Wednesday, February 07, 2018
Has Trump finally lost the plot?
To be frank it is difficult to lower the bar any further when it comes to our expectations of President Trump.
The man who has retweeted racist groups in the UK, mislabelled incidents here as terrorism, claimed that Britain is unsafe when there have been 1,516 mass shootings in 1,735 days in the United States and 11,004 murders by firearms there in 2016 alone, and who has attacked the NHS when there are 28 million people in the USA who have no health cover at all, has very little to boast about.
Trump's latest 'wheeze' however, just takes the breath away. As the Guardian reports, Donald Trump has ordered the Pentagon to plan a military parade that would see soldiers marching and tanks rolling down the streets of Washington.
Apparently, El Presidente is seeking a grand parade similar to the Bastille Day celebration in Paris. The paper says he outlined the plan at a meeting at the Pentagon on 18 January that included defense secretary Jim Mattis and joint chiefs of staff chairman General Joseph Dunford, the paper said, citing an unnamed military official.
They add that Trump, who did not serve in the Vietnam war after receiving five draft deferments, has long spoken of his admiration for tough military figures such as General George Patton and frequently makes reference to “my generals”.
However, his plan has not impressed some veterans:
On Tuesday retired general Paul Eaton, senior adviser to VoteVets, a progressive political action committee for military veterans, said: “Donald Trump has continually shown himself to have authoritarian tendencies, and this is just another worrisome example.”
In the past, Eaton noted, Trump has praised the tactics of autocrats such as Saddam Hussein and Vladimir Putin. He added: “Unfortunately, we do have a commander in chief right now as much as have a wannabe banana republic strongman.”
Richard Painter, former White House ethics lawyer for George W Bush, tweeted: “Cool. Just like in North Korea and Russia. But what do we do about those traitors who don’t clap during our Dear Leader’s speech?” – a reference to Trump’s criticism of Democrats who did not applaud during his state of the union address.
And journalist Joy Reid wrote on Twitter: “Oh my god ... he wants to be Kim Jong Un.”
A date for the event has not yet been chosen. Options include Memorial Day on 28 May, Independence Day on 4 July and Veterans Day on 11 November, which would coincide with the 100th anniversary of the end of the first world war. If the route includes Pennsylvania Avenue, it would pass by Trump’s controversial hotel. But the Post added: “The cost of shipping Abrams tanks and high-tech hardware to Washington could run in the millions, and military officials said it was unclear how they would pay for it.”
I suppose he could pay for it by not building the Mexican border wall.
The man who has retweeted racist groups in the UK, mislabelled incidents here as terrorism, claimed that Britain is unsafe when there have been 1,516 mass shootings in 1,735 days in the United States and 11,004 murders by firearms there in 2016 alone, and who has attacked the NHS when there are 28 million people in the USA who have no health cover at all, has very little to boast about.
Trump's latest 'wheeze' however, just takes the breath away. As the Guardian reports, Donald Trump has ordered the Pentagon to plan a military parade that would see soldiers marching and tanks rolling down the streets of Washington.
Apparently, El Presidente is seeking a grand parade similar to the Bastille Day celebration in Paris. The paper says he outlined the plan at a meeting at the Pentagon on 18 January that included defense secretary Jim Mattis and joint chiefs of staff chairman General Joseph Dunford, the paper said, citing an unnamed military official.
They add that Trump, who did not serve in the Vietnam war after receiving five draft deferments, has long spoken of his admiration for tough military figures such as General George Patton and frequently makes reference to “my generals”.
However, his plan has not impressed some veterans:
On Tuesday retired general Paul Eaton, senior adviser to VoteVets, a progressive political action committee for military veterans, said: “Donald Trump has continually shown himself to have authoritarian tendencies, and this is just another worrisome example.”
In the past, Eaton noted, Trump has praised the tactics of autocrats such as Saddam Hussein and Vladimir Putin. He added: “Unfortunately, we do have a commander in chief right now as much as have a wannabe banana republic strongman.”
Richard Painter, former White House ethics lawyer for George W Bush, tweeted: “Cool. Just like in North Korea and Russia. But what do we do about those traitors who don’t clap during our Dear Leader’s speech?” – a reference to Trump’s criticism of Democrats who did not applaud during his state of the union address.
And journalist Joy Reid wrote on Twitter: “Oh my god ... he wants to be Kim Jong Un.”
A date for the event has not yet been chosen. Options include Memorial Day on 28 May, Independence Day on 4 July and Veterans Day on 11 November, which would coincide with the 100th anniversary of the end of the first world war. If the route includes Pennsylvania Avenue, it would pass by Trump’s controversial hotel. But the Post added: “The cost of shipping Abrams tanks and high-tech hardware to Washington could run in the millions, and military officials said it was unclear how they would pay for it.”
I suppose he could pay for it by not building the Mexican border wall.
