B-Bye Donald J. Trump

Donald J. Trump

The Trump Presidency finally ended, for real, on the afternoon of February 13, 2021. Yes, he was out of office for about 580 hours when the Senate voted 43-57 to acquit. But his presidency truly ended with the vote, for the impeachment trial was the last remaining bit of business for the sorry excuse that was The Trump Presidency.

I know many people believe the impeachment trial was unconstitutional. Not so many constitutional lawyers, as it happens. I wrestled with the whole thing, as a Senate conviction and vote to bar him from holding office would have given him more attention. The sell for me, on the whole thing, came less than 24 hours ago, with reports about the conversation between Mr. Trump and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. The shorthand version: McCarthy asks Trump to call off the rioters. Trump says Antifa. McCarthy says No, they are your people. Trump says: “Kevin, they’re more upset about the election than you are,” and does nothing for a while. (By the way, Trump and McCarthy have not denied the conversation or its content.)

The United States of America survived Donald J. Trump … barely. Now, we have in office a man who reminds us during every waking hour that serving as our president is not about him. (Some of us are old enough and aware enough to remember a much younger Joe Biden, mugging always for the cameras. I find myself delighted that the years have allowed him to grow into the office so nicely. Serving as Vice President for a much less experienced man, more than 18 years younger, must have mattered.)

As for Mr. Trump, we must asphyxiate his public persona with a lack of attention. Kill it! Remember, he presented himself as a candidate for POTUS because of his alleged business acumen. That and lying for years about the birthplace of our president. Telling us he’d build a wall and make Mexico pay for it (and, later, robbed the DoD to pay for the sorry thing.) Assuring us that he, alone, could Make America Great Again.

I have met some billionaires – and known men and women of means who have not achieved that measure of wealth – in my time on this planet. Some have been brilliant; others, not so much. I have run across, and represented on a few occasions, people in the business and real estate sector less able than Mr. Trump. Not often, though. He’s truly – and I attribute this descriptor to someone else, unknown to me – a poor person’s version of a rich person!

The wealthy people I know and admire share their good fortune. And acknowledge, always, how blessed they are. Living in America. Educated. Able to benefit from the infrastructure we need, so soon, to improve. Offered chances in a free market, where we reward success and have laws which allow people to get second chances when they try and fail. The second chances? The ones that allowed Mr. Trump’s entities to file reorganization proceedings under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code, when the momzer couldn’t figure out how to turn a profit in an effing casino.

So, let us move on. The media should report on Trump indictments and convictions, and lawsuits and judgments, and nothing more. No. More. News. (Alright, I would like to know about whether Palm Beach holds the man to his promise not to live at Mar-A-Lago. But nothing else!)

Mr. Trump sucked the life out of us. Turns out, while life does not involve many zero-sum games, attention is one of them. We need to focus on getting ourselves vaccinated, reclaiming our economy, addressing climate change, and dealing once and for all with the Original Sin of slavery, and the racism with which it was inextricably linked, that holds us back so badly. None of these issues will solve themselves, but we can meet them when we leave behind this ridiculous imposter of a human being who ran our nation for four years and look forward. That is what Making America Great Again is really about. Doing so, by the way, leaves no room for Mr. Trump and his noise machine.

Leave Donald J. Trump to the lawyers and the courts. He will get a lot more from our civil and criminal justice systems than his sorry existence deserves.

[Note: OMG, I cannot believe four weeks have passed since my last post. That said, I hope I will not have another post about this man who I featured here. Good riddance, Sir!]