America last

On the weekend before Veterans Day, the assembled leaders of the western world gathered at Aisne-Marne, an American cemetery in France (where 2,288 Americans soldiers, mostly Marines, died in the Battle of Belleau Wood in World War I.) Trump skipped the ceremony – to commemorate 100 years since the end of World War I and 243 years since the founding of the Marine Corps – because it was raining. Later, a State Dinner was held to honor the occasion. Again, the heads of state of virtually every major country that fought on our side in World War I gathered together. Trump stayed in his hotel room to watch Fox News and tweet blame about the devastating California fires before threatening to cut off federal aid to the area.

The next morning, the world’s leaders marched shoulder to shoulder down the Champs-Elysee in Paris in solidarity. Trump skipped this part and arrived alone— as did Vladimir Putin. Somehow, Trump found time to meet privately and unofficially with Putin. When the two saw each other at the solemn ceremony to honor the war dead, big smiles were exchanged. Putin gave Trump a thumbs-up. Trump patted Putin on the back. Soldiers, ex-soldiers, retired (Republican) generals, former (Republican) defense secretaries were withering in their criticism. (“An embarrassment”. . . “he let down our veterans, he let down our country.”)

Trump – unique among American Presidents of recent memory – has also yet to make a single trip to visit American troops abroad. (“I don’t think it’s overly necessary,” he replied when asked directly about it in an Associated Press interview.) He’s stationed 15,000 troops near our country’s southern border as part of a pre-election stunt to scare voters— soldiers with no clearly outlined mission who will now likely spend Thanksgiving eating MREs with each other instead of turkey dinners with their families. Remember that “caravan” of violent criminals from Honduras, but also, mysteriously, containing MS-13 gang members as well as Middle Eastern terrorists, many of whom were apparently, and miraculously, making the thousands-of-miles trek on foot while suffering from leprosy, smallpox (which was eradicated almost four decades ago), and other diseases meant to infect our country? Yeah. Those guys— though the only photos I’ve seen of the actual caravan mostly show young girls crying because they’ve lost their favorite stuffed animal. Notice how neither Trump nor Fox News talks about them any more now that there’s not an election in front of us?

Then, on Veterans Day itself, with the Trump back in Washington, the White House announced at 10 a.m. that the President had no official functions on his schedule that, would make no statements and would not be leaving the White House. There was a light rain in the forecast for Washington later in the day, so there was also no visit, as has generally been customary for American presidents, across the river to Arlington National Cemetery, the final resting place of so many American soldiers since the Civil War.

The “America First!” president spent the whole day watching – what else? – Fox News and tweeting utter nonsense about how we shouldn't count ballots from our recent election in Florida because they don't favor Republicans. (What he didn’t point out, of course: If we stopped counting ballots on election night, like Trump wanted to – there’s absolutely zero law on the books stating the need for this, by the way– we’d be ignoring every single vote cast by service members deployed overseas, who by law have until 10 days after the election for their votes to be received and counted.)

Later on Veterans Day, the White House communications team also, finally, gave their official excuse for Trump not traveling to the American cemetery in France. According to Sarah Huckabee Sanders, rain prevented his helicopter from flying to the cemetery. And while he could have taken the presidential motorcade, he didn't want to disrupt traffic in Paris.

Some of you might remember fifteen years ago, when France didn't want to invade Iraq, how Republicans led a charge to rename "French fries" as "Freedom fries." Now the man who calls himself our President – the man credibly accused by at least 16 women of inappropriate behavior ranging from sexual harassment to sexual assault, who was caught on tape boasting about grabbing women somewhere not appropriate to mention in a family-friendly newspaper – is a no-show for our fallen war dead, and we’re supposed to believe that he's simply being overly polite and considerate to the citizens of Paris, France. Not to worry: Trump himself came out on Twitter a day later and contradicted his own communications team— he blamed it all on the Secret Service.

As I write this column, wild rumors are circulating about a fresh round of indictments coming from Robert Mueller’s investigation. Having forced Jeff Sessions out as Attorney General, he installed a toady named Matt Whitaker, who had worked his way into a job as an on-air CNN analyst specifically to attract Trump’s attention, to run interference for him with Mueller’s investigation. When Whitaker, who now heads the entire U.S. Department of Justice , was nominated for U.S. Attorney in 2004, he told the Senate that his most significant case was suing a dry cleaner for negligence.

With the Democrats having gained control of the House of Representatives, Trump is clearly both depressed and terrified at the notion of someone, anyone, having any actual oversight of his pathetic, corrupted sham of a presidency as the walls come closing in around him. People inside the White House say he’s “retreated into a cocoon of bitterness and resentment... he’s furious. Most staffers are trying to avoid him.”

Just what we need in a President, eh?