Shall we save just a bit of our lofty scorn, not too much because that would be indecent and disproportionate, for those who actually enslaved her and murdered her family?
282
The brown skin, the name, which country the young woman comes from is a big factor in how Trump sees others.
But, it would appear that women are also chattel for Trump given his propensity to grab them by the genitals, pay off porn stars, and associated with like-minded men who traffic women.
His aloofness, inattention is a given unless he is front of a bunch of supporters who are in a frenzy in anticipation of the next blood that will be spilled in his arena of hate.
234
Would it be any different if we found out that “Trump”was a hologram created by an AI expert from, say, Idaho?
Let’s say the AI expert is named Tom and he created the Trump hologram on a bet. His bet to his liberal friends was that he could create an AI likeness of Trump and have him say progressively worse things each day. Each day the hologram would reveal more of his empty, depraved mind.
Tom bet his liberal friends that the Republican Party in office is so utterly craven that it would do nothing to stop the hologram — even if it mocked a disabled reporter. Even if it had paid of porn actresses. Even if it had invited and accepted Russian interference in our 2016 Presidential election.
Even if the hologram told dark skinned American citizens, elected Congressional Representatives, to “go back where you came from.” Even if it praised white racists. Even if it promised to build an enormous wall along our Southwest border as a means of dealing with immigration.
Even if it was accused of sexually assaulting a dozen credible women. Even if it boasted of grabbing a woman’s genitals, ON TAPE. Even if it made its utterly unqualified daughter and stepsons advisors to the President. Even if it picked the worst people imaginable to fill its Cabinet posts.
Even if its staff turned over at an alarming rate leaving important posts unfilled. Even if it cozied up to Vladimir Putin to the great embarrassment of our CIA and FBI. Even if it had a crooked personal attorney. Even if
200
Racism is incompatible with American patriotism and Christianity.
If you are racist or tolerate racism in leadership then you are not truly American.
If you are racist or tolerate racism in leadership then you are not truly Christian
175
How did we get into this mess?
A few thousand voters in key states, perhaps swayed by Comey's announcement, surely prompted by Conservative partisanship, (remember Comey? - seems like a decade ago) days before the election: "The investigation has been re-opened". Or perhaps just a lot of low-information voters, whipped into a frenzy by radio and TV demagogues.
The election turned on a minority of votes, and now the minority party is in power it acts like it represents the majority. It's leader acts like he was anointed by God - a god he doesn't even believe in. What a mess!
The "Morons" control the levers of power, at the moment. But let us not forget they are the minority. Their leader is not typical of the quality of men America can produce, and their ways and attitudes are not the ways and attitudes the majority of Americans want and believe in.
Vote Blue, no matter who!!
194
When one is a sexual predator, a repeated rapist, a racist, and a virulent Muslim-hater, it's surprising he even MET with Nadia Murad. What does HE care that she's been raped, that she fought to stop rape? He's a serial RAPIST!
I speculate there were only 3 thoughts in his head and all of them were outrageously inappropriate:
1) Is she "hot"? (like the Billy Bush tape and the 1992 video with Jeffrey Epstein)
2) Who gives a flip about women being raped?
3) Why'd they give HER a Nobel Peace Prize and not me?
His attitude and history allow me to imply the first two. His own question to her shows he was thinking about the 3rd.
How did this ignorant incompetent sadistic ego-centric monster become President of the United States? As we watch all the enablers allow him to destroy our checks and balances from McConnell's Senate to Roberts' Court, do they really think they can control this maniac? Those who thought they'd benefit from Mussolini, Hitler, and Putin and control them, learned that, no, THEY were controlled, not the other way around.
260
Trump is a sexual predator. Ms. Murad is brave but, Trump is Trump, the horrible and shameless criminal he has been. It's a shame he is POTUS!
Thank you for the article and bringing the true nature of the evil person that is occupying the WH.
100
We know what she said to Trump, but we don’t know what he heard. Reconstruction: yeah, her parents are dead. So? Yeah, she was raped. Blah, blah. Wait a minute. They gave her the Nobel Prize? Because she was raped?! No! No! I want it! It’s mine! [unprintable follows]
124
Each day I wonder about perception. Why is it that I can watch a scenario starring POTUS, and pretty clearly comprehend it. A basic understanding of social interaction. The lack of empathy, obvious situational incompetence, and visible signs of boredom is clear to me.
How is it that others see something so completely different - excuse deplorable behavior, think this guy has any brains, etc.
And so I remind myself - too many people have never left the county or state in which they live and haven’t travelled the world (all I need is the USA); too many people stopped learning years ago (damned if I’m going to read or discuss anything in depth); too many people cannot process information logically or question it (it’s on tv and the internet so it’s gotta be true!); and too many people are bitter about their own life choices (it’s YOUR fault that I made the life choices I did).
Baseball, hot dogs, and apple pie we get. We need to go a whole lot deeper, people.
No President is perfect. But when a crooked buffoon gets elected, it’s time to do a little learnin’ and reflectin’.
160
When transactional value is the building block for all White House interactions, the little man in Trump’s brain was probably rifling through a million tiny index cards trying to figure out why he was meeting with this woman. She does not forward any current narrative, doesn’t solidify the base for the campaign, and hasn’t made any money by capitalizing on her horrible experience. It’s so much easier to talk about the injustice to A$AP Rocky - it May not get him the Nobel Prize but it may get him an invite to Psalm’s christening...
43
Reading this essay brought me to tears. Because it’s a reminder that tens of of millions of Americans elected a President who is a classic sociopath, like a serial killer who lacks the slightest ability to connect with the suffering of his mounting roster of victims. He cannot feel, he could care less, unless it’s about him.
It’s the mentality that made Hitler the horror that he became. And it’s the mentality that led millions of ‘good Germans’ to become his enablers, to shout ‘Heil Hitler’ and look the other way as their neighbors were dragged out of their beds, put on cattle cars and trundled off to their death. Because he put on a good show, built the Autobahn, made the trains run on time, fed their fears and their tribal urges.
‘Build the Wall!”. Lock Her Up!’. “Send Her Back!”. My friend, this is not overstatement: we don’t have all that far to go before we’ll be hearing “Heil Trump!”. In fact, in some corners of America, it has already been heard.
182
What can you say about a man so stupid, ignorant, and callous as this other than that he has no business with any responsibilities other than swallowing more garbage food in front of Faux News?
91
trump is a complete monster. The absolute epitome of evil and hatefulness.
96
Thanks for writing this, Mr Cohen. I found the setting and scene obscene and unreal. Women who had suffered great losses surrounding a president who seemed unconcerned and uninvolved. I wondered who thought this was a good idea and why. The women deserved better. And while I'm at it, I don't understand these setups where he's always sitting in a chair surrounded by various groups of people, all standing. I understand there's often something being signed but I've never seen a situation where the president just sits the whole time. It looks lazy and gauche.
1303
That is one of the problems I see in the USA, too many politicians are just too old, there should be a maximum age just like we have a minimum age.
Then again with his “bone spurs” it probably uncomfortable to stand...
136
This president is inhuman. His brand is cruelty. He is a monster.
89
Boris like Trump is there to make money, since the British tend to be more educated than the US they will quickly see if the rubber hits the road. Miss Murad probably reminded Trump of the squad, I mean who is navigating this man, he rants and raves over Kappernick taking a knee and then he gets up in front of a fake American Seal with golf clubs and doesn’t know the difference. Better run towards the jungle cause the devils on the loose
30
Trump is a useless dolt. Do not wait for him to help these women. You might as well wait for a frog to turn into a prince. Articles like this help, but see if we can get counselors who specialize in trauma and rape to help them.
47
He should have been at the very least facing her and looking her in the eye while she spoke. His remaining seated at the desk and staring straight ahead with only an occasional glance in her direction was the height of disrespect. He just refuses to give ANY AND ALL accounts of rape any credence and this posturing was his way of delivering that message. Worse than a liar and a thief - he’s an emotional coward. . . .
1176
Trump is a monster. I weep for America.
113
another extreme example of our psychopath president devoid of any moral compass, refusing to prepare/learn the most basic thing.
91
It will take us generations to recover from this unqualified moron occupying the White House. Those poor souls who felt they were "forgotten" and who fear of a cosmopolitan country made up of a variety of race, religions and independent thinker who see white supremacy as their salvation are responsible for saddling this country with this idiot. Get to the polls and vote him out!
87
Trump IS a credibly accused rapist and sexual assaulter AND has worked and cavorted with accused child SEX TRAFFICKER Jeffrey Epstein and CHILD PORN collector George Nader. There IS no bottom to this illegitimate cruel performative criminal corrupt *president and his white supremacist enablers like Pence. This brave Nobelist and her people are being used as props and victimized again by this hideous excuse for a human being.
84
This column is dead on the money. It was a horrible scene. Horrible, embarrassing, inexcusable, ignorant, arrogant, pretentious, and disingenuous. A total farce of a president. A farce on steroids.
98
A strike to conscience. BZ
6
The man is demented.
50
Hysterical column, distorted facts. Why do you get an ink?
8
That clip made me more ashamed to be American, to be human, than anything I’ve ever seen.
Trump is as inhuman a monster.
This man is a sin.
72
Trump was probably worried she would ask for asylum. Dark skinned women are in danger of rape in South American countries, and we all know his solution to that. I can hear his base chanting, “send her back.”. Shame!
24
He looks at her as though she's trying to sell him magazine subscriptions.
There really are no words to encompass this small shameful man.
77
No anger directed toward ISIS. Not one word. The horrible events occurred while Obama was President. This irrational anger toward Trump just wins him more votes. What a pathetic article. The picture shows him looking at her.
11
Just look at that total lack of interest in his face. It's no wonder he asked where dead people were now. He hadn't heard a word she said. He hears nothing but the cheers from the ignoramus' at his rallies.
Hold your breath because unless the Dems wake up there will be 5.5 years more of this subhuman President.
61
I too watched the video, it made me sick to my stomach. This sorry excuse for a human being is too much to bear at this moment in time. He is a despicable horrible man. And still the republicans stay quiet, all should be forced to view the video in a locked room until they act to get rid of this sorry excuse for a human being, he is subhuman.
49
"He may be psychopathic but he's our psychopath" think the power behind our current leadership complex. A paraphrase of what was said by right wing politicians in Germany and Italy prior to WWll.
27
ill take President Trump and his faults over anyone else the dems and the rotten liberals have to offer. No man is perfect
9
Thank you Roger.
21
I live in a part of America where the water is unsafe and children have died from rare cancers. But they are white children and no Democrat or liberal Columnist seems to care. How are you and yours any less inhumane than Trump?
11
Nauseating. I could barely get through reading.
What has country come to when 60 million people support this horrible man.
47
Somebody skilled in communications has to find the right way to help the citizens of so-called 'red' states understand how this attitude threatens their own families.
Right now the prevailing attitude is something between 'oh how sad it is in these poor benighted, very distant places' and 'why should we care about these towelheads and they probably deserved it.'
The challenge is there -- as soon as Democrats take it seriously.
22
This kind of behavior from a "man" who couldn't fight his way out of a paper bag without a lawyer or spin master at his side.
32
It is not this caricature of a man that is terrifying, it is my fellow American who have deleted him. So awful; words fail.
6
(Y)our president didn't even have the grace to turn and fully engage this brutalized woman.
He treated her much as he would a waitress taking his lunch order.
NOT my president
48
I watched the exchange. It made me sick to my stomach. Just when you think he can't go any lower, he always finds a way to surprise you.
31
I am an anti-Trump Democrat. I loathe him and the Republicans who have enabled him. I hate what they have done to my country.
But I am fast becoming numb reading all the op-eds on Tfrump's shortcomings - and there are many, sure.
All that is doing is raising my blood pressure and lowering my faith that he will be voted out of office in 2020.
He is a self-absorbed, unempathetic, unsympathetic, egotistical narcissist. Now what?
He is still in the Oval Office, still the commander in chief of the most powerful military the world has ever known, still Tweeting outrageous messages to his 52 million followers.
33
Thanks you, Mr. Cohen.
21
No offense my American brethren but your country is quickly becoming a failed experiment. Please fix it so we can have a happy family once again!
48
This is not about Trump, but a society that promoted him. He is our Chavez, our Mussolini, our Boris.
Our illusion of “exceptionalism” is gone.
33
If it was just self-absorption that Trump displayed it wouldn’t be so bad. Trump is incapable of humanity which is displayed so clearly by the treatment of immigrant children at our boarder.
It is the fact that Trump is evil, a sociopath, that makes him terrifying.
36
I would like to know why this meeting was not televised.
14
This entire news conference showed Trump's incapacity for empathy or compassion. He seemed totally ignorant of the suffering of the Rohingya people--he asked where they were from. Anyone with a heart or a soul would have heard Murad's statement and expressed horror at what she had been through. Any decent human being would have greeted them standing up, and offered a hand or an arm on the shoulder. He is a despicable human being.
33
I do not think that he is capable of comprehending accented speech (or he does not want to). He was “hearing but not listening”. It was like “blah, blah, blah, Nobel Prize”.
29
Trump has perfected “The Art of The Shun”. He should have embraced Murad. He should have embraced the threat of global warming, environmental protection, the ACA, quality public education, repairing our faltering infrastructure. Instead he embraces Kim Jong-Un and Putin. His lack of humanity makes him an insect.
27
Everyday it gets worse, just when you think it can’t get any worse in the Oval Office.
How did this sorry, degenerate, ignorant anomaly of human evolution ever make it to the Presidency? We elected him ( electoral college notwithstanding!)
So, what does that say about us! A fluke of the times, or, perhaps Trump is not so anomalous in America? The 2020 election with give us the answer for sure ( if the Democrats nominate a solid thinking candidate!)
23
Why is the 2020 election predicted to be close? Who would vote for this monster who is our President?
37
He’s thinking the whole time that he should have been given the Nobel Prize for all the great things he has done.
27
The craziness of modern America is an open wound that bleeds daily out of screens and monitors into our eyes and empties itself out of speakers into our ears.
Trump is a liar. An unrepentant, unreformable, unrelenting liar.
His supporters don’t care.
They’ve invented lies for years to attribute to Clintons, Obamas, to even other Conservatives. And they’ve expressed endless outrage about the untruths, anger they stir up like coals in ash from time to time.
But Trump? They fawn over him like smitten lovers.
Watch that event in the White House and ask yourself, what if this were Barack Obama?
Republicans have gone from mass neurosis to group pathological behavior. They excuse every psychological aberration Trump exhibits like a family denying an axe murderer.
Charges of rape? They don’t care. Charges of criminal behavior? They don’t care. Expression of racism? They don’t care. Misogyny? Brutality? Indifference? Bullying? Criminal behavior? They don’t care.
If you’ve ever wondered what the rise of Fascists in the 1930s looked like just keep up with current events. Conservative indifference to Trumps immorality is the perfect portrayal of it.
60
Just another reason why he's not my president, among so msny!
23
Compare Angela Merkel’s response to a young Lebanese girl who asked her what would become of her family - with this, mmmm, president of ours. Angela broke down crying. This was the first time that I saw the CDU in a humane light. And Angela has tried to carry that torch ever since despite scalding criticism from Trumpesque Germans. Imagine one single Republican crying in empathy over the fate of a young Hunduran, if you can. Is “Republican” now the synonym of “lack of empathy”?
34
Man’s inhumanity to man, our culture on display, Roger Cohen writes what we feel, how in hell’s name can we find our way back. Oslo took two years. What will it take America?
20
Classic Times hit piece. Because he’s in power and you don’t like his personality... he’s a mean mean man. And you wonder why people don’t trust your reporting?
6
You can’t fix stupid, and you can’t cure Sociopaths.
Period.
54
I think this is the best of the NYT opinion world.
30
Umm - narcissist? Non-violent psychopath?
8
President trump is a reflection of America. It disgusts me, but this is what we have become. Selfish, ignorant, greedy, heartless, and again it bears repeating, ignorant.
56
Having a difficult time understanding why she would ever have deigned to put a toe over the threshold of the White House. Why waste perfectly good oxygen on the lame brained pretender to the throne...
42
A new low. I’m ashamed that Nadia Murad was treated with such a flagrant lack of respect. No words. Just tears.
42
Trump likes women who don't get raped.
32
When I saw this interview I could not help but think of how the nazis treated the jews in the early years of their take over in Germany. Trump is a monster, plain and simple, putting children in cages and calling for his critics to be jailed. There is too much to list here of how his administration is filled with most corrupt hateful people just wanting to hurt the poor and unfortunate.
38
Here’s the thing and the only thing:
If a meeting will not generate Trump some ill-gotten moolah, he is not interested.
Keep ‘Merica Great!
20
trump is the Ugly American.
36
Trump, in all likelihood, is a rapist himself. How do you expect a rapist to react to all of this? With outrage, with sympathy? No, with feigned confusion. He is a deeply disgusting human being.
50
This fraud of a human being truly is satanic.
29
trump is a jerk, he can’t even fake interest or concern.
22
This column makes me want to weep that human beings can be as foul and disgusting as Trump.
32
trump is a sociopath. he has no conscience and he is incapable of empathy. in short, he is evil. IMPEACHMENT NOW!
22
Cohen is part of the problem, not the solution. This is a dishonest piece of journalism that seeks only to demean the president and, of course, his newest target, Boris Johnson. “As the gutter is to the stars, is this president to dignity ...” What kind of awkward and damning analogy is that? In seeking to create supposedly a more truthful environment, Cohen spews his own hatred for the president and feeds an even more insidious dynamic, so apparent in many of the responses received by his acolytes in hate.
6
Too bad Donald Trump will probably not receive his coveted Nobel Prize for the Rape of American Values.
26
Trump probably had only one thought rattling around in his diseased brain: She got my Noble Prize. The man is disgusting.
29
The picture of Trump staring into empty space is frightening, showing only empty eyes, while not being able to show even one iota of compassion for this young women who went through hell and survived.
37
Trump is mentally defective. But his Republican enablers know better. They just lack integrity and backbone. They are traitors.
45
Did Trump really study Hitler's speeches? If so, to what end?
8
Putting the accurate penultimate paragraph more coarsely, the current POTUS isn't the herpes, he's the cold sore.
15
He also loves Princes who kill journalists and murdering Nazis in Charlottesville and murderous dictators in North Korea. Trump has a very unstable, inhumane brain.
30
327,000,000 in this country, and the best we could come up with to lead it is this sad, pathetic loser. A man who exhibits every single contemptible human trait - all wrapped up into one steaming pile. For the life of me, I cannot find one redeemable quality in the man. And the fact that this despicable behavior exhibited by him during this encounter is not an exception - it is the rule - proves it.
45
To all those who thought Trump was not so terrible during this interview, remember that he took the time to lie to Murad, in order to appear to be 'in the know':
"At the mention of Sinjar, Trump’s unbelievable response is, “I know the area very well, you’re talking about. It’s tough.”
and after she talked about the reason she rec'd the Nobel, he asked, “Oh really?...Is that right?”
He is a shallow, worthless human. The only depth of character he has is found the depths of evil: the only territory he's familiar with (golf courses notwithstanding) is the route to the 9th Circle of Hell.
37
This episode has stayed with me, too. How shameful. This woman just earned another Nobel prize for the dignity she displayed in dealing with him.
965
There are no words to even direct my comment to our tiny racist president. Therefore I address my comment to Nadia.
Nadia, you represent everything our president wishes he had. Intelligence, commitment, honor, empathy and unrelenting strength.
Know that Americans ( and the rest of the world) applaud you, and apologize for this little person whom we call our president.
37
I have read all the comments about this meeting I can't help but think this man is profoundly ignorant and uncaring. And that's on his best days.
20
They say the eyes are windows of the soul. Look at Trump’s eyes. They are empty, lifeless. He is much to be pitied. A dead man walking.
30
Brutus was right: it is “us”, or the part of “us” who cheer at cruelty, laugh at idiocy, and chant inanities in support of their despot.
Trump is but one corrupt despot. But there are millions who are charmed, entertained, and deeply connected to his cruel derision of others.
Some of them would follow him to far deeper, bloodier places.
These millions, not the man himself, are the horrific threat we now face. They and he are linked in a bond of anger, rage, and cruelty that has far more wick to burn.
982
Well said.
118
Trump lies again. Trump makes racist remarks again. Trump misquotes again. Trump insults again. Trump denies yesterday's actions and rhetoric again. Trump cries 'fake news' again.
Trump has convoluted the entire structure of truth. He has manipulated a base of support who feed on his vile appetite for the crass and vulgar. This man has exposed an American segment of populace for its true nature of racism and bigotry, and made this nature fashionable.
Left unchecked by legal means, this one person will destroy all vestages of 'America the beautiful'.
