President Donald Trump provides an excellent example of the Freudian slip. The founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), provides that what people generally call slip of the tongue should not be ignored. To him, it is the working of the inner mind, the subconscious. In the telling days of his campaign for the American presidency, Trump harped on what he called the Nigerian connection in which, according to him, President Barack Obama had concluded plans to use Nigeria to rig the American election for Hillary Clinton.
Evidently, Trump had perfected his Russian plans. That was the first time that a presidential candidate threatened to reject the result of an election that was not yet held. For the result to be acceptable to Trump, he must be declared winner.
We have seen this win-at-all-cost syndrome before. In the final days of Al Capone (1899-1947), he became a raving lunatic, with his brain eaten up by paresis from an old case of syphilis. Friends would gather for a game of cards, always letting Al Capone win. When anyone forgot himself and won by mistake, Al Capon ordered him gunned down instantly.
Since January 20, 2017, when Trump was sworn-in as the 45th President of America, it has been for him, another day, another scandal, to the extent that all the campaign promises he made to Americans are no longer within shouting range. He hardly has time to defend yesterday’s controversy before the arrival of today’s.
The weekend after his inauguration, he issued an ill-fated Executive Order in which he attempted to deny entry into America to people from selected Muslim nations, including some whose valid entry visas predated Trump’s arrival at the White House. It is now history how a junior Judicial Officer – the Nigerian equivalent of Magistrate Grade III – up-turned Trump’s obnoxious Order.
America is a land with long-established institutions that work; and a land where public interest is thicker than partisan politics. Given a chance, the Obama-Care would not have lived one day longer after Trump’s arrival at the White House. Truly, both Houses of Congress are dominated by the Republicans but that is not a license for Trump, or anybody for that matter, to destroy the country they have worked so hard to build. Trump’s attempt to repeal the Obama-Care was quickly consigned to the waste basket.
America wants to build free bridges but Trump wants to build walls and have others pay for them; Trump is at war with the popular press. He is at war with the female-folks; and, indeed, Trump simply represents and encourages the ugliest in America.
In the past, when America sneezed, the entire world caught cold. Suddenly, America refused to put its money where its mouth is. Americans wanted a cheap product and they got one in Trump. They wanted someone who could finance his election without bothering anyone. Trump was it! Having “bought” the position, Trump was not going to listen to anyone. His loyalty was to his family and his Russian connection. By the time he mortgaged America to Russia, the reversal had gone full circle – when Vladimir Putin now sneezes America catches cold.
In International Diplomacy, one country’s gain is another’s loss. See how very cheaply Trump has dethroned America’s supremacy at the Paris Climate Accord. China is smiling by the side, waiting to grab the emerging opportunity. Trump is just pre-occupied with pulling down everything Obama built.
Virtually all Americans, high and low, across party lines, are openly calling their President mad, to the extent that they want him out of the White House. RobertReich perhaps today verbalizes the views of the ordinary Americans: “Enough of this madness. We have endured Trump for eight months…He has almost single-handedly destroyed the moral authority of the presidency at home and abroad; brought us to the brink of nuclear war without consulting anyone; and sown division and hatred everywhere… How can this nation endure another 40 months of this man? It is time to end this disgrace.”
Robert Schwartz who helped Trump write the 1987 book, “The Art of the Deal,” provides an idea of when Trump will drop out, “I would be amazed if Trump survived till the end of this year.”
Trump is hated at home and despised abroad. Suddenly, the Pacific Region has become a no-go area for the American Navy. In just eight months of Trump’s presidency, four US Navy Warships have crashed in Asia: The USS Antietam (31/01/2017); USS Chaplain (09/05/2017); USS Fitzgerald (17/06/2017) and USS John S. McCain (21/08/2017) – all guided missile cruisers – collided with merchant ships and got totally destroyed in various parts of the Pacific Ocean.
Essentially, Trump is at home, roaring about how he is going to squeeze North Korea like an ant. US gun destroyers are being destroyed, even before firing a single shot! The US Naval authorities have every cause to be worried. Despite the colossal human and material losses accruing from the crashes, the US has never had it so bad, even in war times. All the crashes are confined to the Pacific waters, while nothing is happening to their operations in the Atlantic and Mediterranean Regions.
Between Trump’s equivocation on Charlottesville, even in the face of obvious blood-letting; his steady descent towards nuclear holocaust; and other numerous controversies around him, the question today is no longer whether Trump should go, but, how. Americans have enough ground on which to push him out of the White House; but they also think it will be neater to let him jump rather than being pushed – just like Richard Nixon did. Meanwhile, Special Counsel, Robert Mueller, is leading the investigation into possible links between the Trump campaign and the Russians.
Truly, Trump’s exit would mean Mike Pence’s entry. This does not bother the Democrats. To them, “A principled right-winger is better for America and the world than an unhinged sociopath.”
Shall we return to Alexander Pope? “Genius and madness are very close. Only a thin line separates them.” Where does Trump stand?
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By Hon. Josef Omorotionmwan
E-mail:[email protected]
