It’s really too bad that Mr. Trump has gotten his feelings hurt so easily and so quickly after taking office.
He has been taken to task by the national and international press and by individual American citizens—and, I believe, rightly so. On only Mr. Trump’s third day on the job, his press secretary made an impassioned and rambling statement about how demoralized the new president and his staff are feeling, because the press keeps reporting facts that Mr. Trump apparently doesn’t like.
Being the president is hard work. Lots of people will openly, loudly, and even angrily disagree with a president on pretty much any given day. This shouldn’t have been a surprise to anyone in the incoming administration. Complaining about how unfair it all is does little more than undermine the administration’s credibility and strengthen concerns about the president’s temperament and maturity. Deflecting questions about “alternative facts” with meandering statements that essentially amount to “He/She/You started it” achieves pretty much the same thing.
This is not a “reality” television show, nor is it recess on the kindergarten playground.
I do not feel sorry for Mr. Trump. He continues to threaten my livelihood and potentially my very existence. His rhetoric, proposals, and actions promise to do as much or worse to millions of other Americans, not to mention the possible fallout across the globe. I will not just shut up and take it. And I do not apologize for having the temerity to hold Mr. Trump and his staff to some fairly basic standards of honesty and integrity.
That having been said, I do appeal to others in the press, people of influence, and pretty much just everybody to lay off of Barron Trump. He is a child, and he did not ask to be thrust onto the national stage.
Mr. Trump, however, like every president before him, is fair game. When he is successful—measured by the actual well-being and positive progress of the country he serves, not by “alternative facts” or his own gratification—that should be recognized. He should be held accountable at every turn, and he should be called out for his missteps and worse. It’s part of the job he campaigned for, and there are no time-outs or do-overs. If he doesn’t like it, maybe he should have thought about that before November 8, 2016.
Creative Commons photo: First Amendment to the US Constitution by elPadawan.