It is safe to say that Trump owns Obamacare from here on out. he is doing more damage deliberately to millions of Americans' access and quality of health care, than any President that I can remember. I think we should do away with the word Obamacare and call it Trumpcare. He now owns it.
9
Another example of Trump's spite is his reaction, actually nonreaction, to the devastation wrought by California's wild fires. California did not vote for him. Further California's humane policy's in many areas, such as its continuing effort to have clean air for people to breathe, are anathema to Big Oil, a major Trump supporter. So Trump has not only not visited California to provide support to the survivors of burnt out homes, he has not even mentioned California's problems in his tweets. If you disagree with him in any way, you do not and should not exist.
14
One of the commenters noted that only 55% of Americans vote. This is a shameful number. Voting should be mandatory and registering automatic.
6
Thank you, Charles.
10
A man is known by the company he keeps. All you need to do is look around and see who Trump has surrounded himself with and you understand what he cares about. And it is not the voters. Obama's name should not even be in the same sentence as Trump's. Obama is a fully formed human being with a conscience. The same is not true of Trump.
11
PERFECT! Absolute perfection Charles Blow. Pitch perfect.
27
Obama had a moral compass. Trump has evil and hate in his heart.
60
Ironically (and moronically), trump has only increased Obama's popularity. People who didn't particularly like Obama, or were apathetic, are now made painfully aware of the many good things he did. Painful because this idiot is set on tearing everything down.
51
Trump has shown us from the beginning that he has no idea how government works. He thought he could rule by fiat. He also wants to do what the Russians used to do many years ago: erase every and all traces of Barack Obama. It used to be called revisionist history. Well, that worked in a dictatorship, but not in a democracy. Obama's place in history is guaranteed. Trump's is also, but at the opposite end of the spectrum. Obama was hard-working, intelligent, elegant, principled and graceful. Trump lacks all of those qualities. He is lazy, ignorant, crass, inept, and lies as easily as he breathes.
53
Trump makes Barack look better, smarter, classier and better looking every single day!
44
Obama and Trump. Apples and (Rotten )Oranges.
31
PS - I do think we need to start looking behind the Trump curtain of crazy & publicize what Jeff Sessions & the rest of the wrecking ball crew are up to. I think we'll have a lot of toxic waste clean-up to do when this nightmare is over.
43
Spot-on, Charles. Trump's agenda, from day one, has been to focus like a laser on not just repealing Obamacare, but in repealing (obliterating ) Barak Obama's legacy. His conspicuous vitriol for our former President only belies his even more profound jealousy, which plays out, publicly, as an exestential torment that far surpasses Richard Nixon.
But I also believe that Trump is a powerful mouthpiece for some middle-class white men, who could never say what they felt during the Obama years. How could a black man achieve such a level of success when I can barely pay the bills? How dare a black man graduate from Harvard, becoming president of The Harvard Law Review, when I barely finished high school? Their seething resentment and jealously found a powerfully cathartic voice in Donald Trump.
41
Mr. Blow, you are a treasure. And steadfast. Thank you for your writings.
27
From someone outside looking in:
Trump's knee-jerk reaction is apparently to make himself look better by claiming the other person is worse. And now that he is actually accountable as a public official, he has to make sure that his claims will come true. Otherwise, he will look bad.
As for catering to his base... he still has not realized that as the U.S. President, his base are all U.S. citizens. He is supposed to govern for all of them.
That's the ideal.
Unfortunately, the ideal is not reality. And the White House seems more like a reality TV show. I call this the latest episode of "Trumped."
16
A billion to whoever finds the word "legacy" in the constitution.
But playing dungeons and dragons is such fun. Legacy games are not boring like democracy is.
Blow forgot the most important difference, at least to Trump supporters: Obama is Black and Trump is White. Trump and many of his followers are also racists, so that's the most galling difference. That a White man--ANY White man--should be inferior to any Black man is unbearable.
67
The fact of the matter is the GOP knew who exactly Trump was and laughed at him and did nothing about him during the election. If anything can be said about Trump is he is who he is and is true to himself. Trump's supporters felt he was one of them and are still madly in love with him amd continue to feel he is doing a great job and draining the swamp. The real question is where do we go from here? Neither the GOP nor Trump's supporters are going to change and those who support him now will continue to support him for a second term. If our country still exists by the end of Trump's first term we as Americans are going to have to take a really good look at ourselves and determine what we want yo become of our country.
Who knows what will become of Mueller's investigation. As Trump himself said he can shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and no one will care. He and his family have already gotten away with a myriad of things thus far.
25
As always, you nailed it
18
Trump and his coterie find no perceived slight or insult to small to respond to in a big way, and apparently, America, our politics and our ways, offends him much.
13
The US is stupid enough to declare global war over something 19 dead people did.
3
In September, 2016, Obama said, "My name may not be on the ballot, but our progress is on the ballot,"..."And there is one candidate who will advance those things. And there is another candidate who's defining principal, the central theme of his candidacy is opposition to all that we have done."
This was always about opposition to all that Obama did in his 8 years as President. Everyone including Obama knew what was at stake. Trump ran as the anti-Obama President. This is no news, this was no secret.
The choice was laid bare for the American people to decide, "Do you want more of Obama, or do you want to control-alt-DELETE the actions he took while he was in office." America chose the latter.
What is written in this piece today just proclaims "Trump keeping his campaign promises!" Trump, and his supporters, are very happy to read it.
14
"Do you want more of Obama, or do you want to control-alt-DELETE the actions he took while he was in office." America chose the latter."
Obviously DJT won the 2016 election by the rules of the day. But this was a technicality - not a pronouncement of majority support. He decidedly lost the popular vote (and so did the GOP at the Fed level BTW) and that should not be discarded when one says "America chose". Indeed the popularity of for the event and consequences foisted on us by the technicality shows clearly that "win" to be less than "America's choice".
And as for the technicality - about 80K voters, such a small fraction - frustrated with their personal lot perhaps, needing to poke the eye of a friend to get their attention perhaps, needing to rebel a bit to feel alive again perhaps, just not liking the other candidate, as people sometimes just don't like other people, perhaps - tipped a scale that if there was a do over probably would not be tipped. Does that stand for "Amaerica's chose".
And over 40% stayed home .. many just frustrated by lackluster of the other candidate and too sane to vote for DJT. And many just too sure the worst could never happen so why vote. That 40% if they had to vote would pull which lever? DJT's? No poll says most of those would chose that line if push came to shove.
No, America defaulted themselves into this mess - they did not really chose it. Our bad but not our chose. Time we rectified it 2018/2020!
13
The current occupant of the White House proves one thing. Not all the money in the world will transform a crude, ignorant, loathsome and self-centered piece of human garbage into a polished, intelligent, admirable and altruistic person. It must truly bother Donald John Trump that he can never measure up to Barack Hussein Obama. Trump is truly the antithesis of Obama.
75
AMEN! He is not my president.
31
History will compare Obama to Trump, the same way we compare Lincoln to Andrew Johnson.
28
Simply put, Obama is a mensch. Trump is not and never will be.
9
There is no question that Trump is undermining the foundations of the ACA, and while he claims that “in a short period of time I understood everything there was to know about health care.”, does he have any comprehension of the actual effects of his actions? I can't believe he has a clue, and given that one of his actions was the termination of subsidies, he must have asked for advice on how to destroy the ACA. Totally unconscionable, but I don't know how else to explain it.
11
You know we heard somethin' today, at least I know I did, at first it went right by me. In defense of missin' this insult I can only say that the flood of lies and disingenuous "stuff" from Trump and his underlings sometimes acts as a smoke screen. But during the outdoor portion of Trump and Mitch' faux-to op Trump took off, as he always will, on a question about the recent deaths of our gunfighters in Niger..claiming..well i'm sure you heard him, "..and I felt very, very badly about that.." and then going on about how former presidents had somehow..had been remiss, I believe his insults were furthered by, "..i'm not sure I think I heard someone say it".
Listen to me veterans, I will help lead you right to where you not only need but want to be. This man sought and received deferments not once but five times in order to dodge his duty, he openly and proudly insulted two American hero warriors John McCain, Humayan Khan and their families. He off handedly joked that trying not to get venereal disease was.."his Viet-Nam"
In doing so he spit on you and all your brothers/sisters that came home shot to pieces or in bags. Think about it Combat vets, Tropical, 'Merical, 101st, 173rd, 3rd and 1st Marines and Cav guys (and so many more) have you so far removed yourself from the death that surrounded you and your brothers that this mans statements are somehow okay?
54
Thank You, Mr. Blow. This is the most honest assessment and analysis of the petulant pretender who inhabits the White House. I would encourage your colleagues like Mr. Baker and Ms. Haberman to replace their cracked rose-colored lenses with the clarity of your vision.
19
" Most honest assessment??? " You are joking, right? His clarity of vision has only one lens.
2
Thank you, Charles Blow, for reminding me how proud I was for 8 years to be an American.
26
Blow by blow the truth will out!
Thanks.
24
Trump and the Republican whole agenda is to Un Obama everything because they have no vision what to accomplish and their blind hatred for the first black President who has done so much given the clean up that's he has to do when he walked into office. The economy was in free fall, unemployment was at all time high and rising, 2 wars that he inherited with no end games in sight. The view of the country abroad was at all times low. Obama lifted us, the economy and believe that he has no time for petty bickering despite all the shots that was aimed at him. He never took the bait to stoop so low. That's who Obama is, focus and never lost sight of the goal to lift the country.
29
Polls, polls, polls. Does Charles Blow not understand that the Constitution's meaning is not determined by polls? The President does not have constitutional authority to order the Treasury to spend money. Only Congress has that authority.
When Congress rejected Obama's proposal to give financial relief to insurance companies, Obama simply ordered the Treasury to give that relief.
In countermanding that order, President Trump is restoring a constitutional limit on the Executive power. At least on this point, I say, Good for him!
2
Yup, and now the insurance companies are passing the bill on to the customers. You and me. We are paying their relief now. Satisfied? Or does universal insurance with cost containment as they have it in every other developed country start to sound good to you? Do you think Trump and his Congress will enact that? Dream on...
15
I was fooled when I saw Obama get elected. I thought that the racism of the Republican party of Nixon, Reagan and Bush that Johnson warned about when he enacted the Civil Rights Act ("we lost the south for a generation) was over. How wrong I was. It stuns me to see what racist bigots the Republican party is. I guess that a lot of Republicans were ok when people of color were shoe shine boys or janitors. Now that they are folks that, by nature of their color or sex have to be better to get even a chance of equal footing with white males, are an existential threat that has to be squashed. If you can't beat them with intellect and competence then destroy them appears to be the Trump/Republican modus operandi.
Mr. Trump, if your IQ is so great that no one is comparable then agree to sit down to an IQ test administered by the UN. Also invite Obama, Clinton and Tillerson to the test. May the superior being prevail.
32
You are awfully right in your analysis in your first paragraph. The racism of some of Americans is mindboggling, and many of them are Republicans. Seen from a distance, it is hard to believe that a society can be so full of hate and resentement while being the most economically advanced.
But I don't think any amount of IQ testing, even if he were to score well (which I doubt) could give that horrible inflated clown of a President, the class and wisdom of Obama, whether people agreed with his policies or not.
10
Congress and trump voted out in 2018 and 2020......Bernie and Medicare for all
7
It must be repeated every time Donald Trump tells a fresh lie: Donald Trump is a liar.
28
If Trump is breathing, his next involuntary reflex is to lie. 24/7/365.
6
Trump doesn't seem to understand - no surprise there! - that isolationism makes a nation smaller, not larger, and certainly no beacon to follow.
We don't yet know whether "the center can hold" in the form of many economic alliances among other groups of nations. Trump's operating thesis seems to be that no international agreement can survive without U.S. involvement. he doubtless hopes that the TPP will fail without "us". And if there's one thing that he and Putin certainly agree on, it's the hope that the EU will fall apart. (America had no part in it! Sad!)
And even here close to home, NAFTA fails to completely favor its richest and most powerful member. That can't be right!
Maybe, just maybe, 20th century international agreements have changed course from military alliances to economic agreements in pursuit of global commerce where some lose a little here, gain a little there, but all ultimately benefit.
That was our course, before Trump. Isn't it pleasant to remember a time when we were proud of our... president? It wasn't that long ago. Less than a year.
11
Please explain how people and communities that lost their livelihoods when entire industries moved to Asia have "benefitted" from offshoring.
1
Get real, many of those jobs were lost to technological advances. The non-skilled jobs went to the Third World. Where do you think the best paying and most forward looking jobs were developed? You will be lucky if the kind of backward policies of your President make it possible for your country to stay ahead of fall behing to other places that are not moving into the XIXth century but advancing rapidly into the XXIst century.
4
Cruelly transported to Bizarro World by the incredibly devastating manipulation of the levers of life by about 80,000 petulant people in 2016 the citizens of the USA awoke to these headlines "President Mxyzptlk Signs Orders to Undermine Obamacare".
Naturally the normal inhabitants of Bizarro World applauded and hoped to waste their money as soon as they can on junk insurance and moreover see even more people in need face even greater struggles. These same inhabitants are also pre-booking rocket flights for their families to the core of the their planet when it implodes so they will sure to die.
Meanwhile the non-Bizarro aliens from the normal World of 2016 tried in vain to tell and show the natural citizens that all this was not just wrong but absolutely unnecessary and counterproductive. Protestations bravely made s because even suggesting a public option based on some version of Medicare they once had in place could bring imprisonment under Bizarro World justice.
The normal World people stuck in the Bizarro World hope to gain access to levers in 2018 and 2020 that will return them to home never again to have to experience Bizarro World.
11
In any other democratic country, the second place finisher would be considered the loser. And indeed Trump is s loser in an even more global sense. Impeach and convict him, and let’s move on in creating a more perfect union.
15
Under President Pence?
3
Trump is clever and loves to see things move even if he is unreflective and hates to work at anything difficult. He was successful as a spokesman for the millions who were unhappy with the Federal Government, particularly the elected officials in it. It did get him elected. Now that he's an elected official, he still wants to run against Washington, elected officials in particular, because he knows that once he actually starts doing his job, someone else is going to be running against him and the rest of the elected officials in Washington. Now if he was cranking out popular actions, signing popular bills, getting the rest of the world to sing his praises, etc., he'd love to run as the incumbent, because he'd be assured of winning. Right now, he can't win by accomplishing anything constructive, so he's the bomb thrower in the White House, and his target, the former President who left him such a mess to clean up. Get the picture. Trump knows that he's in a job that is above his capabilities to do competently, although he will never say so.
4
Every day I wake up and have to live with the vision of this abomination of a president. I cringe every time I hear him speak or read one of his nonsensical tweets. I only hope Mr. Mueller's investigation finds several instances in Trump's life where he wantonly broke the law. I know Trump doesn't have a decent bone in his body, has a history of racism that has been the apex of his popularity with the nationalistic 'thinkers' in our society, a demagogue of the first degree who has surrounded himself with sycophants and other ignoramuses to lead Cabinet positions and the ability to show neither shame nor empathy when dealing with the world around him. A black soul leads this nation. Please let it end.
24
As a racist, Trump believes that whites are always going to be better than POC, no matter what. Obama flies in the face of that, and because of that, as with other exceptional POC, the racists want to try to erase every vestige of any accomplishment of his.
If it stands that a POC was exceptional, then their whole premise goes down the drain.
22
And now Trump is lying that Obama didn't phone the families of slain soldiers. This is a truly reprehensible human being. And he has the gall to say that football players on their knees disrespect our soldiers!
Trump will tell any lie, smear any honor, dump any burden at the feet of our young men and women who died for Bush and Cheney's wars ... all at the service of his megalomania. He makes me sick.
21
I miss President Obama and Michelle and their kids. What a classy act.
30
Here's a good one - right from the NYT. Trump claims he makes calls to fallen families, but Pres. Obama did not. Then, he begins to backtrack, saying maybe sometimes he called, but not often. And to top it off, he says he'll have to talk to the generals to know for sure. Well, the base - and boy, do I mean base, believes and probably only listens to the first lies out of his mouth.
This is why we suffer, America. The base believes the lie and they do no fact checking or research to understand they are being duped. They don't hear "this is what I was told". Heck, Fox news, Bannon, and the rest of the gang must be so happy that whatever they say, Tr. believes. What a world!
"When Mr. Trump was pressed a few minutes later about his claim about Mr. Obama, he waffled.
“I don’t know if he did,” the president said. “I was told he didn’t often, and a lot of presidents don’t. They write letters.”
“President Obama, I think, probably did sometimes and maybe sometimes he didn’t,” Mr. Trump continued. “That’s what I was told. All I can do is ask my generals.”
Lies, lies, and more lies. It doesn't end.
34
Thank you again for continuing to say what needs to be said. I too miss the time when friends around the world praised our intelligent and articulate President Obama.
It is a further sign of Trump's lack of intellect that he cannot see that he is writing his own epitaph. While he basks in the glow of admiration from his minority of deplorables, he ensures that History will not be kind to him. He will be labeled for all time as the most spiteful and the stupidest of all. And he won't be able to tweet his alternative facts of the situation, because he'll be dead and only History's harsh description will remain. What a sad sad man he is.
16
Trump is the revenge of the marginalized, ignorant "deplorables" on the rest of us. Make no mistake- he very craftily analyzed the Eletoral system we have to surgically win office. And the coarser, cruder, ruder, more misogynistic, more juvenile, more bellicose, more inelegant, more anti-intellectual, more racist, more generally outrageous he becomes, the stronger his support grows with the darkest elements of our country.
Are we elitist liberals to blame? That is asserted. Mr. Blow in effect makes that case, demonstrating that to the Bannonites, inclusion, tolerance and diversity are curse words. But what are we to do? I was a poor white kid who worked my way through college and law school, my ancestors mostly Southern, at least one a substantial slaveowner. I felt a debt to others not just like me but still less advantaged-women minorities, other poor people. I tried hard to assist them in my charitable actions and donations. Including poor white kids.
And this is what I get in return, and others like me? Would I care to spend time with the "deplorable"? If they could and would engage in civil dialogue, looking at real facts. Sadly, too many lack either the tools or the inclination to do that. If they want me to buy into a world of faux-religious, anti-science, white supremacy, that's not going to happen. I will go to my grave fighting them and their "cultural values" with every tool at my disposal.
Do I miss my fellow law school alumnus, President Obama? Beyond words.
25
Why cannot Americans who logically and sensibly want medical.insurance start a SELF CONTAINED COOPERATIVE PLAN which initially just covers hospitalization and doctors fees. The first Canadian plan just covered hospitalization. Later on Doctors' fees were added under the CANADA HEALTH ACT. That is why private insurance exists for dental and prescriptions. Each province is a lab and varies in coverage for things like prescriptions. BUT EVEN THE BASICS LIKE HOSPITAL AND DOCTORS FEES WOULD HELP. Those docs and hospitals which were interested could enroll. The original insurance in British Columbia was started by docs.
4
The man was elected President because he opposed Obama's policies. He is now following through on his campaign promises -- unlike many politicians. So what is the issue?
2
Simple. Being "against" is really good as rallying cry, but not so good at explaining what exactly you are for.
12
No, he is not. He brags that he is doing a fantastic job and any news to the contrary is fake. Don't take his word for it. Don't take anyone's word for it. Research it yourself.
12
So all was just perfect until Obama messed it all up and so just undoing all that he did is sufficient to make it all right? That's what Trump is doing, he's just undoing, nothing else.
7
Obama will be remembered as the beginning of the 21st century. Trump will be remembered as a dinosaur who made every one of his predecessors look good by comparison.
22
Donald Trump has a lot of class, all of it low.
21
"Trump can't hold a candle to Obama, so he's taking a tiki torch to Obama's legacy."
Any bumper sticker manufacturers out there want to earn some easy money?
14
"Trump is reviled around the globe and America’s reputation is going down with its captain."
Americans absolutely have no idea how true this is.
Non-Americans are not Democratic or Republican, They judge your president on who he is. Obama was revered world wide. Trump is despised.
America has been dragged so far down that it is not respected but feared, is not a country to look up to but a country to pity, a country who has led the world in thinking and action to a country which is backward looking and moving back to the dark and filthy ages of pollution.
Whatever your parochial opinions are inside America, that's the rest of the world's perception.
22
It's interesting that the left is so narcissistic they believe that if you disagree with Obama's policies it's either racism or spite! How about they hurt businesses and the economy? The massive amounts of regulations, we now see consumer confidence at a 14 year high? Is that not a good thing? Optimism always returns when a ultra leftist president leaves! Same thing happened when Carter was beat in a landslide! I love the story though it continually shows how out of touch the left is with America, and can I be honest and say Thank you from the bottom of my heart for being so narcissistic! please continue to offend and label as many Americans as you can! Again Thank You!
4
There are good regulations, ineffective regulations, and counter productive regulations. Now Wall Street was happy for Washington to save the big banks form insolvency but against rules that would have constrained them form the risk taking that led directly to their inevitable insolvencies. When one examines most terrible regulations, they are only terrible in constraining people from acting without concern for the consequences. No businessman ever rejected taxpayers help and being protected from other reckless people but they never saw a tax nor a regulation on themselves which was ever justified.
2
No small businessman ever got taxpayers' help. In fact, I don't want it.
The more outrage Trump generates the more he consolidates his very large base. Get over it, and get everyone you know out to vote for Democrats who can reach across the divide.
4
Show me the Republicans ready and willing to reach back, not those who define bipartisanship as "you give in to us".
2
Coming out of his Cabinet Meeting today President Trump congratulated himself on the great economy, great unemployment levels, and great stock market. His confidence and conviction at the mic was exceptional, but he also confided, "We're not doing our job. They're (Congress) not doing their job."
What am I to conclude but President Trump knows he doing poorly and he only know how to do two things very well. 1) Take credit for something he didn't do. 2) Attack Obama. Hillary, Democrats, and Republicans Senators are not immune to his spite.
President Trump is our Chieftain of Nonsense and Chieftain of Spite.
15
Charles, you can cherry-pick polls and statistics as you always do - but your fake numbers always blow up when those who oppose your policies are always elected like Trump in the only poll that matters. Why have Dems lost so much in elections every since Obama was elected if he was so good and his heath care was so popular? Go and talk to real people about how their health care cost has increased (premiums and deductibles) ever since Obama was elected and please stop putting such naive and gullible belief in the same unreliable polls that predicted that Trump and Republicans would lose badly.
1
And what is Trump doing to get premiums and deductibles down and deliver on his promise to have better and more affordable health care for all?
8
Yes Charles, all you say speaks to the truth so many Americans don't care to know. What to expect from a president installed by a mix of an archaic electoral college system, voter suppression, Russian interference with voter registration lists and promulgation of (really) fake news, and the wilfully uneducated voters that Trump boasts he loves?
10
In a few more months, all anyone will remember about Obama is he was the first black president. Nothing more. Many of us will remember Obama fondly as the greatest gun salesman of all time and the most accomplished politician for his role in decimating the democratic party.
5
What a joke. Is this what passes for insightful political analysis in Florida?
16
cht
he was one the greatest presidents we have ever had. you dont have to agree with his policies to realize he was intelligent, thougtful and brought integrity to the office unlike the vile cretin that is the utmost embarrassment to our nation and the world.
17
Actually, he will be remembered as the last grown up to hold the office of President. In addition, he used his well educated and disciplined mind to consider his decisions, not his intuition and impulses, something last done similarly by G.H.W. Bush, a lot, and by W.J. Clinton, mostly, and by G.W. Bush after all else failed.
6
“Trump isn’t governing with a vision, he’s governing out of spite.”
On the contrary — as Mr. Blow must surely realize — Trump isn’t governing at all. He is just occupying the chair when he is not at one of his golf properties.
24
Yeah, Obama is one classy guy. Remember the gift he gave to Queen Elizabeth--an iPod with recordings of his speeches? That's as vulgar as anything Trump has done. Trump is pathetic, sure, but Obama was a medocrity. Remember the time he asked Bill Clinton to publicly elucidate a policy before assembled reporters because Obama didn't want to keep his wife waiting? Hilarious. Enough with the hagiographies already. Remember when Obama referred to the White House as "my house"? Accepting an undeserved Nobel Peace Prize instead of gracefully declining it was classic Obama vulgarity. Both Trump and Obama are real bargains, yeah.
6
No one remembers the Obamas giving Queen Elizabeth an iPod loaded with his speeches--because it was loaded with video and photos of her 2007 trip to the United States, along with songs and accessories. Kind of thoughtful, if you think about it, and uniquely American. Which is pretty much the point of those types of gifts.
Your remaining examples are equally accurate.
21
Trump sat and listened to Obama make jokes at Trump's expense at the White House Correspondents dinner. His face and his posture and his demeanor overall said more about how Trump.
And now Trump is doing what he does best --- getting even with Obama who made him look foolish and ignorant. Didn't Trump brag about if someone hit him hard he hit back harder?
9
Trump doesn't need anyone to make him look foolish and ignorant. He does that just fine all by himself.
22
Trump should just change "Obamacare" to "Trumpcare", and then take credit for it.
Because that's all he really wants anyway - remove any evidence of a black president and bask in the adoration of the masses.
7
Mr. Obama, like Mr. Trump, had "no problem in lying."
He lied about keeping your own doctor with Obamacare.
He lied about how he secretly negotiated with Iran behind the backs of Saudia Arabia, the Gulf States and Israel.
He lied about not using drones to kill American citizens.
He lied about drawing a red line to prevent Syria from using chemical weapons.
All US presidents lie.
Just looking at the last half century: Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush 1, Clinton, Bush 2 all were pastmasters at lying.
Lying is part of the job description of a US president, not to mention that of a Congressman or Senator.
6
He lied about being against gay marriage when he was running for president. He swore to God on that lie. Then he lied about his change of position that it was an enlightenment he acquired while in office. All of these examples made clear, Obama did not bother himself with concern about being honest, he is an extremely dishonest man. It's just that his adoring press and left wing Progressives never held him to account for it. (Thus, President Trump).
I would rather be "lied" to about the size of a crowd in attendance, than than LIED to about major policy positions.
1
trump has withdrawn the subsidies.......despicable ..but it is long past time
that his supporters lived the truth of what this action will do to them ......Republicans are "States rights" champions......what now has officially become "trumpcare" should go begging to their state houses for the
missing financing for their new trumpcare policies......trump will take care of them...............Just watch and listen how well they will be cared for.
Dismantling Obamacare with no plan in the wings? Boy you really "got Obama"
trump.....and those voters who you have robbed, now have you in their sights......and it will give them something to think about while waiting to get care in the Emergency room.
Exquisitely dumb move.......and all this because Obama poked fun at him (along with himself and others) at a journalist dinner in D.C.
Pathetic
3
the subsidies will have been deemed "illegal" once the courts got into it. This is known.
next
2
There is a basic economic law that Trump doesn't seem to have grasped: You get what you pay for. If you won't pay much, you don't get much. If you want a lot - like, say, comprehensive healthcare - it's going to cost you. It makes me wonder if we shouldn't take a closer look at all the marble and gold-covered building he built - did he not have to spend more than plain old cement and wood would have cost....or did he just sell glitter as the real thing? Or does he not know the difference?
10
Many Trump supporters are decent but misguided people who had a very clear choice. They were left behind by D.C. and mad....the Dem's offered job retraining...education and a way to work into the new economy....the Orange Man told them they didn't have to change...they were being picked on ...and he would bring all those low skill...high wage...good benefit jobs back and keep the Mexicans from getting them.....and a good enough number of them bought it.
18
Please stick with that theory!
1
I guess being patronized is a little better than being insulted. i guess.
2
Another great article, Mr. Blow! You help me to get through these days of utter disgust in a POTUS that is at best...deranged!
President Obama is a brilliant, gracious and successful man and POTUS! I am willing to bet that Donald knows he is losing his base, slowly but surely and that he knows that Pres. Obama left office with high approval ratings which Donald will never have!!
What I want to KNOW is what keeping Congressional Republicans from impeaching Donald?! They will never pass their tax plan!
24
I too share your outrage that the Republicans continue to support the "liar-in-chief," who is not only unfit for his office but likely diagnosable, as well
8
trump's behavior is a throw back in time- incapable ruler in a position of power who causes great damage- only previous incompetent rulers were monarchists.... I really think he was elected becuase of racist backlash-
12
Just watched a documentary about Mussolini and there I saw from whom Trump has borrowed his "presidential" poses. If you get an opportunity, ask Donald what he thinks about Benito.
16
The shameful and shameless slander against Obama not reaching out to families of fallen soldiers says it all. Trump said, when asked to cite his source, gave his typical response: “That’s what I heard.” Yeah — from the voices in his head, egging him on in his sad, jealous, blind hatred of a predecessor whose legacy he is bent on destroying because he knows all too well that he is incapable of improving on it.
22
No one speaks what's I my own mind as clearly, succinctly, and accurately as Charles Blow.
16
What really scares me is that 40% of the people that I see on the street every day are out of their minds..
33
I'll rise to the bait.