21
Trump was thinking, if this brown woman can get a Nobel Prize what can’t I? He has the attention span of a gnat!
16
My heartfelt thanks for writing a piece about this disgraceful encounter. Despite my realistic view of the Oval Office "moron," I was stunned when djt asked where Ms. Murad's family was now seconds after she told him about their slaughter. When I heard the excitement in djt's voice when he quizzed Ms. Murad about how she won the Nobel prize, I couldn't help but think that this empty shell is the epitome of bottomless evil. There does not appear to be an empathetic bone in his bloated body.
Every day, I ask for the patience to get through another day of swimming in the sewer that now engulfs the United States. Every day, I pray that the blind will begin to see; the spineless will take a stand against the rot and that those of us, like you, who are appalled will keep our cherished values close to our hearts and in our souls despite the pervasive attack from without.
And after I read each of your opinion pieces, I also pray that if reincarnation exists, that I will come back with a even a little bit of your ability to convey injustices with such tender elegance and solicitude. You are a master of your art.
34
Like Roger Cohen, I grow weary and yawn at so many of Trump's outrages because they come almost daily.
But he says it all in this op-ed.
Trump is a coward and a fraud. A know-nothing who thinks he knows everything. He indeed does not have a shred of empathy or decency.
I try constantly to explain to my conservative friends that it has nothing to do with policies of left or right. The man in the White House is a national disgrace.
38
I just watched the meeting YouTube. The word "appalled" does not come close to describing my feelings.
Aside from what everybody has already noted here about Trump's complete lack of empathy and disinterest in hearing this woman's story, my takeaway is also that Trump is jealous!
Why? Because she got the Nobel Prize! This dark-skinned and (in his eyes) worthless woman from a "tough" area! And for what? Oh, just because her family was killed and she was raped. I mean, come one, Trump (in his eyes) is the one who should have won the prize, after meeting with Kim Jong-un and singlehandedly saving the world from nuclear destruction, right?
As he stated recently, he also could have killed 10 million Afghanis but, oh so magnaminously, didn't. So, come on, Nobel Prize committee, get with the program already!
That, in my view, is all that Trump got out of the meeting.
19
Sure trump is cruelly indifferent...
But why call Nadia “brown”? She looks typically white to me...
Heck I think AOC is white, with that amazingly-straight nose, high cheekbones and straight hair...like a high-born Spanish aristocrat...Every bit as white as, say, Janine Pirro...Let’s try being more inclusive...
6
You can almost see his 'mind' trying to figure this out: this brown woman got the Nobel Prize and he, a man who has stepped over the DMZ to prove.....something....hasn't gotten it. Obama got it just for not being Bush. Another person of color got it and still, he, Trump has not! It's like he can't even comprehend it, the unfairness of it all.
Sad. Bigly sad. Day in, day out.....sad.
22
I don’t even think it’s that complicated, my dear NYT analysts. People like Trump — IQ in the 80-90s, narcissistic, wafer-thin ego — see the world in zero-sum terms. They also see everyone as “winners” and “losers” relative to themselves. Trump does not understand how a woman (a “loser” who’s “not hot” by his standards) could be the recipient of a prestigious award. And he loathes her for it.
23
This Fake President has ice water in his veins in such revealing situations for two reasons. Not only does he have an emotionally crippling, empathy-free narcissist personality disorder but, as a perpetrator of numerous sexual assaults himself, he has never been held to account for his criminal behaviors and had to face his victims in a truth determinative proceeding.
17
With his embarrassingly ignorant and dismissive reception of Ms Murad, the Donald proves yet again that he is a bloviating narcissistic ignoramus - with bone spurs - and that is what's wrong with this president - that is what is missing.
Any therapist will tell you Trump has an amplified personality disorder. He is demonstrably unfit for public office but he is also the "bellwether" president in that he is followed by a flock of like-minded sheep who are also disturbed. He is, if you care to think about Trump's presidency in general terms, he can easily be seen and defined as being the leader of a cult.
21
great hit piece. well done
7
This... is the danger we now face as a Democrocy. This ... is what we as a people have so casually, tolerate. We are truly our own worst enemy. Wake up. Call your rep, give to anyone else who is running against this dangerous narcissist and most of all, VOTE to defend your Democrocy against this callous killer of people at the border, and the the truth.
16
Tell me your kidding! “He didn’t look interested”—really? You are guaranteeing his re-election—Thank You!
3
Our hearts goes out with Nadia Murad and thousands of rape victims @ hands of ISIS/ISIL and their loved ones who lost their lives. But question still is not answered by those who created the evildoers like ISIS/ISIL! The man who popularized EVILDOERS during his time in power ran after one evildoer & threw him out of power ending his life too need to weep now for wrong acts and political calculations. It’s our fault too when we as people let arrogant get into power using every dirty tricks and means to win/pocket elections and then act like drunken idiots and ruin the people’s lives and their livelihood here @ home as well as elsewhere too. Talking for Democratic ideals and supporting brutal dictators/communist regimes is nothing but worst form of our policies.
1
Does Trump consider rape a time honored perk of invading armies? Does he consider women’s bodies ripe for plunder? His actions and his inaction scream “Yes!”
13
Ms. Murad simply forgot to genuflect before his excellency, the president of Trump University. Thus his disinterest in anything she had to say. His Majesty the Baby so craves the spotlight that he is wholly incapable of sharing it. What a pitiful little man.
10
Ms. Murad is brown, a Muslim and she's a she. In order for trump to even to pretend to listen to a woman, she must be white, blond and have a lot of money - hey, that's the same for men! White, blond and loaded!
12
I do not claim to like Mr Trump to paraphrase him 'Not My Type', I do wonder though what sort of upbringing could one have had in order for one to grow up as an adult so totally lacking in a smidgen of empathy .
I can not say that I fell sorry for him, a man who oversees a policy of housing children in cages , who belittles and mimics the handicapped , who determines that among Neo Nazi there are some good people . No that person deserves no sympathy . But I do wonder how troubled can one be to be so totally devoid of an ability to feel for your fellowman.
11
But he defends the fetus, our Evangelical sisters and brothers will assure us.
16
Come on Rog.
He did meet with her.
He's the president of the USofA! Who is she? Just a mass rape victim? a sexual slavery victim? where's the comparison? Know what I mean?
You expect this almost superhuman being, so empowered by our unlimited nuclear arsenal, to actually rise? Not in this part of the world buddy. Where do you think you are? Back in Saudi Arabia?
Ditch the "hail to the chief." Do what Fox News and his legions of minions and fanatics and racists do: "hail the almighty." He is nothing else. We are blessed to share our world with this fountain of eternal giving. You think everyone can get that orange tint? Think again Rog. We are witness to history. To shame. To disgrace. To division. To hatred. To persecution. To disenfranchisement. To the exaltation of policies that punish the weak and fatten the rich. And it's all ours baby! Ours! Did I already say we're blessed?
19
There are labels we can attach to our government. Authoritarian. Racist. Fascist. But at this point the simplest and clearest is Evil. Our government has become evil.
20
This is what happens when class dunce is inexplicably made valedictorian.
25
What manner of father and mother raised such a despicable person?
23
A perfect shell of a man. A simulacrum of a human being.
15
An "uncomprehending, unsympathetic, uninterested cardboard dummy" pretty much sums up the ineptitude of this dullard.
23
"I know the area well" ... Regarding the amount of rape and deaths "Really?". "Why did you receive the Nobel" says he jealousy. Yes there should be an impeachment inquiry that can continue after 2020 in case he is re-elected. No it wouldn't go to a republican Senate not voted on in the house. Because then Trump gets a victory. We just need to get every detail of every crime and immorality we can in front of the American people and continue to do it. Put Jared, Ivanka, Don Jr, his accountant, and drag it out. Anyone remember Bengazi? Who won the election? He is a disgusting "human".
18
and yet we tolerate this person as our President. He is an embarrassment to our country and to the Office of the President. His exchange with her was incomprehensible. But, then again we elected this buffoon. What does that tell you about us?
13
Not my American President. He is a shameful and despicable human being.
15
Women of America, are you listening, do you care? This sub-human, raw nerve-end can be vanquished by your votes. He is your enemy. Stand up for your dignity by giving him the boot.
27
This column is a throwaway. It would have been a thought piece if Mr. Cohen asked Ms. Murad why she even bothered to visit the White House and what her reaction was. Mr.; Cohen's reaction was eminently predictable. A bleeding heart bleeding profusely.
4
Expecting a man who rapes women and thinks nothing of tearing families apart, to have empathy for a woman who has been raped, had her family killed and has no home to go home to, is impossible. Now, if a deposed dictator met him in the White House, he would show empathy...
21
Trump's eyes tell it all -- dead, unblinking, stygian black, like those of a great white shark that has just eaten a seal -- the true measure of a narcissist who whines constantly about his own victimhood without any empathy for real victims of man's inhumanity to man.
20
"This president is inhuman. Something is missing. In his boundless self-absorption, he is capable of anything."
I am sorry Miss Nadia Murad. I am sorry that you, such an honorable person who has suffered such atrocities, had to be in a room with this mentally disordered, dysfunctional and evil person. I am ashamed this person is our president.
20
My Thoughts? . . . :
"This president is inhuman. Something is missing. In his boundless self-absorption, he is capable of anything."
--Roger Cohen
10
And yet older white rural women adore this soulless, evil and weak con man.
24
He's a business man, not a priest or rabbi..or social worker or psychotherapist... This type of column is a subjective judgemental unnecessary attack. Stop it already please ...
'This president is inhuman.' Read that, MAGA people, and take it in.
13
So Trump lacks empathy. Is that the point of this piece? Mass rape is STOPPED by people wielding weapons more powerful than those wielded by rapists. The Trump administration has wiped ISIS off the map. As Colonel Jessup put it, this is the basic truth people need to recognize.
2
Thank you for this article. The reality of Trump needs to be displayed many times, and this example of stupidity and arrogance is perfect.
11
We might expect that if Trump knew about and was interested in any topic in some detail, it would be rape.
16
Keep writing these columns, Roger. Trump is a monster who doesn't belong anywhere near the White House.
15
Donald Trump is a sick, sick man. But what is more frightening, is the fact that Republicans and other deluded individuals continue to support him. He is a force of evil, and should never have set foot in the oval office. Trump will gladly destroy democracy in his unbridled quest for fame and fortune.
17
Ambassador of Religion or Something, Sam Brownback, standing at Trumps left, told Trump before Murad began speaking that she won, he should have said awarded, the Nobel Peace Prize, but His Lordship wasn't listening.
I knew I couldn't be the only one to think he looks like Mussolini when he juts his chin out. Il Duce indeed!
13
The whole body language of the racist Trump screams that he is not really listening and has no empathy whatsoever. He nods because he thinks that shows compassion, it doesn't, it shows his disinterest. The racist POTUS is a disgrace.
12
Not his type
10
Ivanka, read this column aloud to Daddy.
18
Ms. Murad and her story is what should be front page news, not the clown currently living in the White House.
8
Evil is banal and often both stupid and coarse. Churches fail to teach that. Evangelical votes would be well to consider what they vote for. I have no words for the rest, the barbarians within our gates.
10
A disgusting man lives up to his name.
10
Bravo!
4
“When Murad says “they killed my mom, my six brothers”, Trump responds where are they now?”
Trump may have been asking where the people who killed her mom and six brothers are since they were ISIS and he is so desperate to boast about his victory over ISIS, something the Kenyan Muslim Obama could never do. He is totally tone deaf to anyone else’s pain and has no capacity for empathy, only self interest and promotion.
The only time he really showed an interest was when he mentioned the Nobel Peace Prize, something he wants so badly. It must kill him to know that Obama has one while he is so sure that he is the only truly deserving recipient of that and every award ever known to man.
8
We the People of the United States ought to vote Trump out of office so that he can stand trial for obstruction of justice and for paying hush money to a porn star while president.
Vote blue no matter who up and down the ticket.
15
I have to confess that when I see the video, I am not surprised. This is the "man" who mocked a physically handicapped journalist. His sympathies always lie with the bully, the murderous dictator, the nazi wannabe, the racist, the rapist.
15
Trump is mentally ill. Stop pretending he isn’t. The fact that republicans in the senate are willing to accept a deranged person as their president should be of great concern to all of us.
21
Lies > Truth
Any questions? Republicans have learned this long ago: repeat lies and propaganda and you will always win. Democrats and the Left are so outmatched, it is disgusting. So you should rage against useless Lefties at least as much as you rage against evil Righties.
Yes, this meeting pretty much encapsulates the astonishing lack of empathy and abject incompetence Trump has shown throughout his miserable tenure as leader of the US. He is a pitiful, spiteful man who shouldn't be within 100 miles of the White House, let alone making decisions as the head of the most powerful country in the world. Anyone who voted for this imbecile should be ashamed.
14
Trump covets the peace prize. The fact that a brown woman got it means to Trump that yet another peace prize that he deserved was stolen from him by a brown person. Barack Obama perpetrated the other theft.
The man isn't human. He lacks the barest minimum of compassion that a man, let alone a president should be able to conjur. He needs to be removed from office in 2020.
10
Trump has a propensity for "selective listening". That comes from either not wanting to hear the messenger, or being so caught up in constructing your next sentence that you simply ignore what is being said to you. We saw this with his "Where are they now?" question. If I had been caught in that situation, I would have apologized to the woman. But along with all the other "qualities" this man possesses, not admitting you are wrong is one of them. I could not imagine working for the man.
11
Really is anyone surprised about trump's lack of empathy. All you need to do is turn on the tv and watch what is happening at our southern border. Our immigration laws are being trashed for the expediency of stopping brown people who are fleeing their homes to seek asylum. Make no mistake the USA is no longer a safe haven. We have become the pariah we have accused other countries of being. The for profit system of border housing is a disgrace to our values, not that we have any left.
In the coming years this crisis will get worse as parts of the world become uninhabitable. On one can live in a world where temperatures are consistently above 110 and water is sparse. Then what. Slam our borders shut.
Trump is a disgrace to this nation but he exposes a bigger problem. The acquence of the republocan party to the ideology of everyman for himself and protection of personal wealth and property above all else. Trump is their guy and McConnell is the chief henchman.
14
"And you got the Prize for what ... *maybe you can explain?*"
Leaving out those last four words changes much of the narrative. That's not to say Trump was truly engaged nor adequately compassionate.
But it does indicate that he wanted her to share her story for those assembled, in part to have the media spread the news of her courage and the depravity of ISIS.
And, perhaps, it was also a calling of an audible . . . and on the fly move by someone who suddenly realized he had no idea who he was with or what he was doing. Wouldn't be shocked (though that would be a fairly clever spin).
The "where are they now?" moment is troubling, for sure. It may suggest his lack of attention to her personally . . . or his lack of attention to the briefing he hopefully received before the engagement. Which I suppose could also be a form of indifference to her, though it's more likely a sign of his general love of his own ignorance.
4
To those commentators who justify Trump’s ignorance on the grounds that he does not organize such events, I say the it is both his and his briefer’s responsibility to let his know in advance the purpose of the meeting and information about those in attendance. Those responsible will convey a briefing memo to the boss, who will read it—forget about this with Trump—and/or orally brief him/her. The boss should demand this, at the least. But not in this White House. Pathetic.
16
Our country is no longer the "shining city on a hill" - the lights are out.
It is outrageous, but also sad and depressing to witness what this Imposter in the White House is continuing to do.
I'll vote for whoever the Democrat is who wins the Primary.
24
Of all the myriad ways in which Trump appalls, none is worse.
15
Impeach! Not for your own self aggrandizement and political calculus, but as duty.
10
It is nearly impossible for me to add to the disgust being expressed about trump’s behavior in his meeting with Ms Murad. This brave woman has experienced such horrific loss and indignities in her short life and potus hasn’t the brains, courage or yes, humanity, to even try to understand.
Trump is a world class loser in every way that matters.
15
It's hard to find words for this man any more. I've used all I can think of without repeating them again. They are not good ones either.
9
Hypothetically if a loading dock worker with a rap sheet were to win Power Ball and be installed as POTUS you might or might not have something better than Trump.
7
Trump is often shown in photos looking straight ahead instead of at the visiting dignitary visiting him. Exceptions would be Putin and Kim Jong Un.
The appalling insensitivity shown by the Republican party is incredible, whether towards victims of rape in Alabama or towards Christine Blasey Ford at the Kavanaugh hearings. I have not yet recovered from those. Even if they did not believe her, there was no reason to attack her. Should we just be happy that Trump did not start shouting at Nadia Murad?
698
Thanks again GOP for destroying our country.
17
My tears exploded while wondering what Fox and his base think.
11
the fault, and Americans must really hear this or they all will throw their demorcacy away, IS in the ill informed, ill considering, ill educated, illness called an ignorant, self-serving population, which is why they elected trump, as one of 'their own.' trump is nothing without willing accomplices, traitors to american democracy, every single one, whether through stupidity and ignorance, like trump, or venal, prejudicial, intent, like trump. we can no longer blame the leader; he cannot lead if no one follows. sadly, millions and millions and millions not only follow, in their stupidity, they love him and wish he would do more.
16
Trump only feels empathy for powerful men who have committed crimes - especially violent crimes. The fact that, before she retracted it, his wife alleged that he raped her, at least three other women also alleging that he has raped them, explains why the horrors this courageous woman endured not only left him cold, but left him pathologically defensive, too, because of his own non-prosecuted sex crimes. He is guilty of so many crimes that his defensiveness is actually sky high, to the point of paranoia. Why any American would want to re-elect this psychopath is baffling.
17
One possibility for this odd behavior is that the president is feeling defensive. He compulsively projects his own ugly motives, qualities and behaviors onto others. He accused Mexicans of being rapists; he has been accused of raping a minor.
11
It is like we can't really fault trump for his being his vile self. He really has no control over it. It has an ugly life all its own.
2
Donald Trump is the epitome of the worst of whiteness and white privalege. He cares nothing about the plight of those unlike him and cannot even feign interest. He is greedy, self absorbed and willfully ignorant of anything that does not grow his pocketbook or elevate his stature and ego. In his mind he is above the law and will do anything to avoid the consequences of his actions and reap the rewards of his criminal behavior. But he is not the problem the real problem is the tens of millions of like minded white people that cheer him on or say nothing.
10
This empty despicable man is so lacking in humanity or any redeeming human quality that it defies belief. I ask myself over and over what life situations in his development produced someone this flawed?
10
Excellent, scathing, overwhelming piece as to the utter incompetence and inhumanity of our festering carbuncle of a president.
14
He's clearly jealous that she has a Nobel prize and he does not, and never will.
9
"Where are they now?"!!!
6
There is difference between mental illness, a medical condition, and evil, a deliberate choice to cause maximum harm interacting with the world.
Donald trump is evil.
11
Expecting empathy from Trump is like expecting to get blood out of a turnip. And the same now holds for most of the collaborating GOP.
10
"Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.” The author would be wise keeping the quote present when he writes another illogical article, such as this one. Really, now Trump is guilty of inhumanity, among other things? I guess his wishy-washy policies (and not Obama's) unleashed ISIS violence on war torn countries, and a lack of resolve to protect the Yazidi as well as other ethnic minorities was also Trump's fault (again, not Obama's). Also, the thousands of rapes at the hands of former Iraqi soldiers turned ISIS fighters was something Trump instigated. But the cherry on the cake is the illogical argument that Ms. Murad's sexual slavery was somewhat directly related to Trump because he didn't look at her? And was her painful comments about the demise of her family was something Trump was obligated to respond during a photo opportunity? At the most we can say Trump was unprepared for that meeting, or he wasn't aware that she would try to elicit a comment from him. Heck, he has proved he is insensitive, but inhuman? I wonder how Mr. Cohen (any relation to Michael?) would respond with humanity (whatever that means) to a remark similar to Ms. Murad's from the many women who are raped in this country. He obviously was naively expecting something else from a president known to thrive on insulting others. If sympathy is what Mr. Cohen expects, he could send a letter to former Obama officials who mishandled the US response to ISIS.
2
“I know the area [Sinjar] very well, you’re talking about.” There is a luxury golf resort whose name sounds very similar. Trump knows it very well. That’s what he was talking about. Give him a break.
5
In a just world, Ms. Murad would be the one sitting in the chair.
13
It's the don'tcarism at its best.
5
I can’t escape my reaction to this obscene meeting: that our vile President only perked up and showed interest when the Nobel Prize was mentioned. I believe he was thinking, “Oh, really? How did you win it? I deserve it much more!”
6
Nadia Murad lives with her fiancé in Washington, DC. She’s ilearning English. She speaks Arabic, Kurdish, and German. She lived near Stuttgart. Angela Merkel cared.
Man’s inhumanity to man is on display. With words painful to express the banality of Trump, Roger Cohen offers fact. I cry.
Yazidis are slammed. The Yazidi male used Nadia to educate the UN and Oslo. I know the men and Nadia. I’ll take Nadia.
Donald Trump hides his transcripts and epitomizes England, the USA and elsewhere. Suicides are rising in Burlington, Vermont. Our food exemplifies. Water is troubled. Warming is chasing them north. We don’t want them. Who does?
Jeffrey Epstein and Leslie H. Wexner paired. Girls from trailer parks hired, mothers broker their daughters the world over. Important men and ISIS men alike like pit stops.
Trump doesn’t care. He liked Epstein. So did Harvard’s Alan Dershowitz and William Jefferson Clinton. He pardoned me after I sorted him out in an empty kitchen in Portland, Maine at his best friend’s request - to no avail. Witnessed by two.
Nadia came to the farm do her book. She cooked, laughed and cried. She ate well and walked with me. She does not eat well now.
Now, she is thin. Trump is fat. He’s not anorexic. He’s just sick in the head.
She tried.
I love Nadia. I hate Trump. I’m sick to my stomach. The people urged Hillary, Trump and Bernie. We’re lying to ourselves.
We’re sinking.
Two offer sanity. Michael Farrand Bennet and Amy Jean Klobuchar. To Nadia.
2
I am sure Trump thought she received credit for what he did- exposing the rape of women by ISIS to the world. Then he with the help of Iraqi and Syrian forces wiped out ISIS. Why didn’t he receive the Nobel prize was his real question. Self centered is an understatement.
5
Do you think any other President would have stood (on his two feet as a gentleman) for the lady?
6
In a concise and compelling way, Roger Cohen has expressed the dismay so many of us feel at the spectacle of this hopelessly ignorant and dangerous man representing our country. He no doubt believes he deserves a Nobel much more than Nadia Murad.
10
Trump has been called an “idiot” by his Secretary of Defense, Security of State and National Security Adviser, what more do we need?
11
Toward the end of the exchange, Trump asks Murad about her Nobel Prize. “That’s incredible,” he says. “They gave it to you for what reason?”
Sounds a lot like:"How come you, a brown woman, got it and I, the Greatest President in the History of the United States, didn't?"
8
The soullessness of Donald Trump is on display every day.
10
Ever notice that Trump's meanness shows in his facial look? Ask any three year old, "Daddy, why does that man look so mean?"
"Man? Human?"
8
I'm a fan of Mr. Cohen, but this piece is a bit too literary for my taste.
We're talking about mass murder and mass rape, and a president who, on video, clearly doesn't care about either, provided it's brown people that we're talking about. That's truly shocking and terrifying.
Also, there's this horrible mismatch between this op-ed -- which suggests in no uncertain terms that Trump is a moral monster -- and the other news stories on the front page of the NYTs which, in a more or less happy-clappy manner talk about US politics as though everything was basically alright -- just a question of economic growth a bit less than expected this past quarter, etc. This scenario is pretty close to how Germany got Hitler.
3
I feel sad for Nadia Murad and her people
and all of us
8
I have never felt more hopeless than during this presidency. Even after Trump leaves office - hopefully after one term - I will never feel the same about my country or fellow citizens.
There is SIMPLY NO REASON for this man’s presidency other than our nation’s soul is irreparably damaged. Seventeen other Republicans and the party nominated this cretin. Then he wins and he is likely to win again.
I am so sick and tired of the pathetic rationalization for his support published seemingly weekly through interviews with his Rust Belt voters. Coverage of his rallies. Sound bites with his apologists. Huckabee. Conway. Barr. Miller. Graham. McConnell. Fox.
The Republican Party is nothing more than a criminal enterprise run by sociopaths with the most evil human being I have seen in my lifetime as its mascot.
The USA is beyond repair in my opinion.
17
Another 4 years of this? Please God, no.
12
Trump isn’t even pretending to play president. It’s all theater to rile up the base.
If you are a Trump supporter you are not a Christian - you can call yourself whatever you want but you are not carrying forth anything that Christ believed in-.
12
This is a desperately sad piece. Another piece of dung flung from the current occupant of the white house.
9
Surprised, not surprised that the New York Times identifies Nadia Murad as a victim of rape rather than a Nobel Prize winning activist in its headline.
4
Have the decency to stand up for god's sake you despicable coward.
16
He is an idiot. The national decline continues. We are all to blame.
11
Those dead eyes are chilling. Thanks (?), Mr. Cohen, for bringing it to our attention.
To comfort myself, I imagined how Obama or even W. --anyone else--would have sat with her--and engaged.
We've seen this tableau before: chump sitting at his desk, blank, in the presence of visitors. Can't forget the scene during his first year when he stared straight ahead and then handed the 2017 National Teacher Award --over his right shoulder-- to Syndey Chaffee, who was standing .
10
This has sent me over the edge. Nancy, get your butt moving.
9
At least he didn't ask her for her papers.
399
I"ve been angry, appalled, outraged for more than two years. But this display, by our head of state. completely breaks my heart. This is the US's new face. Please let us find the strength and wisdom to change ourselves, and quickly.
11
I can understand how there can be people like trump and johnson (self important - narcissistic – uniformed – excessively greedy) in the world. I can understand how self serving corrupt politicians like McConnell, Brian Kemp, DeSantis, et al, will try to do whatever they can get away with.
What I can’t understand is why my “neighbors” or people like me in the middle class across this country – why they embrace this malfeasance, lying and corruption.
Why do people vote for politicians they know are cheating to get elected? If they don’t “know”, they are actively not wanting to know. The end justifies the means?
Why would people who are all around me not be immensely horrified that the president got into office with the help of a most powerful enemy of the US? Why would 45% of people in the US thinks it’s OK for that president to then take outrageous actions to try to cover it up?
And, just as importantly, would we not be marching in the streets to demand the Senate take action to fix the election corruption that happened in 16?
This amazes me – 45% of the country approve of this criminal and immoral conduct.
Can it be that the Republican brand and Fox news combo are strong enough to subvert our democracy? How is that so many people in the US are more comfortable following some brand’s dogma, evil that is to our democracy, than thinking for themselves?
19
@Once From Rome. C'mon. He wouldn't even LOOK at this brave woman, as any decent person would. You know you are not happy nor proud of the way that Trump represented the people of the United States in this exchange.
11
I despise trump with every fiber, etc. BUT I listened carefully to this interaction and heard something others might have missed. Trump clearly cannot understand most non-native speakers of English. I believe he missed most of what was being said. But it did sound as if she said "they KEPT my mother and brothers" so his question did make sense. Much as I hate to defend trump, I give him a pass on this one error.
4
'Where are they now?'
I, too, watched that clip on the news, and it topped even his mocking of Gold Star parents and a disabled reporter.
Why have these people into the Oval Office at all? Who arranged this photo op, and for what purpose? Perhaps to intentionally display the heartlessness of this ... male? (I can't refer to him as a man or even a human being.) I can think of no other reason.
10
I too watched this several times in horror & disbelief. He was his usual crass, vulgar, rude self presiding... but when he asked 'where are they now?' and then stopped to challenge her as to 'why' she had been awarded the Nobel Prize, I too saw his vacant eyes. He withers in the presence of true courage and character. And he's more reptilian than human.
12
Thank you for this thoughtful piece. It sums up the horror of this man in the face of great courage by Nadia. What is happening in the US is frightening. What is happening in Britain is heartbreaking. I only hope that Canadians and the rest of the world can survive these misfits of humanity and social media engines that feed them.
9
I have nothing to add, except my voice. I want to go on record as thanking you, Roger Cohen.
7
Mr. Cohen you do such a wonderful service revealing this interview with Ms. Murad and Donald Trump, his complete inhumanity and obliviousness, his cold dead soul.
But when at least 40 percent of our population refuse to acknowledge this behavior or see it as just normal, I begin to wonder at the soul of the GOP and Trump's apologists. How else are we supposed to view our national situation? i have often tried to understand the Trump viewpoint, but revelations such as this make it extremely hard and I wonder if it is even worth the effort.
This is the behavior of a psychopath and we need to get him out of the oval office as quickly as possible.
10
It is time to turn not only to Donald Trump but also to the American electorate and ask with genuine seriousness the same famous question that Robert Welch directed to Senator Joseph McCarthy (who, not entirely coincidentally, had the same complicit henchman as Trump did: Roy Cohn) during the Army-McCarthy Senate hearings:
"Have you no sense of decency, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?"
8
Such a great articulation of all that is scary and wrong about Trump.
6
He must have been so damaged as a child. Perhaps to the point of mental incapacity. How he is our President is a wonder to all empathetic people throughout the country. Empathy is a gift that we are throwing away. Perhaps it is a genetic trait that is dwindling quickly over the decades. One would hope that as a people we would improve. But we don’t. It’s a shame. Another trait that has dwindled. Without empathy and shame, you get Trump.
6
I did not see or hear of this exchange before this report.
It's Trump being Trump, totally consistent personality, ethic, and intellect. He is after all, the darling of the Republican party and the millions who voted and will again vote for him no matter what, including this minute of history. I'm sure his base have no idea of or care for Yazidi or whatever happened to them wherever. I'm sure his base can't remember that Obama won a Nobel peace prize for his "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between people".
Trump will never win such a prize even if he wins re-election.
He's much more likely to somehow overturn term limits and become dictator for life. That's how gullible his base. Infatuated with hate, swayed by fake, PATRIOTIC but not racist, no you're racist against whites for even reporting details of how Trump handled this meeting. They've been watching you.
5
We elected this man to represent us. Have we no shame?
7
His response to Murad 's plight makes little sense, it is frankly beyond reason. Then again what has happened in America since January 2017 makes any sense or is even bordering on reason.
8
Anyone, who still says, "Well, ya, but he has many redeeming features," is delusional. This is about character. St. Thomas Aquinas says that evil is not so much the opposite of good, but its absence-privation. Analogously, vis a vis Trump-there is nothing here to see folks, other than a vacuum, inhaling all the dirt it can, and spewing it back.
7
no vote for trump here but none for you either whose effort today is marred by the creation of your own facts, the dramatic stage directions ("allow me to render...") as if the actual facts (if there are any in your "renderings") might not be enough to support your case...
just as so many on-camera personalities aspired to be actors, could it be that our op-eds are haunted by cadres of wanna be film and tv writers?
so many of these "renderings" are what might be called "pitches" in the trade...these fail on the op-ed page for the same reason that they end up on the bottom of the pile on producers' desks, no drama, all the cards are dealt and the hand played by the dealer, what, we may ask, does he or she need us for?
3
One of Trump’s many failings is that he’s not a statesman in any sense of the word, as displayed in this instance. He should have stood for this meeting, or invited Ms. Murad to sit with him before the cameras. When she said that ISIS killed 6 of her brothers, and Trump asked, “Where are they now?”, I was incredulous at his curiosity of where the corpses were located. For me, knowing what this poor woman has been through, I would have been very deferential to her and attentive.
Never in my 70 years did I think our great country would be led by such a buffoon. The Dems better get their ducks, the right ducks, in a row. Moscow Mitch is blocking election protections, and foreign hackers, especially Russia, will give it everything they’ve got. This is a fight for the soul of our nation.
5
There are no words adequate to describe the horror that is Trump: a singularly self-interested creature, devoid of all emotion but rage, who feeds on and uses that rage to turn his base into frenzied masses. They are devoid of critical thinking skills, but absolutely certain that God chose Trump to be their savior.
It's an insanity one would never expect could happen in the U.S., yet, Americans have learned that Trump, and the Republicans, care about very few of them...it's really sickening.
Trump's absolute lack of knowledge, and lack of desire to know, about the heroic Nobel Peace Prize winner, is par for the course. In fact, she ticks all the boxes for things he doesn't care about: she's a woman, she's brown and she represents rape victims. (He is an accused rapist, who hangs out with accused rapists, so "no sympathy" would be the expected response.)
He does take an interest in winning, even with the aid of enemy foreign states, and an equal interest in avoiding prosecution. This has been his playbook for his entire life.
In the upcoming election, Trump will again come fast and furious with lies, exaggerations and venom. It's my hope that Americans, indeed emotionally fatigued by the lies and indifference oozing from the Right, will summon enough energy and indignation to vote Republicans out of office. Not a one has placed Americans first in their, now rare, votes.
7
The only good news on the trump front is that we all get to eventually die. Perhaps he'll defy that and be forced to live forever with an increasingly decrepit body and an utterly useless brain that can only feel pain.
I can hope anyway.
1
Trump periodically swivels his head toward her, but he is not looking at her. He does not see her bravery, her vulnerability, her power, her pain. He does not hear her. His chin is thrust out in defiance of everything she says and stands for. He covets the Nobel Prize and here is another person of color that has been awarded it, who has earned it. Too bad for him he can't just buy it.
6
Thanks for pointing out that it's not Trump, it's us. From talk radio to Fox News, birtherism, to cutting food for hungry kids (while giving billions to farmers), and now mass detentions of poor scared asylum seekers while re-instituting the death penalty, the Party in power is showing just how scared, depraved and inhumane they and their supporters are.
11
The hubris of the author to assume he has any idea of what President Trump is thinking, reminds me once again that moral outrage without humility is pure narcissism.
3
This article does not describe the exchange between President Trump and Nadia Murad accurately. The back and forth is much longer and more complicated. You can watch a clip here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYUW-1Wg2xs&feature=share
In the video, Trump does come across clueless and lacking in empathy. But he did ask several short follow-up questions to draw out Nadia Murad’s story, which unfortunately she didn’t tell all that clearly — she didn’t seem to know she was going to be asked questions — and he obviously didn’t listen very closely (forgetting, for instance, that Murad had already told him her brothers were all killed).
Someone should have briefed the president about his visitors and someone should help him gain a grasp on world affairs. But someone should have also checked the basic facts of this article.
2
He was bored. He has no interest in anything that does not revolve around him and his being "treated very unfairly." I did not see this, but my husband said he perked right up at the mention of the Nobel Peace Prize, which he covets primarily because, well, because Obama got one.
9
I cribbed part of the following from a review for the book “American Carnage” to express my fear for the future my that grandchildren face.
My fear is that Trump gets re-elected and fully dismantles the constructive developments within our government that resulted from Roosevelt’s New Deal and Johnson’s Great Social.
I don’t expect to live to see the results, but imagine a nation with no social security, no national health care system, no welfare social net and a destroyed natural world with a completely fouled environment.
This is the direction President Trump is taking our nation.
“American Carnage” is not merely a study of the Republican Civil War, it is a study of the chaos Donald Trump is creating.
9
Truly one of the best columns I have ever read. Writing is an art form and Roger is a master. Pulitzer worthy! Thank you!
13
You can tell by the look on his face that Trump is thinking, “How can I steal this woman’s Nobel Peace Prize?”
8
Thank you, Roger, for this powerful, damning portrait of someone who belongs in intensive therapy rather than the Oval Office.
Building on what you’ve written, I’d like to suggest a figurative context for viewing this scene: Imagine it is not just Donald Trump sitting there with his back to survivors of religious persecution but the entire Republican party, and every citizen who mindlessly supports this fraud of a leader. They too are saying, “You’re not welcome here. You’re not like us. Go back to where you belong.”
We tend to forget that it’s not just Trump who is shameful and often beyond the pale but everyone who is complicit with his crudeness, ignorance, unbridled narcissism, and racism. You have to wonder: Do these people give voice to the dummy, or is it the dummy who gives voice to them?
9
The first two words in the headline are all we really need.
2
I am ashamed to be an American at this time in history when the world watches us and hopes that we will care and help.
This awful man has no sense of decency or humanity. He is a sickness that is infecting many of us. I am losing hope.
8
"In his boundless self-absorption, this president is capable of anything."
Please say these words quietly to yourself several times, until their meaning and significance become clear.
At this juncture, Roger's sentence is a fact, supported by mountains of evidence.
If you believe this fact is inconvenient, you may not choose another fact that is more to your liking. None of us are entitled to do that.
My heavens. The photo in the story is the most frightening I have seen of Trump. It embodies that phrase, "capable of anything."
The photo paints a picture of a person who is "capable of anything" and cannot be bothered to see a brown female rape victim as human.
We know what this narcissist is capable of: He is a white supremacist demagogue. His party of outright fascist ideals is an idolatrous personality cult.
Ponder this: More likely than not, the president himself has raped another human being. The latest credible accusation was made only a week ago.
The Oval Office event described here is sickening. Power, indeed, wears out those who do not have it. And yet somehow we must never submit, never normalize this.
I am at once both surprised and no longer surprised. Things continue to worsen. Day after day, repeatedly, things go from bad to worse.
12
It has been reported in the press that Trump felt he deserved the Nobel Peace Prize for his handling of Kim Jong Un. To me, his treatment of Ms. Murad smacked of petulant, childish jealousy.
5
@Indiana girl
I think her treatment by ISIS was much worse. But that’s just an opinion. Roger Cohen couldn't summon a single sentence of condemnation of ISIS.
2
You keep in touch with your humanity when you can see yourself in the wretched of the earth. You lose touch with your humanity when you side with the politically powerful against the wretched of the earth.
1
Indecency didn’t start with the current monster in the White House. It started long ago when we, the people, allowed for indecency and immorality to take shape in our society by blindly and unquestionably worshipping the evil ways of our empire. Every time that we, instead of calling out the occupants of that dark place of governance for their war crimes, we look the other way because it was our “beloved” leader who is committing the crimes, we are helping to advance the cause of indecency and immorality our country is living in today. My dear Democrat friends still cringe when I call Obama a war criminal. He is! Like, Trump is, like Bush is, like all American presidents have been! We are an indecent and immoral society that allows for these monsters to thrive! No gods, if they truly exist, would ever dare to bless our country!
1
The photo says it all. God help us.
4
@DT
The photo shows Trump looking at her. I guess Cohen has his facts wrong.
2
I was apoplectic when I read about this,then I saw our imbecile-in-chief,virtually ignoring this brave woman while she spoke. He didn't have the guts, or decency to look her in the eyes, to offer a hug. It is the "small" things that are indicative of his considerable cowardice. What a disgrace.
6
Trump is the worst American who has ever lived. It's not even close.
13
When Murad says, “They killed my mom, my six brothers,”
Trump responds: “Where are they now?”
Something is wrong, at a neurological level perhaps or, equally concerning, he suffers a severe impairment at an empathetic level.
Why Does Trump face away from her, and then crane so awkwardly around to view her from the corner of his eye?
"Where are they now?"
Where are you, Mr. Trump?
Who are you?
8
He is a textbook case of psychopathy. That’s what’s wrong with him.
7
He couldn’t even stand up to honor this woman?
6
Mr Cohen: Next time you write about Trump, please quote this line from the great poet Gerard Manley Hopkins: "No worse there is none." Make that line your entire column--as it should be the entire column for all NYT pundits.
4
"Trump sits there at his desk, an uncomprehending, unsympathetic, uninterested cardboard dummy".
In a nutshell this brief sentence states all anyone needs to know about Trump.
"He looks straight ahead for much of the time, not at her, his chin jutting in his best effort at a Mussolini pose. He cannot heave his bulk from the chair for this brave young woman. He cannot look at her".
Our virtueless president.
November 3, 2020 can not come quick enough.
7
When it comes to Mr. Trump, Jesus is surely weeping.
5
45 is without a country . . .
1
That this incident went unnoticed by most Americans is indicative of what I call “the normalization of psychopathy.”
The fact that our president is a vile, devious, pathological liar who is incapable of showing empathy, incapable of showing remorse, and no has no conscience whatsoever is perfectly acceptable to 43 percent of the population.
And for the rest of us who are horrified by his behavior, we simply cannot keep up with the daily assaults on human decency.
6
Of course Trump was upset, he thinks the Nobel prize should go to him.
3
What a brute this man is.
4
Trump is missing the empathy gene. He is also missing the considerate gene, the diplomatic gene, the kindness gene, the generous gene, the intelligence gene and the concern for others gene. There is noone home but an angry child who breaks things and people because he can. He is a sicko.
2
Trump is a malignant narcissist.
1. They are habitual liars. They seem incapable of either knowing or telling the truth about anything.
2. They are egotistical to the point of narcissism. They really believe they are set apart from the rest of humanity by some special grace.
3. They scapegoat; they are incapable of either having the insight or willingness to accept responsibility for anything they do. Whatever the problem, it is always someone else's fault.
4. They are remorselessly vindictive when thwarted or exposed.
5. Genuine religious, moral or other values play no part in their lives. They have NO EMPATHY FOR OTHERS and are capable of violence. Under older psychological terminology, they fall into the category of psychopath or sociopath, but unlike the typical psychopath their behavior is masked by a superficial social facade.
