OPINION

We are all living in (like or not) someone’s orange-tainted delusional world.

By Scott Smith

We citizens are living in President Trump’s delusion. He has railed against policies and people using many falsities that it’s almost impossible to keep up with them all. In one speech in Minnesota, it was reported that he stated 29 mistruths. He has attacked our long-time allies with fabrications of his own mind.

The misleading statements started well before he was elected. Trump rose up on the Birther movement. In his speech to announce his candidacy, he demeaned other races. They continued throughout the campaign, with saying the election being rigged, and the deep state rantings. During the campaign he was calling all the economic indicators false and, in some cases, made up. But, as soon as he took office; those same numbers were the greatest in America history. The one I personally love the most was, when he instructed then-Press Secretary Sean Spicer to go into the White House Briefing Room and say that this president’s inauguration crowd size the largest in history.

The most frightening thing is his cozy attitude and affection for dictators and autocrats. President Trump has lauded Putin as a strong leader. He has praised other leaders being strong as well, i.e. The Presidents of China, Turkey (until a recent dispute), Egypt, the Philippines and North Korea.

What American president could say that dear leader Kim loves his people. This man has starved his people not only of food, but also electricity and freedom.

After China changed its “constitution” to allow a president to serve for life, Trump joked that we should try that here. You would have never heard another president of this country even joke about something like that. I could only imagine presidents Washington and Jefferson rolling over in their graves. President Trump talked about Kim being a great leader, saying only 1 in 10,000 could have taken over that job at such a young age (Kim inherited his position from his father, just as Trump did with his father’s company and money).

The Philippines’ president has killed people and our president thinks we should look at using the same sort of tactics in the drug war. Turkey has cracked down on the free press.

Trump’s supporters (I think of them as followers) see his as being able to do no wrong. This cult of personality should scare the living daylights out of the majority of people in this country and the world as a whole. He rails against government reports and studies that he doesn’t like. His supporters have lost all confidence in the institutions such as the FBI and the Justice Department.

We have been the leader of the free world since World War II. The United States has pushed a moral leadership in many ways since then. President Trump has taken to attacking our long-time allies left and right. Basically, playing into the hands of Putin. One has to (logically) think about why he can’t say a bad word about Putin.

President Trump has routinely attacked the press, calling them the enemy of the people. I am surprised he hasn’t asked the leadership of Congress to write a new sedition act. He constantly reacts to stories he doesn’t like as “Fake News”; but as we have seen the vast majority of these stories turn out to be true a few days later.

We, as a people need to resist this orange-tainted reality. If we can’t, we could be falling down the dark rabbit hole of history. The famous quote by philosopher George Santayana “Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.” , to me says it all. I can only imagine what my grandparents that lived through and fought in WWII and the Depression would think of this president.

A resident of Howell, Scott Smith is a WCC student.