CommentsTHIS IS WHAT I KNOW--When Donald Trump fired off his first missile Friday night at one of his populist rallies in Alabama, he started a war with not only Stephen Curry, the two-time MVP for the Golden State Warriors but the NBA, NFL, and Major League Baseball. (Photo above: President railing against the NFL and Puerto Rico hurricane surviver.)
This weekend-long Twitter rant has captured the news cycle -- and by Sunday, teams were locking arms in solidarity during the National Anthem -- on the sidelines of NFL games. Oakland As catcher Bruce Maxwell joined other pro athletes in taking a knee Sunday.
In typical Trump fashion, the president has blasted everyone from individual players to the NFL in his tweetstorm, even criticizing the football league for “low ratings,” one of his favorite critiques. He called for the firing of NFL players who kneel for the National Anthem -- and for NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to tell players they must stand.
This assault on pro sports comes over the weekend before the possible Senate vote on Graham-Cassidy Bill posed to throw back health care to the states, weakening or eliminating pre-existing condition protections, potentially causing millions to lose coverage, radically restructuring Medicaid, and boosting out-of-pocket costs for those who purchase health care in the individual market.
Last week, Trump also launched an attack on North Korea and leader Kim Jong-Un during his first United Nations visit, taunting the North Korean leader as “Rocket Man,” followed up by another Twitter storm in which he threatened to annihilate North Korea, killing hundreds of millions.
Throughout the world, hurricanes and earthquakes have caused the loss of hundreds of lives, as well as massive destruction in Houston, South Florida, the Caribbean, Puerto Rico, and Mexico. The president and his administration refuse to acknowledge the role of humans in climate change.
Trump faces all these issues -- plus growing racial and anti-Semitic tension while special counsel Robert Mueller seems to be closing in on Russiagate and obstruction of justice in the Trump campaign and administration.
However, Trump works double-time and a half to turn our heads to war with the NFL. We’ve become accustomed to the “Look at the shiny new object!” modus operandi of the president. And this “Taking a Knee” whiplash focus exemplifies exactly how he’s acted since taking office.
Just last week, Trump announced in remarks during a meeting with France’s President Emmanuel Macron at the U.N. that he was looking into holding a Fourth of July parade down Pennsylvania Avenue to demonstrate the United States military power, shades of Bastille Day meets the Third Reich. Apparently, he was impressed by the display of tanks, soldiers on horseback, and military jets flying overhead at France’s July 14 celebration.
Trump is defined by his insistence of blind loyalty, nationalism, and isolationism. It’s exactly what attracted many in his base who are tired of “immigrants” and women taking their jobs, who support his wars with anyone who disagrees. In the private sector, he has always expected this blind loyalty from business associates and employees. It’s why he stacked his administration and his inner circle with those he believed he could trust. It’s also why he launched what Attorney General Sessions has described as the worst personal attack he’s ever experienced -- when Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation.
During his campaign, Trump lunged at John McCain and the parents of slain Captain Humayun Khan, a Muslim soldier who was posthumously awarded Purple Heart and Gold Star. Decades earlier, a young Donald J. Trump sought draft deferments during the Vietnam War -- four times due to college and once due to “bad feet.”
This is the same Donald Trump who in a 1997 interview bragged to shock jock Howard Stern that he was a “brave soldier” for avoiding STDs when unmarried in the late nineties.
It’s amazing. I can’t even believe it. I’ve been so lucky in terms of that whole world, it is a dangerous world out there. It’s like Vietnam, sort of. It is my personal Vietnam. I feel like a great and very brave soldier. -- Donald Trump to Howard Stern
To borrow from a GOP expression, Donald Trump is a P.I.N.O. -- a Patriot in Name Only. To him, love of country is about parades, flags, blind loyalty. It’s about building a wall or trying to implement travel bans to keep any “undesirables” out. It’s about the false equivalencies he’s fond of tossing about -- that those protesting and white supremacists marching with fake torches, shouting “blood and soil” -- borrowed from a Nazi slogan -- and “Jews Will Not Replace Us” are one in the same. It’s about every offensive meme he retweets from white supremacists, anti-Semites, and sexists.
This country’s foundation is not about blind loyalty. It’s about loving this country enough to work to unify those who live here. We’re a heterogeneous group who bring different ideas and solutions. For every problem there is, there are people and groups addressing the issues and finding answers.
Protesting is patriotism. Shutting down anyone with an opposing view is not.
(Beth Cone Kramer is a Los Angeles writer and a CityWatch columnist.)
-cw