THE MALIGNANT PERSONALITY by Caroline Konrad, 1999
6
I too was horrified by the numbing inattention that Trump exhibited in this interview. He sees nothing, he knows nothing, he is nothing. Nadia Murad's composure in the face of this incompetent, inarticulate brute was heartbreaking.
5
An excellent column.
2
Trump is a narcissist through and through. Anyone doubting this, supporter or no, should read the definition thoroughly. If the story is not about him he has zero interest. He does not have an empathetic bone in his body. As others have said his supporters find any minuscule reason to excuse his obtuse behavior; this is a sad commentator on trump and his supporters. When we lose our sense of empathy we lose our humanity.
2
Thank God there were other people in the room with her.r
3
"Something is missing"
Indeed, but we knew this from day one when Trump started screaming about imaginary "Mexican rapists."
Voting for this cipher is bad enough, but not voting or being a third party nihilist/fake "independent" is worse.
You did it; you really did it to America.
3
So Trump lacks empathy. Is that the point of this piece? Empathy doesn't STOP mass rape. Mass rape is stopped by people wielding weapons more powerful than those wielded by the rapists. The Trump administration has wiped ISIS from the map. How did Colonel Jessup put it? Learn to handle the truth.
1
There is not one empathetic bone in his body. The only human emotion he exhibits is selfishness. There are absolutely no redeeming qualities in this buffoon. None! You can be positively sure that when she mentioned why she received the Nobel Prize, his only thought was how did this dark female nobody get it and not me.
2
I hope the Democrats, in their campaign for president, use this clip and every other one of the many where trump has proved that he's a complete insensitive fool.
3
Trump was undoubtedly wonder why Obama, a black man (Muslim, Kenyan, not American) and Murad, a brown woman, not American, could get a Nobel Prize, and yet, he, a stable genius white American who stepped into North Korea, has not been offered one. That is why he asked her what the Nobel Prize was for, not because he had any interest in her journey, but only his own.
4
As US voters we were cheated
Our president was not completed
When he was assembled
God’s hands must have trembled
And some emotions were deleted
1
Roger Cohen referenced Edward R Mutrow and Joe McCarthy. I'm sure many NYT readers immediately recalled Joseph Welch's rebuttal to McCarthy ... " have you no decency sir". There is simply no pejorative adequate enough to capture the egregious and shameful interaction betwen Donald Trump and Nadia Murad. His solipsistic banality is a national disgrace. Donald Trump is the personification of the ugly American.
.
5
Numb, number, numbest. Day in, day out. Year in, year out. When will it end? Who will end it? How?
Vote.
4
This country is in big trouble. VOTE DEMOCRATIC
5
Despicable. Unkind. He doesn't even understand who is a hero or heroine He put down Senator McCain because he was a prisoner of war, and instead of treating him like a hero he treated him like a loser which is the complete opposite of what he was and fought for. Nadia Murad has been treated the same and it is heartbreaking for her and our country. Trump is a bully and a liar and he will always have those attributes. He's is also a racist which he's always been. How he became president is beyond me.
3
Let us not forget that Donald Trump in his 20s chose Roy Cohn--Joe McCarthy's lawyer--as his lawyer & mentor.
2
trump couldn’t stand that she won the Nobel Peace Prize destined for him.
2
The question too is, how would he act if this was a woman who was raped by an illegal immigrant or Muslim?
2
No matter what Trump does, his base will never desert him. I fear we are stuck with him for another term.
1
I saw the actual tape and your article is wrong. Trump did not say "where are they now" after being told the relatives were taken. She said "they have been taken" and Trump said "where are they now" and then was told they were dead.
1
And that makes DJT’s comments PALATABLE? Give me a break. The point of this article is that the man in the WH is completely self-absorbed and detached from reality and empathy.
Thank you, Roger, for your amazingly trenchant observations. Your essay put me in mind of W.B. Yeats' poem, "The Second Coming." The fault does indeed lie with us. We who have unthinkingly sown the wind for 400 years are now witnessing the inexorably strengthening gales of the whirlwind coming ashore to level all that is not anchored to bedrock. I want to write like you do when I grow up if we get to live that long.
1
I love my country, but I’m beginning to hate many of our leaders. And in that category of “leaders,” I include not just the elected ones like the amoral Trump and McConnell (along with numerous Republican sycophants in Congress), but also the billionaire class that pulls the strings of government by using their money to control the actions of elected government officials. We are not really a democracy, we are an oligarchy with our government run for the benefit of corporate profits, which pour into the non-tax paying pockets of the billionaires, including starting wars and undermining the governments of other countries for the benefit of corporations. Long-ago US actions are one reason for the poverty and corruption in Central American countries that are the source of the migrants at our southern border. Has there been a sustained period in our recent history when the US has not been at war? Why is that? We can spend billions of dollars to fight wars but there’s no money for affordable healthcare or infrastructure investments. Our priorities need to change.
12
Like most people around the world, my wife and I hope American democracy works as it is meant to, and that there is no second term for this president.
11
I would appreciate a background story on this particular White House meeting / press opportunity. Who orchestrated it, what did they hope to accomplish, what was actually achieved beyond the visuals? Did any meaningful conversation occur before or after the press left the room? What was done to prepare t? Did he have full knowledge beforehand? I can guess the answers myself but I’d like the real story to add to our grievances against t.
1
@Jim Brown, trust us, the background doesn't matter, facts don't matter, objectives don't matter. Trump simply wings everything as he's done with everything he's broken in his self-centered, so-called life.
3
It's past time we understand, as a nation, that trump has a very, very serious mental illness - professionals have called it "malignant narcissism." Narcissists in general have no empathy. They are utterly incapable of empathy. Their lives are totally centered on themselves and what brings them pleasure and adoration, and everything they do reflects on that need for constant attention.
Anything that resembles "empathy" is merely a well-honed manipulation, and the story will eventually come back to them.
trump should actually have been 25th long before now for the potential danger and harm he can do to the country and to the world. Hopefully he will be soon powerless to do any more harm, though distraction, delay, and denial are his go-to tools when cornered, and there are many very destructive distractions he could grab onto to protect himself before he is removed from power...
14
This. Right here. This is reason enough why this man should not be President. The fact is that he is President and the fact is that he represents us, that he does these things in our name. He is the face of us. Anyone who is horrified and sickened by his many unpalatable behaviors must vote against him and look to other means to advance their agendas. This man should not be allowed anywhere near anything to do with governance, with representing us. Voting him out is the only right and moral thing to do.
23
I fear for our children and their future.
We, Americans, worked hard to create a world filled with the wonders of science and engineering and somehow, along the way, forgot bringing all of humanity along with us.
Our President reflects our inhumanity as a society.
14
@Linus
Yeah, but why did Americans work 'hard to create a world filled with the wonders of science and engineering....'. Americans care about one thing. That's money. 'Humanity' ? Tragically, that's almost comical.
Thanks for writing about this, Roger. I was dumbstruck by this when I saw it, even after years of watching this callous, narcissistic President. I kept thinking, “What would Obama do?” First of all, our former President would have stood up, probably with tears in his eyes, and extended his hand in a show of empathy and humanity. He may have even hugged her, although now hugs are considered taboo. But Obama’s humanity was always apparent in his interactions with others. So, so humiliating for us to have this oaf as President and representing our country,
26
This is one of the most perceptive analysis of Trump that I've read in either books, CNN commentators, or other articles.
The responsibility for the mess we're in lies not just with obtuse Trump but "Moscow Mitch McConnel" and guys like sleazy Lindsey Graham and Jim Jordan among all the enablers and supporters in Trump's party. But above all, all those True Believers at Trump's rallies who blindly refuse to see how Trump is slowly destroying Democracy and the rule of law by the Supreme Court by claiming he's restoring their right to run America the way they want share the responsibility for Trump.
15
POTUS is the leader of the Republican Party. He is the best representation of the values they cherish. This fact ought to motivate voters to join our only other viable party. Unfortunately, too many voters, especially men, and the women dominated by them, look forward to a world where the configuration of one's sex organs, and the color of one's skin, will determine the hierarchy of social relations.
8
Reprehensible hardly seems a strong enough word to describe trump's endless horrors. Every day, as my despair deepens that our country is run by a someone with such a despicable character, numbness outweighs anger. I feel helpless and hopeless because I can't do anything to stop him as he and his enablers pile insults onto outrages day after day.
And what will happen if the voters' best intentions to remove him from office in November 2020 are annulled by Russian interference? We'll need a lot more than "good night and good luck" then.
15
Thank you for this column. I also was appalled at Trump's utter lack of response - except for the "interesting" part, for him, on the subject of the Nobel Peace Prize. This man simply doesn't care about others. He's devoid of empathy. He's empty except for the basic need or desire to feed his ego. It's disgusting to see repeatedly on a daily basis, and it's still beyond belief that this is someone for whom people voted.
14
i hate what Trump's doing -- everything! -- to Make America Worse. But I do not accept responsibility for him. Like millions of other Americans, I voted against him. Like hundreds of thousands, I've protested his terrible, destructive policies. I've worked phone banks and talked to strangers about our political problems. I'm on hyperlocal news social media sites, debating his attempts to denigrate and divide American residents. The generalization attributing Trump's despicable administration to "us" is useless and demoralizing. I read it constantly. Yes, our body politic is ill, but we are NOT all to blame for the sickness any more than we all consciously collude to increase profits and powers of corporations or autocrats, who are supporting Trump's subversion of American values.
9
I hope everyone reads this terribly important, and deeply dismaying, column.
10
Well, he's a slug-like retrograde for sure.
But these various groups and individuals need to stop providing this low malevolent mime with photo-op fodder for his propaganda machine.
Tiger, the Native American vets, many many others troop into the OO to be used in the most pernicious and transparently self-serving manner by Trump.
Not only is he not fit to be president, he's not, as my grandmother used to say, not fit for mixed company, period!
He is, however, an embarrassment before the nation and the world.
RC really gets it right with his Mussolini comparison because that is exactly the destination this president and his GOP politburo have in mind.
5
There is no excuse for this insensitive lout to occupy the oval office. Reasons? Yes, including a sick chunk of the population bamboozled into believing his lies, but no excuse. Contrary to what some comments are saying, this is not a hit piece but reasoned opinion based on factual reporting of yet another reason that there is no excuse for this insensitive lout to occupy the oval office. (Yes, that was worth repeating.) If Ivanka had been transgressed in the same manner, would his reaction be the same?
5
Trump is clearly intimidated by Nadia Murad. Just look at that picture. She coveys strength and purpose and he's left there with a vacant pose. She stands over him, in the Oval Office.
I much prefer this to Trump's endless humiliation of the people he uses as props. Here, he has no answer to Murad's power and righteousness. Of course he isn't humbled; he's incapable. Of course he shows know decency; he's incapable. But we get the next best thing with his awkward silence.
4
Thank you for bringing this ugly episode foreword.
In the picture, he actually looks scared.
5
Trump is driven completely by ego and impulse.
If the situation does not suit and reinforce these two facets of his personality, then it barely exists or is of trivial significance.
9
Everyone knows how indifferent Trump is to other people's pain. Nothing surprises me about Trump. What is surprising is how Republicans have remained silent during all of Trump's indifference and lack of empathy. That is the bigger story and history will, hopefully, not treat the Republicans and Trump's supporters kindly.
13
I watched the meeting between Trump and Murad. I think Cohen wildly exaggerates Trump's so-called inhumanity. Cohen parses and overlays every word and image of Trump to paint him as a monster, which you can do with most videos. For example, when the President asks, "Where are they now?," he means, "Where are they buried?" A legitimate and humane question.
4
@New Yorker
Please don't justify Trump as embodying humanity. Just look into his vacant snake eyes in this picture. It tells us all we need to know about his lack of soul and compassion. This is who he is.
19
Really? Where are they now?
1
Well, I see in the Comments thus far that the current resident of the White House has convinced some people to not pay attention to what they see and hear.
Supporters of this nightmare will go to lengths to translate for Trump. That isn't what he meant, they claim. They translate for him as if he was speaking a foreign language that non-believers just don't understand.
Sorry, but what he says and and what we see needs no translations.
38
Nothing surprises me about Trump anymore. He is the ultimate non-caring POTUS. What is surprising is that there are 60 million Americans who fawn over him, evangelicals who pray for him and a whole TV network which treats him like a persecuted savior. Trump is one person who will eventually pass but the folks that support him are here to stay and that scares me more than anything else.
28
Mr. Cohen,
Thank you for bringing me to the necessary tears that this episode deserves.
Sincerely,
Judy Rowland
13
The president obviously lacks the qualities that make the word humanity possible, concepts enshrined in most of the world's religions, including those of the Yazidi. His self-absorption and inhumanity are painfully obvious. Is the blind support of his followers,though, any less reprehensible? Is the GOP. with all of its supposedly deeply held principles easily and quickly discarded. worse? The idea that anyone would defend, let alone support. this weak, petty, delusional dim-witted man is not only an offense to everything good in the world but an affront to the idea of a good itself.
2002
@kurt
"The president obviously lacks the qualities that make the word humanity possible, concepts enshrined in most of the world's religions.
I guess those concepts are NOT enshrined by the "Christian" Religious Right in this country because they adore trump, and support him and keep him in office.
I suspect he has broken each of the 10 commandments many times over and certainly does not live up to Jesus's command to "love each other as yourself." Oh maybe that's the problem. trump doesn't even love himself. But that does NOT excuse all those good "Christian" people including Pence who has been to the border.
220
@esp
Calling themselves Christians does not make them Christian. The "right" does not embrace the teachings of Jesus because they're cause is self-enrichment so of course they support trump he's their Christ.
120
@esp
Exactly.
Evangelical Christians - white ones, mind you - must be as lacking in humanity as Trump is.
90
The man who can’t stop whining about his self-described victimhood - as he tells it, from Democrats, from the media, and from an alleged ‘deep state’ - can’t bring himself to show a hint of compassion for a woman who was deeply brutalized.
2685
@NM He is mentally ill. He has a personality disorder. Stop expecting him to be other than what he is. He will not change. Our outrage only fuels his outrageousness. He thrives on it.
141
I want to cry and I want to rage after reading this. Cry for the rape, torture and inhumane behavior these women have been subjected to. Rage at Trump for treating them like nothing more than a photo op. He couldn't even take the time to learn why this woman was invited to the White House and a little bit about her life and work?? There are not enough negative adjectives in the dictionary to describe the vile character of our so-called president.
3311
Trump has always behaved this way. His behavior, and the lack of any pushback from the GOP, speaks volumes on the moral vacuum in the country.
Need more proof: The Senate under McConnell twice rejected efforts to mitigate foreign (i.e. Russian) interference in the 2020 election -- just hours after Robert Mueller warned such interference continues today.
Our country is sick.
493
@erkcyclisme
One can expel a senator from Congress. You are right on target.
Let’s expel Mitch!
186
@erkcyclisme Mitch McConnell is the wall in the Senate. No meaningful, necessary piece of legislation gets by him, no sir!
139
I'm compelled to write something, but words truly escape me. This...this "man"-Trump. Tears are filling my eyes with anger, disgust, embarrassment over the recounting of Trump's behavior in this moment. Yet again.
Nadia, you are a lioness and a wonder. The heart breaks in a thousand pieces even imagining what these people went through.
2601
@morningglory60
I feel the same. I can no longer bring myself to watch the news hearing of the latest atrocity, the heartlessness, the monstrosities. I've always been a very optimistic person but trump has brought me to despair. That 90% of republicans and 43-46% of Americans in general still support this amoral, evil man is incomprehensible to me. I feel so impotent. We have lost control of our, the people's, government. But far worse many are actually cheering this disgusting behavior on. I never knew there was so much evil living just below the thin veneer of civilized society. What does that say about them? What kind of nation have we become?
315
@morningglory60 and yet 42% will vote for him and WILL DECIDEDLY get out to vote come what may.
And sadly WAY TOO MANY of the 58% that do not cotton his presence really if they are intellectually honest will SIT IT OUT and not vote - or cast a protest vote for a 3rd Party.
Thus they will allow the 42% to prevail at the polls! Unconscionable!
To justify their "sinful" apathy/cynicism in the face of existential dangers some may wax on about some "cosmetic flaw" in the Ds that "really turns me off" - flaws that in the face of Trump and GOP depravity really have no bearing whatsoever. Others may wax on about how "they are all the same low-life politicians so why bother" - such obvious false equivalency.
I hope I am wrong about the 58% - I hope the result in 2020 is a resounding repudiation of theocratic authoritarian plutocracy (the GOP) . Else this "shining light on a hill" will be so dimmed it might just extinguish. Sinful that would be.
155
@sharon I feel your despair at what has become of so many of our fellow citizens, to support a malevolent fool like this "man" and elevate him to a position where he has so much power over the rest of us. But we are not impotent in the face of this monstrosity. We can support good candidates to flip the Senate; we can encourage our current Congressmen and women to impeach this criminal; and most of all, we can get out the Democratic vote in 2020 to finally rid ourselves of this stain on our national history.
121
Thank you for writing this and so clearly expressing exactly how I felt watching this exchange. The utter lack of understanding about anything that Murad said about being raped, about losing her family, about her work to end mass rape shows the truly frightening state we are in where Trump, who has zero humanity and a complete inability to understand the gravity of anyone's pain let alone the responsibility of being the president has so much power. Of all the things that outrage me about Trump, this exchange trumped them all. I am forever disgusted by this man and the times we are in.
2355
@Judith
I wish the TV news channels - ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC etc. had replayed this over and over and over again and commented endlessly on Trump's failure to even react as any normal human would.
There is something wrong with this man. Seriously.
158
@Judith
His behavior wasn't a lack of understanding. It wasn't even indifference. It was the fact that he didn't care.
And it isn't just her. He cares about no one but himself. He is such a damaged human being. Not one redeeming quality. Not a one.
128
@Mimi
Of coure there is. I have stopped reading about him. He is hopeless. If he gets another term the country will not survive.
85
I'm not sure which is more tragic, Trump's boundless vacuity, or the constant efforts by his supporters to justify, excuse, and in some cases even applaud his monstrous behavior. Good night and good luck indeed; when Trump is gone, we will still be struggling with the detritus of his toxic ideology.
2824
@TL Mischler Luck has run out for the American people who do not support trump and his GOP enablers. Clearly, he is not a whole person -- except for hate, a hollow man. He cannot even recognize heroism when it stands before him. Terrifying and heartbreaking at the same time.
136
@TL Mischler My vote for the most tragic is the effort by his supporters to justify, etc. Trump and his like are only as powerful as their supporters, and the tragedy in their existence is the darkness now upon us.
115
Yes, @TL Mischler, “vacuity” is the perfect word here, sadly.
56
It was both fascinating and horrifying to see the way his eyes lit up at the mention of the Nobel Prize. It was like a switch had been flipped; he suddenly became engaged the moment he realized that she had something he covets deeply. His envy, avarice, and resentment were palpable, as was his incredulity that this petite, heavily-accented, dark-skinned female refugee could have possibly done anything worthy of recognition. It's fortunate she wasn't wearing the medal around her neck; he might well have broken it in an attempt to wrest it from her. Every time you think he can't bring further shame on our country, he gleefully proves you wrong. Every time.
3951
@CS.
He was listening for her to brag about how she got it, so he could take notes. He heard nothing else.
90
@CS and now if he never receives a Nobel prize he will be able to blame it on racism and political correctness, obviously.
90
@CS Pick one either of my boys aged 10, and 3, have a better chance of ever receiving a Nobel Prize than 'him'. It is never happening .
76
Indeed. I could not believe my eyes or ears when I saw this on the news days ago. Utterly pathetic. This man has no redeeming qualities. It’s beyond sad- it’s dangerous for not only our nation but for the world. For our future it will take both an extraordinary and decent human being as president and a good deal of time to undo the mess he’s left us.
1685
Just-for-show Trump is never serious and he doesn't give a damn about the outcome of anything for anyone EXCEPT for himself! He "does" propaganda for himself. Others are irrelevant, especially people.
5
I have read many stories of demon kings of yore in Hindu-Buddhist scriptures. I always wondered what they looked like in real life. Now I see one all the time. The damn TV can't show enough of him. Sick. This guy makes even Saddam and Gadaffi look human.
I fear riots in our streets if Trump loses elections in spite of all the rigging and rigmarole Russian and his party undertake on his behalf. This demon will go on a scorched earth rampage before he quits.
7
As the evidence of Trump's monstrosity is showcased in plain sight everyday, the extreme contortions to which Trump supporters will go to justify his inhumanity just blows the mind.
History will prove them wrong, and hopefully they will face the reckoning slave owners had to face.
18
Precisely. I still haven’t figured out how his supporters can deny reality. It blows my mind.