Considering you're probably walking about in NY among a crowd of whom roughly 80-90% of the people voted for Hillary...I'm not sure that came out the way you intended.
1
You are assuming the writer is referring to Manhattan. Perhaps you are wrong. Gasp!
4
President Obama is a class act I realize that more and more after Donald Trump became the President.
After 8 years of leadership Barack Obama left the presidency with very high ratings. Then comes Donald Trump with no class, no ethics trying to prove each and every day that he is a big man which he is in structure only. Both being overweight and tall although have small hands.
No other President in recent History insults the previous one with such and disrespect as Trump does.
Yet Barack Obama remains the epitome of restrain and decency.
Donald Trump is 71 and Obama is mid 50`s in his middle age, Trump will be long gone but Obama is here to stay.
Also Charles, we have not heard the last word from President Obama, but knowing him when Trump succumbs to age in his last stage all Obama will show is his kindness toward him.
Did I say Barack Obama is a Class act ?
37
It isn't him. It's them. As much and as easy as it is to despise Trump and everything that he stands for, 60 million people voted for him. The revulsion with which we view Trump is exactly the same as the revulsion with which they viewed Obama. I know. It is ugly and painful. You should also remember that those 60 MM are indifferent that the gains that had been made for caucasians were made with significantly inhuman means, slavery and genocide. And also remember that they are not particularly apologetic about that.
One more thing. Us, bleeding heart liberals, were a little too willing to accept that those things happened and in many ways profited from their occurrence.
We were afraid. The people who did those things, committed genocide and embraced slavery, were abetted by murderers, people, primarily in the name of their god, were willing to kill. They were and are just a little more willing to accept that blood has to be spilled.
6
Trump hasn’t forgotten the laughter at his expense at the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Dinner. A room full of reporters and Hollywood A-listers howled as President Obama riffed on him for a few minutes as payback for the birther nonsense. We all saw Trump sitting there, trying to look composed but obviously seething as his worst nightmare was coming true: famous and powerful and smart people were mocking him. Now, only the most thin-skinned and petty of people would make it their mission to destroy everything the joke-maker held dear as a means of revenge, but then again. . .Trump.
32
To Michael.
Given the"birther" tactical episode promoted by Trump, any other person would have been smart enough to know that the sensible move would be to take a pass on the dinner invitation itself.
To show up at the dinner only proves how out-of-touch with reality Trump just happens to be.
What we have is Trump as a really dim bulb on full display and out-to-lunch as well.
20
When the truth finally is revealed about how our elections are manipulated ;
by robo ads; by big SuperPac funders: by the Media....perhaps we might
once again trust what pundits and politicians have to say.
Perhaps the anathema ; the focal point of our national despair ...being the
catastrophe aka Donald J. Trump....who is obviously being managed by
a few US Generals and the former CEO of Exxon....when Bob Mueller has
successfully hauled in his dragnet of traitors ...then we can deftly unravel
the causes which led to ....again ...the near chaotic catastrophes delivered
round the globe....sporadically issued by the nut case in the oval office or
on Air Force One.....I think we will get a clean slate and the mess will be
cleaned up.....and perhaps it will be Bob Mueller who should be carved onto
Mt. Rushmore.
7
Has there been a POTUS since Ike who wasn't manipulated by the MIC and/or Wall Street?
While I can't argue that Trump doesn't measure up to his predecessor, it is not such a high bar Shows the ineptitude of the man in the Oval Office more than the prowess of BHO.
2
When the history of these times is written, people will ask, "Was there no one to stand up to this man? Was there no one with the courage to act?"
No matter how the disaffected far right might whoop with joy when their celebrity hero puts on a campaign rally, there is no doubt that this period will be seen as a dark, disturbing one in American history. Republican Senator Corker was one of the few to speak the actual truth, that Trump could take us into WWIII and a nuclear holocaust. His staff works full time trying to limit the damage he can do and to direct him to the actual job of government. He prefers other pursuits, like watching television four to five hours per day and tweeting, madly.
There can be no objective doubt that Trump, who had almost 11 million more people vote against him than for him, should not be president. Yet, having crept into office by the side door of the Electoral College, he is treated by the media and most everyone as a legitimate president.
We should stop this pretension. Because he refuses to behave by even the most minimal standards of the presidency, because he bullies and threatens anyone who dares stand up to him, because he threatens to kill millions of people in both Koreas, because he obviously doesn't have a clue about what he is doing, he should be treated as a non-president. He must be told by a leadership group of responsible people that he has a choice: either stop his wild, undisciplined actions or leave the office forthwith.
19
Our Fake So Called President is indeed a loser in the broadest sense. Squandered his inheritance on bad business deals and then reinvented himself as a business savvy deal maker on a TV show. Thus his most ardent supporters are those who have trouble discerning fiction from fact. He is a kind of dada leader in that he and his pronouncements are hollow.
23
Trump went beyond spite today at the press conference claiming that Obama didn't call the families of fallen soldiers and that he was going to see if he, the president of the United States, can talk three shirted Steve Bannon out of running certain candidates?
This is all so sick. You are a leading critic of Trump, Mr. Blow, but as you well know, Trump loves criticism so that he can utilize his uncanny ability to be spiteful through lies and deceit. Just as you nail him and Trump does or says something crazy it appears he has only a few days before he unravels only to see him in the Rose Garden looking good in his starched white shirt with French cuffs and wearing the black and white tie he wore at his first address in front of congress. He looks sane and for the most part talks sane.
We need a plan that will lead to Trump's impeachment or are we waiting solely for Robert Mueller?
12
As Gopnik and Haberman think, Trump is a man of resentment and couldn't take a joke from Obama (a black man!) during the 2011 Correspondent's Dinner. I think there and then he decided to "hit back" against Obama. The world suffers because of this misguided motivation for revenge by a man with small hands and a withered soul.
22
"The example Obama set makes the big man with the big mouth look smaller by the day." And this is one of the reasons the ignorant and disfunctional trump supporters continue to hate President Obama
16
You can just surmise how jealous Trump is of man who made it on own under extremely difficult circumstances. Made it on his intelligence and real savvy. He is totally cool, successful and BLACK! Now you know Trump just cannot stand it! Mitch McConnell is the same. These two are such losers in life and President Obama is such a winner!
24
His intelligence? What did BHO get in tort law at Harvard? Oh, sorry, that's a state secret.
I keep thinking that everything will turn around because it can't get much worse, and it gets worse. I keep hoping that people will see what they are doing to the US by supporting Trump, but they don't see. Trump is concentrating on erasing every vestige of work accomplished by Obama. He is not accomplishing anything himself, he is just pencilling out Obama's legacy out of spite. It takes no brain to draw a line through anything that has the word Obama on it. What a sad sight to see this great country going so far down the drain.
18
Watching old video of Obama talking NK using word "capitulate". Not just Trump Spite but Middle America also--mad about needing dictionary. "Who does he think he is Mr. Smarty Pants". Yea Dumber Much Better........
4
For Trump so hates black Obama that he has consigned millions of Americans to suffering and early death.
17
I'll just point out here that Obama's health care "tzar" Ezekiel Emanuel stated more than once and for publication that seniors are a waste of resources, that surgery for seniors should be limited and that Medicare should be cut significantly. He also opined that seniors should "take a pill" instead of undergo orthopedic surgery, which just might explain the so called opioid epidemic, if anyone bothered to connect the dots.
2
A leader will take actions that can make him unpopular.
While Obama was a smooth talker, his achievements were few.
He gets an F on all - foreign policy, healthcare, race relations. But he was liked.
There is still some time before the effects of Trump's policies will be known, but so far his results are much better than Obama's.
That is, if appearing elite and polished and making a fool of the nation is not a metric. Obama beats him completely on that one.
4
No Obama doesn't get a F on all. Race relations were exacerbated by white people that were upset that America had elected a black man to be President. It amazes me to constantly see that the majority always expects more of the minority than they do themselves.
7
You mean elected a mixed race man to be President, right? Remember the trip to Ireland? Don't I get to claim President Obama as one of my own?
1
Americans may have liked Obama but they did not like his policies .. at all.
Hence they elected a man whom they knew would dismantle them.
Wrecking balls aren't very pretty or elegant but, like Mr. trump, they are often highly effective.
As stated so eloquently by our 44th President .."Elections .. have consequences"
4
Let's pray the consequence is not....a nuclear holocaust!!!
8
The majority of Americans did not vote for Trump. A minority did.
It’s dishonest to claim that a majority Americans didn’t like Obama because Trump became President despite losing the popular vote. Your boy got in on a legal loophole, dude, not because he’s liked by the majority.
5
I think everyone knew the rules of elections of U.S. Presidential elections going in, eh? Why didn't Hillary go to WI or spend more time in MI?
1
Thank you for so eloquently articulating the reality of America's experience of two Presidents whose character and presence could not be more antithetical.
20
This isn't about envy. Every single Republican running for POTUS in 2016 would be doing the same thing Trump is. They may have been more polite, less coarse but they would do the exact same thing. Even John Kasich a more mainstream Republican campaigned against Obamacare. He said several times on the trail that Obamacare was bad for America. He said it must be totally repealed and replaced...many, many, times. There's a much bigger issue here that Blow as usual misses. Why in the past six years the Democrats have lost the Presidency, both House of Congress, the Supreme Court, the majority of state legislatures, Governorships, & most important local offices? Why has the GOP gained about 1,000 seats in state legislatures in the past nine years? Why in 24 states, do Democrats have almost no political influence at all? Why are Republicans in control of a record 67 (68 percent) of the 98 partisan state legislative chambers in the nation? Why does the GOP hold more total seats than they have since 1920, well over 4,100 of the 7,383?How have they created super majorities for conservative policies in otherwise blue & purple states? How have they have turned a looming demographic disaster into legislative majorities so unbreakable, so impregnable, that none of the outcomes are in doubt until after the 2020 census? Why is the Democratic Party in shambles? One reason. The majority of voters no longer are buying what the Democratic Party is selling. That's a fact which can't be denied.
8
Citizens United, Fox News and Breitbart.... The majority of the voters voted for Hillary Clinton, remember?
24
It's the Republican party that's in shambles. They control the Executive and Legislative branches and still can't govern.
And by the way, besides Citizens United, voter suppression and the useless Electoral College, there's gerrymandering, which has greatly benefited the GOP.
9
Oh please! Majority voted for Mrs. Clinton! The GOP controlled congress is about the get a huge shellacking in 2018! Especially when Donald's executive order destroying the ACA is felt by those poor slobs that voted for Donald!
And let's not forget Russians helps #45! He will resign in disgrace.
6
Well done comparison but so sad that it is so true and we are forced to endure Trump's boorishness, deceit, incompetence, and his complete illegitimacy to be president.
13
" illegitimacy to be President ". I thought he was VOTED in. Only elitists would think this way.
3
So POTUS said today "“We are not getting the job done,” he said, “and I’m not going to blame myself, I’ll be honest."
Of course he wont. As for the " I’ll be honest" part: must be a joke, right?
He also blamed Democrats and some Republicans for obstruction. Hey Donald, that all the GOP did for 8 years when Obama was President. Nothing but.
Finally, he added “"It’s a very sad thing to watch," Mr. Trump said of the fires."
Sad? The man's vocabulary is equivalent to that of a not so smart third-grader. That a man of his caliber can follow an Obama as President is proof that, indeed, any person can become a President in the USA.
31
Honesty is the exception, not the rule, with Trump.
8
A wonderful comment. All I can add to:
"That a man of his caliber can follow an Obama as President is proof that, indeed, any person can become a President in the USA." is that it is also proof of the ignorance of and lack of character in trump supporters.
17
Governing with a "phone and a pen" ala Obama, Trump is saving me money. Yea!!
My Obamacare premium is 35K for me, my wife and two children.
I cannot afford that bill. I am covered by a short term, high deductible plan that does not comply with Obama care. $9,800. I was at risk for $9,200 in Obamacare penalties. Bankrupting middle class families should not be the governments job, I am glad that Trump is removing the penalty and making coverage I can afford possible. Why don't all you selectively compassionate liberals care about white middle class people?
4
The US government has left the job to insurance companies fractured by 50 states, cesplin. Where governments do this job, health care costs much less than in the US.
10
Understand about the premium $$ pain. Totally.
And with two children, assume you and wife are relatively young to vital early middle-aged.
Still, if, heaven forbid, any one of you is caught up in a catastrophic injury or develops a life-threatening condition, the treatment costs will be enormous. Your policy won't cover those situations. Who will? Everyone else. That's how ALL insurance works -- your house, your car, and health ins.
ACA needs to be fixed, not scrapped. Just sayin'.
9
For-Profit Insurance structure as an instrument to provide healthcare in this country has been failing Americans for decades. The ACA is far from perfect, but it was a good start. As a healthcare provider I would recommend that a single payer system, which is portable across state borders, invested in an actual healthcare system vs trying to manipulate the current system to guarantee profits for companies that could care less about funding healthcare but rather maximizing yields for stockholders. I listen to all the machinations of how to tweak here and tweak there to coerce politicians and entice insurance companies to stay in the business of disappointing patients who need care - not insurance. The narrative is wrong. What we need is healthcare, what we don’t need is more slicing/dicing and silos of “lives” (insurance co speak for “patients”) to create favorable risk pools for insurance companies. If you need healthcare, you should be able to get it and if you don’t need it you can sleep easier knowing that if you ever do - it’s there. The free market is an ineffective entity for delivering adequate health care access. Healthcare should not be free - we should all invest in a system that provides a common good, but it is also not a commodity and patients are not widgets. To even discuss it in those terms is part of the problem, not the solution.
5
This is the ultimate test for whites who continue to spread the "gospel" that racism doesn't exist in America. The choice is clear. Do you close your eyes and hold your nose and support Trump as he attempts to destroy the legacy of the nation's first African-American President, or do you for once decide to judge a man by the caliber of his deeds rather than the color of his skin? This is the very definition of racism... to refuse to see a man's worth because of the color of his skin, while conversely refusing to see the evil in another man simply because he's one of you. Could anything be any more apparent than Trump versus Obama? One man a scholar, a gentleman, passionate, caring, a great husband and father, a Nobel Peace Prize winner. The other a boor, dishonest, greedy, corrupt,, a liar, a sexist, a racist. If you choose the latter simply because he's white and dismiss the former simply because he's black, then you'll never have the courage or the morality to even pretend to believe in the word of God. Which man do you think, if given the choice, God would pick to enter into his Kingdom? Think about it.
29
unless you disagree with socialized medicine right?
or must i now be a socialist to not get called a racist?
4
Here is a quote from H.L. Mencken (1880-1956) written, with almost alarming prescience, in 1920:
"As democracy is perfected, the office of President represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."
Yes: we have, indeed, achieved this.
37
"It must be cold and miserable standing in the shadow of someone greater and smarter, more loved and more admired."
This arrogance that the left is better than us ordinary people is why you lost the last election and why the middle of the country ain't coming back to your side any time soon. Please don't change a thing.
8
Agreed.
The Left and the Rino Right CREATED TRUMP; and they will NEVER take credit for Donald Trump. Never!
They could have had Romney, but they got Trump!
The funny thing is... that me and the Right didn't know in 2012 we wanted Trump; it took the Left and the Rino Right to make clear to us what a disaster victory would have been in 2008.
1
correction: 2012 not 2008
cheers
You bet. First goes your health care (care, not just insurance), then goes your medicaid, then goes your social security, last but not least your medicare. But hey, we’re all rugged individualists who don’t need handouts from the government... And if we get bone cancer, to name a particularly nasty ailment, we’ll just grit our teeth and shoot ourselves in the head with one of our precious guns when the pain gets too bad. And if we develop Alzheimer’s, someone else can shoot us if they’re tired of running after us. Because us ordinary people don’t have the money to pay for cancer treatment out of pocket, or for memory care living facilities...
13
"In fact, if there is a defining feature of Trump as “president,” it is that he is in all ways the anti-Obama."
Cheer up Charles. That Trump appeared as a kind of anti-Obama is kind of like symmetry in physics. After all, the main difference between the two men is that Trump is right handed and Obama is left handed. This hints at a secret cosmic balance and underlying harmony to the cosmos. Ask Einstein.
3
Trump is a catalyst for malevalent entropy. Nothing more.
5
" Your derision of that person's every decision, and even his very existence..."
Mr Blow, that is EXACTLY how YOU respond to President Trump. Put aside your partisanship and try and look at the situation objectively.
9
Well said. Partisan opinion writers with a degree in mass communications from a no name university become expert on economics, healthcare, technology and almost everything else.
I often wonder if these people have so much foresight, why didn't they pursue a career in these fields. Only reason I can think of is that if they did so, they will be held accountable for their opinions.
Here on a liberal NYT's platform, they can spew all nonsense even being wrong repeatedly.
4
Trump is an incompetent man child. There's no other way to look at it. You speak of partisanship, look in the mirror. Who's being partisan?
6
Trump is a malignant narcissist. He projects his faults onto others, and is vindictive. Not good traits for a president.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malignant_narcissism
20
Thank you Charles. As I read your piece today I was reminded of your colleague Timothy Egan, whose haunting and elegiac words--two weeks before the inauguration--have stayed with me ever since:
"Trump will erase Obama’s policy legacy at his peril. What he cannot do is erase the mark of the man — a measured and rational president, a committed father and husband, who is leaving his country much better off, and the office without a trace of personal scandal."
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/06/opinion/erasing-obama.html
34
The belly-aching is strong with this one.
The bottom line is this:
Obama's greatest contribution to American Politics is to show all others that follow: What not to do!
44's fate is that of a POTUS that wasted 8 years ruling by Executive Fiat.
It is pretty rich of the writer to whine about Trump using the same "pen and a phone" to dismantle the very policies that 44 went AROUND CONGRESS(the people, you and me) to institute in the first place. If 44 and his policies were as popular as the writer argues... then why the Executive orders in the first place? Answer: 44 was not as nearly as popular as Democrats would like to think; hence, POTUS 45; but I digress while I drop the mic.
What was it that 44 accomplished again? Oh right, the ACA and TARP; that's it!
44 all but guaranteed 45's success by making it easy for him. 44's shortsightedness is of the epic nature; such is what happens when you put ALL of your eggs in the Clinton basket.
Every Obama policy reversed is a win for America and the Constitutional Republic. All future POTUS's will remember 44's dismal failure and lack of a tangible legacy, but for the aforementioned ACA and TARP; both of which were passed by Congress. All future Presidents would be wise not to follow 44's folly.
Cheers
6
Bravo! (Standing ovation.) Well said.
3
Agggh.
2
Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by a wide margin. Obama had to use executive fiat as you call it, because McConnell turned the Republican Party into the party of ‘no’. Obama also saved the economy and Osama Bin Laden was caught under his administration. Enjoy your Trumpcare. Cheers to you too.
1
Charles, you live in an increasingly primitive country.We alone amongst so called Developed countries have millions of people who are profoundly ignorant, believe in "an eye for an eye",foster tribalism and racism and admire the machismo that feeds misogyny as well as the violence that comes with guns or football.It is no surprise that their champion sees an erudite, thoughtful, highly educated black man of great character as an existential threat even after that man has exited center stage.
29
Sadly, America is not alone. There are millions of ignorant people everywhere. What makes it unique is its vast nuclear arsenal, and thus the decision of the American people - via the distorted voting system that masquerades as democracy - to elect the anti-Obama as president is of infinitely greater concern than if such a monster were to come to power anywhere else.
Let's hope that General Kelly can somehow limit his worst excesses. If not.......
8
We like to think that America is exceptional and a "city on a hill." The fact that trump was elected and is still supported by about 35% of the electorate (or maybe population) should be a source of national shame. Who is to blame for trump? Trump is just being trump, he still thinks that he is on "The Apprentice." The people who are responsible for his being in the White House are the people who voted for him.
I am not talking about politics. I disagreed with some of President Obama's policies and sometimes thought that he was naïve about people and policy. But he is a very intelligent person, tasteful, well-mannered, and a man of character who represented our country and people very well. Trump, of course, is the opposite. A very little, mean-spirited, spiteful, ignorant person who used the "Birther" lie for political purposes and embarrasses us where ever he goes.
27
Who's to blame for Trump? You're to blame, Aubrey. Obama sounds smart, so smart that even Charles Murray voted for him in 2008. But really smart? What smart person that you know doesn't like to show off his SATs, GREs and LSATs and college and grad school grades?
On a very seemingly simple level, Obama was and is a member of a socio-cultural demographic called Global Nomads or adult Third Culture Kids. His mind developed in different contexts with different realities and perspectives.
This complex and varied experience led to a wider, tolerant and not quite so self-absorbed temperament that is in stark contrast to HWSNBN...of course, I am still wondering what happened to Cornyn...lol.
5
Ok. That's why he supported TPP, which guaranteed that even MORE American workers would lose their jobs. Americans have a right to prioritize themselves, their communities, and their country before Asians.
2
While Trump is the instrument of our national debacle, he's not solely to blame.
Blame rests on the shoulders of every Republican who decided anyone running under their party banner was worthy of election, even a misogynistic dimwitted race-baiting liar.
Blame rests on the shoulders of every Democrat who took their ball and went home because Bernie Sanders/Jill Stein/the Tooth Fairy didn't get nominated.
Blame rests on the shoulders of everyone who thought jumped on the anybody-but-Hillary train and got run over by the Trump train.
Blame rests on Republicans who had 15 alternatives in the primaries and chose the most reprehensible of the lot in a fit of self-serving pique.
Blame rests on every single American -- every one of you -- who sat out the election, regardless of party.
Blame rests on every American who says 'Well I didn't vote for Trump,' but continue to cast ballots for his enablers.
Blame rests on the Democratic Party, which couldn't even muster a message sufficiently inspiring to unify Americans against a reality TV charlatan.
The list goes on. We brought this on ourselves.
13
The spectacle that is the megalomaniac in chief is emblematic of how his supporters feel about themselves. He represents how small they feel when they compare themselves with their fellow citizens who have succeeded, against all odds - or far worse odds than their own. So they lash out, calling those who have done better than they "elites" even though these "elites" don't feel or act as if they're superior to anyone. And they blame immigrants, those who immigrated legally and otherwise, for their own lack of success, never considering whether they've been willing to work as hard, juggle as many jobs, sacrifice as much, risk as much as these immigrants, to earn such successes. And they blame those of color, who have the temerity to speak out against the injustices and indignities they've suffered for centuries, thereby reminding them that they are racists. And they blame women, who refuse to stay in the kitchen, barefoot, pregnant, and waiting on them hand and foot, and who've shown themselves to be their equals, if not superior, in the workplace. And they blame anyone who isn't Christian, for reminding them, daily, how far from the graces of Christ they've ventured. These people are not what made America great, and their vision of America is one in which they will feel great, but they will not be great. So of course they must denigrate and decimate and destroy all of the accomplishments of Obama and all of those "others". They have nothing else to make themselves feel great.
20
Amen!
4
Amen two times !!!
1
Elegant intellectualism and taste. What a wonderful way to describe President Obama. Qualities sadly lacking in President Trump. The Obama legacy will endure, no matter how much Trump huffs and puffs, and tries to blow it all down.
18
Intellectualism that prevented him from seeing the sufferings of mere mortals.
2
What you call "spite," a lot of us call "getting an intrusive, arrogant, overbearing government off our backs."
5
Except when it’s about intruding in women’s uteruses.
9
Yeah, those aliens ought to get on their space ships and take their government with them...Oh, that's right our government is by, of, and for the people. Go figure. What you consider intrusive, arrogant, and overbearing government is a democratic government, so it's the majority of your fellow citizens about which you are demeaning and resenting.
3
I'm with him. Who said no government (which, I'm sure, is how you meant to spell it)? LESS government. You got a problem with that? ;-)
Spiteful? If Trump could bring Osama bin Laden back from the dead, he would do it.
22
May be, may be not.
But Obama let go of criminals and terrorists that our brave police officers and soldiers captured by risking their lives.
1
Charles, great piece. You described the differences between the men " Trump is ignorant. Obama was civil, Trump is churlish. Obama was tactful, Trump is tacky." You could simply have said that President Obama is a Class act all the way, while Trump is a cheap, lying grifter. Has been all his life and undoubtedly will continue to be for the rest of his life. God help us when he is faced with a real crisis that puts the entire country in peril.
17
So, you also got a thrill from the crease in his trousers?
35% of the American electorate just want to break stuff and Donald Trump is their insentient hammer. Unless the majority of the remaining 65% rise up and vote, we're just crockery on the shelf awaiting our fate.
20
God, Charles, you so nailed this article. You completely get who Trump is and what his effect is on our nation throughout the world.
The U.S. is now no longer a trustworthy partner - in anything and in everything it has been bound to with others - because of one thing: Trump. Trump has caused America to become a totally untrustworthy entity, a big, fat stuffed shirt with zero credibility.
We have a super military as well as local/national police forces and protective services, and the truly outstanding men and women who have dedicated their lives to our protection deserve our every thanks and kind gratitude.
But fear of our force is not enough to bring other nations to our table with a willingness to negotiate and break bread with good intentions. Every nation entering negotiations with America on any topic will now do so with a wary eye and with eyes on the back of their heads, solely wondering 'how are these blokes going to shaft us'. And this mindset, this degree of distrust, is due to Trump.
Sooner or later, the Republican base will grow to understand that Trump is not out to protect their interests. Trump is out to do one thing: further serve Trump's interests and further stay in power. When the Republican base finally understand what they did in hiring this hateful, untrustworthy person to run the show, they will finally begin doing what should have occurred more than a year ago - getting this guy away from the White House and off of our radar.
19
Thanks again for the insightful way, this was expressed. unfortunately there cannot be a way to rationalize, insanity or irrational behavior as is and will be the case.
5
Obama's accomplishments were built on a foundation of sand, without the consent of the governed and mostly without enabling legislation.
That which was legislated was deliberately flawed in order to clear the path for Single Payer, erroneously believing that Democrats would still have the White House.
In the end all that is Left is his hollow promises and a healthcare system in crises.
4
Mr. Blow seems to forget that Trump campaigned on rolling back 0bama's "fundamental transformation of America". Trump did not base his campaign on being a beautiful human being and light bringer . He got elected, and if 0bama's presidency was so effective, how is it being blown away by a perceived lightweight like Trump?
5
Term limits is all there is to be said!
bingo
1
No, I think Trump is not acting out of spite but out of the knowledge that smashing the machinery of democracy gives him power. He is enabled in these despicable attempts by the Republican Party. There must be a reckoning.
6
"Blowing out someone else's candle doesn't make his shine brighter." That's a reality about which Mr. Trump is apparently clueless. And that's especially true trying to blow out the candle of someone as ideal as the eloquent man he followed into the White House whose shoes he's not worthy of even shining.
15
If Trump is the Chieftain of Spite, I guess it must be contagious, because many of his critics have contracted a kind of morbid obsession that reminds you of Dostoyevsky's man from the underground.
7
Whenever I see Donald Trump I can only think of the Wizard of Oz song "If I Only Had a Brain." He is jealous of Obama, his accomplishments, the people's love for him, his intelligence and everything else. What does Trump has in achievements? Nothing except knocking people down and destroying Obama's legacy. Spiteful and cruel.
18
Obama was a Manchurian candidate and an affirmative action president. Trump had to fight his way up and get in the mud against his own party and 90%+ media that hated him and tried to block him all the way. Obama instead was given free ride from beginning to end.
Trump is the better, braver, stronger of the two. Classless?perhaps, but Republican learnt with Romney and Ryan (two impeccable candidates, years light superior to Obama) that the only way a Rep can fight the bombastic democrat fortress, which is the MSM, is by doing what Trump did, and that being classy didnt get them anywhere.
2
UR right ami
Trump beat the Dems at their own game: demagoguery.
The dems had no idea how to counter-punch the counter-puncher. It was a classic example of 'taking your own medicine'.
2
This comment illustrates two of the right's favorite tactics: name calling and berating the media. Can't win on the issues? Ad hominem attacks are best. Don't like the facts because they don't support your selfish preferences? Demonize the messenger, and go for "alternative facts". Neither of these approaches offers anything of substance, and they illustrate the intellectual bankruptcy of Republican politics. Trump is the culmination of the decline of conservative thought in America, and is thus the bankruptcy president in more ways than one. This comment floats in the center of that stream of churlish ignorance and spite. Mr. Blow is once again spot on in his assessment of Trump.
19
name calling? where have you been for the last 11 months? wow so out of touch.
Imagine a man, a man whose only brother drank himself to death but left children of his own behind.
Imagine a man, who all but admits on tape, that he and his own father bear at least some responsibility for pushing the deceased brother to drinking and his death at a young age.
Imagine a man, who used undue influence on his father who had dementia, in order to change the will to exclude his deceased brother's children/grandchildren from receiving any share of the estate.
Imagine a man who, when his deceased brother's family object to this will, cancels healthcare coverage for his deceased brother's grandchild, a baby, who suffered seizures that led to cerebral palsy. “I was angry because they sued.”
