July 11, 2020
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As an organization, the Boy Scouts of America has not lived up to its own ideals, banning gay Scouts and leaders until 2014/2015 and then filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February of 2020 to shield their assets from numerous sex-abuse lawsuits going back decades.
Still, the Scout Law remains a worthy and admirable set of behaviors and values to try and live by, particularly for public leaders and officials. As an Eagle Scout myself, it bewilders me that anyone who respects such a code of conduct could support this president, who on a daily basis proves himself to be a living antithesis of its twelve points.
Donald Trump has spent his entire adult life exaggerating, misinforming, deceiving, and lying, so much so that there's an entire wikipedia page dedicated to his veracity going back to the '70s. He "lies as a policy" and "will say anything to satisfy his supporters and himself".
Initially, these falsehoods were often regarding his wealth, university, foundation, family, or 9/11.
During his 2016 presidential campaign, he lied so many times that FactCheck.org gave him a new title, the King of Whoppers, saying, "he stands out not only for the sheer number of his factually false claims, but also for his brazen refusals to admit error when proven wrong." He's claimed to have predicted Osama bin Laden's attacks saying we should "take him out", to have watched tv coverage of "thousands and thousands" of Muslims in New Jersey cheering for the fall of the World Trade Center on 9/11, claimed there may be 30 million illegal immigrants in the U.S., and insisted the "real" unemployment rate was 18-20%.
Trump's touting of conspiracy theories goes back to at least 2011 as he was the most prominent promoter of the birther movement, suggesting that Barack Obama wasn't born in the United States and later claiming that Hillary Clinton started the controversy. He rehashed the rumor that Ted Cruz's father was involved in the JFK assassination, claimed that he lost the popular vote in 2016 due to millions of illegal voters, and gave credence to a debunked story of a 2-year old girl developing autism a week after receiving a vaccine.
70 percent of his campaign statements checked by PolitiFact were mostly false, totally false, or "pants on fire" false.
Two days after his inauguration, he falsely claimed that his crowd size was the largest in history and after press secretary, Sean Spicer, misstated figures to back up his claim, Kellyanne Conway coined the phrase alternative facts, and Trump took it from there:
All politicians lie a little, but Trump and his allies lie a lot, going so far as waging a billion-dollar disinformation campaign for his 2020 reelection. He is the very embodiment of what it means to be untrustworthy.
Loyalty is of the utmost importance to Donald Trump, as he said in his 2007 book, "I value loyalty above everything else—more than brains, more than drive and more than energy". Unfortunately, that loyalty is not to flag or country, but to Donald Trump himself. The turnover in the Trump administration has been record setting, and ultimately, the reason most officials were fired or forced out was due to their lack of unconditional loyalty to the president—the two most infamous cases being those of Attorney General (AG) Jeff Sessions and FBI Director James Comey.
Jeff Sessions recused himself from the Justice Department/FBI investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, paving the way for (Trump appointee) Deputy AG, Rod Rosenstein, to appoint Robert Mueller to lead the Special Counsel investigation. This infuriated Trump, who firmly believed the AG's job was to protect him, not his country. The probe resulted in the indictment of 34 individuals and three Russian businesses, leading to seven guilty pleas and five people sentenced to prison. That's apparently the definition of a witch hunt and hoax to Donald Trump, who spent two years railing against the investigation and Sessions' recusal. Trump finally fired Sessions via social media the day after the midterm elections on November 7, 2018.
James Comey, FBI Director since 2013, spent a year being subjected to both praise and scorn by Trump. One week after Trump's inauguration, after it was reported that his National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn, was under investigation by the FBI for undisclosed communications with Russian officials, Trump asked for Comey's loyalty (a request he declined) during a private dinner. In March, Comey publicly revealed that the FBI had, since July of 2016, been investigating Russian meddling and possible collusion of members of the Trump campaign in the 2016 presidential election. Less than three weeks later, Trump fired James Comey, allegedly due to his handling of Clinton's use of a private email server. In actuality, as he told Lester Holt in an interview, it was clearly that "Russia thing", and to relieve the "great pressure" it put him under.
Dan Coats, Director of National Intelligence and Trump appointee, was removed and replaced with a former congressman with no intelligence experience but with a history of slavish loyalty to Trump.
After his impeachment in December 2019, the firings intensified as hit lists were created to purge disloyal government officials and replace them with Trump loyalists, largely irrespective of their experience for the job.
Trump has not shown loyalty to traditional alliances such as NATO, Germany, or South Korea. Worse yet, he downright betrayed the Kurds in Syria who were instrumental in the destruction of the ISIS caliphate.