9
@Edward Gonzalez. They don't care. Just keep repeating that when you get perplexed. Once in a while, in a moment of honesty, they will even admit it.
2
I wonder how many of the commenters here who have actually defended Trump against Mr. Cohen’s blistering, but accurate, assessment have seen “On Her Shoulders” the bio/ documentary dircected by Alexandria Bombach. It may help them with the bigger picture of her seeking world recognition of her Yazidi people’s genocide at the hands of ISIS. And more succinctly put that question “where are they now?” by Trump in an even clearer focus to scutinize and evaluate.
Thank you Mr. Cohen for showing us, once again, the terrestrial embarrassment called Trump.
8
I understand Ms. Murad's pursuit of her goals and her need to reach as many people to voice her concerns. The White House would seem to be a perfect podium, during any other administration. This man is way beyond compassion for anyone, especially a young female rape victim who's determination and strength of will has earned international recognition. He shrugs her story off, but perhaps has an interest in her Prize. He asks her something like,"Why did you win?"
Our president will never know true, meaningful accomplishment. He is incapable; a very small mind, with smaller hands barely able to grasp the work of Nadia Murad.
8
In the presence of a brave woman, who has suffered the loss of all that one would think one might live for, 'The President' was unable to rise, like a gentleman, and look her in the eye with sympathy and compassion.
Instead, she had to tell her extraordinary story of pain and loss, whilst standing, to a distracted and apparently incomprehending leader of the USA as he sat in apparent discomfort.
Sure, it might be a hit job, but I cannot see a better victim, for a slice from a gallant's rapier.
I felt like throwing my passport away.
His apologists - and there are many - need to reflect upon their attitude to the suppliant other.
8
Thank you for this piece. It's mind- numbing, isn't it, when we read this and think back at all that has us moaning and despairing to our friends of like mind, our relatives, and our mental health professionals. When I read about the success of Puerto Rico's mass demonstrations to force their governor to resign, I thought, "Hmmmm...we could do that...we should do that." But, alas, we are too complacent...busy...fearful...ignorant...afraid of donnie's supporters and their weapons and hatred...numb. Take your pick. But we can vote and we will vote him out.
8
To all here who are merely repeating what Mr. Cohen says in his column, and to all who "recommend" those comments: I implore you to watch the entire 24 minute event. It is available on YouTube.
2
It is a proven fact that Trump is a serial liar. What is more troubling is that a significant part of our society believes his lies. For the most part these people would never accept someone who they know well who would constantly lie. But they accept our so-called leader of the Western World not telling the truth. This is a sad commentary on our society.
4
Every day of his wretched, shallow, meaningless existence, which a cruel fate has foisted upon our nation, Trump reminds me of the last stanza of this famous poem:
Last night I saw upon the stair
A little man who wasn't there
He wasn't there again today
Oh, how I wish he'd go away...
9
I've woken up everyday since Nov 2016 wishing that the past 2.5 years were just a bad nightmare and shake my head in disbelief that so many of my fellow Americans support this terrible president. There just aren't words anymore. What has happened to this country?
8
"As the gutter is to the stars, so is this president to dignity."
Roger, you are simply the finest political writer in America, probably in the world. Not since Mary McGrory died has anyone in this town elevated political writing to literary levels. Until now, with you. i thank you, the English language thanks you, maybe even America will thank you. En avant!
OJS
4
Disgust surrounds Trump in the same way Charles Schulz depicted the dirt and debris that followed his "Peanuts" character, "Pigpen." The only difference being, "Pigpen's" affliction was metaphor, Trump's is real, to the point of nausea-inducing physical stench. The man stinks, for real.
Apparently there is video of the meeting between Trump and Ms. Murad. It should be an integral part of the Democratic nominee's campaign in 2020.
6
“ He’s a real nowhere man “.
Period.
6
Trump will get his comeuppance, whether he will truly realize it is another matter.
1
How anyone - ANYONE - watching Trump's affect and listen to his statements during this meeting could not finally realize there is something terribly wrong with this man is beyond me.
I don't care how committed one is to so-called Republican values, their leader is a sick, sick man who isn't leading so much as lurching from one horrible misstep to another. This one was especially painful.
“America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.” Abraham Lincoln
8
I watched the video. This is a classic hit job by the mainstream media on Trump. As opposed to lacking sympathy, he (and anybody who bothered actually listening to him over the run-up to his election) is acutely aware of how the Obama administration left the Yazidi to the wolves. Trump just gave Murad a podium to speak to the American media from. Just out of curiousity, did Obama ever do such a thing for the Yazidi?
2
If Murad were white and Christian, Trump and the Fox "News" gasbags would elevate her to right-wing celebrity sainthood. Contrast that scenario to his actual response, and you have to marvel not only at his inhumanity, but at the bigotry and bottomless cynicism of today's "conservative" movement.
4
Just another day of horror from this deplorable, empty, soulless vessel. Nothing new, move along to the next horror. I am physically sickened and can no longer watch or listen. The odds are that this monster will be re-elected. Children in cages changed nothing, refugees seeking asylum drinking from toilets changed nothing, the Mueller hearing changed nothing. The horrors this brave young woman revealed of sexual enslavement and rape and trump's total indifference change nothing. A trump supporter is a trump supporter is a trump supporter.
Morally bankrupt and corrupt to his core he still has the support of ninety percent of republicans, "Christians" included, and forty-plus percent support from the general public. What does this say about us?
I will campaign, I will donate, I will support and vote for the winning Democratic presidential candidate. I will wait through the long night, dangling by a thin thread, sickened with anxiety waiting for the election results, hoping against hope that our better angels will prevail this time. But with each passing day, with each new atrocity I become more despairing as trump's support never wavers. Our democracy is dying, our morality is dying, our soul is dying and sadly forty percent of my fellow Americans are seemingly perfectly fine with that. How far we have fallen from grace, from goodness, from God. We are morally broken and that is the greatest tragedy of all.
10
Oh my god.
I am so horrified at Trump's interaction with this brave woman.
He is a total misfit for the office of the presidency.
I am beyond sad and angry.
4
Trump is incapable of genuine empathy, unless it relates to his fellow mega rich elites, having their incomes and wealth raised from unfunded tax cuts.
Trump's disgraceful interaction with this great woman, may be overlooked if it were a one off example. Sadly this is just normal behaviour from Trump, who loses interest with conversations, unless he is the centre of attention.
How can the US suffer another 18 months, of this person in the White House?
8
Mr. Cohen eloquently shows, in this tragic opinion piece, that this president has no sympathy for victims of rape. Why is anyone surprised? We live in a rape culture. Everything is being raped: our bodies; the earth; our rights; our moral code; our children's minds; our faith; truth. I am tempted to use Bartleby the Scrivener tactics, and maybe I will: I will prefer not to buy unnecessary things, I will prefer not to watch TV, I will prefer not to use social media, I will prefer not to argue with fools, I will prefer not to pretend that anything goes. Someone must set limits.
6
I cannot understand why people are surprised about Trump's lack of interest (other than how she got her Peace Prize because he clearly wants one) in this woman on any level.
After all, we have an administration with a
leader that would rip children from the arms of their parents and put them into cages without basic amenities.
To expect better from Trump is to expect the leader of North Korea to both give up all his nukes and accept Christianity as the only way to live.
4
Nadia Murad is strength, intelligence and grace juxtaposed to Trump, a vacuous vessel of a human. I could only feel shame watching the exchange that he occupies the WH representing our nation, a clear example of our worst selves. We allowed this to happen to our nation and must rectify it. And never allow it to happen again.
5
I believe this session occurred recently after Trump’s “Send them back” rally. Of course the Yazidis, Hondurans, Salvadorans, Guatemalans, Syrians, Venezuelans, Somalians...... want to go back to their homes. The problem is that if they do they will die, be abused and suffer greatly. This is the point of this brave woman’s useless meeting with Trump. To tell him they cannot go back. Of course her words fell not on deaf ears but on a sociopathic mind.
9
Trump defeated Isis. The mess that Obama and Clinton made. That’s a lot more than a showy photo-op.
Roger, actual cardboard has more empathy. And intelligence.
Seriously.
7
i have to admit, i've been there -- not completely paying attention to a conversation, distracted, thinking about something else, and then saying something stupid. that's what I saw here. embarrassing for trump (although nothing shames him), b/c everything he does is public, but i really doubt he meant ill here, nor do i think it means he is "inhumane." at that particular moment, he was distracted. anyone who claims to have never done this, let's play liar's poker. i'm not excusing trump btw, he should have been better. any actual politician, well schooled in the art of pretending to feel others' pain, would have done better. but that's not trump, never was. let's keep some perspective, and save our ire for those things he does intentionally.
1
@local He is not a politician. He has to learn how to cry or at least shed a tear. And didn't these atrocities occur on Obama time.
What exactly is the point of this opinion piece except its being a poorly written piece of sputtering outrage about an encounter that could be interpreted any number of ways?
What was Trump supposed to do, grovel and wring his hands and kiss her feet? Empathize with an experience no American has ever experienced?
Please, Roger, at least write about news and current events. We know you don't like the president and that denouncing him is an easy way to produce some piece of publishable material in the NYTimes but make it more substantive and relevant.
Before I comment, I'd strongly suggest readers watch the entire 24 minute Oval office ceremony here, courtesy of the PBS newshour: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3fpmFJTMes
You will see a completely different account from that depicted by Mr. Cohen.
What I saw was that Mr. Trump listened attentively to, offered words of support to, and shook hands with almost every one of those in attendance. He spoke in somber tones, was fully engaged, and only once -- when at the outset of the meeting he spoke about the North Carolina gathering later that day -- did he draw attention to himself.
By the time Ms. Murad spoke to him, he had been sitting and listening to harrowing accounts for almost 16 minutes -- a long time for a man who has led an wealthy, insulated, antiseptic existence with nothing in common with those around him.
Ms. Murad's four minute presentation was different from that of the others who spoke. She got into political matters, and at one point appeared to me to be lecturing Mr. Trump. I suspect Mr. Trump was familiar with her references but likely had not been briefed on same, given that this even was a State Department led session about religious persecution.
As for the Nobel Prize moment: it was clear to me, as he motioned to the cameras, that he was giving Ms. Murad a chance to speak to the world about her plight, and in closing politely shook her hand.
Shame on Mr. Cohen for his hateful and one-dimensional hit piece.
I wish I had moments "when anger refuses to be summoned." I have been angry on a daily basis since mid 2016, angrier than I have ever been in my life.
That said, if I step back a bit, I see Mr. Trump as a rather pathetic little man. He has a deep, deep hole down inside that he has spent his whole life trying in vain to fill with money, media attention, TV ratings, the roar of the crowd, and cheers of "Trump, Trump, Trump." Now he is the President of the United States, the most powerful man in the world, but he still cannot fill that danged hole - at least not for more than a few hours.
He never seems happy, is thin skinned, aggrieved, resentful, and seems to have no sense of humor other than a predilection for cruelty. I doubt he ever has felt really loved.
Of course, feeling sorry for him is not the same thing as being able to sit with the terrible cruelty, bullying, and destruction he puts out. It just means that I think he is to mentally unhealthy to do any better.
10
I'm a pout-pout fish with a pout-pout face and I spread the dreary-wearies all over the place.
1
I find Roger Cohen’s columns to be thoughtful and thought provoking. His description of Trump’s meeting with Ms. Murad shows Trump to be poorly briefed and almost moronic. It is embarrassing. (But Cohen’s notion that it may be because she is brown and female is just speculation as gratuitous insult.)
But then I read Ed Hemlock’s comment below, and I know that he is on to something. His comment is actually important. Trump has stirred such strong feelings that the lens through which he is viewed and projected ofttimes distorts reality. The truth, as always, is probably more nuanced.
1
"Where are they now?"
These are not the words of a person in good mental health.
7
Your entirely gratuitous inclusion of Boris Johnson in this article does little to advance your credibility. The British Prime minister has only blond hair in common with the president, and only Boris is a natural blonde...(even Trumps hair is a lie...look at the pictures of him partying with Jefferey Epstein to see his natural colour. He might have been lighter as a schoolboy, but like everything around Trump...it did not last)
The Prime Minister has everything Trump lacks. Watch him eviscerate the opposition (Corbyn and Mc Donnell) in his first parliamentary exchanges. I dare you to compare them then.
It was nothing but a photo op for Trump.
“Meeting Victims of Religious Persecution” A photo he could use to convince his Evangelical base that an amoral, lazy, greedy leader can’t be all bad.
He was outraged that the Yazidi woman got a Nobel Prize instead of him. I am waiting for him to start tweeting about how unfair the Nobel Peace Prize is.
4
“This president is inhuman. Something is missing. In his boundless self-absorption, he is capable of anything.”
Actually, this president is not capable of anything, unless it enriches his bank accounts or elicits praise from his insincere Russian flatterers. Let us not ignore Nancy Pelosi’s statement that a sitting president can indeed be arrested and indicted; the DOJ restriction is a guideline, not a law.
4
A decent man would have stood.
7
Thank you for your column highlighting this.
I hope that the opposition researchers are paying attention and use the video in the 2020 election.
Please check out the Sinjar Action Fund (SAF) and the Survivors Action Response at https://nadiasinitiative.org. According to the website, Ms. Murad donated all of her Noble prize money to the SAF to help rebuild the town of Sinjar. I suggest that DT follow Ms. Murad’s example and on behalf of the American people donate the $2.5 billion in Pentagon money he wants for the wall. The money can be used by SAF and other organizations that are helping the Yazidis and others suffering from the results of the American invasion of Iraq. ISIS may have committed the crimes but would they have been able to do so if the US hadn’t destroyed Iraq on false information?
3
Our one time gatekeepers of society , the media and it's editors and reporters, once might have forced candidates to hew to a line of ordinary morality and responsibility. Today, the media cares nothing for what the people it covers and reports on do, as long as it makes money and sells news and advertising.
This increasingly includes ever younger reporters here at the Times who have no experience in how their business was once done-how it was once considered a kind of public service and not just a race to see who makes the most money and can get the big interviews.
If th4e Times needs to know why fewer buy its paper-look at the nature of it's content and how thin and often merely repetitive it is.
Trump will take away health insurance from tens of millions of his fellow Americans. He tore up the Iran nuclear deal, making life miserable to the point of inflicting sickness and death on Iranians. He has seriously hampered global efforts to combat climate change by withdrawing the US from the Paris Agreement. Why? Because he can't stand Obama (for a variety of reasons, including that Trump is a racist).
Trump has separated children from their parents at the border and put them in cages. He treats both children and adults seeking asylum with abject inhumanity (exposing them to unsanitary conditions and packing them in so tightly and leaving lights on constantly so that they cannot sleep properly). He is engaged in efforts to force migrants to request asylum in countries they pass through prior to reaching the US border, in direct violation of long-standing international agreements.
That Trump would be concerned about Nadia Murad and the plight of the Yazidis is wishful thinking to a fault. Trump is damaged goods. He went off the cliff long ago. And that outcome is based on choices that were his to make, and his alone. We should always bear that in mind.
7
It is not difficult to imagine the thoughts of the individuals in this rancid picture. “who let this creature into the Oval Office?” The answer is, we did. We let Trump into the Oval Office.
2
Trump’s deer caught in the headlights stare is too beautiful to behold.
Keep ‘Merica Great!
1
You know, this needs examination on a second level.
Why can Trump not even fake sympathy? His expression above looks downright hostile, and the fact that he didn't even get up from his chair is rude in the extreme.
I think it's part of his diminishing mental capacity that he no longer has a wide enough lens to think of hiding his ugliness. But I think there's more to it too.
They say that hypocrisy is the tribute that vice pays to virtue. This man can't even fake a little bit of empathy and respect to a brown person, a woman, a rape victim, and—nevertheless—a person of high achievement.
It looks to me as if he's been getting more and more drunk on power, to the point where he no longer bothers to act out decency. This is worrying. For one thing, with another election coming up and the possibility that he won't be reelected, what happens if he won't accept the verdict of the voters? The recent "Article II says I can do anything I want," is another display of this arrogance and danger.
3
To a malignant narcissist like Trump the rest of the world, even victims of mass rape and torture, are nothing but set dressing. Those survivors of persecution look like props brought in and arranged just for the photo op and to Trump that's all they are and can ever be. It really is stomach turning that he was elected president and sad that there are so many that don't recognize it.
5
Sad to say that if she were white and wealthy she would have been more interesting to him
He appeared dismissive and preoccupied as though he were being interrupted from more important issues such as how to build that wall.
6
This is why we have to say loudly and from the mountain tops: “this is not my president”. PEOPLE, VOTE HARDER!
4
I wasn't sure when I first saw this piece of news on another news source because it was just too unbelievable a sitting president can be such an inhuman creature. Any woman whom has seen this and yet still support this guy in the office, with all due respect, do not deserve respect. This administration and the ones support him seems to be much willing to go back to enslave women and allow all the atrocities to go on around the world.
5
Donald Trump is what he always was — a cruel, crude, narcissistic and morally corrupt con man.
In other times he could be ignored or mocked — a mildly alarming buffoon acting out his sordid affairs and odious ego-dramas on the pages of the local tabloids and SPY Magazine.
But something terrible has happened to us as a society in the last 25 years, that turned us from a country that merely produced a Donald Trump to one that elevates and cheers it.
God help us.
4
I am not a fan of Trump, to put it mildly. However, I watched this video and feel this column is unfair. Yes, he lacks the empathetic response we would like to see in a President ("I am so sorry for your suffering..."). And was maybe impatient for her to finish her story. But the "Where are they now?" sounded like he just didn't hear and get it, and later when he asked her to tell why she received the Nobel I felt he wanted her to tell people in her own words. Overall his tone of voice was sympathetic, not dismissive, even if his body language revealed a lack of full engagement. There is plenty of real stuff to bash Trump for, no need to make it up.
76
@dm
I cannot believe you could excuse Trump's behavior in this exchange. I saw it on TV before I read this column and it was exactly as Roger Cohen described. The woman is foreign and brown-skinned so it is clear he thinks she is not worthy of a speck of his attention. Trump couldn't even be bothered to stand up or look her in the eye. He didn't listen to what she said as she detailed her rape and the murder of her family. The man is inhuman.
202
@dm
I find it appalling that Trump does not listen to the person speaking, thus didn’t hear that all six of her family members were killed. I watched that video, at no time did he demonstrate empathy or compassion which does require full attention and interest.
157
@dm
First of all, this is some very REAL stuff. Secondly, why doesn't he actually stand up and speak with Oval Office visitors, and actually engage with them, rather than sitting at his desk which (probably intentionally) limits his interaction. How you can put your spin on his Nobel prize discussion is beyond me. You can see from his sudden interest that it is only because he wants to understand why she got it and he didn't.
175
Crueslty is the major point of Trump's policies.
and of course he jies about everything
1
I saw the exchange and was aghast. Who would put this honourable, brave young woman, Nadia Murad in any proximity to him, knowing full well, who he is and the absence in what, he is. But, there in that cameo, on his supercilious expression and total lack of connection to reality, to even the devastated human being beside him, is everything you need to know; there is nothing there but a slop bucket of obnoxious traits; no humanity. To expose her to that, is nearly worse, if it were possible, than what she has suffered already.
3
Are we talking about the JV Team?
This President took action and succeeded, the last President mocked the situation and turned his back. Wasn’t hard, just let the Generals do their jobs.
The pettiness is tiring, and frankly ignorant
Roger Cohen’s claim of disdainful behavior by President Trump is equally disdainful because the video clearly shows President Trump looking directly at Nadia Murada while she speaks:
“He cannot heave his bulk from the chair for this brave young woman. He cannot look at her.”
The late Senator Moynahan’s statement about facts is true Roger, but it is obviously your opinion on this meeting between Nadia Murada and others with President Trump does not coincide with the factual evidence of the video or Senator Moynihan’s statement either...
You must be having a bad day and bad luck...
This man represents our nation.
He is the window to the people that have chosen him as our standard bearer.
He is our leader as well a representation of who we are as a nation.
It is time to pass the bile from our stomachs out onto the gutter and flush it away.....or, we may become the useless refuse that he clearly has lived his entire life.
1
Yes ISIS is defeated Miltarily and for that all who took part in realizing that deserve to be highly commended.But,ISIS is one version of an extreme evil and the deeds of Evil ones should never be forgotten and the perpetrators and those who assisted them should be exacted at the highest level.The survivors have to be assisted in reclaiming and rebuilding their homeland.The awful cruelty ISIS' victims got subjected to has to continue to live in their survivors and their allies memory.When the survivors got helped,through some regional or Global fund +seized ISIS' assets,etc. into resuming normal life they will be able to document the dark chapter and that in turn will make a major part of a deterrence from similar atrocity taking place elsewhere.Russian+former Soviet block Nations have lost some 26 Mill innocents by the Nazis.US,EU,Russia,etc.have the experience of making destroyed Nations rise again in this context too they need to apply similar effort in fully rebuilding communities like The Yazidis,Kurds,etc.and that greatly assists in making that region reliably stable in the future.The UN's National Sec members have to come together on this as they occasionally do.TMD.
