The real reason Donald Trump just confessed
The fallout from “President” Donald Trump’s disastrous ABC News interview is just beginning. As he usually does, Trump took to Twitter to bash his opponents and try to make himself look right, as if he could do that after such irresponsible comments. What in the world made him say such ridiculous things? The easy answer is that he’s a ridiculous person, but there’s more to it than that.
Jack Shafer of Politico gives some very interesting ideas about just what drives Trump and what might be behind his statements that stand to harm the upcoming elections and our intelligence community. Shafer first believes that all of the talk about and investigations into Russian meddling bruised Trump’s fragile ego. He believes that this talk intensified Trump’s insecurities about how he barely won over Hillary Clinton. His failed policies haven’t helped, but he creates many of his own problems by lying and pretending that things have happened differently than they actually have.
Second, Shafer points to Trump’s desire to distract and focus attention back on himself. Members of the Resistance know all too well about Trump’s distractions to cover his crimes, but in this instance, Shafer believes Trump is trying to take the focus off of his fake Mexico deal and his “grim 2020 poll numbers.”
Third, and likely most important, is the matter of Trump’s children. Shafer believes: “From everything we know about the Trump family, he lives in a universe in which either you’re family or you’re nobody.” Shafter points out that the “nobody” includes the United States and all of us. Further, Trump Jr. is really at the center of Trump’s outburst and ridiculous claim, which makes a lot of sense. Since Trump Jr. is the one who jumped at the chance to get “dirt” on Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump now has to make that “okay.” To do otherwise would force Trump to admit that Trump Jr. did the wrong thing in failing to notify the FBI that the Russian government contacted him with “dirt.” Knowing Trump as we do, that is likely hardest to admit to himself, let alone to the rest of the world, especially when you consider that Trump thinks himself the center of the universe.
One of the worst things to come out of this entire debacle is that with his words, Trump has further endangered our democracy. The absolutely worst — and most dangerous — is that his statements have placed our intelligence at risk and has created unnecessary security problems. According to CNN, Trump has not only risked the integrity of the 2020 election, “he reinforced the already strong impression that he would do anything it takes — anything — to win.”
We know this is true, but the question that begs to be answered is “why?” He has done absolutely nothing but sow discord, endanger the economy that President Obama so carefully rebuilt after President Bush’s disasters, and alienate virtually every ally of the United States. It can only be assumed that this man is so hungry for power that he thinks not of the consequences of his actions nor the people he hurts. That in and of itself is extremely dangerous and rests at the heart of why we must get him out in 2020.
Shirley is a former entertainment writer and has worked in the legal field for over 25 years