Political Irony

Donald Trump is going off the deep end over the whole Trump University scandal and lawsuit.

As if calling the judge in two of the cases against Trump U “a hater” and saying that the judge should be removed from the case because “he’s a Mexican” isn’t bad enough. First of all, the judge is not Mexican. He was born in Indiana, the son of immigrants from Mexico who came to this country in the 1920s. But reality doesn’t matter to Trump. And attacking someone because their parents came from another country makes Trump completely against everything for which this country stands. Indeed, in his view, would any American be qualified to judge Donald Trump?

Even Trump’s strongest supporters, including Republican politicians being considered for the VP slot, denounced Trump. Newt Gingrich called his racist attacks “inexcusable” and said “I don’t know what Trump’s reasoning was, and I don’t care. His description of the judge in terms of his parentage is completely unacceptable.” Top Trump campaigner Ben Carson warned “Every human being is an individual first rather than a member of an identity group. The moment we forget that is the moment we enter into a phase of moral descent.” Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said “I couldn’t disagree [with Trump] more.” Speaker Paul Ryan called it “the textbook definition of a racist comment“. GOP Senator Jeff Flake says “Let’s face it: meet the old Trump, just like the new Trump. We’ve got what we’ve got. That’s not somebody who can win the White House.” Senator Lindsay Graham accused Trump of “playing the race card”. Graham is urging Republicans to rescind their endorsements of Trump, saying “This is the most un-American thing from a politician since Joe McCarthy. If anybody was looking for an off-ramp, this is probably it. There’ll come a time when the love of country will trump hatred of Hillary.”

The only people who have praised Trump for his disgusting comments are prominent white nationalists.

But that is not what this post is about. Unbelievably, Trump has now ordered his campaign surrogates (including former Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, former Senator Scott Brown, and current Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, who asked for and received $25,000 in campaign contributions from Trump and then refused to investigate complaints into Trump University) to join him in attacking the judge and to impugn reporters as racists. He says, “The people asking the questions—those are the racists. I would go at ’em.”

But when Brewer informed Trump that his own campaign had ordered the surrogates to stop talking about the lawsuit, Trump immediately started attacking his own campaign staff, and told the surrogates to “Take that order and throw it the hell out”. He then asked “Are there any other stupid letters that were sent to you folks? That’s one of the reasons I want to have this call, because you guys are getting sometimes stupid information from people that aren’t so smart.”

So much for hiring the “best people” for his campaign.

Trump wants his supporters and surrogates to attack anyone who asks questions about his fraudulent university and to call them racists. And on the call he boasted “We will overcome. I’ve always won and I’m going to continue to win. And that’s the way it is.”

But in the five weeks since he became the presumptive Republican nominee, Trump has failed several times: he refused to release his tax returns, lying that he couldn’t because he was being audited; he denied that it was him on a recorded phone call pretending to be his own publicist and bragging about himself; he failed to donate to veterans groups as he promised until pressured by the media; and after promising that he would self-fund his campaign so he couldn’t be bought, he is now working with multiple super-PACs and courting billionaire donors; and of course his Trump University scandal and resulting racism.

His warlord-like siege mentality is a preview of what a Trump presidency would look like, and it scares the hell out of me. Trump has the potential to destroy America, ruin our economy, incite racial violence, dramatically increase corruption, sink the dollar, bankrupt our government, alienate our allies and trade partners, increase the nuclear threat, and invite terrorist attacks with his hostile rhetoric.

UPDATE: Let’s add that — according to Fox News’ Megyn Kelly — Trump’s attacks on the judge in his trial could destroy our legal system.