's protection of her own son. It angers me. She herself is an immigrant and was given the gift of entry by some questionable means.
We Americans are living in two separate worlds with two separate realities.
The King and Queen of Cruelty is a perfect title for the pair. They both lack the ability to understand human nature and suffering.
7
Irony is dead, just like a ton of other things under trump. The irony here is that his wife should be the one to speak for immigrants. She should show us how she went through the immigration path to citizenship. She should tell us how her parents achieved citizenship through her. She should stand up for the children of immigrants on any number of levels, from pure compassion and empathy to recognizing that her OWN son is the child of an immigrant. But we know she won't. "She stands there beside her husband, silent, not speaking, I don't know, you tell me, maybe she isn't allowed to speak..." Sound familiar to anyone?
4
Melania Trump, who came to this country as an immigrant, and who claims to be a champion of children, spoke (via twitter) belatedly and with a very soft voice.
If she is really concerned about children, then how about this- why doesn't she lead a contingent to inspect and report on the status of the 2,300 (or more) children who have been forcibly removed from their parents by the trump administration? Why doesn't she push for a plan for the trump administration to return each and every one of these children to their parents?
That would a least be a start, if she really does care about children... all children.
6
Thank goodness for a free (albeit sometimes "Fake" as in Fox) press. The news focus was the factor that changed trump's inhumane policy -not because he came to see the problem of separating families in a sympathetic light but because it hurt him with his base. We learned this week that no matter how morally bankrupt the President and his cohorts are they do reach a tipping point. The real press must keep up the pressure. The press is the only bulwark keeping us from sliding into full fledged fascism. How debased we have become since November 2016 but this week we are heartened that there are still citizens who refuse to be complicit in trump's dystopian world
3
There are still over 2,000 kids separated from parents with no timetable for being reunited. The Executive Order is incomplete. It also came with a threat --give me my 'wall' or I'll do it again--thus putting the lie to all the lies about why separation had become administration policy.
But please let's stay focused. Don't allow this singular outrage to disappear in the daily fog of outrages until the President and Homeland Security reunite children with parents.
It is bad enough that the GoP deprives poor children of health care and social safety net programs to line the coffers of the rich. The burden of GoP tax and trade policies will also fall heaviest on the poor and their children. One in every six children is poor, nutritionally stressed in this grand country. And failed by their schools. There is a pattern to GoP evil. All you have to do is look.
It was a child in the fable who observed "the President has no clothes!". The children are crying. And it is the adults lining this obscene parade ground who must force the Trumps and their GoP enablers to put their clothes back on. The wife is but a sad, feckless footnote, one among many family members, legislators and the (55%) of Republicans who approve the separation policy. We need to church them.
But first things first. There are over 2,000 children without their parents. Give them back their parents!
4
Great piece from Charles Blow. He touched on the aspect of this that is and should be by far the most disturbing, namely the unvarnished support of a significant segment of one of our two major political parties. The GOP's moral rot will not, unfortunately, end with the presidency of Donald Trump since it did not begin with it. Surely it represents a genuine crisis in our society and our body politic.
2
I’d like to hear Republican outrage over the people who hire undocumented immigrants. Why are they given a free pass? Oh yeah, I forgot, money trumps morality.
It’s high time that the businesses who lure immigrants to the border were prosecuted, sued for tax evasion and violation of labor laws. Then put them in a cage as a lesson to other exploiters.
5
I would nominate Kirsten Nielsen as Queen of mean alongside President Trump. Melania made a public statement that, despite its inaccuracy in blaming Democrats, clearly put her at odds with her husband’s policy. That was a stark contrast to Ms Nielsen’s defence of Mr. Trump’s actions.
1
YES! And why did she choose a Mexican restaurant to feed her face in? Do these people EVER think things through? She's toast. Anyone who supports and carries out Trump's policies is slimed for life.
2
Meanwhile, the suffering for the currently separated 2500 kids & their parents is unabated, and getting worse every day.
We cannot rest until these children are reunited and treated for the PTSD created by this evil policy. These babies must get their Moms or siblings back. A child under 3 cannot cognitively process "temporary." They are just bereft. When they stop sobbing, dissociation has begun.
8
Stephen Miller is our Eichmann and he has Trump's ear. Given that Trump has no moral compass of his own, I am horrified by what has happened, both to the affected families and to us as ethical agents, I am only mildly surprised at the depths to which this situation has fallen. I realize that Miller only promoted the situation and didn't directly cause it -- Trump definitely prefers Norwegians to Hondurans -- so I'm not entirely putting the onus on Miller. The darkness in the one saw the darkness in the other and they merged into one giant black hole.That said, I am reminded of Eichmann's visits to the camps. I am reminded of the "children's camp" at Teresianstadt. That was a diversion, too, from the final end of what happened at Birkenau for those children. Leviticus 19:16 should be read out loud everywhere: thou shalt not pass idly by the blood of thy neighbor. If we are silent, we have abandoned our humanity.
9
I would have thought that Mr MIller, who is Jewish, would have some empathy for children forcefully separated from their parents for purely political reasons. Perhaps he has forgotten or chooses to ignore the Holocaust.
2
If you’re a sociopath things like that don’t matter ...