"Spite" doesn't begin to cover the rottenness and greed and inhumanity of Donald Trump.
And you think he stays up at night worrying about the healthcare of the Nation?
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/01/03/us/politics/for-donald-trump-lesso...
30
News flash! Charles Blow despises Trump. Film at 11!
5
Trump has no constructive proposals to offer on any public policy issues. Instead, he confines his activity to simply vandalizing the achievements of those who came before him.
17
The one day I remember so clearly is November 10th when Trump met with President Obama. It was a meeting that always takes place between the just recently elected President and the acting one. I think many were interested in how it would play out since it had just ended (or so we thought) years of Trump's "condescending" remarks against President Obama. And, of course, the Birther Lie. And Obama had been pretty vocal in the 6 or so months before the election in his disdain for Trump. And the meeting that was to end all of this was supposed to be 10 minutes in length. Instead, they met for 90. And when they came out and faced reporters, it was Obama who did the majority of the speaking. Trump was kind of slumped forward and looked seriously grim, almost stunned and all I could think was that Donald Trump had finally met and listened to the man whose role he is going to assume and he cannot even pretend to act anything BUT kind of shocked-shocked that perhaps this job as President of the United States of America might just be a bit harder than building casinos. And also shocked because he just spent 90 minutes with a man whom he just realized was so much 'more' than he was-more intelligent, gracious, kind, pragmatic-everything that was the essence of what made President Obama and none of what Donald Trump ever had and knew (for that brief moment) would ever attain.
45
You are right on point. That meeting infuriated Trump, and the fact that he knew, even in his diminished mind, that he was assuming the office of a truly brilliant and good man, a man to whom he could never measure up in any way, set him on the course of selfish, small, venal, ignorant, burn-it-down anti-governance that is doing its (un)level best to destroy the American republic from within, in record time.
15
In 2016, federal district Judge Rosemary Collier ruled that the Obama administration’s “cost sharing reduction” transfer of funds from the Treasury to cover insurance company’s ACA losses was unconstitutional because the House of Representatives never appropriated the money. She granted an abeyance to give the Justice Department time to appeal but the Justice Department has decided not to appeal. Last week, the Justice Department sent a memo to the White House that "Congress's repeated choice to deny funding for [cost sharing reduction] payments is thus Congress's prerogative. When Congress refuses to appropriate money for a program, the Executive is required to respect that decision." By stopping the subsidies, Trump is comply with the federal court order.
6
Their constituents will face insurance premium increases; Congress will do nothing to stop that, because large insurers are among their big donors. Those who voted for these people will be confused as to who is to blame for their rate increases, because Obama is no longer in office, and Congress is dominated by Republicans. Unless there are State subsidies, or mandates with subsidies, many Americans will no longer have health insurance. I haven't noticed anything close to a recognition of the consequences of their legislative and policy actions, a more feckless Congress would be hard to find in recent memory.
4
Like most everyone writing here, my heart breaks at the spectacle of incompetence and ignorance we have representing our great country. When Obama was elected, I was proud: We had come so far. We did it! The times were finally a changin'. As a teen girl in the 60's, I marched with the nuns who ran our school. We did what was right, because after all, Jesus was about love, not skin color.
Now, each day, it's a fight to remain positive in the face of what looks like so much darkness. It's incomprehensible to me that there are folks who support a man who openly admitted to assaulting women, who lies, who is motivated by how he is perceived and whose goal is to destroy everything the black man before him has done. One by one, he is dismantling everything that Obama had put in place to protect and honor us - yes honor us. Everyone should have health care! Everyone should have clean water and clean air! Everyone should be safe from rogue nations! Even if I didn't agree with President Obama, I trusted his decisions would come from a carefully considered place. I slept at night, knowing he didn't.
I worry if, after this - four years or (heaven forbid) eight - we will be able to regain our balance. Some days, I believe that, maybe, from this divisive, nasty, horrible situation, we will reclaim our collective self-respect and choose someone whose aims are high and noble, like Obama's were. At least, I hope. For the sake of my grandkids.
22
Mr. Blow, your issue is not with Trump, but with those who elected him to systematically dismantle the "fundamental changes" Obama thought the country needed. Lambasting Trump in column after column demonstrates a certain thinness in intellect and understanding, and while it might reinforce the focus of hatred towards one individual, it does nothing but solidify the reasons Trump was elected to those who voted for him.
9
Then why do you read his column? You seem to have read enough of his columns to know the one thing that identifies Charles Blow-his absolute refusal to accept Donald Trump as the president. Trying to change his or anyone's core belief about anything is not going to happen in a scolding-toned comment (one of 1,085 as I write this). He's not the local parishioner tasked with gently guiding our country's citizens in trying to understand and accept the vast differences that have brought so much division. Look in the mirror before talking about "thinness in intellect and understanding."
8
Trump is the epitome of White Privilege and knows it. Obama can never measure up in the eyes of Trump's supporters no matter how smart and polished he is,Hillary was also a victim.
24
It still makes me shudder when NYT opinion writers cite poll numbers as being evidence of any kind. Remember when the front page of the Times predicated Trump's chance of winning was 8%
6
Poor Trump. Rich but mediocre as only a person who was given everything and lacked any sense of limits or boundaries could be, envious of people who had to work to achieve even the basics of life who have exceeded him by miles. Obama was a good and competent President who left office with a country that was doing much better than when he was first sworn. He was not a Republican, not a Reagan acolyte, and a person with a conscience who tried to serve the needs of all as best he could. Trump was outraged when Obama made fun of his 'birther' denigrations of Obama. What kind of man insults someone else for years and then bitterly resents that person retaliating? A stupid man, of course. His entire animosity towards Obama was based upon his own sad lack of self esteem. The only thing that Trump offers is a pretense of leadership and of ability which are all being revealed to be non-existent. Republicans who continue to want to impose policies which only a minority of the citizens want continue to support him but those who actually care what happens in the future are disappointed and worry whether he will prove to be a clear and present danger to our country.
22
I am a middle-aged, African-African man. In my heart, I believe I love America more than many white men who have been elected to Congress. What else can explain their obtuse awkwardness in the face of overwhelming evidence of Russian interference (and quite possibly collusion) in our election? Why allow an inept, venal, and toxic figure to sully the sacrifice and legacy of American soliders and public servants over the course of generations? Why turn a blind eye when Trump ushers white supremacists into the West Wing and gives flight to their perverse agenda of suffocating American idealism under the false premises of grievance and resentment. Excuse me, but the last time I checked, Steve Bannon looks just the men who control Capitol Hill, Wall Street, Hollywood, and Madison Ave. Perhaps the truth lies in the reality that those elected to Congress, those with Trumpian mind-sets, lied to their own kind and sowed the seeds of their growing disenfranchisement by perpetuating ill-founded culture wars, colluding with corporate titans who place profit ahead of hard-working Americans, while gorging themselves financially. How can they remain complacent when it is readily apparent to even high school Social Studies classes that the Russians have perfected a hypnotic influence over the "village idiot" who parades himself as an astute mogul? Through racial gerrymandering and voter suppression, many members of Congress and state legislators only win by cheating--just like Trump.
29
When I saw the cover of the New York Post with a so called quote from Marla Maples "Best sex I ever had" I was repulsed. Why? Because I knew it was the publicity starved Donald who had planted this little TMI. My first thought was his poor children. They can read. Doesn't he care that his young children can see this?? Surely other kids are making fun of this behind their backs. I realize that I probably had more concern and empathy for his children than he did. That is my measure of his character. That he needed the public to think he was a great lover. Any woman who has slept atound (and I have!!) knows that selfish, piggish ,classless men are the worst lovers. Always have been, always will be. As far as his presidential fitness, he is completely unfit to walk, live, sleep, and eat in the same space as his predesessor. Who is probably a great lover. Michelle smiles, and clearly adores Obama. Nuff said!!
22
Wrote this 11 months ago...still true:
From class to crass;
From thoughtful to vengeful;
From a model of cool to a model of cruel;
From careful humility to misplaced virility;
From real-politick to reality-show politics;
From an occasional smoker to a self-avowed groper;
From a constitutional professor to a constitutional aggressor;
From an eternal optimist to a tone-deaf narcissist;
From a cabinet of advisors to a corral of yes-men;
From global inspiration to global perspiration;
From a man of character to a mere character;
From a great dude to 'il duce.’
35
Absolutely agree. Thanks for the list!
7
If only Fox and Breitbart would publish this column...
2
Donald's whole shtick is "a better deal." On Iran. On Nafta. On the Paris Agreement. On NATO.
We have a deal, Donald. It was signed by the president in the name of the people of the United States. You can't just come along and undo everything without undercutting our credibility and honor.
What Donald is doing is... undoing Obama. Out of spite.
15
Mr Trump seems to have no central ideology other than cruelty.
24
You don't think Obama's cuts to Medicare and SS were cruel?
1
Look on the bright side. Trump accomplished something even Obama's capable hands could never accomplish: Trump ensured Obama will forever possess a favorable place in history. Trump's universal attack on the Obama legacy prevents anyone from criticizing the long term effects of his actions. We'll never know. Obama answered the nation's call in a time of crisis and sought to improve citizens' lives. After that, the rest is a question mark. Trump has contaminated the petri dish beyond repair.
What we do know is Trump has an improbable likelihood of going down in history as one of the worst presidents in our nation's history. We're not even a year into his tenure and he's already near the bottom of the list. When this is all over, the Trump family name will be a national disgrace. We venerate the Lincolns and the Roosevelts and the Kennedys. When it comes time for Trump, his namesake will be an embarrassment to his family and a scorn the country. So take some heart. The joke is ultimately on Trump.
27
True. But the cost that will have to be borne by our country makes the joke less amusing.
2
It says something very serious about Republican voters that the last two winning Republican candidates were men with visibly damaged egos, both at battle with their feelings of insecurity compared to their fathers. Each felt he had to demonstrate he was “better” with sad, hollow antics - Bush most famously by proving he could be a 2-term president and by defeating Saddam, neither of which his father did; and Trump, with his depressingly juvenile fixation on everything he does being better, golder, winning-er and huger. The sort of antics a 4-year-old displays. Both men are small in reality compared to Obama and many previous leaders; but the fact that so many people voted for and follow these sad men says something equally sad about the Republican voting base.
21
"He is warping reality." Mr Blow explains. "Trump has no problem lying, but in the end he wants his lies to look plausible."
There's a large group of citizens still buying into this hot property "Trump Reality". Why? .. because Trump's life-long talent has been self promotion and seperating fools from their inheritance.
The citizens still safely insured by their employer healthcare plans are satisfied with Trump's and Rand Paul's Let-It-Burn-Care. So, people with pre-existing conditions or low wages will no longer get treatment; and Trumpkins are ready to explain "It wasn't a right".
The citizens convinced by Trump that news is fake don't listen to the news anymore. So, they ignore that Trump's tax cut is completely about ending any tax on estates over $11M, about reducing tax rates for the highest earners, and about paying for it with deficit spending.
When the bust comes, the owners of Trump Reality are going to know just how much they invested. And they will be reminded, over and over, that they willfully kept their heads in the sand.
15
Every word of this oped is true, and it is infuriating. To think that one of only two major political parties in the most powerful country in the world is committed, insanely, to bad faith arguments about policies that affect real people... well it makes me wonder how far we as a nation we can bend reality before we break it for good. I want to hope that the White House will someday have another man or woman as classy, smart, and sincerely compassionate as Obama was. I want to hope, but with each passing day, with every lie and bad argument from Trump and his enablers, I just can't muster much hope right now, and that's what's really depressing.
17
Obama was class, Trump is crass.
40
There is one simple truth that no one seems to acknowledge and that is the Republican Party has become a cult and Donald J. Trump is their Kim Jong-un.
47
The first tragedy is how the GOP in Congress willingly drink the Trump Koolaid as long as they can hope for tax cuts for the obscenely wealthy & the largest corporations.
The second tragedy is how the ordinary working & middle class voters who voted for Trump continue to close their eyes & keep their fingers in their ears as it becomes ever more clear that Trump only pretends to care about them & is more than willing to throw them onto the pyre to gratify his own malignant ego & swamp full of alligators in the White House. They ignore every red flag about Trump in the vain hope that his talk about going backward to a mythical time when white, male, christians ruled the society & everybody else (the "untermenschen"), including women, people of color, Catholics, Jews, atheists, immigrants, & anybody who speaks English with an accent "knew their places." It isn't going to happen &, in Trumpspeak, most of his followers fit into his definition of "losers" & always have.
7
That's because Trump is a racist like most of his white supporters. They are proud to be racists and have the tacit support from many other whites who may not think of themselves as racists but their silence is heard clearly by others who are more vocal in they racism. Since most whites consider themselves Christians it says a lot about religion in our society on how it has little effect on human behavior contrary to those who practice would like the rest of us to believe.
28
Hear !!! Here!!!
2
Racists are, by definition, people who hate others based on broad characteristics, like color or ethnic origin. There is another layer of "demi-racists" who don't consider themselves racists, but fear that the changing nature of society is threatening them and their jobs and status that they enjoyed in decades gone by. This is not the first time it happened. There was massive resistance to Irish immigrants in the mid 19th century, also to Germans, Jews, Italians, and ANY new group that stirred the "melting pot" and added competition for jobs & status.
We are taught in school that the primary issue that sparked the Revolution was unfair taxation from the English Parliament. Actually, the original goal was better representation in Parliament, not separation. Even then, by 1765, every tax except the Stamp Act had been killed by Parliament. The Boston Tea Party, led by John Hancock & Sam Adams was because the British had LOWERED taxes on tea from India, no longer double taxing it. This undercut the cost of illegal tea that Hancock in particular was smuggling in from Holland. The straw that broke the camel's back and actually ignited the Revolution was the Quebec Act, which allowed French Catholics to emigrate into the Ohio Valley. It was anti-Catholic hatred, not anti-tax hatred that set the fuse for the Revolution. Today, as in all of our history, there is a group fearing that their special privileges are being weakened or lost. Ergo, Trumpistas.
2
Trump is a failure of a man, has zero integrity, is dishonest, has limited intellectual ability, has no understanding of U.S. history or foreign policy, and only cares about his image. And yet American citizens liked these qualities enough to elect him President.
34
You mean he has zero integrity and he's dishonest too?
1
My goodness. Charles Blow, the resident "victim" at the NY times doesn't like what President Trump is doing to Obama's pen-and-phone legacy.
And while I can understand Mr. Blow's unhappiness, he might want to look carefully at the approach that President Obama took in evading the necessity to get legislation to entrain his policies in law.
I find it troubling, very troubling, that Mr. Blow is not praising President Trump for turning these matters over to Congress for deliberation and vote in the constitutional and democratic way that our nation is supposed to be governed.
Put bluntly, If Mr. Blow has a problem, he really needs to take it up with ex-President Obama and the leaders of his beloved liberals in political power.
10
Uh... you act as if Obama were not elected too. And you gloss over the fact that Republicans controlling Congress refused to even negotiate a compromise, let alone accede to his policy prescriptions. So, he did the only thing he could do in the face of unreasoned intransigence. He helped as much as he could, given the limits of the office. You also fail to mention that Trump has a Congress with Republican majorities in both parties and an ideologically compatible Supreme Court. Still, he can get nothing done. Obama tried to face down political intransigence; Trump -- even with all the advantages Obama lacked -- can't even face down his own personal ignorance. So, who's the victim? Not Charles Blow.
26
This system is rotten with unfair apportionment and you know it, Owl.
3
You are ignoring the facts. Completely.
5
It's been clear from the start, even before the inauguration day crowd-size lie, that Trump is obsessed with being viewed as better than Obama, but every action he's taken as president shows his inferiority. The more he yearns to be The Best Ever, the lower he sinks. Sad...but sadder for the rest of us who have to deal with this pathetic excuse for a POTUS.
24
Trump cannot get over the fact that the man who preceded him did something for 8 years that he is incapable of doing for 1 day: Acting Presidential.
President Obama spoke eloquently - Trump tweets nonsense.
President Obama looked like a President - Trump is the yellow haired clown in a suit.
President Obama was respected by world leaders - Trump baffles them.
29
This OP-ED piece says it all.
Trump has no agenda beyond undoing Obama's accomplishments. This is how shallow Trump is. He doesn't ask what should be done to improve the country but asks how he can undo Obama's legacy.
In 2011 and 2016, President Obama poked fun at Donald Trump at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. Trump couldn't take it. He never got over it. He didn't see the humor in Obama's jokes that satirized Trump's "birther campaign."
We have never had a President who didn't try to bring the country together after an election--until now.
29
He has absolutely no common sense.
2
Donald Trump inhabits a bleak and desolate landscape, in a solipsistic universe. That landscape has no empathy, no love, no affection, no tenderness, no intimacy. There is no friendship, only the demand for pure, uncritical loyalty, which is not reciprocated; the merest hint of criticism, and the friend becomes an enemy. It's a zero-sum universe: he can only win (and he has to keep winning) by someone else losing. And a "loser" is by definition worthy of contempt; which is why he can't allow himself to be seen losing.
You almost have to feel sorry for him. But not quite.
22
A Dem governor got it right: if Trump had succeeded Lincoln, he would be re-introducing slavery.
38
Donald Trump is unfit to polish Mr. Obama's shoes, let alone suceed him. He's a thin-skinned, simplistic hothead with no moral compass and a complete lack of empathy or vision. Article 25 please, we've suffered enough under this grifter.
45
Obama Care is Now Trump Doesn't Care
14
Unfit to be the president of the Virgin Islands. Unfit to be the president of Puerto Rico. Unfit to be the president of these United States. And I personally would LOVE to see the results of his IQ test...with the understanding that he has not bought off the test administrator in advance. Because he is one dumb liddle boy.
30
Look up IQs of Presidents and their wives. Michelle Obama comes in at 115; Marlena Trump, between 110-120; Hillary, 140, Obama, 141; Bill Clinton, 148; Donald Trump, 156. To those dumbstruck by the notion that Trump's IQ is far higher than Hillary's or Obama's, it's because Trump is a creative, out of the box thinker and doer, while Hillary and Obama are rigid, garden variety ideologues, with hardly an original thought between them. i mean, Obama is CIC of the Marine Corps, yet the Dummy 3 times read Corpse rather than Corps on his TelePrompter.
1
DrPaul, you do know all those IQ stories are hoaxes, right?
Just google it with the word hoax added to it and reality is revealed. Or go to snopes.com and you can read in detail on this hoax and all the false numbers, including Trumps.
4
Dr. Paul, where did you find all these IQ stats? Please give your source; especially interested in Michelle Obama's 115, since she graduated from law school, never an easy intellectual task.
2
Make no mistake about it. 45 is a vengeful individual, full of resentment, bile, and spitefulness. His reversal of Obama presidency initiatives is nothing more than his taking revenge on Obama for the well-deserved ridicule that Trump received (and absolutely deserved) at the 2011 White House Correspondents' Dinner. Trump can not allow even the slightest swipe at him to go unanswered. Worse than that, he appears to let things fester year over year and cannot move on.
When the history of this time is eventually written, it will recognize Obama's initiatives to do what is right for our fellow citizens and for our place in the world, and it will eviscerate whatever is left of the already tainted name and reputation of Donald Trump.
17
I don't know all the circumstances of the decision, but Obama let the ACA pass without the Public Option , which would have kept the brakes on rising insurance premiums. Many people, especially in rural America, are now paying enormous premiums for insurance, despite Obamacare--at a Democratic fundraiser in Leadville, Co. an older woman said $800 a month,and Leadville is hardly Silicon Valley for employee paychecks. Even the mayor, a Republican, said he now thinks healthcare is so broken only a National System will fix it. I agree. Trump is paving the way for the defeat of the Republican Congress and a health care system that will cover all Americans. We just need to wait it out and hope there isn't a nuclear war on this terrible President's watch. Thanks, as always,, to Charles Blow for not letting up.
5
Insurers told Obama that they would fight his legislation unless the Public Option was removed; he took it out in order to get what he could.
4
It is not "elegant intellectualism and taste," that separates Barack Hussein Obama from the likes of Donald John Trump, but a sense of duty, a love of country, a beating heart, and courage.
In the end, what is worst about our current President is that when the night turns dark, he will cower.
24
Yes he will cower because bullies are always cowards.
3
Predictable column. Predictable comments. Virtual participation trophy earned.
Next week's column. Rinse and repeat.
6
And yet you keep reading.
4
Trump is not idly standing at the sidelines as Obamacare “implodes” and America writhes in agony. He is actively engaged as the mass shooter.
18
Couldn't agree more
3
The depth of the spite and animosity towards Obama that drives the orange one is probably eating him away. The best hope is that in his rage against all things Obama it will consume him from the inside out. It would be poetic justice for all of the hurt he has perpetrated on everyone else.
12
Mr. Blow - yes Trump is a vile, malignant racist fiend. (He hates not only the color of Obama's skin, but the fact that Obama is everything he is not: smart, educated, witty, classy, happy, the list goes on and on). But let's not lose sight of the fact that Trump would be still be bloviating on The Apprentice, if it weren't for the Republican Party and their minions in the media: Fox, Rush, Drudge, Brietbart, and, of course, that consummate Republican hypocrite, the odious Joe Scarborough, who allowed Trump to PHONE IN his interviews and covered his every empty podium like it was the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. They put him into power. They suckered the dumbed down Fox addled electorate into putting a sociopathic racist into the White House. The Republican party - really a criminal cabal masquerading as a political organization - should under no circumstances be allowed to divorce themselves from Trump, no matter how hard they try. His policies are THEIR policies and he just says out loud what they have been saying for years after a few bourbons at the country club when the doors are closed and the help is out of earshot. Yes Trump must go - and he will, hopefully, to jail - with the rest of his crooked family and cronies, but only by getting rid of the Republican Criminal Organization, at very level, in its entirety, from top to bottom, can we begin to even think about rebuilding the democracy they have worked so assiduously to destroy, for more than forty years.
18
Very well said.
Trump is one of the worst human beings on earth. The only person worse than Donald Trump is the person who voted for him, knowing what a vile creature he was.
5
Yes, all through the campaign, Morning Joe was “The Trump Show”. Mika and Joe fawned over his every word...it was nauseating!!!
3
Trump is a big man with small heart ( or no heart) and small brain. He is the classic definition of the word "Jealousy" . His achievement to help the ordinary people including his core supporters is ZERO.
6
Absolutely one of your very best columns.
12
My country tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty,
For thee I weep.
7
"president" trump is a degenerate while President Obama was, is, and always will be a man of character.
13
Bulls-eye.
8
Mr. Blow is not wrong, but his obsession with the President is wearying. He clearly despises Trump. We get it. But can't he turn his intellect and writing talent to something else from time to time? Gail Collins, editors, please do something to redirect!
2
Apparently spite is a prime motivator across large swaths of the American public. What feeds this spite? A sense of life unfulfilled? Personal unhappiness? Fear of aging and one's inevitable demise? A need to fix blame for one's own failures? Life isn't a cakewalk. Life brings change and loss, but something I have learned over a long life is that selflessness and compassion, love for others can help make it more tolerable, happy, even joyful.
3
While any Democratic candidate in 2020 will be far superior to Trump in every quality that matters, I think we really should start thinking about how to recreate the Obama magic.
And in this, i don't really think we should fixate too much on policy. What we need is a candidate who can excite our minority base as much as our white progressive one. Perhaps a Jesse Jackson, a John lewis, or a Kamela Harris? And then be sure to pair the candidate with a Latina woman, preferably someone who's openly gay and a single parent, for the VP position and we've pretty much got 2020 in the bag! My fear though is that the white privilege of someone like Elizabeth Warren or someone else who is cis-gendered and white is going to muscle their way in.
1
Elizabeth Warren = white privilege? I don't get that part. Her father was a janitor. Her mother worked at Sears. Ms. Warren started working as a waitress at the age of 13.
4
Trump and congressional GOP members are so obsessed with erasing Obama, I have come to believe it's motivated by racism and not party.
4
No matter how hard Trump tries, no matter how many of Obama's achievements he tries to despoil or repeal it will not work. Trump will only be remembered for the hate he engendered in the USA. His greed, dishonesty, selfishness and spite will be his legacy. Obama's legacy will be remembered by future generations despite the GOP's attempt to erase them.
11
If handing out accolades for the former President, don't forget a sense of humor. Remember the wit, and Obama's comedic timing whenever he rose to deliver a humorous speech? He even took the occasional jab at himself. Now imagine Trump doing that, with self-deprecating earnestness and a good-natured wink at his opponents. Can't do it, can you? Trump will never be able to address the White House Correspondents' Dinner. He'll say it's due to the lack of respect on behalf of his audience, but it's really because he can't tell a joke.
11
It's also because he can't GET a joke.
3
Remember, Obama would never looked as good as he did without people like Trump. As least give credit where it's due. Greatness does not occur in a vacuum, it's a relative thing. They each need each other for it to work.
1
It's true that Obama's presidency was bookended by two incompetent Republican presidencies (and Trump makes Bush look competent). However, aside from your assertion that an incompetent predecessor and successor can make a president look good, one shouldn't lose sight of the fact that he actually did a lot of good. Our economy was in freefall at the end of the Bush presidency - losing 800,000 jobs per month. The fact that Obama turned that around into the longest economic expansion in modern history isn't just optics. A lot of leadership, talent, and hard work went into efforts that turned things around.
7
Trump certainly lacks vision when it comes to governing but to suggest Obama was effective with a healthcare law that was built on a bed of lies – you can keep your doctor, lower premiums, etc., is laughable. One approach isn’t working; here’s another.
When will this country begin electing officials that represent WE THE PEOPLE, who know how to reach across the aisle and NOT wear identity politics like it’s tattooed across ones forehead? I can disagree with the content of the Op/Ed but still RESPECT the point-of-view; hence this comment.
2
An addition to Mr Blow's list of of their contrasting traits is the most important. Basically Obama was truthful; Trump lies - and has no shame.
Those against Obama push Obama's major exception that one could keep ones policy if one chose to when the ACA was passed.
I wish he would have admitted his error but it seems that is never what politicians do - that is unless they are trying to look contrite for getting caught with moral lapses.
2
"...low-income Americans (a move many believe will send premiums soaring for those people)..."
I see what you did there, Mr. Blow.
Do we help "those people" as a nation because they are fellow Americans who are in a bad situation? Or do we not, just because they're not us?
1
I remember a Correspondents Dinner during the Obama years. Trump was attending. Some of the jokes were directed at Trump due to his birtherism opinions. Trump had a sullen face. It was clear that he did not enjoy being roasted. I bet in his mind he vowed to get even. I wonder if those jokes from years ago are the reason he is especially determined to destroy everything Obama did, reverse every policy that Obama (and previous presidents) put in place. Trump is not intelligent enough to know good laws from bad. From spite, he is throwing out the baby with the bath water. He has taken his dislike out on policies going back decades. He is destroying the legacies of many previous presidents, not just Obama.
4
I watched that dinner and President Obama's speech. As soon as The Donald's complexion started to match his hair I thought, "Uh-oh, this guy lives to get even."
And here we are. Still a great speech, though.
2
Donald Trump and the rest of the Gang Who Couldn't Shoot Straight don't care about any of those surveys. He's in office because of 80K people in the hinterlands, and that's all. He didn't win the popular vote, he didn't win the educated vote, and he didn't win the votes of urban citizens, who are most citizens. As long as he can keep those 80K happy (and many of them apparently don't know or don't care that destruction of the ACA will hit the hinterlands like the Hindenburg) that's the path he'll follow. He's not the president of the 300M. He's the president of the equivalent of a very small city.
7
Thank you Mr. Blow for writing this column. It says all that needed to be said.
As for comparing the two men I would also add this, unrelated to the ACA.
In this, Obama is the standout:
The love Obama has for this country and its people.
The loving marriage and family life of the Obama's compared to the one Trump seems to have engendered. Melania looks miserable most of the time.
Michele Obama and her effect on others, her warmth whereas Melania lis stilted and lacks public warmth.
And we're back to the crowd sizes, no comparison.
Words of solace in times of crisis, Obama by a mile.
It's easy to see that Trump lacks the imagination to create or inspire anything positive.
Obama was an outstanding student, Trump barely made it through school, never distinguishing himself.
Obama actually wrote his books and understands the content. Trump, well just say he had a lot of help.
Legacy: Obama will be remembered for many positive things. Trump will barely be remembered a year after he's gone.
6
Yes Charles I agree with all of your points. I think you got this one a bit off, though. "There is a thing present in Obama and absent from Trump that no amount of money or power can alter: "a sense of elegant intellectualism and taste."
What your are seeing in President Obama is not "elegant intellectualism" it is the presence of a Heart. When the Heart is running the intellect it manifests as you say as elegant, but it is actually Love in action.
It is this energy that drives Freedom, Liberty and Justice for All and the individuals who help manifest it. In the end which is sooner than we think. It will triumph. It always has.
4
When Obama targeted Medicare for cuts through IPAB and told seniors just to take a pill for pain (triggering today's opioid crisis, btw) was that having a "heart"?
