My Less Than Humble Opinion

I HAVE TO SAY IT!

I cannot, in good conscience, restrain myself any longer. Until today, I’ve reserved the bulk of my venom toward our “beloved” President for Twitter, but my Twitter self, @mltho5, ^[1]  gets only 280 characters per tweet.  In this venue, I have as many characters as I want.

What do I feel so compelled to say? Just this:

President Donald J. Trump is an Under-Educated, Proudly Ignorant, Marginally Literate, Disloyal, and Cowardly Bully; a Racist, a Misogynist, and a Narcissist; Probably a Criminal; and, Just Maybe, a Traitor! ^[2]

Yes, I meant to shout. Now, I’ll elaborate.

 

Under-Educated

The President likes to brag about being graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. I’m not impressed with the degree or the School. In April of 2017, the Census Bureau reported that 33.4% … over 1/3 … of Americans over 25 have a baccalaureate degree. Economics is one of the Social Sciences. ^[3]

When Donald and I were in college back in the 1960s, a larger percentage of applicants were accepted for college admission than today. ^[4]  In 1964, there was only a 21.2% difference between the acceptance rate of all colleges and universities and that of Ivy League schools. By 2006, the disparity increased to 30.8%. Then, as now, you were more likely to gain admission to any college or university if you were a “legacy” or your Daddy could give a “nice” donation to the school.

Today, the University of Pennsylvania’s ranking among the Ivy League schools is in the lower half … 5th out of 8. ^[5]

So, President Trump’s highly vaunted (by him) education is a baccalaureate degree in a social science from the 5th rated Ivy League University that admitted 25% more applicants than it does today. I am not impressed. Are you?

 

Proudly Ignorant

President Trump flaunts his ignorance. From early in his presidency, here’s one of the better examples:

There are plenty more:

• When talking about Health Insurance in an interview, the President has said, “… you start working and you’re paying $12 a year for insurance, and by the time you’re 70, you get a nice plan.” Some forms of Life Insurance work that way, but not Health Insurance.
   
• The President conflates Napoleon I and Napoleon III talking about their histories as if they were the same person. When Napoléon Bonaparte died at age 51, Charles-Louis Napoléon Bonaparte was 13 years old.

• He consistently says that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is from Baltimore. The Deputy A.G. grew up near Philadelphia. He does live in Maryland … Bethesda, which is a lot closer to Washington, D.C. than Baltimore. He did teach at the University of Baltimore School of Law, but has never lived there.
   
• Mr. Trump says the FBI Director “reports directly to the president of the United States”. He doesn’t. The FBI Director reports to the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence. ^[6]
   
• According to President Trump, 51 Republican Senators attended his Health Care meeting at the White House. That was the total number of Republican Senators in the 115th Congress, but … Susan Collins and Rand Paul chose not to attend that meeting and John McCain was unable to attend because of his illness. In my arithmetic, 51 – 3 = 48.
   

But wait, there’s more:

• President Trump believes that Andrew Jackson was furious about the Civil War. Because Jackson was a slave holder and white supremacist, I’m sure he would have been upset about the War … had he been alive. Andrew Jackson died on June 8, 1845. The Civil War began on December 20, 1860. Andrew Jackson seems to be a hero of Trump. The President has to work harder to meet his idol’s depths of abuse. Trump’s family separation program was horrendous, but Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act that led to the Trail of Tears resulting in the deaths of 2000 to 8000 members of the Cherokee Nation.
   
• In February 2017, the President cited Frederick Douglass as “an example of somebody who’s done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more”. Douglass died February 20, 1895.
   
• President Trump makes it obvious, in word and deed, that he in no way comprehends his Constitutional duties and limits. If he were to learn that Article I of the Constitution is about Congress, he’d feel slighted. If he were to learn it’s almost two and a half times as long as Article II … which defines the Presidency …, he’d be apoplectic. Too bad we can’t get that “news” on Fox.
   
• During the Congressional efforts to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act, Mr. Trump said, “Nobody knew healthcare could be so complicated.” Really? Would the Federal Government have struggled with Health Care for 70⁺  years if it were were simple?

Some may believe that it’s all part of the President’s “act” … that he’s a shrewd politician who uses this apparent lack of knowledge as ploy to confuse his opponents. I have a different view. I never attribute to subterfuge and malice what can be accounted for by stupidity and ignorance.