1
I also give her no laurels. I think she is smart enough to realize that staying silent and in the background gives her cachet and a certain mysteriousness that people interpret as they wish to support their agendas, but beyond this no, nothing, empty, a beautiful shell, like Ivanka but ironically smarter because Ivanka can't keep her mouth shut, citing platitudes.
7
The reason the Trump base is loyal and will continue to be so, even in the face of such depravity and cruelty, is that we are in full tribal politics mode. Trump is their guy, one of them (let's put aside for the moment the absurdity of a Manhattan real estate billionaire being friend to the common man), who ran on giving them a voice. Politics today is about visibility, resentment, grudges. The middle-American GOP base has been fed such propaganda over the decades from media outlets and pundits of dubious intent, that are truly under the spell of the idea that they are an oppressed group who needs a savior to not only speak for them but to simplify things for them in an increasingly complicated and (for them) chaotic world. To abandon Trump is for them to concede that the world is no longer designed exclusively for them, that they must share the bounty and acknowledge difference to an extent they never had to before, to be entered in a race they don't think they can win. Trump earned a pass on his abominable personality and behavior when he told them that they would be made "great again"? For what else could the "America" in that slogan mean to them but themselves?
5
This article is so over the top. While not a Trumpite, I can see how such rhetoric convinces Trump fans of how unfairly treated their man and by extension they themselves are.
There are two babies under 1-year of age who were separated from their mothers. Mr. Blow's op-ed is not over the top enough to remind those trump fans just how immoral, cruel and racist they and their man are.
2
Perhaps the good people in the FLOTUS office who conceived of the "Be Best" campaign will now adapt their stated intention to "Be Adequate", and eschewing political considerations, harness whatever influence and convictions the First Lady may hold to properly triage the current crises. As the president's administration has already inflicted tortuous suffering upon children (in the name of punishment for parents who may have committed legal misdemeanors) should it not be the first priority of the FLOTUS office to stand by their publicly announced and publicly lauded policy to nurture, protect and enhance the lives of children? Who stands for these children? If an adult or government assumes (coerced or otherwise sanctioned) custody of a child, what are the criminal implications if that guardian proves unable to account for the location and physical and emotional condition of said child. Regardless of the blizzard of contradictions and complications surrounding the issue of "Immigration Policy", the truth of innocent children suffering and unaccounted for remains undeniable and unjustifiable. Furthermore, as an immigrant whose family members have been accorded residence and welcome in the United States (in defiance of the president's aggressively articulated aversion to 'chain migration' or 'family reunification' migration policies) do Melania Trump and her staff members feel any responsibility to stand for the moral and constitutionally mandated rights of these families?
2
Grave times for this suffering democracy, as this despot unravels his plans to make incompetence and corruption the acceptable all-embracing 'new normal'. And this poor bully is working overtime to rally his base so to defend his iniquities with 'honor' and 'courage'. Of course, any just and peaceful society deserves having an administration doing their business as best as can, and with the 'golden rule' as a guide. Why is it we have the opposite, an unscrupulous thug lying and cheating on us day in and day out, distracting us from his stupidity, and finding scapegoats for any and all the screw-ups he so proudly exposes via a complicit tweet? Trouble is, we knew Trump's monstrosity much before he got elected. And yet, 'bought' his demagoguery and constant lying as the gospel truth...and elected him anyway. Shouldn't we now bear some complicity, and guilt, by expecting a crook to behave as an honest man would? If we are co-responsible, 'the enemy' if you listen to Pogo, ought we not take corrective action, and oust Trump and his misfit pluto-kleptocrats...and stop the mayhem? The question is: do we have the will, what it takes?!! Isn't Trump's cruelty in separating children from their parents, seeking asylum, enough already...for you?
2
We did not elect him. The electoral college reluctantly appointed him because of the added vote weight given to a handful of states, who decades ago were less populated.
Hillary had over 3 million more individual votes than the racist in the White House.
2
We’re no longer the country (US) where you just have to have a pulse to get in. That’s clear. But there’s a right way, a wrong way and a brutal way to send people away from the border. So far we’ve only tried brutal. It’s cheap and below us. It doesn’t help anyone’s karma being brutal all day every day. The physical fact that our fellow humans have left their respective countries to come to the US is irrelevant; why they are coming here is way more important than how. We need to get to the root of the issue and stop it there. It’s not just the US with this problem; Europe is literally under siege by people seeking asylum and the citizens don’t like it either. We rich countries haven’t done our job to improve the lives of people to the south. That’s what we need to do. The solution is not open borders and free love; its more like freedom from oppression and food on the table. There always was and always will be a pyramid system over humanity: The rich, the middle and the low; we must raise the level of the low to a decent level; that’s complex but doable, not in a Communist Manifesto way, rather a capitalist humanist investment way. That will bring the highest profits for everyone. rich, middle and decent. You don’t learn that at Harvard or Yale because that’s just f’n common sense!
2
Sen. Corker referred to supporters as "cult like." I think a more apt description is "Nazi-like." I heard a representative of the border patrol on NPR yesterday, defend the Border Patrol's role in child separations by saying that his organization has nothing to do with this horrific treatment because they're not detaining anyone. They simply deliver those apprehended to ICE, and they have no control over what ICE does. That's like saying "we just put them on trains. We don't have any control over what happens to them in the concentration camps." Enough already! It's time everyone who is complicit in these crimes stand up for what they believe in. Hopefully it's not the same thing as Trump and Sessions!