"America — even many of the people who were staunch opponents of Obama’s policies — admired and even adored the sense of honor and decency he brought to the office."
Mr. Blow has a knack for expressing perfectly each of the many ways that Donald Trump is absolutely, horrifyingly unfit and inappropriate to be president, and here he's done it again.
5
Obama also has an intelligent sense of humour, even a sense of self irony, which Trump of course has not.
6
Thank you, Charles M. Blow. Another excellent opinion that tells it like it is. Clear, succinct, intelligent, informative and virtually every line quotable!
I am a fan!
3
I don't want to pick any fights, but it is becoming obvious that the New York Times in large part will not reference Benjamin Netanyahu as a contributing factor to Trump undermining the Iran deal. Just as it is true that we ignore Putin at our own peril, we ignore Bibi at our own peril.
5
“... but he also carries the flag for the millions of Americans — mostly all Republicans — who were reflexively repulsed by Obama...”
Please stop engaging in the mental backflips and literary contortion required to avoid naming the source of Trump’s and the Republican’s (and all those who support them) relentless campaign against anything even remotely connected to Obama. “Reflexively repulsed” is poorly disguised code for racism, plain and simple. I understand the journalistic need for balance, but by not labeling the source of this obviously personal vendetta against all things Obama, you are continuing to give them a pass. In the process, instead of engendering the balanced journalistic perspective you seek to take, you have become their tool: co-opted to the cause of communicating to the world that this is all normal (nothing to see here - move along, move along).
Don’t help them. Call them out. State the source of their positions - Racism and little else.
3
"There is a thing present in Obama and absent from Trump that no amount of money or power can alter: a sense of elegant intellectualism and taste."
I agree, and I liked Obama for that. I like Adlai Stevenson too, in retrospect, for the same reasons. I liked that in JFK, and still re-read his speeches. Lincoln too, and others from Washington and Jefferson on.
However, Blow needs to deal with the likelihood that Trump won in part because his voters liked that anti-intellectualism. In particular, they liked the contrast with Hillary's pretensions and arrogance, looking down on them.
There is a way to do it, and a way not to do it, and a way to not do it.
3
I think what they perceive as "pretensions and arrogance" are nothing more than a woman who knows what she's doing, and is smarter than they are.
14
The girl whose mother worked as a live in skiffy (house maid and nanny) from an early age ended up herself advocating for a level playing field, access to medical care for all, social justice, an end to poverty. HRC was always prepared, sweating the details, ready to go into dangerous places, make tough decisions. I don't find this arrogant or condescending. I find your remark chauvinistic and typical of males of a certain ILK and age.
Great. Ignorant voters wanted an ignorant president. White, fat, gross, creepy, hands all over the staff and ogling his own daughter. Good for them.
12
trump and melania will be forgotten soon . Just a transient nightmare .
They will leave behind no legacy , no good deeds , just a big empty hole .
Perhaps a huge , smelly , stinky swamp .
Thank you Barack and Michelle Obama , the most capable and inspiring First Couple in my lifetime.
18
Trump's father had to deal with a problem child. It was apparent that the sullen rebellious boy was not too bright. It was possible he had sired a loser.
He subjected the child to strong loveless discipline. He found it necessary to send him to military school. He taught him to survive by playing the angles, by lying, by ruthlessness. Love, friendship, respect; these things were not and never would be part of his world. He clawed his way up, his cunning somewhat compensating for lack of judgement.
He was by nature coarse and irritating. A social embarressment, he was at best tolerated by the Manhattan elites he sought to impress. No matter how hard he tried, no matter how successful his accomplishments he could not find acceptance.
So he went another way. He became a tyrant, the Leona Helmsley of the real estate world. He found refuge in authoritarianism and support from its masochistic followers.
We all know the rest. He's the president. He chats with world leaders, visits the Pope, threatens Queen Elisabeth with a state visit. His followers are legion.
But at three in the morning, all alone, he has to face the truth. His father was right. He is a loser
25
Exactly right, Mr. William Dawson of Texas. And so well said. Thanks.
5
All this Mr. Blow, and when he takes us into WW3 we will know he started it.
Fox will try to blame someone else, Iran, North Korea, Obama, Rex Tillerson, Jeff Sessions, even Hillary Clinton.
Afterwards if his crooked son-in-law doesn't broker peace, we will be sure to add crooked Kushner to the list. Like father, like father-in-law, like son.
7
The basket of deplorables lives and breathes. It consists of spiteful little donnie trump and his toadies.
10
We must make Trump a one term president. Come on, Democrats! Resist!!!
6
Best opinion I have read all year by far, thank you Charles Blow!
5
Hmm, Trump is Loki and Obama Thor?
He is the vandal in chief. Hillary warned us and his base of ignorant deplorables ignored it and has plunged us all into a decline that continues unabated. Thank you Mr. Blow for continuing to resist.
8
Charles, this is just more of what Congress has been doing since Obama was elected. I do however, take perverse pleasure in knowing it drives the moron crazy.
4
A racist bested by a black man. Sad.
6
Trump is desperate to score a win, and score a win against Obama.
He misses the fact that republicans could not repeal ACA because they do not have a better way to replace it. He wouldn't accept option of optimizing ACA because it would imply that Trump and republicans are conceding a win to Obama, who they all have desperately wanted to see fail. The health and welfare of people be damned.
Trump also refuses to accept that had Obama not lead the Iran deal, the world would have Iran crisis before he himself escalated North Korea crisis.
Trump can go to his own grave assured that he will never be able to upend Obama's legacy.
4
What's worse than an idiot in the White House?
A vindictive spiteful idiot.
13
Perhaps this is pure speculation, but it seems to me that liddle donny is terrified and furious, and he lacks the skills to deal with either of these emotions. He cherishes his own ignorance because he is terrified of facts he can't control. He cherishes both the role of bully and the role of victim, vacillating between these two poles seamlessly. Stuck in this adolescent hell, he draws like-damaged folk into his gang. His rallies are like therapy sessions for those who need to do some primal screaming, yet have no clue as to what might actually help them get past their rage and terror. News is labeled as fake not because it is untrue, but because it is unbearable, just like the grades printed on a report card. This is a child who cannot help but hate everyone because he hates himself. He and his followers are the perfect political storm.
This adolescent rage and fear seek any available targets. Authority figures are favorites. Obama is hated not only because he is black, but because he is an authority figure—even a father figure. And Hillary is the mother figure. (Wives are idealized mother figures who, of course, do not remain so and are cast aside.)
Now liddle donny has the big red button to push to kill everybody, even himself. And in his deranged mind this would be an acceptable deal; it would at least end the psychic pain of self-hatred. Better captain of his own ship, even if the ship is sailing off the edge of the world.
Time for an intervention.
9
It seems totally counter-intuitive that we could end up with Trump if Obama was really that good of a president. If Obama was so universally loved and viewed as being successful Hillary should have easily rode his coattails to the presidency in spite of Comey, Russia, etc. Blow's point about Obama/Trump being a case of class/classless is well taken. However, just because Trump is awful does not, by extension, make Obama great. Where is the thoughtful examination and discussion of how and why Obama's two terms were not carried on by a successor? Logic dictates that there was clearly something wrong. For the Democratic Party to move on and start winning again this issue needs to be discussed openly and candidly. Ignoring it will lead to more losses.
8
Based on all the data I have seen so far, I believe this has a lot more to do with Bernie Sanders voters distaste for Clinton than with Obama. Thier apathy and general sense of entitlement, as well as thier ability to be easily swayed by memes, social signalling, and manipulative clickbait articles, led us all directly into the Trumpian Nadir. And to this day, they have not been called out on it. Why? Probably because so many of them are us. Ideological purity produces blind spots, and in this case, that left lane swerve drove us all right into a Mac truck.
5
The people who voted for Obama in 2008 failed to turn out for the Democrats in the census year election of 2010, so the Democrats got gerrymandered into irrelevance. Democratic voters aren't worth running for.
1
Bernie appealed to much the same nihilism as Trump.
1
At some point, Congress will have to address drug prices.
4
No need. If Americans cannot afford to see a doctor they certainly cannot afford to buy the drugs that a doctor might have prescribed.
See how this works. For those who are able to get health inzurance, the cost of drugs will presumably rise higher as fewer people can afford to buy the product. So they too will shortly be priced out. Insulin or chemo. Not affordable to you? DC's solution is for us to suffer snd die.
It'sa vicious and yes- spiteful spiral that benefits no one except the bitter spiteful vulgarian.
2
Bottom line: Don't take President Trump's word on anything.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has a timeline tracking his actions of sabotaging Obamacare while rendering insurance markets unstable or reversing this nation's gains in health coverage.
His budget director says Trump won't support bipartisan work to fund the subsidies or other changes. As for blackmail, Trump is all for it.
This past weekend Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Trump claimed that a temporary deal could be struck on shoring up the insurance markets.
The budget director implied subsidies would be a bargaining chip in an eventual negotiation with Congress to either repeal Obamacare or fund that wall Trump salivates about. His narcissism is killing us.
https://www.cbpp.org/sabotage-watch-tracking-efforts-to-undermine-the-aca
8
The odds or four out of five that Trump is lying about anything.
2
We breathe, this man lies. He must have 5000 by now. I have to mute the TV. Makes you wonder about long term stress from him when after 9 months he's exhausting. There's a bit of solace when cable hosts interview Watergate prosecutors Nick Ackerman and Jill Wine-Banks on MSNBC---these two seem convinced he'll be indicted.
1
Trump did what he said he would do.
We, more or less, elected him.
"A nation gets the government it deserves"
2
Yes, Trump is obsessed with being Obama’s inferior - once his truncated reign is over I expect to see his “library” - a swamp with an outdated phone tossed into its rancid waters built somewhere in the shadows behind Obama’s welcoming structure.
17
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Mueller keeps grinding away. Tick tock, tick tock.
33
The biggest distinction between these two is obvious- the "good" one, one of "us", is the white guy.
But both were superior to the perceived humiliation of being led by a woman, who can never, ever be "us".
11
Huh ?
8
Spite's got nothing to do with it. The only way Trump can survive the investigations of him is for him to be able to put the country under martial law, where he can then do away with the investigations, and the only way he can do that is to put the country in enough peril to justify martial. All these seemingly spiteful and stupid actions on his part are designed to do exactly that. Think about it. If he can get Iran to decide to break their agreement and actively pursue nuclear weapons thereby threatening both Israel and us or if he can goad Kim Jong Un into doing something stupid that can be construed as a military action against us then Trump will have the excuse he needs. Remember, he has already tried to put the law enforcement structure of the entire nation under the control of the I.C.E. He has made attempts to get the voiting records of everyone in the country. He has appointed three high ranking and experienced generals in positions that are not necessarily military but can still be converted. And most of all he has 30 to 40 percent of the country solidly behind him no matter what he does.
16
An interesting scenario. However, it's predicated on 2 things you don't mention: a breakdown in domestic social order and the consensus of the military. Kelly knows that Donald is a moron at least as well as the Dept of State does. Although DJ's neo-Nazi legion is ready to provoke internal social disorder, it's not clear the country nor the Military will buy the excuse. Fracture of the USA is far more likely. At the very least, the entire West Coast, plus NY, New England, Florida, etc. will secede from the Drumpfen Reich, and their military installations can be loyal to the new States.
3
Yes, and the toothpaste is already out of the tube since Bob Corker A REPUBLCAN who once supported the MORON warned us all that this president can bring us into WW3.
Can't walk that back.
He can goad and threaten all he wants, I hope that the adults running the White House day care can talk to Iran and NK and reassure them this president is not to be taken seriously.
4
Mr. Blow, I notice that a very few of your readers suggest that you "spew your vitriol every week", but I would be concerned if you didn't release your view and opinion of this crazy story we're living through.
Because of the change to health care, I do believe we should only call it trumpcare. He owns it now.
Because of all the lies we deal with on a daily basis, I do believe the Republicans will eventually pay of supporting their 'Chieftain of Spite'.
Because there is freedom of the press, I do believe you are free to express what you know, what you understand, what you feel.
Thank you -
13
Pres. Obama was not perfect, but he always said he wasn't. The nation was so unnerved by the Bush / Cheney debacle, they beautified him before he had even taken office. But what president ever was "perfect"? Obama was, and still is, a thoughtful, intelligent man, who knew his limitations but still strove to make a more "perfect" union. Unfortunately, he made the mistake of thinking the Republican Party would have some members who would work with him. The saddest thing is, the demise of the opposition party didn't start with the fool Trump, but with the dispicale members of congress whose only agenda was to block him at every turn, tried to make him a one term president, and could barely hide their racist views behind the irrational ideas they promoted. Trump is a fool and a grifter, but grifters thrive because there are more of their ilk out there.
46
I don't think we need to worry about Trump being re-elected in 2020 - I doubt we'll be around to vote in 2020, maybe not even 2018. North Korea and Iran may see to that if Trump doesn't figure out that diplomacy not bluster will ease tensions.
4
I read these articulate columns, I forward them.
Is it possible a fraction of Trumpers are better organized than those who oppose his anger and stupidity? Where are the strong Democrats or is their strategy to wait and see?
3
@kat
The hubris and arrogance of the 'Trumpers' will do them in, in the long run. Defeating Trump (and his ilk) through the slower, but indefatigable process of law, procedure, and regular order, will reap rewards greater than simply the removal of an ill-considered administration. I think the Democratic leadership understands the importance to show, for the 2nd time in a generation, that the institutions of our great republic are stronger than the loudest idiot, and the occasional electoral mistake. For that is the contest we're engaged in right now; to prove the resilience of the republic through its institutions, rather than any grandstanding oppositional figure (as satisfying as that may be). My only concern is whether the judiciary (ie SCOTUS) is today composed of enough individuals willing to shoulder the burden of what is surely coming their way. They must understand that they cannot always 'leave politics to the politicians'. That would allow the asylum to be run by the inmates, and would be a true dereliction of duty to 'preserve & protect' the constitution from enemies of the republic, and the people it stands for (even if they've made a mistake).
2
A friend of mine said that Richard Nixon made Donald Trump look pale. In fact, Mr. Trump makes Joe McCarthy seem civilized and well educated.
21
It all hearkens back to the now-infamous 2011 White House Correspondents' Dinner, wherein Obama caused attendee Trump to become the object of ridicule and laughter. It was at that dinner that Trump's raison d'etre became the destruction of Obama's legacy, regardless of collateral damage. Trump's every decision, gesture, and action may be both predicted by and traced back to this seminal event.
22
@Mamie Troy
All this, basically, because Trump couldn't take a joke? Those psychologists marching in the streets the other day, to protest him, might be on to more than even we understand.
6
I know this, you know this, everybody knows this. Hopefully ALL have learned what a sub human trump really is.
I look at this picture and see two men. One is evil, the other personifies our human potential to evolve, to see all humans lead more decent lives, and to chase the stars above us. One aims low, the other aims high. We all know which one that is.
4
It goes even further back. Trumps rise was a result of his racist claim that Obama was not a citizen, which rallied the closeted racist America. Trump wants to erase Obama from the history books. Whether or not a policy was good or effective is irrelevant, the simple fact that a black mans name is on something is what motivates the Donald to oppose/remove it.
5
Western Europe's political leadership have reached the conclusion that Trump is a nothing burger of leader except he was placed in presidency by a bogus non democratic system called the electoral college. Trump is rude and abrasive with these leaders who Trump has nothing but contempt for. So stepping away from the international agreement over Iran's nuclear threat has raised their concern's even higher. Of course the US loses on all counts on this issue, except they have the firm gratitude of Sheldon Adelson. And with the sanctions happy Congress they have driven the Europeans into sympathy with the Russians. Obama was criticized for his less than rabid policy toward accusing Russia of creating a state of war with the US. But the relentless efforts of neo cons in the Democratic Party have placed the US in the ridicules situation of damning anything that Russia is involved in. The unbelievably lame attempt to show Russia's efforts to overthrow American Democracy and place a boob in the presidency have done nothing but create more public cynicism about the news media.
5
@c harris
There's no evidence I've seen yet that Europeans have 'sympathy with the Russians'. Certainly less so than our own Trump-tastic acolytes, who seem to care not a bit about foreign meddling in our affairs. Contrary to being 'criticized' for his 'less-than rabid' approach toward Russia, Obama took a lot of heat from some Europeans, at the time, for being TOO HARD on the Russians. I remember Merkel having to be 'brought on board' for the economic sanctions that the Obama administration wanted to slap on the Russians after the Crimean stealth occupation.
By the way, no one's accusing the Russians of efforts to "overthrow American Democracy"...but to instead interfere enough to confuse the public and MAKE THEM CYNICAL about the news media and their democracy. Your comment makes me feel like they're succeeding in that effort.
(Full disclosure: I'm European)
2
American ersatz democracy is obviously eminently hackable.
If Congress had appropriated the funds for the CSRs, Trump couldn't executive order them out of existence. This is Obama's fault.
2
Mr. Blow, I agree with everything you’ve written with the exception of one thing. Trump doesn’t have any original
ideas, good or bad. That would require intellect, consideration and creativity. I don’t think those are traits he values.
21
Trump is the end result of the intentional and aggressive dumbing down of the American public which commenced in 1980. What's the cure? Better public education and better educated citizens. How's that effort coming along, America?
25
I agree wholeheartedly. I noticed in the mid-seventies aid to education was being cut. I remember thinking quite clearly that there were elements in this country that wanted to put affordable higher education out of each for the middle class. What we are seeing is the end result of a dumb down population.
3
I agree wholeheartedly. I watched aid to education being cut, starting in the mid-1970s, and thought then that there were elements in this country that did not want an educated middle-class. What we are seeing is the end result of an easily manipulated dumbed-down population.
2
The US is hopelessly addled by the God delusion, and Trump now drives the chariot of Apocalypse, preaching fire and brimstone.
The Trump voter is still totally committed, loyal and watching Fox News daily.
When they are impacted by the destruction of the ACA, many if not all will believe what ever line they are fed by Fox News. They are as blind to Trumps flaws as they were to Obama's accomplishments and personal character.
29
I wish they were just blind. They are, in fact, racist and venal and they will cut off their own noses rather than cede any accomplishment to the black guy who had the temerity to move into their White House.
7
Interesting point...
But given that Fox News reaches only about 1.4 million of the approximately 141 million households in the nation, your statement lacks a certain degree degree of credibility.
I, for one, found Obamacare to be decidedly more extensive than my previous insurance...
Insurance that I WAS NOT ABLE TO KEEP, in spite of all of the solemn promise from the mouth of both candidate and President Obama.
6
They see Trump as a Christ figure, victimized as they are by smug educated elites defying the will of God.
1
You also forgot to mention Obama's wonderful sense of humour, sometimes self-deprecating, which Trump appears to completely lack, unless you count grade school insults of other people's appearance.
21
History will remember trump as the unelected president who almost destroyed democracy. His presidency will be nothing more than a stern warning of what happens when we don't use government to promote the greater good and a certain measure of fairness. He will be remembered as the guy who ushered in a new global order, undertaken to stop him and the racists who support him from destroying the world.
Obama on the other hand will be remembered as the president who reminded the world that racism, tribalism, and hate are never buried deeply enough. That we must always remain vigilant against those forces of evil so embodied by trump and his party.
16
Above all other factors, Obama's "progressive" policies elected Donald Trump, with his appealing promise to "drain the swamp." "Make America Great" had little impact except in the sense that draining the swamp might be seen as the means to that end. Obama's signature achievement--ACA--was enacted without a single vote from minority Republicans, very few people having read it, nobody understanding it, and Nancy Pelosi saying, “We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it — away from the fog of the controversy.” Even without Trump sabotaging it, Obamacare was and is a seriously flawed piece of legislation that the Democrats who enacted it admit is in need of fixing, although they are not willing to let Trump try to fix it.
Healthcare is about caring for one's own and other's health. Some of the words and terms that are synonyms or used in defining "care" include, feel concern, attach importance, heed, attentiveness, mindfulness, precision, accuracy, These are human qualities are seldom found in bureaucracies. Governments are good at taxing, waring and killing. It is ludicrous to expect governments to care about anything beyond its agents own welfare.
2
I cannot believe that you used the actual phrase (most people leave out the dependent clause) and still don't understand what it means. Turn off Fox and look it up.
As for the contributions of the Republicans, there were thousands. Again, do your research. Even after the Democrats stood on their heads to reach consensus, the GOP still refused to sign off on the black guy's health plan.
3
But so many other countries have governments that do care about their citizens and do it more effectively and more inexpensive than our country.
In our hemisphere alone Canada and Mexico have universal health care for all their citizens. Imagine this going on in countries smack dab against our borders. Further south, there's tiny Costa Rica doing the same. All in varying forms but doing it. Then cross the Atlantic and lo and behold Europe, all in varying ways helping health care needs for its citizens.
You need to travel more or read more.
4
How about you step.away from Fox long wnough to do your homework and not just parrot their WhiteWing talking points? Not what Pelosi ever said for starters. ACA sas on the floor for HOW LONG thru HOW MANY discussions and committees? Any one interested was free to read it. lf they cose not to--- that was their fault.
You all need to move on and stop this inane " Obamacare is evil because Pelosi" nonzense. Maybe take some time to find those it has HELPED and figure out how to BETTER it instead of spite the country for your orange cult leaders praise. PS--; He hates you too, he is equal opportunity scorn for both parties.
6
Just about anything can fall outside of the norms that run our society in an efficient and reasonable manner. Pragmatism, on its face, is just the ability to to be flexible on the means to a goal. In Trump's case, his pragmatism has become pathological. In order to win, nothing for Trump is solid or firm or held together by common and cherished values. Trump's documented business history shows a man without a moral center. Operating in the business world, one can get away with such amorality, mainly because it is tolerated and can also be hidden by subterfuge. In the light of day, Trump's inner darkness cannot be hidden. Eventually, his spin will fail to convince as the hollow man is revealed to all. I think most of us want a moral and decent person to run the country. Even if Trump scores a success here and there, I fear it will just leave a bitter taste in the American psyche.
6
Trump's "policy agenda" was developed the evening of the Washington correspondents when Obama took Trump apart and his issue with the NFL goes back to his failed effort to buy the Buffalo Bills - the owners did not want him in the club - its all about his petty vindicative personality!!
6
Trump's tax policy agenda will leave us with the reduced revenue left by Reagan and "W"; not enough revenue to maintain infrastructure, higher education grants, health care clinics and no mental health clinics. We will have to start again to build a civilized, socially responsible society. Trump has a Cabinet which sets his policies; he is not even a real spokesman, since he has to read from a teleprompter, or he gets confused and makes garbled statements. He is the perfect puppet; we need to know who each of the puppeteers are, and what they want.
Sadly I must agree. Trump is the hood ornament on a Republican filled clown car and it is almost impossible to believe we have fallen so far in such a short period of time. But we have. Obama brought a sense of leadership, human decency and and statesman like elegance to the office of the President. Agree with his policies or not, we could always rely upon him for a reasoned and well informed opinion. Obama was, if anything, understated and steady. He knew that the image he projected was how the world would see us. That projection included strength when needed, a deep and abiding concern for those that were suffering, a willingness to listen and, as a scholar, a passion for learning and understanding.
Trump revels in projecting the image of a blowhard, and in the audacity of his his ignorance and lack of poise. He mistakes impulsive tweeting for communication and uses vindictiveness as a substitute for leadership. He knows he'll always find a willing crowd of like minded, mean spirited, low information supporters to back him and he feeds that beast with regularity indifferent to the effect.
Yes, as a result of Trump we have fallen. There is no comparison between the two men. None. Trump cannot undo Obama's class and style with spite. In fact, as time passes, he will only make people appreciate Obama's tenure, as well as the man himself, more.
14
All of Trump's angst and ire can be traced to the Correspondents Dinner at which Obama teased Trump for his risible birther movement. Trump should count himself lucky that he wasn't sued for libel. Li'l Donny vowed revenge as he fumed, and he's been taking it ever since.
5
That Trump is as Trump has always been does not shock or surprise me. What shocks me is that a) the perfect storm of Russian manipulation, Comey’s proclamation, Clinton’s miscalculation and celebrity infatuation elected this rare specimen of vulgarity and b) that our political system has not had the will or mechanism to correct the worst mistake in American electoral history. Our American society soaks in this corrosive brine, rotting our very foundations. Yet our leaders in congress let it continue. Shame on them.
10
The nation and the world suffer as a sociopath searches for ways to avenge words spoken in jest that he, because of his personality disorder, could not laugh at.
History will not be kind to Donald Trump.
8
Mr. Blow gives an excellent account of all the things wrong with the abominable Trump, but now we need an action plan. How can we help to impeach this terrible man? He has the suppport of less than a third of the population--the least intelligent, the least honorable and the least patriotic among us!
5
The New Yorker magazine documented a 250M loan to Trump from Russian oligarchs in London to save him from bankruptcy. A recent loan of 95M was flown in to FL via a private jet to rescue Trump from FL real estate failures. Trump has no policies, or plans for how to improve infrastructure, health care, education et al. He is an empty Borax salesman, a useful idiot for those who put him into the WH.
2
Excellent, Charles. Please Mr. Mueller, rescue us from this nightmare of destruction and embarrassment.
8
trump will never ever measure up to President Obama. trump is not only intellectually challenged, but also has no empathy for anyone but himself. One could see the affection and respect between the Obama's. Mrs. trump slaps her husband's hand away when he reaches for hers. There are never any smiles or glances of respect or affection between the trumps.
I, for one, am thankful to have had President Obama for 8 years. I lament the electoral college's choice and can hardly wait for the trump nightmare to be over.
10
It goes without saying that Trump's war against healthcare for all Americans will shorten hundreds of thousands of lives and make millions more sick and miserable.
Making poor people suffer is what Republicans do.
However, the poor will be far from the only victims of Republicans' sadism:
Insurance is very a complicated business and insurance policies are infamously among the most misleading and complex contracts known to the law. Voters who believe Republican lies about ACA and "socialized medicine," are very unlikely to possess the intellectual wherewithal to make informed decisions about health insurance. These people are likely to opt for the least expensive policies, unaware that many or most of them will provide overpriced but worthless "substandard insurance."
These suckers will find that their health insurance will provide minimal coverage, maximum exclusions, have high deductibles and co-pays, and be arbitrarily withheld by morally compromised claims departments structured and staffed to disallow or at least delay payment of as many claims as possible.
In the years to come, it will be sad but interesting to watch millions - yes, millions - of Trump supporters discover that their health insurance is illusory, and they cannot afford medical care for themselves and their families.
At least this act of America's health care tragedy will have been self-inflicted.
6
I'd suggest that the sequence is the reverse of what Mr. Blow justifiably posits. It's not that Donald Trump must feel bad standing in the shadow of Barack Obama after having denigrated him. Rather, the denigration was always a (juvenile) response to the recognition, from the very first moment, that Barack Obama - this person whom Donald Trump had been bred to disdain even without knowing him - was monumentally his superior in every meaningful way.
Calling Donald Trump "the anti-Obama" suggests that he approaches the issues from a different angle. But there's no such framework, just the core drive toward self-aggrandizement and ego gratification. Maybe "the Obama bomb" would be more apt, for the mindless and one-dimensional way that he is trying to destroy everything associated with President Obama.
5
If any lesson is to be learnt here, it is this: on the next election, go vote ; no matter how long the voting line is, wait and vote.
8
I feel as though I've joined a science fiction story where the mean monsters rumble around chorusing "kill, kill." So far Trump and the GOP (in my mind the mean monsters) are baiting North Korea to attack us, are withholding health care from the needy, trying to make this country a white-only enclave for the very rich (am I, an older retired librarian, supposed to take up grape picking? It was hard enough when I was young), relaxing and negating laws that protect our air and food, and allowing gun and opioid manufacturers to run wild pushing their products on unsuspecting Americans. All of these policies have deadly consequences. It's as if some enemy state sent in a puppet leader bent on destroying our country - now who would do that?
8
“ Chafes at the black man who operated above the coarseness of commercial interests and whose character appeared unassailable”.
What Obama, as a black man embodied was an existential dagger into the heart of white supremacy .
That is the reason for the collective rage that led to Trump and the reason why fairly decent and otherwise reasonable people still refuse to admit that they made a mistake .
6
A Russian colleague said that "The only difference between you Americans and us Russians is that you THINK you are free." The assault being made on American democracy and its ideals is not new, but when coming from the highest official in the US government, it begs the question of why? What is the end game and why are ALL of Trumps colleagues and supporters so invested and enthralled with Russia a longstanding opponent of democracy? You presently have white Southerners who still long for racial separation, who are now admirers and supporters of Russia!!??
Democracy was earned, not given. Instead of being afraid and helpless we should be determined and resolute in defending democracy and our neighbor. We shall see how much America and Americans value their democracy.
3
Why is racism and hatred of Russians acceptable to you?
Charles M. Blow, thanks for writing this column. I knew some Americans hated Barack Obama, but really didn't realize the reason for it. Simply put, he's a better human being than his haters.
