Remember yesterday’s op-ed contrasting Good Trump with Bad Trump? Well, Bad Trump came out to comment on last night’s tragic plane crash.
Donald Trump recently took center stage in a press conference regarding that awful crash between a military helicopter and a commercial airline in Washington, D.C. that left scores dead.
Certainly, it is appropriate for the president to show empathy and to demand investigation. But Trump can never seem to employ a filter.
At these press conferences, he tends to muse, to ramble and to just talk off the cuff, as though he’s your elderly uncle at the Thanksgiving dinner table.
It’s that type of undisciplined approach in his Covid briefings that many believe cost him the 2020 election. It wasn’t Covid itself and the economic downturn that did Trump in. To the contrary, almost every governor who went through Covid was reelected.
Often, elected officials rise to the occasion and see their poll ratings soar in times of crisis. Think George H.W. Bush after Desert storm or his son after September 11. Bill Clinton‘s presidency reversed course after his empathetic reaction to the Oklahoma City bombing.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo soared in popularity by handling himself so well in his Covid briefing. (This, of course, obscured his awful internal decisions allowing Covid patients back into nursing homes – leading to the deaths of thousands.) Cuomo sounded informed, and was indeed informative to the listening public that was hungry for information.
They didn’t get that information or sense of confidence from Trump at his press conferences that he made all about himself. He was combative and exhausting. He just couldn’t get off the stage. Had he appointed his vice president to run the press conferences and hand it off to the doctors, Trump, may have won reelection.
It seems that he hasn’t learned this lesson.
He’s off to a remarkably fast and productive start in his second term. He’s already nearly closed the border and he removed poisonous DEI from federal agencies. He’s reopening our enormous energy potential and is letting our enemies know that they can no longer walk over America.
But all these positives can come crashing down with rambling rhetoric that removes the public confidence in their leader.
Trump has correctly noted that DEI is dangerous. It diminishes merit and puts us into camps based upon our race, gender and creed.
But why in the world would he make an off-the-cuff remark that the horrific accident may have been the result of DEI? Who knows? Maybe it was, but, at the present time, there is absolutely no evidence of such and it is wrong for him to inject it into the conversation.
Mr. President, you must control your hunches. You can’t just get up in a press conference and say maybe we should explore using bleach to deal with Covid. Some things are better discussed in a conference room with your insiders.
When you are at the podium addressing the American people, be accurate, be concise, and be informative. Stop just talking out loud. It’s unbecoming and it hurts your presidency. We want you to succeed. Please stop hurting yourself with these irresponsible ramblings.