14
I blame the Republicans for ALL of this. They will go down in history as complicit in every horror Trumpty-Dumpty is putting our once "Great" nation through on a daily basis. I wake up sick each day knowing he is dismantling our democracy at a rapid pace: on trade, climate change, immigration, education, etc. Take the evil couples' kids and grand kids away from them and make sure they don't know where they are EVER. His "wife" knew what she was getting into: $$$$$$ And, the Republicans know what they got themselves into. We can only hope Trumpty-Dumpty's FALL will be soon along with his WALL.
15
I suspect Melania is terrified that if she leaves him, she will know exactly what it feels like to have your child ripped away from you, and imprisoned.
1
A couple even fiction would fall short in creating. How far we’ve fallen. I miss Barry and Michelle now more than ever
8
Trump called these migrants an "infestation." The only infestation I see is the one in the Oval Office.
11
Over a year ago my friends criticized me for comparing Trump to Hitler. I said Trump was using Hitler-like tactics to gain political traction: Scapegoating, expecting and demanding absolute loyalty, denigrating the Free Press and using the power of the office to control the message and eliminate enemies, establishing a cult of personality, and now with internment camps separating children from parents (something I hadn't anticipated or described to friends before), the comparison is undeniable. Only the remnants of existing democratic institutions prevents him from assuming the role entirely. But what else can you expect from this narcissistic sociopath.
12
His highness just throw the babies with the bath water to the cheers of his base. A truly despicable man with no moral compass or compassion.
6
Melania is his trophy wife. She knows not to disagree with the King.
10
trump just tweeted, Let them eat burritos.
2
At least Lady MacBeth was woman enough to see the blood on her seemingly clean hands.
4
In a parliamentary system, the hard-right fascistic parties form an outlier. In our winner-take-all system, the far-right fascists are a virus that consumes the host party.
There IS no Republican Party any longer. It is now the White Christian National Party, led by Trump, Bannon, Gorka, Miller, Sessions, and Anton. Their political opponents are as unfocused and overwhelmed as the Labor and Social Democrats were in Germany after 1933.
This is just the beginning.
7
Melania made her deal with the Devil - riches, anchor baby, and legal papers for herself and her parents.
I'd feel sorry for this bird in a golden cage, except for the fact that she is a partner in evil.
Deals with the Devil don't end well.
3
The image of the white queen of Spain with the white immigrant does tell a tale.
It is no accident so many of these people are brown. As a Latin American, here is a dirty little secret. White hispanics like me live on different tracks with different options. We may be split into nation, but make no mistake. In the Americas, white Europeans still have their foot on the neck of brown people. I say that with no joy.
So to see Letizia with Melania was to see colonialism's effects which are, just as ugly and just as pervasive, as the vestiges of slaves.
3
Why does anyone expect more from Melania than the rest of the Trump family? She's ONE of them.
4
There is a heart-wrenching scene in the movie "Sophie's Choice," when she and her two young children arrive at a concentration camp during the Second World War. A Nazi officer approaches her and demands that she give up one of her children. Sophie has less than ten seconds to decide which one of her children she must send to die in the hands of this officer under the command of the Nazi criminal enterprise. The pain that Donald Trump and his despicable minions are inflicting upon these immigrant families is not that much different from the agony of the mother that was portrayed in that movie. Shame on Trump and his Melania. Shame on Stuart Miller and Jeff Sessions and Mike Pence and all the other enablers of this cruel and inhumane president. Shame on the men and women who still support Trump and his policies. Shame on the Republican office-holders who refuse to risk their miserable jobs and meager pensions by standing up to a cruel and ignorant wannabe dictator. Mr. and Mrs. Republican: Is there any human value that you're not willing to abandon in pursuit of your beloved tax-cuts? Have you no sense of decency and propriety?
6
What's next from the White House of Horrors. Will Trump use illegal children as human shields? Extreme cruelty should be grounds for impeachment. Start it after the Democrats take the House. My guess is Mueller's report and Cohen flipping will add two more nails to Trump's coffin. And he thinks he's tough. Draft dodgers and racists are not tough. They are cowards hiding behind their fake John Wayne image. Take no prisoners N.Y.Times Keep the pressure on til he resigns or snaps big time.
5
Until and unless we recognize refugees fleeing atrocities in other lands, this administration will be allowed to commit atrocities upon them. Stop this madness. Impeach this tin-pot Napoleon. Impeach his entire administration. Get rid of him and his ilk. Make them pack their bags and seek asylum somewhere else. The evil is trickling down from the top.
10
Bravo Charles!
8
Two points here. One, Obama also separated children from parents at the border. Two, Blow's going after Melania is a cowardly act. First Blow claims that he will no longer utter Trump's name, then he proceeds to call Trump every vile name imaginable. Now he goes after the wife. A true coward.
2
What kind of people are the agents who are doing this? Anyone thinking about that? STAND UP! Be a man. Be a woman. Show some guts, you gutless agents. Show some morality.
3
Melania Trump used Barron as an excuse so she didn't have to be with her husband as long as she could finagle. She is definitely not her husband's Queen.
