Yesterday, a grown man got into a fight with a baby.
This wouldn’t be a particularly newsworthy event, but for this: The grown man was a presidential candidate from a major US party. During an event in Ashburn, Virginia, Donald Trump told the parent of a crying infant to “get that baby out of here,” provoking no small degree of mockery on social media (and from other politicians, such as Senator Tim Kaine, who is running on the Democratic ticket alongside Secretary Hillary Clinton). The incident seems so ludicrous as to astound the imagination, but there it is: A presidential candidate got into a fight with a baby, and prevailed only by kicking the baby out of his rally.
It was just one among a string of incidents in Donald Trump’s Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Week, and while it’s been a subject of joking, it’s also an alarm bell. Throughout his campaign, the candidate has proved to be highly reactive, impatient, thoughtless, and incapable of engaging in nuance. In the last week, his already dangerous and hateful rhetoric has escalated, and he’s shown little understanding or sense of scale. If anyone was in doubt about his suitability for the presidency, hopefully they aren’t anymore — and not just because President Obama took the unusual step of not just endorsing Secretary Clinton, but explicitly commenting that Donald Trump is unfit.
Not just that he would make a poor president. Not just that his politics are dangerous and could harm people around the world. Not just that he doesn’t seem like a particularly likable person. He is specifically unfit, not possessing, as Mitt Romney said in March, the temperament necessary to be the president. Comments about “temperament” have been heard from across the political spectrum in the United States, and this week, Trump proved why they’re merited.
This week also disturbingly illustrated why his followers don’t care. He appeals to the conservative populist element of the United States by speaking without thinking, with off-the-cuff comments, with a general lack of self awareness. The very traits that horrify people concerned about the thought of Donald Trump handling nuclear launch codes, classified material, and the diplomatic standing of a nation are the ones that appeal to his most ardent supporters. He’s not a “politician,” they say, not understanding that being a politician isn’t about being a slick figure bent on pulling fast ones, but about being someone who is capable of carefully weighing and assessing situations, of thinking before acting, of working with advisors, of recognising areas of limited expertise and calling upon experienced people for support.
What went wrong?
The inciting incident appears to have been the Democratic National Convention, during which Trump’s name came up on multiple occasions, as is often the case at political conventions. At events drenched in glitz and glamour, designed to wind up audiences and sell a candidate, especially in the wake of a vicious and divisive primary cycle, some discussion about the opposing candidate’s unsuitability tends to arise. At the DNC, people including former generals, families of fallen soldiers, politicians, and even an independent invited as a special guest all commented about why Trump was not a good fit for the presidency. That sustained political attack apparently deeply upset the candidate, and he chose to go on a tantrum that’s lasted almost a week.
It’s hard to pinpoint the moment at which things started to get truly bizarre, but it may have been the appearance of the Khan family. Khizr and Ghazala Khan lost their son, Humayun, in Iraq in 2004. Khizr spoke at the convention, challenging Trump’s fitness as a candidate — he asked if Trump had read the Constitution, offered him his personal copy, and commented that the candidate has ‘sacrificed nothing and no one.’ It was a powerful speech that brought down the house at the DNC, and Trump was not happy.
He’s spent the last six days in a bitter media war with the Khans, attacking them viciously at every opportunity. He blamed President Obama for their son’s death, despite the fact that the president wasn’t even in office at the time of the incident. He cast aspersions upon them because they’re Muslims, as though this somehow cheapens or weakens their loss.
On Tuesday, the situation got even more baroquely bizarre when a decorated veteran and Trump supporter gave the candidate his Purple Heart — a medal awarded for being wounded in combat. The candidate pronounced that he’d ‘always wanted one,’ and that being handed a Purple Heart was ‘much easier’ than getting one via the conventional route. Khizr Khan commented that the candidate should return the medal to his fan, given the loaded implications of the Purple Heart and the fact that Trump, who attempted to dodge the draft, hadn’t earned it. Decorated combat veteran Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth, who is vying for a Senate seat in Illinois, posted a picture of herself recovering in the hospital wearing her own Purple Heart, adding ‘this is how one usually looks when you are awarded the Purple Heart.’ The double amputee and wheelchair athlete has been a ferocious and outspoken advocate for veterans, and her comments served as a pretty sharp rebuke.
