Trump's Mouth

On Tuesday, President Trump invited cameras into his negotiations with lawmakers over immigration and the “dreamers” act, earning praise even from CNN for his presidential demeanor, his mastery of the topic, and his openness to other ideas. But then on Friday, all of those good impressions were blown away when the president asked, “Why are we having all these people from sh**hole countries come here?”

The context was more discussion with lawmakers over immigration, in which immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador, and Africa were mentioned. As if the vulgarity were not bad enough, the president asked, ““Why do we need more Haitians?” Instead, the president called for more immigrants from Norway.

The media erupted, as did the rest of the world (particularly Haiti, El Salvador, Africa, and Norway), including much of the American public.

Meanwhile, our culture is coarsened even further as television, newspapers, and other media drop their previous standards so that they report on the controversy by saying “sh**.”

Trump’s defenders claimed that he wasn’t casting aspersions on the people of these “sh**hole countries,” just condemning their evil governments and horrible standard of living due to those evil governments.

But if that’s so, why did the president take it out on the people who live under those conditions? (“Why do we need more Haitians?”) And why contrast them with the Nordic race?

The president compounded the embarrassment by denying that he said those words, even though the other people in the meeting confirmed that he did, thus being caught in a lie.

Do any Trump supporters believe that this scatological insult helped the president to pass his immigration policy? Did it make him more effective in implementing any of his agenda? Is it going to help Republicans keep the House and Senate in the elections later this year? Will it contribute to his re-election efforts by bolstering the stature of his presidency?

Those who want Trump to succeed and are in favor of his policies can only be frustrated when he keeps thwarting himself and preventing his policies from getting any traction by opening his big mouth.

Yes, Trump has many enemies who blow things out of proportion and will do anything to make him look bad. So why does he cooperate with them by not guarding his tongue and his Twitter fingers? Has he no impulse control, no self-discipline? Yes, Trump has many enemies, but the worst of them is surely himself.

Illustration by DonkeyHotey (Donald Trump- Caricature) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons