Ten times you could ask President Trump, “Have you no shame,” and 10 times he could tell you, “No, I don’t.”
He had no shame when he pardoned the violent criminals who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 in a bid to overthrow the government on his behalf.
Trump had no shame when he tried to do an end-around the Constitution with an executive order to end birthright citizenship.
And, Trump had zero shame, none, when he blamed a deadly plane crash just miles from the White House on diversity, equity and inclusion policies.
“I put safety first, Obama, Biden and the Democrats put policy first, and they put politics at a level that nobody’s ever seen,” Trump told reporters last week in the White House briefing room, even as bodies were being pulled out of Washington, D.C.’s icy Potomac River.
“My administration will set the highest possible bar for aviation safety. We have to have our smartest people. It doesn’t matter what they look like, how they speak, who they are. It matters — intellect, talent. The word talent. You have to be talented, naturally talented geniuses. You can’t have regular people doing that job. They won’t be able to do it.”
Sixty-seven people perished when an Army helicopter collided with a commercial airliner Wednesday night during its final approach to Reagan National Airport.
The dead included a group of figure skaters, their coaches and family members who were returning from a development camp that followed the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita, Kansas.
Even if you somehow agreed with the Divider-in-Chief that diversity, equity and inclusion have no place in the American workforce, there is still no getting around the awful fact that as Trump spoke, bodies of the victims were still in the water.
“The president was asked whether he had any evidence backing up that outrageous and stomach-turning claim, and he had to acknowledge that he did not,” U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine said on CNN.
“Imagine you‘re a family member and you‘ve just lost a loved one, and you‘re grappling with answers and you‘re trying to figure out, and you have the president of the United States trying to blame people for political reasons or cast aspersions on folks alleging that they were DEI hires,” he continued.
“I mean, can you imagine a more damaging thing to hear if you‘re suffering already than a president trying to make political hay out of something like this?”
This, America, is your leader.
Trump began his remarks with a moment of silence, which is where he should have stopped. But this guy can’t even do silent right.
No wonder Michelle Obama didn’t want to sit next to him at a funeral or be within 1,000 feet of him at his inauguration.
At least her husband knows how to conduct himself at a moment of national mourning.
When a Black minister in Charleston, S.C., was among those killed by a racist gunman in a church massacre in 2015, President Barack Obama comforted the congregation — and the nation — by launching into a chorus of “Amazing Grace” while delivering the eulogy at the pastor’s funeral.
The only song Trump seems to know is “Y.M.C.A.”
Trump can’t seem to help himself, not even in moments of crisis. He’s the one who can’t put politics aside.
Don’t let him anywhere near the California wildfires. He might bring a can of gasoline with him.
As if the press briefing remarks weren’t enough, Trump doubled down later in the day with a memo from the White House.
“On my second day in office,” it reads, “I ordered an immediate return to merit-based recruitment, hiring, and promotion, elevating safety and ability as the paramount standard. Yesterday’s devastating accident tragically underscores the need to elevate safety and competence as the priority of the FAA.”
Among the outraged was former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg,who wrote on X that Trump’s remarks were “despicable.”
“As families grieve, Trump should be leading, not lying,” he wrote.
It’s going to be a long four years.
