He is fading fast, feeling more alone each day, displaying an increasing strain, becoming more erratic, finding it more difficult to gain the adulation that enables his survival. Punch-drunk Donald Trump is on the ropes, and the referee is ready to call it a technical knockout. He leans against Xi jinping, who could give Trump a knockout punch, but is content to prop him up before the referee makes the final call. The long nightmare of the deluded figure, wandering the White House grounds, slaying the dragons that contaminate the capital city, is nearing its end. Before the end, there might be surprises — the political expediency that allied Trump with vote gatherers, mainly the Religious Right, will be set aside; after the mid-term elections, Trump will no longer need their support. A person who has no loyalties might modify some agendas that characterized his administration.
Seated on the wrong White House chair (he should be seated in the middle, opposite his wife), listening to Xi Jinping speak, Trump sat with bowed head, fingers together, listless, and lost. He had no idea of the meaning or concern with his guest’s speech.
Never has a person in American public office demonstrated to the world a lack of concern for the people he serves, a lack of humility for the character he represents, a lack of respect for a departed president whom Americans cherish, a lack of interest in the artistic expressions that elevate culture, a lack of morality, whose lack demeans all Americans, as has Donald Trump. In wanting his name appearing on a building to which he has no attachment, Trump delineated the epitaph that describes his presidency. By pursuing, day and night, an endless battle with courts to have his name inscribed on the Kennedy Center, Trump revealed he does not occupy sufficient time in resolving the world’s conflagrations, in giving attention to his nation’s domestic problems, and in being a full-time president. People earn respect and remembrance by duty and accomplishment. They receive disrespect by usurping the privileges given to others and by utilizing public relations to heighten their image. Wanting respect and immortality, Trump chose the path to disrespect and goodbye. Pretending to be a superior human being, he displayed a shallow figure, riddled with an inferiority complex.
The Soviet Union proved to be Hitler’s downfall. After a rush of successes inflated Hitler’s ego, he refused to recognize that his forces had entered a territory of too many people ready to die to protect their land, and, in an endless war, his resources were more likely to be exhausted. Iran is Trump’s demise. Trump, unlike Hitler, has realized the situation; he lost a war, and history will remember him as a loser. His one last hope is for the mid-term elections to resurrect him; a loss of a vast number of House and Senate seats will be fatal ─ MAGA desertion will be complete, and Republican Party officials will no longer fawn at his utterances. He could even be impeached.
Trump’s present policies of not confronting the Houthis and not criticizing Britain, France, and Canada for imposing trade sanctions that target West Bank settlements, and his belligerent speech to the United Nations, which warned Iran of obliteration “after the mid-term elections” if agreement was not reached, indicate his awaited directions. For election purposes, it was politically wise for Trump to pursue a silent position on the contentious Israel issue, which has shredded the political spectrum and made it difficult for politicians who base their decisions on voter trends and not on facts. Not seeking further military engagements and military deaths before the elections and establishing a peaceful negotiating position fits the desires of the present American voting citizens.
After the elections, expect some changes. Trump never had a religious thought in his dealings. His pandering to the Religious Right and waving a Bible that he never read have been political maneuvers that paid well; evangelist support enabled Trump to win elections. The elections have ended, and so will his alliance with the bible thumpers. Trump does not need the evangelist support anymore. He faked being loyal to their Christian values and despises all religions, and they don’t mesh with gambling casinos and opulent appearances.
In examining his fall from command of the universe to obedient servant, Trump will need a “fall guy,” the culprit who did him in. Well, he has it in the persona of Benjamin Netanyahu, and he will have his revenge. It’s sneaking up on him slowly ─ Netanyahu brought him into the war ─ and when it begins to consume him, watch out Israel.
Delaying initiatives until after the mid-term elections does not mean that Trump will guide decisions by the pulse of the American people. To him, he is the American, and the people are his servants. I hesitate to predict his unpredictable designs, which are not unpredictable when realizing that his business is business. With that thought, wouldn’t he help Saudi Arabia in its conflict with the Houthis, seek business relationships in Russia, China, and North Korea, and refuse to be viewed as subservient to Israeli interests?
“Heav’n hath no rage like love to hatred turn’d, Nor Hell a fury, like a Trump scorn’d.”