5
Thank you, Charles Blow. Well said!
7
The Republican party is the party of racists, and white supremacists, that's why 63% of white men, and 53% of white women gleefully voted for the immoral, pathological lying racist, white supremacist, Donald Trump. 58% of Republicans were in favor of ripping immigrant children from their parents and incarcerating them in detention camps (not summer camps). These same Republicans laugh at Corey Lewandowsky's cruel, mocking response about a ten year old girl with Down's Syndrome, being taken away from her mother.. These same Republicans nod in unison at the blatant lies coming out of the propaganda sewer, Fox News. The Republicans prove themselves to be soulless and hypocritical. Their actions speak volumes.
14
When Melania Trump met Donald Trump, he was married and on a date.
Like her husband, I doubt Mrs. Trump has an ounce of morals in her. She’s nothing but a spoiled selfish self centered woman. A description which aptly fits her rival for the President’s affection- Ivanka.
6
Like a laser; concise and directly to the point. Thank you, Charles M. Blow.
5
Talk about some seriously histrionic, pearl-clutching, hypocrisy
It really is nearly too much to take in. Reading the front page of this newspaper for the past several days has been like descending into Hell. 2300 lost children, lost by the direct action of the President of the United States. Lost, almost certainly not to be found.
I assume we all know what happens to young children alone on the streets of cities. Have we ever before thought about a five-year-old turned out for prostitution? The rape of an infant? A seven-year-old gang-raped to death?
A curse on your soul, Donald Trump.
And someone commenting here has the idea that now is a good time to ask what the Democrats have that would be better?
I understand more than I wish I did, Mr. Blow, your "I. Just. Can't."
And if anyone didn't see Rachel Madow's reaction to this situation, go to YouTube and watch. That is the response of someone who knows full well what happens to young children on the streets of cities. This isn't just another political "issue." Think about the reality of what is likely to be life for many of those children--every single day, forever.
If we still retain one shred of our humanity in the face of this horror, I believe we are called, every one of us, to pace the floors of our comfortable homes and think very very hard about where those children are tonight, what they are doing, what they are feeling, their terrible fears which are, most of them, for the moment, unrealized. But things are not likely to get better.
6
Donald Trump is the one and only President of the United States. Melania Trump is the one and only ethnic Slavic communist atheist Slovenian model and third trophy wife of Trump. Cruelty requires malice. The opposite of love is not hate. It is indifference.
Melania allegedly worked while in America on a tourist visa thus becoming naturalized by fraud. Melania should be arrested, imprisoned and deported. Let Donald play dad without watching Fox News and playing golf for a while.
Lock her up!
14
The depth of evil that this policy has no bottom. The similarities to the processes of the Hitler regime are striking. Who are the Border Patrol agents who separate crying children from their parents; are they any different from Storm Troopers who just “followed orders”?
3
Trump and Melania are certainly the King and Queen of Cruel, as Mr. Blow describes. But they simply reign over nearly half this nation, who believe exactly as they do.
Cruel? Of course. But in simply describing the horrifics of internment camps for infants, we cannot overlook this - they are solely for brown children, children who broke no law, committed no crime, and who are entirely innocent.
Everyone commenting here knows that this would never have happened if these children were white. There are thousands of whites from European countries who are here "illegally", who have overstayed their visas, but our Justice Department is only targeting Hispanics and Middle Easterners.
We must view Trump's internment camps for these babies much like our internment camps during WWII, which held only Japanese Americans. There were no camps set up for the Father Coughlins of the country, whites who were Nazi sympathizers. The only reason these children are being treated as they are now is because of their skin color.
We need to take the gloves off when speaking of Trump supporters. They've been in lockstep with him for a year and a half now, and the vast majority support these prison camps for babies. They are not people we should "reach out" to. They support Donald Trump for only one reason, and that is that they know he is doing everything in his power to make America white again. They would strip citizens of color like me of every right we have. And they need to be stopped.
9
do you know what percent of legal immigrants are white by government policy?
Trump finally found our breaking point as a nation. When you have to explain that your policy of separating children from their parents isn't the same as what the Nazis did to the Jews you've lost your argument. Thankfully enough people outside of the Trump orbit made sure that the 2/3rds of us who still have a soul were informed about what was being done in our name so that we could put a stop to it.
Fleeing violence and asking for asylum is not a crime. Punishing people for asking for help is a human rights violation. Anyone who stood by silently or made excuses for this mess is complicit.
We've become a very ugly nation. Like Germany post WWII it's going to take us decades to get our good name back.
10
NO empathy gene.
CINO ~~~> Christian In Name Only ..
frio,malo,vacio,hueco .. cold,evil,empty,hollow.
They specialize in hurting fragile people.
Stay appalled.
4
Maybe she could go to detention centers and read them stories. What a great photo opp.
She is no different from him. They care not one wit for anyone else. Otherwise she would have been gone slready.
3
How quickly evil can take hold..."kidnapped"children, by this Administration, probably lost forever to their families. What will happen next. Why aren't journalists, lawyers, etc. allowed into some of these detention centers...Are "they" trying to hide the drugs that these children are "fed". What other abuses might be happening...and, why??
My father fled Germany in 1928 as the Nazi regime was rising, based on racism...he would want to leave America
now...
