What a difference!
Every day for the last 518 days I have sent out the same tweet. You can see it for yourself if you go to my Twitter account @RAHarrington. Today’s tweet said, “I like Presidents who spend 1 year and 153 days in office without writing a single life-endangering hate-tweet.” Each day I increment that number by one.
It’s my way of reminding myself and everyone who cares to read those tweets that, before Twitter summarily kicked him out, the previous occupant of the White House frequently sent out angry tweets. Those tweets were about specific people he hated. He sent them to his seething, rabid fan base. Those Trump idolaters would in turn send the subject of the tweets similarly angry tweets, texts, letters, phone calls, voicemails and the like. Sometimes they’d go to the victim’s home. Sometimes they would threaten the victim and his or her family with death.
Trump was warned many times that this was the direct result of his hate-tweets. He didn’t care. For Trump, putting American lives in danger was a feature not a bug. It was something he did many, many times. And he loved to do it.
In his inaugural address, Trump said, “The oath of office I take today is an oath of allegiance to all Americans.” But that was a lie. He frequently put innocent Americans in harm’s way. Their only crime was they didn’t do what he wanted, or they didn’t lie for him, or they didn’t serve him.
Trump’s job was to protect Americans, not put their lives in danger when they disagreed with him or defied him. He lied a lot, more than 30,000 times that we know about. Trump was never president for all Americans. He wasn’t even president for most Americans. He was only provisionally president for Americans who agreed with him and served him.
Trump wasn’t even president for all Republicans. Your status in Trump’s eyes could turn on a dime. One minute you could be a favourite, the next you could be a RINO, or Republican In Name Only. Having Trump call you a RINO was deadly dangerous to your safety. It still is.
In the fourth installment of the public January 6 Committee hearings, Adam Schiff put it this way: “Anyone who got in the way of Donald Trump’s continued hold on power after he lost the election was the subject of a dangerous and escalating campaign of pressure. This pressure campaign brought angry phone calls and texts, armed protests, intimidation and all too often threats of violence and death.” It was Trump’s weapon of choice. It’s why so many people feared him.
So that’s why I like to remind myself and my Twitter followers every day about just one difference between our current President and the Former Guy. It’s one of many differences, of course, but it’s specifically characteristic of the difference between the two men.
Joe Biden is an American first and last, and he is working for all Americans, first and last, even the ones who hate him or disagree with him. He would never intentionally put individual Americans in harm’s way. Donald Trump only ever works for himself, and he hates Americans who don’t do what he wants, and he would happily see them die. My daily tweet is just a reminder of that very pertinent difference. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.