Could people stop making excuses for him, because you can’t believe someone could be so hideous.
3
I gather that I was one of a few people that saw and read about parts of this terribly embarrassing moment. Why am I still surprised at the stupidity and lack of humanity in this President.
I try everyday to try and take with a grain of salt anything that comes out of this WH. It doesn't help. This incident should be played and replayed over and over again on every TV station so that what we see in the still photo in this very important article becomes one of the best pieces of political fodder that the Democrats can use to rid the WH of the this incredibly ignorant man and his entire family.
Interesting to note that Kelly Anne Conway was not out front of the cameras trying to explain away this incident.
5
The United States of America —-
DOWN AND LOW UNDER TRUMP
But for how long?
1
We are greed, here, and most everywhere. That is our greatest sin and ultimate defeat. Capitalism celebrating greed and gain and selfish, personal wealth. 'He's a genius', says the President's lawyer about his not paying taxes. The anti-patriotic as leader of conservatives, Republicans, evangelicals. He is you.
The liar will fall and take many with him. We the People are falling. Gore can beat Bush in votes but not be President? Hillary can beat Trump by millions and not be President? Shame on us. Shameful facade of democracy.
We are sick. Concentrating wealth is just making the cancer grow. We deny climate change because that will require communal efforts, and we're not good at that, and don't really want to be. We want to be rich, like the bully, racist, lying, cheating President.
What is America, love, compassion, honor, truth, community? We'll see.
4
Once again, our dear President soars to new depths of ignorance and insensitivity. Is there no limit to how low this guy can go?
3
Where is out Edward R Murrow?
2
Amazing story, for what it confirms about this imbecile. One small point of difference though. Britain didn't elect Johnson, or May, or even Cameron for that matter. All three cases were taken out of the people's hands and decided by politicians.
3
If it was Obama he would have stood up and hugged Nadia Murad with tears in his eyes. That's what we want in a president, not cold indifference.
7
The main, and probably only, feeling Trump feels in this entire heart breaking account is envy. He is envious that a raped, tortured, imprisoned young woman of another ethnicity received the Nobel Peace Prize, something that he so craves and that money cannot buy.
4
The country -- very much including major media companies -- is very far from acknowledging, realizing, and accepting that the president of the United States of America is a sociopath: a malignant narcissist, a thoroughly disgusting human being.
Anyone discussing him and his "policies" who does not start from that understanding is wasting their time, and our time.
There is a profound reluctance to accept the patently obvious truth about this man. This is perilous.
3
We often think that he cannot go lower, but again and again, Trump shows he can. It is utterly disgusting, but the really disturbing thing is that he still has the support of 90 % of Republicans and an approval rating of 40-45 %. There is something very rotten in the states
3
And my guess is that Trump's take-away from his meeting with Murad concerned only her receiving Nobel prize, that she "only" had to suffer the loss of her family and then tell the world.
From Trump's point of view, she did little - paid nothing. He on the other hand has done so much (certainly more than Obama and Murad) for peace around the world (again, his PoV)….
How can someone have the audacity to purport to lead the free world while being purblind to all truth?
4
Everyday Trump assaults us with his ignorance, his lack of compassion and his childish taunts. It’s impossible to wake up and not be angry and embarrassed that he sits in the White House and purports to speak for our country. What makes me both sad and angry are the people who ignore his inhumanity and continue to support him and his abhorrent policies. I fear for America if he is re-elected.
3
So the man is not eloquent. Is that news to anyone? Obama was smooth but that was all he was. Shinny veneer over a rotten core. Trump is an oaf and can be unpleasant but when it comes down to it I agree with more that half of his platform. I don't need to see hyped empathy. I never would have believed it when he was elected, but I will most likely vote for him in 2020. Why? It has more to do with his opposition than with him. The Democrats and their media allies with their mock outrage and endless hypocrisy and vindictive harping are the more repellent entity by far. Boris sees OK too. Get a grip.
Daphne, instead of complaining about so-called hypocrisy and the non-existent " rotten core" of Pres. Obama, you might want to take a good, long look in the mirror and ask yourself how you justify supporting Trump, the most polarizing, divisive, racist, misogynistic, ignorant president in our nation's history. You might not like what you see. Trump apologists are like Trump - they like name-calling and scapegoating others. When you defend Trump, while denigrating others, it appears that you take any criticism of him very personally. Maybe you should ask yourself why. Is it because this president appeals to your worst instincts and gives you permission to spew negativity and rub more salt in the deep wounds Trump has cut open?
5
"This president is inhuman. Something is missing. In his boundless self-absorption, he is capable of anything."
This is it. He is capable of anything. This scares me.
3
I was watching the amazing documentary about Nadia, "On Her Shoulders," which everyone should be compelled to watch to see what this young woman has gone through & still goes through to make the truth known, when I came across a video on her White House visit. To the commenter who believes this op-ed is "just another anti-Trump piece, b/c why not?" I beg you to study up on Ms. Murad's history. This piece is about Trump, yes, but it is also about the ongoing struggle of female survivors to open the eyes of (particularly, white) men in power to the terrible sexual abuse & violence women suffer. This woman and her kin also lost their entire families in a massacre. I believe this piece is about Nadia and her work. Trump, weak & with only the courage to fill one of Nadia's fingers, will not stop her. Congratulations, Nadia, on the Nobel. You above all deserve it. Trump just proved that.
3
In addition to narcissism and vacuity, I am beginning to wonder if dementia isn't part of the mix.
4
This interaction also suggests that he is seriously, mentally deficient. The reason he is able to lie so easily is because he has no idea what the truth is - it is whatever he would like it to be as he is certain he has a 'good brain'.
4
Trump is a serial killer. He just doesn't wield the knife, gun, rope, or hammer personally. These actions, expressions, what's missing are all what allows a serial killer to be a serial killer. I asked such a killer in an interviewed what he remembered about the women he had killed. All he said was, "the look in their eyes when they knew they were going to die right then." I asked if he was sorry for inflicting so much pain. His answer, "What pain?"
3
Roger, I beg to differ. "In his boundless self-absorption, he is capable of NOTHING." The empty drum sounds the loudest.
1
I watched this scene twice and was appalled. The inhuman side of this president, once more in plain sight will do nothing to change the needle. Americans are becoming dumbed, Democrats do nothing, the Russians are hacking our elections, this administration is destroying our democracy and now they are going to build the wall. What a despicable character whose only place to be on this earth should be jail.
4
What a self-absorbed gluttonous buffoon who cannot show even the most basic of human emotion of empathy to this vey deserving group of woman. He is a failure in so many ways as a human being let alone as our "leader".
Just back from trip abroad to England and France and found no one who did not think that he embarrassed the US abroad. We had to constantly apologize that he was our "President."
4
I would define him an amoral person.
4
Though I am no fan of Trump, I found his behavior gentle and compassionate towards Ms Murad.
He was looking at her as much as the awkward position allowed -albeit not paying close attention or he'd have known her family members were dead.
(even though I find almost all of Trumps behavior shocking beyond measure, in this case his actions matched the situation generally).
1
Comments on this being a "hit piece" on Trump. Remember the critics of Obama going apoplectic over his wearing a tan suit? A suit for crying out loud. This is about humanity. Right and wrong.
Leaders need empathy for the people they govern. Even many children of the aristocracy and monarchy were taught to have concern for "their people".
4
And yet so many, including some commenters here, stand ready and willing to make excuses for this boorish behavior. Presumably, many Americans would behave similarly to Mr. Trump in a similar situation. The same ones who, with outrage, proclaim white male Brett Kavanaugh a poor victim whose life has been destroyed by the angry hordes.
16
I see many more people use the ‘45’ as opposed to the president’s name. I assume, like me, that the person holding the office is so repugnant as to make it easier to distance them from the office.
I agree, and personally concur, with this.
I would however make one addition. Let’s take something from sports, when there is a record and either a contested or unusual event happens, it’s marked with an asterisk ‘*’. The event happened, but there is more to it.
A suggestion is to refer to him as ‘45*’.
He won, but dramatically lost then democratic vote by 2.9 million (10.7 if we properly account for the third party votes that also did not vote for him)
5
For all the folks who are commenting that it's just another 'hit' piece, take a look at his rallies because he's plenty animated. But when stuck in a small room withOUT an adoring crowd to cheer his every outrageous statement he's like a cardboard cutout. It is truly amazing that people try to defend this man at all. I wonder how the folks commenting so callously in these comments (and daily on social media) would do if they were face to face trying to defend this lame excuse for a leader. I suspect they wouldn't say much at all.
15
Mr. Cohen, typically narcissists can think of no one but themselves. Irrespective of situation.
The bigger the narcissist, the narrower the focus. This is why they make such terrific public servants.
I hope things get better for Nadia Murad. She deserves something wonderful in her life. Clearly it wasn’t meeting the President.
Great column, btw.
9
It's clear why Trump was so dismissive of her: she wasn't his 'type.'
7
There is no point in wasting emotion, thought or time on the breathing blob of protoplasm that resides in the White House. It is surrounded by its sycophants and no outside noise enters their orb.
Focus instead on the world that functions for humanity and give it all the print, airtime and internet you can. Give Nadia Murad the attention, not him. Why wasn't this article about her, those who've suffered as she has?
People cannot be sympathetic to those they do not know, whose lives they have no understanding of. Go to Honduras and film, photograph, interview the victims of war, crime and climate change. Visit resettlement camps and show the world what the horror is.
Sure, the president and his ilk will simply turn away unmoved. We have to bet that his group is a minority. Otherwise out nation is lost. But let us try while there still is time.
3
OUTSTANDING!!! Thank you for publishing this. It's the clarity and clear thinking for which I read the Times.
8
The comparisons are so easy to make. Imagine Mr. Obama's demeanor and reaction to this person's plea. Picture how Mr. Obama would have handled this meeting. He would have known everyone's story, who they were, where they came from, their family situation.
If you ask these people to visit then at least have a list of names and causes that you've at least attempted to look over.
He's simply not there.
17
Donald Trump is an unindicted felon who stole the election with foreign assistance. He is a criminal. As such, nothing he says is of any value beyond containing the damage it causes.
The real problem lies with the Republican treason which keeps him there and supports him unanimously.
12
Exactly. Nothing trump says/does suprises me anymore--nor McConnell either. The rest of the GOP however? I'm stunned.
8
I watched it. Carefully. Could he have been more empathetic? Yes. Been more compassionate? Certainly. Listened more carefully? Sure. Was he inhumane? No. His fault he was not properly briefed? Absolutely not - he’s not organizing these kinds of visits. Like all Presidents, he’s told what’s on his calendar & when. I’m sure he hears & sees all kinds of things that would curl our hair. Sorry - this just has the feel of another Trump hit piece because, well, why not?
102
@Once From Rome
No, I vehemently disagree. Open your eyes and look at Trump’s body language during this encounter. Cohen was aptly describing Trump’s physical AND emotional, intellectual and moral inability to face this
incredible woman and hear her.
Sir, America will not be trusted or respected for twenty years after Trump is blessedly gone.
930
@Once From Rome lol: " Like all Presidents, he’s told what’s on his calendar & when".
There is absolutely no excuse for asking: “Where are they now?” in response to “They killed my mom, my six brothers,”. None...
1109
@Once From Rome, Trump's body language says it all. He's not sitting directly facing her, but sitting at an angle to her, and turning his head to look at her.
Surely he could have spoken to her without the desk being there at all; ideally both sitting in an armchair with no barrier between them.
488
someone who doesn't like Trump can exhort outrage at his apparent lack of care
someone who likes Trump can say he was being very sympathetic - especially in a context where there were maybe two dozen people in a queue waiting to tell them their stories ... he gave her 3 minutes to talk and interrupted very little
so meh - could go either way - starting with your prejudice - as usual ...
8
@Frank Brown
Responding to Ms. Murad's recounting of the murders of her mother and brothers by saying "Where are they now?" shows that the President of the United States of America, the supposed leader of our nation, (a) wasn't listening to her to begin with; (b) is being willfully obtuse; and (c) doesn't care. This isn't "meh" - it's disgusting. The fact that people actually support and defend everything this narcissistic clot says and does is ever more disgusting.
6
@Frank Brown
This is the most perceptive comment here. Cohen starts the day with "what has Trump done that can I complain about today?" His readers are not interested in thinking about whatever incident or behavior is described. It;s just reed meat to keep the outrage amped up.
Apparent lack? Right.
2
I am no supporter of Trump, but I honestlly see this differently. Though he opposes immigration, Trump allows Nadia Murad to speak at length before the world's cameras. He listens attentively.
His responses are sometimes awkward, but is that unusual for any of us in the face of suffering?
When there is an opportunity to bring the exchange to a close, Trump foregoes this and instead and invites Murad to speak further by asking her, "And you got the Prize for what ... maybe you can explain?"
Roger Cohen omits Trump's final four words when he quotes him here, but they suggest a different interpretation: that Trump is not ignorant of why Murad got the Prize, but rather wants to give Murad the opportunity to tell the world this part of her story too. It's a technique jouralists use often, incidentally.
I oppose Trump's worldview profoundly and viscerally dislike much about him. But there is a danger of misreading everything he does through distorting mental images and emotions we have about him.
My interpretation my be wrong, but so may yours. It is worth remembering that the certainty with which you condemn someone does not guarantee that you are right.
193
You’ve made an interesting observation on a event I didn’t watch. Video clips and sound bytes are unreliable, maybe also the presentation of the observer are, too. I think that’s the unfortunate result of looking for the information we want where we expect to find it. But do Trump’s exact words really matter? After all, he asked a Peace laureate to explain why she was recognized- really! Would he have posed that question to a laureate in Physics or a Super Bowl champion?
In a sense, Mr. Cohen is insightful - willful ignorance of suffering is a characteristic of our society. The problem is not in the stars...this president can only exist because he reflects us. What else explains our tolerance for children in detention camps, extreme poverty and extreme wealth coexisting in our communities, environmental degradation subordinated to extraction and the myriad of other atrocities committed in our name during and predating this administration.
My takeaway from Mr. Cohen’s piece is that Trump has made it harder to ignore our dark side. My hope is that we don’t just change the channel.
58
I totally agree with you, Ed. I also abhor Trump as a leader. However, articles like this only serve two purposes ultimately: galvanize Trump’s base and increase NYT subscribers.
While I think this interaction could have been presented differently entirely, I think Trump respects Ms. Murad, at least to some extent. Let me ask you this, when is the last time you’ve read about the excellent activism she is doing on this issue or about her life in general (not including the original news about her winning the Nobel Peace Prize)? Oh you haven’t...? So then let’s look at the deeper issue of the media’s constant focus on trivial matters and back-and-forth between Dems and the White House, and instead focus on the newsworthiness of her work in isolation from Trump. But of course that’s not going to get as many clicks.
Stay focused people—because meanwhile there’s a number of opinion/news pieces to be written about the heartless policies from this administration, including ones related to the very points Ms. Murad is making.
Besides, trust me, Ms. Murad is an extremely strong woman and likely remains unfazed by this. I’m sure she’s glad to have told her story again and spread awareness about what’s happening in the region, to so many cameras and in the Oval Office, of all settings. I’d bet she’s really glad to have been able to clarify/repeat herself, because even though I understood both her words and accent, I also already knew her story; many others may not.
28
She told him her family had been slaughtered and he asked "where are they now" clearly demonstrating he had paid no attention to this guest he was having a photo-op with. What could be clearer? He has no capacity for empathy. His inattention demonstrates profound disrespect.
161
Just when you thought Trump couldn't get any worse...he shows himself to be an affront to the human race. Every member of his base and every Rep member in Congress and all of his WH aides should be required to view the video of this encounter and read this opinion piece. Where were Ivanka and Jared - the great moderators of Trump's inhumane proclivities? Does anyone in Trump's orbit have any pride, character or humanity? I guess not. Trump does not have the sensitivity or insight to even pretend to listen or be interested in anyone or anything that does not focus on him. He doesn't have the common courtesy or intelligence to do his "homework". He can only spew hate and ignorance. If we do not want this abomination representing our country for another 4 yrs, we must mobilize and VOTE FOR any Dem nominated for the Presidency, VOTE AGAINST anyone running on the GOP ticket! Please, Please, PLEASE!
"It is not what a lawyer tells me I may do; but what humanity, reason, and justice tell me I ought to do." Edmund Burke
11
Thank you for writing about this horrifying moment, this inhuman and yet so typical reaction by the occupant of the White House.
My concern and greatest fear is that many seem to ignore or excuse what is going on.
Thank you for what you do!
13
The evil churches who support Trump feel as strongly as he does about a rape victim. Very sick.
17
Murad was the mature, articulate leader in that " conversation". Trump was the rude, inarticulate chump. Class versus crass.
17
The picture says so much. Trump can't look her in the eye. He stares at her chest. There is no empathy on his face. He doesn't even have the decency to swivel his chair to look at her. He looks bored,uncomfortable. This is just a photo-op and he can't even do that in a presidential way.
What a horrible man.
21
It is a shame to see how the con man engaged with Murad. We know that he is a clueless fluke President with zero governance skill. Any normal person will come to such occasion well prepared. But, not the child bully predator. It is a disgrace that we have a person in the White House with zero intelligence. Perhaps, xenophobia played a big role here as well. It was very difficult for the con man who thrives on xenophobia and hatred to recognize people of color. Another factor is his nature. A predator by nature will hate to recognize a victim of rape.
14
It was the rudest exchange I have seen in this White House, and Trump has given us more than a few to choose from. He actually positioned himself slightly in front of her, so even when he finally turned his head, he could barely see her. he's SICK.
11
Has Kellyanne Conway rushed onto Fox News to defend her boss over this incident?
8
Trump has no compassion ,he shows no emotion . He reads from a teleprompter ,he lies ,steals,is a big conman ,I cannot believe he is POTUS .
7
People keep missing the mark on Trump, dismissing him as just a dumb narcissist. But the truth is worse and Cohen put his finger right on it. The man is a sociopath -- a psychiatric basket case of cruelty, indifference, greed. Our Founders couldn't have imagined an educated citizenry born to liberty would purposely choose someone like this to lead them.
30
How silly is Trump that NOONE else in the whole room has a chair but him? This louse couldn't even turn his chair toward her as she explained what happened. And then to top it off he seemed most interested in her Nobel, of course wondering why she deserved one and he wasn't offered one yet.
12
Why would anyone expect anything from this man? A bunch of foreigners, and not a MAGA hat among them.
I just wanted to reach into the TV and slap him silly.
6
Having watched the encounter earlier this week, and recoiling in revulsion to see this over-stuffed chest of drawers we call President in contrast to Ms.
Murad who radiated genuine humanity, love, dignity and assurance.
May all the spiritual forces of all religions, and no religion, surround her and keep her safe. And these same beneficial powers could deal with Donald Trump anytime. Amen!
11
I would save my outrage for the real villains - ISIS, the JV league.
5
This is one of the most chilling columns I have ever read. It chills the blood because it is true.
1. "This president is inhuman. Something is missing."
2. Like is or not. Complain about the Electoral College if we must. But the American voting public elevated this inhuman humanoid to our Oval Office, eyes wide open.
"This president is inhuman. Something is missing." This was no less clear in November 2016 than it is today. We made him our president and the face of our nation anyway.
If we do so again in 2020, then we shall give our country over to him and his inhuman ilk.
13
If Trump were your child, sitting there souless and unaffected by a woman sharing how the most horrific human rights violations killed her family.... you would hide the matches & lock your bedroom door every night.
13
Trump would not have followers if they didn’t lack empathy. How can anyone see people in those Concentration camps and continue to support him??
11
Wonderful. He let her speak.
Toward what end? What is the leader of the free world going to do to help women like her?
Absolutely nothing.
Oh, and ps, you can bet your life he knows nothing about Sinjar. My guess is he couldn’t find it on a map.
7
This editorial is TDS on steroids.
The POTUS inviting someone to the the White House to honor them - in and of itself - is proof of his respect and compassion.
If he didn’t wish to show respect and concern he simply would never invited them into his home.
45
I completely disagree. If you watched the exchange described by the author you would understand his point of view. It was a rather cold and indifferent response to a truly tragic story.
84
@Jimmy P
This was a White House meeting with victims of religious persecution, a huge cause celebre of Trump's avid fundamentalist Christian base, who (rightly) decry persecution of Christians in many countries. I'm not sure this courageous Nobel Pease Prize winner would otherwise have seen the inside of this White House.