Faced with our betters, we can choose to either hate them or use them as role models for our own self-improvement. It's fairly obvious which choice Donald J. Trump and his supporters have made.
6
Trump proves that money can't buy class.
11
Spite, jealousy deliberately mal-constructive?
It appears so, though we both ought to hope such ugly reality ain't so.
Particularly because apparently some/many DJT voters had also voted for BHO.
This is America, and did I say we're a bit complicated.
We are certainly a complex nation.
For instance, re movie mogul's morally outrageous sleaziness.
His film is generally considered excellent art/craftsmanship.
Apparently, perhaps like genius Alfred Hitchcock, except times hundreds/worse.
2
Which brings up the question about the so-called impropriety of “reversing the will of the people” as expressed in an election. A destructive, ignorant president who governs out of spite, has not one positive policy or decent thing to say about anyone (except someone he happens to be using), is actually putting the nation at risk (in North Korea, Iran and with respect to climate change), and who was elected by a minority of equally spiteful and ignorant people does not deserve the respect or adherence to customary notions of fair play and civility. He needs to be removed by any means possible whether constitutional or unconstitutional and the deplorables (yes, they are deplorables) need to get over it before the country and everything in it and our quality of life is totally destroyed. These creeps are actually defunding Medicare. ($500 billion reduction in current proposal) What are people who depended on it being there their whole lives supposed to do? And when Nancy Pelosi says articles of impeachment are premature, she needs to go.
4
“Only I can fix all these huge terrible problems in the Country.” Trump throughout the 2016 campaign. What he left out was, “terrible problems that only I can see.”
He ran as a wanna be dictator and that is how he has acted from “Day 1”, the day coincidently he began shredding our Constitution.
"Republicans — including Trump — campaigned for years on a lie. They knew it was a lie, but it was an enraging one that excited their base: Obama was destroying America’s health care system, but Republicans could undo the damage and replace it with their own, better bill."
It was a REPUBLICAN plan to begin with.
Since congress has done the Nation a huge favor and not passed a single piece of meaningful legislation (meaning no repeal of anything Obama) when We the People replace the republicans in government with competent human beings the next president will be able to undo a lot of what the so called president has tried to undo himself.
And that is the basic test t rump fails when seen next to Obama's light; he does not measure up as a human being. There is no grace, no class, and the only real trace of humanity is that he shows everyone how bad a person can be. The sooner he and his crime family are housed in Leavenworth the better it is going to be for the Nation.
5
I agree with almost every word in this column. Still, Charles Blow has told us, for the umpteenth time that Donald Trump is a bad guy, unfit to be president. We know that already. I would like to see Mr. Blow, or some prominent Democratic or progressive politician do something about it. That is, while I am alarmed by Trump and the Republican Party, I am dismayed by the dysfunction and disorganization of the Democratic Party, which has not gotten its act together to offer a credible and inspriring alternative. I seem to recall that Charles Blow spent all of 2016 championing Hillary Clinton, whose unpopularity and lackluster campaign helped deliver our country into the clutches of Donald Trump. So, while I agree with Charles Blow that Trump is a disaster, I don't place a great deal of stock in Mr. Blow's political perspicacity.
1
Trump seems driven by narcissism, and his spiteful vengeance must be viewed through that prisim. Therefore, there is no long term strategy. Narcissist are two busy constantly feeding their megalomania. Immediate gratification (narcissistic supply) is the goal.
With no ability to see anyone else’s point of view, no ability to foresee consequences, their actions wreak chaos.
Me. Blow’s description of Trump telling a lie and then bending reality to support that lie and himself, generates chaos.
Trump’s goading of a foreign dictator with a nuclear arsenal merely to feed his megalomania for the moment, with not an iota of understanding the consequences of his actions, is wreaking world wide chaos.
Those Trump supporters that Mr. Blow referenced as so fearing the loss of white skin privilege that they would support someone so demonstratively unfit to be president, have a real problem on their hands.
It appears to be true that Trump’s obsessive hate red of President Obama, whose very existence threatens his megalomania, has driven him to eviserate Obama Care with no idea of the consequences.
One wonders how his die-hard supporters will accept and justify the chaos that will befall many of them when they realize he has deprived them of the health care they so desperately need.
5
Thank you for being persistent in these columns, Mr. Blow. This is so true: President Obama indeed provided "a sense of elegant intellectualism and taste." I wear two buttons on my hat: a thank you one to President Obama and another that shows just how much I could be considered delusional: that he remains my President.
11
Trump’s obsession with tearing down Obama’s legacy was at first unseemly, and now just deeply troubling. I understand the weight of the word that comes to mind, and I would usually never use it unless it was happening in fact, but what this looks like is less a principled attack on previous policy, and more like a public political lynching.
9
Unfortunately, "elegant intellectualism" is precisely the thing Middle America ("flyover America") is being taught to revile. "Intellectualism" is linked with belief in climate change, evolution, reproductive rights, pan-gender equality, and globalism. Just like Trump, you're reaching your base and no one beyond. Charles, I read you religiously and agree with everything you say about this dangerous man. You have ensured his loathfulness is fully documented. But in political arguments you must focus on the affronts to the well-being of the people, not on the qualities of the man, particularly in comparison with his predecessor. What you characterize as vices are seen by many as his virtues. You must separate the personality from the policies. Your arguments will reach a much greater audience.
8
As a born and bred Chicagoan for 40 years, I must correct you on this tired, incorrect idea of Middle America/Flyover America "being taught to revile...belief in climate change, evolution, reproductive rights, pan-gender equality and globalism."
Nonsense. You must travel to places like Chicago and Minneapolis some time so you can be enlightened.
1
Thank you, Charles Blow, for yet another wonderfully astute summary of the hollowed-out being so devoutly devoted to dooming to perdition our country and the rest of the world. You've added a new twist to the idea that The Emperor No Clothes: our would-be Emperor Has No Nose. He has cut it off to spite his face, in a sustained fit of envy of and bottomless rage at someone he is deeply committed to seeing as his inferior.
11
Trump doesn't work for us. He works for Vladimir Putin, and his performance reviews should reflect that. In terms of doing to us what Putin wants done to us, Trump has a nearly perfect score, so far. His one failure was allowing Congress to hand-cuff him on lifting the Russia sanctions. But I'm sure he will find a way around that.
8
Why is Russophobia more moral than racism?
2
I assume this is tongue-in-cheek, right? Otherwise, you cannot be serious.
Racism is not "moral". Russophobia stems from the fact that Putin has begun to take land he believes belongs to Russia; he has supported anti-democratic election processes in Eastern Europe. In fact, Putin is a destructive Russian plutocrat; Trump might be a plutocrat, but our system of checks and balances will not allow him to destroy our government, and treaties signed with our allies. Tillerson might be best friends with Putin; however, Tillerson is also limited in what he can do at the State Dept., with the exception of leaving numerous important positions unfilled. So, we do not have representation in many embassies and consulates.
1
To watch the Grand Old Party of Lincoln willingly shrink itself to fit the smallness of Trump is frightening.
It's abundantly clear that most Republicans are more than willing to save their party over Lincoln's country. One thing is certain Lincoln will forever remain the hero who saved the U.S.A. in the history books. While the GOP will end up in the dust bin if the 'powers that be' don't summon the moral courage to save the country one more time.
7
Reading this insightful article, I almost, just almost, feel sorry for President Trump. If he is truly as intelligent as he alleges and if he allows himself to face the truth, he knows he is the antithesis of Obama in every way imaginable. This may be what keeps him up at night.
6
One day, we will prevail and kick the Moron-in -Chief to the curb.
33
Add one more Trump deficiency: his incredible determination to avoid anything new - exhibited his first week in office when he dispensed with the daily briefings for the president. Why bother with the same stuff every day.
So our president gets his info from TV - not as fresh or as complete or, sometimes, as accurate, but colorful. Choosing and often distorting to fit what he likes, he then informs America - or at least his base - of what he wants them to believe.
2
In its imperial decline, America has replaced Marcus Aurelius with Caligula.
27
Chieftain of Spite? I wonder what title Mr. Blow reserves for himself after spending the past two plus years spewing his vitriol every week...
7
You mean like accusing someone of being a racist when they point out that racism exists?
6
No,not spewing vitriol,stating all truths. Open your mind.
6
What label does Mr. Blow chose for himself?
"Victim"
And he demonstrates his commitment to that concept with each piece he writes.
One has to wonder why he doesn't become more active in his approach to resolving his "victim" status...Or does he secretly enjoy it because of the leverage he perceives he can get?
To this reader, he's nothing but a bitter charlatan who in more interested in his anger than he is addressing substantive issues in a constructive fashion.
1
Mr. Blow, you clearly have more integrity than I.
My summary of this administration's legacy is "Vengeance for eight years of a black man in the White House."
Overdone generality? Certainly. Useful, nonetheless? I hope so.
Regards,
JV
18
Even Donald J. Trump will not last forever (even if he thinks so). The mind-set of those White Americans who voted for him is a different matter. And that is America's historical image that dates to our founding: slaughter the Natives; seize their land; embrace slavery; "might-makes-right"; anti-gay, anti-transgender, any-religion-so-long-as-it's-Christian. Individually and together, all of such thinking and belief poisons any hope for our, and the world's, future.
("And don't you dare take away my 10,583 guns!")
28
"...any religion so as it's Christian..."
To add: "and our version of Christian as well."
2
If Americans are such awful people, why did your ancestors move here? If Americans are such awful people, why did the pure enlightened Europeans allow American soldiers on their continent in the 1940's and why did they accept money via the Marshall Plan? Why haven't they returned any of that money?
2
Your first sentence in attempted rejoinder is non sequitur; I. e., to the extent any "Americans are such awful people" TODAY has nothing to do, for example, with fleeing the potato famine foisted on the Irish by the British crown. As to any extent "enlightened Europeans" were gifted "money" proves the crimes against humanity being committed today on our own Puerto Rican who are United States citizens by Trump's concept of paper-towel aid. Just for starters . . .
Charles Blow is brilliant!
16
One more Mr Blow, President Trump never smiles
24
I'm feeling an early morning tweet about "the failing" NYT's.
7
Trump is a classic narcissist. He is tormented by his envy of those who expose his small minded, petulant, impulsive and incompetently framed version of the Presidency of the United States of America. Trump has none of the grace, competence, tact, compassion, depth of knowledge nor the intellectual skills to conduct himself as an adult and as president. His childish and petulant tweets disgrace him and demean the office of the presidency. He degrades and exploits women, functions as a racist and manipulates those who have voted him into office believing his huckster/fraudulent promises of making America great again. He should feel ashamed and reform his mean spirited conduct as though a street thug and bully but he cannot and never will be a man of grace and stature and consequence. He is a failure and a hater and a vengeful man who will never matter as does Obama and that recognition and the profound envy it stirs will motivate Trump to destroy the world that will never adore him no matter what fraudulent promises he makes nor what lies he tweets. He is an abject failure and fraud and will NEVER change or matter as a decent human being.
32
Trump spite is not political. He is not anti-Obama because Obama is a democrat, he is anti-Obama because he is a racist. It's that simple. It's that sad. It's that disgraceful.
45
Seems more racist than anything else. Trump was a Democrat before Obama became President. As far as I know, he didn't seem to have a problem with the Clintons until he ran against Hillary.
4
Welcome to Trumpcare..its chapter eleven of Obamacare..
3
We have lots of morons in this country. Six million of them thought the best use of their vote last November was to throw it away on some hopeless, publicity seeking third party "candidate" rather than keep an obvious liar and dangerous fraud from ultimate national and global power.
Morons surround us, Charles.
22
Let's just cut to the chase: Obama was an intelligent and a world class gentleman, Trump on the other hand is a rich, incompetent, village idiot. And time and money won't change the arc of their legacy.
35
I think this is your best column ever, Mr. Blow. Too bad for America you had to write it.
24
Amazing how childishly envious Donald Trump is!
10
We wake today, 6 October 2017, wondering what our lying, unfit, ignorant misogynistic 45th president has in store for the American people. His demented spiteful agenda aginst anything and everything President Barack Obama stood for and championed for 8 years, is wreaking chaos on the American people day by day. Dear Charles Blow - Instead of continuing to limn chapter and verse of Donald Trump`s egregiously horrific presidency and administration from here to eternity, can you please give us a recipe for cooking Trump`s goose? For eliminating him from our presidency and his 4 White Houses (NYC, NJ, FL and Washington, D.C.) ? We can`t continue ruminating the plagues of Donald Trump and his 7 dwarves cabinet, like casual American cud-chewing cows. We wonder if this will be the week that was.
11
A White House with Pepe the Frog in charge, greased into power by Ayatollah Hannity, Vlad the Impaler, and OilCan Pruitt. The only issue is which of the previously named 3 pulls his strings, at which hour of the day.
11
Hannity and Pruitt don't have blackmail material.
Thank you again, Mr. Blow. I'm sure that the Donald finds your columns deeply distressing. The Destroyer-in-Chief and tiny, spiteful man toddler must be fuming. Good!
But what worries me is that, although some people who voted for him see their error in judgment, others support him because they are racist, sexist, one-issue voters who don't think that their choice of POTUS will have that much of an effect on us. It already has. First, we were fooled by ginned-up intelligence about "weapons of mass destruction" that led to war in Iraq when the enemy was in Afghanistan under the Bush administration. Then President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton repaired much of the damage to our international reputation done by the Bush administration and reassured our allies. Now we are the laughingstock of nations because "we" elected a moron as president who is NOT building a legacy but destroying what he can't understand. When will we come to our senses as a nation and impeach him? Not as long as we have Republicans in Congress who put their own personal profit above their sense of decency and our welfare. Get out the vote. Apparently we are going to have to remove at least some of those Republicans from office in order to remove this imposter.
14
Impeach and remove. Two separate actions needed to kick trump out.
3
Trump represents a segment of the population who thinks everyone is jealous of each other because that segment runs on jealousy. Reason doesn't matter.
Trump is jealous of Obama so he proceeds to stand on Obama in order to lift himself up. And he does pathetic acts like going to Moscow and defiling the bed the Obamas slept in, if you take the MI6 report at face value. Or robbing 20+ millions of Americans of their "Obamacare."
We can only hope that when Special Counsel Robert Mueller sends down the indictments for Russian collusion to steal the 2016 election, money-laundering, treason and conflict of interest, he is nowhere near the nuclear "football." And that Mueller's team has the element of surprise, plus a straight jacket and muzzle at the ready,
9
"Trump Said ‘Despicable’ Racist Comments About Blacks, Jews in Taped ‘Apprentice’ Meetings, Claims Former Producer"
http://www.newsweek.com/trump-racist-apprentice-tape-sexist-claims-produ...
It must be humiliating for racist-to-the-core Donald Trump to live in the same White House where President Obama who radiated goodness was appreciated by the majority of Americans and know how much this same Donald Trump is despised for pretending to be president.
9
Heinz Kohut's "Thoughts on Narcissism and Narcissistic Rage" is highly recommended reading.
3
Donald Trump, Steve Bannon, Harvey Weinstein, Trumpette colluders. Until Americans take effective action by acknowledging the generations of powerful people in USA (including women) who have obvious pathological personalities and refuse to enable them, same ole same ole. Pathological personalities in power positions has snowballed along with the unbridled greed anywhere there is money and selfishness to grab.
Trump redefines the insulting phrase "white trash" to mean poverty of empathy not money.
3
Bill Clinton abused women and you gave him a pass
Not everyone was as enthralled of Barack Obama as Mr. Blow and the New York Times. He was not some god just a normal human being that was elected president. Many of us were glad when his presidency had ended as he was too progressive for our country. He promoted a liberal agenda that was not appreciated by all.
5
UN,
I am a Bostonian born and bred Republican conservative woman. I am here to stay and I love America. I just hate what the liberals have done to it which is the reason for the Trump victory.
2
Trump--uncannily--don't you get it?--is attempting to undermine the (to some) frightening thought that non-whites can be smarter, more elegant, more intelligent, more progressive, and better than--ahem--whites. Of course he's putting a tiki torch (are tiki torches even from the United States?) to Obama's legacy! He's attempting to stem the flood. Amerika is dying! Before long non-whites will be in executive positions in industry and government and who knows elsewhere and he'll have to invite them to Mar-a-Lago, where their ambitions might infect the non-whites he has on staff. Not only that--so few of them play golf. You just don't understand! Amerika is dying! Before long they'll be filling up all the apartment houses and it's just not as easy to make money off evictions as it used to be. Don't you understand?
2
We spell it America here.
1
Danged spellcheck. The alt-right far too typically spell it Amerika.
1
Ah, the wondrous St. Barry.
Tell us again what a great job he did in North Korea? Libya? Russia? His Iran deal straight from the Neville Chamberlain play book.
And how did economic equality do under his Holiness? The national debt? Black unemployment? Race relations?
Quite a legacy our smooth talking "elegant intellectual" President dumped on the American people.
4
It was Obama's job to not make matters worse. He failed.
And nice attempt to ignore the questions about Obama's multiple foreign policy failures.
Your pal;
Mookie
Brown University
1
Trump's presidency is like "Yakety Sax" playing after having the entire Miles Davis catalog on shuffle for eight years.
5
Everyone he ever worked with who did not sign a "gag order" in advance says this exact thing about the thin skinned short fingered vulgarian. He is petty, stupid, laze and above all vindictive. He holds grudges forever and goes to any length for revenge, like a bitter and more mentally deranged Captain Ahab.
Let's give Trump a crown: tall, pointed dunce hat.
8
Even when his base support start to literally die off in droves they will find excuses for this man and his deeds. Idiots are often stubborn and won't admit they are wrong .
It's like covering them in gas while they light a match and you tell them it's dangerous, they blame the match, the gas but not the combination brought together by their own stupidity.
meanwhile the world looks on in amusement and bemusement in equal measure.
Mr. Blow: One of your better articles.
I would just like to add that trump is always spouting false facts which is exactly what he accuses the media of doing.
1
Being anti-Obama accomplishes Trump's two major goals: It's a smack-down of New York elites, whose respect he has always wanted and will never get; and it dog-whistles to the white-supremacist base he counts on to inflate the fragile balloon of his ego.
2
Trump is a fake president, elected in a hacked election, who has no governmental experience, lacks respect for women, compassion for none, with malice toward all including members of his own staff, cabinet, and party. He's a narcissistic bully, amoral, condescending, self centered liar. His political mentor was Roy Cohn, protege of Joe McCarthy.
When will someone in the once Grand Old Party will have the guts to say:
"You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?"
5
Trump has hated Obama at least since Obama proved that Trump was lying when he claimed to have evidence that Obama was born outside the USA. At the 2011 White House correspondents dinner (2011) both Obama hundreds of journalists laughed at Trump, who was present at the dinner.
Today, Trump’s agenda revolves around getting even with everyone present that night.
Youtube video: v=HHckZCxdRkA
1
All but the brain dead or those so fixated by partisanship as to lose all freedom of thought know that the incumbent is an unqualified nasty egomaniac with a racist streak. Truth be told the latter part of his personality profile thrills a significant sector within his base who can openly flaunt views previously constrained by a type of civic and societal propriety.
Like same-sex attraction, what was once previously forced into the shadows is proudly proclaimed in the light of day (particularly on the GOP local and party functionary level). White nationalism, and self-pity without the torches and the Nazi regalia. If Trump was actually a policy and details guy (instead of a "moron", per his own Cabinet member) the obsessive need to undo everything accomplished or attempted by Obama might be explained away. But as a "moron", we can deduce real motivation, and it's ugly.
That said, for all his quiet dignity (which, even congressional Dems found cold or a bit haughty) Mr. Obama's legacy is not without speed bumps, questionable assertions on health care reform, and dreams unfulfilled. Policy decisions on Libya, Syria, North Korea, and Brexit (was it his place to intervene in the UK referendum?) will be debated by historians.
1
45 is a vile, odious, small-minded meanie: I won't use the term human being since he shows no signs of being one.
4
He is a weak, tiny, spiteful little man even in his aspiration, which is not to do something great for the country but simply to tear down what someone else did.
How much smaller can you get than this bitter, tiny-minded project?
5
Charles, I love you!
2
Trump is a white supremacist and so are most of his followers .But DT doesn't care that he is a white supremacist nor do his followers. President Obama is BLACK and Trump and his followers think blacks are losers. Why? Because they're supreme- they are WHITE and racist and don't even MIND being called a racist. Whites always win in the mind of these racists and even though President Obama is a great president these racists will continue to try and humiliate President Obama by obliterating his legacy. Civil War 2 has begun. I'm not running away. I'm here to fight to my dying day for the principles our country was founded on. Resist. Enlist. Persist. Trump is never- ever my president. President Hillary Clinton is.
2
President Obama has more class in his pinky finger than Trump has in his whole body!!!!!!!!
4
Only two words to describe Trump's actions in undoing everything Obama Administrationachieved: The Wrecking Ball
3
Too many Americans share Trump's rage against Obama - they think black people should be on welfare, not devising a success policy to provide them with healthcare.
6
Yes! And they want people of color beholden to them for basic livelihood. It’s a pathetic position from weak people.
2
At first I thought it was coincidental. Now I really believe Donnie John only governs to undo what Prez Obama accomplished. Someone needs to plant a bad idea in his head that Barrack supported. See if he fixes it.
6
It's only infuriating to be overshadowed by another if one is able to recognize his own mediocrity and that the vision he holds of himself does not match the reality. Trump is totally clueless and his narcissism will never allow for such introspection. His certitude of his greatness is that of a sociopath. Of course, his supporters contribute to this. It is not surprising nor hard to believe that this vindictive nobody, and that is all he is, and he knows it deep within himself, should be envious of Obama and all those who recognize and know themselves in all their frailties as well as their strengths. It is interesting that this husk of nothing is caught on record bragging about preying on women and yet is rewarded with the presidency. Everyone, everyone, knows what Trump is but that some continue to support him only gives him license to do as he has always done. It takes courage often to do the right thing especially if alone. But no one is alone in their knowledge of Trump. From their silence, I can only conclude that they, as is Trump, are cowardly, indifferent or totally devoid of a moral compass.
5
Charles M. Blow has hit the mark once again.
Like Macbeth, we witness one so incensed with malice that he is reckless with what he does to spite the world.
Our errors in judgment elected him. So, what's done is done.
6
Indeed since I travel a lot, I can testify that our standing abroad is back to Vietnam era. But the Twhater is chief could well be re-elected if the propaganda machine of FakesNews and friends gets even bigger. Check PBS New Hour of 11/10 about Sinclair broadcasting! Hate and spite are working in trump's America.
3
“Trump can’t hold a candle to Obama, so he’s taking a tiki torch to Obama’s legacy.”
The image of the racists wielding TIKI torches came to mind, not those in the street, but those in the halls of power.
2
Charles Blow is spot on in his analysis of Trump’s obsession with Obama. Trump’s nercissisism can’t handle the fact that a black man is more intelligent, more polished, more dignified, and most importantly more loved than him.
5
President Obama's actions during his two terms as president became the driving force, the locamotive that is driving this economy. Donald Trump was in the right place at the right time, thus the beneficiary of President Obama's strategies to right our ship after George Bush brought our economy to its knees. For starters, after 8 years Bush had a negative 500,000 jobs created, while Obama's 8 year job creation numbers approached 15 million. Check it out:
ourfuture.org
Bush vs. Obama on the Economy, In Three Simple Charts
by Bill Scher
December 8, 2014
4
Here's a useful psychological tool:
If you cannot understand why a person is doing something, look at the consequences of their action and infer from that their motivation. So, if the consequences of their action is chaos and mass suffering then their motivation is to cause chaos and mass suffering. No need to look any further.
4
There isn’t going to be a moment when Trump becomes “Presidential” - he simply doesn’t know how. He’s always seen that no matter how much money and fame he has, he will never be accepted into the upper echelons of society. I’m not opposed to the general idea of shaking up Washington with an outsider POTUS, but for God’s sake at least we could have found someone with the brains and the humility to learn the job and try to do it well. You may not have agreed with the Obamas’ politics, but they were intelligent, gracious, thoughtful, and well-mannered adults. Trump is the reddened, pouty face of all the Republicans who for almost nine years stamped their Congressional feet and yelled, “Don’t wanna! Can’t make me!” when confronted with doing their job.
4
Every single turn of phrase, every graphic demonstration in Mr. Blows article are two things at once, first they..all of them, are true and second they won't play in Hillsboro, OH..or Grinders Switch (Centerville) TN.
We here in America, as often as not, we view our politicians "in the moment". And we say things like, "..and did you hear his speech?' or perhaps, " ..you know he seems like a really nice guy". Now as if a stone fell from the sky..we are asked to pay attention..to actually do research and inform ourselves. But, at the same time we have become afraid to share our views in person with others in open forum. We have been enabled, to use our darker angels to attack others, perhaps believing that our snarky comments add real substance to the issues we face, but this ability does not promote the one thing we need most..a true examination of what we're faced with sans the background noise.
Moving on, for a moment though. I normally recoil at the mere thought of being a one issue voter. But specific to the upcoming Senate seat election in AL. (for those in the affected districts) the only issue should be Moores obvious attempt to lead a crusade aimed at the beginnings of a theocratic government. This single issue alone should over ride ALL others.
3
Americans are paying a heavy price for President Trump's insane obsession with former president Obama. trump, a white supremacist who spends his time with his fellow haters at Liberty University, and who is in no way a Christian but actually a sexual predator, is our president!
How did this happen and why hasn't the Republican Party removed him?. Is the whole party comprised of white supremacists. Let's see there is McConnell, Ryan, Sessions etc. all them evil and stupidly fearful of minority groups that cannot compete with whites by a long shot. Yet Vultures of a feather flock together.
5
That "thing present in Obama and absent from Trump" is called humanity.
5
It's important to always remember that Trump was the leading cheerleader of the racist birther movement. That's how he entered politics. As a racist who lied that he sent investigators to Hawaii and repeated his lies and innuendo almost daily on Fox News. This is what over 60 million Americans voted for: a spiteful racist sexual predator with no vision and no moral compass.
5
While Obama was erudite, Trump is ignorant. Obama was civil, Trump is churlish. Obama was tactful, Trump is tacky.
THAT says it all...
7
How would author know what President's obsessions are, since he has never mt, nor interviewed him nor to my knowledge his supporters. No one has a monopoly on deceit, as recent prevarications on ACA:If you like your doctor you keep your doctor," demonstrate. Pelosi was quick to exempt a hundred employers, including many restaurateurs, in her C.D.from having to offer it to their employees. Randi Weingartner. former UFT head, declared her support, but did an about face and obtained a Cadillac plan for members.O proved his word could not be trusted in international affairs when he failed to follow through on red line ultimatum to Assad.. Despite his alleged admiration of Islam, O never learned a word of Arabic or Farsi, which would have helped him to understand the regional cultures and their leaders whom he had to deal with.If ACA was so beneficial, so well designed, why do we read of subscribers dropping out, unable to afford it?Is author enrolled in ACA?Hard for Alexander Harrison to get past the censors at EB if one bruises sensibilities of columnists or takes a position contrary to established "ligne de conduite," that is to say, is an advocate of the President! Nothing typifies more the unctuousness of majority of commenters than the person who began by writing,"0f course I agree with you Paul,"apparent reference to Paul Krugman.Reminded me of Mr. Bruni's article, necessary differences being observed, about "slobbering!"
1
Obama is charming, smart, considerate, funny, loved and admired worldwide. On the other hand Trump is an ignorant blowhard. A latte-day Mussolini with an incredible inferiority complex. No amount of money can transform this clown into a respectable human. He has given up on humanity and is hard set on destroying the world. How anyone cannot see this tortured shell of a person is beyond my comprehension.
5
Where is he going to hide his children from nuclear war?
1
Trump's psychopathic absence of empathy enables his readiness to let the poor die.
In the US and most other parts of the world, experts perform detailed analyses of Trump's dysfunctional behavior.
In Australia life is less complicated, we just believe he is a true idiot and we get on with life.
6
What exactly is "elegant intellectualism"? It's observations like these that drive people away from the Democrats. I voted twice for Obama and also for Hillary Clinton and, in fact, have always voted for Democrats in my 65 years but recoil when fellow Democrats like Mr. Blow resort to smugness and "I'm smarter than you" rhetoric.
4
Tom—that intellect Charles references is what is lacking in most Trump supporters. Why are you inflamed that President Obama is remembered accurately this way? I suspect it makes you feel inferior. A solution—broaden your own intellect and be inspired by such things rather than threatened by them.
Broadening one's intellect has nothing to do with broadcasting it.
I moved from a blue state and now live in a red state. I live in a community of mostly republicans who voted for Donald Trump and truly think he is doing a good job. These very same people call themselves Christians and think Donald Trump is going to help America become America again.
Everyday I wake up and wish I were back in my blue state where there are people who are like me, a Democrat and a Liberal.