8
Charles Blow—You said it so well. They are cruel, immoral, and knowing lie to all of us.
2
Kudos, Mr Blow. Once again, you've nailed it point by point. And I too am weary of these unverified claims that Melania, and Ivanka, have been behind the scenes trying to coax some goodness from our Monster-in-Chief. They are all monsters, through and through.
12
Deporting criminal immigrants is nowhere near as cruel as baiting desperate people to sneak into the country.
1
If he visits a child internment camp, will he be tossing paper towels, like he did when he visited Puerto Rican hurricane survivors?
9
No, he'd be tossing diapers.
(Couldn't resist.)
2
there once was a man with a rug
craven arrogant and smug
he said with dismissal
immigrants don't hear dog whistles
Marie Antoinette indeed.
2
Before the election, it was widely publicized that Trump refused to help pay for medical aid for a seriously ill small child in his own family, and also practiced extreme tax avoidance.
Yet self righteous "evangelicals" and supposedly fiscal responsibility demanding "Tea Partiers" voted for Trump almost universally, and ow support him on the 80+ percent range.
It's beginning to look like the Nazi's actually won WW II.
10
Melania is herself an immigrant. Of course, once she married Trump, she got her parents expedited green cards. We wouldn't want to separate them from their daughter, would we?
3
"We deserve better" than Blow's weekly Opinions that are dedicated to destroying President Trump and Republicans.
Those who dare to disagree with him are smeared as "racists" or "closet racists" which is insulting, dishonest, and intended to silence rational dicussion.
As a life long NYT reader and subscriber, his repetitive demagogic political rhetoric is mind numbing propaganda.
3
At this point, trump and the repubs are the ones destroying themselves with their Nazi tactics. And, I for one, welcome Mr. Blow's opinion.
And, yes, the repubs are racists. They proved it, when we twice elected President Obama and they refused to work with him because of the color of his skin. It is now being reinforced by their silence in the middle of this current shameful episode of separating children--including infants--from their mothers, no matter that they crossed illegally.
There are humane ways to control the border and ways to help our southern neighbors fight the gang terrorism these families are fleeing.
3
None of Mr. Blow's hyperbolic ventilating means anything without November action on the part of the ninety million who stayed home. Shrug...
5
I am so embarrassed, ashamed, and frankly frightened of what's this country is becoming. Do we really deserve better? Prior to the election, Republicans had a wide choice of candidates, and Trump was their top pick, despite his sordid and well known past. America looks smaller and more insignificant by the day. We cannot let the GOP off the hook. They've been enablers every step of the way. I know we're not supposed to reference Nazi Germany, but remember Hitler took power with about 1/3 of Parliament's vote, which is comparable to DT. This small nasty minority is calling all the shots.
7
Americans are what their leader is. And I thought with Barack, maybe America would turn a corner. Nope. America doubled-down on the intolerance and elected a dictator. Americans are fake christians and moral apologists.
5
Yes, Republicans who have shilled for the dictator in the WH, we will remember you this November.....and you're not going to like it.
1
These two have bilked the US taxpayers so much money. Here’s an idea, Donald Duck, build it yourself!
I’d also like to see everything on Melania’s immigration. Was she here illegally before she married President Money? If not, shouldn’t she be deported and ripped from her son?
I mean Obama spent so much time having to prove he was a citizen. Shouldn’t she have to?
12
As an immigrant herself, one would assume Mrs Trump would have some compassion for these people. I would like to see her immigration records, and those of her suddenly American parents. I take little solace from the statements coming from her press office, since she was an unapologetic Birther who lied about president Obama's birthplace.
2
Two things are apparent in this latest Trump war on sanity.
1. Trump and his deplorable base see brown skinned people as objects, not as living breathing human beings.
2. Trump's deplorable base see nothing wrong with separating families as long as they are not like "us".
Each time I believe that The Donald has taken us to a new low, he rallies the troops and manages yet another crime against the soul of America.
Can America survive another 2 years, six months?
6
Checks and balances, partisan politics, the constitution... forget about it.
Trump has simplified what used to be a very complicated decision process for thoughtful Americans.
No more. Things are very, very simple now.
This so called man, Donald Trump, is evil.
Either you’re with evil or you’re against evil.
It’s that simple.
3
Zero tolerance, zero compassion. In general, massive intolerance. This is the party of Trump.
1
The King and Queen of cruelty, indeed. After watching "Wild Wild Country" this week, I was constantly drawing comparisons to what is happening with Trump, his cabinet and his "followers" to that of the Bhagwan and Sheela, his psychopathic right hand, and his own followers. How they plotted wide-scale voter fraud by bussing in 6,000 homeless people from all over the country to live in their commune and register them to vote, so they could take over the local government. Then when that failed, didn't know what to do with the homeless people that were starting to wreak havoc on their "nirvana," so they drugged their beer without telling them, and simply dumped them into the nearby towns. And let's not even start with all of the guns they amassed to threaten the townspeople and law enforcement.
After the Rajneesh left, the town of Antelope installed a flagpole with the inscription of the Edmund Burke quote:
"... The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." It's a quote we've been hearing A LOT lately, haven't we?