 

Marginally Literate

President Donald J. Trump does not read. On the other hand, we know that the “Tweeter-in-Chief” can write at a certain level. The bad news is that level is the 4th Grade. ^[7]  The good news is that 4th Grade is the average reading level of all Tweets (or is that more bad news?). Being about the same age as the President, I appreciate his focus on television. Just as Millennials grew up with social media, our generation grew up with television. Like the President, I watch/listen to a lot of television. Unlike the President, I learned to read … and to like reading. To limit oneself to any single source of information is an offense to one’s intellect … and it’s dangerous.

 

Disloyal

Throughout his career, from Businessman to President, Donald Trump has demanded personal loyalty. Sally Yates and  James Comey were fired because they were loyal to the Law, rather than to the President. Trump demands loyalty, but does not return that loyalty. Ask Jeff Sessions, H. R. McMaster, or Rex Tillerson. Ask Sean Spicer or Anthony Scaramucci. Ask Steve Bannon … or Omarosa … or Michael Cohen … or Paul Manafort. Ask Ivana Trump  or Marla Maples. Be ready to ask Matthew Witaker in a few weeks or months. One who demands loyalty without any intent to reciprocate is not asking for loyalty. He is asking for fealty.
 

 

Cowardly Bully

Cowardly Bully is a bit redundant. If one stands up to a bully, the bully backs off almost every time. In “The Wizard of Oz“, the Cowardly Lion tries to intimidate Dorothy and her traveling companions. His ruse works until the Lion threatens Toto and Dorothy intercedes with a slap on his nose. The Lion begins to cry and admits that he;s a coward.

When he feels threatened or when he feels it’s to his advantage, President Trump says and does whatever he thinks will most intimidate an opponent. Unlike the Lion and most other bullies, the President doesn’t back off when someone pushes back. He ramps up. He is at his worst on the campaign trail. He becomes a rabble-rouser … doing his best to demean others and stir his supporters to do the same. His most egregious example of this was mocking a disabled reporter to the laughs and jeers of his thralls.
 
 

Racist

Though they feign innocence and ignorance of their intent, President Trump, some of his Cabinet and closest advisers, and his most ardent supporters do little to hide their dislike for anyone who isn’t white. ^[8]  From the “Bitherism” conspiracy ^[9]  directed toward President Obama to the time he pompously descended ^[10]  the escalator in Trump Tower to announce his candidacy, through the present, Trump’s White Supremacist tendencies have been and are in the forefront.

Speaking of Mexico in his “escalator speech”, Candidate Trump said, “They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.” Black athletes who use their best “bully pulpit” to protest police killings of innocent people are, in his mind, “Sons of Bitches”. ^[11]  He questions the intelligence and ability of black politicians calling them “extraordinarily low IQ persons”, “unqualified”, and “crime loving”.

He sees their neighborhoods as “war zones” surrounded by nothing but failure and despair. He sees them dependent on SNAP benefits for purchasing food. Statements like, “You’re living in your poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs, 58 percent of your youth is unemployed — what the hell do you have to lose?”, reek of his “I alone can fix it” attitude.


 

Misogynist

For decades, Donald Trump has made no secret that he has nothing but disdain for 49.6% of the World’s population. ^[12]  Nothing changed during his campaign:

• While hosting the first Republican debate, Megyn Kelly asked pointed questions about previous accusations of sexism made against him. At a later CNN interview, Candidate Trump said of Kelly, “You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes. Blood coming out of her whatever.”
   
• Carly Fiorina, former Hewlett-Packard CEO, was one of Trump’s Republican rivals. Rolling Stone quoted him saying, “Can you imagine that, the face of our next President? I mean, she’s a woman, and I’m not supposed to say mean things, but really, folks, come on. Are we serious?”
   
• In March of 2016, responding to a question from MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, Candidate Trump said, “There has to be some sort of punishment” … for a woman seeking an abortion … should Rowe v. Wade be overturned. Two hours later he switched the punishment to doctors who performed abortions under the future hypothetical ban … but, it was too late. His true feelings had already escaped.
   
• In their first Presidential debate, Trump interrupted Clinton 25 times in 26 minutes to “explain” what he was certain was beyond her understanding. He also questioned her health saying, “She doesn’t have the look. She doesn’t have the stamina.”
   
• Then there’s the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape. Billy Bush was fired for his part in it. Donald Trump was elected President of the United States.
   
  

• In June of 2017, now President Trump launched a Twitter attack on the hosts of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski.
  

