• About Us
  • Who Are We
  • Work With Us
Friday, September 22, 2023
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Globe Post
39 °f
New York
44 ° Fri
46 ° Sat
40 ° Sun
41 ° Mon
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
No Result
View All Result
Home Featured

Trump Contracting Coronavirus: Not a Prayer to Spare

Stephen J. Lyons by Stephen J. Lyons
10/26/21
in Featured, Opinion
US President Donald Trump holds a face mask as he speaks during the first presidential debate in Cleveland, Ohio, on September 29.

US President Donald Trump holds a face mask as he speaks during the first presidential debate in Cleveland, Ohio, on September 29. Photo: Jim Watson/AFP

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

As I watched a pale President Donald Trump in his plush hospital suite stage videos, one in which he signed what appeared to be a blank sheet of paper, I must admit I was not the least bit sympathetic to his COVID-19 diagnosis.

Unlike so many public officials who took the high road by sending thoughts and prayers, I felt nothing. Zero. I’ll save my compassion for those who lack the kind of world-class medical treatment that Trump is receiving, and for those whose health insurance he and the Republican party want to abolish. (I have noticed that he is feeding quite excellently at the public trough for his $750 annual tax payment.)

If the last four years have taught me anything it is that, in the former first lady Michelle Obama’s words, to go high when they go low, is utter nonsense. When our democracy is threatened niceties are the last refuge of the naiveté. It’s like bringing a used Q-tip to a gunfight. The low road that the docile GOP and its unhinged ringleader have razed with their bulldozers should cause every American to reconsider what “doing the right thing” means.

Must-Deserved Comeuppance

Trump’s own examples of how not to behave are instructive for this rather delicious moment when the great coronavirus denier, the mask-less one, the contagion-in-chief, got his much-deserved comeuppance.

Sadly, those examples are too numerous to review, but it is worth noting his comments when Senator John McCain passed away. Former Homeland Security official Miles Taylor told the New York Times last month that he received an urgent call from the White House regarding the lowering of the flag at half-staff following the senator’s death.

“I get someone from the White House, a senior person there, who calls and says, ‘What is going on with the flags? The president is upset, this has gone out too soon and he doesn’t want it to happen.'”

Except for the fact that you don’t like people who were captured – while publicly attacking the most famous modern POW while he fought cancer…. No one has forgotten or will ever forget what you said and did. No one. https://t.co/Yp8WdhuDch

— Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) April 9, 2020

A second example involving Trump’s attitude toward American heroes is also worth noting. The Atlantic reported that in 2018 Trump labeled war veterans buried at the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in France as “losers” and “suckers” for serving our nation.

His quote: “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.” So, of course, he didn’t pay his respects to those soldiers during his visit to France. Besides, it was raining that day and the man who writes off tens of thousands of dollars for personal haircare did not want his coiffure to suffer a muss up.

Neither Trump, whose mysterious bone spurs kept him from serving, nor any members of his family, will ever be considered heroes. Yet, as I write this, the president is receiving medical care at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center that has long provided care for those military heroes, none of who are losers or suckers.

Nightmare of Trumpism

With as much hateful rhetoric and inciteful vitriol that President Trump has spawned and spewed out into our divided nation (and into the greater world), why would I ever wish him a speedy and full recovery? So he can wreak more havoc? So he can further trample the Constitution?

I suspect the feeling is mutual. He cares nothing for me, a loyal lifetime Democrat who supports Joe Biden in the hope that we can end the nightmare of Trumpism. In fact, I would argue, Trump would wish for my own painful demise from coronavirus. After all, he has not exactly been sending out prayers to the 210,000 Americans felled by this plague. So, is a continuation of that beastly behavior worthy of my sympathies?

Consider another odious politician: the late Senator Joseph McCarthy. Consider the lives he ruined, the “enemies within,” as he rooted out imaginary Communists through his venal House Committee on Un-American Activities.

Consider that his chief counsel was Roy Cohn, a horrid individual on which President Trump has modeled his own despicable behavior. In 1957, when McCarthy was dying from alcoholism and hepatitis in Bethesda Naval Hospital, aka Walter Reed Army Medical Center, would we have been sending him thoughts and prayers? Is this the higher road we should have taken? Would those actions have made us better human beings?