4
Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu, Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos, Marie Antoinette . . . all come to mind. Fortunately, it did not end well for them. There is some comfort somewhere in this morass, if only a shred . . .
7
Thanks again Charles for saying what we all know and we all think. We must resist the cult he is grooming with his constant lies and constant mischaracterization of facts. The blindness of his supporters can only be explained with a cult. Thinking people know when they are being conned.
1
Exactly. Thank you, Mr. Blow.
Our president, first lady and first family are only in it for the mountains of cash, the adulation and the prestige. It's horrifying to note that it wasn't the emotion, the gut-wrenching cries of these innocent children and babies moving Trump to action — it was the *optics*: "the crying babies doesn't look good politically." That Melania can casually discuss their devastating plight over tea in Spain proves she can match her sociopath husband's cold indifference. Theirs is an administration of 'what can I take' — including the hope, security and lives of thousands of children, babies and families of immigrants seeking refuge in America — our would-be autocrat and his Marie Antoinette are appalling, as are sadistic, bigoted Miller and Sessions, for perpetrating such cruelty.
2
There is more than enough evidence for impeachment. It is time!
2
Vote. Vote. Vote.
Or we deserve what we get.
10
There is no defense to be made for trump. For Melania, her defense will be judged by how far she follows her husband. Will she continue to stand in the darkness created by her husband or will she move into the light and separate herself from him and his unsupportable immoral actions. What he is doing could be grounds for divorce, she could take him for all that he`s got. That would be all the IOU`s held by the Russians.
1
Thank you for speaking the truth.
6
Trump's idea was to tear children away from their parents as a means of leverage to get democrats to capitulate on funding a border wall. Anyone with a child knows this is evil. Every person who was willing to enable, approve or even ignore the enormity of this terrible idea wrapped themselves in that evil too and should be ashamed. You don't pull children away from their parents to score political points. It should go without saying and I'm sickened anyone found moral ambiguity here.
12
Not just "anyone with a child," Mike. Anyone with a heart. Anyone with a conscience. Anyone with an ounce of empathy, a dribble of compassion.
Anyone who's fundamentally not a sociopath.
1
Already despicable, Trump has shown himself as a heartless manipulator by ripping children from their mothers and fathers and using their lives as bargaining chips. I've often wondered if he holds custody of Baron over Melania's head. Or even if he's threatened that she'll never see him again. He's shown himself more than capable of this kind of manipulation and more. I don't think any of us will ever know exactly what he may be holding over her head. For this reason alone I withhold judgment.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/20/opinion/family-separation-melania-tru...
4
Charles your moral outrage is lost on Republicans. They have more outrage than the best liberal can muster. They are outraged that brown people now make up 18% of the US population and blacks 12%. They are outraged that people of color have not ceased in their demands for equal treatment and opportunity. They are outraged that gays no longer want to be invisible. Most of them are like many of us descendants of Europeans that came to this country and took it from the the natives but now claim superior birthrights. Most ot all they are afraid that they are losing their white privileged status. People of color, gays, non-christians, liberals, the poor, and atheists will not go away silently anymore and bow and say "Yes sir" and Yes mam". We will go through a cultural struggle for sometime no matter how hard trump and his fans try to put the genie back in the bottle. My advice to Republicans, adapt.
11
Watching crying children being separated from their mother is more of the Trump cult’s attempt to desensitize America to cruelty. He has already softened the people to; lying every time he opens his mouth, abuse of woman, ridicule of the handicapped and war heroes, openly racist language and behavior, using the power of his position to enrich himself and his family, adultery, the real news being fake and the fake news being real, abusing and defying the rule of law, treason and behaving as an unbridled dictatorial King of whom we all are his subjects. He stated “My people should rise when I speak, just like Kim’s people” we are not “his people”.
Once the Trump cult removes our compassion for the oppressed and the innocent enigmatic, nameless, poor people of color and different appearance, we will eventually loose compassion for everyone and everything. Little by little we will become Trump's people and members of his cult whether we like it or not because if you don’t like it, you will be eliminated.
4
Excellent article. I agree with each one of its points. As a woman and as a mother, it's impossible to understand how any woman could choose to have someone like Trump as the father of her children.
17
Thank you for this article. I have no illusions about the republican party. They've been marching toward Trump since Reagan. When I learned that Trump voters included a large percentage of wealthy and very wealthy voters, I was surprised. I read into that and learned that the wealthy are terrified that their future generations will soon be a minority in this country and will no longer be the privileged few. Any candidate they support must be for restricting immigration.
7
There could be no sharper contrast in international domestic politics than this White House and the British Royals: inclusion vs. exclusion, welcome vs. jail time, optimism vs. despair. And there is nothing on "the right side" that's American. A seriously disappointing cultural contrast between two remarkably analogous kinds of leadership.
3
A garish grifting twosome.
These two are the ultimate insult to decency.
13
Trump has been repeatedly been quite open about his longterm dreams for our democracy. The man thinks aloud! One example among many: his comment applauding that when Kim Jong Un speaks, his people listen.
The administration's breath-takingly sadistic policy of stealing refugee babies and toddlers from their horrified parents at the border to warehouse them like chattel in cages and sweltering tents, functions as a dry run of sorts. How far on the inhumanity scale can he go in treating a group of people and get away with it?