4
Mr. Blow,
I agree with every single word and sentiment that you have expressed in your essay. President Obama was eloquent, erudite, measured, decent, and moral. He was the exact person that America needed to represent our country to the world. Trump is a charlatan and hoax.
My concern is that Trump has become an obsession and distraction for both his supporters and detractors. We need to reckon with the "substance" of our reality and not just the "image."
The appraisal process of "image over substance" holds true for both Trump and Obama. As I said, I agree with every word of your essay, but it falls short.
During the two terms of Mr. Obama's Presidency the Democrats endured devastating electoral losses in virtually every level of government in America. Not only were the "branches" of the federal government surrendered in defeat, but the "limbs and twigs" of state and local government were seized by the Republicans. There needs to be a reckoning of how this happened, and the answer is not simply magical gerrymandering. There were some enormous FAILURES after 2010.
Seriously, how did America turn away from decency and civility to our current "Howard Stern" presidency? How did the hopeful votes cast for President Obama in 2008 sour into the cynicism of votes for Trump?
5
Trump blames the Democrats for health insurance companies making record profits off CSR payments. By using his logic single payer is the only answer as the government isn't out to make a profit.
1
The simple psychology of an insecure man who lacks all complexity is that whatever he accuses another of he is himself guilty of, whatever he claims is true is actually false. And as we always suspected, as with Charlie Sheen's pathetic boast of "winning!", Don the Con is in fact losing, and it torments him every day. Only the shallow loser is quite so mean-spirited and resentful.
2
No matter what we say or do in the light of day each and every one of us has to turn the lights out and close our eyes each night. In the quiet at one in the morning even trump knows who and what he is. Who he is and always has been..a morally and ethically bankrupt loser. Sad, but true.
3
Trump hates anyone and everything that does not glorify him.
2
Nothing could be more obvious than the chieftain of spite's totally ignoring the devastating fires in California. He has never been the president of all of us, he is only the president of self aggrandizement and the deplorables that are his base.
2
Mr. Blow, the driving force of the president's malice and resentment towards Barack Obama is centered on just one fact. Obama was black and that's the beginning and the end of this story. Personal differences and style aside, Obama is a convenient target for the president hatred, the fires of which are stoked at every opportunity by the Republican party and Fox News and encouraged by his base. The president would have been just as acrimonious towards Martin Luther King if he had been his immediate predecessor in the Oval Office. Obama is everything that this president would love to be and can never be and the 45th despises the 44th all the more because of the ridiculous comparison. The current president will never see the day when he can even begin to measure up to Obama in any way. A presidential prince has been replaced by a monstrous troll. The president is galled by the obvious truth that a black man is better than he is. That's what's really stuck in his craw.
6
After eight years of Reason, Intelligence, Prudence and Grace, personified by President Obama and his lovely family, their exemplary inspiring ethical behavior, and moral values, we are now witnessing the most putrid, base, corrupt, Presidency and the most rotten First family. It is dishearthening that our Democracy is ruined in the mean time and our Constitution is trampled upon by corrupt politicians who are all as dishonorable as Trump and family. “What a terrible era in which idiots govern the blind.”
4
"chafes at the black man who operated above the coarseness of commercial interests and whose character appeared unassailable "
Why bring race into it ? Obama was what he was not because he was the first black President . It was his intellectual capabilities. The fact that he is black is totally irrelevant.
1
What's taking Robert Mueller so long?
3
Another yawner by Blow, I see. When do you start pursuing solutions, Mr. Blow. The problem is evident to all thinking people; we need more than just "your take."
1
Well written and objective with no bias of reality
Charles, you are right as usual. Oh, how I miss the man. The grace, the gentility, the class, the exemplary family, the prestige and world popularity Obama brought to the presidency. Now we have a bully, a braggart, a liar and a mentally unstable nincompoop who has made America the laughingstock of the world. Shame on us for putting up with him.
4
Thanks for reminding us of Barack Obama, Charles. It helps. Little else does.
1
Thank you, Mister Blow, for once again pointing out the fact that the only thing which drives this odious cretin in making policy is his racist disdain for President Obama. Trump's racism runs deep. It goes back to the lessons he learned from Daddy Fred. They did everything in their power to prevent Blacks from "infesting" their buildings. Anyone today who says Trump has no history of Bigotry is deluding themselves. Trump's Klan has only cared about one thing: how much wealth one has accumulated. That was and is their sole measurement of success. The Bling, the Sweet Smell of Success. The Trumps reek from it, and the stench their family leaves in the White House will take eons to remove.
DD
Manhattan
2
Jealousy is a terrible affliction. When you have no talent, grace or manners and the man who preceded you has all of those attributes and more, what can a first class loser do, but try and undo everything his object of jealousy has accomplished. The nasty ignorance, the pure hate that exudes from this little unaccomplished man is hard to watch. He doesn't mind, in fact looks for ways to hurt people just to prove his nonexistent greatness. Mr. Obama had more dignity in his little finger than Trump has in his bloated body. Those with eye can see it, those with hate in their racist little hearts can only follow him to their own deserved demise.
1
Mr. Blow, you have over the past months apparently given up any attempt at objectivity in your commentary. Sadly, the same can be said of your fellow NYT columnist Paul Krugmam. I used to enjoy ready your columns even if I didn’t necessarily agree with your conclusions. Now, however, they have become a continuing negative screed of “Trump bad, Obama good.”
As I assume you are a Democrat, it might be well if you focused some energy on what your party can do to regain power. Clearly, the Democrats could have defeated Mr. Trump with just about any candidate except Ms. Clinton, so why didn’t they nominate someone else? Best reflect on this as the next election is little more than a year way.
2
Your assessment of Trump as an ignorant jerk is of course correct, but I would like to see more digital "ink" on ways Democrats can frustrate his spiteful efforts. Just sayin'. . . .
Yes, Trump is the anti-Obama, not because he had to be but because nearly half of American voters WANTED him to be so.
Obama spent 8 years building ivory towers full of safe spaces and echo chambers. Yet no less than 10% of NY's own schoolchildren is homeless. Where are your musings on this subject Mr. Blow? Where is the liberal outrage with demonstrations at JFK airport?
You can write beautiful prose condemning Trump for his Muslim ban and extolling the virtues of people you have never and will never meet from thousands of miles away. Yet your own children succumbing to poverty and homelessness merits nary a word from you.
Astonishing!
1
Spot on, Mr. Blow, he really is a mental case. Psychiatrists will have to invent new categories to cover all of Trump's illnesses. How about: Manic-Obsessive-Depressive-Narcissistic-Psychotic-Paranoia?
1
There is no U.S. Constitution executive office position known as the "Chieftain of Spite."
In our divided limited power republic there is only an Article II executive office Commander-in- Chief known as the President of the United States who takes a solemn sworn oath to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States".
Thanks to the votes of 63 million Americans along with the interference of Vladimir Putin, Benjamin Netanyahu, James Comey and Julian Assange and the political incompetence and ignorance of Hillary Clinton, Donald John Trump is POTUS. Because of Trump's openly hostile, spite and contempt for Barack Hussein Obama.
Despite the support of 66 million voters for Hillary Clinton we do not have a national Presidential election. We have 50 state elections plus the District of Columbia. The 2.5 million more votes Hillary received in California do not count anywhere else in determining the meaningful allocation of a majority of votes in the Electoral College.
In the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Presidential elections McCain/Palin, Romney/Ryan and Trump/Pence received 57%, 59% and 58% of the majority of the white majority voters. Trump won a majority of white voters in every relevant gender socioeconomic educational age and geographic cohort.
You need to come "back to life, back to reality" Charles!
1
Ironically, had Obama not roasted Donald Trump back at that Press Club dinner several years ago (although Trump deserved it), I bet Trump would not have bothered to run for President, or if he had and won, would not have been so hell-bent to undo all that Obama did.
Trump is all about himself; his metrics of worth and whether someone or thing is an enemy or friend, rest upon how it makes him feel or look. The impact upon the country or others, particularly those of less wealth or power, don't matter (unless they reinforce his feeling of being liked and supported).
In pointing our Trump's weakness, ignorance, lack of integrity and self-interested nature, Obama primed Trump to take the actions he has. This isn't Obama's fault, but is that of all of Trump's supported who would back him no matter how craven he is.
1
Obama is a Vermeer, Trump is a paint by numbers canvas no one could be bothered to finish.
3
Can't be said better.
1
PSYCHOPATHOLOGY 101: The psychopath has only one MO and that is to destroy everyone and everything in his path. He hates everyone but of most people he believes them to be fools and easily dispensed with. When he is up against a formidable opponent, who out does his every move, he becomes incensed, as you describe Trump of Obama. Because of his single focus of destroying every trace of his opponent (or who he believes to be his opponent) the psychopath does not stop his deadly agenda. Long after the rest of us have figured out that this guy is a criminal he keeps it up. . .to his demise. Most Americans and the world certainly knows that Trump is a disgusting excuse for a human being, who’s is not safe in the White House. Even our former presidents oppose him with the launching of One America to raise funds for Puerto Rico. THink about it, which do you support: One America or America First? Ironically Trump the Psychopath in Chief is forcing us to become One America.
If only the metaphor Mr. Blow evokes were not so repugnant it would be apt. The policy of destroying the Constitutional Democratic Republic that is the US should be torched. Mr. Blow knows "It must be cold and miserable standing in the shadow of someone greater and smarter". he obviously exhibits such behavior in every column he authors.
Lauding a man who is, "All front with no back and can not have a side" is a sop to elitists, slave holders and world domination. President Trump has brought that OBAMA missing element to the presidency... EQUALITY.
1
Trump's obsession with denying Obama's success is just what he promised his base and it is exactly what they want of him. They may hope that he can "replace" Obama but mainly they want him to "repeal" him.
The disruption to government is only a side effect of this obsession but it will become Trump's legacy, the only thing that will be remembered from his time in office.
The Republican Congress is already worried about his madness but they fear for their jobs even more. They are unable to ride the two horses of the populist and the rational. They are being torn apart by their confusion and indecision.
Will Bannon purge the ranks of non-believers, installing worshipers of his long view of government in the next century? Or will the rational elements of the base decide this is not the disruption they sought and flush the anarchists from Congress in 2018?
In the absence of direction within this administration, the Citizen will decide the fate of our Democracy.
As children we played a game. Akin to the Big Boss's thinking.
How can you make a line drawn on a paper in pencil smaller without using an eraser?
Answer is just brilliant and explains everything that Trump says and does.
Draw a second line next to the first - the new line only bigger than the first line.
Well said. Trump is a small man in all the ways that really count and the contrast between him and his predecessor could not be more stark. This is an emperor has no clothes moment for America and not just for the 60% who despise him already but especially for the 40% who still think they see something worthwhile there. He is truly worthless, a walking, talking embarrassment and humiliation of our nation and we all need to open our eyes and see him for what he is - an agent of destructive chaos from which nothing good can grow - not for what some may wish him to be.
None of this matters, because Trump is in power. Hate is something that fuels him and he has no concern for his fellow man. He is not religious, but the hate of the religious right for people who do not believe what they believe, got him elected. Hate is easier than compromise and working for the greater good. AND it sells! Welcome to the health care market of hate!
Trump didn't win the election...he won the Electoral College.
America has no one to blame but itself as it continues on the path that lets electors pick our president.
Abolish the electoral college...become sensible...the one with the most votes wins.
2
I disagree with your premise. It's not about Obama; it's all about Trump himself. Trump puts down the people around him, whoever they are. Obama and his legacy are just hapless victims.
Trump wants to be seen as doing something. He knows Obamacare is unpopular, so he undermines it. It's not any deeper than that.
There's no crafty plan. There's no premeditation. There's no spite. There's only Trump and whatever attention he can get.
The almost obsessive need to undo Obama's legacy has probably been the most alarming aspect of Trump' s presidency. At one time I thought naively that once Mr. Trump became president he'd be able to build his own legacy, even it was at odds to the Democrats. But all he's been able to do is tear down most everything with an apparent casual viciousness and an oddly strange lack of confidence that causes him to rage at anyone he perceives to be attacking him. This is all to everyone's detriment.
Of course, what Mr. Trump can't stand is that Barack Obama was a better president than Trump ever will be. Of course President Obama wasn't perfect, but far more people could sleep better at night when he was in office.
I couldn't agree more with this column. Whatever the angry constituency of Trump may believe, any sane, rational person observing the Trump presidency in contrast to the Obama presidency cannot help but see the stark difference. Obama was indeed a class act, and Trump is nothing more than a cheap, boorish charlatan. Integrity starts with telling the truth, something upon which Obama built a lasting legacy -- and something which Trump is incapable of.
Donald Trump is a reflection of the people who elected him and support him. Look at all the stories written in Steve Bannon's face. Look at the middle aged woman who yelled at a campaign rally that she would give up her vote if it would help Trump. Look at the older man at the same rally intimidating and berating the press core.
Look at David Duke, and his many many followers who are still under the sheets, who laugh at the racist jokes but don't have quite enough nerve, or even self-awareness to come out and say they feel other races are inferior.
Look at the people who claim to be patriotic, but then feel that having to pay taxes to support needs in their community, to pay for roads they drive on or to assure that the businesses they cater are honest and safe places to work.. is theft. Look at the people who actually do not give a rat's behind about anyone but themselves.
Look at the people who are easily lead by false equivalencies and blatant propaganda. Look at the people who actually think a predator, a bankrupt, and a liar is a fit person to lead them.
He is nothing without them but a gilded braggadocio with an imported wife selling imported goods and food, lodging, and sport to the very very wealthy.
His followers have raised him to where his is now, and to them goes the blame for the destruction they cheer on. He's just their spokesman, their hit man.
Another great column by Mr. Blow, if only for his devastating metaphor in this sentence: "Trump can’t hold a candle to Obama, so he’s taking a tiki torch to Obama’s legacy." Priceless.
1
This hollow, accidental president arrived without any bold ideas or even the barest preparation; he simply never expected to win. Now bereft of ideas and surrounded by ideological nutcases and toadies, his agenda is limited to destroying the hard work of his predecessors – work he barely understands – settling personal scores, and enriching himself with tax cuts and future connections.
Then what??? Three more years of driving the national agenda in response to each morning’s Fox “News” report? Abusing his office to make life miserable for even more minority and disadvantaged Americans? Incessantly distracting the country with his antics? Alienating our remaining allies?
No! The health and possibly survival of future generations now hangs in the balance and we cannot allow this clear and present danger to go unchallenged.
1
Ah yes, the great Obama. The one who tied up the U.S. economy in knots for decades to come. The one who created more racial divisiveness than any other president in modern history. The one who left foreign policy in shambles with threats from virtually all directions left unaddressed. The one whose policies encouraged increased reliance on government largesse, while punishing productive taxpayers at every opportunity.
This is the Obama that rallied tens of millions to the polls last November to elect Donald J. Trump, not the Obama wrongheadedly worshipped by Mr. Blow.
2
"Trump, who sees character as just another malleable thing that can be marketed and made salable"
And now- President Donald J. Trump Proclaims October 15 through October 21, 2017, as National Character Counts Week
https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/10/13/president-donald-...
You can't make this up!
1
The exact moment in time when our national nightmare began:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8TwRmX6zs4
Oh, if we could only return to that time and never leave it.
2
Obama is decent?
What planet do you live on Mr. Blow?
He lied to us when he told us about keeping our doctor.
2
Actually, Obama harbored quite a bit of spite of his own, particularly against white seniors. He buys into the line that SS is a racist program, since when it was first conceived, farm workers ( at the time mostly African American) were excluded. That's why Obama first tried repeatedly to engineer cuts to SS benefits by implementing changes to the SS COLA formula, known as Chained CPI. Even though these attempts failed, somehow, as if by magic, there was no SS COLA at all for 3-4 years during the Obama Administration, the only time seniors have experienced this kind of cruelty since a COLA was first implemented during the Ford Administration. As if that weren't enough, changes made to Medicare billing in Ezekiel Emanuel's IPAB DO threaten to undermine coverage for seniors under Medicare, a program seniors have already paid for all their lives. http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/healthcare/320631-ipabs-medicare-c... Talk about spite...
1
I always enjoy reading these pieces. I admire Mr Blow's restraint and diplomacy. If the Times were to print my opinion I would assuredly be in Guantanamo tomorrow.
However, I suspect that Mr Blow has missed a very critical observation this morning. I definitely agree that Trump appears to be driven by spite for Mr Obama. However, the Pew data suggests this is possibly a reflection of a deeper truth.
Read the Pew Research Center report. Scroll down about two screens to the table* about how "Obama received much higher ratings...". (e.g., Germans by 75%) Of course we all knew or suspected that. But the punch line is at the bottom of the table. It says that Russians report higher confidence in Trump than Obama by 42 percentage points.
I submit that this reveals the "head of the snake". Donald Trump is just the tail, a simple stepin fetchit if you will.
* http://www.pewglobal.org/2017/06/26/u-s-image-suffers-as-publics-around-...
1
Obama remains elegant and above the fray as this pestilence that has invaded the White House becomes ever more orange, fatter and greasier, screams at the tv building to his explosive twittering that follows when he reaches peak. K Paul's used to have a dish they served called Bubble and Squeak. That's an apt description of Trump, he's a constant squishing, squashing, bubbling and squeaking through his rotten lousy day. There have now been approximately ten months of day after day of horrific bad news from this pestilence as he keeps his death grip on the job that's exposing him for the incompetent, mean spirited mess he's always been. He has pretty much cemented his place in history as not only the worst president in the country's history but the most repugnant figure on the public stage at this broken time in our country. How tragic. How did we come to this. This is the downside of the rapid delivery technology world in which we live. There is no buffer and no time to prepare for every wretched piece of information there could be about this horror.
1
Trump's presidency has always struck me as two parts spite for the black man uppity enough to occupy Oval Office, three parts pure theatre for those who share that hatred and five parts pure television to draw the spotlight on himself, not for any real accomplishment or true effort on behalf of the American people, but just for the glory of the spotlight itself.
As best I can tell, he really doesn't seem give a flip about healthcare for the American people one way or the other. What he does care about is erasing any hint a black man ever held the office--and for his ratings with those who agree. So, having failed legislatively with "repeal-and-replace"--which was never about anything more than the "repeal" part--he is now engaging in the high drama (highly televised drama) of signing executive orders that effectively gut Obama's legacy and play to his base's belief that the ACA was no more than a handout program for undeserving people of color. Then he'll check his ratings.
Tomorrow there will be another tweet or some other action batted out with no more thought for its consequences than which red tie to wear, calculated only to draw the spotlight on himself, with enough of a rosy glow that his adoring fans will still adore him--loving the glorified persona he has created for them and for his hatred of what they hate.
2
I am as anti-Trump as the next person, but the "Trump is a moron" meme is simply counter-productive to the extent to which it leads one, incorrectly IMHO, to think that he will self-destruct and thereby we will finally be rid of him. To the contrary, if not smart DJT has amply demonstrated successfully sufficient shrewdness, constantly keeping everyone jumping, confused, or flabbergasted. The only real antidote is organized mass action electorally to replace from office all Trumpists and their toadies. Except for Mueller, no one can touch Trump politically. All that he cares about is money and how his allies stick with and regard him. He cares not a bit about anyone else's opinions or opposition. Rather than go at him directly, go at his allies in every way possible.
1
Serious scholars need to start tracking, immediately, rises in death rates and illnesses for those directly affected by this bottom-feeder president. He needs to be held accountable for the untold suffering and despair he has caused not only hurricane victims of the wrong color but those who will find their health care destroyed in the service of a personal vendetta.
253
Except for the dead rising to vote early and often in Cook County Illinois the dead do not matter. And since Trump is a heathen hedonist pagan he has no Christian compassion for the sick of heart, body and mind. We do not need any serious scholars to know these truths that Trump calls 'fake news'.
2
In short, serious scholars need to start tracking the rise in death rates of people of color affected by the hurricane? FORGET none of the executive orders he has signed have gone in to effect OR WILL go into effect ASSUMING Congress doesn’t pass legislation within the given timeframe since he signed the order LAST WEEK.
All things being equal, would the hurricanes have tracked differently with different election results?
Interesting point. The death rate has already been tracked for the years following the implementation of Obamacare, and the death rate has risen, and it has risen faster in those states that more fully implemented Obamacare. "Mortality in 2015 rose more than 50 percent faster in the 26 states (and Washington, D.C.) that expanded Medicaid during 2014 than in the 24 states that did not."
Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/445260/obamacare-no-lives-saved
1
Trump is the little nasty boy running through sand castles built by others.
he cannot make anything.
3
Trump is not only dismantling Obama's so-called legacy, he is also waging war on the majority of Americans who voted against him. Whether its the environment, taxes, foreign policy, healthcare...you name it...Trump has managed to disrupt and tear down not just Obama's legacy, but our national legacy embodied by the Constitution and our Statue of Liberty. That's what's so scary...how will we ever recover our dear country and the values we hold dear when the Trump Monster has destroyed what was good and decent to the historically racist slogan of Making America Great again. The irony roils the mind and the use of language and lies to confuse and manipulate is almost as disgusting as this Manchurian President's heartless behavior.
1
Van Jones, for all his CNN garble, said it best: Trump's rise was a whitelash. How dare people of color in America have a say, how dare we coalesce to elect a black man? How dare we let people of color in America finally get a come up in this unfair world? How dare we not stay in our place and strive for racial harmony? I guess we learned our lesson.
3
Trump is the anti Lincoln. He has malice toward everyone. Trump thrives on dismantling any advances Obama made for our country, not because of any logical reasons but because his hatred of Obama all stems from envy and incredulity that a black man could have ever been a legitimate and successful president, something Trump will never achieve. His empty promises, his attacking anyone who dares to disagree with or criticize him, and his disdain for the poor and working class paints a deplorable picture of a man totally unworthy and unfit to lead this nation. What a legacy - a president who accomplished nothing but eradication of Obama-inspired legislation.
You've just described 70% of the GOP voters who continue to support Trump! The horrible excuse for a human being known as Trump is just an empty bag, filling up with the irrational hate sentiment of a bitter, white populate and then puffing it all back out again whenever he can't contain himself. Trump and his admirers would hate Obama if the man walked across the surface of the sea and ended world hunger with just a basket of fish and bread. They hate Obama because he IS better than them, more articulate, smarter, wealthier, and better educated. He is all those things, and, oh yeah, he's black. Hate and bitterness are all these people have. Spite is all they know how to do. Especially when it comes to looking worse than an African American.
2
Blow's 2 notable sentences:
"His way is to say something wrong, then bend reality to make it appear right."
"He is warping reality."
Truthfulness, rationality, and reality go hand in hand.
Trump is divorced from truthfulness because he is not a rational human being.
Trump is divorced from rationality and is therefore incapable of telling the truth.
Trump is divorced from reality and as a result has no command structure for telling the truth.
Trump is a liar.
His brain lacks an area that can command/exercise rationality and acknowledge/understand reality.
It is possible that he is unaware of his failing regarding the truth.
He may believe that what he says reflects reality when the opposite is actually the case.
He exists in his own world of reality. He makes statements that reflect what he believes and finds in his own personal world.
There is a state of being explaining the above. It is called dementia.
Trump may suffer from early onset Alzheimer's Disease (AD).
Note:
His difficulty with the truth and remembering his lies.
His severe memory problems and his confused thinking.
He says one thing then contradicts himself thereafter.
His inability to focus on the matter at hand, the tendency to wander off topic, his confusion regarding facts and figures, the desire/need to avoid answering questions in Q&A forums.
An attribute of AD can be irascible behavior and poor anger management.
All of the above call for his expeditious removal from office.
Otherwise .......
2
MNW: Agree with you. Except for one thing: it's not early onset dementia, it's an advanced stage of dementia he's displaying.
2
For lotus89.
I agree with you.
However I started submitting this comment before the 2016 election.
It is only recently that it has been accepted and has received any "Recommended" status worth noting.
Also it has never received a NYT Yellow Pick.
(Positioning in this forum does make a difference however.)
I attribute this to ignorance regarding symptoms of AD.
Be assured that I know what I am talking about in regards to AD.
Thank you for your reply.
Trump is a master manipulator. He finds a way to distract ppl and pushes the limits with it. From tweets to executive orders; he wants the outrage and disgust. It serves him well. Distraction from Russia, Mueller, and the inevitable.
More importantly, is to watch the ‘ease’ at which he harms, belittles, discriminates, lies, incites hatred, and supports self promotion. His only concern is himself.
He not only hates that Obama was so successful, but most importantly Obama is black. This hatred had to have been inbred in him, possibly by his loving father who wanted him to be a ‘Killer’. Trump is a racist bigot and those that support him have similar values.
Thank you Mr. Blow for your honesty.
We as Americans need to talk about this freely and openly. Voice our opinions with respect and have an honest discussion about how to remedy an illness hundreds of years old. God Bless
4
".. when you sit where that person once sat." That is referring to BHO's birthplace, in Kenya? That sounds idolatrous.
Progressives call it birther-legend, though among locals it is better known as rich Kenyan tradition. Trump, Inc., should build a hotel in Kenya, on the site of his Manger. Forever linking the two. It would be almost biblical; like the threshing floor of Araunah -- the site of Solomon's Temple. A pilgrimage, for what will remain of Progressives.
Sad how the trump trolls confuse incoherence with thought.
1
I think you have it twisted Obama cannot hold a candle to a president who is not a politician and who is working for the people despite the continual obstructionist antics. Obama ruined our healthcare, put us into 20 trillion of debt, never grew the economy to 3% as every other president since WW2. He made the worst deal with Iran, vilified the police and made race an issue not seen since the 1860's. The guy is a Marxist/socialist, Mr. Blow, and he did not do a thing for the black race; so get that straight.
2
I don't know where to begin, Jan. "Working for the people?" You have GOT to be kidding! Trump is working for the "people" in his immediate family, including himself, and he lies with impunity figuring he can do no wrong with his base, and your post proves his point.
President Obama had his faults, and he definitely made some mistakes, but this Democrat will take his moral center and grace in office any time, any day over the crass boor that is occupying the WH at the present time. A "Marxist/Socialist?" I guess that is your definition for anyone who wants to help the poor and middle class. I guess you would rather support a man who is doing all he can to perpetuate a class war between the ultra-rich and everyone else.
Wake up, Jan!
2
In summary:
Obama has class.
Trump is classless.
3
Affordable Care Act is Trumpcare now. He's breaking it, he owns it now.
177
Betting against Trump has been a delusion in the past. What makes you think this will change in the future? About 28 million Americans were left out of Affordable Care by a President who promised then forgot his advocacy of a public option.
1
Saw a comment in the WaPo calling it TrumpNoCare! How appropriate!
1
Obama was often portrayed as the Antichrist or even, gasp!, a Muslim by purveyors of conspiracy theories and political smears during his campaigns and terms in office. In retrospect Obama was a saint compared with our present sinner-in-chief, who basks in the warmth of the Christian Right's clammy embrace.
Liberals tend to lean toward the secular, and deny themselves the ostentation of quoting scripture, but Matthew 24:24 describes the Antichrist in this way, "For false christs and prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect."
In this context it seems quite possible that our Despicable Donald is an excellent candidate for designation as the Antichrist.
1
Trump doesn't read, lacks intellect and empathy, but is one heck of a golfer. He makes policy change proposals to programs he doesn't understand, eg ACA, NAFTA, TPP, Iran deal . . . He is following directives from advisors who's only responsibility is to find ways to appease the too slowly dwindling "base". And of course as Mr Blow points out, he is very envious of his predecessor. History will have much to say about Mr Trump, the worst president ever.
1
Thank you once again Charles Blow for saying what has been apparent to me from day one of Trump's Presidential campaign - that he is driven by jealousy and envy of President Obama, the first African American President. What really impressed me though is that Mr.Blow did not utilize the "B " word in describing Trump's character. Certainly, he could have called Trump a bully, a bloviator,a blowhard, or, most on point, a Bigot. And what distinguished Trump from the other Republican Presidential candidates, is his reliance on and emphasis of racist and xenophobic rhetoric. It is true that Trump is the chieftain of spite, but he is also the cheerleader of racist and xenophobic attitudes and behavior. In other words, bigotry is the underlying key to Trump's politics.
The man is gaslighting the entire nation.
2
It's generous to an absurd degree to characterize the moody lurching from one impulse to another as "governing."
Chaos, yes. Governing, not by a long shot.
This is more like a hedge fund buyout of America by Trump, with a new management of anti-government extremists and cutthroat accountants charged with breaking America down to sell off pieces so investors get quick profits (and lower taxes).
Trump knows nothing about regulation, federal oversight, health care or taxes. His ignorance comes with a double dose of belligerence, specially in foreign affairs, as he shoves key allies aside to assuage a swollen bravado he mistakes for strategic thinking. He could care less because like Celebrity Apprentice he just improvises. Audience claps. It's the ratings, stupid.
Always he scrambles for the brightest, closest spotlight. Deprived of adulation, he calls for a red state campaign rally to jut about like Mussolini cursing enemies.