40 or 50 years ago, when Donald and I were much younger, he would have been referred to as a Male Chauvinist Pig. That was in the last century.

Things have changed since then. A great many of us have learned and grown during the intervening years. In the era of #MeToo, Donald Trump’s behavior is beneath contempt. To call him a Male Chauvinist Pig is the grossest of understatement … and an insult to pigs.


 

Narcissist

Is President Donald Trump a Narcissist? U.S. psychiatrists Hotchkiss and James F. Masterson identified “The Seven Deadly Sins of Narcissism”. Let’s see how many apply to our President.

1. Shamelessness: Narcissists are often proudly and openly shameless; they are not bound by the needs and wishes of others. Narcissists hate shame, and consider it “toxic”, as shame implies they are not perfect and need to change. Narcissists prefer guilt over shame, as guilt allows them to dissociate their actions from themselves – it’s only their actions that are wrong, while they themselves remain perfect.
    
2. Magical thinking: Narcissists see themselves as perfect, using distortion and illusion known as magical thinking. They also use projection to “dump” shame onto others.
    
3. Arrogance: A narcissist who is feeling deflated may “re-inflate” their sense of self-importance by diminishing, debasing, or degrading somebody else.
    
4. Envy: A narcissist may secure a sense of superiority in the face of another person’s ability by using contempt to minimize the other person or their achievements.
    
5. Entitlement: Narcissists hold unreasonable expectations of particularly favorable treatment and automatic compliance because they consider themselves special. Failure to comply is considered an attack on their superiority, and the perpetrator is considered an “awkward” or “difficult” person. Defiance of their will is a narcissistic injury that can trigger narcissistic rage.
    
6. Exploitation: Can take many forms but always involves the exploitation of others without regard for their feelings or interests. Often the other person is in a subservient position where resistance would be difficult or even impossible. Sometimes the subservience is not so much real as assumed.
    
7. Bad boundaries: Narcissists do not recognize that they have boundaries and that others are separate and are not extensions of themselves. Others either exist to meet their needs or may as well not exist at all. Those who provide narcissistic supply to the narcissist are treated as if they are part of the narcissist and are expected to live up to those expectations. In the mind of a narcissist, there is no boundary between self and other.

 
Seven traits of narcissists; seven check marks … I think that about covers it. If you disagree with any of my check marks, you’re obviously wrong. It couldn’t be an error on my part. Could it? 
 
 

Probably a Criminal

Is President Donald John Trump a criminal? He definitely has a history of pushing right up to the edge of the law. Has he ever crossed that line? He certainly acts like he has something to hide. He will shoot off his mouth … or his tweets … about any number of topics … most of which he is totally ignorant. If asked anything related to his past or present personal behaviors, personal relationships, or business dealings, he suddenly falls silent.

The President’s career and campaign have been replete with pushing the line that separates legality and illegality:

• In the 30 or so years prior to his 2016 election Trump or one his companies were involved in close to 3500 lawsuits … as plaintiff in 1900; defendant in 1450.
   
• On election day in 2016, Republican National Committee and Trump Campaign poll watchers were accused of voter intimidation in several states.
   
• Trump was accused of inciting to riot for encouraging violence against his detractors at campaign rallies. While shouting, “get ’em out of here” and saying that they deserved to be “roughed up”, the candidate promised to pay the legal bills if any of his supporters got in trouble.
   
• Repeatedly over the years, Trump companies have done business with families linked to New York and Philadelphia Italian-American Mafia.
   
• During the 2016 campaign, The Washington Post reported several cases wherein Trump may have misused the Donald J. Trump Foundation for self-dealing and tax evasion.
   
• Speaking of tax returns …   Between 1980 and 2016, every President several Vice Presidents, and many Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates have released their income tax returns to the public … until Donald Trump. Every time the subject comes up, the President refuses to release his taxes because he’s “being audited”. On several occasions, the Internal Revenue Service has stated that being audited does not impede the release of one’s records. ^[13]  What is he hiding? Could it be that he’s neither as wealthy as he says nor the great businessman that he claims to be? Might he fear exposure for tax evasion … or illegal business practices … or worse?
   
• For many decades, the Trump companies have destroyed or hidden thousands of physical and electronic documents demanded in legal proceedings of all kinds.
   
• In 1973, Donald and Fred Trump and their company were taken to court on civil charges for refusing to rent to African-Americans.
   