Donald Trump cares far more about his brand than about America, demanding unconditional loyalty of others to put "Trump First" and "Make Trump Great Again", while remaining immensely disloyal to this country and our allies.
Donald Trump, whether in his business career or in the White House, has always embraced a transactional, quid pro quo style of politics. During the 2016 Republican primary, when asked about his donations to Democratic politicians, he responded:
Before this, before two months ago, I was a businessman. I give to everybody. When they call, I give. And do you know what? When I need something from them two years later, three years later, I call them, they are there for me.
Infamously, he held up $400 million in military aid and a meeting with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky in an effort to coerce him into publicly announcing investigations into Trump's political rivals—an act that was both immensely unhelpful (to the United States and our interests) and resulted in his impeachment. His transactional view of the world leads him to make assessments and decisions that are detrimental to America's interests, such as trying to shake down South Korea for billions of dollars to pay for our mutually beneficial security arrangement, or casting doubt that the United States would honor Article 5 of the NATO charter (an attack on one is an attack on all) unless other countries paid their dues.
More generally, so many of Trump's words and deeds have been deeply unhelpful, from praising strongmen and dictators to leading a badly botched response to the Coronavirus, and fanning the flames of racial tensions.
Trump is openly hostile to just about everyone who isn't strictly aligned with his viewpoints. He's made anti-immigration the bedrock of his campaign and presidency; between building the wall, instituting a travel ban, and generally spreading anti-immigration sentiment at every opportunity.
He assaults the free press, mocks his rivals, attacks Democrats and non-Trumpian Republicans, derides his own former officials, and undermines our allies.
From "Lock her up" and "Send her back", to disrespecting war heros and gold star parents, Trump's list of insults is almost too long to catalog, but it's clear he has no interest in befriending others (perhaps barring dictators, racists, white supremacists, and bigots).
As his own former Defense Secretary James Mattis said in June 2020:
Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people—does not even pretend to try. Instead, he tries to divide us. We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership. We can unite without him, drawing on the strengths inherent in our civil society.
Rudeness and political incorrectness are cornerstones of Donald Trump's persona and he adds to his record of unsavory remarks on a daily basis.
During the first Republican debate in 2015, moderator Megyn Kelly asked a question about his temperament, referencing his previous comments about women, saying, "You've called women 'fat pigs, dogs, slobs, and disgusting animals' ..." (to a cacophony of cheering supporters).He calls Elizabeth Warren Pocahontas, Mexicans rapists, laments immigrants from shithole countries, tells congresswomen to go back to where they came from, calls the Coronavirus the kung flu, and engages in so much name calling that, again, there's an entire Wikipedia page to track it all.
Trump's hostility, rudeness, and constant barrage of personal attacks are reason enough to label him unkind. Neglecting to learn the name of a fallen soldier before calling to console his widow furthers that assessment.
All of that pales in comparison to his policy of separating children from their parents at the southern border—an act of immeasurable cruelty. Its implementation failed to keep track of children, subjected babies and children to inhumane living conditions, and has resulted in lasting trauma for children and their families.
Watching a five year old tell his mom, "I want to go to the jail. You don't love me. You're not my mom anymore" is heart breaking. As a parent with two young children, I cried watching that documentary. Anyone who can watch that and still support this policy is a far greater threat to America and its values than illegal immigrants ever will be.
Whether or not Trump has actually broken the law is the subject of much debate. He was impeached by the House in December 2019 on charges of abuse of power (for withholding $400 million of congressionally mandated aid to Ukraine in exchange for quid pro quo cooperation from Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate a political rival) and obstruction of Congress (for refusing to honor congressional subpoenas and hindering the House's investigation). He was acquitted on both accounts in the Senate, with Mitt Romney standing as the lone Republican voting to convict.
He may also be in violation of the emoluments clause of the Constitution, which restricts government officials from receiving gifts from foreign powers without the consent of Congress, due to his refusal to divest from his businesses, real estate, and hotels frequented by foreign leaders—the lawsuit in ongoing.
Actual lawbreaking aside, the number of democratic norms that have been eroded under Donald Trump are staggering: fighting with dead people, record setting turnover, using social media to deride opponents and fire officials, openly promoting conspiracy theories, using 'acting secretaries' to avoid Senate confirmations, gross displays of nepotism, instructing a personal lawyer to pay off Playboy models and porn stars with whom he's had affairs, undermining America's Intelligence Agencies, weaponizing the Department of Justice, pardoning a convicted criminal/friend who obstructed an investigation into the president, and extreme politicization of the judiciary, to name a few.