It's all affect. A casebook empty, baggy suit. If he has an agenda, it's to amass tribute and exploit the Oval Office to satiate his throbbing greed with even greater riches. All else is just parroting what cable TV, golf companions, sinister ideologues and machinating toadies who surround him say when they pull his strings like Pinocchio, replete with a nose for lies.
Trump only sees the "me" in America. If he knew any Spanish, he'd like the "rica" -- the feminine form of "rico" -- just as much.
It's not government. It's a wrecking ball.
2
we go over it and over it and over it.... Trump is inept, narcissistic, and mentally ill. He only knows:" adore me, adore me" OR rage.
Wake up Congress!
Has there ever been a President whose entire existence has been based on his desire to crush people.? This is a man who seems to exude malice to all. He is our President. 56 million Americans voted for this miserable creature. 40% would grant him a second term. This is a sick and twisted country. When the National Anthem is played and our flag proudly displayed, we should not kneel we should all weep.
When does this wake end?
In the space of less than a year Donald Trump’s presidency has cast a pall which extends well beyond our borders to every corner of the globe, and every day he stays in office that pall deepens. This loathesome man without a single redeeming quality has moved past the simple appellation of “The Ugly American” to something more universal - he is “The Ugly Human Being.”
2
Trump’s hatred of Obama, and subsequently his supporters, is understandable.
White America has always had a problem with Black achievements. From the torching of Black Wall Street and the riots in Rosewood, OK to the lynching of Black businessmen, (more than 90% of lynch victims in the early 20th century were achievers), to now trying to kill the NFL. White racial resentment of Blacks whom they deem have forgotten their place is as American as fireworks on The Fourth of July.
The NFL Frontier Trump has targeted allows undeserving, poor Blacks the possibility to become millionaires, with fancy cars, houses, jewelry, and access to White women. It has nothing to do with patriotism just as repealing the A.C.A. has nothing to do with providing Americans with affordable health care.
Our country has to take a long, hard, look at itself and decide whether it wants to become the nation it purports to be.
The alternative is to double-down erroneously and claim the country for one group and ONLY one group of citizens, while standing on the ground of the Red Man, ignoring the labor and contributions of the Black Man and other non-Whites, refusing to see them as fellow human beings, and denying their right to full citizenship.
If people claim to love and respect this Democratic-Republic, now is the time to demonstrate this by saving it from the clutches of those whose mission is to destroy it.
1
It's truly sad to see the Obama legacy chopped away day-by-day, by by Trump's venomous, mean-spirited executive orders denying women reproductive care, allowing "junk" insurance, and now removing the insurance subsidies that together will undermine and destroy Obamacare. As awful as that is--and it will kill people, his ill-informed and dangerous de-certification of the Iran nuclear deal--Obama's major foreign policy achievement--that may, if Congress follows his foolish lead, result in Iran actually building a nuclear weapon. When coupled with his bellicose threats to obliterate North Korea because they won't end their nuclear program, we have an irrational and unstable man making irrational and unstable nuclear weapons policy that may lead to the nuclear Armageddon that Sen. Corker just warned us about. Whether out of sadism or spite or just old-fashioned incompetence (dare I say "moron"), his actions have made him the Destroyer-in-Chief where the health and well-being of no one here or abroad is safe.
238
Obama's signature foreign policy achievement was drone missile war.
Why shouldn't Iran have a nuclear weapon like Israel, India and Pakistan?
2
"It's truly sad to see the Obama legacy chopped away day-by-day"
Elections have consequences. Trump was elected BECAUSE he campaigned to do this.
1
Brilliantly and perfectly said, Mr. Blow. No further comment needed, just shared. Well, maybe a word or two...Come on, Mueller! Grow a spine, Congress! Hail the Resistance!
Mr. Blow,
Well written, but I feel you are sugar coating the real issue. The bottom line is that a Black man in America should never be better than a White man. I agree that it is hatred that drives the dismantling of protections that benefit all people, but fear....just like during the plantation days when the plantation owners manipulated poor Whites to keep the slaves in check, the same thing is being done today. If Obama had been White, Joe Wilson would have never said, “You lie”, yet he has yet to speak out publically against 45’s daily lies.
Unfourtanetly, Americans will always vote against their own interests when they are blinded by religion and hatred. Some Christians will always vote republican when the only sin they see is sexual preference and abortion and negate the love of money, pride, and discrimination.
Trump is Trump, Obama is Obama, Bush is Bush and none should ever be compared...the issue for 45 is skin color. Just take a look at his staff and compare the change in demographics of unfilled federal positions from previous administrations over the past 20 years.
When a man can't rise on his own merits, he can only stand tall if he tears everyone else down.
401
Trump rose on the merit of his inheritance. Along with the votes of 63 million Americans, Vladimir Putin, Benjamin Netanyahu, James Comey, Julian Assange and the ignorant innate political incompetence of Mrs. William Clinton.
1
In addition, he undermines our democracy by turning us against each other. Isn't that communism?
Blackbamba, the last factor was the most relevant, that Hillary was a horrible candidate. The rest of it..Russians, Comey, Netanyahu...did not really matter to voters in PA, MI, WI and NH.
1
Our president's loathing of President Obama is just another symptom of his disorder, which is either dementia or a serious mental illness, enhanced by his innate racism.
Along with his other symptoms - his loose grip on reality, his rampant narcissism, his pathological lying, his inane tweeting, his fifth-grade vocabulary - he shows himself to be a very sick human being. His presidency is the first in our history in which the government is actually working to make the lives of most people more difficult!
For the sake of my children and grandchildren, I hope and pray that the people's representatives use every legal means possible to end this presidency before this cruel and sick person does more harm.
4
Of course you are correct. Trump hates Obama Obama's popularity. Approval for Trump -33%-Obama 51%. Hence he is trying to tear down Health care, Iranian agreement Paris Accords Repealed Don't Ask don' Tell, Limited carbon emissions, signed Dodd Frank etc
1
Captain Ahab perhaps?
2
Donald is the low information president; his own Secretary of State acknowledged it in slightly different language. If his self proclaimed “high IQ” is over 100, he is even intellectually lazier than all of the evidence shows. He has no grasp of even rudimentary facts about governance, economics, healthcare etc.
He has no shred of decency, let alone the elegance and grace of Obama.
History will reflect that the American carnage that he described on the most recent day of infamy, January 20, 2017, was a reference to what he was about to inflict on America and the world. Presidents Bannon and Miller are using the empty vessel of Trump to demolish this nation.
4
Trump can try to undo every last one of Obama's advances, but that will not erase him from our memory. If anything, Obama will be like King Arthur, and his name will live on in legend as the ideal (if doomed) leader. Meanwhile, Trump will be like "the wretch, con-centered all in self, living, shall forfeit fair renown, and doubly dying, shall go down to the vile depths from whence he sprung- unwept, unhonor'd and unsung." (Sir Walter Scott.)
7
". . . the black man who operated above the coarseness of commercial interests and whose character appeared unassailable." These are the words used by Charles Blow to describe Barack Obama.
Oh, please!
Barack Obama is a phony Democrat who ran as a populist liberal, only to quite deliberately pivot and govern as what used to be called a "moderate" Republican. He repeatedly came to the bargaining table quite prepared to gut Social Security just to make a "grand bargain" with the Republicans.
Obama spent eight years burnishing his personal brand while the Democratic Party of which he was supposedly the leader got absolutely creamed at the state and local level. His Justice Department was a joke, and never aggressively enforced anti-trust laws; nor did it even go after a single Wall Street titan, even though the well documented criminal acts of those "titans" had wrecked the economy. Now that he's out of office, the quid pro quo is clear, as Obama is making $400K per speech to Wall Street firms.
Was Obama smarter than Trump? Of course. My cat is smarter than Trump. Was he more erudite? Sure. Who isn't? But Obama as a man of "unassailable character"?
Don't make me laugh.
2
I see Berniecrats are weighing in with usual tearing down of Dems
2
Hi, DebraH -
I'm not a "Berniecrat". I am, however a liberal Democrat who paid very close attention to Obama's campaigning and then his governing.
Do you dispute any of the assertions in my post, or was calling me a name the point of your own?
1
and the motivation to run for president to destroy obama's legacy can be traced back to the white house correspondents dinner when president obama mocked chief twit and he had to sit there and take it.
that is the genesis for the nightmare this country and the planet now finds itself in.
1
T seems to get away with it all, Mr. Blow. Billy Bush was fired for his actions in the grope video, but T, our groper in the White House, managed to survive it quite easily. And with that survival we now receive a daily barrage of the spite you write about in this column. When something more devastating than Puerto Rico or the shootings in Las Vegas happens and he continues his ridiculous rants about Merry Christmas (heck, I'm Jewish and wish all of my friends Merry Christmas and hand out gifts wrapped in red and green to neighbors!), when he is finally ousted, what will the republicans do then? I predict not even Lindsay Graham will survive.
Who was it who said 'to undermine democracy you must turn the people against each other' - or something to that effect? Was it a Russian?
2
Trump is using executive orders to undo Obama's executive orders. This should not be news to anyone who understands civics,
Obama only used them as a last resort, and carefully checked their legality and appropriateness. McConnell's Day 1 obstruction had something to do with it. Remember Judge Garland?
Meanwhile, Trump is a wannabe GodKingEmperor, bent on making America Small and Mean, while he and his kleptocratic friends laught all the way to the banksters.
1
The undercurrent of racism that propelled Trump to the White House must be nurtured at every opportunity by the Trumps. Trump's measure of accomplishment is in not what he has done but what achievements of the black President has he undone, otherwise he has done absolutely nothing. Trump is the antithesis of Obama in every way, from his tiny hands to his gargantuan ego. White man America has their champion and may God have mercy on the rest of us.
1
Was it Schopenhauer who noted that "Against stupidity, the gods themselves rail in vain"?
1
You might find this sourly amusing (the origin of the Rove playbook:
http://www.mnei.nl/schopenhauer/38-stratagems.htm
"The Art of Being Right" 38 ways to win an argument.
1
What does it say about the 60 million + people that voted for this person knowing how vulgar he is? It's a question I ask myself everyday since Nov. 2016.
5
Agree but how do we stop him?!
1
There's an old cult sci-fi movie, "Killer Clowns from Outer Space," with a host of scary villains who are just that, homicidal alien clowns. Nothing funny about them. This unlikely scenario has actually manifest itself today--Trump, his administration, and the complicit GOP are killing us. They are the unfunniest band of clowns to ever walk the halls of power.
And who are the 39-40% of Americans who approve of him? Power hungry and greedy or just plain stupid?
What does he need to do to get impeached? He bragged that he could shoot someone on the middle of Fifth Avenue and his popularity wouldn't suffer. Even he couldn't have believed that. Yet, now I believe we could see him start WWIII and see his popularity soar. Everyone loves a wartime president. Right?
At least with Trump, we can chalk up his behavior to a clear case of malignant narcissistic personality disorder. That much is obvious. I would go even further and say that Trump is still incensed that Obama embarrassed him at the state dinner back in 2011. That was probably the moment Trump decided to run for president. This man that he hated, this black man that had the nerve to be president, humiliated him in a packed room. And we know that for someone like Trump, image is everything.
The major problem now is the rest of the GOP. They now have this unfit buffoon on their hands and they do nothing. They are complicit in every way. They let Trump hijack their party and they refuse to do anything about it. History will not judge them kindly.
2
His spite is the spite of the GOP writ large. The GOP has never considered that what they were trying to do could actually harm the country. America First as a slogan sounds wonderful if you are a selfish child. And Trump is a selfish 70-year-old child. The GOP is a collection of overgrown toddlers who need to learn how to share with others so that the foundation of America remains strong as we keep on building it. They have been busy undermining life for most of us since Reagan was in office and even more during the Obama years.
Being selfish sounds great until you're at the wrong end of it but at that point it's too late. What on earth is wrong with seeing to it that all Americans can have access to decent health care when and where they need it? Why is it more important to repeal regulations that protect the environment for all of us rather than spend money on the jobs it will create? What's wrong with caring about the environment and planet we inhabit?
Today's America is not the America I grew up with. It was imperfect but it was not a place that throbbed with the sort of hatred it does now. We didn't have a president who believed that he was God. We don't need a president who is spiteful. We need someone more like Lincoln and less like a toddler. It's too bad there isn't anyone out there capable of looking to Lincoln as a role model instead of Vladimir Putin or Duterte. Perhaps Europe will send America a sympathy card when America fails.
2
I work part time because I receive my S.S. Retirement and am limited to how much I can make in a year.
If it were not for the ACA I would not be able to afford health care insurance. A time in my life I need it. How many years did it take to get even this point?
Trumps actions are the abuse of power to act out the searing revenge, he feels towards his predecessor, our black President Barack Obama. Nothing more, nothing less.
1
True words. It is past time to identify who it is the November 2016 system (not people) chose to be president.
The current president seems to be washing with disinfectant anything that President Obama touched.
Feels a little creepy. His obsession seems more suspect than good hygiene.
I do not accept that the underlying character of the majority of American people is racist, spiteful, narrow-minded, and venal. Who is it, then, the current president is playing to and dancing for?
As of this moment there are 48 comments on this column and not a single NYT pick. Anyone and everyone, we need some thoughts on how to modify the current situation! We are obsessing about what we all know. Anyone who saw DJT's reception at the Value Voters gathering had to be sickened beyond belief by his base's energetic reaction. Perhaps we need to start thinking about ways to interfere at the base level. Perhaps the MSM can start my not publicizing DJT's tweets. This brings him publicity and it is this attention that feeds the beast and his base.
1
It is too bd that obama's post presidency is so pitiful. Vacationing with billionaires, $400 thousand speeches, $60 million book deals and who knows what else. He is a real disappointment. I thought he might actually try to be a positive force like Carter. Instead he abuses the office.
2
Agree with you totally, Mr. Blow. The trouble is, Trump remains very attractive to a large part of his original base, a base that threatens to grow larger with Steve Bannon acting as a loose cannon on the political scene. The populist types courted by Trump and Bannon would throw editorials like this one into the trash and vote all the more ardently for Trump, since Obama's rationality and tact, which Mr. Blow praises, strike them as college-bred, elitist liberalism. The challenge for Democrats in forthcoming elections is to recapture the white working-class nationalists and populists who put Trump and the Republican Congress into office.
Donald J Chaos & Co. are now the party of wrong. Their beliefs are consistently held no matter what the evidence says. A simple approach can be best, but a simple-minded approach can be a disaster. This is what we are dealing with the GOP and their erst-while king Donald J. Corporate profits are at an all time high, solution? Corporate tax cut! Result: Nada. The US has the largest most powerful military in the world, solution? Give them more money than they can spend efficiently. Result: Same top-notch military at a wasteful price. Obamacare needs adjusting, solution? Repeal and... We'll get back to you on that. Innocent Black Americans being killed by overzealous police. solution? Rescind the DOJ police reform program. Result: more killings. Mueller and his team cannot work fast enough for me.
Occam' Razor suggests that the simplest explanation is usually the right one. Sounds about right. Trump is a racist.
3
You are giving him too much credit Charles. Spite is for adults. Tantrum is the word in his case.
1
Trumps spite has been evident since the birther scandal. I would suggest that it is part and parcel to a larger GOP initiative from day one to associate a platform of fear and hatred of all things Obama. The modern day republican platform in a nutshell fits Trumps narcissistic and racist personality to a tee. They deserve each other. Anyone who supports such divisive and hateful mannerisms also deserves the same association.
2
Dear Charles Blow: Can we take a trip back to 2008 for a moment? In 2008 Barack Obama was an unknown junior Senator from Illinois who was barely into his first term. Senator Obama had very little legislative experience and no working knowledge of foreign policy. Yet these potential handicaps didn't stop Barack Obama from declaring his candidacy for the presidency against the best known politician in America, Hillary Clinton. Obama was a fiery speaker on the campaign trail and had two very catchy slogans which caught on with the voters --"Hope and Change" and "Yes We Can." Almost immediately the mainstream media fell in love with this newcomer who dared to take on the Democratic establishment. Hillary Clinton's chance to become the first female presidential candidate of a major party was ruined by an little known candidate who was running against her as a spoiler to deny her the nomination.
I know this sentiment isn't going to make me terribly popular but Obama won the presidency because he was a young handsome black Democratic candidate whose last name wasn't Clinton.
2
Trump is following Lenin's blueprint. "Destroy the establishment." Putin is doing everything he can to unravel western Democracy and Trump is his willing disciple. Trump is a traitor as well as his whole family. Impeachment is too good for him!
1
If Donald J Trump were to succeed in completely dismantling the programs of Barack Obama, he would still remain a small and pathetic figure of a man. The presidency, humanity and character of Barack Obama will always tower over Donald J Trump, and that is something Trump can never touch.
Agree with you 100%. It’s sad because little children are watching and learning bad things from a President who behaves not much older than them, they perhaps have more empathy and compassion in their little finger than the fully grown man boy President!
1
Donald J. Trump is a liar, an incompetent business man ( Merv Griffin knew that the Atlantic City casino was a bad investment, Trump didn't), a serial sexual abuser and in spite of all this information the Koch brothers and other billionaires support and continue to support him.
Because of the Koch's, the Mercer's, and the DeVos' bet on Trump, we should reform the tax codes to allow these ultra-wealthy to pay their fair share of taxes. Maybe then, when they are fully invested in the USA, they will realize what most Americans already know about Donald J. Trump.
George W once said: "After all, this is the guy who tried to kill my dad." His slip for real reason behind invading Iraq. The only motive for Trump is that one event where he was mocked by Obama at the White House correspondents annual dinner at 2011. Trump's reaction was described by Maggie Haber man of NYT as, " Obama proceeded to mock Trump, who had been fanning the flames of the birther set.
Trump sat silent as the crowd of thousands laughed. "Five years later, he seems determined not to be humiliated again, and to stop those who laughed at him," Haberman wrote.
Trump can not touch Obama. He is getting even by erasing anything Obama ever accomplished. Even if it ends up hurting millions of Americans who need Healthcare benefits.
This man has no backbone or decency.
That picture on the left says it all to me. Trump looks like the buffoon he is, next to Obama. Our former president (wiping back tears) standing with grace and dignity, Trump looking like his diaper needs changing. We took 100 steps forward, as a nation with Obama and have fallen down 1000 with Trump. Though I feel we haven't hit rock bottom yet and there is still much more horrific nonsense coming, we will rise again. I know that because I know Americans are good people, not sadistic wingnuts like the one sitting in the WH or those who elected him.
1
"Oh, look dear, the NYT has 5 editorials today that say 'Trump Is Bad' ... as if we didn't know that already."
I wonder if they'll ever get fundamental and apply physics, biology, evolution and complexity science to our culture's non-selectable manner of reality interface.
Maybe their columnists just don't have enough knowledge to construct such a thought-structure.
It's too bad, because human knowledge doubles about every 12 months.
I just bet there are some real nuggets in our exponentially accruing knowledge that would apply to our species' ability to pass natural selection tests ...
2
Obama occultists believe his actions were as infallible as those of a deity. If socialism is your religion, then Obama is your Zeus. The truth is Obama didn't accomplish much as President. He was neutered at the ballot box in 2010 after shoving Obamacare down our collective throats. In order to keep this disastrous "achievement" alive, he illegally ordered the Treasury Department to make subsidy payments to insurance companies even though Congress had no appropriated any funds to do so. Obama's glaring unconstitutional action is still celebrated by leftists.
Similarly, in desperation to score a foreign policy "victory" Obama ignored the Constitution's Treaty Clause in entering into a deal with the terrorist regime in Iran, lifting sanctions and allowing Iran to reap about $150 billion that was previously frozen. The ineffective deal does not permit the US to inspect Iranian nuclear facilities and military installations are off limits to any inspectors.
To the Obama zealots, none of these facts matter. Their Lord and Savior decreed these orders and they cannot be questioned. Any attempt to alter them is heresy.
2
There are people who hate Obama so much that they will willingly sacrifice themselves and families to undo Obama care. I have a sister whose daughter is on Obamacare and has made use of it due to 3rd degree burns, peanut allergy and 2 bouts on oneumonia, but said " i sacrifice it if it means those illegals get off of it too". When people are that selfish Trump has not worries or consequences about what he says and does.
3
The nuclear armed powers are the USA, Russia, China, France, the UK, India, Pakistan, Israel, North Korea.
Or in other words nuclear weapons are in the hands of three democracies (France, the UK and India), two dictatorships (Russia and China), one close to failed state (Pakistan), one state run by religious extremists (Israel) and two countries headed by crazed narcissists where there are serious questions about their mental health (the USA and North Korea).
Chances for the survival of the human race are not looking good right now.
1
And in one of his most cynical panderings to the religious right, the White House has announced this week as national “character counts week.”
Really. As Count von Count of Sesame Street might put it, “I have one, two, three wives. Hahaha...”
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Months ago I wrote that trump can walk, upright, under a closed door.
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Those who can't create, destroy.
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"Operated above the coarseness of commercial interests" is a stretch. Under Obama the gap between rich and poor grew steadily. Trump is pouring rocket fuel on that steady stream. Maybe if Obama spent less time being "elegant" and "showing good taste", and instead spoke truth to power from the bully pulpit, we wouldn't be standing on the precipice of a fascist oligarchy.
When trump started his campaign I thought that he was the perfect anti-Chirist, his short ten months in office has proven that to be the case.
That any thoughtful person could have voted for this sorry excuse for a human being is beyond comprehension.
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The latest stunt by the president is to "force" the Dems to work with him, when they have been shut out of the process the entire time. He is a classic abuser and sexual predator, classic, and his behavior to blame the victim for his abuse is text book. What the Dems should do is say, OK, lets do Universal Health Care and see what happens next
"...he's governing out of spite." That says it all. Thank you Charles.
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Right on target Charles. You cannot educate a skunk to be a sheep dog. Skunks remain what they are even if elected to hi office.
President Spite and is band of bench warmers and 3rd raters could not tell the difference between treason and a yellow turnip. We have a minority, less than 40%, ruling the nation. The majority means nothing because their campaigns are paid for by billionaires, special interests and devoting govt assets to political use. Wake up, racketeers and gangsters are in charge and we know what Jefferson said about the tree of liberty.
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It might be spite sometimes, but with the dreamers and the ACA it is simply applying the rule of law. Just think if he goes all out Obama and say builds the wall with money from wherever, sort of how Obama funded these subsidies.
The percentages of Americans who were/still are with Trump line up nicely with those that did not agree to the statements presented by the Kaiser survey. And since they actually show up and vote, and didn't distribute their votes as the liberal voters did between two or more candidates, he won. So it's moot to say "more Americans want Trump to do X" when the ones who voted for him are happy to see him do Y. This is our reality now, and figuring out how to align the voters in the next election, and motivate them to actually show up, should be the key message of any of these columns.
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What Donald Trump has done in his time in office is to actually burnish brighter the legacy of the nation's first non-white president.
With every passing day; nay, every passing hour and moment, it can clearly be seen that Trump is in a binding rope of fetters that he himself constructed, painstakingly, every thread of twine and hemp representing the depth of his racial hatred and malice.
He owns the birther culture and his particular talent, if it can be called that, was to bring out into the open the noxious and nauseating principle(s) that animated the Tea Party in 2010 and the Freedom Caucus that now stands before the door of sanity, angrily bearing the Jolly Roger of Ronald Reagan's "government is the problem" poison.
The Trump phenomenon could, perhaps, have been aborted seven years ago. The Republican Party, wounded by the accession of a black man to the presidency, could have staked out the moral ground it so showily claims for itself by calling Trump a liar and a fraud. But no.
No former Republican president or cabinet member or party "thinker" of stature went public with anything like a clear and irrefutable denunciation of Trump's claim(s) that Barack Obama was foreign-born and, thus illegitimate. Mr. Obama , it turns out, was "illegitimate" in that he ruptured the norms of governing in America.
Trump called himself out. Having smeared the black president, and now having been given the opportunity to prove he was right all along, he is what he is.
Failed.
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I had the pleasure of meeting Senator Barack Obama while I was working on his election campaign. I shook his hand. As I held his elegant hand in mind, I noticed we were shaking with our left hands. I told him I was left handed too.
He smiled that beautiful Obama smile.
I think the short fingered vulgarian is jealous of EVERYTHING that's Obama.
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"Trump is doing this even though it will likely wreak havoc on countless lives"......and how is this different then the havoc created by the ACA in the first place?
You get to keep your own Doctor...$2,500 savings...lots of choices. They were all lies and the American public was played like a well tuned violin.
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Trump wants to win.
But he doesn't realize he will go down in history as one of our worst presidents.
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The hater in chief cruel tiny man in the White House does nothing but hate and feel small, especially in contrast to the towering great President Obama that came before him. Nothing will change that, and the only thing hate does or knows how to do is destroy. No matter what, that "man" will eventually be out of office. And we hope for all of us that he doesn't destroy the world prior to that.
We have to fix the underlying systemic racism and hatred in the US as well, otherwise 63 million people wouldn't have voted for this racist, his racism being seen as a feature not a bug to his voters. That's pretty much the only characteristic of this man that has been on full display for decades.But we're working on it out here from the bottom up. Things will change and this too will pass, no matter what he "thinks". That may be the ultimate rub for him as has to leave office no matter what he does. In the only legacy he leaves behind is his destruction, cruelty and hatred and not protecting and defending the Constitution nor Americans.
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Spite is certainly a flaw in Trumps Character which is part of his enormous ego.However, Mr. Blow is on a slippery slope when he compares Trump to Obama, as Obama was not beyond the frailty of spite.The Iranian deal was certainly payback for Neteyanhu’s opposition to Kerry’s peace proposals, & there was no secret to the animosity that existed between the two of them.Obama was so anxious to close the deal, he even went to bed with Russia,& China, & allowed Russia to be the safeguard of the Iranian Nuclear fuel.Certainly, as a President there is no comparison between the two, as Oboma wins hands down.However, when it comes to spite, they are both human.
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Everybody wants a king.
"Trump can’t get his bad ideas through Congress ..."
Trump doesn't have ideas. Trump has desires. Some are his own, some are borrowed from his followers. Nevertheless, the source of the ideas was to come from Congress. The failure of Trumpcare wasn't Trump's failure. It was the failure of McConnell and Ryan to have ever come up with any alternatives. They repealed Obamacare multiple times _under_ Obama, but it's now clear to everyone that was simply posturing because they _knew_ a veto would prevent their ideas from ever having to be tested. But it's easier to assign that fiasco to a single person, Trump.
Obamacare was similar. Obama was smart enough to propose an actual policy, but what became the ACA was a set of compromises hammered out in Congressional committees and hearing, bipartisan committees and hearings. In the end, it was a compromise that mostly gave the Republicans what they wanted, but they voted against it anyway. I'm now less convinced the Republicans negotiated in bad faith, and more convinced that the alt-right, led by Fox News, had simply made their voters so intolerant of compromise, that they couldn't vote for their own ideas. Obamacare was a Congressional, mostly Republican, affair. But it's a lot easier to assign it to one person, Obama.
Maybe that's why we're comfortable with more and more power in the Presidency. The only area of bipartisan agreement is the desire for a single source of blame.
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The reason Republicans don’t have a plan to replace Obama-care is because Obama-care was the Republican plan.
It was Romney-care based on ideas from the Heritage Foundation.
The exchanges were the free market competition.
And the individual mandate was responsibility and accountability.
When Obama agreed to their approach, it became government takeover of health care and Death Panels.
But the real problem is that we pay twice per capita what countries like Denmark and Germany pay and don’t even get universal health care.
And there are segments of our country where infant mortality is worse than Botswana.
If we paid what those countries paid, we could have universal coverage and still have money left over for everyone to have two years of post-high school education.
Hopefully, a state will enact single payer which will help but will still be a long way from reducing the cost to that of those other countries.
But there are those Death Panels.
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Trump is the classic bully character in books, stories and movies. Except in most of those, the bully turns kind in the end. I hold no illusions that this is possible with Donald Trump. He has successfully surrounded himself with sycophants, intimidated his party, and pumped up his vulgar, malicious base. He doesn't have to listen to any angels of any better nature anywhere. Obama insulted him at the WH Correspondents Dinner years back about running for president. No doubt that was enough for Trump to mount a war against a good man. The entire campaign and presidency so far have been consumed with poisonous envy.
His destructive behavior will only serve to secure Obama's legacy in history by highlighting the contrast between the two men. Classic war between good and evil. Obama created against all odds (remember the GOP obstruction?) a better world for Americans, and Trump would pulverize that world crushing Americans in the process.
Is it time yet for Americans, both Dems and GOP, to act to remove this person? His spite against our first black president must not succeed in ruining our country. He is bad for the country in every possible way, bad for the world, bad for the planet, and will not ever suddenly realize what he has done. He isn't capable. The GOP Congress could act. Will they ever realize and muster the courage to do the right thing? That's the real question.
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CB: The polls you cited are a reminder that the U.S. is no longer a "representative" democracy. We've already crossed into the Oligarchy represented by a handful or less of competitors in all the major industries, including a mere handful of dominant banks both on Wall Street and other centers of financial power. Since our "representatives" are basically on the payroll of these oligarchical forces election-time feigning is the only remnant of a genuine democracy. They simply do not care about us.