• Fred and Mary Anne Trump started providing for their children’s future welfare early … using a variety of highly questionable schemes that avoided gift tax. By the time he was 3 years old, Donald was “earning” what would today be $200,000 per year from his father’s business empire. As Donald grew, so did his active and knowing participation in tax evasion. One approach was grossly undervaluing gifted properties.
   
  The most elaborate scheme was a third-party company, owned by the children and a cousin, that supposedly bought properties and supplies for Fred’s businesses. By inflating the cost of purchases Fred’s employees had already made and claiming them as purchases of the third-party company sold to Fred’s company, the family managed to pass enormous sums of money from one generation to the next … while cheating the state and Federal governments out of a lot of taxes. Over the years, Donald received around $413 million from his father.
   
• Over the years, Donald Trump has surrounded himself with all sorts of shady characters … like his mentor, Roy Cohn; … people on the political lunatic fringe like Roger Stone, Jerome Corsi, Sebastian Gorka, and Steve Bannon; … and guys connected to Russia and its former satellites like Paul Manafort, Carter Page, Michael Flynn, and Felix Sater; his former lawyer/fixer, Michael Cohen, … and his current lawyer/media obfuscation practitioner, Rudy Giuliani. ^[14]

Donald Trump may not be a criminal, but he definitely does a great impression of a mob boss. 

 
 

Just Maybe, a Traitor

What is treason? Article III, Section 3 of the Constitution of the Unites States defines Treason as:

Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.

President Trump certainly isn’t levying War against the United States … or is he? Does ignoring and attacking the country’s Constitution and established body of Law amount to levying War against the United States?

Could it be that the President is adhering to [our] Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort? In a discussion on Quora, ^[15]   someone suggested that this could not apply because we’re not at war … no War; no Enemies to adhere to, aid, or comfort. This is technically true. U.S. Law does require declared war for the crime of treason to be even possible. Only Congress may declare war. The last time they did that was June 3, 1942. But Really! What have we been doing in the Middle East since 2001? Besides, where is it written that a country can’t have enemies without war? Nowhere! Was the North Korean hack into Sony Pictures the act of a friend? Have world intelligence services not uncovered sufficient evidence that Russia conducted cyber attacks on us, our allies, and other countries … and continue to do so?

Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution lists powers reserved for the Congress. Among those powers is:

To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water.

Does this mean that we can have neither war nor enemies unless Congress says so? If one goes strictly by the definition of “declared war” in the Constitution, the United States of America has not been a war since September 2, 1945 when the formal surrender of Japan ended World War II. President Harry S. Truman called the Korean War a “police action“. The Vietnam War, the Persian Gulf War, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and our activities on Syria were and are considered “Extended Military Engagements”. Call them “targeted actions”, “systematic campaigns”,  “sustained counter-terrorism strategies”, or whatever euphemism you like, the Americans on the front lines have enemies who may kill them or be killed by them. Cyber-warfare differs only insofar as:

• The enemy is less obvious.
• All of us are on the front lines.
• Lives can be destroyed without inflicting death. ^[16] 

Declared by Congress or not; whether the President wants to believe it or not, we are at war … with Vladimir Putin and any other would be world despot who has access to the necessary technology. If anyone in the Trump campaign conspired with Russia to influence the results of the 2016 election, they may not be guilty of treason, but they are definitely traitors in the common sense of the word. If Donald Trump knew about it and covered it up, so is he.

 

High Crimes and Misdemeanors …

As much as I dislike President Donald J. Trump and am outraged at what he’s doing to our country, I hope he isn’t guilty of treason. Under U.S. Code Title 18, the Federal penalty for treason is:

Death, or not less than 5 years’ imprisonment and not more than life imprisonment without the possibility of parole (minimum fine of $10,000, if not sentenced to death). Any person convicted of treason against the United States will permanently lose the right to ever hold or run for public office anywhere in any capacity within the United States.

Death seems a bit harsh; 5 years’ imprisonment is too mild; a fine of $10,000 is nothing to someone with Trump’s wealth; and it seems highly unlikely that Trump would ever want to hold public office again. Either Obstruction of Justice or violating his oath to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States” is enough to get him impeached. Losing re-election in 2020, because his tax bill, tariffs, etc. have hurt so many of those who he promised to help, would be crushingly humiliating. ^[17]

I’m among those who believe that Trump never intended to win the Presidency, but was using the campaign to gain more wide-spread prominence. Unfortunately for him and us, he won and found himself promoted well beyond his level of incompetency. He has exposed himself as the Uneducated, Ignorant, Illiterate, Disloyal, Cowardly, Bullying, Racist, Misogynist, and Narcissist that has always been … to the Country and to the World.