From his Midnight in America speech at the Republican National Convention, to his inaugural address depicting American carnage, one of Trump's core tactics has been to paint a dim picture of this country (which only he can brighten).
Since his candidacy, he has used fear and anger to convince people that they are not only unhappy, but should also be more frightened and furious than ever. Immigrants are drug slinging rapists, refugees are a "Trojan horse" planning to attack, Democrats are radical socialists who will destroy the American dream, the mainstream media lies and is the enemy of the people, protests for racial justice are being hijacked by dangerous operatives, our allies are screwing us, and illegal voters plague our elections.
Trump's constant fearmongering has led to an increase in hate groups and threatens to take America back to where it came from. His (2020) Independence Day speeches at both Mount Rushmore and the White House were devoid of the traditional celebratory cheer and instead consisted of grim warnings of the "new far-left fascism" and "angry mobs" threatening to destroy America.
In contrast, Trump was very positive and optimistic regarding the impact of the Coronavirus. From "We have it totally under control" to "Stay calm. It will go away", he painted a particularly rosy picture of the pandemic America was about to enter.
To hear Trump tell it, he's a self-made billionaire who "started with a one million dollar loan" from his father to build his business empire. In reality, he inherited about $413 million in today's dollars, largely through dubious tax schemes in the 90's.
His father helped push a narrative that everything Donald touched turned to gold, when in fact his businesses lost over $1 billion from 1985 to 1994. During this time, four of his casinos in New York and Atlantic City declared bankruptcy, followed by two more bankruptcies in 2004 and 2009. Trump has claimed these weren't real losses and merely "smart" tax moves on his part, but the loopholes in the tax code that he certainly exploited aren't anywhere near large enough to account for a loss of $1 billion over ten years—his losses were very much real.
Less is known about the current state of Trump's finances, since he was the first presidential nominee in over 40 years not to release his tax returns, and has reneged on his promise to do so.
In December 2017, Trump and the Republicans pushed through a massive tax overhaul, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. The Congressional Budget Office estimates it will increase the total deficit by $1.9 trillion over the next decade and was seen by many as a lopsided victory for the wealthy, banks, and corporations. This was a big economic gamble at a time when the economy was already in fine shape.
Almost two years in, that gamble already seemed like a bad bet—months before the Coronavirus pandemic tanked the economy and forced Congress to shovel trillions of dollars into stimulus packages. The tax changes unnecessarily and irresponsibly reduced the government's revenue stream, ultimately amplifying the pandemic's fallout and now-crushing level of debt.
Natural resources are ripe for exploitation, as far as Donald Trump is concerned. His actions include expanding logging on public lands, downsizing national monuments and opening them up for development, opening all offshore waters to drilling (including the first wells in the Arctic), and rolling back parts of the Endangered Species Act.
Donald Trump is a morally flexible narcissist for whom "what is right" is anything that results in adulation from his base of supporters. His pro-life stance was born not out of authentic convictions, but rather from a desire to pander to evangelical voters, which is ironic given his attitudes regarding women and the sanctity of marriage. He didn't brave the rain to honor fallen soldiers, couldn't bring himself to condemn white nationalists, and is terrified that the Coronavirus is going to kill his reelection, thinking it best to downplay the threat and reduce testing, all the while refusing to wear a mask himself.
For a short while it seemed he might show real courage standing up to the gun lobby and NRA, supporting (albeit mild) gun control measures like stronger background checks after a spree of horrific mass shootings during his presidency:
When nationwide protests broke out after the murder of George Floyd by police, Trump had an opportunity to sympathize with the demonstrators and attempt to bring the country together, as Obama did after the death of Freddie Gray. Instead, he (and his administration) denied the existence of systemic racism in policing, called for the protestors to be "dominated", decried Black Lives Matter as a "symbol of hate", and, with protests raging in Washington D.C., hid in the White House bunker (then denied hiding, then tried to find out who leaked that he was hiding).
Despite recently crossing the obesity threshold, Trump, while not exactly a bastion of physical fitness, is in pretty good health for a 74 year old. Mentally, the "extremely stable genius" may well suffer from malignant narcissism, spends four to eight hours a day in front of a television watching cable news, has an aversion to reading, and is willfully ignorant of critical issues of national security, among many other things.
The cleanliness of communities' air and water are not priorities for Trump and his administration—a sentiment made crystal clear by the appointments of Scott Pruitt and (later) former coal lobbyist Andrew Wheeler to head the EPA. The Safer Affordable Fuel-Efficient (SAFE) Vehicles Rule rolls back auto emission standards from an existing 5% per year decrease in carbon dioxide emissions to a mere 1.5% through 2026. The administration also revoked California's legal authority to set their own higher emission standards, which constitutes an assault on both the environment and, ironically, states' rights (a decision for which the EPA is now being sued by 23 states). Air pollution has spiked over the last few years and it's little wonder as to why.
