Talking About Donald Trump: Bluster Isn't Strength

Would you consider Donald Trump the toughest US president by far?

On the contrary. I consider Donald J. Trump to be the weakest President of the United States after James Buchanan, the Chief Executive who sat on his hands and did nothing to prevent the secession crisis of 1860 before the outbreak of the Civil War.

Trump, of course, loves to talk tough. That’s been one of his personality traits since he became a public figure in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He has always been an abrasive, bombastic man who is fond of attacking other people verbally and invading their personal space to unnerve them. That’s been his shtick for as long as I remember; I remember being appalled when he called for the return of the death penalty in New York State during the media circus that sprung up during 1989’s “Central Park jogger rape” incident.

To me, Trump’s bellicosity, especially now that he is in the White House, is not toughness. It’s a weakness, especially when it concerns the moral and ethical issues of the use of Presidential powers and influence. It smacks of insecurity, of a person who ran for President without really being prepared for the job, didn’t really expect to win, and is now up to his eyeballs in a playing field for which his “tough guy from Queens” persona is not fit.

A real mensch does not kowtow to the leader of an unfriendly rival superpower and side with him against America’s entire intelligence community regarding Russian interference in the 2016 elections.

A real tough President does not try to placate “both sides” in the divide between white supremacists/neo-Nazis and the rest of society, as Trump did after the Charlottesville protests in the summer of 2017.

A strong President does not say “We will build a great beautiful wall on the southern border and Mexico will pay for it,” then take money from the Department of Defense budget (which is badly needed to improve housing conditions and other infrastructure in military bases all over the U.S.) to upgrade a few hundred miles of existing border barriers.

A strong President does not constantly lie about everything, whether it is about the aforementioned wall that Mexico will pay for or the phone call with Ukraine’s President in which Trump said he would continue providing Ukraine with military assistance in exchange for information about Joe Biden and his son’s business dealings.

A strong President does not attack the free press and call coverage of his activities as Chief Executive “fake news” simply because he doesn’t like the reporting. As Harry S. Truman once said, “If you can’t stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen.”