42
@Jimmy P If anyone is deranged, it is the Trump voters who cannot accept that he is completely incompetent as a human being and POTUS. All of his accomplishments have recently been revealed as a sham (see economic growth and North Korea) and he is doing nothing to assure the American people that our elections will not be hacked by foreign countries again. Robert Mueller even described Trump's written responses as "generally" untruthful.
90
To all here who are merely repeating what Mr. Cohen says in his column, and to all who "recommend" those comments: I implore you to watch the entire 24 minute event. It is available on YouTube. You will see a much different event from that depicted in this column.
6
Mr. Haydn is ipartially right. Trump does make intermittent eye contact with the woman, and does say (unconvincingly) "we'll look into it". The whole set-up was wrong- people seemed clustered around him for a photo opportunities, not conducive for a real conversation. The report of what Trump actually says is true, which supports Mr Cohen's comment about Trump's indifference to briefings Look at the PBS News clip on YouTube
4
I didn’t see much of a difference to what the column describes. There was zero empathy evident from Trump.
7
@llsdoc
They are there for a summit meeting on religious freedom.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3fpmFJTMes
Trump: "I'll have the combo platter." That's a poignant combination of two historical concepts- the banality of evil and man's inhumanity to man.
3
This man debases US on a daily basis.
And we let him.
We need to impeach him, including a nice, long investigation into his money dealings and other matters. I don't care if the Senate won't vote to convict.
We can't control the behavior of people with no morals, no values, and no shame. But we can make a statement about who WE are and are not.
13
Ms. Murad, as an American, I would like to apologize to you on behalf of our “president.” He does not speak for the majority of our country, though he does speak for all too many Americans and for misogynists and sociopaths around the world. I am so sorry for all that you and your family went through, and am so grateful that you survived and are now using your experience to advocate for change.
On another note, it is really unfathomable that Trump can’t do a better job of even pretending to empathize with this woman - the operative word being pretending, because his lack of empathy is not at all surprising.
9
@K
Trump was extremely polite and gracious to Ms. Murad.
Rather then believing everything you read in Mr. Cohen's commentary, go watch the video of the event on YouTube. Its only 24 minutes long.
The video of Trump's encounter with Murad is quite interesting. There are precious few moments where Trump is captured on film listening to someone else speak who isn't a politician or dignitary. The intimacy of the scene is intense, with her standing directly beside him.
Trump relishes every opportunity to be on camera, but this particular scene proved problematic. It is quite clear that Trump didn't expect her to talk for so long or to make such an impassioned plea for help. It was awkward for him because he had to look presidential for a long time without getting to speak and have all the focus on him. He didn't pay attention to what she said at first, he was just waiting for her to stop talking. Eventually it dawned on him that she was talking about the murder and rape of thousands and he realized he needed to display compassion, but that's a tightrope for Trump - both because he is incapable of empathy and because in his diseased mind showing compassion is unmanly and weak.
Then he brought up her Nobel Prize. Here, Trump was actually engaged, but again in a conflicted way. His interest was genuine, but not because of her story. Trump desperately wants a Nobel, so he perked up quickly. But he was no doubt furious that this common brown woman had one and he didn't.
The humiliation America is suffering, on an almost daily basis, at the antics of a virtueless imposter playing president seems lost on many citizens. The rest of the world is perpetually dumbfounded.
27
@Rob
Mr. Trump asked Ms. Murad to speak to the cameras about her Nobel peace prize. He wanted the world to know about her and her personal tragedy. There was not one hint of the anger you refer to. And her skin color made no difference, as Trump shook her hand at the end of their encounter and offered to look into the plight of the Yazidis.
1
@Frank J Haydn You are a victim of the game of Trump.
3
He had no idea who she was. Watch Sam Brownback introduce everyone to Trump in the video.
2
Trump probably complained to his aides for making him listem to a brown-skinned woman. His body language indicated he was completely indifferent to her plight. He even asked questions that showed he was not paying attention to her story. The only time he paid attention was when it dawned on him that she had earned the Nobel Prize, something that he has long coveted and schemed in a still vain attempt to achieve. Had he read the press or his briefing book, he would have known with whom he was dealing, but he was unprepared and perhaps even hostile. Only someone who has never been loved could hate as much as Trump does.
14
We need to realize the emptiness of Trump, and his total lack of humanity. His only real interest in this brave woman was the Nobel prize. She has one and he wants one. So he was simply asking her how he could get one. Because the deal with Kim isn't working out, so he's shopping around for some other gambit. It's that crass.
10
I have great respect for Roger Cohen and none for Trump. But this was outrageous outrage In this column. And I believe this type of overreacting does damage to the absolute necessity of pointing out intolerable acts by this president. The sky is falling, the sky is falling is not the way to go. I was prepared to watch a video of Trump that embarrassed and enraged me. But instead I was left scratching my head. In the four minute video clip that I watched, Trump looked almost entirely at her. And I believe, like me, he did not understand her when she said killed. And he wasn’t clueless about her Nobel prize but simply asked her what it was for. For being the operative word. Then he said, “tell the people.” You win a Nobel prize for Peace for specific things that you have done and he was giving her an opportunity to say what those things were. One might argue that she had been talking about that already but she wasn’t precisely. As I said I cannot stand this president, but overstatements like this do not help. They hurt. They will help him get re-elected.
11
@Amy
I agree. I watched the clip myself. Murad makes a moving case but it is difficult to understand or follow. Trump could be more engaged but he looks at her most of the time and there is nothing outrageous or even unusual about his behavior. He could easily have misheard what she said. Asking about the Nobel prize was a courtesy. He invited her to speak more about it after she had concluded.
4
Absolutely, Amy! Well said.
2
@Amy
Thank you for your observations. It is a pity that sensible and even-keeled comments like yours and mine will neither be widely read nor taken seriously here.
2
One reason why Trump's reaction is significant, and why we are so taken aback -- once again -- by his supporters' defense of such reactions, is that he is theoretically the country's moral leader and role model for the rest of the nation -- for all of us, but perhaps for any children who might be watching such inept, emotionally vacuous performances. For some teens, he even exemplifies the cool and pathological detachment of bullies and violent predators who see their victims as little more than objects -- especially those who are non-white, women, and outliers. For adults with those proclivities, Trump sends the signal, intentionally or not, that empathy for those who suffer is weakness, and strength is in ignorance, a lack of emotion, and complete disregard for the humanity in others.
I find it increasingly hard to see his image on television. Given its omnipresence, it must be a kind of pathetic porn, payback for some bad karma we've endured in the past.
6
We all know that Trump does not care at all about this young woman or her heroic attempts to make something positive out of her tragedy. What is amazing is that he doesn't even bother to try to fake an interest. I am sure somebody on his team provided a piece of paper with bullet points about her and some kind words he might say. He obviously did even care enough to read it.
Do his supporters care? Sadly, no. That is the bigger problem, as Roger notes. Trump's moral rot is symptomatic of a much bigger disease.
4
This is a column that maybe even supporters of djt might be able to see with open eyes . Thank you Mr. Cohen for this picture , worth a thousand words, attached and your writing.
5
You are applying ordinary journalistic standards to an exceptionally dangerous and deranged President, debating issues without debating his mental fitness. The issues allow him to maintain his 40%, intimidating sane Republicans. Clearly separating the issues from the man’s mental illness, in ways that cannot be ignored, might reach those very voters, and, in fact, it is the psychopathic man, not the issues journalists hold dear, that presents the greatest danger.
Trump scores as an extreme psychopath on the Hare psychiatric test. Psychopathy is a word with precise scientific meaning; it is a medical syndrome, usually signifying a defect in brain development. Just as autism spells out a list of life symptoms; psychopathy (ascertainable from biographical facts, no therapy sessions needed) indicates a complete lack of empathy, irrational self-involvement to a degree that, via chaos and outright evil, endangers everyone else.
When people describe their sad experience with a psychopath they often use the same word - chaos. Of course those psychopaths lack the Presidential ability to start wars and murder millions.
2
Trump is clearly enraged that this woman received the Nobel Peace Prize, and he didn't. He won't acknowledge her, her life or her story because HE is the one who should have that prize- something that has infuriated him ever since Obama got it. That is all that matters to him.
6
Trump's blank stare is because he cant solve this woman's grief. If she wants money or asylum, she will have to get in line.
Every time I read about Mr Trump's
mind boggling behavior or utterances,
I wonder who are the people voted
to give him the highest office. What are their values, beliefs, level of empathy and compassion. Are they like Mr. Trump? If so, having 62 million of them is scary. They are here for good,
Mr Trump may leave the office in
January 2021 or four years later.
This is more worrisome than the
incumbency of Mr Trump.
5
Ask yourself this question: Why is Trump always sitting? A room full of women, or veterans or senators, he sits. For whom would he stand? Anyone?
384
@Donna He stands exclusively for photos of himself boarding and de-boarding Air Force One. But otherwise he has a chair or a golf cart.
44
@Donna I have been trying to imagine that same event with President Obama. I find it impossible to visualize him sitting there staring into space while a woman stands next to him recounting her tale of horror. Does anyone doubt that at the very least President Obama would have stood up and looked at her while she talked?
105
I’m no fan of W, but I’m sure he would have stood too.
68
This non-human "45" sitting in the White House is seen by some portion of the American public as their "Cyrus the anointed king" of Isaiah 45. For us he's Trump the gutter-dweller; others see in him a divine connection and purpose.
Incessant dumbing down of America by Fox News has a great deal to do with our hopelessly polarized nation today. Free press, although essential, has its fatal pitfalls, too.
7
To be fair, if you go to the hyperlink in the story ("Trump sits there at his desk"), you learn at the end of CNN piece that the two dozen people standing behind Trump all suffered and survived religious persecution.
This story does not mention that fact. Why not?
At the end of his discussion with Murad, President Trump said that he would try to do something to help the Yazidi people return to their homeland. The question is: Did Trump actually do anything thereafter to help the Yazidi people as he said he would do?
2
Very simply, our leader is a moron and a disgrace!
15
@Julius Adams
Watch the entire 24 minute event on YouTube. You will come to a different conclusion... unless of course you are basing your statement on the last 2 plus years.
1
Thanks to Roger Cohen for this column.
The responsibility for Trump and this behavior that infects our Nation sits squarely on the shoulders of the voters, citizens and people who inhabit the United States.
Having written that, what is one to do with the zombie Trump base who maintain only their distorted "facts" and anger, and the die hard Republicans who will always choose Party over Country and Constitution? Very little to no constructive action can be taken in relation to them, so the only chance is for those of us who oppose this behavior to show up at the polls and defeat Trump and McConnell's majority in the Senate in an overwhelming fashion.
How else to overcome the stacked deck of the Electoral College?
5
@James Barth
I think the folk you are referring to care not for party but for money. It's hard to believe Abraham Lincoln was a Republican... That party has tanked worse than the Titanic.
I find the President a disgrace and disaster.
2
Before I comment, I'd strongly suggest readers watch the entire 24 minute Oval office ceremony here, courtesy of the PBS newshour: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3fpmFJTMes
You will see a completely different account from that depicted by Mr. Cohen.
What I saw was that Mr. Trump listened attentively to, offered words of support to, and shook hands with almost every one of those in attendance. He spoke in somber tones, was fully engaged, and only once -- when at the outset of the meeting he spoke about the North Carolina gathering later that day -- did he draw attention to himself.
By the time Ms. Murad spoke to him, he had been sitting and listening to harrowing accounts for almost 16 minutes -- a long time for a man who has led an wealthy, insulated, antiseptic existence with nothing in common with those around him.
Ms. Murad's four minute presentation was different from that of the others who spoke. She got into political matters, and at one point appeared to me to be lecturing Mr. Trump. I suspect Mr. Trump was familiar with her references but likely had not been briefed on same, given that this even was a State Department led session about religious persecution.
As for the Nobel Prize moment: it was clear to me, as he motioned to the cameras, that he was giving Ms. Murad a chance to speak to the world about her plight, and in closing politely shook her hand.
5
@Frank J Haydn
Isn't U-Tube where the video (supposedly) of Ms Pelosi slurring her words and apparently "drunk" aired?
I tend to have problems with a lot of the videos there.
1
And yet the 40-45% of the electorate who still support our so-called “president” are happy as clams with a Supreme Court that’s Hell-bent on overturning Roe v. Wade. The cognitive dissonance required to maintain that stance in the face of overwhelming evidence of Trump’s total lack of human dignity and grace is beyond comprehension.
“For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?” —Matthew 16:26
6
Since when is being busy an excuse for being a jerk?
15
America’s Head of State is a self-made monster, devoid of humanity and all which makes humanity precious: intellect, integrity, compassion, dignity, and respect.
Trump is a shark, a cold, vile, slasher of souls, destroyer of lives, and vessel of hate and carnage.
The guarantees of the Founders’ proclamations, in Declaration, Constitution, and Bill of Rights, are shaken by the assault Trump brings against their light and truths.
The truth falls as darkness overtakes the light at end of day, casting America in the false greatness of Trump’s conjured, surreptitious shadow.
9
Another possible explanation for Trump's non-response to Murad: He is entering the middle stage of senile dementia and no longer checks in with the real world except when something really captures his attention.
Watch him again. His eyes are empty, his face immobile, an expression often leading to a description of "lacking in affect." He's barely listening even when he turns towards her. He makes some bizarre comments: "Where are they now?" "I know the area very well" because he's aware he's supposed to say *something* but he's not sure what.
Then he remembers something, and suddenly becomes animated. She got a Nobel Peace Prize! How did she do it? Now he's full of relevant questions. He doesn't recall who she is or what she was talking about. But maybe she can help him get a Nobel of his own!
Can we please have a conversation about the president's cognitive impairment? It's getting worse every week, and it will never get better.
21
How about a diagnosis of frontal lobe dementia? Upon researching this diagnosis. symptoms pop off the page: inattention, non-sensical words, inappropriate actions in public, inability to stick with a plan, the list goes on and on.
All the symptoms apply to the President of the United States. There is one way to be sure, an MRI which will reveal the characteristic shrinking lobe. When will someone in authority do something? Where is the Surgeon General?
Only Trump's base counts. If Trump demonstrated any feelings of empathy or humanity it would be devasting to Trump with his base. Especially if the individual is a victim of rape. How would you then deal with any alleged Trump "victim".
4
"The bald-faced lie is perfectly acceptable, so long as it keeps you at the center of what passes today for attention."
Let me fix that for you:
"The bald-faced lie is perfectly acceptable, so long as it reinforces your view of the world."
Those who believe our President do so because he says what they want to hear and his "facts" support what they want to believe. As Adlai Stevenson observed decades ago: given the choice between a disagreeable truth and an agreeable fantasy, Americans will chose the fantasy every time. Nothing has changed.
15
You are correct.
The facts are what they are.
And you have stated your opinion.
I agree with your opinion and like the way you expressed it.
Ordinarily, it would be difficult to describe another human being with those words.
This time, those words are appropriate, except that it means recognizing the president as a human being. Each successive day in office allows him to display the depth of his cruelty, his lack of human qualities. He is turning the alternate reality he inhabits into our reality.
He is something sub-human and all of us, as Americans, are at risk of being dragged down to his level.
14
@Steve Ell
"... and all of us, as Americans, are at risk of being dragged down to his level."
Really? Can you please elucidate?
When discussing this with a conservative friend, she looked at me blankly. So I searched for any conservative website that covered this and could not find any. It is not so much that my friend lacked compassion; she just lacked any facts at all. My friend and I live in two different countries when it comes to politics.
22
And how sad is that?? When did empathy or compassion become a Democratic or Republican trait? I’ve always thought (foolishly in this day and age) that possessing these two traits help to make a decent human being.
2
Thank you for this Mr. Cohen and NYT.
We must be so very careful with our outrage. As Cohen indicates, there are so many opportunities for outrage that we can expend all of our energy reacting to Trump.
As hard as it is, we need to not react with anger but with action. Action means getting out the vote.
And, hard as it might be to do this, action also means listening to Trump voters.
When they are dismissed as being racist like Trump is, that makes the problems worse, because, actually, many of them are good people who are living with fears of their own. We have to listen to their fears and take them seriously.
He thrives on attention. Don't give it to him. Ignore his awfulness--that is a way of taking power back. And, instead of constantly reacting, take action to defeat him.
17
It is interesting, the juxtaposition of these two people mentioned in the article. First and foremost we have Nadia Murad, who has experience tragedy and great hardship and, despite it all, stands strong and with dignity.
In contrast, there is Donald Trump, a small man trying to fill large shoes, unsuccessfully. The latter lacks any qualities that are necessary for the leader of the most powerful nation in the world, or even those that one might expect from a halfway decent human being. I’m sure that President Trump believes that by making everyone stand around him while he sits makes him look powerful. Sadly, it just makes him look pompous, pathetic and weak.
31
Another example of sickening, chilling callousness from this most unfit POTUS
in history. However, a significant minority of people do not see him that way. ”He must
have been tired.” ”He was not adequately briefed about who she (Ms.Murad) was.” These people are ready to perform whatever logical somersault to defend the indefensible because these people like the idea that he is fighting FOR US AGAINST THEM. Who cares, then, how cruel he is to THEM?
My concern is that Trump defenders (significant minority) may well prevail in 2020 helped by the electoral college system. If you want a Democratic contender (whoever it will be) to win, please, please vote. If you live in a blue state, contact any friend and relative in the battleground states, or donate to any organization promoting voter registration and turnout effort.
I have the utmost respect for your great country. What kind of person represents your country matters to the people in the whole world.
23
@Mariko Segawa
Thanks for your concern. My friends in the Foreign Service who work in consulates at US Embassies overseas tell me that the lines to obtain US visas continue to be so long that they go around the block. So there is no need for worry.
1
Thank you!
Thank you for feeling the same awful disgust as I did watching this "exchange".
Long after having become immune to Trump's narcissism, I watched, shocked, at this horrible show of human indifference to suffering.
Thank you for giving it a wider audience.
20
All the indignity towards Trump, based on subjective interpretations of body language and tone, and not one complaint about ISIS, the group that caused all this poor woman's horrors? And then the repeated tripe that all who agree with Trump's actions must be as bad as he is. How does one bridge the gap and create progress if each side paints the other as not wrong but evil? How does one create sympathy for the other side if a false moral equivalency is placed upon right side and left side protestors in Charlottesville, or between rape and murder and boorish behavior?
3
@Dr B
this column and her meeting wbasnot aboutvISUS per se, she condemned ISUS in her story, our prez did not notice
I watched the video of the interaction between Donald Trump and Nadia Murad attached to this opinion article.
I believe that he would treat one of his tenants complaining of a leaky faucet with more interest and respect.
He really is beneath contempt.
23
I, like many, cringed at this footage. But when the president asked about the Nobel Prize, I think he was just trying to feed this woman a line for the cameras.
4
@Lanny Morgnanesi
Correct. It was about giving her the publicity that she deserved.
Roger is unfortunately right on the money here, as usual with his great columns. The creature in the U.S. presidency is inhumane, without affect, and "satanic" would not be out of place here in describing the willful evil he perpetrates almost daily. That he has an entire political party behind him, as well as 40% of the citizenry, speaks directly to the fatal risks our constitution and our country now face. Ditto for Boris Johnson in Britain.
9
Power wears out those who do not have it. That is for sure. But power can harm the most those who have it. It can turn people into soulless beasts (sorry, beasts).
By the way, I am Italian. I know what I am talking about (and yes, I am talking about politicians).
9
Trumps repeated attempts at becoming human have failed.
16
What attempts?
1
You have found words when we are bereft, exhausted and have no words to describe emotions we can no longer name. One terrible, impossible moment at a time and we are helpless. How can this be happening in your great nation of sensitive and well-informed people? So many understand the president and know what he is doing to his country. Who will stop him?
21
@Marie
Who/what will stop him?
1)Massive voter turnout of Americans in 2020 that renounce and abhor trumpism.
2)Massive resistance now and till 2020
5
You have to assume that the 40% of the country who support Trump would act in the same thoughtlessly uncaring manner. You are what you eat.
10
"He cannot heave his bulk from the chair for this brave young woman. He cannot look at her."
One correction: He "could not be bothered" instead of "cannot."
He certainly could have stood and faced her. He just didn't care to.
The Great American Tragedy continues.
16
having a lack of empathy is a medical condition (an illness of the mind). blaming a person for their illness indicates that the blamer (accuser) lacks empathy.
