Trump's Latest Meltdown Can't Be Sane-Washed

Disgusting, deranged, and dangerous.

The most disqualifying thing about Donald Trump is that he does or says something disqualifying every day. — Windsor Mann

There are 67 days until the Election. And it’s still a toss-up. Happy Thursday.

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Before we dive into the asininity and psychosis of this political season, I feel the need for a dose of canine chill, courtesy of Auggie.

Trump dishonors fallen soldiers. And breaks the law. Again.

ICYMI: My piece in The Atlantic:

On Monday, Donald Trump visited the sacred ground of Arlington National Cemetery, where many of America’s war dead are buried, and posed for photos. In the strangest of these pictures, the former president is smiling and giving a thumbs-up by the grave of a Marine. It’s an image of a man who has no idea how to behave around fallen heroes….

By now, Trump’s use of the military as a prop for his own ends should surprise no one. Despite his vigorous avoidance of military service, Trump has a long history of denigrating the service of others, even as he poses as a defender of the nation’s military. As a candidate for the Republican nomination in 2015, he mocked Senator John McCain’s status as a prisoner of war. “He’s not a war hero,” Trump said at the time. “I like people who weren’t captured.”

Later, as president, he told his then–chief of staff John Kelly that he didn’t want “any wounded guys” in his planned Independence Day parade: “This doesn’t look good for me.” Recently, he suggested that the civilian Medal of Freedom is “actually much better” than the military’s Medal of Honor, “because everyone gets the Congressional Medal of Honor, that’s soldiers, they’re either in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many times by bullets, or they’re dead.”

But Trump is especially out of place around the nation’s fallen troops. As reported by The Atlantic’s editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, Trump went to Arlington Cemetery with Kelly on Memorial Day 2017 and visited the gravesite of Kelly’s son Robert, who had been killed in Afghanistan. Standing next to the former Marine general, Trump said: “I don’t get it. What was in it for them?” In 2018, Trump canceled a visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery, near Paris; as Jeffrey reported, Trump told staff members that the cemetery was “filled with losers.” Trump also “referred to the more than 1,800 Marines who’d lost their lives at Belleau Wood as ‘suckers’ for getting killed,” according to Jeffrey’s reporting.

Jeffrey’s story is very much a sore spot for a candidate who wants to wrap himself in the flag. Trump has denied the reporting, but it was confirmed to CNN by Kelly: “What can I add that has not already been said? … A person that thinks those who defend their country in uniform, or are shot down or seriously wounded in combat, or spend years being tortured as POWs, are all ‘suckers’ because ‘there is nothing in it for them.’ A person that did not want to be seen in the presence of military amputees because ‘it doesn’t look good for me.’”

Kelly went on to corroborate other details in Jeffrey’s article. “God help us,” he concluded.

Monday’s wreath-laying at Arlington was, in part, Trump’s attempt to clean up the mess he has created, and to establish some credibility as a champion of men- and women-at-arms. But in the end, it merely served to remind Americans how little he understands about service, sacrifice, and heroism.

You can read the whole thing here. I discussed the piece with Jonathan Lemire on Morning Joe earlier today:

UPDATES:

• Trump campaign was warned not to take photos at Arlington before altercation, defense official says - The Washington Post

• US Army rebukes Trump campaign for incident at Arlington National Cemetery | CNN Politics

• 'Unfairly attacked': Army defends employee involved in Trump campaign incident at Arlington - POLITICO

• Trump Manages to Spoil One of Our Few Remaining Sacred Spaces - The Bulwark

Twofer-gate

Kamala Harris is sitting down for her first major network interview today — accompanied by her running mate, Tim Walz. The pairing has frothed the ankle-biters into a dither.

Yeah, because this never happens:

Trump just went full Q. Did anybody notice?

“The insane stuff that Trump posts on Truth Social every few hours would destroy any other presidential campaign if the press treated him remotely like they did anyone else,” Brian Klaas commented yesterday. “But they don’t.” Last year, he described the phenomenon as “the Banality of Crazy.” More recently, the media has been accused of “sane-washing” Trump’s deranged rants (the phrase is Aaron Rupar’s)— searching for moments of coherence amidst the gibbering nonsense.

But how do you sane-wash this cataract of insanity, fascism, paranoia, and undiluted fuckitude?

Trump posted dozens of memes and comments from accounts promoting the QAnon conspiracy theory, false claims about the 2020 election, sexist attacks against Kamala Harris, and the use of authoritarian tactics against his political enemies. 

According to the progressive watchdog Media Matters, the former president promoted QAnon — an expansive conspiracy that claims Trump is waging battle against satanic forces that control the government — at least 15 times on Wednesday morning. These included images using the conspiracy slogan “Where We Go One, We Go All,” and references to the conspiracy’s belief that “the storm is coming.”   

Trump also “re-truthed” a post featuring images of Vice President Harris and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the words: “Funny how blowjobs impacted both of their careers differently.” 

Disgusting, yes. But also demented and dangerous.

On and on and on it went.

Writes Andrew Egger:

Imagine if someone in your place of work was posting this type of stuff about your other coworkers. Would that person be considered “leadership material”? Or would you be a little worried about the upcoming lunch break?

And are we truly so desensitized to it all that this no longer provokes our indignation? Have we decided it’s simply easier to look away?

Trump’s superfans aren’t looking away. They eat this stuff up with a big ole spoon, their hearts beating faster as they fantasize about the carnage to come.

Meanwhile, those Republican voters who remain outside the MAGA cult just aren’t paying attention to it at all. For the third consecutive election, they’re asleep at the switch, paying attention to nothing but their vague belief that another Trump presidency still represents their preferred “policies.”

And now for something completely different…

You think you’ve had some crappy travel experiences? Check out this nightmare scenario:

After what felt like an eternity, I finally trudged across the tarmac to the small plane and curled into my window seat, ready to endure the fourth and final flight of the day. The roar of the engines and the clamor of people were there from the start, but I was so exhausted and overheated that I drifted off to sleep, the noise fading into a single comforting texture, the volume seeming to dim.

But I was jolted awake, not by a single kick to my seat, but by a series of karate kicks at various spinal levels. Startled, I tried to peek around but couldn’t get the right angle. That’s when I noticed my window shade was down, which I always think is a terrible shame. If you have a window seat, it should be mandatory to gaze out, right? So, I slid it back up and reveled in the evening glow. But then, in the window's reflection, I saw a grubby little hand creeping toward me, reaching past my shoulder to slide the shade back down. I wanted to slap that chubby little hand away but instead stewed in silence, only to put the shade back up a moment later. And that’s when the real chaos began.

Suddenly, it felt like Keith Moon or Animal from the Muppets was drumming madly on the tray table attached to my seat. I exchanged a glance with my entirely civilized-looking seatmate, who coolly rolled her eyes at me. I peeked back and saw three small children alone in the seats, no parents in sight. Was this revenge, or was this just a misunderstanding? Do they realize I am attached to their drum set? Mustering my best “stern but not scary” tone, I turned and said, “Okay, little dudes, this has got to stop. It’s just too much, okay?” The three—a toddler, a hybrid toddler, and the aforementioned shutter closer—nodded, but that’s when I realized the true scope of the disaster….

(You can read the rest here… and yes, this is my daughter. And her new Substack is fantastic. You really should subscribe.)

Finally