After the Orlando shooting, the presumptive Republican nominee hinted that President Obama has hidden loyalties. That is deranged
Donald Trump needs help. Not just help with all those pesky policy details that he cant seem to master; not even help with a coherent political strategy for winning in November. He needs psychological help and he needs it now.
His unhinged reaction to the Orlando mass murders sends a clear message to his party and to voters in general: this presidential thing isnt working out well for him or the nation.
At first, it was all too easy to dismiss his histrionics. His conspiracy theories about President Obamas birth certificate were just a desperate cry for attention: an appeal to the fringes that made him the butt of all jokes.
Then, after he gained political traction, the conventional wisdom was that the hype was just one big theatrical act: a marketing wheeze that would end with defeat in the crowded Republican primaries.
But of course the wild accusations, irrational behavior and self-engrossed eruptions didnt end there. Now, at a time of national mourning, the Republican presidential nominee has accused the 44th president of the United States of sympathizing with terrorists.
He doesnt get it, or he gets it better than anybody understands. Its one or the other, Trump told Fox News Channels morning show.
Were led by a man that either is not tough, not smart or hes got something else in mind, he added, for good measure. And the something else in mind, you know, people cant believe it. People cannot they cannot believe that President Obama is acting the way he acts and cant even mention the words radical Islamic terrorism. Theres something going on. Its inconceivable.
This is no random brain fart from the great orange one. He took the same line to NBCs Today show, saying: Well, there are a lot of people that think maybe he doesnt want to get it.
Just to be clear: were talking about the same president who ordered the commando raid that killed Osama bin Laden, the civilized worlds greatest enemy.
Thats the same president who has ordered more than 10 times the number of drone strikes than his predecessor, killing more than 3,000 suspected terrorists and several hundred more civilians, according to the best estimates.
If President Obama is a secret sympathizer with America-hating terrorists, he is a supremely bad one. It is long past time for his puppet-masters to pull the right strings and get their rogue operative back in line with their true mission of radical jidahi terrorism.
It was bad enough that Trumps obsession after Orlando was to retreat to his only true area of expertise: himself. Appreciate the congrats for being right on radical Islamic terrorism, he tweeted on Sunday.
By Monday morning, a normal candidate might have dialed back this vomit-inducing self-congratulation in favor of some national healing and tough words about terrorism. Naturally that wasnt the choice of the real estate developer.
No, no, no. Im getting thousands of letters and tweets that I was right about the whole situation, he told Fox News. I mean, Ive been right about a lot of things, frankly.
This might be mildly humorous if the reality TV star wasnt asking to take control of the worlds most powerful military force and its nuclear arsenal.
Instead we have a Republican nominee who is proud of his proposal to ban Muslims from entering the United States after a terrorist attack by a US citizen who would never be subject to that ban. As Spock once told Captain Kirk: Insufficient facts always invite danger.
The appeal of this flawed logic is known to the Clinton campaign. In the wake of the Republican sweep of the midterm elections in 2002, Bill Clinton memorably observed that the incoherence of the politics didnt much matter to voters. When people are insecure, theyd rather have somebody who is strong and wrong, than someone whos weak and right, Clinton said.
The challenge for Hillary Clinton is to be strong and right, especially at a time when her rival is so far out of the mainstream.
Trumps brand of deranged politics should come as no surprise to his enablers. Theres a direct line between the birth certificate insanity and where the Republican finds itself today. And that line points to a moral and political gutter that the party will find it hard to crawl out of.
After the 9/11 attacks, George W Bush warned the world that they were either with us or against us in the fight against terror. To his never-ending credit, President Bush also insisted that Islam was a religion of peace and that Muslim Americans were our friends and fellow citizens who deserved our respect.
Today the Republican party must decide whether it supports sane leadership or opposes it. In the fight against terror, is it with the commander-in-chief or a delusional conspiracy theorist?