Crossing lines?
In the United States, conservatives pride themselves on many things, but one of them is a love of military, service, and country. Though those emotions often veer into nationalism — something the Trump campaign is very good at whipping up — they retain a core of veneration for members of the armed services, especially those killed and wounded in action. In the wake of Trump’s attacks on the Khans and his disrespect of the Purple Heart, one might expect Democrats, including Secretary Hillary Clinton and President Obama, to condemn his comments. More surprisingly, though, Republicans are also speaking out. His current critics include Newt Gingrich, Senator Lindsey Graham, Governor Jeb Bush, Congressman Paul Ryan, Senator Mitch McConnell, Governor John Kasich, Representative Mike Coffman (also a veteran), and even his own running mate, who made a cautiously noncommittal comment that said volumes between the lines. President George W. Bush also made a mildly condemnatory statement — and criticised Trump’s policies without actually naming him while attending a GOP fundraiser. Some, like Senator John McCain, are sparing no punches in their indictment of the candidate.
They’ve stopped short of rescinding their endorsements (leaving the obvious question of what it would take to get Republicans to abandon their loyalty to the candidate), but that hasn’t stopped Trump from lashing out in return. In a remarkably petty move, he’s refusing to endorse House Speaker Paul Ryan in his reelection campaign, though he may actually be doing Congressman Ryan a favor. The congressman is in a primary battle that isn’t expected to carry fireworks, but Trump’s ‘acolytes,’ as Politico describes them, are bound and determined to launch their own #NeverRyan battle. Similarly, the candidate has withheld his endorsement from Senator McCain, presumably in retaliation for his frosty words — Senator McCain, of course, is the decorated veteran whom Trump attacked for being a prisoner of war earlier in the campaign cycle.
He’s not just busy fighting babies and smearing dead soldiers. In a week when courts are striking down provably racist voter identification laws, Trump is taking to the media to insist that the election is ‘rigged,’ clearly setting the stage for contesting a losing result in November. This despite the fact that voter ID and other voter suppression laws favour Republicans and are in fact usually specifically designed by Republicans to manipulate election results. Yet, the prospect of a bitter and drawn-out lawsuit like that seen in the 2000 election is a grim one, and we’ve clearly seen that the candidate refuses to accept criticism, so how is he going to react to a loss?
Anti-Trump Republicans are being vindicated as they watch the candidate effectively set fire to his own campaign, but they’re also stuck. Some are crossing over to Secretary Clinton, like Meg Whitman, who just endorsed the Democratic candidate, and former President George H.W. Bush campaigner and Governor Jeb Bush advisor Sally Bradshaw, who just became an Independent. Others are unsure — focusing on downticket races might help them retain control of Congress, but even those races aren’t going as expected, with tea party candidates being unseated in primary races and the party cracking at the seams. Lobbyists certainly aren’t interested in the candidate, as poetically illustrated when even the Koch brothers refused to take a meeting with him. Allegedly, highers up in the party are even trying to orchestrate an intervention with the assistance of Trump’s children, apparently believing that they can steer the Trump Train back on track.
The issue here is no longer even a question of policy. It’s a much more basic problem: Can Donald Trump be trusted in the White House, with the tremendous amount of political, diplomatic, and military control that comes with the office? His inability to accept criticism and his disturbingly short temper suggest that the answer to this question is ‘no,’ and a growing list of Republican heavyweights are starting to agree. This is no longer a case of political buyer’s remorse, but the downfall of the Republican party, and possibly of the United States as well, should he manage to beg, borrow, and steal his way into the White House.
Photo: Gage Skidmore/Creative Commons