Whether he is impeached or defeated, he is likely to spend the rest of his life watching everything he ever wanted slip away. The more he fights to retain his desires; the more quickly his world will crumble. He will end his days as a prime example of the old pun, “Time wounds all heels,” … but he’ll probably remain too stupid to understand. ^[18]

 

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End Notes

1. Unless you have a Twitter account of your own, you’ll probably get an error on this link to my Twitter home page.
    
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2. That’s 207 characters. I couldn’t even begin to elaborate in the remaining 73 characters on Twitter. Twitter is good for slogans, insults, platitudes, quick questions, and incoherent ranting (Trump’s favorite), but not for extended discourse.
    
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3. I have nothing against the Social Sciences. In fact, I’m fond enough of them to have one myself … a Bachelor of Science in Psychology … but, the Social Sciences lack both the skill needed for “brain surgery” and the rigorous precision needed for “rocket science”.
    
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4. The average rate of acceptance for all colleges and universities was 56.4% in 1964. That average dropped to 47.4% in 2006. Ivy League colleges and universities had an acceptance rate of 35.1% in 1964, but had dropped to 16.6% in 2006.
    
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5. Harvard, Princeton, and Yale are the top 3 Ivy League Universities.
    
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6. If National Intelligence is required, President Trump could not possibly be involved.
    
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7. President Trump speaks at the 4th Grade Level too … another indicator that he doesn’t read much, if at all. When one reads regularly, one’s speech tends to pick up some of the style and many of the words used in the written word,
    
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8. To Trump and his followers, “White” equals “Anyone whose ancestors come from any part of Western Europe … except the Iberian Peninsula”.
    
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9. Once again, I feel compelled to point out that Barack Obama’s maternal family has lived in what is now the United States of America much longer than Donald Trump’s has. I have nothing against recent immigrants like Trump’s grandfather, but hearing one of their descendants question the citizenship of one of us whose ancestors helped create this country is patriotic blasphemy.
    
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10. Donald Trump descended an escalator to announce his candidacy … and has continued to descend ever since.
     
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11. Like all would-be Nationalist Despots, Trump likes to equate the Flag and the National Anthem with the Country. The Country is not these symbols. It is Us and our National Ideals. If you must use symbols to remind you of the essence of  United States of America, try replacing a Flag and Anthem born in war with these inspired by a desire for Freedom and embodying the Rule of Law:
    
     
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12. Male births slightly outnumber female births. We males are more fragile than our sisters. After all, according to Genesis , Adam was created first (Homo Sapiens, Revision 0). Before creating Eve (Homo Sapiens, Revision 1), God studied the earlier model and made improvements. Higher levels of Androgen are hard on the heart and circulatory system. Higher levels of Estrogen protect them.
     
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13. To be fair, I have heard Candidate, then President Trump’s “being audited” excuse many times, but have never heard him claim that it was the I.R.S. that was doing the auditing. Perhaps he’s being audited by an army of tax experts charged with finding ways to cover up illegalities and indiscretions.
     
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14. When it comes to spreading confusion, twisted views of reality and outright lies, Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump make a good team. The major difference in their skill is that Rudy knows many more three and four syllable words than Donald.
     
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15. Quora is a general question and answer forum covering discussions on a wide variety of subjects. In our current climate, political questions/discussions are common.
     
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16. Cyber-warfare can wipe out bank accounts, steal government secrets, destroy businesses, cripple infrastructure, and help a buffoon get elected President.
     
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17. Death might be letting him off too easy. Life in a white-collar prison might allow his venom to escape. I have a vindictive streak that wants him to spend the rest of his life watching the destruction of everything that’s important to him … his business empire, … his fortune, … his fame, … his 56 million Twitter followers, …
     
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18. I wanted to cover more … to be up-to-the-minute on President Trump’s latest antics. I’ve come to realize that was a foolish goal. On most days, our President can shovel it out faster than even professional journalists can keep pace.
    
    Because the state funeral of past President George H. W. Bush was held today, President Trump was unusually well-behaved. It seems like a good place to stop writing, reviewing,  and revising this article and to publish it.
     
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