As he languished in the hospital, simply another elderly man facing mortality, I wondered if it occurred to Trump that, as the Bible says, “a man reaps what he sows.”

Anyway, whatever fate awaits the president is out of my hands. Prayers matter little and I have none left to spare for the likes of him. I make no apologies. No one lives forever. It is what it is, and one day, just like the rest of us, he will simply disappear into that great unknown. To use his words, it will be like a miracle. But, I might add, an ordinary miracle at that.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of The Globe Post.
ShareTweet
Stephen J. Lyons

Stephen J. Lyons

Author of six books of reportage and essays, most recently “Searching for Home: Misadventures with Misanthropes” (Finishing Line Press)

Related Posts

US Authorities Seize Artworks Allegedly Stolen by Nazis
Art

US Authorities Seize Artworks Allegedly Stolen by Nazis

by Staff Writer
September 19, 2023
Pro-Trump protester in front of Capitol Hill.
Opinion

The Ominous (and Irresponsible) Chatter of a Civil War 

by Stephen J. Lyons
September 4, 2023
US soldiers
National

Biden to Reform Way Military Handles Sexual Assault Cases

by Staff Writer
July 28, 2023
Women holding up a coathanger reading 'we love our bodily integrity' during a abortion protest.
National

First No-Prescription Birth Control Pill Approved in US

by Staff Writer
July 13, 2023
President Donald Trump in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House.
Opinion

Boxing Day Comes to South Florida

by Stephen J. Lyons
July 5, 2023
Google logo
World

Sweden Orders Four Companies to Stop Using Google Tool

by Staff Writer
July 4, 2023
Next Post
Former Bolivian President Evo Morales

Morales Says Will Return to Bolivia After Ally's Election Victory

Demonstrations outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) headquarters.

Forced Hysterectomies in 2020: How Did We Get Here?

Recommended

Chinese President Xi Jinping

China Announces ‘Strategic Partnership’ With Syria

September 22, 2023
Man holding up a colored LGBT flag

France Sets Up Embassy Fund to Defend LGBTQ Rights

September 19, 2023
US Authorities Seize Artworks Allegedly Stolen by Nazis

US Authorities Seize Artworks Allegedly Stolen by Nazis

September 19, 2023
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks during a news conference

Japan PM to Replace Foreign and Defense Ministers: Reports

September 12, 2023
A man walks with his belongings through the rubble in an alleyway in the earthquake-damaged old city in Marrakesh on September 9, 2023

Morocco Quake Death Toll Passes 2,000: Ministry

September 10, 2023
Pro-Trump protester in front of Capitol Hill.

The Ominous (and Irresponsible) Chatter of a Civil War 

September 4, 2023

Opinion

Pro-Trump protester in front of Capitol Hill.

The Ominous (and Irresponsible) Chatter of a Civil War 

September 4, 2023
A bamboo-based design raises family homes safely above water levels to cope with raising water levels in Bangladesh.

The West Owes Climate Refugees Reparations Now

August 14, 2023
President Donald Trump in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House.

Boxing Day Comes to South Florida

July 5, 2023
‘Deaths of Despair:’ Why Are US Suicides on the Rise?

An Inspired Choice to Lead the CDC

June 13, 2023
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis speaks at the Republican Jewish Coalition Annual Leadership Meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada, on November 19, 2022.

Florida Man Channels Benito Mussolini

June 13, 2023
Migrants waiting at the Turkish border.

Beyond Numbers: Confronting Europe’s Broken Border System

May 30, 2023
Facebook Twitter

Newsletter

Do you like our reporting?
SUBSCRIBE

About Us

The Globe Post

The Globe Post is part of Globe Post Media, a U.S. digital news organization that is publishing the world's best targeted news sites.

submit oped

© 2018 The Globe Post

No Result
View All Result
  • National
  • World
  • Business
  • Interviews
  • Lifestyle
  • Democracy at Risk
    • Media Freedom
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Columns
    • Book Reviews
    • Stage
  • Submit Op-ed

© 2018 The Globe Post