Commentary By Ron Cheong
News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Mon. Nov. 4, 2024: America’s adversaries and assorted despots are eagerly wishing for a Trump victory. They know that a little prodding of his deeply dysfunctional narcissistic vanity or any small flattery is all it takes to get whatever they want. As Vice President Kamala Harris put in: “In many ways Donald Trump is an “un-serious man” but the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious.” He is indeed a deeply flawed, unstable and vengeful man not fit to be president.
How Could One Man Have Changed The Country Like This?
Once the US was staunchly opposed to Russia and anyone who stepped out of line with this policy stood the risk of being severely punished both domestically and abroad.
Cuba has been under a crippling US embargo for close to 70 years for being too chummy with Russia. The tiny island of Grenada with a population of less than 100,000 was invaded by Ronald Regan – whose Republican Party was staunchly anti-Russia, because the Cubans were helping them build an airstrip.
Now Trump calls the despot Putin’s invasion of Ukraine genius and savvy: “This is genius. Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine — of Ukraine. Putin declares it as independent… Here’s a guy who’s very savvy… I know him very well. Very, very well.”
Three months after his inauguration in 2017 Trump hosted Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak in the Oval Office – a privilege few have been granted. A Russian photographer was allowed to take pictures, but no American journalists were allowed to be present.
Meanwhile, he said of American hero John McCain, the son of an admiral, who was shot down over Vietnam suffering severe near fatal injuries and spent five and a half years as a prisoner of war at the infamous “Hanoi Hilton:” “He’s not a war hero. He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”
And his MAGA supporters don T-shirts declaring: I’D RATHER BE RUSSIAN THAN A DEMOCRAT.
There is a folksy sounding TikTok video on social media supposedly by a MAGA zealot – whether this is by a genuine MAGA zealot or a spoof, it contains some concise and alarming truths.
Here is an excerpt:
“…He wants to oppress and let everybody else that’s a woman, that’s Brown, that’s Black, that ain’t Christian, that’s Gay, LGBTQ whatever the hell all it is.
He wants to keep them down under us.
That’s all the man is trying to do in a nutshell.
Keep the rich richer and the poor, poor.
I’m being honest with you, he don’t care about nobody but rich folks if you’re honest.
And to be honest I know Trump’s a narcissist and only cares about himself.
And I know he’s normalising narcissism.
I know he’s normalising immorality in humanity, racism, white supremacy, white nationalism, misogyny, all that,
He’s normalising lying, he’s normalising conning, he’s normalising criminal activity, he’s normalising treason, I know that…”
No 2016 Benefit Of The Doubt In 2024
This is not 2016 when Trump seemingly was given the benefit of the doubt, despite declaring bankruptcy 6 times and being involved in over 4,000 lawsuits, including almost 200 involving unpaid taxes) over the years.
Trump is a known quantity now. Just a few days ago at a campaign event in Arizona he made a dangerously inflammatory attack against Liz Cheney, daughter of former Republican Vice-President Dick Cheney, instigating: “Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, okay? Let’s see how she feels about it. You know, when the guns are trained on her face.”
Is there any doubt that he would turn the army against American citizens who disagree with him, or as he puts it, on the “enemy within?”
This is the thought process of the individual who wants to be the next President of the United States of America, the most powerful country in the world – and with his finger on the nuclear button.
Imagine that, an unprincipled, duplicitous, unfit, unbalanced, xenophobic, convicted felon and aspiring despot – stands within a hair’s breadth of becoming the 47th president of the United States of America.
It is not as though the alarm has not been rung. A year ago, CNN listed 24 of the most notable aides, cabinet members, and allies – those who know him best, that declared him unfit and would no longer support him, and the list has only grown longer:
1. His vice president, Mike Pence: Who he almost got hung. When told that Pence was in very serious danger, Trump said, “So What!”
2. Attorney General, Bill Barr.
3. His first Secretary of Defense, James Mattis.
4. His second Secretary of Defense, Mark Esper.
5. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, retired Gen. Mark Milley.
6. Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson.
7. Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley. After failing in her run for the Republican 2024 Presidential nomination, she fell back in line.
8. Presidential transition vice-chairman, Chris Christie.
9. His second National Security Adviser, HR McMaster.
10. His third National Security Adviser, John Bolton.
11. His second Chief of Staff, John Kelly.
12. His former acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney.
13. One of his many former Communications Directors, Anthony Scaramucci. “He is the domestic terrorist of the 21st century.”
14.Another former communications director, Stephanie Grisham.
15. His Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos,
16. His Secretary of Transportation, Elaine Chao.
17. His first secretary of the Navy, Richard Spencer.
18. His first Homeland Security Adviser, Tom Bossert.
19. His former personal lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen.
20. His White House lawyer, Ty Cobb.
21. A former Director of Strategic Communications, Alyssa Farah Griffin
22. A top aide in charge of his Outreach to African Americans, Omarosa Manigault Newman: “Donald Trump, who would attack civil rights icons and professional athletes, who would go after grieving black widows, who would say there were good people on both sides, who endorsed an accused child molester; Donald Trump, and his decisions and his behavior, was harming the country. I could no longer be a part of this madness.”
23. A former Deputy Press Secretary, Sarah Matthews.
24. His final chief of staff’s aide, Cassidy Hutchinson. Trump claimed to not know her same as he didn’t know E. Jean Carol.
These are some of the officials who worked directly with Trump, there are many more including military leader, legal scholars, hundreds of lawyers, Republican members of the house and senate, Republican Governors like Arnold Schwarzenegger, officers in his businesses and many others.
Not Mexican but American Wall
Since coming doing the escalator he has been a blight on America. He left behind a mess ranging from the increased deficit due his tax cut to the very riches to the fallout from his botched response to the Covid-19 outbreak, to which his solution was to inject Clorox.
As for his grand braggadocios promise to build a border wall and have Mexico pay for it, well he built all of 2 miles of the border wall – and no, Mexico did not pay for even that.
Now they want to go further with Project 2025 – slash the social safety net, and replace government workers with only sycophants loyal to him
America’s adversaries and assorted despots are eagerly wishing for a Trump Victory. They know that a little prodding of his deeply dysfunctional narcissistic vanity or any small flattery is all it takes to get whatever they want.
Korean Dictator Kim Jong Un had Trump gushing and boasting about the “love letters” between Kim and him. And all it took from Harris in their debate was a little negative prod on his “crowd size,” to enrage him into taking off on the “eating dogs and cats tirade.”
He is a deeply flawed, unstable and vengeful man not fit to be president. It would have been thought that his eating cats and dogs tirade would’ve been the end to his Presidential aspirations, but apparently there must be a market for that type of talk.
If Donald Trump wins by some disastrous quirk of fate, he will not need his wall to keep out, migrants, murderers and rapists, as he puts it. But he may well need to build walls to keep in those who have the means to flee his version of the United States of America.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Ron Cheong, born in Guyana, is a community activist and dedicated volunteer with an extensive international background in banking. Now residing in Toronto, Canada, he is a fellow of the Institute of Canadian Bankers and holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Toronto.
