TRUMP INSULTS OUR FRIENDS, WHILE HE PRAISES OUR ADVERSARIES

…A sulking US President, and a jovial French President

Watch out as Trump becomes more cornered, and therefore he becomes more dangerous.

Leaders gathered in Paris to mark the end of a century since the end of World War I.  French President Emmanuel Macron hosted a ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe to mark the moment the guns fell silent across Europe at the end of that great World War.

President Macron also used the weekend commemoration to warn the US president of the perils of the Nationalist label he has chosen to embrace, and he suggested that Trump has a lot to learn about real Nationalism and its history.

Macron had called Nationalism a dangerous trap and the total opposite of real patriotism, while he invoked the bloodiest episodes of 20th-century European history.

Of course, Trump always strikes back when anyone tries to give him advice, and he showed little patience for the lesson Macron tried to impart.  Nor did Trump appreciated the praise the young French leader has received from his not-so-veiled criticism of his US counterpart.

Trump’s response was typical for this US President when he tweeted, “By the way, there is no country more Nationalist than France, very proud people-and rightfully so!” He followed this up with the tweet: “MAKE FRANCE GREAT AGAIN!”

The Trump taunts on Twitter showed again that he refuses to consider the arguments about the negative aspects that Nationalism carries.  As expected for this historically ignorant president, he did not show any signs that he is troubled by the re- current rise of Nazism in Europe, and its current overlap with modern American racists who call themselves “white nationalists”.

In fact, in his tweet-storm against Macron, Trump invoked the Nazi march across Europe which in fact was the very event that the French president warned of when he spoke about Nationalism.

Trump flaunted his embrace of that term and suggested that Macron do the same, while arguing that the French president was criticizing him to distract from Macron’s  poor poll numbers.

(FYI: Macron’s poll numbers at home are much better than Trumps are here.)

Trump tweeted: “Emmanuel Macron suggests building its own army to protect Europe against the US, China and Russia. But it was Germany in World Wars One & Two - How did that work out for France? They were starting to learn German in Paris before the US came along. Pay for NATO or not!” Trump wrote.

French Ambassador Gérard Araud corrected Trump to note that Macron had not suggested that Europe needs defending against the United States, just that it should not assume it can rely on this close ally, and added some advice for anyone cheering Trump on.

“You should listen to Europe that has bred two WW’s and a genocide in two generations,” Araud wrote this on Twitter, referring to World War I and World War II. “Nationalism is dangerous, subject to miscalculation and misperception, it always carries the risk of conflict..”

But this highly naïve president has tried to define his brand of nationalism as a form of “patriotism devoid of the darker aspects that his critics warn that Nationalism brings”.

However, Trump has duped himself by not being a reader or follower of modern history.  He is totally unaware that Nationalism in Germany under Hitler, was so rampant that when Hitler realized they were going to lose the war, the Fuhrer had ordered his military to start killing their own citizens.  He said the “If we are going to lose the war, we should all die together.”

Fortunately, the German military leaders did not follow Hitler’s orders.

Today, I can personally see that if the current president comes under pressure from the Mueller investigation, or if his family is threatened with going to jail, as some of his former supporters have been found guilty, I can see this president doing virtually anything to protect himself or his family.

Trump told Fox News host Laura Ingraham in a recent interview, that he feels no need to clarify what he means by the term “Nationalist”. “I’m proud of this country and I call that ‘Nationalism.’ I call it being a Nationalist and I don’t see any other connotation than that.”[Being a Nationalist] means I love the country, it means I’m fighting for the country,”

For Trump, the term “Nationalist” fits his political brand of anti-elitism, said University of Washington Historian, Margaret O’Mara. “It’s similar to his ‘America First’ slogan he has trumpeted since his presidential campaign, always shrugging off criticism about whether he was nodding to anti-immigrant fervor and isolationism.”

“My inclination is that he does not really know the history because he’s, self-admitted, not a big book reader and not someone who marinates in this stuff,” O’Mara said. “Trump may or may not be thinking about Lindbergh when he talks, but it’s very effective for the political base he’s trying to reach — positioning himself as the adversary of these global elites, against internationalism.”

Aviator Charles Lindbergh, who wrote about “European blood” as the most precious American commodity.  He became the spokesman for a nativist, nationalist, antiwar movement called the America First Committee, which sought to keep the United States out of World War II.  It was never a far leap from the “America First” agenda and the “Nationalist” label, but Trump has not made such a direct link.

Both terms harken back to very dark periods in American history, and “Nationalism” has become the preferred term for some of today’s “white-power activists”.  While he was campaigning in Houston on Oct. 23, Trump tried out the ”Nationalist” term.

“They have a word, it sort of became old-fashioned, it’s called a Nationalist,” he said. “And I say, ‘Really, we’re not supposed to use that word.’ You know what I am? I’m a Nationalist, okay? I’m a Nationalist. Nothing wrong. Use that word. Use that word.”

Trump’s use of the term was cheered by former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, who tweeted that Trump was really referring to “white nationalism”.

“There is no ethnic or racial group in America more Nationalist than White Americans,” Duke wrote.

“Trump says he is not a racist and does not endorse the views of Duke or others who call themselves white nationalists. But using the term is encouragement to those views, and it speaks to a rejection of the caution and centrism that past presidents have tended to adopt as they settled into the job”, said Allan Lichtman, a presidential historian at the American University.

“I generally see a progression on the part of the president to becoming more reckless, to really articulate controversial, outlandish things without regard to the consequences,” Lichtman said. “The more outlandish things he says, the more cheers he gets at his rallies and that’s what he really cares about.”

During the 2016 campaign, Trump reposted a Twitter message from someone called “WhiteGenocideTM.”  As president, Trump, was criticized for concealing the truth of blaming the white-power activists whose rally in Charlottesville ended in the death of a counter-white power protester.

Nicholas Fuentes, a white nationalist YouTube personality who attended that same “Unite the Right” rally, live-tweeted election results as Democrats won control of the House.  Fuentes praised Trump and criticized national Republican leaders that he views as too moderate or too timid.

“The next two years will be tough but not impossible,” Fuentes wrote. “Hopefully this will be a wake-up call [for Republicans] and most importantly Trump that the Heritage agenda just won’t win elections anymore. We have to fully embrace populist-nationalism or we will fail.”

In other words folks, Trump is starting to become cornered and that’s when he becomes very dangerous for whomever gets in his way.

Trump never goes after the nation’s adversaries.  He treats them with praise, and he insults our long-time friends.  Just look at how he treats the leaders of Germany, France and Great Britain, versus how he regards the leaders of Russia, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, not to mention North Korea. 

He respects all authoritarian dictators, while he only criticizes our democratic friends.

So, the recommendation is that you hold on to your ass because it will get much worse before it gets better, and it will take years to deal with what this president will leave us and our children.

Copyright G. Ater  2018