1
Thank you for mentioning the UN Security Council resolution that the US threatened to veto, further protecting women who have been raped in armed conflict. I reported on this action in April, when it first surfaced that the US, yes, our country, would not let a resolution be approved if it contained the words "sexual and reproductive health." The Germans had written the resolution, surely not aware of just how callous the US government had become under Trump, Pompeo, Pence and the architect of the expanded global gag rule, Andrew Bremberg (who is now a candidate for ambassador to the UN in Geneva). But indeed the acting US ambassador to the UN, Jonathan Cohen, carried out DC instructions to veto the resolution if the US didn't get its way. Now he's nominated to be ambassador to Egypt.
9
And "we the people" observe and do nothing. We don't want to do anything. It would be too upsetting. Americans don't like being upset. They'd rather "tsk, tsk". and turn their heads, just as their great leader would. That's easier.
5
" When Murad says, “They killed my mom, my six brothers,” Trump responds: “Where are they now?”
Clearly a confusion on the part of a man who is confused about other things like airports in 1776.
But there was no need for an entire op-ed over a misstatement by Trump.
Trump is right about major things. He is right that nations cannot exist without borders. And he is right that we do not need a nuclear war with Russia.
48
@Ludwig
I am reminded of an old saying regarding silk purses and sow's ears.
74
@Ludwig As the whole exchange shows, this was not a "misstatement" it was a reflection of a much bigger issue of a man who clearly is in a job way beyond his capabilities on all levels. And yes, nations need borders. But there are different ways to enforce those borders without losing the basic principles on which the nation was founded and exists.
201
@Ludwig I can't help wondering if you read the piece in its entirety?
If Trump's response to the fate of her family was possibly confusion and stood on its own, it would be possible to see it as an aberration of an otherwise thoughtful man.
However, one can say no such thing about this president or his policies, which whether of not one agrees, as you do, with the underlying impetus, or disagrees, as I do, I find it hard to believe that anyone of conscience approves of their execution.
From my perspective, there comes a point where one has to separate one's "goals" from the road to fulfilling them, as well as the intent of its possibility from the result.
For instance, in regard to Iraq, an invasion that was supported by many in both parties, I did my homework and despite having been in downtown Manhattan on 9/11 strongly against the war. Nonetheless, despite that and the financial meltdown on his watch, I am not left with complete disdain for GW Bush, because I didn't and don't believe he is a "man without qualities", a title that resonates on its own.
However, I cannot say the same of this president. Not only do I find his policies abhorrent, but the way they are administered and worst of all, try hard as I might I cannot find a single positive quality in his psychological make up, at least as it affects his presidency. For that reason, in my view, this column was important, and true.
180
Throughout a broad swath of America, many voters watching this interaction, as inhumanly insensitive as it is, will miss Roger Cohen's point, will fully miss the insensitivity. It's something on TV that they would not ordinarily have watched. However, Trump was there. For them, Cohen is despairing of something they don't perceive, as if neuronal connections for that perception do not exist. They are unlikely to read Roger Cohen either. If they did, to them, his words would be another hostile attack on Trump.
19
I confess. I'm fixated on the president and his daily performances. But I missed this one when it happened. I must have had a life that day. And as you know if you miss it when it happens, the next day there will be another outrage that buries the previous outrage. So thanks for bringing me up to date Frank.
13
I’ve also made the observation on a few occasions that his followers, too, aren’t fully human. They revel in being cruel. They laugh at or are indifferent to suffering. They’re immune to reasoned or rational debate. That’s why it’s imperative that Republicans be crushed at the polls. We need to contain this virus in the body politic. But the culture too has either gotten coarser or we’re just seeing it now with the ubiquity of video. Most people would rather record a video of a fight than break it up or assist an injured person. As for the Oval Office exchange, even if Trump had an empathy gene, he has spent three years denigrating brown people and his base is expecting him to stay in character. As for Murad, why expose yourself to Trump if you have any self-respect?
13
@AlNewman, you lump "his followers" into a hive without any variation. Try "many of" next time. There are members of his followers who detest many of his personal attributes but will stomach them to get a tax cut that enhances their wealth, SCOTUS justices they believe will enforce their religious predilections.
Some, meaning an indeterminate percentage, do revel in cruelty to others, have a deeply held belief that anyone not white is inferior, that anything that advances their religious agenda has to be good for everyone … but not all.
When you lump them together in this way, you close off discussion with those that do not fit your definition. Sometimes, perhaps not often, an open discussion with those with whom we disagree can bear fruit. It's worth trying.
@LinZhouXi I always pondered if Trump supporters hold their noses when speaking of Trump. But, your support of turning the Supreme Court into a court of Trump toadies and the deficit busting "tax cut" as a positive, I now laugh.
You have been successfully caught up by the con artistry.
1
By any medical standard, Trump has severe psychological problems--bordering on being a sociopath. And yet, we have an entire party and at least one-third of this country, who witness on a daily basis the symptoms of a psychological disorder, and find some rationale for telling us--these symptoms are really normal---What worries me is what this very sick man is capable of when he gets cornered, either by an election and/or some event or series of events that sends his disorders into overdrive.
26
@Amanda Jones
Well said. Thank you.
1
The strength and courage of this woman is incredible with her loss of her mom and brothers and being forced into sexual slavery. This woman well deserved the Nobel Peace Prize. Clearly, our President looked uncomfortable sitting down and relating to her, not even knowing why she had received the Nobel Peace prize. I honor the strength of this woman and recognize that where she came from is still unsafe for her to return. May there be those official who can communicate with deeply felt sincerity appreciation for all she has done under tragic circumstance.
19
I'm as big an anti-Trumpist as anyone, but I think you're giving him a raw write-up here. Sure he could have been more clearly moved but he expressed concern for the woman. And when he asked her why she got the Nobel prize, I felt he was giving her a chance to tell her story directly to more of the world through being in the Oval Office. She said "They took my family" not they killed my family, and he asked, "where are they now?" Then she explained they were in mass graves.
Look, I want to run this guy out on a rail, but fair is fair.
4
Really? No one briefed him that her whole family was dead? He didn’t care. He is incapable of caring.
1
Thanks for telling this story.
Another reason that the House Dems must move forward on impeachment, besides the fact that it is their constitutional DUTY. I am sick and tired of their tired excuses for not doing so.
What world are they living in?
10
Thank you for this essay, Roger. One of the best I've read that describes 45 and his lack of values (and perhaps the ignorance and apathy of this country). He is totally unfit to be sitting in the Oval Office.
15
Yes, you are correct. He is everything you say. Send this article to every member of Congress, both Houses, and every other outlet possible. Perhaps Hong Kong has the right idea.
12
Agree in Asheville. Send to everyone in Congress. And state house.
1
@susan paul
Yes and Puerto Rico as well.
Such behavior is typical of our president. A little over a week ago Trump allowed two Apollo 11 astronauts aged 88 and 89 to stand next to his desk as props while he sat and pontificated. Being in his presence was reward enough!
16
This piece astounded me. I never thought that any living person could be so insensitive an lack even a morsel of empathy. To me this clearly shows Trump’s contempt for anything that doesn’t involve his financial interests. What is more alarming to me is the people who continue to support him. This clearly shows that the racial issues that have hurt this country never went away but were hidden in plain sight. Never in our history has our country been at such a divisive crossroads.
12
Your brilliant essay is a testimony everyone must read. It is a clarion call to the American people to remove this man from office.
13
Where oh where is the republican party? Bring back the paleoconservatives, at least they had some respect. I cannot imagine *any *other *president behaving this way.
9
Why would Trump, a serial rapist, care a wit about a woman who was serially raped? The indecency Mr. Cohen abhors has been profitable for some time now. It started in his vaunted media, hiding behind the inviolable 2nd Amendment. Here, the scourge of right wing hate thrived and enveloped the nation in its soulless pursuit of money via the grotesque spectacle of a constant, vomiting stream of outrage and a putrid disdain for anything wholesome and good. Murdoch murdered western enlightenment culture by feeding the resentments of the anti-intellectual rubes who were ditched by the global wealth gravy train and all media stood by, because, in the end, they fear even sensible accountability imposed on the press might threaten their media enterprise as well. The problem, dear Roger, is not in the stars, but in profit seeking media. Much the same as it is profit seeking health care.
4
When the teleprompter broke down, he chattered on about the Minute Men taking over the airport. He has a limited vocabulary of epithets - failing, loser, etc - repeated endlessly and promiscuously applied. Like a six-year-old he makes toilet humor out of our elected officials' names. He is disinhibited, shoving a head of state aside on camera, breaking protocol with the Queen of England.
He changes his mind daily. Is it some kind of insider trading racket or simply that he can't remember his position from the day before?
The current fumble came about because he obviously wasn't listening, or couldn't hear and didn't care. How long are we going to watch this disintegration and wonder who is running our country?
17
I have reached the point where I can not even stand to hear his voice. I loath him.
17
Here is an interesting quote:
“And it is possible that with the rise of both Mr. Johnson and Mr. Trump, it is time to start rethinking all traditional wisdom about what it takes to convince people that candidates are leadership material. Or at least that they look as if they are.”
Vanessa Friedman, NYT. 7/23/2019
6
thank you mr.cohen.
donald trump is the president of the u.s.a. but has never acted with the demeanor required of one.
ms. murad a heroine and survivor of monstrous acts, only to be further tried in the oval office occupied by a monster.
7
Trump missed a golden opportunity to capitalize on this exchange with Murad by emphasizing that the incidents described by her occurred while Obama was president and then champion himself as a reliable savior for victims like her. He could then have feigned sympathy for the tragedy.
And he would have had a point. Obama clearly didn't do enough in the Syrian civil war. But Trump, of course, in his copious ignorance probably didn't understand this occurred during Obama's term.
Such are the tragedies we endure over the last 10 years.
1
@Michael Lueke - He probably thought it happened during George Washington's term, and wondered why he didn't just seize the Syrian airports.
2
“...many psychiatric disorders are associated with empathy-related deficits. For instance it is well documented that antisocial individuals lack concern for others. The DSM-IV identifies a deficiency in empathy as one of the essential features of narcissistic personality disorder.”
8
I cannot imagine why in this world any member of his staff would think it to be a good idea for this woman to be in the presence of Donald Trump. She has what he wants; he's angry as usual.
6
Contrast Trump's demeanor in this exchange with this remarkable young woman who has suffered and accomplished so much due to and despite the brutality of rape with his demeanor while he and Jeffery Epstein attended parties with "recruited" under age girls and shared, as he put it, a smiliar fondness for beautiful women; his Access Hollywood boasts, or...the list goes on and on.
How could Trump display any true empathy in such a situation when he himself is a predator?
12
As an American I offer my deepest apologies to you, Nadia, for having to be subjected to the indifference and ignorance of the occupant of the White House. I saw how you suffered with such humility, dignity and courage in the POV documentary on your ongoing struggle to help your people. Let us know what we can do
6
I also saw that video.
He did it again.
Donald J Trump so often paints such an unsympathetic portrait of his own self... in full public.
Repulsive.
(and Mr. Cohen has just described not just the portrait but also his actual horrible actions)
10
When my sister sent me an extended version of this video several days ago it upset me more than anything I’ve seen so far in this presidency. Everything that is reprehensible about this man is on full display - his utter indifference to human suffering and even ability to make eye contact with Ms. Murad , the geographical/political ignorance about the plight of the Yazidis, the Rohynga (Bangladesh? Myanmar/Burma? Where that?) and other victims of global cruelty and persecution, the inability to focus as Ms. Murad speaks so movingly in imperfect English about the loss of her family, and of course the reflex-lie about knowing Sinjar well. He is a shame and an indelible stain on everything this country used to stand for.
13
Hmm I am in no way a Trump fan, and usually find myself despising him, but after watching the video find the article off base. To me Trump comes across as awkward but listening and even asking her a few questions that invite her to tell more of her story. And right before Trump says where are they now, Murad says they "killed" my mother, and it sounds a little like they "kept". So he might have just misheard her. Maybe it came off worse in the room than on the video clip. Awkward/not great at emoting/comforting yes, but inhumanity personified? Maybe not here. Again, I still can't stand him for hundreds of other things and would never vote for him, but I saw this video differently from the author.
1
Agree awkward but not inhuman. He also looked at her most of the time. And I believe the “where are they now” comment was intended to refer to ISSIS not her parents and family. His Question on why she won the prize was intended to let her tell her story more - he even said “and you won why? Tell them.” This is a pretty unfair treatment of the situation...
2
Your essay capsulized the total depravity of Trump and the disturbed psyche of an America that supports and follows him.
His total lack of empathy, compassion, intelligence, and decency was demonstrated in his encounter with the heroic Nobel Prize winner as he sat posing like an indifferent marble statue at his desk not at all interested at the plight of mass rape victims.
He is a moral abomination and needs to be subjected to an impeachment inquiry and his malignant character needs to be revealed fully to the American public. But I fear that his admirers will still be unmoved by the facts because they too have his illness and stone heart.
8
Whatever your political tribe, this is a powerful piece of writing.
5
Advanced capitalism has dehumanized America. This is why the American people have elected a man with a heart of stone to be their president.
12
"In his boundless self-absorption, this president is capable of anything."
Except empathy, compassion, self-awareness, humility, honest, critical thinking ... the list goes on and on.
12
This is the most spot-on and most moving piece of journalism since the beginning of the plague.
7
Trump is a symptom, a reflection of an uncomfortably large slice of what our nation really is.
His presidency could be the death of national optimism. I hope not, but I am deeply worried.
5
At first I thought it was going to be about his inhumanity in front of one of his own victims.
5
Cohen's off a little here. Granted, the video (I watched the CNN version) is disturbing, but Trump's handlers (granted, he chose them) seem to be the most at fault. First, what a weird physical setup. You have a young woman for whom English doesn't come easily being placed 12 inches away from the US President, having to lean forward and twist slightly in order to face him, while he must look sharply to his right in order to make eye contact and probably squint in order to focus on someone so close to him. Then, you've got this harrowing story, and heart-rending plea for help, with a back-drop of other beseechers, in front of TV cameras ready for broadcast. It's such an undignified setting, unworthy of the gravity of the issue. Cohen mentions Trump's lack of having been briefed. I'll grant this one is harder to blame on the handlers, since Trump is notoriously uninformed, and impossible to brief, due to his toddler-level attention span. I found the whole setup appalling, not just Trump's performance/response. I think Roger Cohen should use his skills more productively and insightfully than just to fan the flames of indignation surrounding this absurd presidency.
1
Trump couldn’t stand up to speak with her? He couldn’t turn to face her? Nope he is to blame. He famously thinks he doesn’t need briefings, and doesn’t read. Stop making excuses for him.
13
I agree about the setup of the room. Insensitive and exploitative. This woman’s story and likely those of the other guests could never be expressed adequately when talking to the back of Trump’s head. But a decent human being would realize the gravity of this woman’s words and find a way to console her. Our leaders set the tone for the rest of the country. Trump’s sociopathy is setting one of indifference.
5
The question now becomes, "will we destroy ourselves before Mother Nature does?"
5
@Michael Griffin: Nothing much has been said about Trump's blustering about his ability to kill 'ten million Afghans, to destroy Afghanistan in a week', but of course, he's so kind he won't do such a thing.
He's sick. He's making the world sick and especially America. If he wins another term, I truly do not know if America will continue as a democracy. And, of course, he's enabling, once again, Russian interference. He's saying he'll take the help. He also told, this week, a group of young MAGA people that Article 2 gives him the right to do anything he wants.
The Republicans must know that 2020 is already in the bag and that is why they continue to support him. No risk to them. What do they know that we don't? Why won't McConnell pass the election security measures?
We're on a precipice and the Republican/Russians are pushing us over. It's not just Trump. It's all of them.
4
DonaldTrump is an abuse victim who grew up to be an abuser. He lives in a different reality from most of us. He has never dealt with his own pain and he keeps it at bay by daily inflicting pain ad humiliation on others, thus convincing himself that he is the powerful one and not the powerless one. He is telling his own story in the only way he knows how and keeping his sense of powerlessness hidden from himself. The cost to others is huge.
4
I have been watching since Dwight D. Eisenhower. What always strikes me about these oval office photos of trump is that he is always sitting down while his visitors all stand. Common courtesy where are you. You may think this comment and observation is frivolous but it falls in line with who he is in his own mind, the center of the universe, the belly button of the world. And to ask her what she won the Nobel Peace Prize for, amazing ignorance or chutzpah. He just doesn't care!
23
Trump's reaction, while utterly contemptible, should surprise no one. The numerous credible charges leveled against him by women unfortunate enough to encounter him have exposed the sexual predator that lurks at the core of his being. Ms. Murad, a victim of systematic sexual abuse, describes for him her experiences. Whom should we expect this hollow man to identify with, the victim or the perpetrators?
Ms. Murad's ordeal fails to impress the president because he considers women playthings for the amusement of powerful men. The Nobel Prize does impress him as an emblem of prestige he craves but lacks the energy or the values to earn. Trump, whose father funded his checkered business career, regards wealth, women and honors as prizes due him as rewards for simply being who he is.
For him to respond differently to Ms. Murad would require him to be a different person.
14
President Trump actually did something about ISIS. Obama said we had to learn to live with it. Half a million people died in Syria alone. President Trump has helped the Yazidi people by obliterating ISIS, as promised. For those who don’t like President Trump’s demeanor, which would you rather have, dead ISIS or polite hand wringing?
1
Obama never said we have to live with Isis. That’s ridiculous.
I can imagine how he would have handled himself in an encounter with this woman. He would have comported himself with grace and praised her courage. He would have known her story. He would have stood up, not sat there while she had to stand.
3
@Sue Mee
Darling, do not delude yourself. We have to thank Russia, Syria and Iran for defeating ISIS. Our role is secondary, if any!
Thanks for your mention of what I tend to think of as New Grammar. His or hers versus their is but one of a long list of egregious changes in the language.
As an American, I am embarrassed by our president's repugnant behavior. Per usual, he demonstrates a complete lack of empathy for others.
This president did not honestly win the election. The Russians tampered with the outcome and here we are. It is terribly unfortunate that he is allowed to represent our nation. There is nothing presidential about Trump.
Perhaps sadder still, his supporters won't view this exchange with the slightest concern.
9
By winning the Nobel, she got better ratings than him. That's all he cares,about. An empty shell of a human being, absolutely incapable of understanding the heroism of this young woman standing before him, much less honoring her. He didn't even have the decency to fake respect. Impeachment isn't a good enough punishment for him, he should be shunned.
15
@Nancy Lederman: NYC did shun him. Nobody in the 'inner circle' wanted him around them. And then Mark Burnett came up with the Celebrity Apprentice nonsense and millions of people tuned in to watch a fake, scripted man say 'You're fired' every week. It tooks hundreds of hours of video to produce a 42 minute scripted reality tv show that made him look strong and competent.
That show gave us Trump. I will never forgive Mark Burnett.
4
That exchange, in any world other than the one we currently inhabit would have ended the career of the person in power. Yet here we are barely a week removed from that event and your article can’t garner 500 comments. I really don’t know how we’re ever going to recover.
6
Roger Cohen's editorial powerfully reveals the depths of
Trump's inability to imagine the emotional and physical pain of others. In decades of teaching, I have never come across a student who displays such stark inability to connect or respond when confronted with human suffering as does the current president. Reading about the interaction and watching it really bring home how pathological Trump is, how atrophied his capacity to
bond in ways that the rest of us recognize as human. A Nobel-prize winning survivor of multiple rapes tells you her family has been murdered and you reply, "Really, where are they now?"
Just think about that for a moment. Can you imagine anyone you know doing this? This level of brutal indifference lies well beyond what most of us could ever imagine. This is what makes Trump appear 'inhuman' or 'monstrous.' How
terrifying to think that this is the man given king-like reign over the most powerful nation on the planet. With no Congress or Supreme Court to check decisions that spring from his maniacal fantasies or all-absorbing insecurities, the world hurtles toward calamity.
7
Thank you Mr. Cohen for eloquently pointing how hideous,heartless & soulless Donald Trump is at his very core.
What a contrast to this brave, impassioned and wonderful young woman standing before him as he sits unmoved and seemingly unable to move his enormous bulk to stand up so that he could shake her hand. He is incapable.
of recognizing who is honorable, dignified, courageous and true.
Why do I imagine this loathsome creature we have as our president is thinking about a Nobel Prize for himself for what I do not know as he is hardly promotes peace and basic human kindness.
7
I think you are reading way too much into this exchange. More than anything, Trump appears to be mentally exhausted and operating on automatic pilot.
I was appalled when the GOP attack machine descended on Obama, relentlessly accusing him of all kinds of hidden agendas. I still cringe when I think of the times I heard a talking head explain that Obama was driven by a deep-seated hatred of white people.
Now that the shoe is on the other foot, I am finding many of the attacks on Mr. Trump to be similarly ill-founded.
Let's stick to the verifiable facts -- Lord knows, there's a mountain of them that demonstrate Trump's unfitness for office.
2