Imagine the HORROR of Trump-The-Untrustworthy Offering “Comfort” To Grieving Americans after a Terror Attack or Other Tragedy

When President W Bush sent my Marine son to war three times (2003-2004) I thought Bush was a fool, but not a dishonorable person. I wrote this in the Washington Post:

Before my son became a Marine, I never thought much about who was defending me. Now when I read of the war on terrorism or the coming conflict in Iraq, it cuts to my heart. When I see a picture of a member of our military who has been killed, I read his or her name very carefully. Sometimes I cry.

President Bush read the piece and wrote to me. The First Lady went on Meet the Press and read an excerpt. Then I got a note from President Clinton, who also had read my op-ed. I appreciated the letters, though I believed that Bush was very wrong about the war. But Bush was not a dishonorable sociopath egomaniac. Had my son died I would not have felt slimed if I’d received a condolence letter from him.

I pity the mother of a slain warrior, or the father grieving for a child after a mass shooting when they feel the slimy embrace of the P—y!-Grabber-Trump-Pal-Of-Putin-Freind-Of-Assange-Habitual-Proven-Liar. With Trump as “president” this craven study in dishonor all the nation will be able to offer those parents by way of solace.

Something bad has happened on every new president’s watch.

Something will happen to Trump. When something happened to Theresa May and to the UK in the terror attack in London on March 22, 2017, there was no reason to disbelieve her statement of sympathy for her people. The question will be asked if the man who lied about everything else is lying again when he responds to such inevitable tragedies.

When that something happens, it’s inevitable that Trump will need to say, Trust me on this… Who will?

Trust me, doesn’t work for habitual pathological liars.

Telling instantly disprovable lies is a bad MO for a man who must soon tell mothers why he sent their sons and daughter to die. Representative Adam Schiff of California, put it this way:

If six months from now the president should say that Iran is cheating on the nuclear agreement, if he’s making that up, it’s a real problem. If he’s not making [it] up and it’s true, it’s an even bigger problem because the question is: Would people believe him? Would the American people believe him? Would people around the world believe him? And that has real-world consequences.

New York’s Representative Peter King echoed his concerns:

That’s what he has to worry about, yeah, that when a real crisis does come along. And we could well have a crisis with North Korea, we could have a crisis with China, we could have a crisis with Russia for that matter. Or just some terrorist group out there: where the president gets real intelligence, saying that a real attack could be occurring, and people may think it’s the same as his tweet about Obama.

please watch … then keep reading…

After what Trump said about his inauguration day crowd size; about wiretapping; about birtherism, about what James Comey was testifying (even as the rest of the world could watch it on TV and see Comey was saying the opposite) no sane person thinks that Trump is operating in that same realm of knowable fact as say your local K-12 teacher.

Instant skepticism is the only sane reaction to Trump.

When my son was serving I wrote several books about the experience of being a military father and was honored to be invited to many military parent functions as a speaker. I was at meetings with Gold Star mothers and fathers sharing their grief at a lost child. I can only imagine how the flesh in that room would have crawled had Trump been the keynote speaker. Perhaps he’d be sharing (as he did at a prayer breakfast) a brag about his ratings being better than anyone else on TV, or using the platform of grief for an aside on how “unfair” the “sad” press has been to him… all the while whining in the presence of parents who gave their all.

Government moves “at the speed of trust,” observes Stephen M.R. Covey in his book “The Speed of Trust.” “There is one thing that is common to every individual, relationship, team, family, organization, nation, economy, and civilization throughout the world — one thing which, if removed, will destroy the most powerful government, the most successful business, the most thriving economy, the most influential leadership, the greatest friendship, the strongest character, the deepest love. … That one thing is trust.”

The Republican Party today is morally bankrupt. It has not resisted then stood up to or denounced Trump. They now share his lack of credibility.

When something comes unstuck in North Korea, the South China Sea, Ukraine, Iran — that will require Trump to make a judgment call based on something other than his wounded ego and delusional paranoid rants. But that’s all there is to him. I will not be able to watch him salute those flag-draped coffins without literally screaming. The men and women like my son who serve deserve better. So does America.

Trump will have to look the American people in the eye and say: “Trust me — I decided this based on the best information and advice of the intelligence community.” Or, “Trust me, we needed to work with Russia on this.” Or, “Trust me I had good reason to kill your son.”

But who will believe him?