Special Features

Donald Trump’s recent statement, “It is what it is,” referring to the COVID-19 pandemic, will rank with Marie Antoinette’s famous remark, “Let Them Eat Cake,” although historians tell us she never in reality said that.

That statement instead reflected what the French public thought about her before they chopped off her head in 1793, that she was a heartless egotist and elitist of the first water.

In Trump’s case he really did say, “It is what it is,” which translated means, “This pandemic is a pain in the ass for me, it disrupts my political campaign and my ability to strut around and act the big guy and goddamn it, I have to act like I care when I really don’t. If you die from the virus that’s your tough luck (F-word) you. I don’t want to give you any money either. Go back to work you lazy bastard.”

It’s a funny thing about the presidency, not funny, I mean strange, and we’ve had so many strange ones, none stranger than the Napoleon-wanna-be we have in the White House now.

When you’re president people expect you to act tough and Trump’s okay here he can scowl and grimace and adopt theatrical poses (hand-on-hip), although wit, charm and warmth he is incapable of.

With Trump, insulting and mocking is it.

If he was a horse, you would call him a “one-trick pony.”

But people except Nazis and Klansmen, the type Trump once called “fine people,” most normal people who are reasonably sane also expect the president to show empathy.

If you said the word “empathy” to Trump he would say, “What’s that?”

It means you are capable of being sympathetic to the struggles and tragedies of your fellow people. Since Trump isn’t and can’t be, it begs the question, can Trump lie and cheat like he does with everything else to appear caring, for others, not just for himself?

I could show him how

I could instruct him how he could counter the image a lot of people have of him, as a heartless SOB.

If Trump would hire me as his propaganda minister, I could advise him.

First of all, no political leader should be without the ability to fake cry.

You can practice this in front of a mirror.

Go to the mirror. Rub raw onion all over your hand. Adopt a sad look on your face. Wipe your brow and eyes with the hand you wiped with raw onion. This will bring a tear to your eye.

Now you can go out and practice this unique skill (phony crying) in front of the cameras, in order to fool people that you care.

Go to the funeral of a prominent African American civil rights leader, even though you don’t want to, even though you believe that civil rights leader was stirring up his people (you always refer to someone you don’t like as “those people;” or “you people.”

For example, Trump called a reporter who asked him an unpleasant question, “you people.”

Go to the funeral even though secretly you think of the African American because of his skin color as the nasty vicious (N) word. Have an onion in your pocket at the ceremony (it’s a ceremony to Trump not a funeral). Rub your hand on the raw onion. Now rub your eyes.

Look for the television camera. Let them see you with the tear in your eye.

You will gain 500,000 votes off this tear.

Now let’s consider your, “I-couldn’t-care-less-it’s-a-amatter-of-complete-indifference-to-me” remark about the pandemic, “It is what it is.”

It was what it was….

A stupid remark…..

For Trump, that was a rare moment of candor, an accident; he mistakenly accidentally caught himself telling the truth, expressing total disdain for an unparalleled tragedy that has him completely baffled. Whether it’s trying to pretend the pandemic isn’t happening, trying to sell the public that untested premature snake oil remedies will cure it, or as always, attacking people who bring any unpleasant news.

Instead of, “It is what it is,” Trump could have said, “It’s not what it could be.” This is so vague, no one could figure out what exactly he meant; which is not bad because in the past Trump has in fact uttered remarks and phrases that were totally incoherent.

The rule of thumb is; if they can’t understand it, they can’t use it, against you.

Trump should practice being incoherent all the time, instead of just much of the time.

Here are some examples:

“It isn’t what you think it is.”

“It’s not what it is; it’s what it’s not.”

“Ask not, what you think it is, ask what you think it should be.”

“If it isn’t what it is, it can’t be what it was.”

“It will be what it is, if it isn’t.”

“It’s what it is that it is, and it’s not that it’s not, but c’mon, that’s just a bunch of snot!”

Front Page Photo Credit: Heath Cajandig