Of "Presidents" And Pigs

Item: Flying high at around 30,000 feet last week, Trump said to a woman reporter who dared ask a non-fawning question, “Quiet, piggy.” She’s hardly the first lady reporter he’s insulted, but this was the most contemptible example of his sadistic misogyny. 

Item: The White House quietly replaced suspiciously identical signatures on several of Trump’s recent pardons, after being busted by alert internet sleuths. This, after harping on the rumor that President Joe Biden used autopens in signing some of his pardons, and going so far as to replace Biden’s picture in the White House with one of an autopen. 

Item: When President Barack Obama gave a halting bow to Saudi Arabian King Abdullah, and when President Joe Biden fist-bumped Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Trump, along with every rightwing media screamer, went nuts. As predictable as MAGA hypocrisy, there came no such outrage for the next item:

Item: After lavishly welcoming MBS with a red carpet, flyovers, and other grovelsome behaviors, Trump, asked about MBS’s role in the gruesome murder of Washington Post reporter Jamal Khashoggi, which US intelligence has tied directly to MBS, Trump all but excused it, saying, “A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman... Whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen.” THINGS HAPPEN! Unbelievable. He went on to give away our most sophisticated military technology in exchange for vague investment promises and not-vaguely enriching Trump’s family businesses. 

Item: Several members of Congress, all of them having served in the military or CIA, created a video reminding current service members that not only are they not required to follow illegal orders, it’s their duty by law and oath to refuse. Because it is, indeed, the law, this ought to have been non-controversial. Trump, because of what he is, called it sedition punishable by death. One or two Republican senators pushed back, mildly, while MAGA media echoed Trump vociferously, because of course they did.

Item: After months of fish-flopping, Trump swallowed the hook and officially threw Ukraine into the hands of Putin, the man holding the pole. Why? Because, according to Trump, Ukraine’s President Zelensky hasn’t shown proper gratitude. Which is Trump-speak for failing to blandish, not to enrich him. For lack of insincere but predictably successful fluffery offered by world leaders Trump envies, he will abandon a gallant democracy fighting for its life against a war criminal’s invasion. According to several senators, Marko Rubio admitted Russia wrote the terms of the “peace” deal. 

This recent deluge of disgust brought to mind the most applicable word, about which an entire book has been written, a scholarly treatise by a professor of philosophy, highly relevant to the times. It’s safe to assume the word held purchase with nearly all Americans and, perhaps even more so, people paying attention across the globe. It need not be said, of course, that the itemized behaviors caused not a ripple of revulsion among the dwindling number of his supporters.

Because the book is pubic, published, and cited by others, and because it was made into a documentary film by the same name, I present its title, unexpurgated.

The book is “Assholes: A Theory.” 

I’ll not further test readers’ nor this newspaper’s tolerance by using the word so nakedly again. Out of consideration, it’ll appear, henceforth, as “a$$#ole.” And if that isn’t nice enough to pass muster, I invite substituting the word with “orifice” as you read. Because, as if it hadn’t been obvious since well before he entered politics (it most certainly was), the “president” of The United States of America is one.

I feel sure I’m not alone in saying, out loud, after seeing the “Quiet, piggy” clip, “What a total a$$#ole!” What Justice Potter Stewart said of pornography applies also to a$$#ole. Hard to define, but “I know it when I see it.” A$$#oles are arrogant, pushy, condescending, undeservedly self-important, bullies, and hold high opinions of themselves. They have low opinions of everyone else and treat them that way. It fits to a DJT.

My unbiased observation, along with those of mental and behavioral health professionals, political scientists, historians, and non-propagandized ordinary people, is that Trump has always fit the descriptions of sociopath, pathological narcissist and liar; a dangerous adorer of tyrants who feels entitled to ignore the law and decency. But, acknowledging my memory ain’t what it used to, this may be the first time I’ve added “a$$#ole” to the list.

Some observers, even some non-Foxified ones, might find one or more of the preceding descriptors controversial. But “a$$#ole” is inclusive and, for Trump, glove-like. It’s the face of America, or other body part, that Trump presents to the world, and us along with it. For love of country, we should all feel ashamed.

I’ve said enough. But it’s been an honest reaction to recent events and, perhaps, an explanation for my TDS, as in Trump Descriptive Syndrome.