Water resources haven't fared any better, with the scrapping of protections for half of U.S. wetlands and hundreds of waterways (making up millions of miles of streams). This constitutes the largest rollback to the Clean Water Act since it was passed in 1972.
Under the cover of the Coronavirus, the Trump administration's dismantling of environmental regulations has only intensified.
In addition, the Trump administration has slashed funding for the EPA, relaxed enforcement of environmental regulations, approved seismic blasting in oceans to search for oil and gas deposits, cut climate change monitoring programs, and so much more that Trump has been deemed the worst president for the environment in history by a number of conservation groups.
This explicitly theist requirement is the most contentious of the twelve points of the Scout Law, but no matter since Trump self-identifies as Presbyterian, saying, "I love God and I love my church". By many accounts, he's co-opting the religion for his political gain, appealing to Christians by talking about God, fighting against abortion (after shifting his views), surrounding himself with evangelical leaders, denouncing other religions, and teargassing protestors for bible-filled photo ops.
Christianity Today, a publication founded by Billy Graham and about the furthest thing from what any reasonable person would call a "far left magazine", cautioned evangelical voters against supporting Donald Trump back in 2016:
He has given no evidence of humility or dependence on others, let alone on God his Maker and Judge. He wantonly celebrates strongmen and takes every opportunity to humiliate and demean the vulnerable. He shows no curiosity or capacity to learn. He is, in short, the very embodiment of what the Bible calls a fool
...
Enthusiasm for a candidate like Trump gives our neighbors ample reason to doubt that we believe Jesus is Lord. They see that some of us are so self-interested, and so self-protective, that we will ally ourselves with someone who violates all that is sacred to us—in hope, almost certainly a vain hope given his mendacity and record of betrayal, that his rule will save us.
After his impeachment in 2019, they levied an even harsher judgement, calling for his removal from office:
...but the facts in this instance are unambiguous: The president of the United States attempted to use his political power to coerce a foreign leader to harass and discredit one of the president’s political opponents. That is not only a violation of the Constitution; more importantly, it is profoundly immoral.
The reason many are not shocked about this is that this president has dumbed down the idea of morality in his administration. He has hired and fired a number of people who are now convicted criminals. He himself has admitted to immoral actions in business and his relationship with women, about which he remains proud. His Twitter feed alone—with its habitual string of mischaracterizations, lies, and slanders—is a near perfect example of a human being who is morally lost and confused.
The editorial ends with an especially powerful message that Donald Trump's immorality is a threat not only to the country, but to Christianity itself:
...it’s time to call a spade a spade, to say that no matter how many hands we win in this political poker game, we are playing with a stacked deck of gross immorality and ethical incompetence. And just when we think it’s time to push all our chips to the center of the table, that’s when the whole game will come crashing down. It will crash down on the reputation of evangelical religion and on the world’s understanding of the gospel. And it will come crashing down on a nation of men and women whose welfare is also our concern.
For me, this message strikes a deeply personal note. I was raised Presbyterian and always imagined I would have my children baptized. My first child was born a couple of weeks after the 2016 election, and after witnessing the vast majority of white evangelical and Mainline Protestant voters support Trump then and continue to support him three and a half years later, I've grown so nauseous of their hypocrisy that I've lost my appetite for any involvement with the church. If white Protestants and Catholics are happily holding on to Donald Trump in this "political poker game" to Make America Christian Again, they've badly overplayed their hand.
Donald J. Trump is a conspiracy theory touting pathological liar who demands unconditional loyalty while pledging none to the country he leads. He aids our enemies at home and abroad, is actively hostile to all but his base, and sows division at every opportunity. He spews rudeness and vulgarity on a daily basis, lacks compassion and decency, and is devoid of even the semblance of kindness or empathy. He violates the rule of law, taints the Department of Justice, and tramples democratic norms. He's a fearmongering demagogue who antagonizes protestors and emboldens white nationalists. He's a tax dodging trust fund baby who's bankrupted six businesses in addition to his own morality. Despite his narcissistically enlarged ego, he's too cowardly to stand up to the gun lobby or to engage with demonstrators demanding equal justice. He is intellectually incurious, defiles the environment, and is so ethically incompetent and morally barren that he may well hasten the decline of Christianity in the United States.
updated July 11, 2020