We just passed the first 100 days of Donald Trump’s presidency. Ya know, that milestone that Trump either believes is the most “phony,” meaningless marker (as he’s been saying for weeks now), or, an incredibly important measure of his accomplishments (as he’s been saying for weeks now). But the more important report card belongs to the media, which so far deserves a big fat “F”... as in failure to hold Trump accountable for his lack of accomplishments, offensive behavior, bizarre comments, incessant flip-flops and pathological lying.
The media has normalized Trump and conveniently turned him into something “different.” It dances around the obvious. The thing we know they’re all thinking but are too afraid to say publicly is that Trump is out of his fucking mind. Instead, they tell us “he’s a new kind of president.” That he “marches to the beat of his own drummer.” That he’s “unpredictable.” No... the New York Rangers are unpredictable. Trump is fucking insane.
By all standard measurements, it’s pretty accurate to question the president’s sanity. He’s erratic, insecure, delusional, paranoid, narcissistic, lacks empathy, tone-deaf, unable to distinguish right from wrong or fact from fiction. Sorry, but that makes him pretty crazy. Maybe some psychiatrists would argue that these qualities don’t necessary make him insane, but there’s no argument these are some pretty dangerous and scary traits for someone in the Oval Office with his fingers near the nuclear codes.
Please. Let’s stop this bullshit for a second and accept the fact that the 45th president of the United States of America is a madman. There’s no “method to his madness,” as the media often suggests when analyzing his intellectually bankrupt statements and outrageous behavior. He’s simply mad. And his madness has the terrifying capability to destroy world order as we know it. And maybe even kill us in a nuclear war started because the thin-skinned manbaby’s ego was bruised.
It’s time for the media to step up and stop being terrified of this dictator-wannabe who lies so much he’d make Pinocchio’s head spin. No more free passes. No more sitting like tamed sheep when Trump says something so twisted and evidence-free that we all shudder in absolute bewilderment and/or horror.
For example, take Trump’s stunning comments this week about Andrew Jackson and the Civil War:
I mean had Andrew Jackson been a little later you wouldn’t have had the Civil War. He was a very tough person, but he had a big heart. He was really angry that he saw what was happening with regard to the Civil War, he said, “There’s no reason for this.”
But wait... there’s more!
People don’t realize, you know, the Civil War, if you think about it, why? People don’t ask that question, but why was there the Civil War? Why could that one not have been worked out?
And then he doubled-down in a tweet early Tuesday morning:
“President Andrew Jackson, who died 16 years before the Civil War started, saw it coming and was angry. Would never have let it happen!”
Clearly, the tweet was a lame attempt to fix the gaffe over the fact that Jackson died 16 years before the civil war. Nice try, Donnie. And, I’m sure for a slave owner Jackson had a “really big heart.” Seriously... the sheer stupidity of that comment is obviously lost on Trump.
But the biggest question is, will the media give him yet another free pass or will it start challenging him like never before... demanding, for example, that he explain exactly how Jackson would “never have let (the civil war) happen?” Remember Katie Couric’s famous “what newspapers and magazines do you read?” take-down of Sarah Palin?
Or, how about forcing him on the spot when he lies about his/the GOP’s health care plan “getting better and better”? Press him to explain exactly how.
Or when he touts the jobs numbers as “amazing” after saying for years the same numbers are fake. Press him to explain why they’re different now.
Or when he says his first 100 days was ripe with more accomplishments than any other president in history. Explain to him the accomplishments of FDR, Reagan, Clinton, Bush and Obama, for example, and then force him to list his against that historical context.
Or when he says he’d be “honored” to meet North Korea’s brutal, murderous dictator Kim Jong Un, make him defend the absurdity of that “honor.” Make him explain how, regardless of the “right circumstances,” it’s not an utterly foolish, misguided comment to make.
It’s time to stop the madness. It’s time for those of you in the mainstream media to do your job and aggressively and relentlessly call this president out for his endless misrepresentations and lies. Jeez, he calls you “disgusting,” “fake” and “failing” non-stop. Said you were “the enemy of the people.” Threatens to neuter you even further by changing the libel laws. What the fuck are you waiting for?! Take the damn gloves off and fight back!
I’m not saying there are no ballsy reporters who aren’t afraid to go toe-to-toe with Trump. CNN’s Jake Tapper and Jim Acosta are two solid examples. Tapper challenges Trump’s lies daily on his show ‘The Lead’. Acosta valiantly stood up to Trump in early January over claims that CNN was “fake news.” Another brawler is MSNBC’s Peter Alexander. Watch what happens here when he challenged Trump in February over his bogus claim that his was the “biggest electoral college win since Ronald Reagan.” He reduces Trump to a pile of stammering rubble.
There is an even bigger glimmer of hope if the Trump interview last weekend by CBS’s John Dickerson is a barometer of more aggressive encounters to come. Dickerson’s dogged pursuit of answers over Trump’s false wiretap claims about Barack Obama, which clearly pissed off Trump to the point that he abruptly and rudely ended the session, is exactly the sort of merciless grilling the liar-in-chief deserves. But will other journalists follow suit?