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As much as the Evangelical base castigated Mr. Obama for everything under the sun, they could not fault his moral center and the way his led a life for his family. Consequently, Trump is a disposable, immoral human being who got a pass by the very body who should have been repelled by his vulgarity, lack of faith and humanism. Trump lives for vengeance, so he's now fulfilling on all the seven deadly sins. Forshane on the old Reid Robertson hypocrites who give him that adoration.
"the black man who operated above the coarseness of commercial interests and whose character appeared unassailable."
If this were true,the financial industry that had destroyed the world economy, would have been prosecuted, not given cost-of-doing-business fines. He would also have prosecuted all the torturers and their enablers in the previous administration. He is a smart, knowledgeable, articulate man, but, most important, he was given two gifts: George W Bush & Donald J Trump.
What is amazing to me is I have neighbors who see Obama as terrible and Trump as great.
How does one fix that problem?
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Beautifully stated.
Charles, you captured the essence of both men perfectly - President Obama, a class act; Trump, the classic ignorant bully.
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This is a fair charge. Trump certainly IS spiteful. But my worry is that so many people (like you) hate him that they are willing to take liberties with the truth.
When negative truths about Trump and negative lies about Truth are intermixed, it is hard to figure out what the facts are without making it into a full time job.
I DO think that Trump is vindictive. I DO think he is a lecher. I DO think he is irrational.
On the other hand I do NOT think he is a racist. And I do NOT think he is a misogynist. Note the several female appointments in his administration, the influence of his daughter Ivanka, and the fact that Kelly Anne Conway is the first female campaign manager to win a presidential election.
These facts are not consistent with racism or misogyny (though they are consistent with lechery and disrespect).
We badly need a medium which separates the truths about Trump from lies about Trump. Pity that the NYT is not such a medium.
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Just how many fingers to you have to hold up before your face and in front of your eyes to block out Trump's misogyny and his constant-playing to this country's racist fringes? Appointing similarly destructive, callow, self-interested, and corrupt right-wing females to his administration does not make him a gender progressive (DeVoss, Conway, daughter Ivanka, that Huckabee woman--yeesh). The truths about Trump have been in bold, loud, plain sight since the Central Park gang rape case, Birtherism, pussy grabbing, the "good people" out there with the Nazis and KKK shouting "Jews will not replace us!", and beyond. He is a disgusting and despicable human being; a shame to our nation and its children.
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" does not make him a gender progressive"
I never said he is a "gender progressive." There are lots of gradations between "gender progressive" and "misogynist".
Do get out of your binary, black and white world.
It would drive Trump to maximum distress if all of us stopped talking about him for even four or five days.
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I miss President Obama so much. A charming, decent man.
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Hell hath no fury like a malignant narcissist in rage mode. Trump will only get worse, especially with the looming Russian investigations. He does not care about people; never has, never will. He is completely incapable of empathy, and yet, his approval ratings among Republicans are still fairly high. For people like Trump, there must always be someone to hate, humiliate and destroy. They survive when there are normalizers, apologists, and supporters around them to prop them up. This is the Republican Party now. Do all Republicans feel this way? Doubtful. But, silence is also an endorsement.
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I just want to know how the voter fraud committee is going.
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Trump is an inveterate liar and endowed by his creator with the greatest ego of the age. An ego so monumental it threatens not just our country but the entire world.
Facts mean nothing. People's lives mean nothing. Our country's reputation means nothing. Certainly not when stacked against his enormous sense of self importance. And not the least bit leavened by his manifest incompetence.
A Caligula out of his time, he navigates by twitter outburst and daily West Wing rants. What gods did we offend to bring this calamity upon us?
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The personality disorders of the president become louder and more obvious as his promises fail to deliver. His obsessive ego mania will never succeed in the long run. He may have nasty nick names for everyone of his detractors, but that only makes him more of a jerk!
It is sad that those of us who understood his narcissism and borderline personality problems were not understood or listened to - because he did understand and capitalize on the anger of the mid section of the country and the derision of those who couldn't stand to see a Black man in the White House. He is not only a destructive person, but an angry paranoid man who will eventually find out that he is left isolaed and hated - when his supporters find out that he has betrayed them. Coal is not coming back. Health care costs are going to rise., etc. His promises are falling flat.
Thank you Mr. Blow for your elegant description of a very sad president.
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A statesman represents every man, woman and child of his or her nation, whether or not they voted for him or her. This one thinks he only represents the narrow minded sycophants who voted for him. That is the problem.
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First, the country needs socialized medicine. We don't need the Health Insurance Companies' Relief Act, A/K/A Romneycare/Obamacare. With that as our goal the Sander's Medicare for all makes the most sense at the moment.
Second, benedict donald, as will soon be shown by Mueller, is disrupting this country in the service of Vladimir, giving aid and comfort to the enemy.
PROSECUTE RUSSIAGATE!
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Hopefully when the Dems take control of the House and Senate, they will pass an Obama Restoration Bill that undoes trump's cruel and perverse actions and restores everything Obama managed to get done against all GOP odds.
trump knows that in killing Obamacare he is spitefully harming all those who did not vote for him - his base covered under Obamacare are merely acceptable collateral damage to justify his spite.
trump was bailed out by getting elected by the Electoral College - can't they gather again and vote him out the way The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences kicked out Weinstein?
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"Trump can’t hold a candle to Obama, so he’s taking a tiki torch to Obama’s legacy."
Great line.
Unfortunately, Trump is also taking a tiki torch to the country and the world, what with his irresponsible efforts to kill ACA which affects millions and his vile threats against North Korea and Iran. His Twitter wars have gone global and we may all pay a price for the decision of over 60 million among us who thought he'd make a good POTUS.
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Given what we know now about the mood of the country and Trump's failure to do anything constructive as President, Obama's legacy is increasingly impressive and Trump's legacy increasingly despressing.
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I never imagined that something like this could happen in the U.S. And with all that is being said and written about Trump every single day, I cannot understand why he is still holding the office of president, doing so much harm on so many levels, and posing a threat to national security and world peace. When is this national nightmare going to end????
Trump is a reactionary. He is simply against what Obama was for. He has no positive vision of his own. He defines himself against another. And the US and the world are hostages to his psychology and his actions stemming from it. Just deciding to withdraw from the TPP was damage enough to the United States and its allies in the deal. Such a gift to the one-party dictatorship of China should never be forgiven. This Australian won't forget.
However just as you say Trump "chafes" at Obama Mr Blow, I must chafe at you calling Barack a "black man". To be sure his father was a fully African man, and a very intelligent and educated one at that. But his mother was a very fair-skinned American woman of European descent, so what purpose is served by calling him "black"? Why support the absurd logic of white supremacists who contend that if one is at all "black" one is wholly "black"?
Never accept the terms of the argument of your mortal foe.
I’m a white mother to black sons. Charles calls President Obama black because that’s how people I. This country who opposed him, see him. While my boys are biracial—I know that means they are more not LESS likely to be discriminated against. Sad but true.
UN - just because something is the case, doesn't mean it should be the case. I know it is hard to "buck the trend" but I think you should try. I'm of the view that we're all individuals and human beings and that our particular ethnic background is not significant or relevant. I'd refer to Barack and your sons as of mixed ancestry or heritage (note: not "mixed race") but really I think it not worthy of mention most of the time. I'm sorry for the lack of appreciation of our common humanity, and for the racism, your sons experience in the US, as others do here and elsewhere. Best wishes to you.
You need to watch Hemry Louis Gate's program " Finding your Roots". !
all of us are related to a whole bunch of "others". It's all in the genes.
But we also belong to our social and family groups. We are connected to them, regardless.
Obama was brought up by racially different parents but identified as a black man. I hope we can stop the hair-splitting. Would you prefer to be called an "octoroon" or a black man ?
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Funny how people see the same reality but through different lenses. In Obama, I saw a man who was an idealogue. Almost every decision he made was based on his ideology, not necessarily what was in the best interest of America and Americans. He made decisions in the best interest of Democrats, unions, minorities, poor people, gays, transgenders, Muslims, illegal immigrants, open borders, government workers, etc. So if you are a social justice warrior, you love Obama. And it didn't hurt that he was handsome, articulate, and smooth.
But the job description of a POTUS is to do what is in the best interest of all Americans, not just subsets. This is why Trump won the election and this is why Trump is dismantling the Obama legacy.
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Open borders is a people? By the way...leaving aside minor tech details like the way that the PPACA benefitted YOU and everybody you know, if you add all those people you listed up, you get maybe 90% of the country.
Correction—you’re white—and because disenfranchised people had an ally in the White House with Obama, you felt left out. That’s white privilege speaking. Now that you’re on a level playing field, it’s unfair. Ridiculous. Welcome to the revolution.
The defining attributes of Donald Trump's presidency will be his mean spirited rhetoric, his total disregard for America's itinerate poor and disfranchised, and his utter detachment from middle America. We'll remember Mr. Trump's finest hour as handing out hot dogs, hoagies and throwing rolls of paper towels into the crowd.
The poor and uneducated may have been his base, and they did vote for him in en-masse, but they didn't get back the love they expressed for him during his campaign.
It's ironic that the literal translation of "Al-Qaeda" from Arabic into English is "The Base". Donald Trump is exactly like one of those fired-up Imams, whipping up the crowds with chants of "Death To America", except his catch phrase instead was MAGA.
The same poor, uneducated individuals in the middle-east that brought Al-Queda to power had an exact analog in Trump here in the United States.
Contrast Barak Obama's public persona, his command of the facts, and that measured, mellifluous speaking style, against the raw and nasty Trump rants. Consider his eloquence in times of crisis, and then hold it up in the cold, hard light of history against the the seamy outbursts of the Tweeter-In-Chief. Sad!
Now we're seeing firsthand what damage a poor selection to the office of the presidency can bring. No progress on any major issue and divisiveness across the land. Our lack of progress on the domestic front, and our loss of standing as the leader of the free world will take decades to repair.
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Trump has only removed the unconstitutional part of Obamacare, rest is still there for now at least.
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I always go back to remind people Trump was the King Birther...he attempted to smear Obama for years with the big lie. That we (collectively) did not punish Trump for this and actually promoted him to the presidency says that we have a great deal of work to do. Knowing fact from fiction is a valuable tool to have as a person. Also, hiring Steve Bannon who was the head of Breitbart at the time for a high level position within the campaign and then welcomed into the White House is further proof of Trump's unfitness and fondness for hateful disinformation. Trump is a liar and will use any means that benefits himself...in other words he is a dangerous person that must be contained. I trust Mr. Mueller and his team will find criminality in Trump's past.
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I remember years ago when therapists recommended boxing with an air-filled "dummy: that bounced back or beating the heck out of pillows to diffuse our anger. Since Trump seems beyond redemption from his self absorption and mean-spirited pettiness, perhaps we could ask our Congressmen to put a line item in the national budget to get him a punching bag that has Obama screen-printed full size on it so he could take out his anger at being a weasel and are country would be safe from his destructive tics. I would even be willing to have my fixed low-income taxes raised for that one!
There is an expression that is occasionally heard around here: "Only in America..." Typically, this pertains to episodes of idiocy, crassness, and perversion. The rise of Trump has witnessed countless utterances.
However, and quite reassuringly, when most Australians think of America, we think of heroes: Abraham Lincoln, Atticus Finch, Erin Brockovich, Muhammad Ali, Albert Einstein, Buzz Aldrin, Carl Sagan, and of course, Barack Obama.
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Mr. Bliw, you are correct on every count, but you neglect to say the obvious.
Trump is a racist who can’t stand being outdone by an African-American.
The whole basis of his support and his presidency is racism, which the Republican Party has been manipulating into electoral success for more than 2 generations now. Trump is the puppet of this movement and he revels in his prejudice.
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Brilliant opening paragraph. In my exasperation with Trump, I have usually defaulted to calling it jealousy of Obama, but this description shows the truly pathetic and desperate nature of his obsession with much more clarity. So good, as always, Mr. Blow. Thank you.
Maybe, somewhere deep in his subconscious Trump feels inferior to Obama, but the conscious Trump is superior to all. Just ask him.
It's actually worse than what you state, but you're getting close.
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No, the current occupant in the Oval Office realizes that he can't hold a candle to his predecessor-and it inflames his malignant narcissism to a degree that is dangerous for us and the planet itself. We live in "interesting times" and it truly is a curse.
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My fear or lament is that grace and intelligence modeled by President Obama is being wiped clean by a man whose entire being revels in spitefulness and ignorance. I caught a brief replay of President Obama's amazing grace speech...you almost tear up over what we had and what we have now.
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Watching the White House correspondents Dinner in 2016, when Barack Obama eviscerated Trump, who was sitting in the audience, made me feel very nervous. The President, in a very funny way, got back at Trump for the Birther comments, his boorish ways, lack of substance......all with that dry, cutting humor he could use so well. There sat Trump, hands tightly clenched, a forced smile that never changed. He was mortified, as someone gave back to him as good as Trump was used to giving to others, and in front of a huge audience of people smarter, more honest than he would ever be. And I remember thinking, I hope Trump never gets the chance for revenge.......as he surely is now. Each day as I read of some new executive order, destroying the environment, eviscerating ACA, making economic decisions that will slow, not grow....jobs for the base he promised to help, I think back to that thin, angry smile on Trump’s face as Obama roasted him. Therein lies so much of Trumph’s obsession. And we are all paying the price.
The pre-Socratic Greek philosopher, Heraclitus of Ephesus, is supposed to have said that “Character is destiny.” Doubtless true but, as Trump so amply illustrates, obliging others bear the burden of that destiny with you may be true also; pity that.
I won't call Trump's popularity racism. I will, however, call it reality. The my country reality. This is a conquered land and the conquerers want their due. They will reward subservience well, but it is their country. If you look at the electoral map of the last presidential election, you will see the no strangers need apply in most of the USA. Who you gonna run to, where you gonna hide?
So, are you Native American? If not, weren't YOUR ancestors among those you call "conquerors"?
1
I didn't want to believe that Trump was wrecking our country, our standing in the world, and our institutional norms simply out of racist fury. But it can no longer be denied. He feels the need to erase any vestige of President Obama's achievements because he Just. Can't. Stand. It. that a black man could do anything better than he can. Including golf, I'm sure. Barack Obama, in his sleep, accomplished more than Donald Trump ever could, wide awake. (Then again, Trump asleep also accomplishes more than Trump awake! But it's nothing to brag about.) Sad.
1
Truer words are rarely written. Thank you, Mr. Blow, for presenting this monstrosity of a president so succinctly.
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Mr. Blow,
All this is so true, yet for naught.
The English language does not have a word for a person who exists at the purely animal level -- one of performing the bodily functions of eating, defecating, breeding, and no more.
Robert Louis Stevenson, in "Kidnapped," describes how the orphaned David Balfour arrives in Cramond in search of his uncle Ebenezer, and meeting a horse drawn cart, asks the cart driver what sort of man Ebenezer is. "Nae kind of man," replies the driver, "nae kind of man at all." Those who have read the book will know that the uncle later attempts to kill David by having him fall off a broken stairway in a dark stormy night.
"Nae kind of man." That is Trump. And yet the comparison falls short. I can think of no character so wretched in all of literature -- not Edward Casaubon, not Iago, not Uriah Heep, not Gollum, not Ubu Roi. Not one so rotten to the core as Trump.
Livers there a man with a soul so vile,
With his bones full of hate, and his heart full of bile.
With reason destroyed,
Of honesty devoid.
Seldom he smiles, for on what would he smile?
With his mind full of hate and his heart full of bile.
3
Mr. Blow, as usual, you have gotten it totally correct. trump is ruled by spite, just look at his face! He is always looking for a fight. Anyone who "crosses" him in any way becomes someone to taunt and belittle.
Trump does not care about Americans. He only cares about his ego and his money. Many people who did not vote for him say "He is not my President" because once elected Trump has never acted as though he is the President of all of the citizens of the US. By continuing tontrar Trump acts as though he is only the President of the minority of Americans who voted for him... His 35 or 40%. He demonstrates over and over every day that he cares nothing for the other 60% of America. We are fake news.
I believe you're correct, and I would emphasize this: Barack Obama is African-American and that reality may aggravate the narcissistic injury he causes Trump.
"It must be cold and miserable standing in the shadow of someone greater and smarter, more loved and more admired."
Indeed, Trump's proclamations regarding his intelligence and abilities not withstanding–Donald J. Trump is a small, limited man, desperate in every way to convince himself and present otherwise. Trump obviously is not brilliant, yet he is intelligent enough to understand that he is a fraud, a confidence man, a pitiful excuse for a human being that is far beyond his depth as POTUS.
Trump is suffering in plain view and this country and the world is being forced to witness his struggle with reality, and his inner demons–daily. One can only speculate; however, I would think his greatest torment as POTUS is, "what have I done–I had my kingdom–I won for this torment–save me!"
Sorry–Donald there is no one to save you–we're just hoping you do not destroy us all with your floundering incompetence!
1
He sounds just like Mitch McConnell and the GOP.
Crooked lying Trump could never, ever, even pretend to have the grace and dignity of Barack Obama, our first black president; Obama, always a gentleman, so thoughtful and respectful of the constitution, to a fault, that allowed cheaters in Wall Street (and the likes of vulgar Trump) to get away with 'murder' (causing the depression, 10 years ago), unscathed by the misery caused to untold number of people worldwide, and trying to repeat the same now as Trump has began deregulating the industry. Our stupid bully in the White House may think he can hide the sun with his tiny hands, an impossible task insofar Obama's humanity is concerned. Trump shall remain the miserable thug he is, with no remedy in sight to control his rage, pettiness and, yes, racist stupidity. Trump remains a poor rich guy, insecure and immature, bereft of any feelings towards others, isolated within his own bubble of entitlement, unable to show any virtue unless you consider his 'expert lying' a feat. And now, against all reason and common sense, and exercising cruelty by abusing the power of the presidency, this ignorant bully is embarked in destroying Obamacare out of spite. That it would disenfranchise millions out of health care, Trump gives a damn!
Nailed it again Mr Blow.
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Don't lose sight of the fact that rule-by-spite has the backing of the Republican Congress. Human dignity and (god forbid) common sense, have been set aside at the expense of the American voters.
CBD . . . constituents be damned.
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President Obama was and is a man of faith. Not faux wear on your sleeve, look at me faith but real and deep and genuine. President Trump has never even thought about faith as a part of human character. I would accept atheism or agnostic because it would mean that faith in God had been considered in the first place and then found wanting. Trump hasn't done that either.
When a person is the center of The Universe, things go south really quickly.
Mr. "I Alone Can Fix It" does not consider anything outside the realm of his thoughts and experiences as meriting his attention. And when all actions must reflect back upon the Great One, the universe shrinks into an ugly little man.
We can not forget that the GOP saw this spiteful tiny shriveled soul and said 'Okay, great, we can work with this guy!'. Trump is a louder and more vulgar version of Mitch McConnell. Both men share the vision of destroying Obama.
And they will have at it, citizens be damned.
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The man wants to win at any cost. Whether his actions to "win" involve spite or lying or being a bully or a mean sob or ... he will attempt to manipulate you (or Congress) any way it takes to win. The ethic is not what is good for the country or the world, but what gives Trump a win. It doesn't matter if his deregulations make it easier for the coal industry to pollute rivers, he has won something for the coal industry. Millions may lose health coverage, but he has won by dismantling the ACA. His win at all costs leaves Americans and the world subject to great harm. Unfortunately, he has a GOP Party that also has had an attitude of win by dismantling any and every proposal by Democrats or a Democratic president. For 8 years the GOP blocked every legislative proposal from Obama or his Party. DT follows the Party of "NO" with its corrupt practice of denying any legislation that might benefit a majority of Americans or our planet.
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Mr. Blow, you hit the nail squarely on its head.
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"God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble." Humility "trumps" hubris every time.
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trump is dumber than an armadillo that curls up for a nap in the middle of a heavily traveled road. Nevertheless, please stop with the Obama-is-a-god thing. He was a mediocre president who told voters that he cared about them and then demonstrated how little he cared. His contribution to the ACA was a privately negotiated agreement with Big Pharma that protected their profits. Consequently, the ever rising cost of drugs is a primary reason why private insurance companies are leaving the pool that is vital to the success of the ACA.
Worse yet, Obama allowed the greedy gamblers on Wall Street. who nearly destroyed the world's economies and God knows how many lives, to walk. One mid-level banker was prosecuted but the men at the top kept their positions of power, their obscene salaries and bonuses and regulations that would allow them to sink the economy again. It's no surprise that 91% of the wealth created by the recovery from the recession went to the ultra wealthy while the people who had lost their jobs and their homes went from sleeping in their cars to a minimum wage job with no benefits in an Amazon warehouse and a crummy apartment.
Unlike trump, my problem with the media, including Mr. Blow, is that they lack a commitment to the truth and are willing to check their biases at the door. Their coverage of the 2016 election was dangerously shallow and helped put a deranged fool in the Oval Office.
Adoring odes to Obama like this column won't help us now.
Given that Obama was blocked at every turn by Republicans, I think he did amazingly well.
In spite of Republicans, he got us through the worst recession since the Great Depression.
Took a whopping $1.4 Trillion deficit given to him by W. Bush and got that down by almost 2/3 to $550 Billion.
The economy created 10 Million jobs, 16 Million really but 6 Million were just jobs lost to the Great Recession.
And that is compared to 3 Million under W. Bush with his two tax cuts for "the job creators" while Obama put back the highest marginal rate and gave us the "jobs killing" Obama-care.
And not only was Obama given the Great Recession, at the same time he was given the fiasco of the Iraq invasion.
And while I agree that Wall St. people should have gone to jail, here is a list of some Obama accomplishments:
https://washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/januaryfebruary-2017/obamas-top-5...
I'm looking forward to the Ken Burns documentary: "Donald Trump: America's Worst Idea."
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The fishbowl that is the presidency always reveals people for who they've always been. In his previous life Trump was a lousy crooked businessman but a great performer. He got what he wanted when he wanted because he has no conscience and was willing to do whatever needed to be done to achieve his goal even if that meant using questionable methods. This is a man who doesn't mind being sued because he sees it as a chance to crush his enemy.
Trump gave Congress their chance to repeal the ACA. They failed so now he's going to do whatever is necessary to destroy the ACA. In Trump's mind the end justifies the means and he will do whatever it takes to get a win. This is what he promised his base and this is why they voted for him.
Obama knew that as the first black president he would be held to a higher standard than any other president. That knowledge and his background as a community organizer meant that Obama always worked to ensure that there was no scandal and that his policies would help not hurt the American people.
Trump is not nor will he ever be the kind of leader that Obama was. We need to accept that his mission is to destroy. Never underestimate Trump because he's quite capable of going even lower than what we've seen. No is not in his vocabulary.
"Two Minutes Hate. ... The Two Minutes Hate, from George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, is a daily period in which Party members of the society of Oceania must watch a film depicting the Party's enemies (notably Emmanuel Goldstein and his followers) and express their hatred for them for exactly two minutes."--Wikipedia
Everytime I think of Limbaugh, Hannity and all the other coterie of fanatical right-wing shouting heads, I think of Orwell's "Two Minutes Hate."
Except it has now been roughly "Two Decades Hate" for 24 hours a day and 365 days a year.
And Emmanuel Goldstein is Barack Obama.
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Yeah, i've seen a wrecking ball. In 2000, i was in Khakum Woods in Greenwich for a big name client building a pool house. The pool was constructed and poured just beside us carpenters job. Soon, after, it was said to be 2' too close to the poolhouse. An excavator came with a "wrecking ball{ cradled in the bucket. Raised it up. Dropped it in the center of the pool. Cracked open the concrete. It was dug up, reformed, and repoured, and moved 2' away. Seven or eight years later i longed for those years of extravagance, and the loss of such a mealticket as that kind of job. And, now the obama years are over. And i'm a trump accomodator.
But i beg to differ, i think he further cements Obama's legacy. I say take it as a complement: trump can't outdo him so he tries to undo his work. Basic sand box behavoir: the incorrigble boy can't outdo his neighbors sandcastle so he kicks it. I just see Hillary as doing worse. Like Nixon did in vietnam, she would've put the country in worse shape. I say, "beggars can't be choosers" and with a divided country, that's what we deserve. So, it's all on hold.
Obama was the man. it was a great newly poured batch of concrete, his years. It was a chance to heal the country. Trump is just the curing process. Hillary would've wrecked it. Walked on it too soon. Messed with it. Let it cure some, i say. Then build again. Obama laid a foundation. Now wait.
Trump is willing to sacrifice ALL of us in order to serve his ego that he feels Obama squashed at a 2011 White House event. DJT has vowed he would become president and reverse everything and anything Obama did because of it. This was out in the open folks - he stated in on radio shows etc. Not FAKE news - Trump's own vow that he made himself.
A man who is willing to do this needs to have a psychiatric exam and tossed out as POTUS. One would think a psychiatric exam would be standard to be POTUS too.
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First off, Trump wasn't the first person to try and eliminate Obama from the history books. McConnell, Boehner, Ryan, Sessions, Price, and so forth tried to prevent any history involving Obama from happening in the first place. They bear more blame than Trump. Secondly, Trump could tell his supporters their health insurance policies can be found in a box of Cracker Jacks and they would buy cases of it. There is the real problem: he has a group of supporters who won't come out and admit their fear with Obama as president was that "the Blacks are going to take over and we will be paying taxes so they can have benefits". Obama could have made promises to Trump supporters they now embrace and they would have rejected them because of the color of his skin. The evidence points to Trump supporters accepting as gospel either policies that will hurt them or policies with no details whatsoever. Let's see, people that know nothing about the details, believe what they are told, believe the evidence that doesn't support what they are told is all fake. After all this is over and they are wiping the thick layers of egg off their face, they will have to look at the true cause of this disaster....in the mirror.
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The telling line of this essay, which Mr. Blow does not highlight, as he doesn't need to is "Trump...chafes at the black man."
You can dress it up any way you like, but Trump's entire raison d'être is channeling the rage a good deal of America feels at eight years of having an black man as President. And it doesn't matter that this and that percentage voted for Obama in the first place. (If you recall, he won the primary against a woman, and for a lot of people, misogyny trumps racism in their own catalogue of reflexes). Because it's one thing to vote for someone, and then it is another thing to have him up there for eight years, demonstrating the polish, erudition, class, and manners that many people in the electorate don't have, and thus resent. The result is backlash. And that has given us a man who is in every possible way Obama's opposite. The reason many people voted for Trump was that Hilary was a woman--it was a vote against a woman for President, not a vote for Trump. And, this is what you get. And Charles Blow is just about the only person left who seems to have an ounce of sense about this.
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Trump has spawned an industry based on telling us how bad he is. We get that. Stop this non-stop drivel. You are preaching to the choir. Tell us how we fix this problem before he drives the world into a ditch.
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"There is a thing present in Obama and absent from Trump that no amount of money or power can alter: a sense of elegant intellectualism and taste."
All true, but the most important things trump lacks is basic decency and any sense of humanity: he's hollow.
May God forgive me, but I hate the man....he's the only person in 70+yrs about whom I've uttered those words, words I know are ugly, feelings I daily try to put into perspective....it's just not possible with this man...he gives you nothing positive to work with: all lies, all manipulation and all in promoting the most disgusting and depressing show on earth: the Trump Whitehouse.
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One of the best columns you've ever written. Also one of the most depressing.
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Trump won the election for the specific reason to remove Obama's policies. Obama's policies hurt Americans. Again Mr Blows pathological racism for white conservatives clouds his view Trump is doing what he said he would do during the campaign, more power to him.
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I am still going through the five stages of grief over not only the loss of my admired and beloved President Obama but also the unwanted gain, no, the coup, of a barely human man who contaminates the Oval Office, the nation, the world, both literally as well as symbolically.
I am stuck, however, in anger. The denial and depression gone, the bargaining, non-existent. (God herself could not work through that stage.) The acceptance will never, never occur. I want to be and remain in anger. It motivates and propels me to in some way rebuild Barack Obama's legacy and accomplishments. I adamantly refuse to let my American family become sick through pollution or lack of medical care. I absolutely refuse to allow my Black, Brown, Muslim, and LGBT neighbors to be trampled on by a bigot and racist. I absolutely refuse to rest until I awake and become free of this nightmarish paradigm we have been forced into. I will not rest until justice pounds its gavel and declares this mad man guilty of aiding and abetting the death of a democracy.
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You should absolutely refuse to characterize "god" as a woman (or a man) ever again, as in "God herself . . . ", what a ridiculous and divisive construction. What is the point?
Underlying all of Trump is that the less you are like HIM, the more you or your group or religion or ethnicity are on his list to eliminate, to deride, to criticze, to mock, to DESPISE. To be a black, Muslim, Puerto Rican would probably be a good guess for a candidate at the bottom of Trump's barrel.
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