Right now it's brown people whom he has described as"animals" who can "infest" our country. But let's not fool ourselves. He has repeatedly hurled attacks at many groups... blacks, women, Muslims, journalists. His previous behavior indicates that he would not be averse to concocting a rationale for rounding up or imprisoning other targets, maybe political opponents? Democrats?a la Erdogan? (Think "Lock her up!")
Trump's authoritarianism must be checked. He and his cabal, and his spineless party of Trumpists, represent an existential threat to our democracy. no joke!
11
It's all about racism and plutocracy. The bargain which has been made is that the oligarchs keep their money and power and the white rabble keep their guns and supremacy with a fairy tale happy ending courtesy of the Bible.
Though I am not overly superstitious by nature, it's hard not to see Karma at work as the white race declines into barbarity and its victims claim what was rightfully theirs all along. Manifest Destiny will be regarded in the same way as the sun never sets on the British Empire: two dead-ends in the long history of Homo Sapiens.
4
Melania is just as bad as her husband. If she left him in disgust I could give her some slack. Her presence there signals approval. No PR agent can change that.
6
Yes, and the bottom line question of the day is: "What difference is there between Trump and Kim of NK? Our very own 'Dear Leader' has raced to the bottom his entire life that is now occupied by many. The usual suspects include Melania, his children, Putin, McConnell, Ryan, Murdoch, the Mercers, Adelson, and on and on.
The new Time Mag cover is brilliant. That little frightened 2 year old being bullied by Trump. "I got 3 billion, what do you got" he is saying. And, Trump's cult still numbers in the millions and whose mantra remains today "lock her up" which simply points out just how shallow and stupid they are, not to forget evil.
I hope I am clear.
14
Charles I thank you for this. I know that I am not alone when I face the reality of these people. Their thinking is diseased and they need to be stopped. THE LYING HAS TO STOP!
3
You expressed my feelings and beliefs....
3
Anyone with half an ounce of moral conviction knows that tearing children away from parents is Child Abuse.
The Children will suffer sexual abuse, physical assault, and denial of medical care, clean water and food. Which is only a small sample of the abuses committed by officials "caring" for them. It is chilling to think that the Trump faimily is so morally deranged. *gasp!* How could you pass these
people as a first family.
8
This clearly shows Trump's true nature as a sociopath. Trump had to be instructed that taking children from their parents is wrong. As we all are beginning to see or already know, this president is feckless and heartless, truly.
8
What a fantastical news-i-fying few days it's been. Fantastical in that, we have no idea what Stormey Daniels is up to, how much more evidence Mueller has on Russian collusion, if there are any survivors of the Hawaian mega volcano, how many millions of Americans will become homeless due to tariffs, if Jon Benet Ramsey's confessed killer will recant and what will be done now that Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has been found.
.
What we do know is Beelzebub has been stopped and his worshipers have been vanquished. OK, that last part was a lie. Beelzebub has not been stopped. Truth be told, he's just getting warmed up. I believe, somewhere in the Bible, I'm not sure which page, exactly, we are warned against making a pact with the Angel of light (messenger of light). (2Corinthians 11:14.)
.
What if legal immigration were suspended and those resources deployed to the southern border? This may cause problems at other Ports of Entry, but, it's for the children. And, if the new judges get in place, we might be able to process these people even faster than before and send them home in less than 20 days. Winning!
And I might have been wrong about his worshipers. Did you see that rally in Duluth. They still love him bigley.
5
Bravo Mr. Blow for being the "Gadfly" annoying the Trump family.
Saved your article to read over and over.
13
Great article, Mr. Blow. And you make an excellent point about Melania not wanting to move her own child from a posh New York residence into another posh environment in order to protect him from unnecessary stress.
Melania has always been a phony. She was on TV spouting that birther nonsense. Her platform is "Be Best" when her husband is the world's most famous cyber bully. She has never cared about what Trump has done as long as she had her diamonds and exuberant lifestyle.
38
I just do not understand why Trump, this petulant child is referred/called the 'president' - the real president is in Moscow, Putin pulls the lever of power not Trump.
7
The queen of cruelty has to be Kirstjen Nielsen, who looks Scandinavian but her dark roots are showing as is her lack of humanity. Her unsmiling visage at the White House press brsiefing and her craven "Thank you for your leadership, Mr. President" as she took the pen with which he signed his latest decree all had a chilling quality. She deserves more punishment than being heckled out of a Mexican restaurant.
30
Keep writing, Charles. We need your voice!
4
Thank you for calling out the poseurs occupying the White House. King and Queen of Cruelty, and Team of Terror are spot on.
5
They aren’t the abomination. We are. We voted for them. We supported all the Republican dog whistles since Reagan. We sustained all the false equivalencies. We still refuse to call a deplorable— deplorable. The only way to stop this is to not vote Republican— not even for town dog catcher.
11
Well, the electoral college voted for him since Hillary beat him by 3M votes.
1
Basically. “Let them eat cake!”.
4
Shaking my head watching America blow up. Blowback. The US is and has been imperial. Look what you did to Central America? People are running from your destruction into your distopia because of the myths created to sustain an economic model that enslaves, intimidates or eliminates common sense and fealty.
The fecklessness happens as a result of sociopaths running The Feckless Country!
