I sometimes wonder what my mother would say if she rose from the dead and learned that Donald J. Trump was once president of the United States. And, that he has the gall to try and bully his way back into the Oval Office after plotting to overthrow the government.
She’d most certainly ask,“Lord! Lord! What is this world coming to?”
Not that Mama knew Trump all that well, but she did watch the evening news and was familiar with the now twice-indicted, twice-impeached politician who was also found liable for sexual assault.
If she were to learn of the shenanigans he has pulled since her death in 2005, she’d undoubtedly scoff, “I wouldn’t trust that man as far as I can throw him.”
Mama was born in the backwoods of Alabama in 1912. So you can imagine that during her 93 years of living in the Jim Crow South, she was keenly aware that Black people were thrown in jail for far less than fomenting an attack on the Capitol.
It’s beyond maddening that the false idol that many Republicans worship continues to get off scot-free for his obvious law-breaking.
But that fact may not last much longer because “God don’t like ugly,” Mama might exclaim.
As a New York City resident in the ’80s and ’90s who experienced local tabloids constantly making Trump front page news, I recognized then that he is a narcissist, a sociopath, a racist, a grifter, a liar, and a cheat.
Though his Christian right supporters prefer the description “not a perfect vessel,” Mama would describe him as “full of devilment.”
A friend of mine was a manager at the defunct Tower Records store inside Trump Tower back in the day. She says they were ordered to alert Trump whenever a famous musician was visiting so he could hurry downstairs and take a picture with his toothy, fake smile.
The cringy, and often inappropriate, thumbs-up gesture became a thing after he entered politics.
“Well, if he don’t look like a-don’t-know-what doin’ that,” I can hear Mama say, laughing at the man with the orange tan.
While that ridiculous pose excites the sycophantic MAGA crowd, it won’t save him from Special Prosecutor Jack Smith whom Mama would surely see as “Trump’s pea liquor cooler.”
Translation: The ex-President is in a heap of trouble and reminds us every time he opens his mouth.
Ever question a toddler who, let’s say, was not supposed to touch a freshly baked cake but is caught with icing in his hair, on his face, and covering his fingers?
Said kid can’t stop volunteering a string of excuses that further entangles him in a web of lies. Sound familiar?
A notorious interview with Brett Baier on FOX recently is a perfect example of Trump’s rambling about why he held onto classified documents.
“The Donald” vomited something about golf shirts in a box and the feds should’ve begged him for the documents and he was too busy to comply with subpoenas and he had already declassified everything anyway and he is totally innocent and the dog ate his homework.
“Boy, you need to quit yo’ foolishness,” my exasperated Mama would have concluded.
Observers note that Trump has a metaphorical Ph.D. in sewing confusion and chaos, something that makes his diehard followers giddy. They proudly stand by their man and donate money whenever he asks.
I used to think that a millionaire grabbing their hard-earned cash allegedly to pay his legal fees was wrong. But now I want Trump to take the suckers for every penny they have.
As Mama might surmise, “Trump is making a monkey out of them white folks.”
Trump usually escapes real consequences for his wrongdoing by setting up loyal underlings to take the hit; the latest being his valet and co-defendant, Waltine Nauta.
However, this time may be different.
The 45th president’s trashing of the sacred oath he took to protect and defend our country may come home to roost since the documents case appears to be open and shut.
Hopefully, if he’s found guilty of these charges, it will land Trump in prison where he belongs just like everyone else who blatantly breaks the law.
Anything less begs Mama’s question:
“Lord! Lord! What is this world coming to?”
Jo Ann Allen retired recently from Colorado Public Radio in Denver after 47 years of reporting the news. She is the creator and host of the podcast Been There Done That.
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