8
Donald and Melania are a team in this terror. - Agreed! I am sick of the media trying to portray her as an equal to Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton, Rosalyn Carter, Laura Bush or Barbara Bush. She is married to a monster and clearly has some monster tendencies because birds of a feather flock together. Donald and Melanie disgust me and I can't wait to see their downfall!
38
Please do NOT take the foot off the gas on this one. Also NYT editors, don't take the foot off the gas on the Russia investigation. Trump is loving that this has gone quiet. Keep the embers burning. Never stop, never stop shining the spotlight on the ugliness, elitism, and out of touch nature of trump and his ENTIRE administration,.
5
Bravo !
100% right.
10
Donald and Melania, an immigrant herself, are a team. Along with Jared, Ivanka, and the two older sons. A team of grifters, carnival barkers, along with profiting from their status and importance in the White House or by association with Daddy, the fire fighter arsonist, as a person so succinctly described him in an online comment in this publication.
Melania is as complicit in this harmful policy as those Trump supporters are, along with those members of the NFIB that provided the grifter resounding applause.
I long for the days of Laura Bush and Michelle Obama who were seen in the public and promoted ideals, ideals good for all. Now, we have a tea drinker who did find time to mention the children.
It is sad that we a society and nation have regressed to the 1840s of nativism and know-nothings. Perhaps the know-nothings are the culprit behind Trump's third rate despotic rages, rantings and stupid policies.
4
Shame! Shame on you, Mr. Blow. Dragging the personal lives of Melanie and Barron Trump into the muck of the political fray is unacceptable to decent people. While I often disagreed with President Obama, I would never attack his wife or daughters, and I always condemned those who did, as I condemn you now. You are doing your part in the destruction of civility in our public discourse. You are allowing your hatred for Donald Trump to drag you down to his level. It is rhetoric like yours that has people threatening to kidnap Barron.
4
I think people who take $20 million of public money in wasteful indulgence because daddy wants to play president and they want to stay in Trump Tower is the kind of selfishness that indicates complete disregard for the public interest.
8
Shame on you for not seeing the truth that the president and First Lady are the ones who brought their families into it. Mr. Blow, like every other news source in this country, is giving them the publicity they seem to live on.
1
Nope. Melania and Ivanka have inserted themselves into this discussion. As such, they're fair game. Especially Ivanka, being a 'presidential advisor.'
4
"Please don't stress yourself". Melania Trump, what can one add. She sold herself well after she entered this country and met her now husband; therefore, using her meager protest against his vile and evil policies is laughable. So far, we have not heard anything of substance on anything, because it was never followed through. The causes Mrs Trump has selected have not amounted to much and if these causes have been selected for her by her staff, it's nothing but political claptrap.
18
Please note she was merely updating existing materials in her "Be Best" rollout. https://www.yahoo.com/amphtml/news/melania-trumps-best-materials-familia...
2
The same Evangelicals who deplore cults are now part of one. On the question of separating children from parents, did they not ask themselves: What would Jesus do?
So this is the Trump era? This is insane!
21
I cannot tell you how much I appreciate your columns and those of Michelle Goldberg. You two consistently write eloquently about all the reprehensible, morally-depraved aspects of this administration and do not then offer up false equivalencies like so many of your peers. Do either of you know David Brooks or Brett Stephens? Just curious since they seem blissfully unaware of your work.
7
I wonder what they talk to Barron about at the dinner table? I suppose asking him what he thinks about it would be unspeakably cruel. The point about Republicans’ alleged protections of unborn children is so spot on. Even in U. S. foreign aid policy. This is also traumatizing to mothers and fathers. We will not be controlled by this repulsive family. Would any of you tolerate it in yours?
2
I agree, Mr. Blow. Mrs. Trump has been a willing accomplice and enabler to her dishonorable, unpatriotic, flimflam husband. She's an introverted version of her husband: shallow, unprincipled, dishonest, hypocritical, wealth obsessed, and profoundly uninterested in improving our country.
6
Thank you so much, Mr. Blow, for your constancy in feeling outraged at this immoral and depraved man who continues to shock because of his lack of humanity. You, Mr. Blow, are one of the few individuals who consistently emphasize this man’s damage to our country and our institutions. Shame on him for using children as hostages to try to get his agenda through. Lock him up.
6
it's not that Melania was worried about barron's routine. she just didn't want to live with Donald
4
Being tone deaf is being way too nice to this pair of psychopaths. Think Melania ever thinks about her sisters in arm future "models' in the old country who didn't quite make it? Does she wonder what their fate was? Doubtful, with this latest disaster of public relationships I am pretty sure she is one step from a Lady McBeth ending. "Not even the sweetest perfumes of Arabia could remove the smell of blood from this hand. Oh, oh, oh."
1
Once again, Mr. Blow you make this muck of hypocrisy crystal-clear. I recall a political cartoon published just after the first Easter egg roll the Trump's hosted at the White House. The illustration was of them standing on the balcony, looking down on the children, the caption read “Welome To The Hunger Games”.
And, now here we are.
Melania may have intervened here, but she would never defy her husband and show any real humanity, if indeed there is any outside protecting her son Barron. These two look at America as their kingdom, the odd crumb thrown to the masses to keep themselves on that balcony.
4